Ariana Grande is releasing her new album, Eternal Sunshine, in just a few weeks — and the fan anticipation has been seriously building.
It is also helpful that Grande gave it a boost by remixing her “Yes, And?” single, with none other than Mariah Carey appearing on the track. A truly iconic collaboration.
While no other singles have been released yet, Grande has provided some more info about what fans can expect on the record.
Here’s what to know.
Is Ariana Grande Releasing A New Album In 2024?
Yes, she is finally making a return to music after being away for a few years.
Will Ariana Grande Release A Single For Her New Album?
Eternal Sunshine is out 3/8 via Republic. Find more information here.
Does Ariana Grande’s New Album Have A Tracklist?
Grande’s album tracklist hasn’t officially been revealed, but she has teased a few other song titles. Here’s the partial tracklist, as of February 7.
1. “Intro (End Of The World)”
2. “Bye”
3.
4.
5. “Eternal Sunshine”
6. “Supernatural”
7.
8.
9. “Yes, And?”
10. “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)”
11.
12.
13.
Will Ariana Grande’s New Album Have Features?
It’s still unclear if Eternal Sunshine will have any features. However, if she includes the remix of “Yes, And?” on the official tracklist, Mariah Carey will then be one of them.
What Is The Album Cover For Ariana Grande’s New Album?
Check out the Eternal Sunshine album cover below.
Will Ariana Grande Go On Tour For Her New Album?
Ariana Grande has not announced a tour for her new album.
Longing to visit one of America’s many national parks, and not sure where to start? One traveling couple just made deciding a whole heck of a lot easier.
Matt and Karen Smith have been to all of them. That’s right. All 63 of them. They even survived a plane crash to hit the milestone (more on that later).
In a short and sweet 30-second video posted to their Instagram account, Matt and Karen place certain parks into special categories, like “best wildlife sightings,” “most underrated,” and “most awe inspiring,” all before revealing which park, in their opinion, is “the best of everything.”
Of course, it might be hard to really take in the information the duo give during the first watch, because they captured some truly breathtaking views—from lush forest to galloping buffalo to backdrops that look like they belong to an alien planet.
So here’s the breakdown, for easy reading:
Washington’s Olympic National Park was named “most diverse” as Karen walked through what looked like a mix between rainforest and something out of Dr. Suess.
Death Valley in California won “most otherworldly” for its “Mad Max”-esque terrain
Both Montana’s Glacier and Mount Rainier in Washington tied for “most epic hiking trails,” while Utah’s Zion National park got “most unique hiking trails.”
Utah’s Bryce Canyon was dubbed “most enchanting” as the camera panned under a picturesque stone arch to reveal colorful stone cliffs.
Rounding out the list, South Dakota’s Badlands got “most underrated,” Yellowstone got the accolade of “best wildlife sightings” and “most awe-inspiring” went to the Grand canyon.
Lastly, “best of everything” went to…drumroll please…
While this list is based off of Karen and Matt’s experience, they wrote in the caption, “the great thing about our parks is that you get to experience them for yourself and make your own best of’ memories, which will of course be different from ours.”
The couple have a wanderlust so strong that not even a plane crash couldn’t thwart their plans. According to the Seattle Times, they were flying back from a visit to Lake Clark National Park in Alaska in 2011 when their plane flew into a float plane mid air. Luckily, both aircrafts were able to land safely and no injuries were had.
Next time you’re longing for the exotic sights of faraway places, remember that sometimes your own backyard has so much natural splendor to offer.
In the age of television, radio, and the internet, we hear voices all the time, pretty much everywhere we go. From advertisements to customer service prompts to video narrations, voiceovers have become so commonplace that we don’t give them much thought.
That is, until we see someone actually doing those voices we’re so accustomed to hearing.
Professional voice actor Tawny Platis shared a video to her Tiktok demonstrating 10 voices most of us will instantly recognize, and it’s as uncanny as it is impressive. She seamlessly transitions from a text-to-speech voice to a “detached casual conversation” voice to a bright “We’ve got denim for the whole family!” department store voice and more.
As she shares these voices, you’ll swear you’ve heard her doing them before, either on a call with your bank, in your workplace’s onboard training, or while reaching for a tissue during a holiday commercial. It’s downright freaky. Watch:
10 common reads you’ll hear in voiceover! #voiceactor #funny
People in the comments had the most relatable responses to Platis’ voiceover demonstration.
“This is incredible. I’m ready to buy something. I’m not sure what.”
“I feel like you’ve been there for all the important moments of my life. Thank you.”
“Bright was so triggering as a retail worker.”
“Can’t tell if i’ve heard your voice before or if you’re just that good.”
Being in the virtual presence of such greatness made some folks rethink their own voice acting ambitions.
“Me at the beginning of the video: I could be a professional voice actor!…… me at the end of the video:… there’s a reason SHE is a professional voice actor. Well done. 👏”
“Me sometimes ‘I bet I could voice act’ me after this video ‘nope. I can’t do that.'”
“Welp I can cross this off my list of potential professions. That was amazing.”
Mostly, people were rightfully impressed with her range and talent. To have that much control over how your voice sounds with such consistency is remarkable.
But this video also offers interesting insights into the psychology of how this kind of acting impacts modern-day life. Each of these voices evokes a specific response in us, from comfort to excitement to trust to awe. It’s a bit unsettling to clearly see how easily we can be influenced by someone’s voice and how well-honed those cues and responses have become.
Voiceover professional Simon Lewington explained this phenomenon in an article on LinkedIn: “Just as colors evoke emotions in visual art, the tone of voice creates an emotional palette in auditory storytelling. The psychological impact of tone is profound. A warm and inviting tone can make viewers feel welcome, while a serious tone lends an air of authority. Choosing the right tone consciously allows voice-over artists to evoke intended emotions in the audience.”
