The reading nook

Mostly a music/concert entry.

🤩️ Ghost was so good ;A; They had a new thing this time where they made everybody lock their phones in these little bags which were only openable by the event staff. I didn't bother bringing mine and tbh it was the right approach as I could just walk right out after the show and get back on the train home. But honestly I LOVED the no-phones deal, that was a brilliant move. I'm not sure why they did it (I don't pay attention to interviews, I'm sure they explain it somewhere) but to me it kind of feels very apropos as a lot of their songs are somewhere between 60s style to 80s style, so if they're going for old school arena rock vibes, nobody had any fucking smartphones back then.

Anyway. It was surreal to be in a place with that many people and not see a single fucking phone. Most people were in groups of friends so I didn't really socialise much. At all. I didn't socialise at all. But even just sitting and chilling for an hour and not having my phone with me or any devices was honestly healing. The whole weekend I put my phone away under a bunch of books in another room and didn't touch it until Monday and it was glorious.

I hate my smartphone. I hate that we need them apparently in today's society because of MFA reasons and I hate that it's basically expected that we are constantly reachable and 24/7 ever present online. It's been bad for my eye strain and headaches and neckaches and posture and it's also been super bad for my productivity, my concentration, and my mood. I want so much to just disengage from all things internet except the intentional forms (like DW for example, which is more text-based and needs a bit of thought (although not too much, which is my main reason for never posting - I overthink it)). I feel healthier without it all. Yes it's nice to have something close at hand if an idea strikes and I need to write it down and typing it out is faster than long-form writing. But you know what, I used to be able to hold more in my mental buffer to be able to long-form write more competently.

Anyway I liked Ghost so much I was like hey what's other bands I'm into been up to recently and discovered Serenity were in town yesterday, touring with Subway to Sally. StS is one of those bands that I've been low-key into for awhile but never thought I'd ever see them live because they don't really tour outside DACH regions, the reason being that they sing exclusively in German. Then I moved to Germany and I was like oh wait, they're technically the local band now. 🤯️

They played with Storm Seeker, a pirate metal band from Düsseldorf I've never heard of (except they're not new, I guess everybody just knows Alestorm more?). They were amusing and decent. Their singer has enough energy to be Germany's next renewable power source. Serenity were great as always 💖️ and I think last time I saw them they did not have the lead / main singer there, because I distinctly remember it was only four of them. But even though they have 4 singers, that one dude adds a LOT of power to the songs. They were fantastic and I'm really impressed by their ability to drive vocal harmonies in loud settings. StS were phenomenal - they were way better than I thought they'd be and though it was really lonely (one of the songs they were like, put an arm around your neighbour and sway with us! and people moved away from me to latch onto one another. sad.) it was also really good. It's always good when the violinist has hair down to her knees and still headbangs and the guitarist trades off for a hurdy-gurdy and the lead singer brings out a shawm or tin whistles or bagpipes. I didn't know many of their more recent songs but they are really good actually (is Phönix just Sieben vibes all over again? Maybe. Do I care? No. c:) and they actually played Ohne Liebe in the encore medley 💖️ which I was not expecting.

Sabaton, alas, are almost entirely sold out. Next time!! Maybe by that time I will have found a concert buddy here so I don't keep going to these shows all alone.

💼️ I think I am doing better with my goal of giving less at work but we're not yet at my ideal 60%. I need to remind myself that the moment someone wants me to switch tracks on a dime to do something else, I will walk away from the computer and have a tea and give it 5 minutes. I'm not a fucking doctor, nobody's dying here.

✨️ Didn't watch much of Eurovision this year. I like Austria's entry although I'm told the notes were not so successfully hit during the final, but after the win the performance was much better. It was a very challenging song! Also surprised Estonia's entry was so highly rated? I guess he has a huge fanbase though. Nice to see that it's not just Tommy Cash nonsense but he actually used to work at a cafe and this is satirising at least one of the customers he used to get (having been a former Sbux barista I can say buddy, that is a mood).

🌌️ This week! This week is the week I will start rewatching B5. I think the key is to start writing ficlets again. I get very ambitious but not everything can be a 30k-min thing.