Short re-cap of the events in Vilnius in the past few weeks:
- De-Phazz - Gus Gus vs Metal on Metal (rough dance music will save the world) - DJ Mehdi - Phonique
How to manage all of them? Not possible, at all. But De Phazz was absolutely great :) You never know how music like that is going to sound - sometimes it's too loud or too noisy, but this time it was the same as the album I am listening to right now :) Fantastic.
And there is another discovery I would like to share - it's Koop. I have heard their song on our radio Opus3 and I loved it! So now I have the full album. It has a swing rhythm, and I guess that goes very much in line with the lindyhop dancing classes I am attending right now :) This song takes me high, why don't you try how it works for you?;)
I'm sitting now in my room, enjoying Saint Etienne with a heavenly calm voice singing through my stereo and chatting with some friends of mine who are coming to EuroCo (AIESEC conference), which is hosted in Lithuania in October. It got me thinking about how does the saying "keep in touch" work in practice for different people. I've been living in 3 different countries and visiting in another 15, and therefore, the network is wide. And I know how difficult it is to keep in touch with people being hundreds of miles away from you.
It sometimes really makes me feel uncomfortable, when I get to see someone after a while, and I see that it was a connection made due to circumstances, and it disappeared with the circumstances. It's a bit sad because some of those people were simply amazing and I'm sure there is way more common things than just circumstances we happen to be in, but the connection is not there anymore. And I think it's especially so hard for me, because time doesn't change anything for me - if I meet someone after three or twenty three years time, I would talk to that person in the same way I did the last time I saw him/her. But I know, that some of the people by that time would get more distant. For me it's okay just to meet someone and be happy about this encounter, and for some people it's more important to be continuously involved in the updates.
Autumn is the season of re-connections for me. Piret came over to Vilnius, I met her two years ago in Baltic Energy, where we both were applying for international MCs. I was announced to be selected for Belgium during the conference, and just right after it Piret ended up in Ecuador! Then we had a short meetup in Poland a year ago, and now we finally are back to our homecountries. Of course we've changed, but that was so nice to discuss about all the things that happened throughout this time! And the reintegration process. And comparing Lithuanian and Estonian guys :)
Second person to catch up with was Mate, whom I met in India, and then kept in touch, met up in a random place like Rotterdam (joking), and haven't seen for a very long time. Now in Vilnius, we were having a drink, talked about our current works, lives, meeting my friends who randomly come up to the same bar, talking to some Polish tourists, and then some more talks about drum'n'bass, Sziget and other open air festivals and then moving on to an industrial rave party. And a year seems like two days, not more.
And yesterday I got to meet up with Ausra back from Australia, Ruta back from her internship in the UK, and Vilma, simply not seen for ages. I was dead tired, but that was very nice.
And it's not over yet! euroCo is on it's way and then Energy. Both aiesec conferences, bringing some beautiful acquaintances and great friends over! Looking forward to that!
And I am working hard to send an email update to the ones who are not coming to visit me, yet... :)
I rarely post Lithuanian music in this blog. I think I did just one post, and now it's the second. I am not a big fan of Lithuanian music, as 85 percent of it is oriented to teenagers up to 15, or people living in the countryside, who don't care that much about the long term value of music, it's just for making quick cash from records and concerts.
BUT, this is one of those 15 percent of good stuff. Jurga is amazing. She has a great voice, and she will not go to any single compromise in terms of quality: music, production, music video - it is the best what I've seen in Lithuanian music scene so far. This is a quality entertainment product, and she is one of the best paid singers in Lithuania. So you can make money with quality product!
Check out her video and hear it yourself! What do you think?
The past couple of weeks have been one of the most important ones in lives of people fo Lithuania. It is said that basketball is our second religion, and I think it is even first, when I walk down the street in the city center and see everyone, EVERYONE staring to one thing - the TV set, showing Eurobasket 2007. from small children and families, who just sit quietly and stare watching very single move, to gangs of young people occupying all spots with TV available, groups of friends gathering in somebody's place with drinks and cheering mood, even our fellows cheering for the team live in Spain. After each victory people would go to the streets, singing or playing music loudly from their cars, Lithuanian flags all over the place! this is a wonderful feeling of togetherness :)
We had all victories, but one. Just because we lost against Russia (who are the champions, we didn't get into the finals. But, in the little final we've won against Greece, who has beaten us in the finals a few years ago.
So, bronze this time! It has been good games - not the champion times that used to be with the older generation, but definitely better games than in the most recent years. Very proud of those guys!
I'm so excited I don't even know where to start!! But this evening Vilnius IS the place to be ;) For two reasons:
<-- These girls. When I was in my late teens and was dreaming to become an artist (I still am on my spare time ;)) and was into all that hip culture life, I saw this video. It seemed so cool but so far away from me - in the big world. Afterwards, I got to go to US, to Western Europe and Asia and the world seemed not so big anymore. But now when I see that Chicks on Speed(CoS) are coming to Contemporary Art Center (CAC) in Vilnius, bringing their performance and exhibition, my heart cannot help beating faster :)
Here is a short excerpt about CoS from the CAC article:
"Punk was also the movement and the moment when women started truly rocking for themselves, incorporating explicit post-feminist political and performance strategies into their stage-personas, costuming, and stage-productions; high among them being raw sexuality, nudity, inflammatory language and sloganeering. (...) The Chicks On Speed are all that and more! An all girl band, performance ensemble, visual art ensemble, which also release and produce music made by women on their record label. "
And the reason number two for this night rocking is nobody else but Ellen Allien>, the Goddess of electronica from Germany! She is playing in all biggest electronica festivals in the world, as I heard it took a while tho persuade her to come to play in Lithuania, but damn - it's worth it! I will not expand telling too much about her style, but electronica lovers for sure know what I'm talking about :)
Im not much of a feminist, but this girly evening with best girls on stage, with nice artsy extras sounds extremely good:)
I cannot believe it's autumn already! It seems that quite recently it was hot and sunny, and on the first days of September I am already looking into my winter wear and dreaming of house heating system turned on.
At any case the summer of 2007 was great! All spent in Lithuania, which was new for me after 2 years break. I made sure it would not be wasted.
Some facts:
Re-explored amazing Vilnius, Kaunas, Nida, Norviliskes, Rubikiai, Moletai and some other beautiful areas of this country
Became one year wiser
Got my driver's license
Read some incredible books: "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin, "The Tipping Point" and "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, "A Year of Creativity" by Brenda Malon.
Fantastic clubbing almost every weekend. Party girl is back on track, hitting the only 5 reasonable clubs in this country :)
MTV B-DAY concert - celebrating one year of MTV in Baltics, and Be2gether festival - the first ever open air festival in Lithuania
Terrific connections, re-connections and discoveries
My goal for the summer was to enjoy myself as much as I can. Happy to be in entertainment business. And when I look into my diary, autumn seems to be packed with:
visits by friends from abroad! Since I'm not able to travel much, may everyone come to visit me :)
parties and clubnights - season is starting!
Conferences - EuroCo 07 in the first place!
big things in professional development
It seems that everything is falling into place for now. Even though I don't have the "big plan" for myself in 10 years yet, but bit by bit i'm getting everything I do into one picture. living in the now, as they say :)
I remember the time, when I was a part of executive team of AIESEC in Belgium in 05-06, and we dreamed, that one day we will make it...
And when I heard, that AIESEC in Belgium has won the UBS Excellence award in this year's International Congress in Turkey, I thought "Yes! We have made it!". Bit by bit, generation by generation, from threats to close it down it went to top performance in the region! Belgium is not the best kept secret in Europe anymore.... at least not in the AIESEC network. :)
