Latest news with #HotelCalifornia
New Indian Express
a day ago
- General
- New Indian Express
Gated communities as new civilisations
I live in an old-world apartment, where the lift has been creaking since the Bronze Age, and the watchman could put ChatGPT to shame. He moonlights as a caretaker and 'sunlights' as a plumber, and occasionally judges youngsters for bringing over their partners. When I first moved into my apartment, I wished my apartment were also posh and cutting-edge. But gradually, I have begun to warm up to the old-worldliness of it. Mine is the kind of apartment where a power cut makes everybody step out and check if their neighbours' power is gone too! But when I walk into a posh gated community, I feel like Govinda entering Mumbai in a David Dhawan movie. I stare up at the buildings, make way for zipping RC cars controlled by children, and unsuccessfully try to impress the Siberian huskies with undiagnosed bipolar disorder in Indian summers. Modern gated communities are self-sustaining microcosms by themselves. You will find a supermarket, gym, play schools, and even a temple inside. Which makes them a little bit like Hotel California. You can always check in, but you may never leave. It's like a country where you don't need a passport to visit, but they will ask for your Aadhaar card, visitors' OTP, and (if they don't trust the way you look) will even click a picture of you for safekeeping. These gated communities have their hierarchy, too. Right at the top are the richest people. They occupy the penthouses and the apartments with the best views, and where the traffic below looks like marching ants. In Middle-earth, you have the remaining flats. And right at the bottom, you have staff, security and blue-collar jobs on the ground floor. Of course, we all have to visit the nether regions of the world when we go to the basement and question all our life choices just to find our parking spot. This microcosm has its own governing body. The Ministry of Security – with the security folks with walkie-talkies, even though nobody is walking or talking. Then there is the Ministry of Culture, who handle Deepavali celebrations, New Year bashes, and occasional karaoke terrorism within the gated community. Then there is the Ministry of Propaganda, which is governed by the apartment secretary and president. The kids who grow up in these communities have friends who all belong to the same socio-economic class. They play posh sports like basketball, tennis, and mind games. The animals are all posh pets, and the language spoken is English – with an American slant. For someone who grew up playing on the streets, fighting off bullies and stray dogs every day just to play a game of cricket, I have mixed feelings about this upbringing. Of course, they live a sheltered, safe life free from any tensions from strangers and external threats. But I also wonder if they'd have benefited from exposure to a world outside their social circles, too. Of course, as someone who has never been a parent (to a child, pet, or even a plant), I have no right to determine the right way to raise a child. But I wonder if the kids sometimes want to break free from the compound. To run into a Kirana store, pet a stray dog and run around in the sun without SPF 50 protection on their faces. Maybe I'm just jealous. Maybe deep within, I want to live in a community where every birthday is celebrated with fireworks. Where the only real threat is a rogue Zumba instructor. Till then, I shall remain on the outside -– petting stray dogs, dodging potholes, and wondering if I could sneak into the organic mango festival this weekend! (The writer's views are personal)
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Google could steal the entire internet
Google has shown us what the end of the internet looks like. It calls it AI Mode. From Tuesday, instead of seeing ten blue links to third party websites when searching Google, users will see digests of information created by AI. Google says this 'lets you ask nuanced questions that would have previously required multiple searches.' Sometimes there is value in these digests – as demonstrated by AI startup Perplexity. However, the change has catastrophic economic consequences because of Google's dominant position over what we see on the web; AI mode removes the need to visit the site that created the original material. Google, it should be remembered, was found guilty of maintaining a monopoly by an American federal court last summer. An analytics study last week suggested that the top ranking site in blue link Google loses 79 per cent of its traffic after AI summaries are introduced. Other surveys suggest even more: as much as 96 per cent. This is not how the web was supposed to end. Sir Tim Berners Lee's original vision was of a rapid publishing technology, a two way conversation much like the telephone. When Google was young, it promised to get out of our way. 