I'm a bit worried

Yesterday I watched a show called “80s Mania” with a lot of songs from the 1980s. What worries me, is the fact that I can sing along with most of those songs.

Admittedly, I was a teenager in the late 1980s. The music of this time is my soundtrack. I grew up with it. Still, it seems so long ago, right now. And yet I remember the songs, I can sing along (though you wouldn’t want to hear me doing it). That doesn’t mean I never listen to new music - I do, quite a lot sometimes.

So, does it mean I’m getting old? Are my best days over? Or are they still to come? Just a joke - I don’t really mean that.

"Die Ärzte" twice

Today I heard “Junge”, one of the latest songs of “Die Ärzte” twice. I didn’t mind it, though, it’s a good song. The video only runs (funnily) censored on the German stations, though. Personally, I’m not completely sure whether it’s really that ‘Dawn of the Dead’-esque or whether it’s another stunt by the band. (Ever since a porn star played the head of the censor’s office in the video clip to “Bitte, Bitte”, I’m prepared to consider everything a possibility.)

Now, I don’t even know if the band is widely known outside Germany. Only singing in German isn’t necessary a clue to not being known in other countries - Ramstein prove you can sing in German and be popular with people in the United States (and elsewhere).

I started to like the band rather late - compared to my classmates who really liked it between 13 and 18, or so -, but today I like them for being uncomfortable for German society.

Born from the punk generation in Berlin, “Die Ärzte” never sung the usual ‘everything’s wonderful in life’ pop songs. Their songs were about ‘abnormal’ sexuality, about society’s dark sides, about the stupid things happening in Germany. They sung against Nazis (for example in “Schrei nach Liebe”), about the favourite German island of the snobs (“Westerland”, one of my all-time favourites). I also like this text - although I don’t know the title of the song:

Es ist nicht deine Schuld,

daß die Welt ist wie sie ist,

es ist nur deine Schuld,

wenn sie so bleibt.

(Translation: It’s not your fault the world is like it is, it’s only your fault if it stays like this.)

Their songs quite often are surprisingly truthful... After all, the text above is absolutely right. What happened before we were old enough to change something, is not our fault. But leaving it as bad as it is, that’s our fault.

“Junge” deals with the sentences most teenagers hear from their parents at one point of their adolescence: “Must you wear such dreadful clothes.” “Can’t you be a bit more like the son of our neighbour who’s always nice and learning and successful.” “Why don’t you do something with your life.” And so on. I’m sure, all of us have heard those sentences (or at least similar ones) during adolescence. The music is as good as always (I like it a lot - it’s the right mixture of hard beats) and the video clip is ... surely artful in a not very common way.

Although the censored parts (done quite funnily with characters from kid’s cartoons and so on) suggest a lot of violence and the whole video obviously is a homage to “Dawn of the Dead” (or maybe “Shaun of the Dead”, but that’s another story entirely). Actually, the video suggests a lot more cruel details by pasting them over with bright-coloured pictures (on a monochrome background, as the video is in black and white) than it would probably show uncensored.

Anyway, I like the band a lot and hope they continue making ‘inappropriate’ and ‘uncomfortable’ songs.

Finally seen "Sweeney Todd"

A prosperous London barber in the days when men were compelled regularly to bare their throats to be shaved by comparative (and often disreputable-looking) strangers, Todd routinely murders the unsuspecting patrons of his Fleet Street 'tonsorial parlour'.

from the introduction to "Sweeney Todd. The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"

If you follow this blog regularly - or at least have for the last couple of weeks - you already know I was waiting impatiently for the new Tim Burton movie "Sweeney Todd". Yesterday I went to the movies to see it - and I had not waited in vain.

I already had a basic idea of what to expect from the movie - after all, I did also read a reprint of the original penny dreadful that features the story of the "Demon Barber of Fleet Street" this weekend. But between 'what I expect' and 'what I really get' there can be quite some differences. In the case of this movie, the reality exceeded my expectations.

