Liking a band has always had to do with me crushing on the lead singer – or one equally popular member – of a band.

During the recent refurbishmean of my room and finally getting around to sorting my CD collection, I made some interesting discoveries.

I didn’t listen to completely different genres all of the time; some sort of guitar and drum sounds were always involved (except for the odd boygroup I liked). Funnily enough, it were always the bands my peers would give me funny looks for or make fun of.

1. Imaginary Boyfriend no. 1: Zac Hanson.

I have to warn you: The long hair, amongst other things, becomes a pattern.

Zac Hanson, then and now.

When Hanson got famous in Europe in the summer of 1997, fan-girling got to a whole new level for me. Hanson were everywhere and I was hardcore crushing on little Zac, the goofy kid who, despite being a boy, looked so much like a girl.What I liked about him particularly was that he could crack a joke at any time of the day, in any situation and no one went mad at him.

When he put all his hair into tiny braids – guess what Anisha did then.

Today, I still own all of their CDs but I do not follow their musical career too much anymore (although I follow them on Twitter.). Each year at Christmas, I pull out their Christmas record, ‘Snowed In’ because I think it is one of the best Christmas CDs that is out there. I’m all for unique and unusual sounds at that time of the year.

Their progress from 1997 to today, it is simply amazing. They’re going to play The Bamboozle New Jersey this summer, which is kind of ridiculous because they’ll be right their on stage with artists I’ve only learned to love recently.

As for Zac – if I had to choose, I’d probably go for Taylor now. But I am impressed with all of them having their little families today, especially Zac because I’ll always see that 13-year-old goofball in him.

2. Imaginary Boyfriend no. 2: Scott Moffatt.

I did say the long-ish hair became a pattern, right? Also the band made up out of brothers became a bit of a pattern for me.

Scott Moffatt, back in the day and a newer picture

To be honest – I don’t even know what to say about this dude. He played the guitar and sang cheesy lyrics and that is, even today, enough to make my heart melt. At 13, what was I supposed to do other than fall for blinding, white teeth and a… rebelious hair style?

I am not sure what he does now – there is a MySpace profile for his music and I heard he went to Thailand at one point too.

What I know is that ‘The Moffatts’ broke up soon after I gave up my love for them.

3. Imaginary Boyfriend no. 3: Shifty

At one point, after I was through with all the boygroup lads, I made a U-turn to the other sida and lost my heart to the bad boys.

Shifty/Seth Binzer.

Shifty was one of the lead members of the band ‘Crazy Town‘. That body! Those tattoos! And the troubled life! Poor tortured soul!

My cousin had no understanding for my undying love of Shifty or the Crazy Town music (and trust me, I tortured her for two very long weeks in Italy!), nor did any of my other friends. And even I didn’t really understand what it was exactly that made me dig tattoos suddenly and people with a somewhat questionable past.

The songs were – well. What do you expect from a song entitled ‘Lollipop Porn‘? Why in the world does a fifteen year-old girl listen to songs that objectify women in that way? And why should all of the above matter to said girl if one of the guys has that kind of a hot body?

Yeah. I was probably more into the tats and the body than the entire band but ‘Butterfly’ was quite the hit, right? And I love it whenever it comes up on the playlist at work (oddly, there’s ‘Revolving Door’ on the computer too).

To see Shifty years later on a programme like ‘Celebrity Rehab‘ was… anti-climatic. It wasn’t like I didn’t know about said past but – I really wished to be able to turn back time and go back to the months when he looked healthy and had fun on stage.

4. Imaginary Boyfriend no. 4: Gareth Gates.

Gareth Gates, runner-up in Pop Idol and now proud dad.

Once I’d gotten over my short stint with the ‘bad boys’, I was back to admiring beautifully sleek guys.

Gareth also fell into the time when I decided that I wanted to better my English considerably – which is why I know about all his lyrics by heart (as I translated them all).

He was the cute kid with a stutter and those really amazing songs. And he also had that really amazing fanbase with all those welcoming ladies, but that’s beside the point.

I think what I liked most about him was that we all knew so much about his past, family and life.

Researchers say that at the beginning of 2008, 1,23 billion people had access to the internet and that number is bound to rise to 1,5 billion at the end of this year.

Have you ever thought about how many people you could reach via the world wide web if you really tried? That’s about 20 percent.

That too means there are an awful lot of people taking part in social networking and blogging and in the midst of all of it, you might miss out on some people you wish you’d known about.