'We wanted people to spend a minimum amount of time on Google. The faster they got their results, the more they'd use it,' said founder Larry Page in 2004. But now Google has become like The Eagles' Hotel California – you can check in, but never leave. That's in keeping with an extractive industry which takes much from publishing but gives little back. AI makes this an order of magnitude worse. Generative AI breaks an informal social contract that has existed since the dawn of business: that a buyer should take a keen interest in the health of its suppliers. AI, though, is replacing suppliers entirely: an analogy is eating the seed corn. For having ingested everything from entire research libraries to newspapers, from YouTube to the works of every gallery, AI can create fine tuned pastiches and continue to produce them forever. Google can also punish sites that refuse to be scraped with a kind of corporate death sentence: making them disappear from Google. A former Facebook engineer, Georg Zoeller, who also advises Asian governments on AI, says generative AI is little more than piracy disguised by hype. 'Large language models are just storage, and all they are doing is compressing knowledge,' he says. 'The industry would have been murdered in its crypt if it had told the truth, and people realised that on the other side of the bot is a Napster'. The magic trick is how AI disguises the theft. Google says the old search results will still be available if you want – or can find them. Britain's Competition and Markets Authority has investigated the company's use of generative AI, but its remedies are so far very tentative, and it is soliciting views. The CMA also finds British business paying a very high toll to maintain Google's advertising dominance: UK publicly listed companies spend £10 billion with Google advertising, which the CMA suggests is far higher than it would be in a competitive digital ad market. The CMA can and should do much more to tame this predatory giant, so British internet businesses can survive.
BBC News
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'There were days where I felt I could never leave': Intimate images of 'the real Hotel California'
The legendary Record Plant Studios was where the most iconic rock stars of the 1970s gathered, immersing themselves in the decadent atmosphere. Now a new book offers a glimpse inside – and argues that The Eagles' time there inspired the US band's most famous song. In 1974, seeking more creative autonomy and a punchier rock sound, The Eagles parted company with their London-based producer, and headed back to their hometown of Los Angeles, California, where Record Plant Studios, founded by legendary audio engineer Gary Kellgren and shrewd businessman Chris Stone, offered a radical alternative. Here – immersed in the studios' relaxed set-up, where every aspect of the rock-star lifestyle was serviced, from hotel suites to hot tubs − they recorded their hit album Hotel California. Warning: This article contains mentions of drug use. Even when The Eagles took their partying into the studio, the managers did not mind. As Stone remarks in a revealing new book, published by Thames & Hudson: "The longer we kept them there, the more money we made." With musicians finding it so hard, once checked in, to tear themselves away, it was little wonder that within a year of the title track's release, there were whisperings that the Record Plant was the "real" Hotel California. Buzz Me In – Inside the Record Plant Studios, by veteran music journalists Martin Porter and David "Mr Bonzai" Goggin, tells the story of one of the US's most successful recording studios during its most decadent years; from its beginnings (in 1968) in New York – where Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland was made – to its wild Californian incarnations in LA and Sausalito, recording rock legends such as Fleetwood Mac, The Who and The Eagles. Buzz Me In, named after the password used to gain entry to the LA studio, invites the public into a rock 'n' roll world that few have seen. Accompanied by a playlist of the studios' seminal recordings, it draws on Stone's memoirs and archives, behind-the-scenes images, and more than 100 interviews with the artists, producers and studio staff who helped shape Record Plant's success. In the 1970s, Porter and Goggin got closer than most to the secret world behind the studio's doors. "It took me many years to realise that it was a pretty special time," Porter tells the BBC. Forty years on, one figure who had survived this frenzied period stood out: Chris Stone, who is pictured in the book in front of the bubble-written logo designed by Kellgren. "Chris Stone was very prominent in the business and told great stories," says Porter, who was convinced that Stone's memories of the Record Plant's wildest decade were a book in the making. Yet Stone kept knocking him back, insisting: "The story