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If the British royal family was looking for a public relations win after Princess Catherine’s Photoshop fails, the unveiling of King Charles’ newest royal portrait was not it.
“I’m sorry, but this portrait looks like he’s in hell,” one person posted in comments under artist Jonathan Yeo’s and the royal family’s joint Instagram post revealing and explaining the image. “Without sounding rude this is the worst royal portrait I’ve ever seen,” another added. “It looks like he’s bathing in blood,” a third concluded. The painting, which stands at an impressive 2.6 by 2 metres (8½ by 6½ feet), was commissioned three years ago by the Worshipful Company of Drapers, a medieval guild of wool and cloth merchants that now focuses on philanthropy. The piece will hang at the gallery in Drapers’ Hall in downtown London, Yeo wrote. King Charles sat for four sessions with the artist, a trustee at the National Portrait Gallery who has painted Queen Camilla when she was duchess of Cornwall as well as Charles’ father, the late Prince Philip, albeit in much more flattering tones. Charles had a creative say in the project, suggesting the artist include the butterfly landing on his shoulder, doing double duty as a symbol of his commitment to the environment and to show his transformation as he ascended to the throne. “When I started this project, His Majesty The King was still His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, and much like the butterfly I’ve painted hovering over his shoulder, this portrait has evolved as the subject’s role in our public life has transformed,” Yeo wrote. “I do my best to capture the life experiences and humanity etched into any individual sitter’s face, and I hope that is what I have achieved in this portrait. To try and capture that for His Majesty The King, who occupies such a unique role, was both a tremendous professional challenge, and one which I thoroughly enjoyed and am immensely grateful for.” Despite his involvement in the project, King Charles was “initially surprised by the strong colour,” the artist told the BBC, and TikTok royals commentator @matta_of_fact noted that the king appeared to jump a bit when he pulled the cloth away to reveal the painting. The online opinions didn’t stop at hellfire, however. Allusions to the royal family’s bloody colonial past, Charles and Camilla’s infamous tampon scandal and the family’s current woes, including the king’s recent cancer diagnosis, ran rampant. But not everyone seemed bothered. Queen Camilla took one look at the painting, the BBC reported, and said, “Yes, you’ve got him”. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Switzerland's Nemo has won the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), which was held on Saturday in the Swedish city of Malmo.
Swiss rapper and singer presented "The Code", a drum and bass, opera, rap and rock song about Nemo's journey of self-discovery as a non-binary person. 24-year-old Nemo is the first non-binary winner of the contest and also the first Swiss winner since 1988, when Canadian chanteuse Celine Dion competed under the Swiss flag. At a press conference following the win, Nemo expressed pride in accepting the trophy for "people that are daring to be themselves and people that need to be heard and need to be understood." "We need more compassion, we need more empathy," he said. Meanwhile, Croatia's Baby Lasagna, whose real name is Marko Purisic, came second with "Rim Tim Tagi Dim." The Ukrainian duo Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil placed third with "Teresa & Maria." Out of a total of 25 finalists, Germany landed in 12th place with singer Isaak's "Always on the run." The winner of the competition is determined by the votes of television viewers in Europe and around the world. These votes are combined with those of juries of music professionals in each of the 37 participating countries. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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We’ve been seeing more fuzz boxes released than any other kind of pedal lately, several with a claim to having special characteristics. The latest from Walrus Audio is no exception, but its special characteristic is plain for all to see: a tube lit up in a front-panel window. The idea behind the pedal was to create a fuzz with the rich, harmonically complex texture that a real valve can provide, so Walrus Audio teamed up with valve expert Jim Hagerman to develop this design based around an ECC82/12AU7 preamp tube. It’s a tidy-sized fuzz pedal, with sounds dialled in by three knobs and a three-way toggle switch, and it sports an extra foot switched Harmonic mode for some octave action. Starting with the Gain knob at zero we get a nice crunchy drive tone, and with unity gain around noon, there’s plenty of scope for delivering a boost with the Volume knob. The Tone knob, post-fuzz, is a tilt EQ that’s basically flat in the centre, cutting highs and boosting lows to the left, and boosting top while rolling off lows clockwise. Small deviations either side of centre work great for matching the tone to various amps, but there’s plenty of range if you want to get more extreme, especially if combined with the three-way contour switch that, besides a flat setting, offers either a high-pass or a low-pass filter to tweak the tone before it hits the fuzz stage. Extreme sounds aside, the Contour switch’s attenuation of bottom- or top-end is a practical asset in compensating for different pickups.
