This Sunday we had a show in Cuba, the same club here in Pitesti where we used to play a couple of months(?) ago. We really enjoyed the show, since it was our night, nobody else played, we had the liberty to play whatever we wanted, electric, drums and everything and I could say we really rocked the night. Ok, I am free to say it, argue with me on that!

So, this post is not about that night, but about a discussion that started during that night about a famous band in Romania, named Cargo, a band that we (almost) all love and appreciate. That band is one of those bands that started like 20 years ago, built a fan base thanks to a great vocal and great songs, a band that actually made a mark on my own path.

In 2003, a rumor started to spread, that the lead singer of Cargo is going to leave the band and…emigrate to Australia to work there.

Stop! WTF?!!

I remember I was really pissed off at that time and I could not understand what could possibly be the reason that could drive a great artist, well known in his country, to leave showbiz for another country where he could only work for a living…

And so he left, the band promoted the second guitar player and backup singer as the lead singer and actually he did a far better job than expected, being able to fill in for a great voice and sing the same songs, in his own way (kind of) and release new songs breaking new grounds.

So 2 days ago we were wondering what happened to Kempes (the lead singer that left for Australia). Mihai, my band mate sent us a link this morning that kind of explained what happened in the last 7 years with Kempes in Australia.

Seems that the money he made from music were not even close to enough to make a living here, he was waiting for a child to be born so he took the decision to leave Romania for Australia where he took a job as a house painter, job that he did for the last 7 years.

I could not miss the fact that he lives in Brisbane, owns 2 houses now there, 3 cars and one Harley that he has no time to ride. He stopped singing, except while driving. He provides whatever needed for his family and 2 (now) children…

He came back to Romania once, he was at a show of his old band but was not part of it.

I can’t tell you what a bitter taste I have in my mouth now while writing this. I am in my office  next to our rehearsal room, listening Cargo…

This should have not happened this way, a great voice must be allowed to sing, an artist must be allowed to grow, not be forced to work for a living…

I added here a few songs, listen them. They are in Romanian. You should do it, beyond the language barrier and appreciate a great hard and heavy voice.

End of story.

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I was telling you a few months ago about one of the most famous and loved bands in Romania, Iris, and about the lead singer, Cristi Minculescu, the most emblematic rock icon in Romania, that needed a liver transplant. His wife was the donor.

Now he is OK, last night he came back on stage in a concert that a lot of fans waited without actually knowing if it will take place or not…Last night it happened.

So I can only say: Welcome back, Cristi and Iris! Welcome back, for good!

Here’s a song of last night, Lost dream it is called, the main idea of the song is that “we all leave like a lost dream”.

On the back screen, images with Mercury, Cobain, Michael Jackson, John Bonham, John Lennon and a few Romanian artists we all loved here very much, that left this world much too soon. You can watch people hailing when their images appear on screen.

PS: in 1996 when they released this song, I was there in the crowd at the official album release concert. What a great time I had!

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We have this international music festival here, Golden Stag, which is a brand in our area. Well, it is a music festival oriented to interpretation, so I don’t give too much attention to it. However, each night there is a special guest and this year, the special guest in the final night was …the very Mr Steve Vai! Sweet!

I wanted to be there, really, but I had a very busy weekend that required my presence here. So, I watched his show on TV.

I must say that I was a bit disappointed at first because he was alone, no band, nothing, only himself, his guitar plus a backing one and 2 Legacy amps. That’s it. Ah, yes, and the backing tracks…

During the first song, I must tell you I was asking myself why did they bring him here because somehow this very festival had not the audience for his music, I was afraid of a cold response from the public. Man, I was wrong! After the first song, the public was already hot and when he started Tender surrender, I was amazed to see people reacted!

