#Aggregate Festival

[yellowmanula]

I can hardly wait to hear compositions for hyperorgans this Friday in nostalgic Berlin during Aggregate Festival. Mechanical music has an extraordinarily long history, tracing back to antiquity, when instruments powered by the force of falling water were first invented. All forms of abstraction that compel me to ponder the zero point of language or melody are pure nourishment for my soul. Embracing the frameworks of cognitive linguistics, I embark on a journey beyond the human body, to the place where energy meets the mechanical form. Berlin, I’m arriving on Thursday!

[novelpatterns]

Unleashing the Power of AI-Driven Finance: Novel Patterns at Singapore Fintech Festival

As one of the most significant and esteemed events in the financial technology industry, the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) serves as a hub for revolutionary ideas, innovative solutions, and conversations that shape the sector. Each year, SFF attracts participants from around the globe, including bankers, tech developers, regulators, investors, and fintech entrepreneurs, all driven by a shared objective: to propel the future of finance. The 2024 festival has continued this tradition, brimming with enthusiasm and insights as companies showcase their latest developments in artificial intelligence, blockchain, cybersecurity, and more.

In this ever-changing landscape, Novel Patterns distinguished itself by presenting an impressive array of AI-driven solutions. As the financial sector undergoes digital transformation, companies are on the lookout for tools that can optimize processes, bolster security, and satisfy growing customer demands. Novel Patterns has been leading the charge in these advancements, developing solutions that not only keep up with industry evolution but also propel innovation forward.

The festival atmosphere was charged with discussions on how artificial intelligence is reshaping financial services. From the bustling exhibition halls to the deep-dive sessions with industry experts, it was clear that automation and AI-driven insights are now essential components in finance. Whether through predictive analytics, enhanced customer support, or real-time data processing, AI is transforming how financial institutions operate.

For Novel Patterns, SFF was the ideal platform to demonstrate how its products — Genesis, CART, and MyConCall — are addressing these trends and supporting the next generation of financial services

Genesis: The All-in-One Platform for Modern Fund Management

In today’s world, where data-driven insights and efficient processes are crucial for achieving success, Genesis provides fund managers with a distinct advantage. This all-encompassing platform is tailored to meet the changing demands of both investors and regulatory authorities, delivering clarity and control over the intricate aspects of fund management.

Attendees at SFF were particularly impressed with how Genesis addresses some of the toughest challenges in investment management:

Efficient Portfolio Allocation and Tracking: With Genesis, fund managers can seamlessly allocate assets across a diverse portfolio, reducing manual processes and enhancing accuracy.

Real-Time Reporting and Transparency: Genesis provides clear, insightful reporting that keeps both managers and clients informed, building trust and improving transparency.

Automated Compliance: The platform incorporates compliance features that help managers stay on top of changing regulations, ensuring that every decision meets legal and industry standards.

For investment professionals, Genesis serves not merely as a tool but as a strategic asset that enhances their workflow and fosters client trust. At SFF, financial firms have identified Genesis as a game-changing solution that consolidates efficiency, compliance, and transparency in one platform while also providing the scalability necessary for growth in a fiercely competitive market.

CART (Credit Assessment and Robotic Transformation): Accelerating Lending with AI

CART addresses critical needs in the lending process:

Instant Data Extraction & Analytics from Unstructured Financial Documents: Traditional credit assessments can be time-consuming and prone to errors. CART streamlines this by automatically extracting and analyzing data from bank statements, invoices, and other unstructured documents in seconds.

Risk and Fraud Detection: CART’s AI-driven risk scoring and pattern analysis highlight potential fraud indicators and categorize applicants by risk level, empowering lenders to make safer and more profitable decisions.

Improved Decision-Making Speed: By accelerating the entire credit assessment process, CART allows lenders to respond to applicants faster, increasing customer satisfaction and enabling quicker loan disbursements.

During SFF, CART created significant excitement among participants, especially those from established banks and fintech firms eager to integrate AI for enhanced lending efficiency. A key highlight was CART’s capability to boost lending speed by as much as 40%. Attendees at our booth witnessed firsthand how this solution can assist financial institutions in meeting the growing demand for swift and precise loan processing.

MyConCall: Setting New Standards for Secure Financial Communication & Digital Onboarding

In the realm of finance, confidentiality is not merely important — it is essential. With MyConCall, Novel Patterns delivers a secure, compliant, and user-friendly communication platform tailored to the specific requirements of financial teams. As concerns about data breaches and regulatory demands escalate, MyConCall ensures peace of mind with encrypted communication and improved data security.

