Tag: life

Let’s talk about Tom

Hola everyone.

As most of you probably know, when it comes to music, I’m head over heels in love with Indie music. Two Door Cinema Club, Nothing But Thieves, The Wombats and Twenty One Pilots are just a few of the bands that make my heart leap a little bit while listing to their music. This kind of music has been dominating my taste in music the past years, since 2013, when I finally started developing a good taste (thank god). But as pretty much everyone on this planet, I don’t always stick to my own rules, which is why I’d always fly to Amsterdam again to see Martijn or to Zürich to see Ed live. They both couldn’t be any more different to Indie music, but nonetheless they are two of my favorite musicians and biggest loves. And today I’d like to talk about another one of those special voices and musicians, that I couldn’t live without anymore. Today I’d like to talk about the one and only Tom Rosenthal.

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First of all, let me introduce you to Tom. Tom is an English singer-songwriter (of course), who lives in London together with his family – he has two young daughters, so cute – and has been making music since, like, forever, pretty much, by which I mean that he released his very first singles and album in 2011. Since then he has been making and putting music out there about every year or month or so. And right now he’s working on a sleepy album (many people go to sleep while listening to his music, which totally makes sense, trust me) and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m already so deeply in love with it, although I haven’t heard anything from it. I just know it’s going to be breathtakingly good.

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But what about his music? Well, if I had to describe it, I would say that it’s the kind of music you want to listen to while you sit outside, on a warm summer night, maybe with some friends, looking at the stars. It’s what you want to listen to when you feel at ease, in total peace with the world. But above that all, it’s the kind of music that is literally meant to be listened to on a drive home at midnight while you stare out of the window at the night sky. That’s the kind of music Tom makes. And let me tell you something, it’s literally pure heaven, and I’m not even exaggerating there, it truly is. It’s sad and happy at the same time, so peaceful and emotional, both fast and slow and it breaks your heart and mends it right after that. Actually, it’s pretty much impossible to describe his music and to put into words how much I love it. Especially the past months I’ve been listening to his songs 24/7. For me it’s the perfect soundtrack to work to, write texts and so on. Oh and of course it’s amazing for a peaceful, chill cooking session. God, I just love it so much. It makes me want to feel alive, to enjoy my life and experience literally everything. It’s really a pure gift, honestly.

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I actually came across Tom’s music while watching one of Will’s videos (Will Darbyshire – my photography idol). And I immediately fell for it. Unfortunately it took me quite a while to finally look him up and start listening to his songs, but since then he’s been a stable, seriously. He even was my most listened artist in 2017 – thanks to Spotify for all the analytical stuff – and that’s really saying something. And as I always dedicate posts to my favorite artists, I thought that a post about Tom and his music was well overdue, so here it is.

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But that’s actually all I’m able to tell you about Tom’s music, as telling you more would just spoil it or wouldn’t do it enough justice. His music speaks enough for itself. You don’t even need my talk, it’s all about his songs. So please, guys, enjoy the following list of my favorite songs by Tom – and yes, it was indeed far too hard to choose, but I did it. And apart from listening to his bloody amazing songs you also get to experience his awesome videos, which are a form of art on themselves, let’s be honest.

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So yeah guys, there you go. That’s Tom Rosenthal, one of the biggest musical geniuses out there. I thoroughly hope you enjoy his music as much as I do and that it inspires you. As always, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts and comments down below. And yeah, I hope you’re all doing good and wish you an amazing weekend. And, of course, thanks for reading. x

Ps: Here’s a little sneak peek of Tom’s upcoming sleepy album… and yes, it is indeed one of the best one minute music clips ever made.

 

Taking pictures with my camera

Hola everyone.

So, as some of you may have noticed, on my last post I focused on the photographic ability of my iPhone. I went out and about and took pictures with my phone and as I already mentioned in that post, I was seriously pleasantly surprised. They turned out far better than I had imagined. Actually, the looked pretty amazing. Here’s the post if you want to check it out – click me.

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And in addition to that post, I thought I’d now make a post to directly compare those pictures with ones I’ve taken with my professional camera. I again went out into my garden and took some shots of the nature around me. As you can see down below, unfortunately I couldn’t always take the same pictures as the ones I took with my phone, mostly because everything had already changed so much and other plants and flowers had started to bloom. And as you can probably guess, it would have also been pretty boring to just take the same pictures over and over again. Bye bye artistic creativity, am I right? But I of course also tried to take some similar shots of the same flowers, so we can directly compare them.

