All posts tagged: groove

Controversial Artist Jordan Wolfson Is Back in the New York Groove

Controversial Artist Jordan Wolfson Is Back in the New York Groove

Published by Sam Flores

The show features a dozen sculptures with UV-printed images: Michael Jackson, a Robert Mapplethorpe photo of flowers, several images of other 20th-century cultural figures rendered as characters in a Pixar animated film. There are two sculptures in the center of the gallery, ramps with those medieval spikes. The sculptures with images are polished in the center, creating mirrors that open up the space, resting on the floor and on the wall. The spikes suffuse the air with a hard to describe but palpable dread. I could spell out in detail what it’s like to witness Jeff Koons’s explicit “Made in Heaven” tableau of Koons penetrating his wife, Cicciolina, as rendered by Wolfson into a still from a Pixar-esque film. I could tell you how Wolfson described it to the AI tool he used: “Distort Jeff Koons in the style of Pixar to show me how the world looks right now.” But having either of us explain it to you is missing the point. Even reproducing the images here is missing the point. Which makes my …

Groove Armada on the devastating hearing loss caused by dance music: ‘I was slightly in denial’

Groove Armada on the devastating hearing loss caused by dance music: ‘I was slightly in denial’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore While achieving success in the music industry brings considerable fortune and fame, the physical price paid by many performers is often their hearing. That is precisely the cost facing Groove Armada’s Tom Findlay and Andy Cato, the electronic music duo behind major dance anthems including “Superstylin’” and “I See You Baby”. Although three decades of exposure to extremely high volume has damaged both men’s hearing, they remain active, playing live DJ sets at gigs and festivals across the UK and internationally before thousands of music fans old and new. The key difference nowadays is that their ears are protected during performances, and while Findlay, 53, currently relies on hearing aids to assist his damaged hearing, Cato, also 53, must cope with the unrelenting ringing in his ears stemming from tinnitus. Findlay says: “I knew I had chronic hearing loss – I …

Rhythm Paradise Groove review – exhilarating bitesize beats test your reflexes | Games

Rhythm Paradise Groove review – exhilarating bitesize beats test your reflexes | Games

Published by Sam Flores

It has been a strange decade for the rhythm game genre. The legendary progenitors Rock Band and Guitar Hero are seemingly gone, yet companies are manufacturing plastic guitars again. Tango Gameworks, a studio best known for delivering survival horror hauntings, made Hi-Fi Rush and it ruled, but Microsoft sold the studio. Indie titles such as Sayonara Wild Hearts and Rift of the NecroDancer have done well on the margins, but now Epic Games has swept in, adding a rhythm action mode to Fortnite so now its mainstream again. All these titles have reinforced the ideas laid out by their forefathers: rhythm can intersect with video games as much as it already intersects with our everyday lives. Few series hold this ethos to heart as strongly as Rhythm Heaven. Dormant since 2015, a new entry, Rhythm Heaven Groove (known as Rhythm Paradise Groove in Pal territories), doubles down on the concept of offering bitesize, rhythm-based experiences where you follow auditive cues to perform all manner of increasingly exhilarating actions with just a few buttons. Whether you’re …

LLMs are stuck in a groupthink groove. This startup is trying to get them out.

LLMs are stuck in a groupthink groove. This startup is trying to get them out.

Published by skeptic

Springboards realized that parameters were blunt instruments for what it wanted to do. It does not make sense to dial up the randomness across the board; you only want to boost it at specific points in its output, he says. For example, when you ask a chatbot “Where should I go in Europe?” the model only needs to tweak the randomness just before it names a destination, not for every word in its response. To make Flint do this, Springboards trained its version of Qwen 3 to identify the points in its output where more variety was possible and fill those spots with words or phrases that were a little more random. “Flint’s programmed to throw an oddball in. It’s more of an invitation to think wider,” says Maximilian Weigl, cofounder and chief strategy officer at Uncommon, a marketing firm. “That’s super interesting.” Weigl’s team uses Flint alongside ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. “You can’t really create something boundary-breaking with tools that pull you back to the average,” he says.  And yet Weigl notes that nine …

La Cruz honors Pulse shooting victims with the groove of reggaeton

La Cruz honors Pulse shooting victims with the groove of reggaeton

Published by Sam Flores

As La Cruz continues to break down barriers for the LGBTQ+ community in reggaeton, the rising Venezuelan star enjoys living out his gay fantasies in his music videos. Take the sultry video for his 2023 breakthrough single, “Quítate La Ropa,” which sees shirtless men perreando (twerking) before him in a locker room. But at the same time, La Cruz has come to understand that his platform as a gay reggaeton artist coincides with a time when conservatism is sweeping the globe — and queer rights are receding. “It fills me with happiness to represent a community that has been denigrated, treated badly and pushed into a corner for many years,” a bedheaded La Cruz says over Zoom from his New York City hotel room. (He had just performed at a Pride event the night before.) “It’s a fact that [LGBTQ] rights are becoming progressive, but they’re rolled back even faster than they advance,” he adds. “This is very painful and concerning. This is happening in every country in different ways. During these difficult times, I’m …

Lizzo: Bitch review – a spirited star who just can’t rediscover her groove | Lizzo

Lizzo: Bitch review – a spirited star who just can’t rediscover her groove | Lizzo

Published by Sam Flores

Just over a year ago, Lizzo appeared on Saturday Night Live, announcing a new album called Love in Real Life in grandstanding style. Wielding an electric guitar, clad in a Trump-baiting T-shirt that read Tariffied, she performed its title track and two other new songs, Still Bad and Don’t Make Me Love U. As with her appearance earlier the same week on a late night talkshow – during which she ran into the audience to high-five fans who were yelling “we love you Lizzo!” – it looked very much like a defiant comeback, fit to drag her out of the controversy that erupted at the end of her hugely successful 2023 world tour. Three former backing dancers and a costume designer filed lawsuits against the singer alleging harassment and discrimination: damaging claims given how Lizzo’s songs have preached a message of inclusivity, body positivity and self-confidence. Some of the allegations were dismissed by a judge but others are ongoing; Lizzo has refused to settle out of court, saying: “I’m fighting the case because I know …