Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this best new music segment.
On this week’s list, we have Magdalena Bay’s infectious, magnificent new song ‘Death & Romance’; Charly Bliss’ ‘Calling You Out’, which trades out the band’s indie rock for Carly Rae Jepsen levels of glimmering, addictive pop; Martha Skye Murphy’s stark, yearning new single ‘IRL’; Mabe Fratti’s beautifully elastic ‘Enfrente’; Margaux’s gentle, poignant new song ‘What Could I Say?’, lifted from her upcoming album Inside the Marble; and Katy Kirby’s ‘Headlights’, a weary, affecting track from the deluxe edition of her latest album Blue Raspberry.
The final day of a festival like Primavera is always a test of endurance, but this Saturday in Barcelona was something else. After catching back-to-back sets by Water From Your Eyes, Militarie Gun, and Crumb, I made my way to the main stages as it began to rain, then pour down during a magnificent set by PJ Harvey, who paid tribute to Steve Albini with a rendition of ‘The Desperate Kingdom of Love’. It at least meant I got to stand pretty close to the stage for Mitski, who proved she’s more than capable of captivating as a festival headliner. In chronological order, here are six highlights from the final day of Primavera Sound 2024.
Water From Your Eyes’ Mangled Grooves
Credit: Clara Orozco
After playing Primavera Weekender in November 2023, Water From Your Eyes were promoted to the main event this year, bringing their mangled grooves and strangely addictive hooks to the Amazon stage early on Saturday evening. It was an arresting show that saw the duo of Nate Amos and Rachel Brown, backed by second guitarist Al Nardo, and drummer Bailey Wollowitz, restlessly homing in on the driving beats and repeated phrases of their songs, subtly bending and distorting them along the way. Despite the Brooklyn band’s reputation as ascendant experimentalists, the set was evidence of a group locked into a sound rather than feverishly searching or recalibrating it around the audience. To finish off, they made the unconventional choice of playing the feedback-drenched ’14’, as if melting all the noise and rhythm down to a single question: “When did it start to loop?” The guitar and vocals traced the same melody, just ever so slightly, so perfectly out of sync.
Militarie Gun Got Me Jumping
Credit: Eric Pàmies
Before charging into their Dazy collaboration ‘Pressure Cooker’, Militarie Gun’s Ian Shelton gave the crowd two rules: get closer and jump. It was the Los Angeles hardcore band’s first time in Barcelona, and they made it count. Along with highlights from their debut LP Life Under the Gun and a few older songs, they played a new song, the pensive yet dynamic ‘Thought You Were Waving’. “Alright, no more soft songs. Throw it in the trash,” Shelton declared, and they group barrelled through ‘Never Fucked Up Once’, ‘Do It Faster’, and even a cover of ‘Song 2’. (“I feel like you might know the bit.”) They even announced a secret show that took place much later into the night, and I bet it was a blast.
Feeling the Chill With Crumb
It was getting chilly as I headed down to the Plenitude stage to see Crumb, who drew a noticeably large crowd (and could have easily played one of the bigger stages). The atmosphere was eerily fitting for the New York band’s ethereal yet nervy dream pop, with a setlist heavily based around their new album AMAMA. What made the show special wasn’t just hearing these songs live for the first time, but bearing witness to how the group stretched and twitched them out while keeping the right balance. They had several ways of wringing anxiety out of these tight grooves: subtly cranking out the distortion on the bass, testing the limits of a single note on a few different instruments. One particularly memorable moment came when singer/guitarist Lila Raman uncannily pitched her voice up just long enough for it to bleed into one of Bri Aronow’s several great saxophone solos. The result wasn’t chill so much as totally entrancing.
Every Drop of Rain Singing “I Love You” With Mitski
Credit: Sharon López
Sometimes, if the setting is right, what seems like just a figure of speech in a song can suddenly feel palpably real. This is exactly how it felt when Mitski, who sang through the night to a crowd of adoring fans, many of whom had been standing in the rain for hours, reached ‘Pink in the Night’ towards the final part of her phenomenal set: “It’s like a summer shower/ With every drop of rain singing ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.'” It’s one of her many songs about being alone in a room and hearing your heart break and blossom, a feeling that extends through her most recent album The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We. Mitski is not alone on stage – she’s backed by a full band that never misses a beat – yet the spotlight is all on her, her performance staged like a one-woman show where the songs do the talking and she acts them out, crying out to the night, no good guys, herself. The we, too, has never felt more palpable.
