Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's TGL to feature 15-hole matches, overtime and lots of technology

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Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are bringing modern technology to the royal and ancient game with TGL, a team-based golf league played over 15 holes that combines an oversized simulator with actual shots to a tech-infused green that can change contours depending on the shot.

Fourteen months after it was announced, and two months before TGL launches at newly constructed SoFi Center in Florida, the league on Tuesday provided details on just what it is and how it works.

Five of the six four-man teams have been announced for New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta.

The prime-time matches on ESPN platforms (ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+) will be between two teams, each activating three players for the match.

The opening nine holes will be called “triples” — alternate shot for the three players, with one point awarded for winning a hole, no carryovers if there is a tie. The final six holes will be singles, with each team member playing two holes.

Any match ending in a tie goes to overtime, similar to what amounts to penalty kicks in soccer. Each player goes head to head in a closest-to-the-pin competition.

A team win is worth 2 points. The losing team get no points in regulation, 1 point if the match is decided in overtime. Every team faces each other during the regular season, and the top four advance to the playoffs.

TGL debuts on Jan. 9 and ends before the Masters.

“If you take the macro view, we have a sport with 600 years of history and tradition that we're now combining with technology that exists and has never been deployed in this manner,” said Mike McCarley, founder and CEO of TMRW Sports, which developed TGL.

“You combine history and credibility with a new access to golf, and I think it broadens the fan base ... making golf relevant to new groups of people in new ways.”

The concept — 15 holes, a mix of alternate shot and singles, the scoring system — is unlike anything else in golf. McCarley said it was developed through brainstorming involving him, Woods, McIlroy and their management groups.

Woods favored alternate shot to bring in more strategy, particularly because the players will be wearing microphones.

As for the actual competition, it starts with a tee shot from one of two areas — 35 yards away or 20 yards away from a screen that is 64 feet by 46 feet, roughly 20 times the size of a standard simulator. The ball needs to be in the air for a half-second before hitting the massive screen for all the data to register and simulate the shot.

From there, the next shot to the big screen will be played from either real fairway grass, rough or sand, depending on the accuracy of the tee shot. Once players get within 50 yards, they play actual shots to a green complex that is larger than four basketball courts.

The 3,800-square-foot green includes three virtual greens, 15 feet by 27 feet, in which the slope of the green can change to create variety.

Don't get the idea they will be playing Pebble Beach or Riviera. Top golf course designers have pitched in to help design the holes.

SoFi Center is built at Palm Beach State College in Florida, a 250,000-square-foot arena with a 75-foot-high apex. It can hold about 1,600 spectators, and the “course” is about the size of a field.

Justin Thomas on Tuesday was the first player assigned to a team — Atlanta Drive GC. More announcements are expected by the end of the week, and still to come is the sixth team.

Player assignments are expected to have regional connections (think Keegan Bradley and Boston Commons GC as a possibility), along with what fits into their tour schedules. McIlroy, for example, is playing consecutive weeks in Dubai starting the week of the launch.

Key to TGL — along with a world-class roster of players — was getting a TV contract with ESPN, allowing for cross promotion. ESPN plans a promotional show on Dec. 30.

The idea is for the matches to last about the length of a basketball game. Most matches (there could be doubleheaders) will be in prime time on Tuesday.

Still to be announced is the prize money for TGL, and any other wrinkles to the competition.

___

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November 01, 2023 at 03:29AM

Music Review: Chinese boy band WayV prove their mettle with second album 'On My Youth'

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SM Entertainment's Chinese boy band WayV have come out with guns blazing on their sophomore album, “On My Youth.” It’s no small feat for the six-piece group to stand out, particularly because they are the the fourth sub-unit (a smaller group made up from members of a larger one) from the K-pop mega boyband NCT.

But WayV manage to forge their own style and path in the dizzying world of K-pop divisions and subdivisions. They are in spirit, musically and aesthetically, the new generation's EXO-M — SM Entertainment’s previous Chinese subgroup of their super act EXO — loaded with similar charisma.

WayV, whose name is an acronym for We Are Your Vision, expertly mix hip-hop, pop and electronica on their new 10-track album in a style uniquely their own. From the neo-soulful “No One But You” and the bright pop "Be Alright,” this album is a journey that always seems to revert back to a sense of hopefulness, uplifting the listener even when detouring with a weird trap stanza. (In that way, moving from a kind of softness to an edge feels like the sonic equivalent of watching Bambi pretend to be the hunter.)

The title track and single “On My Youth,” which also gets an all English-language version on the album, moves from electronic music to trap to rap in a mid-tempo melody, an an unexpected but welcomed combo. “Poppin’ Love” is ripe for dancing, with its Y2K boy band-style production flavor with a dizzying beat. “Lighthouse” is a pleasant stripped down piano ballad, and “Moonlight” goes full pop with a majestic string arrangement.

If there is an outlier on the album, it's found on “RODEO,” with its deep bass EDM beats and surprising reference to Lil Jon's “From the Window to the Wall." But its uniqueness doesn't make for a disjointed listening experience — instead, it works as a great break on the album, arriving midway through. Think of it like an animated intermission.

Lyrically, the entirety of the record is an ode to youth, young love, immature mistakes and hope for the future. With beats like these, it’s a safe bet the sextet will be a lasting part of the C-pop pantheon.

___

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November 01, 2023 at 01:48AM

Music Review: Taemin is back with another sultry K-pop EP, his fourth mini album 'Guilty'

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The prince of sultry K-pop is back! The gothic, fall season is here and the prolific Taemin returns with some appropriately atmospheric music on a new EP titled “Guilty." It is his first release since completing his mandatory military enlistment in the South Korean army in April 2023.

Taemin cut his teeth in the spotlight by starting out in boy band SHINee but has emerged as a strong solo artist in the last nine years, with four previously released full-length albums under his belt. “Guilty” marks his fourth mini album — and proves that it only takes Taemin six tracks to realize a robust comeback.

Dramatic, mysterious, sometimes unsettling but always dreamy, “Guilty” is an offer one can’t refuse.

It would be inaccurate to say he’s back and better than ever, because he was never not excellent. “Guilty” is Taemin just being just Taemin, surpassing himself not by being better but by being different. This EP is a pivot from the cool, synth-wave Taemin who explored themes of Stockholm syndrome on “Criminal” from his 2020 album “Never Gonna Dance Again,” or the cool R&B-meets-dance pop cool Taemin of his 2021 EP “Advice” to, well, a new kind of cool on “Guilty.”

From the theatricality of a 30-piece string ensemble on the title track, the record feels like a grand, triumphant return to music. And it certainly doesn't remain stagnant: dynamic synths and magnetic vocals — complete with spooky, ASMR-esque whispers — complete the song.

“The Rizzness,” a silly title playing with internet slang “rizz” meaning “charisma,” is seductive, pulsing, deep bass hip-hop. Taemin is not here to play nice. The song switches midway through, mutating from the musical incarnation of a thriller flick to a horror film with electric guitar tremolos dialed to 11.