Lewington writes that voiceover artists are “emotional architects” who “use the psychology of voice to subtly shape how viewers perceive and engage with content.” It’s an art that can be used to enhance our enjoyment of an experience, but also one that can be used to convince us to buy or believe something. Voiceover work is powerful, and when it’s done well, it’s almost spooky how much it can affect us.
If you want to see more from Tawny Platis, you can follow her on TikTok or find her courses and tutorials for voice acting here.
Sabrina Carpenter is currently continuing to open for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour, as she is joining her for the Australian leg of shows in Melbourne and Sydney. Carpenter took the stage at the first one of Melbourne Cricket Grounds last night to treat fans to a selection of her best songs.
Most of Carpenter’s setlist was from her most recent record, including the “Because I Liked A Boy” and “Feather” singles. She also opened her set by teasing the fans in the crowd with Swift’s “Picture To Burn” (one of Carpenter’s pre-show staple picks that soundtracks her childhood footage) and Blondie’s “Atomic.”
As another surprise in Carpenter’s opening act performance, she also covered “Hopelessly Devoted To You.” When Carpenter was opening for Swift’s South American leg, she had used ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” as her nightly cover instead. With night two of Melbourne happening tonight, time will tell if she keeps the Grease song in her setlist — or swap it out for something else entirely different.
Finally, Carpenter closed out her set with “Nonsense,” where she once again changed the outro and kept the running tradition going strong.
Check out Sabrina Carpenter’s setlist from Melbourne night one below, according to Setlist.FM.
Sabrina Carpenter’s The Eras Tour Australia Setlist
1. “Read Your Mind”
2. “Feather”
3. “Vicious”
4. “Already Over”
5. “Tornado Warnings”
6. “Opposite”
7. “Hopelessly Devoted To You” (cover)
8. “Fast Times”
9. “Because I Liked A Boy”
10. “Nonsense” (custom outro)
The new Pacman Jones record “Ferrari Kit” is a ball of kinetic energy and a metaphorical representation of the former NFL pro bowler’s mentality. Built like a European sportscar himself, Jones was quick to inform us that his athletic frame is only 3.5% body fat (i.e. aerodynamic) and he’d been clocked at 4.42 seconds in the 40-yard dash during his NFL career. So the speed analogy definitely plays.
Jones’ music harnesses a mix of raw energy and excitement – much like Pacman the player, who was known to return interceptions for touchdowns as a star cornerback and to return punts into the endzone on special teams. The dynamic speed demon picked up most of fans and followers from his stealthy NFL play but throughout his playing years he consistently dabbled in music and seriously competed in off-the-field interests like boxing and professional wrestling. Which is to say that this record doesn’t come out of left field.
Music being a pure embodiment of Pacman’s passion, emotional intensity, and genuine enthusiasm, there is no surprise that the production on “Ferrari Kit” has the energy dialed to 11. And it should also come as no surprise, that when it comes to food and snacks, Pacman is precise in what gives him the fuel to perform at a high level in all modes of life – from steaks to sour gummies.
This week, we jumped in the Rari with Pacman and took a spin down memory lane to find out the junk food secrets behind Jones’ boundless energy, how he powers his creative endeavors, what got him through NFL seasons and training camps, and what type of foods it’s acceptable to eat in an Italian sportscar.
So my first question for you is, what kind of food and snacks are going to be on your rider when you are doing shows?
My rider list is definitely going to be some wings, maybe jerk wings or hot wings. I’ll take them fried or baked. I ain’t really that picky about those, definitely some Sour Skittles, we have to have a whole bowl of Sour Skittles, probably Sour Gummy Bears. Two bottles of Dom Pérignon. And that would probably be my rider list.
So a lot of sour candy. Now when you eat sour candy, do you mix them up and eat them together, or do you eat them one by one, or what’s your method?
I’m a one-by-one guy. But I’m a real big candy guy. I actually grew up living in the projects, my grandma was a candy lady, so I’ve always been eating more candy than damn near food, sometimes.
The candy lady is the person in the projects that sells candy, they would come to her house.
Wow.
Yeah.
So she had her own inventory?
Yeah, we would go to… I forget the name of the warehouse. We’d buy Now and Later’s, different bags of chips. Any kind of candy you can name, we pretty much had it.
This was growing up in Atlanta?
It’s ATown, Southwest, the slums.
So we talked about what you would want on tour, but when you’re in the studio recording, what are some foods or snacks that you like to have around?
All candy. Now and Laters, anything sour. And weed. Got to have weed in the studio.
So, do you still get the munchies?
Oh, yeah. Hell yeah.
And that’s when you really go hard on the candies and all that?
Go super hard.
When you were in training camp and in season, would you have different types of foods or snacks that you would eat that would give you extra energy or extra… whatever to get through training camp? Or did you eat kind of the same as you do now?
I’ve never changed my diet that I eat. I don’t have a diet, I’m 3.5% body fat, bro. I eat whatever I want to eat. Big junk food eater, though.
Okay. So junk food is your guilty pleasure, but do you eat healthy snacks from time to time also?
Never.
Never.
No.
I know you have a big family, so I don’t know if your kids eat healthy stuff, or they like junk food as well.
Nope, they’re just like their dad.
So when it comes to your family, are there snacks that you all eat or food that you all really like, together? Or does everybody kind of eat their own different things?
My kids like a lot of sour stuff. But we love Now and Laters, Skittles. We’re a big junk food family.
And what are some things that everybody in your household loves that you have to buy in bulk, or you got to go to Costco to get extra of?
Oh, we go probably every other week to the candy store to buy stuff. Like I said, Skittles and all that stuff is a must-have, got to have chocolate chip cookies. I have a whole candy section at my house.
A whole candy what?
Section.
I might need to come over and raid your stash. And then when you’re traveling and you’re playing football in season, are there things that you travel with? Or you can kind of just, whatever city you’re in, you can pick up what you need? Or how does that all work?
Oh, I’m a big gas station stopper. Everywhere I go, I stop at a gas station to get my… What is the word? Necessities.
