After the recent switch to Neogen, I also decided to switch to WordPress. This is why you now see a different design. But you also see some nice functionalities, like Categories, which blogger did not support previously.

As I promissed to some people I would share my experiences with WordPress, let’s make a quick “executive summary” :)

- Installation – very easy, just under 5 minutes, like they say in their presentation.
- Interface – very easy to work with, lot of functionalities that come handy.
- Support – bad. Even though I would expect a the big wordpress community to write various FAQ and articles about everything, it seems they did not manage to properly cover even the basic things, like troubleshooting on the import. Even though I did everything they said, the import from blogger just didn’t work. So I wimported everything manually :(
- Templates – quite hard to edit, it’s more like PHP, so a simple HTML “beginner” like myself had a hard time adjusting the template. This is why I decided for a more out-of-the-box one, with some minor changes.
- Functionality – well, it supports almost everything you need, from Categories to Plug-ins, from Users management to password-protection for posts and comments and so on. You really have to play around with it to get a feeling of everything.

Well, it’s time to get back to tweaking now, so I will update this after some more testing of what wordpress can and can’t do.

Did you experience any problems so far with it? What should I be careful about ?

P.S. Thanks, Christina, for the help!

…you name them Carla Bruni. So beautiful you can easily fall for her in less than 15 seconds, so talented that you can easily ask her for marriage, and so beautiful and talented you wonder if it’s really true.

Another love story, just like the Diana Krall one, started out when Irina opened my ears to her music and my eyes to her beauty (Thanks, fata!)

Comming from quite a rich family, she was born in France and, due to her beauty (and fame), in 1988 she was one of the best-payed models around the world.

She worked for designers such as Valentino, Christian Dior, Paco Rabanne, Chanel, Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent. After several affairs with Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and others, she finally married Raphael Enthoven. Maybe this is the reason why one of her best songs is called Raphael.

She quit the fashion stage in 1998 and in 2002 she released her greatest success so far, the Quelqu’un m’a dit album.

Here you can listen to the Raphael song, which is one of her best in my opinion.

No, I am not a snowboard addict. No, I did not wake up this morning dreaming about Austrian slopes. No, I do not regret I did not stay one day longer. No, I am not smiling everytime I see the boots in the hallway (thanks, Calin!).

And all of the above are just lies.

I am. And music on the slope just makes it better. And if the B&O headphones make music better (and they do!!), then B&O will definetely join me on the slope.

I promised to share the experience, and here it is:
- first of all, the comfort is great. Even under extreme conditions (yes, one might fall, specially with shitty rented boots…), I did not even feel them, I was just hearing music and felt like singing.
- the sound quality is great. At one point, I thought the music was playing on the entire slope and I stopped to look if it’s true. It wasn’t, it was from the sublime iPod + B&O headphones combination.

And another great thing is the music that can be heard at Rossignol, in Poiana Brasov. It’s a great clubbing / house / close-to-rave music which just makes you move. And together with the hot wine, they also make a great pair :)

Too bad it was some ice on the slope, too bad there are lot of people not looking where they are going / sliding and too bad it was so short.

But there are only 5 days left ’till the next weekend :)

Searching for musicblog, you can easily find a very nice project, started by EMI and Pixelfury, called MusicBlog.co.uk.

Musicblog.co.uk is a platform offering various artists a space to start their own blog in order to communicate with their fans.

Even though the initiative might not sound that innovative, it is worthwhile to mention that David Gilmour has a blog over at davidgilmour.musicblog.co.uk. And the blog is really worthwile visiting, updated regularly, with nice information and a very clear and rich writing style.

Also, The Doves are worthwhile to visit.

After making a few “is-it-worth-it, is-it-not-worth-it” calculations, today I could not resist it anymore and I went downstairs….To the B&O store. I knew exactly what I came for and nothing could haved stopped me. Well, almost nothing.

I asked for them, I tested them (BeoCenter 2 is also great, even though the volume control is a little slow in response) and now I am the proud owner of a fine set of B&O A8 earphones.

So, what do they offer so special for that $150 ?

– The Sound. First of all, the sound. It is crystal clear, it is very relaxing, not disturbing at all, it inspires a state of calmness and quality when you hear it. I compared them to my original iPod earphones and, even though the iPod ones were great, these are absolutely briliant.

- The comfort. The are really very comfortable to wear, easy to adjust, and they are not painful after several hours of use, like usualy in-ear headphones are. Being manufactured from aluminium, they are very light, which is something you really come to appreciate if you plan to use them extensively. Anyway, the final test will come on Saturday, when I hope they won’t keep falling while snowboarding, like the wiped ones did :)

- The service. Maybe I was they only client they had today, or maybe the guy was in a very good mood, but the service was great! He didn’t even needed for me to ask about testing, he offered right away, he let me take my time with it, he offered a complete brochure with all the other equipment, neatly presented the handsfree and so on. Great customer service I can say !

