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Samstag, 28. November 2009

Advent-Playlist

Tomorrow, it's the first sunday in advent and for that reason I tried to put together another playlist with music that matters to me. It's 24 songs, for every day until christmas one song; my virtual advent-calendar so to speak. So actually, you should start listening on tuesday, december 1st. Well, don't expect romantic christmas songs; except of 'Wonderful Dream', which is the only real christmas song i chose. I hope, you enjoy it anyways and maybe I could show you some new stuff you didn't know before. Enjoy!

1. Silversun Pickups - Catch & Release
2. Linkin Park - Across The Line (Unreleased Demo 2007)
3. Apocalyptica
feat. Adam Gontier (Three Days Grace) - I Don't Care
4. Deftones - Minerva
5. Pearl Jam - Just Breathe
6. Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue
7. The Temper Trap - Drum Song

8. Linkin Park - Fear (Leave Out All The Rest Demo 2006)
9. System Of A Down - Toxicity (Live at Big Day Out 2002)
10. The Subways - Rock and Roll Queen (Live at Rock am Ring 2009) [This is one bad-ass performance!!!]
11. Dead By Sunrise - In The Darkness
12. Marching Band - Make Up Artist
13. P.O.D. - Thinking About Forever
14. Metric - Gold Guns Girls
15. Circa Survive - Travel Hymn [This song reminds me of Israel. I listened to it, when we drove along the dead sea. Good times.]
16. Breaking Benjamin - Breath
17. Linkin Park - In The End (Live at Ferropolis/GER 2009) [I've been there!]
18. Habanot Nechama - So Far
19. Nine Inch Nails - Every Day Is Exactly The Same
20. Jan Josef Liefers and 'Oblivion' feat. Ina Müller - Wo bist du? (Silly Cover)
21. 10 Years - Wasteland
22. Peter Fox - Alles Neu
23. Linkin Park - Crawling (Live at Rock am Ring 2007)
24. Melanie Thornton - Wonderful Dream

Have a wonderful advent time, everyone!

Mittwoch, 25. November 2009

Introducing David Christopher

I felt like it's time again to feature another great artist here on my blog: David Christopher.

I was checking the 'Reader Art' on juxtapoz.com (see sidebar for link) the other day and was immediately impressed by this piece of art:


azrael's addiction

David Christopher is from Londonderry, New Hampshire, and currently in his senior year
at the Institute of Art in Manchester/NH. In addition to that he's also working for a few non-profit organizations and several local bands, helping them with promotional stuff and album art.
So, what is his style like? He says: "I draw what's on my mind, which is most often relationships, friends, family and my faith." His work mostly features some kind of unreal persons and abstract things. He's using different techniques, such as mechanical pencils, photography, digital art, oil and acrylic paint.

i'll pass on the torch

burning the birdhouse



little kites in high grass

only some days ago he announced the release of a book featuring 100 pieces of art from 2007 to 2009. It's called '...a waste...' and available here. Be sure to check this page out, there's a preview of the book!

This is what it looks like:


If you want to see more either go to his website: vilorphiamatrix.daportfolio.com or visit him on deviantART: Vilorphia-Matrix

ENJOY!!

[thx, David, for the info and everything... :)]

Mittwoch, 28. Oktober 2009

Giant Microbes

This time I thought I should post something funny. It's about giantmicrobes.com. yes. Sounds weird, right? It's an online-shop, where they sell stuffed animals that look like microbes. For example bad breath, a brain cell, a fat cell or herpes...



that's a brain cell


Maybe, there's someone in your family, who's interested in biology. Christmas is near... ;)

Samstag, 17. Oktober 2009

Starsuckers movie


I was reading the newspaper the other day and found a small article about a project called 'starsuckers'. Since I have a different view on media, now, I found it very interesting. They played tricks on the tabloids by sending them super special news about several celebrities, which actually were not true. For example: they spread the rumor, that Amy Winehouse's hair catched fire because of a short-circuit at a party. To the team's surprise, this rumor was printed in the next day's issue. It shows, that those kind of 'papers' are only interested in scandals and stories about the private life of the celebrities without even questioning it.
The movie will be in cinemas from october 30. Unfortunately only in London. Hopefully we'll get to see something via internet.
Check out what's said about that project on their website.


