Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

In the Soviet Union Mr. Vysotsky was a real icon - his songs were symbolising not agreeing with many things, something like that. In 1980 he died from having too much alcohol and morphium - he wasn`t what you call a real pioneer in everyday life, and not even in his songs. But even now - 25 years after his death Vysotsky is still celebrated as an actor, as a poet and even as a singer. This exhibition was to show some info about his songs, and about his life. What I found good was that the exhibition didn`t only provide positive information about the hero but also gave some critique - which is a logical thing if a person was as controversial as Mr. Vysotsky. On my personal opionion of him - some of the songs have good lyrics, musically they are lamer than the ones by Leonard Cohen but he was a great actor, especially I like his most famous work - "Mesto vstrechi izmenit nelzja" - if you were born in the Soviet Union you`re bound to know this one. About the exhibition - it was pretty good, but not groundbreaking of course.

Almost certainly "Crazy" is written by the youngest author whos book I`ve read in my entire life. Benny Lebert is 23 today but he was barely 16 when he wrote "Crazy". Just a reminder for myself - "Crazy" isn`t the English translation of the title but the title itself. The book is considered partly authobiographical (or compeletely, I don`t know for sure) and it`s no wonder. First, the hero of the book is called Benjamin Lebert and he`s sixteen years old. Second, the boy in the book has the same physical problem Lebert has himself - he can`t use his left part of the body properly do to particial paralysis. Benny is sent to a boarding school because he seems uncapable of studying at a normal school having failed to finish the 8th grade quite a few times because of being unable to master Maths. At the boarding school he befriends with a group of 5 misfits and goes through the daily troubles of being a teenager. Basically it`s a story of teenage love, teenage sex, cigarettes and alcohol, but it`s also a story of what directions life should take and a story about God. The weird thing for me remaines the personality of the author. If I weren`t sure that Lebert was 16 in reality when he wrote "Crazy" I`d say that teenagers don`t think and don`t act that way, they don`t care that much about what life is all about at 16. An another weird aspect about the book is the fact that Lebert references lots of Rock music from the 60s and the 70s, for instance, "Pink Floyd". That seems kinda weird, for who cares about that sort of stuff nowadays. In terms of style the book is quite primitive, of course, what else could one expect from a 16-year old who can`t even finish the eight grade? I probably wouldn`t call this a masterpiece, but I have to admit that this Lebert guy does have some talent in him.

Lai gan gluži emocionālas atmiņas ar "No Doubt" man nesaistās, vismaz vienu lietu es zinu pilnīgi droši - kad es pirmo reizi izdzirdēju kādu šīs grupas dziesmu. Datumu un gadu precīzi gan nepateikšu, bet tas bija radio stacijas Super FM (kuru pēdējos gados nekaunīgā kārtā pārdēvēja par European Hit Radio) ikgadēja topā, kurā dominēja vesela kaudze Backstreet Boys un The Prodigy dziesmu, kaut kur 2. vai 3. vietā bija nokļuvuši No Doubt ar savu pazīstamāko dziesmu "Don`t Speak", kuru es pirmo reizi arī izdzirdēju šajā gada topā (cik var saprast, tā bija grāvējs iepriekšējā gada sākumā, tāpēc parastajos topos to dzirdējis nebiju). Tolaik "No Doubt" mani pārsteidza ar savu emocionālumu - vismaz salīdzinoši ar Scooter.

"The Office" otrajā sezonā ieskaitu arī divas papildu epizodes, kas tiek sauktas par "Christmas Special". Kāpēc tā daru? Tāpēc ka, atšķirībā no vairumu angļu televīzijas raidījumu, attiecībā uz The Office šie specials patiešām ir būtiska loma kopējā sižeta izspēlē.