Comparatively, “She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not” is a tamer pop track, a melancholic tune that twins with the dreamy “Not Over You” in the pantheon of heartbreak.

“Night Away” whisks the listener away on a hopeful daydream of romance with its soft guitars and Taemin’s gentle vocals. While “Blue," its opposite on the emotional spectrum, offers a farewell with its vintage drums and hopeful mood.

With “Guilty,” Taemin puts another notch on his great music belt.

___

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October 31, 2023 at 01:20AM

Book Review: Henry Winkler grapples with the Fonz and dyslexia in his entertaining new memoir

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Henry Winkler's memoir begins on a Tuesday morning in October 1973, at his first audition for “Happy Days.” He was almost 28 — quite a bit old for a high schooler — and struggling with something he didn't know had a name.

“Being Henry: The Fonz... and Beyond,” released Tuesday by Celadon Books, is a breezy, inspirational story of one of Hollywood's most beloved figures who became an unlikely TV screen icon and later a champion for those with dyslexia.

Winkler's 245-page book charts his course chronologically from the Fonz to “Barry” — and the frustrating fallow periods in between — painting a portrait of a man trying to overcome a bitter, loveless childhood and a disability that made reading impossibly hard and simply trying to become a better man.

“I was, in my mind, always a little boy,” he writes. “My real self was like a kernel of corn sheathed in yards of concrete — as insulated as the nuclear material at Chernobyl.”

He describes himself at the “Happy Days” audition as “a short Jew from New York City with a unibrow and hair down to my shoulders, confident about next to nothing in my life.” He had graduated from Yale's drama school and bagged a few roles despite having difficulty reading.

The Fonz almost never happened for him: The fearsome Barry Diller, then head of development for ABC, and future Disney CEO Michael Eisner were skeptical of Winkler getting the part. But writer-creator Garry Marshall saw something.

Later, Winkler dishes, the immense popularity of the Fonz eclipsed anyone else on the show and the network secretly approached him with the idea of spinning off a show or changing the name to “Fonzie's Happy Days.” Winkler refused.

The end of “Happy Days” brought its own stress for a man who admits that “worrying is my favorite indoor sports.” He writes: “I was terrified of being a flash in the pan. A one-hit wonder. Was I?”

Over the years, there were guest spots on shows like “Arrested Development,” “Royal Pains” and “Parks and Recreation” until finally “Barry,” the show in 2018 that would prove a second tentpole to his career and produce his first primetime Emmy.

In 2003, Winkler branched out into children’s books with Lin Oliver, writing about the adventures of Hank Zipzer, a young boy with dyslexia who overcomes many learning challenges.

The 28-book series “Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever” was based on Winkler’s own experience with undiagnosed dyslexia. “At the height of my fame and success, I felt embarrassed, inadequate,” he writes.

The memoir is enlivened by an unusual move: Winkler includes long reaction passages from his wife, Stacey, who is pretty brutal about Winkler’s immaturity, his parenting, his own parents and a crippling fear of poverty. “A very big thing I’d learned about Henry was that when he wasn’t working, he was absolutely miserable. Adrift. Insecure. Anxious,” she writes.

It's telling that Winkler — who writes he has lately benefited from therapy — includes a frank perspective from outside his own head.

There are fun moments throughout: How Winkler came to produce “MacGyver” and how he got fired from directing “Turner & Hooch.” There's a hysterical section about trying to direct Burt Reynolds in “Cop & ½” and, while Winkler is a nice guy, he's still capable of throwing some shade at Michael Keaton.

He wonderfully captures the late Robin Williams — “within 42 seconds, I knew, I was in the presence of greatness” — and how CBS made Ron Howard so mad during “Happy Days” that he became a film director almost out of spite.

But one figure looms over this book and career — the Fonz, whose moody expression fills the back cover. Winkler by the end has come to peace with his creation.

“For a long time after ‘Happy Days,’ I was saddened that the world could only see me as the Fonz," he writes. "But I never lost sight of what the character gave me — a roof over my head, food on the table, my children's education — and how much it gave me in terms of introducing me to the whole world.”

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

___

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October 30, 2023 at 11:14PM

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 5-11

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Celebrities having birthdays during the week of Nov. 5-11 include singer Art Garfunkel, actor Ethan Hawke and rapper Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa

ByThe Associated Press

October 30, 2023, 9:53 AM

En esta imagen proporcionada por Apple TV+, Robert De Niro, izquierda, y Leonardo DiCaprio en una escena de "Killers of the Flower Moon". (Melinda Sue Gordon/Apple TV+ vía AP)

The Associated Press

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 5-11:

Nov. 5: Actor Harris Yulin (“The Hurricane,” “Scarface”) is 86. Actor Chris Robinson (“General Hospital”) is 85. Actor Elke Summer is 83. Singer Art Garfunkel is 82. Singer Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits is 76. TV personality Kris Jenner is 68. Actor Nestor Serrano (“24″) is 68. Comedian-actor Mo Gaffney is 65. Actor Robert Patrick (“The X-Files”) is 65. Singer Bryan Adams is 64. Actor Tilda Swinton is 63. Actor Michael Gaston (TV’s “Unforgettable,” “The Mentalist”) is 61. Actor-singer Andrea McArdle is 60. Actor Tatum O’Neal is 60. Singer Angelo Moore of Fishbone is 58. Actor Judy Reyes (“Scrubs”) is 56. Actor Seth Gilliam (TV’s “Teen Wolf”) is 55. Keyboardist Mark Hunter of James is 55. Actor Sam Rockwell is 55. Country singers Jennifer and Heather Kinley of The Kinleys are 53. Guitarist-keyboardist Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead is 52. Actor Corin Nemec (“Parker Lewis Can’t Lose”) is 52. Singer-guitarist Ryan Adams is 49. Actor Sebastian Arcelus (“Madam Secretary,” ″House of Cards,”) is 47. Actor Luke Hemsworth (“Westworld”) is 43. Actor Annet Mahendru (“The Americans”) is 38. Guitarist Kevin Jonas of The Jonas Brothers is 36.

Nov. 6: Actor June Squibb (“Nebraska”) is 94. Singer P.J. Proby is 85. Actor Sally Field is 77. Jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval is 74. TV host Catherine Crier is 69. Former news correspondent Maria Shriver is 68. Actor Lori Singer (“Fame,” ″Footloose”) is 66. Actor Lance Kerwin is 63. Bassist Paul Brindley of The Sundays is 60. Singer Corey Glover of Living Colour is 59. Actor Peter DeLuise (“seaQuest DSV,” ″21 Jump Street”) is 57. Actor Kelly Rutherford (“Melrose Place”) is 55. Actor Ethan Hawke is 53. Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson (“The Taste,” ″Chopped”) is 53. Actor Thandiwe Newton is 51. Model-actor Rebecca Romijn is 51. Actor Zoe McLellan (“NCIS: New Orleans”) is 49. Actor Nicole Dubuc (“Major Dad”) is 45. Actor Taryn Manning is 45. Actor Patina Miller (“Madam Secretary”) is 39. Singer-songwriter Ben Rector is 37. Actor Emma Stone is 35.