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As you can see at the pictures, the main difference between the pictures I took with my iPhone and the one I took with my Sony Alpha 6000 camera is the sharpness of the pics. You can clearly see everything in the pics, even the smallest petals and their structures. But personally, I don’t even mind that my phone isn’t able to take pictures with such a high definition, because then I wouldn’t need my camera, which I would never give away. I love it too much and I want a reason to use it. Apart from that I think that all over, the vibes of the photo series are completely different. The iPhone ones look chilled, they’re more blurry. They’re basically pics you see on Instagram. And with my camera they just look professional, which they also are, of course. They just seem like someone put more effort into making them. I don’t know, that’s just my perception.

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But what do you think? Which pictures do you enjoy more? I’m really curious to hear your thoughts and opinions, so please don’t hesitate to leave them down below. And until then I hope you enjoy these pictures and that you’re doing good. And, as always, I wish you a nice weekend and thanks for reading. x

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Taking pictures with my iPhone

Hola everyone.

I’m not quite sure whether I’m saying this too early or not, but it really seems like Summer is literally just around the corner. Which means the weather gets warmer, people start crawling out of their dark caves into the light and the nature all around us is finally coming back to life. And that actually has to be my most favorite part of Spring/early Summer season – all these different pops of color in the landscape.

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That also means I’ve spent the past few weeks walking around in Vienna and at home, admiring all this beauty of the nature. Which also gave me a good reason to start photographing  again. But this time I thought I’d give the whole photography part a new twist and take the pictures with my iPhone camera instead of my professional one. You guys know that I usually use my Sony Alpha 6000 to take my pictures, but I thought I’d give the phone a chance to prove itself. And holy moly, I wasn’t let down.

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Just so you guys know, I took all of these pictures with my iPhone 6S. And I don’t even know what to say, because these pictures are bloody amazing. Before this phone, I owned a Samsung Galaxy S5 (I think) and I never really enjoyed taking pictures with it, but the iPhone totally changed my mind. I love these pictures so so much. I mean, of course they aren’t as good as the pictures I take with my Sony, but holy moly, for a phone these look absolutely fantastic. So, props to the makers, really.

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I actually wanted to make this post to show you guys that sometimes a phone can really be a good choice and substitute if you want to take nice pictures but don’t have a professional camera. I’m seriously so happy with how these pictures turned out and I hope you enjoy them too. As always, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts and comments down below. Oh and I hope you’re doing well and wish you an awesome weekend. And, of course, thanks for reading. x

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News News News

Hola everyone.

I hope you’re all doing good. Holy moly, I have so much to tell you, I don’t even know where to start. So, I think I’ll just start with the most exciting part – the fact that Avengers Infinity War is finally out and that I already saw it the day it came out and that it freaking blew me away.

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So yeah, as you can see, it indeed was an experience. I just don’t know whether I enjoyed or just endured it. First of all I have to say that I waited for this movie to come out for months, seriously. Me and my friend hyped each other up every single day just to make the wait a little less painful. And then the day finally came. We had already bought the tickets one month prior to the screening and of course, it was completely sold out. We chose to watch it in IMAX as this is literally the format the movie was made for. And that’s true guys. I’ve never seen such a phenomenal quality. I mean, the movie mostly plays in space, somewhere on crazy, fascinating planets and there’s literally a racoon, Rocket, and everything still looks so real. This movie really is the peak of the Marvel movies, no joke. It doesn’t get more epic than that. At least when it comes to the movie itself.

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Looking at the story and what happens throughout the movie, I’m not quite sure if I enjoyed those two and a half hours. It was more like watching your fan world fall apart. But I’ll of course keep all the information for me, Thanos demands my silence. But I can just tell you, that the movie seriously is something else. And, another unpopular opinion, I think that Thanos is a good villain. The best, to be honest. Because he doesn’t act out of pure joy or fun. He really thinks that what he’s doing is for a greater good and he truly believes in it. And I mean, he’s pretty much a total idiot, but at some point during the movie I really understood him. I understood the meaning of his doing. I mean, I don’t like what he’s doing or has done, but I get it. And that’s all I’m going to say for now. But please guys, go and watch this movie. It’s freaking fantastic and I love this whole universe with all of my heart.

