2012- A year with lots of music

Hey guys!
Like everyone else I was thinking about this very eventful year and all its ups and downs- Were there more ups or downs? Was it a good year, worth remembering? I came to the conclusion that no matter how bad times are, you will most certainly remember the good ones better, even if it were just the little things that cheered you up.
What played a very important role this year (actually in my entire life) was Music. Not only music, to be more precise, concerts. I hate my Maturareise for ruining all my plans concerning festivals this summer, but I still had the chance to attend the one or other concert:
- "Stadtfest" with Pirates on a Boat of Love, Effi, Tschebberwooky, The Showbox and Jennifer Rostock (she was incredible!!)
- "TU- Sommerfest"with Neodisco and Three Feet Smaller
- "Augartenfest" with Neodisco, The Base, Sado Maso Guitar Club, Mono & Nikitaman
- Millions of Dreads @Citybeach- such a good chill out music!
- "Concert & Clubbing 4 Charity" with Stereoface, Pirates on a Boat of Love, Tschebberwooky and RUSSKAJA! - they really know how to create a good conctert atmosphere!
- "Styrian Stylez Festivsal" with Millions of Dreads, Uptown Monotones, Klumzy Thung etc.
- Madsen FM4 surprise concert @postgarage - probably the best concert in my life!
- Muse @Wiener Stadthalle - one of my favourite bands :)
- Moonbootica
- Camo & Crooked - yeah, I'm a drum 'n' bass fan^^

also some local and not very well known bands like Madman's County, Nein, Ruhe und setz dich jetzt hin and Modular.

If you made it this far, I would really like to use my blog to advertise some local bands (some of them are good friends). If you are interested, you can listen to some of their music, maybe you even like them! Please be aware of the fact that most of them are still at the beginning of their music career and maybe not as good as their famous colleagues.

Eosïn 
An Alternative Metalcore band consisting of 5 handsome guys. They create a really good and dynamic atmosphere...well, if you like this kind of music^^ 
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRK-7cmcbgo


Madman's County
An Alternative Rock- Trio who sound like a combination of Kings of Leon, Mumford & Sons and Glen Hansard. Unfortunatley, they existed just for one year. Within this year, they became very successful, I attended almost every concert of them, reallly good stuff!
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RHqvhXT1EBc


The Showbox
A Folk- Collective band. Whatever thi s is, but I can really recommend it. The lead singer also has a second band, just for fun. They're called "Nein Ruhe und setz dich jetzt hin" and are simply hilarious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GOe76yVIEKc



Attention please!
A pop punk/rock - aucoustic  multiculi band. I can just say that they play good because there is no example video of them.

Acoustic Frames
Vali is a Singer- Songwriter. His songs go in direction Ed Sheeran, he is a big fan of him and also covers (among others) his songs. Really cute, sometimes sad lovesongs. A very ambitioned guy :)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojx7RLojVGw


Modular
The Band of our school, two ladies with a lot of power in their voice! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojx7RLojVGw

ETEPETETE
3 girls with a good taste of m usic, title of "Grazerinnen 2012" - Music, if you like them, they play at the Postgarage next Saturday. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p0xZ0-NqkrI

Parov Stelar
A band Austria can be proud of. With Jazz, Swing and eletronic music they fascinate thousands of fans. They are already very well-known, I just wanted to mention them because you can find good music made in Austria, too :) Don't miss them at Urban Art Festival!
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fkOqXAHLKQ


Sorry for bothering you with this stuff. I'm shure this post might be really boring for most of you but some of you hopefully agree with me! I just like local bands very much, because some of them are really good and you can see them for a cheep price in your hometown.

Fast Food = McDonald's?

