Gina Yashere has had one crazy year.
When it comes to intricate stunts and standout musical numbers, The Greatest Showman definitely knows how to please, but if audiences are looking for well-developed characters or storylines, they might want to look elsewhere.
We open the third and final installment in the Pitch Perfect franchise “somewhere in the South of France,” where the ever familiar Barden Bellas are performing a characteristically charming a capella rendition of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ on a yacht for a group of unhumorous businessman.
Some of our favorite Barden Bellas joined an early NYC screening of Universal Pictures’ “Pitch Perfect 3″ at iPic, where they took part in a lively Q&A with the audience.
The viral British-Norwegian DJ/producer Alan Walker, the artist behind the hits ‘Faded’ and ‘Alone’ recently celebrated the success of his new single ‘All Falls Down’ and reaching 10 million YouTube subscribers with a special performance at the YouTube Space in New York.
Alan Walker in NYC
He was joined at the performance with his collaborators on the track, Noah Cyrus and Juliander. Since the release of ‘All Falls Down’ back in October, the song has garnered over 31 million Spotify streams and the music video has received almost 40 million views. At just 20 years old Walker, who got his own start on YouTube, has quickly become one of the world’s most in-demand DJs. We got the chance to sit down with the artist and discuss his success, and his process creating his newest hit:
How did you celebrate your 10 million subscribers on your own?
Alan Walker: So far this has been the proper celebration, I haven’t really had time to do anything else! I was just home watching the live subscriber count, it was surreal, you can’t understand how big it really is. It’s outstanding and I’m forever thankful to everyone that’s subscribing.
You’ve had such a crazy year, you were on a billboard in Times Square, what was that like?
Alan Walker: It’s crazy! It’s so much you can’t really understand it, there’s so much to take in. I’m forever honored and forever thankful for each and every one that’s been supporting me so far, without them it wouldn’t have been impossible.
Obviously you got your start on YouTube, so what’s it like being back at the YouTube offices performing your hit song?
Alan Walker: It feels like after giving back, at the same time I’m giving to them. I feel like that’s amazing. Just being here at the Youtube space in New York is outstanding, it’s something that I never ever thought would happen. Also performing here with Noah Cyrus and Juliander is amazing.
How would you compare performing here and at a festival?
Alan Walker: Here we’re recording and everything and we’re just performing one song, so that’s kind of different. At the same time we’ve invited a couple fans, flew someone in from Germany, and I feel like it’s really kind of more personal, and the connection between me and my fans, and also with Noah Cyrus and Juliander, off the song, they’re all here to also support and also celebrate the 10 million mark.
What’s been your favorite fan interaction from today?
Alan Walker: I think the craziest experience so far has probably been like every time I’ve gone to China there’s been this same girl, she’s been meeting me all around no matter what city, I actually don’t know where she is from. She can’t speak English but she always greets me with a book, this time she actually gave me a book in Chinese, also along with that she gave me a book kind of like a diary, it was just a bunch of pictures from my social media. And that’s not the first time, it’s like the 3rd or 4th time that she’s done it and she’s including every photo from my Instagram, and some photos from my Snapchat just compiled together in one book, it’s pretty cool. I would say that’s one of the weirdest or coolest examples, it’s indescribable.
How did you collaborate with Noah and Digital Farm Animals on [‘All Falls Down’]
Alan Walker: It all started when Digital Farm Animals sent me the track for vocals, and they asked me ‘Do you want to do the production around it’ and I was like yeah this is sick. Then as I’ve been working on and everything we were like ‘Who do we send this to then we sent it to Noah Cyrus and we got an immediate yes. So she recorded the vocals in her studio and it somehow came together!
The YouTube Space performance is available to watch here:
The new thriller Sweet Virginia from director Jamie M. Dagg premieres this week, and stars The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal as an ex rodeo rider and his shady new friendship with a new man in town.
The Knockturnal was on hand at the premiere screening last Tuesday to talk to Bernthal about his dark new role.
When you first got involved in this project what about the script stuck out to you?