Key features that make MyConCall essential for finance teams:

End-to-End Encryption for Voice and Video Calls: MyConCall ensures that sensitive discussions remain private and secure, with encryption safeguarding every interaction.

Compliance-Ready Features: Built with regulatory compliance in mind, MyConCall offers features that make record-keeping and data privacy seamless and stress-free.

Enhanced Collaboration Tools: Beyond secure calls, MyConCall provides file-sharing options, meeting scheduling, and other tools that support team collaboration without compromising security.

SFF 2024 participants, including representatives from major financial institutions and up-and-coming fintech companies, were attracted to MyConCall as a safe alternative to traditional communication methods. They recognized its ability to minimize compliance risks while enabling seamless, secure, and efficient communication within financial teams.

A Vision for the Future: Partnering to Build a Smarter, Faster, and Safer Financial Landscape

Novel Patterns’ experience at the Singapore Fintech Festival was not just about presenting products; it was also about fostering a community of like-minded individuals who share a belief in technology’s potential to transform the financial industry. The discussions we engaged in, the insights we gathered, and the relationships we cultivated reaffirmed our dedication to pushing the limits of what is achievable in fintech.

By showcasing solutions like Genesis, CART, and MyConCall, Novel Patterns is empowering organizations to enhance their processes while also contributing to a wider transformation that emphasizes efficiency, security, and inclusivity in finance.

We are thrilled to continue this journey and spread our message of financial innovation to various platforms around the globe. As we anticipate future events, we are excited to introduce new features, broaden our offerings, and strengthen our collaborations with innovative institutions worldwide.

The Journey Continues: Join Us in Redefining Financial Innovation

Our time at SFF 2024 was truly inspiring. We eagerly anticipate more chances to connect, collaborate, and innovate in the months ahead. With each event, Novel Patterns remains dedicated to providing solutions that create value, enhance security, and empower financial institutions to flourish in a rapidly digitalizing world.

[reasonsforhope]

"Samuel Onyango’s office at Kibera Primary School is serene and spacious. His table is neatly arranged, with an assortment of files and an array of books. One side of his cream-colored office is decked with aggregate performance scores, and another shows off several trophies in a glass cabinet. Last year, Onyango’s school performed a traditional dance and scooped third place in the National Drama and Film Festivals, where schools across the country competed for the top prize.

But today Onyango, the school’s principal, is bragging about something much more basic: Thanks to an innovative community program, his students and teachers are no longer getting sick from dirty water.

Onyango’s school, with a staff of 30 and a student body of about 1,700, is in Kibera, a neighborhood in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi that is widely known as Africa’s largest informal settlement. It is a community of houses made from mud or tin sheeting where residents have to hustle to meet even their most basic needs, like electricity or clean water.

It is also a community where creativity and innovation, at the heart of any hustle, are changing how some people can access clean water — and making major ripples in public health.

Onyango’s school has long gotten its water the same way many people in Kibera do: by buying it from independent suppliers, who truck water in and sell it for around $30 per 10,000 liters (about 2,650 gallons). But trucked water can be contaminated, despite suppliers’ promises, and Onyango’s students and staff were often using unclean water at home, too. It was common, he says, for both teachers and students to get sick and miss school because of waterborne illnesses.

Last November, Onyango’s school got connected to an aerial clean water system built by a local grassroots organization called SHOFCO, which stands for Shining Hope for Communities. “Once we got connected to SHOFCO’s water,” Onyango says, “cases of these ailments reduced to nil.”

SHOFCO’s water distribution system currently reaches about 40,000 people and distributes more than 3.7 million gallons of clean water per month.

Access to safe drinking water — and its equitable distribution — underpins public health. But for the estimated 250,000 people in Kibera, who live without any government infrastructure, clean water is often a luxury. Many people are using illegal water connections, which proliferate among the poor — there are nearly 130 in just three lesser-resourced Nairobi neighborhoods. But those DIY hookups can mix clean water with raw sewage, and Kenyan officials have recently warned of a looming public health crisis if water access is not prioritized.

Shifting weather patterns also increase the risk of waterborne illness, government officials say. The Ministry of Health and the Kenya Red Cross Society have called out severe flooding during the El Niño weather pattern as a source of a recent major cholera outbreak in parts of the country. Kibera was not spared this risk: The floods led to the contamination of various sources of water in the sprawling neighborhood.