I can say I was again impressed by the strange music he makes, even if I knew the songs (well, I must admit I didn’t know the first one); Tender surrender was cool and Build the church has such a great and interesting theme, specific to Steve Vai…

The sad news for me it was that he only played 3 songs. That’s it! 3 songs! Glad I stayed home…

Now, my thoughts after this, and you be my guest and answer them if you want:

1. Why did he only play 3 songs? Could it be because the festival was not a rock one and they tried not to piss off the public?
2. Why didn’t he bring the band? Could it be because he wanted just to test the market? If I think about the 3 songs above, it may be so, testing the audience, to see if he has a public here. Hmm, but he was here in Romania before, playing a full concert…Maybe this was all he could do for the money he got…
3. Does Steve Vai ever miss a note?
4. If Steve Vai ever misses a note, can you actually tell that? I mean he could integrate it immediately into something else, I guess that you couldn’t even tell…

What’s you take on that?

By the way, here’s a piece of the show in Brasov, tonight:

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Last night I’ve seen Manowar live in Bucharest, Romania.

I am a Manowar fan since highschool, waiting to see them live and be part of their show. I’ve waited this for the last 15 years, hoping they’ll get here. Last night, it happened: Manowar was here, I was there to see them, next to a lot of people of all ages…

I was very nervous since I have waited this for a long time, it was their first time in Romania, a lot of fans waited to see them…

It was a strange feeling, something that I have never felt since a long time, people dressed with t-shirts painted with Manowar, skulls, women and weird daemons, boots, spikes, all these people happy to be there. I was hearing around me people saying hey, Metallica was here, I haven’t been there, Maiden was here, I missed it, but, man, THIS IS MANOWAR, I WOULDN’T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD!!

My thoughts exactly!

Metallica was here, Maiden, Saxon, Helloween, I wasn’t there. Even Vai, I missed that too. But I really wanted to go to see Manowar!

I planned this with Michelle, my band mate and long time school friend, he purchased the tickets to section A, right in front of the stage.

So we headed to Bucharest. Unfortunately, I realized I don’t have anyone of my old t-shirts with skulls, none, fuck, none! The meanest t-shirt I had it was one begging “Please give beer…”. Pathetic…Michelle had one with what he called a dog head with fangs. Later he came back to this and pretended it was some kind of a monster…right. We just couldn’t go to Manowar like this, so we started to look for a “mean” t-shirt. I knew a shop where they used to sell such shirts, I remember I wanted to buy one with Megadeth a couple of weeks ago, so I headed there, the shop was not there anymore…I called Costin, the lead singer, he pointed me to the mall. Right, we went there and we realized these days, “mean t-shirts” come also on pink and orange. Fuck, no!

So we got to Bucharest, reached the location, but we weren’t sure where exactly it was so while at a stop, I lowered the window to ask the guy to my left where’s the location exactly. I looked at them: nice car, “corporate” look for the driver, lady next to him dressed sharp, with large sunglasses, again “corporate” look…hmm… ok, let’s give it a try: where’s the…the guy looks at me and asks me: to Manowar you mean? I would have liked to see my facial expression, probably my jaw was somewhere on the floor…yes…we go there too!

To make a long story short, we bought t-shirts from the band stand, honestly not much to choose from, but hey, any tshirt that says Manowar will do…

At 9 PM we’ve heard the classic “Ladies and gentlemen, from the United States of America, please hail: MANOWAR!” Fuck, yeaaah! The stage exploded in lights and sound and the show started…

I must tell you I’ve felt like never before, everything was happening right there in front of my eyes, at 15 meters, Eric Adams, Joey DeMaio, Karl Logan and Donny Hamzik (as a temporary replacement for Scott Columbus).

Man, these guys rule! I know they play a role, I am not stupid, but I’ve felt great! Classic hits started to flow, it was damn loud, my langs were pounding from drum kicks and everything was there like it should be. Eric Adams is, as I have always thought, a great frontman, a great performer, he entered the role and played it the way he should.

Classic, “trademarked” high screams and low “Ha!” from his throat, gesture and facial expression, everything was great.

So we reached the 3rd song, if I well remember, Kings of metal! A classic…

In the middle of the song, right on a drum beat, everything shut down. We, the audience, not realizing what it was, continued to sing. Eric Adams was hitting the mic with his palm, the mic was dead. We realized something was wrong, they left the stage: the power was down! Fuck!

