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 the latest single from MUNA, the punchy and infectious ‘The One That Got Away’; Christine and the Queens’ 070 Shake-assisted ‘True Love’, a warm admission of vulnerability sung over stark, creeping production from Mike Dean; Militarie Gun’s hooky and visceral ‘Very High’, which leads their debut album Life Under the Gun; Arlo Parks’ ‘Blakes’, a danceable and wonderfully detailed track about remembering and rekindling a friendship; bar italia’s nervy, hypnotic new single ‘punkt’; Squid’s ‘Undergrowth’, a hauntingly groovy song about being reincarnated as an inanimate object; and ‘Good Ghost’, a gentle, heartwarming highlight from Steve Ciolek’s debut LP as superviolet.
I saw Kazuya Konaka’s Single8 on a recent trip to Japan and, upon leaving the theatre, professed my hope that it’d be discovered by international audiences—namely those interested in movies about moviemaking. Following the dismal distribution of Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans some months ago, there might be a suspicion within me that films about young people with cameras face a steep uphill battle—perhaps even more so when produced by lesser-known foreign directors. How unfortunate if that’s true, for Konaka’s picture—about high schoolers making a sci-fi movie in late-’70s Japan—is one of the most wonderful recent titles of its kind. It’s been praised by top Japanese directors such as Hirokazu Kore-eda and Kiyoshi Kurosawa. And viewed in an age where lavish home movies can be assembled on cell phones and computers, a picture like this reminds one of the deeper merits of filmmaking and what individuals can accomplish through dedication.
Single8 begins with exposition text modelled after the opening of Star Wars (1977), describing how the aforementioned American blockbuster dazzled Japanese audiences after being imported in 1978. The camera appropriately pans across a starfield to a planet—just before a spaceship drifts in from above the lens. However, instead of an enormous, professionally crafted model, the vessel is a paper mock-up clenched in the (visible) hands of a teenager named Hiroshi (Yuu Uemura), who simulates the engine noise with his voice. Infatuated with Star Wars and aided by his friend Yoshio (Noa Fukuzawa), he sets about recreating the film’s opening with a bigger homemade model and a Super 8 camera. Meanwhile, a film student employed at a local camera shop (Yusuke Sato) offers advice on combating exposure problems (after a whole day’s work is ruined due to improper camera settings). Through much trial and error, they achieve the shot they want and subsequently propose making a short film for their school’s Cultural Festival. Hiroshi even persuades his crush (Akari Takaishi) to play the heroine.
Director Konaka, who also wrote the script (based on his own childhood experiences making Super 8 movies; boyhood projects of his play during the end credits), has gone the distance in recreating the 1970s zeitgeist wherein teenage moviemakers had to—among other things—wait three days for film rolls to be developed, record audio in post-production, and create special effects in-camera. The “making-of” sequences are particularly enjoyable: the protagonists simulate spaceships emerging from clouds by lifting models from steaming baths, levitating objects with strings, and creating “time reversal” with actors walking backwards amid unknowing pedestrians and looping the footage in reverse. In another (amusing) moment, they recruit a shy university student to animate rays by physically etching them onto the film strips one frame at a time. The results are a fun nostalgic glimpse into a time before one could join images at home with computer software.
More importantly, Konaka has provided a story about the creative process and embodied it through a steadily developing protagonist. At the start, Hiroshi is a self-described no-talent interested only in recreating an image from the latest American movie; as the drama progresses, he becomes an attentive director (telling his actors in one instance to wait for the right lighting; he wants a lens flare) and is challenged to use his spaceship in a fleshed-out screenplay, one that leaves viewers something to think about. (A friend of his paraphrases the often-quoted passage from Akira Kurosawa’s autobiography that a good film can never be fashioned from a lousy script.) By drama’s end, Hiroshi’s become so involved in the filmmaking process that he wonders, were his own life a scripted narrative, if he’s undergone a character arc; and he confidently remarks that his next movie will be even better.
Kazuya Konaka’s past efforts include sci-fi television, and Single8 contains numerous references to otaku culture (a scene in the protagonists’ movie is inspired by the original Ultraman show; Hiroshi has a Toshiro Mifune model and numerous kaiju figures on his shelf) amid a fast-moving story populated by likeable characters with a terrific sense of camaraderie. In what recalls Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, an actor is instructed to walk into the distance for a closing shot, and he keeps going even after the director yells, “Cut!” Except whereas Spielberg used this scenario for emotional effect, Konaka does it for smiles (the actor simply cannot hear his comrades over the wind), his bemused friends chasing after him to inform him the scene has wrapped. The entire cast gives relaxed, natural performances. Especially memorable is the unconventionally attractive Akari Takaishi as Hiroshi’s crush, and the film appropriately resolves her dynamic with Hiroshi in a manner that is neither disappointing nor sentimental. Kenichi Aikawa’s cinematography is appealingly bright and crisp, and Peter Michi Miyazaki has contributed one of the most wonderful film scores of recent memory. (His main theme and its many variants are worth seeing the movie for alone, and was enough to keep me glued to my seat through the end credits.)
