Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

I guess I can say that I read this book in attempt to find a better understanding of Japanese culture. So far I`ve been rather far from getting a clear idea what`s so cool about it. I mean - several horror movies and lots of books by Haruki Murakami (who`s very much west influenced, as you probably know) don`t actually do the trick. The essence of Japanese literature lies, of course, in books about samuraii and geishas. This novel by Nagai Kafu doesn`t speak much of the former but has the latter in the title. Actually, there`s not that much of geisha rivalry in this book - I guess it could be better described as series of events that were important in the life of a geisha. Komae is a 25 year old geisha (which is considered pretty old, by the way) who wants to find a good patron, or - that would be better - get married to a rich patron. She was married already once but her husband died and she had no other option but to return to her former profession. She finds such a patron she wants in her former lover Esigawa (I`m sure that`s not the correct name, I`m not very good remembering how everyone is called in Eastern works of art), but she doesn`t really want him, instead she also has an affair with a rather popular actor who likes her but doesn`t want to marry her, and marries a woman with a big wallet instead. The book is full of parallel stories that aren`t too close to the one of Komae, but I guess that`s no surprise in a book like this one. It`s pretty, but it`s pointless, perfectly flowing with my understanding of the beauty of Eastern art.

It`s hard to imagine a band more disgusting than "A.C." I mean, can one get more offensive than this band? First - the title of the band itself is ugly enough. Then come the song titles including "All our fans are gay", "Limp Bizkit think they`re black but they`re just fucking gay", "You were too ugly to rape so I just beat the shit out of you", "Even though your culture opresses women you still suck, you fucking towelheads", "You converted to judaism so a guy would touch your dick" etc. Actually I`m not sure that they`re singing anything that can be found on the lyric sheets - since the band prefers evil screaming set to a fast and furious metal music it would come to me as no surprise were they in fact spreading a second message with their music. The best thing about this record is its length - 8.5 minutes. Were it longer, it would have sucked. At this length it was rather refreshing. I`ll never listen to it in my life again though.

This was my second meeting with Mr. Werber`s writing and I must admit that after "The Empire of the Angels" I was expecting a litte more from this book. The main question of the book seems to be - who killed a famous doctor of medicine after he just has won a battle of chess agains the best computer in the world? A certain Miss Anderson who he had an affair with claims herself as the one responsible - after all he died at the moment of having an orgasm. Yet a couple of journalists don`t believe that everything is that simple. Only with time they discover that this fellow (I`m terrible at remembering names) had come into posession of the "ultimate secret". The nature of the secret isn`t such that various groups of very serious persons (VSPs) would want to take hold of it (actually they would, but it`s not the question here), it`s the secret itself that can make one die. The book contains a list of motives that drive peoples actions: 1. stopping the pain; 2. getting rid of fears; 3. primary needs of survival; 4. secondary needs of comfort; 5. duty; 6. anger; 7. sex; 8. drugs; 9. personal interest; 10. religion; 11. adventure; 12. promise of the ultimate secret; 13. the ultimate secret itself. What is the ultimate secret? It`s pleasure beyond imagination, it`s something that can make you climb the highest wall, forget about your fears, forget about all the first 11 motives on the list, and it`s something you`re ready to die for. Yet it`s so strong that you get addicted from it and there`s no cure for you in this world. That`s why it is the ultimate secret. And it is hidden in your brain.

Sometimes it just happens that you watch a film like this one. This was a very crappy comedy about cheerleaders, boring and silly. Lots of shabby humour, useless sacharine and everything else one can expect from a comedy that went straight to video. By the way, this was a sequel to another crappy film - "Bring it On", that had at least Kirsten Dunst in it; and it also has a sequel "Bring it on: all or nothing" which seems to be even worse than the one I watched.

Two years after we never got the reply to the question who killed the Zutons they`re alive again and kicking. From the opening "Tired of Hanging Around" till the ending "I know I`ll never leave" they remain the same Zutons some of us learned to love. The title track itself is very similar to "Dirty Dancehall" from their debut album. The first single of the record "Why Won`t You Give Me Your Love" doesn`t sound that much like the Zutons of old but sadly it has nothing to offer apart from the chorus - the verse part is rather boring and only the title line is very powerful. I like the second single of the record - "Valerie" - more, I know that it`s much more typical for the Zutons, but since I really liked their debut album it`s only logical that I like them when they`re closer to their former selves. At the moment the band is planning to release "Oh, Stasey, look what you`ve done" and I`m sure that it`s gonna be quite a big hit, yet for my taste it`s too slow. But at least it`s not as slow as "How does it feel" which is the closest thing this band has come to a ballad. The way their singer David McCabe is spitting out words is cool. Yet I`d prefer them to have more zuton-y songs, such like "Hello Conscience" and "Tired of Hanging Around" and less compositions in the vein of "I know i`ll never leave." I`m a punky person after all and not a sissy who enjoys Bon Jovi.

This bands` main strength lies in the title. Actually, it`s also its only strength. The sound is too messy and too dissonant for my taste. Some songs like "Mark David Chapman" are at least listenable, while others are not. Trail of the Dead are the very essence of indie, of course, not caring about selling too many records, yet I prefer my indie music to be more listener-friendly. In the case of this band I just can`t enjoy their music, and that`s a serious drawback.

This is a satirical novel about a rich peasant who wants to become even richer. It`s written in a manner that would presume the book to be funny, yet it doesn`t achieve much for the author`s humour is rather clumsy and sometimes even lame. I guess this thing could be also understood as some sort of left wing propaganda, making fun of the stupid bourgeous lard asses, but even as propaganda it`s rather weak.

"Love", "Love", "Love". "Love" is all you need. "Love" live, "Love" live. Life is "Love" and "Love" is live. "Love" me do. There`s lots of songs that one could interpret as praising this band from California, yet there ain`t much to praise it all about. I have no disbelief that the leader of this band - Arthur Lee - did have some sort of a musicial vision, yet at least this record seems to be rather disturbing to me. Lee`s voice totally turns me off, some cool guitar riffs are buried among piles of garbage and there are only a few memorable songs on this record that aren`t completely ruined by the singer`s performance. Why Love is considered to be one of the greatest "Lost" bands of the sixties, is beyond my understanding.

I never thought that PJ Harvey was this good. Her songs aren`t catchy in the Beatlish meaning of the word, but she`s an extremely powerful and independant woman. Songs like "To Bring You My Love" remind me of a younger (and living) Janis Joplin and now I don`t wonder anymore how come she had that song together with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Of course Janis was much more of a band blues singer, while PJ is a typical singer/songwriter.

This is a band that (as far as I know) hasn`t sold a single record, hasn`t recorded a single album in a major (even by Latvian standarts) studio, a band that`s only popular in very special circles. I personally found it in a web site where bands could upload some of their songs, so the world would have a chance to know them. The song that I listened to first happened to be "Pavasaris" and it totally stood out among all the crap that was on that site. Music was rather silly and vocals were sung/spoken in a particulary goofy manner. In short it`s quite similar to the legendary NSRD. The band itself claims that the kind of music it performs is called "depressive synth-pop", and it may be quite true. Some of the songs despite the low individual levels of musicianship rule totally. For example, the sad "About a crow" is both funny and catchy. "The Moonlight Sonata" has a good refrain. The opening "About a bear" is a bit dadaistic. I probably won`t be listening to this record for years and years and it won`t last as long as Depeche Mode in the field of synth pop, yet among most garbage Latvian musicians tend to offer to the listeners this is so untamed that I can`t just classify it as shit and forget about PK-25. I would really like to see them perform life, yet I doubt that it would be possible.