Rushmoras

Completed the second play of "Mindaugas, Mažvydas, Katedra, Daukantas" (2005) by Justinas Marcinkevičius called "Mažvydas" (or Mosvidius in English). It talked about a Lutheran priest, who was operating in Klaipėda, and trying to reach the downtrodden. Honestly, from back in school years, all I knew was that Mažvydas was the first one to make a printed book in Lithuanian language back in 16th century called Cathecismus, and that was it. I don't think that any of the history handbooks actually bothered to write about his job or his life, or at all... And I don't know whether Marcinkevičius took any liberties with it or not, but... this was better parter than the one before it (called Mindaugas). This play, originally was written by Marcinkevičius in 1975-1976.

Final Offspring album "Superchargerd" (2024). This was more back to basics album of theirs. Anyways, as always, subjective assessments of each album: 1. The Offspring (1989) - 8/10 [Best songs: Crossroads; Demons (A Mexican Fiesta); Tehran; I’ll Be Waiting] 2. Ignition (1992) - 8.3/10 [Best songs: We Are One; Kick Him When He’s Down; Get It Right; Dirty Magic; Nothing from Something] 3. Smash (1994) - 6.2/10 [Best songs: Come Out and Play; Self Esteem; What Happened to You?; So Alone] 4. Ixnay On the Hombre (1997) - 6.9/10 [Best songs: Me & My Old Lady; Leave It Behind; Gone Away – 1997; Don’t Pick It Up; Amazed] 5. Americana (1998) - 8.5/10 [Best songs: Pretty Fly (For a White Guy); The Kids Aren’t Alright; She’s Got Issues; The End of the Line; Why Don’t You Get A Job?; Americana; Pay the Man] 6. Conspiracy of One (2000) - 9.2/10 [Best songs: Original Prankster; Want You Bad; Dammit, I Changed Again; Living in Chaos; Special Delivery; Vultures] 7. Splinter (2003) - 10/10 [Best songs: Long Way Home; Hit That; Race Against Myself; (Can’t Get My) Head Around You; Lightning Rod; Spare Me the Details] 8. Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (2008) - 9.2/10 [Best songs: Trust In You; You’re Going to Go Far, Kid; A Lot Like Me; Kristy, Are You Doing Okey?; Nothingtown; Stuff Is Messed Up; Fix You; Rise And Fall] 9. Happy Hour! (2010) - 6.4/10 [Best songs: Beheaded - 1999; Autonomy; Million Miles Away – Apollo 440 Remix] 10. Days Go By (2012) - 10/10 [Best songs: Secrets From the Underground; Days Go By; Turning Into You; All I Have Left Is You; OC Guns; Dirty Magic; I Wanna Secret Family (With You); Dividing By Zero; Slim Pickens Does the Right Thing and Rides the Bomb to Hell] 11. Let the Bad Times Roll (Deluxe Edition) - 7.9/10 [Best songs: Behind Your Walls; Breaking These Walls; Coming For You; We Never Have Sex Anymore; Gone Away – 2021; Lullaby; Guerre Sous Couvertures; The Opioid Diaries – Live] 12. Supercharged (2024) - 8/10 [Best songs: Looking Out For #1; The Fall Guy; OK, But This Is the Last Time; Truth In Fiction; Come to Brazil; Hanging by a Thread] Average album score: 8.2

Random Movie Generator picked out this time... Mr. Mom (1983) starring Michael Keaton. A movie about a family man that recently lost his job, however, his wife got one, and they changed places in their family dynamic: while the wife is now the bread-winner, the husband is taking care of the household and the children... Eh, it was average. Though, it did star Christopher Lloyd, but for the life of me I barely recognised young Doctor Emmet Brown lol. And I still have doubts whether the actor that played the plumber was actually Lloyd, and I didn't recognise him at all. Haha. 6.5/10

Penultimate Offspring album "Let the Bad Times Roll" (2021). Its... tonally... too much different from the rest of their albums. Its... okey, I guess? But the same observation as for the first album of theirs - if heard on the radio, I'd probably change stations.

^ On that note, completed the first play called Mindaugas. I don't know, some passages are interesting, some are not so. As a first parter of a play, I'd rate this 6.5/10. Also, while the book was re-released in 2005, but Justinas Marcinkevičius wrote this in 1968 as per the ending annotation.

