Layer Cake

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch this film. It was very good, the kind of film that is original, interesting and intensive up to the end. Like Snatch or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Drugs and dealers, some nice Serbs producing tons of extasy and killing people without batting an eyelid, some big bosses and so on. It is full of surprises and you donèt get bored. In the end I thought the director is going to ruin everythng with a happy end (don't think I don't like happy ends; I do! but in this case the happy end would suit the film not better than expensive jewel on blue jeans). Fortunately everything went on perfect.
Oh, and the beautiful blond cheek is present too. But for the best.

Behind the Name

I accidentally found this site where the meaning of many names can be found. My nickname "nousha" is the short form of the long and lovable Gerganousha, cute variation of my name used by my Grandma. But I found that:

NOUSHA
Gender: Feminine

Usage: Iranian

Means "sweet, pleasant" in Persian.

Well, what can I say *angel*

And when looking up for my real name, I'm pleased to see this site too confirms:

GERGANA
Gender: Feminine

Usage: Bulgarian

Other Scripts: Гергана (Bulgarian)

Bulgarian feminine form of GEORGE.

(Let's skip the fact that this in French would be "Georgette", really, I hate the thought of it, and concentrate on the fact that I'm proud my name's the feminine of George - due to many reasons. So, I am being proud *being, being*

*laaarge smile*

Vaya Con Dios

A lot of people think that the singer's name is Vaya Con Dios. And now it's closer than ever to the truth, because she is the only original member of the band left to continue perform their music.
Saturday, June 9, National Palace of the Culture, Sofia. The grand hall was full - the band has never been in Bulgaria and people love it.
We knew that the concert will be "acoustic" and the hit songs will be performed in new arrangements. But I expected something more dance-like, maybe. Instead it was a lot of blues, jazz, a tribute to the Roma music with their anthem "Jelem Jelem" and the extraordinary voice of Dani Klein.
The sound was poor and it was very hard to hear the guitar most of the time.
In general, I liked it. However it is more suitable, in my opinion, for a large bar with very expensive tickets ;)

Procol Harum

Procol Harum. What does this mean?

Few days ago everything I knew about this band was:
- They had a smashing hit called "A Whiter Shade of Pale".
- They were produced by Brian Epstein and when their first album went N1 in 1967 he celebrated with them with a bottle of champagne.
- Ummm.... nothing more.
Then I was searching to buy Marillion album and instead I bought seven different albums, including "Procol Harum - The Essential Collection". Then I started listening to it and I was amazed. I won't say more than the fact that if you list the "top listeners" of Procol Harum in last.fm, I'm there. One of the first.
This band is so good. I can't stop listening to the album. I must find all their albums. And find out what their name means. The latter is easy, three-step exercise:
- google it
- read it
- post it to enlighten the readers (whom I seriously suspect in being not more than one)
"The band name was chosen by its original manager, Guy Stevens, after the name of Reid's cat, and it is almost the Latin for "beyond these things". A more correct spelling of the Latin phrase is in fact Procul Harum, and the band's name has frequently been 'corrected' to this in articles and catalogues. However, even Procul Harum is not quite right grammatically, and the correct Latin translation of "beyond these things" would be Procul His."

One thing I like in Google (apart everything else) it that you usually learn more than what you were searching for. So I'll skip the band's biography and stop at interesting facts:
"-The asteroid 14024 Procol Harum is named after the band.
-The second book in the Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker Trilogy, "The Restaurant At the End of the Universe," was inspired by the song Grand Hotel."

Up The Irons!

Yeah! That is it! Iron Maiden in Bulgaria!
I'm not a great fan but I do enjoy their music. It was a perfect show with Bruce Dickinson singing at his best (except for the last song when his voice got a little bit lost) and all the others playing at their best.
The support act - Steve Harris's daughter Lauryn - that bird can't sing! End of story.
Iron Maiden, the stage - it was huge. But ridiculously, after seeing George Michael's stage on Monday, Maiden's seemed so small to me :(
Iron Maiden, the band - perfect performance.
Iron Maiden, the show - very well done, with all the lights, the decors, the devil and Eddie on a tank (yes, a tank)... one word - impressive!
The crowd - from the place where I was it looked wonderful - hands in the air, everybody singing, headbanging - a human sea where there are no individuals, all personality is lost into the Crowd. The same word - impressive! Metal music has the particularity to provoke this phenomenon better and faster than other genres.
When Bruce stood up and shouted: "Scream for me, Sofia!", that was a thrill. And I screamed. Hell, yeah!
The sound was not very good. The set list was short. The new album they are promoting is not good for me. The concert was not great - I've seen better. But this was Iron Maiden in Sofia! People waited for them more than 25 years!
So I'm satisfied.
Next target - Vaya Con Dios acoustic, Saturday.
Meanwhile I'm listening a lot to Procol Harum, I just discovered how great band they were (and are) and reviewed last Linkin Park album... Now, that's a mix of styles ;)
The set list:

Iron Maiden
Live In Sofia, Bulgaria
Locomotiv Stadium - 04.06.2007

1. Different World
2. These Colours Don't Run
3. Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
4. Wrathchild
5. The Trooper
6. Children Of The Damned
7. The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
8. For The Greater Good Of God
9. The Number of The Beast
10. Fear Of The Dark
11. Run To The Hills
12. Iron Maiden
Encore:
13. 2 Minutes To Midnight
14. The Evil That Men Do
15. Hallowed Be Thy Name

I love N 14....



