R.I.P. Amy Winehouse

I told you that I was trouble, you know that I’m no good

It is truly a sad day to learn another singer has joined the infamous “stupid club”, a name coined by the late Kurt Cobain’s mother during her eulogy during her rock star son who died at the tender age of 27 just like his famed peers, namely Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and of course, Jimi Hendrix.

Unlike them though, Winehouse only managed to ever release two studio albums. Her last effort, the multiple Grammy winner, ‘Back to Black’ still remains a favourite in my iPod despite of a period now when I hardly listen to albums anymore.

The beautiful blend of jazz, soul and R&B sprinkled with painful lyrics and a dash of irony, resulting in a collection of songs reflecting on romance (or the death of it) and it’s soul mate, bitterness, sung brilliantly by her.

The saddest thing for me is knowing now that my fantasy of her being picked to sing a Bond theme song will never materialise. It is something that seems to me like a perfect fit as I liken her to a modern-day Shirley Bassey.

In an ‘era’ where Lady Gaga and Justin Bielber yet to exist, Amy Winehouse both presented the world a gift of rare talent and the curiosity like that of a car wreck, all in one package. It is the likes of which the audience has not witness since the days of Kurt Cobain.

Similarly, like her fellow ‘club member’ before her, Winehouse downward spiral in her personal life and her appetite for drugs and alcohol has always seem to make her entry into this club look pre-destined.

The Legend of Korra Teaser Trailer

Legend of Korra Trailer - HD Version Full 720p

The teaser trailer for the Legend of Korra is now available and it looks great. Even more impressively, they are doing what the Japanese animation industry can’t seem to do, create a strong, smart female lead character. For that, I salute Messrs DiMartino and Konietzko.

Lots to like here:

More information was made available at the San Diego Comic Con.

As an aside, this should have been titled simply Avatar: The Legend of Korra. Thanks for nothing, James Cameron. Also, fortunate the Shyamalan fiasco didn’t kill this franchise dead.

Thunderbird Lives

I’m a pretty big fan of Mozilla Thunderbird. The project has adopted the multi-channel development model of Firefox (which was adapted from Chrome’s) which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. Instead of the nightly, Aurora and beta channels, though, Thunderbird’s channels are named Shredder (ha), Earlybird and Miramar. With the new names comes new logos, courtesy of Sean Martell, Lead Visual Designer for Mozilla.

I’m almost tempted to use the Earlybird builds just for the logo.