Month: January 2023

Avatar: The Way of Water is a massive, massive hit, which is a big relief: It means James Cameron will follow through and give it a whole mess of sequels. That means he’ll be able to show more sides of Pandora. We already know the next one will feature “Ash People” — a race of Na’vi who aren’t very nice. Where else could he go? Will we see ice Na’vi? City Na’vi? Spellunking Na’vi? Casino Na’vi? Maybe they could even leave Pandora and go to space. If you like that idea, you were almost in luck.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Way of Water co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver revealed some of the ideas that almost but not quite found their way into the series’ first sequel. One of them found them heading into the cosmos.

“There was one idea of a space battle with Navi,” Jaffa told EW. “That idea got a lot of traction, and we talked a lot about it. We were struggling, though. How would that work with the story that we’re telling? Jim said, ‘Well, give me a few weeks.’ He went off and he wrote an entire script. And, by the way, a brilliant script.”

Alas, the idea was too much for the writers room. “At the end of the day, the whole script got thrown out because it just didn’t really work with the story we were telling,” Jaffa revealed.

That said, it’s cool idea. It’s easy to think of the Avatar franchise as space movies because it finds humans traveling to another planet. But the Na’vi are always Pandora-bound. Since there are going to be a bunch more Avatar sequels, surely one of them can send those giant blue creatures to space for wicked some laser battles or whatever. Maybe even have them head to Earth to stomp all around New York City or go see some jazz at The Village Vanguard. Now that Cameron’s no longer worried people had gotten over Avatar, the sky’s the limit.

(Via EW)

Lewis Capaldi is the people’s champion. The Scottish pop hitmaker (and funnyman) never misses an opportunity for disarming relatability. Don’t forget that Capaldi was mistaken for a seat-filler at the 2020 Grammys, where he was nominated for Song Of The Year for “Someone You Loved.” He lost that night but won in the same category at the following month’s BRIT Awards.

The 2023 BRIT Awards are scheduled for Saturday, February 11 at London’s O2 Arena. Capaldi is nominated for Song Of The Year (again) for his September single “Forget Me,” but he has zero expectations. He joined BBC Radio 1 and was asked about going up against LF System (“Afraid To Feel”) for the honor.

“To be honest, I don’t think either of us have to worry ’cause ‘As It Was,’ Mr. Harry Styles, is in the same category,” Capaldi said. “So, I’m just looking forward to going along and seeing what regalia he turns up in and accepts the award in. I’m very excited, and hopefully, I’ll get close enough to him that I can smell him.”

Along Capaldi, Styles, and LF System, the Song Of The Year candidates are Aitch and Ashanti’s “Baby,” Cat Burns’ “Go,” Dave’s “Starlight,” Ed Sheeran and Elton John’s “Merry Christmas,” Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal’s “BOTA (Baddest Of Them All), George Ezra’s “Green Green Grass,” and Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” (as noted by BBC).

To Capaldi’s point, “As It Was” has enjoyed record-breaking success atop Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart since its release last spring. But we shouldn’t overlook “Unholy,” which made Smith and Petras the first publicly non-binary solo artist and first publicly transgender solo artist, respectively, to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 in October. It’s also worth noting that Capaldi’s “Forget Me” peaked at No. 74 on the Hot 100 last week and has been charting for eight total weeks.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Brooklyn Nets are once again trying to navigate life without Kevin Durant after the star suffered a sprained MCL last week in what became a win over the Miami Heat.

Since then, the Nets have dropped back-to-back games, first an understandable 109-98 loss to the East-leading Celtics followed by a more concerning 112-102 loss to the Thunder at home. The offense dropping off without KD isn’t a surprise, but it is notable for a team that is best known for its scoring output. Replacing a 30-point scorer is never easy, but with Kyrie Irving still on what most consider an upgraded roster, the hope in Brooklyn was they could at least tread water until Durant gets back in, hopefully, not much more than another week.

After the loss to OKC, Irving was asked about why this year can be different without Durant and he said that their struggles without Durant wasn’t on the mind of the players in the locker room.

He would also take a crack at James Harden, noting that while having him play every day will help, so will having someone who isn’t “halfway in” in the locker room.

