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Top of the Pops 2008 - It's still all about the music!

I promised it, now here you go: just a couple of days before 2009 starts, 2008 has to be top-fived.
Feel free to complete it with your own view (username: becauseiamguest, password: becauseweare, to handle the format just copy/paste my text)!

Actually, while creating my 2008 charts I noticed I haven't been too busy listening to new albums. Hm.


Top 5 albums:

marie (spr):

1. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals
2. Why? - Alopecia
3. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
4. Bodi Bill - Next Time
5. Ratatat - LP3/Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

benni:

1. Black Keys - Attack & Release
2. Paul Kalkbrenner - Berlin Calling OST
3. John Frusciante - The Empyrean
4. Andy C - Nightlife 4
5. MGMT - Oracular spectacular

michau:

1. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
2. Santogold - Santogold
3. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Leszek Możdżer, m.bunio.s, Andrzej Bauer - Lutosphere

maciek:

1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
2. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
3. Air France - No Way Down EP
4. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
5. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

xammm:

1. The Allman Brothers - Live At Fillmore East
2. Miles Davis - Get Up With It
3. Frank Zappa - Imaginary Diseases
4. Ezio - Live In Cambridge
5. Interpol - Antics

jani:

1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
2. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
3. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
4. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
5. M83 - Saturdays = Youth

fransua:

1. Why - Alopecia
2. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
3. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of Understatement
4. Islands - Arm's Way
5. The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me

Top 5 songs:

marie (spr):

1. Girl Talk - In Step
2. Bodi Bill - Depart
3. Louie Austen - Too Good to Last
4. Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma
5. She & Him - Why do you let me stay/Hot Chip - Out At The Pictures/Munk - Down in L.A.

benni:

1. Black Keys - Psychotic Girl
2. Paul Kalkbrenner - Gebrunn Gebrunn
3. MGMT - Time to Pretend
4. Paul Kalkbrenner - Castenets
5. Black Keys - Remember when (Side B)

michau:

1. MGMT - Electric Feel
2. Bodi Bill - Depart
3. Kraak & Smaak - Squeeze Me
4. Fisz Emade - Wiosna 86
5. Bon Iver - Skinny Love

maciek:

1. M83 - Graveyard Girl
2. MGMT - Electric Feel
3. Cut Copy - Lights & Music
4. Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
5. Hercules & Love Affair - Blind

jani:

1. Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
2. Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes
3. The Mae Shi - Run to Your Grave
4. Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma
5. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

fransua:

1. Noir Désir – Gagnants - Perdants
2. bodi bill – depart
3. Andrew Bird – Sic of Elephants
4. TV on the Radio – DLZ
5. Why? – PlayThese Few Presidents

Top 5 songs-That-Were-Already-Great-Before-I-Was-Born:

marie (spr):

1. The Motors - Airport
2. David Bowie - Heroes
3. The Zombies - Care Of Cell 44
4. Queen - Don't stop me now
5. Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind (ok no. this was a lie. (wished it was true though. I'm getting old.) but I couldn't really find any other category and it just HAD to be mentioned somewhere!)

benni:

1. Led Zeppelin - D'yer Maker
2. Van Morrison - It's all over now Baby Blue
3. The Stooges - I wanna be your dog
4. New Order - Temptation
5. Van Halen - Ain't talkin bout Love

michau:

Mhm, i think i'm still too young,
but okay, i'll write sth in few days when i'll grow older.

jani:

1. Pet Shop Boys - Heart (ok, am cheating as well, but had to be included, full points for the video, too)
2. The Motors - Airport
3. Sparks (/w Giorgio Moroder) - The Number One Song in Heaven
4. Bob Dylan - Blowin' in the Wind
5. The Velvet Underground: After hours

Top 5 concerts:

marie (spr):