But the aerial piping system SHOFCO built in 2012 — the one that brings water to Onyango’s school — saved some Kibera residents, quite literally. With collaboration from health and county authorities, SHOFCO has all but eliminated diarrheal disease in the communities that use its aerial piping system, according to Gladys Mwende, a program officer at SHOFCO. In the health facilities SHOFCO runs, the incidences of diarrheal infections have also gone down, she adds.

Pictured: People in Kibera’s Makina section pass by the signature blue pillars that hold up SHOFCO’s aerial water piping system. Visual: Sarah Waiswa/Harvard Public Health Magazine

“[Poor sanitation is the reason] that our water is aerial piped,” says Kennedy Odede, the founder and CEO of SHOFCO. Piping water in helps clean water maintain its integrity without interference from elements including tampering. In a huge community with no major infrastructure, piping seemed impossible — there was no money and no will to build a disruptive underground system connected to the city’s main water supply. Instead, Odede and his team put the pipes up in the air. “As somebody who grew up in Kibera, to see this clean water — which I have also drank — is powerful.”

SHOFCO’s water distribution system currently reaches about 40,000 people and distributes more than 3.7 million gallons of clean water per month — nearly 46 million gallons per year — at community water kiosks, which residents access with tokens linked to the mobile money platform M-Pesa. The water kiosks are pre-programmed to fill jerry cans that hold about five gallons at a cost of 3 Kenyan shillings, or about 23 U.S. cents.

A recent evaluation of SHOFCO’s clean water efforts, undertaken by the African Population and Health Research Center, shows diarrheal disease among children under age five have decreased by 31 percent where community members used SHOFCO water kiosks and received SHOFCO’s sanitation messaging.

“We don’t get as many cases of diarrhea even though now we are in the middle of the floods,” Mwende says. “Communities have not reported any outbreaks within the areas where we are working.”

Mohammed Suleiman is grateful for the change. Suleiman, 25, was born here, and it’s been his job for the last 18 years to fetch 135 gallons of water daily for his family’s personal needs and for their samosa business.

Two months ago, Sulieman contracted typhoid from the unsanitary water he was consuming. Once he recovered, he says, switching to SHOFCO water kiosks was a no-brainer.

“I don’t know where the other independent vendors get it from,” he says. But he trusts SHOFCO water. “Water sourced from SHOFCO is cleaner than that of other vendors,” he says. “I don’t have to treat water from [SHOFCO] kiosks before consuming it.”

And he’s the living proof: Since switching to SHOFCO water, Suleiman hasn’t been sick even once."

-via Undark, August 13, 2024

[transmechanicus]

look this is really probably unnecessary, but I've seen tons of posts about how everyone is mad about the page that's going to post unmasked pics of the st guys and how outrageously disrespectful it is to them and well... I gotta say that it's just not that deep.

it's been pointed out that they've only ever said that 'their identities aren't important to the music or the story'. and that's it in terms of the "extreme lengths" they go to hide their identities.

i'm a regular follower of the reddit page where their identities are openly discussed and there is a decent amount of evidence that one of them or someone from their team lurks there and plays around a little with that community. ie, a few of the recent "the summoning solo shenanigans" were suggested in that thread and then seen on stage the next show. but who knows.

some of the guys are actually still participating in other media to a small extent. one of them still streams with a friend on twitch often. one of them just put out some older official music project on Spotify. one of them gets his new tattoos posted unmasked on his tattoo artist's page.

look, I'm not saying that this person who plans to bring this stuff to Tumblr shouldn't be warned about and of course everyone should have the opportunity to block and avoid it to keep their experience of the band how they prefer. that's no question how it should be.

but like... everyone is saying that this person who's starting the unmasked blog is like, evil and so disrespectful to the band. and I think that's just not right. it's their right to start whatever kind of page they want. it's everyone else's right to avoid it.

like I said, this is not really going anywhere, and it's not personal, I just have seen so many people bashing that person on a personal level and I just gotta tell someone, it's not that deep. thank you for reading

To me it is that deep, from what i’ve heard there was a major panic on Instagram in 2023 bc freaks were using info on there to harass II and his family. Hell he still alters his voice in videos, which you only do if you’re concerned someone is dedicated enough to scrape the internet with audio of your vocal patterns. I’ve seen video footage of Vessel cussing out a guy at a festival for yelling real names in the audience. There is direct evidence that the band members dislike off-stage info being known and shared, and that a portion of Sleep Token’s fanbase cannot be trusted to respect the secrecy that allows the band members to live comfortable lives relatively peacefully and out of the public eye.