The first time I saw Mitski, during the Be the Cowboy tour, it was clear she’s as much as a mesmerizing performance artist – gazing, waltzing, freezing, gesturing her hands in impeccably choreographed ways – as she is a one-of-a-kind musician and songwriter. She did the same during last night’s set at Primavera, and though I wasn’t sure how well her intimate compositions would translate to the main stage – it was essentially her festival headliner debut – the upgraded stage design (at one point, shards of what looked like glass descended from the top of the stage), lighting (not to mention actual lightning), and audience interaction (she genuinely said “I love you” several times between songs, too) kept the crowd in rapture.
The music itself, however pastoral, also felt strikingly theatrical, occasionally whipping a storm that rivaled the one we’d been standing through. It proved that if you’ve seen Mitski before, it’s worth seeing her multiple times – not just to hear the same songs again, but hear them transformed. In this case, it meant marveling at countrified renditions of songs from across her discography, from Bury Me at Makeout Creek‘s ‘I Don’t Smoke’ to Laurel Hell‘s ‘Love Me More’, matching the organic instrumentation of The Land. Only the last two songs, ‘Washing Machine Heart’ and ‘Nobody’, two of Mitski’s biggest hits from Be the Cowboy, remained relatively unchanged, and of course everyone sang along. I only wish the audience could have stayed quiet through ‘Bug Like an Angel’ so that the chorus of voices singing that one word, in that one line, would ring out that much louder. “Sometimes a drink feels like family.” Sometimes a song – a crowd of hundreds, even – does too.
Mandy, Indiana’s Bottled Chaos
I didn’t get to catch the beginning of Mandy, Indiana’s set, and it ended ten minutes early, but it was still one of the biggest highlights of the festival. The show was ear-splittingly loud, and despite having seen a few hardcore bands at Primavera, the pit that opened up during the Manchester band’s clubby industrial noise was still the biggest. (Their music is a lot more about bottling up tension than offering release, though, which meant the circle strangely just kept getting wider.) The set was equal parts airtight and chaotic, with vocalist Valentine Caulfield frenetically dancing over relentless beats and Scott Fair’s scorching guitar, at once retaining and amplifying the mystery of their songs. After Mandy, Indiana, Model/Actriz were scheduled to take the same stage later in the night, and I pray for the ear health and well-being of everyone who stayed up.
The last time Charli XCX played Primavera in 2022, performing at one of the main stages, it felt like a celebration of every one of her eras as much as it supported her album Crash. It was a pop show, while her late-night set at the Amazon stage – one of the Primavera’s most eagerly anticipated, especially after not joining either Troye Sivan or A.G. Cook onstage and then surprising fans with a Party Girl DJ set on Saturday afternoon – was much more concerned with turning the festival’s wide-open space into a rave. No guests (“Don’t get too excited, Troye’s not here,” she said before launching into ‘1999’), no elaborate visuals; just throbbing beats, big words (brat, PARTY), and Charli (successfully) being her own hypewoman.
In anticipation of her upcoming sixth album Brat, the whole set was rooted in delightfully trashy, abrasive electroclash, delivering the album’s already-released singles – ‘360’, ‘B2b’, ‘Von dutch’, ‘Club classics’ – as well as a new song, the Brazilian funk-inspired ‘Everything is romantic’, which featured some unexpected belting along with lines like, “Bad tattoos on leather tanned skin/ Jesus Christ on a plastic sign/ Fall in love again and again/ Winding roads doing manual drive.” When she mixed in older songs, she made sure they fit into the new record’s bratty aesthetic, as evidenced by how different her version of ‘1999’ was from the one Troye Sivan sang a day earlier. And though there was nothing from Crash or before Pop 2, capping off the night with the crowd-pleasing ‘I Love It’ – still her most-streamed song – almost made up for the fact that she finished the set 20 minutes early without explanation. Mainstream or not, it was the best pop the festival served all week.
Check out the rest of our Primavera Sound 2024 coverage here.
It’s now the time to hang out on the porch with a beverage of choice and enjoy a book in the sun, so we’re recommending 12 new ones for June, including Iranian and Brazilian satires, returns of great novelists, and uncanny short story collections.
Author of Netherland Joseph O’Neill returns with Godwin, another international adventure centering a hapless but good-natured man, roaming wherever life will take him. Mark Wolfe’s England-based half-brother Geoff, a soccer scout, clues him in on a young African athlete known only as “Godwin” that he says could be the next Lionel Messi. Narrated by Mark and his coworker, Lakesha, the two men travel to search for Godwin in this original novel that touches on capitalism, family, pipe dreams and calls to mind the atrocious history of transatlantic travel.
The third novel and first to be translated into English by Brazilian satirist Clara Drummond, Role Play’s narrator is a wealthy gallery curator in Rio de Janeiro about to undergo a class awakening. Vivian is sharp, unflinching with her ideas about Brazilian elites, art, women, and social inequality — she’s a misogynist, but fine with gays, who she sees as equals. After she’s privy to a bout of police violence, Vivian must examine the world and see if it actually was built for someone like her.
