guaranteed to inspire/offend/entertain/infuriate

2005-03-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

it was cloudy, cold, and awful in tucson, and since most of my family's plans revolved around outdoor activities such as hiking, i was rather bored. i listened to musik a lot. and actually decided to write about it. so here it is: lost's ramblings about the weird german bands she has discovered and isn't really sure that she likes. thought about putting this in the music review thread but decided it isn't reviews as much as confused ramblings. i wrote about bands i don't really like or don't know if i like instead of ones i love, cause those reviews would be like "listen to tanzwut or die." i list my favorite album/song at teh end of each review...

Umbra et Imago- a very average band... the only thing that really distinguishes UI from other average gothic/metallish bands is their stage show, which is... well... look at the gallery on the website. some of it may be NSFW, haven't looked thru most of it. the singer, mozart, has a very unimpresive voice that in most of UI's songs sounds strained or out of place... but in one song, "märchenland," it fits perfectly. it seems much stronger and fits teh mood of the song very well. i don't know what the song is about (probably bdsm like most of their songs). i wouldn't call the song good, but somethign about the kinda airy, slow metallness of this song makes me keep listening to UI and their average musik. (songs: märchenland, prinz vogelfrei. album: hmm... maybe memento mori)

Das Ich- electronic, very odd musik. this band fancies itself to be quite demonic: most of their songs are about hell, angels, the apocalypse, etc. most pictures of the band show them attempting to look like demons.. i can't decide if their musik and stage appearance is absurd or creepy. or cool. the singer is stick-thin and "dances" (jerks spasmodically) as tehy perform; the two keyboarders play keyboards attached to a central pole so they can wander in circles if they want. most of the songs consist of odd background electronic noises with the singer yelling or simply speaking the lyrics. however, some songs completely take me by surprise. when i first heard 'garten eden' i had to check that i was still listening to das ich, as the singer was actually singing, quite nicely in fact. many of their songs sound somewhat similar, and nothing is particularly good about them, but occaisionally i come across a track that reaffirms my belief that this group actually does have some musical ability. (songs: 'garten eden,' 'das dunkel land,' 'kindgott.' album: egodram or antichrist)

Blutengel- not much at all can be said in favor of this band. BELOW-average electrogothic crap with an awful male vocalist and an average female singer (or maybe 2?). however... "children of the night" is a song with absolutely dreadful lyrics and 'music.'... i keep listening to it. why? i have absolutely no idea what i find interesting about this song. (songs: none. album: none)

Samsas Traum- what on earth can i say about this band? the vocalists are just plain weird, as is the erratic musik that may either be brilliance or insanity. judging by the singers, the latter is more likely. electronic with samples of simple kid's melodies or massive orchestral performances thrown in seemingly randomly.. then a singer who is either tweaking or half-asleep (no middle ground) comes in. i have no idea whether i hate this musik or like it. maybe the day i announce that i like samsas traum i will be carted off to a mental institution. (song: can't really tell them apart. album: 'utopia' makes a bit more sense than 'tineoidea oder: die folgen einer nacht' but is by no means coherent.)

ASP- another odd german electronic band. gothic rock i suppose. their musik is nearer techno than i'd care to admit, and many times i wonder if i like it or not. at least with ASP i find the vocals interesting... i still dont' know how many singers tehy have.. at least one has an awesome voice that, while it isn't the kind of voice you would normally associate with this kind of musik, doesn't seem as though it could really fit anywhere else. i nearly thought my brain would explode when i heard a samsas traum remix of an ASP song. some songs approach techno status, while others seem nearer electronic blues, if there ever was such a thing. (songs: 'ich will brennen,' 'bessessen,' 'versuchung.' and the version of 'versuchung' where mozart from umbra et imago guest-sings is pretty good. album: weltunter)

Illuminate- wow. i hate illuminate. musik and singer/s are awful... the singer is kinda nasal, childish-sounding.. musik is i suppose an attempt at medieval.. or gothic.. or electronic... whatever it is, i hate it. yet, i keep listening to it. (no song/album recs)

Atrocity- i forget what it's called... metal with orchestras/choirs.. whatever the genre, atrocity doesn't seem at first to be any more interesting than the myriads of screaming, headbanging metal bands out there. 'enigma' was the first song i heard, and a good thing too. if i had heard 'morbid minds' or some of their earlier stuff first i would have dismissed atrocity as just another average metal band. if i had taken others' advice that their earlier albums are better, again i would have thought atrocity average. 'atlantis,' their most recent album, is very good IMO. it really sounds like... atlantis.. or at least the ocean. some of the tracks, like 'morbid minds' are regressions to averageness, but others like 'enigma' and 'aeon' save atrocity in my mind. (songs: 'enigma,' 'aeon.' album: 'atlantis')

Unheilig- i am positive about my feelings toward this band. i love the singer's voice. der graf has one of those amazingly deep, purely masculine voices, which is awesome. if i were to compare it to any other singer, i suppose it is comparable to alexx wesselsky (formerly of megaherz, currently of eisbrecher). another thing i know about unheilig: the musik is nothing special. however, in this case it is good that the musik isn't that great, as you can focus exclusively on der graf's wonderful voice. (songs: 'morgengrauen,' 'mein könig,' 'sternenschiff.' album: 'zelluloid.')

2005-02-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

during the day, like at school (ok, that was obvious i guess) i think about things i want to post about on here. like a news story i heard recently or something.. but by the time i get home, i forget. not today!!!!! mainly because, just as i was leaving school, i had to resist the strong temptation to get involved in a "discussion" about homosexuality that some people were having with a potter's house person.. somehow, it reminded me that i had wanted to post something about that child abuse case in florida... first story i found about it when i searched that i didn't actually read: http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_048125627.html

incidentally, florida is currently the only state to specifically ban gays from adopting.... it made me wonder what the people who are opposed to gay adoption would say about this. obviously, this was a heterosexual couple who appeared to be normal, if not exemplary, examples of parents, and they horribly abused their kids.

sure, a gay couple may not be "normal" parents, but they would be a hell of a lot better than this couple, and many other undiscovered hetero couples like this one. this is not to say that there aren't also some gay couples who would be unfit to be parents, but there are many who would be good parents. there are sooooo many orphans in this world- wouldn't it be better if they at least had some love and support?

i seriously cannot understand the people's objection to gay marriage. maybe a christian view could be an excuse, as they see marriage as a "holy union" or something. but in the US, it is a legal union, therefore should not be dependent on religious beliefs. if two people love and care for each other, they should have the same rights no matter the orientation. it's not like hetero marriage is good all the time, there are abusive, bad marriages between "normal" couples everywhere. many gay couples have been together for years, yet do not have the same rights as a hetero couple that has been together for years.

i could go on... but i won't cause i have homework....

2005-01-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

wooo i now have 12 full bootleg audio concerts from rammstein. 2 full video and 2 partial video. don't really know if that's something to be proud of.... i am debating whether i should join the crowd and start my very own bootlegs site. then i realize almost everyone who trades stuff already has the stuff that i have...

new obsession: das ich. i went insane yesterday and downloaded a ton of live videos. before you glare disaprovingly, i subseqently ordered the album 'lava' from barnes and noble because they actually had it for a decent price. that was quite shocking to discover.

i bought an ipod.... the U2 version. was more expensive, but it looks cool. and my sister loves U2 but doesn't have any ~coughlegalcough~ music so she will use the gift certificate to download the entire collection. that is a really good deal, considering you get over 400 songs for about $100. and i also bought the U2 thing cause i called every single store in prescott/prescott valley and they all said they wouldn't get any regular 20 GB ipods until the middle of february. i had the money, and am impatient, so i decided i didn't want to wait that long.

i should drink some more coffee... probably when i do i will realize there was no point to this post. no i am not addicted to coffee, i only drink it on weekedns, which doesn't make much sense considering in need it most during school.

my psat scores: critical reading- 77, math- 61, writing- 70. i guess that's good.

