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Daily Mirror
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Baffled Elvis fans dub 'embarrassing' event the 'new Willy Wonka experience'
Fans have blasted Elvis Evolution in East London, claiming a cardboard cut-out of the rock 'n' roll legend on a surfboard was among the bizarre sights at the "really strange" event Elvis Presley fans were "all shook up" with anger as they compared an immersive AI event to the infamous Willy Wonka experience. Zoe Finch, 62, and sister Linzi Naldrett, 59, called the event at East London's Excel exhibition centre a cringe fest after being invited to a preview show. Elvis Evolution, which went live on July 18, promised to bring the King of Rock 'n' Roll back to life as a hip swivelling, lip curling hologram and transport fans through key moments of his life using cutting-edge digital technology, live actors and musicians. Organisers say the event has been a hit with Elvis lovers and it's not intended to be a traditional concert or hologram show, but a major scale production that "joyfully celebrates" the Heartbreak Hotel singer. But nurse Zoe said: "I'm a huge Elvis fan, I even have a tattoo so when Linzi said she had tickets, I couldn't wait to go. From the publicity they're putting out, they're making it sound revolutionary and amazing, but it really wasn't. It was just really strange." Zoe, who was in London visiting her family from Australia, said she was "super excited" when sister Linzi told her she had tickets for the event, which promised to relive his most iconic moments. Fans were told AI and holographic technology would breathe new life into decades old footage of his famous Comeback Special, which originally aired on tv in the US in 1968 and a year later on the BBC in the UK. It was the first time he had performed live after a seven-year period during which he focused on his film appearances. But Zoe and Linzi said the "bizarre" experience seemed to focus more on Elvis' childhood friend Sam Bell, who leads the audience through the story and is one of a cast of 28 characters played by four actors. They said that after starting the experience in a diner, they were "herded onto a train carriage" where they were blasted with dried ice before the cast began telling the story with "dodgy American accents". From there, they were transported into a cocktail bar for an unannounced interval where they were given half an hour to buy "extortionate" drinks before the main event, the recreating of the NBC studio gig. Zoe said: "The story was more about this supposed lost friend of Elvis, nothing they produced was new to me. If you're an Elvis fan, there's nothing in it that you've not seen before. Even the set at the end was just footage of the show which you couldn't see any way because of the three musicians stood on stage in front of it. Linzi, a carer from London, said there were parts of the experience that she suffered "second hand embarrassment for the actors" taking part. She had paid £75 for tickets originally, but was offered preview tickets after the show was delayed by months and said parts of it reminded her of the doomed Willy Wonka experience, which made global headlines in 2024. She told the Daily Star: "We were told we were 'going back to 1948' and all the parts were played by the same actors. I'm not sure where the AI immersive aspect came into it. We were taken to this Blue Hawaii cocktail bar, totally out of context, and it turned out it was an interval and you could buy cocktails at £15 a go. "The staff said you can have your picture with Elvis and it was a cardboard cut-out of him on a surfboard. It did remind me of 'the unknown' from the Willy Wonka event, but I think it was better overall than that, they'd put more effort into it." Linzi said she was also disappointed with the grand finale of the show, adding: "All it is is a projection on the back wall of the 1968 show, which you can buy on DVD or watch on iPlayer. "There was an afterparty at the 'All shook up' bar, but I just headed to the exit. I was shaken to the core, but for all the wrong reasons. We just went outside and looked at each other and said: 'What was that?' At one point, I just had second hand embarrassment for the actors dancing and there was a few young girls in tears of laughter at how awkward it all was." Not everyone was critical, however, as some social media influencers also invited to preview shows gave it glowing reviews. Photographer Charles Moriarty wrote: "If you love @elvis go check out @elvisevolution, which has just opened in London, congrats to all the folk behind the scenes on this. It's a great way to experience the man himself." Kirstine Spicer described it as: "A full-blown immersive show with live music, retro sets and a big dose of nostalgia. Walk through key moments of his life, with a cocktail pitstop at the Blue Hawaii, before ending the night with a proper boogie at the All Shook Up bar." A spokesperson for Elvis Evolution: 'Elvis Evolution has been praised by Elvis fans and newcomers alike — but it's not a traditional concert or hologram show. From the outset of development, we made a deliberate decision to explore the most powerful and authentic ways to tell Elvis' story. "This major scale production brings together a cast of 28 performers and over 300 skilled professionals across design, production, and visual effects. "Elvis Evolution is a multisensory experience, where technology plays a powerful supporting role — but the show doesn't attempt to recreate Elvis' performances. Instead, it joyfully celebrates the ones he gave us. We're incredibly proud of what's been created, and of how it's reconnecting people with Elvis in new and meaningful ways.'
