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The Irish Sun
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
People lose their minds when they meet my icon mum – going on tour was run of the mill & only my brother has normal job
RÓISÍN O has revealed how people still 'lose their sh*t' when they bump into her iconic mum Mary Black – including Vogue Williams who went weak at the knees for her hero. The singer-songwriter enjoyed a more unusual upbringing than most, under the watchful eye of the No Frontiers vocalist who has for decades been one of Ireland's 5 Róisín O lifted the lid on life as the daughter of a famous mum Credit: Gary Ashe 5 Singer Mary Black boasts a legendary decades-long career Credit: Getty 5 The Irish Sun's new podcast is available now Credit: The Irish Sun The sensational response to Mary's 'Backstage there was this massive long marquee tent for all the dressing rooms and across from us was My Therapist Ghosted Me's "I'm such a huge fan of the READ MORE IN SHOWBIZ Listen to Fields Of Dreams on from July 3 "And Vogue came over, she's so lovely. 'It was like my first time meeting her and she'd come in to say hello to the lads. "Like, she obviously saw the Coronas on the door. 'And then she saw my mam, she was like, 'Oh my God. Oh my God, holy sh*t. I'm sorry, I have to go get my sister'. Most read in The Irish Sun "Like, ran out of the room and brought her sister back and the two of them just absolutely fangirling over my mam. 'They didn't even say hello to the lads. It was the funniest thing ever. 'HUGE FANS' "They're actually huge fans. They really love my mam. "And Vogue and my mam and dad ended up hanging out the whole night, it was so funny.' She went on: 'And then obviously when mam came on stage that night at Electric Picnic the crowd just lost their minds. 'I've felt a lot of women and men, but particularly my age now, in their mid-to-late 30s, who grew up listening to Mary Black in the back of the car, on the CD player, whole albums that they know off by heart. "And when they were kids it was uncool. 'But now they're in their 30s and they're like, 'I love LIFE ON TOUR Róisín is the voice of the Irish Sun's new podcast, It is the ten-episode story of the musicians' astonishing successes and failures as the country opened up to become a live-entertainment powerhouse. Róisín is no stranger to being taken from festival to So much so that as a kid, it became run of the mill. 'CRAZY STUFF' Róisín said: 'Being on tour with my mum, a lot of the time we'd be on a tour bus. "And they'd all go in for soundcheck and I'd get to stay on the bus and watch all the VCR tapes. 'Like of old movies and all, that I just absolutely loved doing that. And I think coming from Ireland, seeing mam's reaction then. "She was doing crazy stuff like Five Nights At 'BEST THING EVER' 'She has the most crazy stories of being at festivals with Mary, 70, has opened up about the difficulties of touring while she had three young She had a three week rule, but it was long enough to put her youngest out. "And Vogue and my mam and dad ended up hanging out the whole night, it was so funny.' Róisín O Róisín explained: 'I was on the "So she came "But then she had to go again for another two weeks. 'And I was so devastated at the end of the week like, 'You're going back? I thought you were home?' 'Those parts were hard. But then she took me everywhere with her, like when she was on that MAGICAL CHILDHOOD "It had a pool and we went to 'I was all over the world as a kid with her, which was really magical. "But yeah, the pros and cons to it, we definitely missed her.' As the siblings grew older, their mother's fame was a bit mortifying. Róisín said: 'When I was really young, say if we were on 'And that stopped abruptly, I'd say about ten or 11 to the point where I would lie. (If I was asked) what does your mum do, I'd reply 'Nothing. Just a stay-at-home mum'. "And then I got into my 20s and I sort of became a mix of the two.' SOLO CAREER Róisín has her own solo career as well as performing with the Coronas, and has mixed emotions about being in Mary Black's shadow. She said: 'Sometimes it's hard. Obviously, Danny is the same. 'We want people to come to hear our music and it's hard when people are like, 'I'm not going to listen to that, that's Mary Black's daughter'. So they just judge it before they hear it. 'But at the same time, I definitely have fans who heard I was Mary Black's daughter and were like, 'I'm going to go listen to her'. LABOUR OF LOVE MUM-to-be Róisín O is going up against Robbie Williams in a bid to put on one last performance before her baby is due. The Heart and Bones singer goes head to head with the former Take That man when he plays Croke Park on August 23, while she's on stage at Whelan's on the same day. But with her baby on the way in October, she said: 'I wouldn't usually do a gig in the summer. 'But I'm pregnant so I need to get this gig in before this baby arrives, before I can't move around on stage anymore. "So Whelan's will be the only gig you'll see me at with 'Bump' on stage. 