Fanart, Fanfiction and Fangirling

Merry Christmas DW and LJ friends! I'm spending the day with my parents eating too much (as usual).

I haven't posted the Christmas cards I made for polarforscherin and schwimmerin yet. I know the former arrived safe and sound, I hope the latter did too. Anyway, I'm putting them behind a cut, just in case schwimmerin hasn't received hers yet and doesn't want spoilers. ^_^'

( Christmas cards )

I wanted to draw some Christmas fanart but I've been terribly busy and not really inspired. I'm working on something right now, but it's not Christmas related, so I'll post it when it's done, maybe on Boxing Day.

But I do have some Christmassy fanart! The card I sent to schwimmerin, it arrived on the other side of the Atlantic safe and sound and before the 25th!

( Farin wishes everyone a very rock'n'roll Xmas! )

And here's our new Christmas decoration, an adorable owl family we got at the arts and crafts fair a couple of weeks ago (the silver snowflake was not included):

( Hoot! )

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

dementordelta! killer_ameise! I got your cards today, thank you! I hope you got mine too?

I'd like to thank every one of you who sent me a card, I think I've either mentioned you here or left a comment in your LJs, but if I haven't, feel free to metaphorically slap me. ^_^ I also hope that everyone who asked for a Christmas card from me has received it; if not, let me know.

I'd been feeling a bit depressed the last couple of days, but I woke up in a better mood today and I suspect that may have something to do with last night's dream featuring Farin: I don't remember if I was at a concert or a public meeting, but he was at a table signing autographs. When it was my turn and I walked up to him, he told another girl who was there (and who looked suspiciously like Eline ^_^) that they (Die Ärzte) were really lucky to have fans like me abroad. Then the question "Will you ever play in Milan?" was brought up, either by me or the other girl, I'm not sure. Farin leaned down, put a finger under my chin and tilted my face upwards so I looked straight into his eyes and whispered "Next year". Well, he actually said "Nächstes Jahr", because the whole dream was in German.

I LOVE MY SUBCONSCIOUS. <3

Just read on farin-urlaub.de:

WEIHNACHTEN IST VORVERLEGT!
oder
"WATT DEN EEN SIN UHL, IS DEN ANNERN SIN NACHTIGALL"

Verehrte Freunde des Racing Teams, werte Fans, liiiiebe Irre,
wir haben ein Problem - und ihr habt gut lachen. Das Problem ist, daß es keine FURT-live-DVD geben wird; die gute Nachricht ist, daß ihr das ganze Material dafür umsonst bekommt.

Wie bitte?

Aus nicht nachvollziehbaren Gründen sind beim Kopieren einer eigentlich seriös aussehenden Harddisc Daten verloren gegangen, was bedeutet, dass wir zwar schönes Bildmaterial, aber keinen vernünftigen Ton mehr haben. Es gab einige heldenhafte Versuche, zu retten, was nicht zu retten war - aber bevor wir halbgare Sachen veröffentlichen, hinter denen wir nicht stehen, lassen wir es lieber bleiben. Es gibt also vorerst keine Live-DVD. Kann man nüscht machen.

Ärgerlich.

Damit ihr aber wenigstens wisst, was wir alle verpasst haben, gibt es den fertigen Schnitt, unterlegt mit dem Live-Rohmix, hier zum umsonst runterladen; natürlich in anständiger Qualität (wenigstens das!).

Und was ist der Haken?

Auf dem Live- Rohmix ist nicht alles so perfekt ausbalanciert, wie wir (sprich: Banddiktator fu) das gerne hätten; dafür rockt es schön wild und ungebügelt. Sonst gibt's keinen Haken: brennt eure eigene DVD, verschenkt sie weiter - nur erzählt bitte niemandem, wie furchtbar nett wir doch sind.
Da die Bereitstellung einer solchen Datenmenge (SO viele Nullen und Einsen!) online nicht ganz einfach ist, werden die einzelnen Songs erst ab dem 15.05.2010 hier im Downloadshop kostenlos bereit stehen, und zeitgleich auf www.tape.tv in dem für uns geschaffenen Channel als Stream sichtbar und hörbar werden. Zusätzlich wird am selben Tag diese schöne Website ein wenig aufgebohrt, tiefer gelegt und mit Spoilern verziert (Flammen optional).

Und: Am 11.06.2010 erscheint die Single "Zu Heiss" mit 2 Bonus-Tracks und einem laaangen Video - ihr merkt, mir ist schon wieder langweilig in den Ferien ...

Viel Spaß! Natürlich im Namen des gesamten Racing Teams.
Wir sehen uns ...

Euer
fu(hnachstmann)

***

Shit happens, even to the mighty FU.

Also, seeing pictures like these makes me crave a DÄ concert SO BAD. No Bela/FURT/Abwärts gig whatsoever can give me the adrenaline rush I get seeing Die Ärzte. Go on tour soon, please.

( Die beste Band der Welt under the cut )

PS I'm supposed to be asleep, damnit!

EDIT: I was trying to figure out what's the Italian equivalent of "Watt den een sin Uhl, is den annern sin Nachtigall" and I realised we don't have an Italian equivalent: we have a Latin one. Oh, yeah.

