I don't have to have a title if I don't want to

Okay, so let's get up to date with our sing-song sing-along contest bizzness. The fantastic rap song no one guessed is 'Real Earth' By Cannibal Ox. The producer I mentioned that produced their album is El-P. And suddenly it all makes sense. The song Alice wanted me to guess was 'There's No Home For You Here' by The White Stripes. Cake. I don't have a clue what Henric's second song is. And I still don't know what Ginger is talking about. And I don't wanna look, so just tell me. These are the points given out: Alice 5 (I did guess the song), Henric 8+4 (first and second), Ginger 8. That brings us to a total of 20 for Alice, 15 for Henric and 11 for Ginger. Here is a list of the songs we had so far:

#	Artist	Song Title	Album
1	Led Zeppelin	Stairway To Heaven	IV or whatever
2	Metallica	Welcome Home (Sanitarium)	Master Of Puppets
3	Rage Against The Machine	Killing In The Name	Rage Against The Machine
4	Björk	Jóga	Homogenic
5	The Phardcyde	Something That Means Something	Labcabincalifornia
6	Tool	H.	Aenima
7	Mudhoney	F.D.K.(Fearless Doctor Killers)	My Brother The Cow
8	Cannibal Ox	Real Earth	The Cold Vein
Songs Christoph couldn't guess, except one
1	The White Stripes	There's No Home For You Here	Elephant
2	Barbara Lahr	Nie Monoton	Fräuleinwunder

That was too much work setting up the table and the having to put all the code into one line so Blogger displays it right. Let me quickly mention the things I intended to write about, but never did:
We found a cool apartment in Bremen and spent a stressful but nevertheless fun weekend there with Alice. Last week at school, I was using the bathroom (No. 2) in the morning, and some guys starts barfing in the stall next to me. At first it sounded like somebody pouring water in the toilet, but soon enough I heard the throaty noises. Nice. What else? That's what i get for not writing it down right away. Oh well.
Also Henric, I think that there is still enough quality music, no matter if a certain genre is at a peak or not, it just is hard to find it sometimes. And 'being different' is not what it's made out to be. People try to be different by trying to belong to a certain group of people as they see it. Of course they are different from the mainstream then, but what's the difference really. That's why I find that store Hot Topic so hilarious. In Terre Haute, it's a Sears away from the Gap. And the people can't wear whatever they want at Hot Topic either. It's mass-market alternativity. Not different at all that is. So it is not only marketing to people wanting to be different, but people trying to belong to an imaginary group of people they think are different (i.e. better) than all the others. But let's not get bitter and enjoy the fact that it is us who are so much cooler than everybody else. The group I choose is skateboard nerds.
Guess this song and approve my sense of knowing cooler music than you:

'He's totally natural!
Actually he's a white ghost
Performing in a video
He's totally natural!
(He's only an actor)'

I promise that from now on I will try and use more well-known songs, but the winner's CD needs diversity.

UPDATE:
Have you noticed how the text under the table didn't have the same line-spacing as usual? I don't know why but apparently the proper stylesheet elements were not applied. First I thought, oh let me find a way to manually add the attributes, but then I figured, since the line height is defined for p-tags, I just add an opening p after the table and close it at the very end, since I needed to open tags anyway. And it worked. I'm so proud.

Bleeding ears anyone?

