Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

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.

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).

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.

A good play is as good on paper as it is on a stage. Having hever read anything by Arthur Miller before I was prepared for everything - from a new "Hamlet" to "Dukes of Hazzard" in written form. The whole situation is quite simple - there`s Victor (age circa 50), his wife Esther (the same age), Walther (Victor`s younger brother) and Solomon - and old Jewish antiques dealer. Victor never finished his studies because he had to support his father that became some sort of a living vegetable after his business collapsed. Now, some 15 years after the father`s death Victor and Esther have finally decided to sell all the stuff his father owned. Walther who`s a successful doctor (and not a retiring policeman like Victor) comes to meet his brother and to settle the differences between them that the brothers couldn`t overcome for many long years. Solomon is nearly ninety years old and he`s not willing to give a high price for the deceased fathers posessions. But what will be the price for Victor and Walther becoming friends once again? The whole thing isn`t the best thing I`ve ever read but it`s been long since I read a play this consistently interesting.

Reti, bet tomēr gadās, ka filma mani pārsteidz. Nē, nav tā, ka es būtu šausmīgi snobiski noskaņots tipāžs, kurš vienmēr "zina labāk", var paredzēt uz priekšu... un tomēr. Ir tādas filmas, kurās tu ar paredzešanu nenodarbojies - piemēram, "The Science of Sleep" vai "A Scanner Darkly" ir tieši tādas. Bet ir tādas filmas, kur tu jūti, ka notikumu virkne neizbēgami tevi aizvedīs līdz punktam A, bet vienā brīdī tu saproti, nē - tu esi maldījies.

Melno princi es patiesībā biju jau lasījis, taču bija tas salīdzinoši sen - vai nu 12. klasē vai 1.kursā, precīzi vairs nepateikšu. Ko gan es pateikšu, ka tas bez šaubām ir viens no ievērojamākajiem angļu rakstnieces Airisas Mērdokas romāniem, kas ne bez pamata atradis mitekli manā grāmatu plauktā.

Honor the Sabbath Day - it`s what this film tells us to do. I don`t really get what this has to do with Saturday but I guess there`s no reason why I should honor that day less than I honor any other day. Janusz is celebrating X-mas with his family and has just taken off his Santa Clauses costume when his phone rings. It`s his former lover Ewa that wants to meet him. He tells the family that somoene`s trying to steal his car and leaves them. It turns out that Ewas husband is missing, and she together with Janusz goes on looking for him. But in fact he`s not missing, he has left Ewa several years ago, and she simply was too lonely and wanted to spend the Christmas night with Janusz (no, I don`t mean sex by that!). The film is really strange, there`s a naked man that quite appears on the screen dragging a christmas tree behind him and saying "Where is my home?" The whole search makes absolutely no sense, for there`s nobody that can be found. The only reason why I rated this one lower than the previous parts of the film is that I had already seen 3 parts of the Decalogue before and this one didn`t shake me very much.

Going to an art gallery isn`t a very regular thing in my diary. Why is it so? I`m not quite so sure. Apperantely I like art, but I`m just too lazy to go and look at it. This Maija Tabaka is probably the most famous (at least in Latvia) living painter of my country. And her works certainly have their charm. Mostly her paintings look a bit goth - the characters often have a bit greenish/pale faces and you`d probably never call her style very optimistic. The colours are either very bright and a bit agressive or very thick and spaced. I guess her favourite colours are black and white. But you can never know. What did the paintings remind me of? Probably, there`s a very slight similarity to Andy Warhol, with the exception that (as far as I know) the paintings weren`t done by updating photos. Still stylistically there is something similar to that. One thing I`m sure of is that Maija Tabaka doesn`t specialise on painting landscapes - there are people everythere, and quite a huge part of them are Roma people. And the ones that aren`t Roma look like they were a bit mad, posessed or even like zombies. I`m not gonna try to dig deeper, possibly even searching for the meaning but I`m certainly glad that I went to this exhibition and I found the pictures very interesting (man, did the last sentence sound like some right-thinking crap I`d probably use in an essay back at school).