Hey Guys!
Just wanted to sweeten your Sunday evening with a photo a friend showed me yesterday, I think it's quite funny :)
Today I watched a documentation about McDonald's but none of the facts they illustrated were surprising to me. Therefore I wanted to hear your opinion.
Do you often/ever go there? Why (not)?
Do you like the range of food offered? Which product do you like best?
For my part, I really like all kinds of fast food but it doesn't matter how hungry I am, I never feel the urge of going to McDonald's. There is ALWAYS at least one alternative for me, even if it's just a sandwich from SPAR. The food is neither tasty, nor appealing for me.
If I want to eat a good burger I go to Brot & Spiele, Rox, Bierbaron, Clocktower (expensive!), Hooters, Molly Malone's or other pubs. Well, I don't want to say it's cheap (7-10€) but a pleasure for your eyes and stomach. :)
Last but not least: Insiders' tip for hungry people after a long night of partying: Gusto Burger at WILDING - cheap and delicious!
Kathi

Larsson's masterpiece

Heyho everyone!
Autumn weather makes you stay inside where it is warm and cosy (wonderful example is today). Best time to make yourself comfortable in your bed and read a good book. I love the thrilling ones that keep you reading page after page, having a thrill of anticipation for what happens next.
If you are still searching for some good stuff, I can absolutely recommend the "Millenium"- Trilogy from the Swedish (unfortunately already dead) author Stieg Larsson. Every book has around 800 pages, so you will be busy reading for quite a while ;)
Trilogy speaks for itself, three books which make the story complete:

• -"The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo"
• -"The Girl Who Played with Fire"
• -"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest"
• actually he started writing a fourth book but due to his unexpected death he could never finish it

I'm not going to tell you the whole story, otherwise it would be boring to read, just an idea of what everything is about so you may get interested in reading at least the first part (but I promise you, if you read the first one you will definately want to read the second one too, same goes with the third ;D)
The story of the first book is about the prestigous journalist Mikael Blomkvist, working as publisher of the Swedish magazine "Millenium" and the mysterious private investigator and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander who are hired to investigate the disapperance of Henrik Vangers great-niece Harriet Vanger. Henrik suspects that she could have been killed by one of the members of the Vanger familiy. The deeper Mikael and Lisbeth dig for the truth, the greater the risk of being killed by the family members who will do everthing to keep their secrets tightly sealed.
I really liked the story, altough its very difficult in the beginning to memorize who is who. The two other books are mainly about Lisbeth Salanders past which is not less interesting, quite the opposite.
For those who already know the books I can recommend the movies, produced by the Swedish production company "Yellow Bird". If you want to see Mr. James Bond Daniel Craig starring you have to watch the American version which played in cinemas last winter.
Can you recommend some good books for cold and rainy days?
Kathi

Dictionary tips!

Hey Guys!
Last week in class we tried to find the best and most helpful dictionaries. But when I openend the document again I noticed that most of them expept 1 or 2 are monolingual. Well, I know that we should rather look up words in a monolingual dictionary than in a bilingual but sometimes there is vocab/are phrases you really don't know how to translate. But which dictionary I can rely on?
I used to use pons.eu for a long time but I was told not do so because it is not always trustworthy. Therefore I rather look up words at http://www.dict.cc/ which I can really recommend to you because of several reasons: while writing the word in the search bar you already get suggestions you can click on. You will also find at least one example sentence, several phrases and a pronounciation guide. There are some tips to find the word/sentence/phrase easy and without complications and a vocabulary trainer as well.
What is also worth trying is http://www.visualthesaurus.com where you can find kind of bubble networks to the word you're typing in which can be very useful!
And I know, learning is not always funny and the weather outside doesn't contribute to a happy mood but never forget: positive thinking is the best way to success! I have something for you: http://www.emergencycompliment.com - an internet site which makes you compliments to cheer you up, isn't that nice? Maybe it helps :)
Have a nice Sunday,
Kathi

Recommendation: Stammtisch!

