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entertainment · 4 years

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Entertainment Spotlight: Gerald Isaac Waters, All Together Now

Tennessee-native Gerald Isaac Waters portrays Chad in All Together Now, Netflix’s film adaptation of Brett Haley’s book Sorta Like a Rock Star. Gerald is known for his role in TBS’s Angie Tribeca, has modeled for campaigns with Target and Zappos, and has also featured in New York Fashion Week. In 2015, Gerald had an accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down, which confined him to a wheelchair. Despite being told by his doctors that he was unlikely to regain movement, he has regained most movement in his upper body and continues to progress. Aside from his acting and modeling career, Gerald’s interests include surfing, boxing, baseball, and wine.

Can you tell us a bit about your character Chad in All Together Now? What drew you to the role?

My character 'Chad Fox' can be described as a devout friend, charming and determined. The thing that drew me most to this role was the message of friendship. I personally cherish my friends deeply, and I saw that in Chad as well. I knew I could bring parts of myself into this character and bring him to life.

Do you have any fun facts or funny stories about the making of the film?

There is a fun fact I can share!! There is a certain upbeat song from one scene that got stuck into EVERYONE'S head for days after we finished the scene! It is so catchy and repetitive that you catch yourself humming it or singing aloud before you know it! So, needless to say, our lunch breaks were quite musical.

What inspired you to get into acting? Were you ever part of a drama club at school?

My first intro to acting was the church Christmas play my mom was directing. I was 12 years old, and my best friend's mom played my mother in the play. She shared some great advice I’ve taken with me to every acting gig I’ve gotten since. To this day, every role I land, I call her, and we talk about where it all began!

The first drama club I was a part of happened in my senior year in high school. I joined my town's community theatre in a production of Bye Bye Birdie. That’s when I knew I wanted to pursue acting wholeheartedly!

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in your life this far?

The most important lesson in life I’ve learned this far is that a determined mind, body, and spirit can conquer even the most difficult obstacles! There’s something so rewarding about setting a goal, big or small, and seeing it through at all costs.

Is there anyone in the industry right now who you look up to or whose work you particularly enjoy?

I definitely look up to Neil Patrick Harris. From his work in television to film, Broadway, and an all-time host, he is a person I can inspire to be. Whenever I put on a show he is in, I know that I’ll end up laughing and feeling a little better than when I started watching. That is something I would love to be able to do; give people a sense of relief from whatever they are going through.

Do you have any advice for young wheelchair users who hope to have a career in acting?

My advice for young actors in the wheelchair community is DO NOT GIVE UP! Keep pushing and striving toward that goal. Don’t listen to your inner saboteur. Keep following the dream and make your voice heard!

If you could change anything about the world right now, what would that be, and why?

If I could change one thing about the world right now, it would be our lack of empathy. It is unfortunate that we are still treating human beings differently solely on the facts of race, origin, and religious beliefs. As a people, we find ourselves now with a bigger voice and platform to raise awareness and keep people accountable for their actions. Using our voices, I believe we can start practicing love and acceptance and build a bridge that can connect us all as equals!

If a theme song played whenever you entered a room, what song would it be?

Trying to pin down one theme song to play every time I entered a room is tough. I think instead, I would settle for having a 90’s theme laugh track for every entrance. How fun would that be!

What’s next for you?

What is next for me is a question I love because, honestly, the sky’s the limit! I do have a couple of projects coming up that I cannot wait to discuss. But an immediate goal of mine is to be a series regular on a show, just so I get to say “Previously on...” I can’t really explain why but that’s something I’ve wanted to be able to say for quite some time!!

Thanks for taking the time, Gerald! All Together Now is now (all together) streaming on Netflix.

Photo: Kelly Balch

#entertainment spotlight #all together now #gerald isaac waters

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foreverdavidbyrne · 4 years

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David Byrne’s interview in NME magazine

In 1979, David Byrne predicted Netflix. “It’ll be as easy to hook your computer up to a central television bank as it is to get the week’s groceries,” he told NME’s Max Bell, sitting in a Paris hotel considering the implications of Talking Heads’ dystopian single ‘Life During Wartime’.

He predicted the Apple Watch in that interview too: “[People will] be surrounded by computers the size of wrist watches.” And he foresaw surveillance culture and data harvesting: “Government surveillance becomes inevitable because there’s this dilemma when you have an increase in information storage. A lot of it is for your convenience, but as more information gets on file, it’s bound to be misused.”

In fact, over 40 years ago, he predicted the entire modern-day experience, as if he instinctively knew what was coming. “We’ll be cushioned by amazing technological development,” he said, “but sitting on Salvation Army furniture.”

The 68-year-old Byrne says today, “You can’t say that you know,” chuckling down a Zoom link from his home in New York and belying his reputation for awkwardness by seeming giddily relieved to be talking to someone. “It’s crazy to set yourself up as some sort of prophet. But there’s plenty of people who have done well with books where they claim to predict what’s going on. I suppose sometimes it’s possible to let yourself imagine, ‘Okay – what if?’ This can evolve into something that exists, can evolve into something more substantial, cheaper – these kinds of things.”

It’s been a lifelong gift. Byrne turned up at CBGBs in 1975 with his art school band Talking Heads touting ‘Psycho Killer’, as if predicting the punk scene’s angular melodic evolution, new wave, before punk was even called punk. In 1980, Talking Heads assimilated African beats and textures into their seminal ‘Remain In Light’ album, foreshadowing ‘world music’ and modern music’s globalist melting pot, then used it to warn America of the dangers of consumerism, selfishness and the collapse of civilisation. Pioneering or propheteering, Byrne has been on the front-line of musical evolution for 45 years, collaborating with fellow visionaries from Brian Eno to St Vincent’s Annie Clark, constantly imagining, ‘What if?’

The live music lockdown has been a frustrating freeze frame, but Byrne was already leading the way into music’s new normal. Launched in 2018, the tour to support his 10th solo album, ‘American Utopia’, has now turned into a cinematic marvel courtesy of Spike Lee – the concert film was released in the UK this week. The original tour was acclaimed as a live music revolution. Using remote technology, Byrne was able to remove all of the traditional equipment clutter from the stage and allow his musicians and dancers, in uniform grey suits and barefoot, to roam around a stage lined with curtains of metal chains with their instruments strapped to them. A Marshally distanced gig, if you will.

“As the show was conceptually coming together, I realised that once we had a completely empty stage the rulebook has now been thrown out,” Byrne says. “Now we can go anywhere and do anything. This is completely liberating. It means that people like drummers, for example, who are usually relegated to the back shadows, can now come to the front – all those kinds of things – which changes the whole dynamic.”

With six performers making up an entire drum kit and Byrne meandering through the choreography trying to navigate a nonsensical world, the show was his most striking and original since he jerked and jived around a constructed-mid-gig band set-up in Jonathan Demme’s legendary 1984 Talking Heads live film Stop Making Sense.

The American Utopia show embarked on a Broadway run last year, where Byrne super-fan Spike Lee saw it twice and leapt at the chance of turning the spectacle into Byrne’s second revolutionary live film, dotted with his musings on the human condition to illuminate the crux of the songs: institutional racism, our lack of modern connection, the erosion of democracy and, on opener ‘Here’, a lecture-like tour of the human brain, Byrne holding aloft a scale model, trying to fathom, ‘How do I work this?’

“I didn’t know how much of a fan Spike was!” Byrne laughs today. “He’d even go, ‘Why don’t you do this song? Why don’t you add this song in’. We knew one another casually so I could text him and say, ‘I want you to come and see our show; I think that you might be interested in making a film of it’.”

Are the days of the traditional stage set-up numbered? “Yes, I think so,” he replies. “At least in theatres and concert halls the size that I would normally play, yes. The fact that we can get the music digitally [means] a performance has to be really of value. It has to be really something special, because that’s where the performers are getting their money and that’s what the audience is paying for. They’re not paying very much for streaming music, but they are paying quite a bit to go and see a performance, so the performance has to give them value for money… It has to be really something to see.”

How does David Byrne envisage the future possibilities of live performance?

“I’ve seen a lot of things that hip-hop artists have done – like the Kanye West show where he emerges on a platform that floats above the stage,” he says. “I’d seen one with Kendrick Lamar where it was pretty much just him on stage, an empty stage with just him on stage and a DJ, somebody with a laptop – that was it. I thought, ‘Wow’. Then he started doing things with huge projections behind. There are lots of ways to do this. I love the idea of working with a band, with live musicians. ‘How can I innovate in this kind of way?’ It’s maybe easier for a hip-hop musician who doesn’t have a band to figure out. The pressure is on to come up with new ways of doing this.”

In liberating his musicians from fixed, immovable positions, American Utopia also acts as a metaphor for freeing our minds from our own ingrained ways of thinking. As Byrne intersperses Talking Heads classics such as ‘Once In A Lifetime’, ‘I Zimbra’ and ‘Road To Nowhere’ with choice solo cuts and tracks from ‘American Utopia’, he also dots the show with musings on an array of post-millennial questions: the health of democracy; the rise of xenophobia and fascism; our increasing reliance on materialism and online communication; the climate change threat; the existential nightmare of the dating app; and, crucially, the distances all of these things put between us.

“The ‘likes’ and friends and connections and everything that the internet enables,” he argues, “even Zoom calls like this, they’re no substitute for really being with other people. Calling social networks ‘social’ is a bit of an exaggeration.”

Byrne closes the show with the suggestion that, rather than isolate behind our LCD barriers, we should try to reconnect with each other. In an age when social media has descended into all-out thought war and anyone can find concocted ‘facts’ to support anything they want to believe, is that realistic?

“I have a little bit of hope,” he says. “Not every day, but some days. I have hope that people will abandon a lot of social media, that they’ll realise how intentionally addictive it is, and they’re actually being used, and that they might enjoy actually being with other people rather than just constantly scrolling through their phone. So, I’m a little bit optimistic that people will, in some ways, use this technology a little bit less than they have.”

A key moment in American Utopia comes with Byrne’s cover of Janelle Monae’s ‘Hell You Talmbout’, a confrontational track shouting the names of African-Americans who have been killed by police or in racially motivated attacks – Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd and far, far too many more. Does Byrne think the civil unrest in the wake of Floyd’s death and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement make a serious impact?

“We’ll see how long this continues,” he says, “but in projects that I’m working on – there’s a theatre project I’m working on in Denver, there’s the idea of bringing this show back to Broadway, there’s other projects – those issues came to the fore. Issues of diversity and inclusion and things like that, which were always there. Now they’re being taken more seriously. The producers and theatre owners realise that they can’t push those things aside, that they have to be included in the whole structure of how a show gets put together.”

“At least for now, that seems to be a big change. I see it in TV shows and other areas too. There’s a lot of tokenism, but there’s a lot of real opportunity and changed thinking as well.”

Elsewhere, he encourages his audience to register to vote, and had registration booths at the shows. He must have been pleased about the record turnout in the recent US election? “Yeah, the turnout was great. Now you just got to keep doing that. Gotta keep doing it at all the local elections, too. It was important for me not to endorse a political party or anything in the show but to say, ‘Listen, we can’t have a democracy if you don’t vote. You have to get out there and let your voice be heard and there’s lots of people trying to block it.’ We have to at least try.”

Will Trump’s loss help bring people together after four years with such a divisive influence in charge?

“Yes. I think for me Trump was not so much a shock; we knew who he is. He was around New York before that, in the reality show [The Apprentice], we knew what kind of character he was. What shocked me was how quickly the Republican party all fell into line behind him, behind this guy who’s obviously a racist, misogynist liar and everything else. But it’s kind of encouraging – although it’s taken four years and with some it’s only with the prospect of him being gone – that quite a few have been breaking ranks. There are some possibilities of bridge building being held out.”

But, he says, “It’s too early to celebrate,” concerned that Senate Majority Leader and fairweather Trump loyalist Mitch McConnell will use any Republican control of the Senate to block many of Biden’s policies from coming into effect. “[This] is what happened with Obama… I want to see real change happen. [Climate change] absolutely needs to be a priority. The clock had turned back over the last four years, so there’s a lot to be done. Whether there’s the willpower to do everything that needs to be done, it remains to be seen, but at least now it’s pointing in the right direction.”

How will he look back on the last four years? Byrne ponders. “I’m hoping that I look back at it as a near-miss.”

American Utopia is as much a personal journey as a dissection of modern ills. Ahead of ‘Everybody’s Coming To My House’, Byrne admits to being a rather socially awkward type. He claims that a choir of Detroit teenagers, when singing the song for the accompanying video, had imbued the song with a far more welcoming message than his own rendition, which found him wracked with the fear that his visitors might never leave. How does someone like that deal with celebrity?

“In a certain way it’s a blessing,” Byrne grins, “because I don’t have to go up to people to talk to them – they sometimes come up to me. In other ways it’s a little bit awkward. Celebrity itself seems very superficial and I have to constantly remind myself that your character, your behaviour and the work that you do is what’s important – not how well known you are, not this thing of celebrity. I learned early on it’s pretty easy to get carried away. But it does have its advantages. I had Spike Lee’s phone number, so I could text him.”

Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz’s recent book Remain In Love suggests that the more successful Byrne got early on, the more distant he became.

