Do I actually see with my own very eyes, a man who's not heard of a Jellicle cat?

The award-winning musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber is with more than 65 million viewers one of the most popular musicals world wide.  Since May 15th you have been able to see the musical at the "Messegelände Graz", which is just next to the "Grazer Stadthalle".

The story is a little bit confusing, but basically it is about the "Jellicles" (a tribe of cats) and the "Jellicle Choice", which means that one cat will be chosen to be reborn.

I saw it yesterday night and although the story line is not as good as in other musicals I had seen before (such as "Lion King" or "Wicked") I absolutely loved it. It was just astonishing how the performers sang and especially danced - at some point I was not sure if I was in a musical, a circus or a dance competition - it was amazing.

Just have a look at this video and I'm sure you will know what I mean:



(Yeah, I know that the trailer is German - I'm sorry for that. But I decided to upload the German one for two reasons:
Firstly because I saw the musical in German and secondly because I couldn't find a good English version which shows as many different scenes as the German one does.)

There are still some tickets left (http://www.ticket.at/de/ticket/12036/cats-theaterzelt-graz) if you want to see it and they have a great student discount as well (about 10€ off!). But better be fast, the last show is going to be on June 16th.

"Daylight

I must wait for the sunrise

I must think of a new life

And I musn't give in

When the dawn comes

Tonight will be a memory too

And a new day will begin"

Without music, life would be a mistake!

Hey guys! :)

Most of you probably know that I'm a member of my hometown's local orchestra, called "Jugendkapelle Werndorf" (JKW). Every year we have two big concerts - one in December and one in spring.

I'd like to invite y'all to this year's spring concert which is going to be on June 05, 2013. It's going to be something new, special and really big because we, the JKW, are not going to play alone but together with the "Musikverein Wildon".

June 05, 2013

7.30 pm

Kulturheim Werndorf

The program offers something for everyone - modern musical pieces such as "The Lord of the Rings", "The Beauty and the Beast" or "Pirates of the Caribbean", classical music ("Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald"), marches ("The Washington Post") and many other great pieces of music.

Tickets cost 14€ in advance, 19€ at the door. Let me know if you are interested (E-Mail: rauch.juli@gmail.com or text/call me if you have my number) so I can get the tickets for you! :)

If you can't make it on June 05, we are going to play the same concert one week before (May 29) in Wildon.
I'm looking forward to seeing you there! :)

What do Disney, Harry Potter & LotR have in common?

Exactly: Jon Cozart! In case you haven't heard of him yet: He is famous for his YouTube Channel "PAINT", where he uploads his hilarious and absolutely brilliant parodies.

Have you ever wondered what happened to Disney princesses like Belle, Ariel, Jasmine or Pocahontas after they lived happily ever after? Well, this guy does have some quite tragical but definitely funny ideas:

For the Harry Potter Fans, this one is a must-see:



And another one for those of you who love LotR:



And here's one about famous movie villains:



I just can't decide which one I like the best, I simply love all of them - which one is your favorite?

diverCITY - or what to do this Thursday evening

Approval, cooperation and tolerance - that's what my sister Kathi and her friend Chrissi try to achieve with their "Maturaprojekt". As both of them are in their last year at HLW Schrödinger and close to graduation, they had to organize an event as their last project. Kathi and Chrissi decided to organize an exhibition, to show that different music genres and especially their representatives can actually cooperate, get along with each other and especially have a lot of fun together.

Hip Hop, classical music or folk music - those and many other music genres will be represented at the exhibition the two friends pulled together.

The pictures show representatives of all different genres mixed up with a completely different genre or in a rather unusual pose. Kathi and Chrissi found a really talented photographer who just happens to be my dad ;)
He's actually really good, you can find some of his work on his FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/FotoFranzRauch
Of course the pictures of this exhibition are not online, but I've already had a short glimpse at them and I can assure you the exhibition is definitely worth a visit.

You can see the result of this experiment at the "Stern Bar" (Sporgasse 38). For those of you who have no clue where that is: Just get off the tram at "Hauptplatz" and take a right:



This Thursday (January 31st) the exhibition's opening will start at 6.30 p.m. There will be a deejay and I'll be there for sure and I would love to see as many of you guys there as possible - since most of the exams will be over by then we could also clink our glasses and celebrate that we survived the last weeks ;)
If, for whatever reason you can't make it this Thursday, the pictures will stay at the bar for a month, so whenever you have time just stop by and take a look while drinking a delicious cocktail or a cold beer ;-)

You can also join the facebook group http://www.facebook.com/events/390021234424368/ for more information, or if you have any questions feel free to ask me (:

Looking forward to seeing you there,
Julia

Wicked - "it's time to try defying gravity"

“I'm through accepting limits, cause someone says they're so. Some things I cannot change, but till I try, I'll never know!“

This is a quote of my favorite musical: “Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz“.



It is based on the novel „The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West“ by Gregory Maguire, which is a parallel novel of the movie „The Wizard of Oz“ and L. Frank Baum’s classic story „The Wonderful Wizard of Oz“, which probably all of you read when you were children. The plot begins before and continues after Dorothy’s arrival in Oz and includes several references to the movie and Baum’s novel.

It is about Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. They are forced to live in the same dorm and struggle because their personalities and viewpoints are totally different. The musical also covers the topics of rivalry, love and especially the Wizard’s corrupt government.

