Owlspotting

Here are some great Romanian music videos I had the pleasure of coming across in the past few weeks. They say plenty about Romania so let’s get down to business. Of course that every second neighborhood in a Romanian city houses Mexican restaurants, sparks Cuban revolutions, sports Puerto Rican flags and kicks it daily in […]

Omul su Sobolani (The Man with Rats) is the rags-to-riches story of the Romanian music scene. The underground idols of the early 2000s are now as mainstream as rock can go in Romania. I have been listening to OCS since 1999 and have become a dedicated fan when they released their first LP, “Ne punem […]

Let’s take a short break from Romania-themed posts. I was delighted to see that Tilly and the Wall released a video for “Bad Education,” the best song on their sophmore release “Bottoms of Barrels.” This is the song of the year for me and the video is pretty good. The song is about gender confusion […]

As summer kicks into full gear complete with the stench of overworked armpits and back alley ethnic restaurant trash containers, there is little as soothing as nice sing along indie pop. I have yet to build the soundtrack of summer, but here is a playlist I put together for a trip Elle took to Missouri. […]

About a month ago, an editor turned down a story pitch I made. I believed (and continue to believe) that the story was indicative of today’s media landscape and the information consumption patterns of an Internet-addicted generation. Pitching the “Internet video” story to the editor (for the third time) I said: I’m going to try […]

Lume, lume! Mare anunt mare: Romania se arata New York-ului sambata 6 mai in cea de-a opta editie a festivalului “Ziua Romaniei NYC”. Si daca e sa te iei dupa formatiile anuntate, va fi o zi in care vei fi mandru ca te-a facut mama roman. Nimic nu tipa “Romania!” ca formatia Akcent, un ansamblu […]

Via Shrinkmamma: MC Hammer has a blog. Please Hammer don’t hurt ’em.

I connect to my past through music [1]. So when I came to America I started to miss my other life and I looked for (and found) songs that expressed my feelings. Every four months I used to burn a mix tape to a CD and label it 4 American Months, 8 American Months and […]

I never attempted to hide my weakness for singer-songwriters who can perform with little else but an acoustic guitar. You can’t hide behind an acoustic guitar and it’s the surest path to musical doom if it doesn’t give authority to your voice and, especially, your lyrics. Jenny Lewis knows that and watching her perform last […]

Last June I was learning to come to terms with the New York City music scene and a phenomenon I only brushed against during my time in Missouri. Rampant musical hipsterism or indie snobbery as I called it back then was the constant pursuit of the unknown, the not yet recognized “next big thing.” It […]