October 25, Berlin: In Flames!

In Flames in Columbiahalle (Berlin) am 25. Okt. 2008 – Last.fm

Before I delete:

Setlist IN FLAMES

01. The Chosen Pessimist
02. I'm The Highway
03. Vanishing Light
04. The Mirror's Truth
05. Insipid 2000
06. The Hive
07. Satellites & Astronauts
08. System
09. Pinball Map
10. Delight And Angers
11. Disconnected
12. Colony
13. Cloud Connected
14. Dead God In Me, The Jester Race, Behind Space (Medley)
15. My Sweet Shadow
16. Come Clarity
17. The Quiet Place
18. Only For The Weak
19. Move Through Me
20. Alias
21. Trigger
22. Take This Life

There's mainly three things that kept me from writing a proper review: a) I was distracted from In Flames in a very nice way by Seb, who called me during "Satelites And Astronautes" (one of my all-time-faves) to share a cigarette outside. As I really wanted to meet him and as he had sth. for my man I of course hurried down from our spacy spot with the best view imagineable on the gallery to Seb. So I heard System and Pinball Map from outside. Big loss? Maybe. But worth it.

Secondly I was not successfull in nicking Tom's or Martin's setlist as usual (with handpainted bombs to indicate the pyros), as they both had them in their computers. So I just nicked this list above from an internet board, without guarantee and without the chance to memorize memorable events.

And third I had other things in mind I had to tell Bea, but that's a different kettle of fish...

Maybe I have to credit Tom again, as this was a very special IN FLAMES show with a special mood for me. It already began when he played Sigur Ros as background music during the change-over. And of course he did the brilliant sound again. In which the ballad-esque of the current setlist of In Flames shone through pretty well. So everything began very moody - but In Flames write ballads to dance to, and that we did!

Anders delivered the special announcements again - should it be Berlin which In Flames would remember because of the public or should it be Cologne or one of the other cities? He's the one to give the rockstar necessities the ironic turn which makes his announcements outstanding. And you could see that he was fiddling all the time between songs or when the strings-guys were having their go behind stage together with Biffen. We were already afraid that he had a cold and had to take bronchodilators or something. Biffen said no, he was simply drinking. Well, but not only. Later in Metal Hammer was revealed that he played "Connect Four" with Biffen! Ha!

By the way, GOJIRA ruled, I'm already fixed and got the cd to listen to more of them! So much for one of the concerts of 2008...

Wir sind Weltmeister - Kicker.de ist Regionalliga!

Packende Halbfinal-Matches, packendes Finale - und der Kicker - Deutschlands Fußball-Magazin und Fußball-Webzine Nummer 1 - versagt auf ganzer Linie:
Selbst über die entscheidenden Spiele der Play-Offs wurde berichtet wie über ein Regionalliga-Spiel. Der Live-Ticker war auf das Knappste beschränkt - und auch noch im unteren Drittel der jeweiligen Seiten überhaupt als Link versteckt. Wer sich über die Spielerinnen (besonders die deutschen Gegnerinnen wie Norwegen oder Brasilien) informieren wollte, war und ist auf Google angewiesen. Erst jetzt, nach dem Gewinn der WM, bekommen wenigstens die deutschen Frauen Portraits - verschämt als "Einzelkritik betitelt. Über die grandiosen Zweiten, besonders dort vielleicht Christina oder Marta gibt es immer noch kein klickbares Portrait. Schämt euch!

Hier regiert der Super-MTV

Mit einem Anja Pärson-Diver feierte die erste Herren des MTV Rehren A/R ihren Nicht-Abstieg aus der Kreisliga Schaumburg. Nach einem packenden 4:3 - ach was, nicht einmal die Beschreibung Fußball-Krimi trifft es, das war ein Thriller! - war der MTV nicht nur nicht abgestiegen, sondern auch nicht letzter der Nicht-Abgestiegenen, da Liekwegen ein um 10 Treffer schlechteres Torverhältnis hat.

Also: Ich komm wieder! Wo bekommt man sonst für 2,50 € 7 Tore in 90 Minuten, und dazu Getränke für 1,50!

Sing when you're winning!

... and when you play even

Der FC St. Pauli ist wieder in der Zweiten Bundesliga!

Fotos folgen...

SATYRICON is ... black metal...

