Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Flashback: Meeting Yngwie Malmsteen in Romania (12.05.2015)

12 May 2015. Sunny day. Beautiful day. Tuesday. Bad luck. :)
I arranged for an interview with Yngwie Malmsteen. The local promoter agreed, the Artist agreed, the manager agreed. Everything was well. Or... so I thought. :)
If there is one thing that I hate the most in this world, is waiting. And I waited for almost two hours to meet Yngwie Malmsteen. When he finally came, his manager said he is too tired so... bye-bye interview for me. Now... that was frustrating! Instead, I got the chance to take a picture with him so that I will never forget this meeting. Well, I guess it's better than nothing!


Flashback: Morrissey in Romania (14.10.2015)


One of the highlights of 2015. You can read the concert review here: http://thisleftfeelsrightablogaboutmusic.blogspot.ro/2015/11/my-first-morrissey-concert-bucharest.html






Wednesday, February 17, 2016

If i want to whistle, I whistle

Sunset in Bucharest, Romania, 17.02.2016



You say that the day
Just never arrives
And it's never seemed so far away
Still I know it's gonna happen someday
To you
Please wait
Don't lose faith





Monday, February 8, 2016

Michael Graves (ex-Misfits) - Descending Angel

Michael Graves (ex-Misfits) sings „Descending Angel” (during Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg concert in Bucharest - 9.04.2012).
Enjoy!



Saturday, February 6, 2016

A Sunday morning song

Art work by Horațiu Mălăele, actor.



Song by Morrissey, taken from the album „World Peace Is None Of Your Business” (2014).



Wednesday, February 3, 2016

On (dead) musicians and the music industry

A text written by Răzvan Albu, a young musician from Romania (this is his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1530409957251679&id=1528674144091927)



2015 ended and 2016 kicked off in tune with the last 7-8 years: after wishing everyone a Happy New Year, media outlets resumed their favorite topics on financial/material losses and petty squabbles; “it’s worse than ever,” “hear ye, hear ye, Chinese stock market crashes,” “oh no, 95-year old multi-billionaire fucks underage girl,” and so on. Three days later, on January 4, I was done getting my share of pollution, terrorist and heartbreak-related news, and ready to get back to work. Nothing much has changed.

To be honest, I never really paid attention to the a.m. news, other than a scratch on the surface. I know just enough to be able to have routine conversations with colleagues passionate about such topics, without sounding like a complete idiot. “Socializing” is what it’s called, right?

I remain passionate about music. I read about it a lot, listen to it a lot and record sporadically. A while back I’d just blast some classic Motörhead and the bad news would fade away. Sometimes I’d be in the mood for Ziggy Stardust (in its entirety, not just the title track) and other times I’d watch Weiland’s unplugged concert with STP. Oh wait, these guys are dead. They all died between December 3, 2015 and January 10, 2016. But that’s ok. Young, fresh artists will catch up with them. 20 years from now Justin Bieber will be older and wiser and Lady GaGa will have completed her transformation into a Mercury/Bowie/Jagger hybrid; Maroon 5 still uses guitars; not to mention Rihanna, Beyonce and all these other gifted singers whose vocal range and technique far surpasses that of their predecessors. It’s not that bad, right?
Wrong, so fucking wrong.

Call me old-fashioned or whatever. Sure, our grandparents were shocked when Elvis and the Beatles took over the reins from Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra. The Sex Pistols and The Clash brushed Led Zeppelin aside (screw the overstatement) and brought civil unrest to England. For a while, Nirvana turned Guns N’ Roses into a pathetic gathering of little boys, and so on. It’s my time to get older, isn’t it? Not yet. Hopefully you already see the difference between then and now. If you don’t, let me spell it out for you: like them or not, the artists mentioned above are huge. Even after they fell from the charts, they remained icons and cult figures. Bowie’s last show took place on June 25, 2004 – that’s almost 12 years ago. He lost none of his relevance in the meantime and could’ve EASILY filled any stadium in the world a day before his passing without relying on labels, YouTube videos or ads. Word of mouth would’ve been sufficient and if you don’t believe me, I couldn’t care less.

