Sentence Starter

You casually mention that…

You casually mention that you are not happy. Then you count all these things why you are unhappy. You list all the things that make life so difficult for you, and tell me every little detail, describing how much worse the situation gets through these. The work is overwhelming, the boss is mean, the gas prices go up, the road was blocked. You must live in a misery. My ears are there to give you undivided attention. I am looking at you, absorbing every little word and expression you send to me. Though, I am waiting. Every single cell in my body is waiting for something. Because you never mention why life makes you happy.

Movies

Movies

My favorite movie is Avatar. It is such an amazing movie, based on the awesome pictures, especially when seen in 3D, the touching story and the theme that is transmitted with it. It also is not as short as most are and gives you time to enjoy it.

Normally I do not care much for love stories or boring movies. I either like comedy, horror, thriller, or criminal ones. It either has to happen something, or it has to be funny. For example, Titanic. This is one of my favorite movies. It has a love story included, but also tells the true story of an historical disaster, what makes it very exciting.

At home I daily watch TV. And especially at the weekends I have time to watch a whole movie. To the movie theatres I go not too often, normally, once in a month or two. This is mostly based on the fact, that either the time is missing, or I want to save my money. If I would have a car and a movie flatrate (this can be actually purchased) in Germany, I probably would go every weekend.

If I go to the movies, I normally want something to eat and drink with me. This is what I do then. However, I do not necessarily need it to enjoy the movie. If I do not have it, the movie does not get worse.

This survey pretty much told me what I already knew: I like action movies, and sometimes I use them to kill time (That does not mean that I do not enjoy them!). To my personality it said that I am 100% interested in trying new things. I guess I can take that for true J

And If my life would have been made into a movie, it probably would have been a documentary, and not a too exciting one.

Music to my ears... (Part 2)

Music

What music or songs reminds you of your childhood?

Mr. Hockensmith: Theme song for “The Lone Ranger”, Shirley Temple songs

(Of course these are very different from ours)

"The Lone Ranger" theme song

Who is your favorite singer or group or song and why?

Mr. Hockensmith: The Beatles, The Bee Gees, The Righteous Brothers, Chicago (The Band)

(I must agree, The Beatles are pretty awesome!)

The Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive

What music reminds you of someone you love? Your child? Spouse? Parents?

Mr. Hockensmith: His wife – The theme song for “Walking the Clouds”

(I think it was meant “A Walk in the Clouds”)



A Walk in the Clouds

Do you go to concerts? Which concerts are memorable to you? Why?

Mrs. Bright-Kaufman: Not as much as earlier, but has been on 100s, everybody of the 70s and 80s (it is fun!) E.g.: Queen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin

(Wow!)

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

What radio stations do you normally listen to in your car? Do you sing along?

Mr. Hockensmith: NPR (National Republic Radio), Cardinals Baseball Games

Which music or artist was “controversial” or “offensive” to some when you were growing up? Is any music offensive to you now?

Mrs. B-K: Then: Metallica, ACDC (Devil’s music), KISS; Now: Ke$ha, Justin Bieber

(It has changed…)

AC/DC - TNT

Which music or artist do you really dislike or refuse to listen to?

Mrs. B-K: Ke$ha, Justin Bieber, and some 96.5 songs (She does not know the titles of them.)

 

Ke$ha - Tik Tok



Music to my ears...

Music and writing

2. I do not know if I have ONE favorite song. However, I really like “Piano Man” by Billy Joel. It has amazing music, and the lyrics are very thoughtful and longer and more creative than the ones of other artists. It evokes a melancholic mood while projecting a very specific image in my head. It is not connected to something specific in my life, but I love to listen to it.

Billy Joel - Piano Man

3. My taste of music changed very much during my life. Since the beginning of my life I was never greatly into music, and still at the age of 10 I hardly could name any songs, except some from my childhood or the ones me and my brother listened to located on a party CD of my parents. When I finally started, it was Oldies that interested me at most. They also had the advantage that I could understand the texts, since most songs in Germany are in English. Around 8^th grade I finally completely changed my taste for music. It went now straight to party music and modern songs. Rock songs from bands such as Green Day and Linking Park were included, too. This stayed until the last summer. Now I am more into older songs like the ones from The Beatles.

 The Beatles: Yellow Submarine

7. Without music, my life would be probably on the first view not greatly different. I am not one of the persons, who say music is their life. Though, life would lose a lot of its color, because I am listening to music almost every day, and it sometimes helps me to get in a better mood.

 

12. Music can add a mood to a movie or show, because sometimes to pre-story is given. Therefore the first tones help the viewer to evaluate and understand if what they see is something funny or serious. Another reason is the distance between a TV and the viewer. Everybody who watches something is aware of the fact that this is not real or if it is real that it is not them who are hurt in that shown part. Therefore, there is a gap between the feelings that should be created and the feelings that are created. Music can help at this point to narrow this gap.