But fear not – in the month of March, I will present you three people whom I think you should meet and know about. They all have created something for themselves to be proud of, they all have their unique quirks and I find them all utterly inspiring.

Please come by this Friday to read the first interview I did with one of my favourite fellow bloggers.

I’m sorry I have been absent so much this month. As I explained in my previous post, I’ve been busy assembling IKEA furniture and painting my walls, sorting out 12 years worth of my literary past and bringing order into my CD collection. March is going to be an exciting month, both on this blog and in real life (can you believe it, I’m going to London the weekend March 19/20/21!).

Tonight, I’m feeling a boost of self-confidence and in the mood to have a dance party in my room, so here are the songs that I feel like dancing to. You know the songs that you automatically turn up in the car when they come on the radio or CD? Those. The songs that will certainly put you in a great mood and make you feel awesome about yourself!

. Phoenix – 1901 (watch here)

. Jimmy Eat World – The Middle (watch here)

. The Kooks – Always Where I Need To be (watch here) – You don’t even know how much I consider this to be my ‘theme song’.

. Bloc Party – Flux (watch here)

. The Wombats – Moving to New York (watch here)

. The Gaslight Anthem – We Came to Dance (watch here)

. Dashboard Confessional – Hands Down (watch here) – I heard this at a club recently and realised how amazing it is.

. The Killers – Mr Brightside (watch here) – And if that doesn’t cheer you up, then surely Cameron Diaz’ interpretation of the song might do!

. Lostprophets – Where We Belong (watch here) – As of today, I pronounce this one to be one of my all time favourite songs!

Which songs get you dancing?

picture taken from the band's MySpace profile.

One of the above mentioned real life obligations was for the example attending the Cobra Starship concert in Cologne on February 18.

Cobra Starship, like many of the bands I enjoy listening to, is one of those music acts that don’t visit Germany much. Most of the people I talk to know about them entirely because of me being fan of 80% of the Fueled By Ramen bands and that is quite sad, considering that Gabe Saporta and his girl and guys nailed a pretty impressive and fun show last week.

I had the pleasure to see them play live as a support act for Fall Out Boy THREE years ago (when they called it Decaydance Fest – however, we only got The Academy Is…, Cobra Starship and Fall Out Boy and NOT Panic! at the Disco and Gym Class Heroes, unlike Paris and London did :/) and was already impressed then.

This time around, knowing many more of their songs, and the band being uber-motivated by the fact that they were the ‘headliners’, the show turned into a straight-forward dance party which even started before the band came on stage.

Not only was the support act for the night, I Heart Sharks, amazing (they played a solid set of songs that reminded me of Foals), the songs played while the crew fixed the stage set-up for the Cobras invited everyone to party. Songs by Ke$ha & Lil Jon could be heard and had everyone work themselves up for the actual show.

Once up on stage, lead singer Gabe did not hold back on cheering the crowd on in celebrating the band.

We got to hear all their hits, such as ‘The City is at War’ or ‘Snakes on a Plane’, and of course the recently risen to fame collaboration with Leighton Meester was the song the band send us out into the night.

The parts I particularly liked about the show were Gabe’s little speeches: I loved how he said that it didn’t matter to them whether you’ve been a fan since day one or have just recently grown to love them – the band seemed genuinely thankful for the support. The tale about Nate being the first actual member of Cobra Starship was pretty touching, too!

I just realized I haven’t said much about the actual music and sound that night but that is all due to the band being so incredibly awesome. I’ve seldom seen the audience dance and party, so what if some of the notes Gabe hit were off key?

Everyone had fun. And that’s the most important part!

As almost always, you can find my pictures of the show over here on buzznet. Sadly, this time around, they aren’t quite as awesome as I’d have liked but for a song and a half everything was bathed in red and that just messed with my camera settings .

Other pictures of the show can be found over here, as Prissilya had the option to actually snap away with a flash.

Photo from the band's MySpace profile

There are bands who see the need to constantly change up the setlist for their shows and there are bands out there, who simply do not need to re-arrange their songs.

I‘m pretty sure there are people who are disappointed to find that All Time Low played the same show as they did in September, only on a bigger stage. But really? Can you be disappointed in a band like All Time Low?

After all, they did follow up on Alex‘ promise to come and visit Germany again as soon as possible.

Dreading to go and see them play at the Live Music Hall in Cologne as the venue is known for bad acoustics, I was pleasantly surprised that their show still felt as refreshing, as passionately performed as the last time in a much small set-up and that the quality of their sound had even improved.

