Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

This record came out when George was already deceased, yet from the album you`d never guess that its maker was closer to death than Latvia to being the poorest country in Europe. Yet Mr. Harrison still had quite a big share of optimism, which can be clearly felt in his music. In terms of style this is a mix of Traveling Wilburys with 80s Tom Petty. "Looking for my love" is some sort of Wilburys` "Handle with care" (or was it "The end of the line"). I can even imagine a video to it with Harrison and his pals on a train with their accoustic guitars. "Any road" has a good line "If you don`t know where you`re going, any road will take you there." As a matter of fact it proves which one was the central Wilbury. The only song that doesn`t follow the same pattern is the title track - a political song about being brainwashed. Yet towards the middle it loses its afression and also comes out as a Traveling Wilburys song. Not that it`s bad.

If there`s one thing I didn`t undestrand is how could Leo di Caprio look in it as if he was some 13 years old, when in fact he was 18-19 when the film was being made. Probably due to some ancient injury he was only half a Capri-ee. Or I don`t know what. Toby who prefers to be called Jack lives with his mother who struggles between asshole boyfriends. When she finally meets a man who seems to be ok, she marries him and Dwight (played by Robert de Niro) becomes a new father for Toby. Sadly he ain`t a very good one, a military obsessed person with problems of alcoholism and agression he ain`t the nicest fellow around. The whole family settles down in a little town named Concrete, and it`s a perfect place for a child to be abused and suffering. Anyhow, the film ain`t really that heavy as you might feel right now. It sure ain`t no sugary comedy about Ernest going to camp, but it won`t make you cry in anguish either. The film is quite a good one, it keeps you watching until the very end, but it doesn`t make no huge revelations inside your head.

Douglas Adams probably wouldn`t have liked this film. But he surely would have brought a towel to the cinema. Or he wouldn`t have. Maybe he`d feel depressed just like Marvin did. Anyhow the long time of waiting had finally come to its logical end and I watched the film that was talked about for decades. Not that it really lives up to the hype. Not that anybody expected it to live up to the hype. The story is a bit fucked-up in comparison to what you`d want it to be. At least I pretty much doubt that you`d be particulary interested in a love story between Arthur Dent and Trillian. We all know whom Arthur must date, and who`s Trillian`s lover (at least in the first books). "Those are Whitey`s cookies, Bud.

Dreamworks is the studio that gave life to Shrek. And Shrek 2! And it will give life to Shrek 3, 4, and Shrek: The Beginning. Sadly it also does other things than just making CGI with the green monstrous creature and that perfectly lovable donkey. Oh, no, they thought to themselves: if we can master a donkey, we`re sure smart enough to handle a zebra, a lion, a giraffe and a begemoth. Oh, no you can`t! You just suck at doing stuff like that! Who on earth thought that asking Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Ali G to do the vioices will be a good idea? Ok, Shrek had that silly Austin Powers person - but he never once went over the top, while Eddie Murphy goes over the top only in cases when it`s required (e.g. all the time). The plot on this cartoon is silly even for a cartoon, the graphics have about as many edges as few edges the script has. Most of the jokes are not only forced but also unfunny. The penguins and the monkeys are a bit better than the lead characters, but apart from that - the cartoon sucked. Ok, I shall not rate it particulary low since it`s destined to be watched by children, but remember that if it was made for adults it would probably be considered about as good as "Ali G in da house"

One thing you can`t deny about CCR is that the songs of this band are catchy. On this very short album (less than 26 minutes) for instance there are several classical pieces of John Fogerty`s masterful songwriting, including "Bad Moon Rising" - my absolutely favourite song by CCR. Apart from that there are "Wrote a song for everyone" - a love ballad about a guy who can give his heart to everyone but the one he loves. Then there`s "Lodi"

This film is a documentary about the life and work of Fred Firth, a British avantgarde multiinstrumentalist. I have no clue who this fellow is/was and why he someone would bother to make a documentary about him. Anyhow somebody did bother. But I really didn`t bother to watch it. Why should I? I`m not particulary interested in avantegarde musicians I don`t know nothing about. At least I listened to the film. By the way, it`s quite interestingly done in black and white, all artsy you know, but I just don`t wanna know much about that Frith person anyhow. Ok, he was a member of "Henry Cow" - an obscure and completely unlistenable band. Not that the music in the film was bad (anything else doesn`t ring a bell for me at all), it`s actually pretty interesting, but not for everyday use, and surely not for fans of anything normal. Probably if you think that Throbbing Gristle is a good band and you`d love to buy more of their records, you`ll enjoy Frith as well. Otherwise, I doubt it.

The full title of this album is "Arthur or the decline and fall of the British empire" but I`m too lazy to use that as a title. In case you wonder, Arthur isn`t king Arthur of the round table but an old British man who slowly approaches the end of his life in 1960s. I really don`t get how it happened that the Kinks aren`t revered as big as some of their contemporaries - such as the Beatles, the Stones and Engelbert Humpeldink. At least this album of theirs ranks up to the best rock music ever put out. It ranges a whole bunch of genres from slow and quiet romance like "Young and Innocent days" to the fast and furious "Victoria", from rag-timey "She Bought a hat like princess Marina`s" to avantgarde of "Australia". It has a majestic war epic "Some mother`s son" which concludes "Yes Sir, No Sir" army nonsense. It has great lyrics about whatever you want, excellent singing by the Davies brothers, untrivial melodies and everything else you`ll ever want from a rock opera (in case you call this a rock opera).

Back in 1963 grass was green and sex was bad (although the Searchers don`t sing about it, it`s the Kinks who do that). What the Searchers were is a bubblegum pop band. They never made a transition from teeny idols into mature musicians and aren`t particulary highly rated nowadays. That doesn`t say that this Liverpool quartet didn`t have its share of charme. Of course, they never wrote their songs because it wasn`t a typical thing to do for a bubblegum band. This record is considered a collection of songs to go with the hit single "Sugar&Spice" - a very sugary love song. Most of the songs sound as if they were the same song, but that`s certainly a thing you could expect from a band like the Searchers. There are no real flaws on this record - but it`s just not particulary good, with the songs having about zero diversity, zero surprise rating and zero resonance to me (just because its teeny bubblegum shite).

The film "Almost Famous" is probably responsible for me ever listening to this record. Yet I don`t really get why it`s supposed to be as good as it`s supposed to be. Ok, there are some brilliant songs on the record - tracks like "America" and "Mrs Robinson" are just top level. "A hazy shade of winter" is very good as well, I also like "Fakin` It" and, maybe, "At the zoo" as well. But some of the tracks make so little sense that it`s hard to make less sense than they do. For instance who would care to listen to "Voice of old people" - a track on which you hear... voices of old people. Man is it amazing to listen to some old farts! The record may have its positive aspects but some songs on it would never allow it to be an instant classic.

Although I have quite a positive attitude towards Mr Cash, I can`t call this record a particulary good one. Of course, it`s no problem to see that it was written and recorded by a man who wasn`t young and healthy anymore - in fact he died not so much later after the album came out. Therefore, for example, his cover of Nine Inch Nails "Hurt" is a great song, it`s powerful, no not really powerful, it`s a song of a dying man about hurting - you feel that Cash knows what hurt really is. But his own songs on the album aren`t that good. He also does a cover of Depeche Mode`s "Personal Jesus" which ain`t bad but ain`t that great either. And, of course, the cover of Beatles "In My Life" is much worse than the original but that`s no wonder, for it ain`t particulary easy to improve a Beatles song. From Cash`s own compositions the title track is probably the best one, but it`s not very mindblowing.