Lisa Prosch online

Last week many of my students arrived at our centre with bubble tea cups in hand, most of them gushing over how awesome they are.

So if, like me then, you’re not in the know about this trend, this is what wikipedia has to say:

 

“Bubble tea is the name for pearl milk tea and other similar tea and juice beverages that originated in tea shops in Taichung, Taiwan during the 1980s.

Drink recipes may vary, but most bubble teas contain a tea base mixed with fruit (or fruit syrup) and/or milk. Ice-blended versions of the drinks, similar to slushies, are also available, usually in fruit flavors.

One of the famous categories of bubble teas is “pearl milk tea” (also known as “boba milk tea” in parts of America), which contains small chewy balls made of tapioca starch, called “pearls” in Chinese (also known as “fenyuan 粉圆” or “zhenzhu 珍珠”). Pearls made of tapioca are also available in many places.”

 

In their opening week, Solingen’s shop selling the “tea”, located in the town centre on Kölnerstraße, had its customer’s lining up on the street for a beverage.

What for, I asked myself.

I had to see what all the buzz was about, so tonight I went there and checked it out.

After lots of contemplating, I ordered a small yoghurt grape “tea” with passionfruit bubbles.

The buying of the drink itself was an adventure.

Hubby and I stared at the three (!) ladies it took to mix the drink. One was pouring milk into a cup, the next one was measuring some grape sirup into a small cup whilst the third was engaged with a weird metal machine. After a few minutes and some more mysterious goings-on a label was coated to the top of my cup, which was then handed to me. Quite unceremoniously, as I might add, concerning all the brouhaha it took to make the drink.

 

 

Oh dear. The “tea” itself tasted nothing like grapes and a lot like Red Bull, making me question the amount of chemicals I had just swallowed.

I had to build up the balls to chew the bubbles, and making them pop was a rather unpleasant experience, with their somewhat milky and slick content spilling into my mouth. Blech.

After a few sips I decided that it wasn’t for me. How to dispose of the rest of the drink, I’m not sure yet. Does it classify as toxic waste?

The only pro I see in bubble tea are the rather cute pictures on the cups’ labels, like these two:

 

(source)

(source)

This is definitely the first and last time I’ve bought a bubble tea.

 

I don’t think so!

 

Tags: bubble tea, kawai, trend

This morning I stumbled upon an interesting article on “Wired“: “Great Geek Debates: Disney Princesses vs. Hayao Miyazaki“.

Author Erik Wecks ponders the disadvantages of his daughters’ growing up while looking up to Disney princesses as role models.

 

 

He concludes that the majority of those girls embody a negative self-image for young girls as most of them have a troubled relationship with their parents and rely on their prince to save them.

 

 

Though Wecks agrees that this is more a cultural than a Disney problem, he fails to see that all of these movies derive from old fairytales.

This is a genre where not only the princess is more of a figure than a character, the prince, the king, the evil stepmother all are. In most cases they don’t even have a name, only a title.  “Snow-White” or “Cinderella” are the exeptions, and those are only descriptive names.

To conclude, as Wecks does as well, Disney is not to blame. It even started to create active heroines, as soon as the early nineties.

Remember this girl?

 

 

It is true, she had some fights with her over-protective father.

But she had a goal, too: She yearned to live at the surface. Meeting, and rescuing!, the prince was only the incentive she needed to go for her dream.

 

Erik Wecks does not only thrash the Disney princesses. He offers a healthy alternative in the form of the studio Ghibli films.

 

 

Wecks describes their assets very well in his article, so I won’t repeat them here.

Let’s only say that I completely side with him when it comes to the values Miyazaki’s films convey.

 

So what is my verdict here?

I’m certainly not one to condemn the Disney princesses movies. I grew up watching and loving every single one (up until “Pocahontas“, which I didn’t really get at that time and never bothered to watch).

But it hasn’t left me feeling like I need to be spectacularly beautiful just to snatch a husband.

On the contrary, my favourite princess, besides Arielle, has always been Belle.

 

 

Sure, she is beautiful. But she’s a booknerd,too, and rescues her prince in the end.

No matter what some jealous people say about stockholm syndrome .

 

If I’m lucky enough to have the chance of raising a daughter one day, I’ll certainly let her watch Disney, just like my parents let me.

But, just like my parents did, I’ll be careful to provide her with some counterparts.

My parents took to Ronja, Pippi and the rest of the Swedish girl-force.

I for one will make sure my daughter will benefit from Chihiro, Ponyo, Kikki and the rest, as well.

