Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

This was the very last film I watched before my hard disk crushed. And that isn`t a thing to joke about. Pedro Almadovar is already a familiar face to me - his latest film "Bad Education" is still quite fresh in my memory. But this film is better than the movie about gays. Not that "AAMM" lacks in contraversy - there are two crossdressing prostitutes in this film as well, there are lesbian actresses, a pregnant nun that has the HIV who`s pregnant from the same person that was the father of the guy who started to write an essay "All About My Mother" before he died hit by a car. But in this film at least the leading woman character Manuela is particulary normal, and she does her best overcoming the loss of her only child. The nun is played by Penelope Cruz and she`s absolutely gorgeous. What amazes me in this film is that there is absolutely no nudity on the screen, quite unlike what could be seen in "Bad Education". And what does it make me think of - while straight directors show naked women, homosexual directors show only naked men, and since there aren`t any homosexuals around this time from the aestethical point of view this movie is purist. The film is full of positive energy despite the fact that it can drive you to tears.

Mystery, mystery. And thriller, of course. John Klein (I`d prefer Calvin, but there`s nothing I can do about it) is a successful media man - man, is there a lot of films about successful media men! He has a beautiful wife to whom he makes love in a closet of a house they just bought. But when they drive somewhere John`s life collapses as his wife sees a mothman and crashes the car dying afterwards in the hospital. His grief is too strong and in 2 years he hasn`t really recovered from that. But when he in a strange way finds himself in a place called Point Pleasant John starts really freaking out. And in that Point Pleasant weird things come to peoples eyes, ears and dreams. Mostly they are around a certain mothman - a weirdo looking like an ugly batman. The mothman is some sort of an ancient creature higher than man who can see almost everything, and he`s very good at predicting catastrophes. But what`s the problem - is to find out where the catastrophe is going to happen. John meets a good looking police officer named Connie (so he wouldn`t be alone) and a man going crazy named Gordon. What`s crazy about the film is that it says based on true events. Ok, I`m probably not open minded enough but I still believe that things like this are rarely based on something true (unless the base isn`t used at all). But the film ain`t even half bad, although it looks visually a bit B-movie`ish.

Šo ierakstu Furnjē kungs ierakstīja, būdams totālā pālī. To vēlāk viņš pats atzina, ka savus septiņdesmito gadu vidus-beigu albūmus viņš pats īsti neapzinās esam ierakstījis. Un šajā albūmā viņš to arī godīgi pasaka - dziesmā "I never wrote these songs" neko citu viņš arī neapgalvo. Protams, uz šo laiku viņš no šokrokera bija pārvērties par diezgan izteiktu Brodvejas mūziķi un tikai pirmās trīs šī ieraksta dziesmas atgādina, ka viņš savulaik asociējās ar smago roku. "It`s Hot Tonight" droši vien ir labākā no šīm trim dziesmām, bet arī "Lace and Whiskey" un "Road Rats" (it īpaši otrā no tām) nav zemē metamas. Taču tad roks kaut kur pēkšņi pazūd - "Damned if you do" sāk jau tuvoties Eltona Džona repertuāram, "You and Me" ir kārtējā no Kūpera liriskajām balādēm, kas nez kāpēc kļuva par hītu, lai gan tā ne tuvu nav albūma interesantākā kompozīcija. "King of the Silver Screen" izklausās pēc Endrjū Loida Vebbera kompozīcijas, nezinu tikai no kura mūzikla, piedziedājums patiesībā tai gan ir labs. Visdīvainākā dziesma šajā albūmā noteikti ir "Ubangi Stomp", kas ir kaut kāds veltījums Čakam Berijam un Little Richard, vismaz tā tas izklausās, ka tas būtu tapis piecdesmito vidū. Un uz beigām Kūpers atkal iekrīt liriskajā režīmā (tiesa, ne tik banālā vairs kā "You and Me"), "Love at your convenience" pat paša Kūpera klātbūtne nav īsti jūtama, par "I Never wrote these songs" jāsaka, ka melodijas tur varētu būt vairāk, ideja jau laba, tikai šķiet, ka par dziesmu rakstīšanu Kūpers īsti padomāt tolaik tomēr nespēja.