In my personal opinion, your examples of how they’re still on other social media, and that you know that info abt them are reinforcement of my dislike for unmasked data aggregates. Unless the tattoo artist’s posts or the twitch stream is tagged #SleepToken there is probably a reasonable expectation that they don’t want band related attention for those things. Even if somebody does recognize them as the band members, it would be a minority population if it weren’t for subreddits and archives directly connecting dots between those things and Sleep Token, which is presumably why you have that info yourself in the first place.

By aggregating and collecting unmasked info, a resource is being provided that essentially says “Hey i know these guys have almost entirely retreated from the internet for their own safety and comfort…but here’s their names and faces and loved ones and colleagues and past projects and every little activity they do in their spare time. All gathered together and directly tagged and marked in relation to the band they’ve purposefully tried to anonymize and distance their real lives from”.

It’s stalker behavior, it’s unhealthy, it could be genuinely dangerous for the members if the wrong person made use of it, and i reserve the right to passionately condemn it.

[catboymitosis]

My only theory for Chaugnar is that the reason both Henryk and Abella moonscorch that fast is because of the interaction between them on the train at the beginning aggregates their personal issues to the point where they just spiral being alone.

Abella is the character most sexualized by others in game and it can be safe to assume she gets this kind of treatment outside of Prehevil a lot too. In most ways Chaugnar is antithetical to Abella's actual character so I think it might in a way represent a small wish inside of her to be brutal and masculine to escape the sexualisation and misogyny she faces in her life, something that wouldnt be more than a passing angry thought in any other situation. Also of note is that she's the only person (so far) who, presumably Rher, gives and outfit change to she ends up in something more revealing than she got on with, maybe in part both to draw that kind of attention in from the more decrepit among the contestants and to make her more conscious about being seen in such ways during the festival.

[taisestarr]

Lugh Samildánach’ aspects

Here starts the series of posts about Lugh Samildánach’ aspects. I took the epithets that Lugh has from different myths and associated it with the division of Ireland from the ‘Suidigud Tellaich Temra’ (The Settling of the Manor of Tara): 

knowledge in the west — Scál find (“light phantom”) battle in the north —  Lonnbéimnech/Lonnansclech ("fierce striker") prosperity in the east — Lámfada (“long hand”)   music in the south — Ildánach ("skilled in many arts")  kingship in the centre — Samildánach ("equally skilled in all the arts")

This is how I explain the difference between Ildánach and Samildánach. Ildánach as a potential of Samildánach, young Lugh starting his story. Sam means "together" according to this dictionary. It's all aspects together indeed.

Lugh always has all aspects, I separate them for better understanding in devoting and to follow Lugh’s way of self-improvement. Epithets are associated by their meaning and I’ve never seen such mapping before. I consider Lugh's story in myths as a development path. And that's the path anyone could follow with Lugh's support, as he does support improvement by his nature :)

Here are the parts of myths corresponding to the aspects:

Ildánach is a young Lugh that comes to Tara, telling and proving his skills in ‘The Second Battle of Moytura’. All that “Question me, I am…”. Lugh is called Lonnannsclech and Samildánach in that part of myth, I deliberately choose to name him Ildánach and will explain it later. This is an aspect of an artist and the patron of the arts, the favorite handsome young man that everyone’s loving. It’s similar to Apollo. 

Lugh Lonnbéimnech (or Lonnansclech) is a warrior and trickster from the battle itself in Battle of Moytura and in ‘The Fate of the Children of Turenn’. This aspect is rageful, similar to young Odin and other fierce tricksters, Loki in some way.

Lugh Lámfada is a high king after the victory in the Battle of Moytura. This aspect is related to a calendar myth strongly. He does a lot for nature and he is a balanced ruler. He manipulates the weather, the sun’s movement. He is responsible for the harvest and nature's well-being, Lughnasadh is his festival. This aspect was a tricky one to aggregate. I based my research on this great video by Fortress of Lugh — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrLUdqtyxZk and added some parts of myths and legends to it. This will be a long story :) 

Scál find is how I call Lugh’s manifestation after his death. He is the Scál in ‘Baile in Scáil’, and he is called Scál find in this ancient poem https://ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/kings02.html. Also, Find matches Lugh. To explore this aspect fully, I’ve added Lugh’s appearance in myths about Cú Chulainn: ‘Compert Con Culainn’ and a piece of ‘Táin Bó Cúailnge’, where Lugh comes to Cú Chulainn. This aspect of Lugh is very similar to Manannán.