Byrne nods. “I haven’t read the book, but I know that as we became more successful I definitely used some of that to be able to work on other projects. I worked on a dance score with [American choreographer] Twyla Tharp and I worked on a theatre piece with [director] Robert Wilson – other kinds of things – [and] I started working on directing some of the band’s music videos. So I guess I spent less time just hanging out. As often happens with bands, you start off being all best friends and doing everything together and after a while that gets to be a bit much. Everybody develops their own friends and it’s like, ‘I have my own friends too’. Everybody starts to have their own lives.”

The future is far too enticing for David Byrne to consider revisiting the past. “I do live alone so sometimes it would get lonely”, he says of lockdown, but he’s been using his Covid downtime to cycle around undiscovered areas of New York and remain philosophical about the aftermath.

“We’ll see how long before the vaccine is in, before we return to being able to socialise,” he says, “but I’m also wondering, ‘How am I going to look at this year? Am I going to look at it as, “Oh yes, that’s the year that was to some extent taken away from our lives; our lives were put on pause?”’ We kept growing; we kept ageing; we keep eating, but it was almost like this barrier had been put up. It has been a period where, in a good way, it’s led us to question a lot of what we do. You get up in the morning and go, ‘Why am I doing this? What am I doing this for? What’s this about?’ Everything is questioned.”

Post-vaccine, he hopes to “travel a little bit” before looking into plans to bring the ‘American Utopia’ show back to Broadway, and possibly even to London if the financial aspects can be worked out. “Often when a show like that travels, the lead actors might travel,” Byrne explains, “but in this case it’s the entire cast that has to travel. So you’ve got a lot of hotel bills and all that kind of stuff. We wanted to do it. There might be a way, if we can figure that out.”

Once we all get our jab, will everyone come to recognise that, as Byrne sings on ‘American Utopia’s most inspiring track, ‘Every Day Is A Miracle’? “Optimistically, maybe,” he says. “There will be a lot of people who will just go, ‘Let’s get back to normal – get out to the bars, the clubs and discos’. That’s already been happening in New York; there’s been these underground parties where people just can’t help themselves. But after all this it’d be nice to think that people might reassess things a little bit.”

And with the algorithm as the new gatekeeper and technology beginning to subsume the sounds and consumption of music, what does the new wave Nostradamus foresee for rock in the coming decades? Will AIs soon be writing songs for other AIs to consume to inflate the numbers, cutting humanity out of the equation altogether?

“It seems like there’ll be a kind of factory,” Byrne predicts, “an AI factory of things like that, and of newspaper articles and all of this kind of stuff, and it will just exaggerate and duplicate human biases and weaknesses and stupidity. On the other hand, I was part of a panel a while back, and a guy told a story about how his listening habits were Afrofuturism and ambient music – those were his two favourite ways to go. The algorithm tried to find commonalities between the two so it could recommend things to him and he said it was hopeless. Everything it recommended was just horrible because it tried to find commonalities between these two very separate things. This just shows that we’re a little more eclectic than these machines would like to think.”

And in the distant future? Best prepare to welcome your new gloop overlords. Byrne isn’t concerned about The Singularity – the point at which machine intelligence supersedes ours and AI becomes God – but instead believes that future technologies will emulate microbial forms.

“I watched a documentary on slime moulds [a simple slimy organism] the other day,” he says, warming to his sticky theme. “Slime moulds are actually extremely intelligent for being a single-celled organism. They can build networks and bunches of them can communicate. They can learn, they have memories, they can do all these kinds of things that you wouldn’t expect a single-celled organism to be able to do.”

“I started thinking, ‘Well, is there a lesson there for AI and machine learning, of how all these emerging properties could be done with something as simple as a single cell?’ It’s all in there… when things interact, they become greater than the sum of their parts. I thought, okay, maybe the future of AI is not in imitating human brains, but imitating these other kinds of networks, these other kinds of intelligences. Forget about imitating human intelligence – there’s other kinds of intelligence out there, and that might be more fruitful. But I don’t know where that leads.”

His grin says he does know, that he has a vision of our icky soup-world future, but maybe the rest of the species isn’t yet advanced enough to handle it. But if we’re evolving towards disaster rather than utopia, we can trust David Byrne to give us plenty of warning.

December 18, 2020

#david byrne #talking heads #music #new wave #post-punk #art pop #avant funk #worldbeat #interview #nme magazine #2020

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d-criss-news · 4 years

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Darren Criss acts as playwright when he writes songs. He’s far more confident, and certainly more vulnerable, when he allows himself to play the part. In such a way, songwriting opens up a whole new world that pulses with untapped potential. So much of what he has accomplished in 15 years resides in his willingness to expose himself to what his imagination and intuition have in store. He steps into a playwright’s shoes with considerable ease (just look at his resume), and always one to put on plenty of bravado, especially during our Zoom face-to-face, it’s the natural order of things.

“As I get older and write more and more songs, I really recognize that I’ve always preferred to write for another context other than my own,” Criss tells American Songwriter. He speaks with a cool intensity, gesturing emphatically to accentuate a sentence, and when you let him go, he’s like the Energizer Bunny 一 “I can tell by just how quiet you already are that you’re fucked,” he jokes at the start of our video chat. But he remains just as engaged and focused when listening.

He soaks in the world, taking astute notes about behavior and emotional traits he can later use in song. His storytelling, though, arrives already in character, fully formed portraits he can then relay to the world. It’s not that he can’t be vulnerable, like such greats as Randy Newman, Tom Waits, and Rufus Wainwright, who have all embroidered their work with deeply personal observations, it just doesn’t feel as comfortable. “I’ve always really admired the great songwriters of the world who are extremely introspective and can put their heart and soul on the chopping block,” he muses. “That’s a vulnerability that I think is so majestic. I’ve never had access to it. I’m not mad about it. It’s just good to know what your deal is.”

Criss’ strengths lie in his ability to braid his own experiences, as charmed as they might be, into wild, goofy fantasies. In the case of his new series “Royalties,” now streaming on Quibi, he walks a fine line between pointed commentary on the music industry, from menial songwriting sessions to constantly chasing down the next smash, and oddball comedy that is unequivocally fun. Plotted with long-standing friends and collaborators Matt and Nick Lang, co-founders of Team StarKid, created during their University of Michigan days (circa 2009), the show’s conceptual nucleus dates back more than a decade.

If “Royalties” (starring Criss and Kether Donohue) feels familiar, that’s because it is. The 10-episode show ─ boasting a smorgasbord of delightful guest stars, including Mark Hammill, Georgia King, Julianna Hough, Sabrina Carpenter, and Lil Rel Howery ─ captures the very essence of a little known web series called “Little White Lie.” Mid-summer 2009, Team StarKid uploaded the shoddy, low budget production onto YouTube, and its scrappy tale of amateur musicians seeking fame and fortune quickly found its audience, coming on the heels of “A Very Potter Musical,” co-written with and starring Criss. Little did the trio know, those initial endeavors laid the groundwork for a lifetime of creative genius.

“It’s a full circle moment,” says Criss, 33, zooming from his Los Angeles home, which he shares with his wife Mia. He’s fresh-faced and zestful in talking about the new project. 11 years separate the two series, but their connective thematic tissues remain striking. “Royalties” is far more polished, the obvious natural progression in so much time, and where “Little White Lie” soaked in soapy melodrama, the former analyzes the ins and outs of the music world through more thoughtful writing, better defined (and performed) characters, and hookier original tunes.

“Royalties” follows Sara (Donohue) and Pierce (Criss), two struggling songwriters in Los Angeles, through various career exploits and pursuits. The pilot, titled “Just That Good,” features an outlandish performance from Rufus Wainwright as a major player in dance-pop music, kickstarting the absurdity of Criss’ perfectly-heightened reality. As our two main characters stumble their way between songwriting sessions, finally uncovering hit single potential while eating a hot dog, Criss offers a glimpse into the oft-unappreciated art of songwriting.

In his own songwriting career ─ from 2010’s self-released Human EP and a deal with Columbia Records (with whom a project never materialized) to 2017’s Homework EP and Computer Games’ debut, Lost Boys Life, (a collaboration with his brother Chuck) ─ he’s learned a thing or two about the process. Something about sitting in a room with someone you’ve never met before always rang a little funny to him.

“You meet a stranger, and you have to be creative, vulnerable, and open. It’s speed-dating, essentially. It’s a different episode every time you pull it off or not. All the big songwriters will tell you all these crazy war stories. Everyone has a wacky story from songwriting,” he says. “I slowly realized I may ─ I can’t flatter myself, there are tons of creative people who are songwriters ─ have prerequisites to just put the two together [TV and music]. I’ve worked enough in television as an actor and creator. I can connect the dots. I had dual citizenship where I felt like it was really time for me to go forth with this show.”

But a packed professional life pushed the idea to the backburner.

Between six seasons of “Glee” (playing Blaine Anderson, a Warbler and lover to Chris Colfer’s Kurt Hummel), starring in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” on Broadway, and creating Elsie Fest, a one-day outdoor festival celebrating songs of the stage and screen, he never had the time. “I was lucky enough to be busy,” he says. “As Team StarKid’s star was continuing to rise with me being separate from it, I was trying to think of a way to get involved again with songwriting.”

At one point, “Glee” had officially wrapped and his Broadway run was finished. It appeared “Royalties” may finally get its day in the sun. “I went to Chicago for a work pilgrimage with the Langs. We had a few days, and we put all our ideas on the map: every musical, feature film, show, graphic novel, and animated series we’ve ever thought of,” he says. “A lot of them were from the Langs; they were just things I was interested in as a producer or actor. We looked at all of them and made a top three.”

“Royalties” obviously made the cut.

Fast forward several years, Gail Berman’s SideCar, a production company under FOX Entertainment, was looking to produce a music show. Those early conversations, beginning at an otherwise random LA party, showed great promise in airlifting the concept from novel idea to discernible reality. Things quickly stalled, however, as they often do in Hollywood, but Criss had at least spoken his dreams into the universe.

“I finally had an outlet to put it into gear. It wasn’t until two to three years after that that things really locked in. We eventually made shorts and made a pilot presentation. We showed it to people, and it wasn’t until Quibi started making their presence known that making something seemed really appealing,” he says. “As a creator, they’re very creator-centric. They’re not a studio. They’re a platform. They are licensing IP much like when a label licenses an indie band’s album after the fact.”

Quibi has drawn severe ire over the last few months, perhaps because there is a “Wild Westness” to it, Criss says. “I think that makes some people nervous. Being my first foray into something of this kind, Quibi felt like a natural partner for us. If this had been a network or cable show, we would’ve molded it to be whatever it was.”

Format-wise, “Royalties” works best as bite-sized vignettes, charming hijinks through the boardroom and beyond, and serves as a direct response to a sea of music shows, from “Nashville” and “Empire” to “Smash.” “Those shows were bigger, more melodramatic looks at the inside base of our world. I’ve always been a goofball, and I just wanted to take the piss out of it,” he says. “This show isn’t about songwriting. It’s about songwriters… but a very wacky look at them.”

“30 Rock,” a scripted comedy loosely based around “Saturday Night Live,” in which the focus predominantly resides around the characters, rather than the business itself, was also on his mind. “It’s about the interconnectivity of the people and characters. As much of the insider knowledge that I wanted to put into our show, at the end of the day, you just want to make a fun, funny show that’s relatable to people who know nothing about songwriting and who shouldn’t have to know anything.”

Throughout 10 episodes, Criss culls the “musicality, fun, and humor” of Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger and Max Martin, two of his biggest songwriting heroes, and covers as many genres as possible, from K-Pop to rap-caviar and classic country. While zip-lining between formats, the songs fully rely on a sturdy storytelling foundation ─ only then can Criss drape the music around the characters and their respective trajectories. “I wanted to do something where I could use all the muscles I like to flex at once, instead of compartmentalizing them,” he says. “I really love writing songs for a narrative, not necessarily for myself. I thrive a little more when I have parameters, characters, and a story to tell.”

Bonnie McKee, one of today’s greatest pop architects, takes centerstage, too, with an episode called “Kick Your Shoes Off,” in which she plays a bizarro version of herself. “She has her own story, and I’ve always been fascinated by it,” says Criss, who took her out to lunch one day to tell her about it. Initially, the singer-songwriter, known for penning hits for Katy Perry, Taio Cruz, and Britney Spears, would anchor the entire show, but it soon became apparent she would simply star in her own gloriously zany episode.

In one of the show’s standout scenes, Pierce and Sara sit in on a label meeting with McKee’s character and are tasked with writing a future hit. But they quickly learn how many cooks are in the kitchen at any given moment. Everyone from senior level executives to publicists and contracted consultants have an opinion about the artist’s music. One individual urges her to experiment, while another begs not to alienate her loyal fanbase, and then a third advises her to chronicle the entire history of music itself ─ all within three minutes or so. It’s absurd, and that’s the point. “Everyone’s been in that meeting, whether you’re in marketing or any creative discussion that has to be made on a corporate level by committee. It’s the inevitable, comedic contradictions and dissociations from not only rationality but feasibility.”

Criss also draws upon his own major label days, having signed with Sony/Columbia right off the set of “Glee,” as well as second-hand accounts from close friends. “There are so many artists, particularly young artists, who famously get chewed up and spat out by the label system,” he says. “There’s a lot of sour tastes in a lot of people’s mouths from being ‘mistreated’ by a label. I have a lot of friends who’ve had very unfortunate experiences.”

