Smarter Than Phone

Goth 'em all... with Dark Letter

2015-09-29T14:50:00.002-07:00

If you like a very climatic and dark music, you sholud take a bit of your time and get acquainted with the compositions of Dark Letter. This band combines a gothic rock/metal with an unique arrangement. The lyrics are deep and induce to reflections.

Last saturday (26th Sep 2015) has been released their first EP entitled "Psychomachia". There are five compositions:

1) Toy - that track talks about the problem of child soldiers.
2) Romasanta - inspired by the movie of the same title
3) Sleepy Hollow - inspired by the "Sleepy Hollow" movie
4) Anneliese - that track is inspired by the story of Anneliese Michel (archetype of the main character of "Exorcisms of Emily Rose" movie).
5) Toy - Tomasz Wiśniewski (Afterlife) has contributed to that track as a guest voice (choruses).

Official website: http://darkletter.pl
Facebook fan page: Dark Letter's Fan Page
YouTube channel: YT Channel
Visit also: https://soundcloud.com/dark-letter

Enjoy!

Psychomachia by Dark Letter

Realtime Sun View with Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

2012-12-15T05:29:00.001-08:00

Everyone who is interested in the Sun activity should know the online flash app SDO - The Sun Now.

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov

SDO: The Solar Dynamics Observatory is the first mission to be launched for NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) Program, a program designed to understand the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth. SDO is designed to help us understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously.
SDO launched on February 11, 2010, 10:23 am EST on an Atlas V from SLC 41 from Cape Canaveral.
SDO's goal is to understand, driving towards a predictive capability, the solar variations that influence life on Earth and humanity's technological systems by determining

how the Sun's magnetic field is generated and structured
how this stored magnetic energy is converted and released into the heliosphere and geospace in the form of solar wind, energetic particles, and variations in the solar irradiance.

SDO will study how solar activity is created and how Space Weather comes from that activity. Measurements of the interior of the Sun, the Sun's magnetic field, the hot plasma of the solar corona, and the irradiance that creates the ionospheres of the planets are our primary data products.

Source: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov

Closterkeller - Abracadabra Gothic Tour - MegaClub (Katowice, Poland)

2012-11-10T10:22:00.002-08:00

Yesterday (09 Nov 2012) Closterkeller, a great polish gothic rock band, had a concert at MegaClub (Katowice, Poland). There have been played the songs that promoted their all albums. Concert was well played. Below you can find some photos from that event. My botlegs will soon appear on YouTube.

Paradise Lost + Soen - Tragic Idol Tour - concert at MegaClub in Katowice, Poland

2012-10-19T15:31:00.003-07:00

Yesterday (18 Oct 2012) we were at the concert of Paradise Lost. They were promoted a new album called "Tragic Idol", but played only a few songs from it. The band that supported them was a swedish band Soen {featuring drummer Martin Lopez (ex-Opeth) and bassist Steve DiGiorgio (Death)}.

Below please find some photos from that event:

Soen:

Anathema - Weather Systems Tour - concert at Mega Club, Katowice 06.10.2012

2012-10-07T06:25:00.001-07:00

In 06th of October 2012 at MegaClub (Katowice, Poland) Anathema had a great concert. A Dog Called Ego was their support. An event was coincided with Danny's birthday. There was very hot atmosphere, dropped birthday cake and... a marriage proposal :D

My bootlegs you can find here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/DarkSmallRavenHeart

Some pictures of A Dog Called Ego :)

Crimea - sea, mountains, pearls and wine - Yevpatoria

2012-09-08T20:16:00.003-07:00

Today I'm sharing you my memories from Crimea.
The Crimea is an autonomous region of Ukraine, but inhabited mainly by Russians (it was a russian territory until 19 February 1954).

Yevpatoria (there we lived in) is an ancient town built by Greeks in 500 BC. This is multicultural place, where live side by side Crimean Tatars, Karaims and Russians.

