A Weekend in the City, out Feb 5.

*insert ramblings expressing extreme happiness here*

(Kreuzberg made it onto the album. Yay?)

Damn, I need to finish my 12-page paper before it finishes me off for ever. Damn you, Meiji peasant rebellions.

That was enough cursing for a pure young girl like me. Yes! I’ve temporarily left Berlin to be able to concentrate better on my paper but did it work? No, very obviously not. I’ll be back in the city for Popkomm, though! So many cool bands to see! Seachange is going to play in a club right across from where my new apartment is. Oh the joy. I might run over in my pajamas. Or not. (Not that I even own a pair of pajamas.)

Moving to the new apartment was a physically quite demanding job because it included getting all my furniture and belongings from my old third floor apartment into the car and then back up into our new fourth floor apartment. But I haven’t regretted moving in with my friend one bit because I hated living on my own, it made me feel almost suicidally lonesome sometimes, it wasn’t funny anymore. And now I live in just about the most interesting, most inspiring neighbourhood imaginable. Describing it would mean having to resort to all the usual clichés about Prenzelberg (wiki German, wiki English), and they’re all true but they fit me wonderfully so I don’t care.

Hm, I don’t know but I feel like seeing some band but the only band I’d be remotely interested in that’s playing in the city would be The Automatic next Monday. It would be just right, though, in one way because I had Raoul playing in my head when we went to look at the apartment for the first time and it was such a brilliant day and then we even got the apartment…

But for the moment, I’m just enjoying being back with my family and all the boredom that comes with it. (Wait, I shouldn’t say I’m bored because then I might as well go back to writing my paper!) I’ll try and finish watching Eureka seveN, only twenty-something episodes to go -_- No but seriously, I’m glad I’ve kept watching it this far. Around episode 30, it had that enlightening, extremely rewarding moment when all the very very veeerrryyy slow character and plot development paid off because it really made you feel like you came all this long way with the characters. It’s hard to explain, it’s just something personal I suppose.

My almost 2-year struggle for finding the right MP3 player is slowly reaching it’s last stages. Which means – I’m just as indecisive as ever -_-;; But I’ll really need one once the semester’s started again because the train rides to uni will be super long since our new apartment’s pretty much on the other side of the city. I might take the newspaper with me on the train, or a book or some manga, and it might keep me occupied in the afternoons/evenings on the way home; but I surely won’t be able to read in the morning on the train to uni as it makes me even more tired so I just need something to keep me cozy and awake and music softly playing from an MP3 player could do just that :) I need to stop babbling, it makes me sound like an idiot.

I’m reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never let me go at the moment and it has to be one of the most precious books I’ve ever read. It’s indescribably beautiful and filled with so many details, scenes of human interaction and dialogues written in such a warm, realistic way it’s sometimes painful, and there’s a protagonist I can identify myself with so well, I know it’s going to be hard to finish reading the book. I know it because I’ve been putting off reading the last 50 pages or so for a couple of days now. I just don’t want it to end even though it’s been so melancholic and heart-breaking and even terrifying in a very subtle way…

Ambulance LDT – New English & Country Gentleman
(New English EP, USA, 2006.)
Perfect soundtrack to lazy summer days spent on the beach.

Smashing Pumpkins – The Boy
(B-Side of 1979, USA, 1996.)
One of my favourite James Iha-Smashing Pumpkins songs. Embodies the pureness, innocense, naivety and insecurity of being in love.

ZWAN – El Sol
(Mary Star Of The Sea, USA, 2002.)
And while we’re at it (Billy Corgan et al), a wonderfully light ZWAN song that fits the season :)

Architecture in Helsinki – Wishbone
(In Case We Die, Australia, 2005.)
A very addictive, cute-sy song that might send you bouncing through the whole house.

Editors – French Disco
(All Sparks EP, UK, 2006.)
A Stereolab cover, but done in a purely Editors-style. I want to have sex with Tom’s voice.

Schrottgrenze – Am gleichen Meer
(Chateau Schrottgrenze, Germany, 2006.)
While the music might not be exactly on the innovative side of things, the lyrics are disquietingly realistic.

Shout Out Louds – A Track And A Train
(Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, Sweden, 2005.)
Just a nice little song to sing along to.

Seachange – In
(On Fire, With Love, UK, 2006.)
Oh, I love their new album but this song in particular because it features the most addictive chorus ever, it just makes me dizzy, literally. Fantastic lyrics!

Stars – Calendar Girl
(Set Yourself On Fire, Canada, 2005.)
This song keeps a perfect balance of beauty and pathos. Highly recommended.

OMG, semester break. I’d be all hyper and jumping all over the place with joy if only the massive heat wasn’t getting me down so much. Consider me one giant sweatdrop.

But yes, semester break. I shall get back to my habits of getting up late, watching anime and dorama, reading (oh yes!) and going out till early in the morning. Getting up late was what I did today, anime and dorama will be watched in a few minutes, as soon as I finish this. I have so much to catch up with: Mushishi, Eureka SeveN, Ergo Proxy, .hack//Roots, Ai no uta. I’m pretty much stuck in the middle of almost all of them. Then I’ll need to find out what the summer season has brought us anime viewers. Ah, so nice to back to doing nothing particularly productive :)

…Even if it’s just for a short while. I’ll be moving to a larger, nicer apartment with a friend at the beginning of August and I also have one report to write and a few smaller things to get done for school. I’m quite happy with my academic progress and I think I did pretty well on all the semester finals.

