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☆ How the Music of ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Became a Smash Hit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Ben Cohen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Illustration: Nathan HackettWhen the Library of Congress recently enshrined the latest collection of music into the National Recording Registry, there was something for everyone on the list of hits: “Imagine” by John Lennon, “Like a Virgin” by Madonna, “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett and “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey. But perhaps the most recognizable of the tunes was one with an unrecognizable title, written by someone whose name you probably haven’t heard, even though billions of people might be familiar with his work.

☆ ‘Mrs. Davis’ Review: Algorithm and Blues
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The pilot introduces Simone (Betty Gilpin), a sister in a remote Nevada convent who has a sideline exposing dishonest magicians. Besides leaving her time for her hobby, convent life lets her avoid the reach of an omniscient A.I. Davis” in America, “Mum” in Britain, “Madonna” in Italy and so on — has not given up on Simone. Simone, Mrs. Davis believes deep in her code, is the one person equipped to carry out a mission: to find and destroy the Holy Grail. Simone agrees, hoping the quest will be a means to Mrs. Davis’s unplugging.

☆ ‘Mrs. Davis’ Review: A Nun’s Anti-AI Crusade
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Magic of the presto-chango variety always depends on distraction, but the distractions are the magic of “Mrs. Davis,” which throughout its exhilarating mix of comedy, action, obscure movie references and gothic-Catholic sleight-of-hand mounts a very plausible and therefore disturbing premise: God isn’t dead. He is just less influential than an algorithm. The algorithm is known as Mrs. Davis—or “Ma’am” in the U.K., or “Madonna” in Rome—and is the all-seeing, all-knowing, not-quite-all-merciful manifestation of artificial intelligence to whom humanity has plighted its troth in this eight-part manifestation of real intelligence from creators Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof . Mrs. Davis is, was and ever shall be—unless a heretical nun named Simone, aka Lizzie ( Betty Gilpin ), can win the bet she has made with the omniscient formulation that she calls “it” and find the Holy Grail, on which occasion Mrs. Davis has agreed to self-destruct.

☆ ‘Mrs. Davis’ Review: A Sci-Fi Nun’s Anti-AI Crusade
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Betty Gilpin Photo: PEACOCKMagic of the presto-chango variety always depends on distraction, but the distractions are the magic of “Mrs. Davis,” which throughout its exhilarating mix of comedy, action, obscure movie references and gothic-Catholic sleight-of-hand mounts a very plausible and therefore disturbing premise: God isn’t dead. He is just less influential than an algorithm. Mrs. Davis Begins Thursday, PeacockThe algorithm is known as Mrs. Davis—or “Ma’am” in the U.K., or “Madonna” in Rome—and is the all-seeing, all-knowing, not-quite-all-merciful manifestation of artificial intelligence to whom humanity has plighted its troth in this eight-part manifestation of real intelligence from creators Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof . Mrs. Davis is, was and ever shall be—unless a heretical nun named Simone, aka Lizzie ( Betty Gilpin ), can win the bet she has made with the omniscient formulation that she calls “it” and find the Holy Grail, on which occasion Mrs. Davis has agreed to self-destruct.

☆ Seymour Stein, Who Signed Madonna and the Ramones to Record Deals, Dies at 80
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( James R. Hagerty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Seymour Stein received the Howie Richmond Hitmaker Award at a Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction ceremony. When the Ramones began rattling Lower Manhattan with jackhammer songs like “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” and “Blitzkrieg Bop” in the mid-1970s, many record industry executives reached for their earplugs. Seymour Stein heard the potential in what soon became known as punk rock. Mr. Stein signed the skinny rockers to Sire Records, a scrappy little record label he had co-founded a decade earlier and later sold to what is now Warner Music Group . Over the next 25 years or so, he signed a host of other stars, including Talking Heads, the Pretenders and Ice-T.

