#Probably forgot half of the stuff but hei 🙃

[greensolsikke]

I love reading all of your concert reports, so I'll have a try myself for Joker Out in Cologne Kantine at 24th of March.

- I had an EE ticket and arrived around 13 o'clock. There was a queue already, but not too wild (got number 59).

- the weather was quite unsteady, with lots of wind and occasional rain. Lots of umbrellas and rain covers.

- the queuing started around 17:30 o'clock, early entry was allowed in around 18:30 o'clock.

- Sound check was lovely. The boys were in a good mood. Bojan explained about what the procedures of soundcheck. And we got a Nace + Jan jamming session. They played two songs - Dopamin and Proti Toku.

- Sector 5 started as an opening band. They played really well and were energetic on stage. Some people started singing along

- JC Stewart was a total contrast to them, being alone on stage with only his acoustic guitar. His songs were really powerful and full of emotions.

- The JO performance was amazing. They were so energetic, cheerful and seemed to have a great time. Kris seemed to take it a bit slower - he might still be sick

- Looots of Jance action, smirks and heart eyes. Jan leaning his head to Nace's chest, them screaming at each other, Nace nearly kissing Jan. That was a 5 star girl (gn) dinner

- Bojan as a fairy with pink wings, taking his job really seriously. Kris wore a tiny crown with a veil, Jan a fluffy tiara

- During Metulji, they both wore butterfly head crowns and Bojan had his fairy wings back on. He cracked up seeing people do the Macarena during the song, but caught himself again.

- Jan's guitar was somehow out of tune. They stopped the song and he tried fixing it by himself. During the second try, he went rushing to Kiki to exchange guitars.

- Umazane Misli "only" had a few people singing. I remember a really well-sung German version, Russian, Dutch (?) and of course Slovene. Bojan was in the crowd with Vita, encouraging the singers. Sector 5 was in the crowd as well, and the singer

- Jan dancing Macarena during UM and taught it to Nace. Bojan parted the sea crowd and made us take turns in singing UM

- Jure was an absolute beast on the drums. It was so intense

- after the concert we waited outside for the boys to come out. Jan eventually came and took pictures. Jure was hanging out with the people from Sector 5

All in all a wonderful concert experience. Can't wait for Munich tomorrow

[cosmogyros]

I know I haven't been on here lately ahhhh but I have been spending every free moment READING, because with every year older that I get, I feel less and less knowledgeable... and I must remedy this. Although, frankly, I think I might be overdoing it a bit because. um. my full-time job also requires reading eight hours a day. And I'm starting to feel a bit Worn.

That said, here's my "currently reading" list with disorganized commentary:

Miteinander reden - Friedemann Schulz von Thun (I am enjoying this one but moving through it very slowly so far because it keeps giving me Ideas that I need to write about immediately or else message friends about, and then I forget to return to the book and keep reading)

Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction - James Fulcher (crap I forgot I was reading this actually, I need to get back to it)

Le lieutenant de Kouta - Massa Makan Diabaté (This is progressing slowly because I'm hand-copying it as I go, but at least it's generally quite an easy read, and particularly interesting to me because it's set in Mali, a country that is a special interest of mine)

Et si c'était vrai - Marc Levy (I started this, paused it when I briefly lost interest, then restarted; we'll see if I can maintain the motivation this time)

Dracula - Bram Stoker (yes! I am doing Dracula Daily! oh it's such a treat to return to this wonderful book ❤️)

Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy - Jessica Fern (I posted about wanting to read this book and then two friends messaged me separately saying they'd been wanting to as well, so obviously I did what anyone would do and made a group chat, introduced 'em to each other, and we're a mini-book-club now)

Sauve-Moi - Guillaume Musso (I started this just for the heck of it and I'm sorry but it's so bad so far. so bad. The protagonist looks in the mirror after a shower as an excuse to have her describe herself. And yes, she mentions her breasts. And then she wonders if, at 28, she's still desirable. I may not be able to stick this one out.)

Delusions of Gender - Cordelia Fine (I have been having memory issues again recently, so I can't remember a blessed thing about this book despite having started it... mayyyybe two weeks ago? I should probably stop reading so many things at once and give my poor brain-damaged head a break 🙃)

The ABCs of Socialism - Bhaskar Sunkara et al. (I have sooooo much to learn about socialism, and I guess I am starting here; already learned the difference between private property and personal property, so we're off to a good start)

Les Fiancés de l'hiver - Christelle Dabos (not my usual genre but I spontaneously joined a French book club that chose it as our first book, so hey! and it's not bad so far)

Mating in Captivity - Esther Perel (one of those "been on my TBR forever" books that I finally dove into when another friend mentioned starting it and I said "ooh ooh I'll read it with you!")

I also started reading Les Misérables and Le deuxième sexe but I am trying to FORCE myself to hold off on them for now and finish my somewhat more accessible French books first, before returning to those heavy-hitters. Oh and there's Vere aux Fantazie, the collection of short pieces in Esperanto that I really have no excuse for not having finished yet, seeing as I started it... a year and a half ago.

But honestly right now my current-reading list is too full of non-English stuff and/or nonfiction, and I think it would be wise to ease up on myself a bit and read some nice light compelling English-language fiction to balance out the rest of this mess. The last fiction book I finished in English was Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, a recommendation from a friend, which threw me for a fucking LOOP when I finished it a few days ago. Instantly went on my favorites list, but damn, I'm still licking my wounds.