Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

Lately I`ve been listening to "Ween" a lot, although you wouldn`t know that by looking at this factoid. I was informed by three different sources that the band was supposed to be interesting: both of my favourite music reviewers - Marc Prindle and George Starostin like it a lot, and a colleague of a friend of mine once said that "Ween" was worth checking out. I can`t say that I knew absolutely nothing about the band until recently - I had heard "I`m Waving My Dick In The Wind" quite a few times for it was on the Soundtrack to either "Grand Theft Auto" or on some EA Sports game, most likely the former. But I never thought that "Ween" would be much more than a comedy band - something similar to "Weird Al" Yankovic. In reality "Ween" turned out to be a very interesting duo with a very diverse catalog of recorded music. "White Pepper" may not be the most diverce of their records but even on here you can`t really categorize what sort of a band you`re listening to. There you have the beautiful multi-layered "Flutes of the Chi", the hawaii-sounding "Bananas and Blow", the "Ace of Spades" reminding "Stroker Ace", the crazy dissonant instrumental "Ice Castles", the easy-listening "Back to Basom", the distorted and heavy "The Grobe" followed by the funky "Pandy Fackler", a masterful pop song "Stay Forever", "Falling Out" sounds somewhat like the Zutons, although they never existed when "White Pepper" came out. This is one of the albums where I`ll say - there`s no real filler and almost every song could eventually become a hit single. Which only means that the album didn`t deliver even a single hit.

Lai gan man patīk strīdēties, vienu faktu es neapstrīdēšu - Haruki Murakami ir ģēnijs. Tāpat viņš ir vienīgais japāņu rakstnieks, kuram ir pa īstam izdevies mani aizkustināt. Nav gan arī tā, ka es šausmīgi daudz būtu šīs valsts literatūrā iedziļinājies, bet Murakami manā iedomātajā zelta grāmatu plauktā pelnīti ieņem vienu no centrālajām vietām līdzās Umberto Eko, Milanam Kunderam, Kurtam Vonnegūtam, Frīdriham Dirrenmatam, Maksam Frišam, Ērikam Emanuēlam Šmitam, Viktoram Peļevinam un... laikam tas arī ir viss.

Romāns par pinbolu bija viens no pirmajiem Murakami darbiem, ar kuriem es iepazinos, taču kaut kāda iemesla dēļ mūsu iepriekšējā iepazīšanās sanāca sasteigta un nepabeigta, līdz ar to šī lasīšanas reize bija pirmā tāda, kurā sasniedzu romāna beigas.

"I`m a king kong man, I`m a voodoo man, I am an apeman." This is a quote from a song entitled "Apeman" by "The Kinks". It has little to do with the brand new film by Peter Jackson ("Lord of the Rings") but since I like this song very much I can`t stop myself from referring to it right now. "King Kong" is a classic, ofcourse. I may haven`t seen neither the original 1933 film, nor the remake from 1970s but even I had at least some idea about the story. You know, a huge ape running around carrying a blonde and fighting off T-Rex`es, that kind of stuff. This new film features a strong cast including Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Jack Black (from "Tenacious-D") and some others that I don`t know, a huge budget providing terrific special effects and a touch of humanism. What the film had a little too much of was length. I am familiar with P.Jackson`s inability to make short films but I still found some of the fighting scenes too long. At least I have to admit that I was waiting for the ending quite a lot, which is no wonder, considering that we had seets in the second row and that the film started at fifteen past eleven, PM. By the way - if you`re in the right state of mind don`t even consider sitting that close to the screen! It sucks completely - the video quality seems to be worse than that of a screener, your eyes will ache all the time, you`ll be surrounded by ape-men and ape-women and you`re gonna find it quite hard to enjoy the best of films created by man. I can appreciate what Peter Jackson did to the King Kong story and I agree that it was cleverly done (apart from lots of little logical errors) but I can`t agree that this was the best film of 2005. On the other hand I doubt that I have already seen the best one yet.

