Another trip to Udine – this time to see alternative rockers Coldplay (article at Delo.si). To be honest, I expected a lot from the guys. Being a world famous band that existed for a while now, I thought they’ll make a good show – a spectacle in a sense. Well, I was disappointed.

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As is custom, I would like to add my wishes and thoughts. I would like to wish you happiness, health, success but most of that, which you want and need the most. I wish you find those little moments of happiness, the moments that define our lives, and spend them with people who you care most about. Of course, I also wish you a new year full of such moments and full of the same people you care about. So again, have a happy new year. And many more!

The year 2007 is coming to an end. For me personally, the year was full of things I’ll want to remember for ever. It was full of moments that I want to keep and treasure. Unfortunately there were some events I would have changed, but none that I regret.

After doing some thinking on how I can describe the moments that meant the most to me, I decided on putting together a collage of pictures representing people, events, and memories of these moments. Each picture in the collage has a special meaning to me, and something nice related to it!

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all of my friends who lived the year with me. And all of you guys who keep reading my blog. Here’s to hoping many more years will come.

After a fairly hectic week I finally have some time to post a couple of pics from bruc 07.

The whole thing was divided onto three stages, but I avoided the dance/techno one for trying to avoid an ever larger headache than I already had. On two other stages, we were able to see the performances of Superlizo, Intimn Frizurn, Zmelkoow, Klemen Klemen, Leeloojamais, Big Foot Mama, Mosaic, McLaren, Rock Partyzani, Tide, The Beet Fleet and Jan Plestenjak. I’ve seen most of them before, for example McLaren (I was pretty impressed the last time I heard them), Tide (Iron Maiden concert, but no photos), Jan Plestenjak (1,2,3), Big foot Mama, Klemen Klemen and Leeloojamais.

The only thing I was really unimpressed with, were Leloojamais. I’m sorry, the new singer just doesn’t do it for me. She doesn’t have a good voice, and that’s that. It doesn’t fit the music… I’m sorry, but that’s how I think. I’m sure Mih@, who was also there, would disagree though ;-). But that’s cool, as long as you can argument everything reasonably (i.e. our Mac & Vista/Windows debate, right Miha?).

Anyway, a couple of pictures.

Tomorrow, I’m posting Jan Plestenjak and “his” panties so stay tuned.

Following up to my post from Šentvid’s Krst 2007, I’ve decided to remove two images. Please note that I was not forced to remove them, but I was asked if I could consider removing them.

Where is the problem? Why censorship?
Well you see, the pictures that are problematic, depict a girl carrying a weapon in a school. This girl is not associated with the show (even though the show was of an “army squad” there were no guns, plastic or other kind allowed!!!!), worse even, she appears to be first year. For obvious reasons, I am STRONGLY OPPOSED to any violence in schools, and I think that with people getting killed or beaten outside of clubs, shootings in schools and anywhere else for that matter, are the last thing we need. Therefore, I would lke to apologize for not noticing immediately, and making this decision sooner.

In trying to rectify the situation, I hope that the people whos job it is to find out who and why had the gun, will discover that it was all a joke. And when they do, I will be the first to pos that explanation here. But until then, why can’t we just bloody get along?

Anyway, I hope you guys won’t mind the censorship. Or will you?

As promised in my Mark Knopfler review I’ve also revied the Nightwish album. Their latest creation is called Dark Passion Play. I really like the album cover, and the whole artwork of the CD. The CDs are lined with a tribal decoration. As with Mark’s Kill to get crimson, I bought the special edition :-). This one contains another CD with instrumental versions of all the songs. This is an interesting idea and one that proves that Nightwish is a symphonic metal band.

In fact, all of the thirteen songs rely heavily on the melody and instruments. Most of them have some addition of an orchestra in them.

My overall opinion is that the songs are powerfull, but the vocal lines were written for Tarja and the new singer Anette struggles a bit. However, the songs are still very good. They are fresh enough to not remind me of anything they’ve previously done, but “old” enough to immediately recognize the style. One noticable change however is the obvious “return” to a harder flavor of songs reminiscent of

My favorite song on the album is Cadence of her last breath. It’s one song where Anette’s vocals just may be powerfull enough.

