Andrew Norman Wilson - Unguarded Hours
This starts of as a romantic comedy with a clerk and a wannabe lawyer Norman falling in love with a girl he meets in an art gallery. After spending too much time with her he gets fired from his work and ends up living with his aunt in a small town called Selchester. His love life doesn`t go particulary well, especially after he sees the woman of his dreams performing oral sex with her sisters boyfriend. So Norman goes home very sad and falls into the hands of a weird lodger of her aunties - a bishop with a lot of titles but without a church, without a religion. Yet this strange fellow ordinates Norman as a bishop as well and so Norman decides to give it a shot and become a clergyman. He goes to a thelogical college where everyone turns out to be gay and everyone has a female nickname and sodomy is practiced everywhere. Meanwhile Norman has a relationship with his first girlfriends sister, named Cleo, she`s in love with him therefore he obviously isn`t. The father of both of the girls is a dean who doesn`t believe in god and has made a lot of money from his God-mocking books. Norman dies in the end jumping from the top of a cathedral. This clearly ain`t the funniest book I`ve read in my entire life and some of it`s parts may a bit too obscene for my taste but easy to read and a bit funny it is, why shouldn`t one like that kind of books?
Rhapsody - Symphony of Enchanted Lands
Nupat es sevi esmu pārsteidzis - kā izrādās, man patīk simfoniskais metāls. Dīvaini, ka nebiju to piefiksējis iepriekš. Manas atmiņas saistībā ar šo "Rhapsody" ierakstu būtībā bija pilnīgi nekādas, nekad nebiju tam pievērsis sevišķu vērību, bet tagad atklāju, ka tas ir patiešām skaists.
Orange County
Reizēm gadās, ka es lejuplādēju kādu filmu un tikai pēcāk aizdomājos, kāpēc to vispār esmu darījis. Vismaz ar "Orange County" tas ir tipisks šāds gadījums. Kaut kur man bija zemapziņā iesēdies, ka šo filmu vajadētu noskatīties, lai arī īsti drošs, kas tā tāda ir, es nemaz nebiju.
Gunter Gerlach - Ich lebe noch, es geht mir gut
The book is supposedly a detective. I`m not really sure that it is. Jacob Vogelwart is a fellow who was a writer once but has become a thief later on. He mostly looks in his neighbours windows and spies upon them. Then there`s a woman named Nicole that`s looking for her sister that is lost somewhere in the town. In reality she knows perfectly well where the sister is but she doesn`t want the others to know (she`s not dead and buried and not even held captive if you ask me). Then there`s a strange fellow who owns several bars in the town and who likes to pretend that he`s dying. What does it make as a sum? Not too much, the book is readable but not worth being read.
The Isle
Turpinot savu stratēģiju datora attīrīšanā no filmām, kas tajā mitinājušās jau gadiem ilgi, pievērsos Kim Ki-duka filmas "Sala" skatīšanai. Šo filmu man, ja nemaldos, ieteica kādreizējais kolēģis Delfos - Kaspars Bankovskis, kas ir liels orientās pasaules mākslas cienītājs. Taču es biju arī dzirdējis, ka šī filma īpaši baudāma acij neesot, bet es vienlaikus arī nebiju pārliecināts, ka runa bija tieši par šo Kima filmu.
The Remains of the Day
Kad uzzināju, ka pēc Kadzuo Išiguro romāna "Dienas atlikusī daļa" eksistē tāda paša nosaukuma filma, kura turklāt vēl skaitās laba un pat tika nominēta vairākiem Oskariem (skaitā 8, lai gan beigās nedabūja nevienu), man nebija divu domu - filma ir jānoskatās. Turklāt papildu filmas skatīšanās iekāri veicināja vēl viens faktors - galvenajās lomās šeit spēlē Entonijs Hopkinss un Emma Tomsone - aktieri, kuru vārdi šaubas nerada.
John Steinbeck - The Short Reign of Pippin IV
Public opinion isn`t more important than a dead rat. Critical opinion isn`t more important than a dead bug. My opinion isn`t more important than a dead me. Mr. Steinbeck appears to be a Nobel prize winner (in Literature, of course), but at least this book of his has no sign of literary genius whatsoever. According to what the critics say this is a comedical farse, a parody or something like that. Mr. Eristale is an amateur-astronomer living in Paris who suddenly becomes the king of France for because of struggle between the political parties monarchists take over and monarchy is restored in France. He doesn`t want to be king, for he`s a man whom nobody notices, who just wants to look at the stars. But suddenly he`s popular to the sky, although nobody gives him any power, he`s just a puppet. But the king doesn`t want to be a puppet. He wants to stand up for himself but he fails miserably and he is no king any more. The book is probably a very sharp political satyre of the French democracy, but it a) isn`t funny, b) sounds terribly dated, c) isn`t original. If a man who could write this unintersting could receive the most respected literary prize in the world this world just isn`t any good.
Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel
If you don`t live and die for Depeche Mode you`re worth nothing. If you haven`t gone through a stage of your life when Depeche Mode was a symbol for everything you stood for you`re either a retard or you`re still pre-teen. If you don`t know by heart the names of the band members you don`t deserve a name yourself at all. The only excuse for not worshiping Depeche Mode is having switched to "The Cure" instead.
Sahara with Michael Palin
Noskatījāmies trešo no Maikla Peilina ceļojumu piezīmju raidījumu cikliem - "80 dienās apkārt pasaulei" un "Himalajiem" šoreiz seko Peilina ceļojums pa Sahāru. Tāpat kā tas bija Himalaju filmas gadījumā, nav tā, ka Peilins visu raidījuma laiku to vien dara, kā vazājas pa peizāžām - toreiz kalniem, šoreiz tuksnesi. Liela raidījumu daļa aiziet, iepazīstot dažādās cilvēku grupas, kas dzīvo apkārt Sahārai. Līdz ar to arī Peilina apmeklēto valstu kopums ir diezgan bagātīgs - Gibraltāra, Maroka, Rietumsahāra, Mauritānija, Senegāla, Mali, Nigēra, Alžīrija, Lībija, Tunisija un Sūta (nezinu, kā pareizi latviešu valodā rakstāma Ceuta).
Royal Hunt - Clown in the Mirror
Atzīšos godīgi, ka līdz nesenam laikam es pat nenojautu, ka Royal Hunt nepārstāv vis kādu no lielajām "metāla" valstīm - ASV, Lielbritāniju vai vismaz Vāciju, bet gan popmūzikas ziņā provinciālo Dāniju. Izņemot brāļus Olsenus es patiesībā pat nevienu šīs valsts mūziķi tā no galvas iedomāties nevaru, ieskatīšanās Vikipēdijā gan iedeva vēl pāris zināmus vārdus - Aqua, Michael Learns to Rock (patīk man šis nosaukums!), Safri Duo, The Raveonettes. Tomēr pat fakts, ka tur dzimis Larss Ulrihs no Metallica, nedara Dāniju par smagā roka paradīzi, līdz ar to nevar ņemt vērā, ka "Royal Hunt" nav meinstrīma metāla blice.
