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The Herald Scotland
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Review: Liam Gallagher vs the council as Oasis arrive in Edinburgh
Indeed, The Herald could not even get in for their first show in Scotland in 16 years on Friday night, and hell hath no fury like a hack inconvenienced. Any such notions are blown away pretty much as soon as Oasis swagger on stage. Read More: Their entrance is preceded by a clip from Close Encounters of the Third Kind informing us "this is not a drill" and the instrumental walkout song is accompanied by various images of the brothers Gallagher and sentiments like "the great wait is over" and "Edinburgh - this is happening". This is an event, and by God they want you to know it. Liam and Noel walk on arm in arm, the former offering by way of greeting: "Oasis vibes in the area! Edinburgh vibes in the area!" before the band kick into opener 'Hello', the denouement seeing both brothers affirm "it's good to be back". From there it's into 'Acquiesce', which sees Liam take the verse and Noel the chorus, and a blistering run of songs to open the set. The younger Gallagher remains the most compelling of frontmen, approaching his mic like he's not sure whether to sing into it or stick the nut on it. His is a performance rooted in pure charisma, with little in the way of crowd interaction and less in the way of showmanship unless you count wearing a cagoule as the height of theatrics. In terms of getting the audience involved he asks for the vast crowd to do the Poznań - turning backward, arms around the shoulders - for 'Cigarettes & Alcohol' and a bit of call and response involving City of Edinburgh Council. The council were admonished by Gallagher Jr for some uncharitable comments about Oasis fans, and when they get a mention he encourages the Murrayfield crowd to boo louder. "Two billion pounds we'll bring into this city and you lot will see none of it because they'll split it with their posh ugly mates," says the singer. "Still waiting for that apology." He'd pegged the figure at £1bn on night one, suggesting the Liam Gallagher Inflation Counter would put the Weimar Republic to shame. As a mass bounce to 'Roll With It' concludes a relentless opening to the show, Noel takes centre stage for the altogether more tender 'Talk Tonight' and 'Half the World Away' the latter of which is dedicated to the Royle Family - "not that one - Manchester royalty", he clarifies when the crowd boo. Oasis perform Don't Look Back in Anger at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on Saturday night 𝘝𝘐𝘋𝘌𝘖: 𝘕𝘦𝘸𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 — The Herald (@heraldscotland) August 10, 2025 After an anthemic 'Little By Little' his brother returns for what's really the only misstep of the night, a run through 'D'You Know What I Mean?' from third album Be Here Now which, even in this setting, still sounds over-long and overblown. So invested are this crowd though, that it doesn't spark a mass exodus for the bar. Linking Oasis with football is hardly a novel insight - indeed there's a cardboard cut-out of Pep Guardiola on stage throughout - but there are occasions where you might almost wonder whether you're at a rock gig or a European night at San Siro. The hits just keep coming. We get 'Slide Away', possibly the finest song Oasis ever recorded, and the string-led 'Whatever', a top three hit which bafflingly was barely played by the band after 1995. The former appears to have been tuned down half a step but it's the only one. Liam's vocals, which have been notoriously hit and miss since at least the turn of the millennium, sounded clear, crisp and not a little menacing. Fireworks greet the end of Champagne Supernova as Oasis perform in Edinburgh (Image: Newsquest) If those are big guns then it's a volley of surface-to-air missiles which brings it home. 'Live Forever', dedicated to "all the people who didn't make it through to see us get back together", and 'Rock n Roll Star' close out the main set before an encore featuring de facto national anthems 'Don't Look Back in Anger' and 'Wonderwall'. The final song of the night, 'Champagne Supernova', is by its own author's admission completely nonsensical but as the guitars swell and the chorus soars Murrayfield is filling in its own meaning, a volley of fireworks capping off a thundering set. There'll be no poison pen, then: the band sounds huge (Bonehead really is the unsung hero of the Oasis sound), Liam's voice is in good nick and the setlist is bulletproof. Really the only heterodox opinion to reach for is that perhaps this valedictory tour around the world really should be the triumphant full stop Knebworth could have been. On this kind of form, the only way is down.