I dreamed of Farin again last night. WTF, that's the second time in 4 days! I was at a sort of lecture or press conference with a friend and Farin was there to talk about his next big trip: he said he was going to take part in an expedition to explore a volcano on a tropical island and looked very excited about it. At the end of his speech the audience could ask questions and my friend asked him if they could keep in touch (I think she actually asked if she could call him on his cell phone) while he was away. He said no, of course, and I got so mad at her, because I thought "Great, now Farin will think I'm a crazy stalker, just because my friend's an idiot." I started telling her she shouldn't have asked such a stupid question, that everyone knows how much Farin values his privacy, bla bla bla and, while I was in the middle of my rant, I saw Farin walking to the door. I went up to him and said "Have a nice trip". He shook my hand, gave me two kisses on the cheeks and left. And then I woke up with "Pakistan" stuck in my head.

Just. What. XD

Anyway. A meme seen in schwimmerin's LJ:

Ask me to take a picture of any aspect of my life that you're interested in - it can be anything from the house I live in to my favourite shoes. Leave your choice here as a comment, and I will reciprocate by taking the pictures and posting them as an LJ entry. Ask for as many as you want. That way you get to know a little bit about my life, if you're remotely interested in it.

Also, for those of you who understand Italian: I've written a few new entries in my Berlin blog lately, you can find them here if you're interested:

http://ausberlin.wordpress.com

Oh God, what dreams I had last night. Well, this morning actually. I had to get up at 8:00 AM, so I set my cell phone alarm clock but, as it often happens when I know I have to wake up at a certain time, I kept waking up. After waking up at 6:30 I fell back asleep and dreamed I was at a DÄ concert in some stadium, I was in the front row and standing next to a very good-looking guy. We started talking in German and after a while Farin walked on stage, while the roadies were still working. He was carrying a book about Palermo (a city in Sicily) and I asked him (in Italian) "Why? Why Palermo?" He jumped down from the stage in front of me and said (in Italian) something like "Because we're all in Europe." And then I woke up.

WTF?! My subconscious is seriously fucked up. The second dream was, ehm, more interesting. I don't remember the setting, maybe I was going to a Bela concert, but at one point I was sitting in a car with Bela and we were talking about something. Somehow the talk turned quite explicit and Bela said he was horny. I told him I could "help him" if he wanted (HOW LAME IS THAT?!) and he said "All right, let's find a place!" We ended up in an old country house where an old woman told us we could use her bathroom if we wanted to clean up, but "Separately". The old prude. There were actually two bathrooms, one next to the other, and we went to take a shower. We walked out at the same time, he was wearing a wet T-shirt and a towel wrapped around his hips and I was wearing only a towel. The old lady was nowhere to be seen, so he put an arm around my waist and pulled me close to him for a kiss. I turned my head away because I was afraid the old lady might come back, but he just went for a kiss again and then THE ALARM CLOCK WENT OFF! AAARGH!!! D:

What would Freud say about these dreams? He'd probably say I need to get laid, but that's what he'd say 9 times out of 10, no matter what the dream is about.

Great, my new mayor is the pig man. The right-wing alliance won and the mayor is the Lega Nord candidate, the very same person who walked all over the place with a pig a few years ago, because doing so the ground would be "contaminated" and Muslims wouldn't be able to build a Mosque in our town.

The list of reasons why I should get the hell out of this place is getting longer...

At least this made me smile. From the "Mail der Woche" on farin-urlaub.de. You can go directly to the last line if you don't feel like reading the whole thing. ;)

Zur Sache, Schätzchen!

Sehr geehrter Herr U, hallo Farin oder einfach ein kleines Gute-Nacht-Gebet an den 1,94-Gott!
Endlich komme ich dazu mein Lob und meine Bewunderung in Worte zu fassen - und das sogar noch vor Erscheinen der 3. Single, ich bin begeistert.
In den letzten Monaten konnte man glücklicherweise vieles in Sachen Farin Urlaub Racing Team beobachten. Nicht nur die schon länger zurückliegende Neugestaltung der Seite, nein. Es kam auch ein grandioses Album, welches sozusagen als Dessert eine kleine CD mit nicht minder grandiosen Liedern mitbrachte. Schon die erste Auskopplung und das dazugehörende Video ließen die Herzen der FURT Fans - mich natürlich eingeschlossen - höher schlagen.
Auch die zweite Auskopplung war perfekt gewählt, war \"Niemals\" doch ein Pendant zur ersten Single \"NichImGriff\". Und wieder war ein wunderbares Video zu sehen, dessen nicht-tödliches Ende fast schon überraschend war.
Die 2008er Krachgarten-Tour zeigte dann, dass das FURT in der Konzertfreien Zeit kein bisschen eingerostet war, sondern sich eher noch gesteigert hatte, sofern dies denn möglich ist.
Und vor kurzem erschien dann das Video zur kommenden Single \"Krieg\", welches viel Witz und Charme mit sich trug.
Aber egal jetzt, ich wollt eigentlich nur wissen ob du mit Bela oder Rod poppst

I got an email from the music promotion agency: they chose someone else. I'm not surprised, really, the guy wrote he interviewed 22 people, it was obvious they wouldn't choose me. It would have been a wonderful birthday present if they had, but I wasn't counting on it.

