Depending on opinion, we're either ages away or quite close to the end of the first decade of a new millennium, yet we seem not to have noticed how 'Buck Rodgers' far into the future we are. What do we make of it? As Britain's foremost authority on the study of popular culture (for surely that is our purpose, no?) let us put forward our predictions for what happens next.

Does the Kindle replace the paperback? Do we stream music and get rid of the physical format? What's after HD/Blue-Ray? 3D home cinemas? Will Lost ever end? Will someone unexpected win at the futball? Will they ever stop remastering old albums? Is the new Doctor Who going to be rubbish? Will we have to plug our brains into a giant, government-controlled, computer network? GUESS NOW!

New music model alert. Mariah Carey's new CD (no come back) contains a booklet of adverts for prestige products that reflect Carey's superstar lifestyle. Previous models have been built on the idea that you get free content if you sit through advertising (Spotify etc) butIsland Def Jam seem to be under the impression that fans will pay for directed ads alongside there content. I know very few people on the blog will be rushing out to buy the Carey's latest opus, but what the implication is that if this is a success, it could become more widespread. As a knee-jerk reaction, I'm opposed to the idea but advertising already supplements the cost of a lot of products I already buy, The Word being a pretty good example, but this deal doesn't seem to involve a reduced product for audiences for the sacrifice of looking at a few ads, it appears that Carey/ Island Def Jam bag the cash and punters still pay full price. Thoughts?

Distracting pop quiz thingy. 15 minutes to guess Australia's favourite 100 songs. Regular bloggers may want to go straight to question 44. That's enough clues.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/triplej_top100songs.php

I scored 40 and used the full time. I expect you all to do better than this.

The recent punk thread has got me thinking. I've been reading a lot around punk at the moment, I was -5 in 1977 and you need to catch up with these things. Although it's such a vague idea of a musical genre, just for the fun of it, I wondered who the Word Massive think were/are punk and who ain't. Let the accusations of Sell-Outtery and Bandwagoneering begin.

Just to get you started, Sting's not Punk.

I found out this morning that Disney are to buy Marvel comics. There are plenty of reasons this shouldn't bother me, DC have benefited from the multi-platform opportunities offered by being under the Time/ Warner/ AOL umbrella, Marvel were already a fairly 'corporate' entity, comics are for kids anyway, the concept of 'independence' has as much place in a capitalist reality as stacked platform boots and lycra catsuits have on a sunday league football pitch... Even considering all of this, there is a little part of me that read the news this morning, realised that something like Warren Ellis' New Universal doesn't really fit in with the Mouse House's public image, and felt a little sad.

After Blur's fab Glastonbury headlining show ( a cheese farmer, an aspiring politician, a painter and an opera composer walk into a field...) I got to wondering what it is 'slebs' get up to when the undying adulation of the world gets a little stale and repetitive.

I think one of the most famous cases is Iron Maiden singer/ commercial pilot Bruce Dickinson, anyone know of any more 'Rock Stars do the funniest things (for a living)'?

Finally managed to find a record shop this afternoon to pick up the much anticipated (in this house) new Eels album and I'm currently on the fourth spin. The 'Deluxe Edition' DVD remains unwatched in it's box, much as the Essential Eels DVD has for the last year.

My early impressions are good but I tend to like much of what he puts out, even the occasionally maligned Souljacker (from which the central character of this loosely conceptual album is taken). The press seems to have been very positive, despite mentions of it being 'unlikely to appeal to newcomers', though I find it as accessible as anything from the back catalogue, while The Longing is really, very, special.

I know that there are a few other Everett-ites on here, many thanks by the way to whoever posted the link to the 'Live at Town Hall' tracks, so I was wondering how others were getting to grips with it?

A band I know very little about, having only knowingly heard one of their tracks (The Summer, I think?). Oddly, several friends have mentioned, as I impose my musical taste on them (Eels, Bearsuit, Pixies etc) that if I like that, I'd like Yo La Tengo.

I've seen mention of them a few times on this hear blog and would value some input before throwing my money at Mr. Amazon. So how much is out there? What's their best album? Where is a good entry point? Should I just ignore my friends and go back to my Teenage Fanclub albums?

I'm really not sure what amazes me most about this footage; the inefficiency of Bush's bodyguard team, the inane rictus grin on Dubya's face, the unflustered manner in which he brushes off the incident or the fact that it looks incredibly easy to execute the leader of the free world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7782774.stm