'So it will definitely be a night to remember. I'm really looking forward to it. "I was thinking about not gigging and that was driving me crazy. I really want to get some shows in before baby arrives.' But there won't be any major break for the star who plans to be back in action for the Christmas period. She said: 'December is the busiest for musicians. I have a load of shows that I could miss but I don't want to. It's the best time of year for gigging. 'I'll probably take about ten weeks off before I get back to work.' "So for me, it doesn't really matter why people have started to listen as long as they like it then I've won them over in my own merit. "I don't really don't care. I'm so proud of her as well. She does have this unbelievable career.' And as for working with her brother's band? 'I LOVE IT' Róisín said: 'I love it. I'm there as a session musician. I do backing vocals and I play keys. 'I know all the boys. I've grown up with them. We have the best craic on tour. It's really not work. 'It's dangerous how much I love it because in a way it stops me from sometimes doing my own gigs but it's worth it.' The first two episodes of Fields Of Dreams are available wherever you get your podcasts from July 3 5 Mary's kids Danny and Roisin have followed in her musical footsteps Credit: Journalist Collects 5 Roisin said podcaster Vogue Williams is a huge fan of her mum Mary Credit: Journalist Collects
Geek Vibes Nation
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
'Videoheaven' Review - A Profound And Beautiful Ode To The Video Store
' The video store is a place of hope and anxiety about the future.' It is an ancient establishment in our modern entertainment complex. However, at one time, the institution stood on par with the movie theater itself. A communal face to gather and engage—a sanctum for cinematic curiosity and movie consumption. And yet, now, these one-thought mainstays are relics of history. Eloquently described as a part of the world but no longer a part of ours. Alex Ross Perry's new documentary , Videoheaven , analyzes the video and its place in society. Running for almost three hours, this movie vividly depicts the rise and fall of an industry. Through the use of movie clips, Perry crafts a narrative that is as much about the industry as it is about us—the consumer. In the song Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles , the lyrics decry the advent of television as both a natural progression and a regression. More eyes and ears could experience a song, while at the same time, musical talent meant more than simply having the vocal chops. It is a tale as old as time, the advent of new technology replacing the existing stock. It may be challenging to believe in our modern consumer culture, but before 1977, videotapes were not readily available for public consumption. The invention of the VCR heralded a new era in the burgeoning home entertainment industry. Interestingly, in 1980, an estimated 1.9 million homes had VCRs; by the end of the decade, that number had increased to around 64.5 million. If films were available to watch at home, this called for a new industry: Enter the video store. Videoheaven plays like a well-researched essay, complete with calming narration by Maya Hawke. It presents six segments showcasing the video store's spectacular rise and quiet collapse. This story captures the seismic impact on American movie culture, from the mom-and-pop shop on the corner to conglomerates like Blockbuster. Before videos, movie interaction meant going to the theater or watching a TV broadcast. Video stores and movie rentals gave birth to a cottage industry that, for a time, looked impenetrable and unstoppable. Using clips, it places video stories in movies and TV shows, telling a unique, quintessentially American story. This means it is a complex story of hope and existential dread. Six parts make up the narrative of this piece. At the beginning, the film asks the appropriate question in the past tense! What was the Video Store? Before the concept gained mainstream popularity, Hollywood films like David Cronenberg's Videodrome and, more aptly, Brian De Palma's Body Double helped shape the public's perception of the institution. While both films are more nefarious in these exploits, later movies, such as Disconnected , set up video stores as a place for community gathering and a sanctuary for cinematic knowledge. The 1980s are remembered in many ways, but mass consumerism is the most significant and lasting imprint. Everything became more accessible, so people had to have just about everything. Video stores sprang up nationwide, growing rapidly and accomplishing in ten years what had taken movie theaters fifty years to achieve: cultural relevance. At the start of the decade, what might have been a niche marketplace became fodder for mass consumerism and corporatization. We see the turn from mom-and-pop video rentals being the norm to becoming a relic and out of step. Enter the corporate giants that would tower over the industry into the early 21st century. Maya Hawke narrates Alex Ross Perry's Videoheaven. Photo Credit: Cinema Conservancy. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, video stores experienced their heyday, but like all eras, nothing lasts forever. The film dutifully illustrates the change in tastes and perceptions of the establishment. It was an intersection for community, ritual, and expression. Video stores were vehicles for story and character interactions in countless indie films. However, as the institutions became more prevalent and lost their luster, the locations became nothing more than simple window dressing or plot devices, in large part for nostalgia-driven stories. The film notes how the 2012 film This Means War shows the last video store ever meaningfully captured on screen. The documentary uses eye-catching facts. For example, in 2000, there were approximately 20,000 video stores in the United States, with 5,000 of them being Blockbusters. Of course, today, video stores are like fossils, and there is only one Blockbuster left in existence. As TV killed the radio star, DVD heralded the end of VHS. This media earthquake ultimately contributed to the decline of the video store. The film reminds us of the age-old question we used to ask every time we went to the video store: what do we want to watch? Our tastes and preferences were predicated on discussion or discovery. The video store became a parlor for exchanging ideas and opinions on movies. A person's cinematic identity could be defined by the types of films they rented. In this age, where even physical media is a question, the film poses a more poignant and perhaps unanswerable question: what do we want? The answer is ambiguous and remains up to us, the viewers and consumers. Videoheaven does its thesis by asking what happened to the video store, but this film is not only a documentary. It is an engaging and ultimately tragic account of what happened to a seemingly unstoppable empire. This grand video essay weaves an interlocking narrative commenting on the store's status as a 'socio-cultural hub' and 'consumer mecca.' The film is an engrossing analysis, yes, but the use of clips, coupled with Hawke's narration, makes this not only feel but also play like an obituary. It is a tribute to a part of cinematic history intertwined with the love of movies, as inexplicable as one's taste. The film honors this once mighty institution and makes us mourn for it. Videoheaven is now playing at New York's IFC Center courtesy of Cinema Conservancy. The film will expand to LA's Vidiots on August 6th as part of a larger theatrical rollout.
The Hill
2 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
The US Copyright Office is wrong about artificial intelligence
Last month, the U.S. Copyright Office released a report on generative AI training, concluding that use of copyrighted materials to train artificial intelligence models is not fair use. That conclusion is wrong as both a matter of copyright law and AI policy. AI is too important to allow copyright to impede its progress, especially as America seeks to maintain its global competitiveness in tech innovation. Fair use is a defense to copyright infringement that allows companies like Google to reproduce web pages in order to develop their search engines. If Google faced liability for copying the material it indexes, it would go out of business. Similarly, generative AI systems should have permission to be trained on material that is often copyrighted, such as images or articles, to achieve sufficient accuracy. AI datasets currently utilize a process called 'backend copying,' often mimicking how humans learn words and ideas from reading copyrighted materials, which has never before been seen as infringement. These datasets use texts as training data to create a large vocabulary of words, which is analogous to creating a dictionary, while also capturing facts, ideas and expression. Copyright owners argue that treating backend copying as fair use will stifle creativity and impoverish artists. That's false. Creators can still make money by selling copies of their work, and any payments from AI use would be miniscule. Without fair use, the VCR, iPhone and Google's search engine wouldn't exist. And copyright owners can still sue if AI systems produce replicas of their works as outputs. Treating backend copying as infringement by denying fair use risks crippling innovation and forfeiting American technological leadership. AI training datasets include hundreds of millions to billions of works; payments for using them would be enormously expensive and difficult to coordinate, hobbling startup companies and reinforcing the dominance of Big Tech. AI is far more than chatbots; the technology is revolutionizing medicine, research, education and the military. Currently, America is the world leader in AI innovation. However, geopolitical competitors such as China are rapidly advancing, as the release of DeepSeek demonstrates. Limiting AI innovation with copyright threatens American economic and national security. Humans, like AI datasets, learn language by example; by seeing how words are used by different authors in various texts, well-read individuals become more articulate and knowledgeable. When humans learn facts or ideas from an authorized copy of a work, it is not treated as copyright infringement. In the same way, AI systems should be allowed to learn without the presumption that their output will inevitably infringe. Furthermore, generative AI is increasingly employed in contexts that are traditionally protected by fair