“I was really lucky. I didn’t have that. I have nothing but wonderful things to say,” he quickly adds.“It wasn’t a full-on drop or anything. I was acting, and I was spreading myself really thin. It’s a record label’s job to make product, and I was doing it piecemeal here and there. I would shoot a season [of ‘Glee’] and then do a play. I was doing too many things. I didn’t have it in me at the time to do music. I had written a few songs I thought were… fine.”

Both Criss and the label came to the same conclusion: perhaps this professional relationship just wasn’t a good fit. They parted ways, and he harbors no ill-will. In fact, he remains close friends with many folks from that time. So, it seems, a show like “Royalties” satisfies his deep hunger to make music and write songs ─ and do it totally on his own terms.

“I still say I want to put out music, and fans have been very vocal about that. I feel very fortunate they’re still interested at all,” he says. “That passion for making music really does come out in stuff like [this show].”

“Royalties” is Darren Criss at his most playful, daring, and offbeat. It’s the culmination of everything he has tirelessly worked toward over the last decade and a half. Under pressure with a limited filming schedule, he hits on all cylinders with a soundtrack, released on Republic Records, that sticks in the brain like all good pop music should do. And it would not have been the same had he, alongside Matt and Nick Lang, not formed Team StarKid 11 years ago.

Truth be told, it all began with a “Little White Lie.”

#darren criss #american songwriter #royalties press #press #royalties #june 2020

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our-kendrick · 4 years

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'Painful at times': Anna Kendrick on delving into her 'love life' in new series

Read here, or below.

Anna Kendrick is facing a conundrum. And it’s one that has left the 34-year-old actor uncharacteristically tongue-tied as she sits in her LA home in isolation, talking over Zoom about Love Life, her first television series.

Looking much the same way she describes herself to her 7.3 million Twitter followers – “pale, awkward and very, very small” – she is no stranger to self-deprecating humour, as a recent tweet suggests: “I guess I’ll never be able to lie to myself again about all the shit I would do if I just had the time.”

But the petite, Oscar-nominated star of Up in the Air and the Pitch Perfect franchise is also notoriously protective of her personal life and has never confirmed she’s even dating cinematographer Ben Richardson, whom she reportedly met while making the 2013 indie film Drinking Buddies.

Which brings us to the question that’s just brought the conversation to a halt: how can she talk about her romantic-comedy series without talking about her own love life? “Well, as far as keeping it private, it isn’t easy, as you are proving right now,” she responds. “But that’s just always how it’s been for me.”

With that awkward moment over, Anna returns to her chatty self as we talk about her other Love Life, the Stan anthology series. Anna’s character, Darby, a museum tour guide, is the subject of the first 10-episode season as we follow her relationships from first love to lasting love via everything in between.

“The real arc that we wanted was to show how we learn from each relationship,” she says. “Even though our relationships end, it doesn’t mean they are complete failures. People come into your life and you grow and they change you and what you learn from them might be really positive or it might be negative.”

The series shares DNA with Sex and the City and Girls as we watch a group of friends clumsily navigating the messy reality of pairing up. “It was painful at times and I cringed at the way that I, and so many women that I know, dated guys in our early 20s – the way we were so awkward and needy and clingy,” Anna says.

“Looking back now, it’s like, ‘Oh god, I acted like such a jerk in that relationship.’ Or all the times I didn’t feel strong enough to say, ‘You can’t speak to me that way.’ I’m just so happy that I’m clearer now about what I will accept from people in my life.”

As Anna grows more relaxed, we circle back to the dating themes of the show and how they resonated in her life. “When I was maybe 14 or 15, somebody gave me this specific example, that if you’re ever in a car with a guy, and he’s driving, and as a joke he lets go of the wheel and makes you grab it, that is not a guy you want to be with,” she recalls.

“He might say, ‘Hey, I’m just joking, why are you being so sensitive?’ But really, he’s testing your boundaries and what you’re willing to put up with and trying to make you uncomfortable."

“It sounds silly, but I dated a guy when I was 19 who tickled me all the time and I don’t like being tickled, because it makes me claustrophobic. So I kept saying, ‘This is a problem for me. Please don’t do it.’ "

“But he kept doing it and I thought, ‘He’s the guy with the steering wheel!’ So, I broke up with him and he told everyone it was because he tickled me. I was like, ‘No, dude, I broke up with you because you didn’t respect me!’ ”

Anna Kendrick grew up in the sleepy US East Coast town of Portland, Maine, the daughter of a history teacher and an accountant. At age six she scored the lead role in a community-theatre production of Annie. By 10, she was insisting her parents make the five-hour drive into New York City for stage auditions. And at 12 she scored a Tony nomination in the Broadway musical High Society.

Eventually, the fresh-faced brunette with big blue eyes transitioned into films, including the four Twilight Saga movies (2009-12). She has also put her theatrical roots to good use in musical films, including Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods (2014) and the 2016 animated film Trolls, including eight songs on the soundtrack.

Love Life also implies sex life, although Anna says she really hadn’t thought that through when she first signed on. “When we started filming, it dawned on me that in every single episode I was going to be doing a kissing scene or a sex scene with someone brand new,” she says, rolling her eyes. “It was definitely weird to know that we were going to meet and within a week we were going to be in bed pretending to have sex!”

That doesn’t mean, however, she’ll be going the full Kim Cattrall or Lena Dunham on the show. “My personal feelings on nudity – that I’m not really interested in nudity for me – stayed the same. I’ve never had a problem with simulated sex scenes – that feels like it’s about the character, whereas I only get one body, so nudity is more about me.”

Anna’s on a roll with this new screen persona, recently playing a woman who falls for a talking sex doll in the quirky, bite-sized series Dummy, available on the Quibi streaming platform.

“That gave me a new appreciation for people who are owners of sex dolls because it turns out that a sex doll is really heavy lifting, so there’s a certain level of commitment,” she says in typically deadpan manner.

“I have no judgment and I seriously tip my cap to those people,” she adds, grinning. “But the creator and director of Dummy, Tricia Brock, also directed an episode of Love Life where Darby uses a sex toy and I said, ‘Tricia, do you just like to have me doing something gross every time we work together?’ ”

As video chats become more the norm, stars are often sharing intimate glimpses into their homes. Not Anna, who is sitting in front of a blank white wall looking surprisingly glammed up thanks to a good blow-dry, immaculate make-up and a pretty floral dress.

“I could say I’ve been exercising every day and cooking,” she says, “but there’s definitely been days where I feel helpless because there’s something really terrible happening out there and I’m powerless to change it.”

For now, she’s happy to use Zoom to keep her loved ones close. “Twice a week I do family movie nights – my parents are in Maine and my brother is in New York – and we pick a movie like Robert Redford’s The Natural or The Princess Bride and all press play at the same time. We’re all texting each other during the movie, which normally would be a no-no, but under these circumstances it’s really sweet.”

That also applies to many of her co-stars. “In the last couple of weeks, I was on a Zoom call with some of the girls from Pitch Perfect [including Rebel Wilson and Anna Camp] and we were talking about when you get in fights with friends, how it’s the worst.

“I said, ‘If you just text me first to warn me you’re mad before you call, that would be great.’ And those girls were like, ‘What? We’re not going to get into a fight!’ I met them when we were around 25 and now we’re talking about being friends until we’re 80.”

It’s not surprising then, that Anna embraced the episode of Love Life devoted to a potential breakup with Darby’s best friend, Sara (Zoe Chao), instead of a beau. “Sometimes your girlfriends are the great loves of your life and they affect you so much,” she says. “I’m just grateful to have those kinds of relationships, too.”

#anna kendrick #interview #love life #2020

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roykent6 · 6 years

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for the unpopular (or popular) opinion, 1. rent live was not as good as everyone said it was (this is more popular in my school), In Trousers is an extremely underappreciated musical and every production that is on youtube has shitty staging which makes it harder for people to love, 3. Plays would probably end up being more popular than musicals if Broadway and other theatres companies would actually record performances and put them online on some streaming service

1. not at all | eh idk | neutral | yeah definitely | the most accurate statement ever

overall, I enjoyed Rent Live, but I do have criticisms of it. some of the casting didn’t do it for me, and I think the decision to show the dress rehearsal footage instead of the concert that the in-person audience got to see was a huge miss. I give the cast’s apparent lack of energy a pass, because it makes sense that they’d be saving their full energy for the real show. I also bumped on a lot of the changes they made, especially to the Seasons of Love staging. the changed lines due to making things appropriate for tv were annoying, but obviously you can’t say certain things on network tv (though the fact that they took out the words piss and dildo but kept in “faggots, lezzies, dykes” really didn’t sit well with me). but other than that, I thought the set was cool and most of the cast did a really good job. and the finale with the original cast was beautiful and definitely had me crying. I just wish we could have seen it actually live.

2. not at all | eh idk | neutral | yeah definitely | the most accurate statement ever

I’ll be real, I’ve never actually watched a production on youtube. I’ve listened to the recording plenty though, and it’s absolutely super underrated. it gives a lot of insight into Marvin’s character that you don’t get from Falsettos, and the songs are some of Bill Finn’s finest. it takes a couple listenings to really come to appreciate it, but it’s great. I think about “the thing about explorers is: they discover things that are already there.” at least once a day, it’s so good.

3. not at all | eh idk | neutral | yeah definitely | the most accurate statement ever

there’s tons of benefits to professionally filming theatre productions and releasing them in movie theatres and streaming platforms. it makes these shows more accessible to people who’d never have the chance to see them, and it gives people the opportunity to relive a piece of theatre that they’d only get to see once. that being said, there’s so much work that goes into professionally recording a production, and a lot of hoops that have to be jumped through just to get the green light to record it. that being said, I really don’t know whether or not professional recordings of plays would make them more popular than musicals. for me, plays and musicals almost exist as separate entities of theatre, because there are things about both that are unique and special. that being said, I know lots of people who aren’t into the song and dance aspects of musicals, so maybe having access to proshots of plays would help them to find a new appreciation for theatre as a whole.

#zowgirl

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Upcoming Movies in December 2020: Streaming, VOD, and Theaters

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As we recover from whatever Thanksgiving celebration we were able to safely put together in these strange times, there is something reassuring about the fact that December is here and 2020–a challenging year on every level–is almost over.

While December is normally packed with theatrical releases that range from buzzy awards contenders to end-of-the-year blockbusters and holiday-themed comfort films, this year is not business as usual. Sure, Oscar hopefuls abound, such as Mank, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Nomadland, but two of those three will be on Netflix. As for the tentpole contingent, well, only Wonder Woman 1984 is still opening in theaters–and you can also watch that on HBO Max right after opening your presents on Christmas morning.

In other words, there are plenty of new movies coming out this month, and more than one way to watch them. That’s not the worst thing in the world even when a pandemic isn’t raging, and perhaps an unintended gift for cinema lovers–one that may keep giving well into 2021.

Mank

December 4 on Netflix

Director David Fincher’s film is either a masterful ode to old Hollywood or a dull vanity project, depending on your point of view. Many critics, including our own David Crow, love its devoted recreation of both the era in which Citizen Kane was created and the style of that and other films of the period; others asked aloud why we should be so invested in a dissolute writer and the long-forgotten gubernatorial race that dominates a large portion of the film?

There’s no doubt, however, that Mank is beautifully crafted (right down to the “cigarette burns” indicating film reel changes) and is anchored by a typically immersive Gary Oldman performance. Oldman plays the enigmatic Herman J. Mankiewicz, whose authorship of Orson Welles’ masterpiece has been a source of contention for many reasons. After a limited theatrical run, it now comes to Netflix as one of the streamer’s major awards contenders.

Nomadland

December 4 in U.S. Theaters, February 19 in the UK

Pegged as the film to beat for all the Oscar love this year, Nomadland tells the story of Fern (Frances McDormand), a woman in her 60s who lives an itinerant existence–as a literal nomad–out in the American West after losing everything to the Great Recession. The narratively sparse film explores both the liberation of living off the grid as well as the despair that comes with the feeling that the world has forgotten about you.

Our review from the Toronto International Film Festival called the movie a “modern day Grapes of Wrath” and in addition to utilizing real American nomads in the film, both director Chloe Zhao and McDormand lived and traveled in vans during the shoot (which took place while Zhao was prepping for Marvel’s Eternals, a project which seems like it couldn’t be more the opposite of this).

The Prom

December 11 on Netflix and in Select Theaters

Based on a Tony-winning Broadway musical, The Prom stars Meryl Streep and James Corden as New York City stage stars whose careers go down the tubes after their expensive new Broadway show becomes a major flop. But they soon plot a way to revive their flagging fortunes by heading with two other actors to small-town Indiana. There high school student Emma Nolan (newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman) has been banned from attending the prom with her girlfriend Alyssa (Ariana DeBose).

Directed by Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story), the film’s sparkling cast also includes Nicole Kidman, Keegan-Michael Key, Kerry Washington, Andrew Rannells, Tracy Ullman, Mary Kay Place and more. We’re not familiar with the stage show, but Murphy’s first huge mainstream success was Glee, so this kind of brings him back to his high school musical days. But wait, no role for Sarah Paulson?

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

December 18 on Netflix

There’s no avoiding the heartbreaking reality that Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom contains the final screen performance of Chadwick Boseman, who died last August from cancer. And seeing him on screen again makes one realize just what an incredible talent we lost. As the ambitious yet hot-headed trumpet player Levee, Boseman is stupendous: he has two scenes in this movie in which all the rage and pain of being a Black man in America pours out of him, and he simply sears the screen.

Movies

New Netflix Christmas Movies in 2020 Ranked from Best to Worst

By Delia Harrington

Movies

Black Panther Director Pens Touching Tribute to Chadwick Boseman

By Mike Cecchini

As does Viola Davis in the title role of the blues singer who assembles her band on a fateful day in 1927 to record her songs–for a white-owned record label, of course. Based on August Wilson’s Tony-winning play and directed by George C. Wolfe, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is certainly about the exploitation of Black musicians by white businessmen. But it’s also about the blues themselves, as well as race, religion, sex, and African American culture, all stirred up in gripping fashion. One of the year’s best.

The Father

December 18 in U.S. Theaters, January 8 in the UK

The Father is simply one of the best films we’ve seen this year. Director/screenwriter Florian Zeller’s adaptation of his own play stars Anthony Hopkins as Anthony, an elderly English man suffering from the onset of dementia. Olivia Colman is his daughter Anne, who is apparently planning a move to Paris to live with her partner and trying to find a new caregiver for her father after he scared off the last one.

Or is she? As the film goes on, the viewer begins to wonder what is actually happening. People drift in and out of the narrative under different names, Anthony’s spacious apartment seems to change around him, and time itself seems to bend. As a result, what could have been a conventional drama about illness and memory becomes something brilliant and utterly heartbreaking.

The Midnight Sky

December 23 on Netflix

George Clooney’s seventh film as a director (and his first acting gig in four years) finds him back in the same sci-fi territory he’s traversed as an actor in movies like Solaris and Gravity. Here he plays Augustine Lofthouse, a lonely scientist who (along with a little girl) may be the last person left alive on Earth after a global catastrophe. He races to contact the crew of a spacecraft that has been sent to explore a potential new home for humankind, in order to warn them away from Earth and give themselves a chance to survive.

Movies

Best Horror Movies Streaming on HBO Max

By David Crow and 2 others

Movies

Best Sci-Fi Movies of the 21st Century

By Don Kaye

Based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton, The Midnight Sky looks like it will be a beautifully shot and designed film at the very least. The premise is engaging, but Clooney has been hit and miss as a director (his last good directorial effort was 2011’s The Ides of March). We’ll see if sci-fi adventure is a genre at which he can excel again.

Wonder Woman 1984

December 16 in the UK, December 25 in U.S. Theaters and on HBO Max

Patty Jenkins’ long-awaited follow-up to her culture-shifting 2017 origin story of the Princess of Themyscira has bounced all over the 2020 release map, with Warner Bros. not giving up hope of getting Wonder Woman 1984 into theaters at some point. Now the studio has split the difference, resolving to open it in theaters on Christmas Day while also giving nervous fans the chance to watch it at home (and give the struggling HBO Max platform a needed boost).

Gal Gadot returns as Diana in a standalone adventure that takes place in the 1980s and features her squaring off against both the diabolical Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) and the grievance-fueled Barbara Ann Minerva, who evolves into arch-villain Cheetah (Kristin Wiig). Plot details are under wraps–including how the supposedly dead yet still youthful Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) ends up back in Diana’s life–but we hope that this second Wonder Woman adventure channels the sheer exhilaration that its predecessor brought to the table.

Movies

Wonder Woman 1984: Does HBO Max Premiere End Theatrical Releases as We Know Them?

By David Crow

Movies

Diana and Steve’s Relationship in Wonder Woman 1984 is “More Intimate”

By Kayti Burt

Soul

December 25 on Disney+

Director Pete Docter follows up his brilliant Inside Out with another animated exploration of the metaphysical and existential. In this case, aspiring jazz pianist Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx) accidentally finds himself headed for the Great Beyond, but manages to change course and land instead in the Great Before, where souls prepare to join life on Earth. Can Joe and a cynical soul named 22 (Tina Fey), who has no desire to become a human being, find a way to get Joe’s soul back to his body in time for the biggest gig of his life?

Movies

Soul: How Nine Inch Nails Scored the New Pixar Movie

By Don Kaye

Movies

Inside Pixar’s Soul and the Secrets of Life Before Death

By Don Kaye

Docter (and co-writer Kemp Powers) tackle some of the Big Questions this time around, and the answers will no doubt prove as thoughtful as any of Docter’s previous work. The visuals are of course up to the usual jaw-dropping Pixar standard, and the striking score is a mix of jazz by Jon Batiste and electronics by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross–that’s right, Nine Inch Nails have scored a Disney release.

Promising Young Woman

December 25 in U.S. Theaters, February 12 in the UK

Originally slated to come out last April, Promising Young Woman stars Carey Mulligan as Cassie, whose one-time dreams of completing medical school were derailed by an unspeakable tragedy that has gone unpunished. Now the smart yet single-minded Cassie is obsessed with righting that wrong–and will stop at nothing to seek justice.

Killing Eve showrunner Emerald Fennell makes her directorial debut with this mix of thriller and black comedy (which she also wrote) that is certainly part and parcel of this particular moment in history. The always compelling Mulligan is joined in the film by Alison Brie, Laverne Cox, Bo Burnham, Jennifer Coolidge, and Connie Britton.

One Night in Miami

December 25 in Select U.S. Theaters, January 15 on Amazon Prime Video

You can read a comprehensive review of Watchmen star Regina King’s directorial debut here. Adapted by Soul co-writer Kemp Powers from his play, the film envisions what happened on the night in February 1964 that Cassius Clay (El Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and football star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) all assembled in a motel room after Clay–later known as Muhammad Ali–defeated Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship.

Movies

New Christmas Movies to Stream: A Holiday 2020 Streaming Guide

By David Crow

Movies

Toronto International Film Festival 2020 Movie Round-Up

By David Crow

King may not fully escape the movie’s origins as a play, but she projects confidence behind the camera and gets distinctive performances out of her four stars. Goree and Hodge are the strongest, but Ben-Adir’s doomed civil rights leader and Odom Jr.’s introverted singer are the heart of this timely story, which builds to a powerful and inspiring finish.

News of the World

December 25 in U.S. Theaters, January 1 in the UK

Director Paul Greengrass’ first feature since 2018’s grim 22 July stars Tom Hanks as a widowed Civil War veteran and traveling storyteller who agrees to deliver a girl to her aunt and uncle against her will, years after she was taken by the Kiowa people. They travel hundreds of miles and face grave dangers as they search for a place that either can call home.

Based on a 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles, News of the World was originally set up at Fox three years ago, but was sold to Universal following the Disney/Fox merger. It marks the second time Hanks and Greengrass have collaborated, following 2013’s excellent Captain Phillips, and its vast natural scope and period setting are new territory for the director.

Monster Hunter

December 25 in U.S. Theaters, 2021 TBC in the UK

Based on the globally popular video game series, Monster Hunter stars Milla Jovovich as Captain Artemis, who is inexplicably transported along with her military unit (via sandstorm) to a different world where dangerous, powerful monsters reign supreme. Their only hope to survive and stop the creatures from destroying our world is to team up with another band of warriors for the ultimate battle.

Movies

As Wonder Woman Heads To HBO Max, Will Black Widow Make A Move To Streaming Next?

By Don Kaye

Games

Mortal Kombat: The Definitive Video Game Movie of the ’90s

By Matthew Byrd

Monster Hunter finds Jovovich working once again with her creative and real-life partner, director Paul W.S. Anderson, on yet another video game adaptation–although doing all those Resident Evil movies together certainly didn’t seem to hurt their bank account. Nevertheless, video game movies are notoriously hit and miss (mostly miss), so we’ll see if Milla and Paul work their magic again.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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milkmoneyzine · 4 years

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"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" #3

#Follow4FollowMyGuy asks: As an artist in uncertain times, how can I keep promoting my music from quarantine?

M$: The first thing you need to do is find some compromising evidence on a friend that runs a website. Then you blackmail them into letting you write a pointless Advice Column that no one actually cares about. That’s the most important place to start.

Once you’ve got that secured, and the money from the blog is flowing endlessly into your account, then you just hustle. Hustling is a lost art these days. There are so many online outlets, and so many different social media platforms that it can get overwhelming pretty quickly. The key is to not let that happen. Focus on one or two at a time. Get weird on Twitter and sneak in some links. Ask for questions on your Instagram story, then find a way to relate your answers to songs you can post. Dive into the hellscape that is Reddit and find a thread that your music fits with, and drop a link. Not all of this is going to work, but it’s worth a shot.

The other important thing to remember is that you don’t have to promote a specific song, or an album, or a video. Just interact with people. Everyone else is online all the time, so just be visible, be friendly, and be accessible. As long as you’re doing something online, no one is going to forget about you.

Maybe don’t use the band page to drop heart eyes on thirst trap photos. Slide into those DM’s from your own account, you know? The last thing you want is the fucking bass player seeing their reply first and stealing your thunder. But then again, all is fair in love and hardrock.

Dan Price asks: Can I have your milk money?

M$:

@FiendingForMosh asks: When are shows coming back?

M$: The real answer is that no one knows. Probably sooner than you think, which is also probably too soon. It’s kind of a lose/lose situation.

Live music is in a weird spot. To go from “Everyone needs to practice social distancing until we can get a handle on this extremely contagious thing” to “Well, it’s not contained, and we don’t have a vaccine, but fuck it. Go ahead and pack as many people as you can into a tiny, poorly ventilated space and let them all slam into each other” in the span of a couple of weeks seems insane.

There are some medical experts that say live shows shouldn’t start again until 2021. That’s not going to happen. That can’t happen. Every place that relies on a steady stream of smaller touring acts and local shows—which is almost all of them—will close if that’s the case. No one wants that. Venues need to make money and bands need to make money. The only way to do that is with shows.

What’s going to be really interesting is seeing who takes the risk. Some bands are going to hit the road two days after “shelter in place” ends. There will be venues ready to host the shows, and people dying to see them—no matter who that band is. The very idea of getting back out in public and seeing their friends is going to be enough for a lot of people. Those bands are probably going to do pretty well, and play for a lot of grateful people every night.

Then there are going to be other bands that take the whole rest of the year off. To them, the juice won’t be worth the squeeze. They’ll stay home, write new songs, make a new record, and continue to wait it out. The bands that take this route are probably the bands that are a little more established, and have other sources of income. Some bands can afford not to tour. Others can’t.

There are also going to be a lot of people who just don’t trust anyone in a large crowd for a while.

“I’d love to see that band. But there’s no way in hell I’m going to stand in the dark while a drunk, sweaty guy—still wearing a heavy denim jacket in fucking July for some reason—brushes his damp hair across my face as he tries to squeeze through an already tiny space.”

It’s weird, it’s scary, and it’s pretty unprecedented. But it is going to be okay. Live music will always be something that people enjoy, and there will always be someone who figures out how to make the most of it. Things aren’t going back to normal anytime soon, but maybe that’s a good thing. It gives everyone a chance to decide what the new normal is.

There is one upside that could come from this, and one that Milk Money wholeheartedly supports: Maybe venues/bars/clubs will actually keep their bathrooms clean, stocked, and operational.

Ahhh, who are we kidding? No one is going to learn anything from the last five weeks.

XtestpressX asks: Who are M$’s favorite current #SLCHC bands?

M$:

M$ PRESENTS THE #SLCHC2020LOVE THE MIXTAPE: 1. Victim To None - Sacred 2. Devoid - Another Life Wasted 3. Ape $hit - Pretty Neat ft. Dea Giokas 4. Degeneration XXX - Bitter End 5. Dirty Mike - Angel (Prod. by Teemane) 6. Zodiac Killer - Serpent's Tongue 7. Crow Killer - Close Grip 8. Witchtrial - Burn 9. Absent - Dimmed Love 10. Tamerlane - Absense

Run tha trak!

Milk Money Mixtapes

M$ presents #SLCHC2020LOVE The Mixtape

@StatuteOfLimitations asks: What is your wildest tour story? Dan$: As all of Milk Money will attest, my memory is not the hottest. But I’ve been blessed with a metric shit-ton of sketchy/amazing tour experiences, so here’s a montage of pretty true events... - Coming up with the idea for Milk Money with Trevor on west coast Cherem runs.

- Roger Miret teaching me his prison workout regimen in an old church in Switzerland.

- Watching Madball and Obituary festival sets in Turino, Italy from the fancy comfort of an above-ground pool.

- Breaking up fights between American soldiers and German hardcore kids.

- Breaking up fights between American soldiers and Japanese hardcore kids.

- Getting into fights with American soldiers in foreign lands.

- The time Lord Ezec asked me if I wanted to smoke some crack with him.

- The time the moon crashed into Idaho.

- Hiding outside the backstage tent of symphonic metal cover band Apocalyptica in a giant mud puddle during a Czech Republic downpour with Vinnie Stigma, waiting for them to take the stage, so we could sneak in and steal coffee from their espresso machine.

- Taking Matt Mascarenas to the beach for the first time in his life.

- Fuck Nick Cannon. - Watching an aggro road-rager freak and back down a steep-ass, 500-foot grassy slope into a cow pasture after he pulled us over to fight. - The Lightkeeper’s Trail (What's good, Countdown to Life/Broadway Calls?!?!?!) - Watching Sparky from Demented Are Go bite the head straight off a dead rat, pound a bottle of vodka, and say, “That’ll clean it up.” - Chasing a not-be-identified drummer from brothel to brothel in Graz, Austria to watch him dance with girls for a few seconds before running to the next brothel… just to make sure he didn’t get left behind by the bus.

- Not joining Hatebreed in a backstage jacuzzi full of actual erotic dancers. - 30 Seconds to Mars telling us we were “pretty heavy” when we shared a venue in Minneapolis. - Moshing in a Drum’n’Bass tent at a Euro festival with a not-to-be-identified NYHC band who were skying way high on ecstasy. = Learning so many important lessons the hard way while making all of my closest friends cuz… hardcore. Trevor$: I don’t have nearly as many globe-trotting adventures as Dan, but some of my favorite moments with my friends happened on tour. - Spending two full days at a Fazoli’s (the only kind-of vegan option in the city) in Grand Island, Nebraska on our first tour because the transmission went out 13 hours after we bought the van. - Directions to a venue that were “Turn left at the women’s prison, and drive to the end of the road. It’s in the junkyard.” Once inside the junkyard, getting the instructions “Stay away from the fences. That’s where the ladies have ‘yard time’ and the guards in the tower get really angry when we talk to them.” - Air guitar and autographs with a drunk guy named “Deth” in Tijuana. - Almost having to fight a promoter in New Mexico because he accused us of stealing a microphone, only to find out ten minutes after leaving that Bill accidentally put it in the pocket of his cargo shorts and forgot. - Swimming too far out in the Florida ocean and getting stopped by the beach patrol just before the shelf drops off and all the bull sharks hang out. - Going on tour without confirming anything, then having to beg every promoter to let us play when we showed up. - Trying to pretend there wasn’t a fight happening in the crowd until Jake pushed his drums out of the way to jump in at every single out-of-state show Tamerlane ever played. So what we're saying here is, once this plague blows off, GET IN THE FUCKIN VAN CUZ LIFE IS SHORT AND YOU SHOULD LIVE IT!

Until next time, this is Milk Money saying, “Tamerlane is not the Five Finger Death Punch of Salt Lake Hardcore."

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d-criss-news · 5 years

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Darren Criss on his marriage and new role in ‘American Buffalo’

When Darren Criss settles into our Alexa interview at a chic cafe in West LA, he’s friendly and direct.

“I am an outspoken person in real life, but in the media, I find I’m very reserved,” he observes. “I’m asked questions about myself that I haven’t really had to think about. That is a really strange occupational hazard. It would be like if you asked your dental hygienist, ‘Do you think your career choice stems from your interest in cleanliness as a kid?'”

Reading between the lines: The actor-producer-songwriter du jour resists the sound bite.

Criss, 33, may be the consummate showman, but in person — apart from a hint of chipped black nail polish and a pair of gold-rimmed aviators that nod to his love of costume — he seems more cerebral theater nerd (a flag he flies proudly) than flamboyant hunk.

Before long, Criss is expounding on big themes in a delightfully thespy manner. Conversations branch off, reverse direction, then run off on entirely new paths.

“I like keeping myself in balance by taking constant left and right turns,” he explains of his career. “The party trick? You think I’m doing all this stuff spontaneously, but it’s not without a significant attention to detail and planning. I don’t freak out if it doesn’t go as planned, but whatever it is, I will optimize it. Drop me off anywhere, and I will make [it] as awesome as possible.”

For a significant and impassioned fan base, Criss is the guy who sang, danced and heartthrobbed his way through a starring role on “Glee.” He’d go on to become an unsettlingly cheerful killer in 2018’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” a nuanced performance that won him an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

In 2020, things are getting even more extra.

The day of our interview, he was flying to NYC to begin rehearsals for David Mamet’s “American Buffalo,” now set to begin previews April 14 at Circle in the Square Theatre (a delay after Broadway shuttered over the coronavirus pandemic). He will play Bobby — one of a trio of hustlers trying to make it rich — alongside Laurence Fishburne and Sam Rockwell.

“I try to do a show in New York every two to three years,” says Criss (who’s previously starred in “How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”). “It will be great to be in New York doing one of the great American plays with a great American playwright.”

He’s also experimenting with new formats, namely executive-producing, writing songs for and starring in the new satiric series “Royalties,” which will debut on the short-form video streaming platform Quibi this spring.

In May, he’ll channel the golden age of cinema in “Hollywood,” the hotly anticipated Ryan Murphy-helmed Netflix series, which Criss also executive-produced. (Not to mention his work for Elsie Fest, a musical-theater festival he co-founded five years ago.)

If your head is spinning, that’s all part of the plan.

“I love giving strangers an excuse to connect,” he says. “I just enjoy quirky things and quirky people. And that comes from the idea of challenging people’s expectations. At the end of the day, that’s my biggest driving force — that you can do something weird and have it be cool.”

Born in San Francisco, Criss knew early on that he wanted to follow an original path. He taught himself piano, studied violin and, at the age of 10, made his professional theater debut.

“Had my parents wanted me to be an actor, I wouldn’t have done it,” he reflects. “But I realized I had a knack for it. I’m literally a parrot: I like mimicry, music, accents.”

His hobby, he insists, is practicing his Japanese. A dream vacation, he says, would be a sojourn at Middlebury College’s language immersion program. “It’s where they send the CIA to learn Farsi. I would love it!”

While a student at the University of Michigan, Criss gained fame with his contribution to the YouTube cult hit “A Very Potter Musical”, which led to the co-founding of the musical-comedy sensation StarKid.

“At the time, studio execs didn’t understand the power of social media. In my early 20s, I was this Internet force with my friends, but going to play piano at [a bar] twice a week. I was living a double life, with Billboard-charting albums, and yet, how could you explain this to a casting director? They were like, ‘You make Internet videos?’ It was absurd to them. Nobody [at the time] knew how to monetize that.”

During his mainstream breakout as the chiseled Blaine Anderson — who famously covered “Teenage Dream” on “Glee” — Criss earned what he describes as a “master’s in putting music and the camera together,” an experience that has served him well in both “Hollywood” and his genre-defying Quibi show, where he’ll play a songwriter aside big-name musician guest stars.

While Criss has played several high-profile gay characters in his career, he says he’ll no longer accept such parts, telling Bustle in late 2018: “I want to make sure I won’t be another straight boy taking a gay man’s role.”

In February 2019 he married his girlfriend — writer-producer-musician Mia Swier — in New Orleans. The experience can only be described as an immersive extravaganza.

Their first “dance” was a rendition of “The Ballroom Blitz” by British rock brand Sweet, with Criss on guitar and Mia on bass. They were later serenaded by friends Lea Michele and John Stamos.

There were umpteen costume changes (during the evening’s silent disco, a Vera Wang gown and Armani suit were traded for matching sequin T-shirts). Although Vogue covered the festivities, Criss says much remains under wraps.

“I want to show people all the things that really go on [in my life], but I’m also quiet about it,” he reflects. “The wedding is a good example. I remember thinking,’I wish everybody in the world could see this, it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever pulled off.’ When I put myself into something, I give it everything I’ve got. That was a big representation of who I am and who my wife is and what we do.

It’s non-conventional, out-of-the-box thinking and that also led Criss and his wife to open the Hollywood piano bar Tramp Stamp Granny’s, in 2018. Mia (whose family founded The Mercury Lounge and Bowery Ballroom in NYC) takes the lead on the project, although Criss says he still occasionally tickles the ivories there, a throwback to his leaner years working piano bars.

If you ask nicely, he may even sing. Crew Credits: Fashion Editor: Serena French; Stylist: Anahita Moussavian; Fashion Assistants: Nicole Zane and Haley Wells; Grooming: Jessica Ortiz at Forward Artists using Shiseido; Tailoring: Amber Doyle

Photographed at Dear Irving, 55 Irving Place

#darren criss #new york post #american buffalo bway #tramp stamp granny's #mia swier #darren's wedding #hollywood #royalties #starkid #acs versace #press #new york post photoshoot #march 2020

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years

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The Weekend Warrior Home and Quibi Edition July 17, 2020: WE ARE FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME, DIRT MUSIC, THE PAINTED BIRD and More!

Apologies for being a day late with this week’s column... things came up.

Since this is a relatively quieter week, at least compared to last week, I want to talk about something that’s been getting a lot of ridicule and unwarranted hatred in recent months, and that is something called Quibi, and so…

IN PRAISE OF QUIBI

You know, I’ve heard a lot of shit-talking about Quibi for one reason or another. I think it’s mostly the “too cool for school” #FilmTwitter kids, who haven’t even bothered to watch half the programming and content on the streaming platform – which has absolutely nothing to do with movies, mind you -- so they honestly have no fucking idea what they’re talking about. Sure, I understand the trepidation… short programs that you watch on your phone? Why would anyone get behind that? I mean, everything needs to be a 3 ½ hour Martin Scorsese movie that needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible, right?

Well, no. You see, CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg saw how successful YouTube was with their model – maybe not necessarily their original programming – and he figured he could do them one better. Instead of following the normal TV model of 22 to 60 minutes episodes, he decided to make every episode under 10 minutes. Maybe this seems weird to many people but if you watch any commercial network television, that’s actually the norm. All programs are broken up into smaller increments to allow for the commercials, and the smart shows time those breaks with mini-cliffhangers that makes the viewer want to return after the commercial break rather than switching the station. For the comedies and dramas, it just means you can watch as many episodes as you want without investing the hours involved with binging most shows. You can watch a lot of a series in an hour or more, and you’ll know right away if it’s for you. (There are some I really didn’t like at all such as Dummy and a few others.)

The big problem is that we really shouldn’t be looking at Quibi as an attempted competitor to Netflix, Hulu or any of the other streaming services. Quibi isn’t meant to be for watching movies or to be watched on the biggest screen possible. It’s quick, short bytes of entertainment similar to what you might normally watch on YouTube, but with actual programming. It’s a service geared towards people who don’t have 8 hours a day to binge-watch shows and maybe just want something to watch on a 5 or 10-minute break from sitting at their computers working. (That’s another good reason why having to be viewed on a phone/tablet makes it a good way to take a break from the computer.)

I totally understand some of the trepidation based on the early programming, because I haven’t found much in the narrative realm that has jumped out at me. I like Will Forge and Caitlyn Olsen’s Flipped, since it stars two of the funniest people on television, and the second story on Sam Raimi’s United States of Horror was far better than the first one. I also found a great guilty pleasure in shows like Chrissy’s Court and Dishmantled, each which put a spin on favorite TV genres, the court and cooking shows, both which are hilarious. I binged both of those series, which are about 10 to 12 episodes in a little over an hour, and Reno 911 and Jason Reitman’s The Princess Bride adaptation have been some great recent additions to the service.

The reason why you should be watching Quibi is for the daily programming, which is every bit on par with anything currently on television, mainly because Quibi has joined forces with some of the best news sources and content creators. For instance, the BBC show, Around the World with host Ben Bland, takes all of the great news from the BBC and puts together a daily six-minute “montage” of the most important news from outside the United States. There’s also NBC’s The Report, which offers two episodes on weekdays – the Morning and Evening Report – and two Weekend Reports, and it’s solid news reporting but also nothing that outlasts its welcome like the normal 24-hour news.

Then there’s so much other great programming, including Answered by Vox with host Cleo Abram, where you can learn about so many relevant and timely topics, and it’s become a particularly beneficial during the COVID pandemic. I have to admit that when I first started watching this, I was kind of amused by Abram’s twitchy interviews where she seemed unsure of herself, but over the course of the last couple months, her bubbly personality has really come out, as she’s tackled topics of special interest to herself. Quibi has rightfully been promoting the heck out of the show by advertising it on other shows. I also am impressed by the topics Shan Boodram covers on Sexology, an extremely candid and honest discussion of what some might consider taboo topics.

Similarly wonderful to watch every day is EW’s Last Night Late Night with Heather Gardner, which sums up the previous night’s late night shows – the best jokes, the best bits from the interviews, performances etc. – and there’s also Rotten Tomatoes’ Fresh Daily with Maude Garrett, which gives you a look at the best things to watch on streaming and digital on a day-to-day basis. (For full transparency, a person I greatly respect and one of the few I genuinely like in the industry, Mr. Simon Thompson, writes and produces the show.) Video game fans may enjoy Polygon’s Speed Run, although it recently changed format and is now three days a week, rather than five, and each episode is now on one subject rather than the segment format previously used. I hope this isn’t a sign of Quibi or these companies trying to save costs because there’s some nervous about the platform lasting.

Personally, I love Quibi, and I didn’t even hesitate for a second to shell out the $5.30 a month (including tax), mainly for the daily programming. Honestly, I really hope that we’ll get more of Chrissy’s Court and Dishmantled, and I hope to eventually get to some of the shows I haven’t watched, as well. (I’ve had a few issues with streaming and buffering in the last week, which I hope Quibi will resolve, because it’s very frustrating to sit down for my daily watches and just get the spinning ball repeatedly.)

Anyway, let’s get to the movies… and is it possible that Hulu may be receiving the coveted “Featured Flick” two weeks in a row? Certainly looks like it. If you’re trying to figure out what to watch after watching Hamilton on Disney+ for the 20th time, how about going back to the very beginning?

Andrew Fried’s doc WE ARE FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME (Hulu) looks back at how Wesleyan alum Thomas Kail and Anthony Veneziale put together the group of improvisational performers that would include one Lin-Manuel Miranda. I was lucky enough to know about Freestyle Love Supreme way back when they were starting out, since a good friend of mine managed the East Village club, Mo Pitkins, where the group frequently performed. I knew pretty early on how much talent Miranda had from seeing him perform. Make no mistake that this is not a movie only about Miranda, as it’s as much or more about Kail and Venziale’s efforts to keep the group’s shows happening while Miranda is pulled away to do In the Heights on Broadway, and then ultimately doing his magnum opus, Hamilton.

For some reason, I thought this doc would mainly be about the idea of bringing Freestyle Love Supreme back for its limited stint on Broadway, but it goes all the way back to the beginning and how they met and came together, plus how they found new members to fill in for Miranda and Christopher Jackson when they went to Broadway. Freestyle Love Supreme is a pretty amazing group because as the name implies, they’re a bunch of freestyle rappers who improvise every show based on things they get from the audience, but it also allows them to explore their own personal lives and histories and incorporate them into each show. I’m actually a little bummed I never got a chance to see it even though I’ve known about them since the early ‘00s. This doc might feel a little long even at under 90 minutes, but it’s worth sticking with since they’re such an interesting group and the combination of performances and interviews makes it a fine doc about these amazingly talented individuals and how the sum is bigger than the whole of the parts.

Another long-gestating project that has finally seen the light of day is the romantic drama DIRT MUSIC (Samuel Goldwyn), based on Tim Winton’s popular Australian novel that people have been trying to adapt since back when Heath Ledger was still alive. I believe Russell Crowe had been trying to adapt it, too. It stars Kelly Macdonald, who I’ve loved since her first appearance in Trainspotting and who I’m always hoping will find some of those great roles we see other actors her age getting. (Sorry, but Puzzle just wasn’t one of them.) In Dirt Music, she plays Georgie, a woman living with fisherman Jim Buckridge (David Wenham), a widowed father with two sons, although they’re not married. When Georgie begins a relationship with troubled local musician Lu Fox (Garrett Hedlund), it causes problems within the tight-knit community, but instead of getting into a confrontation with Jim, Lu runs off.

I actually quite enjoyed this drama, partially because it marks the return of Gregor Jordan, an Australian filmmaker who has quite a few decent movies under his belt, including an earlier Ned Kelly movie. It is a little hard to figure out what is happening, partially from the accents but also from the decision to tell the story in a non-linear fashion that isn’t always apparent where each of the characters are in the story. Obviously, a major thing to pay attention to is how great Macdonald and Hedlund are in their roles in this possibly unlikely romance. You can totally see Ledger in the role of Lu, and the fact that Hedlund is so good should help you appreciate him more as an actor. Macdonald also still has this youthful energy despite being in her ‘40s, and that gives their relationship something akin to her relationship with McGregor in Trainspotting.

What really captured my attention was the gorgeous music by the Fox family, and I was even more impressed to learn that the actors – Julia Stone, George Mason, Neill Maccoll, and yes, Garrett Hedlund – all performed their own vocals in the songs, which includes a gorgeous version of Tim Buckley’s “Song of the Siren” (famously covered by This Mortal Coil). Frankly, I’m most surprised by the fact that Hedlund had musical talent I never knew about, and you can combine that with the emotion he brings to Lu with very few words, and you have another example of why Hedlund just isn’t getting the credit as an actor he deserves. I really liked the way this story was unfolded and where it ended, and I hope we’ll see more great work like this from Jordan.

I was a little more tentative about Wetlands director David Wnendt’s THE SUNLIT NIGHT (Quiver Distribution), which was adapted by Rebecca Dinerstein from her own novel, but not only because it premiered at Sundance way back in early 2019. If you’ve been reading the past few months of columns, you’ll know that there are a lot of recurring themes of movies that play at Sundance, and this one stars Jenny Slate, who had such an impact at Sundance with the movie Obvious Child, which I really didn’t like. Yeah, I’m not really a fan, even though I like her in smaller roles like her role in Gifted a few years back. In this one, Slate plays Frances, a New York artist, whose parents are about to break up and looking for a change, she accepts an internship with an artist in Northern Norway where the day lasts for months. It’s a pretty obvious “fish-out-of-water” comedy premise like one we may normally see at Sundance, but it never really delivers on

Probably my favorite part of the movie was seeing David Paymer as France’s father, mainly because we just don’t see Paymer in many movies these days, but Zack Galifianakis’ character, one of the Norwegians who has an affinity for Vikings, just doesn’t add very much to the story. While I liked the set-up for the movie and Slate is generally likeable in the lead role, the movie just isn’t funny enough to be deemed a comedy nor enough drama to have much of an emotional impact, and the romance between Slate and a local didn’t do much for me either. By the end of the movie, Sunlit Night had veered too far into the most obvious indie territory, so it ultimately fell short for me. I just wish Dinerstein had more (or anything) to say with this story, and I feel like Wnendt and his cast probably did the best they could with what they had to work with.

A movie that’s finally being released after playing a number of festivals last year is the Czech Republic’s 2019 Oscar selection, Václav Marhoul’s THE PAINTED BIRD (IFC Films), based on Jerzy Kosinski’s novel about a young Jewish boy navigating the landscape of WWII-era Eastern Europe all on his own, ending up in one horrifying situation after another.

While this is a beautifully-told story featuring equally beautiful and quite stark black and white cinematography, I can’t wholly recommend it to everyone, because that beautiful camerawork is used to depict some of the most horrible depravity and violence, all experienced by this young boy who just can’t seem to catch a break.

There is very little dialogue in a film that takes an episodic approach to following this young boy’s journey as he either watches horrifying things or is put through grueling torture and even rape as he’s handed and bartered from one adult to another. The “painted bird” of the title is a literal bird that’s painted to attract other birds that attack it, and it’s clearly meant as an analogy for the boy.

If you’ve watched any Czech films over the years, you’ll know that they’re generally pretty grim (they’re a grim people), and you’ll probably know fairly soon whether you want to sit through the entire 2 ¾ running time to see how this boy fares with everything he faces. (Note: A big deal has been made about some of the more horrifying violence in the movie, but honestly? Being in black and white, it isn’t that gory, and I’ve seen far, far worse. A lot of the worst of it is off-screen and your mind tends to fill in the blanks much like last year’s The Nightingale.)

Barely saying a single word, Petr Kotlár is able to carry the film, and it’s interesting when more familiar actors like Udo Kier, Harvey Keitel, Stellan Skarsgaard, and Barry Pepper are brought into this world Marhoul has created from Kosinski’s book. Like so many other movies right now, it’s a shame this won’t be seen on the big screen where you’re forced to really focus on what you’re watching without distractions.

The Butterfly Effect writer/director Eric Bress’s latest horror film is GHOSTS OF WAR (Vertical) about a group of American soldiers -- including Brenton Thwaites, Sklar Astin and Theo Rossi -- who travelling across France during WWII when they come upon a French Chateau where they decide to hole up. That is, until they learn there’s a supernatural enemy that may be worse than the Nazis they’re hiding from.

The premise for Bress’ latest venture into the supernatural is a fairly simple one, and it’s hard not to watch this movie and not think of the far superior Overlord from a few years back. As soon as the soldiers get to the estate, it’s pretty obvious (mainly from the title) where things are going to go from there, and unfortunately, the bland casting doesn’t do very much to elevate that simple premise, the weak writing, and none of it feels particularly scary. If that general premise doesn’t seem very interesting to you, then Ghosts of War introduces a pretty out-there last act twist that’s either gonna be praised for changing things up or it will be condemned for being so out there. The problem is that the movie just hasn’t built enough good will to earn its twist, and viewers will probably just be even more annoyed by it.

Ghosts of War will be available On Demand, via Virtual Cinema Screenings and digitally after being on DirecTV for the past few weeks.

Down at New York’s Film Forum, you can rent Elizabeth Coffman and Mark doc Flannery (Film Forum), winner of the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize with its look at author Flannery O’Connor. The repertoryVirtual Cinema adds Jean-Luc Godard’s Made in the U.S.A. (1966) and Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Michael (1924), the latter part of the Forum’s “Pioneers of Queer Cinema” program.

Starting on Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema this Friday is Koji Fukada’s Mayak (Andreevsky Flah Film Company/Anniko Films), while FilmLinc is also starting its annual Dance on Camera Festival, the 48th edition, although this time virtually.

Available via Film Movement’s Virtual Cinema is Emily Harris’ adaption of Joseph Sheridan le Fanu’s Gothic vampire novella, Carmilla, starring Hannah Rae as 15-year-old Lara who lives in isolation on her family’s country estate with her strict governess Miss Fontaine (Jessica Raine) until a carriage crash brings a mysterious girl into their lives.

Now we’re getting to more movies that I just didn’t find the time to see even though I had screeners for a couple of them, like the latest in Hulu’s popular monthly horror series, INTO THE DARK: THE CURRENT OCCUPANT, which will hit the streamer this Friday. It’s directed by Julius Ramsay and written by D.C. speech writer Alston Ramsay, taking place in a psychiatric ward where a man trapped with no memory, played by Barry Watson, believes that he’s the President of the United States and the subject of a political conspiracy. No, it’s not a documentary.

Over on Netflix, there’s Catrin Einhorn and Leslye Davis’ doc Father Soldier Son, which follows a former platoon sergeant and his two sons over a decade after his return home from a serious injury in Afghanistan, showing the long-term effects of military service on a family.

Dan Wingate’s doc Kaye Ballard - The Show Goes On (Abramorama) will get a Virtual Cinema release this Friday. I actually am not familiar with the actress, singer and comedian but apparently, she’s had a career that has spanned eight decades, starting in the 40s, and her friends include Ann-Margret, Carol Burtnett, Carol Channing, my good pal Red Reed and more, all of whom are interviewed, along with Ballard.

Also out on Digital this week is Steve Ohi’s sci-fi horror comedy Useless Humans (Quiver Distribution) about a ruthless alien who crashes a 30th birthday party causing four friends to team up to save the world. Will Addison’s Easy Does It (Gravitas Ventures), stars Linda Hamilton, as well as Ben Matheny and Martin Martinez, the latter two as friends who want to escape their Mississippi hometown when they learn there’s a cache of hidden loot in California. Hamilton plays their hometown criminal matriarch “King George” who learns of the money and has her bounty hunter daughter (Susan Gordon) chase the friends down.

On Friday, New York’s Japan Society will kick off its annual “Japan Cuts” program of new and repertory Japanese cinema, and like most other festivals and series this year, it’s going on line, beginning with Shinichiro Ueda’s Special Actors (the Opening Night film), Fukushima 50 (the Centerpiece) and Labyrinth of Cinema, for $7.00 each, which is a pretty good deal. (There’s also a new competitive section called “Next Generation” which focuses on new Japanese talent.) And then for $99, you can get an all access pass to watch all 42 films in the festival, which includes a lot of movies you may never have a chance to see in the States otherwise. You can watch a playlist of trailers from the movies here. All 42 films will be available starting this Friday, so make sure to include this in your weekend plans.

In related news, the New York Asian Film Festival (which cancelled this year altogether) and the Korean Culture Center of New York are teaming once again for Korean Movie Night, this year doing them virtually with a new program called “A League Of Its Own,” which focuse on Hit Korean Baseball Movies, plus there’s a bunch of other Korean films you can watch (FOR FREE!) here until July 25.

Also, if you’re anywhere near some of the drive-ins taking part in Amazon’s summer movie program, you can catch “Movies To Make You Proud” Black Panther and Creed on Wednesday night.

Next week, more movies mostly not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

#TheWeekendWarrior #Movies #Reviews #WeAreFreestyleLoveSupreme #DirtMusic #ThePaintedBird #GhostsOfWar #VOD #Streaming #Netflix #Hulu

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indianaprelawland · 4 years

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By Alex Lindsey, Butler University Class of 2021

June 30, 2020

Across the country, states and municipalities have banned large gatherings in efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19. As a result, the entire theater industry is faced with reconsidering how to connect with audiences (Culwell). Some theaters have decided to release archival videos of closed productions in an online format (Lunden). While Broadway in person is “a magical experience that cannot be replaced, it is now the job of producers to keep the brands of their shows-and the brand of Broadway- alive online” (Cantrell). As shows are being released online, theatrical licensers are faced with new challenges to uphold the legal copyright integrity of the performances.

Historically, Actors’ Equity and other theatrical unions strictly prohibit archival footage to be shown to the general public (Lunden). In the face of coronavirus, rules are being changed. In fact, Actors’ Equity was one of the first to recommend that theaters close and shift to performances on online platforms. In theater there is no such thing as social distancing; “you’ve got dancers who are doing lifts, people who are standing across from an actor, giving a passionate monologue and there’s spit coming out of their mouth or they’re kissing” (Lunden). In addition, audiences are crowded together in small spaces for large amounts of time. It is the duty and passion of artists to create an escape for their audiences where they can get away from the harsh realities of daily life, but at this time people need to put health and safety above all else (Cantrell). Online platforms offer a way to share that same feeling of escape in a safe environment.

Social distancing and self-isolation measures have inspired an increase of digital media consumption across all platforms. Theaters such as Broadway recognize this and are building online communities to keep audiences engaged (Cantrell). One playwright, Jeremy O. Harris, proposed a pay-per-view platform for audiences to still enjoy shows and provide financial assistance to actors (Cantrell). People purchase a ticket to view the performance once before the link expires. Similar to a live performance, it only exists in the moment you are experiencing it. This online format can also help bring in new audiences. Since it is so accessible, people who don’t normally go to the theater can test the art form out in the comfort of their own home.