SNOW DAY!!!!!!

2005-01-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

we probably got about 10 inches of snow... awesome. lots melted, so i am hoping the roads freeze so they cancel school tomorrow too. but i hope nobody gets in an accident...
i wanted to be helpful (was also bored..) so i decided to shovel my old neighbor's driveway. their driveway is incredibly steep, and i slid down the driveway even without moving at all. but i did it somehow.
another new obsession: apocalyptica

those tsunamis were horrible... i really think the us government could have reacted more quickly. i think it is horrible that one of the initial amounts, $35 million, is less than the amount they plan to spend on bush's inauguration ceremony ($40 million). that is soooo wasteful. that $40 million could be spent on so many better things. i am glad that we are now promising $350 million, but it still is much less than many other countries when you compare the straight amount promised, or compare average income, gdp, amount per capita, etc. i mean, giving as much as we can would only help our greatly tarnished image, and as many of those areas have a large muslim population, could really help our dealings with muslim nations.

i dont' think that the iraqi elections will be very valid. many iraqi citizens are either boycotting already, or are afraid to vote. i am trying to be optimistic and hope that the iraqi people will try as hard as they can to build their country, but it seems like every time i watch/read the news it gets worse.

2004-12-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

yesterday i probably scared quite a few people... 1. i had consumed an enormous amount of caffeine during the day 2. i found the promotional rammstein dvd at a cd store on the ASU campus and i was in heaven. i had to buy another copy of reise reise to get it, but my friend says he'll buy the cd from me. :)
yesterday was ASU Business Skills Day at Arizona State University... fun fun fun :) except the Phi Beta Lamda (future business leaders of america college division) chapter that was organizing it didn't do a very good job... they KNEW that about 800 people were coming, yet they didn't have enough chairs or a big enough room to really fit everyone... it was sooo hot in our business suits in a crowded room... i won something! they had a raffle that lasted about an hour (so we left before the actual awards ceremony started so that we could get back to prescott at a decent hour) so tons of people won stuff, but i won a slinky! yay! i took written tests in "business calculations" and "international business," so if i won something (highly unlikely, as i didn't study) i don't know because we left early.
but i was probably thoroughly obnoxious yesterday because i was sooo happy about the dvd and sooo high on coffee... there were 2 starbucks close to where we were! one in the building and one next to the building....

2004-12-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

2004-12-11T14:28:00.001-07:00

2004-12-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

2004-11-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

banner.... woo

2004-11-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

well a lot has happened since i last posted... rammstein's new cd is out, my FBLA chapter was robbed (approx. $500 and 25 phoenix suns tickets), and i have 15 posters on my walls, 10 of which are the same rammstein promotional poster.
i said i would do 'street work' for the new album... and they sent me a 15 posters and about 20 stickers. i thought i probably would be able to find places for most of them, but only hot topic would even let me give them a poster and sticker. i resorted to begging in some cases: 'please just take a poster! you don't even have to put it up, just take it!" but they all said they weren't allowed to or didn't want to. then i get another set of 15 posters and 20 stickers. in all i asked 32 stores and the 3 colleges in prescott, and all except hot topic turned me down. hot topic didn't even put up the poster, but they did set the sticker by the register. so i gave some out to my friends, and almost entirely covered one of my walls with the rest. i suppose i now have a sort of rammstein shrine in my room. ;)
after reading concert reviews and seeing pictures, i have decided i will die if rammstein does not come to the US. or if they do come to the US, my parents have said i can only to a concert if A. regular school week/weekend: only can go to phoenix or las vegas B. some sort of school break, possibly can go to california. since it has always been just my luck that my favorite bands only seem to be playing on weeknights, i am desperately hoping that they will come to phoenix.

getting payed to burn 100 cds for my dad's friend to hand out to wedding guests is not a bad way to spend a weekend. except that all of the songs are country, so i must suffer the indignity of having such things polluting my computer. since i had to be on the computer anyway, i spent a ridiculous amount of time making new wallpaper and a screensaver featuring german bands... so far i have made 52 slides with at least 3 pictures and a lyrics excerpt each..... yeah i guess i am addicted.

