Michael Jackson

I just have to, don't I?

Yesterday night Michael Jackson died in his home at the age of 50. Apparently he took some pain killers (Demerol) and then stopped breathing.

Having been in the music industry from the age of 6, Michael Jackson basically grew up in the limelight. He then defined pop music with Thriller in 1982. At the same time MTV was just born and MJ & MTV rode the wave of pop culture all the way to the beach, breaking any barriers in between.

But what impact does Michael Jackson have on pop culture? Well, here's a few: Thriller is probably the best pop record ever. Ever. Billie Jean is the perfect pop song. The music video for Thriller was way ahead of its time (both the use of video as a medium to project the song and the video itself). His dancing, although ripped off from James Brown, influenced many (his moonwalk on Motown's 25th is still and will always be a defining moment). Not to mention his publicity stunts (sleeping in an oxygen tank, buying the remnants of the Elephant Man).

Just look at Justin Timberlake, Pharell Williams, Usher, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, and the likes. They are all Michael Jackson wannabes. A guy who could dance like Jacko even became a (short-lived) star on Britain's Got Talent.

Before his self-aggrandising songs (started with We Are The World, continued with Man In The Mirror and hit its peak with The Earth Song), Michael sang about everything. Monsters, fighting, a kid who is not his son, never stopping, even about mama say mama sa mama cu sa (whatever that means). He even proclaimed that he is a lover and not a fighter. Which is totally in contrast with songs these days who are ore about fighting than loving.

During the end he just couldn't hold it anymore. Dwindling sales, rubbish music, mounting debts, Neverland, neverending court cases, etc will surely break a man down. He wanted to come back with a string of 50 concerts and he was preparing himself for it, with tickets being sold-out in matter of hours. Isn't it ironic that in the days of his preparation he then died? (note to Alanis Morissette: now that is ironic.)

The King of Pop is dead. Long live the King of Pop.

Amsterdam

Last weekend I was back in the city I was born, Amsterdam. I always love going back to Amsterdam. I feel home there. Usually I go there to visit friends and family, but this time I came for the Windmill Windup.

It's funny that the Windup took place on fields where I used to play football as a little boy. Although when I looked around at the different football clubs that were there I couldn't find my old club.

I got there Thursday night. Went into town and grabbed a bite to eat in Zeedijk. It was easiest as the other boys were lugging all their luggage with them and then had to go to the fields afterwards, whereas I have a bed there in Amsterdam.

Friday played games during the day. At night I went into town and ate at Febo. I munched down two kroketten and two burgers. I could've eaten more actually. Then a bite with some mates at Leidseplein. I always try to pass by Leidseplein when in Amsterdam, just because it is the place to be, to sit down for a beer, to soak up the atmosphere.

Saturday it was just at the fields, then a birthday bash. Sunday it was family time.

I didn't eat at Toetanchamon or had Haring. I didn't spend much time in the city center and I couldn't get an Ajax t-shirt at Schiphol. But I did have a great time. And I will always come back to Amsterdam. Because it feels like home there.

Radio

Every morning the missus usually puts the radio on. And now that I have to commute to work, when I use the car I end up listening to the morning radio as well. There aren't many radio stations we listen to - it's either World Radio Switzerland or Virgin Radio. Other radio stations are just not good.

But I have been annoyed at WRS for quite some time now. They are the only English radio in the neighborhood, but it's not good. Every half hour I get to hear the same news items over and over again, the music is crap (jumps from the latest hit to the cheesiest song from 1984 without a hint of professional programming). And now in the morning, when I'm in the middle of a traffic jam, instead of having cheery music they have talk shows talking about serious health matters or something similarly boring. It's just crap.

On top, in Mark Butcher they have the shittiest radio host ever. He is just shit (I hope he reads this. If you do, Mark you are rubbish!). Then there is a woman who thinks she is the coolest in town and knows everything about music - when in fact I know more. So yeah, I can't stand that radio station really.

On Virgin Radio, the music is much much better. But the ads are very long and in french. And in the morning they have the two most annoying characters on radio (Bruno & Camille - or something like that). They speak in an annoying french, and even though I understand it perfectly it still annoys the hell out of me. When they have English speaking guests they then translate everything in French and when these two clowns speak in English it is with a heavy-almost-fake French accent.

Fortunately, now I have installed my Sonos sound system and I can listen to internet radio. Now we listen to Capital FM (London) in the morning. Much much better. I wish I can listen to that in my car as well.