Harden rather famously wasn’t happy with the Nets situation last year, pushing his way to Philadelphia in a trade, which was reportedly largely due to Irving‘s absence from home games for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. That disdain is apparently mutual, but Irving will have to back up these comments on the court by leading Brooklyn to some wins with four games coming up this week — starting with the actively tanking Spurs, which should provide a bounceback point for the Nets.

After getting roasted online last week following the release of Shakira’s “BZRP Music Sessions #53,” Gerard Piqué has responded to the diss track. The Spanish soccer player made some alliances with two brands that also got burned in Shakira’s song.

In two of the most viral lyrics from her Bizarrap music session, Shakira compared Piqué’s relationship with his current girlfriend Clara Chía Marti as downgrading to a Twingo car and a Casio watch. “You traded in a Ferrari for a Twingo / You traded in a Rolex for a Casio,” Shakira sang in Spanish. Piqué joined forces with both brands as his response to Shakira.

During a Twitch live-stream with Kings League on Friday, Piqué announced that the group received a sponsorship from Casio. “Casio has sent us wrist watches,” he said in Spanish. “We reached a sponsorship agreement with Casio, the Kings League struck a deal with Casio.” When asked if he was joking, Piqué responded, “No, I’m being serious.”

Over the weekend, while driving to Kings League, Piqué arrived to work in a Twingo car. When he stepped out of the car, he was photographed once again wearing a Casio watch.

“BZRP Music Sessions #53” debuted at No. 1 on Spotify’s Global 50 chart on Friday. About the song’s success, Shakira wrote, “This goes out to all the women who taught me that when life throws you sour lemons, there’s no other choice but to make lemonade.”

If you missed out on seeing BTS’ Yet To Come In Busan, you’ll be able to see it in theaters soon.

First announced last month, ARMY and followers of BTS are now able to grab a sneak peak of what went down on one of the most historic nights in K-pop concert history with BTS Yet To Come In Cinemas.

Though it may not be the same as attending in person, the trailer released today (January 16) may ensue chills down your spine as the teaser shows the iconic septet take the stage in the middle of 55,000 attendees at the in Busan. In a mix of aerial shots of the crowd, or closeups of members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook performing or running around the stage, to a sea of Army bong lighsticks swaying in unison, BTS’ Yet To Come in Cinema may trigger emotions and, perhaps, tears with the final speeches by the members.

The cinematic cut of BTS’ Yet To Come concert in Busan will be available on the big screen beginning February 1 worldwide. The concert movie will be available to view in, not only 2D, but also ScreenX and 4DX as well. Those wanting to check it out can reserve tickets on the movie’s official website.

SZA had no idea what she was in for when she finally released SOS on December 9. Literally. “I never thought in a million years that people would like it,” she told Rolling Stone later in the month, around the time it became her first career No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Single “Kill Bill” has also topped the Billboard Hot R&B Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts.

Has anyone ever been so happy to have been so wrong?

This week marks the fifth consecutive week that SOS has reigned at No. 1. ” God is good. F*ck who disagree! Focus on yourself believe in yourself TRUST YOURSELF. GRATEFUL,” SZA wrote in an emoji-filled tweet. Previously, SOS hit “Kill Bill” gave SZA her first No. 1 on Billboard‘s Streaming Songs chart and second No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. But on Friday, January 13, SZA was relishing in hitting No. 1 on a different Billboard chart.

“I appreciate every milestone and accolade but THIS? As a writer [this] means so f*cking much to me. I aspire to be a better writer everyday thank you WOW,” she tweeted along with a screenshot of the news that she earned her first week at No. 1 on the Hot 100 Songwriters chart last week.

Per Billboard, the No. 1 spot was earned by SZA having 15 charting songs on the Hot 100 chart dated January 14. All of them are from the SOS track list, including “Kill Bill” (No. 3), “Shirt” (No. 23), “Nobody Gets Me” (No. 42), “Low” (No. 45), “Blind” (No. 51), and “Snooze” (No. 53).

SZA is scheduled to kick off her SOS Tour with Omar Apollo as the opener on February 21 in Columbus, Ohio. See all the dates here.

