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Warner Bros promotes ‘The End of Oak Street’ using bizarre AI dog podcast
Warner Bros has promoted its new film The End of Oak Street with an unconventional marketing stunt, using AI to bring the film’s canine character, Starbuck, to life for an appearance on an existing AI-hosted podcast. In a 90-second clip, the studio’s dog was interviewed by an AI bulldog named Frenchie on the DogPack podcast…
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Halloween game blocked in Australia and New Zealand over cannabis
Halloween: The Game has been refused classification in Australia, with regulators objecting not to its violence or depiction of serial killer Michael Myers, but to a minor gameplay mechanic that lets characters smoke cannabis for an in-game buff. Developer IllFonic has also withheld the multiplayer horror title from New Zealand, even though that country runs…
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You Won’t Get Free of It by Rachel Aviv review – a subtle study of the mother-daughter bond
Rachel Aviv, a Pulitzer finalist known for empathetic, incisive journalism, follows her acclaimed Strangers to Ourselves with You Won’t Get Free of It, a collection of six essays on mothers and daughters originally published in the New Yorker. The book explores the most complex of family relationships through cases of psychological instability, disappearance and neglect,…
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Halloween has been banned in Australia and New Zealand for a reason you’d never imagine
Halloween: The Game, a video game adaptation of the classic slasher franchise, has been denied a classification rating in Australia, effectively banning its sale there ahead of its September launch. The developers say the refusal was not due to the game’s violence or its depiction of killer Michael Myers, but because it features cannabis use…
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Tesla owner’s outrage after built-in security camera captures stranger keying her car: ‘Completely shocked’
A Tesla owner has expressed shock after her car’s built-in security camera recorded a stranger deliberately keying the vehicle, leaving a deep scratch along its bodywork. The footage, captured automatically by Tesla’s Sentry Mode system, has reignited discussion about the value of in-car surveillance technology in catching acts of vandalism that would otherwise go unwitnessed…
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Perry Como Was Supposed To Record What Became One of Willie Nelson’s Biggest Hits
The country song “Red Headed Stranger,” the title track of Willie Nelson’s landmark 1975 album, was originally intended for crooner Perry Como but never reached him because of a publishing dispute. Written by Carl Stutz and Edith Lindeman, the song instead became one of the defining recordings of Nelson’s career, a fact revealed in Lindeman’s…
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Georgia jogger runs for her life after stranger allegedly tries to mow her down 3 times
A woman jogging in Cherokee County, Georgia, was allegedly targeted by a stranger who tried to run her over three times after she offered him a brief, friendly greeting during her Sunday morning workout. The attack was captured on video, and the accused driver has since been arrested and charged over the incident, which has…
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KAMELOT’s THOMAS YOUNGBLOOD On Artificial Intelligence: ‘I Have This Weird Feeling It’s Gonna Run Its Course’
Kamelot guitarist Thomas Youngblood has spoken out against artificial intelligence, telling Portugal’s Metal Global he hopes reliance on tools such as ChatGPT will “run its course” as people return to thinking and creating for themselves. His comments come amid an ongoing debate within the music industry about musicians using AI generators to produce melodies, harmonies…
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KAMELOT’s THOMAS YOUNGBLOOD On Artificial Intelligence: ‘I Have This Weird Feeling It’s Gonna Run Its Course’
Kamelot guitarist Thomas Youngblood has criticised the growing use of artificial intelligence in creative and everyday tasks, saying he hopes the trend “runs its course” as people return to thinking for themselves. Speaking to Portugal’s Metal Global, Youngblood said he has never used AI tools such as ChatGPT to help write music, likening reliance on…
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‘Hearing’ Review: Lê Bảo Continues His Sensory Exploration With an Arresting Study in Silence
Vietnamese director Lê Bảo returns with “Hearing,” a slow-cinema family drama premiering in main competition at the Locarno Film Festival, following the acclaim of his 2021 debut “Taste.” The film uses spare narrative and intricate sound design to explore an extended family confronting years of silence, rifts and estrangement, marking Lê as a distinctive voice…