A whole lotta Faulkner indeed! Although Mr. W.F. hasn`t really stunned me with any of his works this is the fourth of his novels I`ve read. The action takes place in the most typical place which Faulkner has ever written about - the American South. The heroes are typical Faulkner`s material as well - John Sartoris is the main hero of the book (or was it Bayard Sartoris, I`m not really sure), and there is even a man named Snopes involved in the story. The novel consists of several episodes from the American Civil war. Those episodes are only loosely connected and a tight structure is surely not the the purpose of the book. There`s a young Sartoris kid and his black friend that took on adventures a bit similar to that of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer - this whole thing is quite similar to the kids in "Intruders in the dust" which I also found to be a bit influenced by Mark Twain. Probably the main difference between Faulkner and Twain is the time when their books were written. Faulkner provided an updated for the 20th century requirements version of Mark Twain. Although this "update" provides several advantages in terms of literary qualities and depth it also has a few drawbacks. Whilest Mark Twain is easy to ready and understandable Faulkner is terribly complicated. I already fealt it in "Sartoris", but after having read "The Unvanquished" in the original and not in a Latvian translation I have to repeat my sentence once again - it`s hard to read Faulkner, and not always you`ll be rewarded for your devoted and hard work.

Njā, Satyricon gan nav no tām grupām, kuras man kādreiz nešķita simpātiskas, bet tagad ir tādas kļuvušas. Iespējams tādēļ, ka grupas spēlētais black metal nav klausāms. Jā, ļoti iespējams, ka tieši tādēļ. Patiesību sakot, tas ir tieši izteikti neklausāms. Tipisks šī ieraksta piemērs ir ievadošā kompozīcija "Walk the Path of Sorrow", kas sastāv no salīdzinoši klausāmām, bet diezgan primitīvām akustiskām pauzēm, šausmīgas smadzenes saskaldošas gičas zāģēšanas un kaut kādiem pretīgiem ķērcieniem (sliktākiem nekā vairumā metāla bliču, kuras esmu pēdējā laikā klausījies). Tas viss ilgst astoņas ar pusi minūtes un tikai paretām tu gūsti atelpu no atbaidošā skanējuma, bet tad tas atkal atgriežas pie tevis un uzdzen vēmienu. Kad tu esi pietiekami nomocījies, tev tiek piedāvāta albūma tituldziesma, kura ir precīzi tāda pati kā pirmā kompozīcija, tikai bez akustiskajām pauzēm. Ja grupa zina, ko tā spēlē un kāpēc, tad man vismaz tas skaidrs nešķiet, vienkārši troksnis kaut kāds. Tālāk atskan "Skyggedans", kur bungas vismaz piešķir kaut ko ritmam līdzīgu, bet Satīra (tā saucas viņu vokālists) radītās skaņas ir pietiekami pretīgas, lai tu jau sen būtu šo albūmu izmetis miskastē. Pēkšņi grupa tevi izdomā pārsteigt un "Min Hyllest Til Vinterland" iesāk kā skaistu akustisku balādi ar norvēģu tautas mūzikas elementiem, bet tu jau zini, ka tūliņ būs ķērkšana, tūliņ būs zāģis, kas baudīšanu padara diezgan grūtu, tomēr vismaz pirmā minūte paiet mierīgi un tikai otrās minūtes vidū Satīrs sāk brēkt, bet šoreiz viņš to dara diezgan reti un pat ne pārāk atbaidoši, vienīgi melodijas šai dziesmai visām tās četrarpus minūtēm nepietiek, interesanta tā nav, bet vismaz klausāma. Toties "Into the mighty forest" ir kārtējā pārslēgšanās - klasika/metāls, un metāls ir tikpat puvušu miesu izdalošs kā iepriekšējās ieraksta dziesmās, bet vislabāko rēcienu Satīrs piedāvā "The Dark Castle in the Deep Forest" sākumā - patiešām uzslavas cienīgs pretīgums. Vispār gribas teikt, ka šis albūms ir īsteni pretīgs un nebaudāms, jo tieši tāds tas ir. Protams, es kaut ko šajā mūzikā nesaprotu, bet ja tu man nepierādīsi, ka tur ir kaut kas saprašanas vērts, tad es tīri labi varu izdzīvot arī tāpat.