 

 

 

Tags: Disney, Erik Wecks, princesses, Studio Ghibli, values

Dwarves, princesses and witches seem to be everywhere these days. No matter where you turn, there’s bound to be some character right out of the brothers Grimm’s book.

Have you noticed yet? Just around Halloween, American TV has started two new series with a strong link to fairytales.

One of them is NBC’s Grimm, starring David Giuntoli and Silas Weir Mitchell. I really came to appreciate Silas through his performances on 24 and Prison Break.

 

 

——— Spoilers ahead ———–

The story itself is simple: a young detective begins seeing strange transformations in stranger’s faces, just as his aunt is visiting him, dying of cancer. His first case after his aunt’s appearance quickly leads him to finding out that the old stories might be true, when a young girl goes missing. She was last seen wearing a bright red hooded sweater…

Sounds like you’ve heard that one before? Sure you have:

 

 

Detective Nick Burckhardt’s investigations lead him to a wolf, albeit not the big bad one, who blames him and his family of having stigmatised his whole race. See, Mr. Burckhardt is a decendant of noneother than the Brothers Grimm themselves! His family has taken up the business of hunting down all those fairytale beings you wouldn’t want to meet in your dark laundryroom.

Concerning the serie’s future it isn’t hard to guess what the next episodes will be about. The detective will have to keep on hiding his abilities from his partner and fiancé. And he’ll have to be careful not to go on breaking as much police protocol, so he won’t be exposed.

The filming itself seems to be well done, the question is if the audience will want to go on seeing stories they’ve already known since kindergarten.

 

Another new series is abc’s “Once Upon a Time“, starring “Big Love‘s” Ginnifer Goodwin.

 

 

According to the IMDb it “centers on a woman with a troubled past who is drawn into a small town in Maine where the magic and mystery of Fairy Tales just may be real.”

Though hubby is concerned this might lead to “Desperate Housewifes“-esque dramatic scenes, I’m kind of intrigued.

 

The whole business of basing new movies and shows on fairytales isn’t really new.

 

In 1997 Sigourney Weaver freaked me out with “Snow White: A Tale of Terror“.

 

 

Director Michael Cohn managed to freshly adapt the old story of the evil stepmother and even Sam Neill couldn’t destroy my viewing pleasure.

 

The same story was used in 2001′s “Snow White“, whose protagonist I will, unfortunately, always connect with her role as Smallville‘s love-interest of Superman. Blech.

 

 

2005 brought us “The Brothers Grimm“, which wasn’t too great, considering the current IMDb voting of 5.9.

 

 

One reviewer remarked:

“People have a curious tendency not to notice how bizarre and gruesome children’s fairy tales often are. Terry Gilliam’s “The Brothers Grimm” does notice. Unfortunately, that’s just about its only insight into the subject. The film shows no understanding of what makes fairy tales memorable and exciting, or why they have endured through the ages.”

 

In 2007 Korean “Henjel gwa Geuretel” came out, a horror-movie based on the “Hänsel und Gretel” story that actually sounds interesting.

 

 

“When Eun-soo gets lost in a country road, he meets a mysterious girl and is led to her fairytale like house in the middle of the forest. There, Eun-soo is trapped with the girl and her siblings who never age”.

I might try to get my hands on that one. Even though I don’t think it will live up to k-horror classics like The Tale Of Two Sisters.

 

Most of the films above are just mainstream fairytale adaptations, yet not counting the Disney ones. Take the Shrek movies for example, which have “borrowed” lots of fairytale characters during the years.

 

2011 brought a new wave of fairytale-movies.

The audience being warmed up by movies like the Twilight series, but at the same time finally getting bored of vampires, flocked the theatres at the opening of “Beastly” in April.

 

The story is based on “Beauty and the Beast”, following a highschool student apparently so in love with himself, that a young witch curses him – he’ll turn into a beast regularly until he finds true love.

Only able to brag with a 5.0 on IMDb it supposedly isn’t one of the best adaptations and I would rather watch the Disney version again before watching this. At least there’s singing.

 

The second 2011 fairytale was “Red Riding Hood“, starring another “Big Love” alumn, Amanda Seyfried.

 

 

Although the cast seemed promising (Gary Oldman!) and the director had proven himself to make movies the audience liked (Twilight) the movie’s rating can only deliver a 5.1.

A reviewer called it “ruined by trying to be too many things” and goes on to complain that “in fact, for a supposedly sexier take on a classic folk tale, it’s in desperate need of thrust in general. It flits around the idea of being a more adult folk tale but never commits”.