And so are there things that you’ve had around the country or around the world that you’ve tried, that you would recommend? Or you kind of stick to the core things that you like?
I stick to the core.
So when you’re in Tennessee, playing for the Titans, was there anything special that you liked to eat there? Any restaurants that you really liked? Or what was the style out there?
I’m a big steak guy. So, when I was in Tennessee, I would say the Palm. The Palm restaurant was my go-to.
Now, what about when you play for the Cowboys in Dallas? That’s a big steak town. Is there anything special you like there?
If you were to get a sponsorship from a snack brand or be a spokesperson or ambassador for one, what would it be?
Now and Later. Now and Later, or Sour Gummy. Sour Gummy or any Now and Later.
Obviously, your first song is Ferrari Kit. It’s a high-energy song. If you’re in the Ferrari, are you eating in the Ferrari? And if so, what are you eating in the Ferrari?
Nothing but some gummies. Nothing but some gummies. If I’m in the Ferrari, “Ferrari Kit,” I’m eating gummies. You know what I mean? Living life without a seatbelt. You feel me?
What’s your number one flavor Now and Later, and number one flavor Sour Skittle?
I like the green bag Sour Skittles. I don’t have really a favorite one. But Now and Laters, definitely the blueberry.
Is there anything else you want to tell us about the music that’s coming out, and what we can expect?
Ferrari Kit. You know what I mean? Yes sir. Go check it out right now. We almost at a million. I need you to get us to a million, Dan.
Taylor Swift performed the first night of her run of Australian shows last night (February 15), as she took the stage at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Swift is set to perform there for three more times, including tonight. From there, she will head to Sydney for a round of four shows.
For those looking to catch her at one of the upcoming dates in Australia, here’s what to know about the timing of the concerts.
What Time Does Taylor Swift Go On Stage For The Eras Tour In Australia?
According to Setlist.fm, Taylor Swift is starting her Australian Eras Tour concerts at 7:30 local time — as there needs to be enough time for her to run through the entire three hours of the performance.
Because of this, fans can expect the show to end somewhere between 10:55 and 11:00 p.m., providing plenty of time to make it home from the arena.
She also hasn’t changed any of the setlist, except for the usual surprise song segment, which has two different picks each night. At Melbourne night one, she did “Red (Taylor’s Version)” on guitar and treated the crowd to the emotional live debut of “You’re Losing Me” on piano.
For more information about Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour dates, visit her official website.
One strange reality of life is that there’s a lot that happens behind the scenes of…well, everything…that people simply never know about. I’m not talking about deep state conspiracies here or anything, just normal run-of-the-mill industry secrets that only people who work in those industries knows.
Some of these “secrets” are actual secrets meant to be kept sacred, like how certain magic tricks work. Some are things we don’t really want to know, like how the sausage gets made. And some are simply things that industry folks know but don’t bother to inform the rest of us about, like the fact that the average movie theater employee really doesn’t give a hoot if you sneak in candy as long as you’re not obvious about it.
We’re all curious, though, about what goes on in the back room, behind the counter, under the radar, etc. So when someone on Reddit asked “What industry ‘secret’ do you know that most people don’t?” people flocked to answer—and to see what people said.
To be clear, there’s no way to officially verify these insider secrets, but it’s still fun to see what people who work in various industries reveal.
Do you know who actually wrote that nonfiction book you loved?
“Most—probably 80 percent or more—of the books on the nonfiction bestseller list (autobiographies, memoirs, political/business books, etc.) are ghostwritten.
The ghostwriter added an encouraging caveat, though:
“Most (good) ghostwritten books are a true collaboration: somebody with an amazing story (or great idea/argument or whatever) who genuinely has the ‘goods,’ so to speak… but not the major league-level writing chops it takes to execute the best/most effective/most entertaining version of their story. So they bring in a specialist who knows the craft of storytelling and how to structure and execute something on the scale of a book, and—together, over the course of a year or so of deep collaboration—they bring the story to life. It’s the only way these voices would be heard in book form, in a lot of cases, and (IMHO, as someone who collaborates on these books), there’s no downside as long as the author genuinely invests time and effort.”
The house always wins, but especially on slot machines
“I saw how slot machines for casinos were designed… don’t play slots.” – Eliza_Lisa
“I had a buddy that was in the casino industry and claimed that 80% of their profits came from slot machines. This was the older mechanical types. The newer computerized ones can be programmed to do anything.” – Mo_Jack
That security guard? Not all that helpful if the ish hits the fan.
“I’m an unarmed security guard.
Every now & then I’ll get a comment from someone about how they’re glad I’m around in case there’s an active shooter or something.
Yea; if that happens? We’re not doing anything aside from getting ourselves to safety and calling the cops.
We’re literally told in training that if we try to intervene directly with an active shooter we’ll be fired.” – disinfo_bot_47·
“‘Detect, Deter and Report’ was the slogan at Securitas back in the day.
We were frequently told we were there for insurance purposes and were expected to NOT take action beyond calling the cops and getting ourselves to safety.
Want to see a study that’s behind a paywall? Just ask the researcher.
“I’m an academic researcher and I can speak for a huge number in my field when I say:
If you want access to our studies and they’re behind a paywall, you can email us and we will send you the study.
We are genuinely delighted to share and if you want further context for the results or what have you, I’ll always try my best to oblige.
The only limiters on that last bit is that:
the original data for the study might have reached the end of our right to keep it, in which case it will have been destroyed.
I might have forgotten details or I might have written that paper during a particularly hectic time and my file system might be total shit.
