Weekly events: Get a head start on Easter, 'Listen' closely and much more
To include your organization's family friendly events in Upstate Parent, email chris@worthyplace.com.
Learning Safari: Sherlock Bones, a drop off program for ages 5 – 7, is 10 a.m. – noon April 11 and 12 at the Greenville Zoo. For details and registration, visit greenvillezoo.com.
Afternoon Exploration is 1:30 – 5 p.m. April 11 at Roper Mountain Science Center. For details and tickets, visit ropermountain.org.
Starry Nights programs are at Roper Mountain Science Center April 11. 'The Cowboy Astronomer' is at 4:30 p.m. 'Invaders of Mars!' is at 6 and 'From Earth to the Universe' is at 7:30 p.m. Advance ticket purchases are required. For details, visit ropermountain.org.
Kroc Greenville's Annual Easter Egg Hunt and Open House is 5 – 7 p.m. April 11 at Kroc Greenville. The event is free. (Participants must fill out a waiver upon arrival.) The egg hunt is for ages 1 – 12. Check in from 4:45 – 5:10 p.m. at the soccer field for the 5:15 p.m. egg hunt. Crafts are 5 – 7 p.m. Open swim and open basketball will be available from 5:45 – 6:45 p.m. Concessions will be able for purchase. For details, visit krocgreenville.org/KrocGreenville/easter-egg-huntspring-open-house.
'Listen' continues through April 13 at South Carolina Children's Theatre. This is a choose-your-own-adventure mystery play with silent disco headphones – best enjoyed by ages 8 and older. For tickets and details, visit scchildrenstheatre.org.
A Spring Festival is at Denver Downs Farm April 12 – 13 and 18 – 20. For tickets and details, visit denverdownsfarm.com/springfest.
Spring & Sprout is 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. April 12 at TCMU-Greenville. Snap a photo with the Easter bunny or snuggle a few in the petting zoo. Celebrate the season with creative crafts, hands-on activities, and a spring scavenger hunt, all while enjoying three floors of exhibits. All guests, including members, must purchase tickets to attend. Visit TCMUpstate.org/greenville/springandsprout.
The 2nd Annual Child Abuse Prevention Run 5K is in Anderson April 12. The event supports The Parenting Place/Prevent Child Abuse, a child abuse and neglect prevention agency serving Greenville, Pickens, Anderson and Oconee Counties. For details and registration, visit runsignup.com/Race/SC/Anderson/Andersons1stChildAbusePreventRun.
Vivaldi and the Invisible Orchestra: Lollipops Concerts from the Greenville Symphony Orchestra are at 10 a.m. at the Hughes Main Library and at 11:30 a.m. April 12 at the Travelers Rest Library. Visit greenvillelibrary.org.
Storytime on the Steps is at 10 a.m. April 12 at M. Judson Booksellers on Main Street in Greenville. Visit for a story time and sweet treat. The event will move indoors to the children's section if weather requires. Visit mjudsonbooks.com.
History Up High: Hot Air Balloon and Kite Festival is 1 – 8 p.m. April 12 at Walnut Grove Plantation. Tickets are $12 each for adults and $10 each for ages 3 – 17. Tickets include access to kite flying zones, balloon watching, live music, activities and vendors, tours of the doctor's office, kitchen cabin and Rocky Springs Academy and more. Tethered hot air balloon rides will be offered on site for $20, weather permitting. For details visit spartanburghistory.org.
Member Morning is 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. April 13 at TCMU-Greenville. Enjoy full access to TCMU-Greenville during this special members-only session. Visit tcmupstate.org.
The Greer Farmers Market Winter Market is 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. April 13 at Greer City Park. Visit greerfarmersmarket.com.
Taste of the Upstate: Livin' La Vida Local is 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. April 13 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Taste of the Upstate benefits Loaves & Fishes and is a celebration of local talent and homegrown goodness, with 'tastes' from some of Greenville's finest chefs. The event includes live music, a cooking competition and more. For tickets and details, visit werescuefood.org/taste-of-the-upstate.
More from Upstate Parent: Your guide to April arts classes, family fun, learning and more
More from Upstate Parent: April 2025: More than 150 things to do in Greenville, Spartanburg and beyond!