 

 

2012 surely will bring about many more “Grimm” stories, “Mirror, Mirror” one of them.

 

 

This one is another “Snow White” adaptation starring Julia Roberts and Sean Bean. Sean, Sean, will I have to watch you die again? Otherwise than that, I’m not really interested.

Director Tarsem Singh brought us “The Cell“, so I’m not really sure what to hope for with this one. And what can be expected from a man who thinks J-Lo can act?

It is tagged as “Comedy, Drama, Fantasy” and I’m quite afraid it’ll be no more than a Hollywood-lovestory… blech again.

 

“Snow White and the Huntsman“  will be out in the summer of 2012. Here we go again, another Snow White? Oh dear. Would make you think that the Grimms hadn’t written down countless other stories to choose from.

 

 

Personally I’m not that eager for more of Kristen Steward‘s lip-biting or Chris Hemsworth‘s “look-at-my-nice-muscles”-attitude. But “Shaun of the Dead“‘s Nick Frost, Bob Hoskins and Charlize Theron still might convince me of giving the movie a chance.

“Snow White and the Huntsman” probably won’t be the taillight in the rising trend of fairytales.

The 20th December 2012 will mark the 200th birthday of the Grimms’ fairytales’ first edition and throughout Germany there will be lots of different festivities.

 

But why are fairytales still so popular?

There are countless reasons why people love fairytales. They’ve always been around, for one. Being imparted from one generation to the next, they are considered as poetry of the people. They can’t be traced back to one author, they’ve been told and re-told for hundreds of years.

And they keep on being told because there always is some truth in fairytales.

Each of us knows what it is to be on a quest for someone’s trust and respect, we have encountered evil witches of our times, fought against concepts that seemed more otherworldly than a scary dragon could.

The hero of a fairytale is us. He’s wandering, has to redeem himself. As do we.

Then of course, the world of fairytales offers escapism on a grand scale. It is hard to worry about mortgages, the rising cost of living or high numbers of unemployment when there are evil witches or wolves on the loose.

I could go on and on about fairytales, but will save the more scientific approach for my university studies, especially my Master of Arts thesis.

 

I don’t expect the fairytale-trend to die down soon. After all, it is another way for screenwriters to come up with new storylines … even if the stories themselves aren’t new.

Tags: fairytales, Grimm, Snow White

Marcel Krüger asked us to stop coming to his house, so people went to the Cobra instead.

In early November Krüger had his first self-published book coming out, which compiled stories from his blog, his project Sonic Iceland and even some articles that had previously been published in real newspapers.

 

 

What better way to celebrate than to return to his hometown, from which he’d fled several years ago in search of ginger maidens and Guiness. Luck had it that a festival was planned for Lindisfarne‘s 12th anniversary, so Mr. Krüger packed his bags and book and came running. At least I guess he did, knowing about his fear of flying. And he took the opportunity to re-unite with his old band Stuck, albeit going easy on the bellowing to save some strength for 8 p.m. when the Cobra’s cinema room’s door would open for his reading.

 

In the beginning Krüger seemed a bit tense, no wonder for not only was his family sitting in the first row, complete with parents, two brothers and his girlfriend, the rest of the small room was filled with old friends who had come to hear some stories first-hand.

 

 

But he quickly seemed to adapt to the scene and started to read about an eclectic mix of topics, from expats in Irelands to his above mentioned fear of flying and spiders. Since his book is written exclusively in English, Krüger translated some of his work so that the less capable German wouldn’t get lost in an English swirl.

 

 

Having read the stories before it was interesting to discover new aspects to them by way of Krüger’s introductions or intonation.

And even though the scene itself might have been nicer had the reading been in the Cobra’s Kantine, the room’s atmosphere of good will towards the author was tangible, which was really nice to experience. Whatever face I looked at either seemed just happy to see Mr. Krüger back on German soil, intrigued by his stories or smiling at his snarky side-remarks.

The evening was rounded off with a “cover” reading of Neil Gaiman’s “The day the saucers came” and his “Tale of two Spiders”. It ended with Mr. Krüger, deservedly, selling some copies of his book and then, equally deservedly, retreating to the Kantine for a small family celebration of his first reading in Germany.

 

Tags: Cobra, Metal, reading

Years ago I’ve watched “Love actually” and fell in love with it. That’s why upon watching “the Walking Dead” I already knew main character Rick Grimes’ actor, Andrew Lincoln.

Now Jenny added a nice piece of knews:

Lonely Guy from “Love actually” kept his promise, to love Keira Knightley’s Juliet for always:

 

 

Eek! I for one do not see that much of a difference between the last picture above and this one:

 

 

Someone get that girl a sandwich, already.