Sonos, Spotify, etc

One thing with moving homes is that you always end up re-thinking the "media hub". With media hub I mean the whole cabling between the television, music systems, DVD, consoles, and computer.

In my first studio, everything was done haphazardly. And as it was a mess, I didn't really care about cables sticking out everywhere. I had my television, a VCR player connected to the telly with a SCART cable, the TV cable going to the VCR first. I took an old amp from my aunt and hooked up an LP player, bought a CD player and hooked it up to that amp too. Had a couple of old speakers connected to the amp. Later on I bought a Harman Kardon tuner/receiver, hooked everything up to that and later on bought a DVD player.

Then I moved to a bigger place. I found a TV table (one where you put the TV on top with everything else underneath it) in my old kitchen (go figure) so stacked my tuner/receiver, DVD player, CD player and VCR on top of it with cables running behind it. On some shelves next to it I had the LP player hooked to the old amp and then hooked to the receiver. Later on I got a PS2 and put it on the shelves and hooked it up to the TV and receiver. I bought a home cinema speaker set, so I had 6 additional speakers to hook up. It was quite alright and not as messy as before.

After that it was moving in with my girlfriend (now the missus). She had a TV unit, so we bought a new flat screen TV and put that on it. In the unit came my CD player, the DVD player and the receiver. I chucked out the two old speakers. On the shelves next to the TV unit came the old amp, the LP player and the PS2. I ditched the VCR as it was useless already at that point. Later on we got cable TV so I made place for the cable TV box in the TV unit. And one birthday my in-laws gave my a Nintendo Wii, so that fitted in nice on the shelves.

So when we bought the new place I thought about the whole media hub. I made sure the TV jack is next to the phone jack and with lots of electricity plugs. As the old TV unit was old, we bought a new sleek one. Problem is that the CD player is too bulky for that - so that is off to the cellar. The LP players (I have two for some reason) and the old amp are also in the cellar. So now I just have the receiver, a DVD player (which I will replace with a Blu-Ray one soon), and the cable TV box, with my router nested in there as well. I just need to connect both consoles but that is an easy job.

But now the problem is playing music. No CD player is connected to the receiver so I can't play any of my 700+ CDs. So for the moment I have my iPod connected but I found a solution. I am going to get the Sonos, so that I can stream the music I have. I will also get a Buffalo Linkstation Mini as a network-attached storage device so that I don't have to have my Mac switched on all the time to play music. And then I hope Spotify will be available for Sonos.

Less cables, more music. And next time I move it will start all over again. Hopefully by that time everything will be wireless.

Paleo 2009, here I come

Yesterday I got my tickets for Paleo 2009. I got myself the weekpass because there are many acts that I want to see: Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, White Lies, Snow Patrol, Moby, TV On The Radio, The Ting Tings, The Gossip, Placebo, Prodigy, Amy McDonald, Pete Doherty (if he ever makes it), Charlie Winston, Cold War Kids and Santogold. Ok, some of them may have passed their best (yes you Moby) but nonetheless a great line-up.

But half of my motivation does not have to do with music at all. It has to do with food. Because at Paleo you can eat amazingly good food from lots of food stands. It's not just your regular festival hot dog and lukewarm beer. I will have some duck liver curry, or some hot fondue (a hot dog bun filled with melted fondue cheese), or malakoffs (deep fried cheese), or rat sticks (I think it's chicken but could be some other animal on a stick, grilled), or liver sandwich, or spring rolls (amazingly good when you're drunk), or even Indonesian food. And I will wash it down with cold beer or cold rose.

If the weather is wonderful, it will then be a wonderful week for me. Especially now that I live around the corner from this festival...

Moving

After signing a contract back in 2007, last Friday we finally got the keys to our own brandnew appartment out in the countryside. Which meant that last weekend I was occupied with moving.

Normally moving 30 km isn't that much of a big deal, but here it surely is. Not to mention all the things that went wrong during the move as well. Movers came late, cleaning company didn't clean as they were supposed to, tax authorities being a pain in the ass, de-registering and registering, building a new IKEA wardrobe (201 cm tall and 250 cm wide) all by myself, unpacking boxes, telephone company messed up on activation date, etc etc etc.

I am still physically tired and there are still lots to do before it becomes free of "temporary solutions". Even though it is only 30 km away it really feels like I'm moving countries. Hell, moving from Indonesia to Switzerland was easier compared to this move.

