fandom

One thing that I don't understand about celebrities is when they say things like - it's all for the fans and they say that the reason that they are so motivated to do things is so that they can keep connected to the fans and thank them all for what they've done. To me this completely goes against the integrity of what being an artist is.

It has been said that you should think about the one thing that you would do if money was never an issue - like what is your favourite thing. This is what you should look for when you are looking for a job and find what you are passionate about.

To me these two ideas go completely against each other. If you were doing something for your fans it means that you are not doing it for your self. I won't go as extreme to call it prostitution but on some level it is. You are selling who you are as a person for money.

Think about the whole celebrity magazine thing. Basically you sell yourself to get in there so that you can 'stay connected to the fans'. This has nothing to do with your art. Nothing at all.

I just like people that play really great music but I don't care (that much) about who they are in their personal lives. I have way more respect for people who are going to play because they truly love the music. This is why I don't think that top 40 is nearly as appealing for me. Maybe because I like the honesty of the person that happens when they are writing lyrics that are personal for them.

The John Cage afternoon break

I have had the wonderful situation of having a refrigerator break last thursday. My roommate was cleaning it...and then, it didn't work. So I don't quite know what we are going to do about it, but in the mean time I can't keep cold products. This means that I have to go food shopping everyday. Due to the fact that I didn't really feel like getting out of bed after a really late night/morning on friday/saturday, it meant that I didn't go shopping and didn't really have food. The worst thing is no cheese. One thing that I'm sure many of you canadians don't realize is the fact that grocery stores are not open on sundays...only in the main train station can you go grocery shopping because it is seem as a necessity.

So at the train station they have a whole bunch of art being inspired by the works of John Cage. To give you a a taste of who John Cage is please watch this video




Weird right?!

Outside they had what they called the stage cage, which is a semi permanent wooden structure. Outside the building they had some beach chairs so you could enjoy the sunshine. The doors of the building were wide open and in the middle of the room there was a grand piano which was completely surrounded by oversized gym mats with these outdoor pillow things. They were so so comfortable....and I literally just sat there for an hour. The music that the guy was playing though was themed...'as slow as possible'. It was pretty much someone playing one or two notes or chords at a time and then waiting 20ish seconds between the notes.

The coolest thing was the intensity of the pianist and how deliberate he was between the notes. It was so enjoyable and made me want to think of my own installation art. I was also upset because I didn't have my notebook with me. I do feel a lot more inclined to write and keep my thoughts down, not just necessarily in blog format. But just to do something a little bit more creative...and every time I feel these great thoughts that I want to remember I never have anywhere to write them down.

Gettin donaghy-d

So I have been fortunate enough to start work again after nearly two months of vacation. Thank goodness because I was starting to get stir crazy. I will admit I am not enjoying the getting up early and not being able to sleep when I want, but I'm sure I'm not going to mind being able to furnish my room...and actually looking like a reasonable member of society.

I will admit the German language is just frustrating me though. It is really difficult to work in another language and it often makes me feel really dumb. Those of you think you know me well would be surprised how I am really hard on myself. This is more so in professional situations - in which I have to deal with people who don't really know me that well. And golf as well. I think I just always want to exceed expectations. And now, after graduating I feel like I need to be an exceptional worker. I don't want to just be a normal person, and I want to be able to come up with ideas and improve things and make things more efficient. I want to be a 'changer'. But it's just so difficult because even after 4 months there I still feel like I don't understand the process that well. And I hate when you are at work and you really don't want to ask your boss another question because you have already asked like 16 times about things and it's only 10 in the morning. I am always worried this will make me seem dumb, and then sometimes when I ask I feel like he doesn't listen and explains something up to where I have the problem and then doesn't go into my problem and doesn't understand where I am having the problem.

I do feel appreciated there though. The 'top boss' was in work on thursday and he gave me perhaps the most intimidating hand shake that I have ever had in my life. I would consider myself a not bad handshaker, but he just took the cake. I would honestly like to see what it would be like for him to meet Jack Donaghy from 30 rock. I may want to be my boss when I grow up....

Musical "Artist"

My parents, my friends, and my parents friends have had the privilege of attending the winnipeg folk festival this year. I am extremely jealous because there are some acts I would love to see. (And surprisingly a lot of acts I have never heard before)

One of the people I would have enjoyed seeing for example was James Vincent McMorrow. I often listen to him on my iPod, but do not necessarily listen to every song. I enjoy him, but I don't LOVE him beyond everything....he's not even who I most regret missing.