In this ultra-observant novel from memoirist and writer Porochista Khakpour, the extra-wealthy Milani family is preparing to reveal their story in their new reality television show, equal parts Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Vanderpump Rules. As the production looms closer and the pandemic approaches, however, the four Iranian daughters fears the things they conceal will be brought to the surface: Haylee, a fitness expert, falls into a MAGA anti-vax rabbit hole, Mina leaks her older sister’s homophobic tweets, and Roxanna thinks back to the lie she told everyone that she was Italian, not Persian. In compulsively readable sections examining fame, identity, and family dynamics, the Milani family’s chapter is as exuberant as it is entertaining.
Transgressive and punchy, the newest title from alt-lit publisher Cash 4 Gold books is author and actor Peter Vack’s Sillyboy, a doomed tale of a “meme-lord edgeboy and his tattoo artist girlfriend.” Sillyboy is new to Los Angeles with his nickname tattooed on his stomach, a rising starlet with a complicated relationship with his ex-girlfriend. Surrounded amongst the self-titled geniuses of LA, he wants to skip ahead to the future where his Wikipedia page will be cluttered with his life’s achievements, but lazes with his current girlfriend, smoking weed and scrolling through Instagram. Brazen and hilariously funny, Sillyboy is one to read in a day or two, if you can stand to recognize yourself within its complicated cast.
In a modern retelling of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Maureen Sun assembles three sisters before their estranged father’s deathbed. Despite his lifetime of abuse, he has one more task for them to determine who will get his fortune. Minah, a lawyer who dreams of motherhood, Sarah, an academic, and Esther, the youngest, all vie for his attention — and funds — with their increasingly desperate attempts at connection to him, but each other. The Sisters K is propulsive, emotional, and deeply clear-eyed, a debut that excites and provokes.
In the opening story of Puloma Ghosh’s debut collection, an ice skater whose mother is apart of the mysterious Bureau that collects teenage boys when they come of age for a secret war comes to the fact that her competitor is a vampire, and, though she doesn’t suck her blood directly, becomes infatuated with her corpse-like state, pale and laid out on the ice. The rest of the stories in Mouth investigate the bizarre and uncanny creaks of reality to give rise to the unconventional and unmentionable in this captivating collection.
Lifelong journalist Ann Powers (NPR, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times) chronicles the life of superstar folk artist Joni Mitchell in a book that’s as memoir as it is investigation, history, and love letter to music. Unwilling to shy away from her past, controversies, and mistakes, Powers charts Joni’s history through her extensive, twenty-album catalog of songs detailing her relationships to other singers, herself, women, and the Canadian landscape where she grew up. If you’re looking for the definitive background of an artsy legend, or a reason to deep-dive into Joni’s warm and powerful discography, Traveling is the book to start.
In another collection from essayist and poet Eliza Gabbert, Any Person Is the Only Self swerves from topics like writing, memory, journaling, reading, asking the question of where are true self lies, so spread out. Across 16 pieces of writing Gabbert examines ourselves with a shocking intimacy and a keen eye — versatile, witty, and easily recommendable.
In a four-part collection of stories from the Juliet the Maniac author, You Are the Snake expounds upon Juliet Escoria’s original and charming voice. Examining girlhood, desire, and yearning, Escoria’s stories are jolts of electricity that call to mind Mary Gaitskill, Elle Nash, or Julia Armfield, often pulling you in in just a few quick moments. One opening sentence: “I killed a cat before I left.” She’s one to be talking about.
Rachel Cusk (the Outline trilogy, Second Place) has long impressed with her work of liminal, often cerebral books about art and life. She returns with Parade, a novel aiming to upend what fiction can do, centering the artist G, who begins to paint upside down one day. His paintings of his wife — lopsided, ugly — become hugely successful. Meanwhile, another painter, G, leaves home to begin her own artistic journey, producing work her future husband doesn’t agree with. Cusk, ever the experimenter, toys with storytelling once again to create one of her most compelling works yet.
Sarah Crossan has dazzled for years with her young adult books of verse, but for her second adult novel, Hey, Zoey, she turns to short vignettes to tell the story of a relationship divided due to an AI sex doll. Dolores is shocked when she discovers the doll, Zoey, in her husband’s garage, and reassesses her relationship with him. After talking with Zoey extensively though, asking her about the weather and poison, Dolores starts to remember events of her own life she’s repressed. Like her previous adult novel Here Is the Beehive, Hey, Zoey is an emotional, often dark tale about the desires that lurk just beneath our surface. Destined to linger in your mind long after the ending, Crossan proves herself to be a master of compelling storytelling and cutting emotions we’re all too embarrassed to admit we have.