Also dealing with this topic, Mike Shinoda posted a short documentary on his website in addition to his latest art show 'Glorious Excess'. For me the most remarkable about that one is, that he is part of this celebrity culture himself. Sure, he knows best what it's like to be a celeb, but I don't know any other famous person dealing with this topic in such a critical way. The film can be watched here. To give you a short overview on the story behind the art show, here's what Mike Shinoda wrote on his blog:

"I don't want to tell the story of the show before you see any art, but here's an idea of what to expect: in the first show, our star character exploded onto the scene. He was violent, filthy rich, and world-famous. I hoped to start conversations with the work--not just critique our obsession with fame, money, and stardom. I hope you guys also saw a sense of humor there, in my effort to figure out what I thought about celebrity, spending time on both the inside and out. In this new show, our "star" completely implodes. He begins the show as an overblown superstar, and works his way to a psychadelic, fame-induced nirvana. The end will be up to you to interpret."

A gallery with the paintings of the art show can be found here.

I personally was forced by both projects to think about this kind of topic and I really would like to see this being discussed more.

Freitag, 16. Oktober 2009

My 'Say-Hi-To-The-Winter-Playlist'


yesterday's view out of my window (yes, this white stuff there is snow)


Due to the weather outside my taste of music turns a bit 'emo'. No, I don't start listening to those kinda bands, but I do listen to more quiet and calm songs. Yesterday, we had snow all day long. In october. That's pretty early if you ask me. I really hate those grey, windy and rainy days. To make a long story short, I wanted to share some songs I like at the moment and created the 'Say-Hi-To-The-Winter-Playlist
'.

1. Hybrid Theory (aka. Linkin Park) - She Couldn't
2. Ich+Ich - Stark
3. Dead By Sunrise - Walking In Circles
4. Metric - Gimme Sympathy
5. Fort Minor - Move On
6. Deftones - Beware
7. Rammstein - Ohne Dich
8. Coldplay - The Scientist (live)
9. Velvet Revolver - Loving The Alien
10. Linkin Park - My December

FYI: Rammstein and Dead By Sunrise just released their latest albums. 'Liebe ist für alle da' and 'Out of Ashes' are available NOW!! and in my opinion 'Fantasies' by Metric is one of the top-ten-must-haves of the year! so much for my recommendations... :)

Enjoy!

Samstag, 10. Oktober 2009

My first two weeks at college...

I just wanted to share some impressions and thoughts about my new life in the big city of Mittweida... LOL. Well, to underline the irony of that: there's no McDonald's. I guess, some people didn't even know there's still a place without the big yellow 'M'. Seriously, I like it there and it's not a problem for me, that this town is pretty small, cause my hometown isn't so much bigger. During our first week at college we heard a lot of administrative stuff and to make the start for us as easy as possible there was also this tutor-thing, where a group of 3 freshmen got one 'daddy' or 'mommy'. They helped us finding all the rooms and houses we need to go to and gave us lots of helpful advice. I really apprecciate that, cause it made me feel kinda secure. Now, that the second week is over I think I got settled in the new environment. We already had lots of lectures, for example about the media's development in Germany since the Weimar Constitution, about basics in video- and audio-production or about journalistic styles and methods. I really like it. It's interesting and it totally changes the way you watch TV or listen to the radio. Sounds weird, but it's true. I personally am looking forward to our practical courses, where we're going to work on video-/audio-projects on ourselves in small groups. Let's see what the next week is like... (the second pic shows me on the left-hand side with some college mates at the freshmen-party last wednesday)

The Swan Lake: Moving Image & Music Award...

...is a project by students of the university in Mittweida, where I am studying now, too. The gala will be on october 20. This award honors young animation- and movie-artists and also musicians. Now it is up to you to decide who'll get the prize, because there's a public voting, where you can choose between several works (you have to create a free account first). For more information and the voting, please visit the award's homepage.

