"And I..." Part II

The single of "And I" is now available as a download on www.bigbenexclusive.com !

"And I"

The 2nd video from the album Nightmove is already up :) Check out :) www.bigbenexclusive.com

Nightmove - The Album

It's finally there the 4th studio album from Big Ben is available now. Soundsclips can be listened to on www.bigbenexclusive.com in the Nightmove section. There you can also purchase the album :)))

Big Ben - For Infinity

Btw. I just thought of that I haven't posted our current video to the song "For Infinity" which is the upcoming single of our coming album "Nightmove". So enjoy :)

And btw. the song can be purchased on www.bigbenexclusive.com :)

Funny birthdayparty yesterday ...

My friend Matt had his B-day party yesterday and it was so funny .... we were so crazy .... our newest game for fun is charade of movie titles .... so here you go with some pictures:



Before the party started officially we had some fun in the kitchen lol:


Have a nice start of the week :)

Hugs
/J.

I ... I got a new life

lol ... or something like that :)

I have a list of things to do for this year .. things I have to / want to achieve .... besides my project ... which I laid down after just the first 2 pages ... I decided that I have to find something an occupation besides my regular job that makes me feel good... I wanted a new choir. Before that could happen I had to find a church in Berlin, that I would find fitting.

Some weeks ago I got reminded that I had that plan ... so I was looking for a church first. I found one .... a nice small old fashioned church just 10 minutes from my home. I wasn't even aware of that we had such churches in Berlin. But we obvilously have. This church is so old and pretty I fell in love with it already on the picture. So I went to the service the next sunday. It was even more beautiful when I was inside. So cosy. I wanted to find out if they even had a choir. So while I was sitting there praying and listening I got the idea to take another look at the Swedish church in Berlin, maybe they would have a choir too. I was surprised that I haven't thought of this before .... I can sing and practise Swedish at the same time, which is just perfect, since I barely get to speak Swedish currently since I always travel with not Swedish speakers so everybody is talking English to be polite :) Said and done ... and I got accepted.

So today I went to my first rehearsals and I really liked it. Everybody is very nice and I'm looking forward to the next time :)

What else happened? Well we had a nice photoshooting for the next Big Ben album last Saturday. I really enjoyed it. The outcome will be shown, once the cover is designed and the album is out :)

That's it for today :) Will have to think about what to change next :P

Hugs
/J.

Another long week .... and full of food

This week seemed it would never end ... although we had just 4 days of work, since Monday was holiday in Germany because of Easter. So I came back to work, after my small holidays (took 4 days of my rest holiday from last year and got 10 free days ... nice deal huh?) with the intention not to go into the stress life again and leave candy and sweet stuff aside since I had eaten far to much during Easter ....

My colleague was sick so that was the deal with the stress free time and my boss and another colleague brought cake and candy so even that itention was destroyed after just 3 hours at work on Tuesday. I went to the gym on Tuesday evening .... Ben cancelled our traing .... he is gonna suffer for that lol ... being at the gym felt good, even if I ran only 2 km this week at the gym ... the day after my whole body was aching. I hope that's the pain the muscles come from, otherwise I will be destroyed lol and will hate me for that waste of time hehe. Otherwise I worked quite a lot this week. So not that much to report.

Oh I made a new years promise ... don't even remember if I wrote it here but either way I'm looking for a new Church to go to. So I think I found one. Will attend the service there this Sunday and see if I like it. Would be so cool if they even had a choir. I long so bad singing in a choir again. I will keep you updated on this progress.

Tomorrow I will go to the gym again ... after that rehearsals and after the rehearsals Mary will have her house warming party in her new apartment. This is gonna be fun I think :)

That was my short update! Have a great weekend :)
Hugs
/J.

today is gonna be an interesting

.... and long day. Woke up at 7:30 since I was trying to finally get my wireless lan to work yesterday evening, which of course didn't work as it should. So I was restless to try it again ... I did the laundry already. Now it's 10:05 I'm still in my pyjamas and definately need to stop being online to get ready in time. In about 50 minutes I have to leave, because today is gonna be a long day.

We (BIG BEN) have an interview for a university project about underground bands at 12 I think, after that we have the regular rehearsal for the next album and then Ben will have his b-day party.

Before I have to leave I have to get dressed, pack my bag and hang the laundry lol so I better go now.

Have a nice day =)

Hugs
/J.

