mellody

i did, and he can say or tweet what he wants, i still prefer his hair to any hat!

ok sorry then maybe i understood your post wrong. i was referring to what you said that people only learn from real life and not from books. my point was that some people who were brought up hating homosexuality will just avoid any contact with gays, and if they can't, they might even become aggressive. which is probably mainly fear of the unknown. so in those cases i'd think it'd be better to educate those people first, before confronting them in real life. it's only theory anyway though, because of course i think that anyone who's gay should be able to say it if they want to, without having to fear any rejection because of it. and there of course you're right that every openly gay person helps to achieve this. sabine, tbh i don't think guido westerwelle's career went downhill because he's gay or married a man, but just because he isn't a good politician. actually not just him but also the party he belongs to is a joke meanwhile. too many people in that party made too many mistakes. personally, i never really liked westerwelle but of course that has nothing to do with his sexual orientation.

suzie and sephira, i think you both are right - and wrong at the same time, as imo we need both to improve the situation for homosexuals. we need role models so those who discover that they're attracted to the same sex don't feel alone. and we need education about homosexuality in school books, to make everyone aware that it's not a disease or anything, but perfectly normal. some people believe and accept only what is written in a book.

there's a german article about it as well: http://www.queer.de/detail.php?article_id=17086 - i find it sad that they accuse mika of coming out to support his album, but at least the user comments are mostly postive.

ah sorry, i thought *you* were under 14. anyway, if they're your kids and you're with them, i think it shouldn't be a problem.

i'm rubbish at history, and maybe i mix up something there, but wasn't homosexuality perfectly normal and accepted in ancient greece?

thank you, that's much better than the cut version, loved watching the whole thing! i especially love the part when he tries to explain why he's not good in "normal" social situations - it looks like he never thought about the reasons before, but what he says make sense... and how he says that you don't have to be good at everything and what it was like in his family... all very interesting!

tram 12 or 15. http://www.kantine.com/anfahrt.php http://www.kvb-koeln.de/german/fahrplan/linienplan.html http://www.meininger-hotels.com/hotel-hostel/hotelsuche/koeln/

for me personally i can say that god is the same for me like any other fairytales of my childhood. as a child i believed in santa claus, in fairies and monsters, and in god (i was brought up catholic). of course you will say it's not the same, but for me there's no difference, except that the belief that there's a god is widely accepted, and the belief that there are fairies isn't. at some point i learned to believe only in things that i can see or feel or for which there is a scientific explanation. i never really thought about *why* this is like it is, but laurel's post made me think that bullying might indeed have been a reason. as a child your life depends on other people, you trust your family that they protect you, and where they can't, maybe you trust god that he does. but when something bad happens to you that no one can protect you from, not even your prayers, and you absolutely fail to see the meaning of why this happened, even keeps happening again and again, then you might lose your faith. of course the fact that i don't believe in god doesn't mean i want to burn churches or support this in any way, it's absolutely not the same! churches for me are beautiful buildings, they have a special atmosphere, and i totally respect and understand that those who believe in god love those places and that this atmosphere and their prayers there make them feel calm and better. maybe there is some sort of higher power, we all still know too little about this world to be absolutely sure. but the god i was taught about in my childhood doesn't exist for me, those are nothing but fairytale stories for me.

i don't know about anything nearby, but i'm thinking about staying at meininger hostel, at least that's on the same tram line.

yeah, it's really similar, isn't it. it totally confused me when i was a kid and first learned the english name austria. maybe we should call it by its local name "Österreich", so you don't have to suffer every time you read it. i wish you good luck that he'll come to australia soon too - it's only an "a" and an "l" that are missing, he's almost there...

for the germans who are O2 customers, there's an offer (starting august 9) that you can buy one ticket and get one for free for the cologne gig: http://www.o2more.de/e/o2-more/53452/mika-01-november-2012-kantine-koeln/index.html

aww, thank you for sharing your feelings, i had already thought that mika went through something like that, but it's great to hear it from someone who made the experience themselves, what it really feels like.

happy for him that he's now comfortable enough to talk about it openly! love how he describes it: "And it’s only through my music that I’ve found the strength to come to terms with my sexuality beyond the context of just my lyrics. This is my real life." - can't wait to read the whole interview!

aww, thanks for posting, such a lovely memory! there was still room on the floor...

aww clara, thank you for the lovely report, i really enjoyed reading it! it shows again how lovely mika and his family are, and that they really care about his fans.

good to know. i just bought my train ticket for the way TO vienna (the ticket back home will be available in a few days...), will already arrive on friday. a nice weekend in vienna with my bf - he'll go back on sunday though and won't stay for the concert. maybe he'll come to the concert in munich... i managed to get the train ticket for free, basically, since i had the idea that i could just book cologne-vienna with a long stopover in munich. it worked, ha!

just bought my train tickets.

Finally managed to upload my photos: http://photobucket.com/mika-luzern - not many good ones unfortunately, my camera didn't like the light there. the last 2 or 3 are video screenshots. some of my faves:

no worries, your question isn't stupid. mika actually said in an interview several weeks ago that he'd do 4 concerts in germany this autumn. it doesn't look like there'll be more dates though, for example if you look on the tour company website mlk.com, it's also just those 2 dates. mika might have meant german speaking area and included the gigs in vienna and zurich in his thoughts of "german" gigs... or maybe there'll be small radio concerts again like there were in 2009. but i guess for the "real" tour there won't be more than those 2 dates in germany. from what we heard, he'll do another european tour in 2013 though.

my tickets for munich and cologne arrived today!

a german article about mika, as an announcement for the munich gig: http://www.nachrichten-muenchen.de/?art=19099 ... they write he had to fight bulimia when he was younger - wtf?! but at least they write about him, and a long article too.

if austrian law is similar to german law, then it's allowed but you must be accompanied by a legal guardian. maybe it's ok if you find another adult to go with you and your guardian writes something that it's ok... but not sure, guess you gotta ask the venue if they allow that.

The venue has a capacity of 1,000. http://www.kantine.com/