Turn your smart home into a haunted smart house this Halloween | TechRadar

Posted on


Halloween is upon us, and there are two things you’ll need to transform your smart home home into a haunted smart house: an Alexa device and a few smart home appliances. 

Most people have a home assistant for different tasks – if you’re like me, you saw the Amazon Echo Dot was on sale, and grabbed what you thought was a glorified speaker and now can’t imagine life without it. 

Everyone knows you can use your smart speaker to do everything from playing music to checking the weather, what you may not know is that you can also use its voice control and speaker functions to play some Halloween tricks on the rest of your household.

We’ve scoured the internet, and interrogated Alexa, to bring you a list of fun ways to create a haunted home or spook your friends and family with everyone’s favorite, ever-listening home assistant. 

 Ask Alexa

Spooky Scream

We’ll start with our favorite scary skill, the Alexa Spooky Scream. You’ll need to find the skill on the Alexa app in the search option under ‘skills’, and launch it manually for the first time, but when you’ve done it the first time your device won’t need any prompting for the skill. 

Just ask: Alexa, open Spooky Scream

Once you do that, you can set a timer for how long you want her to wait before unleashing a blood-curdling scream. You can get into a lot of mischief with this skill, and if you have multiple Alexas scattered around the house you can really terrorize your friends and family.

Drop in Feature

The drop-in feature on the Alexa app is probably one of the most useful features the little smart speakers have. From your phone, you can ‘drop in’, and send messages to the Alexa at home that will be heard by anyone in listening range. In the app, you can put your different devices into groups like the living room, bedroom, and kitchen, which is perfect for this dastardly plan. 

This Halloween, creep your loved ones out by having the Alexa devices around the house talk to them and say things only you, their dearest, a human friend, would know. There’s always the classic “I know what you did”, or a personal favorite of mine, an innocent, harmless comment from Alexa that will definitely put your friends on edge.

Your friend likes to sit in the living room and play video games for hours. Drop in and ask them (via Alexa, of course) if they’ve not had enough video games for the day, who their favorite character is in that game, or better yet, give them unsolicited advice out of the blue. 

If you need some ideas of what kind of Amazon Alexa might suit you, you might find our best guide helpful.

Ghost Hunter

This fun task is great if you have little ones that love a ghost hunt. Asking Alexa if there’s a ghost in the home is always great fun, because who would know better than the device that’s always in the home, and always listening? 

Just ask: Alexa, is there a ghost in the house? 

The fun comes in Alexa’s little scanning noises, or the handful of different responses you can get out of the speaker, and is a great way to spook the kids (in a fun way) or set up a little creepy Halloween vibe.

Ask the Listeners

Ask the Listeners is an experiment in language art that will definitely leave you feeling uneasy. This is another skill you’ll have to launch from your phone for the first time, but once you’ve set it up you’re ready for a good fright. 

There are a few basic prompts to get you started, but don’t worry, the Listeners will tell you exactly how to interact with them once you’ve got the basics done. 

Just ask: Alexa, ask the Listeners 

Once you’ve done that and met the Listeners, you can tell then say “Alexa, tell the Listeners that I am filled with wonder” and ask them how they are feeling in turn. The key to unlocking the truly unsettling nature of this skill is to ask them repeatedly to ‘go on’ or ‘continue’. If you want a good fright, ask them to “let the others speak”.

Some people in the reviews section of this skill have some creepy tales to share, including being asked by the Listeners why they’ve been abandoned by the Alexa user. When I tried it for the first time the Listeners seemed so forlorn and asked me why they feel so lost and hopeless, and then as I prompted them further they became more and more incomprehensible and spooky. I cannot recommend this skill enough.

Setting up your ghoulish lair

Okay, you’ve got your tricks and scares ready to go, so now you just have to set up your crypt and get the atmosphere just right. 

Smart home appliances are your best friend in this regard, and we’ll get started with some ambient music and lighting!

Smart lighting for smart scaring

There are a host of different smart lights to choose from, from LED strips to smart bulbs, so as far as options go you have plenty to choose from. You could light up the whole front yard with reds and greens, put a spotlight on your favorite skeleton in the garden, or pop an ever-glowing light into a well-carved pumpkin.

Take your lighting game further by keeping things interactive. If you’ve got your Alexa already connected to your smart bulbs, she can make the lights flicker on command or via your phone. And some smart lights like a few Philips Hue ones can flash or pulse in tune to your malicious music, really amplifying your haunted house aesthetics.

You can control your Philips Hue bulbs on the app, and create ‘scenes’ or rooms labeled up with separate settings to make setting up a lot easier. The Philips Light Strips have the same effect, and using LED strips might be a lot easier to set up, particularly because the Philips Hue bulbs can be rather expensive, but LED strips tend to be a lot cheaper and versatile.

Philips is not the only company that makes good bulbs. Nanoleaf Shapes are a good choice if you’re looking for something more wallet-friendly that will work well with your spooky music. We have a whole list of the best smart lighting devices for you to look at while you ponder what kind of villainous vibe suits you right. 