The script was really stylized and really theatrical! After saw Jamie’s film [River, 2015] and I saw how critically raw it was and how authentic it was, I thought that would be a really interesting of filmmaker and script, and I think that’s why I did it. I love the script but I also love Jamie’s work, and when I saw that Chris [Abbott] was involved it was something I really wanted to do.
What steps did you take to understand your character more?
The character was written to be a guy in his 60s, he was supposed be sort of frail and broken down, and I normally play much more muscular parts and physical parts so to dive into that and figure it out was the challenge. But I think often times when you locate the biggest challenge in playing something, everything else falls into place after that.
Obviously this film has a lot of dark tones, on set how did you guys keep a positive mindset?
We really dug each other and really believed in Jamie. Everybody in this movie was in it for the right reasons, and this was a fun one. This is one I loved and I loved the people involved in it. It was a fun set, it was a dark movie, but you didn’t have to drum too much up, it was all right there.
Sweet Virginia reaches theaters this Friday Nov 17
The ASPCA is hosting their annual Humane Awards in NYC Nov 16th, where it honors both animals and people working to support the organization’s’ mission.
Rolling Stone: Stories From the Edge is narrated through the past. Charming and unapologetic archival footage of Rolling Stone magazine’s founding fathers speaking as idealistic 20 somethings ties the new HBO documentary together, and it serves well to represent the core youthful energy that still drives the media superpower.
The documentary, that premiers its first part Nov. 6, does well in presenting the true ‘stories from the edge,’ from the beginnings of the magazine that turns 50 years old this year. It also does well in exemplifying the heavy handed role Rolling Stone has played in shaping the ways we consume music, pop culture, and even politics. Where it excels is in inviting the viewer on an emotional journey, through opportunity and loss, and committing to the Rolling Stone manner of representing iconic public figures as vulnerable and human.
Stories From the Edge opens with a collage of classic covers and magazine moments paired with the words that 21 year old co-founder Jann Wenner wrote in his prophetic letter to his readers in Rolling Stone’s first issue, “Rolling Stone is not just about music, but also about the things and attitudes that the music embraces. We’ve been working quite hard on it, and we hope you can dig it.” Everyone did in fact dig it, and in parts 1 and 2 of the four part documentary we’re guided through the stories of the cultural impacts the magazine made and the classic historical moments they were given access to.
Directors Blair Foster and Alex Gibney found a way to group together some completely unrelated anecdotes in a composition that is seamlessly cohesive. The doc follows the trajectory of how Rolling Stone went from a music mag to a major player in the political sphere. There should be no mistake made, however, that the publication had less depth when it was just covering rockstars. The segments that featured the coverage of figures like Tina Turner and Mick Jagger emphasized the unique light Rolling Stone shined on them, during a time where not many other places were quite as observational and analytic in their profile pieces.
One part that stuck out from the rest was Part 2’s portion on John Lennon. Throughout the film we cut to footage of Jann Wenner and famous photographer Annie Leibowitz reminiscing over old photos, and at one point they reach the last photo ever taken of Lennon, photographed by Leibovitz. He is nude, embracing his fully clothed wife Yoko Ono. Leibowitz speaks on how during the shoot he pleaded for both he and Yoko to be on the cover. A few hours afterwards he was shot a killed. For his posthumous cover, Leibovitz and Wenner deliberated over whether Lennon should appear on his own, but Leibovitz insisted what he wanted was the women he loved on the cover with him. The image is now an iconic one, it caught him in the most human and vulnerable moment, and it stuck out as the stunning final photo of a man everyone felt they knew. Rolling Stone didn’t become ‘more than a music magazine’ because of its decision to cover more aspects of culture over time, but because the way it covered music and artists was so audacious and spirited. It was and still is the holy book of counterculture, and if you don’t agree, Stories From the Edge will convince you.
The premiere of HBO’s newest documentary special ‘Rolling Stone: Stories From the Edge’ took place Monday night in New York, and brought out a crowd of stars to celebrate the magazine’s newest venture.
East of Eli, Nathan West’s musical endeavor, has been the subject of popular and critical acclaim from their first 2014 LP that has gained the band a solid fanbase.