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Okay, so, that was that part. It probably won’t surprise you that I watched another movie in the last week, besides Infinity War. Another amazing movie called Stronger. Here’s a little description I found on Rotten Tomatoes:

STRONGER is the inspirational and heroic true-life story of Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal), the man whose iconic photo from the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing captured the hearts of the world.

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So yeah, that pretty much says it all. For me, the movie was a whole different experience. It made me sad and happy and angry all at once. And I’m not sure whether that was intended or not, but the movie really made me think. About society and the USA. I mean, this guy lost both of his legs and the world around him acts like he’s a hero and nobody sees behind that and notices that Jeff is falling into a dark hole, right into depression. At some point he doesn’t even care if he dies and all his mum and the rest of his family is interested in is when he’s finally going to do that interview with Oprah. I mean, how superficial and stupid is that? But that’s society and it’s so so sad. I can really just recommend this one to any of you who are interested in movies like this one. It’s really really good. And Jake Gyllenhaal is freaking fantastic, please finally give this guy his Oscar.

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And last but not least, here are the most important music news of the past week. Nothing But Thieves have released two new cover songs to celebrate record store day. And holy moly guys, I was literally speechless when I listened to them, especially their cover of Crazy be Cee Lo Green. You all probably know the original version, it’s a classic, but I have to say, I honestly can’t stand it. I really can’t. But it seems like NBT made it their mission to change that. And god, I would’ve never thought that it was possible, but they seriously made it possible. I couldn’t believe my ears when I first listened to it. It’s basically one of the most epic songs I’ve ever heard and I want it to be the end credits song for Infinity War. God, that would be so amazing. And their other cover is freaking awesome too. I just love Conor’s voice so much. What an amazing band, wow. But hey, hear for yourself.

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So yeah guys, there you are. Those are all the news I have for you, at least the most important ones. I hope you enjoy them. Oh, and please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts and comments down below. And yeah, again, I hope you’re all doing good and wish you an amazing week. And, as always, thanks for reading. x

A Life to Remember

Hola everyone.

You guys can probably guess by looking at the title picture… Today’s post is going to a be a bit different than my others, but I think that this is the right thing to do and I just really want to share this.

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So, three days ago we lost one of the best musicians and biggest names in music out there – Tim Bergling aka Avicii. And while typing this, reading it, black on white, I’m still unable to fully process it. This has to be a very very bad dream, surely…

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I actually got the notification from a friend. Just these four words: Laura. Avicii is dead. And suddenly everything fell silent. She also sent me a link to a Variety article about it, but it sent me over to one of these pages where they just throw ads over ads at you, the ones that scream virus. And there was this small piece of hope inside me that thought “oh my god, that surely has to be a fake, that page doesn’t even work”. And then I looked at Twitter and there it was. His name. Right at the top of the trending topics list. And from that moment on I just stood there, looking out of the window and searching the internet for the truth. I looked at postings after postings from the EDM world telling the world and Tim’s family their condolences. Martijn, David Guetta, The Chainsmokers and so many more. And I just stood there with nothing to say. Eventually the tears started rolling down my face and I just let them. I was so hurt…

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And I know that it’s a bit weird to feel that broken because a musician died that I never knew personally. I understand why people would think it’s weird, as he probably was just another DJ for many. But I don’t just listen to music. I always create a bond between the musician or band and myself. And Tim wasn’t any different.

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Tickets to his concert were the birthday present for my 18th birthday. He was the first headliner I saw at my very first festival (Sziget). I listened to his albums over and over again, while studying, reading, doing maths, whatever. As soon as I tiptoed into the EDM world, I fell completely in love with him and his music. He eventually became a huge part of the soundtrack to my life. He was the one who got me into this amazing, unbelievably fantastic music genre. Without him I would have probably never got to know Martijn. I have so much to thank him for and now I’ll never be able to show that, express that to him and it’s making me so so sad.

