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Calgary Herald
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
In the moods: Calgary's Mariya Stokes releases debut album with songs about vulnerability and empowerment
Article content On Mariya Stokes' debut album, Mood Ring, one of the key songs almost didn't make it onto the track list. Article content Article content Largely recorded live off the floor in only a few takes, Chantelle is a cheerful number about the secret romance between two women that began when they were teenagers. Article content 'I won't tell, if you won't tell,' Stokes sings over an endearing country-pop vibe. One of the song's producers, Calgary's Justin Kudding, was a big proponent of the tune and argued with Stokes about including it on the album. He insisted they give it a go, but Stokes was unsure. Article content Article content 'The band sat down and there was no pre-production, we had no idea what was going to come out,' says Stokes in an interview from her Calgary home. 'It was magic on take one. While it sounds poppy, I don't think there is any programming on that song. It's a live band. It's incredible and one of the coolest moments I've ever had in the studio. He was right. He had a vision and the whole band jumped on it.' Article content Article content Lyrically, the sexy tale of a same-sex relationship may still raise eyebrows in the world of country music, which tends to lean right and has been slow to embrace diversity with the same enthusiasm as other segments of the industry. But Stokes says things are changing for LGBTQ+ artists in the genre. Article content 'It's 2025 and I'm a queer artist and that song explores me discovering that and reconciling with my identity and trying to figure out how to come out,' Stokes says. 'I think the industry is changing for sure. I think there is more representation, there are more spaces that are safe for queer people. Sometimes, we still have to look for them. T he Blue Jay Sessions in Calgary is a really great example of that. There are a lot of queer people that are looking for music that is about their experiences. I know I am.' Article content Article content Chantelle isn't the only song on the record that delves into identity. The ballad Rebound, which Stokes first released as a single in 2021, and the mid-tempo Biggest Fan, are also songs where 'gender isn't specified,' Stokes says. Article content 'Yeah, you can fall in love with all kinds of kinds,' she says with a laugh. Article content The 14 songs on Mood Ring showcase a number of tones and often veer into different styles, from pop music to R&B. Closing track Patron Saint is a sultry torch song, while the sly Christmas, Arizona, with its narrative about a woman stalking a man, plays like a salty honkytonk sing-along. Article content In general, the album showcases an artist intent on sticking to her vision. The newest single, for instance, has the very non-Nashville title F–k Pretty and has Stokes taking on beauty standards over a funky bass line.
Chicago Tribune
20-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
DuPage Regional Office of Education moving education center from Addison to old Indian Plains School building in Aurora
The DuPage Regional Office of Education is moving its Center for Student Success, which provides alternative education programs to students in the county, from its current location in Addison to Indian Prairie School District 204's old Indian Plains School building in Aurora, officials said. The agreement was approved by Indian Prairie's school board at its meeting Monday. Classes will begin at the new location on Aug. 20, according to a news release from the DuPage Regional Office of Education. The Center for Student Success hosts several programs for students, including Rebound, Partners for Success and the Alternative Learning Opportunities program. The Rebound program allows students who have received out-of-school suspensions of four to 10 days to continue doing school work rather than remaining at home, said DuPage Regional Office of Education Regional Superintendent Amber Quirk, while the Partners for Success program places students out of school for longer periods of time. The Alternative Learning Opportunities program helps individuals looking to earn a high school equivalency prepare for the exam needed to earn it and look into postsecondary options. In the new facility, the Regional Office of Education also hopes to host workshops for educators, Quirk said, as the Indian Plains building is bigger than its current space in Addison. The DuPage Regional Office of Education operated programming out of the Old Mill School in Addison for more than two decades, Quirk said. She said the current building needs renovations, and