See - Sada Elbalad
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- See - Sada Elbalad
"Jaws" Star Richard Dreyfuss Hospitalized with Viral Bronchitis
Yara Sameh 'Jaws' icon Richard Dreyfuss was forced to drop out of the SharkCon in Tampa, Florida, this weekend, after he was diagnosed with viral bronchitis. Bronchitis is an inflammation of the lining of your bronchial tubes. These tubes carry air to and from your lungs. People who have bronchitis often cough up thickened mucus, which can be discolored. Bronchitis may start suddenly and be short-term (acute) or start gradually and become long-term (chronic), according to the M ayo Clinic . Acute bronchitis, which often develops from a cold or other respiratory infection, is very common. It is also called a chest cold. Acute bronchitis usually improves within a week to 10 days without lasting effects, although the cough may linger for weeks. Chronic bronchitis, a more serious condition, is a constant irritation or inflammation of the lining of the bronchial tubes, often due to smoking. It is one of the conditions included in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Dreyfuss delivered the news of his diagnosis and exit in a video post shared to the SharkCon Instagram on Saturday. He said, 'Hello, fellow cons. I am very, very sorry to tell you that I've been diagnosed with viral…viral…What is it?'. His wife, Svetlana Erokhin, then clarified off-screen that the 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' star had been infected with viral bronchitis. 'I've been told by my doctors I cannot fly, and I would have to fly five hours to get [to SharkCon]. I'm terribly sorry because I had planned to be there and had been looking forward to it. But I'm unable to do so," he added, "I don't want to get anyone else sick, and I don't want to get sicker myself. I feel terrible about not showing up, and I feel worse about exposing you to this, apparently, very viral illness.' Dreyfuss headlined Steven Spielberg's 1975 horror masterpiece alongside Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw. In 'Jaws,' the Oscar-winner played Matt Hooper, a wisecracking oceanologist and shark expert tasked with helping Chief Brody track down the vicious man-eater. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SharkCon (@shark_con) read more New Tourism Route To Launch in Old Cairo Ahmed El Sakka-Led Play 'Sayidati Al Jamila' to Be Staged in KSA on Dec. 6 Mandy Moore Joins Season 2 of "Dr. Death" Anthology Series Don't Miss These Movies at 44th Cairo Int'l Film Festival Today Amr Diab to Headline KSA's MDLBEAST Soundstorm 2022 Festival Arts & Culture Mai Omar Stuns in Latest Instagram Photos Arts & Culture "The Flash" to End with Season 9 Arts & Culture Ministry of Culture Organizes four day Children's Film Festival Arts & Culture Canadian PM wishes Muslims Eid-al-Adha News Israeli-Linked Hadassah Clinic in Moscow Treats Wounded Iranian IRGC Fighters News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier Sports Former Al Zamalek Player Ibrahim Shika Passes away after Long Battle with Cancer Videos & Features Tragedy Overshadows MC Alger Championship Celebration: One Fan Dead, 11 Injured After Stadium Fall Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Business Fear & Greed Index Plummets to Lowest Level Ever Recorded amid Global Trade War News "Tensions Escalate: Iran Probes Allegations of Indian Tech Collaboration with Israeli Intelligence" News Flights suspended at Port Sudan Airport after Drone Attacks Arts & Culture Hawass Foundation Launches 1st Course to Teach Ancient Egyptian Language Videos & Features Video: Trending Lifestyle TikToker Valeria Márquez Shot Dead during Live Stream
Los Angeles Times
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Your bones rattle': The thrill of chasing rocket launches in this California coastal town
The first time Gene Kozicki drove to Lompoc to see a rocket blast off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, it was night, and the whole scene reminded him of the movie 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind.' The road was blocked off. There were police. Flashing lights. A guy standing near Kozicki had a radio scanner, and they listened as a spartan voice counted down: Ten, nine, eight, seven … Over the hill, where the rocket was on the pad, all was dark. And then it wasn't. 'The sky lights up, and it's like daytime,' Kozicki said. 'This rocket comes up and then a few seconds later, the sound hits you. It's just this roar and rumble, and then it's a crackle. And then you look at it and you realize, this thing is not a movie. This thing is actually going into space.' Kozicki told me about that experience as we both stood atop a sand dune at Surf Beach, just outside Lompoc, waiting for a different rocket to launch. Through my binoculars I could see a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 on the pad at Vandenberg, with a Starlink satellite on top. SpaceX and other companies have been sending up more and more rockets in recent years, and Lompoc has become a day trip destination for aerospace aficionados. With Blue Origin sending up an all-female crew, including Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez, from West Texas in April and my social feeds full of pics of launches from California's Central Coast — not to mention SpaceX founder Elon Musk's preternatural ability to stay in the news — it seemed like everyone was talking about rockets, so I wanted to get as close to a liftoff as possible. I had driven to Surf Beach on the advice of Bradley Wilkinson, who runs the Facebook group Vandenberg Rocket Launches. When asked for the best spot to experience a launch, Wilkinson had responded, in the manner typical of connoisseurs, with questions of his own. 