Daily Mail
12-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Vermont village to move in bid to avoid more flood devastation
A charming village in Vermont plans to move to a new location in a bid to avoid more devastation after it was ravaged by a pair of forceful floods two years in a row. Plainfield - about 15 minutes outside of Montpelier - was rocked by an intense flood on July 10, 2023, and exactly one year later, another hit the area. More than $1 billion worth of damage was left behind and hundreds were left homeless as a result of the intense floods. Organizers hope to pay for the new $5 million plan, dubbed the East Village Expansion Project, with federal disaster recovery funds. It would connect the town's sewer, water and wastewater systems to the new spot. Locals would then purchase the parcels and build 400-square-foot cottages on them, with some of them getting assistance from affordable housing agencies to do so. So far, 50 people have expressed interest in buying and building on the 30-60 potential lots, organizers told The Boston Globe. Arion Thiboumery, a local who owns Plainfield's iconic Heartbreak Hotel (pictured) that was also destroyed in the floods, is helping run the initiative. 'This felt like something we could actually do to be more in control of our own destiny, rather than be a flood victim with no agency,' Thiboumery, one of the co-chair's, told the outlet. In 2023, Heartbreak Hotel - a 140-year-old building known for housing deserted lovers and millworkers in affordable apartments - was left with a flooded basement. Meanwhile, the three to nine inches of rainfall soaked the state, leaving several houses in Plainfield damaged. Just a year later, Hurricane Beryl brought up to seven inches of rain, causing immense destruction to the area and the building. A slew of debris soon piled up and formed a logjam, or blockage from logs, at the bridge located just upstream from Heartbreak Hotel. A side of the bridge soon collapsed, leaving a massive wall of water to tear through a majority of the structure. At the time, twelve people were living in the property, but managed to escape. Unfortunately, the five cats that also dwelled there did not survive. 'It was really a cinematic event,' Michael Billingsley, Plainfield's volunteer emergency management director, told the outlet. Hope Metcalf, a resident who was living in the building that dreadful day with her two children, recalled the dramatic scenes. After hearing a 'big crack,' the three of them made a run for their car to escape, she said. To this day, she said her children, now 11 and eight years old, are fearful when storms roll around. 'Every time there's a thunderstorm or heavy rain, they get worried,' Metcalf said. She and her family are currently living in a rental home upstream, but that property was also hit by flood water last July. It is currently on the list of structures the state hopes to buy with federal funding and eventually demolish due to its massive flood risk. Following last year's flood, 42 residents in Plainfield lost housing, Billingsley said. In 2023 and 2024, 28 homes were destroyed and currently sit on Vermont's buyout list. 'People who love Plainfield want to see it thrive,' Lauren Geiger, a local, said. 'Having this rise up out of the flood and from local residents is just a beautiful thing.' While many are excited for what the future holds in Plainfield, some are a bit weary just how far this volunteer project could go. 'The joke is we're gonna just not have July 10 this year,' Patricia Moulton, the state's flood recovery officer, joked. Still, Moulton worries just how long volunteers could keep this plan alive. 'I think it's exciting what they're doing. Is it sustainable in the long term to have volunteers do all this work? I'm not sure,' she stated. For instance, Biilingsley, a 79-year-old full-time volunteer, told the outlet he is not sure how much longer he can be in the role. 'It's past the point of being reasonable. It's just how much can I put up with,' he admitted. Riley Carson, a former select board chair, echoed these concerns and is worried about what issues might arise with the new plan. 'My real concern is that they haven't shown that they understand the complexity and pitfalls that come with it,' Carson said. 'There's just so much rush and so much pressure to get this done.' Metcalf has a backup plan in case the project doesn't work in her family's favor and their current rental gets bought. 'I'm not gonna wait around for that. I need to find a place to live now. Right now,' she said.