Date: October 20th 2009
Location: canteen University Mittweida
Weststr.11,
09648 Mittweida
Time: doors open: 7 pm , beginning: 8 pm
Cost: pre-sale: 3,50 € / at box-office: 4,50 €


Mittwoch, 23. September 2009

Introducing Caia Koopman

I was surfing around Juxtapoz.com the other day and saw an interview with Californian artist Caia Koopman. Her art is mainly influenced by Skateboard/Snowboard culture which she feels strongly connected to since lots of years. Graduating at the UC Santa Cruz in fine art she now works as a freelance illustrator and painter. I personally love her female characters, since they seem to be kinda gently. And they also make her style pretty unique.


The interview I was talking about can be found here, more pictures and the biography are on her hompage.

Dienstag, 22. September 2009

The story behind my new artwork...

As usual, during summer holidays I find enough time and inspiration do draw. This time, something else happened to me... It has something to do with Linkin Park and Fort Minor songs. When we arrived at our cottage in Canada I found out, that my mp3-player had messed up and so I had to do without 6 GB of all my fav music... But thank God I put some of it on my mobile phone; Linkin Park, Fort Minor, Deftones and some others. My 'emergency reserve'. This is why I listened to the same songs over and over again. Actually, it helped me to see a whole new meaning in some songs or to understand them better. I had clear pictures to every song in my head. 'My December' was the first one. But it turned out to be pretty difficult for me to bring the picture in my head on the sheet of paper in front of me. I'm still thinking about it. So the first one I drew was about 'She Couldn't' (one of my fav LP-songs to be honest):

(I've seen her smiling... Sunlight's shining on her now... She couldn't stay here...)

For the second picture I was inspired by a sunset we saw the day before. You know, it was all like the cliché everyone's dreaming of: driving on an American highway into the sunset. When I finished the pic I looked at it and immediately had 'Shadow Of The Day' in my head:


(And the sun will set for you)

Before drawing the third one I listened to all the songs again and chose one of them to illustrate it. I decided to take 'Breaking The Habit'. Maybe my interpretation isn't really what the band actually wanted to say, but that's what I see in this song and what it tells me:


(I don't know what's worth fighting for; Or why I have to scream)

All three pics are more like sketches, so I don't want them to be perfect. They're on gridded paper anyways... Also, this series is not finished. I plan to draw more pics like that. 'Right Now' by Fort Minor for example is a song I have loads of ideas to illustrate. Let's see... maybe someday I'll get the one and only idea for 'My December'.
I hope you liked both the art and my thoughts.

Montag, 21. September 2009

Happy Birthday Leonard Cohen!

(source: http://newsitemstoday.today.com/files/2008/12/leonard-cohen-poet-large.jpg)

The great (one of the greatest, though) singer/writer/poet/composer Leonard Cohen is turning 75, today. Congratulations! He was born in Montreal/Canada. This is actually how I got to know him. Of course, I've heard his name before, but when I knew that I'd go to Canada for holidays I was searching for some musicians and writers of this country. And he's definetely one of the greatest! I found it interesting to read, that he never wanted to be a musician, but a poet. It wasn't different than today back then, that it's pretty hard to earn money with poems. And so a friend told him to play the guitar to his poems... the rest is history.

The news said, that he broke down during a concert in Valencia/Spain (yes, he's on tour right now!) some days ago. So I hope, he'll feel better soon.

One of his most famous songs is 'Suzanne'
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snMOmHzgssk

Welcome to my blog...

With this blog I'd like to share some things of my life, e.g. journeys I did, things I love or hate (art, music...). I decided to use a blog as a platform for things like that, cause I don't have to feel like bothering somebody with what I write. It's up to you, whether you wanna read it or not. That's a difference between a blog and for example Twitter. At some point you get tons of followers, but I personally am thinking often about posting something or not. Some might like it, but some also might see it as spamming or something like that. To make a long story short: Welcome and have fun, if you choose to read my blog!!