 

Mr. Bean's Holiday, the soundtrack: Matt Willis - Crash

15. I am a really bad singer and not able to play any instrument. Therefore the dream, to become a professional singer or musician is more an illusion than something to expect. However, I could imagine it would be really fun to be one and have the ability to play and write music by your own.



Favorite Band: Billy Talent - Fallen Leaves

Childhood: A fictional story

Disorder

Fred was lying in his bed. He knew what would happen again, because it happened already several times. The first times he was scared, frightened, terrified. I mean, you would be, too! He could not believe what was happening in front of his eyes. Nobody would believe it. Not even people in a crazy home. Well, maybe they would, but not anybody, who is clear in his head. Fred noticed a slight scratching. It was about to start. First it was just this one scratching, then a crunching, and later a squeaking. These noises became more and more and little voices mixed in this rumbling. If this is not crazy enough, then wait what happened next. Everything in his little room began to move. A model car drove down under his bed, CDs rolled out of their cases, and even the light bulb decided that it did not want to be connected anymore with the lampshade. They never reacted very well with each other. That was the reason for the flickering from time to time. Fred knew it now. Why? Well, the furnishings and all the other objects did not just move. They also talked. They talked with each other, they talked with Fred, they talked with themselves. Shortly said: it was a mess. And there seemed nothing to be, that he could do against this repeating disaster. What was happening presently, was as normal for Fred now, as tieing his shoes. The dresser took a step forward, and spit out all the socks, underpants, shirts, and everything else that was located in its drawers. Meanwhile Fred knew that he did not like the bitter taste of the washing power. He actually brought his mom to buy a cleanser with lemon taste. Unfortunately she decided last week to get the old one again. “Wohoo” yelled the driver of his Formula 1 race car, while taking his round across the room. In the last moment his toy soldiers could jump out of the way. “We have a war to fight, you rowdy!”, screamed the highest commander of the Union troops, before they continued to shoot at each other. With a long “yiehaa” the cowboy from his top shelf jumped on the dinosaur, who stood on the ground and the wildest rodeo started. The cowboy could hold himself actually quite a while, but at the end the Triceratops gave him no chance and he flew back against the wall. It was exiting! Fred would have liked the whole thing. It was really fun to watch it! And with earplugs the sleep problem was solved. However, there was just one thing that gave him and his mom every morning a headache. Every morning his room looked like a bomb crater. To be specific, that wasn’t even wrong. His model airplanes threw several bombs during one night. Of course his mom did not believe him. She thought he was crazy. Every time when she came into the room when he called her to proof his stories nothing happened. Fred was not crazy. He was sure about that. As sure as that a monster lives under his bed.

Books of my Childhood

Books of my Childhood

Max and Moritz

The book Max and Moritz by Wilhelm Busch tells in little rhymes the story of two little boys who do nothing productive, but just cause trouble. They steal chicken, put bugs in beds and saw bridges so that the teacher falls into the cold river. At the end they find a bad destiny.

I really like this book and still love to read it. It is written in a beautiful German and includes also a lot of nice pictures. I also have nice memories to it.

The Dare

The novel The Dare is one of the series of Fear Street written by R.L. Stine

It tells the story about a girl who likes a boy and wants to do anything to get together with him and join his clique. First they are joking around, but soon they get the serious idea, that she should murder his teacher, because otherwise he will fail the class and high school and she becomes very doubtful if she should do it.

This was the first Fear Street book I ever read. Although it is not my favorite one, it convinced me to read for the next years every other Fears Street book I could find, after I found this one on a book mess in my elementary school.

Magic Tree House
This is a book series written by Mary Pope Osbourne. It describes stories of a magic tree house, that brings the children who use it to mysterious places. This can be a some place in another time or also a place just located very far away such as Africa.
These books are the first bigger books I started to read. I loved to read them and thought the stories were very interesting. However, soon, after 7-8 books, I was done with each of them in just one hour and it became, too expensive for me to buy these books, just to finish them in such a short time.

I really would like to do something creative such as writing stories for children, with or without pictures, probably rather without. I don't know what is meant with books, but to write stories would be really interesting.

A Castle

   

A Castle

This is a castle
located in Germany
located in the Old World
it is pretty
with a long history
There is a garden
it surrounds the old building
It is green, mysterious
though, there are no flowers
There are people
They are walking in the garden
taking pictures
knowing that it will not look like that forever
There is a sky
cloudy

This is where I am from
This is where I used to live
The Old World

It is what I knew before I came here
My little island in a big world
though, I visited others
This is me
what had influence on me
Before I came to America
The New World