However, now we live in a small village in the countryside and we are loving it...

iPhone

I just read on the beeb that Apple holds about 10.7% of the worldwide mobile phone market share. Given that the iPhone first came out on June 29th, 2007 that is an amazing achievement. To have 10% of the world's market share in less than two years? Not many companies can do that.

I can't find the total mobile phones worldwide, but let's say it's 1 billion. That means that Apple sold 107 million iPhones worldwide in less than 2 years!

Apple will also release a new software upgrade for the iPhone which will allow the iPhone to do copy-paste. Yes, finally I will be able to copy-paste text. About bloody time.

The motor show in 5 minutes

Every year Geneva hosts the motor show. A big occasion for car manufacturers to show their latest products, their ideas, and their wealth. And every year since 2001 I have been there with a press pass, together with my cousin.

However, my cousin has since moved to the other side of the world to open a pancake place, so I am left by myself. I've asked friends but nobody was available and unfortunately I was ill the day before the press day so I didn't feel too great.

So I decided to pass by the motor show quickly, basically to give my & my cousin's press pass in so that we will still be invited in the future years.

Normally I would go all out, eat and drink until I'm full and drunk, while watching the ladies who stand next to some dull objects - usually some weird-ass car designed for the year 2187. But this time I only stayed 20 minutes - with 15 minutes being spent on the phone to my cousin (courtesy of Volkswagen). And the remaining 5 minutes I quickly pottered around to see what I can see. And here are my observations:

• The credit crunch has impacted the car industry. There are less food and drink readily available. And by Fiat and Alfa Romeo, all the hot chicks that are usually there are gone. They can no longer afford proper models!
• The new VW Polo looks a bit like a BMW 1-serie.
• Mercedes came out with the new B-class. Who the hell buys B-classes anyways?
• I couldn't find a flyer for the Mini After-work party. Hope it wasn't scrapped.
• The Seat bags looks cool this year - I didn't get one though.
• No food at Nissan! At least it didn't look like there was.
• General Motors still had a stand with cars on it amidts rumours of GM going bankrupt.
• Neither Hyundai or KIA looked like they were giving out footballs. I want a football! (every year I manage to miss it).
• I didn't see any PS3 games that you can play from inside a car. Hmmm...

After that I gave up. I got home and became sick again.

Next year it will be the 80th motor show. So next year I will definitely eat a lot and drink until drunk.

No Line On The Horizon

I have two magazine subscription, Q and Time. I read Q to keep me up to date with what is going on in music and I read Time to keep me up to date with world affairs. However, sometimes both magazines venture into each other's territory as was the case when U2 released their new album, No Line On The Horizon, last week.

I was quite surprised to read that Time didn't rate the album well. They put it on par as Pop - which we all know is U2's worst album. Q on the other hand, gave it 5 stars out of 5 and put it on par with Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby! - definitely the best U2 albums. So how come the results are so different?

I wanted to buy the album as soon as it came out but only managed to go to the record store on Saturday (yes, yes I can but it online, but for some albums I need to have it physically). So I've been listening to it and try to make sense out of both reviews.

But first, both magazines have said that Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby! are U2's best works. I wholeheartedly agree, although I find Achtung Baby! having an edge over Joshua Tree. As for U2 songs, my favorites include The Fly, With Or Without You, and Walk On.

With the new album, U2 went back to basics (using Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Steve Lillywhite as producers for starters) but at the same time also tried something new. And here I think is where the two reviews differ. Time probably thinks that it tried for something new but failed (unlike when U2 did Achtung Baby! for instance). I understand that, like when you hear Edge's guitar you suddenly think of Where The Streets Have No Name, or when Bono goes oh-oh-oh-oh you wonder which song it was that had a similar oh-oh-oh-oh (btw, all U2 classics have oh-oh-ohs in it - proof that Bono doesn't need words or either ran out of words). But given that these guys have been in it so long (30 years and counting), what they are showing here is a new sound but still well in the U2 "soundscape". And this is why it earned them 5 stars from Q. You sort of expect them to do this, they did but much better than you expected.

Moment of Surrender is the beauty of the album. Bono shows his creaky voice but then eases it into the song and in the end you are unconsciously humming the oh-oh-ohs. Breathe is also a great song. Eno said it was one of the best U2 songs he ever worked on. At first it doesn't sound like much, but the song draws you in and at the end when Larry does his cymbal thingy you realised you just heard a very good U2 song.

