This is what the music world has come to?

Michael Buble is being touted in adverts all around Singapore as the next phenomenon with some of his music playing in most elevators which have the advertising TVs places in them. While he sounds nice and genuine, he sounds an awful lot like the songs that my parent's generation used to listen to.

Sure, Robbie Williams has a number of songs of that kind, but not all of them. There are a lot of songs which are more modern and a pleasure to listen to. But most of the snippets that you will get to hear of Mr. Buble sound like they are from the 70s. If you ask people who listened to that kind of music, they would very much identify with it. If they didnt get to see him sing the songs, they would think this was actually music from their time and that he was an artist of their generation.

Now I have nothing against doing something like this, but I am just wondering where all the musical talent is going. Most of the songs are either getting remixed or someone is emulating a bygone generation. Where is the next generation of music? Where are all the melodies that used to pop up oh-so-regularly in the older days? Why are the newer songs sounding so much like the songs we heard more than two decades ago?

More and more often, I find myself listening to the older songs than the newer ones. Cause there are fewer songs now which I feel like listening to as often as these old gems.

That's a sad state to be in.

SHE-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?

I know a lot of people in Harry Potter refer to Lord Voldemort as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, but to use a similar phrase for Paris Hilton?

This morning, CNN was reporting that Paris Hilton turned herself in for jail time that she is supposed to serve for violating probation for drunken driving (I think). Not that I am interested in what happens to Paris Hilton and the rest of the celebs. But what caught my eye was this particular way of refering to her.

CNN began by saying that Paris Hilton had turned herself in and for the rest of the news bulletin, they continued to refer to her as She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!

Now I may be way off the mark here, but she is far less intimidating (and a lot more irritating) than Lord Voldemort (though both seem to generate a lot of news, Paris in our Muggle world and Voldemort in the Magic world). I don't see any reason for calling her that. It just makes her even more irritating. She should be referred to as any other offender is referred to. So what if she is a high profile celeb.

15 "I'm a Mac - I'm a PC" ads in a row

Need I say more? :-)

Two stunners coming in the space of a month

Apple has started running ads in the US which end with this date...June 29th. That's when all hell will break loose and the world will clamour to get this sleek and beautiful piece of art, called the iPhone, in their hands. That's not to say that it is a crazy reaction. I myself am waiting for the beauty to arrive so that I can get it.

So high is the interest in the iPhone that my friend in the US was telling me of a rumour that got floated that the Valley Fair Mall in San Jose had an early shipment of the iPhones. People camped outside the mall from 5 in the morning until 10:30 when the mall opens, only to find out that it was a hoax.

So June 29th it is. Hope there are enough of them in the market so that I can pick one up.

If you haven't already heard of this wonder device or don't know what it is that is driving mobile manufacturers like Nokia and Motorola to assure their shareholders that their market position will not get affected "much" by the introduction of this fabulous device, you can check out the Apple Macworld keynote by Steve Jobs on YouTube (where else?) and see for yourself what a wonderful device it is.

So that's one stunner. The other?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in the famous (and best selling) Harry Potter series will be released on the 21st of July this year. Sure it's been a couple of years since the last installment (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince) came out and I think anyone who has read the Harry Potter series is just waiting to find out what happens in the end.

Now that Sirius (Harry's godfather) and Dumbledore (Hogwart's headmaster extraordinaire) are dead, we are also waiting to know if the next character to die in the final installment is Voldemort himself or not. In any case, I personally think the entire series is very well written and is really fun to read. Sure, it's gotten progressively darker, but that's to be expected given that the series started on a dark note...with the murder of Harry's parents leaving him as the Boy Who Lived. From then on, except for the Chamber of Secrets and Prizoner of Azkaban, one character has died in every installment (read Cedric Diggory, Sirius and then Dumbledore). I wonder who's next.

I think there is something special about the voices behind the veil in the Ministry of Magic. Something that will be highlighted in the book to be released. I am not sure what it will be, but I am sure it will play a fairly important part in Harry's education.

