The Pink Ego Box

Rock Werchter substitute: B'ESTFEST 2009!

2009-04-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

Everytime I look at my right wrist and I see the light blue bracelet from last year's fantastic Rock Werchter, I feel a pang of nostalgia and sadness that I won't go this year. I'm missing out on artists like Kings of Leon, Metallica, my old faves Placebo, Pendulum, The Prodigy, Bloc Party and the whole amazing atmosphere there :(

Buuuuuuut there is a substitute for that: B'ESTFEST! Between 1-4 July I will go to Bucharest to meet up with my dear friends from there and have an awesome time! The line-up so far is pretty OK:

Day Zero July 1

Snails: Moldavian indie band....haven't heard of them before
Patrice: quite cool raggae-sorta artist
White Lies: I love these guys!!!! young post-punk band with a very catchy debut album and I'm really looking forward to seeing them in concert
The Killers: of course, the headliners of the day :D i hope they'll play very few songs from their shitty new album "Day&Age" and delight us with tracks like "Mr. Brightside", "When You Were Young" and "Somebody Told Me"

Day 1 July 2

Polarkreis 18: no idea who these fellas are
Les Elephants Bizarres: some Romania indie band
Grimus: very nice band from Cluj :D
Ayo: soul-chick
Motorhead: old rockers...still undecided whether it's a good or not-so-good thing that they're gonna play
Moby: yes!! after not seeing him properly at Werchter I finally have the chance to see him again! Can't wait!

Day 2 July 3

Gabriela Cilmi: 'nothing sweet about me' :P
Alternosfera: very good Moldavian alternative band
AB4: another Romanian band that I like
Orbital: electronic music legends, not a massive fan of them though
Klaxons: Klaxons are a very entertaining band and I like most of their songs from their debut album
Franz Ferdinand: not much to say 'bout these lads....except that they're in my top 10 bands and I LOVE them!!!! This is going to be huuuuge!!

Day 3 July 4

By far the weakest day of the festival. Plenty of bands I've never heard of (Persona, Gravity Co., Looptroop Rockers), or that I don't give a crap about (The MOOOod, The Charlatans), and the 2 "headliners" of the day are The Ting Tings who are decent and Santana, who is a legend and blah blah, but really....I can name about 2-3 dozen bands I would trade him with.

There are two more months until this cool event and I really hope that they'll add some more bands to the line-up :D there are a few Romanian bands worthy of playing here.

Meanwhile, let's all enjoy the Champions' League semifinal :D Go Chelsea & Arsenal!

Tag, you're it: 6 things that put a smile on my face

2009-03-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

I got this one from Andreea and I'm not a spoilsport, so here it is :D

6 things that make me smile

Rules
1) link back to the person who tagged you.
2) post these rules on your blog.
3) share 6 things that put a smile on your face.
4) pass the tag along to other fabulous blogs.
5) let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs.

And here they are (in random order):

1) the song "Float On" by Modest Mouse (youtube's being a bitch at the mo and i can't find a link)
2) the upcoming B'Estfest
3) Marius and Sorana, university would suck without them
4) browsing through older photos
5) tennis
6) heavy snowfall :D

and noooooow I tag Sandra

Spring in Sibiu part II

2009-03-12T00:41:00.000-07:00

S is for Spring, Sibiu, Safin...

2009-03-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

Davis Cup Tie: Romania vs. Russia

After a long wait, the weekend of 6-8 March arrived with the beautiful promise of live tennis and heaps of fun. I hopped on the bus to Sibiu and met up with my friends from Bucharest (whom I hadn't seen in eons!) who miraculously managed to snatch some tickets to the DC tie (I must mention that the venue in Sibiu is minuscule! 2000 seats only, so you can imagine the whole fuss to get tickets)

We got to the Sala Transilvania after the first match began, so our seats were taken by some "gentlemen" so we resorted to the stairs to watch Marat Safin, Russia's number 1 player and my friends' favorite player, versus Romanian Victor Crivoi. In spite of Crivoi's decent display (it was actually quite remarkable for such a mediocre fella like him), Marat was clearly better and won in straight sets 7-6(5)6-4 6-4. No surprises here. The second match of the day put our no. 1 player *cringe* Victor Hanescu against Mikhail Youzhny and everyone expected an interesting encounter between players of close value, considering that Hanescu had beaten Misha in Doha earlier this year. The outcome was a bit surprising as Hanescu was totally crap (he is usually crap, but on Friday he was TOTALLY crap) and the Russian had no problems whatsoever, winning 6-4 6-2 6-4. The score was now 2-0 for Tarpischev's boys and we left the arena to have some fun around in Sibiu, ending Friday in a bar called Nadine.

Saturday! The second day of the tie brought the doubles match, but not before the official presentation of the two teams. First up was the visiting team starting with Marat Safin (crowd: regular applause; us: *fangirlish screaming and clapping :))*), Mikhail Youzhny, Dmitry Tursunov, Teimuraz Gabashvili and the captain Shamil Tarpischev. Then the Romanians with Victor Hanescu *yawn*, Victor Crivoi, Horia Tecau and Marius Copil, lead by the new captain Andrei Pavel (who got more applause than anyone, obviously :P). Next up was the match: Safin and Dmitry Tursunov paired up against Horia Tecau and 18 year-old Marius Copil. The Russians won the first two sets 6-4 7-6(2) after some signs of nervousness from debutant Copil and lack of concentration from Tecau. Loudly and loyally encouraged by the crowd (who even sang the anthem! awesome!), Marius and Horia managed to turn the match around claiming the next two sets in tiebreaks. They got a break in the third set and Copil served out the match with an ace. What a classy way to make your debut in such an important competition!

Unfortunately, our "no.1" managed to crap his pants and lose to Tursunov (who replaced Safin in this match) after leading with 2 sets to 0 and a break! So typical of him. If I were Pavel, I'd be really pissed at him. After all these years in which Hanescu pissed all over DC matches and Andrei had to clean up after him every time, now he chokes like the loser he is. Not that I expected Romania to win, because none of our second-choice players stood a chance against Youzhny, but Hanescu was very poor and it's sad to think that he's our best player at the moment. I had to leave after this match, but I'm sure that Gabashvili vs. Crivoi, the dead rubber, was not such an interesting match :P Ah yes, I almost forgot! Before Hanescu's display of helplessness, all the women and girls in the crowd got flowers from the Romanian players as it was March 8 :D We got flowers from Copil :D

All in all, I had an amazing time with my friends in this beautiful city (with EXTREMELY cheap taxis!) and had the opportunity to see live tennis and the Russian team, my third favorite non-Romanian DC team (after Spain and France).

Here are some photos from the tie. If you want to see all the 260 photos that I have uploaded on Picasa (out of the 600 that I took :P) go to my Picasa page (Non-tennis photos will follow in an upcoming post, so stay tuned)

The Pink Ego Box Reloaded.

2009-02-12T13:43:00.000-08:00

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy...
...says a dude called Edgar Bergen. I have to say, I am a lazy person by definition (a big flaw, I know, but soooo hard to overcome) which is the main reason for my unexpected and long hiatus from the blogging world. Everytime I planned to get writing, I would postpone it and so heaps of cool events have been robbed of a blog entry.

