My first school holidays...

... as a teacher that is, hehe!

Well, I've done it: I somehow managed to work seven weeks as a new born teacher. And now I'm officially on holidays. Although, I have to say that there's quite a work load waiting for me 'cause the next weeks are going to be much more stressful than the last 7. I'll have to teach and prepare more and more lessons and my lessons will be supervised.
All in all I really enjoy teaching in primary school, but it's new for me and mistakes are to be made and learned from ;-)
Subjects I'm teaching at the moment are mainly English and Music for 3rd and 4th grade. Lessons are very lively, as in both subjects there's a lot of singing, speaking and dancing going on.

But enough for school at the moment, I've got some fresh and hot audio stuff to recommend. If you've got time and money check out the following:

Babyshambles - Shotter's Nation:

Just like the infamous Libertines' I simply love the sound of Pete Doherty and his Babyshambles. It's got that druggy, punk-rock attitude while having a perfect songwriting, both the music and the lyrics combine smoothly. Doherty's one of the best in his genre - forget about all the tabloid scandals, just listen!

Pinback - Autumn of the seraphs:

Despite the heavymetalish looking album cover, this is american Indie-Rock in perfection. One of the underrated and - sadly - not very well-known bands. The sound reminds the listener of nothing else but: Pinback, actually! Warm guitars, multi-layered vocal tracks, melodic songs and very good lyrics. Vaguely comparable to Death Cab for Cutie maybe, but without the many sad parts ;-) But listen yourself.

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam:

Mmhh, this Band is special. Working as a collective of 4 members (with each of them having his own solo projec) those four guys create a sound which is psychedelic, delayed and a bit electronic but still based on Indie-Rock. The lyrics are just as psycho as the sound. So for all of you who might wonder why the hell I'm recommending this album, here's the answer: it's funny and something completely different and I love listening to it... And in parts - or better: once in a while - you're reminded of all the great bands, I love that much: Modest Mouse, Pinback, Beta Band, and so on.

Okay, I think that's enough for today, but I promise there'll be more soon...

is it already september?

hello my dear friends!

i think this blog has seen better days for sure. as time goes by, new web services - like facebook and others - find their way into my conscious mind and as a result a new profile under my name occurs sooner or later.
so all of you who actually want some updates on me, check out the fresh facebook link to your right.
my flickr page needs updating too, but i promise i'm going to post some new pix soon (can't be that difficult!)
nevertheless, i'll try to keep this blog alive a bit longer, maybe i'll find some time to write more in the near future, as the last couple of months weren't that busy-busy: exams, end of exams, relaxing, holidays in germany, chiling out, having a party, a great week at verena's & alex's place in ldn, a nice weekend at clemens' japanese-style flat in brighton, partying in germany, relaxing and chilling out up until now!!!
although time to post on this blog might be the one thing i won't have in the upcoming weeks, as i'll start my practical teaching education next tuesday - and as excited as i am, it'll be quite stressful too, i reckon.
well, that's it for the moment. see you soon, stay fresh and rock on!!!

it's done!!!

finally, i've done what i somehow couldn't think oof doing anymore: I FINISHED MY STUDIES!!!

some weeks ago i had my last exam and i still can't believe that years of studying have finally come to an end. but that's how it is: i'm free to do whatever i want to - at least up until early september, that is...

and now i'm enjoying this freedom to travel a bit around germany (i was at the art basel a couple of weeks ago and then at the documenta in kassel, too: a lot of nice and intteretsing art to be seen there, i really liked that!).
maybe i'll go to england in august but at the moment i'm based in augsburg and my body decided to catch a cold which i hereby welcome and i'm trying to get it out of my system at the moment.

next friday we'll have a "guerilla-lesershow" and so i have to decide on texts i want to present. you see, not much to do for me at the moment and i'm definitely enjoying that, believe me. i can concentrate on watching crappy tv-series, listen to hilarious music and meet friends all day long or just have a long lie-in if i want to. i don't want to make you jealous, but i have to say it as it's a bloody fine feeling (until it gets boring, but that might take a while...)

well, that's all for now. i'll promise to post more in the future and maybe even refresh my flickr photos soon.

i hope you're all fine out there and that you're happy with whatever you're doing at the moment.

see you all soon.