Loads of smart home devices come with their own Halloween apps that will offer a few neat tricks and treats for the harrowing holiday. 

Say hello the (f)right way

You’ve got your friends and family in a corner, frightened by the creepy talking dots and domes, ghoulish music, and flashing bloody lights. Before we even get to that point, however, we have to start them off right with a spooky doorbell.

The Google Nest doorbell is one of the few doorbells that will play spooky sounds without a paywall of some kind, so that might be a deciding factor for you if you were already in the market for a smart doorbell. You can set up the Halloween Theme on the app, and shuffle through the sounds as unsuspecting victims make their way into your home

These are just a few ideas of what you can do with your devices! You’ll be able to do a lot of cool, creative things with your space and really get into the creepy spirit. The great thing about technology and its integration into our homes is how easily it fits into every occasion and the fact that you can do so much with just a few bits. Be it a one-bedroom coffin, a family-sized crypt, or your front garden, a smart home can very easily be turned into a haunted one this Halloween.



Source link

Inside the surprisingly Jewish world of ‘Tár,’ the new movie about classical music that’s garnering awards buzz

Posted on


(JTA) – In the first 10 minutes of the new film “Tár,” a conductor played by Cate Blanchett discusses the Hebrew concepts of “teshuvah” and “kavanah,” along with her affinity for Leonard Bernstein — all while being interviewed by the real-life Jewish writer Adam Gopnik at a New Yorker event.

It’s an auspicious Jewish opening for a movie that gives no indication that its main character and driving force — Lydia Tár, played by Blanchett — has a personal connection to Judaism. But “Tár,” which follows a fictional female genius in the classical music world as she grapples with demons past and present, is wrestling with big ideas about art, culture and society — including the role that Jews, and antisemitism, have historically played in music.

The film is winning rave reviews and early Oscar buzz in part for how convincingly Blanchett and writer-director Todd Field portray Lydia Tár as a powerful, terrifying and abusive force in the world of high culture. Many have reported leaving the movie convinced, through the sheer force of its world-building and Blanchett’s deeply committed performance, that Tár was a real person.

With every detail so convincingly sketched out, the amount of Jewishness on display is surely no accident.

Here are some of the big Jewish ideas in “Tár,” which is now playing in theaters. (Spoilers for the movie follow.)

Leonard Bernstein is an inspiration.

In the world of the film, Lydia Tár is a celebrated conductor and composer who credits legendary Jewish conductor Leonard Bernstein as both her early inspiration and her mentor.

Bernstein’s influence, and his Judaism, get a lot of playtime in Tár’s early scene with Gopnik, which takes place at the New Yorker Ideas Festival. (This is also where Gopnik excitedly notes that Tár has won an EGOT, or an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony; he adds that Jewish comic Mel Brooks is one of the only other figures to have received an EGOT, to knowing chuckles from the audience.)

Late in the movie we see a snippet of Bernstein’s famous televised “Young People’s Concerts,” in which he introduced children to classical music; the implication is that these concerts were what pushed Tár to envision a life for herself in the arts.

Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein on the set of “Maestro.” (Netflix)

Tár’s affinity for Bernstein makes the film an unexpected companion piece to “Maestro,” Bradley Cooper’s own biopic of the composer, scheduled to be released on Netflix next year.

Jewish concepts become musical terms.

Speaking to Gopnik, Tár says she learned from Bernstein not only how to appreciate classical music, but also how to think of it in Hebrew terms. Two phrases stick with her in particular: kavanah, or “intention,” and teshuvah, or “return.”

Tár’s own interpretation of these ideas puts an artistic lens on their meaning in Jewish tradition, where they’re most often used in connection to prayer and repentance. She sees kavanah as respecting the intent of the music’s original composer while also imposing the conductor’s own intent, and she sees teshuvah as an extension of the conductor’s grandiose belief that they can “control time itself”: winding back the clock on a piece, holding the orchestra in a suspended state until the leader chooses to move on.

Of course, Tár’s public life, much like her life on the conductor’s podium, is a kind of performance she delivers (with finely attuned intention). So it’s possible she’s using so much Hebrew in these early scenes because she knows her audience of New Yorker aficionados includes a good deal of Jews.

But there’s another hidden meaning to the inclusion of teshuvah beyond the pages of a musical score. Jewish teachings also understand that the word, frequently invoked on Yom Kippur, refers to the concept of seeking atonement for past sins. Tár, as it turns out, has a lot of past sins she needs to atone for, and her failure to do so ultimately leads to her downfall.

Whether she can ever find forgiveness is a question the film declines to answer, but the concluding scenes see her begin what appears to be a process of humility, on a long road to redemption: the inklings of teshuvah.

Gustav Mahler is omnipresent.

The Austrian-born Jewish composer-conductor is a spirit who haunts the edges of the film. Mahler is Tár’s most revered artist; at the film’s outset she has recorded performances of all of his symphonies save No. 5, often considered one of the most complex and memorable pieces of music ever written.