I don't want to bore you too much (in case anyone remembers this blog) so I'll summarize some of the autumn and winter's events.
1) I turned 20! Yep, in September I grew out of the teenage era into the third decade of life.
2) Champions League matches!!!! Romanian football champs CFR Cluj were drawn in group A along Chelsea, Roma and Girondins Bordeaux, so I was to attend three lovely Champions League matches (ok, 1 was not lovely at all, but still ;)). The first match with Chelsea was an overwhelming experience. I had never been to a football match before and I was fascinated with everything. The game was high-quality, but the ball stubbornly refused to enter Petr Cech's goal, so it ended as a blank draw. Next came the disaster with Bordeaux. They are such a crap team with crap attitude and crap players (the only good thing about it is the coach Laurent Blanc, but CFR totally choked both matches and screwed up the entire qualifying campaign. The last match was against Roma, on a bitter cold November evening, and despite CFR's loss and me not feeling my legs from the knees down, it was a nice ending to CFR's Champions League saga. [i'm never good at keeping my sport-related posts short ;), so bare with me]
3) University: Year 2 After succesfully finishing my first year as a Civil Engineering student, October came with a total bullshit uni schedule and with some 'awesome' subjects: PE and English again! (don't roll your eyes, these are serious subjects at UTCN, you should never underestimate them)and Numerical Analysis. Now that I'm in the second semester, the schedule is the same bullshit (we are the black sheep of this faculty; I guess it's because everyone tries so hard not to favour us -an already established myth, that us from the English group are favoured by the professors- that they come to do the opposite), the subjects seem a bit better, but I don't want to make any judgements until I see the profs and grasp the main idea of the subject. (Meanwhile, I should study for Numerical Analysis, as I have to resit my theory exam :( )

There would be some other points worth mentioning like my trips with BEST, ice skating in Drobeta and horribly brusing my knees, the Night Of the AdEaters 2008, Christmas and all that but I think it's enough recapping for a post. (I don't plan to write any other recaps soon)

Excuse me if my writing's a bit rusty, but it's been such a long time since August and my mind is juggling Numerical Analysis, the upcoming Davis Cup tie in Sibiu which I plan to attend, the very promisingly-looking Bestfest (a substitute for last year's incredible Rock Werchter)and Jon Lee Anderson's biography of Che Guevara (which is as huge as a dictionary!).

And to conclude, I must urge you to read 1984 by George Orwell!!!! It's the best book ever! I've been doing some shameless pimping of this book lately but it really is the awesomest book! (ok, maybe not the best, but among the best)

Sports Summer

2008-08-25T03:58:00.000-07:00

After the great Euro 2008 in June, which ended with Spain's well-deserved victory, and the Olympic Games in Beijing, where Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt made history, this year's summer is slowly coming to an end. That means two things: US Open and new football season!!!!!!!!

The US Open is starting today but, unlike in the previous years, it isn't a prologue for live tennis action in Bucharest. It sucks a lot that I can't go but I have to get better grades at 2 of my exams and I also wanna be home for my 20th birthday. You can't always get what you want and this autumn will surely be poorer without the crazy days of the BCR Open with my friends :(

But football is starting! I rooted for CFR Cluj last year to get the championship so that they qualify automatically in the Champions League groups. And it happened, so we wll have 3 matches in Cluj! Of course I hope Real will be in the same group as CFR but it'll be OK even if they don't because another big team will come. I hope teams 2 and 3 will be interesting and I will finally get to see live UCL action! The draw is probably this Friday so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Speaking of Real...they won the Spanish Supercup against Valencia last night! And thanks to Arab TV channels I got to see a thorough summary to be able to draw my own conclusions. Valencia had an unexplainably disastrous season, finishing mid-table despite having players like David Villa, Vicente, Joaquin and Silva but managed to salvage some dignity by winning the Copa del Rey (King's Cup). In the first leg of the Supercup, at Mestalla, Real's coach Bernd Schuster made some bad starting 11 choices: he chose to play Robinho, who is involved in a transfer saga with Chelsea so his mind is clearly off the pitch, and picked Salgado on the right flank of the defence. With all the love and respect for Michel, his time has passed and he's a slow defender, not to mention that he attacks half as much as Sergio Ramos does. Schuster realized his mistakes and subbed Salgado for Sergio but it was rather late so Real lost 3-2.

This Sunday, Schuster started with Iker, Sergio, Pepe, Heinze and Miguel Torres in the defence, new signing Rafael van der Vaart, Guti, Diarra and Robben in the midfield and the classic attack formula, Raul and Ruud van Nistelrooy. A very strong team which promised to come back from 1 goal down and take the trophy in front of their home crowd at Santiago Bernabeu. But things didn't go as planned: Silva scored with a shot from outside the box to extend Valencia's lead and a few minutes after, Van der Vaart was sent off for a brutal tackle on Juan Mata. So aafter the half-time whistle, the Merengues were not looking good at all. Soon after the second half started, Raul Albiol forgot what sport he was playing and handballed Ruud's header in the box. Obvious penalty for the home team and Ruud sent in a very confident shot to equalize. His delight lasted only 20 more minutes (meanwhile Royston Drenthe replaced Torres on the lft side of the defence) when he was sent off for two yellow cards. Despite Robben's noteworthy attempts to score, it was Sergio Ramos who scored the second goal, after Guti's corner kick was sent in the post by Diarra and rebounded to Sergio who shot it in. A short while after this goal, Guti and Raul were replaced by promising youngsters Gonzalo Higuain and Ruben de la Red. De la Red is a product of Madrid's youth system and played a few games for the first team two years ago before being loaned out last season. He was in Spain's squad for the Euro where he managed to score a goal, so it was high time he was given a chance to play for Real's first team again. And he impressed everyone with scoring the 3rd goal of Real with a magnificent shot from outside the box to make it 3-1 for the Blancos and to prove his huge talent and potential. Higauin extended the lead to 4-1 after he intercepted Alexis' rookie pass to the keeper, putting the ball past a disappointed Hildebrand. Morientes, Real's former player, reduced the difference but it was worthelss because the time had run out and Real won the Spanish Supercup!!!!! Great display of teamwork and ambition, I hope they keep on playing like this for the rest of the season!

Rock Werchter Day 4 (06.07.2008)

2008-07-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

Time flies when you're having fun and that statement was very accurate to describe my feeling on Sunday morning. It was already the last festival day and it was going to be more laidback than the previous one. We agreed to go spend our last food and drink tickets before The Raconteurs show so that we could start our "assault" for front row spots. The weather was again nice, with periods of sun and clouds but no rain, just like on Friday, so we set out to find the Oxfam cow and get photos with her. I also bought an Oxfam button with the image of the cow.

We ignored The Kooks (dude! Luke Pritchard looks like a rat! What do girls see in him?!) and then took a seat to watch the Raconteurs.

1. The Raconteurs

First of all, I don't dig Jack White's current haircut. Ugh. He looks like his hairdresser wanted to humiliate him. His hair aside, he was pretty good along with Brendan and the rest of the gang. Despite his mike sucking big time and Brendan screwing it up with "Hello, Brussels!" much to the shock of the crowd, they entertained their fans with songs from both their old album and their new one. I'm not a fan of them, but I did enjoy the good ol' "Steady As She Goes".

Stand-out songs: Steady As She Goes, Blue Veins
Rating: 3/5

2. Kaiser Chiefs

The Kaisers are a band that can really, really get the crowd going. Ricky distinguishes himself from other frontmen of British guitar indie bands with a huge amount of energy and plenty of on-stage charisma. He made us all jump and clap and sing along to "Ruby", "I Predict A Riot", "Everything Is Average Nowadays", "Na Na Na Na Naaa" and "Oh My God", delivering an awesome show! He is as much of a livewire as Howlin' Pelle Almqvist of the Hives (though much less cockier) crowdsurfing and climbing on the structures around the screens. You don't have to be a fan of them to enjoy their show, it's 100% fun.

Stand-out songs: Ruby (in the video), Oh My God, I Predict A Riot, Na Na Na Na Naaa
Rating: 5/5 *show of the day*

3. Beck
I never bothered to listen to Beck, therefore I only knew "Loser", "Devil's Haircut" and "E-Pro", but Beck really surprised me with a solid show. Very good instruments (the guitarist was particulalrly impressive) and good vocals = surpsisingly good show. It's not like I'll start getting his discography but he didn't more like Ben Harper did on Saturday.