The power failure lasted like 20 minutes, moment when Joey came on stage and walking like an emperor started to question us: Did Metallica come here?! Yeaaah!! Did they have problems with not having enough power? Nooo!Maiden was here? Yeaah!Did they have problems with not having enough power? Nooo!Motorhead was here? Yeaah!(2 days ago) Again, they didn’t have power problems. But we did, because we were the loudest band int he world!!!

Yeah, OK, you fixed it well!

What happened was that a generator just exploded shutting everything down.

So they started again the same song, 3-4 lyrics and powww!!! Fuck! Come on! Not again!!

Third’s time was fine, but it was obvious they were pissed off, Eric Adams lost his nerve, his joy to sing. The song was flawless, but something was missing, they were singing like waiting for something to happen. But it didn’t! Everything went fine!

Then, he started to sing Heart of steel! Only himself and the piano. Man, I must tell you at that moment, I had a feeling I have never felt before: I was part of a wall of sound, everybody was singing, note by note, word by word. I knew every word of the song, so did the rest of the crowd. Eric Adams was happy, you could see it in his eyes, he stopped singing at a moment because the whole crowd was singing, you could see on his face that he feels good being on stage in such moments…

I can tell you at that moment I had a strange feeling, I felt (don’t laugh or smile) tears in my eyes, it was something unbelievable, effectively a wall of sound, every single voice in the audience was singing…you need to be there to understand…

For a band that was never to Romania that was huge, that was wonderful.

At one moment, Joey DeMaio remained on stage and…started to speak Romanian. Not that classic I love you Romania, but like 15 minutes of speaking Romanian! Damn, Romanian is not an easy language! I know they were telling him in his ears what to say, but this guy pronounced it word by word! For 15 minutes!

I remember at one moment a guy in front of me screamed to the stage something like, My man, you are Romanian, man!! and everybody started to laugh there. It was mad, this guy actually worked for the show here, he made his homework! Looking on the back of my tshirt, he probably had the same speech in Finland, Norway and Germany! Now, that’s a dare to learn the speech in many languages that you don’t know, for 15 minutes! I know he is Italian and probably Romanian comes easier on him, if he actually speaks Italian, but that was an effort I appreciated!

As other observations, they gave a guitar to a guy they picked from the audience and asked them to play on stage with them they played together a song, then they signed the guitar, had a couple of sexist moments inviting girls on stage and behind the stage, but OK, it’s part of the show, I understand that.

I’ve got home at 3AM, tired but happy, today my throat hurts when I speak, but I am really happy I was there, for me it meant a lot, I have waited this for 15 years and now I was there. I wish they would have played more, more hits, cutting those moments with the guitar given to the guy and the ladies, and just play a few songs more, but hey, a show’s a show!

I can tell you now I feel happy and content…

I have seen Manowar live! Now I will be waiting for Satriani, I guess…

Later edit: I have found a couple of videos from yesterday night:

and Heart of steel

PS: 2 days ago Santana played in the same festival and 3 days ago, Motorhead

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Every country has those 2-3 artists that build it’s core, that define and stay in the hearts of people no matter what.

We have such artists, and I do speak here about rock music, because this is closer to my heart than anything else. I can’t speak about theater or dance. I speak about guitars and rock music.

More than 20 years ago, while the communist party was 100% in everything around, there were a few rock bands that led the way, despite the fact that communist party leaders tried to bury them and their music. Long hair? Leather? No way…

One of these few bands is IRIS and Cristi Minculescu, the lead singer, is, I’d say, the most emblematic figure of Romanian rock music. And I do understand the meaning of these words…

The band is now more than 30 years “old”, more than 30 years of constant activity producing hit after hit, for one generation after another, going from the hard rock of 30 years ago to reinvented music that follow the time we’re living in.

Cristi Minculescu is 50 years old, as far as I know, and since a long time suffering from a chronic disease. Everybody knew it and, since 15 years, everybody could see it, since his belly kept on getting larger and larger, giving room for rumors like him having cirrhosis due to his previous wild rock life.