So, basically, to me, it’s a 5/5. I like the album, I like the songs. I can hardly wait to see them live next year (4.3.2008!). I missed them last time, and I regret that.

Yeey, it’s here, it’s here. Some of you already know, but most do not, that Mark Knopfler is one of my idols. His guitar playing inspired me to pick up the guitar, and his music, khm, lit up the room several times at key moments :-).

So, after having seen his concert two years ago (Shangri-La tour, 2005) I was excited to hear the new material he has prepared.

Well, after having listened to it, I’m sad to say I’m a little bit disapointed. The mastery of the album an the quality of the music is supreme. The songs are Knopfleresque. They somewhat remind me of the Shangri-La album, and yet it’s a big departure from Golden Heart (my favorite).

Here’s what the Rolling Stone says:

Kill to Get Crimson, then, is at once egoless and supremely accomplished, a testament to the rare talent that enables a master to say something simply and beautifully, and leave it exactly at that.

And I would have to agree. The way Mark tells a story with his songs is these days, very rare. One interesting song to me, is Punish the monkey. It talks about being hung out to dry at work, when something is going wrong :-). The deep meaning IMHO is about how the little guy always gets it bad: “somebody’s gonna take the fault, there’s your quid pro quo“.

All in all, I wasn’t sure what to expect from an artists who continues to evolve. Maybe I wanted something more like Golden Heart… My personal opinion would be 4/5 stars, bascially, if you’re a fan of Knopfler, Dire Straits, or quality, soothing music, go and buy it.

Image Courtesy of Mark Knopfler News.

Oh yeah, so I can still call this a photo blog, I pulled this one out from my archive. This was taken with my first digital camera, the Sony DSC-P72. I only took it with me to record Brothers in arms, and I did :-). Anyway, on the picture, from left to right, Mark Knopfler, Richard Benett and Guy Fletcher.

Tomorrow I’ll post a review of the other CD I bought, Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play which is (also) interesting because they have a new lead singer!

What do you think about me posting reviews like this? Do you think it’s OK or should I stick with photos and shut up?

I alway keep an eye on my reports for Delo.si, I want to see what goes on through the mind of the readers. The last one, from Tivoli (Dj Umek), is an interesting one, and one that clearly displays the inability of some people to understand the variability that is the human race.

It all started with the comment from “neandretalec”, who’s name is more than fitting. He discarded the effort of some people as being a “drug dealing party”. He put all of the people who were there in the same basket, as drug dealers/users.

But what I find most interesting is the writing of “Dr. prof. Miš”. For an educated man, I would expect his reasoning be a bit better, and his arguments a bit more substantiated. He tried to argue with almost everybody on the forum that young people should study 24h/day to “become something great”. This is what fails to impress me:

 - What is the definition of great? I personally feel one becomes “something great” when they achieve what they set out to achieve. If I want to be a photographer instead of a professor does that make me any less educated? How about a software architect?

- Why would somebody devote their entire life to one thing only? It’s nice to have a goal (or multiple goals) in life. I think it’s more than acceptable to work for these goals. What I do not believe in, is the need to pre-script these goals as one and the same for all human beins; some people would like to believe that having an academic profession is what is needed to become great (read above point again), but… I’ve met a lot of people with extremely high education, and with extremely huge achievements in life (I would argue every day that even Dr. prof Miš can hide from them), and yet when we went out for a beer, they forgot all about it, they relaxed. We talked about things totally unrelated to the “business matter” for which we were there (particle physics and control systems). This leads me to my next point:

- What is education? Ok, sure, the technical term education is when you recieve your degree, your masters, bachlers, or whatever title you wish. In some countries, like Germany, this is a status symbol, they actually have it printed on their credit cards. Yet during my time in Germany (I worked as an intern in the DESY institute), we also had totally unrelated conversations with these people, about a cheese cake, about coffee, about music — heck, half of the building I worked for helped me find a fliss german sheppard for my girlfriend, and keep in mind these are scientists! That is, in my opinion, education. Not being able to find a fliss german sheppard :), but to be able to see more to life than a book, and a title. To be able to see the grass grow is the expression, I think. More importantly, to be open about things that are unrelated to your field of work. I’m a photograher (or I want to be one), and yet my life does not revolve only around it. There are things I learn about in one field that help me in another field (physics vs. computer science anyone?)¹. This also means to be able being tolerable of people who are different than you. Obviously, when you work, you work; but why work 24/7? 

