Tiny Hand

2013/07/27

Best Of "Maximiwax"!

A "Best of" of Maximiwax ...  Hm.
Normally, only the big stuff gets a Best Of. This blog is merely a drop of water in the big ocean that is the Internet. Only ~6.300 people viewed this page, only 24 comments were made on the posts and the number of Facebook-likes is stuck on being somewhere between 130 and 150. The feedback I get comes mainly from friends and the transfer to tumblr. (which you can find by clicking here) wasn't as successful, yet, as I had hoped.

But why am I still writing this post?
Because of boredom, that's why! Aaaaand because I wanna show you how this blog changed over the past 1.5 years...

It all began (don't worry, I'll keep it short) with my youtube Channel called "maximiwax". I wanted to have 'my music' everywhere I go, no matter if I had my mp3-player with me or not. That's why I founded "maximiwax" in the first place. I found cool new tracks ranging from Indie-Acoustic-Folk to extreme Dubstep-remixes and picked some for my Channel. I started to upload videos with tracks that weren't on Youtube before and that, children, was my downfall. Damn you, copyright, for killing my Channel!





sidenote: I found an old playlist with videos from my Channel that James West made. How cool is that??!? :D Some of them are missing because my uploads were deleted, but you can watch the rest here: MAXIMIWAX playlist

When Youtube blocked my Channel forever, I was thinking about ways to publicly collect my favorite tracks, until a friend of mine planted the thought of making a blog into my head. And thats what I did!
As you can see from my first posts, this blog was all about music. No stories, no comics. Just plain music and some information to back it up.



Tame Impala - Solitude Is Bliss


Later on, I noticed that I could use the blog to write down what was bothering me at that time. It soon became a waaaaay too cathartic and therapeutic method for me to get everything out. Some of the stuff I wrote sounds so emotional and cryptic that I start to understand why some people thought that I'm emo ._. But trust me, it was just the hair, that's all!!





Fortunately, I stopped with the whining and began to incorporate my creative side into the blog. Inspired by well-known bloggers and artists such as Books Of Adam and Hyperbole and a Half, I used illustrations to go with what I wrote. This step, changing from a pure music-related blog to an illustrated storytelling-music-thingy, is what created what you see in front of you + on your screen right now. Without the ability to draw every now and then, I would've stopped making blog posts, I guess. And if you look closely, you'll even see a difference in the quality of the drawings. I'm happy that I got better with time :)
see what I mean?

Deadmau5 ft Imogen Heap - Telemiscommunications




And now that I even got a tumblr. and a Facebook page, the holy trinity of maximiwaxy internetainment is complete. I'm happy with what I do, even though I know it doesn't reach as many people as I hoped it would. And I still got maaaaany things in store that need to be translated into blog posts and illustrations. Not to mention the huge amount of tracks that I'll be including, as well.
Get ready for artists and songs that touch your heart, make you wanna dance or fuck things up!
Be prepared for b/w drawings that may cross the boundaries of good taste!
I'll try my best to make you happy and provide you with a steady dose of (what I think is) good music. ;)

If you wanna find out what the heck I just talked about, check all the previous posts on Maximiwax.blogspot.de!

Greetings
~Maximiwax'*

2013/07/17

Being Manly

Throughout my whole life, I've been told that I should man up or that I'm too feminine. Even before sexuality and gender were of importance - meaning in 2nd/3rd grade - other guys called me a "fag" only due to the fact that I showed my emotions and was interested in "unmanly" things.
I can't understand what was so fascinating about Barbie dolls at that time, but damn, I loved them! I had more than any of my female school friends combined! And only Barbies, no Kens. I even had some dancing lessons in an otherwise only-female-group. My world was marked by everything creative, colorful and in general untypical for a boy to like. 

Since then, not much has changed about the stereotype "man". I still feel as if I'm not a full-on manly man, just because I don't grow a beard, I'm extremely bored when it comes to "manly topics" (cars, sports and the like) and my body is more pear-shaped than broadshouldered-tinywaistedsuperhero-esque.

... I recently started to do something about this. I'm approaching what my Y-chromosome had in store for me when I popped out of my mother's flesh-colored Cthulhu. I'm even in the process of liking the thought of being a manly guy. I will never be a moustached, bench-pressing Casanova with a splendid mane of chest hair and a Porsche which is parking in a self-built garage. But I can be that guy with a three-day stubble dancing in the corner to a track by Robyn, a guy who is able to lift half his body weight in water bottles and who lasts more than 5 minutes.
In bed.
I'm talking about sexy-time.