Photos: Svetoslav Dagiev, SME

Marillion, 18th May, Munich

Here we go.
I caught my plane one dark morning, it was very early, the plane was cute and small and took me to Budapest. During the flight it was racing with the sunrise but at the moment it landed, it lost. Nevermind, I was in Budapest, at Budapest airport, more precisely, stayed there for an hour, trying not to fall asleep and then - next plane to Munich.
Munich was sunny and hot, while Sofia that I left six hours ago was rainy and cold. Am I not lucky, heh.
My one week stay in the capital of Bayer deserves another post, so let's go directly to the concert evening, 18th May, club Backstage.
In the beginning it was quite confusing, the venue has two halls, on both sides of the road, so I got lost. But eventually everything got sorted out, I took an interview with Mark Kelly, Marillion's keyboardist, and entered the hall - it was still almost empty so we could choose wonderful places - near the bear bar ;) and only few meters from the scene.
The support act were young German boys, very talented, sorry, I didn't remember their band's name, but it can be checked any time. It's Germany, all right, so they came on stage at 20:00. After them the stage got prepared and at 21:20 it went dark. Then a ray of light fell on Steve Hogarth and illuminated his face. Very strange, he was wearing some kind of coat that reminded me the child on the "Misplaced Childhood" album's cover...

I like both Marillion with Fish and with H. Most people chose one of those two bands. A friend of mine always says that Fish is extremely charismatic artist. And what I see in H is the creative force of the madness. The one that moves most artists at any age or place in the human history. That night he was not only a musician, but also an actor. And he didn't stop singing for two hours. The band didn't use any solo - drums or keyboards, to give the other members time to rest. Two hours perfect performance plus 20 minutes encore. And H's voice was at its best. Powerful, crystal clear, emotional. They did songs from a lot of albums, including, of course, "Somewhere Else", promoted on this tour, and a lot of "Marbles".
But - from the beginning. Mark Kelly said that this tour they decided to perform songs that the audience wants them to do - and as people discuss that on forums, the dates to come are prepared :) In Munich the hall shouted "Easter", it was the last encore.
And there we are, the diabolic light, Steve Hogarth started "Splintering Heart" from "Holiday In Eden". Then the stage become all light and we saw the others - Steve Rothery:
Ian Mosley,
Pete Trawavas:


and Mark Kelly:

Next song was „The Other Half” - the first track from the new album.


I didn't rank "Somewhere Else" very high, but after the show I am considering to revise my opinion. It sounded powerful and enchanting.
Before the second single Last Century For Man, came Ocean Cloud and You’re Gone from Marbles.


The public was amazing. H told them "I remember the show in Munich during Marbles" and they went crazy. It was possible to actually feel the love they were sending to the musicians and to see how this was giving the band power and was charging them like battery. It was like a running circle of emotions.






I am happy that I choose to attend the show in Munich, next day in Prague Marillion has perform less songs...

The Invisible Man stroke me:

I haven't changed
I swear I haven't changed....

And you see H, illuminated face, eyes bright with madness, screaming:

I will scream again
"I am perfectly sane"
"I am perfectly sane".

Yeah, right, "sane"! Amazing!

Then "Man Of Thousand Faces" from my favourite album "This Strange Engine".








When they said "Good night" and left the scene, the hall was about to be ruined :) They came back to perform the encore, and H said "Yeah, I remember Marbles. But you managed to beat it somehow!"
Great.

Belen Maya and her flamenco

"Belen Maya's company" presented "Dibujos" (Pictures) in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. It was amazing - I like flamenco a lot.
It was an interesting set of different pieces of music and dance. The music is by the flamenco guitarist Jose Luis Rodriguez, who was playing the guitar in "Dibujos".
Belen uses traditional, classic flamenco dance altogether with modern influences. It was like a dialogue between the guitar and her dance. And it made me sit and stare, with no moves, it grasped my attention. Flamenco is always very powerful, like a huge bird, majestic eagle who starts beating his wings at the edge of a high cliff. You see the sea waves below him, the enormous sky above him, the free space between them, and you feel his desire. Sometimes to stay, sometimes to fly calmly, sometimes to fly fast and risky. And most of the times all this at the same time.
The quality of the pictures is very poor, it was hard to take good ones with my camera.



La Tremendida, the singer: