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Epoch Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
‘The Medusa Protocol': Hugs, Not Guns
'The Medusa Protocol' is the second in a series of thriller novels about professional assassins attempting to forge better paths in life by using the Alcoholics Anonymous model. The novel isn't a satirical commentary or a Frederick Forsyth or Gregg Hurwitz-style thriller. Mined for Memories The first book in the series, 'Assassins Anonymous,' centered on Mark, professionally known as 'Pale Horse.' He tries to redeem himself and avoid being killed by people from his past. Its sequel, 'The Medusa Protocol,' shifts back and forth between the perspectives of Mark and his would-be love interest, another assassin named Astrid. 'The Medusa Protocol' begins with Astrid waking up in a cell, having been roughly abducted and shipped to an unknown international location. Stoic professional henchmen are everywhere; the newly constructed cell suggests they are looking to hold her captive for a long time. They also blare 'Come On, Eileen' by Dexys Midnight Runners from hidden speakers for hours on end. The future doesn't look promising for Astrid.
Tom's Guide
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
This tiny speaker can screw onto any regular-sized bottle — and I can guarantee you've never seen anything like it before
Picture this: three friends go on a night out in Oslo, Norway. At some point in the night, they come up with an idea, wondering what would happen if you screwed a speaker onto a regular-sized bottle. They head on over to an electronics store and proceed to drill into a speaker and attach it to a bottle. To their surprise, it works, and they think, "Hey, what if we created a low-cost, lightweight, compact speaker that could make music sound much louder by simply using a bottle?" That's the story behind the Sodapop Bluetooth speaker, and no, I wasn't lying when I said it's unlike anything you've ever seen before. But surely, like me, you've put your smartphone in a glass or cup to try and make its speaker sound louder. That's basically the concept behind the Sodapop! The Sodapop Bluetooth speaker sports a unique design accompanied by a plastic bottle meant to amplify the volume and bass response. It's highly portable and boasts long battery life. Vocals sound clear with plenty of detail, making it great for acoustic tracks. But is it practical, does it work? Or is it a mere gimmick? I spent a week testing the Sodapop and (spoiler alert) it impressed me with its tiny size but loud sound — and surprisingly clear and detailed vocals! Here's why this could be the hottest speaker of the summer... The Sodapop Bluetooth speaker is made up of two things: the speaker, measuring 3.81 x 2.36 x 2.36 inches, and a hard plastic bottle, measuring 6.1 x 2.87 x 2.87 inches. The speaker sits inside the bottle, so you need to twist off the base to take it out, twist the base back on, remove the bottle cap, and screw the speaker onto the bottle. What this, basically, does is amplify the volume and increases the bass by 10 decibels, according to Sodapop. There's also a passive radiator in the bottle's twist-off base to aid that. Innovative, right? What's even cooler is that you can screw the speaker onto any regular-sized bottle. I tried it with a plastic Coca Cola bottle and a glass Heineken bottle, and it worked like a charm. It makes for a cool party trick too. The speaker sounds extremely different when it's enclosed within the bottle, when it's playing on its own, and when it's screwed onto a bottle. In the office, I watched everyone's faces go from 🤨 to 😮 when I first set up the Sodapop! Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. So, what kind of music is the Sodapop Bluetooth speaker best for? You can listen to any genre you like, of course, but should you? This is a tiny speaker, so don't expect it to reproduce earth-shattering basslines. Its inability to make heavy rock, metal and electronic sound accurate left me feeling shortchanged when I tested the speaker — but it absolutely shines when it comes to acoustic, vocal-heavy tracks. Give Lana Del Rey's 'Henry, Come On' or Paris Paloma's 'Labour' a spin and you'll see what I mean. There's a great level of detail in vocals, as I was able to hear the vibrato and high notes never sounded piercing. Background vocalists harmonize extremely well too. If you're a fan of a percussion/string instrument like the piano too, you'll enjoy tracks like 'Piano Man' by Billy Joel and 'Another Love' by Tom Odell, as every piano note is easily discernible. The Sodapop is a great speaker for light music, and thanks to the bottle design, it can go very loud. So loud, in fact, that I could see the frame of my MacBook vibrating when the speaker was playing on my desk. So no, the Sodapop isn't exactly a gimmick. Screwing the speaker onto a bottle makes it sound much louder and makes bass sound deeper. Use the speaker without a bottle and bass will sound very tinny and almost non-existent, so having a plastic bottle handy is crucial to this speaker sounding good. It's also really fun watching the passive radiator vibrating when music is playing. If you want a Bluetooth speaker that looks different from all the other black, white, boring speakers out there, I'd recommend the Sodapop. It's sure to turn heads, and people will be wondering why your bottle sounds so loud. Would you buy this speaker? Let me know in the comments below!
Glasgow Times
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Lana Del Rey has heartfelt message for Glasgow fans
The American pop icon performed to a packed crowd at the Southside stadium on June 26, delivering a night filled with unforgettable hits. Fans were treated to stirring performances of favourites including Henry, Come On, and a cover of Tammy Wynette's classic Stand By Your Man, as the singer lit up the venue with her signature enchanting vocals. READ MORE: I saw Lana Del Rey at Glasgow's Hampden Park - my verdict Following the show, the Summertime Sadness hitmaker took to Instagram to express love for the "phenomenal" Glasgow audience. Sharing a series of images featuring her fans at the concert, she captioned the post: 'Glasgow, you were absolutely phenomenal. You had us smiling the whole time through. Miss ya. Mean it.' READ MORE: 'Absolute chaos': Residents fume as roads clogged after Lana Del Rey concert The post quickly garnered thousands of likes, with the comments section overflowing with admiration from fans who were at by the performance. One fan wrote: 'Attending your concert made me feel happy to be alive 🤍 Your music is simply magic. Thank you, Lana.' Another commented: 'I will miss this forever.' A third added: 'I miss you already, my love. You were amazing!' READ MORE: Lana Del Rey fans camp out for 27 hours at Hampden 'to be close to her aura' Many fans queued for over 24 hours to secure a prime spot at the gig. Concertgoers travelled from across the country and beyond to attend the 40-year-old's performance. Some had also attended her Cardiff show on Monday, 23 June, where the tour officially began, and were following her from city to city.