Tenth Offspring album "Days Gone By" (2012). It sounds... I don't know pop like? Just wikied it, and, yep, the genre is called pop punk. Huh. I mean, for those that never listened to such music it might be considered heavy even, but it's an obvious contrast between what they played pre the end of 2000s for me to say that it's sounds pop like. And, you know what? In a vacuum, as a whole, again, I don't find any faults with the album. But as I stated near their other album post, it might not be like that to their original hard core fans :D Though, I guess, musical continuation of this song is continued in this

Well, couple of days ago completed Return of the King. And was thinking what to read next... So, today, I picked out a book, which probably would have been in my country's school literature class curriculum, and teenage me probably would not have liked it at all, because teenage me equated all Lithuanian books to be of the same genre - the live of 19th century peasant -, cause it seemed that 9 times out of 10 the literature assignments revolved around such authors, and I always groaned at having to read yet another depressive work about something I had no interest about (and, with all honesty, after more than 20 years, still don't). Picked out a book, which is a trilogy and an epilogue of theatre plays about historic events (people) that shaped Lithuania throughout the ages by Justinas Marcinkevičius called "Mindaugas, Mažvydas, Katedra, Daukantas - Trilogija ir epilogas" (2005) (Mindaugas, Mosvidius, Cathedral, Daukantas - Trilogy and Epilogue). Read through what I'd call the first chapter (or the first scene, if it was a theatre play) of the first book "Mindaugas", which talks about how, back then, a duke (or, I guess, more correctly would be a warlord) of Lithuania, Mindaugas wanted to consolidate the state in order to defend against the crusaders after the Pope Honorius III declared crusades against the Prussians and surrounding environs. So far, the story is told, how to say this, through the writings of two chroniclers who were debating with each other whether it is enough to record "dry" events or whether the people behind them are also important. So far, it caught my attention, not going to lie. I don't always do this or, more precisely, at all, but translation of some of the passages that I liked:

Ninth Offspring album "Happy Days" (2010), which was basically live album with, I'd like to say what seemed demo tracks for their early stuff (?), plus couple of remixes. Didn't listen to the live songs, started from the second half, and... it's kinda average.

Eight Offspring album "Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace" (2008). Second almost perfect album of theirs, if not for one song. So far, 2000s Offspring for me is better than 90s Offspring.

Seventh Offspring album "Splinter" (2003). Well, well, well, first ten out of ten album for the band in my ranking. Nothing really to complain about, though, I guess back then many original fans might have been left disappointed due to the change in style and seemingly maturity. Thanks, @Anduin, will check it out after I finish up the discog listening.

Sixth Offspring album "Conspiracy of One" (2000). Well, finally, Dexter's voice in this matured noticeably. I'd say, almost perfect album, if not for that one song.

Fifth Offspring album "Americana" (1998). Yeah, this one's pretty decent.

Towards the end of the Return of the King. Anyways, what I wanted to write was:a) Did not remember that there were any wildlings in this series,

I see that Robbie is back to his "Let Me Entertain You" days. New album upcoming?

Fourth Offspring album "Ixnay on the Hombre" (1997). Average, though has a handful of songs that are quite good.

Well, continuing on with random movie generator picks, Robert Zemeckis' Pinocchio (2022). A modern retelling of Carlo Collidi's children's tale. You know, it's a choice alright to make an entire movie almost completely CGI. I don't know whether it is a good choice, but... it's a choice alright. The movie was too long for me. Don't remember anything from the original story, so I don't know whether the director added his own thing Anyway, don't know, 6 out of 10?

Third Offspring album "Smash" (1994). I'll be unpopular here and say I personally did not like the album. First half of the album to me was just noise, and the other half was more or less decent.

Second The Offspring album "Ignition" (1992). Now, this in comparison to their first one fucking slaps! 🤘

Started the Offspring discography. Was surprised that their debut album was in 1989. Always thought that they were mid 90s band. Anyways, their first self-titled album "The Offspring" (1989) is one of those ambiguous albums: on the one hand, as a whole, I don't really find much faults with, but on the other hand - I really do not like it on a personal level, and many of its songs, if heard on the radio, would be an indication to switch frequencies.