Take Sia and Ellie Goulding off the charts for a year and no one will give a shit where they are or what they’re doing. Maroon 5 practically disappeared after scoring their biggest hit – that’s how much they mattered. Name *one* relevant artist that emerged since 2000. Ok, now name another five. Repeat the same exercise for the ’60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, hell, up to the mid-‘90s, and you’ll stay awake for most of the night. The “glorious then” vs. “inconsequential now” is a fact, yet people get fed the same crap – idiotic music with moronic lyrics, sung to perfection. Nobody pays attention to what’s playing, it’s just eye candy, music for driving and talking on the iPhone at the same time. Don’t get me started on the TV “talent shows” where boys and girls with attitude belch out high notes until their faces turn red, then hug their opponents when they’re kicked out of the contest because “it’s fair-play.” Hey, how about that time when Ozzy Osbourne kissed Bruce Dickinson on the cheek because Iron Maiden ranked higher than Black Sabbath on Billboard? Or remember when Ray Charles cried like a baby in front of Stevie Wonder because Superstition was such a good song? Me neither, because it never fucking happened.

The current state of affairs in music has nothing to do with lack of creativity; rather, it’s a consequence of the “music business” aka the idea that music’s only purpose is to create monetary profit for someone other than the artist. Nowadays people helming radio stations and record labels are businessmen/women, not music listeners with an affinity for good tunes. They could be bank managers, brokers, whatever, but just so happen to work in the “music business.” The problem is, they still have more money than 15-year old guitar prodigies who aren’t pretty or popular at school and will never play guitar outside of their basement. With money-grabbing animals at the helm of the “music business,” try to do anything other than music covers, TV contests or whatever is “fresh” in the mainstream at the time and you’re irrelevant. It’s not that people couldn’t make great music anymore. But who cares about the chubby, hairless bassist that smell of computer servers and writes prog-rock about his suicide 5 years from now? It’s no longer marketable nowadays. Robert Fripp? Gimme a break, label officials would laugh their asses off at him for writing “sounds” instead of choruses about how much money they make and how hot their girlfriends are. How do you sell “fat bassist” when that kid from The Voice has such fine clothes, chiseled features and sings The Show Must Go On slightly off-key? People no longer seem to understand that Bowie’s bad teeth didn’t matter. Long are the days when labels invested in artists with no money-back guarantee, simply because they sounded good and said something relevant.

These days, mainstream music has nothing to do with how *I* feel. It’s getting harder and harder to dig underground and find something that still moves me, musically. The few artists who could still say something to the likes of me are probably getting hungry as well… and a little bit of La Bamba may just bring them enough money to buy a house and a car – if they’re lucky.

This brings me to my favorite part, the part when I swear at (almost) everyone I know in the music industry. I have of a couple of these “professionals” in my Facebook list as well, but to be honest I can’t recall their names because they matter to me as much as Selena Gomez. I added them or they added me and I pressed accept because their profile picture had vivid colors, so they must’ve been important. Well, anyway, here’s a big FUCK YOU, you idiotic, moronic pieces of shit who “teach” struggling musicians what to do in order to “succeed in the business.” Fuck you from the bottom of my heart for destroying everything that was ever good in music, for pushing aside people who express their feelings through 15-minute songs without choruses in exchange for “artists” willing to sing, “So gimme that ‘toot toot’ / Lemme give you that ‘beep beep’,” because it sells.

YOU do the same harm to people as media outlets who intoxicate everyone with tragic news on January 1. YOU are the reason why the only thing that matters in 2016 is a sad Guns N’ Roses reunion. YOU are the reason why David Gilmour tickets cost $500 and YOU are the reason why I might actually buy them, for fear that he’ll die as well before I get a chance to see him and everything left in the world will be Justin Bieber with French fries and a Big Mac. Fuck YOU, your artists and the sad little fuckers whom you manipulate and control. Fuck you all.

https://www.facebook.com/razvan.albu



Monday, February 1, 2016

Salvador Dali in a TV Show, 1952. Surreal!







