Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing

Oh my god - this is the sweetest noise you could ever imagine. Pain and bliss all in one delicious package. Hear it!

Portishead - Third

While not as good as their first two albums, Third by Portishead is still very very good. Especially the first track "Silence" is amazing, the rest is a little up and down. If you are a Portishead fan, this long expected album will please you, if not live up to all your expectations.

Haruki Murakami - Dance Dance Dance

It's the good old Murakami magic. An amazing cast of characters and a metaphysical awakening/noirish detective story. It takes a while to get of it's feet, but once it grips you you can't let it go. Highly recommended.

My Blueberry Nights

This is Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai's first attempt with Hollywood, and he actually pulled it of without losing any integrity. People who have seen Chungking Express and In The Mood For Love will instantly recognize the style and themes.
New York girl Norah Jones gets her heart broken, and seeks the company of café owner Jude Law. She decides to go away to get away from her pain, and in her travels south, she comes across different colourful characters, until she finally returns to New York.
That sounded pretty dull, and actually it kinda is. Norah Jones might be an amazing singer, but she sure is a drab (but cute) actress, and Jude Law is, well Jude Law. What really boosts the film is the characters that Jones meet on her travels.
In Memphis she meets David Strathairn (you know his face, not his name), who gives an excellent performance as a drunken, sad cop, and Rachel Weisz his wife, who looks more stunning than ever, and does a great job as the part of a southern femme fatale. In Nevada she meets Natalie Portman, who plays the part of a somewhat dangerous card player, she also looks gorgeous as ever.
It's a very aesthetic, sensual film, which is beautifully shot. It features a lot of Wai's trademarks, like the slow motion sequences and the erotic food analogies. Cat Power (Chan Marshall), who appears in a tiny role, supplies the beautiful music, together with Norah Jones herself.

8/10

Beach House - Devotion

I just discovered this band (me being a Pitchfork whore). It's hauntingly beautiful dream pop, that seems to grow on you on each play. It also has organs galore. Highly recommended.

Philip Roth - The Human Stain

Philip Roth, may or may not be the best living writer in USA today, I don't really know enough about American writers to cast judgement on that. What I do know, is that he certainly is one of the top writers in the world today, and that The Human Stain is a remarkable book.

It's about the college professor Coleman, who resigns after being accused of racism. The story is told by Roth's alter-ego Zuckerman.

The Human Stain works on many different levels, it's both a personal and a national story. The thing I find most interesting is the problems regarding statements, truth and knowledge. Because it is not an omniscient narrator, we can't just take every statement to be the truth. This poses some interesting questions, when for example the narrator tells us of the innermost feelings of a woman he has never met, is he just making stuff up, or what? It reminds me of Citizen Kane, in that the novel tries to do a exhaustive portrayal of a man, only to realize that it isn't possible. As the narrator Zuckerman states:

- You can't know anything. The things you know you don't know. Intention? Motive? Consequence? Meaning? All that we don't know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowledge.

On top of that, the book is so well written. The prose is absolutely beautiful, and also quite difficult if English isn't your first language. At times when I read it, I felt like applauding, because language, themes, characters and story all come together, and make for one of the best contemporary novels I've read.