Brendan Fraser has received resounding accolades for his work in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, which our own Vince Mancini declared does qualify as an arthouse stunt, but it’s a damn fine arthouse stunt. Fraser portrays a 600-pound man who’s struggling towards redemption with his daughter, and the project has been held out as Fraser’s “comeback” film, although his real fans have been watching Doom Patrol for years. (Head over to HBO Max and do the same, if you are so inclined.)

The beloved 1990s mainstay will likely receive an Oscar nomination, and over the weekend, he prepped for the occasion by winning a Critics’ Choice Best Actor Award. TMZ reports that “he pretty much had the whole room in tears,” and from the below clip, it’s easy to see why:

The George of the Jungle and Airheads actor did send praises to his co-stars, including Sadie Sink, but that’s not all. “Darren Aronofsky, I was in the wilderness,” he declared. “[A]nd I probably should have left a trail of breadcrumbs, but you found me. And like all the best directors, you merely just showed me where to go to get to where I needed to be.”

Fraser continued with words of encouragement for anyone feeling adversity. “If you, like a guy like Charlie, who I played in this movie, in any way, struggle with obesity, or you just feel like you’re in a dark sea,” he tearfully told the audience. “I want you to know that if you too, can have the strength to just get to your feet and go to the light. Good things will happen.”

One example of a good thing: PEOPLE has a photo of Fraser and his Encino Man co-star, Ke Huy Quan (who recently won a Golden Globe), embracing at the ceremony. For these two, more good things are sure to come.

(Via TMZ, Philip Lewis on Twitter & PEOPLE)

In November, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT, a free language processor “capable of generating human-like text and has a wide range of applications, including language translation, language modeling, and generating text for applications such as chatbots,” as relayed by Science Focus. People have played around with the new AI tool, leading to an explanation of quantum theory in the style of Snoop Dogg and other hilarious responses. Think AOL Instant Messenger’s SmarterChild, but better.

Well, Nick Cave is not impressed.

A fan named Mark asked ChatGPT “to write a song in the style of Nick Cave,” which Cave posted on his The Red Hand Files website. The AI-generated chorus goes, “I am the sinner, I am the saint / I am the darkness, I am the light / I am the hunter, I am the prey / I am the devil, I am the savior.” Cave’s response is much less succinct. Although, at one point, Cave simply surmised, “This song sucks.”

Read his full entry below.

“Dear Mark,

Since its launch in November last year many people, most buzzing with a kind of algorithmic awe, have sent me songs ‘in the style of Nick Cave’ created by ChatGPT. There have been dozens of them. Suffice to say, I do not feel the same enthusiasm around this technology. I understand that ChatGPT is in its infancy but perhaps that is the emerging horror of AI – that it will forever be in its infancy, as it will always have further to go, and the direction is always forward, always faster. It can never be rolled back, or slowed down, as it moves us toward a utopian future, maybe, or our total destruction. Who can possibly say which? Judging by this song ‘in the style of Nick Cave’ though, it doesn’t look good, Mark. The apocalypse is well on its way. This song sucks.

What ChatGPT is, in this instance, is replication as travesty. ChatGPT may be able to write a speech or an essay or a sermon or an obituary but it cannot create a genuine song. It could perhaps in time create a song that is, on the surface, indistinguishable from an original, but it will always be a replication, a kind of burlesque.

Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer. ChatGPT has no inner being, it has been nowhere, it has endured nothing, it has not had the audacity to reach beyond its limitations, and hence it doesn’t have the capacity for a shared transcendent experience, as it has no limitations from which to transcend. ChatGPT’s melancholy role is that it is destined to imitate and can never have an authentic human experience, no matter how devalued and inconsequential the human experience may in time become.

What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work. Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite. It is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past. It is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult the artist beyond the limits of what he or she recognises as their known self. This is part of the authentic creative struggle that precedes the invention of a unique lyric of actual value; it is the breathless confrontation with one’s vulnerability, one’s perilousness, one’s smallness, pitted against a sense of sudden shocking discovery; it is the redemptive artistic act that stirs the heart of the listener, where the listener recognizes in the inner workings of the song their own blood, their own struggle, their own suffering. This is what we humble humans can offer, that AI can only mimic, the transcendent journey of the artist that forever grapples with his or her own shortcomings. This is where human genius resides, deeply embedded within, yet reaching beyond, those limitations.