Salvador Dali in a TV Show, 1952. Surreal!
Posted by Romanian Artworks on Friday, December 12, 2014

New street signs for Facebook users

:)


Sunday, January 24, 2016

Books to read in 2016: Morrissey - „List Of The Lost”

I have never ever seen a book attacked by everybody for only one paragraph... How can this be? It is worse than judging a book by its cover... The same paragraph was quoted in all the articles. Suddenly, all the journalists became literary critics. Weird! We all know that people read less and less and less... And yet, the number of literary critics gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Today we have more literary critics than actual readers. Ain't that funny?!

Then, the author won the „Bad Sex In Fiction Award” (?!?), of course, for the same paragraph. So, I assume the judges at The Literary Review only read the reviews of this book. Anyway, it was good publicity for their event because all the newspapers wrote about it. Again. Talking about the same paragraph. Again and again and again...
Later edit --- On 5th december, The Guardian published the article: "Did Morrissey deserve to win the 2015 bad sex award?"... So the British press made this award possible by "killing" the book with bad reviews, and then they ask themselves "why"... No shit! Give me a gun! I want out! Quickly!

Why am I writing this? Because during the last 3 months I felt manipulated and I hate this feeling. I hate it when people try to control my thoughts. And this time, journalists struggled to present this book as the worst ever. I don't know why, but they were really aggressive on this subject. Why would anybody put so much effort into this?! I looked for a statement from Penguin (after all, they published the book), but I never found it. Too bad! Too sad!

Anyway, I read the book „List Of The Lost” last week. And I liked it! I recommend it. It is a book worth reading! Oh, one more thing: when you read it, use your brain. It is still legal and it does't hurt!

P.S. After reading all those articles about this book, I can't help but wonder: just how obsessed with sex British journalists really are?

Other articles:








Sunday, January 10, 2016

IRON MAIDEN - „EMPIRE OF THE CLOUDS”

According to Team Rock, „The Book Of Souls” is the album of the year! Up the Irons! \m/
The dreamers may die, but the dreams live on


Wednesday, December 16, 2015

People are stranger and stranger and... stranger...

People are strange when you're a stranger 
Faces look ugly when you're alone 
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted 
Streets are uneven, when you're down 
When you're strange 
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange 
No one remembers your name 
When you're strange
When you're strange 
When you're strange 
People are strange when you're a stranger 
Faces look ugly when you're alone 
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted 
Streets are uneven when you're down 
When you're strange 
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange 
No one remembers your name 
When you're strange
When you're strange 
When you're strange 
When you're strange 
Faces come out of the rain 
When you're strange 
No one remembers your name 
When you're strange
When you're strange 
When you're strange


Monday, November 30, 2015

„Roboțeii” de la Vocea României și X-Factor

Sunt blocată într-o „lume” falsă. Pe Pro TV. La Vocea României. Telecomanda este departe, oboseala este mare, iar lenea învinge. Sunt hotărâtă să nu mă ridic din pat!  Am trecut și prin clipe mai grele, așa că mă decid să rezist. Nu trece mult și mă cuprinde revolta. Un sentiment mistuitor, apăsător, sufocant care m-a determinat să-mi dau ochii peste cap, așa cum nu o mai făcusem din liceu. Se caută artiști fără personalitate. Dar asta nu-i o noutate. Se scot „vedete” pe bandă rulantă. Există un „șablon” stabilit de „mai-marii industriei”, iar cine nu se „adaptează” e scos din „joc”. Sigur, n-am zis nicio noutate până acum... „Rețeta” e veche! Mașinăria de „spălat creiere” funcționează la capacitate maximă și „roadele” se văd (la nivel mondial, nu doar în România). Cine pierde până la urmă?! PUBLICUL care este „bombardat” cu astfel de „produse” de tip fast-food. Te uiți la acești concurenți și (aproape) toți au aceleași gesturi studiate, aceeași mimică, străduindu-se să mimeze cât mai bine trăirea autentică pe scenă. După o astfel de emisiune, singurul sentiment cu care rămâi este acela de gol, de pustiu. Concurenții vin de acasă cu ideea (și, probabil, aceasta este întărită de producători) că un artist, pe scenă, trebuie să își ducă mâna la frunte, trebuie să pară pătruns de text, trebuie să cadă și în genunchi dacă i se pare că undeva e un moment dramatic, trebuie, trebuie... trebuie pe dracu! Nu trebuie nimic. Doar să înțeleagă textul și să și-l asume. Știm cu toții cazurile unor artiști care chiar dacă nu cântă mereu „pe note”, trăirea și emoția pe care o transmit îi salvează în ochii publicului. Până la urmă dacă TREBUIE ceva, atunci poate că e necesar să fii consecvent cu tine, să abordezi teme care te preocupă, să crezi în ceea ce faci. Doar așa vei reuși să îi convingi pe spectatori de sinceritatea ta. Pe asta nu o poți repeta în oglindă. O ai sau nu.