More from Upstate Parent: 2025 Upstate Parent Educators Who Make a Difference
More from Upstate Parent: Healthy start, healthy you – April classes and programs for your growing family
More from Upstate Parent: Tracktivity: Spring Showers
More from Upstate Parent: Parents: Get out while you can
More from Upstate Parent: On the Shelf: Easter, Earth Day and a bit of March Madness
related: Helping To Make A Home Affordable - Greenville Housing Authority Works To Close Gap Between Housing Need And Affordability
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Events in Greenville, S.C. and the Upstate this week
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
Google Just Kicked In Hollywood's Trailer Door
What a difference a year makes… Not long ago, AI's best attempt at video generation resulted in that cursed clip of Will Smith shoveling spaghetti into his mouth with his four-fingered hands. But now the world has Google's Veo 3 at its fingertips – the tech titan's latest AI video generation tool. And the results we're seeing are nothing short of astonishing. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips This shiny new model can generate ultra-realistic, 1080p, synchronized audio-visual content based on a simple text prompt… 'A woman, classical violinist with intense focus, plays a complex, rapid passage from a Vivaldi concerto in an ornate, sunlit baroque hall during a rehearsal. Her bow dances across the strings with virtuosic speed and precision. Audio: Bright, virtuosic violin playing, resonant acoustics of the hall, distant footsteps of crew, conductor's occasional soft count-in (muffled), rustling sheet music.' And within seconds, there she is, in video so realistic, you can even see individual hairs on her head highlighted by the sun. She's almost tangible. The music is swelling. And no human lifted a single camera. What we're witnessing with the launch of Google DeepMind's Veo 3 isn't some gimmicky tech demo or mere novelty for nerds on X. This seems more like the starting pistol for the next great creative-industrial upheaval – and if you're in the business of making or investing in content, it's time to get serious. Yes, Veo 3 may be limited to eight seconds today. But that's not a wall; it's a runway. And if you've been paying any attention to the exponential trajectory of AI development, you know where this might go next. Longer clips, then full scenes, entire episodes… and eventually, complete seasons. Perhaps one day, personalized stories crafted in real-time based on what you like to watch. It's coming – . This could be the beginning of the end of Hollywood as we know it… And the start of a new era of AI stock dominance in the content world. Obviously, this isn't the industry's first attempt at AI-generated video. Runway's Gen-2 was a cool prototype. OpenAI's Sora looked great in a lab. But Veo 3 is different. It's the first model with: 4K visual quality fully integrated audio cinematic camera movement deep prompt adherence and, crucially, a launch partner with billions of users and a roadmap to global rollout In our view, Google has aimed a shotgun full of GPU clusters directly at Hollywood's business model. And Veo 3 is just the tip of the spear. Behind it are entire pipelines – Gemini-powered plot generators, scriptwriting agents, motion planners, and real-time editors. Google is compressing the entire TV and film production supply chain into a single generative stack. Do you know what happens when you take a years-long, $100-million content pipeline and squeeze it down into a GPU-powered prompt that costs pennies? You break the game… If you work in video production – or the hundreds of satellite roles orbiting it – AI just kicked in your trailer door with Veo 3. Think about it. With this quantum leap in AI's video generation capabilities, actors could soon be replaced by photorealistic avatars and voice clones. No need for makeup artists; glam will be digitally rendered in post. Goodbye, set designers; hello, infinite virtual stages. Cinematographers? AI models now handle camera movement with humanlike precision. Now, writers, you're still needed… but you'd better learn to prompt. This might feel like sci-fi, but it's more so basic economics. Studios are always hunting for ways to reduce cost and time. And AI doesn't sleep, unionize, forget lines, or demand a four-figure payday. That's why we expect that over the next five to 10 years, AI will eat the technical backend of filmmaking the way Amazon ate retail – and with the same ruthless cost-efficiency. The same kinds of players always win when the tech curve steepens: Those who ride the exponential wave instead of trying to fight it. Take Netflix (NFLX) – Blockbuster killer; once