Be a Tourist: Events around town March 28-30
Comedian and Magician Michael Kent gives the ancient art of magic a facelift with an irreverent and often satirical comedic spin. For tickets and show times, click here.
Experience the epic emotion, soaring music and breathtaking dance of The Prince of Egypt. Journey through the wonders of Ancient Egypt as two young men, raised together as brothers in a kingdom of privilege, find themselves suddenly divided by a secret past. For tickets and show times, click here.
Erie Gymnastics Center/Team Lighting will host the Pennsylvania Level 4 & 5 State Championship welcoming the best gymnasts in the state to Erie. For more information, click here.
Learn how lighting and windows can cause problems for migrating birds and how you can help birds travel safely between their wintering and nesting grounds. There will be a special screening of the movie Lights Out Texas, produced by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, followed by a panel discussion with Q&A featuring Lights Out experts and the film's director Daniel Sheire. For more information, click here.
Multi-platinum country artist Gary Allan is set to bring his tour to the Warner Theatre on Saturday, March 29, 2025. With the allure of a modern-day outlaw, Gary Allan has won over fans, peers, and critics with his signature blend of smoldering vocals, rebellious lyrics, and raucous live performances. For tickets, click here.
Dubbed 'The Voice of Broadway,' Betty Buckley helped to revolutionize modern musical theatre through her acclaimed performances in '1776,' 'Pippin,' 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood,' 'Carrie,' and 'Cats,' which earned her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Seth Rudetsky spent many years on Broadway as a pianist and conductor, as well as two years as a comedy writer on 'The Rosie O'Donnell Show,' for which he received three Emmy nominations with his co-writers. For more information, click here.
Featuring Shady Side. Arundel Cellars & Brewing Co. is a family-owned winery/brewery headquartered in a beautifully restored 19th century barn nestled among the vineyards of scenic North East. Arundel enjoys the unique position of being the first winery in the area offering both premium wine and craft beer. For more information, click here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Hollywood legend makes big bet on the future of AI
Hollywood legend makes big bet on the future of AI originally appeared on TheStreet. The booming artificial intelligence market is upending many industries, but it is also creating valuable opportunities for forward-thinking investors. Despite a fairly volatile start to 2025, many AI stocks such as Nvidia and Palantir have made substantial progress, establishing themselves as leaders in the space. But other investors are focused on finding newer tech companies, not yet publicly traded, with the potential to help usher in the next phase of AI. 💵💰💰💵 These companies sometimes operate under the general public's radar, quietly creating technology that has the power to disrupt entire industries and change how work is done. They may not often make headlines, but when they do, it is because someone important has decided to stake a bet on one. One example is Creatify, a platform that leverages AI technology to create video ads. An investing leader has revealed that he sees it as a likely force in the industry. If you're a fan of Hollywood animations, you probably know the work of Jeffrey Katzenberg. One of the industry's most respected producers, he helped create some of Disney's most popular animated features before helping found DreamWorks, the studio responsible for films such as "Shrek" and "The Prince of Egypt."Katzenberg is credited with helping turn Disney () into a multi-billion-dollar media empire and ultimately ushering in a new era of animation. But he's also a managing partner at WndrCo, an investment firm that has backed tech startups such as Airtable, Databricks, and 1Password. Now, Katzenberg has revealed that his firm is co-leading a Series A investment in Creatify, to the tune of $15.5 million. This represents a significant bet not just on the startup but on the future of AI, as Creatify is poised to disrupt the advertising industry. Why is Katzenberg investing in this startup over others? He recently revealed that he is excited about AI-generated video platforms because he believes they give storytellers a key edge. 'I've seen firsthand how technology opens new doors, from hand-drawn to CGI animation, and now AI,' he states. 'What excites me about Creatify is that it's breaking down barriers around video creation. When production takes minutes instead of weeks, more people get to tell their stories. That's a real shift.' More AI News: Tempus AI hits back at scathing short report OpenAI teams up with legendary Apple exec One AI stock makes up 78% of Nvidia's investment portfolio As an expert in both animation and storytelling, Kateznberg is well qualified to discuss these areas and to identify the technologies that can enhance them. He adds that although traditional production isn't able to keep up with today's demands for custom ads, modern AI systems can, making them a game-changer for the industry. The fact that someone like Katzenberg is betting big on a company like Creatify suggests that the advertising industry may be about to change. For some, that might raise the question of how severely jobs in the field will be on what Katzenberg and Creatify Cofounder and CEO Yinan Na have said, it doesn't seem like these technologies will replace too many human workers. 'It's about harnessing AI to democratize creativity and empower entrepreneurs everywhere to scale their storytelling and grow their businesses,' states Na. The CEO adds that his vision is to create the "Shopify of video ads" with Creatify, engineering a platform that empowers entrepreneurs to venture into a new industry with user-friendly tools. While this may lead to more video content and advertising campaigns, it doesn't seem as if it will do the creative part of advertising. Telling stories is a crucial part of the industry, as many experts have reiterated. Joe Lazer, Pepper CEMO and author of "The Storytelling Edge," addressed this earlier in the year, stating, 'No matter how good generative AI gets, great storytellers will be the hardest thing for it to replace. AI can write, but it can never be a storyteller.'Hollywood legend makes big bet on the future of AI first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 5, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 5, 2025, where it first appeared. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