„Poți să faci alegeri bune, sau poți să faci alegeri proaste în timpul unei piese”, îi spune Smiley concurentei din echipa lui, Ruxandra, care urma să cânte o piesă din repertoriul lui Amy Whinehouse. Dar cine stabilește dacă modul în care alegi tu să transmiți mesajul unei piese, este bun sau prost?! Există reguli de trăire a unei piese?! De ce să te bâțâi prin fața unor oglinzi și să cauți camera din priviri, dacă tu, ca artist, vrei să stai pe jos, turcește, și să cânți de acolo, pur și simplu?

Antrenorii au un mod bizar de a alege piesele pentru concurenți. De multe ori își „îngroapă” elevii fără milă. „Se potrivește timbrului tău, îți vine bine pe voce”. Tudor Chirilă îl laudă pe Armand: „ai câștigat un pariu cu tine. A fost cea mai bună interpretare a ta. Dacă ai transmis sau nu emoție, e o chestie subiectivă. Asta va decide publicul”. Asta e replica mea preferată: „publicul decide”. Trec peste faptul că niciodată nu este anunțat numărul votanților, nu știm niciodată câte voturi a primit fiecare concurent. Dar stau și eu și mă întreb: câți dintre cei care se uitau la TV în acel moment știau care este mesajul piesei „Perfect Day”? Câți telespectatori auziseră măcar de acest artist special, Lou Reed? Cât și ce a înțeles Armand din mesajul, din starea piesei lui Lou Reed? Din fața televizorului, a părut că a pornit la drum cu un handicap. De altfel, a și plecat acasă!

Continuarea aici:
http://andreipartos.ro/roboteii-de-la-vocea-romaniei-si-x-factor/


sursa: andreipartos.ro

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Chris de Burgh - Yesterday (in Romania, Bucharest, 2015) - VIDEO

Chris de Burgh a interpretat pe scena Sălii Palatului din București, piesa Yesterday (cover The Beatles), un tribut pentru victimele din Clubul Colectiv.


My first Morrissey concert: Bucharest (14.10.2015)

In the end, I liked Morrissey! Even though I have never left a concert so… bewildered, shocked or confused. I had to take some time to think about if I like it or not…. At first, I panicked. I didn’t like what I saw; the music didn’t blow my mind, so I was already worried about having nothing to write about it. Then, something happened. Morrissey’s lyrics, his way of articulating the words, the images on the screens, all put my neurons to rotate at maximum speed (even more than Titanic’s engine trying to avoid the iceberg). :)


 What Morrissey gave at Palace Hall in Bucharest on Wednesday evening (14th october) was more than a concert. In fact, it had nothing to do with the entertainment concept. It was THE LIFE. That part of life which we often ignore because we don’t like it. After such an encounter, on your way home you find yourself wondering about everything. You can disagree with Morrissey, but you can’t stay indifferent to his message. After all, it’s not just about being a vegetarian/vegan or not, it’s also about not accepting any sort of violence (whether is against humans or animals)! The hardest moment on your way home is when you realize how selfish you really are (like it or not, you’re haunted by this thought for a while).