☆ 2024 Ferrari Purosangue: A Touring Wagon That Howls
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Dan Neil | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

GOOD SPORT The Purosangue’s front-mid-mounted V12 typically sends torque only to the eight-speed, dual-clutch rear transaxle, ensuring a super-sporty, rear-drive character. The AWD comes by way of a power takeoff and two-speed gearbox that transfers torque to the front predictively when the dynamic controls sense slip at the rear. IN ITS WISDOM, Ferrari staged the global press launch for the new Purosangue AWD wagon in February, in the Dolomites, near Madonna di Campiglio in northern Italy. Unfortunately, the region’s mild winter meant that scenic, snow-covered mountain trails were in short supply. While I waited my turn, visions of tree-slapping the six-figure, 12-cylinder Purosangue raced through my mind.

☆ Tracy Anderson's ex-trainers said their bodies were 'breaking apart' while working for the fitness icon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Katie Warren | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Tracy Anderson charges members $900 a month to workout at her studios in LA and New York. Her former trainers said teaching in the 95-degree studios for at least four hours a day could be grueling. Members in the US pay $900 a month to learn the "Tracy Anderson Method," a dance-based workout in a room heated to 95 degrees with 75% humidity. That all sounds cool, and it also sounds like you're going to get paid pretty well," one former New York trainer said. Another former trainer said her body "was just breaking apart," adding that she quit because of the physical demands of the job.

☆ Fact Check-Rihanna was not wearing a pentagram belt during the Super Bowl halftime show, contrary to online claims her belt was ‘satanic’
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Pop and R&B superstar Rihanna was wearing a safety harness during her performance at the Super Bowl halftime show. Posts on social media shared a grainy photograph of her outfit and claimed her belt had a pentagram on it, as an ode to satanism. Posts on Twitter (here) and Facebook (here) include blurry images they purport show Rihanna wearing a black buckle with a six-pointed star. Higher definition photographs of the halftime show published by Reuters show that Rihanna’s harness did not have any kind of star on it, but a regular buckle (here) (here). Rihanna was not wearing a pentagram during her halftime show performance.

☆ Hollywood Hills Home Once Owned by Madonna Lists for $21 Million
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( E.B. Solomont | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Be the first to know about the biggest and best luxury home sales and listings by signing up for our Mansion Deals email alert. A Hollywood Hills estate once owned by Madonna is coming on the market for $21 million.

☆ Inside Tracy Anderson's cutthroat fitness empire: Legal threats, paranoia, and trainers who say their bodies were 'breaking apart'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Katie Warren | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

One day around 2015, a dozen or so gift boxes showed up at the Brentwood, California, studio of the celebrity fitness trainer Tracy Anderson. "It was an exclusive boutique fitness studio," the former New York trainer said. Darren Gerrish/WireImageThe method demanded that TA trainers, most of whom were also professional dancers, perform the strenuous workouts full out, every time. Let's help you do it correctly so you don't get injured,'" the former New York trainer said. "This is at a time where everyone is already overworked," one of the former New York trainers said.

☆ Pregnant Rihanna lights up Super Bowl stage with 'Diamonds'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Lisa Richwine | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 12 (Reuters) - Pop and R&B superstar Rihanna made a grand return to the stage on Sunday, floating high above the Super Bowl field, thrilling the crowd with a fast-paced medley of her hits and revealing that she is pregnant with her second child. It was the 34-year-old Grammy winner's first stage performance in five years. The Hollywood Reporter and other media outlets said a representative for the singer confirmed that Rihanna was indeed pregnant. She concluded her Super Bowl set with "Diamonds" as fireworks lit up the sky around the stadium. Rihanna joined a list of music luminaries who have performed at the Super Bowl, from Lady Gaga to Beyonce, Prince, Madonna and the Rolling Stones.

Bored Ape Yacht Club was not the biggest crypto phenomenon, but it was one of the top beneficiaries of celebrity hype. The Bored Apes — a computer-generated collection of 10,000 cartoons — were being presented as a status symbol, membership in an exclusive club. Yuga sued Ripps for trademark infringement, and argues that his maligning of the Yuga apes is nothing more than a profiteering tactic. Hickman, who is Black, thought the Bored Apes looked like stereotypical portrayals of Black people as stupid or lazy. He said he thought this would be obvious to most people the second they saw an image of a Bored Ape.

☆ Google, Microsoft ChatGPT Clones Will Destroy Internet Search
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

The other kind of search — "exploratory search" — is the hard one. That's where you don't know what you don't know. When you're scrolling through the links in a Google search, looking for "esoteric shit," as one search expert calls it, you see some pages that just look dodgy, maybe in ways you can't even totally articulate. But search chatbots can fake all that. Google's search pages already aren't fully trustworthy — they overindex YouTube video results, for example, because YouTube is a subsidiary of Google.