Essential reading for anyone still hooked on Y2K nostalgia, Honey is the story of up-and-coming superstar Amber Young as she navigates a stratospheric rise to fame. After a life changing call that asks her to move to Los Angeles to join the girl group Cloud9, she quickly realizes that the touring life isn’t all that it makes out to be. Reflecting on the dark underbelly of stars like Britney Spears, Honey sees Amber under the guise of men who can shape her career and make her go from naive teen to oversexualized, hated star.
Buying London has become one of the most talked about shows recently, mostly due to its poor critic reception when The Guardians’ Rebecca Nicholson gave it 0 out of 5 stars. Yet, the show garnered attention a Top 10 spot on Netflix’s most weekly viewed during the end of May. In this article, we’ll be looking at the show in a little more depth, the cast, and the rumours surrounding season 2 of Buying London.
What is Buying London about?
Buying London follows property mogul Daniel Daggers and his passionate agents at DDRE Global as they take on and attempt to dominate London’s luxury property market. It certainly isn’t Homes under the Hammer, but if you love glamour, drama, and TOWIE, this will be right up your street.
Buying London Cast
The Buying London cast doesn’t boad anyone famous, or well known. Mostly a list of Z-list celebrities or minor Instagram influencers. Here is the full list of the cast:
Officially, Netflix has not confirmed the release date or renewal of Buying London Season 2. While the show didn’t top any charts, the attention it gained certainly will make it a possible renewal favourite, especially as these formula-based reality TV shows are relatively inexpensive to produce. Luckily with 7 episodes on Netflix, there is enough to enjoy for now.
Buying London Reviews
Buying London certainly had a lot of negative press, but let’s be honest it’s not exaclty hoping for a BAFTA. At the moment, it’s been rated at 4.1 on IMDB, 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a somewhat okay 40% on Metacritic.
Elegance and craftsmanship are two words we love to use in the watch industry. But Grand Seiko’s SBGD202J, a watch in their Masterpiece collection, certainly deserves such praise. Its elegant and sophisticated design and excellent artistry certainly aren’t inexpensive, which is why we’ll cover it today.
SBGD202J Design
GS rarely underdelivers regarding aesthetics and design, and the SBGD202J is no exception. The 18k rose gold case, measuring a mighty 43mm, contrasts beautifully with its star-twinkling dial, adorned with a black background. It’s also only 13.2mm thick, allowing it to be worn gracefully.
The wristwatch is complemented by a lovely dark brown hue crocodile leather strap, which combines so well with the rose gold case that alternatives don’t seem feasible. It’s got a three-fold clasp with a push button release, making life easy for a daily wearer. Lastly, it weighs 150 grams, which is reasonable.
SBGD202J Movement
We won’t accept anything other than Spring Drive. Luckily, as expected, the watch includes Caliber 9R01, which has a manual winding mechanism with an impressive accuracy of about 10+ seconds per month. It has a generous 192 power reserve, so it’s still fun to wear regularly.
Final Thoughts
Coughing up £47,300 isn’t easy even for avid collectors or big-time fanatics of Grand Seiko. Yet, for some reason, this timepiece pulls you in so strongly that you have to have it. It feels timeless. There are certainly alternatives like the A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia or the Patek Philippe 5227G Calatrava, but none of them quite hit it like this one when it comes to the unique charm it exudes.
Public art installations and cultural spaces are functioning sites for immense artistic expression and are the cultural narrative of a people. Unfortunately, such artistic and cultural expressions lose the desired impact if cleanliness and safety are not prioritized. This discussion post will first explore the necessity of cleanliness in public art installations and cultural places, and then demonstrate how cleanliness may be achieved with a professional maid cleaner or cleaning company in Seattle, assisting with the maintenance and preservation of some of these important assets. In order to make sure these areas are hygienic and secure, a cleaning company in Seattle can be really helpful.
The Importance of Cleanliness in Public Art
Public art installations are basically pieces of works that the public should view and enjoy. Usually, those are installed in outdoor settings like parks, plazas, and urban spaces where they are exposed to various elements of weather and pollution. Such facilities must be kept clean and neat in order to remain in their original, attractive position where people can view and appreciate them.
Preserving the Artist’s Vision
Public art installations are works that are meant to send a certain message to people, usually the vision and message of the artist. Dirt and other forms of debris can accumulate on the surface and obscure the details of the work, changing its appearance. But cleanliness can help retain or preserve the vision of the artist and allow everyone to see the work of art as intended.
Enhancing Public Appreciation
A clean and well-maintained public art display is more likely to attract and capture people’ attention. Dirty, defaced or damaged art turns viewers away and reduces their experience. Maintaining these installations’ cleanliness and condition may raise people’s awareness of public art and inspire them to visit and explore these valuable cultural resources. By enlisting the services of maid cleaners in Seattle or a cleaning company in Seattle, the city can ensure that its public art remains a source of pride and enjoyment for residents and visitors alike.
