Latest news with #SkidRow
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Sydney Sweeney reveals how she prepared for challenging role in Echo Valley: 'When you have a scene partner like Julianne...'
is currently making waves with her challenging and brilliant portrayal in Echo Valley. Her performance is described as unsettling and a perfect portrayal of calculated chaos. The actress plays Claire Garrett, a troubled girl who arrives at her mother's ranch soaked in blood, triggering a series of events that uncover unsettling and dark secrets, which challenges their already fragile bond. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Sydney's performance is being applauded all around the globe and recently the actress shared how she prepared herself to play such a complicated role. In a recent interview with Variety, the 'Anyone but You' star opened up on working in Echo Valley and said, "When you have a scene partner like Julianne, it's not as hard as you would think. She is such an amazing actress and just so emotionally available and open, it makes you feel safe. So I felt very, very comfortable going to very deep raw places." Adding how she prepared for the part, the actress shared, "I watched a lot of videos. There's a YouTube series of this guy that interviews people on Skid Row that have struggled with addiction and are [still] currently. I watched a lot of them and drew from different stories that they would tell or mannerisms that they have." Adding further, "Sometimes, to be honest, I don't really plan anything, or I don't like to think it through. I don't know if that's great, but for me, it's like, you don't really rehearse a conversation that you're gonna have. Like, I didn't rehearse things out. I kind of like being able to see whatever's gonna happen, happen. It's really exciting. And then you can learn in the process and discover new things," she concluded. Sydney is set for the upcoming year with movies like Immaculate, Eden, and The Housemaid. She is also set to star in a movie adaptation of the video game Split Fiction and a remake of Barbarella.
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Everything that happened at Summer Game Fest 2025, from marathon game sessions to military helicopters
As protests exploded in Los Angeles last weekend, elsewhere in the city, a coterie of games journalists and developers were gathered together to play new games at the industry's annual summer showcase. This week's issue is a dispatch from our correspondent Alyssa Mercante. Summer Game Fest (SGF), the annual Los Angeles-based gaming festival/marketing marathon, was set up to compete with the once-massive E3. It's taken a few years, but now it has replaced it. 2025's event felt like a cogent reminder that the games industry has dramatically changed since the pandemic. Whereas E3 used to commandeer the city's convention centre smack in the middle of downtown LA, SGF is off the beaten path, nestled among the reams of fabric in the Fashion District, adjacent to Skid Row. There are fewer game companies present, it's not open to the public and there's no cosplay, unless it's for marketing purposes. Its centrepiece is a live show held at the YouTube theatre near the airport, hosted by ever-present games industry hype-man Geoff Keighley and streamed to millions – and you can buy tickets for that. Some video game enthusiasts and smaller content creators told me that the in-person showcase wasn't worth their money: just a very lengthy show that they could have watched online, culminating in a massive traffic jam to get out of Inglewood. This year's event had some hiccups, including an attempted gatecrasher, but felt the most put-together yet. Attending SGF is a privilege, but it is also an ungodly hybrid of a marathon and a sprint: back-to-back-to-back appointments with publishers and developers with no downtime in-between, speed walking between cabanas and moving swiftly in and out of over air-conditioned rooms to ensure you don't upset a PR person or accidentally spurn an indie developer. During brief breaks, if you even get one, you'll shovel a canape into your gullet, wash it down with a Red Bull, have a quick bite of some (surprisingly good) PC Gamer-branded ice-cream, and attempt to get a few of your thoughts down on paper. I saw a lot of games this weekend, some of which I can't talk about, but once again it was the indie games that were the most memorable. Not just because they're unexpected or unique or silly, but because there are usually far fewer restrictions while you play, devs are more open to questions and there aren't eight PR people standing over your shoulder to ensure you don't open up an unfinished menu or wander some place you shouldn't. On night one, I stuck my head in at the Media Indie Exchange (MIX) party downtown, and was immediately enraptured with Urban Jungle, a plant based game that speaks to my newfound love of horticulture. Placing plants around a cutesy little room afforded me a brief moment of zen in a crowded space full of people trying out dozens of indie games. Then there's Petal Runner, a pixel art RPG that looks and feels like a Game Boy-era Pokémon title. Published by iam8bit and developed by two people who met in the Instagram comments under some cyberpunk artwork, it's a beautiful, adorable, 'no violence' RPG. Rather than engage in the questionable practice of capturing cute creatures and forcing them to fight each other, you simply help deliver them to their new owners and 'calibrate' or calm them down through a series of old-school minigames. Then you hop on your motorcycle (Petal Runner's programmer was inspired to get a bike after watching Tron: Legacy) to deliver another pet. After just 15 minutes, its modern chip-tune soundtrack, cool-toned palette, and cute creatures had me sold. Thick As Thieves, meanwhile, is a multiplayer stealth game. A representative for the developer told me that the team wanted to make a multiplayer game that avoided the three 'black holes', or oversaturated genres: shooters, PvP combat, and pure action gameplay. The result is something that feels like Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood mixed with Dishonored: you'll sneak through maps set in a dark early 1900s world cut through with slices of rich colour, while you try to pull off difficult heists to impress a thieves' guild. But other players are trying to do the exact same thing, and guards and civilians will get in your way. I also got a chance to try out the new season of Monster Hunter Now from Niantic, the studio behind Pokémon Go. This augmented reality game drops you into a version of the real world filled with monsters from Capcom's iconic action game, condensing the series' epic fights into bite-size battles that are barely a minute long (they can be close to an hour in the mainline games). And I played the new, four-person party game Lego Party with two other journalists, screaming as our Lego characters fell over each other during minigames or stole gold bricks in an attempt to get to first place. It was fun and freeing; people gathered around us as we yelled and guffawed and talked smack with gusto, as if we needed this game to help cleanse our tired palates. Every game I spent even a few minutes with this weekend was imbued with passion and creativity, no matter the size of the team or the scope of the project. It was a testament to the drive that fuels so many in this space, and the technological advancements that let smaller teams (sometimes just one or two people) make beautifully complex games. Seeing tons of fellow journalists and developers bright-eyed and excited, even with so many of us struggling to find work, recently laid off, or otherwise worried about the future, was a shot of adrenaline. But it was also impossible to ignore that something larger was taking place in LA, acting as a sombre backdrop to this comparatively low-stakes weekend of video games. On Saturday, protests broke out in Los Angeles, with citizens pushing back against the militant and cruel anti-immigration raids taking place across the city. The constant whir of helicopters was a bizarre soundtrack to the weekend; many people who had come from out of state or even out of the country were noticeably concerned about the escalating events. We furtively shared updates with each other at hands-on appointments, whispering about the national guard, warning each other to travel together and safely. On Sunday night, dozens of journalists and devs were told they couldn't leave a downtown LA bar where they had gathered; the LAPD had shut down the area, determined to quell the protests. On the last day of SGF, we chatted about how weird it was to preview video games during such an acute political moment. One person told me they were playing a demo that kicked off with tanks and military men and, as he played, he heard the sounds of a helicopter circling overhead, and wondered where the game ended and the real world began. Alyssa Mercante From the makers of Frostpunk and This War of Mine, The Alters is a strange sci-fi strategy experiment that sees stranded space-worker Jan cloning himself several times over in order to assemble a team big enough to make it off an exoplanet before the sun rises and burns everything to cinders. The thing is that the clones don't exactly get on. Each one represents a different alternate-universe version of Jan: imagine being stuck on a remote base with nothing but your squabbling selves. Sign up to Pushing Buttons Keza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gaming after newsletter promotion I thought The Alters was going to be a comedy game, but though it is sometimes fleetingly funny, it's also a surprisingly involving base-building survival affair, more tense and urgent-feeling than I was expecting and full of consequential choices that encourage a second or third run-through. I will certainly be playing more of it. Available on: PC, PlayStation 5, XboxApproximate playtime: 20-30 hours While Alyssa was on the ground at Summer Game Fest, Keith and I were watching an endless stream of showcases and trailers from the UK– we've picked out the most interesting games from the show. The biggest announcement was probably a new Xbox handheld – though, confusingly, it's not quite what it seems. The ROG Xbox Ally X (why can nobody at Microsoft name something properly?) is an Xbox branded version of an existing line of portable PCs. Still, Alyssa was impressed with how well it worked in her brief demo. We've also been extremely busy playing an inordinate amount of Nintendo's Switch 2. Keith's review of the console is here, and here's my review of its flagship game, Mario Kart World. Harassment by Ubisoft executives left female staff terrified, French court hears How Nintendo dodged Trump's tariffs and saved the Switch 2 release The Nintendo Switch 2 is out – here's everything you need to know No question for this week's guest issue but, as ever, if you've got something you'd like to ask, or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on pushingbuttons@
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Who is rioting in downtown L.A., demonstrators or habitual agitators?