☆ From Beyoncé to Taylor Swift: 7 women who made history at the 2023 Grammys
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Morgan Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and more female artists broke records and saw historic wins across several categories at the 2023 Grammy Awards. The winners were announced on Sunday during two different ceremonies in Los Angeles, honoring the best music of the year across a wide range of genres. Here are seven women who made history with their wins at the 2023 Grammys:BeyoncéRobert Gauthier | Los Angeles Times | Getty ImagesBeyoncé is now the winningest artist in Grammys history thanks to a quartet of awards for her album "Renaissance." Viola DavisTimothy Norris | Filmmagic | Getty ImagesThe 57-year-old actress earned EGOT status at the 2023 Grammy Awards, making her the third Black woman in history to achieve the rare and coveted honor. Germaine FrancoJay L. Clendenin | Los Angeles Times | Getty ImagesGermaine Franco won best score soundtrack for visual media for composing the Disney animated film "Encanto."

☆ ExodusPoint's 2022 struggles is a lesson for all of Wall Street: Play the hits
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

I shudder to compare some of the greatest artists of our generation to a hedge fund, but I can't help but notice some similarities between their disdain for their biggest hits and ExodusPoint's difficult 2022. The hedge fund, which still holds the industry's largest launch in history, ended the year with fewer assets, employees, and PMs than it started with. The world's biggest hedge fund has a new co-CIO. Ken Griffin, the billionaire owner of hedge fund Citadel, is causing quite the stir over his suggestion that a historic home on a property he owns in Miami be relocated. The firm continues to cut back on the size of a venture-capital fund its raising, The Wall Street Journal reports, with a new goal of $5 billion.

☆ From FTX to Adani Group, Fraud Allegations Are Going to Rise
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Kaja Whitehouse | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Then there's the Adani Group, which lost a jaw-dropping $72 billion in market value after short-seller firm Hindenburg Research last week accused it of "brazen" market manipulation and accounting fraud. Adani Group, whose founder's net worth recently approached Elon Musk's, has vehemently denied the allegations. Could Wall Street get hit by the Adani Group fiasco? But Wall Street is placing its bets on a California chipmaker, helping its founder get richer to the tune of $5 billion. From Madonna to Tom Brady, many celebrities who shilled for crypto or NFTs are either being sued civilly or facing regulatory scrutiny, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Madonna sang the praises of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, depicting cartoon portraits of bored apes. Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady appeared in commercials endorsing crypto exchange FTX, which collapsed suddenly in November. And Kim Kardashian gushed about EMAX tokens on Instagram. Now they and other celebrities are facing civil lawsuits from investors who suffered losses on virtual assets, as well as scrutiny by regulators for allegedly duping the investing public. The legal actions, which have prompted some agents to caution their clients against financial endorsements, could clarify the ground rules for crypto promotions, as well as the hurdles investors must clear to hold promoters liable when investments go south.

☆ French city asks Madonna to lend it a painting lost during WW1
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

The “Diana and Endymion” painting by Jerome-Martin Langlois. Amiens, where French President Emmanuel Macron was born, is a candidate to be European Capital of Culture in 2028. “We do not dispute in any way the legal acquisition that you have made but we are candidates to be European Capital of Culture in 2028. So I would like that on this occasion, this year, you could lend us your painting,” Amiens mayor Brigitte Foure said in a video posted on Facebook. Foure said the painting was probably lent to the Amiens museum by the Louvre before World War One, after which Amiens lost trace of it.

☆ French city asks Madonna to lend it a painting lost in 1918
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Marine Strauss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The "Diana and Endymion" painting by Jerome-Martin Langlois, which depicts Roman goddess Diana looking lovingly at the handsome Endymion, was once on display in an Amiens museum but was lost after Germany bombed the city in 1918. Amiens, where French President Emmanuel Macron was born, is a candidate to be European Capital of Culture in 2028. "We do not dispute in any way the legal acquisition that you have made but we are candidates to be European Capital of Culture in 2028. So I would like that on this occasion, this year, you could lend us your painting," Amiens mayor Brigitte Foure said in a video posted on Facebook. Foure said the painting was probably lent to the Amiens museum by the Louvre before World War One, after which Amiens lost trace of it.