Since I do not know what to watch these days, and that's a part of why I seldom watch movies, I decided to use the random movie generator, and watch that, which the algorithm picks out for me. And it picked out Letters to Juliet (2010) starring Amanda Seyfried. It's a romantic drama about a an engaged couple: one owns a restaurant, and while the chef loves his fiance, he seems to prioritise his restaurant more than her, and the other one is a fact-checker/freelance writer that seems to have a free spirit. They both go on vacation together to Italy, and while the Amanda's character wants to spend their time in romantic places, her fiance rather wants to do stuff that would enhance his restaurant business. So, they mostly do stuff apart. Long story short, Amanda's character finds a place, wherein girls are writing letters to Juliette, and notices that they are being taken away by some woman after a while. She follows that woman, and finds out that there's such a thing in Verona as Juliette’s Secretaries - they answer the posted letters. One day, Amanda's character finds an old letter stuck within a loosened brickwork, and decides to write back... I actually enjoyed it. Don't usually watch romantic dramas, so probably it's filled to the brim with usual cliches and tropes, but, eh, it was a nice diversion from my usual watches. I would give the movie an 8 out of 10, solely, because the titular characters aren't blameless in all of this drama, and the fact that I barely remember the names of characters haha.

Idiocracy (2006). A absurd-comedy movie about an average military officer, who together with a civilian (prostitute), was elected for a hibernation experiment, however, the experiment along the way encountered obstacles (the chief behind it got arrested) and was left forgotten, until they are accidentally woken-up in the year 2500, in which America (and I guess the world) are pretty much dumbed down stereotypical red-neck hillbilies... It was alright for what it was, made me smile, so that's something. Seen only memes about it. Would not watch it a second time, though. 7/10

Twelfth and final so far White Skull album "Metal Never Rusts" (2022). The female vocalist is back. Pretty good. As always, subjective assessments of each album: 1. Embittered (1996) - 10/10 [Best songs: Revenge is Sweet; Old Friends; Love Is; Flesh, Blood and Faith; She Won’t Wait All the Night; I Don’t Know About Sex; B.T.B.W. North Italy] 2. Tales From the North (1999) - 7.5/10 [Best songs: Tales from the North; Gods of the Sea; Kriemhild Story; The Killing Queen; The Terrible Slaughter] 3. Public Glory, Secret Agony (2000) - 8.2/10 [Best songs: The Roman Empire; Greedy Rome; Cleopathra; Time for Glory] 4. La Era Oscura (2002) - 6.4/10 [Best songs: La Virgen de Orleans; La Nueva Cruzada; Una Voz del Cielo; Sentencia de Muerte; Voice from the Heaven – Bonus Track] 5. The Dark Age (2002) - 6.7/10 [Best songs: New Crusade; The Edict; Voice from the Heaven; Devil’s Woman; A New Handbook] 6. The Ring of the Ancient (2006) - 10/10 [Best songs: Guardians; Head Hunters; The Ring of the Ancients; Half Moon Path; Ogam; After the Battle; King With the Silver Hand; Marching to Alesia] 7. Forever Fight (2009) - 8.3/10 [Best songs: Escape; Feel My Rage; Spy; Boudicca’s Speech; A Mother’s Revenge; Visions; Beer, Cheers] 8. Under This Flag (2012) - 10/10 [Best songs: Bottled Mind; Red Devil; Lost Alone; Prisoners of War; War After War; Nightmares; Redemption] 9. Will of the Strong (2017) - 7.5/10 [Best songs: Holy Warrior; Grace O’Malley; Will of the Strong; Lady of Hope; Metal Indian] 10. I Won't Burn Alone (2020) - 7.5/10 [Best songs: In the Age of Unreason; Someone Call It Love; I Won’t Burn Alone; White Lady; Save the Planet] 11. The XIII Skull (2020) - 7.5/10 [Best songs: Last Navigator; The Skulls; Power of Blood; The Observers; Mothman Prophecies; I Wanna Fly Away] 12. Metal Never Rusts (2022) - 9/10 [Best songs: Black Ship; Scary Quiet; Ad Maiora Semper; Jingle Hell; Pay to Play; Weathering the Storm] Average album score: 8.2/10

Eleventh White Skull album "The XIII Skull" (2020). Again, a switch in vocalists. A man is singing this time. More usual sound of theirs in comparison to the previous album. It was quite alright.

Tenth White Skull album "I Won't Burn Alone" (2020). Not a whole lot of their usual heaviness, but a whole lot of melancholy and music that I'd say would belong in Heart's discography. Kinda strange. As a metal album, I'd say pretty much meh and too poppy. But, on the other hand, it wasn't that bad. But... strange...

Ninth White Skull album "Will of the Strong" (2017). Not as good as their last three albums, but still pretty decent. I guess, the album kinda sounds like modern Iron Maiden'ish (especially, post Dance of Death).