duminică, 11 ianuarie 2026

RIP Bob Weir

One of the greats and Only Ones, Bobby / Bob Weir, the legendary guitarist of Grateful Dead and later on Dead & Company, Kingfish, etc, is gone at  78 (on Jan. 10th 2026). 

He survived Jerry Garcia (dead at 53 in 1995!!!) for another 31 years !!!

He was still playing last year.

Obit in Rolling Stone


Dead & Company - 08/03/25, Recorded live at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA




luni, 5 ianuarie 2026

Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne @Transilvania Blues Nights 9.01.26

 Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, THE KING OF BOOGIE-WOOGIE – premieră în România!

 9 ianuarie 2026 | ora 20:00, open doors 18:00 | Transilvania Blues Nights / Clubul Rockstadt, Brașov

event aici: 

Bilete aici:

Exclusive European Tour 2026: 

Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne vine în premieră în România pentru un concert-eveniment la Brașov, fiind recunoscut drept unul dintre cei mai importanți pianişti de blues și boogie-woogie ai lumii.

Cu o carieră ce depășește 50 de ani, Kenny a împărțit scena cu legende ale blues-ului

și rock-ului, precum Jimmy Reed, Pinetop Perkins, Johnnie Johnson, Big Joe Duskin,

Joe Louis Walker și Floyd Dixon, dar și cu artiști celebri de soul și rock, printre care Ike

Turner sau membri ai Santana și Doobie Brothers. Virtuozitatea sa la pian și vocea sa

expresivă au cucerit publicul pe patru continente, fiind apreciat de critici și fani deopotrivă.

Născut în Spokane și crescut în New Orleans, Los Angeles și San Francisco, Kenny a

început să cânte la pian la doar 13 ani, inspirat de gospel-ul tatălui său și de boogie-

woogie-ul descoperit mai târziu. Stilul său combină energia boogie-woogie, eleganța

jazz-ului, ritmul swing-ului și profunzimea blues-ului clasic, transformând fiecare concert

într-o experiență completă și memorabilă.


Duke Robillard îl descrie astfel:

“Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne is a monster piano player, imaginative

songwriter and soulful singer who captures the essence of old school blues

and boogie, while simultaneously sounding totally fresh and contemporary.”


De-a lungul carierei, Kenny a primit numeroase distincții internaționale, printre care:

� Blues Music Award 2024 – Piano Player of the Year

� Blues Blast Magazine – Piano Player of the Year 2023, 2024, 2025

� Living Blues Magazine – Most Outstanding Musician (Keyboard) 2024

� Bobby Blue Bland Lifetime Achievement Award 2023

� Boogie-Woogie Piano Hall of Fame 2017

� Juno Award 2006 – Best Blues Album

� 7 Maple Blues Awards – Piano Player of the Year

Kenny este considerat un maestru care readuce pianul în prim-planul blues-ului contemporan, combinând respectul pentru tradiție cu o energie proaspătă, care face ca fiecare piesă să sune atât clasic, cât și actual.

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Un concert-eveniment în premieră națională și la Brașov, în cadrul Transilvania Blues Nights.

B. There & Let There B. Blues!

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Un eveniment marca Transilvania Blues Nights recomandat de Rock FM și Zile și Nopți

Sponsori: BCR, ButanGas, Dräxlmaier, Tehnic Mihor, BitDatamining, Aplind

Parteneri de ospitalitate: A-Ha Bistro, Coliba Haiducilor, Brașov Old Town Apartments

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 9 ianuarie 2026 | ora 20:00, open doors 18:00 | Transilvania Blues Nights / Clubul Rockstadt, Brașov

Bilete: pre-sale 150 lei  aici/ 180 lei at the door

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https://www.facebook.com/events/1413774146817012

https://get-in.ro/eveniment/concert-kenny-blues-boss-wayne-the-king-of-boogie-woogie-clubul-rockstadt-09-ianuarie-2026/

duminică, 4 ianuarie 2026

Top 2025 albums, concerts and soundtracks

Albums:

 1. The Waterboys -The Life and Death of Dennis Hopper

nothing gets closer to this.  5 stars out of Five !

If there ever was a musical biopic this is it...



Gigs

Abroad
2.The Tiger Lilies' Macbeth- Barcelona



4 Iron Maiden  -Belfort, France
should've been The Waterboys in Porto but it was cancelled,. Went to IMAX and saw The Shining insteed..

