I am not ashamed to admit: I have phobias (strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger), and I bet you suffer from a phobia or two. I do, however, try mu best to fight them, but usually fail miserably. So, I try not to think of them, which I do perfectly.

Achluophobia

(fear of darkness). Every kid has it, but somehow learn to fight it at the age of 9 or something. I didn’t. I am still really scared of the dark. At night, I can’t be in a dark room (lygophobia) unless there are more people beside me. In the dark, my imagination runs wild- and I don’t mean in a sexy-kinky-great kind of way. I don’t know what I’m scared of; somehow, darkness makes the world seem twisted, surreal (see phobia 4). Interesting, I am not scared of the dark when I’m in the nature. There are stars above me, I make a contact with the universe and I am not afraid.

Acrophobia

(fear of heights). Self-explanatory, I guess.

Asteroidophobia

(fear of asteroids). This is not quite a phobia, it’s more of a realistic fear. I do know that there are chances of asteroid attack, and I do know that, probably, we can’t do anything about it. I also know that astronomers won’t inform general public if there’s something going in the direction of Earth. But I also know that this kind of fear is a bit pointless- it doesn’t have to mean anything, since we’re dealing with statistics here. But the worst thing about this phobia is the though of the end of the life on Earth, and I don’t mean just humans, but all the animals and all the plants. But I do manage to keep this phobia in control most of the time.

Blackholesunvideophobia

(fear of video for song “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden). Yeah. Um. I do like many Soundgarden songs including, perhaps, this one. The video, on the other hand… First time I saw it, I was 13. It scared the shit out of me. That video represents most of my nightmares and wicked thoughts I have in the dark, and after I watch it, I feel really exausted and ill. (It was on VH1 Europe just 15 minutes ago, and it made me write this post- and yes, I admit it, I do watch VH1 from time to time). Which means I am really fragile now. Please, give me something to laugh about! Hugh me! I am a little Pea… (you got the idea). By the way, the video in question almost made me hate rock music (I was a great fan of rock when I was 12, 13, 14… but till the age of 15, I just stopped listening to it. I discovered rock music again after the high school, in 2000. Which means I lost good 4 years in music. Ugh. But that’s another story).

Here’s a list of most common phobias. Which are yours?

PS- Some weird phobias (not all of them are officially categorized as a medical disorder):
Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth
Arithmophobia - Fear of numbers
Barophobia - Fear of gravity (0_0)
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia- Fear of long words
Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body; opposite: Levophobia
Genuphobia- Fear of knees
Thaasophobia - Fear of sitting.
Oneirogmophobia- Fear of wet dreams.
Ephebiphobia - Fear of teenagers.
Liamgallagherophobia- Fear of Liam Gallagher and/or his voice. (I suffer from this one, too).

Yes, I am doing exactly what I promised myself I won’t do, ever. I am blogging just for the sake of it. I do, however, have a minor excuse: I also promised I’d blog more often.

Since I’m not an exciting person fluent in English who can write an intelligent, interesting and shocking post or article every day, I’ll have to stick to this crap. Speaking of which, I did notice that stupid blog entires usually get more hits than well written, intelligent ones. I still don’t understand this phenomenon, but I might bitch about it soon.

Winter is strong this year, btw, which makes me depressive. I can’t give my maximum, I just feel sleepy and moody and sad all day. That’s not a pleasant feeling. I hope it will stop soon. This is not a perfect time for depressive songs or serious films about society (”Planet of the Apes” is the heaviest I can handle, really).

On a brighter side, somewhat aggressive music can quickly change my mood, in a positive way. I know, I know… I’m weird.

PS- Special thanks to Iva who helped me with some domain issues, such as 404 pages, wrong chmod and the like.

According to my stats, many people visit this website in searching for Jeff Ament pictures. I can partly understand this, I was ready for it when I decided to name my domain jefflion. And we all know jefflion IS short for “Jeff Ament looks like a lion”, an intelligent and meaningful remark that some wise people made a while ago. Even though I clearly stated: “There are NO Jeff or lions here”, I knew nobody’s gonna pay attention to it.

So, I did expect a few confused Jeff fans. What I DIDN’T expect is that all they want are Jeff’s pics. What I’m saying, I didn’t get any “Jeff Ament gear” searches, “Jeff bass tabs”, not even “Jeff Ament” alone. Just pictures, huh? And what happened with all that “take my hand, not my picture”? Wait, it wasn’t Jeff who said it. Oh, well.

So, fellow Jeff Ament / Pearl Jam / Green River / Mother Love Bone / Temple of the Dog fans, I can’t help you. There are no Jeff pictures here and I don’t know where you can find them. I guess there are not many websites dedicated to him and his work. Yeah, I know. That sucks.

PS- Speaking of Jeff, I’m drugging myself up with “State of Love and Trust”, Unplugged these days. That concert was fuckin’ amazing, btw. The best Unplugged I’ve heard. Some people claim Alice In Chains was even better, but I didn’t have a chance to watch/hear it. But hey, I’m a bigger PJ fan anyway.

Before I start, I’ll just say that it’s been a looong time since my last visit to cinema (!) Great sound effects, large screen- those ARE some things that can make a film look better than actually is. In other words, I liked “Beowulf”, even if it’s not true to the original story, even if it’s made in that crappy looking 3D effect or whatever you call it. (Note: no major spoilers ahead.)

First things first: I absolutely hate movie changes. If you dislike a book plot, then do not turn a book in question into a movie. I am one of those people who believes that Peter Jackson butchered one of the greatest novels in the history of literature (I loved “LotR music and nature, though). Harry Potter films- ugh. You got the idea. But, for some reason, this thing didn’t bother me in “Beowulf”. There are couple of reasons for this: first, I haven’t read the poem (!). Second, some of those changes really made sense (others didn’t, though).

What I’m saying is, nobody likes flawless heroes anymore, and some of the changes are made in a “realistic” way: some of those changes could really be a part of the original story. A great epic has to have a strong message, and it’s usually: people are weak, do not mess with power. In that light, “Beowulf” changes make sense, though they make story look more like an Ancient Greek epic (you will be punished if you do not follow the rules- see: hubris). In overall, “Beowulf” plot makes sense, and the best thing is- it does look like an old story (morality, social complexity, gender issues- it’s all there and it’s ancient, it does not belong in our time).

On the other hand- animation. Ugh. I hate CGI, 3D computer animation and all that crap. That simply does not look realistic (Gollum, anybody?) And this motion capture technique is interesting, but still faaar away from being just okay, not to mention perfect. However, animation didn’t bother me in “Beowulf”, once I got used to it (it took me approximately 15 minutes or so). I still don’t think it’s a good idea, but it does have one advantage: monsters look real. More real than in a regular film (CGI monsters always look pretty fake, don’t you think?)

One more thing, Ray Winstone was brilliant. I don’t know where they found him, but his voice and diction are just perfect. His animated self was not bad, either (:D) The most annoying thing in the film was naked Angelina on high heels (?!?). (She agrees on this, BTW). I bet she would look more powerful as a lizard monster. But, Hollywood baby, is a rotten thing.

So, in overall, 3 ½ jefflions out of 5 for this.

PS- Not showing male private parts was just lame. If he’s naked, don’t you think full frontal nudity is… expectable? Or was that sooo (politically) incorrect, unlike, say, ripping someone’s head off? I’ll never understand why violence is okay, while sexuality is not. Especially in a film full of sexual references.