These last days, after a concert, Cristi started to not feel well, he went to a local hospital and then he was sent to Germany for more investigations. During a press conference doctors said he suffers from a chronic disease inherited from his father, and not cirrhosis, illness that manifests itself by producing cysts in the liver. A transplant of liver is mandatory for him and his wife, they say, will be the donor.

I am not like their biggest fan or something, I even remember telling my friends how bad Miculescu sings low notes, since his whole life he was used to scream, joking that even I can sing better some songs (joking, given my voice), but one way or another, their music marked my own musical path and no matter how many rock singers started to appear over night, none can even touch Cristi Minculescu’s stardom.

Cristi Minculescu doesn’t have the best voice around, in a classical way, he was a self made rock singer, as far as I know (and you can even tell it from his voice) , learning to sing in a period where you can barely manage to get a recording of an occidental band, so examples were too few to relate to, but one way or another he manages to transmit so much emotion in his singing that marked the life of  a lot of generations…

His vocal range allowed him to sing Zeppelin, Purple, Priest, which put him right from the start in the position of a very solicited lead singer at that moment and the life he dedicated to rock music proved he truly belongs on stage, given all the hits he and IRIS composed over time.

Now he’s in Germany, IRIS canceled their shows on the next period, waiting for a positive answer from doctors.

I can only say “get well, Cristi and come back on stage! We’re all waiting for you!”

Later edit: seems he is back in Romania, his wife will give him a part of her liver and he will be scheduled for the operation soon. Canceled shows were “un-canceled” for the moment.

Good to know!

Here are a few songs from IRIS, maybe you won’t get the words, but at least, the very fact you know IRIS exists, due to these videos, wherever you may be, makes me feel better.

Trenul fara nas (I don’t know the English word for the last word, but it’s the guy that checks tickets in the train. So it’s something like the Train without ticket master. OK, smile and tell me the word for it)

OK, you know this one, We wish you well, Coverdale. It’s in Romanian this time, IRIS and Felicia Filip, a famous Romanian soprano.

Ultimul mic dejun al lui Bon (Last breakfast of Bon Scott, as far as I know they appreciate a lot ACDC and Coverdale, see above). This song is from 96, I’ve been to the show when they released this album, they totally reinvented themselves on that album.

OK, and now one that you will also know, Lady in black, next to Uriah Heep, rerecorded. They teamed for a while here, for some recordings, this video and a few shows.

For those reasons here and for thousands others, I think I will go to the next concert IRIS will play around here, even if I have already been at quite a few. By the way, the guy is from the same city as I am. What do you know?!

By the way, how about a bit of Zeppelin, just for fun? I now realize, writing this, that IRIS is the only professional band in Romania not afraid to play covers and tribute songs on TV. No other band does it, you know…too important probably for covers? IRIS put up a whole Zeppelin show, as far as I know, Queen, Thin Lizzy, ACDC, etc…

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This weekend was one of those when I’ve totally forgotten about my computer or the internet…I was for 3 days at a hotel in the mountains, yeah, baby, yeah!

The fact is that on Saturday, my uncle celebrated his 60nt birthday so he invited us (along with other cousins of mine and relatives) to a hotel/chalet in the mountains. One of his sons, my cousin, called me and asked me if I would join him one day before the established date, to make the short holiday a little bit longer…hell, yeah, why not? A 3 days holiday is better than a 2 days one, right? So we packed everything and Friday I took my wife and we headed for the mountains, to meet my cousin a few kilometers before reaching the hotel.

The hotel is called Cumpana and it is about 15 km away from this other chalet I was speaking about here a few months ago.

So, everything there was beautiful, a great autumn sunny weather, we were near the largest lake in our area, it was right next to the hotel, the trees had some great colors, just made to be painted…

The fact was that in the whole hotel, at that moment it was only us and the administrative people so we had something like a whole mountain for us. We had a barbecue in the evening, I brought in my acoustic guitar and everything ended with singing and playing the guitar by the grill! Great evening!