DVD-dealer, now data king in entertainment. It knows what you watch, when you watch it, what you love, and what you hate. Imagine what an AI script engine could do with all that data. You're a fan of fictional period romance stories? Netflix's AI could create 10 different versions of the next Bridgerton, testing which hooks you harder – then instantly generate the winner in full. Or how about Alphabet (GOOGL)? It runs YouTube and Veo 3 – the delivery pipelines and creative infrastructure. Combine Veo with Gemini and YouTube Studio, and you've got a vertically integrated AI content machine with billions of monetizable eyeballs. And then there's Meta (META). It's got LLaMA, Emu, and a raging addiction to immersive content. Just picture Veo-level video generation tailored to your social graph, optimized for infinite scroll, and seamlessly injected into Instagram, Threads, and the Metaverse. Engagement meets hallucination. And the rest of Hollywood? Well… Legacy studios, crew-heavy productions, anyone betting their future on union-only sets and hundred-million-dollar shoots… it seems you are on notice. The economics just changed – permanently. When it comes to AI-native studios that can churn out hyper-targeted content at 1/100th the cost and 100x the speed, there's no competition. And it's not likely that audiences will resist. Pundits said the same thing about CGI, YouTube, reality TV, TikTok. People don't care how it's made. They care how it feels. And if AI gives them a hit of dopamine, they'll hit 'Next Episode' without a second thought. This latest AI breakthrough feels a lot like the early 2000s, when Amazon used the internet to undercut brick-and-mortar retail. Lower costs, faster delivery, wider selection. Incumbents laughed… until they went bankrupt. Remember Sears, JCPenney, K-Mart? Same script, different industry. AI is the internet. Veo 3 is Netflix is Jeff Bezos, sitting atop its throne with a popcorn bucket in hand. And once one company starts passing cost savings to consumers with cheaper subscriptions, faster content cycles, and more personalization, others have to follow. That's how you get a full-blown economic reset. Currently, Veo 3 is available to select creators via waitlist — but given Google's track record with rapid deployment, widespread rollout to YouTube creators and enterprise partners could come quickly. Here's what we think could be next: Custom AI-generated series and movies tailored to individual users Interactive stories where the plot evolves based on viewer engagement Fan-generated shows that rival studio hits Ad-supported, AI-produced content that costs nothing to stream Veo 3's launch proved that the AI Content Economy is just around the corner. We are years – not decades – away from this becoming a widespread reality. So, if you're an investor, go long AI. This breakthrough tech is eating the whole global economy. Hollywood is just one entree in a seven-course meal. Buy the platforms, AI chipmakers, infrastructure enablers, and appliers – Alphabet, Meta, Nvidia (NVDA) – and yes, Netflix. These are the architects of the new media world. Learn to prompt like a boss; curate, direct, and remix. AI is the orchestra, but someone still has to conduct. And if you're in denial, you might want to check the mirror – and ask Blockbuster how things shook out after ignoring the curve. AI's industrialization of content creation isn't a theory anymore: it's a living, accelerating disruption. Veo 3 marks the moment when generating Hollywood-quality video no longer requires Hollywood-scale budgets. And we're just at the starting gate. Just as streaming upended cable and smartphones reshaped the internet, generative video is about to redefine content itself – who created it, how fast it's made, and who profits. The big studios? Maybe. But more likely, it'll be the AI-native platforms, the chipmakers, and the investors who saw it coming. And yet, Veo 3 is just one front in a much broader AI revolution. While the world watches digital actors take center stage… Another trillion-dollar transformation is forming in the wings. Humanoid robots – what we're calling '' According to Morgan Stanley (MS), this market could be worth as much as $30 trillion in the coming decades. That's bigger than today's global e-commerce and cloud computing markets combined. Why? Because humanoid robots won't just generate videos or write code. They'll do the jobs. Real, physical tasks in factories, on farms; in homes, hospitals, and warehouses. Every job the global economy depends on could be automated, accelerated, and made profitable at scale. And it's all happening faster than most expect. . The post Google Just Kicked In Hollywoodâs Trailer Door appeared first on InvestorPlace.