If you haven't noticed yet, I really like to listen to all kinds of music and talk about it until the blood coming out of ears is starting to cover the floor. So just a second ago I was checking spiegel.de to see that one of the coolest bands of the last few years, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, has released a new album. Thanks Spiegel. So that for itself, is of course good news, unless of course the album is unexpectedly mediocre.
What concerns me is how I learned about this release. I think it's safe to say that the Spiegel is a mainstream publication, even though the do try to cover alternative music more or less, since that part appears in the 'young people' section. And lately I have had a hard time finding new bands that really excite me. It seems that when I was younger, there were too many cool bands to even know them all. Now they appear few and far in between. And since I know better than saying 'Everything was so much better ten years ago' I ask myself what has changed with me. When I was fifteen, I mostly listened to melodic hard core or punkrock, whatever you wanna call it. And I loved that stuff, I also liked crossover and started getting into hip-hop. Wait, crap, ten years ago I was 16 already. Dang, talk about living in the past. Now my taste is much more diverse, I love classic rock, Bob Dylan (yes he has his own category), Raggae, hip-hop, punk rock, jazz, some classical and a whole bunch of other stuff I won't even start putting into categories. But these days I listen to a lot of stuff that is at least 20 years old, some even 50, as far as 'pop' music is concerned. And I constantly find myself annoyed by the stuff that's being put out at the moment. One reason it is like that, I think, is that my taste has evolved. Some of the stuff I used to love, I still like, but I see some of the lesser aspects of it. I might expect too much of a band.
But I wanted to talk about how I learn about new music, even though it's all related. Back then, I pretty much read skateboarding magazines that had some music in it, or my friends learned about stuff on MTV, while we only had three channels. At least I think that's how it was. So on the one hand I blame MTV. Back then, they were covering all kinds of different types of music, they had YO! and Headbanger's Ball and something something Alternative something and so on. Now they have Top 40s and 20s, TRL, Dismissed and Pimp My Ride. I do enjoy Pimp My Ride, but the point is that they don't show nothing out of the ordinary, and neither does VIVA (that's a German music station that is now owned by Viacom, who also owns MTV; don't even get me started on that). You see the same songs over and over, and it seems that to be a rock band, the attitude is most important. I don't wanna say that things were better a few years ago, but I think that the music industry has learned that their bands have to appear as being authetic, which translates into fulfilling stereotypes. So now you have your mean, tattooed rockers, your pimp rappers and so on. Anything that doesn't fit must be a different kind of music, let's not play it. Hence the rise of bands that adapt a retro-sound (The White Stripes for example, even though I do like them).
Bands like Tool, on the other hand, you hardly ever hear about. And neither do you about ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. Of course I could just go and by me a dang magazine and stay cool forever, but I have learned that you can't trust the magazines. At least my tastes are different. I still have to listen to stuff in the store. But it would give me an idea. I think overall I'm just too lazy to really look.
You know what, nevermind, I just wish I would have known before Spiegel that the album came out, thus underlining my coolness. And I hate the idea of there being a really awesome band that I'm missing out on. With hip-hop I have a powerful ally, but with rock it's really hard to tell. Alright, I might write more when my thoughts are clearer.

Dear all...

Alright, alright, alright, instead of commenting on comments in the comments to each post, I will deal with your wonderful contributions in a separate post.
Alice, I do know what song it is, but I wanna hear your clues first.
Henric, my last and final guess would be welle:erdball, but I'm sick of looking any further, you won. Also, don't fight with Alice. And I did like the website, but only because sometimes I tell Christina that she was easy. But we all know the truth don't we?
The other stuff on there I didn't really like too much. But I don't feel like talking about stereotypes and such right now. Let me just quote Tori Amos ("Some of the most wonderful people are those who don't fit into boxes") and remark that that is one of the ignorantestest things I have ever heard. Why? You tell me. I don't like Tori Amois anyway.
Ginger, where is your clue as to what song you were referring to? I really don't know it.
Wyatt, I'm glad you had fun. I just can't believe the things I waste my time on these days. But at least every day is like Easter now.
Okay, that is basically all i had to say. Hope I didn't forget anything. Have a nice day. Oh, and check out that fishing site. It's pretty interesting.

I was mad first, but you know I can't be for long.

What the f-word? I thought I had made myself clear about the inevitabilititationess of commenting in my last post? You think I didn't see the counter went up but nobody commented? But, I am not here to fight. I am just disappointed. I mean, I'm trying to make this worthwhile for all of you, but I need your help with it.
Here is another cool feature that I came up with all by myself. C and C Lo will now feature the 'Neighbor of the Month'. You know how you can go to the 'next blog' using the blogger button at the top? This next blog always changes, so I figured, in a salute to our neighbors, I will link to a different blog each month, or whenever I deem appropriate, that I found by clicking said button. I will of course inform the owner of the blog about the honor bestowed upon them. Is bestowed the right word. I sure hope so. It sounds fancy doesn't it? Or maybe I should substitate it.
And one more thing. On Ginger's brother Wyatt's blog, I noticed his cool use of titles for links. At first I was like, whoa, what's that. So I checked the source code, and there it was. I tried it out, and it was just as simple as it appeared. Not knowing too much about HTML and PHP I thought it must be PHP at first, with a mouse-over function or something. But no, it's just a little attribute. So look forward to some easter eggs on our blog. It's so much fun to learn.