"worth"-case scenario: make the best of it...

as you know my reason for not posting that much these days is that i'm studying hard for my final oral exams at the moment. but today something very surreal happened and i've got to put down a few lines here.

imagine me, sitting at my desk in the library bent over books and sheets, trying hard to get all the stuff into my head to make ends meet gradewise for my exam tomorrow afternoon.
suddenly my mobile rings: a strange number i don't know appears on my display - the only thing i can tell is that it has to be somebody calling from within the university building. so i answer the call and to my surprise it's the person who is going to hold the exam tomorrow, asking:
"where are you?"
"why? i'm in the library - studying..."
"well, you should be sitting in front of me as your exam is now!"
"no, that can't be. i'm supposed to be in tomorrow, i doublechecked it..."
"but you're on my list, so either you can arrange to come over here, or you'll fail the exam!"

WORST-CASE SCENARIO, isn't it?

i was totally confused, but sure that something on the exam schedule must have been changed and i didn't check it in time, or whatever. so i packed my stuff and ran over there, adrenaline pumping to my veins, but actually not really nervous. although i had to sit an exam i wasn't as prepared for as i wanted to...

half an hour later it started and i just talked and talked, realizing that i wasn't blank, but instead could answer most of the questions...

and half an hour later they sent me out to discuss my grade, let me in again a couple of minutes later to announce my grade: a "1" which is the best grade you can make in germany. i couldn't believe it, and still can't. well, that's the best way to handle a scenario like that: just try to make the best of it - which i surely did, hehe...

that's all for today, it was a stressful but in the end veeeery nice one for me!

hope you're fine out there and see you soon!

SumMeRsuMmerSummeR

yes-yo-yippie-yeah!

it's mid-april in germany and one can't believe it: summer's here. it's got about 27 degrees celsius and everybody's out on the streets in this nice town - well, everybody but me...'cause i've got to sit at home and study study study for the last bit of my exams: still 9 to go. all oral exams, starting next wednesday and the last one will be at the end of june.all the written exams have already taken place, and i think it went quite well most of the time. but i'll see.

so all that stressful studying is my excuse for not updating this blog since january, by the way. nevertheless, i just wanted to let everybody know, that i'm still alive, quite busy at the moment but happy indeed: the weather is nice, i'm gonna finish my studyies soon and the summer won't be over by then, i hope.

well, that's it for the moment as i don't really have any incredible & interesting news - studying is indeed quite boring i reckon - but i promise to keep updating this casbah once in a while. at least i managed to get a new blog layout - which has to be slightly adjusted i think - let's see.

so see you and enjoy yourselves!

p.s. here's a nice pic i shot at the "pinakothek der moderne" in munich



p.p.s.: check out the new modest mouse album "we were dead before the ship even sank": not only one of the best album titles in years but hilarious indie-sound from portland, oregon. just the way i like it... my favourite songs: florida, fire it up, dashboard, and the rest of the album, actually ;-)

Happy New Year my friends!

here we go...

i want to wish all of you a happy new year. i hope 2007 is going to rock your world (and mine of course)

hopefully all of you had a nice new year's eve and possibly the best start into 2007. i definitely did have a bloody good party. just click the silvester-link to your right, there might be some pix online.

now it's back to work for me, there is still a hell lot of work to do: my final exams are starting soon!

see you all soon and good luck...

merry christmas to y'all mates!

hello darkness my old friend... nice pic shot from our living room window: wintery augsburg at night!

hope you're all fine and celebrating christmas with your families. i very much enjoyed these days with my family, but now it's got to be "back to work" again. busy times indeed! got to write essays still and soon i should be starting to learn for my final exams in spring. but i won't be able to learn on new year's eve, as we're having a hell of a party... just click the link "siggi-silvester" to your right, hehe!