Becks back, Giggs gone

David Beckham made his return to the England squad in the friendly against Brazil last weekend. And he showed how wrong Steve McLaren (the England manager) was to leave him out of the squad. Personally I believe the reasons were more personal and had nothing to do with football whatsoever. But Becks was back with a commanding presence in midfield.

His pin-point accuracy delivery helped John Terry thump the ball into the back of the net to allow England to take the lead against a side that boasted of Ronhaldo, Kaka and Robinho as their attacking options.

After some eight substitutions (including Becks, John Terry, Joe Cole and a bunch of others), a fresh set of legs came onto the field which disturbed the momentum of the England side. Which Brazil took full advantage of. And equalized in stoppage time to end the game level.

Since it was a friendly, it's not a big deal. But it shows the amount od leverage the side has when Becks is delivering the ball into the box. Had he not performed well, it would have been the perfect reason for McLaren to give to keep him out for good. But after his performance in the game, there is no way in hell that he is going to be out of the squad.

On a completely different note, Ryan Giggs retired as a Welsh international after playing his last match against the Czech Republic. From now on, he is purely a Manchester United player. What does not change one bit is the fact that he is a fantastic player and leader. It is always a treat watching him make those runs down the flanks and deliver amazing balls into the box with his famous left foot.

A win and a loss for football in general, so a mixed weekend in sport.

Pro-er than a Pro

I'm talking about the Wii...again!

So I have the Wii Sports set of games that I got along with the Wii. Just to refresh your memory, the set has Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf and Boxing which allows you to have a great time with your motion sensitive Wii-mote. While we (my daughter, wife and I) all started with Bowling, I moved to Tennis as my favourite of the games. It took me a while to figure out how to time my shots for a ball moving on TV as opposed to actually hitting a real ball on a tennis court, but once I figured it out, I was all set.

The Wii Sports package has a points system which needs you to cross 1000 points to count as a Pro. What I have managed to do is go way, way beyond that level for tennis. I have - check this out - 2134 points. The highest ranked pro on the Wii is a programmed Mii called Elise who has 2000 points. She teams up with another with 1900 points for every game I play. Now here's the deal. Not only do I have to win everytime I play them, but I have to win convincingly to increase my points haul. So basically, I have to win by holding my serve convincingly and then breaking the opponent's serve convincingly. If I have to defend my serve for a couple of points, or if I take too long to break the opponents serve, I get points docked from my total even if I win in straight sets!

Be that as it may, my points have been above the 2000 point mark for a while and the graph that shows the progress of points is - as you might have guessed - literally off the charts.

So I guess I am the Roger Federer on the Wii (NOT!)

The best of the Part IIIs

I watched Shrek The Third last evening and thoroughly enjoyed it.

After the disasters that were Spiderman 3 (yeck) and Pirates III (double yeck...), Shrek the Third was a wonderful change. Sure all the usual suspects were there and the story was an extension of the last part, it was a movie that made you go "Aww" a few times and laugh a lot more often. I may not have been laughing my guts out, but at least I was not waiting for the movie to finish, something that I was doing all the time while watching both the Spiderman and Pirates installments.

The plot nicely starts where Shrek 2 left off. Shrek and Fiona are still in Far Far Away. The twist starts with the king, now a frog, dies (quite a funny sequence considering that the character is going to die). And that is the beginning of yet another quest for Shrek, with Donkey and Puss by his side.

Some really nice messages in the movie, something that my daughter could take back home. She is getting to an age where she has started noticing appearances and started to react to her own appearance. The message in the movie was heartwarming to say the least, and delivered in a nice and funny way. Sure it was not as funny as Shrek 2, but it was definately worth the ticket money.

PDI/Dreamworks has done it yet again. And they deserve all the success that goes with it. However, I am not sure there will be another Shrek installment. The story has run it's course and I don't think there is anything left in it to have another one.

Of course, that was true for Spiderman and Pirates two installments ago.