Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

I had heard a lot about this film without actually knowing what to expect from it. First, you see that there are almost no props used in this film - everything looks like were was supposed to be computer graphics that wasn`t created. Anyway the lack of insignificant objects helps to concentrate on the characters. Grace (Nicole Kidman) flees one night from gangsters into the quiet little town of Dogville and is given shelter there. As time goes by one can see that Dogville is not such a nice place after all. Tom, a young philosopher, does his best to help Grace under the hard circumstances but his best isn`t good enough. And in the end the world gets a bit better. At the moment when Grace entered the car in the end it was clear to me what the ending would be like but until when - I had not a single clue about that. A very powerful film by Lars Van Trier - a Danish dude who doesn`t like America although has never visited the country. And the film is quite hard to watch.

A film by Tom Stoppard. Does it say anything to you? Well, for me it does. Tom Stoppard being my favourite modern playwriter I knew the film should be good. I had actually seen it a few years ago but neither my knowledge of English neither the overall capabilities of my brain could tell back then how good the movie actually is. And I really don`t care that it isn`t a critics favourite. A few quotes coming up for the film is full of those. And what else would you expect from a piece of art where Hamlet himself plays just a secondary role? B list quality guaranteed, A list not out of sight.

Ed Bloom was a mysterious man that told different strange stories to the people surrounding him and especially to his son. But when he grew up the young Will Bloom didn`t believe in anything his father told him anymore, be it a village where nobody wears shoes or be it a man in the size of a mountain. But when analysing his fathers tales more through out Will understands that they aren`t completely imagined, that there are facts which they are based upon but every storyteller adds a bit spice to his tales so they would be less boring. And Will learns to understand, what a really amazing person his father was and on his fathers dying bed he understands that it is up to him to keep the good name of the storyteller, or something like that. In the end we see the heroes of his fathers stories coming to his burial, and here they are - the giant is big but not huge, the twins aren`t siamese, but that doesn`t change the fact that Ed Bloom was a man of a great value, and that is what his son needed to learn. I enjoyed watching this film, as it has some interesting imagery, it is a fairy tale, that`s true, but how can you not love a fairy tale as beautiful as this one?

John Fogerty was the leader of one huge rock`n`roll band - "Creedence Clearwater Revival" - and after that he has recorded quite a lot of solo work. In mid nineties he had one of his comebacks, and this is when this concert was recorded. I must admit that I had never heard before a major part of those songs on the album, but since he does many of the CCR numbers, the concert is interesting enough. His band sounds quite powerful and his vocals haven`t aged that badly. "Bad Moon Rising" is almost as good as it was in the sixties, but "I Put A Spell on You", while being performed quite solidly doesn`t match the performance at Woodstock in 1968, which is no wonder, of course. The newer material is also quite good, although certainly not groundbreaking. John never was a real revolutionary in the music business and he doesn`t become much more radical while getting older. Still this is a very nice concert for people who like that old time R`n`b sound from the days when r`n`b didn`t mean something similar to rap music with some sweet sounding nonsense replacing real music.

I`m not quite so sure why but this is my favourite album by John Lennon. Probably because it doesn`t have any songs with the word "Yoko" for its title. Probably, because there`s a whole lot of magnificient compositions that would make me cry if I was even more of a sissy than I feel like right now. There`s the fast rocking opening "Titan Ass" which sounds as if it was written by Chuck Berry but updated for early Seventies. The next song is "Mind Games" - the most famous of songs on this album. "We`re playing those mind games together - pushing the barrier, planting the seed". It`s psychedelic, it`s very sad and it`s very beautiful. Just like a really good film. "Aisumasen (I`m Sorry)" is just a beautiful ballad. "One day (At a time)" is the perfect love song, sung by a perfect John Lennon. "Bring on the Lucie (Freeda people)" is one of Lennon`s freedom songs with a very catchy chorus. "Nutopian national anthem" is a song that goes for 6 seconds and sounds like silence. The second part of the disc isn`t quite as good as the first one, yet it has another freedom song called "Only People" which once again is undeniably catchy. The disc closes with "Meat City" - another good old fashioned hard rockin` song. And as a whole it makes one hell of a record and one of the best records by any ex-Beatle. Update: I`ll have to relisten to "Plastic Ono Band" before stating that this is the best Lennon`s album once again.