Little complaint asside .... I see that people are reading what I write. A little comment every now and then besides clicking the "cool" button would be nice =) Luv U

Back in reality

It's Sunday today and I am back in reality. Tomorrow I will have my everyday life back. The time in Sweden feels far away already. Anja departed yesterday, I had rehearsals with the band. We had the second day of the videoshooting we did 2 weeks ago, since we had to reshot some sequences. Last time when we were done I looked like Marilyn Manson's little sister. You will know what I am talking about when the video is up =)

Yesterday I felt more like a vampire lol. Se here are some pictures we did yesterday after the videos were done. I look weird lol and was laughing so bad all the time.

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So today I will clean my flat. When I came back from Sweden I realized that the door to my balcony was frozen so I'm not able to open it. I tried to melt the ice with a hair dryer already, which didn't have any impact lol. grrr. Anyway that's my short update on my life!

Have a nice Sunday!

Hugs
/J.

last blog in this year

so another year is almost over ... time to recall the year, which I will make short:

I traveled a lot - Mallorca in March, Sweden (Gothenburg, Luleå, Skellefteå, Töreboda, Sundsvall, Stockholm - airport lol) in June/July, Mallorca in July, Gothenburg in September, November and December ... continue that with a short trip to Gothenburg in January

I went to 3 Ace of Base concerts and had the time of my life there

I haven't sleept 4 days in a row - due to traveling to those concerts

I went to the Swedish book fair and bought so many new books lol

I went to 2 Jenny concerts

I became an official Jenny Berggren fan lol

I met so many nice Acers (Sara, Katie, Anna, Anna Velvet, Najs, Dimitry, Julia, Alex, Louiza, Andi - in case I forgot someone I'm sorry)

I sang my very first solo in Big Ben and got good reviews lol which was nice since I did it in a lower key than usual.

We made 2 albums with Big Ben.

We went through a lot of crises with Big Ben (member changes, arguments etc.) but had also a lot of good times.

I worked a lot (well that's not new) and will probably continue in 2010 as well.

And I joined the gym in August, which was a good decision.

I ran long distance for the first time in my life and I did it voluntarily. 6 km, which might not be that much for some, but for me it was a big challenge.

I can't think of anything more right now, but I can tell you that I have been very busy the whole year.

So see you next year.

Hugs

/J.

My little life - the past month

Well it has been quite a while since my last blog. I wanted to write ealier, but then I thought it's maybe not writing so what has happened?

I'm didn't do that much with my project ... nothing to be honest... I simply haven't had time.

I was working much - as usual - when I was home I was working on updates for www.jennyberggren.net and when I was not busy with these things I was rehearsing with Big Ben. We released our album and had a nice cosy concert on the 4th of December. It was cool and I was excited as I never have been before. Don't know where this come from. My throat was totally dry and I had problems being concentrated because of that. But the concert went well. The audience liked it and that's the most important. Nobody didn't take notice of my clumsy mistakes during the choreography lol

well and I have been to 2 Jenny Berggren concerts with Anja again. It was awesome as usual- Jenny did a great performance at both gigs. And I met nice people again and also some new ones. Katie was going with us and we had a blast. We met Najs, Louiza, Julya, Alex and Dimitry, who we haven't met before. And we met the funniest priest ever. Joachim is priest in Kungsbacka and guess what born in Berlin in the district I am living in. It was a pleasure to talk with him and all the people at church. I was really enjoying myself.

Yeah then yesterday I had x-mas party at work. It was funny and nice.

And tomorrow we will have our last performance with Big Ben this year. We are going to perform the x-mas set on a x-mas market in Berlin. After that we will meet up and have some x-mas celebration within the band so this is also going to be fun.

Meanwhile I plan our next Sweden trip already. This time it's 5 Jenny Berggren concerts in 8 days, so this is going to be exciting. We will go to a town near Karlstad (never been there before), we will visit Halmstad (as Roxette fan a must), will see Jenny perform in Malmö, have a great time in Fristad, where we saw her 2 years ago, Alingsås will also be interesting etc. So at the moment i'm spending my time with booking of accomodations and planning this trip as well.

Sunday I will take of for my "private" holidays in Sweden. Hope we will have snow. I love snow, at least in winter. My suitcase is packed and I'm excited to go there. Will write some updates on my life there as well ...

So have a great time until I am posting the next time.

Hugs

/J.

Love Is Strange

The video is finally online:

X-mas time with Big Ben

And so it was ... We have been rehearsing the past months and weeks for our secret band project, which is a X-mas CD with a mixture of very well known, traditional X-mas songs, some popsongs from other bands and some own tracks. Last week we went in the studio and finished the recording for 10 songs in just one day. It was a long day, but the result is nice.