Also a lot of us are on ResearchGate and various social media things so you can contact us through there. If you can’t contact us directly or we’re being slow, one of the other authors on the paper might be contactable.” – and_so_forth
Bestsellers might be bestsellers because people buy their own books
“The New York Times best seller list has a lot of people on it who buy massive numbers of their own books.” – Ibringupeace
“Apparently, there is a symbol that indicates that while it did make best seller status, there was a bulk buy. A footnote, if you will, or similar to an asterisk.” – spoda1975
Private messages aren’t 100% private, in case you hadn’t figured that out yet
“Worked in online community management and social media for years – Admins CAN read all of your PMs. Private only means private from the masses, not from administration, we had to be able to read them to check reports of abuse, grooming, illegal activity etc. I can’t tell you how much cringeworthy shit I had to read through, especially from guys trying to hook up.” – will_write_for_tacos
You may not have actually witnessed your baby’s first steps
“If your baby goes to a nursery/daycare, chances are those weren’t their ‘first’ steps/words etc that you witnessed. Industry standard is to not tell parents when these things happen as it makes them feel bad. I’ve seen kids up and walking about the room for weeks, even months before their parent proudly announced at drop off that they ‘Took their first steps last night.'” – by_the_way_mate
Being extra nice can get you some sweet free upgrades
“If you’re nice to hotel staff they are more likely to give you free sh*t.” – Archibald_Thrust
“A good friend of mine (Korean) visited las Vegas for her honeymoon. The husband was just a student at the time and she worked at a call center to pay their bills. When they were checking in at the hotel, the man at the front desk asked where they were from. She told them we are from Korea! And the man responded,” oh I love Korean food!”. They were a bit early to check in so they left their bags and went out to get some food at a local Korean restaurant. When they came back they bought some food for the front desk guy and when they handed the food over the guy was shocked and upgraded them to the penthouse. Little did my kind friends know, the guy was a manager and the penthouse was available. Friend sent me pics after they got in their room and wow… Las Vegas penthouse is probably a room I will never be able to afford in my lifetime… All for a little Korean food they got a memory they will never forget.” – GroovinBaby
“Oh for sure. I worked in hospitality for years, and all my favorite guests got upgrades, free snacks, etc. And the awful guests got the exact opposite lol.” – PalerEastMadeIt
While it’s a slim week for new album releases, there are singles galore to check out, so we’ve weighted that segment of this week’s column a bit more heavily.
Even before New Music Friday hit, we were practically inundated with new songs and videos like Drake and Sexyy Red’s “Rich Baby Daddy” video, as well as:
Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending TK, 2024.
Albums/EPs/Mixtapes
Jerry — Lovemesooner
Jerry
Once upon a time, it seemed like every member of Odd Future was everywhere. And while many of the members remain prominent, none of them has truly walked away from music. The member formerly known as Hodgy has rebranded, releasing a more introspective project, of which he said, “We try to describe what we are feeling with words when words and emotions are two separate entities.” Whew, heavy. BADBADNOTGOOD and Gorillaz produce, ensuring an eclectic, unconventional-sounding with almost as much crooning as rapping.
Heems — Lafandar
Heems
It’s a big week for comebacks. Another blog-era fave, Heems of groups like Das Racist and Swet Shop Boys, returns after a long hiatus with a new, ultra-polished project that displays his fresh focus and slick way with words. His pen and humor remain as sharp as on career-defining projects like Eat Pray Thug but with a lighter touch, over beats drawing from his cultural roots and a roster of guests ranging from Blu to Your Old Droog. Real hip-hop.
Yeat — 2093
Yeat
It’d be negligent to overlook the woozy digi-trap stylings of Yeat, a fan favorite of the streamer set. He broke out a few years ago, mystifying older hip-hop heads and carving out a significant platform for himself in the consciousness of both young fans and trend-conscious superstars like Drake. After appearing on Drake’s newest album For All The Dogs, it appears his connections with big-name artists have improved; Future and Lil Wayne both drop by for guest verses.
Singles/Videos
BbyMutha — “Go!”
With a new album on the way, now’s a perfect time for fans to refamiliarize themselves with the Chattanooga rapper, who has been quietly and consistently putting out quality, determinedly Southern rap bangers since her debut album Muthaland in 2020.
Buddy — “Like This”
Now that Buddy’s independent, I fully expect that his output will not only increase, but also become even more unique and idiosyncratic to his specific style of soulful West Coast rap.
Cochise — “Yoshimitsu”
Yes, millennial nostalgia made me stop and check this one out (it’s named after a character from fighting game Tekken, a definite trigger point for just about anyone in their 30s). It was worth it. He’s got a quirky flow but it’s enjoyable in a way that hipster-blog favorites usually aren’t for me.
Conway The Machine — “Vertino” Feat. Joey Badass
Ahem. [Puts on extremely Funkmaster Flex voice] REAL F*CKIN’ BARS, N****! [cough] Sorry. Had to get that out. You know what time it is. Boom-bap, head-spinning rhymes, unapologetically in-your-face New York swagger. What more do you need?
Lola Brooke — “Becky” Feat. 41
Speaking of… Lola Brooke is one of the best representatives of that New York energy from the women’s division, and she is quickly turning into one of its most prolific. She, Connie Diiamond, Lady London, Maiya The Don, and Scarlip are flying the flag for the five boroughs (and beyond) in 2024, making space in a man’s world and offering a counterpoint to all those cranky arguments about so-called stripper rap.
MIKE — “R&B”
So, there’s something going on here I find fascinating. As you can see, the usual adherent to lo-fi, grungy aesthetics has adopted a very Y2K approach to his latest single’s sampling approach and visual flair. It’s the most engaged I’ve ever been with a MIKE record. I wouldn’t object to hearing more.