But... Let’s start with the beginning. I’ve never been a Morrissey fan. I knew him, of course. I've read about him, but I don’t think I’ve listened to more than two or three of his songs till last year. Then, in 2014, he released the album „World Peace Is None Of Your Business”, and Andrei Partoș (a well known, respected journalist from Romania) played it on the radio and the feedback from our public was great. One important aspect: Andrei received the album from a listener who asked him if he can play it on te radio. Anyway, in august 2015, I started to learn more about his music and his career, as we got involved in promoting his concert in Bucharest (we were media partners for the show). Andrei Partoș was playing his songs on the radio (old ones, new ones, from The Smiths and from his solo career), almost every night during his radio-show, and step by step I became ‘friends’ with his music. Frankly, I’ve always admired people who fight with everything they’ve got for their own believes and stay true to those! That is why Morrissey became easy to like. Yet, nothing of what I’ve read or listen to prepared me for what I was to see at Palace Hall.

I was curious about his public, what kind of people they are... Let’s be honest! Morrissey is not a well-known artist in our country. Unfortunately, I don't have friends who listen to his music (all of my friends listen to hard-rock, heavy-metal, thrash, blues, jazz, etc), I haven’t met people who would talk about him (neither praise nor criticize). So… I was really curious about his public. To my pleasant surprise, I have found out from the local promoter that the tickets were selling well (to be honest, when the concert was announced, I thought it gets cancelled).  


On 14th October, I arrived at Palace Hall at 7.15 p.m. In the hallway there was a merchandise stall (100 lei a t-shirt). Inside, semi-dark (a few lights were on), intimate atmosphere, the curtain of the room bottom was down, just a few people were looking for their seats. From time to time small groups of 3-4 people were coming in. I was thinking that at this pace we’ll manage to have the same audience figures that we had for Elvis Costello (he sang in front of merely 500 people). I was proved to be wrong. And I am glad! At 8.00 p.m. there were approximately 2.000 people waiting for Morrissey. The concert was scheduled for 8.00 p.m., but I’ve found out from Andreea Andreescu (PR Events) that we’ll have a ’30 minutes movie’ in the opening. A movie?! Hmmm... No one said anything about a movie... I taught it would be about his career. The „movie” started on time, but it turned out it wasn't really a movie, but a collection of videos (songs, interviews, etc). As there was no explanation, I assumed that it was about musicians and well-known people who inspired Morrissey somehow (I’ve read in one of his interviews about his admiration towards New York Dolls). I was expecting to see Marc Bolan as well... but... no luck this time. I know it wasn’t his intention to teach us music history but he could have written for each video what band/artist it was, at least. As you can see there are people, like me, who see him for the first time... :)  Anyway…



While the videos were running, the lights were still on. People weren’t that much interested about the videos. Most of them were doing their check-in on Facebook. Morrissey should have forbidden the phones too, not only the meat dishes during concert. The audience age range was 35 – 40 years old. I was surprised to see the protection fence in front of the stage. I haven’t seen that before at the Palace Hall! I admit I didn’t understand that safety procedure, as I have seen photos from other concerts in 2015 and the audience was ‘glued’ to the stage. Anyway, they’d probably thought that the Latin blood is boiling inside Romanians, get passionate and would be all over him. :) Yeah, I know about the „stage invasion”, but it was still weird to see the protection fence at Palace Hall. Before the show started I've asked one of the BGS guards about that protection fence. Bad idea! I'll never forget his frowned face, the cold look in his eyes and the harsh tone in his voice: „go to your seat, please! We were warned about his fans who try to get on stage”. During the show, one person tried to ‘break the protection wall’ and climb on the stage. But you can’t pass BGS guards that easy. The venture guy was ‘thrown’ back into the crowd. Nevertheless, his effort wasn’t in vain. Morrissey went to him and shake his hand. Which was really cool.

The artists came on the stage at 20.35. The audience stood up (and stayed that way until the end) giving him a very warm welcome. Their enthusiasm weakened after a while but there were people who danced and sang all through the concert. One girl was very funny, after hearing Morrissey sneezing a couple of times (or at least, it seemed that way), she took out of her bag a C Aspirin pill, looked at her friends and asked them: „Should I go to give it to him?” Yeah, sure! Good luck with BGS! :)


As I’ve said before, first impression wasn’t quite in his favor. I didn’t like nor understand it, I couldn’t ‘connect’ to his music, I didn’t find his voice appealing, his lyrics made no sense to me, he looked weird on the stage (playing with mike’s cable too much, moving chaotically, jerkily…). But... After 3 songs, his music was overpassed by the visual, the lyrics and Morrissey’s way of pronouncing the words has captivated me completely. With every song I became freer, as if somebody was taking a burden from my shoulders.