Much of the film is devoted to Tár’s efforts to finally record Mahler’s fifth symphony, and to lead the Berlin Philharmonic (where she is head conductor) in a live performance of it. An ad for this performance makes the connection between the two explicit, placing Tár and Mahler in equally sized headshots. In addition, much of the film takes place in Germany, and a mid-film discussion of the classical music world’s denazification reminds us that Mahler’s own music (as well as that of many Jewish composers) was banned and suppressed by the Nazis.

Why Mahler? In addition to his stature as a conductor, the film is also drawing parallels to his history of manipulative behavior. Characters discuss how he suppressed and discouraged his composer wife, Alma, from pursuing her own musical career, much as Tár comes to do to her own subordinates. (Alma’s own documented history of antisemitism, despite her marriage to a Jew, goes unremarked upon.)

And perhaps a more subtle connection: Mahler was well-known for his reinterpretations of the works of composer-conductor Richard Wagner, famously an antisemite and race theorist whose ideas about ethnic superiority inspired the Nazis. Tár, too, as a pioneering woman in an industry dominated by misogynists, finds herself reinterpreting the works of men who would have hated her for who she is — but her fierce defense of classical music’s old guard indicates that, far from trying to separate their work from their toxic behavior, she may actually admire both in equal measure.

The Israel Philharmonic is name-dropped.

As an acclaimed conductor, Tár has of course been invited to some of the most prestigious orchestras in the world. In the film, one of the only ones that mentioned by name is the Israel Philharmonic.

The name-dropping comes in a discussion with a friendly rival conductor, Elliot Kaplan (played by Mark Strong), who is himself Jewish. The Salieri to Tár’s Mozart, Kaplan is amazed that she managed to coax such a remarkable performance out of the Tel Aviv-based orchestra.

Tár brushes off his compliments (and his requests to peek at her musical notations), but the two do get into a further discussion about klezmer music.

Yes, Nazis come up.

About that denazification: The question of how to treat great artists alongside their toxic behavior is one of the biggest themes of “Tár,” which is being hailed as the first great movie about “cancel culture.” And music’s connection to Nazis and antisemitism becomes a kind of signpost for where Tár’s own patterns of abusive behavior may lead her.

In the film, Tár’s former mentor Andris (played by Julian Glover) is still nursing a grudge that even German musicians who were not card-carrying Nazi Party members were included in denazification efforts (and also expresses sympathy for American Jewish conductor James Levine, who experienced a fall from grace owing to decades of sexual misconduct). As a member of the generation before Tár’s, Andris is even less scrupulous than she when it comes to reckoning with artists’ bad behavior: “I made sure all the hangers in my closet were facing the same direction,” he says, ominously.

The scene comes after Tár berates a Julliard class full of young adults for what she sees as their eagerness to get offended by the sins of classical giants, pointing out that some of the so-called enlightened composers they want to embrace instead have also been antisemitic in the past.

It’s all of a piece for the character, who — Gopnik tells us early on — wants modern-day female conductors and composers to be “in conversation with” the old male greats. Likewise, “Tár” is a film very much in conversation with Jews, music, high culture and the sins of the past.



Source link

How Lainey Wilson became country music’s brightest new star

Posted on


NASHVILLE — 

Lainey Wilson’s first paying gig as a singer was the grand opening of a convenience store in her tiny hometown of Baskin, La. She was 9 years old, and the job paid 20 bucks.

“My daddy took me up there — no guitar, no microphone, no nothing — and I just sang a cappella,” Wilson, now a country star with a pair of No. 1 radio hits to her name, recalls in her thick Louisiana accent. Later she’d sing in the aisles of Walmart after her parents would stop fellow shoppers to show off their gifted daughter with the preternaturally soulful voice. These days you can imagine a video of one of these performances going viral à la Mason Ramsey’s famous Walmart yodel. But this was the early 2000s, before every human with a smartphone became an amateur talent scout.

“Where was TikTok when I needed it?” Wilson asks with a laugh. “Would’ve saved me a lot of damn time.”

Minus the internet shortcut, Wilson took the scenic route to her dreams, moving to Nashville in 2011 in a 20-foot bumper-pull camper trailer she called home for years — “The heater couldn’t keep up in the winter,” she says, “so I was sleeping in coats and four pairs of socks” — as she sang in bars and knocked on doors. The old-fashioned approach paid off. On Friday she released her vivacious new album, “Bell Bottom Country,” which follows those two chart-toppers: “Things a Man Oughta Know,” about the down-home wisdom she inherited from her folks, and “Never Say Never,” a glossy toxic-romance duet with Cole Swindell.

What’s more, Wilson, 30, leads the field with six nominations at next month’s Country Music Assn. Awards, where she’s up for new artist of the year and female vocalist of the year as well as song of the year (for “Things a Man Oughta Know”) and album of the year (for her breakout 2021 LP, “Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’”). According to the CMA, Wilson is just the fourth artist — after Glen Campbell, Brad Paisley and Kacey Musgraves — to be nominated for half a dozen prizes in his or her first appearance on the ballot for Nashville’s most prestigious awards ceremony.