Stand-out songs: Loser (in the video), Devil's Haircut, E-Pro
Rating: 4/5

4. dEUS

This year's edition of this wonderful festival was to be ended by Belgium's finest band, dEUS. The group, led by Tom Barman, came on stage much to the delight of the crowd and started talking Flemish (bah! thank you very much!). They played a lot of songs from their latest album "Vanishing Point", inluding my personal favorite "The Architect". The sound was a bit too loud and my ears started hurting so I put the one earplug I had left and enjoyed this lovely band as they sang older songs like "Sun Ra" or the very beautiful "Nothing Really Ends". On "Popular Culture" they were accompanied by a choir of kids (obviously excited by this occasion), who came back on stage to dance and jump on the festival-ending song, "Suds&Soda". That, apart from being my favorite dEUS song, was the track I had imagined to be the last song of Werchter and so it was! The violin riff, the shouting, the easy-to-remember chorus, the guitars, the enthralled crowd made it the perfect ending for this fabulous festival Rock Werchter 2008!!!!!!

Stand-out songs: Nothing Really Ends, For The Roses, Suds and Soda (in the video)
Rating: 5/5

Rock Werchter Day 3 (05.07.2008)

2008-07-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday was probably the best day of my life. Although 10 hours of standing up doesn't really sound like a cool thing, the bands I got to see were fantastic. Despite waking up because of the heat and rays of sun, the weather soon changed and the clouds came back to power. We had a big meal (and I threw away my The Clash shoes and got a pair of flipflops =))) and then headed to the Pyramid Marquee for the first show of the day:

1. MGMT

The Marquee was full of people anxious to see this hot new band and MGMT delivered a very good show. They played the songs from their debut album "Oracular Spectacular" and too bad that they didn't have more songs cos the atmosphere was electrifying. The concert was actually a build-up to their last 2 songs, by far the best on the album: "Time To Pretend" and "Kids". Needless to say that the audience exploded after the first beats of "Time to Pretend"! Funny fact: there was an interview with the singer from MGMT in the Belgian paper and he said his ideal festival would be in a jungle in Romania =))) thank you very much ;)

Stand-out songs: Kids, Time To Pretend
Rating: 5/5

2. The Hives

Next up was this band of crazy Swedes. Howlin' Pelle is a great frontman, his cockyness makes him a crowd master and he's absolutely insane. Where does this guy get so much energy?? For more than an hour he jumped, screamed, sang, ran, climbed, came down in the crowd, ran and jumped some more. Even if you had never heard a song by the Hives, it was impossible not to enjoy the show that Pelle and his crew of daft comrades was giving. I particularly liked the guitarist Niklas and the very hot Finnish drummer and the overall performance was a whole lot of fun, in spite of the crappy rain.

Stand-out songs: Hate To Say I Told You So, Tic Tick Boom (in the vid), Walk Idiot Walk
Rating: 5/5

3. Editors

*does little happy dance cos there's the full show on youtube*
One word: amazing! They were so fucking great, playing all my fav songs, such a strong show! Tom Smith has a very beautiful, deep voice and he really got us going, in spite of the continous downpour. The setlist was a combination of songs from their 2007 album "An End Has A Start" and their 2005 debut "The Back Room", but I think they sould have ended with "And End Has A Start", not play it in the first few songs.

Stand-out songs: An End Has A Start, Munich, Bullets
Rating: 5/5

4. Kings Of Leon

*does another happy dance, cos this is on youtube too!*
I was looking forward to seeing these guys because I loved their "Because of the Times" album and I heard they're great live. And they were, but they played too many songs from their older albums and I didn't know them, so couldn't enjoy them properly. Oh, and I want to kidnap Nathan, Caleb and Jared!!! And make Caleb and Jared grow their hair like they used to have it and then put them in my room and look at them whenever I want ;)) Back to their performance: they started up a bit stiff, but then they rocked with "On Call", "Charmer" and especially "Knocked Up" and the crowd really really loved them. Their flaw with me was the number of older songs, but that mostly my fault for not checking them out.

Stand-out songs: Charmer, On Call, Knocked Up (in the video; check out Caleb's little dance)
Rating: 4/5

5. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals

I'll start with this: he's not my type. He might be a god for some people, but he doesn't do a thing for me, sorry. So I had to sit throughout his 90 minutes set, counting down the minutes to Sigur Ros and then the best band in the world, Radiohead. I only knew "Diamonds on the Inside" from VH1 so I got bored, happy that I had a good spot for the next shows.

Stand-out songs: sorry but can't name one
Rating: 3/5

6. Sigur Ros

It is rather unusual for a band whose songs are all in Icelandic (and some don't even have a title) to be so succesful, but Sigur Ros defied all the laws of common sense and have a big fanbase. Their show was beautiful, you couldn't really do much but stand and look (singing along was impossible, unless you knew Icelandic); they had nice costumes and the stage decorations were very nice and these, in addition to the sunset, the singer's voice and the weird way he played the guitar (like he played a violin), created an eerie atmosphere. During "Gobbledigook" (spelling?!) they had confetti released on the crowd and that was such a beautiful moment! They are a very special band who can create a fairytale atmosphere and handled the requirements of a main stage very well. A great build=up to Radiohead.

Stand-out songs: Hopippola, Gobbledigook (in the video), Svefn-g-englar (again, excuse my spelling)

7. Best band in the world a.k.a Radiohead

I can't believe I was front row for Radiohead (right in front of Ed!)!!!!! (in the photo: me and Duncan before the show)

People were already fainting like crazy (one every 2-3 minutes) a long time before they came on stage cos we were "packed like sardines in a crushed tin box" and everyone was pushing like mad, but we held on to our perfect places, very excited about what was going to happen. They showed up after 23.30 and started with "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi", a song from their beloved "In Rainbows" album (well it's excellent, so they have a reason to be so proud of it) and then they got groovy with "The National Anthem" and a ton of other awesome songs. Holy crap they even played my precious "How To Disappear Completely"!!!!! They totally ignored "Pablo Honey", sang only "Just" from The Bends (some people said they should've played more from this album) and "You and Whose Army?" from Amnesiac, "Climbing Up The Walls", "Lucky" and "Paranoid Android" from their masterpiece "OK Computer", "There There", "The Gloaming" and "2+2=5" from "Hail To The Thief", "Idioteque", "Optimistic", "Everything In Its Right Place", "The National Anthem" and "How To Disappear Completely" from Kid A and the entire "In Rainbows" album apart from "House of Cards" and God they were fabulous. They had some incredible light effects and the big screens were divided into more pieces that showed each member from an interesting angle and a cool visual effect. With all the respect for Thom Yorke who is a fucking genius and whom I love a lot (and also for Colin Greenwood and Phil the drummer), my fav Radiohead members have to be the duo of guitarists Ed O'Brien *insert drool smiley here* and Jonny Greenwood *insert worship smiley here*. Jonny didn't only play guitar but was also in charge of the sound effects and that hair of his couldn't have been any better. He's too cool for this world. I also wanna kidnap him, Ed and Thom! (hmmm...if you add the boys from The National, the drummer and the keyboardist from Vampire Weekend, the 3 Kings of Leon guys I already mentioned and the drummer from the Hives that means that I gotta get a bigger basement cos they don't fit in mine :))) It sucks that I can't find any good videos of this concert (only good audio, but blurry image) cos it was so mindblowing! I'm glad they had such a long set and I forgot all about my hurting legs and the fact that I was wearing shorts and flip-flops in the middle of the night! They were worth it. I must see them again sometime soon. All hail the RH guys!

Stand-out songs: there is no such thing; the entire show was outstanding!
Rating: 5/5 *show of the day* "show of the festival* *show of my life*

Rock Werchter Day 2 (04.07.2008)

2008-07-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

After a brilliant first day, the second day was a more relaxed one, since there wasn't anyone we were interested in until around 7 o'clock. So we wandered around on the street leading to the festival ground, shopping for buttons, shirts, earrings and anything else we wanted. After a while we got hungry and headed to the food area of the site and then relaxed on the grass (Friday was a very beautiful day, with lots of sunshine), watching Slayer from afar. They're good for their genre, but I'm not a metal fan so the comfort of the grass & sun was perfect for me. The next artists were supposed to be Babyshambles, but of course Pete Doherty had to be his mug-self and not come, so Air Traffic played again. Having missed them on the previous day, I was glad I had another chance. They were good but I wasn't really in the crowd to gauge the gig temperature so I won't judge it. Next up was Jay-Z, who really isn't my cup of tea. What's so fascinating to hear Rihanna or Beyonce from the CD and this guy just saying "Yeah! Yeah! Uh! Come on! Hands in the air! Yeah!" is beyond my comprehension.