Lugh Samildánach combines all these aspects, just like a high king in Tara must have skills of all 4 parts. And the young Lugh Ildánach demonstrates skills of every Ireland’s part when he comes to Tara: knowledge, battle, prosperity and music.

Lugh is a god of mastering and development. The way he appears in myths is also a path of self-development. There are keys for anyone in myth and I’ll explain all of them. This will be an interesting journey for several months.

[msclaritea]

Martin Freeman Says Backlash Over Age Gap in Ortega Movie Wasn't Fair

Eve Crosbie Apr 27, 2024, 8:36 AM ET

Lionsgate

Martin Freeman addressed the controversy around his latest film, "Miller's Girl."

Freeman, 52, plays a teacher who has a relationship with his student, played by 21-year-old Ortega.

He said the movie isn't endorsing age gap romances any more than Holocaust movies endorse genocide.

Martin Freeman addressed the controversy caused by his latest film, "Miller's Girl," in which he stars opposite Jenna Ortega, who is 31 years younger than him.

The movie, which landed on Netflix on April 25, follows a high school student, played by Ortega, who begins a sexual relationship with her English teacher, played by Freeman.

Audiences were quick to criticize the film due to the age gap between the two actors — Ortega is 21, while Freeman is 52. Some said the film romanticizes the relationship between minors and those in positions of power.

Speaking with The Times of London for an interview published Saturday, Freeman defended "Miller's Girl" as "grown-up and nuanced."

"It's not saying, 'Isn't this great,'" he said of the film's dynamic between his character and Ortega's.

Freeman said the film had been "tainted by association" with a difficult subject.

He said that derision wasn't distributed equally, though — saying that people seemed to understand the level of distance involved in stories depicting Nazism.

"Are we gonna have a go at Liam Neeson for being in a film about the Holocaust?" he asked, referring to Neeson's starring role in Steven Spielberg's 1993 film "Schindler's List."

Martin Freeman and Jenna Ortega in "Miller's Girl."

Martin Freeman and Jenna Ortega in "Miller's Girl." Lionsgate

Although the controversial relationship at the center of "Miller's Girls" prompted a lot of comment, the film wasn't a hit.

It premiered at the Palm Springs Film Festival to underwhelming box office numbers.

The R-rated film was given a small theatrical release in the US, showing at just 350 screens for just one week domestically, earning $321,000 in ticket sales, according to box office tracker The Numbers.

It took an additional $568,522 at the international box office, bringing its total gross to $889,522 — less than a quarter of its $4 million production budget.

On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film earned a critic score of 29% based on 58 reviews. Its audience score is 42% based on 50-plus verified ratings.

This could, of course, change now that "Miller's Girl" has been on one of the most popular streaming platforms."

(Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.)

Dear GOD. Did he just... Martin, I know you're not this stupid, so seeing you being put up to behave like this, is just...gross. Your co-star had just come off of an Antisemitic publicity stunt with Tom Cruise, she's a one note actress, and we all know how films that are supposed to be cautionary tales, usually get turned into the opposite. Wall Street kicked off the age of Greed. The Fight Club inspired real underground fight clubs. If a film is not clear about its moral stance, then it WILL be misinterpreted. I don't know what's going on with you, but I'm going to pray for you, Martin. You need it. Especially working for Lionsgate.

[thebowerypresents]

Geese Prepare for Next Chapter at Sold-Out Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday Night

Geese – Music Hall of Williamsburg – December 6, 2024

In a series of year-in-review features, several New York Times critics use variations on a term one of them called “algorithm breakers” — that is, output that eludes “easy categorization, keeping us off balance.” The term in that particular instance was for movies, but it could just as easily apply to other art forms. Maybe I liked it because it helps with a band not at all easily described: Brooklyn’s Geese. Not in the lazy “they’re genre-benders, wow!” kind of way, but because, like fellow shape-shifters (and recent tour mates) King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, theirs is a sound that thrives at the pressure points of where different rock styles clash into near chaos but hold steady to create invigorating music. They hit a little weird at first — and you’re reaching for why. But they’re under your skin already.