Nov. 7: Actor Dakin Matthews (“Gilmore Girls,” “King of Queens”) is 83. Singer Johnny Rivers is 81. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is 80. Actor Christopher Knight (“The Brady Bunch”) is 66. Guitarist Tommy Thayer of Kiss is 63. Actor Julie Pinson (“As the World Turns,” “Days of Our Lives”) is 56. Guitarist Greg Tribbett of Mudvayne is 55. Actor Michelle Clunie (“Queer as Folk,” “The Jeff Foxworthy Show”) is 54. Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (“Super Size Me”) is 53. Actor Jeremy London (“Party of Five”) is 51. Actor Jason London (“The Rage: Carrie Two”) is 51. Actor Yunjin Kim (“Mistresses,” “Lost”) is 50. Actor Adam DeVine (“Modern Family”) is 40. Guitarist Zach Myers of Shinedown is 40. Actor Lucas Neff (“Raising Hope”) is 38. Rapper Tinie Tempah is 35. Singer Lorde is 27.

Nov. 8: Singer Bonnie Bramlett is 79. Singer Bonnie Raitt is 74. Former “Entertainment Tonight” host Mary Hart is 73. Former Playboy CEO Christie Hefner is 71. Actor Alfre Woodard is 71. Singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones is 69. Guitarist Pearl Thompson (formerly Porl Thompson) of The Cure is 66. Singer-actor Leif Garrett is 62. TV chef Gordon Ramsay is 57. Actor Courtney Thorne-Smith is 56. Actor Parker Posey is 55. Singer Diana King is 53. Bassist Scott Devendorf of The National is 51. Actor Gretchen Mol is 51. Actor Matthew Rhys (“The Americans,” “Brothers and Sisters”) is 49. Actor Tara Reid (“Sharknado,” ″American Pie”) is 48. Singer Bucky Covington (“American Idol”) is 46. Actor Dania Ramirez (“Devious Maids,” ″Entourage”) is 44. TV personality Jack Osbourne (“The Osbournes”) is 38. Actor Jessica Lowndes (“90210″) is 35. Singer SZA is 34. Singer-actor Riker Lynch (“Glee”) is 32. Singer Lauren Alaina (“American Idol”) is 29. Actor Van Crosby (“Splitting Up Together”) is 21.

Nov. 9: Actor Robert David Hall (“CSI”) is 75. Actor Lou Ferrigno (“The Incredible Hulk”) is 72. Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin is 64. Drummer Dee Plakas of L7 is 63. Rapper Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa is 59. Actor Ion Overman (“The L Word,” “Ghost Whisperer”) is 54. Rapper Scarface of Geto Boys is 53. Musician Susan Tedeschi is 53. Actor Jason Antoon (“NCIS: Hawai’i”) is 52. Actor Eric Dane (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 51. Singer Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees is 50. Bassist Barry Knox of Parmalee is 46. Singer Sisqo (Dru Hill) is 45. Country singer Chris Lane is 39. Actor Emily Tyra (“Code Black”) is 36. Actor Nikki Blonsky (“Hairspray”) is 35.

Nov. 10: Blues singer Bobby Rush is 89. Actor Albert Hall (“Ally McBeal,” ″Beloved”) is 86. Country singer Donna Fargo is 82. Lyricist Tim Rice is 79. Actor Jack Scalia is 73. Actor-comedian Sinbad is 67. Actor Mackenzie Phillips (“One Day at a Time”) is 64. Actor Vanessa Angel (“Kingpin”) is 60. Actor Hugh Bonneville (“Downton Abbey”) is 60. Comedian Tommy Davidson (“In Living Color”) is 60. Actor Michael Jai White is 59. Country singer Chris Cagle is 55. Comedian Tracy Morgan (“30 Rock”) is 55. Actor Ellen Pompeo (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 54. Actor Orny Adams (TV’s “Teen Wolf”) is 53. Rapper U-God of Wu-Tang Clan is 53. Rapper Warren G is 53. Actor Walton Goggins (“Invincible,” “The Shield”) is 52. Contemporary Christian singer Matt Maher is 49. Singer-guitarist Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World is 48. Rapper-actor Eve is 45. Bassist Chris Joannou of Silverchair is 44. Actor Heather Matarazzo is 41. Country singer Miranda Lambert is 40. Actor Josh Peck (“Drake and Josh”) is 37. Singer Vinz Dery of Nico and Vinz is 33. Actor Genevieve Buechner (“UnREAL”) is 32. Actor Zoey Deutch (“Vampire Academy”) is 29. Actor Kiernan Shipka (“Mad Men”) is 24. Actor Mackenzie Foy (“Twilight”) is 23.

Nov. 11: Country singer Narvel Felts is 85. Guitarist Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge is 78. Keyboardist Jim Peterik of The Ides of March (and formerly of Survivor) is 73. Singer-keyboardist Paul Cowsill of The Cowsills is 72. Singer Marshall Crenshaw is 70. Singer-guitarist Andy Partridge of XTC is 70. Singer Dave Alvin is 68. Synthesizer player Ian Craig Marsh (Human League, Heaven 17) is 67. Actor Stanley Tucci is 63. Actor Demi Moore is 60. Actor Calista Flockhart (“Brothers and Sisters,” ″Ally McBeal”) is 59. Actor Frank John Hughes (“24″) is 56. TV personality Carson Kressley (“Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”) is 54. Actor David DeLuise (“Wizards of Waverly Place”) is 52. Actor Tyler Christopher (“General Hospital”) is 51. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is 49. Actor Scoot McNairy (“Argo”) is 46. Musician Jon Batiste is 37. Actor Christa B. Allen (“Revenge”) is 32. Actor Tye Sheridan (“X-Men” movies) is 27.

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October 30, 2023 at 09:04PM

Robert Brustein, theater critic and pioneer, dies

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NEW YORK -- Robert Brustein, a giant in the theatrical world as critic, playwright, crusader for artistic integrity and founder of two of the leading regional theaters in the country, has died. He was 96.

Brustein died on Sunday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to an emailed statement from Gideon Lester, the artistic director and chief executive of the Fisher Center at Bard University and a decades’ long family friend. Lester said he heard the news from Brustein's his wife, Doreen Beinart.

Known as a passionate and provocative theater advocate who pushed for boundary-breaking works and for classics to be adventurously modernized, Brustein founded both the Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard.

Some of the works he championed upset critics and playgoers unused to nontraditional productions, but he was unapologetic. “I know I'm out of step,” he told The New York Times in 2001. “I'm so out of step I'm almost in step.”

Even in his 80s, Brustein continued offering his opinions on everything from art to politics, lashing out at the Tea Party and describing the pain of breaking ribs on his own blog. He was a distinguished scholar in residence at Suffolk University, a professor of English emeritus at Harvard University and longtime critic at The New Republic.

