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.

Of course, Joni Mitchell is a bit sissy for a fan of hardcore rap. But as a matter of fact I`m not a fan of harcore rap. Therefore singing to an acoustic guitar is no problem for me. Especially if the singer has a perfect voice, perfect melodies and perfect songs. What more can you want? A glass of warm milk.

Imagine a film that features the singer of "Stillwater" and Tom Green. What do you think would come out of it? Not much you say? Damn right you are. Ok, I gotta admit that this film is nowhere near as bad as "Freddy got fingered". On the other hand very few things are (on my factoid only "Son of the mask" and "Dorm daze" received that level of crappy rating). Anyhow, this fellow John Plummer wants to live happily with his girlfriend but it happens that he`s promised his niece to pay for her college, which is a thing he can`t manage because he hasn`t got that much money. So he hooks up with his dorky pal named Duff (played by T.Green) in order to gain some easy money, which can at best be done in the world of crime. Of course this film is a comedy, a silly one as a matter of fact. It has a lot of cliches in it, which also doesn`t make me wonder. Still I would consider this film at least average if there wasn`t for one thing I totally hate in movies because it`s just so lame that you can`t think of anything lamer than it - it`s a man being "loved" (physically) by a dog. Damn is it the most stupid thing that happens in about 50% of stupid comedies! And another one of those things is the stupidity of the main character who rather lets his fiancee think that he`s having an affair than tells her that he`s got this money problem.

BG is considered more than a legend in Eastern Europe and especially in Russia. I`m not so sure whether Vertisnky is also considered that legendary, but on this record BG pays his homage to the legendary singer/poet. The album has very litle music on it, reminiscing some of the old records of Leondard Cohen, only without female backing vocals. Lyrically the record is very strong, and despite the fact that it`s not very entertaining there`s a real charme in the album, genuine poetry is what`s presented on here, and not some "house/mouse" rhyming. My favourite "songs" if they can be considered as songs are "A dog named Douglas", "Half-blood" ("I don`t need a woman/I only need a theme"), "To love silently". A voice and a guitar strumming is all you need to make a heart cry.

The biggest problem of most Weird`s records is the fact that he wants to be a songwriter himself and not just a guy who creates parodies of popular songs. And Alapalooza ain`t no exception. Among he own songs on this album we have "Young Dumb & Ugly" - quite a normal poodle-rock song, if nothing special. Franks 2000`` TV on the other hand is a stupid and boring song about TV - the most popular subject of Weird`s songs. "Traffic Jam" is an 80s novelty song, not particulary good. "Talk Soup" seems to be a cover version of I don`t know what. "She never told me was mime" is useless. And so is "Waffle king". At least the 21 seconds long "Harwey the wonder hamster" is good. Among the covers there are two very good ones - "Achy breaky heartsong" and "Jurassic Park" and one good one - "Bohemian Polka". The rest is forgettable. As a matter of fact, the whole album is forgettable.

Inokentijs Marpls is a legendary Latvian underground band. Surely it`s legendary only in Latvia and only among fans of underground punk music, but who gives a damn about who praises whom. It`s not like in the Bible where Noah begeth another person and another person begeth one more person and blah blah blah so much further. This was the first record the band issued in the format of a compact disk after something like 15 years of existence. I dare not say that all of those songs on the record are very good, I dare not say that the singer of the band has a great voice and I certainly dare not say that the song which features lyrics close to "Oh, your dick is your best friend" is very intelligent. But I dare say that this album has lots and lots of energy. And what more do you need?

A very nice and quiet film about a girl who worked as a maid for Johannes von Vermeer. As a matter of fact this film has very little to do with "Diary of a chambermaid" but I somehow thought it would be appropriate to mention this film right now. Anyhow, Scarlet Jochansen and Colin Firth play the lead roles in this film. You can`t expect too much going on in this film, because the Netherlands wasn`t exactly a very much fun place back in the 16th century. Or at least we`re lead to believe that it was that way. What`s weird about the whole thing is that Mr. Vermeer don`t do no kinky stuff with his maid although a love story surely exists between them it doesn`t end up in hay, on the molbert or somewhere else. The film itself is like an art piece, like a painting. By the way, Scarlet really does look like the girl in Vermeers painting - that`s a huge plus for the film. You probably shouldn`t watch this one in a loud company, but together with your loved one it will be a real treat (by the way, I watched it alone, poor me...).