"Why must every 11 minutes of my life be miserable?" - Squidward

I didn't even realize I hadn't written anything in here for such a long time. Did you miss me? Cause I missed you. Honestly. Once again, Alice got the song and band and album right, 3 more points. I can't believe everyone is just letting her win this. It's your chance to get a cool package in the mail from far far away. I might even add some candy. But only if you're good. And of course a personalized and handwritten letter (though some might say that that's more punishment than reward). If I wasn't writing this, I would totally not miss the chance. So here's another old quote for y'all to enjoy. This has got to be from one of the best hip-hop albums in the last few years, but nobody ain't ever even heard of it. Christina doesn't dig 'em too much either, but I could listen to it 24/7. And how could it not be awesome? The whole thing is produced by El-P (nobody really knows him either) and has lyrics and instrumentals that will make you laugh at 90% of the stuff you hear on the radio. So don't listen to them while driving, you'd wreck. You have been warned, here's my quote:

"This Earth is as real as a Chinese fortune cookie
In English with lottery numbers; I'm finished"

and another one from the same song:

"This aint a space race so why you rushin'
To be the first to catch a concussion, from El-P's percussion
Watch me throw a sentence in the air, say word up
That's just a phrase for my action, like a bum with a cup"

I think Ginger has already had the pleasure of listening to a song. That is if she ever listened to that CD I gave her last summer. The one with all the sucky songs on it? Let me know.
And now for the bIIIIIIIg surprise. In order to shake things up a little, and in another desperate attempt to get people to participate in the sing-song sing-along contest, which will go on for longer than I had originally intended, I decided to turn things around. As soon as you're finished reading this blog entry, you will click on the comment link (the one that says something about saying something, your turn, or a chance to shine, depending on the how manyest reader you are) and tell me I'm stupid or beautiful, or both, or smart or ugly, or both, or answer my question from above about missing me. Then you will think very hard, or not at all, and quote a song that you like. I will then try to guess the song, and include it on the contest-winner's compilation. I promise not to use any internet search engines, but honestly guess. To put the song on that CD you will have to send it to me as a MP3, but we'll talk about that later. How's that sound? I will of course award points to participants, but I don't know how many. Maybe 5 or something, or 8. It will definitely give your score a boost. Heck, you can even give me several songs and get points for each one.
So, you read it, after finishing, you HAVE to comment and quote a song. Unless you offer a valid excuse. I could maybe accept that.
Now you thought it was over, but I still got some stuff to talk about. About shi* that happened last week and all. I know you like to hear about how I brush my teeth and stuff. On Friday, I made dinner to celebrate my birthday. I made chicken soup, with a whole chicken and everything, Christina fixed Kartoffelauflauf Bolognese, and for dessert Dr. Oetker fixed chocolate pudding with vanilla sauce. I only had to add the milk. We had wine and juice for our guests who were Alice (representing England), Lisan, Han Bing and Jin Hai (all three representing China). So with Christina (USA) and me (Germany), we had a total of four nations in our little living room. And they all ate my soup, and didn't seem too disgusted. That week, not only did I fix my first Sahnetorte, I also made my first chicken soup, and it wasn't that hard after all. Once you had that old chicken in there for two hours, there's not much you can do wrong really. Anyway, after we ate, we played 'Mensch ärgere Dich nicht' (that's Sorry in English, but I like the German name for it better, Ginger will translate it in the comments to practice her German (please?)). When that was over, it takes forever when you play it with 6 people, it was already time for our guests to leave so they could get the bus. Alice stayed a little longer since I went to show them where the bus stop is. But we finally got rid of Alice too (Sorry for not going to the Poetry Slam on Saturday). Then, on Saturday morning, Christina had to leave on a train to Bremen at 7 in the morning, and I had to bring her to the station. She won't be back until tomorrow at night. That really sucked. It was so weird to sleep by myself for the first time in a long time.
Okay, that's enough, my next post will have the answers to the song challenges you will leave in the commenst section, and thus be very short. Click the link now.

Happy Late Birthday

Yeah, that's right, I forgot to wish in our blog my wonderful boyfriend a Happy Birthday on his actual birth date. What can I say....I am a bad girlfriend. So, Christoph sorry this is late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! For everyone who is not sure when Christoph had his birthday....it was on January 3rd.

But to justify my lack of birthday blog wishes, I got him pretty good gifts and I also slaved in the kitchen on Monday night to make him the dinner of his choice: Brokkloli-Hackfleisch Auflauf. I think that makes up for it.