The bigger stage only served Jack with a bigger playground for his stage antics, which included climbing up Rian‘s drum kit, flinging himself on his knees and occasionally on his back and kicking his legs up as high as they allow.

Alex and Zack of course roamed around the stage just as much, chatting to the audience in between songs such as Poppin‘ Champagne and Jasey Rae.

Whereas the last time panties found their way on stage, it were bras this time. The guys could not help but comment on it, joking about not wearing a bra and not being forced into wearing one. And that was only one of the many stage banter moments.

The show was as much of a party to the band as it was to the audience – take the reaction to A Party Song for example: Instead of aimlessly jumping around, people were actually dancing.

But just as there was dancing, laughing and goofing around, there were a few minutes when everyone could recover. Alex played Remembering Sunday all on his own again. Technically, he wasn‘t singing on his own though: The audience helped out a big deal, all the while lightening up the hall with mobile phones and camera flashes.

As I expected (and wouldn‘t want to have had it any other way), the set ended with Damned if I do ya and Dear Maria.

After the show, I told my friend that I simply do not understand people who don‘t like going to shows. There is not much better than seeing a band perform their tracks live and actually sound like the record or even better. There is also not much better than seeing that people really do like what they are doing every night.

Some people love making music, some people live music. I guess with the guys in All Time Low, it‘s just both.

Note that my review has been cross-posted to my buzznet profile as well. You will find all my photos of the show there as well as they were taken for buzznet

from nhanusek on flickr (click photo)

Each year on February 8, my family and I celebrate the day of my birth. This year, it marked the 24th birthday and oi, what an odd but lovely day it was!

Actually, my birthday started out with working late Sunday evening and still being at work when the clock struck midnight. I didn’t get to sleep in though this morning, as today, my mother had one of her regular check-ups at the hospital (she was diagnosed with breast cancer pretty much a year ago from today) and I had to drive her to the next town over.

It is my guess that it is needless to say that, when I first learned about her appointment, I pretty much threw a fit. The idea of spending your birthday at the hospital being reminded of a time you do not want to repeat doesn’t sound too appealing, does it?

Anyway, we made it out in under an hour, so there was some time left to browse the shops and then pick up my father from work. Cake and coffee were had before we left to have dinner at a Greek restaurant around town (I managed to drop my phone onto the tiled floor in the bathrooms; the phone wouldn’t work for a good hour after that, meh!).

In terms of presents, I got some pretty cool stuff although I’m really not too much of a material girl when it comes to birthdays. However, one of my friends gave me a book (Slam by Nick Hornby – one of my favourite writers), chocolates and tea and my parents are paying for my new shiny floor which will be put in my room come Saturday. They also gifted me with a trip to London, which means I’ll be in London March 19 until March 21, just in time to see Forever The Sickest Kids.

And that my friends brings me to the cute graphic junegloom/relivelastnight made for me:

birthday wishes

CUTE, RIGHT?

Also, I got a special post over on my friend Ann’s blog. You can have a look at it here. I love the picture of us so hardcore. It was taken the night Ann and I met Russell Crowe. Ha.

Everyone, thank you for your kind wishes! You have really, really made my day so much more awesome!

To be honest, I don’t think I’ve made any plans on this day last year for what I wanted to achieve in the next 365 days. This year though, I want to work on my self-confidence and also on the impression people might have of me. Technically, I shouldn’t care what people think of me but lately, I feel like people underestimate me. Some are deeply surprised to find out I see and hear a lot more than I let on and that I think about a lot more than I claim to do.

Maybe I really need to act my age now?

]]> http://livelifedeeply.net/personal-life/one-year-older-but-none-the-wiser/feed/ 2 http://livelifedeeply.net/personal-life/whats-in-my-bag/ http://livelifedeeply.net/personal-life/whats-in-my-bag/#comments Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:45:33 +0000 Anisha http://livelifedeeply.net/?p=213 I’ve seen these posts popping up all over the blogs lately, so I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon.

A typical girl's bag?!