“I guess I’ve tricked a lot of people,” she says, grinning slyly beneath one of the flat-brimmed cowboy hats she’s made part of her signature look. Dressed in a brightly patterned Western shirt and flared trousers, Wilson — who’s set for a recurring role as a musician in the upcoming season of the smash TV series “Yellowstone” — is kicked back at her manager’s office in Nashville on a recent afternoon as she sips a LaCroix, the flavored sparkling water she used to hate until she got COVID. “I don’t know if my taste buds changed or what, but now I love this stuff,” she says. “Makes me feel like I’m drinking something bad when I’m not.”

Asked how it feels to be feted as the country industry’s shiniest new act after grinding it out for more than a decade, Wilson chuckles. “What do they call it? The 11-year overnight sensation?” she says. “There’s definitely been times when I was like, Dang, I wish this would’ve happened sooner. But I feel like I’ve got more to say now. I’ve been through more life. I’ve been through more heartbreaks.”

“There’s definitely been times when I was like, Dang, I wish this would’ve happened sooner,” says Wilson. “But I feel like I’ve got more to say now. I’ve been through more life.”

(Libby Danforth / For The Times)

Wilson’s experience is easy to hear on the beautifully lived-in “Bell Bottom Country,” her second full-length for Nashville’s Broken Bow Records, which signed her in 2019 on the strength of two earlier independent projects. Produced by Jay Joyce (known for his work with Miranda Lambert and Eric Church), the album blends crusty guitars, juicy bass lines and funky, hard-hitting drums in songs Wilson co-wrote about family, religion, young love and the blessing-slash-curse of a bone-deep wanderlust. That’s the subject of the album’s lead single, “Heart Like a Truck,” which showcases the emotional range of the singer’s voice — from a pleading murmur to a full-throated yowl — and which is steadily climbing Billboard’s country airplay chart.

“You hear the title and you think, OK, here we go, another truck song,” Wilson says, punctuating the thought with a sad-trombone sound. “But it’s actually got nothing to do with a truck. It’s about finding freedom and strength and not being ashamed of the scratches and dents you get along the way.”

Joyce compares Wilson to Dolly Parton — Wilson’s idol, as it happens — and says he finds her “realness” refreshing. “There’s nothing put-on about Lainey,” says the producer. “She’s not store-bought.”

Yet Wilson’s success also reflects a moment of incremental change in Nashville, which after years of largely neglecting female artists is starting to make more room for women. In April, Lambert and Elle King’s “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” became the first track by two women to reach No. 1 at country radio since 1993; then Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde got there again in May with “Never Wanted to Be That Girl.” At the CMAs, Lambert and Carrie Underwood are both nominated for the third year in a row for the night’s top prize, entertainer of the year; before 2020, it had been two decades since more than one woman was in the category. (That no woman has actually won since Taylor Swift in 2011 shows an imbalance still persists.)

Wilson — who has a second hit on the radio with “Wait in the Truck,” a stark duet with Hardy about domestic violence — says that when she came to town, “They told me if you don’t make it by the time you’re 23 or 24, you need to take your ass back to the house.” After she passed that age and an interviewer would ask how old she was, she’d smile and say, “Didn’t your mama teach you better than that?” Now, though, “I’m like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m 30 years old,’” she says. “This is the best year of my life, and I’m proud of that.”

Wilson, whose dad is a farmer and mom a teacher, grew up in Baskin (population: approximately 250) listening to Lee Ann Womack, the Judds and Tim McGraw. “I didn’t realize when I was little that country music was a genre,” she says. “In that area — no stoplight, just a bunch of cornfields — it was just a way of life.” Her grandmother was the first person to recognize that she could carry a tune, though it was a childhood trip to Dollywood, she says, that convinced her she wanted to be a musician. By 11, Wilson was playing guitar and writing songs “about tequila and cigarettes”; in high school she worked as a Hannah Montana impersonator, sometimes opening shows with a set of her own material under her real name.

Does she have a favorite Hannah Montana song? “I mean, ‘The Best of Both Worlds,’ of course,” she says. “Everybody knows it. But I’ll tell you — and I know it’s technically a Miley Cyrus song — ‘The Climb’ is up there.” Today the power ballad’s co-writer Jessi Alexander is one of Wilson’s best friends; she even has a cut on “Bell Bottom Country.”

Wilson describes the new album’s vibe as “country with a flair”; Joyce, she says, “figured out how to make the music almost sound the way that I dress.” In the studio they thought about “classic rock and old country,” says the producer, and went for “arrangements that aren’t blueprint verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus.” There’s wah-wah guitar in “Grease” and a quasi-reggae breakdown in “Road Runner,” and the LP closes with an unexpected cover of 4 Non Blondes’ early-’90s hippie-grunge hit “What’s Up?”

“I used to sing it with a cover band back at home, and it was one of those that killed every time,” Wilson says. She recently talked with 4 Non Blondes’ Linda Perry, whom she calls “the most intimidating person I’ve ever met. Bad to the bone. I didn’t even know if she liked me when we left, but later I called her to tell her we cut the song and she was like, ‘It’s so good to hear your voice.’”