As of this writing, Single8 has made appearances at the 2023 Boston SCI-FI, Sci-Fi Horror, and Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre Film Festivals, and it is my hope that it’ll continue moving abroad and garner the international attention it deserves. Kazuya Konaka and his team have turned out one of the most splendid recent movies about creatives; after three watches, I can confidently say it is one of those rare movies that gets better each time out. Konaka had said, “I’ve always wanted to make a film about those days when I was obsessed with making 8mm films. Watching movies is fun, but making them is even more fun. I want to make a movie that the audience can relate to.” He has succeeded in spades.
Have you ever tried sports betting? Would you like to turn this hobby into an additional income? Then you, for sure, will be interested to learn more about surebets.
Surebet – arbitrage situation, in the presence of which you always win. How is this possible? Quite simple! Let’s consider the operation and effectiveness of surebets on a specific example.
For example, in the Minnesota United – Nashville match, one bookmaker sets odds of 2.23 for total goals under 2.5 (TU 2.5), and the second – 2.05 for total goals over 2.5 (TO 2.5). You have $420: $200 bet on Under 2.5 and $220 on Over 2.5. Let’s count:
TU 2.5: $200 * 2.23 = $446
TO 2.5: $220 * 2.05 = $451
As you can see, your net income will be $26 or $31 at any result of the match. This became possible due to the existence of a surebet, which was formed due to the difference in the bookmakers odds.
How to calculate the surebet?
We showed an example of a simple surebet, which is very rare in practice. Often we need to use a surebet calculator to calculate arbitrage situations. Similar functionality is built into some arb services.
Moreover an independent search for arbitrage situations involves monitoring dozens of bookmakers, analyzing their odds and calculating of surebets. Thus, even the presence of a convenient calculator does not greatly reduce this time-consuming process.
For this reason, arbers from the USA and Canada are often use special services that analyse and collect information on existing surebets in dozens or even hundreds of bookmakers. As of today, the leader among such services is BetWasp.
This arb scanner analyzes information from 40+ familiar to US bettors bookmakers in 40 sports in 180 markets. In addition to the surebets, Betwasp provides information on middles and valuebets.
Another advantage of the service is its extensive functionality, which allows you to make working with arbitrage situations as comfortable and efficient as possible. Among the useful functions of BW are one-click redirect to betting sites, filters with extensive settings for surebet results, the ability to keep track of bets, etc.
How much do arbers earn?
As the experience of many professional players shows, it is quite realistic to earn 15-20% of the game bank monthly. This means, if your bank is $1000, then the income can be $150-200 per month.
Of course, the size of the initial bank and how well you manage it plays a huge role here. In other words, if your money simply lies on the accounts of bookmakers and you do not bet on them, then you will not receive any profit regardless of the size of the bank.
As for the time to work, many experts advise spending about 15 hours a week on working out the strategy. It’s not much, considering how useful you are using this time to fill your wallet.
Let’s summarize
As you can see, the surebet strategy really works and, as the experience of many players has shown, it also brings a very good income. However, to work with the strategy, you need a high-quality surebet scanner if you do not want to spend a lot of time searching for arbitrage situations on your own.
Hurray for the Riff Raff has released a deluxe version of last year’s Life on Earth. It includes two new songs called ‘Resistance Rockers’ and ‘Let Her in the Sky’, which were made during the sessions for the album, and the former also comes with a music video created by Kelly Gallagher. Check it out below.
“‘Resistance Rockers’ is written for the kid in me who discovered live music at age 14 and had my life saved by it,” Alynda Segarra explained in a statement. “The video created by Kelly Gallagher features blink-and-you’ll-miss-it footage of little Alynda dancing in a mosh pit in Tompkins Square Park circa 2000. I wouldn’t have survived my teen years without that energy and inspiration. That’s a feeling shared by many, so I hope the song speaks to your same open-eyed younger self.”
boygenius appeared on last night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where they performed their single ‘Not Strong Enough’. Watch it below.
‘Not Strong Enough’ is taken from boygenius’ debut album, the record, which came out last month. Following their performance on the second weekend of Coachella on Saturday (April 22), the group is set to head out on a North American tour in June.
Mark Stewart, co-founder and vocalist of the influential UK post-punk band the Pop Group, has died. His longtime label, Mute Records, confirmed the news in a statement, writing, “In honour of this original, fearless, sensitive, artistic and funny man, think for yourself and question everything. The world was changed because of Mark Stewart, it will never be the same without him.” No cause of death was provided. Stewart was 62 years old.