sad to say, that's it for my latest update: i'm still amongst the living (dead).

see you soon (hopefully) ...

p.s.: check out the new jarvis cocker album - if you've ever been slightly into pulp, you'll like it...

chill & ill

hello again my friends out there. it's two months since my last entry, and i feel there's need to post some stuff. it's been a busy busy busy time for me, as i had to do soooo many things: learn for an exam, then write and coordinate my final thesis. hand it in. yeah! but it was a sleepless night beforehand.

and: i finally moved into a new flat with my girlfriend. now we've got a nice and cosy flat in the city centre of augsburg (and everybody's jealous, hehe...) pix to follow soon.

and yesterday - it was a lovely, sunny autumn day - my grandfather was celebrating his 90th birthday. it was a very nice and joyful party - not too many people so that it was a very familiar atmosphere everyone enjoyed a lot. and we ate the whole day, yummie!

and now i'm glad i've got some days to relax. i have to start writing essays for uni again, and then there are other exams coming up end of october but i don't have to stress myself that much...

well, after such a stressful time there's only one thing you love to do: chill. and only one thing you hate to be: ill. i managed to get both things. now i'm ill with a cold and chillin in bed. hopefully just for a day or so. my nose is running, my throat's itchy - pah, i hate it!

that's it for me, i hope everyone out there's fine. see you soon...

a very much needed update!

as this blog pops up first whenever i start my browser and i'm feeling more and more frustrated that i haven't been posting anything the last weeks and month i will do that now.

and here they are, the - not very interesting - news: i've been busy busy busy working for uni the last six weeks, and still am.
there was a theatre play i was working on with some pimary schoool kids: this was the practical part of my final essay, which i have to start writing now (deadline is early october, so that's gonna be a huge work load). but i'm confident that it'll all work out timewise.
teaching the kids and helping them create their own play was so interesting and exciting, i had a very good time, although it was quite stressful from time to time...

more news? not really... ah, there's another one: i had some exams and there's another huge one coming up next monday, so i'm learning hard at the moment. i shouldn't be blogging right now i realize.

so, i'll close now, after these short notes on my life at the moment.

stay as you are, and enjoy the summer (if you can...)!!!

summer in the city

hey my friends,

it seems that summer finally is trying to reach out with its warm hands even down here in bavaria. well, it's time at last. however, somehow the world cup and the fifa managed to get the most beautiful weather for the first day of this worldcup in our beloved germany... well, i don't really bother although even i might be watching some of the footy games throughout the next few weeks - everybody's manic about it anyway.

besides, while the world cup just starts, our little play is almost over - and it went damn good. we've got a lot of very enthuiastic reviews by both friends and strangers. so i'm quite proud about the result of some months' hard work of rehearsing and planning. for those of you haven't had the chance watching "the zoo story" there's one last chance next thursday: at the "pavian" in augsburg. a real good club/bar where the owners have set up a beer tent for watching the world cup. and in this tent we're gonna play...

and watch out on zoogeschichte.blogspot.com for other dates to come and more info. we're definitely planning to have some more dates to play the whole thing open air throughout summer: in parks, at the zoo, ...

well, that's all for the moment. beside alll my theatre stuff i'm still going to uni, writing my essays and trying to plan on my final dissertation (which will be quite practical first, meaning i've got to plan and teach some lessons in a primary school). youi see, there's a whole lotta stuff to do, so i better keep on working. although, i think i'lll head of for some beers and some good music now - cause it's saturday, summer and the zweiundgut is rockin' the mahagoni café tonight (for those of you who don't have the slightest clue what i'm talking about: come visit me in auxburgo and check it out yourself...)

see y'all a.s.a.p.

let's play!