'Do you want to see it?' Wilkinson asked me. 'Do you want to feel it? Do you want to hear it?' If I had just wanted to see it, he said, I could do that easily from Los Angeles. If I picked a launch around twilight, I could even see the jellyfish effect that happens when sunlight reflects off the rocket plume. (People all across Southern California had that experience earlier this week.) But I wanted more. I wanted to hear and feel the launch, so I took off toward Vandenburg on a clear Friday afternoon, staying just ahead of traffic. Not everyone is a fan of the increased frequency of SpaceX launches. Beyond the many controversies surrounding the company's founder, there are concerns about the effects of sonic booms on the environment, and the California Coastal Commission has been battling SpaceX in court over the need for permits. Some Lompoc residents have complained about the effects of all that rumbling on their houses, but others, like Wilkinson, enjoy living so close to the action; he said he doesn't even bother straightening the pictures on the walls of his house anymore. As I drove up the coast, I kept checking the Facebook group for updates. Launches can be scrubbed for any number of reasons, and Wilkinson and other members of the group, including Kozicki, have become adept at reading signs: They track the weather; they watch the rocket's movement toward the pad; they monitor SpaceX's website and social media. I pulled into the Surf Beach parking lot about an hour before launch, and that's where I met Kozicki, chatting with a SpaceX engineer and her mother. The engineer was off the clock, but that didn't stop her mom from telling everyone, proudly, that her daughter worked at SpaceX. It became a refrain for the next hour: 'You should ask my daughter. She works at SpaceX.' 'Stop telling everyone I work at SpaceX!' From the top of the dunes, the four of us watched the launchpad for telltale signs of exhaust. I thought of how, thousands of miles away, crowds in St. Peter's Square had watched for white smoke with a similar feeling of anticipation. Other spectators soon crunched across the ice plants and joined us on our perch. Some of them had parked in a bigger lot to the north and followed the train tracks that ran parallel to the beach. The SpaceX engineer answered questions about rocket stages and landing burns. She was not authorized to speak to the media, but she shared her knowledge with everyone her mom sent her way. We all watched and waited. More people walked up the dunes, including Dan Tauber, who said he'd been motorcycling around the area with friends before deciding to break off from the group to experience the launch. 'You want to feel your bones rattle,' he said. 'So why not get as close as you can?' Kozicki announced to the group that we'd know the launch was about to happen — really about to happen — when we saw a deluge of water on the pad. Then it would be a matter of seconds before liftoff. Tauber and I sat together in the sand. We watched and waited. He had been a firefighter in San Francisco. He now lived in San Diego. We watched. We waited. A southbound Pacific Surfliner train pulled up alongside the parking lot. The railroad bell kept ringing, adding to the tension. 'Deluge!' shouted Kozicki. 'Deluge!' shouted the SpaceX engineer's mother. Three seconds later, ignition. Fire. Smoke. Liftoff. Cameras clicked. Someone shouted, 'Whoa!' I might've done the same. The sound of the rocket came next, just as Kozicki had described. Roar. Rumble. Crackle. Tauber leaned back and said, 'I'm just going to enjoy it. Take pictures for me.' The rocket rose in the blue sky. I managed to get a few pics, but the flames were so bright that my camera's settings went haywire. I put the camera down and watched the rocket go up, up, up. Then it was gone. Awestruck, I stood around, wanting more. I wasn't sure where to go afterwards. I knew I would be back. Start with a site like There are many reasons why a launch could get scrubbed, however, so Wilkinson suggests checking the Vandenberg Rocket Launches group about 12 hours before a liftoff is scheduled to see whether it's actually going to happen. The final authority for SpaceX launches would be If you just want to see the rocket, go outside when there's a liftoff scheduled for twilight or later. Depending on the weather, you should be able to see the rocket streaking across the Los Angeles sky. Surf Beach is a good spot, although the parking lot can fill up quickly. There is another parking lot to the north, at Ocean Park, about a 30-minute walk from Surf Beach. Wilkinson also recommended just parking along Ocean Avenue to feel the launch in your feet. 'There's more of a rumble out there,' he said. 'You can feel the vibration in the ground.' Other viewing spots, recommended by Explore Lompoc, include Santa Lucia Canyon Road & Victory Road; Harris Grade Road; and Marshallia Ranch Road. No matter where you park, be considerate of locals. That means no littering, and no middle-of-the-night tailgating. The roads can be crowded with cars and people, so take care whether driving or walking. If you're looking for food after the launch, I had a satisfying surf and turf burrito from Mariscos El Palmar (722 E. Ocean Ave) in Lompoc, right next to a bar called Pour Decisions. There's a renowned burger at Jalama Beach Store, where you can also view a launch. Jalama Beach County Park has many charms, but the cellular signal is spotty out there, so you'll likely have no way of knowing whether a launch has been scrubbed at the last minute. But you'll have a pretty drive either way. Looking to spend the night? The Village Inn (3955 Apollo Way) just opened and markets itself as being inspired by 'the golden age of space exploration.' If you're having a space day, might as well go all the way.