The Significance of Cleanliness in Cultural Spaces and Public Spaces
Cultural spaces are the theaters of artistic expression and the means of cultural communication. These places include museums, galleries, and performance spaces. They are spaces where creative works or artifacts are shown, but they are also a place for communities to connect, learn, and celebrate their shared heritage. Keeping cleanliness in these spaces is crucial for preserving the integrity of the exhibits and ensuring a positive visitor experience.
Cleanliness is a very important aspect that needs to be kept in public spaces. When people visit any cultural institution or any public art installation, they expect to find a clean and well-maintained space.
Cleanliness is very important in public art because outdoor installations are exposed to dust, dirt, and pollution. Regular cleaning and maintenance ensure that the artwork remains in pristine condition, allowing visitors to appreciate its beauty and meaning as intended by the artist.
Protecting Valuable Artifacts and Artworks
A great deal of cultural sites contain priceless objects, works of art, and historical treasures that are susceptible to damage from dust, pollution, and other impurities. In order to protect these treasures and make sure they last for future generations to cherish, proper cleaning and maintenance procedures are necessary.
Creating a Welcoming Environment
An excellent, well-kept cultural facility greatly improves the experience of visitors. A spotlessly organized, visually pleasing and welcoming environment is likely to make a guest feel more at ease and included. This pleasant environment can encourage longer stays and more visits as well as a better appreciation of the cultural activities.
The Role of Maids or Cleaning Company in Maintaining Cultural Spaces
Maids or cleaning companies work hard to tick the box for flawless cleanliness, which is hidden behind the performance of every well-maintained cultural place. They make sure that the public enjoys a welcoming, clean, and safe environment. The presence of maids or cleaning companies is important for making sure everything is in order from displays to artwork, floors and restrooms. They are dedicated to the task at hand allowing the visitors to immerse themselves in the cultural experience without getting distracted by an untidy setting.
Expertise and Experience
Professional cleaning companies and maids are skilled in their fields and have knowledge of the unique difficulties and specifications that arise when cleaning public artwork and cultural spaces. This ensures that the necessary knowledge and abilities are available for the careful handling of delicate artwork, rare objects, or specific surfaces.
Specialized Equipment and Techniques
In order to protect and preserve the artworks and artifacts, cleaning public art and cultural places typically calls for certain tools and methods. Professional maids or cleaning companies usually have access to the latest cleaning equipment and environmentally friendly products, which help in the service to be effective while at the same time being responsive to the prevailing environment.
Customized Cleaning Plans
Every public art installation and cultural space requires cleaning services specific to the site and materials used, among other environmental considerations. Professional maids or cleaning companies can work closely with curators, artists, and facility managers to create need-based cleaning regimens that are tailored to each space’s specific needs.
Sustainability
Sustainability and environmental awareness are topics that are frequently discussed in public art projects and cultural venues.This public places should be cleaned and maintained to optimize its environmental impact; hiring an eco-friendly maid or a cleaning company in Seattle will ensure that this happens.
The Challenges of Maintaining Cleanliness in Public Spaces
Maintaining clean cultural places and public artworks is limited by a number of factors. Regularly used public spaces and venues are typically open daily. Dust and dirt issues may become common when a large number of individuals come and go in a given day.
On the other hand, exposing the artwork to the elements while it is being installed may accelerate its deterioration. Consequently, the dirt gets deeper. This implies that during periods of heavy rain, snow, or exceptionally high temperatures, maids and cleaning staff are unable to move about freely in these locations. There are even more reasons, though, for maintaining clean cultural spaces and public art pieces. In order to ensure the continued existence of these places close cooperation between the community, workers, and the institution is required.
Conclusion
Cleanliness is essential for the preservation of public art installations and cultural settings. Prioritizing cleanliness not only helps to preserve priceless artwork but also increases public knowledge of and participation in our community’s artistic and cultural heritage. And if you happen to be the one in charge of a public art installation or any cultural space, consider working with professional maids or cleaning companies. With their unique knowledge, equipment, and dedication to environmental sustainability, these cultural artifacts can be preserved well for all time. After all, cleanliness serves more than just aesthetic purposes; it protects our cultural legacy, encourages environmental stewardship, and strives to create welcoming environments that inspire and revitalize our communities.
In today’s increasingly multicultural New York City, dance functions not only as an artistic medium but also as a powerful vehicle for cultural expression. Among the many artists shaping the city’s dynamic cultural scene, Yuxi Liu stands out for her solid foundation in classical Chinese dance and her acute understanding of contemporary movement language. She has remained active on major cultural platforms and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished Chinese dancers working in the United States.