Some days ago, I tried to attach a glass shelf onto my wall, which included drilling a hole. A "normal" dude shouldn't have any difficulties with this. And normally, I'm this kinda dude. But for some reasons, everything went wrong and now I doubt my inner "Bob the Builder". A normal drill hole is big enough to fit the dowel in. Mine ended up to be big enough to fit 3 or 4 fingers in. Everything went according to plan, until I wanted to put the dowel in and it got stock, somehow. After ripping it in half while I was trying to get it out again, I widened the hole to the stated width. The rest of the dowel remained in the wall. Then, my brilliant brain had the idea to get the rest out with the drill itself. Well, the tip broke off and got stuck in the wall, as well. What was left was a damn mess and a huge hole in my wall, which I had to cover up with a piece of wallpaper. 
Bob the Builder... Now I know, why my lecturer called me "Bob" once...
No matter how manly a man should be and how much I want to represent this stereotype, I will always keep the things that I stand for and that interest me. Even if a normal guy could/should be ashamed to like them. For instance my love for NTM shows.
When I first watched ANTM (America's Next Top Model), I knew that this, yeah, this show right there, is what would become one of my favorite shows, and it still is up to this day... Today, I can proudly (?) say that I watched almost every NTM show there is:
America's NTM, Australia's NTM, Germany's NTM, Britain&Ireland's NTM, Canada's NTM, Asia's NTM, New Zealand's NTM... the only ones I did not watch are the Italian, Greek, Dutch and some other versions...
I just like how overly dramatized these shows get and how unrealistic they are compared to the real modelling world. But hey, some of the NTM models had a really good career after the show! Why do I know this? Well, because I even keep track of the models after the shows. That's how fucking crazy I am about them.
Loading
I think, I may have a problem...


The only manly thing about me is my chocolate voice. Yeah, you heard that right. My normal voice may not be as raspy and deep as you would imagine a manly man to sound like, but when I get to a certain point of drunk-ness or when I'm working on my voice for a certain time, I can pull the lever and change my voice from every-day-squeaky-Max to dark-skinned-chocolate-God. My voice then can fill the whole room with excitement, bringing you in a state of peace and arousal at the same time. The atoms of your body begin to vibrate and you may need a moment before you can get your mind out of the gutter again. Unfortunately, this chocolate-y sensation is reserved for special people (I'm talking about sexy-time, again [which means: only for fellas]) and is also restricted to the right surroundings and other factors and therefore not accessible at all times... What a shame...


So what do we learn from this?
Nothing, I guess. Maybe "As long as you feel good about yourself, you don't need to change in order to fit into an imaginary cage given by society." Or maybe just "Watch ANTM. It's fun... Really!"

...
Before I introduce the music part of this post, let me clarify this: There are 2 tracks that have Rihanna in them. Shocking, I know. What are Rihanna songs doing here on ~Maximiwax~?
Don't worry. One of them is a Diamonds mash-up that kinda works for me - the other one a song with "Rihanna" in the title.
Keep 
calm
and
listen to the music! :D

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~music time~


M83 / Rihanna - Midnight Diamonds (Divide&Kreate Mashup)














I think, I said it all...
Have a nice week, guys + gals!

Greetings
~Maximiwax'*

2013/07/07

Dumb Ways To Die

The older I get, the more I think about life and death. Not in a spiritual way, but in an "It's gonna happen. I'd better be prepared for what's coming!" -kinda way.

I recently noticed that, when I tell a story that happened in the past, I don't say things like "back in 9th grade" or "back when [someone] did [action]" anymore. Instead, I name the year. "In the summer of 2010", for example. Now that I'm able to state the exact date, I'm one step closer to being an old pile of human dust.

And to be honest, I'm reeeaaaally afraid of getting old. Not only is this, right now, the best you've ever looked/smelled/talked/LIVED, but also the moment where your self-asteem should be at its high-point. I can already foresee that I won't like the way I look and feel once I'm wizened, wrinkly and fragile.

