Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

They say that Hot Hot Heat aren`t at their best in this record. I can`t really know for I`ve never listened to any album by this band before. And I`m not so sure that I ever will. Ok, this record ain`t bad so I probably could be thinking like this: "If a not-so-good record by this band is pretty decent, their best could be a freaking masterpiece. I probably should spend some money to learn more about this band." But I won`t do that? And why is that? First, I`m not a big fan of paying for anything. Second, how can I know that I will find a record that some people call to be better than this one to be really that good? As for this album it has 13 songs and after something like 3 or 4 listens only one of them has managed to capture myattention. It`s called "Goodnight, Goodnight" and it sounds somewhat similar to "Dogs die in hot cars", only it`s not very consistent - the verses are good but the refrain isn`t. From the rest of the album there`s "Pickin` it Up" - a college rock song, "Elevator" which probably could have been done by the "Goo Goo Dolls" and "Shame on you" which reminds of "This Love" by Maroon 5. Altogether it`s not bad but it ain`t very good as well.

Along with Oasis, Blur and Pulp this group of people with different sexual orientations know as "Suede" or "London Suede" (not to be mixed up with an obscure country musician named Suede and the legendary glam rock band "Slade") was at the frontiers of the emerging Britpop in early 90s. Actually "Suede" don`t seem to be playing the same brand of Britpop that their competitors were - they are much more lyrical than any other famours Britpop band. While "Blur" were more daring and willing to experiment, "Pulp" had a much stronger emphasis on synthesizers while "Oasis" was just a "Beatles" tribute band, "Suede" specialized in bitter-sweet rather slow songs sung in cat-like voice. I somehow can`t really connect myself with this band - I`ve listened to this album some four or five times and not a single song still seems to stand out among the rest for me. All of them aren`t bad, yet I don`t feel any signs of brilliance or genius in these songs. "Lazy", "Thrash", "The chemistry between us" and "Beautiful ones" are all okay, but who`s interested in being ok after all? One has interest in either those who suck badly or in those who suck perfect.

Actually I read this book as the last of the "Thanatonauts" trilogy, but it somehow has happened that I write about it first in my factoid, which seems to be very logical. Michen Penson is a young man who works as a doctor and who has experienced coma when he was a child. His friend Raul Razobraque is a young man who works as a biologist and who`s father was writing a book about death until he commited suicide. Together Michel and Raul try to find out what`s death really all about (so in some ways this is similar to "The meaning of life"). What they find out is that after death (or in case of falling into a special kind of coma) soul of a person leaves the body and starts a journey to heaven. So they want to learn more about this journey. When the French president nearly dies and experiences such a state he hires Raul to become the explorer of the unknown continent of the dead that happens to be if not 100% material than at least reachable before returing back. In order to pass the seven heavens Michel and Raul (but mostly people working for them, for they themselves don`t go into death before the last pages of the book) have to join forces with all religions for monks can also go to heaven and come back, fight a war in the land of the dead and rescue Michel`s dying wife. This all is "enriched" by adding some facts about what different religions have been saying about death. In short, the book was quite exciting to read, yet it wasn`t a great book. I believe that Werber achieved his best with the second book of the series - "The Empire of the Angels" while here he aims too much for action scenes. His characters are okay, yet they don`t get too much development and even the central character isn`t really consistent. The storytelling also has a few lapses - having too much repetition of moments like "thautonautics was on the rise" and "thautonautics wasn`t too popular then" (such sentences appear periodically and way too often). I also don`t like Werber messing too much around with all religions. Still the book ain`t bad it could be better.

Despite the fact that this band didn`t last particulary long it`s considered one of the best the 80-90`s Britain ever produced. Probably there are some reasons for that, since at least on this album the songwriting is really good, some of the songs are very close to being brilliant, etc., etc. Yet there is one thing that bugs me about the Stone Roses - they are praised too much, and nobody can live up to the expectations of this level. Probably the Roses were the Beatles of their era, at least on some songs they do sound as a newer version of the fab four, particulary on "Shoot you down", with the 60s feel to their music. Not having listened enough to this record I`m not sure that I can judge it the way it deserves, but who cares. If I`ll give it another spin on my PC, the rating will probably change. Or it won`t. Who knows.