For all the enthusiasm around “Bell Bottom Country,” it’s not hard for Wilson to remember the indifference she encountered on her first radio tour in 2019, “visiting six or seven stations a day, playing to people on their cellphones.” Given how long she’d worked just to get signed, she was happy to put in the work; her approach back then was “to be nice to everybody — to basically run for mayor,” she says. “But I remember this one guy telling me I was no good and how he hoped I wouldn’t cry when I left the station. I leaned over his desk and I said, ‘With all the years I’ve been in Nashville, you saying that to me ain’t s—.’” She laughs at the memory. “This is probably a psycho trait of mine, but that just made me want it that much more.”

Her work ethic pushed her again this past summer when she traveled to Montana to shoot “Yellowstone” even as her father was in the hospital after suffering a stroke. “We thought we were gonna lose him,” she says. “I told the show I couldn’t come. But then I found out they’d hired a bunch of people to be on set, and I was like, Daddy is the hardest-working man I know — he would want me to go do my job. So I changed my mind and I went. But I was crying in between takes.” (This week Wilson told fans that her dad is recovering at home after a series of surgeries.)

Wilson views “Yellowstone,” whose fifth season will premiere Nov. 13, as part of the reason that “country is kind of becoming cool again. For a minute there, I don’t know if it was cool. But now you see all these kids on TikTok acting like cowboys when they ain’t never rode a horse in their life.” At next year’s Stagecoach festival, Wilson is scheduled to perform alongside two other musician-slash-actors from the wildly popular western series: Ryan Bingham and Luke Grimes.

Even so, Nashville has been riven lately by a kind of culture war between young liberal acts such as Maren Morris and slightly older conservative stars like Jason Aldean. Last month, Morris — who’s traded barbs online with Aldean and his wife, Brittany, over issues related to trans youth — told The Times that perhaps country music had split into two factions and that she might be fine with that.

Asked if she thinks of it that way, Wilson says, “Well, first of all, I hope that whole situation gets resolved in some kind of way,” referring to the feud between Morris (with whom she shares a management firm) and Aldean (with whom she’s toured and shares a label). “But if there are two sides, I feel love from both and I love both.” Does she see an increasing willingness among historically tight-lipped country stars to speak out on politics?

“It’s split,” Wilson says. “Some people are like, ‘Speak up for what you believe in,’ and other people are like, ‘Keep your mouth shut.’ I remember a time when my parents made me feel like it was rude to ask somebody who they were voting for. I just feel like my business is my business. And my job is to get onstage and make sure everybody in that room feels loved.”

Is that hard?

“It’s hard to love some people,” she says.

And she never feels the urge to jump into the fray?

“I really do not.”

Lainey Wilson performs at the Stagecoach Festival in Indio, Calif., in May.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Jon Loba, president of Broken Bow, thinks Wilson bridges a common gap in Nashville. “She’s one of the very few artists who have the cool kids and the very mainstream audience,” he says, adding that the widespread interest in Wilson reminds him of the demand for a young Taylor Swift during his earlier stint at Swift’s old label, Big Machine.

The prospect of that kind of reach excites Wilson, though she has mixed feelings about the loss of privacy that accompanies true celebrity. “Country-music people like seeing a little inside scoop of your life,” she says — one explanation for the countless covers of People magazine showing some bearded country bro or another posing with his lovely wife. “Even if I’m married one day, I don’t know if I’d be posting about my husband all over social media. I mean, Dolly’s husband — there’s like one picture of him on the internet. She’s kept that private, and I think that’s OK.”

Still, winning some of those CMAs sure would be nice after all those cold nights in the camper trailer. Tonight, Wilson is headed to a dinner in honor of this year’s nominees, she says at the end of our talk, “which means I need to go get ready and slap some makeup on this thing.” She ever feel like she’s still running for mayor?

“There’s always more ass to kiss,” she says. Then she smiles. “But not as much.”



Source link

Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia Bamberg

Posted on


So it was finally officially announced today: I’m super happy to be chosen to be one of the 15 artists in residence at the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg! We are 7 artists from Germany and 8 artists from Finland who were able to choose from receiving a 5 or 11 month stipend from the Freestate of Bavaria and are invited by the Bavarian State Minister for Science and Art Bernd Sibler, to stay at the Villa Concordia in Bamberg. Artists cannot apply for this scholarship themselves, because the scholarship holders are invited by a board of trustees and thus awarded by the Free State of Bavaria.

I am excited to share the upcoming year with my fellow scholarship holders! The scholarship holders for 2021-2022 are:

Visual art: Dieter Froelich (D), Lena von Goedeke (D), Emma Helle (FI), Heikki Marila (FI) and Tuukka Tammisaari (FI)

Literature: Benedikt Feiten (D), Lucy Fricke (D), Veera Kaski (FI), Arja Rinnekangas (FI), Johanna Sinisalo (FI) and Antje Rávik Strubel (D)

Music: Cecilia Damström (FI), Elina Lukijanova (D), Steffen Schleiermacher (D) and

Sauli Zinovjev (FI)

An ever so big THANK YOU to the Board of Trustees, to Minister Bernd Sibler and to the Free State of Bavaria for giving me this amazing opportunity I couldn’t even have dreamt of! I am truly humbled!