Born in New York City, Brustein earned a bachelor’s from Amherst and a master’s and Ph.D. from Columbia. A Fulbright scholar, he taught at Cornell, Vassar and Columbia, where he taught drama. He was dean of the Yale School of Drama from 1966-1979 and during that time founded the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Yale Rep, a champion of new work, has produced several Pulitzer Prize winners and nominated finalists. Many of its productions have advanced to Broadway and together have garnered 10 Tony Awards and more than 40 nominations.

“The goal is to try and have people in the audience take away something that lasts and will haunt them, be it either a subject for debate or of their dreams,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1997. “They'll have an unresolved experience.”

After a painful, highly publicized dismissal from Yale, Brustein in 1979 switched to Harvard, where he taught English and founded the American Repertory Theatre in 1980. Then in 1987, he founded the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, a two-year graduate program. He retired as artistic director from A.R.T. in 2002 but continued serving as its founding director.

A.R.T. has grown into one of the country’s most celebrated theaters and the winner of numerous awards, including the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2003, it was named one of the top three regional theaters in the country by Time magazine.

Over the course of his long career as director, playwright, and teacher, Brustein aided the artistic development of such theater artists as Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Cherry Jones, Sigourney Weaver, James Naughton, James Lapine, Tony Shalhoub, Linda Lavin, Adam Rapp, William Ivey Long, Steve Zahn, Wendy Wasserstein, David Mamet and Peter Sellars.

At both Yale Rep and A.R.T., Brustein told The Boston Globe in 2012, he embraced popular theater with a nationalistic streak: “We were trying to liberate American theater from its British overseers. We were trying to find an American style for the classics,” he said.

“I was looking for the energies of popular theater applied to traditional work. I was also looking for new American plays. This was a very important function of ours, to encourage and develop new American playwrights.”

Brustein’s own full-length plays include “Demons,” “The Face Life” and “Spring Forward, Fall Back” and “Nobody Dies on Friday,” based on the real-life relationship between Lee Strasberg and his student Marilyn Monroe.

His work has been produced at the Vineyard Playhouse on Martha’s Vineyard, at Theater J in Washington, D.C., and the Abington Theatre in New York. “Playwriting is not so much a craft as an obsession,” he once observed.

His trilogy on the life and work of William Shakespeare includes “The English Channel,” which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; “Mortal Terror”; and “The Last Will,” a witty play which takes place inside a tavern on the eve of Shakespeare’s theater career and presents the young poet as an intellectual kleptomaniac. Brustein published his first book on Shakespeare, “The Tainted Muse: Prejudice and Presumption in Shakespeare and His Time,” in 2009.

Brustein was a staunch believer that theater should be first and foremost an art form, not just a political platform. He once criticized the African-American playwright August Wilson for declaring that Black people should not participate in colorblind casting but should form their own separatist companies. The pair then aired their differences in 1997 in a high-profile confrontation at New York's Town Hall.

Brustein, a tall man with a deep voice, also wrote “Shlemiel the First,” based on the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer and set to traditional klezmer music. The light, absurd comedy, which gently mocks the lavishness of other musicals, premiered in 1994 at the American Repertory Theatre and was close to making it to Broadway. It was revived in 2011 by Theatre for a New Audience.

“I think the greatest theater is that which combines the low and the high,” he told the Globe. “One thing I can’t stand is the middle.”

His short plays include “Poker Face,” “Chekhov on Ice” and “Airport Hell.” His other books include “Revolution as Theatre,” “Letters to a Young Actor” and multiple volumes of his essays and criticism.

He won multiple honors, including the George Polk Award for Journalism and an award for distinguished service to the arts from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was also inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. In 2010, he was awarded the Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama at the White House and hailed as “a leading force in the development of theater and theater artists in the United States.”

He is survived by his wife, who ran the human rights film program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government; and a son, Daniel. His first wife, the actress Norma Brustein, died just after he was let go from Yale.

Brustein was asked in 2012 what he thought of the current state of American theater and said tickets were too expensive and the work often failed to find a deep resonance.

“I love entertainment, but entertainment has got to be a serious effort to investigate the American soul through its theater. Novelists understand this, poets understand this, and for a while the playwrights really understood it,” he told the Globe. “We don’t have that anymore. And if we do, it’s not making it on the stage.

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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October 30, 2023 at 08:17AM

Video game adaptation ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ notches $130 million global debut

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It hardly mattered that “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was released simultaneously in theaters and on streaming this weekend. Fans flocked to movie theaters across the country to see the scary video game adaptation on the big screen, which made $78 million to top the North American box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Universal Pictures bet on a day-and-date release on the weekend before Halloween, sending it to 3,675 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, while also making it available for Peacock subscribers, the subscription streaming service owned by NBCUniversal. The movie also opened in 64 markets internationally, where it’s expected to gross $52.6 million, giving the film a $130.6 million global launch – the biggest of any horror released this year.

“It was an extraordinary debut,” said Jim Orr, the president of domestic distribution for Universal, who praised Blumhouse, the filmmakers and the studio's marketing department for the targeted campaign.

“Our marketing department continues to be one of the great superpowers we have at Universal," he said.

Blumhouse, the company behind “Paranormal Activity,” “Get Out” and recent horror hits like “M3GAN” and “The Black Phone,” produced “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which was directed by Emma Tammi and stars Josh Hutcherson, Mary Stuart Masterson and Matthew Lillard. The popular video game series, in which a security guard has to fend off murderous animatronic characters at a run down family pizza restaurant, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, was created by Scott Cawthon and first released in 2014.

While the game’s fanbase was strong, and passionate, the movie took many years to make. Producer Jason Blum said in an interview with IGN earlier this year that he was made fun of for pursuing an adaptation.

“Everyone said we could never get the movie done, including, by the way, internally in my company,” Blum said. They made the film with a reported $20 million production budget.

And it paid off: “Five Nights at Freddy’s” is his company’s biggest opening of all time, surpassing “Halloween’s” domestic and global debut. It's also Blumhouse's 19th No. 1 debut, which Orr noted is an “amazing accomplishment.”

The opening weekend audience was predominately male (58%) and overwhelmingly young, with an estimated 80% under the age of 25 and 38% between the ages of 13 and 17.

While the numbers aren't surprising for anyone who knows the game's audience, it is still notable for a generation not known for making theatrical moviegoing a priority.

“It's great to get that kind of audience in theaters,” Orr said.

Audiences gave the film an A- CinemaScore, which could be promising for future weekends too.

“It’s a very young demographic,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “It won’t be lost on any of the other studios or video game manufacturers. This door has been kicked wide open.”

It’s also notable that so many chose theaters even though it was also available to watch at home.

“In some cases streaming can be additive and complimentary to theatrical," Dergarabedian said. “Clearly audiences wanted that communal experience.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s” did not score well with critics, however. It currently has a dismal 25% on Rotten Tomatoes. AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote that it “has to go down as one of the poorest films in any genre this year.” But like many other horror movies, it appears to be critic-proof.