Sure, some of Bono's lyrics still raises eyebrows, and yes, Edge's chiming chugga-chugga guitars sounds exactly like you have heard it but this is still a new horizon for them. And instead of becoming like The Rolling Stones just rolling along playing greatest hits from yesteryears, U2 is still very much what they are: The Best Band In The World.

Coldplay still has a lot of work to do.

McDonald's - slow food?

Yesterday at lunchtime I had to go sign something for the new flat. As we were rushing and didn't have time for lunch, we decided to drive by past a McDonald's on the way back to work. This is supposed to be a fast way of getting food.

I've been to many countries and I've tried McDonald's in many of these places. And there is always one constant - it is indeed fast food. In Indonesia they have a timer and if they don't manage to get your food out before the timer ends (I think it was 90 seconds), you get free fries. Other countries as well, they serve fast. As it is supposed to be fast food.

But here in Switzerland they are so goddamn slow. I have waited for 10 minutes at a McDonald's counter waiting for my Big Mac menu. And yesterday was worse.

We ordered at the first bit of the drive-through. Ordering was a bit of a challenge as the women didn't understand what I was saying. But we managed to order something simple (a Filet-O-Fish Menu, a McChicken and a Beef Rustico) in the end. I drove around the corner and was waiting in line behind a white car. After more than 5 minutes the person in the white car got his food (which was only one bag - so it wasn't that much). I drove to the window to claim my food and was joking to the missus that I would say sarcastically "fast food indeed". The women then looked at our order (only then!) and started to fill the bag. Then she said "Can you drive a bit forward as it will take 5 minutes for your McChicken." Hearing that I lost it and said "Just give me what you have. Quick. I've been waiting here for 10 minutes and now I have to wait more? Just give me what you have. Yeah a cheeseburger will do. Whatever."

At this point I was expecting her to have a sense of urgency, but nooo, she kept waddling around in her booth and making no effort to speed things up, nor to apologise. I was so pissed off I could have thrown the Coke back at her, but it was my missus' Coke not mine. Even paying took ages. When she handed me the change I just drove off, but at the same time the car behind me started beeping. Which is fair enough as the poor chap behind me was waiting for a while as well and he still had to deal with that slow waiter.

Now, how difficult is it to get this right? You get the order and if you don't have it scream to the kitchen to have it made right away. It is supposed to be fast food! I sometimes wish they have that timer thing here. Because if they had it (at any McDonald's) I would be eating free fries all the time. All the time.

Moral of the story: Don't expect McDonald's to be of the same standard here in Switzerland.

Swiss trains

I'm on the train from Zurich right now and as we're approaching Bern there's this announcement: "We're approaching Bern and we are sorry for the delay of 3 minutes. "

Yes, trains in Switzerland are always punctual they actually apologize when they are 3 minutes late. Three minutes!

Update: I spoke too soon. The train has stopped now due to a problem in one of the stations and it's been sitting idle for half an hour already. Only now does it start moving again.

It was so tacky...

Saturday evening we all went out to celebrate my best mate's birthday. He wanted to do something fun, so he made reservations at this bowling alley where they also serve pizza by the meter (yes, pizza by the meter!).

The bowling alley is a bit worse for wear. Imagine a bowling alley in the 80s and that's about it (albeit with an electronic score board - I don't think they existed in the 80s yet). There are pinball machines, video games (Time Crisis II for Christ sake!), a pool table and an air hockey table. However, it was quite packed with people wanting to have some fun (such as doing Tequila shots while bowling).

Anyway, we started out with the meal first. As we were 17 of us, a meter of pizza is never going to be enough, so we had to wait another 20 minutes for another meter. In the end we ate 3 meters, but if they were any quicker I reckon we could have eaten about 5 meters. But the best bit was when suddenly there was live music playing. And when I say live music it is not a band, but one guy with a couple of keyboards and a drum machine, singing hit songs. At first he sang Italian songs, then French, and then we heard the intro of Tina Turner's Simply The Best. At this point we all had consumed a fair amount of alcohol, so when the refrain kicked in, we all shouted "You're simply the best!". This song was followed up by Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall and then Survivor's Eye Of The Tiger.

We bowled afterwards for 2 games. I didn't do that bad considering I haven't bowled in ages. 150 and 143 (in the second game I only had 3 pins in the first 2 frames as I was experimenting with a throw).

Evenings like that are always fun.