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As you know, we love a good sale. This weekend, we have one you’ll definitely want to shop.
Kate Spade is having a major early Black Friday sale where you can save up to 40% off your entire order with the code GIFTSZN. Already reduced items are also included in the sale, so you can score some really great deals on a brand new work tote, a stylish satchel or a crossbody that’s perfect for being on-the-go.
This is a buy more, save more type of sale event. If you add $200 worth of items to your cart, you can save 20% off your order, $400 and over will get you 30% off, and $600 will save you 40%. That means you can get $600 worth of cute Kate Spade bags for under $400.
It’s a really great sale that you don’t want to miss out on, especially since there’s so many great things available right now. If you want to know what we have our eye on, check out our must-haves below.
Here’s a fun exercise: go to any search engine and type “Best Big Screen Video Game Adaptations” and peruse the lists that pop up. Would you believe that Sonic the Hedgehog consistently ranks in the top ten? Along with the recent Tomb Raider with Alicia Vikander (which scored just over 50% on Rotten Tomatoes), that cheesy 1995 Mortal Kombat flick, and even 1993’s Super Mario Bros., which has over the last five years suddenly become everyone’s favorite 90s action film?
That’s the state of big-screen video game adaptations, which continue to squander big-name titles like Resident Evil, Prince of Persia, and Doom despite the seemingly endless cinematic possibilities each presents.
Part of the problem lies with the medium. How do you transfer one visual style to another without seeming redundant? A direct translation typically leaves casual audiences in the dust — see 2010’s big-budget Prince of Persia — while a complete reimagining alienates fans of the games, ala 2005’s Doom, starring The Rock and Karl Urban. In either case, you’re forcing directors, writers, actors, and creative artists to replicate something many people have already seen. The results are often stilted, even if the visual cues and homages are spot on.
RELATED: Uncharted Trailer Officially Released, Showcases Scene Ripped From Third Game
So, now we come to Uncharted, a film based on the extremely successful video game chronicling the many adventures of treasure hunters Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan, played by Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, respectively. We recently got our first real look at the film and so far online reactions have been … ah … good-ish, with some praising the film for looking just like the game and others complaining that it differs too much from the game.
Here’s the movie trailer in case you missed it:
Then for visual reference, here’s the trailer to Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End:
I’m a huge fan of the Uncharted series. In fact, I’m replaying them right now on my PS4. What always strikes me is how engrossing the story and characters are. Most of the game is of the crouch and shoot variety, but all the painstaking platforming, swinging, fighting and often frustrating gameplay are worth it because Nathan Drake and Co. are such a fun group of characters to hang around with, brought to life via excellent voice actors and solid dialogue. You genuinely want to see where their latest adventure takes us.
Now, the film has gone through production hell since it was first announced way back in 2008. A handful of directors jumped on board, including the renowned David O. Russell, who planned to rework the characters into a story that was more to his liking — a family of treasure hunters led by Mark Wahlberg’s Nathan Drake and featuring Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci. Fans balked at the notion, and eventually, Russell was replaced by Neil Burger, then Seth Gordon, then Shawn Levy, then Dan Trachtenberg, then Travis Knight … even Joe Carnahan was brought on board to punch up the script at one point, so sacred was this big-budget project.
Finally, Sony Pictures tapped Ruben Fleischer, who eventually helmed the final product.
Personally, I think the film looks good and has a chance to succeed where so many others have failed. Obviously, we’re only judging from a two-minute trailer, but from everything I’ve seen thus far, it looks as though Fleischer has struck the right balance between direct-game adaptation and big-screen reimagining.
For starters, the casting is decidedly unique. Tom Holland is certainly not the first name that comes to mind when I think of Nathan Drake; while he sports the outfits and wiseass quips, the actor looks like he’s going for a fresh new (Peter Parker-heavy) spin on the character. Which, when you think about it, is actually quite smart on behalf of the producers.
