Photographs from a small group of islands
Forget your Prozac, booze, or religion. Karaoke is being hailed as the new way to battle the blues. Well, by Shidax it is, who perhaps coincidently run a huge karaoke empire.
Just think, after a few songs you could be as jolly as these two giggling gaijin.
I have to say though, the woman on the right scares me a bit.
A matter of days after Sony’s Qrio conducted the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Toyota has gone and topped it with their new robot band.
This isn’t some kind of stunt, the little fellas are really playing those trumpets. They have artificial lungs allowing them to produce the necessary air, and also lips to form the notes. The robots apparently wowed the crowd with a rousing rendition of When You Wish Upon a Star.
When the performance was over, the robots bowed and waved to the audience. No doubt thinking to themselves that it will only be a matter of time before it is the humans who are bowing to them, their robotic (and trumpet playing) masters.
A while ago I reported the rumour concerning Sony’s Qrio robot, and its alleged place in the national football team. If you want to see the picture and story, just click here.
Now maybe I lack ambition, but personally, playing for the national team would be more than enough for me. Young Qrio however appears to think very differently. As just recently (presumably between training sessions) the robotic wonder conducted the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.
There can be no charge of Qrio taking the easy option either, as the piece in question was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
And people say robots won’t take over the world. Going by this story, it’s hard to imagine them being content with cleaning the house and looking after old people.
Due to a popular television drama, there is seemingly the real danger of a fully blown Queen revival hitting these shores. Initially I calmed myself with the thought that it would only be a brief fad, but today at school I saw a teenage schoolgirl lovingly writing Brian May on one of her files. Yes, Brian May! And just to compound my fears, two other students approached me to ask me if I knew of Queen, whilst at the same time declaring their new found love of the band.
Is the current music scene so bereft of talent that Queen’s bloated and self-indulgent rock has to be dragged up from its murky depths?
And perhaps even more disturbing. Does this mean the return of big hair and dodgy moustaches?
Heaven help us all!
2004 will see South Korea completely lift its ban on Japanese pop culture. Allegedly the news has been met with considerable enthusiasm from certain sections of South Korea’s youth, especially those with an ear for J-pop.
I’m not familiar with Korean pop music, but I really don’t see what all the fuss is about, as quite frankly J-pop is rubbish. If I was to say that 90% of it is worthless pap, I think I’d be doing the industry a favour.
To prove my point, the talentless Tube held a concert in Seoul to celebrate.
How’s that for objectivity?