Rhonda's Blog

Global2000 Geburtstagsfest

Rhonda — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:53:00

No, my blog isn't dead, and neither is me. It's just that way too many things happened since this year's debconf that got me a bit off tracks. I managed to do daily business like keeping my packages in shape and the backports queue low, and that was mostly it.

No clue if that will change anytime soon, but I guess I would like to keep you updated with an event where you can meet me next week: There will be the Global 2000 Birthday Party going on in the WUK on Thursday 20th, so if you happen to be in Vienna at that time, drop by and enjoy some great bands.

... which brings me to one of the local bands from Vienna: Heinz aus Wien. They are around for well over 10 years now and are still rocking quite well. Here are some examples of their songs, like always:

Wir sind immer noch: A sort of love song for this great town, Vienna.
Lieb im Prinzip: A very pithy song about relationships.
Ich hab mit Tocotronic Bier getrunken: Quite funny song from their early days, and interestingly, people regularly claim that it was done by a different band ...

Like always, enjoy!

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Reinhard Mey

Rhonda — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:02:00

This is a very special person. He is a very well known songwriter, at least in German language countries because he sings in German. He was that special kind of person with his lyrics when I was still a kid, and is still around continuing to write his songs in his very own special way. This person is Reinhard Mey, and if you understand German and have missed him so far, you have missed a lot.

The songs that I present to you are special in the way that they are all contained in the special compilation titled Mein Apfelb�umchen. The dedication he wrote for the album is also very special:

Ich glaube, Kinder zu haben ist das aufregendste Abenteuer, das wir erleben k�nnen. Es ist der schwerste Beruf und die gr��te Herausforderung, die ich mir denken kann, und die gl�cklichste Erfahrung zugleich. Ich bin dankbar daf�r! Dies sind die Lieder, die ich bis heute daf�r geschrieben habe. Mein Anteil aus dem Erl�s dieser Schallplatte gebe ich der Hilfe f�r krebskranke Kinder.

Rough translation: I believe that having kids is the most exciting adventure that we can undergo. It is the hardest job and the biggest challenge that I can think of, and at the same time the happiest experience. I'm thankful for it! These are the songs that I wrote up to today for it. My part of the revenues of this record go to Help for children with cancer.

So here are the songs:

Mein Apfelb�umchen: The song that gave this compilation its title. Extremely touching, and it manages regularly to wet my eyes... Absolutely lovely.
Keine ruhige Minute: This is actually a live version of the song with a longer introduction that is worth listening to on its own.
Menschenjunges: A thoughtful song about the thoughts when seeing your kid for the first time.

Enjoy! And if you feel like it, support these kind of special people.

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It's MY Life

Rhonda — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:38:00

Sometimes people will tell you what you should do. Sometimes they will even shout at you for simply asking a question on why they want something done because it isn't clear just from itself. And others likes to jump the boat and join in just for the fun of it...

Gladly, this is MY life, and I choose how much abuse I'm willing to take, especially for a voluntary work that I didn't even enroll for but got put into. Sometimes through my dedication to getting quality into things and seeing that others simply neglect these areas, but they need to get addressed anyway, no matter how little respect is shown for people investing in these boring areas.

The topic of It's MY Life is an old one and thus it is no surprise that a fair amount of songs surrounding it popped up over time. In my previous blog entry I wrote about different interpretations, some responses seem to hint that I wasn't clear enough about that I really meant different interpretations of the same lyrics, not just regular cover versions.

The following set of songs is special in a different sense: It is about the same song title and thus does also cover different bands.

Dr. Alban: Let's start with a rather old one.
No Doubt: This is the band that Gwen Stefani got known through.
Bon Jovi: No matter what you might think about Bon Jovi, they for sure wrote some pretty touching songs.

Like always, enjoy! And think about how you interact with others. I know that I'm sometimes crossing a line myself too, no one is perfect. What though makes the difference is the willingness to learn, and especially: To excuse. But in the end: It's MY life!

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Different Interpretations

Rhonda — Wed, 04 May 2011 06:07:00

Mostly everything in life boils down to the same troublesome issue: people are reading different things into what they read, and interpret them regularly in a way it wasn't meant to. It seems that in certain areas a culture of interpreting things in a bad way instead of good or asking how they were actually meant has established the rules of (not) working together but rather against each other and around each other. At times I would like to account it to language barriers, or cultural differences, but it happens with people from all areas so that reasoning would be too easy.

Even artists manage to do that, and in that certain area it creates something extremely creative and thoughtful. This blog entry thus contains three songs—and six videos: Two different interpretations of the same lyrics. Maybe this is able to stir some thinking process whether the interpretation that one found for a given situation might be biased or even just looking from the wrong angle.

Imagine (John Lennon vs. A Perfect Circle): It gives me the shivers when thinking about what a different tune and might turn the same lyrics into. The various videos going with this interpretation make me even cry, and since the official video might be blocked in your country I linked one of the private made ones.
Mad World (Tears For Fears vs. Gary Jules): You might not have known the original (Tears For Fears is well known for other songs actually) but only the cover, which was in the soundtrack of Donnie Darko.
Drive (R.E.M. vs. R.E.M.): You read correctly: a band covering itself is rare but it happens. And yes, when I heard the live version back in the years it was a quite enlightening situation.

Enjoy!

One thing I'd like to mention, and that is two cross references to former blog entries. For the first song, James Iha played as guitarist in The Smashing Pumpkins before he joined A Perfect Circle. The second cross reference is with respect to my former blog entry about the Wise Guys: They did also cover Mad World, in the Gary Jules' interpretation but of course in a capella.

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Wise Guys

Rhonda — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:32:00

My brother did invite me to the concert of the Wise Guys, a German acapella group. They are one of those special groups who are able to give a cheering live show and have this special cheek-in-tongue humour in a fair amount of their songs. This is the selection that helps me keeping my mood up though, you are invited to dig further.

Jetzt ist Sommer: This was the first song I heard from them and got me interested to dig further into this band. And yes, it's true, summer is an inner feeling, not something governed by the outer world.
Lass die Sonne scheinen: I have the feeling that this is a sequel to the former song. And it definitely helps too.
Am Ende des Tages: No matter how your day went, what matters most are the people you think of at the end of the day.

Hope you are able to appreciate them as much as I am. At least they are able to cheer me up a fair bit.

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