Season Greetings from Transilvania Blues

Dear friends, / Dragi prieteni, Thanx for your Support in 2020 ! / Vă mulțumim pentru sprijin în 2020 ! Let's Bring the Blues Back Live in 2021 ! / Haideți să (re)aducem blues-ul Live în 2021 ! best wishes, / cu drag, Alin & Vlad Let There Be Blues !!! Transilvania Blues Nights & Transilvania Blues Festival

#TransilvaniaBluesFestival #transilvaniaBluesNights #aldmovieland #LetThereBeBlues #MerryXmas

RIP Leslie West

The Mountain man is gone, at 75, on Dec. 23d 2020. Alwaya someone great in music dies at or around Xmas, the angels must need new people in The BAND Above .... Leslie West was one of the gretest guitarists of rock, a true Mountain (he founded the band Mountain with Felix Pappalardi), later joined by drummer Corky Laing. Mountain played Woodstock in 1969 and disbanded in 1972, they had the hit Mississippi Queen in 1970 that i got to see live with Corky Laing in Brasov last year. Also his friend Jack Bruce, with whom he played in West Bruce and Lang, and did a great solo for Theme for an Imginary Western (see SOTD 2012 when Jack Bruce played the 2nd time Romania at Dracu la bas fest), but not mr. West :( RIP :( obit and legacy in NME here and Rolling Stone here

Colectiv (2020)

Colectiv- Ne privește pe toți*

Cu tag-ul “Ne privește pe toți “, Colectiv, documentarul lui Alexander Nanau (Lumea văzută de Ion B., Toto și surorile sale), alături de colaboratorul său Mihai Grecea, supraviețuitor al Colectivului, care filma concertul trupei Goodbye to Gravity în momentul incendiului, poate fi văzut acum în cinema (din 28 februarie). El va fi difuzat apoi pe HBO, co-producătorul filmului, canal unde impactul său va fi, după părerea mea, limitat. Drumul acestui documentar-eveniment, la propriu incendiar, după festivaluri de categoria A, Veneția, Toronto și Sundance și cu distribuție în SUA (Magnolia), nu întîmplător a primit premiul Don Quichote la Tromsø International Film Festival este unul fabulos, dar care este impactul său social la el acasă ? Am auzit deja oameni care nu vor să-l vadă, motivînd că se enervează (degeaba). Pentru că, ce s-a schimbat de atunci ? În rău, în bine ? Păi, dacă nu s-a schimbat cine e de vină ? E o vină Colectiv-ă.

Punct și de la capăt. Reiau. Colectiv e un film care trebuie văzut, așa cum trebuie să votezi. Ne privește pe toți. E o responsabilitate civică, datorie a societății civile, nu discut aici calitățile cinaematografice ci conotațiile social-politice. Filmul nu este despre evenimentul în sine, ci despre ceea ce urmat și ceea ce a declanșat, scandalul Hexipharma, odiseea lui Călin Tolontan și a ziariștilor de la Gazeta Sporturilor, cei care au început investigațiile și le-au continuat curajos, cât și ale ministrului Vlad Voiculescu. A-l vedea și comenta este o datorie față de victimele nevinovate, față de un sistem care nu funcționează și o țară care încă e într-o degringolată maximă. Ne privește pe toți, da.

* aparut in Zile si Nopti, martie 2020, intre timp Colectiv a fost propus la Oscar si se afla pe lista scurta la documentar, a primit premiul Academiei Europene de film pentru documentarul anului si e pe multe liste declarat unul din filmele cele mai bune din 2020 !!!

RIP John le Carré

John le Carré, the mastermind of classy spy novels, from the sixties up to now, died on Dec. 12 . He was 89. The spymaster novelist's real name was David Cromwell. The alstest adaptation of his work was an update of THe Little Drummer Girl, in a mini-series directed by Park Chan Wook in 2018. The author of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (The Smiley series), Russia House or The Night Manager had seen all his work on the big and small screen, starting with the Spy Who Came from the Cold (1965). His characters and intelligence univrese is an anti-James Bond one, with wit and deception instead of guns and martinis, betrayal and drama insteaad of glamour and sex. le Carré was. is and will be definetly one of the best and most infleuntial writers of the XX century. His obituary in Variety .

Tom Petty -Something Could Happen (SOTD)

Yesterday (40 years from john lennon's demise, I'm just making it a co-incidental) a new music video for an unrealeased Tom Petty song-Something Could Happen, from the album Wildflowers was out, together with a special livestream aabout his videos along the time (David Fricke from Rolling Stone moderates, Dave Edwards, directors Julian Temple Jeff Stein, Warren Fu, producer Anne-Marie Mackey and actress Lauren Cohan participate). Tom Petty died on Oct. 2 2017 and Wildflowers and the Rest is a posthomous boxset that incudes what was left out of his Wildflowers album in 1994. The heartfelt video of Something Could Happen is warmly directed by Warren Fu and starts the beautiful and delicate Lauren Cohan (Maggie from The Walking Dead series), and its basically a tribute to other iconic videos of Tom Petty, from Into the Great Wide Open to Mary Jane's Last Dance and so on. Its a very beautiful video, romantic, funny in a bittersweet way and emotional, which Tom himself would have loved. Great song too. His spirit is all over it ! I'm still psyched I got to see him live at least... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eZwCzNfNns

Zappa (2020)

* What better day to watch a documentary (THE documentary! ) about the Sheik Yerbouthi of music, mr. Frank Zappa, the father of the Mothers of Invention and so many other mismashes and musical anarchies, jokes and revolutions ?

Cos in 1993, on Dec. 4th mr Zappa died, at the a very early age of 53 :(, so it's a cool commemoration right here. 

The film is made by Alex Winter, none other than Bill in the cult movies series Bill and Tedd,  which had a third fun entry this year (Bill and Ted Face the Music), but a director and documentary fillmaker in its own right. The doc, entitled Zappa, done for Showtime, is (til now) the most comperhensive document on the life and music of FZ. Fascinating stuff, especially for those who don't know much about FZ and are willing to learn. 

Highly recommended to FZ fans, music buffs  & the rest to whom it may Con-cern  ! 

RIP Hugh Keays-Byrne

The Toe Cutter and Immortan Joe has gone to the Wastelands forever...

Hugh Keays-Byrne who played the parts in George Miller's Mad Max series died on Dec. 1st at 73.  As described in a post, an unsung hero of Australian Cinema. Keays wasn't Australian born, he moved there in 1973. Film debut as Toad in the cult film, Stone in 1974. 

Obit in The Guardian here.