music and fans

Another conversation I had about music included discussion about 'real' and 'fake' fans.

There's thins thing, I can listen to a band for years, know lots of their songs, but have no freaking idea how they look like or what names of band members are. Ok, nowadays with digital music spreading to all devices I often see album covers and there's high probability to see band members' faces. I even noticed a member of 2PM starring in drama without any notion from credits... That was off-topic.

I still don't know names of band members. Of course, if it's a singer that goes by his/her own name, I would know it. Otherwise... nope. Not particularly interested. 

I was listening to Scorpions for the most part of my life (20+ years) and I still don't remember any names. I know I saw them mentioned, but all that information escaped my mind. I know titles/lyrics of most of their songs, I know how they look like - and that's all. 

Therefore one person told me I'm not a real fan of... anyone. If you're a 'real' fan, you must strive to know everything about your admired person. Including underwear color, lol. 

That led me to conclusion that I'm not a fan of 'anyone', meaning singer / composer / performer, I like MUSIC. 

When you admire a painting, do you take it apart and worship canvas, oils, brushes and rags used to create it?

The same logic applies to music for me. 

I hope Scorpions won't be offended that I don't know their names (lol) after 20 years. Though I'm sure they wouldn't.

As for 'real' fans - I don't like obsessive behavior. I understand that entertainment feeds fantasies. And fantasies tend to go out of proportion. Just look how many people want certain performers 'for themselves' and how many girls would willingly marry some 'cute' boy / handsome man from a pop / rock band (same goes for males, only marriage is less often mentioned).

Hm, that makes me fel happy and not a 'real' fan of anyone...

music and lives

Few days ago Depeche Mode had a show in our city. 

I do not wish to speak ill of something I haven't attended, so I'll leave judging to those who paid enormous money to be present there. Still, Youtube vids speak for themselves...

Ok, ok, performance quality aside, Depeche Mode and discussion why I didn't go (firstly, why should I? I can name only 1 or 2 of their songs) made me recall why I don't attend lives anymore - and my relationship with music in general.

Let me tell you, that now I cannot imagine what would make me pay money to attend a live in fan zone. I just don't find it fun or exciting to mix with reckless crowd that has no regard for safety or public order. I don't fancy having my feet crushed by someone who 'has' to dance or jump the whole show, and better yet - wearing high heels (yes, a lot of 'girls' still wear them to lives). I don't fancy all the pickpocketing that happens (hm, where would I put my car keys?). I don't fancy being splashed with beer and other alcohol people must buy to entertain themselves. I don't fancy fights in the audience.

And I plain hate people who record everything that happens on the stage with their not-so-professional-as-they-think camera on the phone, making it hard to see anything. I have no sympathy for men that let their girlfriends ride their necks so they can have a better view of the stage or just for 'fun' - that means you'll see even less. 

Another reason lives have become such a disappointment for me is sound quality. People forgot what sound check is for. Or, rather, since stage equipment and sound setup can provide good sound only to a portion of audience, stage management makes a decision to favor certain areas. Which usually results in horrible sound everywhere except vip central areas and dreaded fan zone. There's another aspect, though... typically I attend live performance to hear ARTIST sing live - not my pals from audience singing and screaming verses (even if they know them). Sadly, in most cases 'singing' of the audience makes it almost impossible to get any satisfaction from artist's vocals.

Bottom line is, what's left? You pay big money - and the amount seems even bigger if you compare wages and prices in this forsaken country - to get what? 

I'll support artists by buying their digital music, thank you very much.  

初キス

今日のエントリーは、ちょっと恥ずかしいかもしれない。

昨日、昔の頃について友達と話をした。彼女はどうしてか初キスの事を話に持ち出した。「初キスなんて絶対忘れはしない」と彼女は言った。

その瞬間、私は初キスの事を覚えていないことに気付いた。
正直に「私は覚えていない」と言ったら、友達に「あなたはマジで変だ」と言われた。

それから考え始めた。
もしかして私は本当に変なのかもしれない。
普通はその事を大切にすべきだ。

まる一日考えた後、けっきょく初キスのことを思い出した。
どうしてすぐに思い出さなかったんだろう。

悪い記憶じゃなかったから、思い出して当然なのに。
たぶん、私は変な女だ。

~かねない

冬に暖かい服装をしていないと、酷い風邪を引くことになりかねない。

more for ~かねない:

彼はどんな悪事でもやりかねない。
彼ならそれくらいの事はいいかねない。
彼は望む物を手に入れるためには人をもだましかねない。

bowling / боулинг в Блокбастере

Yesterday I was out with friends and close to midnight we happened to pay a visit to one of 'entertainment' complexes (huge buildings with restaurants, cinemas, clubs, etc.

Surprisingly at 23:30 there were no movies available, so we decided to spend an hour in bowling. 

A mistake.

As far as I remembered from previous times, that precise bowling was supposed to be ok. But it wasn't.

 

 

 

At the photo of bowling balls you can have a glimpse of how awful they were: some had indentations 1cm deep (how one can do that to a bowling ball, for god's sake? it's as hard as rock) and most were greasy and sleak on the outside and inside. We had trouble throwing them, because they tried their best to slip from your hands - and I actually lost a lot of points because ball would slip form my hand at the swing. 

To hell with points, but I also hurt my hand because of that. It started to ache and last 15 minutes I played with my left hand (you remember that I'm re-taught lefty?).

Another con for that bowling clubs is the fact that they have small amount of balls less than 10kg - and those you can find have holes so narrow even my fingers can't fit in. 

It was also hard on me because usually I prefer 8kg balls, but had to deal with 10/11/12kg ones. 

Some girls around us were throwing 6kg balls from their lap, like children throw balls to one another - apparently because they didn't want to lift 10kg ones and couldn't grab 6kg ones any other way. 

It wasn't a very happy ending for the evening, I can tell you.  A shame. A shame for a place. It used to be ok.

But they charged pretty good money for that hour - 240hrn or $30.

aircrafts

what always amused me in air transportation is that you can travel to another part of the world in several hours.
it feels kinda weird to be in one region in the morning and arrive in another in the afternoon.

ニックネームと自信

今年、可笑しい事に気づき始めました。 

隣りの子供たちは、愛称をぜんぜん使っていないみたいです。 いつも相手の名前を略さずに呼んでいます。 

例えば私が子供の頃、家族と友達はいつも私を愛称で呼んでいました。 それで私も友達のことをその友達が賛成した愛称で呼んでいました。愛称で呼んだら、今直ぐ同情心があるの気がした、それとも「他人じゃない」の態度で話をしました。

 

両親が愛称を使わなければ、私は何らかの迷惑をかけたとわかりました。 

私たちは、友達の呼び方をたくさん知っていました。 別の状況で別の呼び方を使い分けました。 

愛称について今の両親の意見が違っているかもしれません。 

私には三歳の姪がいるので、兄嫁にその問題を聞いみました。 

「子供を愛称で呼ぶと、子供の自信が減る」の理論は人気があるみたいです。

 嘘でしょ。 

自信と愛称の関係は何ですか。 

愛された子供が自信を持つ子供だと思いませんか。

愛称は、どうかこの責任を持っているという意見で、両親は細かい事を心配している・・・大事な事より心配しています。 

学校でも「愛称を使うのは反対」という両親がいるの、先生と喧嘩するぐらい・・・ 

ほとんど信じられない話だけど、本当です。 

まったく、人間はおろかな者でしょ。 何かがいいとなれば、「真実だ」と結論に到達します。

ロシア語には、愛称がいつも存在しました。 現在、何が変わったの。