2004-11-05T21:57:00.000-07:00

well. bush won. i'm more than a bit scared about what will happen in the next four years... they have a much greater majority in the house and senate, so they'll be able to do whatever they want. and to everyone who says that liberals are stupid for saying they want to move to canada now... some of my conservative friends said they would move to canada if kerry won. ha.

i do want to move to a different country when i graduate college/uni. however far in the future that may be. no, i don't hate the United States (no, it's not 'America.' mexico, peru, etc are also 'America.'), i think there are some good things about it, and some of it is really beautiful (not phoenix).
just... there are things i don't like.
-electoral system. i know this election it wouldn't have made much difference in the outcome, but in 2000 it would have. but i hate that unless you live in a 'swing' state, it seems as if your vote doesn't matter.
-education. maybe it's because arizona is now last (or maybe second-to-last) in educational funding. we learn nothing except to memorize enough facts to regurgitate onto standardized tests and then forget.
-health care. we are supposedly the 'best' country in the world, yet so many people have little or no access to good health care.
-poverty. highest poverty rate of any industrialized country.
-our 'representatives' in congress/senate don't represent the people, but whatever company/group is paying them to vote a certain way.

wow i just made myself depressed. i should stop before i start crying or something.

listening to rammstein- ich will :) that makes me happier :)

2004-11-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

i'm really nervous about the 'election' tomorrow... i reallyreallyreally hope kerry wins. i don't even want to think about what will happen if bush is 'reelected.' but there's this feeling i have that maybe some people will be struck by a sudden attack of 'voting for bush' and he'll win.. :(

main reasons i don't like bush (i'm lazy so i won't go into much detail):
1. invading iraq, countless civilian casualties and >1000 US soldiers
2. economy
3. environment- and he calls himself the Environmental President?
4. gay marriage- i see no reason at all, besides 'tradition' and religious beliefs (which should not impact a president's policies so strongly) to deny couples the chance to get married. at the very least there should be civil unions. look at canada, it's legal there and their society hasn't collapsed.
5. abortion- while i don't think it's good, i think it may be necessary (i'll probably go much more in depth on this later)
6. his seeming disregard for the opinions and citizens of every country that isn't the US (and many opinions/citizens in the US)
7. PATRIOT Act
8. dick cheney
9. his ties to the saudi royal family
10. his constant preaching

i bet the minute i post this i'll think of about 10 more...

Reise, Reise

2004-10-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

as i said earlier, Reise, Reise, the new Rammstein album, is amazing. at first i didn't like two of the songs very much, Moskau and Stein um Stein. Moskau because the female background voice is a bit annoying, and Stein um Stein because it was a bit slow. but now i can find no fault with this album.

Tracklist and comments:
1. Reise, Reise (beautiful song, lovelovelove)
2. Mein Teil (a bit creepy, but the song and video are still brilliant)
3. Dalai Lama (wonderful song, i'm surprised this wasn't a single)
4. Keine Lust (~headbangs~)
5. Los (i think it has an acoustic guitar, i'm no musician. very different from usual rammstein style, but an amazing song. the lyrics are awesome too)
6. Amerika (song is good, not their best i think. but the video is sooooo funny/cool/brilliant)
7. Moskau (good song, not a favorite)
8. Morgenstern (wow. for some reason i just looove the percussion part... this song is simply amazing and has a choir in the background. maybe it could be considered a bit gothic?)
9. Stein um Stein (...probably my least favorite from the album. i think it's a little too slow, but it's some other people's favorite song so maybe it's just me)
10. Ohne Dich (~sigh~ Till's voice on this song is so beautiful... wonderful lyrics, wonderful song altogether)
11. Amour (love the guitar part. great song, but some parts seem a bit rough to me. but then i think about it and realize it sounds better that way)

overall, a brilliant album. i say it's now tied with Mutter as my favorite Rammstein album. it does seem to be moving in a different direction than the other R+ albums, but it is a GOOD direction.