The Irish Bon Iver as he's been called was apparently quite lackluster (according to my parents)...my mother debated a visit to the beer tent (and if you know my mother that's quite strange). But it got me thinking about musicians the differences live vs studio. I think that there are just some people who are studio people only. It's been said that if you can't play live you aren't a real musician and I think that I used to be one of those kinds of people. But just today I decided that no, it's not necessarily like that. You can be talented as heck, but just may not be able to perform, and while this may not make you a superstar it doesn't necessarily make you a bad musician. I think that it's just a different way of approaching music.

I am looking at this from a much more artistic perspective and not just the 'entertainment value' perspective, nor the saleability. Think about it this way. Some people are just very outgoing and friendly and just want to 'have a party' and perform for others. Other people are much more concerned with the integrity of the song and are more willing to spend time in the studio working on an album to perfect and and ensure that every song is in the exact right place...and everything is a lot more deliberate.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons that we are more upset when people don't sound the same live as they do in the studio is because the same instruments that were used in 'crafting the song' are not transferable in real life. I'm not necessarily just referring to auto-tune here either. But then it begs the question, does a song no longer have any validity if the artist can't reproduce it and what if he only ever plays it well once. Does that mean it's a bad song?

I don't know the direction I was meaning to take with this, but it would be cool to hear any opinions on studio vs live artists...

crashing pianos

I was thinking about finding a video on youtube...just for an extra visual for this entry, but what I'm about to talk about is a little painful.

It literally hurts me when you see pianos get smashed. Like literally makes me upset. It is just such a waste. Even if it's the oldest thing every, pieces can be saved in order to transplant to other.

There is a short film about an adorable little french man that has just this exact thing in Paris











this is why it hurts

The Secret Life of bees

I'm pretty sure the title is actually a book name...but I don't really care...

I was in the park enjoying some wonderfully summer weather accompanied by old nerdist podcasts...just dying of laughter by myself, looking like a total freak.

Also got into examining some bees as they would pass the clover flowers around me. But I just don't really understand them at all...So one goes by and pretty much checks out every flower. Knows right away if he's going to get some pollen...get what's he needs and then moves to the next flower. Ok that makes sense. Bees love pollen, it kicks off the whole honey process.

Then along comes another bee a little while later and checks out the same flowers. But didn't the first bee already check. It seems like a pretty inefficient thing. Wouldn't the first one get all the pollen...if he's already there. I guess I don't know the rate that pollen is created, but I really don't get it. Like someone was just there...sorry. Maybe they're from rival tribes.

I just thought this though...where is the honey production actually taking place? In a tree? Is it nearby?

I'm gonna need a bee-cam

Perspective

 I feel like I may have shown this picture before...if not I meant to. This is where I went on the May 1st holiday. It's a really cool place. We ended up walking here...(I went with a friend) and it took us about a 45 minutes to get here. Then after we walked another 3 hours to the frankenstein castle. Anyways one thing I really like about Germany is that there are hills here. So right now we are looking over a valley which is so cool. And even cooler because you can see so far. We were able to see Frankfurt, Mainz and even as far as Ludwigshafen (which is across the river from where I went to school). I could honestly sit and just look out for hours. I truly do like the mountain top experience. I know the picture is really poor quality so I apologize. If you use a magnifying glass you may be able to see a church spire...keep that in mind.

Now do you see the extra high point in the middle of the trees way in the distance....guess where the last picture was taken...Heights are the greatest.

Kishi Bashi

because NPR introduces some really cool things

I was listening to the best songs of the first half of 2012 today....I want all of it...and usually I disagree with some choices. Maybe there were one or two low points, but overall this was the highlight...oh and the surprise from carly rae jepson.

accepting my race

I'm white. You likely know this, largely by the fact that there is a picture of me on my blog. If you do not, you are clearly dumb and unobservant, or have google reader - in the latter case forgiveness will be granted.

Anyways - because there is all this sun I have had to think about making the decision as to whether or not I should try and get a mega tan. I must say that I went the entire last winter without feeling any shame of my whiteness. Is it because I'm living in a more ethnically homogenous environment where everyone is just as white as me. There are tanning salons but none of the people I befriend are the types to visit such places. But I have had a lot of time the past few weeks and I could lay out in the park and get an amazing tan. Like ridiculously dark....but contrary to danielle of about 2 years ago I don't really care to be that dark anymore. I wonder if this is one of the parts of self-acceptance you learn and maybe it's just part of my desire to 'age gracefully'. I don't want to end up a leather bag one day.