. black shoulder strap bag from Pieces

. black G1 phone from T-Mobile (I love it and used to have it in white with rhinestones glued to the back – unfortunately though, it broke!)
. purple make up brush case (these are no fancy brushes hence I don’t know the brand. They do the trick perfectly though!)
. red Chinese-style make up bag (I realize it is of giant size – I’m a girl, what can I say!)
. Mexx Wild perfume
. Maybelline Jade lipstick (Satin Collection)
. lactose enzyme pills
. Dove deodorant

purse, diary and more

. Moleskine diary (opened on Feb 10, 2010)
. black H&M purse
. Alverde loose face powder
. Blistex Med Plus for lips lipbalm
. assortment of pens
. St Nicholas icon (it was a gift from someone at All Hallows and I’ve been carrying it around with me ever since. He’s patron saint for many groups of people and I consider myself safe and guarded when I carry the little icon with me).

Pieces bag

What’s in your bag? What do you never leave the house without?

This morning, my campus sure looked like I‘ve migrated from a Western Germany mass uni to somewhere in the Alps – the campus surely has to be the prettiest around!

Snow on campus, 02/01/2010

Eventually, it turned out I‘d come all the way to uni for nothing as class had to be cancelled due to my tutor not being able to make it due to the snow.

What a brilliant morning, don‘t you agree!

In any case, nothing picks my mood up on such mornings than listening to music. Here‘s a list of songs that made my time travelling to and fro a little brighter:

. Your love is my drug – Ke$ha. (listen here)

. Los Angeles – The Audition. (watch an acoustic version here)

. Loving You – Paolo Nutini (watch a live version here)

. Cousins – Vampire Weekend (watch video here)

. Flux – Bloc Party. (watch a live version here)

. Runaway – Del Shannon (watch video here)

. Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes – Fall Out Boy (listen here)

London at night, March 2008

Admittedly, not everyone is able to feel at home in a city that, all of its suburbs included, counts a population of 7.5 million people.

Some think London, as stylish as it is made out to be in the glossy fashion magazines, is a little dirty, a little run-down and not much of a beauty at all. And truth be told, places fitting the description exist (Hello, Walthamstow! Hello, Bayswater!).

But isn‘t exactly that ancient charm mixed with the new architectural projects (such as the Gherkin or the London Eye) what makes London so unique and loveable? Sceptics will be happy to know that London is unrivalled in offering the most green areas and parks in one of the most densely populated areas.

Just as diverse as London‘s facades are the Londoners‘ faces. Much like New York or Los Angeles overseas, London is one of Europe‘s central melting pots of culture.

Someone once said to me over Sunday lunch eaten across the road from the Tower of London, “London is not England, London is the world.” And for all that they meant it to be a negative remark, I could only understand it as a positive statement about my home of choice.

My companion at lunch wasn‘t wrong at all; if you want to get to know England and the English, then you cannot travel to the tourist spots like Brighton, Manchester or London as all of these have by now adjusted to international crowds and their needs. And I don‘t say that without feeling any disdain as all of these places are beautiful on their own and certainly worth a trip.

However, if you want to experience the feeling of a town embracing the world and its different cultures, if you want to find out what could be in store for you in life, then London surely is the place to be.

Where else would you end up sharing a house with a Peruvian, Indian, Australian, Italian, French and Lithuanian (and, well, a German, as in me)? Where else would you be able to taste culinary treats from all over the world, in one day?

As Samuel Johnson, word wizard the Dictionary of the English Language, said, “By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.”

“For there is in London all that life can afford.” – Samuel Johnson

And it is true. There is just everything in London; always something to do at almost any time of the day (I found that miraculously, London is one of the places that does sleep at night; The City, Tower Hill and Southwark anyway).

If we decided to add up all the hours I spent walking about London in the dark and then did the same for walks I did in the light of day, you‘d probably say that I just have to know SO MUCH MORE about London‘s night life than the actual sights.

However, I find that it‘s not true. During my working hours, I did a fair share of looking up other sights and places and I spent many Saturdays and Sundays in town, walking amongst the tourists.

THREE of my favourite things to do on a SATURDAY MORNING:

• Walking from Tower Hill to Bank to the Guildhall Art Gallery on a cold but sunny Saturday morning (I once did a course on Victorian photography there). The most fun I had was to stand in the middle of the square and just spin around to admire the architecture.
  

  Southwark Cathedral, January 2008

• Another thing that has qualified as most enjoyable: 
Walking across London Bridge towards Southwark Cathedral and Borough Market. 
Before I went browsing the stalls for fresh food, I sat in the church and listened to a choir rehearsal (I do love church music!). 
Afterwards, I bought some fruit at the market and went walking down along the River towards the London Eye. Halfway through, I stopped to have a cuppa and write zine-related letters.

