Piatra Neamt Film Festival

A great time was had at the first Piatra Neamt Film Festival held last week. New friends were made and some great films were watched :)

PARTY :)

Friday night is party night, and I'm looking forward to this one. I'll be joined by my sparring partner "The Model" (Gigolo Records) as we go the full 12 rounds at The OtherSide (Expirat). Prime techno upper cuts, fancy footwork electro, some cheeky italo jabs and some good old left hooks of house. No nosebleeds and nothing below the belt, we're gonna keep it all above board, like the gentlemen we are. Ringside seats from 10pm. Final bell around 5-6am.

The Model & Logan
Friday 12th December 2008
The OtherSide (Expirat)
Brezoianu 4
Bucharest

If I was back in London...

i'd be going to this! Much fun WILL be had!

Citizens Elektro Weekend

A weekend in the country :)
Electro-Cosmic-New Wave-Barbecue-Mici!
location: CETATENI
(1.30h away from Bucharest, in between Targoviste and Campulung)
mail me for details - loganlondon at gmail dot com

Stereyo Party with Digitalism

At The Party

Making faces with Digitalism

Digitalism and Deepunk

The intellectual look

Locked out

The writing on the wall

After an eight hour drive from Bucharest we arrived in the Moldovian capital of Chisinau for the Stereyo party with Digitalism, Client and the Pinker Tones. Chisinau was as I expected it, still very Russian influenced and a poorer sibling to Bucharest. The apartment we stayed in however was bang up to date and a very pleasant surprise. Jacuzzi bath, wireless internet and all mod cons made our stay at the "Crown Plaza" (!?!) apartments all the more enjoyable.

The gig was situated in a huge indoor sports centre, heavily policed and, unfortunately only half full. The lack of alchohol and a no smoking policy wasn't welcomed with open arms, but the full on laser show compensated for the initial disappointment. Pinker Tones came on first and were pretty awful. The sound was distorted and the music was a moronic noise of cheesy samples, stadium rock guitar interludes and big beat breaks. Client followed and were good enough, but their music lacked the necessary energy to get the place rocking. But we were here for Digitalism and when they took to the stage the vibe picked up a gear and finally the party started. It was a great performance with a couple of new tunes thrown in. Unfortunately the show was running over time and half way through their set the lights came on and they were forced to stop. That's the bloody Communists for you!

Luckily we were all taxied to the after party, which was situated in the chillout room of a kitschy lap dancing club. It was an intimate affair and we got to hang out with the bands, finally have a drink and joke around. By 3am it was all over and we decided to walk home only to realise we were locked out of the apartment, because the person with the key was inside asleep, and no amount of telephone calls and bell ringing could wake her up!

Rokolectiv 2008

Saturday night at Rokolectiv... Mongolian Jetset dialed into the other side, adorned in full costumery, trapped under single beams of light. There were only three, instead of five but they still overwhelmed the audience on the most part, or maybe the venue wasn't sympathetic to their sound. They were a bit Oompa Loompa, a bit Monkey Magic, and fully wizard.

Sex & Type & Rock n Roll

For those of you interested in advertising and design, i'm doing the first of two seminars tonight at the Orange Concept Store, Bucharest.

I'll be talking tonight about the life and work of Robert Brownjohn, who apart from being one of the greatest visual communicators of the last century, also used to party like mad with the Rolling Stones, Andy Warhol and Miles Davis.
Oh, and he did his fair share of heroin too!

So no boring lectures on kerning and grid systems... it's Sex, Type and Rock n Roll tonight from 6pm.

Free Entrance

The Orange Concept Store
Calea Victorei
Bucharest
from 6pm

Rock N Roll Graveyard...

Oh, I wonder what that is coming over the snow-capped mountain? Why, it's a sleigh filled with all sorts of useless crap you can only get rid of at Christmas, the season of kitsch and bad taste! And who's driving the sleigh into Bucharest? Is it santa claus? That would be an easy mistake to make, but no it's Shakin Stevens, who last had a hit in about 1984 when he sang rock n'roll style about a green door.

He's probably really popular here but the only reason I can think of going to the concert is to see, if due to old age or Parkinsons, he really is Shaking Stevens.

Anyway to prove that Rock N Roll never dies, here's a photo of a very cool car I saw on the Bucharest streets that looks like it stepped out of "American Grafitti" but is probably from Russia. (If anyone can identify it, i'd be intrigued).



Just to enlighten readers who aren't from Romania, this NYE we have the likes of Tom Jones, The Prodigy, Europe, Alphaville and Sophie Ellis Bextor to choose from. However things are looking up (a bit) for next year with Kylie, Lenny Kravitz, Iron Maiden, Radiohead and the wonderful PJ Harvey already confirmed to play.

Design & Advertising Seminar

Click on the image to see it bigger.

Tomorrow night i've been invited to conduct a seminar on Design and Advertising at the Orange Concept Store. If you are in the area and free from 6pm til 8pm come down and learn something, (If only that I'm not very good at conducting seminars)!

It's part of "Proiectul Gradinita", has something to do with "Young Creatives" and has been organised by Cannes Lions. Not sure what it all means as I'm still not very fluent in the native tongue, but they have these seminars every week (or two weeks) and they've had some pretty good people on stage from many of the major ad agencies here in Bucharest.

Find out more than I know at www.canneslions.ro/com

Oh, and don't worry I won't be getting all nerdy and geeky, dribbling over fonts and banging on about kerning etc. It will be fun and inspiring... i promise.