Overall, great sound quality, very good comfort, I really cannot find anything to complain about. They are really worth all the money !

So, it’s time to get back and enjoy music through the A8s. The only bad thing is that now my home music system is going to get soooo jealous :)

P.S. Another great thing is the warning in the user manual – While most manufacturers say that a high volume will cause damaging of the headset, B&O warns you that “Prolonged listening at a high volume might cause hearing damages”. Hopefully, my ears will last long enough for the A8s.

Erik Schrody, former frontman of House of Pain is currently known as Everlast. This might be not much of a news, and neigher be one of his tracks which, upon hearing, immediately captured my attention.

I am reffering to the Deadly Assassins track, where he makes a duo with B-Real, from Cypress Hill.

Well, it’s just a great combination in my opinion. A deadly combination, so to say.

Listen and provide feedback.

P.S. Actually, Everlast has some great songs on his “Eat at Whitey’s” album. Worth gining it a try.

I was in my office (former office, that is) about 2 years ago, in a late evening, just me and one of the companies partners. Even though we were quite some distance away, when I first heard the voice in the track it was playing on his computer, I quickly jumped from my seat to find out who that is.

This was the start of a beautiful love affair I have since then with Diana Krall. It was her beautiful, educated and powerful voice that surprised, thrilled and excited me in the beginning. And the feelings have not changed ever since.

Diana Krall is a Canadian jazz singer, who, as many others great jazz player, started its musical activity early…at the age of four. But it was only until the age of fifteen when she started playing regularly, in restaurants.

You see, this amazes me in Jazz… Artists have go get through a long period of learning, practicing and personal development before actually starting to be noticed by the public. While in commercial music, you just need a summer hit (and usually, voice, skill or talent is obsolete).

It was only at the age of 29 (after 25 years of music!!) when she released her first album, Stepping Out. 2 years later followed another album, and so she kept on going, having today about 10 albums, a great amount of live concerts and numerous collaborations with musicians all over the world.

She was one of the very few to cover a Tom Waits song (Tom is notorious for his aversion towards covers, lending his music for commercials and so on), Temptation. The cover instantly reached 1st position in the Jazz charts, being one of the many formal recognitions Diana received for her talent and dedication.

Diana received several Grammy awards (Album Of The Year, Best Jazz Vocal Performance and Best Engineered Album Non Classical in 2000), National Jazz and Juno awards, and more (even one MTV award). Also, she has 4 Platinum and 7 Gold Albums.

But more important (maybe), are some acknowledgements which are not that familiar in the musical world, like the Order of British Columbia, Order of Canada and Honorary PHD from Victoria Univ.

Well, these are mostly the facts. But the passion behind those facts, the sweet delight you can hear while listening to her and the calmness in her songs cannot be matched by anything.

So, to the Diana Krall and to the Vocal and Piano Jazz fans, here she is, Diana Krall:

No downloads, just listen and go buy the album. It’s really worth it !

This is a test for my new Dailymotion account.

I might use this to upload music files for everybody to listen to.

What do you think of the playback quality of Dailymotion?

Those of you who are regular visitors of this blog (heh, who am I kidding, I am the only one :D) might have noticed that yesterday the blog returned an Apache installation message instead of the usual great posts aroung here.

Well, this was mainly because of switching the hosting, which proved to be not that of a technical problem, but more of a communication management issue between the 2 involved companies (Connex and Neogen), which I had to solve.

This was the bad news.

The good news is that now it works (if you see this post, it really works) and now I have more storage space and is working better (even though without a proper admin interface, but this will come soon).

So what do we do with this space?

Well, first of all, here is some music for you to enjoy (please don’t download and use, just listen, in order not to break the copyright laws :D). And wordpress will probably come soon.

Enjoy the following:
Stratovarius – Will My Soul Ever Rest in Peace
Pearl Jam – Even Flow
Deathcab For Cutie- The Sound Of Settling
Carla Bruni – Raphael

Please provide feedback after listening :)

Today I am soooo happy !! This is because I managed to find a song I’ve been looking on for several months….I only knew the rhythm, and the band, so it was pretty hard to find, as I was looking for a special live version.

It’s Stratovarius – Will My Soul Ever Rest in Peace. I cannot define very well why it is so close to my heart right now, might be the rhythm (it’s a ballad), might be the lyrics, might be Timo’s voice or all of them altogether.

Unfortunately, I don’t have enough space available right now to upload the song for you to download, but I will do this in the near future. Meanwhile, here are the lyrics.

Few words about Stratovarius: they are a Finnish power metal band, founded in the late 80′s, with most of they successful albums being released in the 90′s. I can’t say I find them very special, but this song really has something.