June was my favourite month of this year so far. The World Cup was absolutely brilliant, the city was brimming with people, the atmosphere was just amazing. I also saw the Arctic Monkeys on June 24. It was only so-so, the monkey boys were late and drunk and their performance seemed quite uninspired but loads of fun was had nevertheless. We even missed the second half of the Germany-Sweden game to get to the venue. Oh well. My World Cup experience pretty much ended on July 1, when England lost to Portugal. I was with Germany from then on but they didn’t survive much longer either. *sighs*

I’ll probably be uploading new songs tonight. Expect updates on a more regular basis from now on. Oh yes, I’ll be back whenever boredom strikes ;)

I got my first job as a professional translator for Japanese o_O It’s challenging (considering it’s a nice change to translate scientific texts instead of the usual literary stuff) and fun, but so hard too. To balance that out, I started a little private project which will probably never really be shared online (like so much I’ve planned, ha) but I’ll keep at it and maybe it’ll see the light of day?

It’s good my birthday is in June, I’m going to need a lot of money around that date:

レミオロメン
3rd Album
HORIZON
2006.5.17（wed）Release

Including 3Hit Singles!!
「蒼の世界」（ハドソン着うた（R）サイト「着信★うた♪」CMソング）
「粉雪」（フジテレビ系ドラマ「1リットルの涙」挿入歌）
「太陽の下」（映画「子ぎつねヘレン」主題歌）
他 全12曲収録予定

VICL-62100 ￥3,045-（tax-in）

Reading the title put a smile on my face because 地平線 is my favourite Japanese word at the moment :)

And there’s yet one more album I’m definitely going to spend my money on!
The following information was posted just a few hours ago on Utada Hikaru’s website:

4th ALBUM
Ultra Blue
2006.6.14 release
TOCT-26067
3,059yen(tax in)

シングル「COLORS」「誰かの願いが叶うころ」「Be My Last」
「Passion」「Keep Tryin’」を含む全13曲収録予定

So that’s generally good news concerning new Japanese mainstream releases, bad news for my bank account. I should really try and save a bit… Well, I haven’t spent too much money since I came back home (haven’t even bought the Massive Attack Best Of collection yet! and, btw, the new Vines album is out later this week!) but once I’m in Berlin again I know I won’t be able to keep my money locked up in my account – simply too many great shops with pretty clothes and shoes and things there -_- Ah, the dilemma.

Yoko Kanno/Aoi Tada – Wo Qui Non Coin
(From the original soundtrack album Cowboy Bebop BLUE, Japan, 1999.)
The audio embodiment of cute yet melancholic. Even after all those years still one of my favourite songs featured in an anime; produced by Yoko Kanno, vocals by Aoi Tada, the voice actress of Ed. (And this song almost made me pick an entire rotation with songs dedicated to having lost one’s dog… almost ;) )

Cocco – Onsoku Punch
(From the single Onsoku Punch, Japan, 2006.)
Cocco’s back after 5 years (minus the Singer Songer project last summer) with a new single. Don’t let the first 30 seconds fool you: this is not some Avex techno-pop tune but sexy (mainstream) rock that leaves you wanting more.

Hotaru – Kaijin Nijuu Mensou
(From the maxi CD Kayou Suspense Gekijou, Japan, 2002.)
I’ve probably uploaded this a million times before, but… my mission will only be fulfilled once every single human being on this planet has heard this song. No. But! This is brilliant. Infectious might be an even more appropriate word. (And don’t let me get started on what a great band Hotaru were ;_;)

Remioromen – Shouwa
(From the album Asagao, Japan, 2003.)
Ah the old times, when Remioromen weren’t huge and sounded like a younger copy of Mr. Children. I still love them and am extremely looking forward to their new album out in May but I suppose I’ll always prefer their earlier stuff like this wonderful, (slightly emo-ish) song.

Maximo Park – A19 & Isolation
(From the album Missing Songs, UK, 2005.)
A19 is Maximo Park at their usual: retro greatness with amazing hooks; the John Lennon cover Isolation shows a more experimental side of the band.

The Strokes – Electricityscape & Ize of the World
(From the album First Impressions of Earth, USA, 2005.)
I had to overcome all my prejudices against this band because their new album is actually quite good and a lot more diverse than the two previous ones. Some songs on it are impossible to get out of your head; I especially like the contrast between the verse and the chorus of Ize of the World, the combination of addictive pop and angry hard rock; and no, there’s nothing wrong with the end of the song – just listen to the lyrics and you’ll understand the rather abrupt ending.

[Music: Cocco - Onsoku Punch]

I’ve been writing my Korean History paper all day, about 50% are done; hope I’ll get this done till Wednesday. Once I’m through with that, I’ll finish the last chapter of Another Code: Two Memories and then next weekend I’ll probably go back to Berlin for a week. Miss everyone there and it’s starting to get boring here.

How in the world did Koda Kumi manage to sell almost a million copies of her second Best Of album during the first week following its release? She’s … horrible with all her trashy porno poses and things. Granted, her voice is slightly better than say Ayu’s (which sounds always way too strained) but 980-something-hundred thousand copies o_O I suppose it has to do with the special edition pack which came with a DVD of the respective promo videos and one with a concert; lots of visuals = max. increase of cheap pop-porn factor = Japan’s 983.359 12-year old boys rush out and buy it, sponsored by their approx. 56-year old ojiisans who insist on borrowing the DVDs from time to time.

The new Cocco single is nice ♥