 Ok, this covers Dr. prof. Miš. There was another person who commented that instead of destroying the grass in Tivoli, they should destroy something less valuable, like the grass in the stadium. What gives you the right to decided what is more valuable? For the football players, the grass in the stadium is life. For the Iron Maiden concert, when the stage was set on the grass directly, I’ve heard a lot of complaints of how it ruined the green… The definition of value is again something that is very subjective. I think Tivoli was picked for a particular reason — to show Ljubljana’s support to events like these. There is however one valid point (in my opinion), Simobil - Vodafone should be responsible for cleaning up the mess. Just the same as the organizers of Iron Maiden were responsible to clean up the stadium after the concert.

 I’d like to wrap things up by adding that I listen to rock primarily. I also make rock music when I’m playing guitar and composing. Does that make me inferior person, compared to the people who listen to opera? But, I also listen to classic compositions, does that make me superior and inferior to myselft at the same time? Something doesn’t make sense to me here… I was at the show, and although I normally don’t listen to electronic music, I got a CD there, and I’m playing it at home. Does that make me a drug addict? I was on water the whole night long. I rarely drink alcohol (a beer here or there), and I don’t smoke, let alone take drugs of any kind. What gives these people the right to judge me purely by my personal taste of music? It’s the same with goths… I bring this up to relate to the concert of Marilyn Manson in Križanke. Križanke is a venue which symbolizes culture IMHO, and yet these controversial shock-rocker had a show there. Are all the people who were there, devil worshipers and drug abusers?

And even though I though I was wrapping up, something else popped in my mind - Keith Richards. This is a guy who has probably done more drugs than the whole of Slovenia combined, yet is a hero to millions more. Not for his drug abuse (although sadly for that also), but also for the music he contributed (and thankfully, not for the acting he contributed in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End). More people are motivated by him than from me, and Dr. prof. Miš. In fact, more people are motivated even by Lado Bizovičar, who was at the show also. And yet I don’t see him having a bachelors degree in science. In the same context, Dexter Holland, of the punk rock group The Offspring

Holland was the class valedictorian at Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, CA and was a Ph.D. candidate ^[2] in Molecular Biology from the University of Southern California, however he declined to get his Ph.D. in favor of focusing on The Offspring. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Molecular Biology, both from the University of Southern California.

Holland married hairstylist Kristine Luna, who wrote some of the Offspring’s songs including “Session”. He has a daughter, Alexa (born c. 1987), from a previous relationship.

Holland is also a licensed Airline Transport Pilot and has made a solo trip around the world in 10 days.

He also recently participated in the 2006 Los Angeles Marathon, his charity of choice was the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic that handles cases where post-conviction DNA testing of evidence can yield conclusive proof of innocence. Holland finished 7900th with a time of 5:01. Afterward, Holland signed his shoes and donated them for charity.

And besides that, he sold millions and millions of records, and played hundreds of shows. Does that make him not eductaed? Stupid? Neandrethal?

Ok, this is the end, but there is one more thing I need to clear up. Why in the world did I scoop down to this level, and even insulted the same people I call neandrethal. Well, for one, I hopefully didn’t insult anyone, I just tried to prove a point that you don’t need to be a neuro-surgeon to be respected and smart. And not everything in this wolrd is how you wanted it to be, so you should be tolerable and respectfull to others. It doesn’t mean you can’t be critical of others - but respect them at the same time, after all, it’s not just you who has rights.

Kudos to anybody who read the whole text. If we meet, I’m buying a drink =), just leave me a comment.

1) I will substantiate my claims a bit more. I have a professor in college, Dr. Radko Osredkar (I hope he won’t mind being mentioned by name ). He teaches physics. At the time being, he is one of the most respected professors in my mind. Not because he’s educated in physics, but because he gives his lectures in such a way that they appeal to the crowd — even the “drugged techno maniacs”, if that is how you want to call them. This is education in its true form. I’ve heard and read (he writers a column for Življenje and tehnika magazine) so many different things that are not necessarily related to his field, from him that I respect him for it.