all you people overseas better already own this album! and in the US you can preorder it from just about anywhere... it will be released NOVEMBER 16 2004. so i want to see every single copy disappear from the shelves on that day. ~already have it preordered at Best Buy~

~devious~

2004-10-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

i am feeling particularly devious this week... won't say what i did, but it was successful. hehe. ~grows horns~
in other news, i still haven't decided if i am going to go to the school dance in about 5 hours. i would need to get a costume and everything... but it might be fun, unlike all the other (one) school dances i have been to. the student council has absolutely no taste in music. i nearly died with all the pop crap they played. but i still might go.

but i have no costume ideas and no costume stuff. so maybe not.

it snowed

2004-10-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

it snowed today. i was under the impression that prescott=desert, therefore warm and not much snow. last year it didn't snow until the end of december, but this year october??? it's so cold and wet and not nice outside. grrr.
i became temporarily un-lazy and put links on the side. clickey clickey. and i finished my wal-mart essay. here it is, for your reading pleasure. don't shop there please.

Wal-Mart has been labeled an evil empire and a destroyer of local businesses. The corporation in question would have consumers believe it cares about the community, treats its employees fairly, and is a savior of small towns. Should consumers believe Wal-Mart, or the unions and organizations that actively campaign against its expansion? There are great exaggerations from both sides; Wal-Mart is not quite as horrible as some organizations would have consumers believe, but neither does it come close to being a paragon of virtue as Wal-Mart’s advertisements portray.
Every time Wal-Mart announces a new store location there are angry citizens, and every third store built faces strong community opposition (“Let Me Count the Ways”). People do not protest the building of Target, Best Buy, or Safeway stores very often, so why is the coming of Wal-Mart looked upon with such controversy? While Wal-Mart does create some jobs for the communities it inhabits, it also destroys many. Small family-owned businesses are often unable to compete with this retail giant; so many jobs are lost in that sector. Some studies even suggest that the community experiences a net loss of jobs when Wal-Mart moves in because some jobs lost from small businesses that go under are simply shifted to Wal-Mart, and others are lost altogether (PBS).
Unions complain that Wal-Mart is anti-union, while Wal-Mart insists that employees do not need a union if they work at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart employs over one million people (UFCW) in over 3000 stores in the United States, but has an extremely high employee turnover rate; over 70 percent of the employees leave every year. Wal-Mart was ranked as one of the 100 best corporations to work for by Forbes Magazine, a fact that is often shown as proof that employees are treated well; however, this survey only included executives’ opinions, not those of the common employee (PBS). Details on the average wages for non-supervisory employees are hard to find, as Wal-Mart is very secretive about the true salary, but wages appear to range from $6 to $9 an hour. The retail giant claims that employees receive quality health benefits, but the average worker would have to pay nearly one-fifth of their paycheck to receive coverage. Less than 1% of the $100 billion Walton fortune could provide health care for every employee (Forbes and UFCW). “In 1970, the country’s largest employer was General Motors… overwhelmingly union, they earned $17.50 an hour plus health, pension, and vacation benefits and cost-of-living increases. Today, the country’s largest employer is Wal-Mart… They earn an average hourly wage of $8.00, with no defined benefit pension, and inadequate health care,” reported United Food and Commercial Workers. It would seem reasonable, based on these facts, to assume that many employees would indeed want to join a union. However, charges have been leveled against Wal-Mart in 25 states, that managers intimidated, illegally fired, and denied bonuses to union members or workers who were interested in joining a union. (UFCW) In 2000 meat cutters at a Texas Wal-Mart voted for union representation, and the company suddenly phased out the meat cutting positions in favor of prepackaged meat (Business).
