My blog is back online. The URL is
http://www.hellagood.de

I will have to redirect to Blogger for now because it looks like I have "killed" my WordPress blog. If anyone knows how to fix the fact that I'm only getting blank pages in WordPress, PLEASE let me know!

Great news, just found this official Placebo newsletter in my mailbox:

Placebo are on the eve of returning to the studio to start recording their 5th studio album. The new album due for release in 2006 is being produced by Dimitri Tikavoi, who has previously worked with Placebo on tracks such as 'The Ballad of Melody Nelson and 'Running Up That Hill'.

Keep checking http://www.placeboworld.co.uk in the coming weeks for news of some special studio updates.

Elsewhere, the former Placebo support band Anglo-American duo The Kills, release new single 'Love is a Deserter' on Monday 30th May on Domino Records. This favourite from their fantastic live show is the second single from their album 'No Wow'. Bonus tracks include brand new songs, remixes by Cavemen and Phones (uber-producer Paul Epworth), plus a couple of Xfm session tracks co-produced by Edwyn Collins.

To hear all the tracks and watch the video, go to their fab mini-site:

http://www.dominorecordco.com/site/minisites/loveisadeserter

I second the Kills recommendation, another fab band I got to discover thanks to zesty.

Thanks to the wonderful zesty, I got to find out about this brilliant band called Hot Hot Heat. However, the title for this entry is referring to the weather outside. It's so hot that I don't know what to do with myself. Spending time inside seems like a "waste of weather". However, whenever I do find myself venturing outside, I've usually had enough after about 30 minutes and go back inside. I love the summertime, I really do, but this is too much, too soon.

It's 5.45pm, and according to the Dashboard Weather Widget, it still is 31 degrees Celsius :o

I'm sitting at work, catching up with the news because it's been a bit of a slow day so far - unlike yesterday, when I was so stressed out by the time my "lunch break" finally arrived (at 3.30pm!)that I took a little sunbath in the yard and prompty fell asleep. I'm slowly becoming a huge fan of "power naps", I slept for 20 minutes tops, but that made all the difference.

So how am feeling? I'm not sure. I think the change in the political climate unsettles me. While everyone is crying out for changes and reforms, I'm thinking, "Surely you can't be so naive to believe that the CDU is going to make miracles happen here?!". I can't help it, I just think that any political party that has the word "conservative" scribbled all over their political agenda is not what this country needs right now. Going conservative does not automatically create a blooming economy just because it's a "change". A very bad change.

I found this quote by the Dutch writer Leon de Winter at Spiegel Online, which sums up my sentiments on the current political leaders very nicely:

"Natürlich hatte Gerhard Schröder keine andere Wahl, als jetzt den Wähler noch einmal zu fragen, ob er weiter machen soll. Das Problem ist, dass er im Herbst keine Chance haben wird, weil ein breiter Teil der deutschen Bevölkerung das Vertrauen zu ihm verloren hat. Dabei ist Schröder eigentlich ein guter Politiker - nur eben nicht in Krisenzeiten, denn er ist ein Mann der Kompromisse, nicht der klaren Visionen. Der CDU traue ich es ebenfalls nicht zu, die Probleme Deutschlands zu lösen."

Neither do I Leon, neither do I!

Wow, I'm amazed. It's been a really really good show this year. In fact, there were only two performances that I found horrible, namely Spain for sounding too much like that horrible horrible Ketchup-song, and F.Y.R. Macedonia, whose singer had the charm of a stick.

Fantastic performances by Norway. I'm going to buy that song! Also Moldova, what a great premiere at the ESC for them, and Sweden - I seriously swooned when I laid eyes on the singer. He looks amazing, his voice is amazing, his style is amazing, and the song is great too. Other contributions I liked were Hungary, Malta, Romania, Turkey, Israel, Serbia & Montenegro, Denmark, Switzerland, Latvia, and France. So if any of these make it, I'm going to be happy.

Ok, I'm having a major crisis here. For some reason the satellite feed is all messed up. It does get like that when there is a major thunderstorm outside, but I'm looking out of the window, and there is nothing! I just hope it's going to be ok when the real show starts.

The pre-show is pretty good - from what I can see. Mel C was there, lookin' good, some obscure German bloke whom I'd rather see never again, Lisa Stansfield (!!!), Yvonne Catterfeld (I'm almost embarrassed to admit that her new song sounds pretty good to me), and the whole thing is being hosted by one of my people on TV, Thomas Hermanns.

Big night, right in line with the Academy Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards (before they got all prudish that is). I know that most other people don't feel that way, so I will be watching them alone *sob*. But that's ok, gives me more time to concentrate on making lists of my own personal favourites. In fact, I might even publish them here later.

Even though this week went by in a blur, one of the events that stick out is me calling my mother on Wednesday morning, only to be greeted by the words, "Robbie is dead!". I can hardly describe what I was feeling that moment, but "shock" sums it up pretty nicely. However, thoughts were rushing through my mind, within about three seconds I had come to the conclusion that certainly this was no accident, he must have killed himself.

When I told my friend about it, she said she would have thought the same thing, "he just seems like the kind." What, the kind who kill themselves? I don't quite agree there, I don't think there is "a kind" that does. What I do think, however, is that he does seem like the sort of person who is not truly happy. Then again, lots of people are not. I know that I, in my own twisted sort of way, am happy. But whenever I see Robbie in interviews, he does strike me as exceptionally unhappy. My friend reckons that it's because he's probably gay and has to hide it. LOL. We have also concocted a fascinating theory about Jonathan Wilkes, but due to impending legal actions I shall refrain from posting that here.

I do wish that people who think that true happiness comes from material possession would consider Robbie Williams as an example to think again. The man has it all - the money, the cars, the success, the women (if he's so inclined ;)), a loving family. Does he appear to be happy? No. I couldn't say that I own a lot in terms of materialistic things, but it doesn't really matter to me. I have a nice computer, which is all I need. Whenever people ask me, "So if you were on 'Who wants to be a millionaire' and you'd win the million (HIGHLY unlikely scenario), what would you do with the money?", the only thing I ever come up with is maybe an even nicer computer. The G5 by Apple maybe, or the 17" PowerBook? The iMac G5 when I'm feeling particularly decadent. The rest of the money would go straight to my savings account, and I'd give some of the money away, too.

So obviously, I'm a nerd. But I'm a happy nerd. I have people around me whom I love very much. I live in a democratic country (even though I have the sneaking suspicion that I will be feeling less happy about the country after the elections on Sunday!), I have things I am passionate about - music for example. I used to have times when I was feeling very low, but I like to think that these times are in the past now. I don't know how exactly, but sometimes the walk is the goal, to badly translate a German saying into English here. I do know that a quote by an actress whom I appreciate greatly has helped me in a lot of ways: "Just be who you are and don't second-guess yourself." So simple, yet so true!

As for Robbie - turns out it wasn't the Robbie Williams we all know and (at least in my case) love. Obviously. No, it was a bloody sea lion, the "lead actor" of a German TV show, who had escaped from the set to chase some real live fish. I think he had a heart attack while being out there or something. Whatever. At least he was free when he died.

Scan from the "All I Want"-DVD inlay.