Villa Concordia Bamberg April 2021. Photo © Cecilia Damström



Source link

Jerry Lee Lewis, notorious US rock’n’roll star, dies aged 87 | Jerry Lee Lewis

Posted on


Jerry Lee Lewis, the rock’n’roll pioneer who became one of the most infamous figures in popular music, has died aged 87, his publicist has said.

He died of natural causes at his home in DeSoto County, Mississippi. “Judith, his seventh wife, was by his side when he passed away at his home in Desoto County, Mississippi, south of Memphis,” a statement said. “He told her, in his final days, that he welcomed the hereafter, and that he was not afraid.”

Lewis’s energetic performances on songs including Great Balls of Fire helped install rock’n’roll as the dominant American pop music of the 1950s. He was born in Louisiana in 1935, the son of a poor farming family who mortgaged their home to buy Lewis his first piano. While learning the instrument and studying at an evangelical school, he was kicked out for performing a boogie-woogie version of My God is Real that was deemed irreverent.

He didn’t return to education, and began playing live – his first performance at the age of 14 was at the opening of a car dealership. He developed a theatrical, boisterous style that chimed with the energy of the nascent rock’n’roll scene, and began playing at Sun Studios in Memphis, first as a studio musician and then as a solo artist. Some of his earliest recordings were made in 1956 with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, a group later dubbed the Million Dollar Quartet. It was an impromptu session: Cash and Presley happened to be separately visiting the studio where Lewis was backing Perkins on piano.

Lewis’s breakthrough came the following year, with Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On, a barnstorming piano-driven rock’n’roll single. When he performed it on television on The Steve Allen Show, he brought his unique playing style to national attention: wildly energetic, he would kick over his piano stool and play standing up, with songs accentuated with cascading runs of notes.

He followed that Top 3 song with his greatest success, Great Balls of Fire, which reached No 2 on the US charts and became one of the definitive songs of the rock’n’roll era.

During a 1958 UK tour at the peak of his fame, he was embroiled in scandal after it was revealed he had married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Brown – it would be the third of his seven marriages. There was outrage in the British press and the rest of his tour was cancelled. US radio stations and concert promoters also blacklisted him, and his popularity faded. He never again had a US Top 20 hit.

Jerry Lee Lewis and Myra Brown in May 1958. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Lewis’ wild-man reputation cemented his nickname, The Killer, earned from his habit of describing acquaintances with the Louisiana slang of “killer”. After a 13-year marriage to Brown, his fourth and fifth marriages were even more notorious. Jaren Pate and Shawn Stephens both died in suspicious circumstances – the former by drowning, while there were domestic abuse rumors surrounding the latter.

Despite the controversies, he successfully switched to country music after the rock’n’roll scene dwindled and scored a series of hits on the US country charts, including his version of the standard Chantilly Lace.

In 1984, following years of prescription drug use, he survived an operation to remove a third of his stomach after a series of perforated ulcers, and in 1986, he was one of the first 10 performers inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, alongside Presley, Chuck Berry and others.

Another infamous “Killer” moment involved Berry. When the pair were on tour, Lewis objected to Berry going on after him, and so set his piano on fire following his performance with the words: “Follow that, boy.” Meanwhile, Lewis was arrested in 1976 after he turned up drunk at Presley’s Graceland home in Memphis with a loaded pistol on the dashboard of his car.

Two of Lewis’s six children, died young: Steve Allen Lewis drowned in a swimming pool aged three, while Jerry Lee Lewis Jr – who had played drums for his father – died in a car accident aged 19. Four others – Ronnie Guy, Phoebe Allen, Lori Lee and Jerry Lee III – survive him, as does his wife Judith.

Lewis recorded 40 studio albums, the most recent being Rock & Roll Time in 2014. His previous album, Mean Old Man, reached the US Top 30 on its release in 2010 and featured duets with stars including Mick Jagger, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson and Eric Clapton.

Tributes have been arriving on social media, including from Elton John who tweeted: “Without Jerry Lee Lewis, I wouldn’t have become who I am today. He was groundbreaking and exciting, and he pulverized the piano. A brilliant singer too. Thank you for your trailblazing inspiration and all the rock ‘n’ roll memories.”

Ringo Starr has also tweeted: “God bless Jerry lee Lewis peace and love to all his family”. Gene Simmons called him “one of the pioneers of rock ‘n’ roll” and “a rebel to the end”.





Source link

Piers James reveals “Showbiz” video – Aipate

Posted on


UK rapper Piers James returned a couple of weeks ago with his latest single, “Showbiz”. The title-track of his forthcoming EP, it was also included in the new FIFA 2023 soundtrack.

“Showbiz” arrived accompanied by an eye-catching visual which Piers himself directed. That video is just as explosive as the emcee’s lyricism.