that they're looking for more space. The move to the Indian Plains building is temporary, however. The lease agreement is set for a two-year period starting July 1, per Monday's meeting agenda, with the option to extend for a third year. The DuPage Regional Office of Education has said it is continuing to look for a permanent location for the center. The Indian Plains building at 1322 N. Eola Road in Aurora has not been used for student programming by the district for several years, according to a memo from District 204 Chief School Business Official Matt Shipley. It is currently being used for professional development, offices for a few district staff and storage for the district, all of which will be located to other facilities when the Regional Office of Education begins using the space. The building is 'near the end of its life,' per the memo included in Monday's meeting agenda, although it has been maintained up to code. The district is developing a plan for eventually divesting itself of the building. The first year's annual rent of the space is set at $175,000, per the lease agreement between the district and the DuPage Regional Office of Education, with increases to $185,000 for the second year and $195,000 if the office extends the lease for a third year. That covers all operating and maintenance costs for the facility, the memo from Shipley said, and the Regional Office of Education is to reimburse the district for custodial, maintenance and utilities services, as well as use the district's food service program.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Norway Dominates Canneseries Awards With Wins For ‘A Better Man' & ‘Nepobaby'
Norway has walked away from Canneseries as the big winner this year. Two series from the Scandinavian country, A Better Man and Nepobaby, each bagged multiple trophies at the Canneseries Awards yesterday, while The Agent: The Life and Lies of My Father won Best Docuseries. More from Deadline Norwegian Canneseries Contender 'Rebound' Back For Second Season 'Bad Sisters' Execs Ready New European Series 'Dead End' For An English-Language Remake 'Bridgerton' Star Nicola Coughlan Trashes UK Supreme Court Ruling On Definition Of A Woman A Better Man took home the Best Series, the High School Award and Best Performance, with the latter award going to lead Anders Baasmo, who is known for roles in shows such as NRK miniseries An Immortal Man, Swedish film Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End and Norway's Kon-Tiki from 2012. A Better Man follows Baasmo as Tom, a toxic male who blames feminism for everything, but is forced to hide in women's clothing when his online trolling leads to hackers exposing his identity and most embarrassing secrets. It comes from Norwegian producer Maipo Film in association with Lithuania's Artbox, and is for NRK in Norway and ZDF Neo in Germany, with Beta Film handling international sales. In the Best Series category, it beat Nepobaby, Malin-Sarah Gozin's Dead End and Jonnydepony crime caper The Big Fuck Up from Belgium, German-Belgian series How to Kill Your Sister, Finnish show L/Over, Jean Charles Hue's Malditos from France, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson-starrer Reykjavik Fusion and Korean psychological crime drama S Line. Nepobaby, meanwhile, is for TV2 in Norway and produced Eldorado Content Club, with France's Oble and Nordisk Film Distribution on sales. It's from Siri Seljeseth and Pørni creator Henriette Steestrup, who stars alongside Vivild Falk Berg, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Henriette Steenstrup, Kristin Grue, Helle Eia and Deniz Kaya It follows a woman, Emma (Berg), over one day as she discovers she is the heiress to one of Norway's oldest and wealthiest shipping dynasties, and finds her new siblings are not pleased with her existence when her estranged father passes away. The Agent: The Life and Lies of My Father is an NRK doc series about a man piecing together the life of his father, who may have been an undercover agent for the CIA. It took home the Best Docuseries award. S Line won Best Music, while Oh, Otto!, a Belgian series set in the Brussels queer community won the Best Short Form and Student awards. French actress Marie Colomb won the Rising Star Award, Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan took home the Commitment Award and Eric Rochant and the cast of his crime drama Le Bureau des Légendes bagged the icon award. Best of Deadline 'Ginny & Georgia' Season 3: Everything We Know So Far Everything We Know About The 'Reminders of Him' Movie So Far 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
Boston Globe
21-02-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Could AI understand Nietzsche? Maybe with the help of these scholars.