Tags: Keira Knightley, Love Actually, the Walking dead, Zombies

I want something to eat, and I want it now.

Now I say!

I shall not rest until my belly is full!

I shall not be tempted by your feeble attempts of distractions, I shall…

 

Mmmmmmmhhh, yes, scratch my ears, mmmmmhhh…

 

NO!

Stop it, insipid human! I demand to be fed at once! I…

 

Mmmmmhhhh, yeeeees, -rubs against hand and starts purring-, yeeees, that’s the spot….

 

STOP IT I SAID! I’m not your cuddly cat0r, I am a destroyer of worlds, hungry for the bodies of my en-…..

 

Mmmmmgpfgrrrrrpuuurrrrr….. puuuuurrrrr…

 

——————————————————————————————

 

A daily fight that always ends in a win-win situation: Some cuddles for me from my independence-loving Jack, some noms for his ever-hungry self.

 

 

 

 

Tags: jack

Monday left me exhausted from my HoD weekend and personal stuff. I was about to shoo all ghosts away, draw my drapes and call it a day.

I’m so glad I didn’t.

Instead I put on my big-girl-pants, figuratively speaking, packed my bag and headed over to Blankbeins, make-up-central for the night.

My Halloween survival kit contained a pair of black wings, a black dress and some make-up. And a wig. So what if all the others bought them to get long, dark hair? I have those 365 days in a row, I wanted a wig, too.

At the Blankbeins the whole kitchen table was covered in little pots and crucibles, mirrors and wipes, scary sweets and powdered make-up.

 

 

From my time of arrival everyone got uglier from minute to minute. Hair and skin whitened, ulcerous postules appeared where beforehand was immaculate skin. Scars crossed bulging tissue and teeth were shown that would scare away the most hardened dentist.

Fortunately hem-seams didn’t rise, as our posse doesn’t believe the now so fashionable credo that “slutty is the new scary”. No sexy pumpkins, sexy witches or sexy hot-dogs here, thank-you-very-much!

 

 

To be honest, we had a sexy nurse, but she was foremost a scary nurse (think of a certain game that became a movie relatively recently) and just couldn’t help the sexy part.

 

 

After all the painting, forming and playing around was done we were left with a fabulous ensemble.

We had a delirious monk that looked pestilence-ridden, a clown worse than the house of 1000 corpses, a strangled ghost bride, a scary Chucky-esque doll, a regular zombie and an one-armed one. With the scary nurse and my fallen-angel self we were quite the sight.

Good thing that we ordered some pizza, we may be undead, but we’re still hungry. Now, where’s my small brain-pizza with extra pus?

 

 

This year’s Halloweenparty at the Getaway wasn’t free for costumed guests like it had been the previous year, but admittance wasn’t too steep.

Upon our arrival at half past 10 not many guests were there yet, and even less dressed up.

The venue itself looked marvelous.

 

 

 

(all darkness and no tripod make

Liz a dull photographer)

Really too bad that most guests were either too uptight or lazy for a costume… their loss, really!

 

 

The first few hours of the night really rocked, the DJ delivered the tunes and we danced our undead asses off.

More people showed up in costumes and the place got quite crowded – except the “cocktail bar” where we stayed all night. Most of the other guests seemed to prefer their mainstream-sheep-music to our rocking beats. Again, their loss, our gain. At least we still had breathing room. Figuratively speaking, since the cocktail bar is the Get’s only smoker’s room.

 

As one shitty song started to follow the next the evening turned long and my legs heavy.

Because my Hammer of Doom weekend left me cash-less I was on a tight budget of 10 Euros, six of which I had already spent on the entrance fee. I was down to 2 Euros and the Getaway didn’t promise any more entertainment we hadn’t had enjoyed up until that point, it was already about half past one. So most of us decided to head on over to the RED, to undertake part two of the traditional “Get – RED – bed” routine.

Over there we were greeted by a handfull of customers, not one in costume as far as I could see, and the two owners. They had candy, horror movies and intricately carved pumpkins, definetely an upgrade to Get’s simply carved ones.

 

 

 

I certainly wouldn’t want that last guy to visit me that night!

Exhaustion made us take our heads hats and head home, to fall into bed and be dead until dark sunrise.

————————————————————————————————————————

 

Postscript I:

I will add more scary pictures of the posse once I have permission.

 

Postscript II:

This is your chance for the first “Liz is Sparta” give-away.

