An evening of culture and chess

Another week gone by. How the time flies.

On Thursday I experienced classical music live for the very first time. The Helsinki Philharmonics performed Mein Herz brennt, a cycle of 8 orchestral lieds to the music and lyrics of Rammstein by Torsten Rasch. It was certainly a new experience to me, but definitely not a negative one. The music was all very modern classical, and the only thing connecting the songs to Rammstein were basically the lyrics (I saw one couple leave half way through, I guess they hadn't done their homework and were expecting the Philharmonics to play Rammstein) but still, I found myself quite enjoying the experience, a n00b to the scene though I was.

I heard that there are some Rammstein fans who consider using the group's music like this a kind of a blasphemy which I frankly do not understand; I had thought that the whole "true fan" thing happened mainly in the black metal scene. the band's okay with it, and no one's forcing anyone to go to the concert if they do not want to so I fail to see how anyone would be offended by this.

Snippets of the lieds and an interview in a video form can be found here: click on the Videos, RealPlayer required.

On Saturday I sat my last exam. That's right, I have done all my courses and all that looms between me and my graduation is the bachelor's thesis. Of course, I'm assuming that I pass the exam. I bought myself a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale to celebrate, but if and when I get the grade for the course I'll get some champagne for sure.

Woo! Soon I'll be able to focus on getting stressed only over work and life in general!


Today's top tracks I listened while hiking on the ice and looking our fair city from the sea:
Subway to Sally: Die Schlacht
The Scaramangas: Eight And A Half
Weissglut: Unschuldsengel