The Age
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Melbourne doesn't give up its secrets easily. This festival is delving below its surface
Swingers gave us a free lesson in the feminist history of minigolf, founded in 19th-century Scotland by ladies unamused at being excluded from golf courses (through constricting fashions as much as the misogyny of the age). The more traditional performing arts program held its own, too. International theatre threw up some creative engagement with Shakespeare. Peru's Teatro de la Plaza offered a fierce and joyful deconstruction of Hamlet from an ensemble of actors with Down syndrome, on par with our own Back to Back Theatre, while the experimental UK company Forced Entertainment pared Shakespeare down to the bone, condensing the plots of the Bard's complete works into hour-long episodes, narrated by a single performer using only household items. I found the disarming break-up show Heartbreak Hotel from Aotearoa New Zealand oddly comforting in its curated messiness and was pleased to see some hotly anticipated Australian theatre. The follow-up to Counting and Cracking, S. Shakthidharan's The Wrong Gods, didn't have the same epic sweep as the previous play, but it certainly held the stage with poised intensity. Set in a remote valley in India, this tale of environmental and economic disaster, and resistance to it, laid bare the incommensurable values of global capitalism and indigenous ways of life with dramatic economy and four charismatic performances. It had a gravitas that the hell-bound comedy of cultural collision from Merlynn Tong and Joe Paradise Lui, LEGENDS (of the Golden Arches), did everything in its power to avoid … with flamboyant lo-fi success. Performance from Latin America had been radically underrepresented in Melbourne until Brazilian artist Carolina Bianchi's searing Cadela Força Trilogy (Bitch Power Trilogy) at last year's Rising. That work found a radical companion in Kill Me, from Argentine choreographer Marina Otero – a piece of autobiographical avant-garde dance theatre which transformed naked outrage and mental ill-health into a frenetic carnival of deranged theatricality. Contemporary dance shone as a vehicle for otherwise silenced or inexpressible lived experience. Botis Seva's BLKDOG combined street dance with haunting and vigorous modern choreography, embodying the struggle against abjection in the face of the surreal recursions of childhood trauma. Indigenous resistance was powerfully alive in Joel Bray's MONOLITH, a brilliant work for five women that played with the pareidolia of seeing human figures in ancient rock formations. Starting with hallucinatory living tableaux of bodies slowly writhing and intertwined with each other, suggesting connection between ancestors and Country, the piece shifted to embrace steely defiance in the face of colonialism and discrimination, with an ambiguously symbolic, yet sensual, finale that returned us to a vision of shared humanity over atomised individualism. Our dance critic, Andrew Fuhrmann, gave it five stars. He wasn't wrong. It is impossible to see everything at Rising – I was out almost every night and barely touched the sides of the huge music program – but I did catch Beth Gibbons at Hamer Hall. Best known for her work with trip-hop pioneers Portishead, the ethereal Gibbons held us spellbound with a set from her 2024 solo album and indulged fans with the Portishead classic, Glory Box, at encore. My bucket list is shorter now. Loading No one could deny that Rising has experienced growing pains. It was interrupted by the pandemic, which wreaked havoc on Melbourne , and looked like the awkward child of Dark Mofo and some half-realised international arts festival as it tried to find its feet. It is true, too, that Rising doesn't have the same clear raison d'etre as arts festivals in cities such as Perth or Adelaide. Remote places tend to have bigger and more distinguished festivals out of cultural necessity. Still, in 2025, Melbourne can be proud to embrace a festival that gives every sign of having matured into an assured, aesthetically distinctive and culturally diverse event, with both popular and underground appeal.
Sydney Morning Herald
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Melbourne doesn't give up its secrets easily. This festival is delving below its surface
Swingers gave us a free lesson in the feminist history of minigolf, founded in 19th-century Scotland by ladies unamused at being excluded from golf courses (through constricting fashions as much as the misogyny of the age). The more traditional performing arts program held its own, too. International theatre threw up some creative engagement with Shakespeare. Peru's Teatro de la Plaza offered a fierce and joyful deconstruction of Hamlet from an ensemble of actors with Down syndrome, on par with our own Back to Back Theatre, while the experimental UK company Forced Entertainment pared Shakespeare down to the bone, condensing the plots of the Bard's complete works into hour-long episodes, narrated by a single performer using only household items. I found the disarming break-up show Heartbreak Hotel from Aotearoa New Zealand oddly comforting in its curated messiness and was pleased to see some hotly anticipated Australian theatre. The follow-up to Counting and Cracking, S. Shakthidharan's The Wrong Gods, didn't have the same epic sweep as the previous play, but it certainly held the stage with poised intensity. Set in a remote valley in India, this tale of environmental and economic disaster, and resistance to it, laid bare the incommensurable values of global capitalism and indigenous ways of life with dramatic economy and four charismatic performances. It had a gravitas that the hell-bound comedy of cultural collision from Merlynn Tong and Joe Paradise Lui, LEGENDS (of the Golden Arches), did everything in its power to avoid … with flamboyant lo-fi success. Performance from Latin America had been radically underrepresented in Melbourne until Brazilian artist Carolina Bianchi's searing Cadela Força