A humble blogger asks for recommendations

I've been a little burned out the last few days -- nothing like living on coffee and aspirin while apartment hunting -- and so I turn to you, the readership of Halfway Down the Danube, for recommendations regarding various items. You decide so I don't have to!

a) a cheap good quality all-area DVD player b) a collection of Romanian poetry, single or multiple authors, in a good translation or bilingual edition (preferably both) c) new luggage advice. All of mine has deteriorated markedly over the past few days. d) interesting new music. I am suffering from mp3 withdrawal. Astonish me!

Thanks in advance, Carlos

Comments

[claus]

Well, DVD-player...
I would recommend you a locally assembled DVD-player, even if the brand has a pretty "low quality sound" name :D it is called "E-Boda" www.e-boda.ro All of their DVD players are zonefree, playing any DVD without problem...

Believe me, when the company put it's products on the market 2 years ago, many of us asked what the hell was that, and we were very suspicious about this hmmm, high-tech device produced in Romania. It's kind of normal reaction, after the communist experience, when many of the romanian product were simply of a very poor quality (Dacia is a good example), and the agitated years that followed; you can quite expect consumers to be very suspicious towards a unknown company, coming out of nowhere... especially since they suspect the hmmm, so-called romanian "tradition" (well, a side effect of communism) stating "well, it works even so, why bother making it better?"... (not better, but at least to respect a minimum standard).

But people tried out their products and now I can say they have made it! Heard lots of good impressions from various customers, also read the romanian hardware and electronics forums, and it seems it worth buy one. At least I want one :)
Look at this model http://www.e-boda.ro/produse/dvd/dvd_555x.html , it can play also DivX and Xvid videos, besides being a good DVD player.
Or if you want simply just a good uncoded DVD player, I recommend this one, it's cheaper ;) http://www.e-boda.ro/produse/dvd/dvd_333.html

Too bad they don't have the site in English :(

[lazylinejane]

for music, check out Efterklang, Ak-Momo, Beck's new release Guero, and Architecture in Helsinki.

[Jussi Jalonen]

Have you read Roy MacGregor-Hastie's "Anthology of Contemporary Romanian Poetry", published by Peter Owen Limited in December 1969? It was the only work at my local University Library, but since they had managed to misplace it, I can't vouch for its contents.

As for music, the recent "Drops & Kicks" by 22 PistePirkko, as well as their upcoming tour, should be worth checking out. Their previous releases still work as examples of interesting _old_ music.

Me, I'm currently listening to my ancient Sielun Veljet long-plays. Ah, the lyrics of masterpieces such as "Kevt": "Nyt koivujen oksista roikkuu ja riippuu / suuria vihreit hevosia"... it's a bliss. And, of course, there's also their most beautiful classic, "Rakkaudesta".

Cheers,
Jalonen

[1] The title of the song is "Spring", and the verse goes "From the branches of the birches are dangling and hanging / large green horses". Sadly, it inevitably loses a great deal of its primeval insanity in English translation.

[Stefan]

There are a few translations here, I recommend Nichita Stanescu and Mihai Eminescu

http://www.romanianvoice.com/poezii/index.html

[Bernard Guerrero]

Have you listened to Kathleen Edwards' "Failer"? Good stuff, 2003 release.

[Noel]

I'm sure you've heard it already, but Fiona Apple's unreleased album. I am not a fan, and it's about the furthest thing from the Dropkick Murphys currently blaring through my office, but I liked it. Weird world.

Oh, and anything by the Dropkick Murphys, right. I also recommend Cartel de Santa's "Bla Bla Bla," if you like that sort of thing. I'm not sure you do, and that's a complement.

[Robert]

Well, Lindsay Beyerstein's most recent Friday IPOD Shuffle list has reminded me of what I consider to be one of the most astonishing pieces of piano music composed in the past 50 years: Rzewski's variations on _The People United Will Never Be Defeated_. I have two recordings, by Ursula Oppens (for whom the piece was composed, back in the 1970's) and by Marc-Andre Hamelin, and I enthusiastically recommend either. Given your eclectic tastes I suspect you already know this work, but in the event that you don't you ought to give it a try! (Dammit, this piece was _written_ for eclectic people - it's practically the quintessence of eclecticism.)

[claudia]

Carlos, we bought a Daewoo code-free DVD player off Ebay for less than $50. It does have an occasional hickup -- it stops for some seconds, without warning. I do blame that on the fact that someone packed it into a suitcase instead of the carry-on. [Hmpf.] Our friends who have the same model report no problems whatsoever. And it plays all DVDs from Europe and the US without any complaints.

[Carlos]

Robert, that's an amazing cold reading. Yeah, I have the Hamelin. (And actually, Rzewski's piece inspired a scene in the For All Nails TL.)

[Razvan]

On Romanian Poetry, you-ve got at this link http://romanianbodies.blogspot.com/2007/04/romanian-bodies-essay-on-new-romanian.html some links for new Romanian Poetry
also
you can find a new anthology in English and Romanian here http://heaventreepress.com/Catalogue/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=9 and more info on it here http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/morleyd/entry/the_new_romanian/ try it and write what you think about it