Month: September 2020

Screen + Sound + Stage Text by Vivek Tejuja. Collage by Aishwaryashree My mother loves the idiot box. I think it is her best friend. I am not judging her; I am just saying things as they are. Before the lockdown, the television in most homes would remain on for the majority of the day, but Indian parents were still incapable of grasping the concept of binge-watching. It isn’t for them, or so I thought. The lockdown has changed everything. Now, my mother has not only understood what it means to binge-watch but has also become a “binger” herself. Serial watching like a serial watcher. From not knowing how to make sense of the navigation on YouTube, she has turned into the Vishwanathan Anand of binging, mastering the art. I was impressed, no...

The couple announced their intention to “step back” from their royal roles earlier this year and have since spoken out against perceived press intrusion. On Wednesday it was announced the Duke and Duchess had agreed a multi-year deal with Netflix to make documentaries, films and children’s shows. Whilst Meghan has previously ruled out a return to acting, there is speculation they could end up appearing on the screen in some capacity. Whilst the value of the deal has not been published many have compared it to a similar agreement Netflix reached with Barack and Michelle Obama to produce programmes. However, a number of social media users criticised the move which they claimed will thrust the couple back into the public spotlight. Conservative activist Chris Ross tweeted: “Harry ...

David Blaine floats above Arizona in a record-breaking stunt with jumbo-sized balloons. Daredevil David Blaine performed his latest stunt on Wednesday, ascending nearly 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) into the Arizona sky while hanging from a cluster of jumbo-sized balloons before parachuting safely back to earth. "It's like magic, it feels like I'm floating in the air," Blaine said on a radio to his team of aides back on the ground after gently lifting off from a desert airstrip in Page, Arizona, connected to dozens of balloons in an event he called "Ascension." YouTube said the stunt, which it livestreamed, set a new record as the most-watched YouTube Originals live event ever with over 770,000 viewers. Blaine gradually dropped small weights to speed his ascent, donned a parachute mid-f...

Silence might be golden. For Miley Cyrus, silence was a gift. The “Wrecking Ball” singer underwent surgery on her throat late last year, and emerged from the experience clean, sober and emboldened with a fresh outlook. Those silent post-operative days created a window of self-reflection. "I kind of learned a lot about the voice and how our experiences affect our voice,” Miley told Seth Rogan during a candid chat for the Joe Rogan Experience, which clocked-in at two hours. Following a Reinke's edema diagnosis -- that is, swelling of the vocal cords due to the presence of fluid -- Miley underwent surgery in November 2019. "Over the last year I noticed a really big change to my voice, kind of a heaviness to it,” she explains. “And I experienced some heavy things. I feel like ...

Hollywood star Cate Blanchett said Wednesday that she would rather be called an actor than an actress. The Australian, who is heading the jury at the Venice film festival, gave her backing to Berlin festival's controversial decision last week to do away with gendered prizes and only give a best actor award. "I have always referred to myself as an actor," Blanchett said after being asked about the move towards gender-neutral prizes hours before the 10-day COVID-restricted Venice jamboree began. "I am of the generation where the word actress was used almost always in a pejorative sense. So I claim the other space," she told AFP. As if to prove the point, she asked reporters if there was a female equivalent of the Italian word "maestro", only to be told their wasn't. Blanchett is taking the...

(CNN) — The award-winning R&B singer Akon is going ahead with ambitious plans to build a "futuristic" city in Senegal that he says will be a real-life version of Wakanda, the hi-tech nation portrayed in Marvel blockbuster "Black Panther." On Monday, Akon, real name Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, laid the first stone for Akon city in Mbodiene park, 100 kilometers from Dakar, the country's capital city, and said work would begin next year. "We are looking at Akon city to become the beginning of Africa's future," he said at the ceremony also attended by Alioune Sarr, Senegal's minister for tourism, and other government officials. "Our idea is to build a futuristic city that incorporates all the latest technologies, cryptocurrencies, and also the future of how African society should b...

(CNN) — The award-winning R&B singer Akon is going ahead with ambitious plans to build a "futuristic" city in Senegal that he says will be a real-life version of Wakanda, the hi-tech nation portrayed in Marvel blockbuster "Black Panther." On Monday, Akon, real name Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, laid the first stone for Akon city in Mbodiene park, 100 kilometers from Dakar, the country's capital city, and said work would begin next year. "We are looking at Akon city to become the beginning of Africa's future," he said at the ceremony also attended by Alioune Sarr, Senegal's minister for tourism, and other government officials. "Our idea is to build a futuristic city that incorporates all the latest technologies, cryptocurrencies, and also the future of how African society should b...