One company, Costco, has managed to have a very successful business while offering employees higher wages and better benefits than Sam’s Club, its direct competitor, or Wal-Mart. “Although Sam’s $11.52 hourly average wage for full-timers tops the wage earned by a typical Wal-Mart worker, it’s still nearly 40% less than Costco’s $15.97. Costco also shells out thousands more a year for workers’ health and retirement and includes more of them in its health care, 401 (k), and profit-sharing plans,” wrote Holmes and Zellner of Business Week. Although Costco employs one-third fewer workers than Sam’s Club, it has nearly equal profits, higher operating profits per hourly employee, and higher employee productivity. “Paying your employees well is not only the right thing to do but it makes for good business,” said Costco CEO James D. Sinegal (Business Week).
Women make up 65% of Wal-Mart’s workforce in the United States, but they earn an average of 37¢ less per hour than men. There are four female senior vice-presidents in Wal-Mart’s empire, and their average salary is $279,772 a year. However, the average of the male senior vice-president’s salaries was $419,435 a year. Women at Wal-Mart often have more seniority and experience than the men, but 90% of top store management positions and 2/3 of all management positions are occupied by men, who also earn more than their few women counterparts. Only 1/3 of all management positions are held by women at Wal-Mart, which is fewer than competitors had in management in 1975. Competitors had 41.6% of their management positions occupied by women in 1975, and 51.6% in 2003. In June of 2001, the largest gender discrimination lawsuit ever was filed against Wal-Mart; over one million current and former Wal-Mart employees participated, charging they were denied advancement opportunities and equal pay. Of course, Wal-Mart is no stranger to lawsuits, as they were sued 4,851 times in 2000 (UFCW).
Another complaint people have with Wal-Mart’s policies is its extremely high rate of expansion. They open a new store every two days, and expand into one new country every year (PBS). Small communities fear that if Wal-Mart moves in local businesses will be forced to close, forcing the community to depend on Wal-Mart for jobs. The corporation is not often considerate of where it builds it stores, as evidenced by its plans to build a store less than a mile from the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico City. The Mexican government stated that the store would not harm the ancient structures, but the view from the top of the Sun and Moon pyramids will be forever altered (Arizona Republic).
A few years ago, Wal-Mart ran a “Made in the USA” ad campaign. Of all industries in the United States, Wal-Mart is the largest importer of Chinese products. PBS surveyed several stores, and found that an average of 85% of the stores’ items were manufactured overseas, and further research found the suppliers to be sweatshops. Conditions in these factories are horrible, with wages as low as 13¢ and hour, enforced unpaid overtime, child labor, and sometimes corporal punishment. Many US companies suffered when Wal-Mart stopped buying their products and shifted business overseas (PBS).
Large communities can easily accommodate Wal-Mart, as they have a larger labor pool and more competition. In this case, Wal-Mart can be a solution, providing jobs in areas that may have high unemployment. Wal-Mart gave $150 million to charities in 2002, and customers were able to raise an additional $75 million with Wal-Mart’s assistance. Wal-Mart is also the number one corporate sponsor of the Children’s Miracle Network (Wal-Mart Foundation). Then again, $150 million is only .4% of Wal-Mart’s $8 billion profit. Most corporations in the United States give at least 1% of their total profit (PBS).
In a free enterprise economy, stores have the choice of which products to sell. However, Wal-Mart is often the only source of CDs in some areas. As the corporation often refuses to carry music with a warning label, artists are forced to edit their lyrics, song titles, and album art in order to be carried by Wal-Mart. Sheryl Crow released an album with the lyric “watch our children as they kill each other with a gun they bought at Wal-Mart,” and the corporation refused to stock the CD. This can be considered a form of censorship, as it forces smaller bands to compromise their artistic capabilities in order to reach a wider audience (PBS).
At first glance, Wal-Mart appears to be a caring company that assists charities and the communities it inhabits. Looking deeper, the picture is not so appealing. Low wages, poor health coverage, censorship, gender discrimination, and a majority of products manufactured in sweatshops are just a few of the problems that appear upon closer examination. With a profit of $8 billion, and a family fortune of over $100 billion, Wal-Mart can afford to treat its employees better and support American manufacturing companies.