In second place, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is expected to cross $200 million in global grosses by the end of Sunday, having added $14.7 million domestically and $6.7 million internationally this weekend. The concert film, distributed by AMC Theatres, is in its third weekend in theaters where it is only playing from Thursday through Sunday, though there will be “special Halloween showtimes” on Tuesday at a discounted price of $13.13.

Third place went to Martin Scorsese's “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which added $9 million in its second weekend, bringing its total domestic earnings to $40.7 million, according to Paramount. With an additional $14.1 million from international showings, the film's global total now stands at over $88 million.

Angel Studios' “After Death,” a Christian documentary film about people who have had near death experiences, opened in fourth place to $5.1 million from 2,645 locations.

And “The Exorcist: Believer” rounded out the top five with $3.1 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic earnings to just shy of $60 million.

Several of the fall’s high-profile films also launched in very limited release this weekend, including Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” and Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.” Both opened exclusively in New York and Los Angeles and will expand in the coming weeks.

Focus Features’ “The Holdovers,” starring Paul Giamatti as a curmudgeonly ancient history teacher at a New England prep school, debuted in six theaters where it earned an estimated $200,000.

Coppola’s “Priscilla,” about Priscilla Presley’s life with Elvis, also opened on four screens in New York and Los Angeles, where it averaged $33,035 per screen. With a cumulative gross of $132,139, the A24 release starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi expands nationwide next weekend.

“It was an eclectic and exciting weekend for moviegoers,” Dergarabedian said. “If you couldn’t find a film to your liking, you’re not looking hard enough.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” $78 million.

2. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” $14.7 million.

3. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” $9 million.

4. “After Death,” $5.1 million.

5. “The Exorcist: Believer,” $3.1 million.

6. “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” $2.2 million.

7. “Freelance,” $2.1 million.

8. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (re-release), $2 million.

9. “Saw X,” $1.7 million.

10. “The Creator,” $1 million.

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October 30, 2023 at 12:04AM

'Friends' star Matthew Perry has been found dead at his Los Angeles home, reports say

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'Friends' star Matthew Perry has been found dead at his Los Angeles home, reports say

ByThe Associated Press

October 28, 2023, 9:15 PM

LOS ANGELES -- LOS ANGELES (AP) — 'Friends' star Matthew Perry has been found dead at his Los Angeles home, reports say.

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October 29, 2023 at 02:48PM

Jagger watches Barcelona wear Stones logo in 'clasico' but Beatles fan Bellingham gets Madrid winner

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Barcelona aligned with the Rolling Stones for the “clasico” soccer game against Real Madrid when Mick Jagger showed up to see the home team wear special jerseys featuring the iconic logo of his legendary rock group

ByThe Associated Press

October 28, 2023, 10:49 AM

A big logo of the English rock band Rolling Stones unfolded on the stands during the La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Real Madrid at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

The Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain -- Barcelona aligned with the Rolling Stones for Saturday’s “clasico” soccer game against Real Madrid when Mick Jagger showed up to see the home team wear special jerseys featuring the iconic logo of his legendary rock group before a Beatles fan had the last laugh.

Jagger and fellow Stones member Ronnie Wood were in attendance at Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, where Barcelona is playing this season while Camp Nou is being remodeled.

Barcelona’s players wore special jerseys for the game featuring the Rolling Stones’ “hot lips” logo in place of its normal shirt sponsor. The shirts were also on sale.

Also, before kickoff Barcelona displayed a mosaic of burgundy and blue along with a huge Rolling Stones logo.

Madrid won the Spanish league game after Jude Bellingham struck twice, including a goal in injury time, to seal a 2-1 comeback victory.

After the game, Madrid cheekily posted an image of Bellingham with the message “The Beatles were always my favorite band” on X, formerly known as Twitter.

At Madrid's home games, fans have sung the Beatles' “Hey Jude” to celebrate Bellingham's goals.

Barcelona, which has a sponsorship deal with audio-streaming service Spotify, has worn special shirts for recent “clasicos” featuring the logos of Spanish pop star Rosalía and Canadian rapper Drake.

The “clasico” game between the Spanish powerhouses is a must-see soccer game in Spain and abroad.

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AP soccer: https://ift.tt/E4n3RyX

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October 29, 2023 at 01:42AM

Shawn Levy talks about 'All the Light We Cannot See' and his friendship with Wolverine and Deadpool

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Shawn Levy knew he had to direct the Netflix limited series “All the Light We Cannot See,” when he read a scene between the main character Marie and her father.

"I remember being knocked out emotionally and deciding, “'I don’t want to share. I want to do all these episodes myself and I want to direct it like a four-hour movie,'” said Levy, who was also a fan of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel it's based on.

Levy, a dad to four daughters, wanted to honor this father daughter relationship because it's "the heart of the show.”

“I get it. I know when it looks fake, and I know when someone is doing right by this beautiful, intimate relationship between a daughter and her father.”

Debuting Nov. 2, the story follows Marie (played by newcomer Aria Mia Loberti), alone and in hiding in German-occupied France and a Nazi solder named Werner (Louis Hoffman). He’s an orphan who was drafted against his will. The two connect because of a radio broadcast that had a pivotal presence in their childhoods.

Levy, who has years of experience producing and directing, says the project was a growth opportunity for him. Loberti, who is blind like her character, had never acted before. He spoke to The Associated Press about the series, and his pals Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

LEVY: I increasingly felt like the way to do this best, not just right, but best, was to try and cast this lead role authentically. That meant casting someone who was low vision or blind themselves. And after a global search, I found Nelle Sutton to play the young Marie and Aria Mia Loberti to play the young adult Marie. But truly, it was a needle in a haystack level miracle to find them. Even more astonishingly, they had never acted or even auditioned before.

LEVY: They were clearly special but make no mistake, they had no idea what they were doing. And Aria, to her credit, she was already fiercely intelligent, but she knew what she didn’t know. And that’s a great place to start. She said to me, "I want to be great. I don’t know how to be great. You need to teach me and you need to be relentlessly honest with me so I can figure out how to do this." It was cumulative. Certainly, day one was not the performance we were seeing on day 40.

LEVY: I don’t subscribe to extensive rehearsals. This comes partly because I’ve directed a lot of newcomers and usually, they are kids. I don’t think that a natural quality in a new actor is helped by extensive rehearsals. What I’m betting on is inherent personality, inherent realness and I want to do everything I can to preserve that. Usually, we do a table read or in this case, as everyone else was reading the script, Aria had memorized the script. She had memorized her lines in all four episodes. Again, this isn’t a stage play. No actor memorizes the whole screenplay before you start, but Aria did.

LEVY: I certainly learned how to be thoughtful and concise in my word selection when giving a directorial note. But mostly what I learned is how different the world can be in navigating it without sight, but also in how it treats people and presumes things about people who are without sight or have low vision. It gave me a very personal human experience that deepened my understanding and my empathy. I'm grateful.