Think of it this way: we have four 20+ hour Uncharted video games featuring a specific iteration of Drake. Seeing that character on the big screen would be nice, sure, but, if we’re being honest, also unnecessary. The Uncharted video game series ended with A Thief’s End. We saw Drake’s story play out and received a fitting epilogue that featured the treasure hunter enjoying the spoils of war.
Does the studio completely reboot the series on the big screen via a direct adaptation that copies the stories and set pieces we’ve already seen, which would be the equivalent of watching someone else play Uncharted 1-4, or continue Drake’s story beyond A Thief’s End, in which case you have a character with a storied history roughly 15 million people know about — a big number sure, but not compared to the 330 million people in the U.S. or seven billion people around the world? (Consider also that an estimated 100 million people saw Avengers: Endgame during its opening weekend and gamers should understand why video game adaptations present such a challenge beyond catering to the population that played the game.) Or does the studio start fresh with a completely different take that repackages the characters and basic setup of the game into a more generic, though still entertaining, product?
If you were a studio head, would you rather cast Nathan Fillion in a role specifically because he looks like a character from a video game that, again, general audiences aren’t aware of, or would you rather have that kid currently starring in a billion-dollar Spider-Man franchise?
Likewise, Mark Wahlberg doesn’t even look like he’s trying to channel the Sully gamers know and love from the game, but, honestly, that’s probably okay because he’s Mark Wahlberg, one of the most high-profile stars ever featured in a video game adaptation. I love that Wahlberg wears a wife-beater, sports enormous pecs, and looks about as far removed from the cigar-chewing, gut-packing Sully of the video game as possible. (In hindsight, Wahlberg certainly fits the part of Drake, making that aborted David O. Russell project all the more upsetting.)
RELATED: Sony Announces State of Play for Next Week
In other words, the cast actually makes me want to see this more. If done correctly, there’s a chance Holland and Wahlberg’s takes on Drake and Sully surpass those made famous by voice actors Nolan North and Richard McGonagle — it’s a stretch, but you never know.
On top of that, the action looks terrific. The plane sequence, taken from Uncharted 3, I think, looks like a fun callback that still does enough to merit standalone value. I loved the shot of Drake swinging on the lights in that blue-tinted nightclub, and dig the exotic locales, namely Valencia, Spain, and the coastal town of Xàbia.
Basically, this looks enough like Uncharted to satisfy my inner geek, but different enough to pique my interest. Unlike, say, Doom, which turned a pretty radical one-man-versus Hell action-adventure game into a generic zombie movie starring The Rock, or Prince of Persia which basically copy and pasted the game on the big screen and clearly overestimated the entertainment value of its source material, Uncharted looks like it strikes that perfect balance between the two mediums and should make for an exciting weekend at the movies.
When it comes to trap, BAILO is a household name. He’s paved his own lane in the industry, known for booming 808’s and electrifying arrangements that have earned him a massive global fanbase.
Last year, BAILO spearheaded the movement to bring back the original trap sound with the release of his TrappedOutEP via Slow Roast Records, garnering support from heavy-hitters like Zeds Dead, Alison Wonderland, What So Not, GTA, and Clozee.
The movement continues with “EAGLE VZN,” where listeners can bask in the nostalgia of BAILO’s tried and true sound, embellished with modern production techniques. You can’t help but be hooked instantly as rhythmic synths loop hypnotically, building into a thunderous drop that hits just as hard in your home speakers as it would live.
BAILO continues to amaze us with his versatility and talent in the studio and we cannot wait to hear his forthcoming ‘Trapped Out II’ EP! Listen to “EAGLE VZN” below.
This is the audio for the music video tutorial i did earlier this morning, and it does not have the audio glitches that were caused by the Mac Pro (Early 2008) being a bit overwhelmed by all the processing required to run NOTION 5 (PreSonus) in real-time with “heavy” VSTi virtual instruments and VST effects plug-ins and doing the audio and screen capture with ScreenFlow (Telestream).
