Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

I don`t call myself a great fan of science fiction therefore I prefer books that concern with the behaviour of human beings and the ethical part of the possible futures to the ones that describe some imaginary high technology in its finest details. This book in front of me tells a few stories from the `upcoming` history of evolution of robots. A robot-nanny, a robot that doesn`t believe in being created by humans, a robot becoming a governor etc., etc. Of course it`s not about the robots (or probably it`s not only abou the robots). It`s about the way people misjudge things, can`t accept something that`s different from them, think too much of themselves - a very popular subject in science fiction books. And still this one remains among the best achievements in the category.

It`s about Jack the Ripper. Pretty dull by my standarts: there is a huge conspiracy which involves the Freemasons - and that kind of stuff is vomit-inducing. It also features a love story between Johnny Depp and a prostitute - which is absolutely unnecessary. Not later than in the middle of the film it becomes perfectly clear, which one of the characters is the real murderer. No good movie, I say.

I can`t really believe a Latvian band recorded this album. Hospitalu iela is a relatively unknown band, but this record absolutely rocks. What does it sound like? A bit of pop, a bit of rock, a bit of reaggae, a bit of national elements - something like that. Most of the songs are easy to memorise and sing along, but that doesn`t mean that they are primitive. The arrangements are nice, I especially dig the violins. The best songs? "Par kiosku", "Vilcene", "Sinepes".

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.