Advancing the Gain knob takes you through various shades of distortion to fat fuzz, always with harmonic richness, decent string articulation and volume knob clean-up. There are some excellent sounds to be had here in standard nine-volt operation, but running the pedal at 12 volts squeezes out extra gain. Switching into Harmonic mode gives you another voice as a frequency doubler before the drive transforms the sound, adding throaty octave harmonic overtones. This thickens up dirty chordal work and delivers a distinctive tone for single-note leads – rich and gnarly with a hint of ring modulation.
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Electric Light Orchestra keyboardist Richard Tandy has died at the age of 76. Bandmate Jeff Lynne made the announcement on X. "He was an extraordinary artist and friend. I cherish the memories we had together."
Tandy joined ELO when the debut album had already been released in 1972. He switched from guitar to keyboards because a spot had become available there. In all the different formations of ELO, Tandy would continue to form the backbone of the Birmingham band with Lynne and drummer Bev Bevan. At a time when keyboard players were given more options with new electric instruments, Tandy left his mark on the sound of ELO: in addition to piano, he used a Minimoog synthesizer, a Wurlitzer electric piano, the clavinet and a Mellotron. With him the band had hits such as Can't Get It Out of My Head, Don't Bring Me Down, Evil Woman and Livin' Thing. Tandy himself can be heard distorted on probably the band's most enduring hit, Mr. Blue Sky, which is still consistently among the hundred best records in the Radio 2 Top 2000 every year. By putting his voice through a vocoder, he gives the catchy song mysterious robot sounds. Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky (Official Video)Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky (Official Video) His often misunderstood sounds at the end of that song are a relic from the LP era: "Please turn me over", a signal for the listener to turn the record over. In the 1980s the band broke up, but not before recording one more contractually obligated album. After the turn of the century, Lynne revived the formation with Tandy. New successes were not forthcoming, but the classics remained popular: Mr. For example, Blue Sky can be heard extensively in the opening scene of Guardians of the Galaxy II, with a cheerfully dancing Groot. In the obituary, Lynne did not report a cause of death, but Tandy had been ill for a long time. Last month, Lynne announced that she would give one more series of ELO performances, but it is not known what this news means for the Over and Out tour. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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People, mostly men, generally get offended when they are accused of living off their spouses. That’s not the case for 35-year-old Watanabe Ryuta, a self-professed expert when it comes to mooching off his four wives and two girlfriends. Ryuta lives in Sapporo with three of his wives, and three children. He said he hasn’t had to work for the past 10 years, and completely lives off the paychecks of wives and girlfriends. He was recently featured on Japanese infotainment programme, Abema Prime, where more was revealed about his unique family arrangement. Ryuta basically plays the role of a househusband. He is in charge of preparing everyone's meals, doing household chores, and looking after his kids. The household expenses, which come up to almost S$8K per month, are split between his wives and girlfriends. Yes, even those who don't live with him. He has two children with his first wife, who is 22. His second wife chose to keep her age private, while his 27-year-old third wife just gave birth to their child five months ago. His fourth wife is 24, and doesn't live with the family. On the show, Ryuta said he “simply likes women”. “When I realised that, we were already living in such an arrangement. As long as we all love each other equally, there wouldn't be an issue,” he said. The wives who live with him have their own rooms, and he takes turns to sleep with a different wife every night. His goal is to break the record for having the most kids in Japan. Japanese Shogun Tokugawa Ienari, who lived in the late 1700s to early 1800s, is the record to beat. He is said to have a 53 children. Ryuta said: “I want to overtake him. As such, I want to have 54 children, so my name can go down in history. I am still searching for a new wife.” Ryuta’s wives do not seem to have an issue with the arrangement as well. According to his first wife, Ryuta has “a sort of charm” that she can’t find in other men. She was aware that he had other girlfriends when they first started dating, and is on board with “living as a whole unit”. His second wife, on the other hand, initially wanted to break up with him upon finding out about what their marriage would be like. However, she has come to accept her lifestyle, saying that Ryuta is “very fair”, and that she “lives a very comfortable life”. Despite Ryuta’s plans for a massive family, there are legal limitations he has to deal with. Japan’s marriage laws do not allow for polygamy, and Ryuta cannot be legally married to more than one woman at a time. He marries whomever is next in line to become his wife, then divorces her so he is legally able to wed the next woman again. Ryuta, his wife, and his “ex-wives” then live together, following the rules of “an actual marriage”.
