This is a band similar to `the Coral` but the debut album by the Zutons left a better impression upon me than the latest disc recorded by their elder colleagues. This style of music is, of course, mainly influenced by British bands from the sixties, but I like the sixties, so it`s no problem for me. The arrangements on this album are pretty good, not too intensive, of course, but memorable. "Moons and Horrow shows" is something that you can listen to when being in your car on a country road and you don`t need to hurry but you can look at the landscapes slowly passing by. "Zuton Fever" has a very solid starting riff. "Remember me" is a partly rare kind of song - it`s about a guy who`s unhappy that his best friend doesn`t care for him anymore now when he`s got a girlfriend. I personally consider this album a very good one not only in terms of music but also in terms of music. "Railroad" is nice. So is "Pressure point". There`s surely this thing that most of these songs remind me of something, seem familiar, but they still sound good, even if this isn`t a breakthrough in the world of music. By the way, "Pressure Point" has something from "Deep Purple". It`s probably the best thing I`ve heard this year that has been recorded in 2004 (although I haven`t been following the music industry too tightly). And I certainly must change my position that there`s no new good music in the world. You just have to look for it in the right places.

This is one of the relatively new bands coming from Liverpool, with a style of something like British garage rock. They are apperantly quite big but I don`t care who`s big and who`s not. And the Coral aren`t particulary interesting (at least judging by this record). Not that it doesn`t try to be diverse but it`s plainly not too interesting and not too listenable. I read somewhere that the band tried to be a bit more alternative than it had been on the previous records, but I don`t think that it did them much good (not that I had heard anything else by them). For example, "Venom Cable" almost made my ears bleed with some silly unlistenable sounds. "I forgot my name" on the contrary is fairly good, reminding me of "The Monks" - an obscure sixties band. "Sorrow or the Song" is a nice romantic piece. But "Auntie`s operation" is a fest of bullshit. It`s something like an easy version for "Catholic Schoolgirls Rule" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers mixed together with some song that the Kink could have done in the sixties. "Grey Harpoon" with a rhythm coming from the hip hop world is something quite amazing. But the biggest problem of the album is - it`s just too short to have the amount of bad songs it has. If there was something like 10 minutes of nonsense on an album with the lenght of an hour it would be ok, but this album goes on for only 28 minutes.

I have never been a huge fan of Blur - the band that brough Graham Coxon money, fame and glory. And that`s the reason why I didn`t fall extremely fast for his latest record. What can you expect from a guy from a band that you don`t particulary like? Probably a record that you will find ok, but certainly not much more than that. Probably it would be just the case, hadn`t I recently found some interest for Britpop and similar kind of music. I don`t really know whether this record had any hits, but for good ol` me it`s a nice 45 minutes of easy listening mostly upbeat rock music. "No good time", "Hopeless Friends" and "Freakin` out" are the best songs on the record to my bet. This album probably can`t shake no big ground and make Graham Coxon the coolest guy on the planet Earth (this title already belonging to Vanilla Ice), but I can`t make me say that I don`t like this kind of music. So, it`s probably nothing terrific, but I like it, and why shouldn`t I?

Although this album was released in midsummer I never heard anything about the band. Come on, do I have to know of every single band with a stupid name? It seems, that I should have heard about this one. For this album is really good, certainly better than most new British or American bands can come up with. It`s a bit sad, of course, and a bit optimistic, of course. When I was completing the list of the best songs of 2004 I had a hard time deciding which of the songs from this album I should choose. Just because most of them are really good. The album has solid and interesting melodies. What about the lyrics? I haven`t really though about the meaning of the songs yet, for there`s no need to. What are the highlights? First, it`s "Paul Newman`s Eyes" - which reminds me of something like "Madness" - a very nice and optimistic little thing. Then there`s the pop/punkish "Pasttimes and Lifestyles" - with that bit of britishness that makes it sound fresh despite being quite a simple song in terms of melody. And, of course, there`s the romantic "Somewhat off the way". The least interesting songs are "Modern woman" and "Apples and Oranges", but they`re still ok. This is one of my guesses for the best album of the year.

Can you imagine Mel Gibson playing Hamlet? I certainly couldn`t until I watched this film. Though I`m not really sure even now, whether he can play Hamlet. What`s weird is that this counts as an American film, althought it was filmed in the UK, has mainly British actors, and has nothing reminding me of this being an American film. I tried really hard to like this film, but I didn`t succeed at that. You see, it`s a very honest version of Hamlet - you don`t have nothing unexpected happening in the film - it goes just like Shakespears play, but I don`t find a film particulary interesting if it mainly has the leading actor speaking monologues. Of course, I know that good ol` Willie wrote it this way, but it`s not perfectly interesting on film. And what else is there to say? I`m not mad enough to quote the film, or to tell what happens there - if you can read then you must be familiar with the plot of Hamlet. So from such a film you can`t await too much - some good acting, and that`s probably it. Although I can imagine that a better film can be made from this play which stills is one of the heights of drama. But for me "Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are dead" still is a much better film than this quite orthodox interpretation.

