Mike76

@BARTLEBOOM: I'm not surprised, considering that the global crisis hit harder countries that were indeed experiencing strong growth but did not have a solid banking system, particularly in the east. Beyond the fact that even when Romania's GDP was showing +7% annually, the quality of life didn't improve much.

In an interview from a few years (half a decade) ago, Lou Reed responded to a stunned Red Ronnie more or less with these words: "People look back at the 50s and 60s as a golden period, but in reality, the worst music was made during those years. We (the Velvet Underground) changed it; it was a dirty job, but someone had to do it." I'm pretty much in tune with Lou's words, in the sense that I find the vast majority of sixties music (with some exceptions) overly sweet and melodically extraordinary or, in any case, lacking any bite. Consequently, when I listened to the banana years ago, I had high expectations that were, however, disappointed: aside from a few good tracks ("All Tomorrow's Parties" above all), the sound is still too polished and flabby, still too sixties, unlike the second album I've been listening to these days, which really represents a step forward from that time.

A Romanian who works for my company tells me that in his country there are now few gypsies because many have gone to Italy, France, Spain..... and the results can be seen both there and here.

Probably under communism, the very poor had something more in terms of assistance, but if they didn't emigrate, it was more because they didn't have the ease of leaving the country that they have now. I read a little about the Romanian revolution at the end of the 80s; Ceausescu made quite a few economic blunders (like many communist leaders, after all), such as concentrating farmers' houses in villages with the intent of increasing arable land but actually destroying the small subsistence economy made up of backyard animals and gardens. Then he aimed to eliminate Romania's enormous public debt (which he succeeded in doing) at the expense of the people who could no longer find anything in the stores. And if you remember, Ceausescu was "tried" and executed within a few hours, partly because his revelations would have been inconvenient for other figures who, coincidentally, then came to power. The fall of Romanian communism was the bloodiest, but paradoxically, it changed things the least compared to other Eastern countries.

An unknown film to me, but your description makes it very appealing. The collapse of communism a bad thing? Perhaps from a certain point of view yes: we would have spared ourselves the presence of so much organized crime from the East.

"Taking Off" does indeed borrow the guitar/keyboard riff from the famous "Just Like Heaven" (so it's self-plagiarism), and on top of that, it copy-pastes the bass line in the chorus from "Christine" by Siouxsie. It's not horrendous from a musical standpoint, but it does feel like a lack of ideas, if not a joke. On the other hand, I really like "The End of the World," their most successful pop tune since the duo of "High" and "Friday I'm in Love."

I've only listened to the CD in its "canonical" version; it's not bad, but indeed the surprises (which, according to what you wrote, were there but have inexplicably been doled out) are not very many. I'm waiting for a truly bold album from Smith & C., an album that strays more decisively from their glorious past, even though I still had fun with the latest "Dream 4:13."

Beautiful, beautiful...

@MOPAGA & LRS: the game you're talking about is "Vendetta," from 1992 if I'm not mistaken, a worthy successor to this DD.

Another legendary coin-op that I used to play after a prosciutto e funghi and a One-O-one at the village pizzeria. However, I seem to remember that if you finished it in co-op mode, you had to end with a fratricidal fight (or am I mistaken?).