1. Dan Deacon - June 13 @ West Germany Club, Berlin
2. Bodi Bill - June 2 @ Weekend Roof, Berlin
3. The Mae Shi - May 29 @ West Germany Club, Berlin
4. Aavikko - April 25 @ 103 Club, Berlin (now I'd like to thank Koskenkorva for distributing free Salmiakki. Be sure we appreciated it!)
5. Concert of this one blues band I didn't know - Sept 27 @ some café in Kreuzberg, later on in front of the café with all possible instruments. Awesome!/José Gonzales, August 17, Sziget Festival, Hungary

benni:

1. Quit Your Dayjob - Sep 23 @ SO36, Berlin

michau:

1. Massive Attack, Erik Sumo Band, Barabas Lorinc Eklektric and Fatboy Slim - 10-13th July @ Balaton Sound Festival, Zamardi, Hungary.
2. Leszek Możdżer, m.bunio.s, Andrzej Bauer - 21st October @ Filharmonia Łódzka, Łódź.
3. Dj Krush - 30th July @ Zold Pardon, Budapest, Hungary.
4. Exploding Star Orchestra - 10th September @ Jazzga, Łódź
5. Hit Me TV, I Was The Satan Teenage Worshipper - 8th November @ Klubi, Tampere, Finland (it was more about the afterparty than a concert, but still bands were our first goal).
6. Klaxons, Happy Mondays, Primal Scream - 2nd October @ Pepsi Vena Festival, Toya Studios, Łódź.
7. Barabas Lorinc Eklektric @ A38 Boat, Budapest, Hungary.

maciek:

All of them were great, but some were greater. Too many to mention.

xammm:

1. Rage Against The Machine @ Zitadelle Spandau, Berlin

jani:

The theme of my year was rather missing concerts more than seeing them but here we go anyway:
1. Sparks - June 16 @ Tavastia, Helsinki
2. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - June 26 @ Klubi, Tampere
3. The Mae Shi - May 29 @ West Germany Club, Berlin
4. The National - July 6 @ Ruisrock, Turku
5. Seppo Boisman @ Various venues

fransua:

1. TV on the Radio - (01/12/08) @ Bataclan, Paris
2. Girls in Hawaii - (07/05/08) @ L'Olympia, Paris
3. Stars - (09/02/08) @ La Maroquinerie, Paris
4. Sons and Daughters - (04/02/08) @ Maison de Radio France, Paris
5. Death Cab for Cutie - (07/07/08) @ Théâtre de l'Alhambra, Paris

Top 5 concert venues:

marie (spr):

1. Roof of Weekend Club, Berlin
2. West Germany Club, Berlin
3. in the parks, by the streets, in the trains, Berlin
4. Sziget island, Budapest/Hungary
5. Immergut festival area, Neustrelitz

michau:

1. Godor Klub, Budapest, Hungary.
2. A38 Boat.
3. Jazzga, Łódź.
4. Klub 55, Warsaw (i didn't mention this one in the concerts, but i've been there for a Jazzanova set which wasn't superb, but the place was cool enough - in the Palace of Culture and Science. Yes, this one ;) )
5. Filharmonia Łódzka, Łódź.

maciek:

1. Schubas Tavern, Chicago
2. Grant Park, Chicago --> Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago
3. Empty Bottle, Chicago
4. Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago
.

jani:

1. Immergut festival area, Neustrelitz
2. Flow Festival area, Suvilahti old power plant, Helsinki
3. West Germany Club, Berlin
4. Roof of Weekend Club, Berlin
5. Heimolinna, Loimaa

Top 5 newcomers, new discoveries and personal rediscoveries:

marie (spr):

1. Why? (this was nothing new, but new to me!)
2. Erik Sumo from Hungary
3. David Bowie, Pet Shop Boys, David Bowie together with Pet Shop Boys
4. MGMT
5. Modeselektor

benni:

1. Simian Mobile Disco
2. New Order
3. Paul Kalkbrenner
4. Led Zeppelin
5. the will of many companies to react on complaints (shoes, MP3 players, metro tickets (worth 110€),...)