Stalley — “Scared Money” Feat. Kevin Durant
I can hear you blinking in disbelief, but yeah, that is THEE Kevin Durant, 2× NBA champion, 2× NBA Finals MVP, 14× NBA All-Star, 6× All-NBA First Team, future first ballot Hall-Of-Famer, rapping on the second verse. He’s been rumored to have been tooling around with musical ambitions for a minute (executive producing YSL rapper T-Shyne’s 2022 album Confetti Nights and once rapping very adroitly in a Nike shoe ad) but it appears it could culminate in a legitimate second career, a la Bucks guard Damian Lillard (aka Dame D.O.L.L.A.) if his performance here is anything to judge by. But don’t let that distract you from Stalley’s continued improvement on the pen and consistently golden ear for production.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
On Thursday, February 15th, the people who gave us DALL-E and CHATGPT unveiled their new text-to-video model, Sora, which is capable of generating videos based on user text prompts. Sora can create up to a minute of photo-realistic content with high visual quality and no lags. To be honest, regardless of what you think about AI, the results are pretty impressive
If you’ve spent any time online in the last day you’ve no doubt seen some of the footage on X, which includes a scene of a woman walking through a Tokyo street at night, “historical footage” of California during the gold rush, and a dalmatian walking on window ledges in Burano Italy, among others.
Of course, this has inspired all the same conversations every new AI innovation brings. There is a crowd of crypto bros and AI true believers who absolutely love it and think it’s the greatest thing on Earth, and then there are a bunch of people who hate the new technology with a passion, fearing it’ll ruin jobs in the creative industry and be used as a tool for spreading disinformation.
OpenAI has released a lengthy blog post about the next tech, we’ll highlight some of the most important points here and discuss a few of the concerns people have and the claims people have made.
Is Sora Available To The Public?
Prompt: “A stylish woman walks down a Tokyo street filled with warm glowing neon and animated city signage. she wears a black leather jacket, a long red dress, and black boots, and carries a black purse. she wears sunglasses and red lipstick. she walks confidently and casually.… pic.twitter.com/cjIdgYFaWq
As of now, no. OpenAI is not making Sora broadly available to the public just yet, instead, OpenAI says it is “granting access to a number of visual artists, designers, and filmmakers to gain feedback on how to advance the model to be most helpful for creative professionals.”
The company is sharing its research progress with all of us to give people a sense of what the tech might be capable of.
Where does Sora fall short?
What if I tell u this video is not real, these #wolf#Pups are not real. This is generated with Open AI’s #Sora . Prompt: Five gray wolf pups frolicking and chasing each other around a remote gravel road, surrounded by grass. The pups run and leap, chasing each other, and nipping… pic.twitter.com/YBgFXCIVLZ
OpenAI is aware of some of the program’s weaknesses so far. Specifically, OpenAi says that Sora “may struggle with accurately simulating the physics of a complex scene, and may not understand specific instances of cause and effect” and has issues with spatial specifics such as “mixing up left and right, and may struggle with precise descriptions of events that take place over time, like following specific camera trajectory.”
That may be why Sora is only capable of making minute-long videos. One thing many people have noticed about AI programs, specifically ChatGPT, is that the longer the program produces, the more weird and psychedelic the results will be.
Is Sora safe?
A big concern over AI video generation is the proliferation of deep fake and misleading content that will come in its wake. It seems like OpenAI is aware of this and they address in their blog post that they have a special team that is tasked with adversarially testing the model. These “red teamers,” as OpenAI calls them will be testing Sora and pushing the program in areas like “misinformation, hateful content, and bias.”
The program will have a “text classifier,” which will check and reject prompts that violate OpenAI’s usage policies, keeping the program from being used to create content that contains “extreme violence, sexual content, hateful imagery, celebrity likeness, or the OP of others.”
OpenAI also claims that it will be engaging with “policymakers, educators, and artists around the world to understand their concerns and to identify positive use cases for this new technology.”
How good does the technology look?
All of these UNBELIEVABLE videos were created using Sora, the new AI model from OpenAI
Watch each one and see how it makes you feel…
I don’t think it’s crazy for me to say this going to shift Hollywood, social apps and media forever
That’s going to be entirely subjective. Look, is Sora capable of making photo-realistic scenes? Clearly. But the longer you look at these videos, the stranger they appear. With enough scrutiny, it’s still pretty easy to tell if what you’re looking at is AI-generated. What I’ve seen from OpenAI looks like what I imagine the next generation of video consoles will look like.
At first glance is it easy to tell real from fake? Maybe not… and that’s where the concern lies.
Is this the end for photographers, filmmakers, and the various visual creative industries?
The reason I’m not scared (yet) of the Sora vids as an animator is that animation is an iterative process, especially when working for a client
Here’s a bunch of notes to improve one of the anims, which a human could address, but AI would just start over
We highly doubt that. As much as the people who are all-in on AI technology believe that this will empower everyone to be filmmakers, the technology isn’t there yet. As impressive as Sora is, the difference between the sort of videos is capable of churning out and what you see on the big screen is like the difference between the visuals in a Marvel movie and the visuals in a Quentin Tarantino or Paul Thomas Anderson movie.
Sora looks realistic, but it’s not. And that’s glaringly obvious. There is a certain unnaturalness to the lighting and a tough to pin down soullessness.
Take for instance this prompt, posted on OpenAI’s X account:
“A movie trailer featuring the adventures of the 30-year-old spaceman wearing a red wool knitted motorcycle helmet. blue sky, salt desert, cinematic style, shot on 35mm film. vivid colors.”
Prompt: “A movie trailer featuring the adventures of the 30 year old space man wearing a red wool knitted motorcycle helmet, blue sky, salt desert, cinematic style, shot on 35mm film, vivid colors.” pic.twitter.com/0JzpwPUGPB
It would appear that Sora was able to follow the prompt well… but not really. The 17-second video doesn’t show any type of “adventure,” it shows the most generic dude I’ve ever seen wandering around a white sand environment, a dorky-looking spaceship, and several different camera angles. At one point the “spaceman” is wearing the red wool hat on his head instead of on the helmet. This is hardly a movie trailer, it’s a series of random images.
Also, as someone who shoots 35mm regularly, this doesn’t look anything like film. I’m sorry to the people at OpenAI but it just doesn’t. I’ll give them the vivid colors though!
The sort of people who say that “it’s so over for filmmakers,” are people who I think it’s safe to assume, don’t know shit about filmmaking.