This time I exported the audio from NOTION 5 and then exited NOTION 5, so all that was running when I created this music video were iTunes (Apple), CueMix FX (MOTU), and Screenflow, which the Mac Pro here in the sound isolation studio can handle.
Are things changing for the better in the second season of The Morning Show TV show on Apple TV+? As we all know, the Nielsen ratings typically play a big role in determining whether a TV show like The Morning Show is cancelled or renewed for season three. Apple TV+ and other streaming platforms, however, collect their own data. If you’ve been watching this TV series, we’d love to know how you feel about the second season episodes of The Morning Show here.
An Apple TV+ drama series, The Morning Show stars Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell, Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Nestor Carbonell, Karen Pittman, Bel Powley, Desean Terry, Janina Gavankar, Tom Irwin and Marcia Gay Harden, Greta Lee, Ruairi O’Connor, Hasan Minhaj, Holland Taylor, Tara Karsian, Valeria Golino, and Julianna Margulies. The story follows the cutthroat world of morning news and the lives of the people who help America wake up in the morning. It’s told through the lens of two complicated women who work to navigate the minefield of high-octane jobs, all while facing crises in both their personal and professional lives. Season two finds the team emerging from the wreckage of Alex (Aniston) and Bradley’s (Witherspoon) actions with a new UBA and a world in flux.
What do you think? Which season two episodes of The Morning Show TV series do you rate as wonderful, terrible, or somewhere between? Do you think that The Morning Show on Apple TV+ should be cancelled or renewed for a third season? Don’t forget to vote, and share your thoughts, below.
It’s October 2015 and around 1:30 in the afternoon at the Austin City Limits Festival. An early day set at an event like this usually requires strength to mobilize. But my friends and I are standing in the pit, excited to see one of the ACL’s best rising new bands on the bill: British indie-rockers, Glass Animals.
Their breakout single, “Gooey,” was riding high on the tropical-pop wave that year. With their multi-instrumentalist lead singer, Dave Bayley, the band had drawn comparisons to everyone from Ed Sheeran to the Police. They were playing over a hundred shows a year to sold-out crowds and debuting on all the late-night programs across Europe, the U.S., and the UK. Everything was happening for them.
Until tragedy struck.
On July 2, 2018, their 30-year-old drummer, Joe Seaward, was hit by a truck while riding his bicycle in Dublin. Seaward’s skull was fractured. He required extensive brain surgery and would need to re-learn how to walk and talk, let alone play his instrument. Bayley, plus bassist Ed Irwin-Singer and guitarist Drew MacFarlane, scrapped everything — the tour, the band — until Seaward, their childhood friend, was fully recovered.
Two years later, Glass Animals were poised for a triumphant return. The four-piece had been back in the studio making their third album — Dreamland — with the plan being to release the title track on May 1, 2020. But then COVID-19 hit and everyone went into lockdown. Once again, the band had to maneuver through a living nightmare.
Credit: Elliott Arndt
Now, a year-and-a-half later, Bayley is sitting comfortably at his desk in London, staring into his computer via Zoom with sporting Where’s Waldo-esque glasses. His pandemic puppy, Woody, is scampering at his feet.
“Life is never necessarily perfect,” the 32-year-old singer says. “We’re all a little bit fucked up, but it’s kind of what you do with that, and what you build on top of that, that makes you who you are.”
It’s an apt sentiment given the unorthodox ways Glass Animals promoted their album when it wasn’t possible to tour. The group made lockdown videos, started newsletters, performed cover songs, held contests, and even wrote Instagram liner notes to go along with each track of the album. Bayley referenced specific memories, like of a classmate of his threatening to bring a gun to school (“Space Ghost Coast to Coast”) to more general anxieties over surveillance capitalism and the evils of social media (“Tangerine”). For a person who likes his privacy as much as Bayley — this was as outspoken as he gets.
The long-winded posts revealed just how personal Dreamland was for Bayley, who hoped that his introspective journey would inspire fans to do the same. The title even comes from a remark one of his teachers growing up made that has stuck with him: “She would snap her fingers and be like, ‘Dave come back, you’ve got to focus—you’re in dreamland again.’”