The person to guess all references to  scary popculture books or movies is in for a special treat.

Winners will be drawn out of all participants who post their guess in the comment-section.

 

Tags: costume, Halloween, party

 

As we’re walking towards the Posthalle in Würzburg, I know I’m neither over- nor underdressed.

I’m basically not dressed wrong, either, it’s that my attire simply just so misses the mark, as I’m comparing my outfit to that of others around me.

I am dressed in black, sure. And wearing a skirt. But, though above the knee, it is still a couple of inches too long. At least compared to the skirts belts I see other ladies in. And mine has white polka-dots.

Oh well.

My black high-top sneakers aren’t helping my case, either, as the other girls’ shoes make up in inches what the length of their skirts is lacking. Darn it.

We’re standing in line to swap our tickets for festival-bands, basked in beerfumes and eau-de-I-haven’t showered-in-days. Behind us are a couple of guys that remind me of Garth and would later inspire me to the following textmessage to my brother:

 

“Remeber Wayne’s World? That’s what this looks like”

 

 

They are all acting very civilised and make me wonder what I was worrying about earlier, when posting on facebook:

“Lisa Prosch is looking forward to Hammer of Doom with Nick, Leo and Maria!

Hopefully they will take care of her and protect her against the hordes of Doom!”

to which I was friendly reminded:

“Remember WE ARE THE HORDES OF DOOM!!!:D”

Ooops! My mistake.

I never made it a secret that I’m a doom novice. Sure, I’ve heard about some of the bands that would be playing. But what doom exactly was, I wanted to find out. Besides being the perfect opportunity for catching up with our Maltese Posse, Hammer of Doom posed the possibilty for a scientific endeavor:

Finding out what doom is, first-hand, and observing, maybe even inter-acting, with the common “doomster”.

And finding out if you call doom-listeners “doomsters”, anyway.

Before travelling to Würzburg I had a vague picture in mind of how such a guy would look. I envisioned long, dark hair, lots of leather, possibly tight pants and an overall mean appearance.

I googled for a picture to show you what I thought of, but all I found was this:

 

 

Yes Google, that’s a metal-fan, thank you for your help!

Most of the guys crowding the Posthalle weren’t as scary as I had imagined. I wasn’t new to metal concerts, as I had visited quite a few in Rock City No.1, and the mixture of species I encountered were what I had expected.

There were those of the “Metallus Blackus” type, with tight black leatherpants and long dark hair, as I described above. Kind of like these guys, who named themselves after a bloodtype:

Then we had the common Viking type, hair as long and blond as that of a Northern Maiden, soft and shiny in most cases. Terrifying. The “Vicus Northernitis” seems to have a practical demeanor and carries his own drinking horn attached to his hip, so that he does not have to drink out of unworthy plastic cups. He may warm his chest either with denim or fur and his legs and groin-area tend to have more breathing room than the above mentioned species.

When I heard that Vikings would be attending, I was hoping for guys like him:

 

 

And was deeply disappointed. No Erics around. I got these guys instead:

 

 

and actually enjoyed them. Though they fall more into the “Epic Metal” category, as I learned.

There were lots of those fans around, clad in denim wests covered in patches. Or just lots of patches with glimpses of denim inbetween. I even saw one guy with a pants covered in patches. There were so many that you couldn’t make out the original trousers anymore. It made me wonder what he would do if he gained so much weight that the pants wouldn’t fit anymore. Remove them all and transfer them to another pair? Or just add another row of patches in the top, to make more room for the belly? I will never know.

My favourite patch of all the weekend was a very scary one, though.

 

 

(Excuse my cellphone’s crappy pic, they wouldn’t allow my Nikon at the venue)

 

The female metal-head basically fell into two types (except my lovely Maltese friends):

1. The “Metallus Bitchus”
2. The “Metallus Butchus”

The former I already described in this post’s beginning, all short skirts, high heels and low shirts. And loooong hair. Most of them looked really good in their stuff and were ogled by all the male species mentioned above.

These ladies get quite close, though those that I witnessed looked somehow classier, even dressed that skimpily:

 

The “Metallus Butchus” got less attention, but had the advantage of being able to move freely through the crowd and could flip through the merch at leisure, not being interrupted by drunken advances. Their long, loose cargo-pants and jeans vests just didn’t seem to attract as much attention as the mini-skirts of the “Metallus Bitchus”.

 

 (This is the first part of my doom-tastic encounter at the Hammer of Doom, stay tuned for Part II)

Tags: Doomsword, festival, Hammer of Doom, Malta, Metal, Music, Viking Metal