here you go... and what you see is what you get: the poster to our play which is ready to be opened up for audience this friday, 26th of may 2006.
and this goes hand in hand for my long "posting absence". but, while other people enjoyed themselves somewhere around germany, europe and elsewhere, i was rehearsing, rehearsing, learning my bloody text by heart and then there was some more reharsing to do afterwards - and it's still gonna be some busy days until friday.
nevertheless, i think we will present a neat and watchable play on the friday premiere. so everybody who's gonna be around bavaria should try to come. we'll also play a couple of more times: on the 27th, the 1st and 2nd of june. same place same time...

for more info, just click the link on your right named "zoogeschichte".

hope to see y'all a.s.a.p

cheers and cheerio!

happy easter to all of you!

it's been a while since my last post - but i'm still alive and wishing everybody all the nicest and happiest easter holidays. enjoy the weekend whatever religion you may believe in or not. i'll do the same. and here's a great link for everybody who wants a laugh (i got it from verena, her blog is linked via stratford place to your right...):

http://www.flowgo.com/index.cfm?action=view&id=10664&scid=0

haha! have a laugh while checking out that link.

some other stuff: weather is quite ugly here in southern germany. still too damn cold and rain rain rain. i'm busy writing stuff for uni and rehearsing for our next tiny big drama projject: edward albee's "zoo story". we're busy rehearsing but there's still loads to do (organising, promotion,...and more rehearsing, and a lot of text to learn for me) and we want to go on stage on may the 26th. well, it's gonna work out... i hope.

and there's yet another thing: i just started my own flickr page, where i'll post photos from now on. i'll also add some older stuff. i got an invite from alex (plasticshore link - again to your right...) and immediately started posting. the link is MY FLICKR PHOTOS to your right or just go to

http://www.flickr.com/photos/casbahflo/

the first post there are some of my favourite graffiti pix. check them out...

so, that's it for now, i've got to rush off to munich, see you all soon and have a hell of a time folks!!!

some mexico pix!

okay, here are some pics of the mexico trip. and there are gonna come more later-on i think. i hate posting pictures as it takes ages and there is no comfortable way of getting them into the right order afterwards.

anyway, here you go:


the great pyramid in chichen-itza




an underground lake in a "cenote"




my sister making faces in coba




the caribbean

and there's even more news...

...yep, that's true. i still haven't finished my "report" on all the things i saw and did here. hope it's not boring!!! well, not for me anyway.

so, after having been to that nice club med hotel (great pool) in uxmal on friday we went on to valladolid. on our way there we climbed into a real nice cave where we saw mayan remains that were dated thousands of years ago. it was a 2 km walk - all under ground and very impressing. you can see hand printings quite similar to those found in europe (which are about ten thousand years old).
and the whole cave was full of bats, bad bat shit and stalaktites.

after having seen that, we went directly to valladolid, a quite big city in the center of yucatan, where we spent a nice evening and the night.

early sunday morning we went to a lovely cenote, which is an undergroound cave (again - the whole peninsula is stuffed with caves) half-filled with water, where one can swim in. these cenotes are spread all over yucatan, some of them are closed, others are kind of half-open so that there's sun light hitting the surface of the water.

after a quick stop and swim there we drove to coba, which is another huge site of mayan remains - mostly pyramids and monoliths. it's such a large site, that we rent some bikes to be quicker. that was fun and quite different to the visits on other sites before.

well, and in the evening, after my sister and i grapped some stuff of hers - in the small town where she's normally working and living - we went via tulum to playa del carmen, where we are since.

playa is a very touristy, but nevertheless nice city on the caribbean coast of yucatan, or better, quintana roo, as the state here is called. a lovely but very thin beach (due to the last hurricane last autumn) with the whitest and coolest (temperaturewise) sand i've ever seen and beautifully coloured water. a lot of u.s. american tourists gather here, but i can live with that - for a week...

after the busy last week it's really cool chilling out a bit now. reading and swimming as much as possible, hanging around the pool and in bars at night - what a leisure. mmh, that's holidays!

i hope i made you're a tiny bit jealous now and if: i don't mind, hehe!

so see y'all later and have fun.

a week in yucatan

ok. let's go.