☆ Madonna announces music tour celebrating 40 years of hits
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Music superstar Madonna will kick off a new tour this summer celebrating her more than 40 years of hits. Organisers said "Madonna: The Celebration Tour" will take fans on her "artistic journey through four decades and pays respect to the city of New York where her career in music began". After a spate of North America dates, it will then move to Europe, wrapping in Amsterdam on December 1. Schumer dares Madonna to go on tour to perform her famous tracks and the "Material Girl" and "Like a Prayer" singer accepts the challenge. Tickets for the tour, which will also feature special guest Bob the Drag Queen, go on sale on Friday.

☆ Death of former Pope Benedict overshadows New Year at Vatican
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/4] Candles stand next to St. Peter's Square after former Pope Benedict died in the Vatican, in Rome, Italy, December 31, 2022. REUTERS/Guglielmo MangiapaneVATICAN CITY, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Pope Francis marked the Roman Catholic Church's traditional World Day of Peace on Sunday but the start of the new year at the Vatican was overshadowed by the death of his predecessor, Benedict. It will be the first time in many centuries that a sitting pope will preside at the funeral of his predecessor. PRAISE, BUT ALSO CRITICISM FOR BENEDICTOn Saturday night the Vatican released Benedict's two-page "spiritual testimony" written in 2006, a year after his election as pope. Francis on Saturday called Benedict a noble, kind man who was a gift to the Church and the world.

☆ Why Tom Brady, David Ortiz, Jimmy Fallon and other celebrities are getting sued over crypto
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Tom Brady, Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and baseball Hall-of-Famer David Ortiz are just some of the big names facing lawsuits from investors as the crypto world crumbles in the wake of FTX’s fall from grace. The backlash started earlier this month, when a class-action suit was filed against celebrities, including Jimmy Fallon, Justin Bieber and Serena Williams for promoting Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. None of the celebrities named in the lawsuits immediately responded to requests from CNN for comment. Investors in FTX are not expected to be able to recover their money, the company’s CEO testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday. And after the crypto market bust and a round of lawsuits, celebrities may think twice about what they endorse in the future, too.

☆ Did That Hit Arrive in 2022 or 1987? This Year, It Was Hard to Tell.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Jon Caramanica | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +12 min

Turns out it’s the same sample, a sleight of ear designed to trigger warm nostalgia, and also maybe a little confusion. Even its video is optimized for recognition, with Santana doing the same stomp Beyoncé does in hers, in an almost identical outfit. Throughout 2022, that gambit has been deployed again and again — by pop singers and rappers, established stars and newbies. Here, old songs — hip-hop classics, pop novelties and more — are scrunched and stretched sometimes to the point of absurdity. These songs are concessions that say the quiet part out loud — everyone has always been borrowing voraciously, from everyone else, constantly.

☆ The company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs is being sued for using celebrities to promote their products
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The firm behind Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs is being sued for not disclosing celebrities' involvement. The lawsuit alleged that Yuga Labs manufactured celebrity endorsements and misleading promotions. The legal action against blockchain cryptocurrency startup Yuga Labs was filed on Friday in California District Court. The unique selling point of Yuga Labs' NFT collection, called the Bored Ape Yacht Club, is that NFT owners become members of an exclusive "club" that included these celebrities. Yuga Labs didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

☆ Pope Francis breaks down and cries while mentioning Ukraine at public prayer
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] Pope Francis speaks as he attends the Immaculate Conception celebration prayer in Piazza di Spagna in Rome, Italy, December 8, 2022. REUTERS/Yara NardiROME, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Pope Francis broke down and cried on Thursday as he mentioned the suffering of Ukrainians during a traditional prayer in central Rome. Since Russia invaded its neighbour in February, Francis has mentioned Ukraine in nearly all his public appearances and has grown increasingly critical of Moscow. After reading the prayer on Thursday at the statue near the Spanish Steps, the pope greeted people in the crowd, including journalists. When one of journalists mentioned to Francis that she had seem him overcome with emotion, he responded:"Yes.

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