Of course, given the story and the director, I expected quite some bloodshed - which I got. But there's many ways to shed blood, from crude to quite artistically (that might sound a bit odd, but if you've watched as many horror b-movies as I have, you know how to spot the difference). There are many ways to show how people die, even if the method always remains the same. Burton makes good use of this fact, without stepping over the bounds from 'still mostly scary, though dripping with blood' to 'outright gross'. And in a world predominated by colours like black, dark browns, shades of grey and dirty whites and yellows, the vivid red of the victims' blood stands out even more clearly.

But, as good as the story - and Sondheim's music - are by their own rights, a movie also lives through the talents and abilities of the actors. And all actors appearing on screen more than once show the right abilities for the characters they're playing.

The tragic 'hero' of the story (for Todd in Sondheim's version isn't just killing for the profits, he seeks revenge for his fate as much as for that of his wife and daughter) is played by Johnny Depp, not only giving the Demon Barber an intense, brooding look, but also lending a surprisingly good singing voice. As the movie features more sung than spoken words (a lot of the action takes place without anything said), that's a good thing. (It's also a good thing that the sung parts are only subtitled and not replaced by the German voices in the German version.)

At Todd's side stands - as it should be, given the story goes that way - his lover and partner in crime Mrs. Lovett, played and sung by Helena Bonham Carter.

On the opposite side of the board - even though that's not the side of the good guys in this story - we find the 'honourable' Judge Turpin, played by Alan Rickman (who's only singing twice, both times parts of the same duet with Johnny Depp), giving the audience a good understanding for the lust of revenge that drives Todd to his mass murders. His aide, played by Timothy Spall, also doesn't exactly show any redeeming qualities, so you could claim they both deserve what they get in the end. (A slit throat and a fall to the stone floor in the cellars.)

A bit of romance is provided on the side, but the fates of the young sailor Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower) and Todd's daughter Johanna ([played by Jayne Wisener] who has been raised and almost is also married by Turpin) are never fully laid open, so what happens to them after the fateful night in which Todd's killing spree - and Turpin's life - are ended, remains open.

I have to admit that - even without spoiling too much (you can expect the bad guy to die at the end of a Hollywood movie, can't you, so Turpin's demise isn't really a surprise at all) - the end of the movie really touched me. Even though it's far from the regular 'Hollywood Happy End', it is a happy end of sorts, at least for Todd. (Mrs. Lovett would probably disagree.)

The movie itself is intense. It's sometimes only a span of seconds between a funny event and the next slit throat. (And the moment the partners in crime realize what to do with the corpses of the expected victims, despite the gross topic of cannibalism, is quite a funny one. After all, the prices for meat can really ruin a small business...) The very dark picture of the Victorian era given in the movie - both through the scenes (like the death sentence Turpin gives to a young boy) and through the looks (you won't find any cheery colours outside Mrs. Lovett's dreams of the future) - intensify the underlying feeling of dread that accompanies the audience. In a world that dark and dirty, everything can happen to everyone at all times. (After all, you just have to go for a stroll over the market with your wife and child to be banned from England for life...)

My resume on "Sweeney Todd" therefore is this: If blood and a lot of singing don't worry you and you like good, albeit dark stories, you shouldn't miss the movie. But if you can't stand people being killed for just walking into the wrong barber shop, better find another one.

Three versions of "Poison"

Your cruel device

Your blood like ice

One look could kill

My pain, your thrill

Personally, I know three versions of the song "Poison", one by Alice Cooper (as far as I know that's the original), one by Groove Coverage and one, rather new, by the former Nightwish lead singer Tarja.

When I heard the first version, the one by Alice Cooper, I was still too young to understand the lyrics - I was in fifth or sixth grade and had just started learning English. Fast-sung lyrics in a rock song were far above my abilities to understand that foreign language. Today it's a bit different, though.

The song fascinated me - or maybe it was Alice Cooper who fascinated me at that time. And, even though I'm not really a fan of hard beats, when the cover by Groove Coverage came out a few years ago, I bought the single to get the song at least - even if it wasn't by the original artist. I still like the song, a lot.

