Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

Who knows why I read something like this. This is supposed to help you learn to read better than you did before - to get more meaning from a text, but I say - it makes very little sense to me. Probably because I didn`t pay attention. All but a short part of the book telling about the life of imprisoned criminals participating i a writers club - it`s really professionally written and interesting to read. Otherwise there`s some analysis of quotes by some famous writers but since those quotes are neither witty nor smart, I don`t need to know much more about them. And detailed biographies of Prouste and Joyce don`t leave such a strong imperssion upon me neither.

I sometimes wonder how easy it is being me - I tend to have quite low expectations from most modern bands so their records aren`t likely to dissapoint me. Take "Placebo" for instance. I never cared much for them, so when "Meds" came out my reaction was quite calm. So, the possibly gay Molko character has a new record under his belt? The album starts with Molko`s cooperation with the singer of the band "The Kills" (I haven`t listened to that band much) - it`s catchy enough, alghough even I am able to recognise this as a very typical Placebo song. "Infra-Red" is another typical Placebo composition, although it`s good enough for me. One of my favourites is the third song on the album - "Drag" with its optimistic repetitive riff. "Space Monkey" on the contrary is some sort of crap, which once again reminds me of Roger Taylor`s solo work - and who would love to be compared to the drummer of Queen? "Follow the cops back home" is a REM-like composition, boring as hell but passable. "Post Blue" is much better (I don`t know why I like it but it seems to be a good song). "Because I want You" has something stolen from "Every me, every you" - funny how a band runs out of ideas and starts emulating its best. Like it`s usually the case with me I`ve once again given up going through the song list, especially considering that Placebo isn`t the most diverse band in the world. "Broken Promise" where Michael Stipe of REM assists Molko is even more boring than the rest of the record - which comes to me as absolutely no surprise, considering that I find Stipe to be one of the least interesting fellows in showbiz. To conclude: a very monotonous album, probably perfect for a "Placebo" fan, for me it seems to be just a Placebo record. I doubt that I would find any of their best works much better than this though - for it`s just not my cup of tea.

There`s one thing that has surprised me many times - how can it be that I tend to find interesting books in my book shelf? It`s quite typical to me to be sure that everything that I have in my shelves I`ve either read or it`s not worth being read (or - the most typical case: both). And now and then I find something useful. This play by Arthur Miller, for example. Although "The Death of a Salesman" is considered to be his finest work, I can`t totally agree with that - this play is by no means flawless. Some of it`s aspects seem fine enough for me, but not all. Willy is an old salesman who`s American dream plays the usual trick upon him - he`s sixty now, he gets sacked despite the good work he has been doing for many decades now, his children are useless junkies and his health isn`t good either. So he commits suicide. That`s it. I`d write more but I have to make a presentation about program testing for tomorrow, so I can`t do nothing about it. Alas.

Moby is not cool anymore, so they say - and this album is bad. But I say - it`s not bad at all. Probably it isn`t very fast and furious but I don`t think that Moby ever recorded much music that was. Ok, he`s gone a bit too poppy (for example, on "Raining again" he sounds like an even poppier Depeche Mode), "Beautiful" is ok, although very poppy as well. "Lift me up" is a good single. "Temptation" is also good. Basically there are no real stinkers on the album, although not many highlights either.