Sources:
“2004 Billionaires List.” 26 February 2004. Forbes. 15 October 2004. http://www.forbes.com/maserati/billionaires2004/bill04land.html
“Wal-Mart to Build Near Mexican Ruins.” Arizona Republic. 10 October 2004: A17.
Holmes, Stanley and Wendy Zellner. “The Costco Way.” 12 April 2004. Business Week. 15 October 2004. http://www.businessweek.com/@@@RUbqYUQXr64CxgA/magazine/ content/04_15/b3878084_mz021.htm
PBS. “Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town.” 1999. PBS. 15 October 2004. http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars
Pride, William M., Robert J. Hughes, and Jack R. Kapoor. Business. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.
United Food and Commercial Workers. “Wal-Mart Quick Facts.” 2004. UFCW. 15 October 2004. http://www.ufcw.org/issues_and_actions/walmart_workers_campaign_info/index.cfm
Wal-Mart Foundation. “Good. Works.” 2002. Wal-Mart, Inc. 16 October 2004. http://www.walmartfoundation.org
Woolner, Ann. “Let Me Count the Ways People Don’t Love Wal-Mart.” 13 February 2004. Bloomberg. http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&sid=aJqMefuSApSY&refer=columnist_woolner

2004-10-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

gah. everytime i think i've found all the bands that i really like, i find another. this time it's Unheilig. i have no idea what kind of music it is, but i like it. currently listening to Freiheit (by unheilig). very nice. i've heard people say they don't like his voice, but i like it a lot. hmmm... i'd say his voice sounds kind of similar to Alex Wesselsky's, of Eisbrecher. but of course they are very distinct and wonderful in their own way.
i have already started the list of what i want for christmas, and my birthday. everything on it so far is CDs and merchendise from german bands. now to see if my parents are willing to shell out over 150 euros to buy all of it for me.

today was boring. i talked the entire time during chemistry. over half of the semester, and we've only gotten to chapter 6. and we skipped some. i didn't miss much.

rammsteinrammsteinrammsteinrammsteinrammstein

2004-10-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

writing a business paper about wal-mart. DON'T SHOP THERE! it's horrible.. when i finish the paper i might post it, to educate the masses.
i'm really angry right now because of that, so i stopped writing to calm down. at the moment i am listeing to RAMMSTEIN- Morgenstern. from their new album, Reise, Reise. you must have this cd. and their others too.
see the mein teil video: http://www.m80teams.com/?Qzo3OTY6Mzk0MDc2 (ok, i mainly want you to click there because if i get the most clicks i'll win something. shameless.)

seriously, i am addicted to german musik. and i am slowly converting (corrupting?) my friends. tis a bit sad really... over 75% of my bookmarks are for websites in a different language. i don't even speak german. Radio Goethe is an excellent radio show that has made my addiction worse, i fear. they play only german music in their show. heaven.

was watching c-span earlier... barbara bush was giving a campaign speech... "our son is perfect.... people saying mean things about him..." grr. perfect? farfarfar from it. ah well she's old. old people can get odd ideas sometimes.

was bored....

2004-10-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

so i thought, why not make a blog? so i did. don't know how long i'll stay interested in posting stuff, but it will keep me occupied for the moment. hooray for boredom*

*read: reluctance to start essay