1. The Verve

I never thought I'd actually see The Verve. If you told me, an avid Verve and Richard Ashcroft fan about 3-4 years ago, that I were to be front row and sing along to "Bittersweet Symphony" with 70,000 other people, I'd call you daft. So when the organizers announced that they were booked to play Werchter, my heart skipped a beat. For old times sake, I'm pleased that I saw them and heard their hits live, but the overall show was worthy of just 4 stars mostly because they played some new songs and some songs from their first albums, which are not as known as the great "Urban Hymns" . Richie was cool, like he always is, but lacked something...I think after such a long break, the guys don't really click together anymore.

Stand-out songs: Lucky Man, The Drugs Don't Work, obviously Bittersweet Symphony (in the vid)
Rating: 4/5

Inbetween the two gigs, the cameraman decided to have some fun with the crowd and filmed various people so they could see each other on the big screen. Needless to say, that made way for tens of gestures, a lot of them rather exhibitionist, and it gave us all a good laugh. Best part: he missed Neil Young's entrance on the stage because he was too caught in filming the crowd =))! Priceless!

2. Neil Young

I'd heard his songs before but I can't say I knew too much of his music before. However, his legend status made me prefer him over the very addictive band Hot Chip so there I was, front row for this living hero of rock. He was great! Dressed in a paint-stained suit, he rocked Werchter with his powerful setlist, proving that he's still able to play like when he was much younger. I loved how his hair was bouncing =))) too funny. And I don't regret missing Hot Chip, cos they're still young, Neil's old and who knows when (or if) I'll have the chance to see him again.

Stand-out songs: All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan cover; in the video), Heart of Gold, Hey Hey My My
Rating: 5/5 *show of the day*

3. Moby

My legs were not listening to me anymore: they wanted back to the tent and in an horizontal position. The exhaustion and the big crowd at the Marquee made us sit down for a while and watch Digitalism from outside and then went over for Moby. I was, again, expecting him to play a lot from the new album, but he played a lot of old songs. "Lift Me Up", "Porcelain", "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?", "We Are All Made of Stars" sounded great, Moby is a much better live act than I expected. But again, we left early, in order to avoid the mass of people going back to the campings.

Rating: 4/5

Rock Werchter Day 1 (03.07.2008)

2008-07-16T04:12:00.000-07:00

After months of anticipation, the big day had finally come: July 2nd. I was finally leaving Romania to go to Belgium for the Rock Werchter festival. We left Cluj half an hour later than expected and had a rather slow trip to Budapest, where we also had a 2-hour delay for our flight to Brussels, so I have to admit I was getting impatient. The moment we landed in the Belgian capital however, I knew there was nothing that could stop me from attending the festival. After going to bed around 2 am, I woke up five hours later, more excited than ever, hopped on the subway and then the train to Leuven, where I met up with my Dutch friends, Duncan and Liselot. We queued up for the buses that would take us to the camping sites and after a 20 minute ride, we were theeeeeeere!!! We tried the A3 camping but then heard that it's already almost full, so we moved to A4. A nice, chilled camping, not too crowded either, with lots of interesting tents, some of them looking like mini-apartments: 2 places for sleeping and a "living/dining room"! We set up our tents (well...more like Liselot set up the tents, Duncan hammered the hooks, and I....well I *ahem*), had something to eat and the headed for the festival ground, which was a 15-minute walk away. Despite wanting to see Air Traffic, I wanted good spots for Vampire Weekend and The National, so I joined my friends in the Pyramid Marquee for a set of gigs.

1. Modern Skirts

I had only heard "Pasadena" before seeing them so I didn't really know their music, but they didn't really convince me to check them out more. Regular American guitar band, don't see anything special about them. The songs are ok, they are good musicians but they lack something to make them stand out. The crowd was not too numerous either and few people knew their songs, + they had the difficult task of opening the festival.

Stand-out songs: uhm....none really
Rating: 2/5

2. Vampire Weekend

Standing through an hour of Modern Skirts had its advantage: I was front row for Vampire Weekend! The guys were lovely! They played their entire debut album and a few other songs like "I Stand Corrected" and even a new song, during which Ezra (the singer)did this cute Michael Jackson dance. The Marquee tent was packed so the atmosphere was great and Ezra&co. lived up to the hype surrounding them. Of course the highlights were "Mansard Roof", "A-Punk", "Oxford Comma" and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and the show ended on a high note with the energetic "Walcott". Kudos to the boys and can't wait for a new album!

Stand-out songs:A-Punk, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, Mansard Roof (in the video)
Rating: 5/5

In the 30 minute break between Vampire Weekend and The National, the organizers turned on the music and at some point there was "Creep" by Radiohead and the whole crowd (around 6,000 people) started singing along: this might give you an idea of what was about to happen at the Radiohead concert on Saturday!

3. The National
And here come the 2nd best band of the festival (for me) I have been listening to The National for a year now and I knew they had beautiful songs but never in a million years did I imagine that they're soooo fantastic live! My god, I never wanted them to end, I wanted them to keep playing on and on until they ran out of songs! They are excellent musicians, and the violin guy was, for me,the coolest guy title on Thursday! Their setlist contained older songs like "Abel", "Baby We'll Be Fine", "Secret Meeting", "Mr. November" (a fucking unbelievable end-of-gig song) and from their 2007 album "Boxer": "Start a War", "Fake Empire", "Squalor Victoria", "Racing Like A Pro", "Mistaken for Strangers", "Ada" , "Slow Show" and my personal favorite "Apartment Story". Simply amazing, a mindblowing experience. I HAVE to see them live again and if you have the chance of catching one of their concerts, make sure you go!

Stand-out songs: Start A War (in the video), Fake Empire, Mr. November, Ada
Rating: 5/5 *show of the day*

Well, after around 4 hours in the Marquee it was time to get out for a drink and a bite. Of course, my best friend a.k.a the Rain had to show up and it poured for almost an hour. Luckily, we had our rain ponchos but the shoes had to deal with the Floresti-like mud.

4. Lenny Kravitz
We got something for our stomachs as I told you so we got to the main stage for Lenny Kravitz exactly when he was starting. So our spots were quite far from the stage but thanks to the screen we could still see Lenny and his band of cool musicians )his bassist was smokin' cool!). He played many of his big hits "American Woman", "Fly Away", "Mama Said", "It Ain't Over Till It's Over", "I'll Be Waiting" and during "Let Love Rule" he got down into the crowd and shook hands with the people (and not only 3 or 4 from the first row, but he really spent like 5 minutes in the middle of the fans) and even danced with a girl! Just after he left, I was about to say that it's weird for him to not sing "Are You Gonna Go My Way" and guess what, in a few minutes he was back for a booming encore performance of that song. Awesoooome! Great live act!

Stand-out songs: Fly Away, Let Love Rule, Are You Gonna Go My Way (in the video)
Rating: 5/5

5. R.E.M.
One of the biggest bands in the world, REM came here with a new album in the stores so I was expecting them to play mostly songs from it. But I was totally wrong: they played their biggest hits and a few from the new album! Ducan and I manage to crawl in the crowd after Lenny ended and got a spot right in front of Mike Mills. The crowd was delighted to hear "What's The Frequency Kenneth", "Drive", "Electrolite", "Bad Day" and the other tracks (and I was particularly delighted to hear "Imitation of Life"). After a short break they came back for an encore which contained a bunch of songs including "Man on the Moon" and obviously "Losing My Religion", which was the highlight. A very good performance by a legendary band!