San Francisco Chronicle
21-05-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Review: Netflix's ‘The Four Seasons' is overprivileged and out of touch
'The Four Seasons' was a 1981 film about growing old together, not only with one's spouse but also alongside one's dearest friends. Yet, while the new Netflix adaptation brings together a new cast of aging stars, it's not the bodies onscreen that feel dated. Featuring Gen X-ers Tina Fey, Colman Domingo and East Bay's own Will Forte, plus at least on-the-cusp boomer Steve Carell, the series-long expansion of the movie by the same name — written and directed by its original star Alan Alda of 'M*A*S*H' fame — actually regresses the older narrative. Updating the story for 2025 requires a heavy lift, and an acclaimed trio of showrunners — Fey, Lang Fisher (' Never Have I Ever,' ' Brooklyn Nine-Nine ') and Tracey Wigfield ('30 Rock,' ' The Mindy Project ') — certainly make an effort. Unfortunately, it turns out that these three very successful TV writers don't exactly live on the cutting edge of storytelling for the streaming era. The original film's premise is that three middle-class couples of mostly white people navigate love's changing nature through middle age over the course of four seasonal vacations within one year, all to the tune of Vivaldi's famous violin concerto. Here, over the course of eight episodes, we see some beat-for-beat repeats: On the first vacation in spring, everyone jumps impishly from their leisure boat into the water, fully clothed! On a later vacation in summer, one of the wives is replaced awkwardly by a younger blond who sports a fetching white bikini! Yes, there is, once again, so. Much. Vivaldi! The remake gets a small diversity update by casting one of the couples as San Francisco theater veteran Domingo and Marco Calvani, a pair of gay men — although the former is forced unfairly into a 'two-fer' role as the sole person of color. (In the original, that place went to the great Rita Moreno, the East Bay's beloved EGOT.) Gone is a critical confrontation when the younger blond would have stood up for herself against the withering disdain of her partner's older friends. Such a scene would have added much-needed dimension to the role of Ginny (Erika Henningsen), but there's not much to her here beyond the pejorative label 'Yoga Barbie' that another character assigns to her. And rather than keeping the couples middle class, they're rewritten as much wealthier. Carell's Nick is referred to as 'king of the hedge fund,' while Domingo's Danny appears to be a jet-setting interior designer. The other characters are so thinly written in this update, that unlike the original, work rarely enters their banal conversations that drip with privilege and not much else. Particularly grating is when the two — beautiful — middle-aged actors, Fey and Kerri Kenney ('Reno 911!') crack fatphobic jokes, especially at their own expense. It's not funny, and it's not believable in the least, especially when, in one scene, Kenney is a vision clad in a sleeveless, backless gown. Love and the dilemmas of aging are both meaty subjects, as audiences have seen recently in far edgier, envelope-pushing narratives like ' Babygirl ' and ' The Substance.' I'm not at their protagonists' age bracket yet, but those stories dared to stir up dreams of what my menopause era could look like, even if they were fantasies that starred impossibly well-toned, rich white women. Despite all the undeniable talent involved in 'The Four Seasons,' its real failure is one of untapped imagination.
Epoch Times
28-04-2025
- Epoch Times
9 Classical Pieces About Spring
Music about nature seems to written only slightly less frequently than music about love or religion. Within this genre, springtime might be the most popular topic. It's not surprising that many composers have written pieces on it. What is surprising, though, are the variety of ways they've found to express this season and the accompanying emotions. Here are nine famous composers who gave us their unique renditions. Vivaldi's 'Spring' Concerto Antonio Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' is probably the most famous work of music representing the natural world. Of all these, his 'Spring' concerto is the most popular and recognizable. The opening of the first 'Allegro' movement indicates spring's arrival. Trilling violins represent singing birds. A portrait of Antonio Vivaldi, circa 1723. Public Domain Each of Vivaldi's four concertos are accompanied by a sonnet that describes what's happening in the music. The three lines of the 'Spring' sonnet representing the second slow, 'Largo' movement have been Vivaldi depicts this scene brilliantly through instrumentation. A solo violin represents the sleeping goatherd, while the other violins imitate rustling leaves and the violas stand in for the barking dog, playing 'molto forte e strappato,' very loud and rough in Italian. Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony No. 6 Ludwig van Beethoven was directly inspired by spring when he wrote one of his most memorable piece of music, the 'Pastoral' Symphony No. 6. His friend Anton Schindler left people an account of this symphony's creation. While walking near the town of Heiligenstadt, Austria, Beethoven sat near a murmuring brook. He leaned against an elm and said, 'Here I composed the 'Scene by the Brook' and the yellowhammers up there, the quails, nightingales and cuckoos round about, composed with me.' An illustration of a common nightingale, 1907, by Arthur G. Butler. Public Domain 'Scene by the Brook' is the title of the symphony's second movement. Beethoven uses a flute to portray the nightingale, an oboe for the quail, and clarinets for the cuckoo. When Schindler asked why Beethoven didn't write a part for the yellowhammer, too, Beethoven said that he'd imitated that bird sound through a two-octave arpeggio rhythm 'written down in Andante.' Later critics have suggested that Beethoven was just playing a joke on his friend by telling him this, since the yellowhammer doesn't sing in arpeggio. Delius's 'On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring' While Beethoven used only the clarinet to represent the cuckoo, the English composer Frederick Delius went for a more complex description. He Related Stories 4/17/2025 4/15/2025 The cuckoo notes in this tone poem are embedded within a Norwegian folk song and can be difficult to hear in the middle of the piece. Delius's portrayal accurately evokes the English countryside, where the sounds of nature intermingle in the listener's ear. Copland's 'Appalachian Spring' This is probably the most famous piece associated with spring ever written by an American composer. The cover images of most recordings feature the Interestingly, though, Aaron Copland himself named the piece only after he wrote it. That hasn't changed the fact that listeners everywhere now forever associate his music with this time and place. A view of Hot Springs, N.C., from Lovers Leap on the Appalachian Trail. Jennifer Stanford/Shutterstock Vaughan Williams's 'The Lark Ascending' George Meredith's poem 'The Lark Ascending' opens with the lines: He rises and begins to round, He drops the silver chain of sound Of many links without a break, In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake … All the great composers of springtime have their own unique way of evoking birdsong. Ralph Vaughan Williams, adapting Meredith's poem in his own 'pastoral romance,' is no exception. Williams used the magic of the violin to capture Meredith's words. The solo violin chirrups, whistles, slurs, and shakes in imitation of the lark's song. But the violin also represents the bird in flight as well. Johann Strauss II's 'Voices of Spring' One of Strauss's most recognizable waltzes beautifully captures the essence of springtime with its elegant, light melodies, evoking the renewal and blossoming of life. Strauss wrote three versions of this piece: the orchestral version we know today, a waltz for orchestra and solo soprano, and a piano arrangement. A sandy beach along the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene at springtime in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Kirk Fisher/Shutterstock Although the piece begins and ends joyfully, Strauss adds emotional depth with a melancholy third section in a minor key, evoking a rainstorm. Brahms's 'Spring' String Quartet No. 1 Like Copland, it's questionable how much Brahms had a seasonal theme in mind when he composed this piece in the spring of 1882. He didn't title it 'Spring'; it was given this informal description later. Still, as in the case of 'Appalachian Spring,' the description fits well. It has a warmth and an energy that makes one think Brahms may have been looking out the window for inspiration while writing it. Grieg's 'Last Spring' Nearly all the pieces here that were consciously identified with spring are about evoking the season as a natural phenomenon. Edvard Grieg's ' A statue of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in Troldhaugen in Bergen, Norway. Dmitry Chulov/Shutterstock As in the case of Strauss's 'Voices of Spring,' Grieg's piece was originally meant to be sung. It was only later adapted into an orchestral version. In this case, the text was a poem by Norwegian poet – 1870). Schumann's 'Spring' Symphony No. 1 Robert Schumann made springtime the theme of his first symphony. He had just married Clara the year before and was experiencing the happiest period of his life. He wrote this symphony's four movements in just four days of 1841. It opens majestically with 'Spring's Awakening' and ends with the joyful energy of 'Full Springtime' in the final movement. Robert and Clara Schumann, 1847, by Eduard Kaiser. Public Domain Schumann believed that the spring was an inherent feature of every musical composition, since the composer is always creating something new. To the extent that that is true, the entire Western tradition can be seen as a long and varied series of re-awakenings. What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to