Yesterday we shot the video for the x-mas version of our song "Love Is Strange" which had already been on "Redeemer" but now for the cosy winter time we made a new, softer version. The videoshooting was nice. As you know we do our own video with my camera and we are very good in making no budget videos, which you can watch on You Tube btw. www.youtube.com/bigbenexclusive is the link.

Posting a picture from me and Ben from the video, which is going to be online on Wednesday (check the You Tube channel):



The big x-mas concert is happening December 4th in Berlin and I'm really looking forward to it.

Would love to see you all there =)

hugs

Big Ben Photosession / Book Fair Preparations

This autumns photosession took place for the next Big Ben records to be released and I'm quite satisfied with the results, which I of course can't post before the pictures aren't picked. But be sure there are some really nice captions.

And I started to pack my suitcase for next weekend. Well we will be away for 4 days but taking into consideration that I just have one suitcase it looks like I gonna spend 4 weeks there. The big pro is, that I have the chance to buy a lot of things that I usually can't take with me while I'm in Sweden due to the fact that I always have more weight than it is allowed so I'm quite confident that the suitcase will be full on my trip back. Since I got a voucher from Anja to buy books, books and books in Sweden I might get problems with the weight anyway.

I can't wait finally get to read Jenny Berggren's book, which I gonna buy on Saturday. I just finished the book I was reading (En plats i solen by Liza Marklund) so that I am totally prepared for this one. I don't like reading several books at the same time, so I'm totally excited to read it.

It will be funny, since I will have to translate it for Anja while reading it in Swedish, so I guess I will have to read some good night stories for her. I read the first reviews from Acers and saw the interview she gave yesterday, which made me even more curious. People wrote that they laughed and cried reading this book. I never cried reading a book, so I'm wondering if it's just them or if this book is so emotional. Of course the fact that this book is a about a real person's life, a person that has been one of the idols of my youth, a person I was reading everything about when I was young, so that I had the feeling I knew her even though I hadn't met her by then will be really interesting ... maybe really intense ... well, I will keep you updated on this one =)

Off for today..

Hugs

/J.

The busy week is over

The past week was quite busy, since I had so much to do. 2 highlights were the 6 km company run we had last Wednesday ( I was 5th out of 7 in our team) and ran a total time of 37,9 minutes which I was more than satisfied with, since I never ever did this before. I was training at the gym and ran those 6 km there 2 times prior this big run, but in reality this is something totally different. Taking into consideration that it took me 53 minutes at the gym when I ran the first time 37,9 minutes is more than I expected.

Friday we had another concert, which was great. We re-arranged the show completly, performed a new song, which the audience really liked and it was just great. Thanks again to everyone who came to see us. IMO this was the best concert so far.

Bad news is that I still haven't managed to get a room for the book fair Anja and I are travelling to in 2 weeks. First I had to wait for the confirmation of my boss that I can go and now, no room is left. Well there are rooms left but far beyond our budget so to say. I have already a bad conscience that I had to ask my friends again, since I don't want to cause trouble in their lives. The last chance is Eva, who is actually a fan of Big Ben and meanwhile a good friend. Still I don't want to cause trouble at her place either. Either way she offered a room and I'm so grateful for that, she probably can't imagine. So I really hope I can get this solved within the next days, since I get stomach ache already when I think of the fact that we have nowhere to go when we arrive there.

So that was my week.

Hugs
/J.

Update on my little life

It has been quite a while since I wrote last time here .... I'm quite busy, but who isn't these days? Now it is Sunday again 10 p.m. and I'm trying to relax a bit before another busy week starts tomorrow. Since I'm doing that sport thing I'm barely at home anymore during the week. Well I wasn't that much home before but it's just getting less and less ....

Tuesday I ran 6 km for the first time. It was tough and it was the big test before it is getting serious this wednesday, when the big run takes place. I don't wanna make a whole jerk out of myself so I was actually training for this one. I never ever ran more than 2 km and that was in school .... didn't even get through this one without a break (I'm a bad runner actually) so I was so proud of myself last Tuesday. Although I won't do it again before or after the run this week =) Still wondering how I got in all this.

Friday I was having a look at our location for this Friday's concert. If you didn't get a ticket yet, you should really consider coming. This feels so good. We redid the whole show I set up before summer. Changed the setlist and how more surprises.
The location was still differnt and I'm currious how it will look like when we get there this Friday, since they had a refurbishment and didn't seem quite ready when I was there last Friday delivering the posters for the advertisement.