Geese’s first record, 2021’s Projector, had jittery post-punk for days, running the gamut from Television to Radiohead. The next record, 2023’s mesmerizing 3D Country, felt like a mutation, taking that sound every which way from chamber-folk to scuzzy-noise jamband, from pretty to zany to screamy. At times and in moments, they’re the kind of band you sort of can hear whatever sound you want in (I hear Beck at his most experimental). But in aggregate, they don’t feel derivative, and you’re more apt to marvel at how what they have hangs together at the brink of where it’s about to come apart at the seams and wobble off the front of the stage. 

Wouldn’t you know it: Geese also have a festival. Friday night was the second of three shows at Music Hall of Williamsburg, part of the band’s second-annual Geesefest, each with a different collection of cannily curated openers. (Friday had NYC’s Guerilla Toss, filling the room with big-rock-sound pow, and earlier, Philadelphia’s Cold Court, doing a ferocious jazz-punk thing.) Over a nearly two-hour set, Geese frontman Cameron Winter and his rambunctious cohorts served a little bit of everything, throwing back to Projector with “Rain Dance” and a punched-up “Fantasies/Survival,” peeling off more than half of 3D Country with standouts including a raging “Mysterious Love,” a woozy “Domoto” and, to close the show, the tender “Tomorrow’s Crusades,” Winter’s pained-happy falsetto carrying the “Where would I be without you” refrain. 

The story of the night, actually, was new songs: three billed as Geese tunes and one (the terrific “Drinking Age”) from Winter’s own just-released solo album. Each was a flavor of Geese, showcased in well-selected places in the overall set, without distinctly pointing to a direction the band might be headed with their next mutation. But most of all, the band seemed to love playing them, seemed to love their abandon, seemed to love their people, seemed to love this moment they’ve hit where they’re graduating to bigger things and have a lot of growth to celebrate. The crowd knew it, too: We all savored the rush of what already felt like an underplay-sized room for Geese. It’s the excitingly early, not just promisingly early stage: not quite Chapter 1 of their story anymore, and certainty that many more chapters are on the way. —Chad Berndtson | @Cberndtson

Photos courtesy of Toby Tenenbaum | @tobytenenbaum

[mediamixs]

Azrael: A High-Concept Horror Thriller

**Azrael** is an upcoming American action horror film directed by E.L. Katz and written by Simon Barrett. The film stars Samara Weaving as the titular character and is set for theatrical release on September 27, 2024, followed by streaming on Shudder.

Cast

- Samara Weaving as Azrael

- Vic Carmen Sonne

- Katariina Unt

- Nathan Stewart-Jarrett

Plot

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where speech has been outlawed since the "Rapture", **Azrael** follows a mysterious, devout female-led community that hunts down a young woman named Azrael (Samara Weaving) who has escaped their imprisonment. Recaptured by its ruthless leaders, Azrael is due to be sacrificed to pacify an ancient evil deep within the surrounding wilderness, but she will stop at nothing to ensure her own freedom and survival.

 Production

**Azrael** was announced in September 2022 with E.L. Katz set to direct from a script by Simon Barrett. Filming took place in Harju County, Estonia in October 2022, with approximately 70% of the crew hired locally, including cinematographer Mart Taniel. The production created an artificial moon in the Pärispea forest during filming using a system of connected floodlights hoisted by a crane.

 Release and Reception

**Azrael** had its world premiere at the South by Southwest festival on March 9, 2024 and is scheduled for a theatrical release in the United States on September 27, 2024 by IFC Films and Shudder. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 62% approval rating based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10.

While the film doesn't necessarily bring anything new to the table, critics praise the relentless action and well-executed genre elements. Director E.L. Katz and writer Simon Barrett's experience in the horror genre shines through in the gory thrills and standout set pieces, even if the story and characters lack depth at times.

[algorithmsoflatecapitalism]

Presenting the 10th issue of the Algorithms of Late-Capitalism zine: “Data Gardens” 🤖 Digital Edition 🤖 Self-printing Edition ——————————————

Immerse yourself in a garden of data. A place where data is not immaterial bits aggregated and analyzed by automated systems, but rather nurtured and cared for as material and relational.

—————————————— This edition of Algorithms of Late-Capitalism was created by internet teapot (Karla Zavala and Adriaan Odendaal) with special contribution from the participants of the NoBIAS – Artificial Intelligence without BiasAI Festival Marie Skłodowska-Curie initiative during a workshop on 30 June 2023 during their Doctoral School.