Stand-out songs: Losing My Religion, Man on the Moon
Rating: 5/5

6. The Chemical Brothers
I had been looking forward to the Chem Bros but I have to admit that they let me down. The mix between the songs was way too long and they special effects they used were the same ones they used last year. The only highlight was for me "Hey Boy Hey Girl" and even that lasted too little. Willing to avoid the exodus from the festival grounds to the campings we left earlier, putting an end to what was an incredible first day with four 5 star concerts and 2 mediocre ones which won't be remembered ;)

Stand-out song: Hey Boy Hey Girl
Rating: 3/5

I'm going missing for a while...

2008-07-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

...as Maximo Park say in their song. The day has finally arrived: I'm leaving to Belgium! Tomorrow at this time I'm setting up my tent! *explodes with excitement*

I can't wait to see Radiohead, Kings of Leon, Editors and all the other bands and I promise to write a thorough review of the event when I get back!

See ya in 2 weeks!

Chronic football-itis

2008-06-23T01:24:00.001-07:00

Yep, that's my current disease. But how can you stay away from such a beautiful sport which comes in the shape of the European Champs? I've been asked by some guys what I love that much about football (after they realized that I'm pretty much a football maniac) but some matches at Euro 2008 gave them a precise answer.

After some insane group matches (see Turkey's matches vs the Czech Rep and Switzerland and Holland's matches), the quarterfinal action looked really promising with some tight clashed between titans or unpedictable appearances.

First came Portugal vs Germany. I am not a fan of the Germans but I kinda dislike the Portuguese team. Apart from Pepe who plays for Real Madrid (yes, I'm biased), I can't name other player I like. I can't stand Cristiano Ronaldo, he's an ugly smug dude who puts a jar of gel on his hair for every match and he can't even play constantly. He tries all sorts of dribblings and dives a lot and sometimes he has brilliant matches. But that doesn't make him the best player in the world and I'm still praying for Sir Alex Ferguson to not let him go so I'm not stuck with him at Real. So between two teams I'm not too fond of, I guess I was glad that Germany won 3-2. But someone needs to tell Schweinsteiger that peroxide blonde is sooooo 1999!

The 2nd quarterfinals can be described with two words: FUCKING DAFT! Croatia vs. Turkey was arguably the craziest match of the last years...After 0-0 in the regular time, the two teams went on to play extra time, with goal occasions on both sides. However, a childish mistake of goalkeeper Rustu provided the Croats with a goal in the 119th minute, just 1 minute before the end of the extra time. They were over the moon of course and considered themselves through, yet the forgot who their opponent was. And of course the Turks miraculously scored a last gasp goal and sent the match to penalties. This was a blow too big for the unexperienced Croats who were too shellshocked to be able to concentrate for the spot kicks. With Modric and Rakitic missing the goal and Klasnic shooting in Rustu, the Turks won the shoot-out and completed their 3rd superb comeback in this Euro.

The Netherlands vs. Russia was the most beautiful match of this stage. The Dutchies had shown a fantastic appetite for victory in the group stage where they swept the floor with their opponents, but the Russians, led by my favorite coach Guus Hiddink who is the god of coaching, proved to be no pushovers. They dominated from start to end, but only scored once because the Dutch goal was guarded by the long-limbed Edwin Van Der Sar. The Oranjes equalised late in the match after a precise free-kick landed on Van Nistelrooy who headed it in so it turned out to be another late night. In the extra-time, the Russians were way better and scored twice to make it 3-1 and send the Dutchies home. The truth is, they were much better overall as Van Basten's team failed to impress. I'm thrilled for Hiddink, Akinfeev (who reminds me of Casillas) and Arshavin (man of the match, no doubt), they fully deserved to go further in the tournament.

Aaaaaaaaand we finally got to the biiiiig match: Spain vs. Italy. The Italians were absolutely embarassing this year. They usually are lucky (see World Cup in 2006) but sometimes they play football. At Euro 2008, they played the best anti-football they could. Toni is probably the least capable attacker they've had in the past years and Cassano is an embarrassment to footballers worldwide and suprisingly, their defence was kinda crappy too. I mean...what wasn't crappy about them this year? Crappy or not, they somehow managed to crawl out of the group stage to face my favorite team, Spain. Aragones, the Spanish coach, is an old bastard who dares to leave Raul at home and bring some newbies like Sergio Garcia and Guiza who barely played for the national team and then has the nerve to start most matches with Xavi and Iniesta in the midfield when they're clearly out of shape! He left Fabregas and Xabi Alonso on the bench! What normal coach does this? Thus, Aragones has a foggy brain. If he has one. But enough with the Aragones hating! Spain were not impressive yesterday mostly because Torres and Villa had a not so good day and the Italians did everything to stop the flow of the game. Ah, and the ref did too. Probably the worst refereeing at this tournament. Fandel, go home!!! Soooo the match went to penalties. I was biting my fingernails like crazy because Buffon is one huge GK, while poor Iker is rather short for a keeper. Villa went first and the ball he'd just kissed obeyed him and entered the goal. Grosso followed for the Italians and in spite of the fact that Iker had guessed the corner, the shot was too strong and it was 1-1. Santi Cazorla scored too, a very confident stroke for a debutant, and then De Rossi was a real sweetheart and heard my plea as his shot was saved by Iker. Senna didn't mess with the penalty and boomed it in the net, but then Guiza (a newbie as I said) shitted in his pants and Buffon saved it. However, Iker's amazing talent resurfaced when he saved di Natale's shot. Cesc Fabregas converted the winning penalty and Spain send Italy home where they should've been for a few days already. To sum it up, I have to quote Spain's left winger Capdevila: "Casillas es Dios!" meaning Casillas is God.

Semis: Germany vs. Turkey and Russia vs. Spain. All I know is that I want Iker to hold that trophy on Sunday and dedicate it to Raul.

Counting down the days....

2008-06-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

With 2 more exams to go, I am getting way too excited about what will come at the very beginning of the next month.

As I am sure you know what that is, I will skip the topic and talk about something else. Like me and school. Had 4 exams already and my grades are in descending order: fromn a 10 in the first one to a 7 in the latest one. I can't say I am over the moon with that 7, but I'm pleased that I passed. I guess I'm more delighted not to have any courses with the math teacher next year :) (at last I hope so) Of course I had to have a distraction during this exam session and that is another TV show: House, MD. Luckily I postponed LOST so my addiction was rather mild (I'm unstoppable when watching LOST...can only stop after about 6 or 7 episodes) but strong enough to prevent me from studying too much for Math. And there is the Euro 2008 too. Fortunately, my ol' lucky bastard ass didn't suffer much from that since my subject had 2 problems from the only chapter I studied thoroughly so I was able to pass without much ado.

Enough about my bad grades. I got my results for the LCCI: I got a distinction :D:D:D:D:D:D:D The news received a very warm welcome from my already bruised confidence so yay! (Although my English still under severe threat at uni. thank God for music, movies and TV shows)

The entry stops here cos I have plenty of building materials to study :) and Romania is playing the big match later on. C ya!

Rezi calling!

2008-06-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Lost in a universe of welded joints, shear forces, torques and theorems of funny-named blokes like Jurawski or Saint Venant, the two hours spent in the cinema yesterday were very appropriate for my braincells.

What did I see? A documentary about one of the legends of music: Joe Strummer. The name doesn't ring a bell? Shame on you then because he is the one and only frontman of arguably one of the most influent bands of all time: The Clash. The documentary sketched a rather accurate portrait of the great musician, covering all the stages of his eventful life using information frm his old bandmates and stars like Johnny Depp (the whole audience laughed or whistled when he came on screen haha!), Bono, Matt Dillon, Flea and Anthony Kiedis from RHCP.

Coming from a good social background (his father was a diplomat), he became very rebel as a teen and that eased his way out of the "high-life" straight into the noisy world of punk. His band was quite similar to the Sex Pistols in the beginning but then went on to evolve into a multi-genre group, leaving noisy riffs and hateful screams for musically complex and political-focused songs. Actually, that's the main difference between the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Both dubbed as pioneers of punk, The Clash could actually play and were more than a bunch of angry lads with guitars and drugs. Sure, they were junkies, they were angry, but they had a message, a very left-wing one. They brought about a "Rock Revolution" which changed the face of music forever and their attitude left a footprint in the hearts of many like-minded young (and not only) people.

