Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

Turpinu savu ekskursiju Slovākijas mūzikas pasaulē. Ja var ticēt Wikipēdijai, Desmod ir viena no šīs valsts ietekmīgākajām rokgrupām, tādējādi ir tikai dabiski, ka es mazliet iepazīstu tās daiļradi. Albūms "Skupinova terapia" (Grupveida terapija, ja ticam automātiskajam tulkotājam) tapis 2004. gadā un tas patiešām pieder rokmūzikai un nevis, piemēram, trance vai hiphop stila mākslai. Albūms sākas ar klavieru/sintezatoru partiju, kas izklausās kā no Linkin Park albūma nozagta, taču tālāk dzirdams slovākisks vokāls vīrieša ar spēcīgu balsi izpildījumā, kas ir pārāk melodisks un ne repīgs, lai būtu "Linkin Park" līdzīgs, tad jau drīzāk varētu vilk paraleles ar "Pearl Jam" vai kādu no tās atdarinātājiem. Pati dziesma saucas "Aby bolo jasnē" ("Lai būtu skaidrs" vai kaut kas tamlīdzīgs) un man nav skaidrs, kam tieši ir jābūt skaidram, vajadzētu varbūt tomēr mēģināt apgūt čehu/slovāku valodu. Arī tālākajās dziesmās turpinās pirmās aizsāktais stiliņš - starplaikos starp dziedāšanu dzirdamas skaļas un pat ļoti jaudīgas ģitāras skaņas, kamēr pantiņi ir tādi vieglāki un popsīgāki. "Zemly plyn" izmanto nelielu skrečošanu un kaut kādu smieklīgu MC iesaistīšanu, lai gan pati dziesma ir ļoti līdzīga pirmajām divām. Vispār par visu albūmu var teikt, ka turpina jau sākumā radušos asociāciju Linkin Park + Pearl Jam ar nelielu čehoslovākisma piedevu, lai gan nekā nacionāla mūzikā nav. Toties tur ir kompozīcija "PlayStation 2", kas sākas ar atklāti zagtu klavieru ievadu, tikai es nezinu no kā tas ir zagts. Kas tieši tiek dziedāts par PlayStation, man nav skaidrs, bet varu nojaust, ka tas ir kaut kas pozitīvs, vismaz tā izklausās pēc dziesmas noskaņas. Protams, Desmod nav no tām grupām, kuras gribas klausīties atkal un atkal, it īpaši, ja tev nav ne mazākās sajēgas, ko tieši tu klausies, taču skaidrs ir viens - tā nav arī tāda grupa, ko nevar klausīties. Patiešām izteikti viduvējs ieraksts, kur nav nekā ko paslavēt un nekā, ko kritizēt. Tas vienkārši ir.

Umberto Eco is a great living classic of Italian literature, and "Il nome de la rosa" is his most famous novel, although I still prefer "Focault`s Pendulum". Although this film is counted as a product of France it has lots of Hollywood stars in it - Sean Connery, F.Murray Abraham (Saglieri from "Amadeus"), Christian Slater (interviewer of the vampire) and even Ron Perlman (the One in City of lost children). As for the film itself - it`s a bit of dissapointment, showcasing the story, the detective part and not the philosphical/psychological aspect of Eco`s work. Of course, I know that it would take a much longer film to put everything "Il nome" has to offer but I expected the film to be somewhat better. And it isn`t particulary interesting to watch as well. I certainly wouldn`t say that it`s the wisest choice to watch this film instead of reading the book but in addition to the book it isn`t a bad film, if you aren`t looking for something to keep you awake.

It makes me wonder how I managed not to see this film until yesterday. Not only did it win a heap of Oscars in the size of... a rather big heap of Oscars, but it had the screenplay written by Tom Stoppard, one of my favourite playwriters, the author of the legendary "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead". The title role is played by Joseph Fiennes, brother of Ralph Fiennes, but there is be no performance of Elton Wilde reading poems by Oscar Wilde in sight. William Shakespeare is young, a bit crazy and in a desperate need to finish his latest play "Romeo and Ethel, the pirates daughter". Yet when he meets Viola - a rich man`s daughter and a passionate lover of theatre - good ol` William falls in love and his never existing story about pirates falls apart. From this film you learn to know what the spectators at theatres around the world want - comedy with dogs and blood, blood, blood. Quoting the film about Ros and Guil: "Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can`t give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They`re all blood, you see." This film isn`t essentially the best I`ve seen in ages but it`s essentially a very good one.

"Жесть" - это очередной фильм с участием легендарного ныне уже Гоши Куценко. Чем таким он легендарен, мне не совсем ясно, но то, что он - звезда российского кинематографа, неоспоримо. Даже я, хотя и не являюсь большим любителем новых русских фильмов, знаю кучу работ с его участием - Антикиллер (2 штуки), Марс, Ночной Дозор, Дневной дозор, Турецкий гамбит. Ну, ладно, может бить, это не так уж много, но и этого достаточно.