[yellowmanula]

AGGREGATE festival 2024 Day 2, msza dźwięku

[hrair-metal]

Last night I went to an erotic poetry festival that featured 3 professional poets in the second hour; in the first hour, it was an open mic, during which I debuted the first selection of my Dominic Toretto poetry project—I transcribed every line of dialogue, verbatim, that he speaks throughout the entire Fast Franchise, tagged each line according to which of the 6 classic forms of Greek love each best fits, and aggregated similar lines together with the intention of arranging them into poems as they presented themselves to me, with the condition and limitation that I cannot alter any line of dialogue in any way. I intend to release this as a collection of some sort, so last night was maybe the first step in a commitment to follow through?

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Moonlight (2016, Barry Jenkins)

14/11/2023

Moonlight is a 2016 film written and directed by Barry Jenkins, based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney.

The film was positively criticized and won numerous awards, including the Best Film Award from the National Society of Film Critics, the Golden Globe for Best Drama and three Oscars for Best supporting actor, for best non-original screenplay and for best film: it is the first LGBT-themed film to obtain this recognition (after Philadelphia), as well as the first with a cast entirely made up of African Americans, and the second for the highest grossing low (behind The Hurt Locker which won in 2010).

Chiron is an African-American child originally from Liberty City, called "Little" by everyone. He and his mother live together in a Miami neighborhood marked by drugs and violence.

As an adult Chiron becomes a drug dealer in a bad neighborhood of Atlanta and there he tries to live on his own, armed with his faithful revolver.

In 2003, Tarell Alvin McCraney wrote a semi-autobiographical play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, partly to deal with the death of his AIDS-stricken mother.

After the release of his first film, Medicine for Melancholy in 2008, Barry Jenkins wrote several screenplays, none of which went into production. He and producer Romanski began brainstorming sessions via video chat twice a month about his projects, and shortly thereafter Jenkins began work on the script for McCraney, which he learned about through Borscht's Miami arts collective. After consulting with McCraney, Jenkins wrote the first draft of the film during a month-long stay in Brussels.

Jenkins sought financing for the film throughout 2013, finding success after sharing the script with Plan B Entertainment executives at that year's Telluride Film Festival. Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner became producers of the film, while A24 undertook to finance it and handle worldwide distribution, which also marked the company's first production.

The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and subsequently at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, and at the New York Film Festival in October.

The film was chosen as the opening film of the 2016 Rome Film Festival. Its first television appearance took place on 4 March 2018 on Sky Cinema with the title Moonlight - Tre storie di una vita.

On the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film receives 98% of positive professional reviews with an average rating of 9.00 out of 10 based on 384 critics, while on Metacritic it obtains a score of 99 out of 100 based on 53 criticism.

[salmankhanholics]

★ Top Laxmi Pooja Day Box Office: Salman Khan looks to do the unthinkable with Tiger 3; Eyes Diwali Day record!

Nov 5, 2023

The Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif-led Tiger 3 is set to be the first event spectacle in the last 10 years to see a theatrical release on the day of Diwali. The decision has been strategically taken by YRF with the hope of getting a strong word of mouth in place before getting into the extended holiday period from Monday. Historically, Diwali Day has proved to be a weak day for the box office with Laxmi Pooja impacting the business prospects after the noon shows in North India.

Tiger 3 is ready to set a new record on Diwali Day

The record of the biggest collection on Laxmi Pooja to date stands with the Hrithik Roshan-led Krrish 3 (2013), which clocked Rs 15 crore on Diwali day. One must note that Krrish 3 was a pre-Diwali Friday release with Laxmi Pooja on Sunday and has held the record for 10 long years, showing its hype back in the day. Several other films have faced Diwali through its weekend right from Ra. One to Housefull 4, Jab Tak Hai, Son of Sardaar, Shivaay, and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. 2012 saw a box office clash between Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Son Of Sardaar and the two films put together clocked Rs 22 crore on Diwali Day, which is a record aggregate number for the day. Come 2023, and Tiger 3 team has taken the bold decision of a Sunday release, and the early trends indicate that the decision will reap big returns by the day of release. It also proves that the YRF team has made a well-informed decision, knowing better than most others of what's the best for their product.