The next morning everybody was there, a lot of cousins, we played a lot and I mean really a lot of pool, had a lot of fun and a lot of wine and a lot of our local alcoholic drink(again, think of something similar to Vodka or Ouzo), late in the night, my uncle lit a large camping fire that the hotel administration worked on in the morning , in a few words, a lot of fun. Again I brought my guitar by the fire, I really had a lot of fun!

The next morning I had a slight headache, but nothing to worry about, right? Quite normal before such a night. A cup of coffee, a few pool games and later we headed back to the city with recharged batteries and ready for a new week of work.

So sorry for not answering earlier to your messages and comments, I didn’t have an internet connection there, but you know what? Really I didn’t care too much about it…

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A few days ago I said I am back to blogging, since my trip is over! Well, not quite, since my long time friends called me and told me that a trip in the mountains is planned for the end of this week. Well, could I refuse my friends when it comes to a camping trip? It’s about those university friends that I’ve got drunk with so many times, spent countless hours in the mountains and partied long nights with, friends that remained my best friends through the years, so hey, I’m in, no doubt about it!!

So, Friday, since I was in holiday, I could spend my day shopping for everybody for the trip. A mad day…

Friday evening, after a long and demanding day, I took my wife, one of my friends and his wife, jumped in the car and wheee!!!

We’ve met the other 2 friends and their wives in the mountains. For me (I was driving) it was a crazy chase against time on cross mountains serpentines but at 9.15 PM we were there, found the other guys in the dark with flash lights and all we could do is install the tent at my car’s lights and drink a bottle of our local drink (think of whiskey, ouzo or vodka, to get the point) that my wife magically brought us from my father in law and fell asleep since Saturday we planned a long and demanding day!

Well, not quite, I forgot, since Friday it was my wife’s name day, my friends brought a cake with them and threw a small party for my wife while eating. I also had a bottle of champagne and some chocolate bonbons so it all ended up great!

Saturday we woke up at 6 AM, had a quick breakfast and headed for the mountains. The plan was to reach the second highest peak in Romania, called Negoiu, 2535 m high, after a 5 hours hike.

I have been there 4 years ago with the same friends, I knew the difficulty of the trip, I knew exactly what to expect, so from my point of view, because of my wife after-surgery hand condition, the target was another one: reach a lake 1.5 h away from the peak and stay there with my wife until my friends will return from the peak. I knew this from the very first moment they told me about the trip, but I wanted to go either way, even if I knew I won’t reach the peak this time.

What I can tell you about the trip UNTIL the lake (Caltun is the name) is that I totally forgot about the strong wind there. The most part of the trip was on peaks/cliffs and the wind was so strong there that we just couldn’t breath so I had to put my hand over my nose and mouth a lot of times to be able to breath properly.

The wind was so strong that was effectively blowing us off the cliff and considering the fact that on 3-4 moments we had to walk on a trail that was 30 cm wide on the very peak of the mountain, with deep falls on the left and on the right, that was quite an adventure. Also, on 3-4 moments we had to climb narrow passages on chains. Only one of the girls knew what to expect from the trail so the other 3 were just plain scared about it, but hey, once started, we needed to end the damn trip!

Until the lake we had to reach another peak, of 2390 m high that was in the way and this was quite an adventure because we had to climb it first up and then down on our way back and it was a real curse!

Once we reached the lake, me and my wife remained there, as I have planned from the very beginning, along with the wife of one of my friends who said stop, too much, I won’t risk my life further! OK, so the rest of the gang headed for the peak.

As I have previously said, I have already reached that peak 4 years ago, so it was nothing new for me to get there again, even if I felt a bit bitter for not joining my friends, but there was no way to leave my wife in the middle of nowhere at 3.5 hours away from the closest facility. The only things there were that glacial lake, a metal shelter where you can enter in case of need, a lot of heavy rocks and hikers passing. So I stayed.