It`s popular for rock bands nowadays to choose obscure names for themselves, since all the normal ones are already taken - names like "The Band", "The The" - are no longer at hand, so they come up with Kloot. On a completely different story the music of I Am Kloot ain`t bad at all. The band isn`t particulary wild in the Dead Kennedys style, it doesn`t rock as hard as "AC/DC" with Angus Young in coma, but they have decent melodies and catchy everything else. For example, "Over my shoulder" is a nice one. "Sand and glue" is the best track on this album for me with its power combined with its gentle vibe, it provides the best from Kloot.

Если честно, то скринеры на русском - это, конечно, не атаз и даже не просто таз. Но Адам Сандлер тоже вам не фунт изюма. Он снимается в очень многих филмах и почти все они - полное дерьмое. Это я не как критику говорю, просто констатирую факт. Если актер во всех своих ролях играет одного и того же придурка, то это надоедает, а если этот придурок к тому же все время вытворяет шуточки со своей задницей, то это еще многим тупеем. Но начнем с самого начала. Майкл Ньюмен - молодой архитектор, работающий в крупной фирме. Вроде все у него в жизни хорошо - Кейт Бекингсдейл в качестве жены, двое прекрасных детей, но не тут то было. У соседей все круче, чем у Ньюмена, его шеф - Дейвид Хесселхоф из "Пляжного патруля", да еще он никак не может разобраться в своих пультах дистанционного управления. И тогда на помощь приходит добрый дядя - Кристофер Уолкен дает ему универсальный пульт, который настолько крут, что с ним можно остановить время, посмотреть, как тебя зачали или отключить звук лающей собаки. Да вот в чем загвоздка - пульт позволяет также перемотать вперед свою жизнь, которую обратно ты, конечно, не получаешь. Вот и становится Сандлер работоголиком и теряет свою семью. Конечно, в конце он понимает, как сильно он ошибался, и что вся жизнь потеряна, а потом (не читать тем, кто фильм не видел и кто верит, что концовка будет неожиданной) оказывается, что ему все приснилось, а он сам еще молодой и здоровый.

An autobiography of a eastern-german writer who flew from Eastberlin into the west side and in the end was dissapointed with both of them. He even compares the choice between socialism and capitalism to a choice between plague and cholera. Of course, the author doesn`t pretend that everything in the world is bad but still it is a bit of a depressing book. An interesting part is where the author tells how he read the file the Democratic Republic of Germany had on him and how he discovered which of the people he knew were contributing to that file, but there is no anger or lust for revenge in his words for Schesinger can easily understand that those people themeselves also were the victims of the system.

There are three major stories in this book. The first one is entitled "Taras Bulba" - a heroic story about some imaginary (or real? who cares?) person out of the Ukrainian history. Man, this ain`t no hero for me - a dude that beats up his wife, drinks all the time and kills everybody including his own son is a maniac by my standarts. The rest of the book is pretty okey, including the story behind the first Soviet horror film - "Vij" (name of the creature). Creepy but lots of fun as well. And the third one is about two stupid old man who lose their friendship and start an everlasting quarrel due to some complete stupidity. Overall attitude - if you forget about the "Taras" thripe it`s quite good but otherwise - yuk!

Here we continue our trip on the Magical History Tour. Not in the Beatles style, of course, I mean my German project. And this stop here is once again something unexpected. But it`s not entirely good, for the book in question is a part of the collected works of this writer (about whom I until a very recent time knew absolutely nothing about), and collected works means - a whole lot of useless stuff. The long story "Castle Gripsholm" is quite a good work and so are some of the most story-like pieces of this book, but the author seems to have written quite a load of book reviews himself, and I really have no good use for knowledge what Tucholsky thought about second class German writers of the 1930`s. What I do find interest is his awareness of what`s coming in terms of politics in Germany - the rise of Hitler which wasn`t complete back in 1931, and it was quite an important subject for Tucholsky, him being a Jew. And he was at some points impressively cynical, satyrical, etc. I guess the selected works of this author might have found a good place in what I call "classics" but this collection just isn`t consistent enough.

It took me nearly three years to finally find tickets for this performance, and as a matter of fact, it still was worth it. The play is based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov titled "King, Queen, Knave". Franz arrives from the country in the big town where his rich uncle lives with his wife. A relation ship develops between Franz and his auntie very quickly. The uncle doesn`t notice anything even until the time when lovers decide to kill him in order to gain all his money. What was interesting about the performance was that it was played in a very small room with something like 80 spectators. Most of those spectators didn`t even notice when the play started because at first two out of three actors participating in the play were sitting among the spectators and one of them started talking without a big part of the spectators realising that it was the play already what they heard. Overally the thing was acted supperbly, the material behind the performance is good as well, so no complaints from me.