after having had a long and necessary "nap" of i don't know how many hours, we started our tour of yucatan very relaxed by going to see a smaller mayan site on the roed up north of merida on tuesday. we spent some time there and headed further north to have some food at the sea, where it was quite windy, but: it was the sea, folks. i really missed the ocean throughout the time back in germany, i realize now. well, after living a year by the sea you kind of get used to it i think.

after another night in the busy yucatecan capital merida - loud buses, cars and motorbikes the whole day long, a lot of dirt and many many friendly mexicans and nice mxican food we finally left the city and headed for the coast again.

we went to celestun - a tiny fisher's town at the mexican golf coast, where we found a simple but very nice hotel at the beach. the town is near a huge lagoon and we went on a boat tour there to see the mangrove woods and the many flamingoes and other birds living there. thrilling trip that was!

and the next day - after a good morning swim in the kind of algae-smelly sea we drove on to the next very very famous site: uxmal.

uxmal is the most flashing site i saw throughout the last week. it's a huge complex consisting of several pyramids, temples, other buildings, a lot of plants and trees. all in all it's not as flat as chichen-itza is which makes it more interesting to look at.

after sunset we came back to the site (we stayed in a hotel close-by) to see an impressing light show. wow!

ok. i think that's it for part 2 of our first week, more about our journey soon...

¡HOLA!

hey my friends out there in the jungle called life! i myself am somehow almost quite for sure in a real jungle at the moment. well, it's "junglish", one might say - and some others just call it yucatan, the peninsula in mexico's southeast.

and here i am, travelling around with my folks: my sister, my parents and a good friend of ours. for almost a week we've been on the road now and seen a lot of beautiful places.

but it wasn't easy at all to get here. my father and i wanted to take a "nice and easy" flight from munich via madrid and mexico city to cancun. doesn't sound the quickest way to come here, and - believe me - it wasn't. as we were booked on a flight last saturday night something made us change our plans: the awful snow conditions in munich which were so harsh that they cancelled our flight. after waiting 5 hours to be booked on another flight and waiting around the rest of the night we started on sunday morning in munich to fly to madrid, direction mexico. but in madrid the transatlantic plane was a tiny bit late (3 hours), so that we missed our connecting flight in miami (which should have brought us to cancun). after a short but good night of sleep, we finally came to cancun, one day late. but once on the airport we were really lucky to see my sister who waited for us. the only thing that didn't wait for us was our luggage.

to summarize our journey to get here: after never having had many problems on my previous flights, this time everything that can go wrong actually did go wrong.

but here we are now: in a land rich of sites, that belong to the historic and cultural heritage of mayan culture, we've got our hired car that brings us there and we saw so many things i won't forget in the last few days. we've got sun the whole day long and a reasonable amount of heat, hehe.

we left cancún immediateley after hiring our car and left for mérida. on our way we stopped at chichen-itza, one of the largest and most famous mayan temples on this peninsula. as we had little time, we had to rush a bit, but it 's a very impressing site indeed, although there are quite a few similarities to aztec pyramids in central mexico, i think. i'll post some photos as soon as possible. phew!

oh my golly, it's been so much, we saw and did, this one post won't do it.

well, after seeing chichen-itza we drove to mérida in the afternoon heat, and finally got there in the early evening to meet my mother and our friend sigi. we had a nice hotel in the center of yucatan's capital, quite near to the zócalo (the main, central place of each mexican city).

and after the first real mexican dinner at night last monday my father and i had to regain power via sleep - a long, long sleep...