But now I have to stop worshipping this legendary guy as I have a secret meeting in the basement of my brain with Navier, Jurawski, Poisson, Bernoulli and Saint Venant. Ah, and Cauchy.

The Story continues....

2008-05-30T04:30:00.000-07:00

...with the 2nd exam session of my life. Yes, another period of time filled with stress, this time studying for more interesting, yet much harder subjects.

Just a few hours ago I finished with the crappiest subject ever: Computer Programming. If you're a Computer sciences student then great for you, it's the perfect subject, but I DON'T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT IT! I am a damn Civil Engineering student, why should I care about Fortran?? But luckily for me, I was pretty ok at the exam so I expect to pass, yay!

Next up: Strength of Materials. Also known as "Rezi" (from Rezistenta materialelor), this is a rather nice subject, with quite a lot of applicability and the professors (both lecture and tutorial)were really lovely. However, it is very very difficult because there is a shitload of information and a lot of formulae we have to know. This is why this weekend is completely dedicated to preparing for this exam. Wish me luck!

Other exams are Advanced Math (annoying teacher => crap subject), Mechanics (never to be underestimated), Buliding Materials II (it's a friggin oral examination with a professor who barely speaks English!! My dad has better knowledge of English than him!) and last but not least Descriptive Geometry, probably my favorite subject of this first uni year.

Enough exam talk becaaaaaaaaaaaaaause.....after the exam session ends.....W-E-R-C-H-T-E-R!!!!! I'm getting waaaay to excited again and it's not good to think about Werchter instead of exams :P

So let me stop my excitement by ending this post and promising to come back soon with something about TIFF (Transylvania Internaional Film Festival) and the Euro 2008.

Pure Perfection

2008-04-25T12:05:00.001-07:00

I've been messing around on youtube recently watching live performances of my favorite bands. And I came to a conclusion regarding my favorites and I will embed the videos that have convinced me.

5) Interpol

Despite the facts that they have been labeled as "boring" live due to their lack of communication with the crowd, I think they're incredible. They are the close to perfection! Carlos is one of the best bassist in the universe and I'm not complaining about the other members either. This song is taken from their first album "Turn On The Bright Lights" and the performance is mind-blowing.

Interpol - The New @ La Route Du Rock (2001)

4) Franz Ferdinand
Another strong bass sound, another favorite. Franz Ferdinand have a very retro feeling about them and that is beautifully transferred in their live act. Fast tempos, smart lyrics, striped shirts, that's what they are about. Here they are playing my top 2 Franz songs on Jools Holland's show.

Franz Ferdinand - Darts of Pleasure/Take Me Out @Jools Holland (2003)

3) Arctic Monkeys
England's best export of the last couple of years, the Monkeys are the prototype indie band. Young and restless, the four guys get the crowd going with their dancy riffs. A breath of fresh air in the humorless music industry, this video presents one of my favorite AM songs which has a few pace changes, from fast and noisy drums to melodic guitars and of course, Alex' droolworthy accent.

Arctic Monkeys - A Certain Romance @ Glastonbury 2007

2) Radiohead
Probably the best band in the world. Every single live song of them is amazing so I had a very very hard time to choose. I prefer Idioteque in their concerts, but I linked one in my blog a few months ago so here's their most commercially successful song.

Radiohead - Creep @ Summer Sonic in Japan (2003)

1) Muse
Okay, so maybe I'm biased because this is the only band in this top 5 that I have seen live myself. But Muse simply gobsmack me with their thrilling mixture of piano and guitar. They release so much energy with their powerful songs that they definitely take you out of this world. Sheer brilliance. Here's my favorite Muse song with a Jimi Hendrix guitar riff improvisation at the end.

Muse - Stockholm Syndrome @Wembley 2007

Football & music = love

2008-04-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

After a lovely weekend at a very cool touristic complex in Bran, I am back home in time for my fav footie team's match. Since the rights for La Liga belong to Boom TV, the crappiest digital TV provider, who I hope will go bankrupt and make a good deed for humanity by giving up the rights for Spain's and Italy's championships, I had to follow it on livescore.com . Good news, they won 1-0 at home with Murcia after Wesley Sneijder's n-th goal this season. I think he is the best player they bought this summer. Scores from any position, gives brilliant passes and is very fast. Metzelder, Pepe, Heinze and Saviola are all kinda crap and Drenthe and Robben have been rather mediocre, so he's by far the one who was worth the money.
And now they're 9 points clear of Barcelona who drew away 2-2 with Recreativo Huelva. Speaking of Barca, how can a goalkeeper like Victor Valdes be considered a good keeper? He's a disaster, just look at Recre's last goal! DISASTER! And I'm not saying cos I hate Barca, it's because Valdes is simpy the crappiest Spanish keeper who has played for the national team. They are very lucky to still be in Champions League, thanks to their cakewalk draws. Hpefully, Manchester Utd. will do everyone a favour and put them in their misery. I admit Real were an embarrassment to football in their confrontation with Roma, but they are more than decent in La Liga. So I hope for a 2nd title in a row for them, as well as a Liverpool-Man Utd. final of UCL.

And now to the 2nd part of this entry: music! Of course, it is about Werchter :)). The full line-up has been announced and here it is: (in alphabetical order, the ones in bold are most important)

2manyDJS, Adele, Air Traffic, Babyshambles, Band Of Horses, Beck, Ben Folds, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Chris Cornell, The Cool Kids, Counting Crows, dEUS, Devotchka, Digitalism, Donavon Frankenreiter, Duffy, Editors, Galactic, Gnarls Barkley, Gossip, Grinderman, Hercules And Love Affair, Hot Chip, Jay-Z, John Butler Trio, Justice, Kaiser Chiefs, Kate Nash, Kings Of Leon, KT Tunstall, Lenny Kravitz, Mark Ronson, MGMT, Mika, Moby, Modern Skirts, Monza, Neil Young, Nightwish, Panic At The Disco, Patrick Watson, R.E.M., The Raconteurs, Radiohead, Roisin Murphy, Sigur Ros, Slayer, Soulwax, The Hives, The Kooks, The National, The Verve, The Whigs, The Black Box Revelation, The Chemical Brothers, Tim Vanhamel, Underworld, Vampire Weekend, Zita Swoon.

Ah well, a lot of names. Some of them mean nothing to me, but others are bands I never dreamt of seeing live. I just can't wait for these long months to end.
Today's Jukebox song is Vampire Weekend - A-Punk

March Madness

2008-03-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

More Like Lost Madness in my case :)))
In a whirlwind of diagrams, ODEs, Michenix and Descriptive Geometry (which sums up the first quarter of 2008 for me) I took up watching LOST since Grey's Anatomy is on a hiatus until April 26th and I am totally addicted. Just finished season 1 and I heard it only gets better. So anyone who wants to start watching a TV series check out Lost, it rules. Addictive plot, interesting characters, well-chosen cast and unexpected events are packed in each 40 minute episode. I love it.
Apart from becoming a Lost-junkie, I've discovered a brilliant website!!!!!! If you like quality music, THIS is the place to be! Crapload of albums, singles, compilations available for download. Needless to say that my PC works like shit cos it's full of "freshly-cut" music.
I'll be back tomorrow for another entry because I am quite tired. PE classes take the life out of me! I've never been the energetic-active-sporty person and this guy/his daughter (they take turns) treats us like we're in the friggin' military! And I played basketball today...and scored! Ha! It's not April Fool's Day yet so you have to believe me, no matter how impossible that sounds :))

As for the traditional , I chose a band I haven't made up my mind if I like or not. Some songs are kinda...uhm...boyband-ish? But they have a killer accent and that makes up for it. And some songs are plain cute. Gotta listen to their albums better to decide. But this song, She Moves In Her Own Way is lovely. Cute. And awesome English accent. <3

Rock Werchter, here I come!