Yuxi Liu received her professional training at Beijing Normal University and previously served as a faculty member at the Modern College of Northwest University. She is currently a resident artist with Dance China NY, a company affiliated with the New York Chinese Cultural Center. In recent years, Liu has frequently appeared at high-profile cultural events across New York, consistently delivering performances of exceptional quality and helping expand the expressive reach of Chinese dance in international settings.
At the beginning of 2024, Liu returned to the main stage of the Times Square New Year’s Eve Countdown celebration. Representing the Sino-American Friendship Association, she has participated in this globally recognized event on multiple occasions. This year, she performed in the opening production titled Harmony of Wuliangye, a piece that blended traditional Chinese cultural elements such as ritual toasting, Sichuan Hua Dan opera, and lion dance. The performance reached a large international audience both in person and through global livestream. On this highly visible platform, Liu demonstrated precise physical control and a commanding stage presence rooted in Eastern aesthetics. Her performance presented the richness and depth of Chinese dance and received an enthusiastic response from the crowd. Through the live broadcast, her artistry further extended the visual language of Chinese culture to viewers around the world.
While her Times Square performance highlighted her role as a cultural ambassador in mainstream global contexts, her contributions to the HOME Project, jointly organized by the New York Chinese Cultural Center and the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), reflected her deeper engagement with contemporary artistic expression. In the 2022 and 2023 editions of the HOME Project, Liu created and performed in two distinct works. Knot, which she co-choreographed and performed, used the central image of entanglement to explore the emotional complexity of cross-cultural identity. The piece combined traditional Chinese dance techniques with contemporary movement vocabulary to reflect on memory, belonging, and transformation.
In the 2023 production Placeless Place, Liu was one of the lead dancers in a multidisciplinary performance that integrated dance, music, film, and visual installation. This work centered on the lived experiences of immigrant artists, addressing issues such as displacement, identity, and cultural integration. Liu’s emotionally resonant performance played a critical role in conveying the thematic depth of the piece. Her presence contributed significantly to the work’s artistic coherence and emotional power.
Beyond major productions and experimental projects, Liu also maintains an active presence in community cultural festivals and public art initiatives. At the 16th annual New York Dance Parade, she performed alongside the New York Chinese Cultural Center team. Their performance brought traditional Chinese dance into the heart of Manhattan as they moved through Broadway, engaging audiences with joyful rhythm and expressive movement. Despite challenging conditions, including intense heat, Liu delivered a performance marked by technical precision and vibrant stage energy. Her ability to connect with diverse audiences in nontraditional settings speaks to her versatility and professionalism.
From world-renowned stages to neighborhood festivals, from conventional theaters to city streets, Yuxi Liu brings a high level of artistic excellence and cultural sensitivity to every context. She is not simply a presenter of culture. She engages with it, interprets it, and gives it renewed life through her dance. Her work demonstrates that dance is not only an artistic discipline but also a deeply communicative cultural language. Yuxi Liu embodies that language with exceptional clarity, dedication, and expressive power.
It was a gloomy day at Barcelona’s Parc del Fórum on Friday; though the sun was out when I got there, clouds soon loomed over, and it was raining by the time I left. It felt strangely fitting, in part because while there was as much variety as on the first day of the festival, day two at Primavera Sound seemed to orbit around Lana Del Rey’s headlining performance. The crowds that got there early were almost overwhelming, and the organizers were smart to book acts like Ethel Cain and Chelsea Wolfe, who have received their fair share of Lana comparisons, on the same day. Thank God we had the National to lift our spirits! Here are five memorable moments from the night.
Ethel Cain’s ‘A House in Nebraska’ Echoes Through the Forum
Ethel Cain. Credit: Clara Orozco
As I arrived at the Forum a few minutes late on Friday afternoon, Ethel Cain’s ‘A House in Nebraska’ was already booming out the venue, which felt sort of fitting. I kept hearing the sweeping echo of Hayden Anhedönia’s voice as I made my way to the Santander stage under the blistering sun, though by the time I got there, I’d missed the live debut of a new song called ‘I Keep the Angel’. Fortunately, the rest of the set was nothing short of transcendent; wearing a Free Palestine shirt, Anhedönia’s connection with the audience was unwavering, intense, and utterly genuine. She played a brief harmonica solo during the twangy ‘Thoroughfare’, which kept the crowd in quiet rapture; a lot of people may have already been camping out to see Lana Del Rey, but they sure as hell cheered at “God loves you, but not enough to save you” during ‘Sun Bleached Files’, screamed along to ‘American Teenager’, and knew exactly what to sing when she pointed the mic to the crowd during ‘Gibson Girl’: downright iconic. Bearing witness, even for just a few songs, was a real gift.