While a record Laxmi Pooja Day was always expected, Tiger 3 is headed to score new benchmarks on the day, and probably score a Diwali Day number that could stand tall in the history of record books for a while now. Salmania has started to grip the nation as the tickets are selling at a quick pace across the board – be it single screens or the national multiplex chains. India's leading national chain, PVRInox has sold almost 37,000 tickets for the opening day alone in less than 21 hours (as off 3 PM on Sunday), and there is already a movement in ticket sales for Monday & Tuesday. What’s encouraging is the fact that there are sales in evening and night shows too for Sunday, which is the earliest signal of something special happening on Sunday, though we are still a long way away. The strong markets of Salman Khan often come on board a feature film in big numbers on Sunday and expectedly so, these areas are showing great early signs.

The exhibitors from single screens are saying that the mass on-ground fan following of Salman Khan alongside the craze of Tiger Franchise & Spy Universe could eclipse the Diwali Impact to a certain extent, however, the biggest numbers will come in from Monday, when the holiday impact seeps in. The advance booking trend has indicated the arrival of a hot film during the Diwali period, which conventionally in the 90s and 2000s was the OG period of the film business, and what better than the OG Spy Tiger to bring back the light in the glorious festive period.

If everything goes as per the expectations, the advance booking of Tiger 3 for the Laxmi Pooja Day should be a record in itself as far as the film business on Laxmi Pooja is concerned.

[aaroncutler]

Two Year-End Lists

January 7th: This post contains links to two sets of year-end lists, both in the Spanish language, and both of which include my contributions (as have multiple past editions). One is “La Internacional Cinéfila” (“The International Cinephile”), a polling of various people that work with cinema in different contexts (primarily critics, filmmakers, and festival programmers) that is organized annually by the Argentinian critic and programmer Roger Koza through his website, Con los ojos abiertos ("With open eyes"). The other is a polling of a wide range of film personalities (that additionally includes scholars and moving image-based artists who work primarily with expanded cinema) for the website desistfilm that was organized by the site's editor, the Peruvian critic Mónica Delgado.

As I allude to in both of my contributions, I watched an unusually low number of new films this year, the vast majority of which were seen through preview screeners with my attention wavering – the major reason, of course, being the presence in my and my wife Mariana’s lives of a newborn daughter named Ava who has been recently joining us at the cinema. Under such circumstances, I find it hard to feel bad about falling behind, including because certain recently premiered works that I have not seen and that are beloved by peers (for example, Victor Erice’s Close Your Eyes) will almost certainly stand the test of time.

As I have done in the past, I chose to send different lists of films to the two publications for the sake of drawing attention to a greater number of worthy works. I feel a few immediate reactions now as I peruse the two documents overall. One is the feeling of simple amazement at perceiving how many important films premiered in non-competition slots at the most recent edition of Cannes, including the latest works by vital contemporary filmmakers such as Erice, Lisandro Alonso, Pedro Costa, Jean-Luc Godard, Steve McQueen, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Martin Scorsese, and Wang Bing – a gathering that could credibly serve as a “year’s best” list unto itself. For all its problems (which have been discussed by critics elsewhere), to me this gesture of simultaneous consolidation and marginalization on the part of Cannes's organizers offers the hope of reminding cinephiles of the importance of looking beyond a narrowly defined center.

Otherwise, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many colleagues in the “La Internacional Cinéfila” gathering shared my regard for María Aparicio’s Undefined Things, a nuanced Argentinian metafiction about an older female film editor in crisis that observes its characters keenly and with tremendous love. And, although I wasn’t especially surprised at the outcome, I was nonetheless gladdened to see the top spot in both aggregate polls go to a film that appeared on my desistfilm list, Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves (which indeed premiered in Cannes’s main competition).

I find a charming and even heroic quality in the Finnish filmmaker’s decision to present something like a 1930s Hollywood urban romance for our own particular modern times. The film inspires with its commitment to human values and envisioning of a reality in which people continue to consciously regard each other in spite of the innumerable forces that tell them to look away. As has almost always been the case for me with Kaurismäki’s work, I find the care that the filmmaker takes with his actors on multiple levels (casting, framing, editing, directing) to be especially extraordinary. The key idea in the film, for me at this moment, is the necessity of living one’s life with full attention on the local. And, as is pointed out in Mónica Delgado’s marvelous review of Fallen Leaves for desistfilm, that attention has always been present on Kaurismäki’s part. The changes that have made his new film land so firmly with so many spectators, perhaps, lie with the contemporary needs that it addresses. In any case, we are fortunate to continue to find artworks that argue in favor of a more humane world.

On that note: One of the chief pleasures of perusing best-of lists, of course, is reading about great works of which one was not previously aware. I look forward to discovering these films for myself, both in 2024 and beyond.