once more with feeling

So I finally went to the USA. And although I have been dreaming about New York and San Francisco for many years now, my first trip brought me to Maui, Los Angeles and Lake Tahoe instead.
America. Where everything is bigger, is more. But it was especially that bigger and more of the city of angels that overwhelmed me a bit too much and left me feeling lost. Being back home now for nearly two weeks, I realized that I’m really not gonna miss a few things: hot pants in combination with UGG boots, salads for 7 bucks vs two tacos for 50 cents, people smoking weed while driving, the ugly dollar, the most boring highways of all times, my phone not working there, too many people in too little space, having to add taxes to the prices displayed in the supermarket (i really suck at calculating in my head), the very strange humor, the saddest supermarket of all times aka costco, driving in California, parking in California, the cinema prices, the fact that 10 cents are smaller than 5 cents, busses where the bus driver just steps out of the bus in the middle of nowhere because she’s arguing with a customer, being asked for an ID when you just sit on the bar without even ordering alcohol, and many other tiny things that I just can’t remember right now.
However, there of course is stuff I’m missing: burritos, food that actually really is hot when it says “hot”, diet dr. pepper, the lakers, 25 degrees at the end of December, urban outfitters, cheap gas, Korean BBQ, the ocean, bigass supermarkets openend 24/7, grabbing your Glock and shooting all your anger away at the shooting range, and SiriusXM.
Some of you non-Americans might wonder now – Sirius who? SiriusXM is a satellite radio station with 140+ channels. You have to pay for it, but it definitely more worth than paying for ORF here in Austria. There are tons of music, news, sports and other entertainment channels – I mean hello, they even have a 24/7 Pearl Jam channel. So when we were driving around (and since LA is 8 hours from Lake Tahoe we were driving a fucking lot), we always listened to Alt Nation, the alternative rock channel. And through this channel, I discovered my latest favorite band: Awolnation.
Awolnation is not that new – the electronic rock band fronted by Aaron Bruno already released an EP in 2010 and their first record “Megalithic Symphony” in March 2011 at Red Bull Records. So when coming back home with this new discovery, I quickly realized that I might be a little too late for calling it a “new discovery” – they have actually been booked for a gig at Arena Wien on February 14th, also known as what-can-I-do-to-avoid-Valentine’s-Day day (and what is there better to do to avoid Valentine’s Day than going to a concert, right?).
Now, here’s the latest video from Awolnation, “Not Your Fault”, followed by some pictures of my journey. And after watching the video and going through my pictures, you’ll have to play the “Megalithic Mayhem” videogame – a game for and with Awolnation and an awesome 8-bit version of “Not Your Fault”.

Find my sun in the dark side
of my shadow.

San Francisco was the first city I fell in love with. I was pretty young back then, and it was all the fault of John Stamos, Bob Saget and the Olsen twins. I still remember watching the intro of Full House, seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars and the rows of cute little houses and dreaming about going there one day. I think it was my mum who even gave me a city guide of San Francisco for my birthday – the one that’s still sitting in my bookshelf, waiting for me to finally take it to the city it belongs to and to show me the marvellousness of it.
Over the years, I started to fall in love with other cities from the US as well – and as with SF, I can only blame the movies. Because of Serendipity and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, I will have to go to the big apple right before Christmas. There are pictures in my head of ice-skating at Rockefeller Center, of walking through the snowy streets and staring like a little child at the shop windows decorated with carousels and Santas and reindeers, of standing in front of the most amazing christmas tree in the world with the Swarovski Star on it. And then there were Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Ocean’s Eleven, where Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt told me how to behave while in the city of sin.
This year, I will finally make it to the land of unlimited possibilities, and I will start right where all people trying to live their dreams start: Los Angeles, home of the Lakers, of the Hollywood Boulevard and Venice Beach. I will find out how wrong or right my picture about the land and its inhabitants is, I will probably dismiss some stereotypes but also build up new ones. I will see how typical the “typical American” is, and I will live the westcoast lifestyle for a little while.

Portugal. The Man just released a video for the song “So American” of their latest record “In the Mountain in the Cloud”. It shows the band doing random things we might see as typical American: hanging out in the sun, having a barbecue with burgers, drinking beer and whiskey. The band from Alaska will come back to Austria for shows in Salzburg, Vienna and Linz at the end of November. I highly recommend you to go see them live – John Gourley’s high-pitched, falsetto, angel-like voice will leave you breathless.

You are the one they call Jesus Christ,
who didn’t know no rock and roll.
There may not be a heaven
or a place in which to send you,
but you know in the end
there’s a madness in us all.