Chelsea Wolfe Lingers in the Darkness
Despite the distance between the Santander stage and the Auditori, heading over to see Chelsea Wolfe after Ethel Cain was the obvious choice, which Wolfe proved by actually dedicating a song (‘The Culling’) to none other than her. The indoor setting was perfect, allowing her to be shrouded in darkness as she shred and drifted mostly through songs from this year’s She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, punctuated by lighting that consistently matched not just the solemn mood but intensity of her music. “I will run through the fire/ To get to you,” she sang on ‘Dusk’, bringing to mind yeule’s set from the previous night. The feeling lingered as she closed the set with the simple intimacy of ‘Flatlands’: “I need your arms/ Wrapped hard around me.” Dark, yes, but an embrace nonetheless.
Lana Was Late, and We Had a Ball?
Credit: Sharon López
This happens. In fact, the exact same thing happened a couple of months ago at Coachella: Lana Del Rey was 30 minutes late. A week ago at Hangout Fest, she was 20 minutes late. When it happened last year at Glastonbury, where she was escorted away by security after her set was cut off, she explained herself by saying that her “hair takes so long.” (It looks like it.) The truth is that we don’t know what’s happening off stage during that half-hour; if it’s the same issue every time, if it’s really on purpose. We don’t know a lot about pop stars. Lana Del Rey doesn’t perform like one – right before her, Troye Sivan had clearly put so much effort into every part of his, becoming one with his dancers instead of gracefully whirling around them – but her show is staged like that of a pop star. Do people expect an immaculate performance from Lana Del Rey, an idol to worship, or poetry? Maybe my thoughts would be different if I had paid instead of being paid to see her, but if you’re going to see Lana Del Rey, messiness, not efficiency, is par for the course. I heard some boos, but of course people waited, and of course they sang their hearts out.
At times you could barely hear Lana Del Rey; some wondered if she was okay, which had me thinking if we’re really to worry about the well-being of a pop star. How much of it is a show? And if so, what does it mean to still scream along – no, over her? Like every one of her concerts, this happened last night at Primavera, and that kind of adoration is also to be expected, even if it conflicts with the nature of her songs. If you want to be poetic about it, there’s something to be said about the whole thing mirroring Lana’s commentary on the fragility of glamour and the disillusionment of fame, especially as she began her performance with an unflinching ‘Without You’. She tried to sing at least a couple of songs from most of her albums (though not the one referenced in this subheading), let the audience do a lot of the heavy lifting, and granted the spotlight to her incredible dancers and backup singers, who were particularly stunning during ‘The Grants’. She sounded best during piano ballads like ‘Bartender’ and ‘Norman fucking Rockwell’ because it was clear what mattered wasn’t how big her voice sounded but how affecting when it was vulnerable and elastic. She cursed strict curfews, shortened ‘A&W’ so she could take time interacting with fans out front over an eerie jazz outro, and finished with the song so many were dying to hear: “Will you still love me when I got nothing but my aching soul? I know you will, I know you will.”
The National, Raucous and Vulnerable
Credit: Clara Orozco
For a lot of attendees, Lana Del Rey’s tardiness was as disrespectful to the fans as it was to the band that followed her on the adjacent main stage. But unlike Lana Del Rey, the National’s popularity is directly correlated to their reliability, and they did not disappoint. I missed them when they played the festival a couple of years ago, but their two-hour set last night delivered everything a fan could ask for. It was raucous and propulsive when it had to be, peaking in intensity when the climax of ‘Fake Empire’ bled into the seven-minute epic ‘Space Invader’, a reminder of how much power there is in Bryan Devendorf’s drumming. Bryce and Aaron Dessner wrangled noise out of their guitars as much as they held it down, and Matt Berninger had a dozen ways to communicate the existential angst of his lyrics: gesticulating, clutching at his hair, prowling the stage, heading into the crowd, tangling the mic like it’s thoughts in his head. At one point, he called out to the one person who bumped into him at William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops performance the day prior, saying it was like meeting Santa. (Who knows if it really happened – he also talked about the band members buying apartments in Barcelona and promised New York pizza slices.) “It was great and terrible,” which sounds a lot like the love in their songs. The show itself, at least, was just great.
Arca the Pop Star
Credit: Sharon López
After all the doom and gloom of pretty much every set I caught yesterday, Arca’s rapturous live show at the Amazon stage felt necessary and worth staying up for. The crowd greeted the Barcelona-based Venezuelan artist like the magnetic pop star that she is, even as she didn’t play so much as perform to her own music, her voice and stage presence by turns sultry, otherwordly, and glamorous, but always captivating. When she fractured the glitchy, mutable pop of her recent albums for the avant-garde operatics of her past work, it was a reminder of just how far her sound and influence stretch, never lingering in one style for too long. While pierced through the veneer of pop perfection, not too unlike Lana’s set seemed to do, Arca’s show was a whole other spectacle, and she knew to have fun with it.