I'll cheer myself up looking at Bela pics. I found bigger versions of pics I already had on this site:

http://www.cinema.de/kino/stars/star/bela-b-dirk-felsenheimer-bela-b,1606438,ApplicationStar.html?tab=Bilder

I especially like these ones:

( Therapeutic picspam )

And this one, of course:

( Teenager Liebe )

I'm only working till 1:00 PM today, as in the afternoon I'm attending D's graduation. Among the professors in the board of examiners are also my two thesis advisors, and I'm not thrilled about seeing them again, especially the one who was supposed to help me, but basically ignored me until the last moment. While D. was writing her thesis, she told me how the professor and her assistant commented on her work and made suggestions, and I thought "WTF, my professor never helped me like that!" I guess I was just unlucky in my "academic career". Whatever.

Yesterday I forgot to post a sketch I did after reading the latest chapter of Dark Waters, this bit in particular:

It was in one piece, complete with tiny ears and stiff whiskers.



Yes, I'm silly, I know. :P Also, I love this picture:



I'll have to add a cheekbone fetish to my list...

PS OHMYGOD less than three weeks till Berlin!!! :D

Sammy, is this Gwendoline big enough?

Skeleton Gwen, 600x1100 px

If not, let me know and I'll make a bigger version.

And now, finally:

Farin Urlaub Racing Team, 20.12.2008, Hamburg Sporthalle


Clic to enlarge

Other pictures here

Stefano and I left from Milan on Saturday morning, Elena was supposed to come with us too, but she had to work during the weekend, so it was just the two of us like in 2006. We got to the hotel around midday (I LOVE A&O, and not just because I have the same initials :P), went for a walk in the area around the Rathaus, ate falafel and then headed to the Sporthalle. We arrived around 4:00 PM and, unsurprisingly, there were already people lining up despite the cold. After a while a girl standing behind us started talking to us in Italian: she was German but had studied Italian and stayed in Italy for a few months. Needless to say, she was very surprised to see two Italians lining up at a FURT concert and wanted to know how we had found out about him, if we understood the songs, if we knew Die Ärzte etc etc. She had a banner and told us she had written it in Italian, because she wanted Farin to be the only one able to understand it, and refused to show it to us. Around 5:30 PM Almut joined us and we exchanged Christmas presents: I gave her my Rod Christmas card and she gave me a chocolate Santa - mmh, chooocolaaate...

We didn't run when the gates opened, but got a decent place in the third/fourth row in front of Nessie anyway. The concert began at 8:00 PM sharp with the bang of a gong. The first songs, "Nichimgriff" and "Unsharf", were the worst, as we were pushed and pulled from every direction, but after a while things got better. I ended up in the third row behind a mother and son, the kid must have been 10 and was there with his slightly older brother and parents, who stood behind their children and acted as shield between them and the screaming, pogoing mass of people. Well, those kids can say they were in the front row at a FURT concert at the tender age of 10 and 12, respect!

The concert itself was great, the 4 singers wore various Christmassy decorations (Santa's hats, little wings, fuzzy halos) and during a song kept singing totally unrelated stuff, like "Wake me up before you go-go". Farin kept trying to block the way to his roadie whenever he got on stage to bring him "fresh" tea - which was so hot you could see the steam rising from the cup, I wonder how he could drink it without burning off his tongue - the brass section spent half the concert dancing their arses off and everyone seemed to be in a good mood and have fun.



It was the last concert of the tour, so the crew wanted to have some fun too. During "Alles dasselbe" Niko and T. got on stage wearing orange skirts and waving ponpons, while after "Insel" the guys who took away the big drums came out with their trousers around their ankles. I didn't pay much attention, but it turned out one of them was BELA! >_< He was probably the one who got me thinking "Hey, who's that guy wearing such tight black slips?" Too bad he wasn't wearing his favourite glittery sliver g-string, but I guess that would have given him away at once. XD






Can you see the little joint movement when he sings "unter Drogeneinfluss"? I squeed when I saw that. >_<

I can't remember much else, but it was a damn good concert. I still don't know about next year, but I'd like to see them live again. Unfortunately I can't go anywhere the first two weeks of July, which means I'll have to forget the FURT gig at the Wuhlheide in Berlin AND the DÄ gig in Linz. Which is sold out anyway. *weeps discretely* Oh well, there might be a chance, but I'll only know in a couple of months, so I'm not going to think about it now.

Stefano and I stayed in Hamburg for the following two days, visited the centre, the Christmas markets, the harbour, St. Pauli, ate delicious food in a German/Polish restaurant on the Repeerbahn, drank Glühwein and talked about English grammar. For some reason we always end up talking about English grammar when we're on holiday together. XD We also shot a brilliant video, "Steah vs Gemüse Cocktail", watch out for it at the next Academy Awards. ;)