I first heard about the musical about 6 years ago, when we played some of the songs at one of our concerts and I immediately fell in love with the music. One year later my classmates and I went to London and I saw a huge poster advertising Wicked. Until then I had not known that it played in London as well and of course I really wanted to see it. Unfortunately none of my classmates were as excited about the musical as I was and so I decided to see it alone. First it felt a little bit strange to sit in the huge theater without anyone I knew, but it was totally worth it.

Last year the musical played in Durham, NC, which was about 25 minutes away from where I lived. Nicole (a friend of mine) and I heard about a so called „Wicked Lottery“, where you could win cheap tickets (they were 25$) for one of the first rows. We thought we’d give it a try – and we actually won!

Although the singers were not as good as the ones who sang in London, it was still amazing and I just loved it. I would totally see it again, it’s just one of the best musicals I’ve ever seen.

♪ ♫ Dancing through life ♬ ♩

“Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ll never be hurt. Dance like no one is watching!”

I’m pretty sure all of you have heard of the club “Kottulinsky”, but just to be on the safe side: It’s a club which is located pretty close to the University of Graz (Beethovenstraße 9), which is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and of course on the weekend.

But what most of you probably don’t know: Its doors also open on Tuesdays! But if you go there on a Tuesday you won’t find techno music or remixes, which are typical for most of the clubs in Graz – Tuesday is Salsa Night!

The doors open at 8pm and “A Taste of Latin Moves” starts at 8:30 and lasts an hour. There you can learn some basic dance steps with the help of a dance instructor. Afterwards the Salsa beats will continue and you can dance till dawn.

It really is a lot of fun and I’ve seen some amazing dancers while being there the last time! But you don’t have to be a professional dancer to go there – I only knew the basic steps and still had a lot of fun!

Great news for those of you who are under 21: On Tuesdays the age limit is 18 and the entrance is free for all guests!

Here is their Facebook page, where you can find out about special events (from time to time they have special themes, like for Halloween, Christmas and so on): http://www.facebook.com/SalsaLatinKottulinsky

Just give it a try, it really is a lot of fun and never forget:

“Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance!”

Music is what feelings sound like!

May I introduce to you – the best local orchestra ever (okay, I admit it, I may be a little bit prejudiced, since I play in it, BUT we are pretty good ;))

As some of you may know, I play the flute in the orchestra of Werndorf. If you have no clue where/what Werndorf is: It's a small village about 20 km south of Graz.

Although we are such a small village, we offer a pretty good culture program - with artists like Peter Simonischek, Stermann & Grissemann, Gernot Kulis, Josef Hader and soon also Heinz Marecek (I will post about this event soon) we have already had quite famous and absolutely amazing people and great events in our village.

Another huge part of our culture program is the "Jugendkapelle Werndorf" - our local orchestra. Here’s the link to our homepage: http://www.jk-werndorf.at

As every year, our Christmas concert is set for the 8th of December, which is the upcoming Saturday – so if you don’t have any plans yet we’d be more than happy to welcome you. The concert starts at 2.30pm and with songs like „Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer“, „White Christmas“, „Driving home for Christmas“, „Ave Verum Corpus“, „O holy night“ and much more the program offers something for young, old and in between. But it is not only a concert, we are also going to present our Christmas CD - which is the perfect Christmas present for your parents, friends, grandparents and all the other people who love Christmas songs (and let's be honest, who doesn't? ;))

IT’S FUN TO BE A NERD!

“Oh no, I hate studying” – I bet all of you have used this (or a similar phrase) at least once in your life. Today I want to show you that learning a new language is not only about doing grammar exercises and studying vocabulary from your textbook.

My English teacher showed us three links this week – and I’d like to introduce them to you and show you that it can be “fun to be a nerd” ;)

Link #1: http://breakingnewsenglish.com/

Every week an English teacher writes one (or two) short articles about current events. You can choose between the categories Business English, Environment, Health, Issues, Lifestyle, Famous People & Gossip, Technology and World News – so I’m sure you'll find something that you are interested in. You can read the article the teacher wrote and afterwards do some exercises – like “Fill-in-the-blank”, play “Hangman”, “Missing words” or “Crosswords” and much more – all fun ways to improve your vocabulary and reading comprehension.

Link #2: http://eslnotes.com/synopses.html

Who doesn’t love movies? Another English teacher provides information about a bunch of classic movies (like Apollo 13, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Cast Away, Dumb and Dumber, Psycho, …). The document for the movie you choose will give you a lot of information about the main characters, a pretty good plot summary and some words and expressions that you may not know. It also has a list of possible questions you may have after watching the movie, which you can discuss with your friends and family.

Link #3: http://www.lyricstraining.com

This site gives you the opportunity to listen to (and watch) your favorite music (-videos) – while learning new vocabulary. How? While listening to your song the lyrics will be displayed underneath the video. But the lyrics will have blanks in it, which you have to fill. There are three different game modes – Beginner (10% of the words are missing), Intermediate (25% of the words are missing) and Expert (all of the words are missing) – it’s actually trickier than it sounds, especially when you choose songs like “Love the way you lie”, where Eminem raps pretty fast ;)

So who says studying and learning a new language is boring? Give it a try – you will be surprised how much fun it can be to improve your language skills!