Es tā īsti nevaru saprast - cik daudz ir vēlams par filmu uzzināt, pirms to skatīties? No vienas puses, pārmērīgi daudz informācijas var tev traucēt filmu izbaudīt, no otras puses - neliela papētīšana un es, iespējams, nebūtu izlēmis skatīties "The Celestine Prophecy", kas būtu noteikti bijis prātīgs lēmums.

Ierakstu, kas būtu līdzīgi vienīgajam Sida Višesa solo albūmam, noteikti pasaulē ir daudz. Tikai parasti tādi ir ļoti zemas kvalitātes underground grupām un netiek oficiāli izdoti. Pat, ja tavas grupas nosaukums ir, teiksim "Pankiem desu", tu oficiāli parasti izdod albūmu, kura dziesmas ierakstītas vai nu studijā vai koncertā ar kaut cik normālu aprīkojumu, tu arī padomā par to, lai šis ieraksts neizklausītos pēc zemākās kvalitātes pirātu ieraksta.

This is a documentary that certainly can challenge Michael Moore`s latest output "Fahrenheit 9/11" in terms of poor quality. Of course, the budget of this film isn`t particulary impressive, but it`s not a problem. The Yes men are people impersonating members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and participating in this way at different conferences. It`s funny to watch how serious people watch the Yes men make fun of them without realizing that what they`re hearing may be true but it most surely isn`t what the WTO would say. For example, when the Yes Men offer to sell in the third world countries at McDonalds recycled products - recycled through the sewage system from the American and European bathrooms, it isn`t just a joke, there`s much truth in it. And so it`s about the words that slavery wasn`t as efficient as keeping the slaves in their native Africa and forcing them work for peanuts there. But a gigantic inflatable phallus attached to a manager suit and equiped with a monitor still is a good laugh. It may not be a film for the big screen (it`s where I saw it) but it`s a film worth watching.

I`m becoming smart, you know. It`s only the beginning of February, but it`s the fourth exhibition I`ve already been to this year! And it goes either into the first or the second place. Of course, before this exhibition the name of Silvio Vigliaturo wasn`t known to me - as you probably know I`m not a big expert of modern art (or of classical art for that matters). How can I describe what the exhibition had? Well, the basic thing was glass and forms made of it. And these forms were coloured in a somewhat weird manner - with paint, not coloured glass, that`s for sure. Most of the works depicted either lovers, rock`n`roll musicians (not certain musicians but musicians as such) or amazones. As it was written on the wall - Vigliaturo`s inspiration comes mostly from Picasso, Matisse and Marc Shagal. About the first and the third one I guess I could have guessed. It`s a lot of abstraction, of course, but an interesting abstraction for sure. I`m not gonna say that this exhibition made me think or something like that - it was just beautiful, and I don`t ask for nothing more.

If I knew anything about music I`d probably call "I`m a bird now" one of the best records (if not THE best) of 2005. And there`s no wonder why - this is music for intellectuals and not just some shlock for the average Joe. The lyrics are incredibly deep and emotional, the production is very accurate and full of pain and helplesness. But there`s one thing bothering me about this album - I don`t like it. Despite what THEY tell you I can`t find this disc particulary catchy. What is interesting is the feeling that this Antony is a 70 years old black man although in fact he`s neither black nor old. But his gospel-soul music isn`t exactly what I would want to find under the Christmas tree. He may be smart, he may be talented, he may be whatever he is but it`s still that old time rocknroll I want to hear and not his religiously sounding wailings.

Droši vien, šī nav visu laiku patiesākā un/vai precīzākā filma par slavenā Kazanovas dzīvi. Protams, mākslas filmas vispār nav gluži tas veids, kā iegūt faktoloģisku informāciju, bet šī filma pat kino žanrā nebūtu uzskatāma par diez ko biogrāfisku.