This is the same Jack Bruce who sang "In a white room with black curtains" a little earlier than he recorded this album of his own. In 1969 Cream was long dead (or short dead to be more precise, for Cream broke up in November 1968 and this album came out in September 1969) and Jack Bruce had no other options to survive in this harsh world than record music on his own. On "Song for a tailor" he didn`t choose a particulary unexpected approach, mostly sticking to blues rock he had already played in the Graham Bond Organisation and staying away from guitar rock, for not a single Eric Clapton is present on this record. His singing is pretty good though and the music has a decent groove going on. As it`s typically the case with bluesrock, this album isn`t about gigantic hits, memorable riffs or catchy choruses, it`s about feeling the groove, and the groove is there. Probably I`d find something else in this record, but it`s so darn hot in Riga today that I have no other option but to say that there`s nothing close to "Disraeli Gears" on this record but that doesn`t mean that it`s that bad, it`s just not THAT good.

First, a fact: this film is a very silly romantic comedy. Sarah Jessica Parker plays a woman who`s job is to help guys who aren`t sure of themselves move out of their parents apartments (she does it for the living and is paid by the parents). She has to do it with Matthew McConaughey who isn`t that unsure and then - boom! - she falls in love with him. There`s absolutely no doubt at the beginning of their relationship that everything will be found out at one stage, then there will be a time of solitude for both of them and then - kazaam! - a happy ending. There is also a minor love story between Zooey Deschanel and Justin Bratha (their friends), one of whom is a goth and other - a computer geek. I believe that Matthew McConaughey overplays his role a little and isn`t really believable, but on the other hand it`s a happy family romantic comedy, what would you want from that - high art or something? Ok, there are some pretty lame jokes but they aren`t that offensive and overall it`s a pretty decent comedy.

There once was a Latvian writer/poet named Edvards Virza. And he wrote a really boring book describing a house in the country. There was no plot, there were no real characters, but there was a lot of nature, poetic descriptions and that kind of stuff. And now we have something lika a cover version of that book. I know, of course, that this German poet MLK didn`t know about the Latvian guy and that he probably stole the idea from someone else anyway, but there still is this resemblance. There`s a difference though - she goes a bit higher and describes a whole village. And as for the form - it`s quite interesting: it`s in the form "if I wrote a story about the village, then in the first chapter I would write about..." - something like that. And each chapter describes an exact element, which is interesting and not too traditional. Then there`s this sentence thing - there are close to no stop signs in the text, making it flow like a river. The language used is very smart and delicate, and hard to read for someone who isn`t a native German. If the amount of the book were bigger I would probably be dissapointed, but so I`m not. Although that`s not my favourite kind of literature for sure.

There probably ain`t very much I can say about a record like this one, not being a guy who lives and dies for jazz. To a humble person like me most of music this genres produces seems to be somewhat boring, and so is the case with this record. I have no doubt that Mr. Hawkins and the people he worked with there professionals of the best quality but if a record makes me sleepy there`s no way I can really enjoy it, because I don`t remember anything else after passing out on the floor. And so is the case of "Desafinado". I may be a silly person, but I don`t get it.

If there is such a thing as B literature, Robert Clausen doesn`t qualify for it. I mean there are bigger writers and smaller writers, but Robert Clausen is best viewed through a microscope. For instance, if you type "Robert Clausen" in Google, you`ll get 813 replies. Bernard Schlink gives you 21800 replies. Jenny Erpenbeck - 67900, Irmtraud Morgner - 28200. And as you can see, those aren`t the most popular German writers either. Thomas Mann can be found on more than 3 million pages, therefore you can see that Robert Clausen is very "alternative". This novel of his is actually a crime story where a man (named Lenz or Lorenz) falls in love with a prostitute and then kills the prostitute, her boyfriend and himself. The main hero (Philip) is the friend of the murderer. As a book of such genre it`s quite easy to read and mostly - very easy to forget. I have nothing against unpopular literature really, but this Clausen person seems a bit too unpopular for my taste.

Patti Smith is supposed to be the female Captain Beefheart. Then why doesn`t she have a trout mask replica but only has a radio? The opening song "Ask the Angels" is a Velvet Underground inspired catchy song. Everything else is worse than it and it isn`t as original as I expected it to be - too melodic to be avantgarde and too unlistenable to be mainstream.