So I don’t think Sora is going to take away the need for actual filmmakers and visual artists just yet. That doesn’t mean movie studios won’t think that it can, though — these are also people who often seem like they don’t know shit about filmmaking.
The first entirely AI-based film will probably make a lot of money, for the novelty, but as soon as an AI movie flops — and if what we get out of AI filmmaking looks anything like what Sora has already created, it will — movie studios will move on because at the end of the day all they care about are maximizing profits.
So no, we don’t think Sora or programs like it will turn everyone into filmmakers (yet), but it certainly might change the pitching process.
How is Sora trained?
The video on the left was one of ~20 shared by OpenAI in its announcement of Sora, its text-to-video generator. It claims the video was, as this viral tweet notes, “generated by Sora.”
We don’t know, and that’s the problem. Past AI programs like ChatGPT and DALL-E have been trained by preexisting art and media, which is a big problem because the creators of that art didn’t necessarily give consent. This has led many critics to say that AI isn’t capable of generating anything but remixed content that erases the hard work of actual creatives.
All OpenAI reveals about how Sora was trained is that it learned from “a wide range of video data without adapting or preprocessing the videos.”
But what video data? Where did it come from? Who authorized it? The fact that OpenAI isn’t fully transparent about this is a major problem.
Will this change everything?
BREAKING: OpenAI just announced their new Text-To-Video model called Sora.
This video was made with the not-yet-released #Sora AI technology just announced from @OpenAi
While we’re highly skeptical that AI will replace the need for creatives, to say that this sort of technology isn’t going to have a massive effect on the world as we know it, is kind of naive.
OpenAI might be taking safety into account in the creation of Sora, but we’re not sure how these tools will be used in the future, or what kind of workarounds people with ill-intentions will find. As of now, there are no significant laws that address the use of AI and there are a bunch of ethical questions that need to be considered.
Clearly, we need some sort of AI legislation sooner than later, and it seems like some states are starting to take that on. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has just proposed legislation that would criminalize deceptive and abusive uses of AI and last week California state Senator Scott Wiener introduced a piece of AI legislation that seeks to establish “clear, predictable, common-sense safety standards for developers of the largest and most powerful AI systems.”
Whether these bills will go too far, or far enough, remains to be seen. AI technology is moving fast, and while what it is capable of is a little overblown by people on both sides of the AI debate, it is something we need to concern ourselves with now. The more we know, the better off we’ll be once the technology is fully indistinguishable from human efforts.
We’re only six weeks into 2024 and there are already some awesome rye whiskeys appearing on store shelves. New releases never stop these days and American rye whiskey benefits from that breakneck pace with a lot of growth and expansion. For us, that means new, exciting, and tasty rye whiskeys are always hitting shelves.
Sadly, the mediocre ones are hitting those same shelves. That’s how industries work — gotta separate the wheat from the chaff.
To help you sift through it all, I’m conducting a blind taste test of 12 new and tasty American rye whiskeys. These are the bottles that either dropped at the tail end of last year or are just hitting shelves right now (some are so new that they’re labeled “coming soon”). Our lineup today features the following new rye whiskeys:
Watershed Distillery Straight Rye Whiskey Barrel Strength Aged 6 Years
Savage & Cooke California Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Grenache Barrels
A Midwinter Night’s Dram A Blend of Straight Rye Whiskeys Finished in Port Barrels Act 11 Scene 1
High N’ Wicked Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey Aged 5 Years
New Riff 100% Malted Rye Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey Aged 8 Years
Angel’s Envy Cask Strength Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Sauternes & Toasted Oak Barrels
Sagamore Spirit Bottled In Bond Straight Rye Whiskey Aged 6 Years
Bhakta “2013” Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Calvados Casks
Green River Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey
J. Rieger & Co. Fielder’s Choice Collection “Homestead Grays” Small Batch Straight Rye Whiskey
Devils River Small Batch Texas Rye Whiskey
After tasting these rye whiskeys blind, I ranked them according to how good they were. Pretty straightforward. Spoiler alert, there were some standouts on this panel and the lion’s share was good to great. Only a couple of bottles got a shrug from me. Let’s dive in!
Also Read: The Top Five Rye Whiskey Posts from the Last Six Months on UPROXX
Nose: The nose is rich with dark notes of caramel and maybe even some molasses with a deep and spiced tobacco warmth next to raisins soaked in brandy and a touch of dry oats.
Palate: Those raisins and oats combine on the palate to create a rummy and vanilla-soaked oatmeal raisin cookie next to warming winter spices, a lot of oak, and heavy-duty ABV warmth.
Finish: The warmth builds on the finish but then fades out as the caramel and molasses soften toward brown sugar and vanilla cream with a deep chili-cherry-spiced tobacco finish.
Initial Thoughts:
This is a strong AF whiskey but it never overpowers your senses. Still, it’s hot and could use a rock to calm it down and let it shine a bit more easily.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Musty floral notes with a hint of old citrus rind open the nose toward soft notes of white pepper, a hint of vanilla, and touches of savory wood planks.
Palate: The wood takes on a good layer of sharp baking spice and chili pepper as the palate moves toward papaya and mango with a stewed vibe before rich caramel arrives.
Finish: The caramel drives the finish with those tropical fruits fading into warming winter spices and oak.
Initial Thoughts:
This was okay. It was pretty fruity overall.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This nose opens with dried apricot, woody and slightly sweet cinnamon, French toast, and a mild note of something umami — kind of like a very deli-forward pickle brine next to red peppers soaked in olive oil.
Palate: The palate gets more savory with a rhubarb vibe as dark chocolate with a serious woody spiced edge meets old leather laced with years of tobacco, lush vanilla cream, and salted caramel.
Finish: The end is as silky with a whisper of black tea bitterness and minty tobacco rounding things out.
Initial Thoughts:
This is a bit all over the place but somehow works. It’s definitely a palate expander but you’d really have to be in the mood for this one.