Inland ;)
Laibach-Quantic
Curtis Salgado -Brasov Jazz and Blues



Zac Harmon -Brasov Jazz and Blues
David Ronaldo and the Dice-Brasov Jazz and Blues
John Nemeth-Brezoi
Fantastic Negrito -Brezoi
Bluesferatu redux -Bran Castle 
Vulture industries-Rockstadt
All TBF ;) esp. TBF VII- John Primer & Giles Robson, Sean Chambers,  Riccardo Grosso, Jorg Danelsien, Todd Sharpville, Eamonn Mc Cormack, Luke Winslow-King,  TRES, ', Jose Ramirez.
and how about that S.H.I.T. ? ;) 
also Bluesferatu in Bran- for the Second Year. 


Top Ten 2025 Soundtracks 
Sinners -Ludwig Goranson & VA
One Battle After Another -Jonny Greenwood
Sirat - Kangding Ray
No Other Choice- Cho Young-Wuk
Ballad of a Simple Man-Wolker Bertelmann
Highest 2 Lowest-Terence Blanchard
28 years Later -Young Fathers
Eddington -Daniel Pemberton
Play Dirty-Alan Silvestri -* way better than the film



special mention (Hans Zimmer Award of the Year ;)
F1

Top films of 2025

Tough cookie, lost count of how many films I've seen. Less than probably any year. Over 200, less than 300 ? More ? I started to put them on Letterboxed starting late October but still didn't catch up with the rest.

***

Top of the series is here and films from 2024 are again a problem, The Brutalist and The Substance should've make the 2025 list, as there still are some of 2025 which I haven't seen yet (Hamnet,-saw it,. did not like at all- Resurrection, Sound of Falling ?). Marty Supreme would make Top 5 but I've seen it in Januaray 2026. 

Top Ten  soundtracks here. 

Just caught up with Park Chan-Wook's No Other Choice that makes the list. It's limited in Romanian Cinemas now, so try to see it on the big screen, it's worthy.



Kinda disappointed with Romanian Cinema this year too. I liked Kontinental '25 and that's it. Could 've been also Jude's Dracula but he made it such an intentional mess and duration wise a whole calvary...

But disappointments of the year: the new Running Man by Edgar Wright. And the last Mission: Impossible. Hopefully...Oy...


Top 5 -alphabetically:
all that's clickable as links are my "reviews"

Eddington -Ari Aster
O agente secreto-Kleber Mendonça Filho
One Battle After Another -Paul Thomas Anderson
Sinners -Ryan Cooglar
Sirat -Oliver Laxe


Marty Supreme -also in Jan. 2026

Almost Famous ;) -also alphabetically:

Ballad of a Small Player -Edward Berger
Bugonia -Yorgos Lanthimos
Caught Stealing -Darren Aronofsky
Frankenstein -Guillermo del Toro
In the Hand of Dante -Julian Schnabel 

Nouvelle Vague -Richard Linklater
Nuremberg -James Vanderbilt
The Materialist -Kelly Reichardt
Tornado - John McLean
Train Dreams- Clint Bentley
Warfare -Alex Garland & Ray Mendoza




Nicolas Cage Award of the Year:  The Surfer  (d. by Lorcan Finnegan) 2024 !


Horror:

28 years Later-Danny Boyle 
Together -Michael Shanks
Weapons -Zach Cregger
Good Boy- Ben Leonberg
The Monkey-Osgood Perkins
Dangerous Animals -Sean Byrne
The Gorge -Scott Derrickson
The Long Walk -Francis Lawrence
The Substance -2024, Coralie Fargeat
Keeper -Osgood Perkins

Comedy:
even weaker as it is, still good fun !!!
This is Spinal Tap 2:  The End Continues by the late Rob Reiner....
Bunny -Ben Jacobsen 
an indie, punkish NY film in the best way, kinetic, quirky, funny, dark comedy, punkimprovised, irreverent. Cool punk songs too.


Documentary:

Soundtrack for a coup d'etat -2024-Johan Grimonprez
the doors -When You're Strange- - Tom DiCillo, from 2009 but remastered in Cinema limited
pink floyd at pompei -1972. Adrian Mabel, remastered in Cinema limited
Devo -2024, Chris Smith   -netflix
Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) 2025/ Questlove   -netflix


Catch-Up -Four Aces:



The Childhood of a Leader -2015 Brady Corbet

Finalmente l'alba - Saverio Costanzo -2023, on which I wrote: 

Rome and Cinecitta 1953. More like a drreamlike story, a false thriller, homage to Fellini and La Dolce Vita, Notti di Cabiria, and linked to a real muder cold case known as the Italian Black Dahlia. Interesting slow film, in the Venice Competition in 2023. Modern beat score, strange and eerie. Song Last Nite by The Stokes (2011) on the end credits. 
3 1/2 out of 5