LEVY: It’s not hard like it is for many of my colleagues who are losing their homes or driving for Uber and finding ways to pay the bills every week while they are not allowed to work. It is creatively frustrating. I’ve tried to keep busy in the ways I could. I edited the half of “Deadpool 3” that we finished shooting before the strike. I mostly want to acknowledge how hard it is for the entire ecosystem of this industry, not only the striking guild members, but for the tens of thousands of others who cannot make a living in the meantime. These are very scary times.

LEVY: It’s an adorable friendship and it’s authentic. In fact, when I did “Real Steel” over a decade ago with Hugh Jackman, he told me, “If you ever meet Ryan Reynolds, you will be best friends. And if you ever work with Ryan Reynolds, you guys will never stop making things together.” ( Levy went on to direct Reynolds in “Free Guy” and “The Adam Project.”) They're both genuinely good, kind men. They are authentic despite being way better looking than the rest of us and mega movie stars for decades.

LEVY: What’s fascinating is you’ve got two guys who have a shared sweetness but they’re playing characters who seriously don’t get along. This goes back to the comics and what happens when you put a merc with a mouth alongside a taciturn, angry, Wolverine. You get comedic and narrative gold. Can I also add, it’s not just that you get two of the biggest movie stars in the world on screen together. I’m the lucky son of a bitch who gets them playing their most iconic, signature characters. That is a director’s treat every day at work.

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October 28, 2023 at 09:27AM

Salman Rushdie could confront man charged with stabbing him when trial begins in January

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Author Salman Rushdie could take the stand against the man accused of repeatedly stabbing him when the defendant goes on trial early next year

ByThe Associated Press

October 27, 2023, 4:44 PM

MAYVILLE, N.Y. -- Author Salman Rushdie could take the stand against the man charged with repeatedly stabbing him before a lecture when the defendant goes on trial early next year, a prosecutor said Friday.

“He is on the people’s witness list right now heading into trial,” Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said, following a court hearing in which the judge scheduled the trial for Jan. 8.

Hadi Matar, 25, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and attempted murder. Authorities said the New Jersey resident left the audience and rushed the stage where the “The Satanic Verses” author was about to speak in August 2022, stabbing him more than a dozen times before onlookers intervened.

Rushdie, 76, who was left blinded in his right eye and with a damaged left hand, wrote about the attack in a memoir: “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” due out April 16.

Matar has been in custody since immediately after the attack at the Chautauqua Institution, an arts and intellectual retreat in the rural southwest corner of New York state.

“I think the biggest hurdle for all of us is going to be picking a fair and impartial jury,” Schmidt said. He estimated the trial itself would last two weeks or less.

Rushdie was the target of a decades-old fatwa by the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for his death over alleged blasphemy in “The Satanic Verses.”

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October 28, 2023 at 04:05AM

Disney says DeSantis-appointed district is dragging feet in providing documents for lawsuit

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Disney says Walt Disney World’s governing district made up of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' appointees is dragging its feet in providing requested documents to the company in a lawsuit over who has design and construction powers over Disney’s sprawling th...

ByMIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press

October 27, 2023, 4:08 PM

Fireworks launch over Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Sept. 30, 2021. For Disney fans, Halloween is among the most desirable (and expensive) times to visit its theme parks. That’s largely due to the after-hours parties: the Oogie Boogie Bash in California and Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in Florida. Disney Halloween parties are held on select nights starting as early as August and can cost up to about $210 per person. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP, file)

The Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Walt Disney World’s governing district made up of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' appointees is dragging its feet in providing requested documents to Disney in a lawsuit over who has design and construction powers over the company’s sprawling theme park resort in central Florida, Disney said in court papers.

Disney on Thursday accused the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District of “dodging its obligations” and asked a Florida judge to delay any decision on whether the case should proceed until the company gets documents and conducts depositions needed to argue against a summary judgement requested by the district.

A hearing is scheduled for mid-December. Disney is seeking a delay of two and a half months.

The district has “failed to produce a single document for nearly two months following Disney’s requests, broke commitments to agreed-upon deadlines, and remains in possession of discovery that Disney needs to develop its summary judgment opposition,” Disney said in court papers.

An email seeking comment was sent to a spokesman for the district.

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, formerly called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, was controlled by Disney allies for more than five decades until it was taken over by DeSantis appointees earlier this year. The takeover of the district came after Disney publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. The law was championed by DeSantis, who currently is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Before control of the district changed hands from Disney allies to DeSantis appointees, the Disney supporters on its board signed agreements with Disney shifting control over design and construction at Disney World to the company and prohibiting the district from using the likeness of Disney characters or other intellectual property without Disney’s permission. The new DeSantis appointees claimed the “eleventh-hour deals” neutered their powers, and the district sued the company in state court to have the contracts voided.

Disney has filed counterclaims which include asking the state court to declare the agreements valid and enforceable. Disney also is seeking from DeSantis’ office and several state agencies internal communications, including text messages and emails, and documents.

“Productions to date have been nonexistent or woefully deficient,” Disney said in its court filing.

Disney and DeSantis and his allies also are battling in federal court, where the company has sued DeSantis, claiming the governor violated its free speech rights by punishing it for expressing opposition to the law. DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District have asked a federal judge to throw out Disney’s First Amendment lawsuit, calling it meritless.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on X, formerly known as Twitter: @MikeSchneiderAP.

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October 28, 2023 at 03:50AM

Country musician Megan Moroney says she writes sad songs for sad people. It's making her a star.

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LOS ANGELES -- Not so long before her platinum-selling single “Tennessee Orange” became inescapable on country radio, this year scoring Megan Moroney her first-ever CMA nominations (song of the year and artist of the year), the up-and-comer was attending the University of Georgia. The life of a country musician? It wasn't supposed to happen.

“It is truly crazy because I went to school to be an accountant,” Moroney tells The Associated Press. “And here we are.”

Fate clearly had other plans. When she was a freshman, Moroney opened for singer John Langston at a sorority event, performing a few Miranda Lambert covers. There, she met Chase Rice, who told her she could open for her at the Georgia Theater — but she needed to write an original song, first.

"So, I wrote my first song, called ‘Stay A Memory,' and I performed it,” she says. “I didn't put it out, but maybe one day I'll tease it.”

After that show, she knew she wanted to move to Nashville and pursue music — but first, she switched her major to focus on music business and interned with Sugarland's Kristian Bush, who'd later produce her stellar debut album, 2023's “Lucky.”

After graduating in 2020, she moved to Nashville, and in 2022, released a debut EP, “Pistol Made of Roses,” catching the attention of all-star songwriters who she'd eventually work with on “Lucky,” like Lori McKenna, Luke Laird, and Jessie Jo Dillon. The rest is only history because of the strength of her songwriting — “emo cowgirl" music, as she calls it.

That's evidenced throughout “Lucky” from the deceptively optimistic “Sad Songs for Sad People,” to the Johnny Cash and June Carter-referencing “Why Johnny” to the opener “I'm Not Pretty,” with its Gen Z Taylor Swift -level acuity: “Did you mean to double-tap that Spring Break throwback from 2016 in PCB?,” she sings on the track, a reference to Southeastern Conference (SEC) college , social media doom scrolling, the devastation of past relationships and the universal experience of “creeping or getting creeped on,” as she puts it.