2008-03-04T01:32:00.000-08:00

Hurraaay!!!!
I have my tickets for the 2008 edition of the Rock Werchter festival in Belgium! What does that mean? Well it's 4 amazing days filled with brilliant music and loads of fun! I read many reviews from last year (they had a fabulous line-up then) and I am convinced that this is the place to be!
Yeah, there still are 4 months, 1 LCCI exam and 1 exam session until Werchter but right now, my excitement is out of control.
Just to give you an idea of who I will see, I will mention the most interesting bands that have confirmed their place so far: Radiohead (!!!!), The Verve (!!!), Lenny Kravitz, R.E.M, Air Traffic, The National, Babyshambles, Sigur Ros, Chemical Brothers, Kings Of Leon, The Hives, Kaiser Chiefs, The Kooks and dEUS! More will be announced soon!
OK, let me calm down :P.

Putting this great news aside, let me tell you that uni has started and it looks a bit better than the 1st semester. We have some new, interesting subjects which make up for the load of crap we had in the previous one. Of course, annoying teachers are still on the list, but hey, you can't have it all. The schedule is better too, with a free Tuesday and labs & tutorials concentrated in two days, leaving the other two days for the lectures. Oh and by the way, who the hell invented 3-hour lectures?! They are soul-draining and brain-damaging!

And now to finish on a musical note, I will reward you with two live perfomances: Air Traffic, a band I found last week and have been listening to ever since, and Interpol, my current favorite band.
Air Traffic - Charlotte (really catchy song)
Interpol - Pioneer To The Falls (Carlos is a brilliant bassist, Sam is an amazing drummer, Daniel is a wonderful guitarist and Paul is awesome; this is for Andreea :* )

The End Of An Era

2008-02-19T00:36:00.000-08:00

It's official. After more than 49 years as a president, Fidel Castro has now retired. Old and ill, he decided to give the power to his younger brother Raul. Here's the article:

By Anthony Boadle 19 minutes ago

HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday that he will not return to lead the country as president, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution.
Castro, 81, said in a statement to the country that he would not seek a new presidential term when the National Assembly meets on February 24.
"To my dear compatriots, who gave me the immense honor in recent days of electing me a member of parliament ... I communicate to you that I will not aspire to or accept -- I repeat not aspire to or accept -- the positions of President of Council of State and Commander in Chief," Castro said in the statement published on the Web site of the Communist Party's Granma newspaper.
The National Assembly or legislature is expected to nominate his brother and designated successor Raul Castro, 76, as president in place of Castro, who has not appeared in public for almost 19 months after being stricken by an undisclosed illness.
His retirement drew the curtain on a political career that spanned the Cold War and survived U.S. enmity, CIA assassination attempts and the demise of Soviet Communism.
A charismatic leader famous for his long speeches delivered in his green military fatigues, Castro is admired in the Third World for standing up to the United States but considered by his opponents a tyrant who suppressed freedom.
His illness and departure from Cuba's helm have raised doubts about the future of the Western Hemisphere's only communist state.
The bearded leader who took power in an armed uprising against a U.S.-backed dictator in 1959 had temporarily ceded power to his younger brother after he underwent emergency surgery to stop intestinal bleeding in mid-2006.
Castro has only been seen in pictures since then, looking gaunt and frail, though his health improved enough a year ago to allow him to keep in the public mind writing reams of articles published by Cuba's state press.
Castro could remain politically influential as first secretary of the ruling Communist Party and elder statesman.
Raul Castro, Cuba's long-standing defense minister, has run the country since July 31, 2006 as acting president. He has raised expectations of economic reforms to improve the daily lot of Cubans, but has yet to deliver.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle, Editing by Eric Walsh)

Cuba Libre, exams, Interpol and weaved black&white shoe-laces

2008-02-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

Hello hello!
Long time, no sign of life!
My first exam session has ended successfully and I have a few remarks about it (which apply to me, I don't know about others)
1. Being a lazy-ass might not be the best solution: the day before the exam can be so stressful that you become the most irritable person in the world and everyone (including the little creatures in the dust particles) will avoid you like the plague.
2. Learning during the semester sounds geeky and ass-kissing, but at least reading the lectures once a week is useful. At least you know the titles and what to expect when you actually study.
3. The exam session is not exactly the grim reaper. it's more like 80% sleeping late in the mornings, watching TV and browsing the net (=time-wasting) and 20% studying and freaking out.

The best celebration of my maiden exam session's death had to include some Spanish-named, exotic beverages like tequila and Cuba Libre as well as incognito conversations with funny-looking folks on the bus :)) All's well when it ends well as a bloke from medieval England used to say.

Also, I discovered my passion for shoe-lacing styles and I weaved the white laces of my white Globes with some black laces and now they look sorta like a chessboard. Needless to say that they get stared at like they're the 8th wonder of the world. Not that I mind too much :P. (I had to explain the reason they're in the title ;) )

I would have TONS of songs that deserve a spot in this entry as I've been listening to a lot of music lately, but Interpol wins it. I had a hard time choosing between "Mammoth" and "Evil" but as the latter is my fav Interpol song ever, it came out victorious :P So here it is: Interpol - Evil

Rosemary
Heaven restores you in life
Coming with me
Through the aging, the fearing, the strife
It's the smiling on the package
It's the faces in the sand
It's the thought that moves you upwards
Embracing me with two hands
Right will take you places
Yeah maybe to the beach
When your friends they do come crying
Tell them now your pleasure's set up on slow-release

Hey wait
Great smile
sensitive to faith not
Denial
But hey who's on trial?

It took a life spent with no cellmate
The long way back
Sandy, why can't we look the other way?

we speaks about travel
Yeah, we think about the land
We smart like all peoples
Feeling real tan
I could take you places
Do you need a new man?
Wipe the pollen from the faces
Make revision to a dream while you wait in the van

Hey wait
Great smile
sensitive to faith not
Denial
But hey who's on trial?

It took a life spent with no cellmate
To find the long way back
Sandy, why can't we look the other way?
You're weightless, you are exotic
You need something for which to care
Sandy, why can't we look the other way?

Leave some shards under the belly
Lay some grease inside my hand
It's a sentimental jury
And the makings of a good plan
You've come to love me lightly
Yeah you've come to hold me tight
Is this motion everlasting
Or do shutters pass in the night?

Rosemary
Oh heaven restores you in life
I spent a lifespan with no cellmate
The long way back
Sandy, why can't we look the other way?
You're weightless, semi-erotic
You need someone to take you there
Sandy, why can't we look the other way?
Why can't we just play the other game?
Why can't we just look the other way?

Paranoid Hyperboloid!!!!!!

2008-01-31T13:06:00.000-08:00

Verrrrrrrry paranoid!!!!! Oh myyyyy, I have an oral exam in Algebra in about 10 hours and I am sooo unprepared that I am ashamed of myself. I know the first couple of chapter but then differential geometry just kills me!! I love Calculus, but I've always been slower at Geometry, so this is freaky!!!!!! And from the other group, only 10 out of 30 people passed, so that's really encouraging :)))
OK, I should go back to study some more of this utter crap. Although I'm pretty sure that this is the exam I'll fail. Reading back a few posts, I was saying that I'm not too worried about this one....completely wrong! Wrong to the core!
I'll check in tomorrow to say whether I've passed or failed. But believe me, I'm in for a total humiliation. Wish me luck! Or whatever there is left to wish :-s

