scala and kolacny brothers

yet again i was spending (wasting) my time on youtube in search for the best soundtrack to get me motivated for work.

-> dont try it, it wont work

but instead, when i listened to one of my favourite german songs "hungriges Herz" from the berlin band MIA, I stumbled across a cover version.
At first I really did not care much or it. I found it way too soft, as if washed with fabric softener. I read the recent comments and went back to the original. but one comment never left me:"es kommt doch immer darauf an wo man das lied hört. beim bestuhlten scala konzert passt hunriges herz 100%ig in das wundervolle ambiente. auf einem sommerfestival ist es aber mindestens genauso toll das lied beim mia-gig mitzusingen. dann würde ich von der scala version nichts wissen wollen..." it shows that eeryhting is a matter of perspective. I went back to the scala cover, and noticed to my delight that they had made covers of many different songs, which I flipped through. In the meantime I fell for the band. by now their cover of creep is under "fave links" and the CD in my player.

what I really like is that these girls really can sing. they get the choir acoustics perfect: whistper, loud soft. this creates a real goosebump feeling. secondly, they take the songs and do their own thing with them but still manage to keep the meaning. this means that they can cover a whole range of artists: marylin manson, placebo, kylie minogue, die ärzte, rammstein, U2. thirdly, the arrangement also is pretty neat. often it just is piano played by the conductor, sometimes strings, percussion, depending on what the song needs.
It is calming music mixing the traditional elements of choir with modern texts, meanings and sounds. currently my favourite song (which I have on CD) is the cover of joga by björk.

the girl choir from belgium are playing a gig at the street festival in saarbrücken the first week of my summer break. I hope that i can go see them (yay its even for free) and perhaps meet with some friends from jsut over the border at the same time.

I remain right though. you could criticise that despite great dynamics, the many voices take away the edges which destinguish many artists and songs, but in the end I must agree that it all depends on where you are. a few days later I was back on youtube and clicked on the hungriges herz cover again. this time I didn't get bored half way through, but now value the cover as much as the original, because both carry the message of hurt love in their own way.
the picture is from the choir's website www.kolacny.com

mshff

when i wrote my entry previously i realised in a shock that we've had this blog more than a year. this means pragathi has been gone for more than a year.

its unbelievable how quickly time can fly, i still can remember casablaca like yesterday, the roaming around town (I actually know a lot more cool places i could ahve taken you to now), bugging teachers and driving fellow students insane.

time for a news update. a lot has changed. ISS has changed. the atmosphere of a desperate clinging, the suspense before the potential fall, the depression so to speak, is gone now. with the new headmaster, not that much has changed, but you can feel a completely different atmosphere. despite tense financial crisis, there is new hope. desperation has moved on, and teachers and students alike notice it.

but what concretely is new? the lunch stand has moved back into the fishbowl, they also sell soup now, and a brezel for 45 cents, good for the poor hungry student (eg. me), the necessity of a weekly assembly is gone, and next year we shall get better fieldtrips again. the this years one was horribly organised.

on the other side, the down sides, which mark iss life are still there: mr. t and my new "wonderful" tok teacher, a not (well) functioning student coucil, too much homework, too many assessments and the usual people you dont care much for seeing.

social life is much the same too. theres the ppl that drink and go out, and the ones that dont, and the americans. nothing really new. then endless on and off of couples: let me see, maddie and michael are going out, jeff has a gf in 10th grade, yannik and jule on their second run etc etc etc.

as for my own aspirations im still into medicine and of course dancing. I still am passionate about things i like and probably annoy everyone with it, and apart from a slight german diction reform (i weeded out most of the slang I hope) and a weird love life, its as you know me :). well to the last part I must add that fayes love life is definately much more interesting. Im not too keen on mine rumouring around school.

this time in a year im free(of school/to visit india). wow, rather scary thought(the schooll part).

I dance again

yesterday I went to ballet lessons in my dance club in ludwigsburg. My feet have been itching for the pirrouettes, the jumps, the excercises on the "stange", jsut as my body has yearned or complete control, form finertips, to body weight to non sticking out body parts, to head motions, everything has to be paid attetion to at once.
yes, i used to dance. i started before I can remember, i must have been 5 or 6 years old. I vaguely remmember my first ballet school, it was near to where ISS is now, but when the teacher changed, i went somewhere closer to home. of this i remember much, plastic fingernails, a new colour each week, pointing my arms, my stomach, my neck, my bum, correcting my heels to point forewards. then her voice, a slight foreign accent, and rather strict. she made the girls cry a couple of times, but not me, as far as i can remember. I was always good, never the best, but good. I stopped when I hit puberty. It was too much peer pressure saying ballet was stupid, i didnt like the other girls there, had no connection with them. thats something which i thnk i could now get along with, btu not insecure me at 12 years of age.
The ballet fever never rerally left me. it was my ballet teacher who encouraged my mum to buy me my first latin shoes, when we met her coincidentally downtown. On her advice from then, i started up dancing more intensely again, with the formation, and now im back where i started: ballet.
Its scary to realise how much i have forgotten. the french names of the excercises sound familiar though, in a really good way. my new teacher, male, american and also with a foreign accent noticed that. yesterday, when i sneaked into the beginners group, and then watched the advanced one, he called me over and told me my body was good for ballet. I was happy, even more so as it seems like i will be better than an S class latin dancer, who started with me yesterday. im still rubbish at latin, so that gave me a bit of an ego boost.
so lets see where it gets me. I enjoyed the almost empty class (5 including me, 4 in the advanced class), which means everyone can be paid special attention to and left with the promise of coming by next week as well.