It is the first show I see in which all communication channels (interpretation, lyrics, video, pictures, lights, stage movement and music) are efficiently used to send the artist’s message. During the concert I remembered one of Alice Cooper’s statements: „In the 60s or 70s, it was easy to shock, now you can’t do that anymore”. Well, now I know you still can! Morrissey understood that there is no need to be subtle nowadays. If you have something to say, say it straight! You brutally ‘deliver’ your message to the public. It is well known that the artist fights for animal and human rights. Therefore, he took the chance to show us the ugly truth. We saw uncensored images from slaughterhouses (you can’t forget the look of slaughtered animals), police forces who were attacking men, women, people in wheelchairs or who were ruthlessly shooting people or animals. He didn’t forget about Spain’s bull fights nor Great Britain’s Royal Family.  The videos were really shocking and their message was amplified by the music and by the words that sometimes sounded like cannon fires. Many spectators (maybe too many!), in order to avoid watching the videos, stared at the floor or opened their Facebook. Or maybe it was just their habit. After all, this is what we always do: we’ve got used to turn our head and walk away when we don’t like what we see. We no longer have the courage to face the ugly truth.  


There wasn’t any ‘dead time’ in the show! Morrissey didn’t lose his audience not even for a second. You get born with such a charisma, you don’t acquire it. I‘ve seen an artist completely ‘free’, who takes responsibility for his words, gestures or phantasms. I went to the concert of an artist little known to me but I left there with the joy of having have met the leader of a generation


I was also impressed with  Morrissey's band:  Jesse Tobias (guitarist), Boz Boorer (guitarist), Mando Lopez (bass player), Matt Walker (drummer) and Gustavo Manzur (keyboards, acoustic guitar, accordion). Morrissey enthusiastically presented his colleagues, telling us where they are from. 

I was expecting the Palace Hall to be full with thousands of animal lovers. Morrissey has dedicated his career to his belief ; from the beginning he has fought for animal rights. But I was proven again that the love for animals and mankind is just a fashion in Romania. If it’s about a walk on Capital’s boulevards (a’ protest’ walk) there are thousands of people there just because is ‘cool’ to be seen to such a ‘meeting’. But when there is something meaningful, when they get the chance to see an artist who unconditionally supports this cause, then the Romanian animal lover would rather have a quick bite at McDonalds from where he posts on Facebook some tearful message asking others to save the animals. Shame on you guys! We got used to say „it's his fight”, when it really is EVERYBODY'S FIGHT! Thank you, Morrissey for pointing that out!


14th October 2015 was a very special evening for me. I’ll be happy if Morrissey returns in Romania. I would like to go to another concert of his!

Setlist: 
Suedehead 
Alma Matters 
Kiss Me a lot 
You have Killed Me 
Speedway 
Ganglord 
Staircase At The University 
World Peace Is None Of Your Business 
How Soon Is Now? 
I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris 
Istanbul 
Reader Meet Author 
Oboe concerto 
I Will See You In Far Off Places 
First Of The Gang To Die 
The Bullfighter Dies 
Meat Is Murder 
Everyday Is Like Sunday 
The World Is Full With Crashing Bores 
What She Said 
The Queen Is Dead




















New video: Morrissey - Julie In The Weeds (World Peace Is None Of Your Business)

Video for the song „Julie In The Weeds”, taken from Morrissey's album „World Peace Is None Of Your Business” (2014).
Also, made by me. Enjoy!


New Video: Morrissey - I'm Not A Man (World Peace Is None Of Your Business, 2014)

New video (made by me) for the song „I'm Not A Man”, taken from Morrissey's album, „World Peace Is None Of Your Business” (2014). Enjoy!