Advertisement 'Rebound was born basically as the idea that you can use AI to redistribute original commentary about books,' Kaag said. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up You read Rebind books through a standard web browser. At each page there are icons that let you type in questions about the work, or you can speak questions into Rebind's speech recognition system. Say you're unsure what Nietzsche means when he writes that God is dead. A Rebind reader can ask Clancy Martin, a leading Nietzche scholar who teaches at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. Martin distilled his expertise into a 300,000-word commentary on the book. When the reader asks a question of Nietzsche, Rebind's AI ferrets out Martin's answer and displays it on screen, sometimes with additional information located by the AI. Or suppose you're unclear about the meaning of Nietzsche's word 'Ubermensch.' Just highlight it and click to get Martin's explanation of the concept. Many AI applications promise to simplify our lives, but not Rebind. It's for readers who welcome the challenge of complex and demanding books, but who need help over the rough spots. The story of Rebind began two years ago with John Dubuque, who'd made a fortune in the plumbing supply business in St. Louis. But Dubuque's first love was philosophy, a subject he'd studied in college. Having sold the plumbing business, Dubuque reached out to Kaag, a specialist in the study of major US philosophers. Advertisement 'He said, 'Hey, I'd like you to take me through this book that I've always wanted to read but been scared of,'' Kaag said. Dubuque aimed high — he wanted to master 'The Varieties of Religious Experience,' a renowned 1902 book by Harvard philosopher William James. Kaag agreed, and the two had a high old time discussing ineffability, transience, and other concepts that rarely make the newspapers. The experience gave Dubuque an idea. He'd been awed by generative AI systems like ChatGPT, which could serve up sensible though not-always-accurate answers to all manner of questions. Surely a similar chatbot could be trained to guide readers through great books. Then anybody could learn to understand even the most demanding texts, without having to hire a college professor. 'ChatGPT can't do that,' Kang scoffed. But Dubuque believed it could be done by supplementing the AI with an in-depth analysis of the book, produced by a human expert. Martin and the other experts recruited by the company are called 'Rebinders.' Their job is to produce a vast amount of detailed commentary about their assigned books. They also appear in a series of videos that introduce the books and highlight key portions of the texts. It's hard work for the Rebinders, but they're paid five-figure fees for the work. 'I found it to be really, really creatively satisfying,' Martin said. 'You start working on something you love and you wind up pouring your heart into it.' Indeed, he liked it so much that Martin joined Rebind as deputy publisher. 'It was a surprising amount of work,' said Deb Olin Unferth, a professor at the University of Texas who's preparing a Rebind edition of stories by Kafka. Not that she's complaining. 'For me it became like a love project. I just had so much fun doing it.' Advertisement Rebind has recruited several literary stars. Marlon James has signed on to produce commentary for Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' John Banville is doing 'Dubliners' by James Joyce, and New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay is Rebinding 'The Age of Innocence' by Edith Wharton. The company hopes to eventually offer upgrades to each book. By analyzing the questions asked by readers, Rebind will go back to their experts and request additional commentary to fill in any gaps. That way, Rebind books can get smarter over time. In all, 11 books are available through Rebind, and Kaag hopes to offer 20 by year's end. Prices per book vary between $30 and $60. Or readers can purchase a one-year subscription for $120 and get access to every book on the shelf. And if you think the current inventory of books is challenging, here comes the Bible. First up will be selections from the New Testament and the Gnostic Gospels, with commentary by Elaine Pagels, professor of religious history at Princeton University. But Kaag said they're working on the entire Bible. He said the first version will rely on a massive Bible commentary produced by Protestant scholars. He already knows what will happen next. 'We're going to get blowback immediately that we haven't addressed Catholicism or a Jewish interpretation of the Jewish Bible,' Kaag said. 'So what we're planning to do is actually upload multiple interpretations, and then put those into conversation with each other for end users.' Like having a priest, a rabbi, and a minister get into a friendly argument (not at a bar), mediated by AI. Advertisement Obviously Rebind isn't for everyone. In an age of social media and ever-present video entertainment, it's an open question whether such a cerebral technology product can find an audience. 'In times like ours do people really want to slow down and read in a very patient, thoughtful way?' Clancy said. 'Well, there's one way to find out.' Hiawatha Bray can be reached at