"Karalis uz dienu, losis uz mūžu" bija viens no pēdējiem albūmiem, ko izdeva pazīstamā amerikāņu grupa, kas savu popularitāti lielā mērā ieguva pateicoties repa elementu ieviešanai smagajā rokā tālajos astoņdesmitajos. Protams, viņi nebija šajā ziņā nekādi debitanti - arī Aerosmith un Beastie Boys šādas lietas jau tolaik praktizēja, tomēr pieminēšanas vērts šis fakts ir.

Interesanti paskatīties, kā mainās mana gaume. Kamēr "Faith no More" iepriekš man šķita nekam nederīga grupa, "Helloween" es kādreiz uzskatīju par tīri interesantu metāla blici un tikai ar laiku sapratu, ka šamējie ļoti nedaudz atšķiras no "Scorpions". Ievērojot to, ka "Pink Bubbles go Ape" pat oficiāli ir viens no šīs grupas sliktākajiem albūmiem, nav īpaša pamata brīnīties, ka šis ieraksts nav diez ko labs. Dziesmas šeit nav īpaši bagātinātas ar jebkādiem rifiem un tas ir vienkārši popmetāls bez sevišķas odziņas. Dziesmas vienveidīgas un pastulbas. Izklausās pēc (droši vien) ļoti lietu deģenrāciju piedzīvojušiem "Accept" ar zināmu šlāgerisma pieskaņu. Patiesībā tie ir patiešām vienkārši vācieši, kas šlāgerus pārvērtuši par mataino metālu un mēģina pasniegt kā īsto mantu. Iepriekš man lielas simpātijas bija pret dziesmu "Heavy Metal Hamsters", bet tikai tās nosaukuma dēļ, tagad varu tikai teikt, ka šī dziesma ir tāda pati kā pārējās šajā ierakstā - ātra, bet atmiņā nepaliekoša (nē, ok, tieši šajā dziesmā ir tīri labs draivs, bet tāpat - nepietiekams). Es negribu teikt, ka šī mūzika būtu izteikti slikta, tās galvenais mīnuss ir vienkārši pārmērīgs bālums.

The Latvian translators did a great job as they do it usually, by deciding that the perfect translation for the title of this film would be “European cocktail: 2”. This film features Audrey Tautou and a lot of other actors I don’t know anything about. I find it a good choice of the filmmakers to have native actors for every role – if someone is playing to be Russian he is Russian in real life, and not just some Hungarian with a silly accent. The story itself isn’t too bright – there’s this Xavier fellow who wants to be a serious writer but right now he’s a scriptwriter for a silly TV series. He isn’t too happy in his private life, which is no wonder for a person who lives in his Lesbian friend’s apartment and who’s still looking for the ideal girl, although he’s almost thirty already and should past the idealistic period. He starts a relationship with one of his friends’ sister but they have their ups and downs. The overall style of the film reminds me as if it came from Europe. And it does, of course. In case you want to know why Russian dolls, I’ll try to explain the metaphor. It goes like that: every girl you meet is one girl closer to your real one. Yet since the whole thing is organized similarly to traditional Russian dolls where one doll is put inside of another you can’t get to the last one without meeting the others. That’s the most important thing about the film actually.

Esmu ticis pie jaunām austiņām un piemērotāku brīdi tam izvēlēties laikam gan nebija pat iespējams. Kas gan var būt piemērotāks brīdis jaunām austiņām, ja ne metāls? Un kas man stāv priekšā tuvākajās dienās? "Metallica", "Ministry", "Motorhead" - trīs lielie M (vai Ministry gadījumā - ne tik lielie, tur laikam vajadzēja ievietot "Megadeth").

Pēc "Goijas spoku" noskatīšanās, atcerējos, ka manā faktoīdā tā arī nav izmitinājusies viena no klasiskākajām Formana filmām - "Nācija pret Lariju Filntu". Tā kā Liene arī laikam šo filmu redzējusi nebija, ņēmu un to lejuplādēju. Sanāca pat viens tīri jauks kuriozs filmas skatīšanās procesā. Mēs bijām tikuši līdz ainai ar vairākām kailām sievietēm ņemamies baseinā, kad negaidīti ieradās Ziņģis un bija nedaudz pārsteigts, ieraugot, ko mēs skatāmies, nācās šim likt vilties, ka tā nebija zviedru porno filma, bet gan klasisks Holivudas kino gabals.