It`s been a year since the first album by this band came out, and in the somaphore effort the band proves itself worthy of it`s debut. Yet, I can`t lose the feeling that last time around they were more impressive. Together with some particulary strong tracks - songs like "The cat", "Red is visible", there are others that don`t mean nothing to me, for example "Hospitals street" is a worthless song in my opinon. Some of the songs are more mellow than on the first album; that is not really a problem for me but I`d expect more.

The third part of the religion cycle. This one goes about judaism. You know I`m not particular interested in stuff that goes around the subject of Holocaust, especially since it`s been ridiculised by the money-grabbing morons of the world. It luckily ain`t the case for Mr. Schmitt who knows perfectly well how to separate what`s good from what`s bad. A boy at the age of circa ten has to leave his family in order to become a christian boy. He lives in a catholic school and becomes almost a christian child. Not really though, for he`s guided by a catcholic priest who thinks that it`s his mission to save things that are in danger of being no more. And jews are a collection of his, for which he`s ready to do almost everything. It`s probably senseless to say that once again humanity is the main thing that Schmitt gives us. It`s not really about the jews, as it isn`t about christians or muslims for him. It`s about the humans, and what`s human in them. Schmitt rarely writes about really evil people, and that`s good, for I don`t need more evil in this world than there already is. A touching book. Is the day coming when I`ll write something negative about one of his books? I doubt that.

Swedish rock music isn`t considered as the top level pop ever provided. Ok, they got ABBA, but that was way back when people differed from apes only by the fact that they mated with their females instead of those of gorrilaz (a cool band, by the way). Then there was Ace of Base, but they never recorded anything as powerful as "Ace of Spades" so why should we bother about them. Army of lovers? Nah, better try "Lovefool". That`s the song that made Cardigans famous, a thing they never would have thought to be possible, had they become a "Metal Machine Music" tribute band. Since they wrote poppy rocky stuff instead, their miracle became true, and they were not only the first band on the moon, but the first band off the moon as well. So, they came up with Gran Tourismo (Gran is the short form for grannie), a concept album about an old woman travelling all the way to Lykopping to see a football game between the local team and FC Fredrickhaven. No, there`s no granny and no football in sight, this is a bit agressive rock album with vocals by an angel. Actually the music is pretty good, but how good is pretty good anyhow? Is it worse than jolly good? And how does it compare with "quite good", "goodies" and "holy cow, what a shitty piece of cake!"? I don`t know.

This is a film that preceeded Kill Bill by Quentin Tarantino. How could the guy with Q at the beginning of his name otherwise thought of what was happening to Beatrice while she was in a comatose state? I mean a doctor using her as a whore for necrophilic rednecks is a good concept, and it probably can bring you some easy cash, but Quentin ain`t that creative himself to think of that without the help of some gay Spanish director who likes to make films about drags-queens bragging how cool it is to have both tits and a penis, and how guys love blow-jobs from a woman with a penis. Hey, there was this song "Your mother got a penis" by this techno-rap artist, who`s name I`ve sadly forgotten. Goldie Lookin` Chain - yup, I remembered it! Anyhow, Talk to her has no signs of drag-queens, or at least if there is one fellow who may be a bit sick, he at least never wears women`s panties in a way so the others could see that. Instead he stalks a girl and when she falls into a coma he becomes her private nurse at the hospital and imagines that they have a normal relationship going. That is, until he gets her pregnant, the dork! Then there`s another fellow who`s girlfriend is also in a coma after she was hit by a bull (she`s a bullfighter). A strange relationship starts between the two fellows. No, they don`t do kinky stuff with each other! The film is kinda good, not particulary the kind of cinema I`m interested in, but - yes, it is provoking, yes, it is beautifuly done, yes, I liked it. And, no, I don`t think that it is cool to have sex with a partially dead person, and I don`t think that the fellow - Benigno - was sane.

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.