Trilogy (Bitch Power Trilogy) at last year's Rising. That work found a radical companion in Kill Me, from Argentine choreographer Marina Otero – a piece of autobiographical avant-garde dance theatre which transformed naked outrage and mental ill-health into a frenetic carnival of deranged theatricality. Contemporary dance shone as a vehicle for otherwise silenced or inexpressible lived experience. Botis Seva's BLKDOG combined street dance with haunting and vigorous modern choreography, embodying the struggle against abjection in the face of the surreal recursions of childhood trauma. Indigenous resistance was powerfully alive in Joel Bray's MONOLITH, a brilliant work for five women that played with the pareidolia of seeing human figures in ancient rock formations. Starting with hallucinatory living tableaux of bodies slowly writhing and intertwined with each other, suggesting connection between ancestors and Country, the piece shifted to embrace steely defiance in the face of colonialism and discrimination, with an ambiguously symbolic, yet sensual, finale that returned us to a vision of shared humanity over atomised individualism. Our dance critic, Andrew Fuhrmann, gave it five stars. He wasn't wrong. It is impossible to see everything at Rising – I was out almost every night and barely touched the sides of the huge music program – but I did catch Beth Gibbons at Hamer Hall. Best known for her work with trip-hop pioneers Portishead, the ethereal Gibbons held us spellbound with a set from her 2024 solo album and indulged fans with the Portishead classic, Glory Box, at encore. My bucket list is shorter now. Loading No one could deny that Rising has experienced growing pains. It was interrupted by the pandemic, which wreaked havoc on Melbourne , and looked like the awkward child of Dark Mofo and some half-realised international arts festival as it tried to find its feet. It is true, too, that Rising doesn't have the same clear raison d'etre as arts festivals in cities such as Perth or Adelaide. Remote places tend to have bigger and more distinguished festivals out of cultural necessity. Still, in 2025, Melbourne can be proud to embrace a festival that gives every sign of having matured into an assured, aesthetically distinctive and culturally diverse event, with both popular and underground appeal.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Loneliness as deadly as obesity and smoking pack a day, top health expert warns
Elvis Presley sang it in Heartbreak Hotel and now a top voice in American health says the classic song's chorus has become an alarming reality: Americans are feeling so lonely, they could die. Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. Surgeon General, is warning that the negative health impacts of chronic loneliness are comparable to some of the nation's biggest killers. 'The overall mortality increase that can be related to social disconnection is comparable to the mortality impact of smoking and obesity,' he told NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday. 'That's how powerful and how important loneliness is.' He cautioned that loneliness and isolation can raise people's risk for dangerous health conditions Murthy astonishingly said he found that chronic loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. 'Well, it turns out that our connection with one another, this is not just a nice thing to have, it's biologically an imperative for us,' he said. 'It's something we need for survival, just like we need food and water.' Raising awareness about the loneliness and isolation epidemic was a large part of his work during the Biden administration, releasing an advisory to call attention to the issue in 2023. The guidance included a six-pronged plan of action, including to enact pro-connection policies, reform digital environments, conduct more related research, and cultivate a culture of connection. Murthy said then that the consequences of poor social connection with others include a 29 percent increased risk of heart disease, a 32 percent increased risk of stroke, a 50 percent increased risk of developing dementia for older adults, and a 60 percent increased risk of premature death. It is also connected to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Those were only some of the physical repercussions. In addition, the risk of depression among people who report feeling lonely is more than twice that of those who rarely or never feel lonely. Loneliness and social isolation in childhood also increase the risk of depression and anxiety. In the U.S., about one in three adults report feeling lonely and around one in four report not having social and emotional support, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Certain people and groups are more at-risk, including low-income adults, young adults, older adults, adults living alone, immigrants, people with a mental or physical challenge, people who are victims of violence or abuse, people facing the loss of a love one or unemployment, and people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Murthy said that kids struggle the most. 'We tend to think, 'Oh. Kids are on social media. That's great because they're connected to one another.' But, no, we have to recognize there's a difference between the connections you have online and the connections you have in person,' Murthy said. As more relationships have shifted online, more kids are struggling with an 'intense' culture of comparison, are trying to be people they're not, and don't have as many in-person friendships as we need. 'One student [who] I talked to at a college, as I was traveling the country, he said to me ... 'How are we supposed to connect with one another when it's no longer the culture for people to talk to each other?'' Murthy recalled. 'And, I saw that on college campuses,' he said. A national survey from Harvard University previously found that 73 percent of those surveyed selected technology as contributing to loneliness in the country. 'Parents do have good reason to be worried right now,' Murthy added.