“Showbiz” carries James’ comments about the music industry. He explains, Piers says: “‘Showbiz’ explores the experience of navigating the creative industry. That can place restrictions on an artist’s creativity to be a digestible product for the masses. The question is, do you serve your true artistry or do you serve the algorithm?”

Watch the video and keep up with Piers James on Instagram.





Source link

Electrophonics Ensemble Showcases Experimental Musicians – The Oberlin Review

Posted on


Behind the scenes of the electrophonics show, students make the magic happen.

On Tuesday, Oct. 25, the Electrophonics ensemble from the TIMARA department hosted their first concert at the Cat in the Cream. Electrophonics is an electronic ensemble that combines visual arts, experimental music, and live performance. 

The show consisted of eight stereo fixed audio pieces, which ranged from ambient noise to sample-based hyperpop to synthesized singer song-writer compositions. The works featured in this show were all prerecorded, and the artists went behind the sound booth to manage audio output as their music played at the Cat in the Cream. Two performers, double-degree first-year Oliver Harlan and double-degree third-year Orson Abram, concluded the ensemble performance with their individual audio visual experiences, in which their visual art merged with experimental sound design.

The TIMARA department, a unique staple of Oberlin, draws experimental musicians from all over the world to study under the experience and resources of an established electronic arts program. Students are able to learn and practice with different instruments and music-making technologies.

The artists who shared their work at Electrophonics worked with a wide range of electronic tools, from the synthesizers in TIMARA to softwares like Ableton, Logic, and Bitwig. 

Harlan created a sample-based audiovisual experience named “ephemerate” using recordings from NASA’s sample library. The raw audio files recorded by the Perseverance Mars Rover were accompanied by video art Harlan created.

“I used visuals because, if I am making something for a concert to show to people, I just want it to be the most engaging experience possible,” Harlan said. “The content was mostly recorded on my phone. I approach visuals in a way similar to how I sample, edit, and manipulate music, but with footage. I also used the DALL-E AI generator. I uploaded a photo I took and then created AI variations of that, then I took one of those images and made AI variations of that, and kept doing that over and over. It started as an image of a museum in [Los Angeles], and the final image was just a square.” 

Sometimes, there is a hierarchical relationship between music and visuals, with one providing support for the other This shifts in different contexts, from film to music video. Musicians may set scores for films, in which the video is highlighted, and some visual artists work in designing music videos, which revolve around the music. However, engaging with experimental sound and visuals might allow for even more collaboration between the mediums.

“By engaging with multiple mediums, you can create something that might not otherwise make sense,” Harlan said. “The audio or the visuals alone might not make sense, but together, as one piece, it does. I was a little worried that the video might take away from the audio, that people would focus more on the visuals. I have done a little bit of film scoring and it is fun, but for that, the music is not the main focus so people don’t really pay attention to it. It’s interesting to do it the other way around, with music as the focus. I think that making visuals to accompany music can enhance it.” 

The audience consisted not only of other electronic musicians and experimenters but also of other students who take interest in electronic experimental music.

“I have two friends who had pieces that were played at the show, so I went partially for them and partially because I love everything happening in the TIMARA department,” College first-year Danilo Vujacic said. “I’m really interested in the music that they perform and curious to explore the classes in the department soon. I like noise music, I find it fascinating, and being at a place like Oberlin, there are a lot of great opportunities and people to meet who are interested in that sort of stuff.”

To members of the audience, the multidisciplinary experimentation was effective in connecting with the soundscapes.

“There is definitely an interesting relationship between experimental noise music and its translation into film,” Vujacic said. “We saw that with some of the pieces at the concert. The visuals enhance the experience and elevate the atmosphere that music creates. I think that interplay is interesting and valuable. It adds another dimension to the music.”

Other audience members included visual artists, some of whom had not encountered electronic music before coming to Oberlin.

“I think it’s so cool to have art being made in a place where there are so many different people doing so many different things, because you naturally combine different ideas and mediums,” College first-year and visual artist Frances McFetridge said. “This performance was a good example of that — of technology and art and visuals and music coming together. It felt like a broadening of the artistic mind into other mediums that make it more interesting and nuanced.” 

Presentations like the Electrophonics concert allow TIMARA students, electronic musicians, and visual artists to connect with a diverse audience to connect through technology and multidisciplinary arts.



Source link

Boston Public Radio full show: Oct. 28, 2022

Posted on


We began the show by asking our listener’s how they feel about Elon Musk buying Twitter.

Lyndia Downie, the president of the Pine Street Inn, discussed the organization’s plan to build more than 100 studio apartments for homeless individuals at a former Comfort Inn in Dorchester despite the steep opposition from neighbors and local leaders. She also discussed the ongoing tension between the city of Boston and the state when it comes to homeless encampments at the area near Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, and how Boston’s homeless population has dipped by 25% over two years.

Callie Crossley talked about the divorce between Tom Brady and Giselle Bunchden. She also predicted the impact of Elon Musk buying Twitter, and weighed in on how the media covered John Fetterman’s performance during his Pennsylcania senatorial debate with Dr. Mehmet Oz. Crossley is the host of GBH’s Under the Radar.