Los Angeles Times
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Dazed and amused, ‘Elio' is Pixar on a spaced-out psychedelic trip
'Elio' is a breezy Pixar adventure, the studio's pivot back to making original, rip-roaring children's yarns. Launched by 'Coco' co-director Adrian Molina and steered to completion by Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi, it's got a setup simpler than whatever credit negotiation happened behind the scenes. An 11-year-old boy, Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab), looks at the sky and wonders who's up there. This classic plot hook harkens back to 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and 'A Trip to the Moon,' and if I had to place a bet, it's the oldest story mankind's got. Depending on the era and zeitgeist, the heavenly strangers gazing down upon us in judgment could be anyone from Zeus to 'Dr. Who's' Zygons, and their interest in us capricious or cruel or kind. We've got lightyears' worth of these speculative tales. They're really asking: Does our species have value? In Elio's case, he's a recent orphan living with his aunt Olga (a warm and frazzled Zoe Saldaña), a major in the Space Force who monitors satellite debris (which the film convinces us is more exciting than it sounds). Everyone in the movie is surrounded by technology — radios, computers, monitors — and yet most of them seem disconnected. Olga thinks that alien chatter is for crackpots like her colleague Melmac (Brendan Hunt), so named for Alf's home planet. She's paused her own astronaut dreams to take care of her brooding nephew. In return, the boy wants little to do with her or any other earthling. Preteen Elio is on a misanthropic trajectory that, if not recalibrated, could result in him growing up to marry a pillow. When Olga takes Elio to a space museum, he falls in love with the solitary crusade of the Voyager probe whose golden record of wonders, curated by the astronomer Carl Sagan, is hurtling through the galaxy in search of someone who will listen. (Sagan's own voice is heard throughout the movie, though he goes uncredited.) Enthralled, Elio plops a colander on his head and pleads for aliens to touch down and 'take me with you — but not in a desperate way.' Elio doesn't do too much sulking before he's beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary take on the United Nations. He's not alone in the universe, but now he has to earn his place. From there, his quest vrooms at the pace of a Flash Gordon serial — or, for that matter, the first 'Toy Story.' Kids Elio's age have mostly seen Pixar rehash itself with sequels or hunt for Oscars in a therapist's couch (where lately it's been coming up with lint balls). Here, trauma is merely the framework, not the focus. The highfalutin prestige animation studio is signaling to the 'Minecraft' generation that they can do fun new movies too. The film's earthbound sequences boast staggeringly beautiful shots of the ocean under a night sky. But the galaxy above is a fractalized freak-out: a psychedelic rainbow of delights that makes you think that more than one animator has spent time grooving to Phish in a Berkeley dorm. (No doubt some of the grade-schoolers seeing the movie on opening weekend will, a decade from now, watch it again in their dorms under heightened circumstances.) Multiple extraterrestrials appear inspired by a lava lamp. Others resemble wireless earbuds and stress balls and decks of cards, the type of creature design that might happen when you're in your own alternate dimension grokking at the stuff on your dresser. I'm not casting aspersions on anyone's sobriety, I'm just noting that Pixar was founded on musing, 'What if my lamp could jump?' Elio will befriend Glordon (Remy Edgerly), a larval goofball from the Crab Nebula who has a dozen wiggling limbs with various protuberances. Off-planet, the boy readily drops his defensive shields and opens himself to the excitement that's been promised since the epic opening notes of Rob Simonsen's eclectic score. In a sequence set to a Krautrock-esque banger, Elio and Glordon enjoy a montage that's essentially a teaser for an amusement park experience that's probably already in its drafting stage, with the buddies frolicking in waterslides and chugging a beverage called Glorp, styled so that it can be readily re-created with boba. As ever, everything is tethered to what our earthbound brains can imagine. Even the names Glordon and Glorp might be a nod to the Voyager's known flight plan, which in 40,000 years is expected to have its first-ever close encounter with a star named Gliese 445. Bonding with the miscellaneous beings of the Communiverse does spur Elio to be nicer to Olga, but admirably, the script (credited to Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones) doesn't take the easy escape hatch of sending the earth boy into the beyond only to realize that everywhere else is even worse. Space isn't the enemy. If anything, space is too nice. Most of the aliens Elio meets insist that they believe in tolerance and open-mindedness. You're waiting for that to be a big lie, but it's not. Voiced by Jameela Jamil, Shirley Henderson, Atsuko Okatsuka and Matthias Schweighöfer, they can get a tad snippy, but otherwise these galactic