dies with me, Porter." But in the last two years of his life (he died in 2016), he relented, uniting Porter with Goggin, his close friend and publicist, to help steer the endeavour. A blueprint exported worldwide Record Plant was special. "The major artists, that's where they wanted to go," Goggin tells the BBC. It led the race for the latest technology ("more tracks, bigger speakers…") and "created an environment that was unlike the traditional, [more clinical] recording studios". It also gave artists more freedom from the record labels, creating a blueprint for a new way of working that was later exported worldwide. The wizard driving this new direction was Kellgren. He was "fun", "creative" and "innovative", says Porter. "He knew how to work the console, make great sounds, but he also knew how to create a party, and a space where artists wanted to make music and hang out and spend time." More like this:• The album that sent shockwaves through the 00s• The 'untold story' of the ultimate 70s rock band• Why Oasis defined the spirit of 90s Britain When, in 1969, the duo opened a sister studio in LA (and another in Sausalito in 1972), they supercharged the original concept, creating a sort of rock hotel, with group Jacuzzis, mirror-ceilinged bedrooms, bedrooms with nicknames including "S&M", and, in keeping with the era, a variety of illicit drugs intended to keep these paying guests holed up as long as they could. "Mirrors were embedded in the consoles, and the assistants were instructed to make sure there was a clean blade and a straw there every morning," says Porter. Unsurprisingly, Record Plant was a magnet for the wildest rockers, including The Who's hot-tempered drummer Keith Moon, who is pictured in the book in 1976 against the tie-dyed sound-absorbing screens of Record Plant's LA studio. During one frustrating vocal session, he smashed a light bulb in the ceiling each time he missed a note, eventually plunging the studio into darkness. While Stone supplied the business acumen, Kellgren was its creative force: a capricious character who spent most of the 1970s high on drugs, and died tragically young in 1977. He was the brains behind the weighty brick invitations to the LA studio opening, sent to rock royalty far and wide, causing chaos at the post office. On the opening night, the silk-screen-printed invitations were handed to a tuxedoed builder who cemented them together, creating an eye-catching wall of fame. Parallels with Hotel California Working alongside producer Bill Szymczyk, The Eagles would spend an intense nine months at Record Plant LA honing their Hotel California album, whose title song spoke of a place where you could "check out any time you like", but could "never leave". John Lennon was a case in point, encamping at the studio for the best part of five years, enjoying the opportunity to jam with Mick Jagger, or have Elton John play on a new record. It was at Record Plant LA that he spent his infamous "lost weekend" phase, and, in 1980, he signed an autograph for the receptionist at Record Plant New York just minutes before he was fatally shot. Record Plant and its legendary parties drew numerous stars into its vortex, gave them everything they wanted, and held them in its thrall. In Buzz Me In, Ken Caillat, who produced Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album, describes the band's experience at the Sausalito studio as "druggy" and "claustrophobic". In a poignant echo of that famous lyric, he remarks: "There were days where I felt I could never leave." Record Plant had no qualms about catering to every predilection in its quest to sell studio time. On the days Hendrix was expected at the New York studio, a bowl of freshly rolled joints would be placed on the mixing desk. At Sausalito, a tank of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) was installed by Sly Stone's bed; in the LA studio's canteen, The Eagles' Glenn Frey ran up a $50,000 (£37,000) gambling debt playing pinball. Even clean-living Stevie Wonder "was eating up $175 an hour for Studio C [LA] while he was just playing air hockey". The culture of the place was communicated before you even stepped inside. In the studio parking lot, Kellgren would station his purple Rolls-Royce with the licence plate GREED next to his silver Mercedes-Benz, DEDUCT. The album Hotel California went platinum in December 1976, and the eerie six-and-a-half-minute title song – with its beguiling mix of rock, country and Latin influences, including a flamenco-style guitar intro – topped the US charts the following May. The parallels between the lyrics and the studio were obvious to Kellgren. "My God, they're writing about Record Plant!" he exclaimed to producer Jimmy Robinson. The "warm smell of colitas rising up through the air" recalled the marijuana smoke that filled the studios, for example; while the "lovely face" on reception could be attributed to Rose Mann, who would direct visitors