Hey Guys,
After one week of isolation (my laptop boke down and my new-fashioned Nokia 2700 was no help at all) I'm back now!
Now I finally have the opportunity to tell you about the "Stammtisch" I went last Thursday. I'm not shure how much you know about it, basically it's the Stammtisch of the Anglo- Austrian Circle which takes place at "die Herzl" every Thursday evening where Austrian students as well as foreigners gather for several reasons: first of all, the interest in the English language and of course, to meet new people and/or elder students who can give you some advice.
I really had a lot of fun there, it is the best thing you can do to practise your English AND get to know so many nice people from many different places at the same time. It was a really multicultural evening, people from Africa, Italy, Slovenia, Germany, Spain...I didn't have enough time to talk to all of them. When I was on my way home, I was scared that my head wouldn't absorb all the names, backround stories, all the helpful information concerning my studies but also happy to have made such an experience. I really recommend you to visit the "Stammtisch" at least once!
This Thursday I'm going as well, my some of you want to join me? :)
Have a nice evening,
Kathi

Autumn Weather

Hey Guys, how are you doing?
Wow, it's almost midnight and actually I don't feel like going to bed. I'm just sitting in my room, wrapped in my favourite pink blanket and listening to the rain outside. It's raining buckets, I even heard a roll of thunder. I wonder how much rain the ground can absorb and I'm trying to get the picture of our house halfway flowed out of my head. I love autumn weather because it makes you stay inside, longing for the warmth of chestnuts, hot chocolate and cosy beds on the one hand, but also encourages you to take a walk through a forest or an alley of beautiful colored trees, enjoying their bright color in the sunlight. I really have to get used to share my life with everyone, I'm not the typical type of facebook user who sees in this or any other social network a synonym for diary. I know that this post might be a little boring for you but right now I really felt like sharing something with the world, even if it's just my weather preferences. But I think I'm heading in the right direction, I feel my inner blogger awaking (somehow)...now I just have to find some interesting things to share with you :)
Good night everybody, rain sometimes works like a lullaby, my tired body feels the urge of resting^^
Love, Kathi

Weekend: One of my favourite places

Everyone knows that kind of situation: It's Friday night and so many opportunities to have fun, get drunk and meet your friends. One place I can really recommend is the Office pub. I'm the kind of person who avoids the Unitviertel and rather goes to a pub having some pints of beer with my friends. Yesterday we decided, as so many times before, to spend our Saturday night at the Office.
Not only the wide range of beer and other alcoholic drinks, comfortably atmosphere within old books, wooden furniture and good music but also the friendly and almost exclusively english-speaking waiters keeps us going there. I love the feeling when I enter the Office, seeing Matthew smiling at me and realizing that there are at least 10 people I know. It doesn't matter if we are five or ten people in the beginning, we always end up in a large group!
The only thing I haven't experienced yet is the Quiz night every Thursday evening because there are always so many people attending that we can't even find a place to sit.
The Office Pub is a place absolutely worth visiting, maybe we see each other sometime :)

Do you believe in the Spaghetti Monster?

Some of you may have heard about Pastafarism, a satirical religion which has become an internet phenomenon and is gaining more and more worshippers.
What was only popular among College students in Amerika is now also known in Austria. Best example is Niko Alm who was allowed to wear a noodlestrainer on the photo of his driving license as  religious headgear.
But what is it all about?
Can you believe in a Spaghetti Monster which just consists of Spaghetti and two meatballs that created the world in seven days hungover? But on the other hand, who doesn't want a beer vulcano and a stripper factory in heaven and drinking beer to every occasion?
Another funny "rules": you dont have to  believe in the "Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster literally or pray, but if you do, you have to put a "R'amen" after every prayer; they believe in pirates as original pastafarians and the decreasing number causes global warming, every friday is a holiday.
The idea behind this religion is most of all fighting against and making fun of Intelligent Design taught in American schools instead of the Evolution Theory. When Bobby Henderson created the Spaghetti Monster (not even thinking about becoming that popular) his attempt was to show that if believers of Intelligent Design believe in a godlike creature which created the world, it could be anything, even a Flying Spaghetti Monster.
In my opinion, its worth to give Pastafarism a chance, I mean, there is a "God back guarantee", so you don't have anything to lose?