Neville Chamberlains cower when a bruiser named Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), who stomps around on thick metal legs, lands on their base spoiling for a fight. The cartoon well calibrates its PG thrills to give kids a mild case of the shivers. More spunky than saccharine, Elio spends most of the film wearing a bandage over a black eye. Back home, he's pursued through the woods by masked bullies (and when he gets an opportunity, he kicks one of them in the head). In space, Elio stumbles across adorable skeletons and shimmies through gacky pipes. Meanwhile, Lord Grigon's dastardly hobby is skeet-shooting fragile, flowerlike critters. When hit, these living daisies don't die — they're just pitifully embarrassed to lose their petals. It's refreshing to see a romp this spry. 'Elio' isn't trying to reinvent the spaceship — it's after the puppyish charm of sticking your head out the window as marvels whiz past. Some of my favorite gags just sparked to life for an instant, like an all-knowing supercomputer who is a bit put out that Elio accesses its wisdom simply to learn how to fight. It's offering to teach our species the meaning of life; we want the art of war. 'Why should an advanced society wish to expend the effort to communicate such information to a backward, emerging, novice civilization like our own?' Carl Sagan wrote in his 1973 book, 'The Cosmic Connection.' Yet more than half of Americans believe that aliens exist. A third think they've already come to visit. Like Elio, we yearn for cosmic validation. The great scientist wouldn't have put 'Elio' on his golden record. It's a trifle, not a cultural touchstone. But while Pixar has anthropomorphized ants and rats and cars and dolls and emotions, this lonely boy feels stirringly human. Yes, the movie says, go ahead and look for connection up in the sky or under your feet. But also seek it out in each other.
Time of India
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Prasad Film Labs and Belgium's Barco launch world's largest ‘HDR by Barco' colour grading facility at Chennai studio
If you were to watch the remastered editions of Steven Spielberg's 'ET' or 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' in an HDR-ready theatre today, chances are you might end up squinting while viewing sequences depicting the arrival of the extra-terrestrial motherships on planet Earth, shielding your eyes from the blinding spotlights emanating from the fuselages. For Gen Z arrivals, the nearest equivalent might be the 'daybreak on Earth as seen from outer space' sequence from Alfonso Cuaron's 'Gravity'. Among those pushing the envelope of cinematic immersiveness via post-production, is city-based Prasad Film Labs, which recently joined hands with Barco, a technology company headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium. The two companies have together launched India's, and Asia's first, and the world's largest 'HDR by Barco' colour grading facility at Prasad's Chennai studio. What does the Barco collaboration mean for the filmgoing experience? Abhishek Prasad Akkeneni, CTO – Prasad Corporation (P) Ltd, began by speaking about the company's journey in the colour grading space. "We were among the first adopters of the Digital Intermediate (DI or colour grading) technology in India. One of the first films we worked on while employing DI was the Bollywood blockbuster 'Khakee'. The process of colour grading is the last part of post production, and it employs some of the most highly-trained professionals in the industry. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 2025 Top Trending Local Enterprise Accounting Software [Click Here] Accounting ERP Click Here Undo These are technicians with a deep understanding of colour science and film grammar," he tells us. Prasad's grading suite is equipped with Barco's HDR Lightsteering technology toolkit, including its proprietary HDR Lightbox and LS4K-P HDR Lightsteering projector. The suite features a large 51-foot screen and the country's longest throw-distance in a DI suite. It enables colourists to work in a theatrical, larger-than-life setting, as opposed to performing colour correction and mastering for cinema and OTT deliverables on conventional large-format HD screens. In India, close to 1,500 films are churned out every year. So, post production is big business. And the work that goes into the 'post' of tentpole films starring A-listers is staggering. "Some of the biggest features, and tentpole films of the year take nothing less than 300 hours for colour grading. Between Prasad's three post production suites in Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad, we work on anywhere between 30 and 40 features a month," says Akkeneni. The grading for HDR for two major releases has already begun at the Prasad facility here. Colour grading might be only the tip of the iceberg, as Barco had made another major announcement earlier in May. The company inked a multi-year agreement with Chennai-based Qube Cinema, to deploy HDR by Barco in premium multiplexes across India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Moviegoers in these markets can expect at least 10 new HDR-ready theatres per year in the coming years, with all locations in the deal deployed by 2030.
