I Wish to Register a Complaint

Well, I finally finished the first 4 books of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy about a month ago, and I went on to another book I bought in England last year, namely:

It’s a great read for any Python fan (oh and if you aren’t a Monty Python fanatic, what’re you doing reading this blog?), reaching out from the first day of shooting for Monty Python’s Flying Circus, up until the Life of Brian days. The book shows the golden years of Python through Michael Palin’s eyes, and reading his notes on the first TV series, or about the reactions to the stage show, and observing Palin’s relations to the other Pythons is just awesome.

But that’s only one side of it -

 

2008 Soul Nigga Within

This post is about everything.

2008 is shaping up to be the best year for music EVER. We’ve already had leaks of kickass albums from Mexican bizarro-proggers The Mars Volta and Swedish skull-crushers Meshuggah. Add to that the huge amount of releases that are to come, and I’ll mention some of my most anticipated ones: Opeth, Guapo, Katatonia, Yndi Halda, Univers Zero, Anathema, Black Bonzo, Russian Circles, VDGG, Midlake, dredg, maybe Cynic and Enslaved… yes, all the best bands in the world are coming up with new stuff!

This year is also going to rule (at least for me ) in terms of live shows. You should already know I’m finally seeing Maiden this August - but what I’m really pumped for right now is the melloboat. The lineup is amazing: in two nights I’ll be seeing Opeth, Comus, Katatonia, Anekdoten, Trettioariga Kriget and many others. Also present will be Fredrik Thordenal of Meshuggah, as a guest of the Mats/Morgan Allstar Team. Thordenal is a fucking monster, and I’m plotting to steal his hands and brain and implant them into a robot that I’m building, which will enable me to conquer the world!!! …but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he’s already a robot.

I finished Catcher in the Rye a couple of days ago, what a beautiful book. Everyone should read it, all the praise it’s received is justified as far as I’m concerned. My version was the Romanian translation, but I plan to buy the English version asap.

I’ve been indulging another obsession of mine these past few weeks, and that is British comedy. I’ve already told you about Darkplace in a previous post. Looking up other appearances by actors in Darkplace, I discovered The Mighty Boosh, a surreal comedy featuring Howard, a delusional jazz-loving softie and Vince, a lovable fashion-conscious guy with big hair and a way with animals. The first season, where the two are zookeepers in “The Zooniverse”, is the bestest.

Further investigations led me to discovering The IT Crowd, another hilarious sitcom, this time centering on the IT department of a large firm, featuring Roy and Moss, nerd duo, and Jen, the obligatory female presence.

This show isn’t directed towards geeks, in the same way that you don’t have to work a desk job to love The Office - in fact, a real geek is more likely to complain about various inconsistencies and stereotypes, instead of enjoying the infectious humour. If the two-guys-one-gal formula rings a bell, it should come as no surprise to you that the show’s writer is none other than Graham Linehan, co-writer of Black Books, yet another awesome sitcom which everyone should know and love by now.

The link between Darkplace, Mighty Boosh and IT Crowd are actors Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry. I love them both, especially Ayoade, but what’s up with Matthew Holness, the man behind Garth Marenghi, master of the macabre?

In case you hadn’t noticed, and shame on you if you hadn’t, the links to the various shows I’ve mentioned lead to the British Sitcom Guide, a great resource for… British sitcoms! Apparently the site will transform into the British Comedy Guide soon; I hope it’ll feature up-to-date info on all my favourite British comedians, that’d pretty much be the perfect website.

I watched Forbidden Planet a couple of days ago. A groundbreaking classic, I recommend you watch it if you’re curious about seeing young Leslie Nielsen, the very first miniskirt, or Robby the Robot.

Well this should be enough for now …oh and fyi, last.fm just saved music.

 

Don’t Panic

I started reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Four Parts recently, which I bought while in London this fall.

‘Yeah, well, that’s a very sweet thought, Trillian,’ complained Zaphod, ‘but do you really think it’s wise under the circumstances? I mean, here we are on the run and everything, we must have the police of half the Galaxy after us by now, and we stop to pick up hitchhikers. OK, so ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking, yeah?’

But first, let me tell you a couple of words about Ilium, which I finished about a week ago…

 

Ilium

Ilium takes Homer’s Illiad and gives it an awesome science fiction touch. To successfully pull off such an ambitious epic, you’d need a brilliant geeky genius - apparently, Dan Simmons is one. I’ve gotta check out his other books too, asap

This book is the perfect proof why nerd books are the best kind of literature - just take for example this semi-randomly chosen part I’ve transcribed:

 

Hesse and Satan

Finished reading Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game a couple of days ago. I read the Romanian translation because my mom had warned me it’s not an easy read, and indeed it went pretty slow. Along the way, the book made me ponder upon things related to music and history/time… For how long and how much of all this will remain with me is yet to be seen, considering I tend to forget most of the books I read after a while

Well this my third Hesse book, he’s a great author. I’ve already started on my fourth, Steppenwolf, this time in German - it’s amazing to see how much better a book feels in its native language, especially when it’s written by someone such as Hesse.

As for music, I’ve listened to two great new albums today:

 

We’re Tired of Making Love

Metalheads might know of Hawkwind as being Lemmy’s pre-Motorhead band. Then again, if you’re a metalhead, what’re you doing reading this? Go listen to Fintroll

Warrior on the Edge of Time is a charming piece of other-worldly psych rock. The final two songs are more straightforward rockers: ‘Kings of Speed’ is a preview of ‘Ace of Spades’, and the last song is Lemmy’s final contribution to Hawkwind; it’s a proto-proto-metal number entitled, you guessed it, ‘Motorhead’

The song of the day is Standing at the Edge - yeah I know it’s not a real song, it’s just a British stoned guy freezing his ass off at the Edge of Time… if you don’t like it,

 

ASoIaFTW … soon on HBO!

A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy books that’s been owning my soul the past few months. According to wikipedia,

The books are known for complex characters, sudden and often violent plot twists, and intricate political intrigue. In a genre where magic usually takes center stage, this series has a reputation for its limited and subtle use of magic, employing it as an ambiguous and often sinister background force. Finally, the novels do not (presently) center around a climactic clash between “Good” and “Evil;” plot lines have revolved primarily around political infighting and civil war, with only one or two storyline arcs even suggesting the possibility of an external threat.