down a long open-air hallway into a labyrinth of corridors suggested in the song's opening verse. Her "Tiffany-twisted" mind may have been inspired by the Tiffany-glass ceiling of the control room at Sausalito, or perhaps the 125 stained-glass windows at "The Castle", a Hollywood mansion off Sunset Boulevard purchased by Record Plant in 1975, where Kellgren had hoped to create a rock palace, and whose spires bear some resemblance to the Beverly Hills Hotel featured on the album cover. Some Record Plant employees were convinced that the night manager Michael Gately, who buzzed everyone in, was the "night man" in the song; his "master's chambers" denoted the echo chambers just along the hall from Studio C; the studio's walled car park was the "courtyard", where staff liked to party. And might the "spirit" of "1969" hark back to the studio's star-studded opening? Rumours circulated that the Record Plant was the real Hotel California, encouraged by Kellgren, who saw that the myth-making was good for business and, says Goggin, "certainly didn't try to stop it". The evidence was persuasive. "Pink champagne on ice" might simply be code for Record Plant's extravagances, but the "mirrors on the ceiling" were more literal. There was a mirror over the vocal booth in Studio C, in every back hotel room, and – most significantly – over the king-sized bed of the nautical-themed Boat Room, a space frequented by The Eagles that had a hideaway concealed beneath a panel under the bed where Kellgren would spy on the recording sessions below. The Eagles, however, batted away such speculation. "It's a song about the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and about excess in America, which was something we knew about," Don Henley told Gayle King in a 2007 interview for CBS. "There are so many similarities," Porter tells the BBC. "A lot of the lyrics, a lot of the vibe at the time, was inspired by the place where they wrote the song." The question is put to Chris Stone in the book. "Was the Record Plant the real Hotel California?" His reply: "We were anything our customers wanted us to be." Buzz Me In – Inside the Record Plant Studios by Martin Porter and David Goggin is published by Thames & Hudson. -- For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Forbes
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Two Of The Eagles's Biggest Hits Return To The Charts
The Eagles' Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 climbs Billboard charts again as 'Take It Easy' and 'Hotel ... More California' return to different rankings. GERMANY - JANUARY 01: Photo of EAGLES; L-R: Joe Walsh, Don Henley, Don Felder, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner - posed, studio, group shot - Photo: Ellen Poppinga (Photo by Ellen Poppinga - K & K/Redferns) These days, when it comes to the Eagles appearing on the Billboard charts, the winner is almost always Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975. The compilation isn't only a standout in the band's discography, it's also the highest-certified album of all time. In the decades since its release, the project, which collects many of the Eagles' most famous tunes, has moved 38 million equivalent units in the United States alone. It continues to be consumed regularly, and appears consistently on various Billboard rankings. At the moment, Their Greatest Hits is still growing, while several tunes featured on its tracklist break back onto multiple charts in America. "Take It Easy" Becomes a Streaming Hit Again Two tracks by the Eagles reappear on the charts this week. The bigger win between the pair is "Take It Easy," which finds its way back to the Rock Streaming Songs ranking. That laidback cut comes in last place, at No. 25 on the list of the most successful rock compositions on streaming platforms in the U.S. In the past, 'Take It Easy' climbed as high as No. 13. Despite its age, the tune has only spent 31 weeks somewhere on the roster, although the tally didn't exist until long after "Take It Easy" had already come and gone from several other Billboard charts. 'Hotel California' Return Globally As "Take It Easy" returns to the U.S.-based roster, "Hotel California" is once again a worldwide sensation. The Eagles narrowly fly back onto the Billboard Global 200 as "Hotel California" reenters at No. 192. While the classic has never climbed above No. 132, it has now spent 128 weeks on the ranking in the half-decade or so since both the Billboard Global 200 and the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. were introduced. Eagles' Compilation Rises Thanks to Continued Streams Continued plays of "Hotel California," "Take It Easy," and many other Eagles classics help Their Greatest Hits rise on all three charts on which the compilation appears. At the moment, it ascends on the Top Rock Albums, Top Rock & Alternative Albums charts and the Billboard 200, lifting to Nos. 21, 26, and 102, respectively.
