Thursday, August 31, 2006

Metallitoph

Maybe you also saw it, but Sarah recently posted her 100 favorite albums of all times, which includes some great stuff. Unlike when magazines or other 'professionals' do this, her list has albums that she actually likes, not stuff that can now be considered groundbreaking and influential, but no one really likes. Pitchfork is a funny place anyway. Generally I think it's worth checking out, if only to learn which bands to consider on your next visit to the music store. Just don't believe their reviews. Case in point: Their review of Tool's latest album, which only earned a 5.9, and in which the author recommends getting 'Lateralus' instead, which directly preceded '10,000 Days'. Now you have to actually click on these links to believe it, but 'Lateralus', the album recommended over '10,000 Days' scored lower than '10,000 Days'. Not just a little bit, which would justify calling me nitpicky, but significantly lower. That's right, the better of the two albums only earned 1.9 points. Of course these are two different authors, but I still think it's quite funny and demonstrates just how credible those reviews are.

Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about is the development of my love for Metallica (because Sarah included them in her list). As everyone knows, Metallica is not as good as they used to be. I started listening to them when the black album came out, and quickly completed my collection of their works. I loved it all, but as a voice-driven listener, something which changed over time and is reflected in my periods of liking and disliking of the band, I thought that the earliest stuff wasn't as great as the later stuff. By the time 'Load' came out, I only listened to Metallica very seldom, if ever at all, and was into hip-hop after listening to a lot of punk rock. I even sold the black album.

We had this exchange student from England staying with us, who was into metal and that kind of music, and he saw my collection and assumed we had similar tastes. Which was not completely wrong, but I just was heavily into hip-hop at that point in time. Anyway, we stayed in touch and he sent me a tape with songs he wrote and from his band, and with a whole bunch of other stuff on it as well, including Monster Magnet (but that's a different story). Now I don't know the exact chronology of all this, but at some point I realized that listening to only one kind of music was not very satisfying for me. I needed dope rhymes and phat beats as much as I needed distorted guitars and whatever other combinbation of two words helps to describe the aspects of rock music that I like. Basically, I started listening to my punk rock CDs again at some point. This realization was aided by the exchange student playing 'Apocalyptica plays Metallica by Four Cellos' to me when I visited him. I asked for that for Christmas and realized just how awesome the instrumental parts were and started listening to 'Ride the Lightning' and 'Master of Puppets' again. Then came Metallica's 'S&M', and my love for them was as strong as ever. I even got 'Load' and 'Reload', thinking that 'yes, they aren't as good anymore, but some of it is still worthwhile'. I also reacquired the black album and got 'Garage Days' to complete the collection. After listening to the versions of some songs on S&M, I wanted to compare to the originals, and I realized that it's true, Master of Puppets is one of the greatest albums ever recorded. Yet some of my favorite songs are on Ride the Lightning. What I'm really trying to say though is, that I could ramble about Metallica all day, discuss their songs and point out that I did not buy St. Anger, partly because of the way that one drum sounds, it might be a snare and sounds like it belongs in a garage hardcore band or something, very tinny, but what this is really about, is how I started listening to Metallica, then stopped, then started again with a new set of aesthetics, and how that impacted my appreciation for their music and heavy rock music in general. Metallica has not only influenced how I listen to music, but at the same time has become an indicator of my changing and broadening tastes.

Making a Top 100 list would be near impossible for me to do, and I don't think I'd ever try, but in a somewhat ironic twist of fate, I now have to pick 12 CDs to take with me to New Zealand. I could take 12 from Bob Dylan without much trouble, and it will not be an easy task, to be completed someday tomorrow, but one of the biggest problems I have right now is which Metallica album to take: Ride the Lightning or Master of Puppets? Christina says the black album but that is not only ridiculous, but also makes me a little sad inside. Anyway, this post is boring to read and painful to write. So I'll just leave it as it is for now. What's your Metallica history?

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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Fare thee well, my sweet Janelle.

What a bittersweet feeling. Today, just half an hour or so ago, I sold my car. It was the first car I ever owned and she did me great service (except in the very beginning but that was taken care of by the people we bought it from). Now she's gone but the good thing is that it's another step on our way to New Zealand. It's a great weight of our shoulders not having to worry about that anymore. Anyway, here's a picture of me with my ex-car, after we polished her for the sale a few weeks ago:

Christoph and Janelle

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Monday, August 21, 2006

Your mom has a photobucket account.