It's also apparent on the acoustic self-worth ballad, “Girl in the Mirror," which follows a simple chord progression and a woman sacrificing her agency in a relationship and learning to reclaim autonomy afterward. “I think ‘Girl in the Mirror’ has the most important message of all the songs on the record,” she says.

It's the tear-jerker live, too. “That's the one where girls are hugging their friends, group crying, like, having a full-on therapy session."

All roads lead to the career-making “Tennessee Orange," where Moroney, a Georgia Bulldog through and through, puts on University of Tennessee colors for a partner. It's a love song, one about the concessions people make in the name of affection and intimacy — and the track that fast-tracked Moroney into the country spotlight.

“It's, like, not a conventional love song,” she says. “I think people can tell that I don’t write too many of those because I’m just like, not great at it. But it’s like, ‘I’m not madly in love with you, but I will wear a color for you and a shirt because I care about you.’ I think that was just my cheeky songwriting coming through with that one. But yeah, I definitely don’t belong in Tennessee Orange as a Georgia Bulldog.”

For that reason, she didn't expect “Tennessee Orange” to be her breakout hit. “If I would have thought, like, ‘what is my breakout moment going to be?’ It wasn’t going to be a song that was recorded, mixed, mastered and turned in in 48 hours,” she says.

“That’s the thing about putting out music," she adds. “You just don’t know what’s going to resonate with people.”

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October 27, 2023 at 03:27AM

Prosecutors drop charges against woman who accused Jonathan Majors the day after her arrest

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New York -- Manhattan prosecutors on Thursday dropped all charges against a woman who accused the movie star Jonathan Majors of assault, less than a day after she was arrested by New York City police following his allegation that she initiated the physical confrontation.

Grace Jabbari was briefly put under arrest at a New York City police station Wednesday evening and charged with misdemeanor assault and criminal mischief. She and Majors, her ex-boyfriend, have accused each other of battery during an argument in a car ride earlier this year. Jabbari was given a court summons and released.

By the morning, the case against Jabbari was already over.

“The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has officially declined to prosecute the case against Grace Jabbari because it lacks prosecutorial merit. The matter is now closed and sealed,” said Doug Cohen, a press secretary for the prosecutor's office.

Majors, a fast-rising Hollywood star, still faces criminal charges that led to his arrest last March. The actor is accused of pulling Jabbari’s finger, twisting her arm behind her back, striking and cutting her ear and pushing her into a vehicle, leaving her with a broken finger and bruises.

Attorneys for Majors maintain that Jabbari was the aggressor during the fight, which began after Jabbari saw a text message on Majors phone that said, “Wish I was kissing you right now," and tried to snatch the devices from his hands to see who sent it. Her arrest on Wednesday came three months after police opened an investigation into Jabbari based on a cross complaint filed by Majors.

In a court filing earlier this month, prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office said they “would decline to prosecute any charges brought by the NYPD against Ms. Jabbari related to the belated allegations” made by Majors. They said they had informed police of that decision on two separate occasions.

Ross Kramer, an attorney for Jabbari, described the NYPD’s decision to bring charges against Jabbari as “unfortunate and re-traumatizing.” The Manhattan district attorney’s office had “carefully reviewed all the facts of the case and concluded that Ms. Jabbari was the victim, and not the perpetrator,” the statement added.

An attorney for Majors, Priya Chaudhry, declined to comment. She has previously said that she provided the Manhattan district attorney with “irrefutable evidence that the woman is lying, including video proof showing nothing happened, especially not where she claimed.”

But in their October 13th memo, prosecutors pointed to “concerning” discrepancies in the evidence handed over by Chaudhry. In one case, prosecutors said, a witness who was quoted as watching Majors “gently” place Jabbari in the car after she slapped him told prosecutors that he had never written the statement and believed it to be false.

The memo also outlines the cooperation between NYPD detectives and Majors’ attorney. A wanted flier for Jabbari, for example, included a photograph that the defense had provided to the NYPD.

Majors had quickly ascended to Hollywood stardom in recent years, with major roles in “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” following his 2019 breakthrough in "The Last Black Man in San Francisco.”

In the wake of his arrest, the U.S. Army pulled TV commercials narrated by Majors, saying it was “deeply concerned” by the allegations. His upcoming Marvel film “Avengers: Kang Dynasty” was postponed by Disney, while the theatrical release of his recent Sundance Film Festival entry “Magazine Dreams” remains up in the air.

His trial is set to begin on November 29th.

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October 27, 2023 at 01:26AM

Lester Holt, Kristen Welker and Hugh Hewitt to moderate third GOP presidential debate Nov. 8 on NBC

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“NBC Nightly News" anchor Lester Holt, ”Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker and Salem Radio Network morning host Hugh Hewitt will moderate the third Republican presidential debate

ByThe Associated Press

October 25, 2023, 6:48 PM

Republican presidential candidates debate during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by FOX Business Network and Univision, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Lester Holt, Kristen Welker and Hugh Hewitt will moderate the third Republican presidential debate, scheduled for Nov. 8 in Miami, NBC said Wednesday.

The first one held outside the confines of Fox News, the two-hour debate will be seen at 8 p.m. Eastern on NBC and the NBC News Now streaming service.

Holt is the anchor of “NBC Nightly News” and Welker is the moderator of “Meet the Press.” Hewitt hosts a morning talk show for the Salem Radio Network, a co-sponsor of the debate.

Qualified participants will be announced later. Former President Donald Trump, leading in polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, skipped the first two debates and has given no indication he will be at any others.

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October 26, 2023 at 07:42AM

Scholastic will drop policy that makes it easier for school fairs to exclude diverse books

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Scholastic Inc. will end a widely criticized policy that made it easier for school book fairs not to sell works with racial, disability and LGBTQ+ themes

ByThe Associated Press

October 25, 2023, 3:35 PM

FILE - Poet Amanda Gorman arrives at the 65th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 5, 2023. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Scholastic Inc. will end a widely criticized policy that made it easier for school book fairs not to sell works with racial, disability and LGBTQ+ themes.

The children's publisher angered many authors and educators this fall when it created a separate package of dozens of books, labeled “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice,” and gave schools the option on whether to include them in fairs. Poet Amanda Gorman, whose “Change Sings” was among the titles in “Share Every Story,” had said in an Instagram video that Scholastic's decision “felt like a betrayal.”

Scholastic had said the policy, which will remain in place for the rest of the year, was a response to the proliferation of restrictions passed by states around the country. The publisher has not settled on a strategy for 2024.

“This fall, we made changes in our U.S. elementary school fairs out of concern for our Book Fair hosts. In doing this, we offered a collection of books to supplement the diverse collection of titles already available at the Scholastic Book Fair. We understand now that the separate nature of the collection has caused confusion and feelings of exclusion,” according to a Scholastic statement issued Wednesday.