Aside from his four wives, Ryuta also has two girlfriends. Last week, he announced on Twitter that he has already picked out “Wife Number Five”, and they would have spent Christmas Eve together. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Iconic French actor Gerard Depardieu has been arrested in Paris over new allegations of sexual harassment brought against him by two former film set colleagues, BFMTV news outlet reported on Monday.
According to the report, the 75-year-old movie star was called to a Paris police station for questioning early on Monday and then taken into custody. In addition to previous claims, the actor faces accusations of sexual assault in two more instances – one in 2014, and the other in 2021. The first accuser, a 53-year-old film-set decorator, alleged that Depardieu touched her inappropriately during her work on the set of “The Green Shutters” by Jean Becker. After she complained to colleagues, she alleges that Depardieu repeatedly insulted her. The woman said she has been having anxiety attacks and suffering post-traumatic stress ever since. The second woman, who was an on-set assistant during the filming of “The Magician and the Siamese” by Jean-Pierre Mocky in 2014, and aged 24 at the time of the alleged assault, claimed that Depardieu repeatedly approached her with explicit sexual proposals and “sexually” touched her. Depardieu has reportedly denied all allegations against him. The actor has faced more than a dozen other accusations in recent years from women who said he either harassed, groped, or sexually assaulted them. The first complaint came from actress Charlotte Arnould, who claimed in 2018 that she had twice been raped at the actor’s mansion in Paris. Following her allegations, Depardieu was handed preliminary rape and sexual assault charges in 2020, and placed under judicial supervision, avoiding jail. Another accusation came from actress Helene Darras, but was dismissed by prosecutors in Paris in January, who said it had passed the statute of limitations. Depardieu has repeatedly denied any improper behavior. In an open letter in Le Figaro published in October last year, the actor said he has “never, ever abused a woman,” as “hurting a woman would be like kicking my own mother in the stomach.” Amid the flood of allegations against Depardieu, over 50 French actors, writers, producers, and musicians in December last year signed an open letter calling for an end to the actor’s “public lynching” and saying that public condemnation violated the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. The signatories included actors Pierre Richard, Vincent Perez, Carole Bouquet, and singer Carla Bruni. French President Emmanuel Macron at the time also lent his support to Depardieu, stating he would not back the “manhunt” against him. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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A pocket watch that belonged to the wealthiest passenger aboard the Titanic sold for £1,175 million (€1,38 million, $1,46 million) at auction Saturday, smashing a pre-sale estimate. Henry Aldridge & Son, the auction house that sold the watch, had predicted it would sell for between £100,000 and £150,000. The auction for John Jacob Astor IV's 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch had a starting bid of £60,000. It was sold to an American buyer. The watch, engraved with the initials JJA, was found with Astor's body when it was recovered several days after the Titanic sank in April 1912. He was also found with a diamond ring, gold and diamond cufflinks, 225 pounds in English notes, and $2,440. "The watch itself was completely restored after being returned to Colonel Astor's family and worn by his son," the auction house wrote in a statement. "Astor is well known as the richest passenger aboard the R.M.S. Titanic and was thought to be among the richest people in the world at that time, with a net worth of roughly $87 million (equivalent to several billion dollars today,)" the auction house wrote. Astor died after helping his pregnant wife escape into the last lifeboat and she survived the accident. The previous highest amount paid for Titanic artefacts was £1.1 million for a violin that was played as the ship sank - which sold at the same auction house in 2013, according to the auctioneers. The case for the violin was sold at the same auction as the pocket watch for £360,000. The prices fetched by the Titanic memorabilia at the sale were "absolutely incredible," auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said. "They reflect not only the importance of the artefacts themselves and their rarity but they also show the enduring appeal and fascination with the Titanic story," he said.
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Commercial blocks of more than 100 seconds in the YouTube app on the TV are no longer an exception.