Exo-Politics

2008-01-16T00:09:00.000-08:00

Well, hello there!
I am finally studying (2 days before the exams haha!) but I had to take a break and check out the news on the Internet.
And, guess what! There's news about Fidel Castro! Yay! And he's still alive! Here's the article -> Fidel Castro
He's an old chap and despite claims that he's "as healthy as ever" it's pretty obvious that he's far from being healthy. In my opinion, he looks more like a ghost in those photos. But at least he's still alive and kicking! Or at least his brother is. And the great news is that they prove that the wold doesn't give a crap about the US embargo and still want to drill for the Cuban oil. See that, Fidel? It would be nice if you stopped being the communist ass that you are and try and work something out for your people. Everyone expects you to. La Revolucion was over 50 years ago, no reason to act like a paranoid dictator. Which you obviously are. And you killed Che (indirectly) and jailed your comrade Huber Matos just for not buying the Marxist bullshit. Not nice of you. Too late to change? Well kinda. But Cuba deserves better.
Enough with my Fidel-babble. I'm still waiting for Ion Cristoiu to publish the book about his trip to Cuba, but in the meantime I'm intrigued by the 2008 US election. I shouldn't care about elections in another country, but this is the US, and you know how they are. You might wake up with a war declaration because some kid is accused of terrorism for watching a youtube video of Osama. And that is thanks to their wonderful president and his administration. So. Thank goodness that the Devil (as the crazy Venezuelan socialist Hugo Chavez called him) cannot participate again. And I hope that a Democrate wins it. Be it Hillary, Obama or John Edwards, I do not care, but please US citizen, say NO to Republicans!!!!!! I mean just look at their candidates. Apart from all being pro-war, pro-torture and pro-death penalty idiots they each have a personal traits that enhance their imbecility: John McCain is a septuagenarian and is credited to be both a conservative and a liberal republican (make up your mind! it's like PD-L being both Liberal and ex-Social Democrat), Mike Huckabee (seriously! is this a name?!) says that the Guanatanamo bay atrocities are just made up by the press in order to distract from the "War Against Terror" and Mitt Romney is a Mormon. And Giuliani...well he has no chance whatsoever so he doesn't count. Enough said, right? For once in your life dear Americans, make the right damn choice! Even if your tax is 1% higher, do you really want to destroy the world?
Gah. Well I have to go to uni or I'll be late for the Calculus class.

NOTE: Yes, I do have left-wing afinities (not extreme left anyways). I know Fidel Castro has done a lot of shit along the years, but I have a soft spot for him. I am interested in Latin-American politics, especially La Revolucion, and I am certainly not one who wears a Che Guevara badge without knowing who he was and what he did. And I admire Fidel because he, unlike many dictators, is an educated person who managed to come to power after risking his life, after succeeding with a dangerous attempt to abolish Fulgencio Batista's military dictatorship. So he really worked for getting where he is, unlike others who were plain lucky. And also, it does take something more to last as a dictator for almost half a century and be able to manage with a half a century U.S embargo. As a fan of him, I say he is a communist ass, because betraying (1. sending them to a certain death; 2. locking them in jail for 20 years for having a different opinion) two of your closest and most loyal friends does make one quite an ass, right?

School's back

2008-01-07T08:39:00.000-08:00

Ah well, the holiday is over. 2 weeks is never enough, especially with the Xmas and New Year's Eve craze. Goodbye going to bed at 2 am and waking at 12, goodbye lazy days of messing around and doing nothing, welcome back hours of boredom and reading Cluj-Express or other free newspaper. Today was the day that school started and I am already counting the days to the next holiday. Which is in a month and a half, but I should mention that this month and a half is filled with exams that I'm not really looking forward too :-s.

January 8th (yes that's tomorrow): English written exam
January 15th: English oral exam
January 18th: Physics exam (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!)
January 19th: Building materials and applied chemistry exam

these are all pre-session exams. in the 4-week exam period, I have:

January 23rd: Topography (this freaks me out. actually, I have to study for it for next Thursday because it's then that she decides whether we are accepted into the examination)
February 1st: Algebra (it's an oral exam, so I'm not too stressed out. But the thing is that we should have around 200 exercises as independent work, but who da hell wastes time doing algebra exercises :))) so my count is currently 5 incomplete exercises that I did way back in October)
February 9th: Calculus (instead of going to the Davis Cup in Sibiu, I am stuck with a damned exam)
February 14th: Mechanics (now this freaks me out.)

Wish me luck!
Now apart from having to go to uni again, I have to deal with this absolutely horrible weather. It's got warm! Why???!!!!! It's freakin' JANUARY! Negative temps must come back! Ernesto, my poor snowman, is melting because it rained last night :( Global warming sucks.

I browsed around on youtube last night and found some amazing videos of Radiohead live. These guys are very close to swapping places with Placebo for my top favorite band (Muse is safe on the 2nd position). I gotta go to one of their concerts this year, it's one of my new year's resolutions. Here's a video of them performing "Idioteque" in Paris. Incredible, right?

Who's in bunker?
Who's in bunker?
Women and children first
And the children first
And the children

I'll laugh until my head comes off
I'll swallow till I burst
Until I burst
Until I

Who's in bunker?
Who's in bunker?
I have seen too much
You haven't seen enough
You haven't seen it
I'll laugh until my head comes off
Women and children first
And children first
And children

Here I'm allowed
Everything all of the time
Here I'm allowed
Everything all of the time

Ice age coming
Ice age coming
Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both
Ice age coming
Ice age coming

Throw them in the fire
Throw them in the fire
Throw them in the
We're not scaremongering
This is really happening
Happening
We're not scaremongering
This is really happening
Happening
Mobiles quirking
Mobiles chirping
Take the money and run
Take the money and run
Take the money

Here I'm allowed
Everything all of the time
Here I'm allowed
Everything all of the time
Here I'm allowed
Everything all of the time
Here I'm allowed
Everything all of the time

deaf and lost are the children

It's a new day, it'a new dawn, it's a new life....and I feel good!

2008-01-03T07:14:00.001-08:00

2008 is here! The new year means a fresh start, one I've been looking forward to in a long time! It's my 20th year of life, I can't believe I'm actually entering the 2nd decade of my life. I'm putting the teenager coat in the wardrobe, next to the child one, and I'm dressing up as a young adult now. To be honest, I'm quite excited about it, because I never considered teeny-bopping too interesting so I guess adulthood is more appealling (hopefully not appalling).
Apart from the responsibilities (which for now, I like to ignore), getting old also gives you the chance to decide for yourself and set you own goals. For 2008, I've some nice plans, especially for the summer-autumn period (which is by far the best of the year) with some music festivals in mind and then the tennis, as usual. But if any of my favorite bands decide to have a gig in Budapest or Bucharest, I'll be more than happy.
And speaking of tennis. The new season is dawning and I am really excited that the first Grand Slam of the year is coming up in less than 2 weeks. I love waking up at 3 in the morning to the sound of rackets hitting the ball...and in the past years I've witnessed some really fantastic tennis at this tournament. So dear Australian Open organizers and Eurosport, please don't show Sharapova or Justine Henin or the Williamses too much and dear Mr. Federer&Mr. Nadal please STOP winning every damn tournament. I want someone elese to win...what do you say about Safin or Djokovic? As you see, I'm not mentioning Verdasco, Simon, Baghdatis or any other bigger fave of mine because I know I'd be asking for too much. But in women's tennis I WANT Amelie Mauresmo to win...she must. She's getting old too, so she'd better get back on the winning track soon or it'll be too late.
Ah well, let me stop with the tennis babble. Song of the day is "Twenty Years" by my #1 band, Placebo.

There are twenty years to go
and twenty ways to know
who will wear who will wear the hat
There are twenty years to go
the best of all i hope
enjoy the ride
the medicine show

Thems the breaks
for we designer fakes
we need to concentrate on more than meets the eye

There are twenty years to go
the faithful and the low
the best of starts, the broken heart, the stone
There are twenty years to go
the punch drunk and the blow
the worst of starts, the mercy part, the phone

Thems the breaks
for we designer fakes
we need to concentrate on more than meets the eye

Thems the breaks
for we designer fakes
but it`s you i take 'cause you´re the truth, not I

There are twenty years to go
a golden age i know
but all will pass will end too fast, you know
There are twenty years to go
and many friends i hope
though some may hold the rose, some hold the rope

that´s the end and that´s the start of it
that´s the whole and that´s the part of i
tthat´s the high and that´s the heart of it
that´s the long and that´s the short of it
that´s the best and that´s the test in it
that´s the doubt, the doubt, the trust in it
that´s the sight and that´s the sound of it
that´s the gift and that´s the trick in it

you´re the truth,not i
you´re the truth,not i
you´re the truth,not i
you´re the truth,not i