Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

A true classic, this one. Probably the Pistols weren`t a real band but clearly a bunch of marketed kids whom the mastermind villain Malcolm McLaren used in his evil scheme to portray punk as a return of the worst traditions of teenybop, forming a group of "pretty" or rather "punk" looking kids who didn`t know how to play their instruments, how to sing or how to do the poo-poo. But in fact they did know how to play and they did know how to write pretty catchy songs. Not all of the tracks on this album are brilliant but there`s surely enough of songs that will make you jump around as if your ass was on fire and destroy the passerby, the EMI and the Queen (especially that John Deacon, he`s such a bigmouth who doesn`t know where the duck stops). Highlights: "Holidays in the Sun", "God Save the Queen" (marvelous), "Anarchy in the UK", "Pretty Vacant", "EMI". I can`t say that this album is particulary diverse, but it`s so punk, so "I don`t care" in every way that I can`t say No to it.

Why on earth would I read a novel by an unknown German writer titled "Baikonur"? I do know that Baikonur is the place where Soviet spaceships got their start. So what? This former pilot named Beck after the death of his girlfriend (or was it wife, who cares) gets a real Sojus spaceship. But he doesn`t care about it very much, he just wants to find the place where the woman died. So he goes on a roadtrip to Hungary, where he knows she rests in a place starting with F. On the road he also takes a used car salesman, a young Czech woman named Jana and a female friend of his deceased lover. The story isn`t particulary interesting, nor is it particulary believable. One thing I totally didn`t get is why is extremely cold in Russia not far from Baikonur, since it certainly isn`t in the North, but probably H.Geyer knows more about temperatures than I do. I can`t really say that this book was no-good, but it wasn`t good as well. So you`d probably still say that it was no-good. Mainly it was second-class literature that you probably could read on a train or on the road to work (which is exactly what I did).

Robbie Plant was the voice of legendary Led Zeppelin. He wasn`t the main songwriting force of the band though. But he does a solid solo career of his own. He hasn`t gone very far away from his Led Zep legacy, still doing music quite similar to that of his younger days. For me this album is a bit too slow-paced, not that Led Zep ever played speed metal, but I ask for more energy. On the other hand it may be just my bad mood because of the stupid email system at my work that doesn`t work properly all this week. In fact it doesn`t work at all. Man, does this disturb me! All those assholes calling and asking what`s wrong and: "Can I punch you in the face as if you were a sack of shit?" They drive me mad! And Robert Plant can`t do nothing about it.

A film about Cuban musicians that emerged before the socialistic revolution of Fidel Castro. T`is a documenary. Music was good but I didn`t understand much of what was said in the film (most of it was in Spanish which is not a language I know and the only working subtitles were unremovable and in French. It was possible to get the meaning of some sentences but to understand everything in a strange language isn`t a task I can perform).

I`m too lazy to write about this album. The Darkness Mark 2. Not very good, a bit too-Darknessy, a bit too serious for The Darkness.

Emir Kusturica doesn`t have any fresh ideas lately. That is a conclusion I`ve come up with after watching this, one of his earliest, works. It has most of the elements that Kusturica has been using in his films ever since - there are gypsies, there is his favourite gypsie music, there are people running around in boxes, there are fragments from old movies, etc., etc. I don`t mean to tell that this film was no good, on the contrary - it was good. It probably has some problems with continuality - quite a few times it seemed to me that one scene had very little to do with another. Or I just wasn`t paying attention too closely, that can be also sure. Ok, this film is much more serious than one about cats but I didn`t enjoy it very much, and that`s what matter.

It didn`t take me long to watch this film - merely half a year had passed since I borrowed this film from a friend when I finally watched it. What were my prejudices to this film? First, I expected it to be too melodramatic for my taste. Then I`m not really a piano lover, and I was pretty sure that there would be enough of this instrument in this film. It proved that my concerns were true indeed. Ada is a woman that hasn`t spoken to anyone since she was 6 years old, and for no particular reason. She arrives to Australia to meet her new husband whom she hasn`t seen before. She also got a daughter, that does speak. Since the husband doesn`t care for Ada`s piano it`s picked up by a neighbour of his who asks Ada to give him piano lessons. As you can probably guess, it`s not piano what he wants. Obscurely Ada also becomes attracted to him and not to her husband, who becomes a bit violent and chops one of her fingers off. As for melodramatic elements there`s one huge positive aspect in this film - since Ada doesn`t speak she also doesn`t have hysterias. That`s awesome `cos hysteria is just one thing I can`t stand at all. As for the music it was good, probably this film won`t be a long-time favourite of mine, but it was good.

This is a documentary film about a man eating hamburgers. I has nothing to do with the legendary documentary film "Man getting hit by football" where an old man gets hit by a football in the groin (you can watch this film on an episode of the Simpsons). I have to admit that I never eat burgers anyhow so this film couldn`t have a huge impact upon me. But it was interesting to watch it, although I probably wouldn`t want to do it again (as it happens with most documentaries). This surely isn`t art, but it is good.

After having seen Werner Herzog`s film about Kaspar Hauser I knew I`d try to watch something else by this director. And Aguirre is considered to be his best film. Actually I didn`t get the reasons for that. Probably it is interesting for some people to watch an endless journey on a river where people are looking for the legendary Eldorado. Sadly there ain`t particulary anything going on. So, there is Aguirre, a military man who overthrows the leader of the expedition, names a stupid fatso the kig of Eldorado and lets most of his people die in hideous deaths. But even those deaths aren`t very entertaining. And nothing else in this film is. Boring! The ending was good though. I also must admit that the camera work is good, and maybe even the actors aren`t half-bad, but the pace of the film is just too slow for me.

This film spun a massive controversy because its very sexual content. That was probably the thing Bernardo Bertolucci was aiming for, `cos otherwise his new work might have been unnoticed. Mathew is an American student that goes to study to Paris in 1968 and happens to be there at the time of student riots. Yet he doesn`t participate in them for he rather plays sex games with Isabelle and her twin-brother Theo. All of them are fans of good films and music, and they live in a world of peace and boheme. Before watching this film I was informed that there would be quite a lot of sex in it, and it was. Sadly apart from being beautifully done this film hasn`t got very much else to offer. As a matter of fact I`d think that it is a perfect film for a person that thinks of itself as a film expert but actually isn`t one (me for example). There are references to films by Godard, scenes from some old films are shown and once you recognise one of them you think of yourself very highly. If you don`t recognise the scene you think that it only proves the greatness of this film. As for me, I`m not a fan of French new-wave, but "The Dreamers" seemed to me being just a kinkier version of "Zabriskie point". And "Zabriskie point" isn`t my favourite film either.