Mark Stewart grew up in Bristol, England, where he formed the Pop Group in 1977 as a teenager alongside guitarist John Waddington, bassist Simon Underwood, guitarist and saxophonist Gareth Sager, and drummer Bruce Smith. Drawing from punk rock as well as genres like funk, dub, and free jazz, the band released their debut album Y, which was produced by reggae artist Dennis Bovell, in 1979. After signing with Rough Trade, the Pop Group issued their second album, For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?, before disbanding in 1981.
Following a move to London, Stewart went on to work with Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound label and joined the dub music collective New Age Steppers. He released several solo albums over the years and collaborated with artists such as Massive Attack, Tricky, Nine Inch Nails, and the Bug. Stewart’s most recent album, VS, came out in 2022.
Stolen Jars have announced their next album: I Won’t Let Me Down is set to drop on August 19. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the new song ‘Reality TV’, which follows the singles early ‘Adeline’, ‘Somewhere Else’, and ‘Won’t Stay Gone Forever’. Check out its accompanying video, directed by Haoyan of America, below.
I Won’t Let Me Down, the follow-up to 2019’s A Reminder, was co-produced and mixed by Hop Along’s Joe Reinhart. It features contributions from Frankie Cosmos’ Greta Kline.
I Won’t Let Me Down Cover Artwork:
I Won’t Let Me Down Tracklist:
1. Reality TV
2. Adeline
3. Austin
4. Won’t Stay Gone Forever
5. Somewhere Else
6. In The Bad Times
7. South
8. Smoke In The House
9. Run It Wild
The Walking Dead has proved to be a massively successful franchise, with the TV series by AMC Studios bringing the zombie apocalypse theme to a global audience. This level of success has led to numerous spin-offs being created but will any of them prove to be as popular as the original?
The Walking Dead Slots
One example of how The Walking Dead has reached other parts of the entertainment industry comes from the world of casino slots. The idea is that players can try simple games of chance based on virtually any type of theme, so a hugely popular TV series like this is an obvious choice for a slot developer looking for inspiration and a topic that will attract a lot of players.
When playing online slots, we can see two games based on this franchise, one called The Walking Dead and the other with the name of The Walking Dead Cash Collect. Both feature symbols showing the images of the show’s main characters and the same basic gameplay, but with varying features that can be triggered as you play.
The fact that there are two slots on this theme suggests that the first one was a success. However, this is an extremely diverse and competitive market where many themes jostle for the attention of players. Having said that, it seems entirely possible that Playtech brings out a third Walking Dead slot with some new features at some point.
Tales of the Walking Dead
This spin-off series began in 2022 as the fourth TV series in the overall franchise. Focusing on a group of characters that combines some existing favourites with newcomers, the first set of six episodes on AMC+ was well received although critics pointed out that the quality varied between episodes.
It’s been successful enough that AMC has already confirmed that a second series has been ordered, with the proposed title of More Tales from the TWDU. This series seems set to continue with the format of six episodes that cover a range of new and existing characters. Each episode will again be completely self-contained and could bring back some characters who died in the original series.
Scott M. Gimple is the chief creative officer for this spin-off and he said that since it’s an anthology show there was no need for the first season to end with a cliffhanger. This is just one of several TV shows have been created to follow on from the original premise, with The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and The Walking Dead: Dead City among the others, but the signs are that it could be one of the most successful.
Back to the Original?
Is there any chance that the original series is brought back to life for a 12th season? The 11th season of the original series was said to be the last. Released in 24 episodes over 2021 and 2022, it was praised for drawing the saga to a close with a satisfactory conclusion that seems to have completely killed off any chance of a 12th season.
All 177 episodes are on streaming services now but the show has definitely been cancelled, with apparently no hope of a 12th series in the future. However, while fans may be disappointed with this news, it could act as a way of boosting the public’s appetite for the different spin-offs that promise to keep the franchise alive and gain new fans for the foreseeable future.
Gus Dapperton has reunited BENEE on the new single ‘Don’t Let Me Down’, which will appear on his debut studio album, HENGE. It marks their first collaboration since the 2020 viral hit ‘Supalonely’. Check out a video for it below.
HENGE will be released on July 7 via Warner. ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ follows Dapperton’s previously unveiled tracks ‘Horizons’ and ‘Wet Cement’.
Sparks have released ‘Veronica Lake’, the latest single from their forthcoming album The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte. It follows the previously shared title track, which came with a music video starring Cate Blanchett. Listen to ‘Veronica Lake’ below.
The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte is set to arrive on May 26 via Island.