michau:

1. Erik Sumo, Barabas Lorinc and basically hungarian culture and nightlife.
2. Lykke Li as a foreign recent discovery and Noon as latest domestic discovery.
3. A-Ha
4. Bronski Beat
5. that it's easy to be gone, but it's hard to be back.

jani:

1. Pet Shop Boys
2. Cut Copy & M83 (mention them together as they kind of rediscovered themselves, too - Cut Copy making a synth pop album even New Order could be proud of, while M83 updating Air's Moon Safari to 2008!)
3. Deerhunter
4. Erasure (especially the Abba-esque ep!)
5. Paul Simon & Vampire Weekend (so what if the VW guys probably listened to Paul Simon's Graceland quite a bit, they still recorded a great, fun album and made me listen to Paul in the process. Nothing wrong with that!)

Top 5 tops:

marie (spr):

1. Top new toy: the record player from the trashcans together with the growing record collection from the flea markets
2. Top Alter Ego: Faster Harder H. P. Baxxter
3. Top secret favourite song: Culture Club - Karmakarmakarmakarma Karma Chameleon
4. Top alternative festival drink this year: Wilthener Goldkrone - cheers!
5. Top confession: I've attended a (free) Scooter concert in front of Brandenburg Gate. On purpose. I enjoyed it.

benni:

1. Top hip hop gesture: The "E" for East- Berlin
2. Top disco: Moritzbastei, Leipzig
3. Top guitar player: The guy I saw in my dorm in Mainz
4. Top realisation of the year: Badness Dub by King Tubby can make your subwoofer explode
5. Top Song from India with massive beat: Sapna Awasthi & Sukwinder Singh - Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint

michau:

1. Top broken item: each and every sunglasses, fcuk!
2. Top summer: this summer.
3. Top drug: definitely not the one in the shop in my courtyard.
4. Top sport of all times: ultimate frisbee, hell yeah!
5. Top hope: this year was awesome, hope next will be better though.
6. Top country to ba back: Finland my friends, Finland.

maciek:

1. USA
2. drugs
3. glasses
4. gay butiqes
5. facebook

jani:

1. Top new toy: Pro-Ject Debut III (matt black)
2. Top tv-series: The Wire
3. Top secret favourite song: Karma Chameleon (couldn't help it)
4. Top Finnish literature classic: Mika Waltari - Sinuhe Egyptiläinen (The Egyptian)
5. Top dance move: Righeira - Vamos a la Playa

merry

we wish you all the bests friends, and we wish you were here under our beautiful christmas tree. take care and take rest...

adam&peter (both still slim, it's just the perspectives!)

* * * * *

I wish all my superfriends, their friends and their families a Merry Christmas and a good start into 2009. Guess I'll start it together with some of you anyway :)

-marie

(And be prepared for the 2008-Top-5-list, coming soon!)

:(

:(

Animal my soul!

Now that no one of you is blogging (shame on you!) I'm gonna spam you.
But with really REALLY funny things.

Brighten up your dark winter evening and check Bob giving tobacco to his bird!

Bring summer back - Small Sorrows, Great Songs

Just found one of the most impressive concerts of this year online (full length!): Bodi Bill on the roof of the Weekend Club. Whow. Although we only arrived after the first half of the concert it was still amazing.

Here you go! (I was standing right in front of the camera.... so try to find me!)

it's easy to be gone, it's hard to be back

Yeah. Nothing more to say, than Thanks to the previous and present people.

Hannes is as cool as he used to be (and seems to be happy with Minna ;) and they rocked the dancefloor).
Minttu is still delicious.
Salmiakki is still possible to drink only with chocolote.
Sauna with friends, beer and lake is always superfine.
Finnish weather sucks as always.
Finns are little cute elfs (just noticed) but still give THIS noise.
Mikontalo is luxurious.
They still serve meatballs at ZIP (but i didn't have to pay now! ha!)
Hannu is still wearing black.