Taste is sometimes hard to defend: I always had a strange and kind of antagonistic fascination/dislike on Norwegian Black Metallers Satyricon. Latest after their pathetic Wacken 2005 appearance (yeah, I know, some fans thought different about this concert) I thought they were done.

I even thought less about them when they spread on Blabbermouth about their video to 'K.I.N.G.' "The video has all the ingredients of a good rock and roll video and sets a new metal video standard for good photography and clever editing."
Well, yeah - the editing was quiet clever, but not exceptional. But what really sucks is the cutting. The video is cut slightly off-beat. But only slightly. So I don't think it's intentional.

But... but... in the meantime especially the track K.I.N.G has been in my personal charts several times - and I'm sure it will be one of the most listened-to tracks in 2006 in the end. So judge yourself whether those just uploaded pictures are caricature or hommage.

Too hot for serious thinkin'

... so instead I scored!

You scored as Arwen of Rivendell. Arwen of Rivendell 77% Frodo Baggins 76% Saruman the White 70% Peregrin Took (Pippin) 67% Eowyn of Rohan 67% Gandalf the Grey 63% Legolas 56% Boromir 50% Aragorn 50% Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) 50% Galadriel 47% Gollum 37% Samwise Gamgee 33% Gimli 23% Which Lord of the Rings character are you most like? created with QuizFarm.com

Tour de France 2006

Well... very much unlike the past years I haven't blogged about this year's installment of the Tour de France by now. OK, the biggest issue in this case was the FIFA world championship, as I didn't dare to spend more time in front of the tv as I already did in the name of football. Second reason is Jan Ulrich as I first thought it's pointless to watch when he's not with. Fuck off, I don't care about "legal methods". But... Tom Boonen is still in it.

... and maybe my Dad's right: "There's only two teams who I believe to be "clean": First the Gerolsteiner Team as they are supplied with enough water to shower every day. And secondly the Milram-Team. And Milram is even trying to feed them with dextrorotatory and counter-clockwise rotatory lacto-bacillus to improve the cornering technique."

(Do you have to know the humour of my Daddy to get it...?)

Day One after Klinsmann

There were two thoughts about Jürgen Klinsmann staying/not staying as the German team coach during the last days. I wished he would have stayed, but I should have bet on him not doing it. I would have been right. And I think he's leaving for the right reasons. While all his notorious critics did shut their mouth during the FIFA world championship they surely will start calling him "Schwabenschwuchtel" (fag, roughly translated) again the first time the team looses. So thumbs up for Klinsmann, Yogi Löw, Bierhoff and Köpke!

First 16 days of FIFA World Cup 2006

Um - ok. The first 16 days of the FIFA world cup are over, and I had everything to do but blogging. For the first one and a half weeks there were 3 games to be watched per day, and for the past week there was still at least two games per day. Our office is directly opposite the official FIFA Fanfest which is handy when it comes to watching a game within the atmosphere of a big crowd or watching the cool program they booked for the half-time break. My flat is on the other corner of "el barrio" St. Pauli - which is good as you don't miss anything of the game when you're in the bathroom. But this is all-in-all too much to be fit into a regular BLOG entry, so here's the best of the first 16 days of football:

• Tickets:
  No, I didn't have got tickets in before. I applied for them in the "second round". I didn't have enough money when they opened up the official ticket share forum on the net and prices were fair. Now 170 to 1000 EUR - forget about it!
• Being at the Fanfest is not like being at the stadium. But it's better than staying at home.
• Watching at work is still better than watching at home.
• Doing laundry is better than watching Switzerland-Ukraine.
• Being on a festival and shopping at stands and boxes is better than watching England vs. Ecuador.
• Heartbreak Hotel:
  (I didn't know whom to keep my fingers crossed for)
  Sweden vs. England, Spain vs. France, Portugal - Netherlands
• Tor! Goal! But! Gol!
  Nicest ones by now: 2:1 France vs. Spain (Zidane), 1:0 Brasil vs. Ghana (Ronaldo), and any one of Klose's
• I wanted to blog about Klinsmann and Lehmann 3 month prior to the world cup. Now everybody's doing it, and all of "Klinsi's" critics are suddenly praising him. So I stop here and don't even start about it as I don't wanna join in this flummery, I knew it before and now can't prove it.
• Still 70 pics missing in my Panini sticker album.
• First team completed in the Panini album:
  Angola, followed by Ghana
• Holland:
  If Patrick Kluivert would have been nominated, they would have been better of. Sure!
• Top 100 football players and TOP 50 goalposts:
  Omid Nouripour is not only the successor of Joschka Fischer in the German parliament (yes, the former minister of foreign affairs) but he has posted a well-discussable list of the top 100 best football players of all times and top 50 best goal posts in his Blog. Go there and drop a comment, it's easy-understandable even though it's all in German.
• Top 100 football players II
  Yes, there are some missing in Omid's list: Stan Libuda. Willi (Ente) Lippens. Schlangen-Franz Gerber. Ewald Lienen. And with the goal posts: Sepp Maier. Volker Ippig.
• Wanna join the party?
  Come here! The party's great. It's not that cheap (the beer, the food - forget about the tickets, really...) but the weather's mostly gorgeous, at least for Northern Germany. Read about it in The New York Times or Der Spiegel international

