Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

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.

This is the first entry in this factoid in a new stage of my life. From now on I`m a married person - a fact that still seems very odd and slightly ungraspable to myself. I`m not sure that I feel very much different, but some things have changed and surely will change in my life.

This is the last album David Bowie recorded before he became really BIG. And by saying Big I mean an interstellar fame that Ziggy Stardust received. "Hunky Dory" in its essence is an album of piano pop, angry guitar riffs or metallic drumming are nowhere in sight. The biggest hit on the record is "Changes" with the overly optimistic chorus. The trouble I have with enjoying this album to the maximum level is the rather large number of non-catchy songs. In terms of content with this album Bowie sounds much more like Elton John than like David Bowie, and I can`t say that it`s essentially great but songs like "Life on Mars", "Queen Bitch" and "Kooks" still rule massively.

I`m not particulary sure whether I have ever bothered to review a record by an obscure unknown one-man band from Down Under, where the only member is famous for participating in an other band which I don`t know anything about. This record by the Zillions contains whole 6 songs with the summary length of 22 and a half minutes. You say that ain`t very much? Well I say, knowing that that guy - Nick Craft - did all the playing on the record, and it ain`t no easy task for an Australian, why would he bother to write many songs? Out of those six songs "Don`t waste your tears on me" is probably the best one. Mostly this stuff is just basic indie rock, without any real surprises. It`s solid but it ain`t interesting, unless you`re in for every single indie band that comes around just because your average Britney wet-dreaming friend doesn`t listen to this kind of crap. I can`t think of many reasons why one shouldn`t listen to the Zillions, but neither can I think of one reason why one should.

This is one of the most relaxed and optimistic records Lou has had in his long and productive career. Who cares that it was written at a time when he had fallen in love with a man? Songs like "Crazy Feeling", "A gift" or "Oohhh Baby" rule despite that. In form and essence this record is quite similar to the most despised record of his collection - "Sally Can`t dance" - it`s a record full of optimistic and simple songs, that don`t want to change the world or anything like that but that are just simple and beautiful.

Finally I have completed the task of watching every single film directed by Terry Gilliam and it was concluded with "12 monkeys" - one of his most famous Hollywood works. For this film Terry gathered quite an impressive cast featuring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. Bruce`s character James Cole is a convinct in the future where he is offered to return to the past (1996) in order to obtain some info about a deadly virus that will eliminate most of the human race. An underground group with the title "Army of the twelve monkeys" is blamed for that and Brad Pitt`s character who suffers from some kind of mental disease is it`s leader. Yet little do the people of the future know that Brad isn`t that dangerous as he may seem. The film is classified as Drama / Sci-Fi / Thriller on the IMDB and I guess I can agree with that. Just like any other film Gilliam has made this one isn`t quite realistic and you do have your questions about everything that goes on. And what`s weird about it is the twist at the end - for in its essence it isn`t that much of a twist, it`s just a conclusion to a logical chain of action, and that`s it. A very good film by the way, certainly worth watching.

I have absolutely no idea who the authors of this play are - I was just trying to find the Russian translation for the word "scene" in a play, and I somehow found my self downloading this play where I noticed that Stalin and Lenin where among the characters. It turned out that the play was kind bizarre - there wasn`t even a single real socialist leader in the "cast" but those were supposed to be actors impersonating the dictators. The situation was something like this - in the late eighties there was a demonstration against the Communist party in some little town, and those actors were on their way to buy some alcohol when they were stopped by the local police and sent to spend the night in jail. There were two major things going on - the actors were preparing for some anniversary while the local socialist leader was preparing for the first election where there were choices to be made, and he knew that he stood no chance in a free election. So he decided to cheat. This is not a very spectacular play, but in the context of modern Russian dramaturgy it`s at least normal and not full of perversion.

This film confused me a bit. I found its title on the list of ten most funny British comedies. And I also found out that IMDB doesn`t consider this film to have anything to do with comedy but calls it a thriller. So I think to myself - why not watch this film? And I watched it. It turned out to be a thriller with some elements of a black comedy in it. Alex (played by Ewan McGregor), Juliet and Dave are looking for a new flatmate. They organise some sort of casting and lots of different are being mocked by the trio. Finally they decide to choose a supposedly nice writer, who happens to die in the apartment leaving a suitcase full of money behind. So our heroes decide to get rid of the body and keep the money. But they don`t know that a duo of killers is on the search for the dead man and that they kill everyone on their way. Because of him having to remove the legs and hands of the corpse Dave goes a bit crazy and becomes overprotective, whilst the other two people want to get away from him. In the end after having killed the killers Dave wants to get away with the money alone and stabs Alex, Juliet meanwhile kills Dave. So she gets away with the suitcase but not with the money. The ending is a bit ambigious - you can`t be sure whether Alex is dead or still living - he lies on the floor and is smiling and even talking a bit but nobody notices him. I did like this film, although it was no comedy for sure, but it was dark, it was dreary and it was daring.

A truly crazy book. That is the least realistic piece of Soviet literature I`ve read in my entire life. The author must have been on some weird communist drugs when he wrote that. I don`t say that this is a communist book, by no means it is anything like that but it is certainly much too crazy for me to understand it. The book seems to be going in 10 directions at the same time, not really wanting to say anything. I may be a little too old fashioned, but that`s not the kind of literature that I can appreciate - even "Ulysses" made more sense. Probably, had I taken my time and read it three times over again, I might have understood more. But I`m too lazy for that.

You know what, this is another one of the films directed by a former Monty Python - although it isn`t Terry Gilliam but his namesake Terry Jones who directed this piece of cinema here. And what else - John Cleese can be seen here as well as in the Gilliam flick. What I don`t understand about the film is why is "Time bandits" rated higher than this film here? To be honest, I liked it. And why not? Erik is a viking who doesn`t like raping, nor does he really enjoy pillaging and killing, and he decides to go along with his mates to Valhalla and ask the gods to stop all this nonsense. There`s a coward, a sly blacksmith, a man who must be berserk, father of the pseudo-berserk man, a christian priest and I guess some other members of the crew going on this quest. At some points the film gets quite funny while unlike `Time bandits` it does have it`s idea and isn`t entirely a comedy as one could think. I liked John Cleese once again, so was Terry Jones` character worth a good laugh. And the gods...