“We are working across Scholastic to find a better way. The Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice collection will not be offered with our next season in January. As we reconsider how to make our Book Fairs available to all kids, we will keep in mind the needs of our educators facing local content restrictions and the children we serve.”

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October 26, 2023 at 03:11AM

Music Review: Poppy grows up and goes dark pop-y with genre-blending album 'Zig'

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Not quite dark pop, not quite techno, not quite any genre at all, Poppy's fifth studio album, “Zig," is rather a mix of several different styles and an example of how far she's come since her debut five years ago.

“Zig” strays far from Poppy's old bubblegum pop sound for those who remember her 2017 debut, “Poppy.Computer," which followed her earliest introductions to the cute-but-strange, pseudo-AI Poppy character — first discovered via surreal performance art YouTube videos in 2015. The bleach-blonde android is nowhere to be seen in “Zig,” but that's not a surprise — she's been gone for some time now.

Poppy's style and sound started to shift with her second album, 2018's “Am I a Girl?” which started to take a heavy metal turn, followed by the even darker “I Disagree” in 2020. She scaled it back for the more alternative “Flux,” and now she's back with “Zig," the evolved combo of her past works.

Backed by synths and electric beats, the sugary-sweet vocals of the 28-year-old singer-songwriter, born Moriah Rose Pereira, are heard on “Zig" in several different forms, from heavy metal screaming to soulful serenading. She may still be figuring out her sound, but there's a confidence to “Zig” that implies she knows exactly what she is doing.

Highlights of the album can be found in “Knockoff,” a bumping pop-ish anthem, and “Motorbike,” a zooming description of a free spirit on a motorcycle. (“Girl on a motorbike/No one can confine her/Epitome of freedom/I'm following behind her," she sings.)

The duds lie in the songs with lackluster, repetitive lyrics like “1s + 0s," and, disappointingly, namesake “Zig,” the chorus of which goes as follows:

“When you zig I zag/When you zig I zag/I zig zag.”

Huh?

It's especially dumbfounding when other tracks' lyrics are nothing but pure poetry. Take these lines from the lovely “Linger,” for example: “In the whites of your eyes/I can see my next life/Smell the lilies at night/Tell me what you will remember me by.”

“Zig” is overall an interesting, experimental mix that demonstrates how Poppy has grown over the years. Since it blends so many different genres, this album just might have a song for everyone, so it's definitely worth a listen.

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October 25, 2023 at 02:02AM

US-Apple-Books-Top-10

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Top Paid Books (US Bestseller List):

1. The Exchange by John Grisham (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group)

2. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group)

3. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears (Gallery Books)

4. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group)

5. Blood Lines by Alex Demille & Nelson DeMille (Scribner)

6. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (Entangled Publishing, LLC)

7. Judgment Prey by John Sandford (Penguin Publishing Group)

8. Prequel by Rachel Maddow (Crown)

9. Half Baked by Denise Grover Swank (DGS)

10. Worthy by Jada Pinkett Smith (Dey Street Books)

Top Paid Audiobooks (US Bestseller List):

1. The Woman in Me (Unabridged) by Britney Spears (Simon & Schuster Digital Sales...)

2. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (Unabridged) by David Grann (Penguin Random House, LLC)

3. Worthy by Jada Pinkett Smith (HarperCollins Publishers)

4. The Exchange: After The Firm (Unabridged) by John Grisham (Penguin Random House, LLC)

5. Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism (Unabridged) by Rachel Maddow (Penguin Random House, LLC)

6. Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life (Unabridged) by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Penguin Random House, LLC)

7. Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel (Unabridged) by Bonnie Garmus (Penguin Random House, LLC)

8. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Unabridged) by James Clear (Penguin Random House, LLC)

9. The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman (Abridged) by Timothy Ferriss (Penguin Random House, LLC)

10. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene (Recorded Books, Inc.)

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October 25, 2023 at 12:13AM

Book Review: ‘A Brief History of Intelligence’ may help humans shape the future of AI

Repost Ent dalamlima.blogspot.com

What can the evolution of the human brain tell us about the artificial intelligence of tomorrow

ByROB MERRILL Associated Press

October 23, 2023, 2:28 PM

This cover image released by Mariner Books shows "A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains" by Max Bennett. (Mariner Books via AP)

The Associated Press

Ever wonder how Homo sapiens got so smart? How come we developed actual language when all the other animals didn’t? How about what first made a nematode turn its body in a different direction? Or… what’s a nematode?

Answers to those questions and much, much more can be found in the pages of Max Bennett’s new book “A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI and the Five Breakthroughs that Made Our Brains.” At 365 pages plus 45 more with a glossary, chapter notes and a bibliography, readers can quibble whether it’s indeed brief, but it is certainly thorough.

Bennett’s premise — he’s a software entrepreneur who founded a company called Bluecore that “helped predict what consumers would buy before they knew what they wanted” — is that humans won’t ever create true artificial intelligence without understanding exactly what led to the real intelligence we already possess. So he begins with those nematodes — worms, to you and me — and painstakingly details the five breakthroughs that over the course of billions of years evolved into the three-pound brain that is folded into all of our skulls.

The first half of the book is a touch dry, detailing not only what caused worms to turn (food!), but how fish learn via trial and error and the pivotal role the basal ganglia plays in dictating behavior, among many, many other evolutionary developments. Bennett cites the work of psychologists and neuroscientists every step of the way and includes plenty of charts and graphs to make his points. It can feel like you’re reading a textbook at times. But to his credit, he begins each new chapter with actual prose, as in this description of the Cambrian explosion more than 500 million years ago: “The gooey microbial mats of the Ediacaran that turned the ocean floor green would have long since faded and given way to a more familiar sandy underbelly. The sensible, slow, and small creatures of the Ediacaran would have been replaced by a bustling zoo of large mobile animals as varied in form as in size.”

When Bennett begins to connect the evolution of the human brain to where we are in the development of artificial intelligence is when the book, for this reader, gets more interesting. Why can’t machines truly learn? Even ChatGPT, which every industry seems to be embracing these days, can’t “learn things sequentially,” writes Bennett. “They learn things all at once and then stop learning.” We’ve trained ChatGPT using the entire contents of the Internet, but the software can’t learn new things because of the risk that it will forget old things, or learn the wrong things.

Bennett is intelligent enough not to draw any conclusions about AI in a field that is changing daily, but he does end his book with a challenge. Evolution gave us our magnificent human brain, he writes, and now that we are in a position to play god and create a new form of intelligence, we must first decide on our goal — are we destined to spread out across the cosmos? Or will we fail, victims of pride or climate change or something yet unseen, just another branch on the evolutionary tree, which will grow on without humans and perhaps never add a limb called “Artificial Intelligence?” No reader alive today will live long enough for that answer, but Bennett makes a solid case for why reverse engineering the human brain may lead to future breakthroughs in the science of AI.

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AP book reviews: https://ift.tt/UbJouXW

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Book Review: ‘A Brief History of Intelligence’ may help humans shape the future of AI
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October 24, 2023 at 01:43AM