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Apple pies and peach cobbler dance with orange zest and cinnamon on the nose before a hint of pickling herbs and whole spices (think allspice, fennel, and black pepper) kick in with a fleeting sense of brine-soaked dill.
Palate: The palate opens with soft salted caramel and plenty of baking spice with a sharp edge before leaning back into chili, chocolate, stewed peach, and eventually chocolate-laced tobacco with a hint of nutmeg.
Finish: The choco-chili tobacco drives the finish toward eggnog creaminess with plenty of nutmeg before settling on a soft cherry vanilla end.
Initial Thoughts:
This is another one that almost inexplicably works. It builds, takes you on a journey, and then ends on a lush note. This is good whiskey.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a hint of figs and dates on the nose that leads to a spiced Christmas cake covered in powdered sugar frosting with plenty of candied citruses, dried dark fruits, and roasted nuts next to vanilla pudding and dried pear skins.
Palate: The taste has a hint of orange saltwater taffy on the front that leads to a mix of clove, allspice, and sassafras as dark fruit leather and white peppercorns pop.
Finish: The end is lush and mellow with a hint of that pepper next to dark dried fruit layered into a tobacco leaf alongside cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and dark orange oils.
Initial Thoughts:
This is an even better whiskey! This is deep and layered with a great cohesiveness that’s delicious. This is a winner.
Taste 6
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a good sense of maple syrup on the nose with blueberry pancakes, fig jam, and toffee candies next to cinnamon sugar and a hint of burnt orange layered into caramel sauce.
Palate: The palate has a French toast vibe with plenty of custardy lusciousness and nutmeg leading to dark chocolate and powdered sugar with a slight woody winter spice warmth.
Finish: The end turns into a cinnamon bomb that’s kind of like taking a whole box of Hot Tamales to the face and chasing it with maple-syrup-soaked French toast and spiced apple cider.
Initial Thoughts:
Wow, this is delicious. It’s varied and unique but it all makes sense and builds towards a crescendo on the finish. Bravo!
Taste 7
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Creamy and deep creme brûlée cut with bold orange zest draws you in on the nose before this bright sense of sweet green apple blossom leads to pear brandy-soaked marzipan, eggnog spices, and buckwheat porridge cut with a whisper of salt and honey.
Palate: That pear brandy pops on the palate as sweetened cream over raw sugar cubes drives the taste toward rye bread with a twinge of caraway and fennel, more eggnog, and creamed honey in an old pine mug.
Finish: The end gets shockingly light for a moment with a fresh cream soda feel before twangy buttery floral cider arrives with a deep Earl Grey tea sharpness next to tobacco rolled with birch bark, roasting herbs, and old leather.
Initial Thoughts:
Goddamn, this is a great whiskey too. The only drawback here — and this is a microscopic nitpick — is that this feels so tied to Christmas vibes with a great heaviness of a spiced winter cake drenched in brandy and mulled wine. That’s great in the winter but might be a little heavy in the warmer months.
I guess that’s what ice is for. Let’s move on, I’m rambling now.
Taste 8
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with wet brown sugar and nutty chocolate next to a light fruitiness tied to muffins with a hint of orange zest and some espresso cream before a whisper of old sweet oak arrives.
Palate: Grassy notes of smudging sage give way to dark Nutella on the palate before sugar-coated almonds and dark winter spices sharpen the taste with luxurious warmth.
Finish: The end leans into gingerbread and vanilla-heavy sheet cake with a hint of walnut bread smeared with salted butter, a touch of chili-chocolate tobacco, and more soft oak.
Initial Thoughts:
Well, this is nice. It’s succinct and sweet. I’d argue that this almost feels more like a bourbon but that’d be splitting hairs.
Taste 9
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Freshly baked apple pie with a huge dollop of vanilla ice cream draws you in on the nose with a deeply salted caramel, soft oakiness, and dark orange vibe with a touch of clove, nutmeg, and allspice.
Palate: Vibrant tart apples and soft sandy pears drive the palate toward creamed nutmeg and honey with a deep sense of freshly cracked black pepper, dried chili pepper flakes, and a touch of vanilla sauce.
Finish: The end dried out with all that woody and peppery spice with a dried mushroom vibe next to old dried tobacco, firewood bark, and soft dried roasting herbs with a hint of braised salted fat.
Initial Thoughts:
This is another winner.
Taste 10
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Light hints of mint draw you in on the nose before getting spiced to the point of fresh spearmint with a cut of orange zest, whispers of black peppercorns, and creamy vanilla honey with a flutter of NY cheesecake crust.
Palate: That buttery Graham Cracker crust takes on more creamy vanilla and orange oils before veering toward oaky spice and freshly cracked black pepper with a whisper of dried ancho chili.
Finish: Wet black tea leaves and creamed honey round out the finish with a sense of soft oak, winter spice, and burnt orange just kissed with red chili pepper flakes.
Initial Thoughts:
This is a good whiskey but a tad on the lighter side. It feels like a cocktail whiskey. That’s not a bad thing.
Taste 11
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The bold nose opens with prunes, plums, and dates next to sweet oak with layers of winter spice leading to hints of dried ancho chili and black pepper with a hint of dried herbs.
Palate: The palate extends the nose toward dark caramel, dark sweet and buttery grits, and a box of Red Hots with a deep sweet cinnamon candy vibe.
Finish: That cinnamon candy is layered with soft oakiness and more chili spice as tobacco, dried fruits, and vanilla kick in late.
Initial Thoughts:
This is a pretty good albeit sweet rye. The cinnamon is bold and keeps your attention in the right way.
Taste 12
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Light notes of black pepper, chili powder, and brown sugar drive the nose with hints of vanilla and orange.
Palate: The woodiness leans into maple syrup and cinnamon bark on the palate as hints of dried herbs lead to a sweet and faint plumminess.
Finish: The end comes quickly as the sip fades away through old oak, soft caramel, and hints of peppery spice and fennel.