I was thinking...should I go back to naming the blog titles with lyrics of whatever song I listen to at the time of writing the post?? I'll probably forget this the next time I write.

hairmaggedeon

If there is one thing I really don't like about Germany...it's the water. I have been suffering the last 2.5 weeks because it seems like my hair literally cannot get clean...but I think that I am on the direction to some sort of remedy. I rinsed my hair with a vinegar water combination and I think that it feels somewhat softer, but the problem is that I can never tell whether or not my hands feel gross, or my hair the gross thing. I'll admit it's gross here. Like I am sweating all the time.

It is always so sunny. (it's always sunny in Philly reference?)

I feel like I am just sweating up a storm all the time. Do I just feel extra sweat in my hair. I think that the next time I am going to try washing with bottled water mixed with vinegar. Surprisingly my hair does not smell like salad as I had anticipated, so that's pretty successful. I don't think you care that much, but you may care if you have to live here.

Mainz Meetup

I met up with one of my old teachers from high school today. My German teacher for that matter. It was a wonderful day. It was also cool because I have never been to Mainz, and it is a pretty historically significant city...although it's so sad that I can't remember enough history right now. A very catholic city at any rate.

So we met up and then started wandering throughout the city. We then stopped and went through the Dom (cathedral) there, which was absolutely amazing. We were then going to go to the Gutenberg museum, hoping that I could see the Gutenberg bible which we did not because the museum was closed on mondays. That was a bit of a bummer. But we then went for cake which was a decent compromise. I finally had my first piece of Schwartzwalder Kirsch (Blackforest) which I could say competes for the title of my favourite cake.

I think the greatest part of my day was being able to connect with her as an adult. I mean she first got to know me as a wonderful little 12 year old and has known me for more than 10 years. Not well obviously because what she may see is slightly different than how I actually am. But it was great that we were able to share more experiences from our personal lives and actually bond somewhat an appreciate the circumstances that affect us in a more 'formal' setting.

I felt very inspired by her as well, and I feel a little bit more motivated into doing more things that will better myself. And figuring out how I'm going to be able to continue to do things I love, but being able to support myself as well. I also was encouraged to look a little bit further into my future and start thinking about that. I think that may be a larger theme of staying here in Germany. I think I need to figure out how to bring all the great parts of my life here into moving back to North America. It was cool how she talked about when she was a kid and she pretended she was going to know how to fly, and she ended up being a flight attendant, and then became a teacher partially for the time to travel in the summer. Just awesome...

Now that I think about it, we didn't actually see vast amounts of stuff while we were there, we just wandered down the rhine river and talked.

Then for lunch we had some tapas, and I even drank a beer in front of her which was neat...and not very MBCI. ha ha don't care!

But I must tell you...this food was amazing, and I would go back to Mainz, just for Tapas. We had these chicken croquets, and some bread, but the most amazing thing was dates wrapped in bacon. I literally in my life have never eaten bacon that tasted that good. Like I need to have it again or I will die. I'm getting hungry just talking about it!!!

Heinerfest

This weekend in Darmstadt there is a little event called heinerfest. I don't really know if it is celebrating anything...all I know is that there are a bunch of rides on food stands in the innenstadt. Someone told me it was the biggest inner city festival in the world, but I don't think that is true. There were a lot of people and it does shut down the inner city somewhat, but I don't think it's the biggest...

The view going into the innenstadt (Schloss on the right)

I'm down with festivals, but at the same time the only thing that I really do is watch people. In Germany I do a lot of things by myself, just because of lack of friends and because I'm not going to let that stop me. So I wandered around for a while and then I came upon the scare house where they have people standing to scare people. I took this really low quality picture so I don't know if you can tell what's happening here. 

So as people were coming out he would make swiping motions with his sword. I literally sat across the way and watched for about 20 minutes, just laughing nearly every time. The greatest moments were

- Teenage girls, of course

- the parents that were there to 'protect their children' but ended up getting more scared than their children.

- Adults getting scared in General

- the asians got scared every single time

- except once, there was one asian boy who I would say was about 12 years old. He did not get scared, and afterwards he gave the most stoic man-nod I have ever seen

I took such joy from all of this.

                         

I also saw these people, who were playing very south american music, with panpipes and the like. But they were dressed in a very traditional native American way. I actually need someone to clarify whether or not this is an accurate depiction of south americans...or whether or not there were just using the costumes as a gimmick....