While our media consumption habits adapt to this new reality, and new copyright challenges surface, the laws that govern the creation and use of copyright-protected material remain the same (Estabrooks). Theatrical licensors are those who administer rights and performance materials to companies looking to produce copyrighted plays and musicals (Culwell). At this time, these theater licensors are helping out theaters as much as they can by making it possible to move performances online. Music Theatre International, Theatrical Rights Worldwide and other licensors have all implemented emergency policies due to the impact of coronavirus (Culwell). Many others are also approving postponements and waiving cancellation and late fees. Broadway Licensing has worked with their playwrights to approve one-time non-precedent setting approvals for live streaming their productions in addition to over 400 approvals from their Playscripts catalog (Desk).

Since copyright is a form of intellectual property, it is crucial for licensees to abide by strict protocols when utilizing streaming technologies. When a work is protected by copyright, only the owner of the copyright can make copies of the work, post the work online or otherwise publish the work (Estabrooks). There have been many instances in the past where unlicensed recordings of Broadway shows appeared across the internet. It is extremely important to keep the art of Broadway alive during this pandemic, but copyright laws are still in effect.

Recently the U.S. Copyright Office released a report to urge federal legislators to reconsider Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Hershberg). Currently the burden is on license holders to adequately monitor and enforce their rights online. At the time this Act was written, the Internet had only recently started to expand, and Facebook, YouTube and Twitter did not exist. In addition, the Act protected online platforms from being held liable for copyright infringement when their users posted copyrighted material without permission (Hershberg). This was intended to foster the growth of online commerce, but the Act must be adjusted to fit the current needs of our society. As theaters shift to more available online performances, they face a greater risk of being pirated. Online commerce does not need that same encouragement since it has grown exponentially, and people need to be held more liable for their actions online.

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Alexandrea Lindsey is a Dance-Arts Administration Major with a Minor in Business Law at Butler University. She enjoys sharing her love for the arts through nonprofit work and she aspires to practice law.

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Cantrell, Liz. “How to Help the Theater Community Amid Coronavirus Cancellations.” Town & Country, Town & Country, 13 Mar. 2020, www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a31441548/broadway-coronavirus-cancellations/.

Culwell-Block, Logan. “Live Streaming Rights Made Available to Amateur and School Productions Facing Cancellations in the Wake of COVID-19.” Playbill, PLAYBILL INC., 16 Mar. 2020, www.playbill.com/article/live-streaming-rights-made-available-to-amateur-and-school-productions-facing-cancellations-in-the-wake-of-covid-19.

Desk, BWW News. “Theatrical Licensors Grant Streaming Rights and More During Covid-19 Outbreak.” BroadwayWorld.com, BroadwayWorld.com, 16 Mar. 2020, www.broadwayworld.com/article/Theatrical-Licensors-Grant-Streaming-Rights-and-More-During-Covid-19-Outbreak-20200316.

Estabrooks, Matthew, and Barbara Walczak. “Consuming and Creating Digital Media in the Era of COVID-19: Copyright Rules to Remember.” Lexology, 3 Apr. 2020, www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a3a37ff8-f713-4e5f-b803-6a9b5c6156a9.

Hershberg, Marc. “Copyright Office Urges Congress To Curb Broadway Bootlegs.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 29 May 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2020/05/29/copyright-office-urges-congress-to-curb-broadway-bootlegs/#15144dc454a7.

Lunden, Jeff. “The Show Must Go Online: Theaters Closed By COVID-19 Get Creative.” NPR, NPR, 11 Apr. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/04/11/830390452/the-show-must-go-online-theaters-closed-by-covid-19-get-creative.

Photo Credit: Alex Proimos

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shelleyseale · 5 years

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Socially Distancing? We've Got Some Great Online Resources

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in most of us hunkering down at home in self-isolation.

We're cancelling travel, staying at home all the time, and taking precautions to avoid the virus. To stave off the eventual boredom and stir-craziness that develops after a while, our columnist Chandler Wieberg has put together a great list of online resources to help keep you and your family fit, cultured, educated and entertained.

Fun ideas to do with your kids

School will be out for awhile for kids across the country. The possibilities of fun and educational things for kids to do is endless, so here are some fun ideas you can explore with your family that will help keep them active and entertained while they are isolated from school and friends.

Create a treasure hunt Hide 10-20 objects around your house, and draw a fun treasure map for your kids to follow! Hide more objects for older kids to keep them engaged and having fun. Watch animal live cams from around the world On explore.org you can watch live cams of animals at an elephant park in Africa, a bald eagle's nest in Iowa, and different Aquariums throughout the U.S. It's a great way to "get out of the house" during this time of social distancing. Make your own play dough Making play dough with your kids is fun and easy, and you probably have the ingredients at home! Here is a great recipe from I Heart Naptime. Set up an outdoor obstacle course You can use objects from inside your home, and outdoor toys and chairs to create fun outdoor gym for your kids to enjoy.

Teach your kids how to make pancakes Every family like pancakes, right?! Why not use this time at home to show them a few cooking skills? Here is an easy and delicious recipe from Kidspot Kitchen. Listen to a podcast There are several great podcasts out there for kids. Stuff You Should Know is a great podcast that has several episodes on literally anything you should know! From The Muppets to the history of soda to amazing animals, you can find almost anything here. If you have kids who love to ask questions, and you don't always have the answer, check out the But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids, and let someone else answer the questions. Make a vision board This is another great idea while families are home during this seclusion time. A vision board can be made by printing out pictures from online, or magazines, or photos from around your house. The idea is to fill the board with ideas and fun things you want to achieve or do this year. Get your haircut, go to an amusement park, go to the beach, try out for the dance team. It can be anything you set your mind to, and will get your kids thinking outside of just the home. Parade Magazine also ran a great article with 125 ways to keep kids entertained during the coronavirus crisis.

Learn new things

Do you feel the list of things you want to learn are endless? Let's look at the bright side, now you have extra time to check some of those things off your list. Thankfully, there are a lot of great online courses, books, webinars, and so much more to keep your mind active and keep learning. How to play guitar Maybe you've always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Did you know there are a lot of great online resources and videos that can teach you? Open Culture is a great online free cultural and educational media resource with several resources of videos and lessons to learn guitar. Check it out! Free virtual cooking classes Massimo Bottura is one of the most famous culinary chefs in the world, and he is bringing us a free virtual cooking class, Kitchen Quarantine, via Instagram. He is a Michelin-starred chef and his charisma and energy will be all everything you need during this time of isolation. He live streams his lessons nightly from his kitchen, and his family often joins in the fun. You will leave with a delicious meal, and a smile on your face. Learn to code Coding can be a very helpful tool to know in today's world. Unless you are pursuing a career in web development, you probably don't have much time to learn to code. Right now would be a perfect time to learn the different techniques of coding. Bill Gates has put together his favorite platforms, which offer free classes online. Check out the different intro, advanced, and quick coding lessons here.

Music, Art, and Exercise

Don't miss out on all the great livestreams that popular musicians are offering right now. A lot are free, and some are pay what you can to help support musicians during a time they cannot work.

Musical artists online Erykah Badu announced on her Instagram she will be doing a livestream from her bedroom this weekend, for $1. She is asking fans to tell her what songs they want to hear via a poll. Coldplay's Chris Martin is another popular musician that has promised a free virtual concert for fans because of the social distancing during coronavirus. He currently has a 30 minute IGTV video on his Instagram which you can watch here. Listen to the Met Opera To continue to provide opera and the arts during this difficult time, The Metropolitan Opera will host "Nightly Met Opera Streams" on its official website to audiences worldwide. These steams will be in HD and you can download the Met Opera on Demand apps to watch easily from any device. See the daily schedule here on the Met Opera official site. Watch Broadway Playbill released a list of 15 Broadway plays and musicals that you can stream online for free. From Newsies to Sweeney Todd, they ran down some of the best filmed Broadway shows—and where to find them.

Yoga and meditation These practices can be very helpful tools while you are at home. Exercise for the mind and body can be the difference between having a lot of tension and panic during a crisis, or staying calm and healthy. There is a great Commune Virtual Studio that offers an array of meditation and yoga videos that target daily practices, pain relief, stress relief, and beginners yoga. Create a profile and find like-minded people to interact with. All virtually! Read the full article

#activitiesforselfisolation #art #coronavirus #covid #COVID-19 #culture #familyactivities #isolation #music #onlineresources #quarantine #recreationduringsocialdistancing #stayinghome #thingstodowithkids #yoga

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ericfruits · 5 years

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How the coronavirus is changing arts and entertainment in America

Getting creative How the coronavirus is changing arts and entertainment in America

As states ban public gatherings to stop the spread of covid-19, the arts are moving online

Books, arts and culture Prospero

Mar 18th 2020

by A.H.B. | NEW YORK

MUSEUMS HAVE shut their doors. Theatres on Broadway have put away their props and sent their performers home. Sports tournaments, concerts and the Tribeca Film Festival have been postponed; South by Southwest was cancelled; Coachella has been (rather optimistically) pushed back to the autumn. But lovers of the arts need not despair. As state governors across the country impose mandatory social-distancing measures to slow the spread of covid-19, Americans, like other discombobulated isolators, are being presented with new ways to keep entertained. In this, the internet plays a huge role.

Streaming services are the most obvious beneficiary of a populace cooped up indoors. A recent report from Nielsen, a market-research firm, suggests that the crisis could lead to a 60% increase in the amount of content streamed. Nielsen looked at media consumption during past crises: during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, for example, total TV use in Houston rose 56% from the period preceding the storm. Viewers particularly sought out feature films and entertainment.

Such companies are meeting that demand by putting new titles on their platforms. Disney announced that “Frozen 2” would be available on Disney+ three months ahead of schedule to provide families “with some fun and joy during this challenging period”. (Parents of young children will no doubt be grateful.) Other studios have similarly released recent movies online, or are skipping releases in cinemas altogether. Universal Pictures says it plans to make “The Invisible Man”, “The Hunt” and “Emma” available to online audiences for a rental fee while they are still in cinemas. “Birds of Prey”, the latest DC Comics instalment from Warner Bros. Pictures, will also make a sooner-than-expected digital debut.

Musical ensembles are also providing levity and distraction. Enterprising institutions have been live-streaming opera, ballet and classical-music performances to cinemas for some years, so some have adapted quickly to recent developments. The Metropolitan Opera in New York is hosting “Nightly Met Opera Streams” on its website. Opera-lovers will be treated to filmed performances of favourites such as Puccini’s “La Bohème” and Verdi’s “La Traviata”. Last week, the Philadelphia Orchestra played two of Beethoven’s symphonies to an empty hall, broadcast on Facebook Live. As the camera pans over the musicians, showing fingers and bows flying, it is impossible to tell that the performance is in any way unusual. It is only when the camera zooms out from the stage, and rows of empty seats are revealed, that the show takes on a more solemn feel.

Even museums, arguably the hardest cultural experience to replicate in your living room, are making the most of existing technology. Google’s Arts & Culture project, which began in 2011, allows internet users to explore the collections of 1,200 museums and archives around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago. Many more museums feature parts of their collections online in scrollable photo galleries or digitised archives. Clicking through pictures or documents on a website may be less thrilling than exploring labyrinthine galleries, but the potential to discover and connect with new artists, forms and history remains.

Social media provides an obvious way for self-isolating artists to connect with their self-isolating fans. With a message of “we’re staying home too / it’s the safe and cool thing to do”, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of “Hamilton”, live-streamed an impromptu performance of “My Shot” to nearly 800,000 Twitter users. Chris Martin, of Coldplay, and John Legend, a singer-songwriter, have also performed “concerts” at home. For fans accustomed to following their favourite stars and influencers on YouTube, TikTok or Instagram, not much may change: younger people are already used to getting their entertainment fix through a screen.

Yet streaming, in all its myriad forms, will not be enough to offset the economic cost of the virus on the entertainment industry. More people may be watching Disney+, but the company’s shuttered theme parks resemble ghost towns. (A standard single ticket to Disney World costs just over $100, while a year’s subscription to Disney+ is $70.) ESPN, which Disney owns, will have to cope with the cancellation of all major sporting events. Disney’s blockbuster film releases, such as the live-action remake of “Mulan”, are being delayed; their new productions have been halted. However long the self-isolation measures last, their effects will be felt for some time.

The picture looks even bleaker for cultural institutions (such as Broadway theatres) which rely on ticket sales and tourism to survive. Such organisations—and the thousands of people who do shift work for them—will struggle as a result of a long quarantine period. Some shows or theatres may not be able to re-open at all; the same is true of art exhibitions and galleries. In the meantime, though, entertainers strive to keep spirits up. “Stay home, wash hands,” Mr Miranda writes. Then, “here’s a live tune.”

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bigyack-com · 5 years

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What Happens When You Get Famous Off One Song?