Plus, what will happen to friendships, co-workers and old acquaintances? My grandma once told me that there are only few people left of what used to be the group of her class reunion. Every other year, one of them dies and thins out the list of the remaining. She is one of the "survivors", if you like. And with every relationship, no matter which kind, dies a piece of your past. Maybe even a bit of your inner child.
And I don't want this to happen!
I hope that my future-me will always keep its childishness and infantile humor. What would life be without vulgar dick jockes? I mean, heck, even the body parts of a whale are funny to me! And I wanna keep it that way, no matter how old I am!
So yeah, it's the getting old part that scares me. Not death itself. I guess, I don't fear the afterlife or whatever comes after getting X-ed out from this planet, because I more or less know how it's going to happen.
I'm gonna die a stupid death.
This is not an assumption about future events. I KNOW that my relatives will miss me, because this is what I intent with my life - living it in a way that I have a positive effect on the lives of my beloved. But I also KNOW that they will have an inappropriate smirk on their faces when they think about my death. It's what would suit me the most - a really dumb way to die.

I don't know, maybe with the creepiest smile on my face ever after having an overdose (of whatever). Or maybe a plane crashes directly onto my then-corpse, because the fuel-gauge had been maliciously stuck on "MAX".
It would be even more fitting, if it had something to do with being on the toilet...
I've spent DAYS of my life doing what you normally do on the toilet - and maybe even doing things you wouldn't normally do there... And since my humor is very focused on faecal-y stuff, too, it would be the perfect kind of death there is (for me) !  I once heard that you can die of brain haemorrhage when the vessels in your brain burst after pushing too much..... you know, down there....... And imagine how people react to the explanation of your death! Surely, after several years of calming down, my relatives will SHIT themselves when remembering me!
Max, the one who died shitting.
I guess, the artists I called out for their stupid lyrics like "Live while we're young" and the new #YOLO-movement know what's in stock for us. And what we should do to celebrate our youth.
And I know one thing that we should definitely enjoy! MUSIC!

(nice transition, huh?)

------------------------------------------------------------------

~music time~

Atoms for Peace - Default
The Strokes - Trying Your Luck

Bloc Party - Ratchet
Disclosure - F For You
All The Colours - Second To None

Little Scout - Go Quietly




Maybe the rest of midsummer will get me out of this grim state of mind.
If not: I know what's coming... You hereby have the permission to laugh about/at me after my death. You're welcome.

Greetings
~Maximiwax'*

2013/07/02

Blog Posts: A Maximiwaxy How-To!

Even though my blog is still an itsy-bitsy stain on the canvas of internetainment, I get some response from friends and readers of the blog. And there is one question that many people ask me when they have a first look at the illustrations - How do you make them? Do you draw them all by yourself?

Since nothing special or illustration-worthy happened to me in the last couple'o'weeks, I just thought Why not make a blog post about how I make my posts? Maybe some of you are interested in creating your own blog and need some inspiration or an idea of what you COULD do. So here are 5 steps that I follow when making a blog post!

Step #1: The idea
As I said, when I make a post, I want to tell you guys something that is worth mentioning or just fun to illustrate. It could be a dream (one of my favorite blog posts to date!), a special scenario that you were part of, a certain thought or - as in this case - the purpose of showing something.

Step #2: The text
I simultaneously work on the drawings and on the text, which is why my English has been a bit all over the place in the past. I can do better, I swear! ^^
Try to use language that many people understand. I did not say "everybody", because, well, where would be the challenge for the English-noobs, then? :D You won't have any problems if you use German words and write for a German audience, of course...

Step #3: The first sketch
You got your idea. Great! Now It's time to illustrate it. Let's start with a basic posture and a happy face...
Then,  intensify the lines to make them more visible - I do that, because I copy it on another sheet of paper, later...
And then...
Step #4: Shading and Text
After having the final sketch, I use an almost-dry, grey marker to make some shadows here and there to make it more realistic. In the end, I add a few words with a program called Gimp aaaand with only a few small adjustments you got your picture! :
There you have it! A nice, maximiwaxy and totally realistic illustration! The only thing that's missing is the music...

Step #5: Music
I usually find new tracks on sites like Indieshuffle, YesYesY'all, Hypem, OhMyRock, via friends, and - recently - even by listening to the radio. But since there is soooo much music out there, I try to limit it to 5-7 songs for each post...
Like these ones :

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~music time~

Blackbird Blackbird - All

Moderat - Bad Kingdom

Feist x Timber Timbre - Homage
lovely collab. the overlapping vocals and the calmness really make you feel something...

Canopy Climbers - Souvenir

Whitley - My Heart Is Not A Machine
damn, I'm a sucker for song with several voices / polyphony! great lyrics, too...

Tourism - Float Away



So this is how I make my blog posts. Looks quite easy, huh? Well, even this little post took me around 4 hours. But let this be an inspiration to you! Get creative! Show your taste in music/clothes/lifestyle/humor, your thoughts and ideas!

Greetings
~Maximiwax'*