And i still love the country.
See you there next time.


Here, at Adrian's page you can find some more pics

Suomi/Finland

I've found some cool pics when browsing my photos from Finland recently. Cool, ha?

So, after almost 1.5 year on Tuesday I'm going back to Finland, back to Tampere. I'd really like to say I'm excited and looking forward (cause actually i do), but somehow it's strange feeling. It's quite obvious that my, and i think yours as well, stay in Finland wasn't so great only because of Finland, ruisleipa and salmiakki. It was something more. These were you, beautiful people, that i will miss so much being there. I think it's not the best time for me to go back, also with the memories, but keep in mind that some of you told me once, that you'll come, with me :P
Anyway, you should know, that when i'll be there i'll be thinking of all of you while eating meatballs, cause i couldn't find better friends...

And for those, that didn't noticed yet, finally i managed to start the webpage (exactly PAGE, cause it's only one, that you have to scroll, hehe), so if you'd like, check it out:

michalwojtkiewicz.com

In about weektime expect photostream with soumi photos.

Take care beautiful people!

[Nuit Blanche]

hey people,
some pics of the latest stuff i found to keep me busy, asides my current work : the 'Nuit Blanche' of this Oct 4th.
I was proposed to take part to a small performance, strange happening which melted electronic music, a real choir (the guys in the windows, called 'White Spirit Band'), light animation and video projections.
My rôle was to make a video there, and that is what it gave : lots of people, who seemed to like it...

Superstar architect!

Hi everybody !

… Here I am! Almost one year I didn’t post anything here! But I’m alive, and something new… I’m an architect… Yes, really! I’m graduated! J
So it’s time for me to give you news of everything!

In June I presented the last project of my studies… It’s a museum about bridges in Oporto, Portugal. (photo joined) I joined an explanation text below…

Yesterday, I presented this project to a contest of accessibility, and I won!!!! I’m gonna have a lot of money to visit you now! J Sooooo Happy!

Today I also choose the office I’ll work in… I changed my mind yesterday and I finally chose a small office but designing really interesting project with perfectionism and talent. It’s called NS architecture, we’re four, and it’s in Liège periphery…

I'll probably travel to Asia and South america in one year, when i'll have made some economies... I wanna visit Brice in Shangaï and I could probably find a great office in Argentina.

I miss you all, I remember all the souvenirs we got and I wanna meet you somewhere… (It’s so far from you to live in West Europe)

Maybe I should leave Belgium because the country is not at his best state at the moment. Lots of problems with economy and politic stuffs… like a real mess… Two days ago, we thought about a banking bankruptcy… But the country finally repurchased the bank J

Today Belgium is not rainy (thanks GOD J) so I’m gonna enjoy it J

See you soon I hope!

Kisses from the rainy country!

m a r i e.

Museum of Bridges in Oporto, Portugal

Oporto is the city of bridges ; these are numerous and the most famous is the « Ponte Luis » from the disciple of Gustave Eiffel.
The project is situated in front of these, at the bottom of the hill, behind the houses of the most tourist embankment of Oporto which go along the Douro river. The site is exceptional for a museum of bridges because the disproportionate scale of the « Ponte Luis » offer an interesting sight.

To install this museum, I prolong an automobile tunnel, by recovering it by a structure integrated into the project, to find a surface on which the museum is built then. For that, I use various thematics present in the site : layers climbing on the hill, prop wall, linearity, pedestrian network in three dimensions, hanging garden…

A stage of structure (wall-beams) and technical rooms is dissimulated behind the « prop » wall ; we can also find there the cafeteria-restaurant and the temporary exhibition (interactive relation with the restaurant) in the bridge direction.