What I’ve missed

To make a bit of an image of what I have missed by not going there, let me tell you a bit about my experience of 4 years ago with this peak: after climbing/hiking for another hour you get to a point called Devil’s Pass, a place that is only 2 m wide, between 2 mountains, about 40-50 m long (my personal appreciation, not measurement), made of one big rock on top of another one. In order to get on that peak you have to rely a lot on the strength of your hands and intensively use the heavy chain that is installed there.

Now, my personal experience is a bit more intense: 4 years ago I was climbing that passage with my friends, about 20 m above us there were some other guys climbing it, and suddenly somebody on top of us started to scream – Attention!!!Attention!! Falling rocks!

Fuck!I felt my blood suddenly freezing inside me seeing a rock of about 30 cm diameter falling toward us from a height of 20 m, hitting one corner of a rock, then the corner of another rock, then another rock and suddenly jumping in a totally unpredictable direction…. We didn’t know what to do, where to shelter, in what direction since the direction of the falling rock was totally unpredictable and being forced to keep the contact with the chain gave us so little options…

Above me there were one of my friends and his wife, the falling rock hit the “ground” at her feet and then flew above my head, to my right and finally somewhere down the mountain. There were only a few moments in my life when I felt my life so intense, that was one of them, when I had the impression I really faced death.

We continued our climbing, reached the peak, took pictures at a height of 2535 m and climbed down the pass fearing the event may happen again. It didn’t but we all promised to not get there again. But, well, I think that “never again” lasted for 4 years. At least for my friends…

Going back to the camp

After my friends returned from the peak totally exhausted, we started our trip back to the camp. The 2390 m peak that we had to climb down the first time, proved to be very demanding when we wanted to climb it from bottom to top on our way back. Again, the chains and the windy peaks…

I remember some girls saying that it’s more than enough, they will never get back there again risking their lives, I remember reading the text on the backpack of the buddy in front of me when climbing the passages with chains on heavy winds: “candle in the wind”! Man, what a dark and unfortunate thing to read when walking a path of 30 cm wide on chains on heavy winds!!!

The only thing we were happy about was the fact that it was sunny, because 4 years ago it was raining and we had to walk that path on fog. I remember one moment when we were on one of those passages, in the fog, we couldn’t see the valley on the left or on the right, we only saw the cloud/fog below us so we walked that 2-3 meters passage on our knees and hands, almost crawling . After the first guy passed it, he gave a long stick to the next one, in order to make a bond between us, to lead it and support it. May sound corny, but it is the truth.

The mountains where we’ve been this WE are very rocky and dry, no forest there, no tree above a certain altitude. Our water ran out on our way back so we suffered from thirst big time. That weakened us all, especially the 5 that went for the peak. One of the girls looked pretty bad, exhausted, one of the guys had to stop very often since he couldn’t walk anymore, even if he is one of the most determined guys I know and his wife walked on like a ghost, one step, then another one…

The fact is that when we reached the civilization, she got sick, she turned yellow from exhaustion and effort, she couldn’t eat or drink anything for a period of time. Well, pretty good if you consider that last time we’ve been there, 4 years ago, my wife made a crisis of gastritis because of effort and pushing herself too much, one guy and one girl suffered 2 long weeks from some stomach inflammation from drinking bad water and one guy couldn’t walk 2 weeks on one of his knee because of his knee being injured on climbing rocks.

Myself I had a pretty wild disease that was caused by some animal interaction that kept me 3 months visiting the hospitals, disease that I tend to consider as being started by the same visit in the mountains. But I can not be sure since doctors couldn’t tell what it was…

We got back to our tents late in the night after we had our dinner at a cabana where we started the trip.

Today we took it easy since everyone complained about some kind of issues: back pains, swollen feet, sun burns, stomach aches, etc. Myself I am OK, if I don’t consider the fact that my face is burning because of the sun and that I have a red stripe on my right foot between where my boot ended and where my pants started…well…

We started a barbecue (planned and long waited), had a couple of beers and headed back home since tomorrow my holiday will be over.