Saturday we had the best rehearsals since weeks. I think we all are longing for to perform again.

And then I finally got my holidays signed this week. I had booked the flight weeks ago, since this short trip to my second home Gothenburg will last only 4 days, which means 2 days of from work, but still since there is so much to do until the end of this month it was hard to get it signed. So on Friday I finally started looking for a room. And guess what the whole city seems to be booked. no room available .... currently waiting for response from a private room we rented 2008. It's so annoying. I was looking forward to those 4 days and now something like this happens. well keep you updated on this.

.... more about yesterday...

So well, after I switched off the computer the day was quite interesting as it continued, since I could make some home improvement from 8:00 am on. I got an angle grinder from my colleague since I had a marquee on my balcony since I moved her. It was from the tenant who was living in my apartment before me, so when he moved he told me he had taken down that thing when the house and the facade were refurbished. He said it just has to be installed again .... which wasn't quite the truth as I realized later on when I and some friends wanted to install it again. Since the facade got some isolation it didn't fit anymore and that guy was just to lazy to bring it to the dumpsite. So had it laying on my balcony not able to move it, since it was even to heavy for 3 people and it was like 4 meters long so it had to be in parts. So I did it yesterday which was quite an adventure since I never had handled an angle grinder before. It was heavy and I was a little afraid about the sparks that were jumping out while using it. But I managed it. Then I wanted to bring those parts to the dump down on the street where a neighbour saw me and threatened to call the police when I put the things there. So what to do I brought them down 7 floors and was not even thinking about getting them up again ... so I tried to fit them in my cellar, which didn't work, so I had to find another place where I put them now until the carbage collection takes place .... need to make a call tomorrow, wondering how much it will cost.

After that was done I took a look at my now so big balcony. This thing took so much space eventhough it was just laying on the floor. So this success made me thinking what to do next. It was n't that difficult since I had been to IKEA the week before and bought some more cupboards that needed to be installed on the wall. I had just some time so I did that next. When I finished that I had just some time to eat a bun and then I headed to the sport where Ben was waiting for me. We were training like 2 hours and had a lot of fun. After that we went to his place and waited for Mary to arrive since it's just 2 weeks until our next concerts and rehearsals had to be done. So we were working on new steps and choreo, quite frustrating for me since I wasn't able to co-ordinate my bands lol. I know that it sounds weird but it was just like that.

So I was home at 1:30 am, a lot earlier than usual, but it was good that way since I needed some sleep.

Quite a busy day I can tell =) But I still had today to relax.

Hugs
/J.

New haircut this weekend

Saturday I did what I should have done weeks ago. I finally made it to the hairdresser. Since I'm busy during the week and normally having rehearsals on Saturdays week after week went by and my hair grew and grew lol .... So yesterday we didn't have rehearsals, what I celebrated with an overdue visit at my very talented hairdresser Bernd. He is simply the best. So I sat 3 hours got colour and a nice cut and to complete the day I went shopping at Berlin's Kurfürstendamm, after that I went to the Alexanderplatz to buy some more and when this was done I even went to IKEA to get some things that I was missing. I left home at 8:00 am and was back at 10:30 pm lol still a great day.

Btw, to everyone who wanted to download certain songs of Big Ben such as my very cool (yes I know I'm an ego on this one) song "Everybody's Fool" those songes are going to be uploaded within the coming days in the shop of www.bigbenexclusive.com The first 3 songs are already available, more will follow soon.

Of for bed now, since I have an important meeting tomorrow morning and will go to Rostock for another one after that ...

have a great weekstart
/J.

First training at the gym is done

So yesterday I had my first personal training, which was quite an experience but a lot of fun. I got to know things about my mussles that I didn't know and did you know that I seem to have coordination. I never knew that, since I usually feel sort of out of order when I'm doing the first things for a new choreography for BIG BEN. So that was quite encouraging to hear, especially when I think that there is some new choreography waiting for me this saturday. Ben told me, he told that already but I didn't believe him, so now that I have a more professional optinion on that I will believe him in future... Good news was that I didn't have any aching mussles today, which was quite surprising.

Today I had my very first training with Ben, which was quite funny and now I finally have hurting arms ... next unit comes on Saturday. So now I gotta clean up my bathroom, since the washing machine comes tomorrow. This is quite exciting, actually lol ...

C ya
/J.