Irene Li and Steven “Nookie” Postal brought food and talked about their respective journeys to reaching success in Boston’s cuisine scene. Li’s Mei Mei Dumplings has a new cafe and dumpling factory opening in South Boston. “Nookie” provided updates about his restaurants, the Revival Café and Commonwealth Cambridge.

Deborah Z. Porter and Gish Jen stopped by to give a rundown on what to expect at the Boston Book Festival this weekend. Porter is the director of the Boston Book Festival. Jen is an award-winning author.

BLKBOK, born Charles Wilson III, performed during the latest segment of Live Music Fridays. He’s a Detroit-based classical pianist who’s worked with artists like Justin Timberlake and Rihanna. He had a show at City Winery on Thursday night.

We ended the show by asking our listeners to call in and tell us about their favorite Halloween candy.





Source link

Larry Fleet Releases Surprise Live Album, ‘The Live Sessions: Vol. 1’

Posted on


If you’re familiar with Larry Fleet, then you know he has one of the best, most soulful voices in all of mainstream country music.

With that being said, the only thing better than Larry Fleet’s studio music, is listening to him live.

Seeing him live is truly something special to witness, as he’s apart of the small group in mainstream country music that sounds even better live than he does over the speaker in your car.

And if you haven’t had a chance to catch him in concert, this video of him singing “Where I Find God” at the Ryman Auditorium is all the proof you need:

And today?

Fleet dropped a brand new, fully-live album today, titled The Live Sessions: Vol. 1, so we can all get that live in concert feel from the comfort of our own homes.

Fleet himself weighed in on the new release:

“Well, I heard y’all! One of my favorite things to do is play live music, so to be able to put out a live record is really special.

It’s got some old songs and some new ones, and a couple with my good buddy Zach Williams who I’m grateful to for collaborating with me.

Thank you to everyone who kept asking for something like this – it was a blast to put together. I sure hope y’all enjoy it.”

The 11-track live album features all of his most notable hits, including his breakout hit “Where I Find God,” and a kickass cover of the Allman Brothers’ “Midnight Rider,” featuring contemporary Christian artist Zach Williams.

You can check out the full track list below:

Where I Find God (Live) | writers: Larry Fleet, Connie Rae Harrington
This Too Shall Pass (feat. Zach Williams) (Live) | writers: Dave Barnes, Zach Williams
Highway Feet (Live) | writers: Larry Fleet, Jamey Johnson
Church Parking Lot (Live) | writers: Lindsay Rimes, Michael Whitworth
Try Texas (Live) | writers: Larry Fleet, James McNair, Jacob Mitchell
Layaway (Live) | writers: Larry Fleet, Joshua Miller, Mark Trussell
Three Chords and a Lie (Live) | writers: Larry Fleet, Will Bundy, Brett Tyler
Heart On My Sleeve (Live) | writers: Larry Fleet, Will Bundy, Jeff Hyde
Muddy Water (Live) | writers: Larry Fleet, Jesse Frasure, Brett Tyler
Having a Girl (Live) | writers: Larry Fleet, Jesse Frasure, Connie Rae Harrington
Midnight Rider (feat. Zach Williams) | writers: Greg Allman, Robert Kim Payne



Source link

Concordia College student from Chaska commissioned by Wisconsin orchestra for original composition

Posted on


Concordia College student from Chaska commissioned by Wisconsin orchestra for original composition

As a music composition major at Concordia College in Moorhead, Jacob Shay knows how to both write and play a good tune. But one of the Chaska native’s latest creations will soon be featured on a larger stage.

(FOX 9) – As a music composition major at Concordia College in Moorhead, Jacob Shay knows how to both write and play a good tune. But one of the Chaska native’s latest creations will soon be featured on a larger stage.

“That’s crazy. I really wanted to write for an orchestra before, so getting this chance to have that opportunity is wild,” said Shay.

Last January, Shay sent some original pieces to one of his professors, Dr. Kevin Sutterlin, who also conducts the Concordia Orchestra, where Shay plays the violin, to get some critiques.

But Sutterlin was so impressed by the 22-year-old’s work,  he commissioned an original composition for the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra, which he also directs.
Shay’s arrangement will premiere this weekend.

“It feels really weird to have something of mine go beyond just our college or even outside of my state to be honest,” said Shay.

Shay says the four-minute-long overture called Spark draws on his influences like music from movies and video games, which he believes will appeal to a younger audience.

Sutterlin says commissioning the work is part of his effort to include more music written by living, female and underrepresented composers for the Fox Valley Orchestra to perform.

“The hope is that more and more people who live in our communities will find themselves represented in the music we are presenting,” said Sutterlin.
Shay and his family will be in the audience when the orchestra plays his piece for the first time in Appleton Wisconsin on Saturday.

He hopes it will be the spark for a long and lengthy career.

“I definitely want to pursue this after college. Wherever or however that might happen,” said Shay.



Source link