This is a band that never really broke into mainstream but has been there or there about for some years now. Their latest (at the moment) album doesn`t feature anymore the Foo Fighters member Dave Grohl on drums, but that doesn`t mean that the music has changed. Apart from the opening track - "This Lullaby" - which is a slow paced mellow track sung in the voice of a young Tom Waits. "Everybody Knows that you`re insane" sounds like it was done by Pearl Jam. I like "Tangled up in plaid" more for it has a nice opening riff, it reminds me of something, I don`t know of what but it does. "Little Sister" is a rip-off for sure, but it sounds good. The biggest problem of the album is that its first half of songs is better than the second one - after "Little Sister" (number 7) there ain`t a single memorable track on the disc.

Some people call this the best album of the sixties. Most people (of those that know that such a band called "Love" ever existed) call this one of the greatest albums of all time. Until rather recently this band was completely forgotten but all of a sudden it arose to popularity (just like the Zombies did). Of course, this is a record that could have come out only in the summer of love - it has warm guitar sounds, stylistically "Love" is more similar to Beach Boys than to Beatles. Lyrical subjects are quite usual for 1967 - the album opener even has the line "I could love almost everyone", the songs are pretty orchestrated. Highlights include "The Daily Planet", "Live and let live" and "You Set the Scene". Music like that doesn`t happen anymore, and it`s sad.

Of course, it isn`t the first time I listen to this record, not at all, but I had never listened to it 3 times a row, and now I have. That`s not a particulary hard task, of course, since the album is only 35 minutes long. That was the second album Cohen ever had, and it is one of his best. Cohen never had very much melody in his songs, as you know, he mainly does some guitar strumming, accompanying his singing, which isn`t that much of singing as well. He`s a poet from the beatniks, you know, and he`s very good at writing lyrics (or was way back in 1969). "Story of Isaac" is one brilliant example of his writing skills, telling about a man who goes mad and decides that he must kill his children in order to praise the Lord. Another song about God is called "The Butcher". A nice vision of God, isn`t it? To be short, I like all of those songs, although they aren`t really songs, but if they are good, what more do I need?

The title is very promising indeed. The legendary Minotaur is living among us until today, he doesn`t eat virgins anymore, he`s become a cook in North Carolina, he`s lonely and his life is miserable. I guess, if the same story would be told about some simple man it would sound pathetically boring and uninspiring (ok, losers are interesting sometimes, as they are in "Sideways"). Minotaur has problems communicating with his colleagues because he can`t speak clearly through his bulls mouth. He ain`t very smart, but he isn`t dumb. He falls in love with a waitress named Kelly with very big breasts. The novel has quite a lot of sex in it, at some moments totally pointless. Overall this book isn`t really anything - it`s neither funny nor dramatic, neither pretentious nor minimalistic. I`ve surely read worse but I`ve read better as well. With the idea of placing Minotaurus in the modern wold much better things could certainly be done. So it has become just a boring pointless experience.

This isn`t a brand new feature film by Emir Kusturica about gypsies or Balkan wars. This is a documentary about the members of his band "No Smoking Orchestra" where Emir himself plays the guitar. What I didn`t really like about the film was that there wasn`t very much music in it. I`m not that really interested in all lives of all Bogdan Misinovices who form the magical 8 of the band. I`ve seen quarrels between band members in films before, and stylistically "Super 8 stories" surely isn`t groundbreaking. You see, I tried to watch it as another masterpiece from Kusturica, but I couldn`t achieve that - it`s not a bad documentary, but that`s all that can be said about it. Music is, of course, brilliant. Oh, the making of nude photos of musicians with their instruments was fun.

Upon deciding to listen to this record I didn`t really know what to expect. I thought this would be some sort of indy-rock with a little bit of blues, but in fact "Laika" is a British duo doing something a bit similar to dance music. Since I`m no big fan of this genre, I can`t say that I enjoyed this sound very much. The highlight of the record for sure is a song called "Badtimes" because of its lyrics about some obscure computer virus that comes out of the computer and leaves its socks on your table. I don`t say that this music ain`t good, I can even imagine that I could be listening to this in some chillout zone, but this certainly is not the kind of music I like to listen to while being at work.

These stories are supposed to be funny. Maybe I`m a twisted weirdo but I didn`t find them to be like that. Some of them are some mock-biographies of people that never existed. Only one of them still comes to my mind - about a guy who was a great artist in the form of art where nothing remains after the man`s death - he persuaded different artists not to do something - for example, he told Brahms to stop writing music, he insisted that Chopin wouldn`t wear woman`s clothing just like George Sand wore man`s clothes. And he also wrote some letters, most of which are analysed and quoted until today (most of those letters are about as brilliant as "Hello. I`m fine. How are you?") That`s all I can tell about this book.

This book was a sensation way back in Germany when it first came out. Why is that? For the obvious reason, of course. And what is the obvious reason - a guy of 15 having affair with a 36 year old former guard at a Nazi concentration camp. Actually I`ve had enough of those books about nazism - damn, there`s not much that hasn`t been already said and most of this stuff is just a repetition. What`s special about this teenie`s woman is that she likes people to read loudly for her - she did it with her prisoners near Auschwitz and she did it with this boy. And why did she like that? Because she couldn`t read and was ashamed of herself. Anyhow, I don`t care for non-reading war criminals, nor do I care for young boys with sexual problems. And I don`t care about this book either.

Now, if there ever was a classical melodrama, this is the one. Ingrid Bergman, Humfrey Boghard and that other fellow form a love triangle of some stature. Casablanca is a French colony in WW2 that hasn`t yet been taken by the Germans, but its not really free as well. Rick (Boghard) runs a bar in Casablanca and he doesn`t do anything with politics until Ilse, his former girlfriend, and her husband - a famous revolutionaire - Laszlo come along. Rick has the power to help them escape from Casablanca, but because of his problems in personal life with Ilse he can`t do that. And it`s a fact that he and Ilse are still in love, but she can`t leave Laszlo either - so this is a very complicated triangle. There`s also the chef of the local police involved, who doesn`t know which way to go - to be with the Germans or with the French. Anyhow, I found this to be a great film, probably one of the best moments of black-and-white cinematography with brilliant acting, fresh dialogue and a good message.

The final part of the Matrix trilogy. It`s something more than a year since this film came out, and only now I finally watched it. Was it good? Was it stunning? Was it so-so? Actually it was better than I suspected it to be, but not nearly as good as it gets. The machines are attacing Zion and only Neo once again can stop the war. He has to fight the evil Elrond from the Lord of the Rings a.k.a. agent Smith and his gazillion of replicants. And he has to lose his girlfriend Trinity, and his vision as well, becoming some sort of Hulk. Not Hogan, of course. And he kicks some ass, and he makes peace with the machines, and some of the heroes live happily ever after. Oh, and Morpheus looks like a pimp. So, I don`t get what`s the philosophy in all this, but it`s no bad action film for sure.