use. For example, AI can be used to train medical students to perform surgical procedures or to conduct academic research. To condemn all AI training as beyond fair use short-circuits the crucial inquiry, which is how AI systems are used — not how they are built. Courts have protected copying by search engines like Google because search is highly transformative and creates important social value. AI-driven search is beginning to replace traditional search and should enjoy the same fair use protection, because it works better and faster. AI-based search serves the same basic purpose as traditional search but provides even more powerful features, such as the ability to summarize information from large numbers of websites simultaneously and to tailor answers to a user's specific needs. AI also boosts innovation in other areas. Some important AI models are released as 'open-source' or 'open-weight' models, under licenses that allow anyone to download and use them free of charge. The potential downstream uses for these models are nearly unlimited and go far beyond the uses contemplated by the companies that initially trained them. While some of these downstream uses could produce works that infringe, others might involve only non-infringing facts and ideas, or be used in contexts that are also fair use. Generative AI is a technology that is capable of both infringing and non-infringing uses, similar to VCRs and search engines, and should be assessed in context. To stop the inquiry of fair use at the training stage is to ignore all these remarkable possibilities and to risk impairing the most important information technology since the printing press. The U.S. Copyright Office's report is shortsighted. Protecting AI innovation through fair use fits traditional copyright law and supports American leadership in this vital new technology. Thinh H. Nguyen, J.D., is a legal skills professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and the director of its Innovation and Entrepreneurship Clinic. Derek E. Bambauer, J.D., is the current Irving Cypen Professor of Law at the UF Levin College of Law, a National Science Foundation-funded researcher in law and AI, and a former principal systems engineer at IBM.
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Toronto's finest treblemakers: Sanjoy Narayan reports live from a gig by BadBadNotGood
On Wednesday night, by Helsinki's harbour, the Nordic summer was playing its usual tricks. The cover art for Mid Spiral, released last July. What began as a perfect evening turned fickle, the wind whipping off the Baltic Sea. It was the kind of weather that sends fair-weather concertgoers scrambling for cover. But as Black Sabbath's War Pigs thundered across the open-air venue's sound system, setting the mood, those who stayed knew they were about to witness something special. When BadBadNotGood finally took the stage at Allas Live, the cold suddenly felt irrelevant. The Canadian trio of Alexander Sowinski (on drums), Chester Hansen (on bass) and Leland Whitty (switching between saxophone and guitar) was joined by their expanded tour line-up: Felix Fox-Pappas on keyboards, Kaelin Murphy on trumpet and Juan Carlos Medrano on percussion. They launched into their set with the kind of controlled intensity that has made them one of the most compelling genre-benders in contemporary music. This wasn't just another gig; it was a masterclass in how jazz can evolve without losing its soul. The setlist was a journey through the band's 15-year evolution, blending tracks from their latest opus, Mid Spiral, with older favourites that reminded everyone why they fell in love with BadBadNotGood in the first place. The evening's most poignant moment came when they paid tribute to Sly Stone, (the pioneering American funk and soul musician who died earlier this month, aged 82) with an instrumental version of Family Affair, turning his 1971 funk classic into something both reverent and revolutionary. BadBadNotGood started out in a Toronto basement, and weren't an instant success. Critics dismissed an early set of releases, their Odd Future jazz covers, as having no artistic merit at all. College students then, and now in their early 30s, they've travelled far from those early jam sessions with rapper Tyler, The Creator that were nonetheless internet gold. Today, they are selling out venues across continents, their journey a vindication of their musical fearlessness. Mid Spiral, their 18-track manifesto released in July, captures the band at their most adventurous. Born of an intense week at the iconic Valentine Recording Studios in Los Angeles, the album showcases their democratic approach to music-making. Unlike ego-driven bands, they operate like a true jazz collective, with long-time touring keyboardist Fox-Pappas and collaborators such as Murphy, Medrano and LA guitarist Tyler Lott expanding their sonic palette. Their genius lies in this collaborative spirit. The band's recent single, Found A Light (Beale Street), featuring three-time Grammy-nominated singer-composer VCR, exemplifies this. The seven-minute opus, released in April, serves as both a love letter to Memphis's musical heritage and as proof of collaborative mastery. VCR's vocals soar