Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

Nupat man nāksies atzīties, ka manā disku kolekcijā atsevišķi izpildītāji ir pārstāvēti ar pārāk lielu disku skaitu. Piemēram, Black Sabath nav slikta grupa, bet vai man patiešām ir nepieciešami veseli deviņi viņu ieraksti? Un šī grupa nav vēl trakākais gadījums - man vismaz nav īpaši daudz viņu vēlīno un patiešām bezjēdzīgo ierakstu.

American Beauty, American History X, American Pie, American Wedding, American Psycho, The Quiet American... the list could go on and on forever. What has this Splendor thing got that the other films don`t have? It certainly is the embolishment of the American dream, although in a bit acward way. First, it`s a film based on true facts, and it even features the prototypes of the films characters. Harvey Pekar is a middle-aged loser who works as a filing clerk, has been left by his second wife and has very little pleasure in life. His interests include collecting old records and comic books. I personally never got what`s so great about them comic books, but I don`t care. And one day he decides that he can start a comic book of his own - not about some superhero but about the average loser - himself. He can`t draw, off course, but there are other people who can. And he becomes massively popular, not that it makes him happy or anything, cos` he`s still a loser. He even gets married and he could be happy if he wanted to. But he doesn`t want anything like that. There`s also his friend Toby who`s a genuine nerd, and who`s proud for that. This film is somewhat similar to "Napoleon Dynamite" - in being an obscure comedy about a loser, although it`s less obscure for sure. And it also reminded me of a Simpsons episode called "Angry dad" - where Bart started drawing comics about Homer, and also became successful at that. This film is certainly worth watching, but not particulary interesting.

I guess if you`re name is Kazuo Ishiguro most people upon seing momentarily imagine samurai, geishas, sake, sumo wrestlers and lots of hentai images. And after that you spend days and days convincing a person that you`re not Japanese. You can even write a book from the viewpoint of an elderly English butler and still the readers will await Kurosawa appearing in the novel. The hero of the novel, named Stevens, has been a butler at Darlington Hall for some three decades. Now he goes in his masters - an American gentleman`s - car on a journey through England as the first travelling vacation of his life. He doesn`t go very far though and most of the time he still thinks about the glorious days of the past. Not that his past had any glory at all - butlers rarely make history after all but he can philosophise about different great butlers of his days and about his master - the late Lord Darlington. As the book proves, a perfect butler is only remotely human - he doesn`t have any emotions, any opionions, he`s a monster who can`t love anyone but his master. At first Stevens seems to be a normal fellow but as the book gets closer to the end and he glorifies everything his master the reader learns to know that Stevens isn`t really sane in fact. That`s quite a scary book, although nobody gets mutilated, killed in obnotious ways, no-ones eyeballs are squeezed and made into jelly but I still found it very very scary. And very English. Too English I even guess. The whole butler, housekeeper shinanegan is just a lot of bullshit IMHO. A proletaric folk doesn`t need that! Let`s follow Marx, let`s follow Lenin! Well, maybe not, but I still don`t like people of Stevens`s kind. Not that I must like the hero in order to enjoy a book, but the way he treats people and his impression of the world make me shiver.

Nezinu, kā tas atgadījās, bet šī albūma dziesmu sacerēšanā Eliss Kūpers pieaicināja tādu vīru vārdā Bērnijs Taupins. Zini, ar ko šis bija slavens? Ar to, ka viņš bija tekstu autors Eltona Džona dziesmām. Interesanti, vai ne? Eliss tomēr nav gluži Eltons. Vai tomēr ir?

"Veronikas dubultā dzīve" ir viena no tām filmām, kuru es grasījos noskatīites jau sen. Patiesībā - jau ļoti sen. Ja tevi interesē, cik - vismaz kopš tā laika, kad skatījos Kislovska visas 3 krāsu filmas. Un tas bija patiešām sen. Bet agrāk to kaut kādu iemeslu nevarēja nekur dabūt, tagad beidzot man izdevās to dabūt savā īpašumā un pārliecināties, ka gadiem ilgi to gaidīt nebija vērts.

