Tokio Hotel

[phoenix]

For someone who hates watching videos, I've sure watched rather a lot in the last day or so! I must confess why, for the lucky souls who haven't been witness to my extreme squeeage. It's all midwintersong's fault. That little bearer of evil linked a picture or two of Bill Kaulitz, Tokio Hotel's singer. Had never heard of Tokio Hotel until this week, like. But Bill stole my heaaaart instantly. I've never got into a band backwards -- admiring pictures, then listening to the music -- and I'm not altogether sure I would have. I don't usually listen to music in foreign languages, and don't speak a word of German, their native language. And I can't really take their English lyrics seriously. But I could watch Bill forever, and have a growing fondness for his (IDENTICAL, such pretty features, but very different in style) twin Tom, and even the quiet drummer and bass guitarist, Gustav and Georg.

(Currently watching the 19th of their series of weekly videos. 19th! Saw a few of the earlier ones, then started at #1. Good stuff! Subtitled all. I'm picking up a couple of words of German by listening intently.)

This makes the purpose of celebrity crushes clearer to me. I've had the super high of noticing someone, loving the sight of them, wanting to know all about them, but I don't have the possibility of getting involved with them to make it all awkward and painful. It's just pure fun and joy and I can hoard photos of them without being a freakish stalker! Crushes make me incredibly happy, but I'm pretty reserved and closed off and fussy in my infatuations, and my last crush didn't go well -- found it impossible to talk to the person in question, and it quickly made me feel bad to see them, not good. No substitute for a real romance (which I don't really want at present anyway), duh, but why should it be? This celebrity crush is an augmentation of my life with no possibility of harming it.

The videos are great fun to watch. Amanda Palmer aside, I generally have no interest in the lives of musicians (or other artists), but I love seeing the whole span of emotion in these little snippets of life on tour and backstage -- joy, boredom, screaming arguments (just one so far, between the twins), stressed perfectionism, grumpy morningness, both delight and fear at the furious energy of the screaming fans. (I swear, these fans make me think of the maenads. You can imagine them tearing apart Orpheus.) I read diaries and write one -- of course I love the full spectrum of human life, right down to its mundanities. And that's what these are -- video diaries.

(I'm not neglecting my studies for these! I'm rewarding myself with videos after each period of study. Yay motivators :D)

Comments

[damanique]

You don't frequently have celebrity crushes? I have 'm all the time - though I'm usually not very vocal about it. (If I was, people would clearly think I was even more insane than they already think I am.) But they're also very short-lived. It's like you're saying, it's a bit of an emotional high, appreciating someone's beauty or personality or whatever it is that you liked about them in the first place, without all that real-life stuff.

Having said that, hearing about people's celebrity crushes can be tiring sometimes if not jealousy-invoking when it just keeps going on and on and on and on and on...

Anyway, the first time I was faced with the popularity of Tokio Hotel was when they suddenly showed up on the biggest show on Dutch tv somewhere in 2007. (The weirdos dancing are a part of the show. >_>)

[phoenix]

*dies* what did you just make me watch? hahahhaa. God, they looked so, um, surreal there in that older person's programme -- looks like Winning Streak or somesuch on Irish TV, and I can't imagine Tokio Hotel on that either. (More a Boyzone/Westlife kind of programme.) Some of the girls in the audience looked like they were about to come or have heart attacks, and I nearly fell about laughing when they were shooed away at the end. Oh, and he does sing better than that ;)

And nope, I have celebrity crushes next to never. Every few years, maybe, and I wouldn't normally consider them crushes -- just 'ooh, that person's so nice to look at'. Then again, I'm the same with real crushes -- I have them singly and rarely.

Hey, only people I've been going on and on at are my IRC friends. Whatever anyone else says ;)

[damanique]

Mooi Weer de Leeuw is a sort of comedy show that revolves around people sending in surprise wishes for their family and/or friends, typically bizarre but sometimes touching wishes. The show host is Paul de Leeuw who actually became a Knight in 2007.

I think that girl's wish was something like "I want to dance on the bar with Adje whilst Tokio Hotel plays" 'cause that's what it looks like.
Adje is an actor who acts like he's sort of retarded, which would be totally offensive in other countries (say, the US) but in the Netherlands it's considered hilarious.

[phoenix]

Oh hm, I remember shows like that on British TV. They weren't current when I last watched TV on any kind of a regular basis (a few years ago), excepting this major home makeover show but they were on a lot when I was growing up and were fun to watch. And that's a very random wish *G* I wouldn't want to dance, I'd just want to gaze at Bill!

[midwintersong]

Which argument between the twins was that? They've also had one about who was going to pick up something that was on the table in the room next door *g*. Only siblings could have a huge bitchfight over something so silly and dumb.

I love the video diaries *__*. So shiny, for all the reasons you mentioned.

[phoenix]

It seemed to be about some interview or photoshoot that Bill had confirmed without asking Tom. Tom spent it sitting on a chair being quite quiet but firm, and Bill raged from off-screen and called him a 'sick fuck', according to subtitles.