one week ago, while we were in vacation, one of our last two remaining cats was killed by a car, apparently while crossing a street.

rest in peace, tetris teero!

today, we had to put down our oldest cat, tomtom. (two years after his brother.)

rest in peace, tomtom!

in the last 30 days, a lot of things happened. the worst thing happening was that one of our cats, töffel, lost more and more strength and started looking really miserable. since in the weeks before we already had to give him infusions as he was drinking way too little, and he hated that pretty much, we decided not to start more medicine experiments and instead to stop his suffering by putting him to sleep. he’s probably better off now.

rest in peace, töffel!

while eating dinner, i watched a movie called babel. i somehow got the feeling that i already saw parts of it, or at least somehow know the story. don’t ask me why… nonetheless, the movie is really good, and centered about the theme of death. (nonetheless, nobody actually dies. at least not during the movie.)
the movie consists of a stream of intertwining stories, playing in morocco, japan, the us and mexico. on the first glance, there’s no relation, but eventually the jigsaw puzzle is completed enough to get an idea of the global picture. the movie is very emotional. love. envy. disputes. panic. fear. pain. desperation. happiness. suicidal.
there’s blood. hopeless situations. overreaction. triggered by two boys, herding goats in morocco, playing around with a rifle, a rifle they were supposed to use to protect the goats against wild animals. not understanding consequences until it is too late. an american tourist gets shot. local police searches for terrorists. one of the brothers almost dies. meanwhile, a girl, frustrated, bitter, seeks love. seeks sexual encounters. unsuccessful. haunted by her mother’s suicide, eventually appearing suicidal. her father, a hobby hunter, left his rifle in morocco. another scene, far away, two american kids taken to a mexican wedding by their nanny, as their parents did not come back in time. the parents are in morocco. returning from the wedding, the kids and their nanny end up in the desert. eventually rescued, the nanny is deported to mexico, despite living for sixteen years in the us. meanwhile, in morocco, a husband is trying to get help, for his wounded wife. stranded in a small village, far away from everywhere, the only doctor at hand being a veterinarian. almost bleeding to death. endless pain, finally ended by a helicopter ride, after a long wait.
somewhat, a happy end? maybe.
life is cruel.

i just read on blabbermouth that miika tenkula, once lead guitarist of sentenced when they still existed, died on february 19th, 2009, at the age of 35. that’s definitely too young.
thanks for your music. and rest in peace, miika.

she didn’t say it. never ever.
a cloud of dust, debris, arises. so majestic, somehow beautiful, but deadly. ripping apart the two bodies, parting them forever, leaving emtpyness. blackness wins, once again.
dil se.. (imdb), another bollywood movie, does not features a happy end in the classical sense, with blowing the lovers to dust. still, the beauty which can be found in particular in the last moments of the movie, is amazing. even though she didn’t say it, she accepts it and, somehow, expresses the yes, in her deep look into his eyes. if this isn’t, then what’s love after all?
then, in another glimpse of time, all is gone, shattered.
sounds familiar.

this weekend was rather busy. on friday, i got a visitor from bremen, and we did another boattrip on the zürich lake:

after that, we continued to lake constance to attend a friend’s birthday party. during that, we spend some time at the lake:

maybe the following photo summarizes the whole weekend in the best way:

yet another fantastic weekend, unfortunately being over by now.

today was a sunny, beautiful day, even though pretty hot. it resulted in another trip on the zürisee:

after that, it resulted in a photo featuring me and two soccer players:

simply beautiful, filling me with happiness.

another thing making me happy are two small presents, one being already a few weeks old, the other being new:

thank you, i really like them a lot!

three years after releasing ghost reveries, opeth released their 9th observation, called watershed.
it is opened by the beautiful, instrumental coil, sung by mikael akerfeld and nathalie lorichs. this is followed by the intense, heavy tune heir apparent, which i already have been able to listen to live two times. after that, the lotus eater follows, another heavy track with lots of proggy interludes which was already available for download some time ago. track #4 is burden, a melodious, more mellow, proggy track, the first half of it being sung by mikael, the second part being instrumental, with an accoustic guitar finally shifting downwards, until an abrupt strange ending. then, porcelain heart, which was already released as a video before, starts. again, alternativing between loud and quiet, beauty and wildness. after that, hessian peel, starting mellow, beautiful. then, after a small piano solo phase, the brutality returns, in its beautiful complexity, and complex beauty, the end reminding me a bit of the end of sentenced‘s no one there. finally, hex omega launches, beginning heavy, though slow, turning more mellow, changing back to heavy, alternating. pure beauty, floating through the air, crawling down my ears.
i hate making such statements, but for me, this is the best release for this year. definitely. even though the year’s just half gone. watershed is simply ingenious, such a beautiful mix of death metal brutality, progressive rock; this is audible aesthetics. so damn beautiful.

recently, moonsorrow released an ep called tulimyrsky, featuring a 30 minute song called tulimyrsky, a metallica cover (for whom the bell tolls), two old demos (taistelu pohjolasta and hvergelmir) and a merciless cover (back to north). the main track tulimyrsky can be seen as a sequel to last year’s viides luku: hävitetty. again, it begins with a slow, melodious, mystic atmospheric part, lasting 3:45 minutes, until a scream fades in from far away, guitars and drums kicking in, finally launching a black metal thunderstorm after five minutes, evolving into a stream of brutality, speed, piercing melodies. then, later, the music gets slower, less brutal, still intense. a speaker telling a tale. then, the action returns, sounding heroic, somehow, until it fades out into a beautiful, orchestral and melodic piece of music. beautiful.
the two demos feature pretty black metallic sounds, still very good though. moonsorrow is really one of the bands which started as a success and continued to be a success over the years. finally, the two covers are pretty ok, too. and, tulimyrsky is the longest ep i ever saw, having 68 minutes of playing time, from which 30 minutes are the main song, tulimyrsky. again, probably one of the best releases this year.