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In 2009, I saw Depeche Mode live in Israel, Italy, Hungary, Spain (two shows). I also had tickets for Romania, Bulgaria and Portugal, but the shows were cancelled due to Dave Gahan’s illness. Still, the trip to Porto was good fun!

I also went to two major Gothic festivals in Germany:

WGT, with 192 artists on the lineup. My review was posted on Darkwave.ro and

Blackfield, with 20 bands on the lineup. My review was also posted on Darkwave.ro.

2010 started well for me: on January 9, I saw Depeche Mode in Berlin, and on January 23, I saw them (again!) in Antwerp. The Belgian Depeche Mode experience was a real adventure that I will never forget! The fake tickets that I paid 500 euro for, Peddy the angel from heaven who helped us get in, the last metro, Andreea, me crying like a baby listening to Walking in My Shoes…it all seems like a detective story with a lot of suspense, and in the end the villain and the detective are a couple and they live happily ever after.

On May 8, I saw In Strict Confidence and Rabia Sorda in Prague at the Abaton electro festival. My review here.

On June 26, I am attending E-tropolis, an excellent indoor festival at Columbiahalle in Berlin, Germany (thank God it is indoors as the weather hasn’t been very friendly lately, and, hey, what’s a Gothic girl with drooling makeup . The lineup of the E-tropolis festival is impressive and compact. I expect to see 13 exquisite performances and take lots of pics! Next, Amphi festival! A new post on my blog will be dedicated to Amphi.

Until then, stay tuned to good music, and check Vivi‘s last.fm and blip.fm profiles!

bunesti, crit, saschiz, viscri, romania

Romania is the country of infinite beauty.

While visiting the Saxon villages between Brasov and Sighisoara I felt time stood still and kept  its distance, staring at me. I felt the eyes of history and the soul of fate were dancing around me in circles, twirling and whispering to attract me to the ruins and old churches that seem to have been Poe’s inspiration.

I have visited so many enchanting places in Romania, from the Muddy Volcanoes to the dazzling Carpathian mountains and Black Sea coast, from the old fortresses in Transylvania to the modern Peles Castle in Sinaia, but no other place in this amazing country we were blessed with made me more proud and sad than the breathtaking villages of Bunesti, Crit, Saschiz and Viscri.

I felt proud because – to wrap the entire history and tradition of these places in one sentence – Romania is the only country in the world with more than 40 fortified churches either still functioning or under decay. Still standing – a few, in advanced state of decay – most. And that is why I was sad. Anyway, to see the bright side:

“In 2006, The Prince of Wales bought and restored two 18th Century Saxon houses in the Transylvanian villages of Malancrav and Viscri to help protect the unique way of life that has existed for hundreds of years and promote sustainable tourism.”… more on the Saxon village of Viscri on Wikipedia.

My photos from Bunesti, Crit, Viscri, the Saxon Villages near Sighisoara, Romania.

Another great photo collection from the Saxon villages near Sighisoara, with explanations in Romanian.

If you are into old villages that look like ghost towns, old statues and old cemeteries, fortified churches that only you and probably another generation will still have the chance to visit cause they are in decay, dark landscapes, silence and ruins, come to Romania and visit the Saxon villages in Transylvania!

Washing one’s laundry in public does not always raise a stink. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and domestic partner Mariqueen Maandig, backed up by Atticus Ross came up with an innovative project entitled after Coil’s debut single ‘How to Destroy Angels‘.

Released as a six-track EP on June-01 with a free download option prior to the CD and vinyl release of July-06, the eponymous album from HTDA may not be the latest in post-industrial rock, but it does bring a novel and fresh taste in today’s music. There’s no telling yet of the visual realm HTDA aims at, and it’s bad manners to review their visual artistry by just skimming one single video (‘The Space in Between‘, featuring the beyond cliche hotel room, overflowing sink, a tv left on and a beautiful corpsette that starts singing). But taking into account the sound, we should and why not want to expect beautiful visuals to go with it.