It had been... days since I last watched a film with Johnny Depp, so I had no other choice but to watch this film. Actually I watched the first half an hour some weeks ago but then I thought - no, this is the kind of film to watch together with my girlfriend and not all by myself. Only she showed little interest in watching this film together with me. So I had no other option but devoting a lonesome evening to Johnny Depp alone. Well, maybe this isn`t really a film with the highest amount of Johnny on screen ever but this is a film with Johnny Depp without a doubt. The message of the film is quite clear - what you do is what counts and not what you don`t do (for example, helping a woman to leave her abusive husband is better than fasting before Easter). The film has some perfect acting, including Juliette Binoche, Judy Dench and some other actors I`m too lazy to look up on the IMDB. Anyway, the film was beautiful, I was close to tears in the end, but I have no time to write about. Who am I to spend my days writing about films that lots and lots of better ones have praised before me. As if my opinion mattered. As if life was worth living. Probably it would be the best for me to go home and eat some chocolate. Man, do I love chocolate! And Johnny Depp.

Lai apliecinātu, ka esmu labs, šai grāmatai pat izveidoju puslīdz normālu ārtiklu Vikipēdijā (lai gan, protams, tur vēl varētu šo to pilnveidot). Kā jau var nojaust, šis ir nākamais romāns Verbēra ciklā par skudrām. Tā darbība norisinās gadu pēc pirmā romāna darbības.

Turpinot pievērsties unikāli nedaudzveidīgajai AC/DC ierakstu karjerai, esmu nonācis pie "For those about to rock" - albūma, kurš acīmredzami bija lemts neveiksmei. Iznācis pēc "Highway to Hell" - labākā grupas ieraksta ar Bonu Skotu, un "Back in Black" - labākā ieraksta bez Bona Skota (tobiš ar Braienu Džonsonu), šis ieraksts diez vai varēja cerēt kļūt par trešo absolūto virsotni grupas ierakstu kolekcijā.

Herman Hesse is one of the titans of 20th century literature. And being a titan he`s to heavy for me to be able to cope with. For example, this novel in question. I started reading it quite a lot of times before I actually was able to finish it. And not that it is very boring or something like that, it`s just hard to read. The main hero - the Steppenwolf is a man who metaphorically is a steppenwolf - a lonesome stranger in the modern society, but who enjoyes clean bourgeoisie and stuff connected with that. Harry Haller is his name. His own biography supposedly written by himself tells us how Harry wanted to enter a bizarre theatre, which can only be entered by paying with your mind for that ("Eintritt kostet den Verstand"). And there was a young female person who tried to cure Harry, to help him enjoy life and to prepare him for entering the theatre just so that he can kill her. And a jazz musician who seemed to be a primitive person but was in deed the owner of the strange theatre, in which Harry could see how he was constructed. It`s not that easy to describe anyway, and it`s not that easy to understand.

This is a film that you are bound to know. It`s the highest acclaimed work of Martin Scorcese and one of the most famous films with Robert de Niro as the anchorman. Travis is a Vietnam veteran who suffers from loneliness and who can`t sleep. Therefore he works as a taxi driver. Being dissatisfied with his world, with his life, he goes a bit over the roof. He tries to start a romance with Nancy - an activist for a president elections candidate Charles Palantine, but fails miserably after inviting her to a cinema to watch a Swedish porn movie. Somehow it happens that she is not a fan of this type of movies. After that Travis buys a lot of guns and starts training for cleaning up the city of New York. Why does he do that? Just because he doesn`t like the scum of the city. And he even manages to shoot something like 4 people, and even become some sort of a local hero in the end. What is good about this film? I guess, the acting is quite good, the characters are realistic - especially the one portrayed by De Niro himself. But what`s not that great? At least I could see why this film could be considered that good - it`s level of tension is pretty low and it seems to go for a very, very long time. Maybe I didn`t get something but I wouldn`t call this a real masterpiece, just a good movie.