The entrance and the permanent exhibition are just above, connected to a public place joining the various ways from the bottom and the top of the site.
The lengthened volume in front contains the second part of the permanent exhibition with a point of culmination towards the Luis bridge and the room about Oporto, city of bridges. The organization is based on actual crierias of museography : continuous wire (conductive wall, footbridge), visual breakthrough, fixed reference marks (patio…), nuance of spaces (large-small, open-closed…) (like the difference between the two levels of the permanent exhibition),…

The more private parts of the museum (areas of teaching, press, research and direction) are located at the back of the site and in the volume overhanging the hanging garden (social control)…

make the walls tumble down

so finally we did it!!! peti and me removed the kitchen wall, and we also made some minor improvements like throwing the shelves away and painting this and that to some awesome colors :D

no corridor anymore, and hopefully in a week our selective waste bin will also be ready...

and for those living near berlin, here's some association about the project :D

This must be underwater love

Bp's over

Hi friends!
It's not even a week since i'm home and quite many things are happening here after my arrival, and that's why post comes now (for me it should come even later, cause i still cannot find right words to express how thankful i am to all of you who made my stay in Bp so good). But at the same time i didn't want you to wait too long and have the feeling that i already forgot about everything :P No, i didn't.

I can definitely say - those 2 months of summertime were my best ones. Of course i had some incredible time before this summer, of course i was missing few friends around me even now, but i never had such a perfect summer in a sum. And as i like it intense, i liked it even more.

Everyday work (almost everyday, hehe), coming back around 6pm (many times later), having a dinner, doing some sports (till John was there, later we skipped this point) and parties (rarely other activities) in Godor, Szimpla, Corvinteto, Fecske, Buddha Beach, ZP or even in Rio. All that with liters of wines, frocs, sunsets and one but special sunrise at Gellert hill, with all of you guys, yeah that was amazing.

Hopefully you'll contiune with playing frisbee, or start if you didn't try yet and will meet on next olympics, hehe.

Have fun and keep on smiling in Hungary, Greece, England, Poland, Canada, USA, Greece, Thailand, Brazil, Ireland, Australia, Croatia, Norway, Germany, Syria, Lebanon, Romania, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Switzerland and Scotland!

köszönöm
michal

hallo heidi! hallo grossvater!

dear friends. I proudly announce that I got the job in the curating team of the 4th International Architecture Biennal Rotterdam 2009!

that means I am working under Prof. Kees Christiaanse at the ETH in Zurich for the next several months. I've been there last week and signed the papers. Zurich is a lovely city. I like it somehow. BUT the rooms are like gold dust. almost none existing but pretty expensive. we will see how it works. with october I am goin down there.

of course you guys are welcome to visit me and some nice piece of swiss cubical architecture.

Waiting for....

waiting for the new IKEA catalogue
waiting for September!


(Belongs to IKEA's advertising campaign)

Funny, in a good way

Back from my holidays in Southern Europe... and brought some impressions.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]



[1]: memorial for the victims of the 56 revolution. and some tourists who need to hide anywhere possible.

[2]: Budapest streets. Budapest host.

[3]+[4]: preparations for square metre drinking of hell. the cups were completely empty some hours later and all of us were quite happy (not the day after though).

[5]: Buda and Pest from above.

[6]: not the end!

[7]: I am doing QUITE well in getting an orientation of Budapest. Quite!

[8]: Sziget 2008: one free ticket, some GREAT free bands, some cheap beer. Adam made me discover that great Hungarian band called Erik Sumo. I brought you one song to get into them. Click n enjoy (see above, "music")!

[9]: Hungarian bottle opener


Altogether... Thanks again for some wunderbare days and nights in the city of free public transport, it was so great with you! Rather sooner than later I'll be back for having breakfast on the windowsills, lunch in the park and beer on the roof. And more Pálinka. Szimpla I don't really need, we have it here although I doubted it (so sorry!) :]
Say szia to people I met and give the ticket controller a hug (I see them ANYWHERE in Berlin now although I've got a valid ticket... brrr)!

Was good, in a funny way!