And I guess tomorrow I will be blogging again about guitars since I’ve got my guitar back and it works fine!!

And to make an impression about the Devil’s Pass, here’s a small movie that somebody took there. Not us, but it shows you what I am speaking about.

What do you think?

PS: By the way, the trip was in the same area I have written about here , with the same friends. In this area there are the 2 highest peaks in Romania, Moldoveanu and Negoiu, I have conquered both, plus the 3rd, Vistea Mare, plus another one called Omu (The Man) which is in another mountains but very famous.

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Hello again, my dear online friends! I am back from my sunny holiday and back to my computer! I must admit I don’t know if I will find it easy to come back to the same rhythm as before since sun, sand, water and beer can really take you out of writing shape! I will probably need a few days to come back to the same rhythm as before. So…

I had a very relaxing holiday, a lot of days spent without doing anything else than relaxing, drinking beer on the beach, swimming and meeting friends (we’ve met 2 of my cousins who also spent their holiday there so we had company for a lot of days and a lot of beers)

At one moment we decided to cross the border and take a trip to Bulgaria, a bit fearful, to be honest since Bulgarian police has not the best reputation around. I payed extra attention to traffic signs and speed limits and it was OK. We spent one full day at their Golden Sands resort where prices were the same as in Romania. only that there were a lot of foreigners, a lot of Italians IMO, the beach was tidier and more animated.

In one word, I like it there and decided to go back for a full holiday at one moment. However, 2 observations from Bulgaria:

• They have no alcohol free beer!! What?!! 3 different bartenders looked at me lost when I asked for alcohol free beer. No, we have not such thing. And what do you drink when you drive? Well, water, juice, alcohol free cocktails. Reasonable…but where’s my beer?!! One of the girls serving cocktails on the beach told me she remembers she saw alcohol free beer in stores a couple of years ago…hmm. We have about 4-5 sorts of alcohol free beer that come to my mind this very moment!
• Their traffic signs are absolutely horrible! For ex: you get to a point where the speed limit is 20km/h because a particular situation there, a dangerous turn or something. OK, then the turn is over and I find myself in front of a clear European road where the limit would be 90km/h, but there was no sign that the 20km/h speed limit is over!! I told you I payed attention to those signs, OK?!! WTF!?!! This situation was very frequent in Bulgaria and it was very annoying since I was trying to avoid being stopped by their police! So I decided to apply a different rule there: I try to guess the reason for the speed limit (like that curve) and once the reason is gone, I drive with the theoretical speed limit for that part of the road. Pretty wild but I managed to get home safely, without breaking too many rules there, beside a few red lights…whatever…

When coming back in the evening, I had to admit that we(Romanians) should be a bit more careful with cleaning our beaches, but hey, that’s the Latin spirit I guess, compared to Slavic spirit of our neighbors. As for the rest, if I compare the wild cars I have seen in Mamaia(Romania), I have never seen them anywhere else. My brother in law was absolutely crazy when he saw some latest moment cars, like BMW X6 or latest Mercedes or Aston Martin. Well, nobody said there are no rich people in Romania, right? We could also judge by the yachts, if we think about, we visited the marina in the last day there, for fun.

At the end of this trip, I just want to make a few notes regarding my blog here:

• A big thanks to IG for his great post about seeking guitar teachers that got quite a few good page views while I was away! Thanks, man! I owe you one!
• My traffic was steady at around 550 visitors per day in the last 3 weeks and my RSS subscribers increased while I was away, so I should probably go more often in holidays, my traffic would probably increase!! I will leave again at the end of this week in the mountains for a few days so please, please subscribe to my RSS feeds!!
• Guys, comment on this post here about Willie Nelson, to enter the drawing for the free collection of 4 CDs of Willie Nelson’s career! It doesn’t hurt and it is free! Really!

That’s about it for today, a pretty long post but hey, the man is back to business!! So stay close!

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I’ve just sent my newly purchased Variax guitar to the company that sold it to me for fixing it since I couldn’t make it start again since that single hour of playing/testing it. I  expect it to return in perfect condition, in a couple of days, ready to rock!