• For the lazy ones: 
Hop on a tube to Bayswater, catch some breakfast at yer ole Starbucks and find a bench in Kensington Gardens by the pond.  You‘ll make many new animal friends and it‘s so quiet and relaxing: Just the right thing after a wild night out.

TWO of my absolute favorite things for RAINY SUNDAY AFTERNOONS:

• Of course, in a place like London, most shops are open on a Sunday afternoon (which is really different in Germany!), so a bout of shopping is always possible. 
If you‘re not entirely too lazy or opposed to experiencing some culture, you can always pop into the National Portrait Gallery (which I love much more then the National Gallery next door! Also, if you’re fashion-inclined: They have a display on Twiggy going on until the end of March!) before heading over to Covent Garden. 
Sure, Covent Garden is awfully crowded on days that tourists pour into the city but you sure do miss out if you haven‘t got time to go there. 
Personally, I loved the street performers and the Lush shop best. You can have a bite to eat, get souvenirs or clothes, all in one lovely location.

• The one thing I did most often on Sundays was attending Evensong at Westminster Abbey. 
To be honest, those visits had a lot of influence in my change of study subjects (amongst other things of course!). 
Especially the services before Christmas and Easter were amazing and Westminster Abbey is the only place I ever prayed down on my knees. 
The boys‘ choir is exceptional and I‘ve never heard people sing with so much passion. 
Evensong at the Abbey is truly special.

Fun things to do on ANY DAY OF THE WEEK:

• Catching shows in small pubs, like the Barfly, The Lock Tavern or the Water Rats.

• Camden Market.

• Oxford Street – because you can only really shop there on days that are not part if the weekend.

• Hummingbird Bakery in South Kensington, Soho or Notting Hill – yummy American-style cupcakes. The shop in Soho has actually just been opened (and thanks to Kate from treslola.com who told me about it in the first place).

• Hopping on a train to Brighton.

Brighton, April 2009

Places you DO NOT WANT TO MISS OUT ON but might not know about:

• 56a infoshop, Elephant & Castle – It is an anarchist social center, first and foremost but you can buy zines as well! I wouldn‘t know about it if it wasn‘t for Lizzy from Marching Stars Distro!

• Highgate Cemetery – Got utterly lost while looking for it and ended up in a park instead. But while reading up on the cemetery I stumbled across the myth of the Highgate Cemetery Vampire? Interesting. And really scary as said vampire seems to have been active outside the realms of the actual cemetery as well.

• Garden of St Dunstan‘s in the East – St Dunstan’s church was destroyed in Worl War II, however, the ruins of the building have been turned included in a beautiful little garden that you can find halfway between the Tower of London and London Bridge.

• All Hallows by the Tower – Because I‘ll never be able to go to London again, and NOT go there. My time at All Hallows has been magical and very much inspiring. I could write so much more about the church but I’d rather know you don’t neglect it when you’re around Tower Hill and go inside and see for yourself. I promise – you will not be disappointed!

All Hallows by the Tower, 2007/2008

Well, friends – this about sums up where I loved to spend my time when I lived and London and whenever I return. Maybe, one day, I will make a seperate post on nighttime activities and my favourite clubs and parties.

Which cities do you love best? What kind of places do you like to visit? And how do you feel about London?

(All pictures in this post have been taken by me. Do not use elsewhere.)

photo from strawberryblue on tumblr

In an attempt to make LiveLifeDeeply.net more presentable, I‘ve been working on the layout and structure of the blog over the last couple of days.

The colour scheme is now slightly tweaked and I decided to use less category thumbs/banners for my posts which goes in hand with ditching the idea of having posts specifically assigned to weekdays (like Friday‘s Favorite).

Stern schedules just do not work out for me, seeing as I have to build my life around classes and work.

In February, I will most probably have a lot of concert reviews coming your way. As of yesterday, I have been approved to shoot All Time Low once more in Cologne, and I‘ll attend the following gigs too: Cobra Starship, Vampire Weekend, Twin Atlantic, Lights & Owl City and Tokio Hotel.

For March, I thought up a mini-series of interviews and I‘ve been busy talking to people I‘d like to interview. Everyone I talked to has been really awesome about it so far. Keep that one in mind – there might be awesome things coming for you!

What I‘m going to post about next? 
Well, I finally finished that article I wrote about London, and there‘s a blurb about theology that I‘d like to include. Also, I‘m revising my article on my tattoo and there might be something on Valentine‘s Day dates gone wrong – if writer‘s block ever lifts its heavy burden off my shoulders