Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

This is one of the cases when I watched a film just because I had nothing better to do. It was late in the evening on Saturday night and my wife (what a silly word to describe my girlfriend!) was asleep in a hotel room not far from the centre of Berlin, but I just didn`t feel like sleeping. I hadn`t thought of taking a book along, so I started watching this silly film that I had already seen in 2003 when it was still new. Actually I thought the film was a bit older but that doesn`t really matter. Basically it`s nothing more but a remake of the first part. A huge accident has to happen at the beginning of the film but one of the people involved saves the rest from dying, thus damaging the death`s plan. So death tries to get back at all those people for they already are on the list. The most interesting thing about this film is the various deaths of characters, mostly caused by household appliances. As for the rest - who gives a damn about the story in a film like this - it`s probably the accident death equivalent to a porn movie. As for the deaths they are planned masterfully, as for the rest - it`s a typical forgettable film that noone should care about.

Finally I have completed the task of watching every single film directed by Terry Gilliam and it was concluded with "12 monkeys" - one of his most famous Hollywood works. For this film Terry gathered quite an impressive cast featuring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. Bruce`s character James Cole is a convinct in the future where he is offered to return to the past (1996) in order to obtain some info about a deadly virus that will eliminate most of the human race. An underground group with the title "Army of the twelve monkeys" is blamed for that and Brad Pitt`s character who suffers from some kind of mental disease is it`s leader. Yet little do the people of the future know that Brad isn`t that dangerous as he may seem. The film is classified as Drama / Sci-Fi / Thriller on the IMDB and I guess I can agree with that. Just like any other film Gilliam has made this one isn`t quite realistic and you do have your questions about everything that goes on. And what`s weird about it is the twist at the end - for in its essence it isn`t that much of a twist, it`s just a conclusion to a logical chain of action, and that`s it. A very good film by the way, certainly worth watching.

This is one of the most relaxed and optimistic records Lou has had in his long and productive career. Who cares that it was written at a time when he had fallen in love with a man? Songs like "Crazy Feeling", "A gift" or "Oohhh Baby" rule despite that. In form and essence this record is quite similar to the most despised record of his collection - "Sally Can`t dance" - it`s a record full of optimistic and simple songs, that don`t want to change the world or anything like that but that are just simple and beautiful.

This is the last album David Bowie recorded before he became really BIG. And by saying Big I mean an interstellar fame that Ziggy Stardust received. "Hunky Dory" in its essence is an album of piano pop, angry guitar riffs or metallic drumming are nowhere in sight. The biggest hit on the record is "Changes" with the overly optimistic chorus. The trouble I have with enjoying this album to the maximum level is the rather large number of non-catchy songs. In terms of content with this album Bowie sounds much more like Elton John than like David Bowie, and I can`t say that it`s essentially great but songs like "Life on Mars", "Queen Bitch" and "Kooks" still rule massively.

This is the first entry in this factoid in a new stage of my life. From now on I`m a married person - a fact that still seems very odd and slightly ungraspable to myself. I`m not sure that I feel very much different, but some things have changed and surely will change in my life.

This is a book I read as a part of my "learn the best from the soviets so you no longer would be an uneducated bafoon" project. Actually that`s the same story of book binding I mentioned here some weeks ago. This Bykov fellow seems to have been a Belarussian writer who specialized on WW2 stories, having been there himself. This one is about two partisans who want to escape from the Germans and locals following them but they don`t succeed and one of them dies in the end, while the other one starts cooperating with the Germans. What`s good about it is that it`s no black and white story, no one is completely good or completely bad, everyone has some concerns of his own that have made up him to be what he has become. What I didn`t like was the subject itself and the writing manner - a bit too trivial for my taste, that`s certainly not my cup of tea - this kind of writing. I guess I`d rather choose something more adventurous. I doubt that I`m going to read anything else by this writer in the upcoming years.

A few years ago the Libertines were selling better than hotcakes and the entire world was raving about them. And then they split up. Or their lead singer died from OD-ing. Or there was some other reason, why the band split up. Anyhow, nowadays only very few people remember about how good this band used to be. I don`t mean that they`re forgotten, but if you`d ask the average listener what he thinks about the Libertines, most likely he`ll say: "Artic Monkeys rule!" or something like that.

Although the name would indicate that - with the Byrds being an equivalent misspelling for the Beatles, the content of their music wasn`t that beatlish at all. This album is much closer to a country/pop/folk record than to the Beatles. The album opens with the terrific "Turn! Turn! Turn!" (I`m not sure that I`ve bothered to listen to its lyrics carefully enough to understand, why should I turn but who gives a damn if it`s so damn (once again) catchy). The next song "It Won`t Be Wrong` has a title similar to "I won`t be long" but I don`t know why I came up with such a comparison. Overall I guess this sort of music hasn`t aged especially well - it`s just your average (well, maybe way above average) middle aged man`s music, so I wonder how the Byrds were cool in the 1960s in the first place. I have nothing against this kind of music but it somehow lacks some sort of energy for me to be able to enjoy it without restraints. And why did they cover "The Times They are a Changin`" adding some 50% to the perfect pace Dylan had given to this song? Out of the western styled songs I enjoy "Oh! Sussannah" the most, with it`s nice banjo sound and the very fast country train tempo.

"The Rutles" can be called the equivalent to "One" by the Beatles, putting all the hits the prefab four had on one single disc. Still there is a tiny difference between the two - the Rutles never bothered to have other songs than those on this record. This is the soundtrack to the film that I liked quite much and there would be no reason why I wouldn`t like this record. First, I like the Beatles. Second, I like a good parody, and that`s what it is in essence. Neil Innes is very good at combining elements from different Beatles` songs, adding lyrics that could have been penned by the Beatles if they had been in a very silly mood and thus we have a record that even the Beatles themselves would have found to be pretty goood. Almost every song on this record could have been a hit, had it been recorded in the sixties and had the Rutles been a real band. My favourites include the sad and sweed "Between us", the goofy Ringo-styled "Living in Hope", the give peace a chance "Love Life" ("love is the meaning of life, life is the meaning of love"), the upbeat piano ballad "Another Day", the crazy "I have always thought at the back of mind - cheese and onions" and the tribute to "Get Back" - "Get up and go" and of course, the biggest hit ever - "Hold my hand", but on the other hand songs like "I must be in love" and others aren`t worse than those either. A very good record, not the best of the century surely, yet very enjoyable.

Since I had already seen all the contestants in the semi finals (or nearly all), they could offer little surprises. Maybe I was a litle surprised how Mr. Kivics changed his brilliant line "every mother, every children" to "every mother, all the children" but that was all. The winners - the boy band/a capella band Cosmos - could be predicted before the show, of course, so was the case with the second placed "Melo M", but Jenny May that got into the third with the catchy "I`m alone" was quite a surprise. I was kinda dissapointed though for the hostess didn`t shake her breasts quite as much as in the semis (and her dress was far from good as well).