First three days of Tour de France

... yes, the first three days were really exciting - full of suspense and some nitty-gritty sideshow. For me as a Jan Ulrich-devotee this year's issue of The Tour de France of course started with two major downers: The hero hurt by an incident with his own team car. Resulting from that a really bad start in which Lance Armstrong showed all his arrogance and strength. A reconciliatoring second day, where Jan is in the first group of the sprinters arriving. And on the same day Tom Boonen scored once, and he scored again on the third day. Did I already mention that I already started to become a fan back in april when he won the classics? So yes. Two days already won, how nice. But still: I favour Ullrich to win the Tour this year. My favourite team is CSC, because Bjarne is developing a better team leader every year (and possible every dime the sponsors give him to get Ivan Basso, Bobby Julich, Jakob Piil, Carlos Sastre or - Jens Voigt. I'm already keen on the days where the route is excellent for some kamikaze-alike solo trips. But I doubt that Discovery Channel will let him go, now, that he is so pretty close to the guy in yellow... About today - silence for the first. I want to see the replay in the late-night tv first...

Paris-Roubaix 2005

Usually...
I only watch bicycle races once a year. Call it Tour de France. Last year the whole course matched perfectly with my learning schedule, so that I was training vocabulary while the boys where going up and down L'Alpe d'Huez.

But this year already started with the Ronde van Vlanderen - which Tom Boonen won. And yesterday he won the "Hell of the North" as well, the race Paris-Roubaix. The finish was impressing - hey, the others looked like sprinters as well, but only Tom seemed to have some extra power in his legs. I'm starting to become a fan...

Swimming in Hamburg

I love swimming, and I was pretty eager to visit the renewed Holthusenbad in the heart of Hamburg Eppendorf. The Holthusenbad is a clever mix between a spa and a sporty swimming pool, with artificial waves. Unfortunately the pool for sporting purposes is on the outside - more than chilly in the evening, brr!

But it was a more than bad idea to go into this water temple on a sunday evening. Let's say, a 90 percent of the visitors were couples, the music and the light show was romantic through and through - a good place to get the depression of your life if your alone even only for those few hours..

Gran Turismo or: vakantiereis in Vlaanderen

It was a spontaneous decision - a friend of mine was travelling the same direction anyway, so I had a lift - I had an invitation. Yeeha, so I was on my way to Kortrijk in Belgium. Nice holidays with nice friends, a big CHEERS and THANKS! In Kortrijk was a fun fair going on this week, so we spent a lot of time at funny things like shooting games.

And of course I spent some money in the local record store...

The sunday started with a seemingly major event in the region - the Ronde van Vlaanderen. I saw many famous racing cyclists - but I recognized only a few, among them Jaan Kirsipuu - and Erik Zabel, who later scored no. 4.

Well, so much about Kortrijk - next time I'm gonna take a closer look at the River "Leie" or "Lys" as it is called in France - or "The Golden River" as it was called during the high times of the linen industries. And the Linen Museum.

Also I'm gonna search for the traces of Breydel und Coninck next time I'm gonna visit Kortijk. Both were leading the Flemish in the Battle of the Golden Spurs or "Guldensporenslag" which the Flemish won against France. The "Guldensporenslag" was the prelimenary for the 100 Years War, but we don't wanna talk about it now, well?!