Hurrah! I have watched one of the endless row of big-screen epics about a hero from the days of old! And this film not only got bad reviews, but it failed to score at the box office and was presumably a piece of trash. Which was a surpise to many, since it had Oliver Stone as the director and Anthony Hopkins on the cast (although not playing Alexander, which would be a silly thing knowing that he died at the age of 32). Still, this film shows almost the entire life of Alexander the Great. What is the biggest controversy is his love to his male-friend Hefastion, although the film has no bed scenes between those two characters. What it does have is two quite solid fights, a beautiful city of Babylon, and something to think about. Alexander`s father Phillip (played brilliantly by Val Kilmer) is an agressive and quite rude man but he isn`t really a negative character, and that`s a good thing that there are no real villains in this film, just as there are no real heroes. Angelina Jolie looks certainly funny as Alexander`s mother being at the same age as her son - Colin Farrell. This film isn`t certainly the best thing that could be made from the life of Alexander the Great, but it`s pretty solid and I certainly found it to be much better than the average rating it`s supposed to get.

I don`t know how it happened but this is the first record in my Factoid concerning the Down Under. Still, you must admit that the title for the film seems quite intriguing. Of course, it also gives you the idea that the film is going to be a comedy. And to no surprise it turns out really to be a comedy. What a wonder, you`ll say! So, there`s Mr. Myers, who`s an ordinary fisherman (not a very good one though), and when his boat gets struck by lightning and the insurance company states that what has happened was a `force majeur` or `and act of God` mr. Myers has no better idea than to sue God to get the money for his boat back. Together with God he sues all the main churches of Australia as his representatives. The idea as such is brilliant - both in terms of law and in terms of film. About how it`s performed I can say that the film ain`t no masterpiece - first, it has too much silly comedy stuff going on; and second, it has too much silly romantic stuff going on between Myers and Anna, a journalist that helps his with his work. What I do like I Myers` speeches in the courtroom (he actually is a lawyer who gave up everything to become a fisherman) where he speaks how corrupt the churches are, being owners of the insurance companies and not caring about the blasphemy in the `act of God`. And what`s best - the churches can only really win the case if they prove that God doesn`t exist. Judging the film - great idea, stupid parts of scenario, a solid leading actor, a tollerable leading actress. What does it make? A film that has its moments but certainly could have been much more than it is.

This came together with the play about the donkey, but since the quality of the plays isn`t particulary similar, I write about this one separately. Hercules, as we all know did quite a lot of heroic stuff, among witch he cleaned a kings stable in one hour. But Duerenmatt provides us the real story - a dirty little town where everyone theoretically is against garbaging but still does nothing against it invites Hercules to clean. Since he`s out of money, Hercules takes the job. But upon arrival he finds out that he has come to a place of great burreaucracy, where to clean the garbage you must get hundreds of permissions from different commitees that do nothing. Meanwhile his wife flirts with the kings (or actually - the president`s) son, but that doesn`t really bother Hercules. In the end he not only doesn`t clean anything up but he starts working at a circus just to get some money, for example, boxes with mammoths in it. But he leaves the town broken and unhappy. The idea behind the play is, of course, positive, but the way Duerenmatt presents the whole situation isn`t particulary interesting - I found his version of the play for the radio much better than the real - stage version. But I still think that among modern playwriters Duerenmatt had a very good ranking.

I guess I had never listened to a whole Elton John album that came out later than in mid 1970s. For it`s known to most people that he`s nothing more than an old fart who records piano ballads. But somehow I got the news that this album here is a fairly good one, so I said to myself - why not give it a try? The album starts off with a typical Elton John ballad "Porch Swing in Tupelo", which clearly showcases all the pros and contras of this album. What`s good is that Elton doesn`t try to be hip and record something cool-sounding, he just sticks to his known winning formula. And the contras? He sticks to his bloody formula. While the songs may be not bad as such - on the contrary they`re moody and beautifully sounding but they are absolute rip-offs from John`s older stuff (especially "Your Song" and "Candle in the Wind" come to mind). Sometimes he records a bit more rocky tracks - like "They Call Her the Cat" - which reminds me of something from his early recordings. Of course, his old songs are good, therefore the new ones don`t come out bad as well. But listening to this record you can`t be sure that you haven`t heard everything on it sometimes before.

Why am I so rarely satisfied with what I read, watch or hear? I`m not really sure about that. Probably, my standards for the world are plainly too high, otherwise I may be an ego-obsessed maniac. Still I can`t find force within me to say that this album is particulary good. Barenaked Ladies is a fun pop/rock act that got popular (at least I got to know about it) with the titles "One Week" and "Alcohol". And since they are keen on recording goofy songs, so is this Christmas album full of goofieness. And it`s all right with me, for I wouldn`t give up my life for blasphemy upon hearing a funny version of "Jingle Bells". Which by the way, is one of the best songs on the entire disc - switching to a sappy and sad beginning into a funny ending with silly lyrics. Then comes "Green Christmas" - an original composition of the Ladies and it`s also quite good. Everyone says it`s cool that they used Casio sintesators in some songs, but I say - it`s ok. Still, all the songs about Hannukah are lame (and not because of the context but because of the music and singing). And if I needed to compare this album to "Warten auf das Christkind" by `Die Toten Hosen` which also is a parody X-mas album, I`d say the Germans come out on top. There`s simply not enough diverse songs on this album here. (but while relistening to it right now I decided that it actually isn`t as bad as I thought it was)