Bayley said this album is “probably the most I’ve ever thought about myself.” And that it was his mother who pointed out that probing his own experiences wasn’t selfish, but what artists do to connect with people. “She said that it’s more helpful [for them] than trying to think about everyone else,” Bayley said.
The album plunges into Bayley’s ’90s childhood, a sensory swirl of ice cream sandwiches, hot pockets, blue hair, blood diamonds, mama’s red perfume, the taste of coconut, and Capri Sun. Dreamland was even released on 90s hardware: VHS tapes, floppy discs, cassettes, CD, and vinyl. Their friend made PEZ dispensers with their 3-D scanned heads (like on the album art) and their website looks like your computer glitched back to 1999.
Bayley went even further, interspersing audio from home videos on the album. The clips make a kind of sonic map of where he was raised, from Grafton, Massachusetts to Bryan, Texas to Oxford, England, all before turning 12. Additionally, Bayley writes for other artists including Khalid and 6lack. But when Seaward was recovering in England, Bayley was constantly traveling back and forth and the frequent home visits inspired the nostalgia behind Dreamland.
Credit: Jennifer McCord
Bayley was also revisiting the artists that inspired him early on like Dr. Dre and David Byrne. He re-listened to albums by the Beatles, Nina Simone, and the Beach Boys. Pet Sounds, in particular, was a major influence on Dreamland. Bayley said that he found a kind of newfound confidence listening to Brian Wilson’s masterstroke (“That record [makes] me feel a bit less alone,” he said.) On tracks like the synth-laden “It’s All So Incredibly Loud,” Bayley thought about how to convey silence from novelists like Jonathan Safran Foer and Raymond Carver.
The darkest song on the album, “Space Ghost” begins with, “I said to you, ‘Why did you do it?’” The song tells the story of Bayley’s childhood friend from Texas who brought a gun to school on the first day of high school, which would have happened around the same time as Columbine. The taunting lyrics touch on how the media at the time blamed popular culture — video games, rap, and metal music — for the rise in school shootings.
Playin’ too much of that GTA Playin’ too much of that Dr. Dre Doom, Quake, where’d you get the gun from, eh? Really think that metal gonna make you safe?
Opening up, in the lyrics and then again on the Instagram “liner notes,” was a struggle. “I always felt a bit weird, because I felt like I was talking about myself too much,” Bayley said. “I’ve had that problem with this whole album. Like, ‘Am I talking about myself too much? Yes. Shut up, Dave.’”
Like any good musical recluse, Bayley pads the more vulnerable moments on Dreamland with plenty of pop jams that Glass Animals can trot out all over the world on their next sold-out tour. One of the best is a standalone track released after Dreamland is the appropriately titled, “I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance).” The music video shows Bayley where he’s more comfortable: sitting behind a boombox, watching people get into the groove from afar.
And that is exactly what happened in real life when Dreamland‘s piece de resistance, “Heat Waves,” went viral on TikTok, the music and video streaming platform that became ubiquitous when everyone in the world had to stay home during the pandemic. The app is all about watching other people riffing on the same part of a song and “Heat Waves” has so far inspired half a billion videos pegged to the lyric: “Sometimes all I think about is you, late nights in the middle of June/ Heatwaves been fakin’ me out, can’t make me happier now.”
It’s an addictive pop song, but what made the song special was the way it represents unrequited love as a kind of all-consuming weather pattern that’s heavy and hypnotic.
Bayley still won’t say what or whom the song is about, but his mother’s writing advice served him incredibly well after everything Glass Animals have overcome in their relatively brief career.
“These songs are all about friends, family, and people I knew and family,” Bayley says. “They are about pivotal moments that cause you to change the way you think, the way you behave. You see something and you’re like, ‘I will never do that, ever in my life’ or ‘I don’t understand that and I will never understand that,’ and I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to understand.”