MILTON KEYNES, England — Last summer, a teenager named Tom Austin decided on a whim to record a rap song. He’d never made music before. But even as he was writing down lyrics — picking out references from an iPhone note of random stuff he’d been keeping — he was strangely sure of himself.“I don’t want to sound bigheaded,” he said, “but I knew it would do bits.” (Translation: Mr. Austin knew the song would connect widely.)The result was “Mary Berry,” a delightful, deadpan ode to life in small-town Britain. The title is a nod to the 84-year-old former “Great British Bake Off” co-host. In the song, Mr. Austin says he “needs a girl like” Ms. Berry; he defeats a local man in badminton; pulls out a secret Android cellphone; performs his own circumcision; threatens to fight the TV host Piers Morgan; flexes his discount Slazenger sneakers; and announces, “Top thing on my bucket list is to slide tackle the Queen.” For his rap alter-ego he borrowed the name Niko Bellic, an Eastern European gangster character from the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.As Mr. Austin later wrote on Instagram: “I decided to make a song within like 2 days and then 3 weeks later I signed a deal for it, now it’s 2mil+ streams across 3 platforms CRUUUD.”This success seems both calculated and hilariously accidental. In the intro to the song, he offhandedly shouts out the flashy East London afrobeats group NSG; not long after its release, he was touring Britain as their opening act. He’s taking meetings and other “bits and bobs,” Mr. Austin said, and carefully planning a second single with a record label. He is now 19.In 2016, 13-year-old Billie Eilish posted the song “Ocean Eyes” on her SoundCloud and went to bed. She woke up to see it had accumulated thousands of plays overnight. She is now one of the biggest pop stars alive.The 16-year-old rapper Bhad Bhabie has built her career off a catchphrase-minting “Dr. Phil” appearance. The 13-year-old country singer Mason Ramsey has capitalized well off a recorded Walmart yodeling session. Their sudden, culture-saturating music moments would have been impossible before SoundCloud, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Now the music industry, social media and the influence industry at large are racing to adapt for, and borrow from, such overnight success stories.Tom Austin — or Niko B, for that matter, as he’s now calling himself, possibly to avoid litigation — is nowhere near as well known as Bhad Bhabie or Billie Eilish. His success, to date, is very much niche, and contained within Britain. But he’s at a crossroads each saw for themselves. He made a song. It did bits. What’s next?

Getting Down on Friday

A decade ago, instant virality could be a curse. Rebecca Black was 13 in 2011 when her uncanny-valley banger “Friday” — written for her in exchange for $4,000 of her mother’s money — exploded.“It took me years to get healed,” she said in a recent interview. “When you’re 13, nobody can explain to you how mentally extreme everything is.”Back then, she had vague dreams of Broadway, but no real career plan. In the years after “Friday,” she fended off all kinds of cynical business entreaties.Now at 22, she’s built a team around her that she trusts. And she’s back making music: “Sweetheart,” her latest release, is available on all streaming platforms. She’s also talking about her experience, and getting very positive reactions.“I had to figure out the long and hard way that nobody can give you this career,” Ms. Black said. “I had to do it in my own way.”In the years since “Friday,” it’s possible audiences have become less judgmental.While there’s still a bit of stigma associated with sudden virality, especially when it feels easily won, maybe we understand now that tunes can come from anywhere. Maybe we got tired of getting upset.Or maybe the latest generation got better at being ready. In the end, Bhad Bhabie has bangers. Mason Ramsey is a legit country radio presence. And Lil Nas X’s path to success was, on a much grander scale, similar to Tom Austin’s. He used meme knowledge and a social media base to turn “Old Town Road” into the longest-running No. 1 single in Billboard history.Ms. Black, as a pioneer, had no idea what was about to hit her. Teen creators now live knowing that any given thing they post might just change their life.

Crafting the Second Single on the Poets Estate

On a recent weekday on the high street of the tiny old town of Newport Pagnell, near London, Mr. Austin sat in a foofy coffee shop with a Realtree-style coat zipped to the neck. (He only opened it once, briefly, to remove a single key from a Prada fanny pack surreptitiously strapped to his waist.) He grew up, and still lives, in a humdrum subdivision down the road called the Poets Estate. He and his buddies used to skateboard, break into abandoned places, hang out at the kebab shop.And the rest of the time — “deffo, 100 percent” — he was on the internet. At 8 or 9, that meant building Lego animations on YouTube. (“Like, a skeleton horse chasing a guy,” Mr. Austin said.) By 14 or 15, it was prank calls and mock news channel stuff. He managed to build up a bit of a YouTube following, then switched his attention to Instagram, where he first posted cool-guy fit pics before having a revelation.“Mate, if I’m just showing you what I’m wearing, that’s not gonna get me anywhere. This is Instagram. You can’t deep it,” Mr. Austin said, meaning “take it seriously.” So he pivoted and started posting stuff like “me looking in the mirror, and in the mirror is this really buff guy,” he said. “It was the right turn to make.”Around the same time, inspired by the multi-hyphenate talent Tyler, the Creator, he introduced a clothing label called Crowd; he now sells to customers as far as Dubai. He used to work at a Subway, but quit when a Crowd pop-up netted him more money in one weekend than he’d previously made in a month. He even wrote an elaborate resignation letter: “Thanks to everyone even Carlos bye Marisa I hope I can transfer my sandwich making skills to my future day to day life.”As much as anything, “Mary Berry” was a promo for Crowd. (The video is full of Crowd clothes, and a post-video drop was his best-selling to date.) But it was also born of a generational D.I.Y. ethos: Why not do it?Mr. Austin points to Alex From Glasto, a fellow pasty British teen who won viral fame last summer when he was pulled onstage at Glastonbury by the rapper Dave to perform the hit “Thiago Silva.” Since then, Alex From Glasto has released his own single. “I was like, ‘No offense to him, but if this guy can blow up …” Mr. Austin said, trailing off.The making and release of “Mary Berry” was tied — breathlessly, naturally — with Instagram documentation: edited fake DMs from Drake asking to get on the remix, surreal footage of Mr. Austin surrounded by a platoon of life-size Mary Berry cardboard cutouts. “I did a video of me throwing a basketball out a window and then the Lakers being like ‘yo, we need to sign you right now,’” he said. The first Instagram Story tracking the journey is just captioned “about to become a full time rapper.”He also got friends who are big on Instagram, like @GullyGuyLeo, to post a snippet of the song.Then he landed attention of @ImJustBait, an influential British meme account run by a slick operator named Antz. (According to lore that Mr. Austin repeats reverentially, Antz started it without even having a cellphone. “He used his friend’s phone! Now he’s got, like, the most known Instagram page!”) Antz messaged Mr. Austin, saying, “yo, you’re jokes.” Now Mr. Austin is signed to Antz’s imprint, WEAREBLK, an entity created specifically to avoid the pattern of established labels profiting off viral successes they had no hand in creating.So Mr. Austin is now officially, and accidentally but not accidentally, an independent musician. At an appearance at the taste-making Boiler Room Festival, he heard people sing his lyrics back to him for the first time. His tour with NSG took him to London and Birmingham and Manchester alongside “mad big artists.”“I felt so bad because all these artists put in so much time and I’m just like, ‘what is going on,’” he said. The juvenilia-fueled song made the rounds and even got back to his grandma. (He said she texted him about one of the more anatomically graphic lyrics.)Next up, hopefully, is some money. “My dad’s a builder and he doesn’t work right now, which is tough. And my mum’s a teacher in a special needs school. So pay off my parents debt, that’s the very first goal,” Mr. Austin said. “And after that it’s like — whatever. Literally tomorrow I could try beatboxing, and then, a year from now I could be a really famous beatboxer. Anything I wanna do, I’ll just do it. Cause there’s no reason for me not to do it. So I’ll do it.” Read the full article

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nyruratchet · 5 years

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Notes 5 - It’s Been A While

This is not the life I though I’d have. I had so many plans. But life has been stolen. I’m sitting here my bed, in a tiny NYC room that I pay way too much for, with a roommate next door who takes me for granted, and bills staring me in the face every which way I turn.

I did everything I was supposed to. Every damned thing that was asked of me and I ended up HERE. I wanted to be a performer, but my parents didn’t support me going to California or Rutgers right out of High School to pursue my passion. This was very selfish on their part and I think I will carry resentment for that until the day I die. Because I will never ever know what could have been. But I own my part in that decision. I could have defied them, sure; been “cut-off” (from what I’m still trying to figure out...we still have no money). But instead, I did what they wanted and ended up nowhere and with nothing to show for my obedience...but I digress.

Sorry, it has been a minute since I last wrote. I had started dating someone and...actually thought again if I put all my effort into it, that finally there would be fruits of my labor. Again, life gave me a big fuck you. Why didn’t it work? I chased him far longer than I should have. I accepted far too little from him in return for what I was willing to give. Distance was an issue, but it could have been bearable had he been able to meet me halfway. He’s a good person. Just has lots of growing up to do. He will get there though; but without me. So, it didn’t fit and I cried SO much until I realized I didn't love him and I wasn’t ever going to. Aint that some shit; finally a guy “wants’” to date me and I’m the one who has to end it. I guess the first try is always destined to be a failure?

I posted recently about my role in friendships. YES, I know I have been MIA. But if you don’t understand why I’ve been physically non-present...I don’t know what to tell you. I try my damndest to respond to all texts; but sometimes my mind doesn’t allow it to happen. This year has hit me SO much harder than I thought possible. Therefore, all my energy has been put into staying alive. Now, don’t be afraid of me saying that. I’m not looking to end my life. But when life keeps dragging you beneath the current and you keep rising enough to barely catch a tiny breath before being plunged into the fathoms below once more, you begin to wonder if you should just go with that flow and let it carry you away. Talk to someone? Been there, done that. Doesn’t help me. My problems are tangible. Money, Career, Love. Period. Scheduled venting sessions offer me no resolution. I entered myself into therapy in college. Went on for 4 years until it was no longer covered. Then when I got on employment a few years later in NYC, I resumed for another year hoping maybe someone else could help me figure out why I’m so miserable. 4 therapists/counselors later...nothing. So, I stopped paying the mere $30 copay there was (which was still a struggle because I was on food stamps as it is; still pursuing my dream to be on Broadway and become a recording artist) and went on with trying to at least solve one of my problems...money. So, I got a job instead of being a starving artist.

Inflight crewmember with JB. FML. Why did I do this to myself? I did. I was in a bad place and things got a bit better but now I’m worse off. Mo money, mo problems?? HARDLY. Money would solve most of my problems right now.

Rent. Utilities. Food (I make too much to be on food stamps no...so says the gov’t). Mental Health. Music...

Oh my music...So, I told you all I would explain more on why good artists struggle to get GOOD music out. Here goes my attempt:

1. Write music: doing this on your “off-time” from working for someone else’s business is exhausting. But if you love it and are driven, you can do it. I have many songs that I have written tired as shit after my redeyes. I’m actually a beast at catchy melodies, lyrics, and vocal harmonies.

2. Purchase equipment/software: Home studios or some type of set-up is pretty much a necessity. I need to have song fully imagined so the producer and technicians know the progression when recording and building the song. (Mic-$80, Logic X pro-$200, Studio Headphones: ~$100, Pop filter: ~$20, New computer: (varies, but given that I’ve had computers crash etc. I’ll tell the most recent price) $2500,

3. Find a producer: So...unless you have magical fingers and can play instruments, the next step is finding a talented producer to do your backing track/orchestration. And good producers need to be PAID by the hour for a custom production. (~$25-50/hr) OR you can purchase exclusive rights to a already produced beat for a for ~$150...but even those can get pricey.

4. Book a studio: So, if you’re doing an original song you will definitely need multiple studio sessions. For one song I worked on, I spent about $700 dollars for 3 sessions only 3-4hrs long each.

5. Proper mixing/mastering: there are online services that can do quick mastering. LANDR cost me $15/month. But when I’m doing original music, that needs professional mastering/mixing. What does that mean? More time for you or an audio engineer you trust to be in a studio. So, depending on who/where that is...lets say ~$25-75/hr (good mixing will take a few hours at least on the first sit down.

6. Song is done. What’s next? Promotion...see where this is going? Social media. You need photos/artwork which its own separate expense if you don’t do your own. And then if you aren't yourself a IG/Twitter/Snap influencer with 20K followers, you need to pay them to post your song so people give a shit to even listen let alone PURCHASE your art on iTunes/Amazon/Tidal/Soundcloud. And influencers/promotion services charge HUNDREDS. So, when I beg and plead my friends to SHARE, LIKE and post I’m doing so because I need your help. I can’t ever afford good promotion.

7. Release Music: You have to pay to release your music on streaming/music services ~$40. They then take a percentage of sales from each platform.

Now, your ONE song is out. Lets say a couple thousand people streamed the song for free on Spotify or Pandora. How much you think an artist gets? Well, lets put it this way. I’ve done a few songs and have seen no money. I’m literally hemorrhaging money just to do something I love. But that forces me to do more of what I hate is being a flight attendant. Why don't I do something else? Oh honey, trust me...I’ve been working since I was 15. Dont you think I’m looking? I’ve been looking and brainstorming. Nothing is looking good. So, yes I know I’m the only one who can get myself out of a situation I don’t like. But it is beyond me right now. But I DO wake up each day hoping I find SOME way to make a change. But I do fear I will reach the point of hopelessness fairly soon; and the point is different than the braking point aforementioned.

So, I was doing all of this music creation on top of a depressing dating experience and roommate issues AND job related stress. I’m honestly not sure how I’m alive. I’m not suicidal but at one point I contemplated calling a hotline to see exactly what they are trained to do should I reach the braking point. I didn’t do it. I cried myself to sleep again; rolled out of bed the next day to go to work as so many adults do. I KNOW I’m not the only one struggling. But when your lot in life feels like a mistake and loneliness is staring you in the face every day you are “blessed” to open your eyes, you keep asking yourself (well, I keep asking Myself...) Why the FUCK am I here? No one (on the grand scheme of things) is paying attention my music and guys literally seemed repulsed when I express interest. I’m know I’m supposed to matter but, this world keeps telling me otherwise. So, yeah...sorry, it has been a while. But without music, I guarantee I’d be gone by now. Guess we’ll see how long this will last.

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