On the other hand tonight I will leave for one week to the seaside where I am going to stay away from everything that means work. Well, not everything since I will take my laptop with me for reading emails and maybe answering a few comments here and hopefully I will be able to post once in a while an article or two, when time (OK, my wife) will allow me get close to my computer!!!

So, I don’t know how well I will be able to keep the rhythm of posting new articles, but hey, everybody needs rest once in a while! And I hope by the end of my one week holiday my guitar will be ready and willing…

And since the weekend is here and I will not be present to entertain you, please take a bit of time to enter the competition for winning the most recent 4 CDs collection of Willie Nelson, One Hell of A Ride, read again the article that generated the highest number of visitors in one day and ever on this site, the funny top 10 list for a successful power metal band, read the article and watch the movie that generated the highest number of Diggs, over 100 diggs WITHOUT REACHING THE FIRST PAGE ON DIGG!!! By the way, why don’t you digg it, maybe a few diggs more could make it move even if so much passed since that moment!

And also, why don’t you read my reports on how my site traffic went so far. Here’s the 5th report since I couldn’t manage to write the 6th and last report (but I promise I will one of those days). This 5th report will lead you to the rest of the reports too.

By the way, the picture in this post is from Mamaia resort, here in Romania where I am heading to this very night, the most expensive resort on Romanian seaside where rich people pay up to $15.000 for a bottle of champagne at whild night parties…Don’t ask…

So without any more words, I wish myself a happy holiday and a lot of sun and good weather! Thank you!

Talk to you again from the seaside later! Bye!

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Yesterday a Carrefour hypermarket was launched in my city and of course, my wife just needed to be there, the same way she had to be there for the other 4-5 hypermarkets when they were launched. Of course, me and a friend of mine (his wife was there with mine) were angry like hell, we didn’t have where to park, I have never seen so many cars in one single place, cars parked on the sides of the highway, in curve, on every possible exit. At one moment, my friend had to stop and turn back because his car was too large to go on one street that had cars parked on the sides…Imagine that.

Now, in the middle of this parking hell, there was that stage installed where our local Shakin’ Stevens played his nationwide hits!No kiddin’, we have our own local Shakin’ Stevens the same way we have all kind of worldwide bands adapted to our local cultural environment.

I don’t speak about impersonators, no, I speak about artists that build their image taking as a model one artist or another from the “western” culture. It is very interesting to see how a musical market that started virtually with no “new” artist develops day by day by adding new “modeled” artists.

It is interesting because there is still room. You can look around, see what is not covered in Romania and build a new artist by a template borrowed from western markets. Why not, if it works and brings money? Plus that it kind of gives you a direction, a niche, your own place on this already crowded artistic world, right? Well, it is not that frequent anymore, at artist level, but at song level, I am still amused when I realize one song or another are composed to match some western artist style or sound…

I guess this process is very common on markets that are not yet well developed. As one of my band mates and long time friend, used to say, when a company does not know what to do, copies an other one. It works well in music too.

Well, don’t get me wrong, as any other “consumer”, I fall for this too, I like this guy’s music. His name is Stefan Banica Jr. He sings, dances, plays guitar and piano, but first he is a respected actor, a very known one here, he has a huge visibility, also due to his late father who was a very respected actor long before his son came to being, plus that he is the moderator of “So you think you can dance” franchised show here!

I was amused at first when I have seen his glowing stage outfits, seemed so aged to me(the costumes, not him, since he is around 40 yo),  but after a short while I realized it is part of a bigger image. He gathered around him great musicians, one of the best guitar players in Romania, Nicu Patoi, a big band, with trumpets and stuff…Whatever. Every year he has this big Christmas concert where women go nuts for him. And yes, he makes a lot of money, he is one of the best sold artists here. And he produces hits, which is always a desirable thing.

I am actually curious, did you observe in your corner of the world this kind of “modeled” development of the local music market?

Anyway, here’s one of the hits our local rock’n'roll artist used to break the hearts of so many women here…

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