As a fifth day of anti-ICE protests continue into the typically volatile evening hours, a state of emergency and a curfew in a portion of downtown Los Angeles now in place, many across Southern California and the nation are asking who is inciting the violence, committing the vandalism and doing the looting? Is it demonstrators or habitual agitators? In a Tuesday evening press conference, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass announced the curfew in a single square mile area downtown between the 110, 10 and 5 freeways, including Skid Row, Chinatown, Little Tokyo and the Fashion District. The curfew, which begins this evening at 8 p.m. and goes until 6 a.m., is expected to remain in place for at least several days. 'Last night, there were 23 businesses that were looted,' the mayor said. 'I think that if you drive through downtown L.A., the graffiti is everywhere and has caused significant damages to businesses and a number of properties.' Bass warned anyone attempting to remain in the curfew zone after 8 p.m., with limited exceptions, will be subject to arrest. On Monday, Bass expressed her deep frustration with those choosing to engage in illegal behavior, using the cover of immigrants' rights as a reason to cause mayhem. 'I just say to anybody that does that, don't come and say you are supporting immigrants' rights. You can't possibly be supporting immigrants and vandalize our city,' she said. 'You will be arrested. It might not happen that day, so don't think that because you went home that night that you're free. There's a lot of videotape, investigations that will take place and you will be held accountable and, frankly, need to be separated from the people who are fighting on behalf of our immigrant community.' On Sunday, L.A. Police Chief Jim McDonnell highlighted the level of violence police have battled, from a Molotov cocktail that hit an officer to two motorcyclists reportedly ramming skirmish lines to cinderblocks smashed into rocks, passed around and lobbed at police and commercial grade fireworks launched at the force. 'That can kill you,' McDonnell emphasized. The night of June 9 also devolved into a stretch of five Waymo driverless taxis on North Los Angeles Street near Arcadia Street tagged with graffiti and lit on fire, sending flames and clouds of toxic black smoke into the air. 3 killed in crash involving motorcyclist fleeing Southern California police 'These are people who are all hooded up, they've got a face mask on. They're the people who do this all the time, get away with whatever they can [and] go from one civil unrest situation to another using similar tactics,' the chief said. 'Some would call them anarchists, but they're people we run across routinely, city to city; it's what they do. Even more disgusting [is] that many people doing this come in from other places just to hurt people and to cause havoc.' As of late afternoon Tuesday, police said that nearly 200 people had been arrested on various charges. Just before 9 p.m., LAPD's Central Division said in a post to X that 'mass arrests are being initiated' for curfew violations. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Sunday World
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Join us backstage with Metallica as our man Eddie Rowley gets a taste of what's coming to Dublin's Aviva
Our showbiz reporter meets metal icons as Irish fans clamour for tickets to double date It once belonged to former Skid Row and Thin Lizzy guitarist, the late Gary Moore, who was forced to sell it when he was down on his luck financially. Gary had bought it from its first famous owner, British musician Peter Green, who used it during his time in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and Fleetwood Mac. 'Greeny', a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard named after Green, is now one of the most recognisable guitars on the face of the earth. The band will play two different sets over two nights with different support acts too . . When I joined Metallica's M72 World Tour in Philadelphia last weekend, guitar god Hammett told us at a sideline event: 'It's funny, I had nothing to do with the fanbase this guitar has and it's a huge fanbase. 'When I acquired this guitar the fanbase even swelled exponentially because people learned about the other players who owned this guitar, so I feel like I'm furthering a legacy. 'A lot of the time people come up to me who are not Metallica fans but who love Greeny and they want to take a picture with her. It's the first time I owned a guitar that already had a fan club before I had it.' I watched Kirk in action with 'Greeny' over two nights at 'The Linc' stadium, home of the Philadelphia Eagles, where Metallica thrilled their own fans with incendiary performances in spectacular shows that will play Dublin's Aviva Stadium next June. Eddie with Metallica tour chief Jon-Michael Marino Tickets cover two concerts, with the world's greatest heavy metal band playing a completely different set list each night and with two new support acts on the second bill. As Metallica tour chief Jon-Michael Marino took the Sunday World inside the world of the legendary band hours before the show, I got the thrill of stepping up on to the stage where they'd perform to 67,000 fans that night. The sprawling, breath-taking stage is 'in the round' with eight gigantic towers hosting video screens and a colossal sound system that ensures even fans sitting in the gods have the best possible experience. Earlier, on my way in, I had strolled past 87 monster trucks that ferry in the stage and production. 