The National
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Netanyahu's Nobel nomination for Trump really is beyond satire
Netanyahu – a mass murderer, perpetrator of genocide, the angel of death – has nominated his amoral, narcissistic American pimp for an award that, with some exceptions, is noted for its virtuous and deserving recipients. In 2010, Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize for 'his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China'. Fifteen years later, the proposer is a man who not only ignores fundamental human rights but continues to butcher thousands upon thousands of people for personal political survival and to execute fundamental Zionist dogma. READ MORE: David Lammy calls Israel Gaza concentration camp plan 'sticking point' Meanwhile, the nominee has recently ordered an attack on another country on spurious grounds whilst openly supporting ethnic cleansing in Palestine to enable his real-estate ambitions there to come to fruition. It is akin to Gary Glitter nominating Jimmy Savile for his services to children's welfare. Yet the press and world leaders will not react with well-deserved scorn and derision to this proposed symbolic triumph of evil over good, of iniquitousness over equity. Starmer, Swinney and others who profess to lead will cower or remain silent in the face of overwhelming evidence of the ethical sewer that the USA has become and the ongoing depravity of the state of Israel. Owen Kelly Stirling I HEAR that Trump is being promoted for the Nobel Peace Prize by his 'good buddy' Bibi Netanyahu, and if that wasn't a sick enough joke, Netanyahu's Defence Minister Katz is proposing Israel's largest concentration camp – bigger than Auschwitz Birkenau in Poland. Inmates are to be searched on the way in and kept in, with no exit planned. READ MORE: Israeli plan to force Palestinians into camps 'crime against humanity' This is to be built on the ruins of Rafah in the south of Gaza. The new Riviera with a Hotel California, where you can check out but never leave. I await the take of Kevin Bridges or Frankie Boyle on this. Other comedians are available. Alistair Ballantyne Angus ON July 7, President Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a White House dinner. Also in attendance was the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who has stated that 'there is no such thing as a Palestinian'. At this dinner, Netanyahu reaffirmed his support for Trump's 'brilliant vision', which would cynically allow Palestinians the 'free choice' to move to other countries. No mention was made of Israel reducing Gaza to rubble and destroying all means of sustaining human life. READ MORE: Ex-Irish taoiseach says he's 'never been so glad' Ireland out of Nato As US political scientist John Mearsheimer has warned: 'If you don't want a two-state solution, then what are you going to do? … Israel has turned into an apartheid state … And the Israelis understand that over the long term this is probably not viable … They want to get out of that situation, and the best way to do that, from their point of view, is to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.' President Donald Trump and his administration seem more than willing to help Israel achieve this goal. Terry Hansen Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA ON the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings – a day etched in grief by the murder of innocents – the UK's political and media class reached new depths of moral collapse. In a functioning democracy, the so-called 'free press' would be aflame with outrage at this treasonous conduct. Instead, they serve as silent accomplices as the government rewards terrorism, re-establishing ties with Syria's new regime led by members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Al-Qaeda spinoff. This grotesque betrayal is compounded by the banning of Palestine Action, a peaceful protest group resisting genocide, while Westminster arms Israel's slaughter in Gaza and embraces jihadists who massacred minorities in Syria. READ MORE: Kneecap slate John Swinney at Glasgow gig ahead of TRNSMT Foreign Secretary David Lammy's claim that engaging HTS ensures 'stability' is a sick joke. The group has already unleashed violence against Alawites, Druze, and Christians. Meanwhile, Palestine Action faces bans for spraying paint on warplanes, while the UK legitimises a regime that beheads dissenters. This isn't diplomacy – it's complicity in terror. This moral rot underscores why Scotland must break free. An independent Scotland could reject Nato's imperialism, Zionist apartheid, and Wahhabi-funded extremism – choosing human rights over Westminster's blood-stained hypocrisy. The UK Government has proven, yet again, that its words are poison and its actions vile. The only solution is dismantling this rotten state. Alan Hinnrichs Dundee SO, Hansard is not a true record of what is said in Parliament after all, despite what we're led to believe (MP's 'we are Palestine Action' comment edited out of Hansard, Jul 8). What else has been edited. Why and by whom? And who has been sacked for this? Anyway, I am Palestine Action. I support them wholeheartedly in the fight against our murderous British government aiding and abetting the murder of civilians in Gaza. This British government are criminals using the police and courts to facilitate murder against Palestinians. How long before they use their dark forces against us? Please try to jail me so I can show just how stupid this Labour government is. I'd welcome you trying to jail me and every other citizen who knows this British government are scum. Come on. Do it. Make an example of me. Jim Taylor via