Comparing the three versions I know, I have to admit that every one of them has good points and bad points. Some days the hard techno-like beats of the Groove Coverage version give me headaches - and the version by Tarja, as good as it is, has lost a lot of its original rock sound. On the other hand, the text fits far better - at least from my point of view, others might see it differently - with a female singer (and both cover versions are sung by female singers). Or maybe it's just because I've rarely heard the Alice-Cooper-version.

Nevertheless, today the song still fascinates me. I like the lyrics, I like the sound, I like everything about it. And a good cover version of a good song is always better than a new song that's not worth the bits and bytes necessary to store it.

Ringtone Madness

Normally I'm not really interested in what kind of ring-tones people have for their cells. Normally. But Christmas is coming and so is the WHAM "Last Christmas" ring-tone that makes me want to kill people. Slowly. Painfully. Repeatedly. (Richard from "Looking for Group" might want to assist with that.)

I don't think the song itself was created by the devil to torture me, but what I can't stand is the repeated use of it every year, starting in mid-November. By the sixth of December I'm so sick of hearing it, I start to growl whenever it is played somewhere.

In the past I could avoid the song by not listening to the radio and avoid music television of any kind (MTV and VIVA in Germany). But with the invention of ring-tones above the build-in sounds that once came with a cell, I can't avoid it any longer. The first ads for the "Last Christmas" ring-tone (full length and original sound) are out and soon a lot of people will either have bought it or remember they have it already. That's how I sometimes imagine Hell to be: being forced to listen to "Last Christmas" for eternity. Scary idea, almost makes me want to be a good girl.

But even beyond "Last Christmas", ring-tones can be a curse. I have to admit I'm not free of this madness myself, either. Currently my ring-tone happens to be "He's a Pirate" from "Pirates of the Caribbean" - and with the many TV melodies I've finally transformed into mp3, it might soon change. (I got the program for the transformation for one measly Euro, you can't get a professional program any cheaper outside the internet.)

But, as I don't get all that many calls anyway, I don't think I really torture anybody with my ring-tone (whatever it might be). But spent thirty minutes in a public transport and you will hear anything from rap to pop being played by cell phones. Most of the time the sounds are turned up rather loud, too. That's not so bad, as long as there's just one phone ringing, but usually it's three or four at the same time - and that just sounds dreadful. It wasn't half as bad in the past, when it was just the Nokia-sound and some others.

I wonder what the next stage will be? Can it get any worse?

Weekend update

And, just as for the last two weekends, the update on what I'll be reading and watching:

DVD to watch: "Shaun of the Dead" (after "Hot Fuzz" I just had to get it, seriously) and the first two seasons of "Gilmore girls" (though surely not complete this weekend).

Books to read: "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire and "Making Money" by Terry Pratchett.

Music to hear: "Wicked" Original Broadway Cast.

And as the weather is rather dreadful, I will cherish staying indoors and cuddling on my couch with two good books.

A secret passion

My choice in music can best be describes as 'diverse', I guess. There's a lot of soundtrack in my collection, a few albums by different artists, quite a few collections of songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s, musicals and other things (like books on CD). Surprisingly many CD that have found a place in my collection during the last two years are from one group: Nightwish (5 currently, as opposed to three each from P!nk and Robbie Williams and one or two of various other artists).

Now, I don't expect you all (whoever you might be, Sitemeter tells me you exist) to know this group, they're doing gothic rock and come from Finland. The first song I ever heard from them was "Nemo" and the first album I bought, though not the first they produced, was "Once" which included this song. Another song from that album, "I wish I had an angel", features in the soundtrack of the movie "Alone in the Dark", one of the few movies based on computer games I can recommend (if you've got a strong stomach and like horror movies). My favourite songs by the group include

• - Nemo
• - I wish I had an angel
• - Over the hills and far away
• - The Phantom of the Opera
• - Bless the Child
• - End of all Hope
• - Sleeping Sun
• - Sacrament of Wilderness
• - Dark Chest of Wonders
• - Creek Mary's Blood
• - Higher than Hope
• - Wishmaster
• - The Kinslayer

As you might guess from the names of the songs, Nightwish isn't exactly a group with cheery, bright and happy songs - although hearing the female lead sing "The Phantom of the Opera" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical always takes my breath away, she's just so good.