I finally signed up for an account at photobucket, to be able to post pictures when we're in New Zealand. I picked photobucket because they have more space for us, and because we don't really need any fancy-shmancy commenting and interactive features. You can write captions to pictures there and have albums and that's all we really need. Here's the main page for our pictures, and here's some pictures from Thailand that I never got around to using in a post. Now go back to scrubbing the floor. I can't believe the mess you made.

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Sunday, August 13, 2006

Bumblebees.

Have you noticed? We recommend another blog. This one's all about tattoos and has some awesome stuff on it. As I understand, the author is associated with this studio, and even though I usually prefer colored work, I find that blackwork absolutely amazing. And while the tattoo information and pictures on the internet are great and plenty, I think I need to see more tattoos in 'real life' before I could make a decision about what to get for myself. Maybe we can go to a convention in New Zealand. The thing is, that if I do get one, I wouldn't want something too small. But of course I also want the tattoo to be somewhat meaningful. I really think that a lot of the fish tattoos look amazing, especially the waves and stuff in the background, but I couldn't care less about fish. I wouldn't be comfortable getting that. Anyway, enough about this crap, it's going nowhere.

I also added another link to the ROCK section. This one leads to a site that records the results of internet auctions for vinyl records. If you like vinyl, you will enjoy this site. Well, or get frustrated at the high prices vinyl goes for these days. I don't have a huge selection, but it seems that I have come to a point where the things I'm interested in go for €30 or more. Much more in some cases. Like Bob Dylan's first Greatest Hits, which I would like to get the US edition of, including the poster please. I guess $50 is a realistic price and not that outrageous, unlike this 4 track Thai EP. Anyway, enough about that as well. Enjoy your new haircut.

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Thursday, August 03, 2006

Like a virgin...

Look at our sidebar, all shiny and new. Let me go through the changes top to bottom.

I added three radio stations that I like to listen to. Bremen Eins plays "the best oldies and the greatest hits" and even though they play some real shitty stuff every once in a while (like the German band PUR), which kinda makes the station even cooler, you can catch some awesome music on there and their variety is unmatched. I recommend tuning in from 18-20 CET for "Grüße und Musik" where people request songs to say Hello to people they know or for birthday wishes. They are not afraid to play Neil Diamond and Metallica back to back on that show. The stream is Windows Media, so your default audio player will play it when you click on the link. Then there's WTTS, a rock station from Indianapolis, that's independently owned. I will spare you the obvious Indie-Indy station pun. Whoops, there it went anyway. This station uses the Liquid Audio player, which will open in a pop-up window. Thirdly there's Hertz 87,9, Bielefeld's campus radio station, and where my sister works. I usually listen to the morning show from 9-11 CET, but for a lot of you guys that's too early, so I recommend the shows at night. Oh man, they are playing Morrissey's new song 'The Youngest Was the Most Loved' right now, it's so awesome. Anyway, Wednesday and Friday 18-19 CET and Saturday-Thursday 22-23 CET will be good times if you wanna catch live shows and you might even hear my sister hosting a show. During the other times they play a mix of indie music, some hip-hop and all kinds of other genres. Good stuff though. About the times, I used Central European time, and if you live, for example in Indiana, USA, you subtract 6 from the time, and voilá, you have your local time. 18 CET would be noon in Indiana for example, but 11 AM in South Dakota.

Next I moved the other people up to give them the spot they deserve. Then comes "c and c lo recommend", which is basically the Neighbors of the Month® minus dead blogs plus some other blogs I read. I didn't know how to order them in a sensible way, so I went alphabetical by second letter. A lot of these had 'o' as their second letter. What's up with that?

And lastly I added a couple of vlogs to the ROCKING websites. Why did I not just add those to "c and c lo recommend"? I don't know. Just because. And that's it already. You can click on these links for the very first time now. Get it? Like a virgin? Touched for the very first time? I know, it's awesome. How do I do it?

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Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Note to self II

No matter how "alternative" and dreadlocked you are, don't use a plain black sock as your wallet when buying 8 bottles of beer in a supermarket.

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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Note to self I

Don't announce new regular features on your blog before you realize you have no material to actually carry out your plan.

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