Sound-wise, there is practically nothing not to like in ‘How to Destroy Angels‘. If you were musically active in the 1990′s there are obvious tinges of Smashing Pumpkins and Sneaker Pimps rushing by like rivulets intertwined with classical Nine Inch Nails sonic identity. What is probably unique about the album is that it renders the Nine Inch Nails part almost a far-fetched conclusion because of the powerful voice of a different gender. It’s nowhere else more obvious than in the second track of the EP, ‘Parasite‘, which combines in a typical Nine Inch Nails manner the clashing of violent sounds and undulating overtones.

Just to contradict the above sentiment, ‘Fur-lined‘ comes back with a more pop-ish sound. If you had ever wondered what would Nine Inch Nails have sounded like on a mainstream spree, that’s the song to listen to – and rejoice. There’s nothing demanding about the sound of it, and what is more, it sounds completely fresh and one can only infer, taking into account Reznor’s numerous affairs with the production industry, what a mindset like that would bring to today’s soundscape.

‘BBB‘ does not strike as particularly original, but there is something of a jingle about it. It does, in a way, prepare the path to ‘Believers‘, which is probably one of the best tracks of HTDA’s EP, and to the energetic carelessness of ‘A Drowning‘, actually cutting the album in two idiosyncratic halves. With the Morcheeba sound to it, ‘A Drowning‘ creates probably more harmony than the whole Nine Inch Nails discography altogether, while ‘Believers‘, well, ‘Believers‘ is the hidden gem of the album.

There are not many mythologies to gather round this first attempt from project HTDA, but one can only hope it was meant to last and to have this first EP as a testing rod for today’s musical tastes. One thing for sure, except the Coil tribute (nothing more impressive these days), there is nothing angeloclast to dive in for in the album.

HTDA official website: http://www.howtodestroyangels.com/

Source: VIVA MUSIC

After trying so hard to be present everywhere in the virtual space (and I am sure that I haven’t learned about one millionth of it), discovering like a child every new toy that is, anyway, linked to the previous toy, which apparently was created to show the world what its creators had done wrong when they created it, I was sitting in bed, laptop in my lap, and the fear crawled in. For a minute I thought it was just one of those postpartum depressions that I get sometimes. In this case, I thought that the pseudo-panic attack was triggered by my (still) (in)decision to drop Facebook. I don’t hate things in general, I love my Internet goodies, but Facebook is too much. I am going to get out of there soon.

So, the panic was not related to Facebook. It was related to something greater, I think, called the fear of “the uselessness of it all”. I realized that I have put so much energy and effort into signing up and in and out, uploading and downloading and connecting and blocking that I ended up a little blocked myself!

I stopped for a minute to stare (as One Republic say in a pretty song), obviously, at my computer screen. Every action in my life is motivated and serious. I plan, brace up, convince, purchase and complete to put is simply. So, my question for myself was: what about all this trouble I have been through? What about all the dry and lifeless activities related to my numberless (I am serious now) sites and accounts on the Internet?

Well, the answer I gave myself was satisfactory. As I am in two businesses and I love my country very much, I have two strong reasons to do everything in my power to let the entire world know that Viva Music is a dark.electro.gothic music promoter from Romania and Wordland is the 5th language school in Romania! As long as my time on the Internet is invested in creating connections with the right people in my businesses, thus bringing more revenue and learning about how to do better business, I am happy.

Some other (more private) reasons why I like to interact with people with the same interests are: I may meet them in the future and I may be lucky enough to know enough about them so I won’t feel funny in front of them. I also like to share my passions for Depeche Mode, vampires, music, photography and may other things and the best source of info and contacts, again, is the Internet.

Now I can rest and join some more groups on Facebook until I quit it altogether! I told you my reasons for being here. What are yours? Cheers and take care, from lovely Romania, Vivi