Rhythm and music change a lot between the songs, too. From hard rock in songs like "I wish I had an angel" or "Wishmaster" to soft songs like "Nemo" or "Sleeping Sun" - with "Over the hills and far away" they even produced a great ballad. (I learned two things from that song: Never sleep with your best friend's wife and - if you really think you have to - never leave your gun at home while doing so. Otherwise you might find yourself imprisoned for a crime you didn't commit.)

Some of their songs are quite long. "Ghost Love Score" from "Once" lasts something shy of eleven minutes, "The Poet and the Pendulum" from "Dark Passion Play" (their latest album) even comes down to almost fourteen. To give you an idea about the actual song texts, some excerpts from "Dark Passion Play":

From "The Poet and the Pendulum" / III. "The Pacific"

(there's 5 parts to the song):

You live long enough to hear the sound of guns,

long enough to find yourself screaming every night,

long enough to see your friends betray you.

From "Amaranth":

Baptized with a perfect name

The doubting one by heart

Alone without himself

War between him and the day

Need someone to blame

In the end, little he can do alone

You believe but what you see

You receive but what you give

From "Whoever brings the night":

The Dark, created to hide the innocent white, the lust of the night

Eyes so bright, seductive lies

Crimson Masquerade where I merely played my part

Poison dart of desire

From "7 Days to the Wolves":

This is

Where heroes

And cowards

Part ways

Light the fires, feast

Chase the ghost, give in

Take the road less travelled by

Leave the city of fools

Turn every poet loose

Heroes, cowards, no more

Even though it might seem to you now that I must be very depressed to listen to such music, I'm not. I like listening to such songs when I'm either travelling (because the strong beat will keep me awake) or while writing. It inspires me. And the texts which, even though they're dark, at least have a deeper meaning and make me think about them, are also inspiring.

So, Nightwish is my secret passion, not because I don't want anybody to know, but because I rarely comment on my tastes in music.

Sometimes I like it hard

... and that's not going to be a post about my sexual preferences - promised.

What I really mean is this: usually I listen to softer music, stuff that qualifies as pop music in my country (meaning not being Hard Rock, Heavy Metal or anything else associated with this - or Rap, Hip Hop etc.). I like listening to music while I write, especially while I write my stories.

But there's two situations in which I need 'hard' music: travelling by train while I'm not completely awake and writing action sequences.

I think the first situation is easily explained: When I'm not really awake and have to travel by train, I need to stay awake, not nod off again. So by listening to harder - and thus louder - music, I can make sure I stay awake.

The second situation is a bit more tricky. While writing a story, I need to get into the right mind-set to write a scene. Normally I don't have a problem with this and can do it with every kind of music running in the background (even though writing a love-scene while listening to Hard Rock surely is hardcore). But as I'm not a specialist for fighting, I need a certain, 'hard to enter' mind-set when I'm writing an action sequence. For this, as I've found out in the past, there's nothing better than some loud, hard Rock. The fast beats resemble for me the quicker heart-beats of the main characters and the loud voice(s) of the lead singer(s) give me the actual battle noises. This way it's easier for me to envision the scene and write it down, including sword fights, fist fights or dangerous escape acts with a lot of attackers.

Why am I thinking about it at the moment? Because I bought "The Arockalypse" by Lordi this morning. Those shocking Hard Rock beats will surely help me with the fights I've already penned out for various stories.

Oh, and for those of you who don't know about the band: Lordi is a Hard Rock band from Finland that won the Eurovision Song Contest last year (with "Hard Rock Hallelujah" - a song I like very much).

Normally I'm not a fan of Hard Rock (as a look into my CD-collection would prove) - but sometimes I just need it hard...