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I still remember his show at Sziget like it was yesterday. I remember waiting for hours at the same spot, just so we could see him and have a good view. Just so we could enjoy his show to its fullest. And I still remember how happy he looked and what he said at the end of the show. He thanked us for being there and said that coming here, he didn’t really know what to expect but that this was one of the best shows ever and that he’s so happy. And that made me so happy. I felt so special to be able to experience that. He decided to quit touring and go on a hiatus shortly after that, but I would have never thought that this show should be my last time of seeing him. But I’m so so so freaking happy that I got to see him those two times, I can’t even describe it. His shows were literally the biggest and best parties ever. I’m just really sorry that we’ll never be able to hear and see more from him. It breaks my heart to see someone so special go at such a young age. Someone who still had pretty much their whole life waiting for them.

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Right now I’m sitting at home, wrapped in a big blanket, listening to his songs and writing this while tears are rolling down my cheeks. But that’s how Tim will live on forever – because of and through his music. So many people adored him because of his ability of creating such amazing pieces of music and that love for his music will live on. He never failed to amaze the world and even though he’s gone, he still hasn’t left fully. He never will.

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To put this to an end, I want to use my blog as a platform and way of thanking Avicii for everything he’s done:

Tim, I don’t really know how to put it into words. Thank you so much for all you’ve done. You were the one that got me into EDM and the one who brought me into this world of music and I will forever be grateful for that. You will forever be a part of the playlist of my life and I will forever keep you in my heart. I will miss you. Like crazy.

“One day you’ll leave this world behind. So live a life you will remember.”
Tim Bergling – Avicii (1989/2018)

New Music Friday

Hola everyone.

And we’re back with a new “New Music Friday“. I hope you’re all doing good and had an awesome week. Just a little update from my side: this week has been pretty amazing and god, guys, the sun is finally out and it’s just so nice. Walking around in Vienna at night has been my favorite thing to do lately, it’s so warm. I’m also already looking forward to the weekend and I hope you are too and that this little selection of songs can contribute to your weekend playlist. Please enjoy.

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Thought I Told You – The Academic

If you’ve been following some of my latest posts, then you know that this is the band I just saw live last week (here’s the post). And I mean, I loved their music before, but since then I’ve learned to really appreciate the fact that I got to see them live. They’re really awesome.

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Standing On Ghosts – Two Door Cinema Club

Well, well, well. Who would’ve known that TDCC was hiding such a bop from me all these years. You guys know my relationship with this band and I just adore their music, especially their older songs, and this is one of those. They just recently released it again to celebrate the anniversary of their very first album. And thank god they did, because this here is freaking amazing.

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Moving On – Sarah and the Sundays

This is one of the songs, that Spotify recommended to me and I just adore it. I mean, it perfectly fits this time of the year, when everything starts to bloom and become alive again. The perfect song to listen to while lying in the sun, maybe reading a good book or chatting with a friend.

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Fresh Air – FLOWVERS

The same goes for this sun. Such a fantastic spring/sommer song. I don’t know how the algorithms of Spotify work, but hell, whatever they are doing, they are doing it bloody well. They give me exactly what I need.

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Sad Boys / All I Wanna Do – TRASH

This here is one of those bands where I love listening to their music but never really go into my fangirl mode. But that doesn’t change the fact that their music is freaking amazing. And again, thanks to Spotify for recommending this and pretty much all their other songs to me, I owe you one.

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Ride Or Die – The Knocks ft. Foster The People

Guys, if you want to listen to the spring/summer song of the moment, then you just reached the right place. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty convinced that it’s this one. I’ve seriously heard this song in pretty much every single store I’ve been to the past week. It’s literally everywhere. And the thing is, it’s actually so awesome. I mean, I love Foster The People and their sound is perfect for this song. It just fits.

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Cos Love (If You Miss It) – Tom Rosenthal

I’m sorry guys, but it wouldn’t be a music playlist without Tom being a part of it. I just love his music so much. Tom, can you please go on tour, like, right now? Or at least when I’ve moved to the UK? Please. He’s literally my number one on my list of musicians I want to see live. I need to hear this song live. I need to hear all of his songs live. According to him, this song right here is the best song he’s ever written and I mean, I can’t deny that. It’s just so cute and romantic and sad. I love it.

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So yeah guys, there you go. Those are the songs I’ve been loving the past days and weeks. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Oh and please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts down below. And, as always, I wish you all an amazing weekend and thanks for reading. x