Brodway comes to Erie to raise money for families in crisis
A local nonprofit tried out a new fundraiser Thursday night, taking the Broadway stage to downtown Erie. The Erie City Mission kicked off its newest charity event at the Warner Theatre called Broadway by the Bay. Owners cut the ribbon on new west Erie restaurant, Born & Braised Thursday night's event featured Broadway singer Ivan Rutherford, who portrayed Jean Valjean over 2,000 times in Les Misérables on Broadway. The event was also a kickoff to a fundraising effort to build a new 100-bed facility for women and children in crisis in Erie. Erie High students gifted parts for project by Erie Harley-Davidson 'The Erie City Mission services hundreds and possibly thousands of people throughout the year, but most of them are men, so one of Brian Johansson's initiatives when he became CEO was to open a house for women, specifically women and children that are suffering from poverty or addiction,' said James Washburn, co-chair. If you would like to donate to the Erie City Mission's cause, Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
21-05-2025
- New York Times
‘Lights Out: Nat 'King' Cole' Review: Dimming a Great Talent
When Nat King Cole performed 'The Party's Over' on his NBC variety show, he did it with a smile, as he seemed to do everything. But the song bitterly resonated on that particular broadcast, Cole's final outing as a host, having quit after just over a year's worth of struggles finding national advertisers. 'It's time to wind up / The masquerade,' he sang. 'Just make your mind up / The piper must be paid.' Written by Colman Domingo and Patricia McGregor, the formally ambitious, if muddled, 'Lights Out: Nat 'King' Cole' takes place on that fateful Dec. 17, 1957, when the pianist and singer said goodbye to his audience. (Note that Domingo, who is famous as an actor these days, does not appear in the show.) The framing device is not unlike that of 'Goodnight, and Good Luck,' which is also set in a TV studio, and both shows look at a momentous taping as a mode of resistance against America's powers-that-be. But 'Lights Out' takes a very different tack from the George Clooney and Grant Heslov play's straightforward embrace of docu-like similitude . 'Some of you thought you were going to get a nice and easy holiday show,' Sammy Davis Jr. (Daniel J. Watts) informs the audiences of both the television studio and New York Theater Workshop, where the production is running. 'No! Welcome to the fever dream.' The musical unfurls in the minutes before Cole (Dulé Hill) is supposed to go on the air. Time dilates and contracts; guests and family members pop up; conversations are interspersed with musical standards. Davis, who had actually guest-starred on Cole's show a few months earlier, is ever-present here as a flamboyantly extroverted jester who might represent the id of the more restrained (at least publicly) Cole. The pinnacle of McGregor's production is a fiery tap number, choreographed by Jared Grimes, between the two men that lands halfway between duet and battle, and is set to 'Me and My Shadow.' Juxtaposing an irrepressible scratcher of itches and a debonair charmer as two forces of Black creativity, which the white establishment tried to contain in safe, acceptable boxes, is the show's best idea. Hill gives it life with a complex, layered performance as Cole, who is revealed to be channeling his anger and frustrations into a smooth, urbane exterior — a review of his show's premiere in The New York Times described him as having 'an amiable personality that comes across engagingly on the television screen.' (Both Hill and Watts were in the 'Lights Out' premiere in 2017, with the People's Light company in Malvern, Penn.) Unfortunately, the writing and direction do not match Hill's subtlety. Cole is jostled this way and that between past and present, fantasy and reality, as if he were on a runaway carousel, but his agitated free associating is written and staged in a herky-jerky manner. Guests including Peggy Lee (Ruby Lewis) and Eartha Kitt (Krystal Joy Brown) turn up, though their musical contributions feel perfunctory. The star's mother, Perlina (Kenita Miller), drops by. Cole manifests his younger self (Mekhi Richardson at the performance I attended), and also duets with his daughter, Natalie (Brown again), on 'Unforgettable' — a hit for Natalie in 1991, when she sang with her father via a recording he had made 40 years earlier. The intersection of personal history, politics and performance has long been an essential part of Domingo's work as a writer — he explored it successfully in his autobiographical play 'A Boy and His Soul' (2009), less effectively in the book he co-wrote for 'Summer: The Donna Summer Musical' (2018). Here he and McGregor resort to telegraphing in ways that may be intended to jolt but too often land awkwardly, as when Natalie cries 'I can't breathe' after she is brutally forced to smoke a cigarette from a sponsor brand. 'They are still digging Emmett Till's grave, and you're out here planting roses,' Davis hectors Cole, who replies that his job is to entertain. 'No, it's your job to reflect the times,' Davis continues. 'But, if that's what you are trying to teach the kids, young Billy Preston is waiting in the wings, ready to do his thing.' Lo and behold, the keyboard prodigy (Richardson, again), then 11, comes in for 'Blueberry Hill.' It's an excellent number, as many are in 'Lights Out,' though one wishes the money spent on a large, underused video screen had been dedicated to a few more musicians to better approximate the bold, pumping sound of Nelson Riddle's orchestra on the TV show. Still, it is in examinations of such performers as Cole that you find one of the keys to change and progress: a demonstration of unparalleled talent that could not be stifled.