Follow along with our Primavera Sound 2024 coverage here.
In terms of popularity, Slots are one of the most played games in casinos these days. They’ve been around since the late 1800s and have found major success with their relatively simple gameplay.
But there’s a lot more to slot games than just pressing a button, tapping a screen or pulling a lever to get the reels spinning. Quite a bit goes on behind the scenes of a slot machine, more than you might imagine.
That’s why we’ve put together our quick and simple guide to Slots, so read on to learn more about how these games work and the sorts of gameplay you might find in casino slots in the UK.
The mechanics of slot machines
There’s plenty going on beneath the hood of slot machines, even after the move away from mechanical cabinets to video Slots and online play. While the spinning reels have gone from physical to digital, a lot still goes into making sure that they work the way that they do.
The piece of tech that keeps slot games running smoothly is known as a random number generator (RNG). This does exactly what it says on the tin, with the advanced computer algorithm producing hundreds of random numbers per second.
Each of these numbers corresponds to a single symbol on each of the reels, which allows the RNG to determine the outcome of every spin. Once a player initiates a game the computer takes the set of numbers generated at that moment as the basis of the spin’s outcome.
This is how slot games remain fair, with the results of each individual spin entirely down to the random nature of the RNG.
The major types of Slots
Over time, developers have found new ways to innovate on the classic Slots formula, leading to the creation of many new types of slot games. These days they’re split into a few major categories based on a few key features and gameplay mechanics.
One major division is made depending on the type of jackpot that the game offers, with some Slots using a fixed jackpot amount and others a progressive one.
What this means is that each time that game – or one of a linked network – is played, a small amount of the player’s wager goes towards the jackpot total. This allows the figure to climb far higher, potentially hitting five or six digits before a jackpot combination lands.
Another difference comes in the amount of paylines that a slot game uses, or whether it even has any at all. The payline is the row of connecting symbols that the game checks for winning combinations, from horizontal and diagonal lines to zigzags and other patterns.
Classic Slots will often only use a couple of paylines, where others have hundreds of possible lines for players to activate depending on the amount of their wager. Games using the Megaways format don’t have traditional paylines, instead basing combinations on whether symbols appear in clusters.
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There’s still plenty more to learn about the ins and outs of Slots, but this should have given you a good basic understanding of the games.
When it comes to playing Blackjack, there’s one question that many players often have – where did it all start?
Blackjack, also known as 21, is one of the most popular card games, and its history is as intriguing as the game itself. It traces back centuries and has evolved to become the game we know today – including modern twists like live Blackjack.
Understanding the evolution of Blackjack provides insight not only into the game’s development, but also into the cultural changes that have shaped its current form.
So, let’s look at a brief history of the game…
The beginning
The origins of Blackjack are interesting because the exact starting point of the game is debated by many. However, the overriding opinion is that the game can be traced back to the early 17th century in France.
There was a popular game being played known as “Vingt-et-Un” – French for twenty-one – and this game was a staple in the French gaming houses. The game’s objective was to reach 21 points without exceeding it, a rule that we know is fundamental to modern Blackjack.
Players used a deck of cards similar to today’s decks, emphasising random numerical combinations to achieve the target score. The French game also introduced many key elements such as betting and the role of the dealer, which have endured in contemporary Blackjack.
Across the seas
After this, the game made its way to North America with French colonists in the 18th century, where it underwent significant changes and adaptations.
In the United States, the game began to evolve into its modern form. During the early 1800s, US gaming houses began offering a variation of Vingt-et-Un to attract more players. These variations offered extra features. For instance, a 10:1 payout was given if a player’s hand consisted of the Ace of Spades and a black Jack (either Jack of Clubs or Jack of Spades).
As you may already guess, this winning combination was called a “Blackjack,” and although the bonus payouts were eventually abandoned, the name stuck.
Online casino
From the beginning to the late 20th century, Blackjack soared in popularity and witnessed globalisation. The game spread to Europe and Asia, for example – each region adding its own variations and rules to give players a unique experience.
And when it came to a unique experience, the advent of online casinos in the 1990s further propelled Blackjack’s popularity. Players could now enjoy the game from anywhere where they had a reliable internet connection.
Since the game moved online, we’ve seen even greater advancements such as the arrival of live Blackjack, where you can face virtual dealers in a live setting. The game involves real dealers and is streamed to players’ screens.
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It’s not hard to see why today, Blackjack remains a favourite among casino players.
From its early beginnings in France to the globalisation of the game and the digital platforms of the Internet age, Blackjack’s rich history is a testament to its universal core and timeless gameplay.
The next question to ask is – where will Blackjack go next?
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