Attractions are an old karaim temple - Kenesa, a mosque, a Tatar Museum, Tatar restaurants with their traditional dishes, Museum of Yevpatoria and a dolphinarium.

Kenesa was a place of worship and town council's meetings.

In this house was living for some time a polish poet Adam Mickiewicz

An old synagogue - no longer used after the WW2

Karaim weaver


Stalls with Karaim handcraft

Crimean Tatars participate with Yevpatorya's history.

A gateway to the Tatar district

The Tatar restaurant

Nice waitresses in another Tatar restaurant :)

Tatar restaurant


The mosque

In Yevpatoria you can buy a real pearls in a very low price. There is a lot of wineries too...

...and beach (very tight and mostly paid).

Beware of the stone!

Soviet symbols are often seen in the whole Crimea.

Lenin

Yevpatoria by night :)

Eastern Orthodox Cathedral

The Mosque

Daily evening violin concert

Chernobyl - the eternal memory

Monument to the victims of Chernobyl

A nice garden

During searching for underwater treasures ;) (I've found some book cards!)

wax figures' museum exhibition

The murder of the royal family by the Bolsheviks:

The dolphinarium...

Almost Picasso ;)

A cannon in front of the Museum of Yevpatoria

Inside the museum of dinosaurs (they were moving)

Every Friday there's a Karaim Feast. They sell hand-made stuff. You also can to see the preparing process of some items.

Beautiful hand-made lamps:

Duszniki Zdroj - Museum of Paper Industry, Frederic Chopin's Manor

2012-09-01T06:31:00.001-07:00

Main places to visit in Duszniki Zdrój are Museum of Paper Industry, Chopin's Manor and the park. It's small town, about 12 km from Polanica Zdrój and 27 km from Kudowa Zdrój. As you can see all town names has a part "Zdrój". "Zdrój" just mean a health resort. There is also some sanatoriums and SPA centres.

In the museum, except sightseeing, you can make your own paper sheet. There is a special workshop where visitors can find out how to make a paper manually.

The paper throne ;)

Children in paper-making workshop

Around the museum is a garden with old machines used to production of paper and a lot of woman-like figures.

walk in the park...

Frederic Chopin's Manor. It's curious that he played there only one guest concert ;)

Concert room

Monument of F. Chopin.

Park

and fountain

Wooden chestnut and acorn

1939, 1st of September - we still remember

2012-09-01T04:13:00.002-07:00

73 years ago Poland was invaded by Nazis Germany. 16 days after also USSR invaded our country under the guise of fraternal help.

In day of beginning the World War 2, I would like to pay tribute to people who died for their country during the war, and patriots murdered by the Soviets in the postwar years.

We should remember such events. However, the Third Reich, is gone, the Soviet Union, too. Do not blame the Germans and Russians living today for those crimes. War is a tragedy. Members of my family were killed on both sides of the front. Ones in the Polish army, others by force conscripted into the German Wehrmacht. Let us live on, but keep in mind due to the fallen.

Kudowa Zdroj - health care, culture, mountains and great coffee

2012-08-31T17:44:00.000-07:00

As I promised, this is continuation of relation from our holiday trip to Klodzko Basin. Today I'm familiarizing you with another polish healthcare resort and it's surrounding. Sightseeing of Kudowa Zdrój we started from... coffee and cake ;)

"Cafe Sissi" in Kudowa's Pump Room

Art gallery next to cafe Sissi

There is a beautiful square with palms and a fountain.

There's also pretty Music Square:

When we walked through the park's alley, we met the second fountain :)

Then, we were headed to the "Skull Chapel". The chapel is lined with skulls and tibias of people killed in the Thirty Years' War and died as a result of the plague. Unfortunately on Mondays the chapel is closed ;( and we just looked at it outside.

Afterwards, we went up the mountains.
Our destination were "Vicious Rocks" - blocks of rock at a height of 853 m above sea level, forming a picturesque labyrinth (rock town).