This was one of the few occasions when I watched a film entirely because of the fact that I knew it was going to be terrible. Although such reasons may seem quite obscure in reality it does make sense (at least mildly). You see, if a film is terribly bad it`s sometimes funny to watch. That doesn`t apply to comedies usually because a bad comedy is one that isn`t funny. But in case of sci-fi films a horrible film can mean an awful lot of fun. It was exactly the case with this film. It was so goddamn bad that I just couldn`t stop watching it. Sean Astin (also known as Sam the fat hobbit) is a geeky scientist who happens to have developed a time travelling device. The device isn`t particulary strong though - its power is enough only for a journey ten minutes back in time. Describing the story of this film is kinda silly for it doesn`t make particulary much sense. On the contrary, everything on here is done without a clear purpose, even the camera usage and editing are bizarre. Not bizarre as in crazy but bizarre as why couldn`t they do it better. As a matter of fact it`s hard to judge a film like this one. How bad is it? If you watch it and expect at least decent acting of okayish special effects you`ll be dissapointed. If you expect the worst film in film history you`ll also be dissapointed. If you expect a very stupidly done sci-fi film, "Slipstream" is the film for you. The idea itself was quite a good one but everything they did with it was so goddamn stupid that I can`t even express how stupid it is.

Njā, tā laikam bija kļūda pieņemt, ka metāls manā ierakstu kolekcijā beigsies ar desmito disku. Vismaz saukt Metalikas beznosaukuma albūmu savādāk kā par metālu es tomēr nevarētu, lai gan vairākas tā dziesmas, strikti ņemot, īpaši "oriģinālajam metālam" piederīgas nav.

Es nebūšu oriģināls, ja teikšu, ka manā izpratnē "Midnight Oil" ir viena hīta dziesma. Ikviens ir dzirdējis "Beds are burning" un tāpat ikviens nav dzirdējis neko citu no viņu repertuāra. Līdz ar to ir tikai loģiski, ka vienīgais viņu albūms manā kolekcijā, ir tas, kurā atrodas "Beds are Burning".

What`s weird about German literature (ok, this one is Austrian, but there`s not that much of a difference between the writers from those two countries) - it`s that most of the books that I don`t like fall into two categories - they are either too boring and too trivial or they don`t make no sense at all. This one by Peter Glaser is one of the latter. There`s five stories in the book and not a single one of them makes much sense to me. It`s probably because they are meant to show that there is no sense to life whatsoever but they aren`t particulary amazingly written as well. In "The Story of Nothing" a man is looking for his missing aunt. "Nobody" is about a man and his wife that have different parted libraries - there`s one good thing in it that the man buys books for his cat to sleep in the book boxes but after that books end up in the cats house and the cat ain`t happy anymore. "The three body problem" is about a paper factory worker, his lover and his roommate. "Roomcare" is about a woman that cleans rooms for two men - and is a lover for both of them. "After a long summer" - I don`t know what`s it about, probably the summer of 2001 - just before September 11. I can`t this rate very low - I guess I probably did get the point that there is no point, but it`s not entertaining for sure.

Never judge a book by its cover! And never take to read a book without inspecting what are you going to read. I have been lately wise and foreseeing enough to check whether I am not taking a book of poetry but this time this method wasn`t enough. First, Adelbert von Chamisso is basically a poet. But that`s not the main issue. I`d probably have very little problem with this book being poetry for I`d just decide not to read it then. But "The Prussian from France" is a biography. Hell, why didn`t I notice that A.von Ch. wasn`t the author but some obscure P.Lahnstein was! So I thought - why shouldn`t I read the biography of some strange writer who seems to have lived a long time ago and who I don`t know a thing about? After reading the book I know the answer. And it is: because I don`t care. So, this Adelbert was some sort of a biologist who travelled for 3 years and did some scientific work and apart from that he also wrote poetry. He was a Frenchman by blood but his family (an aristocratic one) fled from the Revolution so they ended up in Prussia. What else is there to say? Not much, that Lahnstein fellow seems to be a rabid fan of Chamisso`s and the way he describes his hero is sometimes funny but the book as a whole is probably worthy for people interested in Adelbert von Chamisso but it`s a waste of time for someone like me.

Šo veidojumu savā kompī es ielādēju pirms dažiem gadiem, bet nekādi nevarēju saņemties to izlasīt. Vispār es jau neesmu nekāds dižais e-grāmatu cienītājs, drīzāk otrādi.