Šo Murakami stāstu krājumu aizņēmos no N.R., kurš ir kļuvis par, iespējams, lielāku šī japāņu autora cienītāju nekā es jebkad esmu bijis (un te varu pat justies "kruts" - kā nekā "Aitas medīšanas piedzīvojumus" viņam uzdāvinājām mēs ar Lienču).

Pēc ilgāka pārtraukuma bijām kinoteātrī. Mī un žē, cik sen tur bijām pēdējo reizi. Varētu jau apskatīties šeit pat faktoīdā, kad tas bija, bet slinkums.

James Blunt may be one of the most successful performers of 2005 but his album lacks emotion and sticks to patters that leave no doubt that every beat in it, every sound is perfectly calculated in a way so teenage girls will like him. In terms of sound James Blunt is a replica of Coldplay with Elton John for singer done by the record industry. The big hit on this record surely is "You`re Beautiful" which is beautiful for sure and I have to admit that I like it as a sort of dirty pleasure. The tempo on most of the songs is slow and uninspiring. "Wisemen" sounds as if it was lifted straight off "Electric Fire" by Roger Taylor (I kinda like when Blunt changes his intonations for a few seconds for something pretty British and says "dirty bastards" though). "Goodbye my lover" is the piano equivalent for guitar strumming - it has close to no melody and sounds particulary silly. If James Blunt was a Leonard Cohen it would be perfectly fine but he ain`t no old Canadian Jew. "Tears and Rain" sounds ripped off from some oldie, maybe from James Taylor. Intro to "Billy". I just found out that James plays a lot of instruments on this album but that doesn`t really change anything. The album has catchy songs, it`s polished to perfection but it just doesn`t click emotionally and that`s a huge problem.

Lai arī es nebeidzu atkārtot, ka ņūmetāls nav mans mūzikas stils, disku kolekcija bez kaut viena RATM albūma, manuprāt, nevar būt pilnīga. Protams, šis gan nav tas ieraksts, kurš būtu nepieciešams, bet cita man gluži vienkārši nav.

Teorijā "A Perfect Circle" varētu būt ļoti interesanta grupa, jo tajā jābūt jūtamām divu tik prestižu grupu kā "Tool" un "Smashing Pumpkins" ietekmēm. Diemžēl rezultātā šis ieraksts ir padevies ne visai baudāms.

There are some things about this film that showcase that it`s not a very simple film - for example the fact that it isn`t spoken in English but in the original languages of Jerusalem of 33 AD - Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin. I guess only a complete dumbass would consider it a good idea to tell the story that happened to Jesus in the last day of his life - I don`t mean that a film would be silly - but telling the plot of this film would be just that in deed. What`s weird is that the film despite being controversial for some reasons unknown to me doesn`t have anything in it that would make me jump out of my socks and start shouting: "Now that`s not in the Bible!" Hell, everything in this film IS in the Bible! Jesus doesn`t make love to anyone, he speaks only what he`s supposed to and he even has a resurrection. Damn, except for the fact that you can see various people beat Jesus up like he was a sack of potatoes there`s nothing controversial in here. Mel Gibson of "Braveheart" is the director of this little funny film, of course, therefore bloody scenes shouldn`t surprise you very much. Still this is a good film, it`s perfectly honest and for those who say that it`s antisemitic I can say just one thing - you are freaking morons, my dear lads!

I may not be the most racially intollerable person in the whole wide world but I`m not particulary interested in stories about slavery. And this is the most typical story about slavery written by a modern writer. Whitechapel is a very old slave who loses his only son who`s being killed by a keeper after having ran away and been given out by the father himself. When the young white man kills the young black man he learns to know what the slave was indeed his half-brother. The book is written as monologues of all people involved in the incident and it logically ends with Whitechapel dying. I can`t say that this novel was something special, but it`s short in form and easy to read.