(to be continued very soon...)

oi oi oi!

oi people of da world!

long time no news - as usual. but here i am: still among the living and back for some lines.

i'm still sitting in snowy and freezing cold augsburgo, but soon soon soon i'm gonna rush off to warmer places. and that'll be on saturday, when my plane leaves from munich via madrid to mexico d.f.

yeah! it's gonna be warm, nice and holidays, hehe. and i want all of you to be freaking jealous. but, nevermind, i'll post some pix, while i'm there (or afterwards). I'm gonna travel around, swim and look at old maya sites with my whole family, as we're meeting my sister there, who's staying abroad for a couple of months - researching for her diploma and otherwise surfing the caribbean waves... (check out helenshunting.blogspot.com to learn more)

so, see you all soon and have fun while i'm away. once i'm back we'll meet a.s.a.p. i hope.

cheers!

p.s.: and finally some tips on recent (and ancient) stuff:
read, listen or watch some of the following:
- richard ashcroft "keys to the world"
- starsailor "on the outside"
- frank schätzing "der schwarm"
- babyshambles "down in albion"
- "walk the line"
- whomadewho
- belle & sebastian "the life pursuit"
- isobell campbell & mark lanegan "ballad of broken seas"
- "skaggerak"
- wolf parade
and never never forget to admire and listen to everything by: THE CLASH!!!

a happy new year!!!

hey folks out there.

and again it's been ages since i've written the last few words on this nice little bloggy-blog. but there has been christmas and new year's eve and all the other things to do and celebrate with my family and friends. it was all very nice and cosy indeed and i had a bloody good time and really relaxed holidays.

last week i had the opportunity to read at the opening of an art exhibition - i was reading texts on colour by alexander theroux and some poems and i've got the feeling the audience (and me too of course) enjoyed it very much.

well, there were even more cultural events: the "brevier mamba" was performed again on the 6th of january and will be performed again tomorrow in munich at the orangerie (englischer garten) at 6 p.m. seems to be the start of a world tour, hehe... the "reviews" by the audience were quite good so far. of course some couldn't deal with the structure of the whole book and our scenic presentation thereof.

mmh, is there anything more to say? yes, there is:
2005 was a wonderful year for me. i had such a good time. and luck. finally found love (or love found me?). came back from england and am able to enjoy germany again (which i wasn't before i left). saw, heard and read loads of fantastic new stuff. YEAH, 2005 REALLY ROCKED MY WORLD!!! and 2006 will hopefully continue like that...

okay. i think this shall do it for the moment.

see you all soon my friends out there in the jungle we call life...

finally again!

yes! it's me again. finally... but as i was really busy (i've got the feeling i kind of repeat myself) the last month. a lot of theatre shows to do, in between a spoken word performance at a brilliant club night called 2zkb (means "zwei zimmer-küche-bad) at the kerosin. and then last weekend two shows with our new performance of the "brevier mamba" at a nice loacation combined with a lot of paintings of the author.

you see, i definitely was busy and therefor it's not just another easy exuse. nevertheless other people have been busy too, especially my dear little sister, who's up and away once again. she left to mexico for acouple of month to do some research and work for her dissertation. and if anyone of my readers does know her and is interested in her life overseas just check out the link helen's hunting next to you on the right side, she's busy posting at the moment and i very much enjoy her texts.

well, time flies. and soon it'll be christmas and then new year's eve. as usual i don't have any presents yet and there are still plenty of things to do and prepare. i've got to get some lessons ready for next thursday at school, and some stuff for uni too.

but today and tomorrow it's time for some cultural events. tonight i'm going to watch a play produced by our "huge" city theatre her in auxburg and tomorrow it's popular culture at its best: franz ferdinand's gonna rock munich and i'll check it out. quite expensive, but i hope they're worth it. support act are the rakes and so it should be one hell of a night.

so long for now and rock on!!!

see y'all soon.

monday: not a fun day

well, it's one of these mondays: got up way to early, sat in a seminar by quarter past eight and haven't had anything to eat yet. tired, bored and still a long day to come.

but what a great weekend! we had a very smooth and succesful premiere of our play on saturday and a nice party afterwards. the audience was very good, it was great fun playing and no major accidental incident happened. i can only ask all of you theatre enthusiasts to visit one of our shows throughout the next two weeks, if you get any close to auxburg and its university

well, now it's time for me to rush off again to sell some more tickets for the mentioned shows...

so long and thanx for the fish!