History hasn`t been kind to the Blackadder dynasty. Whilst the first of the Blackadder`s was a royal prince, the third Blackadder is nothing but a butler. Of course, he isn`t just a butler but a butler to the prince of Wales who amazingly turns out to be the same fellow who played the villain in the last episode of season two. In the first episode a very young William Pitt the younger wants to overthrow prince George whom he considers a no good money spender (who he surely is), and only Blackadder and his cunning plans can stop Pitt from achieving it. In the second episode prince George has agreed to be the patron of the first English dictionary, yet Baldrick accidentally makes a fire out of it and the whole episode consists of Blackadder trying to write a new dictionary to replace the original - and in the final we learn to know that Baldrick has burned an entirely different manuscript - written by Blackadder himself (by the way this was directly lifted from season two and the execution episode - only this time nobody wears a sack on the head). Episode three is about the French revolution and Scarlett Pimpernel - it`s not that great I gotta say. Episode 4 is actually a single very streched sketch - it`s about prince George who can`t tell the difference between play and real life. But I like the political content about the revolutionary stuff - it`s quite leftist after all. Episode 5 is absolutely worthless about Blackadder trying to find a wife for prince George so he would have more money but as you can probably guess it doesn`t go very well. And finally episode six is about prince George having made love to two nieces of duke Wellington and duke Wellington is ready to kill prince George. Blackadder duels Wellington instead of him, they change clothes and Wellington kills George for being a bad butler. Summary: not a particulary good season, there`s enough of good jokes but I`d love to have more from it.

Finally the Blackadder clan comes to its logical end. No, Edmund doesn`t take a sword and kill the last of the McLeods, instead he spends his days next to the front lines of WW1 in the company of his trusted friends George and Baldrick. Well, maybe those friends aren`t really trusted and maybe they aren`t exactly friends either, but that`s not the point. I will be short for I am not wearing shorts: this is the best Blackadder ever. So, there`s not too much plot in here and some of the episodes are recycled - like the Bob - sex god superhero sequence. But I like the anti-war content, general Melchett is such a darling, and so is captain Darling. Then there`s Blackadders jokes about the war, about patriotism etc. I like it and I don`t care what everybody thinks.

It sounds a little jazzy and a little like something from the area of relaxing music. As a background it seems to be working well but I can`t imagine listening to it because of liking the music. It`s not in the quality of elevator muzak, of course, but Les Hommes doesn`t stand well up to the highest standarts (are my standarts high? who knows).

The post war Germany is the location where this book leads us. And more exactly - its the post war Berlin (but before two German states where founded). We get to see the lives of quite many characters: Philipp, the unsuccessful writer, Emilia his money crazy wife, Carla - a young woman that has become pregnant from an afroamerican named Washington. And there`s Odysseus - another black soldier, then there`s Heinz - Carlas son. What is the book all about? It`s about ruined people that have no real reason to live. And its not only the Germans - there`s no big difference between them and the Americans. Oh, there are also some female teachers that have come on a visit to Germany; and a successful American poet. All of them interact in different ways, crossing their paths and going in the opposite directions further. What`s good about this book is its sincerity and beautiful language. What disturbs the reading is the length of the sentences which on one hand helps the language to be majestic but on the other hand makes the book very difficult to read.

Elvis is dead, and even I know it. But he was alive, and recorded some nasty rock`n`roll back then. Ok, not nasty, but rock`n`roll nevertheless. Of course, it didn`t take him too much to become a complete sellout and a Frankie Sinatra wannabe without the personality and the voice. But "(Let me be)You Teddy Bear", "All Shook Up", "Jailhouse rock" and many more of his songs are bound to last more than a lunch time, and the only remixed song on this album - "A little less conversation" is good in its form. What drags the collection down is the sappier part of his songs - something like "Love me tender", "Are you lonesome tonight", "Suspicious minds" etc. Some of those songs may not even be bad, but it ain`t music - it`s corporative shit. But man, you gotta dig that sound of "Hound Dog".

Since I just couldn`t leave the Blackadder family this way - without knowing what became with them at last I decided to watch the special programme that was made for the beginning of the new millenium. The concept is old as time - Baldrick and Blackadder travel back and forth in time to meet historical persons and to talk to them. Those include Elizabeth the first whom we already saw in season two, some silly romans, duke Wellington at the battle of Waterloo and... even Robin Hood. It`s so silly to make fun of Robin Hood. Every one and their crazy grandmother have done that. And the biggest problem about it is the fact that the humour in this film is kinda dumb. I`m happy that there`s no news that there ever will be a new Blackadder film. Yet there`s one surprising thing about this film - Colin Firth appears as good ol` William Shakespeare in it and Kate Moss plays Blackadder`s love interest.