I’ve recently learned that Adrian Despot is writing (again) on music, on the Mixtopia site. He is one of the most knowledgeable people on rock music, so his blog should make a good refference on this topic.

Looking through his posts, I came across Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know. Gotye is a Belgian artist who has already released three albums. Somebody That I Used To Know is from his third album, called Making Mirrors. Enjoy!

So, we upgraded the wordpress platform (thanks, Zooku) and we fixed the comments issue (thanks, Adi) so things are looking good for the comeback.

Let’s celebrate with a Romanian song made by two ex-Butterflyies in my stomach members – Yellow Project – As vrea sa te sarut.

Yellow Project – As vrea sa te sarut (cu Sorin Romanescu) by Yellow Project
 

It’s been 4 years since the last post on this blog… and now we’re back :)!

I’ve managed to restore a back-up from 2008 (which is about when the old musicblog.ro stopped) and thus retrieve a lot of the previous posts. However, a significant amount of content data (images and music files) are lost, so links to them won’t work anymore. However, if you want to browse to what has said before here, you can at least find the texts :)

Luckily, the design survived and Mihai Dragan did a great job – I still like it, after all these years! It will take some days to fix all the old bits and pieces (upgrade wordpress, for example), so sorry for any inconveniences that might occur.

Until we’re fully back on track, let’s listen to some new stuff!

After the first snow, today was the first ride – in Sinaia. The slope was quite ok, but boring as I knew it. Quite a lot of wind and fog and only 2 rides were possible as afterwards the cable broke down and you could not go up anymore. But it was really nice to go snowboarding in November….looking forward for more.

And a friendly advice to the drivers going to the slopes: get some winter tires, forget about your fancy car, it will be usless in the snow with slicks….:P. You’ll just manage to annoy everybody who will have to rescue and wait for you.

No pictures, unfortunatelly, I was there alone (sadface) and with no camera. Luckily, SHE just bought a ski suit so maybe she will join from now on :D.

Last weekend I managed to reach Balea Lake – and it was the first snow of this year! Not too much snow on the ground, enough snow on the street but it was sooo nice to see it again after almost one year.

Damn, I miss snowboarding. Can hardly wait…another 55 days….till then – Snow (Hey Oh!).

Update: Today (12.11) it also snowed it Bucharest, at about midnight. Most likely, next weekend I can go to the first snowboarding of the year ! 

As there was little time for posting latelly, two random and “to be detailed soon maybe” thoughts:

- been to Santorini recently. Awesome ! Pictures here.

- Byron (Romanian singer) released an album with his new band. I was surprised to hear about it and even more surprised to hear one of the tracks – sounds great !

More details to follow…

As this blog is about music, I don’t usually write off-topic, but now I have to deviate a bit from the subject and tell the experience of “the best Romanian movie” – 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days (4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile).

I wanted to see it because it was so highly praised, both at Cannes and in Romania, a lot of people recommended it and so on. Unfortunatelly, I was proved again that I should not listen to all of this and that things which might impress certain people (or juries) fail to make an average movie a good one.

First of all, the movie gets some credit for having quite an interesting subject, probably even more interesting for foreigners who could not imagine the experience of communist times and how they can affect normal lives. And therefore it takes a sad story about an abortion and makes is sadder.

Still, despite the good idea, everything in it kind of….sucks ! The entire thing is played with so much drama that it looses any sense of reality. The actors are playing with so much sadness on their face that you would expect crying every other minute and so on.

Then, the movie has some really odd parts which might seem intriguing at first but in the end they have no point whatsoever. For example, you watch a girl going by tram for more than one minute and you expect something will happen. Actually, no, she just gets out of the tram and then enters a building and there, only there, starts the action. What is the point, though, in showing every detail of a tram ride ?

Also, you see the movie sometimes shot with an amateur-like camera, and you would expect that it all fits. Actually, no, again, in the end it seems just like a director’s excercise to try something new. What’s the point in this, too ?

The movie could have been so much more intense if it only condensed itself into half of the time – and maybe then you would have went out of the cinema with some feelings about it but this way, it just gets so boring. After about 60 minutes I really hoped for it to end or for something to happen, something not that predictible, actually you just sit and watch the same story going on the regular course, a course you can predict after the first 20 minutes.

As a conclusion, yes, the subject might be intriguing, but you better watch a documentary on this or read a book, the film it’s just not worth it !

Well, I guess this was the last weekend at the seaside for this year….at least the last one on the Romanian seaside.

And as they say that “best things come last”, I guess it was one of the best weekends of this year, with a semi-deserted resort in Vama Veche, a nice weather even though not warm enough for any swim, some great fun in the nights at Point and very relaxing time during the day.

Also, it’s good that I finally got my camera back and I had the chance to take some nice pictures too.

As for Vama Veche, I could say that the final learnings are that at Stuf is awfully boring with the same playlist the entire summer, Point is great even though not too many people come there – but it was the first year, so probably next year will be much better -, and the best food is probably at Frontiera. Anyway, if it wouldn’t have been for Point, the guys at the bar and the great shots, the whole thing wouldn’t have been that nice.

The song of the weekend – actually, the song of the entire last week – is quite an old one, Prodigy with Fire. And some pictures below:

During the long time passed since the last post – sorry for the low activity -, a lot of things happen, one of them being an actual summer vacation I took since …. quite a long time. I managed to spend most of it out of the country, in Mykonos – Greece. Quite a nice island, nice houses and landscapes, some nice beaches and overall quite expensive and crowded – way too many Italians there.

Unfortunatelly, the second camera failed and I do not have any pictures of my own, but I managed to get a few from the others – here they are.

And the song which gladly went along the journey – Royksopp – What Else Is There.

Un pic neobisnuit, insa postul asta e in Romana … pentru ca asa mi-a fost pasata leapsa de la Vali. Asa deci, ar trebui sa spun vreo cateva lucruri care nu se stiu despre mine – Vali stie destul de multe, cred ca prea multe, asa ca o sa fie putin greu, dar sa vedem…

1. Imi place sa gatesc – desi nu fac asta des, pentru ca nu imi place sa gatesc doar pentru mine si pentru ca stau si cam putin pe acasa. In plus, nici nu cred ca ma pricep foarte bine, insa important e ca imi place. Poate gasesc si un instructor in acest sens :).

2. Ascult si imi place foarte mult rock-ul, metal in speta – imi place foarte mult Sepultura, Slayer, Soulfly, Pantera, Machine Head si multi altii de acest gen. In aceiasi directie, prin liceu / facultate am avut si parul lung, desi probabil ca acum nu par genul.
3. Acum ceva ani detestam sa ma imbrac in costum, insa acum mi se pare foarte comod, este foarte usor sa te hotarasti cu ce te imbraci in fiecare zi :))

4. Primul job a fost cel de muncitor necalificat in constructii – cu toate astea nu am invatat sa fac prea multe prin casa, prefer sa apelez la cei care se pricep intr-adevar.

5. Nu imi plac oamenii care fac lucrurile incet, care mint, care promit ceva si nu fac. Sunt destul de critic si putin tolerant in privinta asta, putin arogant.

6. Desi am facut recrutari si interviuri cativa ani buni, nu ma pricep sa dau interviuri. Deloc. Las o prima impresie destul de slaba, cred. Asta din cauza ca, dintr-un motiv greu explicabil, nu imi dau silinta la interviuri.

7. Nu sunt superstitios, nu cred in horoscop, destin si multe altele de acest gen. Cred ca asta nu e ceva chiar deosebit, after all….

Cam asta a fost. Greu de spus mai multe. Cat despre leapsa, luati de aici: Christina, Andrei si Mihai.