Initial Thoughts:
This is fine. It’s standard rye.
Part 2 — The New Rye Whiskey Ranking
Zach Johnston
12. Devils River Small Batch Texas Rye Whiskey — Taste 12
This whiskey from Texas is all about the water. The rye is made with a mix of rye, corn, and barley with fresh limestone-filtered water from the Devils River region of Texas.
Bottom Line:
This was perfectly “mid” whiskey. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s best for mixing cocktails.
11. Savage & Cooke California Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Grenache Barrels — Taste 2
This grain-to-glass whiskey from California draws in all of its grains from within 50 miles of the distillery. The mash bill — 51% rye, 45% corn, and 4% malted barley — is slowly fermented and distilled. After several years in new oak, the whiskey is transferred to Dave Phinney’s Grenache wine barrels for another two months of aging.
Bottom Line:
This is another perfectly fine rye. Use it to make basic cocktails.
10. Green River Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey — Taste 10
This new bottle from Green River is a classic rye mash of 95/5 (rye/malted barley) distilled and aged in Kentucky. The batch is made from a mix of four- to six-year-old barrels that are proofed down before bottling.
Bottom Line:
This is a unique rye albeit a light one. Overall, this feels like the best cocktail whiskey on the list.
9. J. Rieger & Co. Fielder’s Choice Collection “Homestead Grays” Small Batch Straight Rye Whiskey — Taste 11
J. Rieger & Co. partnered with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to create a new collection of whiskeys for 2024 (with proceeds from this bottle going to the museum). This bottle is a Pennsylvania rye that celebrates the Homestead Grays who were three-time champions back in the 1940s.
Bottom Line:
This is another perfectly good rye. This one does have a little more nuance and will work just as well in a cocktail as it will in a glass over some rocks.
8. A Midwinter Night’s Dram A Blend of Straight Rye Whiskeys Finished in Port Barrels Act 11 Scene 1 — Taste 3
Each year, this limited drop varies slightly. This release was a mix of MGP rye (95% rye) and High West rye (100% rye) finished in French oak barrels that held ruby and tawny port. The barrels picked for this batch were between four and seven years old with the older barrels coming from Indiana and the younger ones from Utah.
Bottom Line:
This is a funky and fun rye. The pickle brine vibe is unique but works. Pour this one over some ice and let it take you on a journey.
7. Sagamore Spirit Bottled In Bond Straight Rye Whiskey Aged 6 Years — Taste 8
This premium pour from Maryland’s Sagamore Spirits Rye is a blend of a high-rye rye and and low-rye rye. Both whiskeys were at least six years old when blended, proofed, and bottled.
Bottom Line:
This is another good rye with a little something extra to help it stand out. Pour it neat to get a handle on it and then have fun with this one in your favorite cocktails.
This is a super limited release from Watershed of only 100 bottles of hazmat rye whiskey (hazmat whiskeys are over 70% ABV). The whiskey is a 57% rye mash bill that was left alone until it was just right and then bottled 100% as-is.
Bottom Line:
This is a shockingly subtle whiskey for the high proof. Don’t get me wrong, this is a hot sipper but it nails not washing out the rest of the profile with all that heat so well. Still, you’ll probably want to pour this over a big rock to really enjoy all there is to offer.
5. High N’ Wicked Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey Aged 5 Years — Taste 4
This is a new bottling that utilizes unique rye from New Riff Distilling in Kentucky. The rye in the bottle is made from a 91% rye mash bill with 9% malted barley as support. The whiskey spent five years resting in seasoned toasted new oak before batching and bottling.
Bottom Line:
This is in the funky arena of ryes as well — that pickle brine cannot be denied. But this offers so much more. It’s complex, deep, and delicious. Pour it over a big rock and enjoy the ride.
This new release from Bhakta is an Indiana 95/5 rye that’s nearly 11 years old. Sign me up! The barrels in the batch were all finished in Calvados casks (an apple brandy) before batching and bottling at nearly cask strength.
Bottom Line:
This is just a tasty sipping whiskey. Neat or over a rock, you’re going to have a good time sipping this one.
3. New Riff 100% Malted Rye Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey Aged 8 Years — Taste 5
This whiskey from New Riff is a whiskey lover’s dream pour. The mash is made from 100% malted rye (most rye that is used for whiskey is unmalted). That means more sugars are available in the grain as it goes through germination and then heating to stop that process, which helps create a lot of sugars. The juice then rests for eight years in new oak before the barrels are blended, proofed down, and bottled as-is.
Bottom Line:
This is where we get into the great ryes. This one is a little on the funkier side, but it works. So buy this when you want some palate expansion and fun with your rye sipper.
2. Angel’s Envy Cask Strength Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Sauternes & Toasted Oak Barrels — Taste 7
Angel’s Envy’s new Master Distiller, Owen Martin, put together the brand’s first-ever cask strength rye finished in Sauternes and toasted oak casks and it’s a masterpiece. The 95/5 rye was over five years old when it was batched and re-barreled into two different casks for a final mellowing. Then those casks were expertly blended and bottled 100% as-is.
Bottom Line:
This is excellent whiskey. It’s so deep and delicious. The only reason this one isn’t first is that the profile is so tied to winter vibes. Otherwise, this is a stellar pour.
291 out in Colorado is an award darling distillery and a crowd-pleaser. This whiskey is made with shorter aging in new American white oak with treated Aspen staves in that barrel to accelerate the maturation process. That whiskey is then transferred to old 291 barrels that were used to age maple syrup in Wisconsin for Lincoln County Reserve Maple Syrup. Finally, those barrels were batched and bottled at cask strength as-is.
Bottom Line:
This was the best all-around sipper. It’s so fascinatingly fun and delectable while delivering something fun and fresh. Plus, you really feel like you’re sipping something unique that doesn’t feel like homework.
This is a winner. Buy two.
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BREAKING: OpenAI just announced their new Text-To-Video model called Sora.