'We have a crew of 350 people, so it's a travelling village. The production is incredible, but the live energy in the Metallica concert is really second to none,' Jon pointed out. 'It doesn't matter if you're seeing the band for the first time or if you are some of the die-hard fans I know personally who have seen 250 shows, it's the energy and the sense of community you have when you have 40,000 to 80,000 Metallica fans gathered in one space that's pretty special… the goosebumps that you get don't really go away. Eddie Rowley with one of the Metallica guitars 'The shows have only got better somehow over 44 years. They're not getting slower, they're not getting softer, it's not a greatest hits lap around the world. They are still creating new music and I expect that they'll continue to do so.' Over the two nights in Philadelphia, Metallica unleashed a barrage of their most celebrated and revered songs from their impressive arsenal with manic drumming from skinsman Lars driving the full-on, power-packed performance. James Hetfield's voice is a force of nature and he looks like he's in the best shape of his life these days — having struggled with alcohol abuse in the past — as he prowls the stage mesmerising us with his guitar work and vocal delivery. 'Music saves my life every day, I hope you feel the same,' Hetfield told us at the first show. On the second night he addressed the issue of suicide, urging people to seek help. 'I know darkness, I know everyone here knows darkness, and we don't know how hard it needs to get to go there [suicide],' James says. 'But that permanent solution to a temporary problem is not worth it. I say talk, talk that sh*t out, get that sh*t out… that's not why you're here. You are here to be loved and cherished, so talk to your friends.' Eddie Rowley with the Metallica drum kit Superfan Brian Thomas from Raleigh, North Carolina, has been to 46 Metallica shows. 'It's going to hit 50 in Tampa in a couple of weeks and I'm really looking hard at coming to Dublin,' he tells me. 'You can't go to a sporting event in the United States without hearing a Metallica song because it's high energy, excellent music, amps the crowd up and everybody's feeling good when they hear it.' Metallica's M72 World Tour will play Dublin's Aviva Stadium on June 19 and 21, 2026. Two-night tickets are now on sale. For further information, enhanced experiences, travel packages and more, go to James Hetfield and Metallica will bring their explosive show to the Aviva next year News in 90 Seconds - 3rd June 2025
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iconic '80s Rocker, 57, 'Still Sounds 25' During Epic Performance
Iconic '80s Rocker, 57, 'Still Sounds 25' During Epic Performance originally appeared on Parade. As frontman for the chart-topping heavy metal band Skid Row in the '80s and '90s, Sebastian Bach was known for two things: His mane of long blonde hair and his jaw-dropping vocal range. Decades later, his hair is still blonde (even if it's not quite as long as it was back in the day), but more importantly, fans are saying his voice is just as impressive as ever. In a video shared to TikTok from the M3 Rock Festival in Columbia, Maryland, earlier this month, Bach, 57, belted out Skid Row's 1991 hit song, "Monkey Business," off their second multi-platinum album, Slave to the Grind. While the singer often performed shirtless at the height of Skid Row's fame, he was dressed in a sparkly black t-shirt under a black vest with matching leather pants and cowboy boots as he stalked across the stage, banging his head. Fans were stunned by Bach's chops, with many pointing out that his voice is in much better shape than many of his contemporaries. "How does he still sound 25 and everyone else sounds 95???" one person wanted to know, with a second commenter declaring, "Sebastian was honestly always better than his peers. He's WAY better currently." "The GREATEST rocker of all time," gushed someone else, as another fan pointed out, "I guess it shows people who sing properly and who don't. Your voice will hold up better." Bach opened up about how he's preserved his voice over the years in a recent interview with Hollywood Soapbox, explaining that he still uses the same warm-up exercises he learned from Manhattan vocal coach Don Lawrence in the late '80s, which he recorded at the time. 'When digitizing came out, mid-'90s, the first thing I did was I took all those lessons, and I put them on MP3s," he explained. "So they're on my phone, and I made CDs out of them. So I warm up to myself at the age of 19 every day. I sing these lessons, and it's me before I made the first Skid Row album, singing all these scales. I did this every single show." Bach went on to reveal that other famous singers have asked him for advice. 'What's crazy is that so many other singers have heard me backstage do this warm up, and they've asked me for my warm up," he said, adding, "And Axl Rose warms up to me singing when I was does Phil Lewis of L.A. Guns. All of them have my f—ing vocal really cool to think of these other singers warming up to me as a teenager. It's cool.'Iconic '80s Rocker, 57, 'Still Sounds 25' During Epic Performance first appeared on Parade on Jun 2, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 2, 2025, where it first appeared.