Thanks for reading/watching! But it's not the end :)
Tomorrow I'll finish this off! ;)

S'mon

The Klodzko Basin - holiday memories

2012-08-29T05:21:00.001-07:00

Klodzko - Town Hall

Vacations are over and I'm adjusting myself into job mode. Unfortunately all good things come to an end. But memories last in memory. And I would like to share them with you.

Me and my girlfriend Margoth were spent seven wonderful days in Klodzko Basin. We had an accomodation in healt resort Polanica Zdroj and this town was our starting point for further trips. But first, I'll tell you some general informations about the Klodzko Basin. It's a region located in Lower Silesia in southern Poland. There are mountains around and some health resorts. Before the World War 2 it was a german territory (and never polish before).

Klodzko - the main town of Klodzko Basin

Prussian officer at work

Main city is called Klodzko. There is a former Pussian fortress with a network of underground tunnels (total length is 40 km!). The crew of the rortress consisted of 4500 soldiers, but in the case of siege it might be 9000. Military service in prussian army had lasted for twenty years. Soldiers who worked in underground tunnels needed from three to five years to learn their part of tunnels - there was no light because of a lot of gunpowder in the air. The smallest part of tunnels is 15m x 0,9 m x 0,6m (length x height x width) and we must pass it crouching. Most of tunnels was designed to defence. Soldiers from a special sapper force were walking through tunnels and heard to find any sound which would help them to recognize where an enemy put a cannon. When they found the place where the cannon may stand, the explosive materials were put in that place. To protect the rest of tunnels against the shock wave after explosion, explosive materials were surrounded by thick wall. Explosion made about ten meters deep hole in the ground - the cannon and enemies was overwhelmed. But only in theory. The fortress has been never attacked from the side with tunnels :)

View from the roof of fortress :)

Underground tunnel - Klodzko Fortress

I've found a video from those tunnels on youtube:

If you'd like to go for wirtual walk, please visit the link below.

Virtual walk over the Klodzko Fortress

Polanica Zdroj - nice healthcare resort

Polanica Zdrój is a very popular healthcare resort. A big amount of foreign visitors arrive there to local sanatoriums, SPA and wellness centres for their vitality regeneration. Mainly german, but I also heard spanish, english, russian and scandinavian-sounds language.

We visited the "Pump Room", when we had tasted two kinds of spring water in two versions - hot and cold. Inside are located cafes and stores with souvenirs and handcrafts. There is also a stage with a grand piano. Frequently are organised there the classical music concerts.

Leaving the "Pump Room" you can enter to wonderful park. In the middle of park is an albor in which you can drink a spring water w/o limits and for free. The park is divided for five parts (subparks):

1) Central park (park centralny) - most representative and the oldest part.

2) Forest park (park leśny) - there is very green and a lot of Rhododendrons.

3) Chess park (park szachowy) - with enormous chess board and large figures :) and beautiful fountain.

4) Josef's park (park Józefa)

5) Park at Cardiological Sanatorium

There is a lot of pubs, cafes, restaurants and stores with souvenirs in Polanica Zdrój. Often are organised dancing parties or cultural events, eg. poetry days, piano concerts.

Next time I will write about the rest of our trip.

S'mon

Polanica Zdroj - colorful fountain

Polanica Zdroj - Pump Room

Polanica Zdroj - fountain

Met new friend ;)

The Museum of Klodzko's Land

In the wood

Beautiful landscape

Hello my friends!

2012-08-29T00:48:00.000-07:00

This is my first post, so I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Simon (Szymon in polish). I was born in 10th of September 1985. I live in Katowice, Poland. I'm open-minded young man. I have always been optimistic about the life. My interests are various: poems writing, electronics, IT, webmastering, photography, computer graphics, travelling etc. I will share my reflections about the life and mankind with you. Hope, you will come back to my blog and leave your comments. I'm very glad to meet new people. It's my first blog in english, so please be tolerant if I'll make any mistake.

Cheers,
S'mon

See also: My second blog