It may sound like I’m taking all this a little too personally, but I’m a songwriter who is engaged, at this very moment, in the process of songwriting. It’s a blood and guts business, here at my desk, that requires something of me to initiate the new and fresh idea. It requires my humanness. What that new idea is, I don’t know, but it is out there somewhere, searching for me. In time, we will find each other.

Mark, thanks for the song, but with all the love and respect in the world, this song is bullsh*t, a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human, and, well, I don’t much like it — although, hang on!, rereading it, there is a line in there that speaks to me —

‘I’ve got the fire of hell in my eyes’

— says the song ‘in the style of Nick Cave’, and that’s kind of true. I have got the fire of hell in my eyes – and it’s ChatGPT.

Love, Nick”

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is about to cross the one-year mark. It’s safe to say that the Russian president didn’t expect this to draw out for so long. Or at least, he didn’t expect to have suffered such enormous manpower losses that he’s reportedly calling up even more troops (in addition to the recent 300,000-strong draft) to send into Ukraine. He did recently admit that he failed to provide basic medical and strategic supplies for his men, but he’s also been losing his temper when any subordinates question his decisions. Reuters is now pointing towards heavy delusion from Putin, who has declared that things are going fantastic. In his eyes, a rare victory (in the eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar) from his troops will carry them to take the whole country.

That claim of a victory may or may not be based upon fact, as CNN reports that Ukraine has pushed back on Putin’s insistence that he’s taken the city. Ukrainian spokesperson Serhiy Cherevaty responded to Putin’s words, which Ukraine insists are “not true” and that fighting continues within Soledar. CNN also sums up the situation, which is that even if Russia takes the city, it’s not a “strategic win” but more of a “symbolic” one. Here’s what Putin’s said about Soledar, which he seems to believe is a turning point after a string of Russian losses, via Reuters:

“The dynamic is positive,” Putin told Rossiya 1 state television when asked about the taking of Soledar. “Everything is developing within the framework of the plan of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff.”

“And I hope that our fighters will please us even more with the results of their combat,” Putin said.

Back at home, however, Russians have spoken with the Wall Street Journal to communicate their despondent feelings while not knowing whether deployed family members are alive and dead. They’re especially on edge following a New Year’s Day Ukrainian strike on Makiivka, which has been occupied by Russian troops, “at least 89” of whom died, according to Wall Street Journal. That number, of course, pales in light of the thousands upon thousands of lives lost so far, even as Putin continues to hand out fancy “rings of power” to those dwindling allies who continue to support him.

(Via Reuters, CNN & Wall Street Journal)

Will it be another year for the K-pop girlies? With GOT the beat back, it may just be.

After the success of “Step Back” last year, SM Entertainment‘s multi-generational project group, GOT the beat, returns with their very first EP alongside their second single “Stamp On It” today (January 16). Initially performed at SM Entertainment’s annual online new year concert, SMTOWN LIVE 2023 : SMCU PALACE @KWANGYA earlier this month, the super girl group unveiled the music video to “Stamp On It.”

BoA, Taeyeon, Hyoyeon, Wendy, Seulgi, Karina, and Winter are caught in between scenes resembling blockbuster movies in the music video, while as they show off mesmerizing vocals and beautiful formations in their choreography. According to a press release, “Stamp On It” is best described as “an impressive dance song with a catchy piano melody and punchy 808 bass beats, with lyrics about reaching the top of a fierce stage competition”

GOT the beat is a sub-unit under SM Entertainment’s project girl group Girls On Top that debuted last January 2022 with their debut single “Step Back.” The sub-unit consists of seven members including members from Girls’ Generation (Taeyeon and Hyoyeon), Red Velvet (Wendy and Seulgi), aespa (Karina and Winter), and soloist BoA, all who represent a generation of K-pop under SM.

Check out the full track list to GOT the beat’s Stamp On It EP below.

1. “Stamp On It”
2. “Goddess Level”
3. “Alter Ego”
4. “Rose (가시)”
5. “Outlaw”
6. “Mala”