Scotsman
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Lana Del Rey, Glasgow review: 'an unlikely pop superstar'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Lana Del Rey, Hampden Park, Glasgow ★★★★ In a deliberate diva move, Lana Del Rey arrived onstage 45 minutes after her published stage time - almost as late as her long promised forthcoming country-flavoured tenth album. In the meantime there was a soundtrack of old school country classics to enjoy and a Little House on the Prairie stage set to absorb, soon to be populated by the band in the paddock, string section in the woodshed and backing singers on the swing, the scale and theatricality somehow resolving the conundrum of how to make Del Rey's intoxicating front porch/fireside sound into a stadium show. Lana Del Rey performing at Hampden Park, Glasgow, 26 June 2025 | Roberto Ricciuti There was also Del Rey's diffidence as a performer to contend with. She milked her entrance with shadowplay behind the shutters but her fragile, feathery voice sounded lovely if hesitant on new songs Stars Fell Over Alabama and Henry, Come On. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She is in a country-loving city - one in which she lived for a time – so her timid, tasteful rendition of karaoke standard Stand By Your Man was well received. She warmed up with the floaty Chemtrails Over the Country Club before the band got stuck in to Ultraviolence, the heftiest song in the set. By this point, there were pole dancers in the yard and a ballerina on the roof. Lana Del Rey performs at Hampden Park, Glasgow, 26 June 2025 | Roberto Ricciuti Del Rey took to the garden rope swing for the spine-tingling Video Games, the song that started the cult. She remains an unlikely pop superstar – what other artist at her level would use Bernard Hermann's Vertigo score or Allen Ginsberg's Howl at key points in a stadium show, or chose to end her concert with an unreleased song followed by a mass wispy singalong to John Denver's miraculously revived cheesy classic Take Me Home, Country Roads?
The Herald Scotland
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Lana Del Rey at Hampden, Glasgow review: does it work?
When her stadium tour was announced Del Rey said she'd be releasing a new album to coincide with the dates, but like the singer herself tonight that 10th studio album is fashionably late. The word is it'll see her make a foray into country music and that's certainly reflected in the staging, band members dressed like Conway Twitty standing in front of a prairie house from which the star attraction emerges to deafening screams. Read More: After opener 'Stars Fell on Alabama', a cut from that upcoming album, Del Rey waves demurely to the crowd and says, "you are so special, Glasgow, I had my year here, I love it here." Sure, sure, they all say that, but in this case the singer isn't just handing out platitudes. Her erstwhile producer and ex-beau Barrie-James O'Neill is a Glaswegian and there was a time when there was a decent chance of catching a glimpse of the pop superstar in Òran Mór or Shawlands Co-op. Second song 'Henry, Come On' was only released in April but is clearly already a fan favourite, with gasps of breath and clutching of arms greeting its opening chords. That, really, is the key to making this whole thing work. Del Rey's breathy vocals and her band's tasteful plucking could easily get lost in this vast concrete bowl but they're bolstered by a crowd singing every word back at them with starry-eyed adoration. A cover of Tammy Wynette's 'Stand By Your Man' is something of an odd choice, The Blues Brothers having taken it to country parody status at least three decades ago, and there's a good chunk of the audience which clearly doesn't know the song but they're all back on board for 'Chemtrails Over the Country Club' and an anthemic 'Ultraviolence', the latter of which sees the stadium lit up red and white. Lana Del Rey performs at Hampden Park in Glasgow (Image: Roberto Ricciuti) It has, somehow, been 14 years since Del Rey announced herself to the world with 'Video Games' but the song sounds as fresh as ever and when the crowd are invited to take over vocals it's deafening. There follows a brief interlude where the singer disappears from view and appears as a projection on the windows of her prairie house, and later there's a - quite frankly too long - break where a hologram version of Lana recites an Allen Ginsberg poem and the aforementioned abode symbolically burns. You briefly begin to wonder, again, if this can actually work on such a massive level but then she returns with 'Young and Beautiful', 'Summertime Sadness' and 'Born to Die' and of course it does - 50,000 adoring fans can't be wrong. It's testament to Del Rey that she can hold such an audience in the palm of her hand as she finishes with an unreleased song and a cover of 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'. This one everyone does know, and hands are in the air throughout as the singer descends from the stage to hug, kiss and take selfies with those in the front row. There's nothing intimate about Hampden but she makes it feel that way, the band dutifully playing on for what must have been 15 minutes of glad-handing. One could argue that time might have been better spent doing another couple of songs, it's a short set at a time when Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are doing three hours plus, but no-one seems to be complaining. As a closer it's the show in microcosm. Del Rey is actually on stage for 14 songs, two of which are covers and three of which are unreleased. Her biggest songs are baroque ballads or minimalist Americana. On paper none of this should work in a stadium setting. But it does, it really does.