over the band's signature instrumentation, creating what she calls 'more than a song… a milestone'. Each member brings distinct virtuosity to the whole. Sowinski's drumming is a masterclass in restraint and explosion, seamlessly blending acoustic percussion with electronic elements. Hansen's bass links jazz walking lines with hip-hop's rhythmic foundation, often serving as both anchor and propulsive force. Whitty, who became permanent after their collaboration with Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah on the album Sour Soul (2015), transforms their sonic possibilities, his saxophone work showcasing not just technical prowess but an understanding of the instrument as both melodic voice and textural element. Mid-set at Helsinki, he held the crowd in thrall with an unaccompanied extended solo on the sax. The band's collaborative history reads like a contemporary-music who's who. The album with Ghostface Killah remains a highwater mark in hip-hop-jazz fusion, eschewing commonly adopted samples for live instrumentation. BadBadNotGood have provided jazz backbone to Kendrick Lamar's Lust, crafted grooves with Kaytranada, and have partnerships ongoing with Charlotte Day Wilson and Daniel Caesar. The collaborations never feel calculated; they appear to emerge from genuine musical relationships and shared curiosity. BadBadNotGood's impact extends beyond recordings. The fact that they incite mosh pits at jazz festivals speaks to their ability to honour tradition while shattering expectations. At the Helsinki gig, there wasn't a mosh pit, but drummer Sowinski got the crowd to do sequenced hand waves and, on one occasion, deep breathing with guttural exhales! Not something commonly witnessed at such an event. As they continue their world tour through major festivals that include Glastonbury, they carry more than songs from Mid Spiral. BadBadNotGood embody a philosophy that music is at its best when it refuses restraints. Their evolution from college kids to internationally respected collaborators proves that innovation occurs when talented people choose exploration over comfort. On Wednesday night, watching them transform Sly Stone's funk into something entirely new while Nordic winds whipped around us, it became clear that BadBadNotGood isn't just a band; they are a beacon of musical adventure. Proof that the magic, in music, still happens in the spaces between traditions. The cold may have been biting, but the music was pure fire.
The Citizen
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
Why modern cinemas are failing to keep audiences happy
Cinemas offer recliners and snacks, but fail at basic comfort and service. Human interaction could keep patrons returning despite streaming competition. Cinemas shouldn't exist. Like the dinosaurs, or vinyl, they should have gone extinct in the relentless face of technological advancement: videos (VHS and Betamax) allowed us to break free of the 8mm home movie tyranny, while DVDs were a godsend. Blue Ray introduced us to a new frontier of high definition and then home theatres literally took Hollywood into our lounges with surround sound. And yet, somehow, cinemas didn't get the message. The pandemic, with its lockdown and the prospect of everyone breathing each other's germs in a warm and dark insulated room should have been its death knell. Tom Cruise is widely credited with preventing that through his slew of derring-do adventure flicks untainted by CGI that literally are better on the big screen. His determination during Covid – and a masterful campaign of misinformation – scared other studios into not shuttering their sets and getting back to work during the industry's greatest inflection point since the VCR. ALSO READ: New film unveils the world of John Lennon and Yoko Ono It also galvanised his own studio into completing work on the blockbuster Top Gun sequel which, in turn, led to the last two instalments of his Mission Impossible franchise, the last of which pays generous cinematic tribute to some of South Africa's most breathtaking landscapes. Cinemas, too, have done a bit to ward off the advance of time by partnering with corporates to take down the ever-spiralling cost of tickets, although not the price of popcorn, Coke and sweets, which continues to do as much for smuggling as Covid did for the illegal tobacco industry. Where cinemas are missing a trick is in not taking a leaf from the past and having human beings doing the work that digitisation and algorithms do today. At least one cinema chain has created the wheeze of getting you to pay extra for a reclining padded seat (fatal for anyone over 45 to stay awake for the duration) and mid-film service of victuals to your armrest. A more practical halfway point might be employing people to check in on cinema patrons while the film is underway to make sure no-one is chatting on their phone, shooting a pirate version of it – or freezing/boiling because of the robotic programming of air-conditioning. ALSO READ: Of Enderman and creepers: Minecraft movie is a romp In the end, all Cruise's laudable efforts might be undone by just that – not the cost of tickets, but the very real risk of freezing to death in summer or melting into a pool of sweat in winter.
