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:

By some sort of accident – mainly the will to escape to the Danube Delta combined with not knowing too much about the type of music to be there – I somehow got to attend the Delta Music Fest. On the way there I found out it was sort of an electronic music festival, which news I embraced with some sort of moderate enthusiasm :).

But in the end, it was not so bad afterall. I thought I would only like one band – Shukar Collective – but it seemed that in the end they had a rather poor performance and I loved some other bands.

First day debuted without much interest from my side but with some nice mixes from DJ Godjira. The guy mixed some Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana and others alike on some “electronic” rhythms which did not sound that bad after all, even for a non-initiated like myself. Then followed Shukar Collective which did not seem to enjoy being there at all – therefore all the people were rather still, therefore their performance was quite poor and finally therefore a poor show afterall.

But it all ended up quite well with the Austrians from Sofa Surfers which played some great rockish music, with some electronic sounds in it.

Day two started with Bumbapa – which were absolutelly horible. Just plain bad, sorry to say that guys. Finally, the show improved somehow with The Pixels, which sounded ok and with Unkle – quite a refined sound, showing professionalism, but still quite chaotic and not finalized. Things were anyway not looking too good, so I did not stay for any Pagal or any of the kind.

Day three was probably one of the best, with Cold Cut which really great – the band I liked most out of the entire festival. Very nice mixes, very well worked out and an awsome vocalist. Too bad he spent 50% of the time off-stage :). Bango de Gaia was really not my kind and that was it in the end.

Overall, a nice impression despite a lot of people with the sole purpose to show off and some really poor shows from some of the bands. Ah, and nice organizing of the event also.

As a recap, here is what I liked:

Sofa Surfers – Good Day to Die – they played this in the concert, a little faster and with a more developed sound
Cold Cut – True Skool – this is the kind of plays they had in the show

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.

I was just looking back at some of the posts of this summer thse days. Yes, I know, there hasn’t been much posting going on and I am sorry for this. Maybe not enough new things, not enough time to write or a combination of both.

Still, I noticed some of the best songs of this summer – not necesarelly new – are missing and I am going to dedicate this post to them.

Citizen Cope – Brother Lee – Inspired and suggested by A., this song goes down to being nice, fun and quite refreshing. Good for mood-lifting :)

Hara & Tamango – Muro Shavo – Get’s me thinking of Vama Veche always and some of the old days at concerts there. Now this ain’t like that too much, no more concerts or too crowded usually. Still, definetely an inspirational song.

Manu Chao – Raining in Paradise – As I am looking forward to the new album to be released in September, this track makes the waiting easier. Missed them at Sziget, hope to catch them somewhere else. A great track !

Have a great summer !

Tommorow is the big event – Rolling Stones concert in Bucharest.

We are going, together with the entire PMO team :) Should be some good fun !

More details about the event here. Congrats to the Events team for the nice effort !

More about R.S. and some tracks I like in this previous post.

As usual, I began this summer spending most of the weekends at the seaside, in Vama Veche. Last year I have been there about 15 times, I guess and this year it seems to go pretty much in the same direction – just that I found myself no longer satisfied (at all) with the place and everything related to it.

Too much dirt, too many low-quality people and poor music in most places. Stuf is becoming crowded with all sorts of people comming just to get drunk and show-off, B-52 is gone and is replaced by an obscure place, Bavaria is thankfully gone but another similar “thing” emerged close to the former B-52 location and so on. The only places where you can enjoy lately are Expirat (not always nice) and a nice terrace with some skater guys. And Point, recently opened by a friend :)

Even worse is that you can hardly find other to enjoy that much and to resemble the old Vama Veche – there are some but I think I better not mention, I don’t want them to transform like Vama Veche did…

Still, some good thinks discovered lately in Vama Veche – Gulag now sells milkshakes and a nice track I found some weekends ago: Gogol Bordello – Start Wearing Purple.

P.S. Anyway, even so I would never go to Eforie or such :)  

One of the best songs recently came via 89.0 FM. I believe this is one of the best radio stations in Bucharest – great music, no commercials and no talking. Guerilla also started this way but now it just seems that way too many people think they have something to say out there and it became 70% talking and too less music.

Comming back, the track which really impressed me comes from Dar Williams, an American girl playing somethink called folk-pop. She has a great voice and I believe it’s enough to say she toured several times together with Joan Baez to say it all.

Therefore, here you go, Dar Williams – Are You Out There.

Dream Theater came back few weeks ago with a new album, the tenth in their career. Like most of the previous albums, Systematic Chaos features the same Dream Theater instrumental rich sound, but still leaves space for great compositions and vocals.

Tracks like Foresaken or The Dark Eternal Night sustain the album and can become singles at any time. Still, the value comes, like Dream Theater always did, from the overall sound of the album, where each track is carefully crafted for the best.

A great album overall, not spectacular for the band as a whole but consistent in their path.

Full album download available (still) here.

This is one of the best news recently – Rage Against the Machine reunites !

The entire story is here.