Partly because of these advertisements, Google's parent company, Alphabet, has had an exceptionally good quarter that exceeds analysts' expectations. Alphabet's revenues increased by 15 percent to 80.5 billion dollars (75 billion euros). Profit rose to $23.7 billion. The stock is likely to rise later today on the stock market. It seems that because of these good figures later today when trading starts on the stock exchange, the company will be worth more than 2 trillion dollars for the first time. Investors are not only enthusiastic about the increased income. The announcement that the company will pay out part of its profits, dividends, to shareholders for the first time is also doing well. The company will pay out more than 2 billion euros in the first quarter. Earlier this year, Facebook's parent company Meta also decided to pay dividends to shareholders. Advertisements By far the most money is earned from advertising with Google services. Video platform YouTube saw its revenues rise relatively fastest, by more than 20 percent. At the end of last year, the company announced that commercial breaks on TV apps would become longer. On the other hand, a new commercial block is less likely to appear. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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The Rodenberg Luke OD Overdrive-Pedal is the original version of the three-way Luke SL-OD, which is more affordable than the original version which is loaded, with a sound that is completely accurate.
There has been a close collaboration between Steve Lukather and the German pedal manufacturer Rodenberg for several years. Enough reasons to take a closer look at the Luke OD! In the review pedal today is basically the little brother of the Rodenberg SL-OD we have already tested, which is equipped with three independent channels and costs more than twice as much. In terms of sound, the new Luke OD should be identical to the low and high gain overdrive of the large pedal. You can read its test here. So far, so exciting! But we'll get to the sound later in the practical part. First of all, we have to look at the good piece up close. As usual, the Luke OD is delivered in a box, in which it completes its journey to the customer safely wrapped in foam, as well as an operating manual written in German and English - and it's worth mentioning: there are also rubber feet in the box to stick on the bottom, which is actually shouldn't be worth mentioning, but manufacturers of high-priced boutique pedals in particular often refuse to deliver them with their products. The Luke OD makes an extremely robust and high-quality impression and is completely handcrafted in Fulda. At this point, if you haven't already done so, you should quickly take a look at the selling price again, because it is quite moderate for a hand-made pedal - assuming, of course, that the sound is right. But more on that later. With its 240 grams and dimensions of 59 x 110 x 33 mm, it has standard dimensions, and if you turn the controls, it immediately becomes clear that high-quality components have been installed here that can be moved smoothly but with enough resistance. There is a level control that determines the output volume, a gain control for adjusting the distortion and a tone pot that controls the treble level. There is also a switch for selecting the low or high gain mode and a toggle switch labeled bass that activates a bass boost. Of course, a footswitch that wakes the pedal from its true bypass sleep is also a must. As soon as the pedal is active, the LUKE lettering lights up red, a very nice detail! The connections in the form of input and output on the right and left sides of the black painted housing as well as the power supply socket on the front are still missing. This allows the connection of a standardized 9-volt DC dispenser, but the Luke OD can also be operated with 18 volts. A look at the cleanly crafted interior shows that battery operation is not intended. As expected, there is absolutely nothing to complain about in terms of workmanship, the pedal makes a high-quality, robust impression, which brings us to the practical part. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, is a city steeped in history, culture, and tradition. Renowned for its stunning temples, picturesque gardens, and traditional tea houses, Kyoto has long been celebrated as a bastion of Japanese heritage. One of the most iconic symbols of Kyoto's cultural richness is the geisha, embodying grace, elegance, and refinement. To understand what makes Kyoto famous, it is imperative to delve into its rich history, particularly the captivating tale of the geisha. Historical Background Kyoto served as the imperial capital of Japan for over a thousand years, from 794 until the capital was moved to Tokyo in 1869. Throughout its history, Kyoto has been a center of political power, cultural innovation, and artistic expression. It was during this time that the geisha tradition began to flourish, evolving into one of Kyoto's most enduring and cherished cultural exports. Geisha Icons of Elegance and Tradition: The geisha, or geiko as they are known in Kyoto, are traditional Japanese entertainers who are skilled in various arts such as classical music, dance, and the tea ceremony. Contrary to popular misconceptions, geisha are not courtesans or prostitutes but rather highly trained performers who entertain guests through conversation, music, and dance. The geisha tradition traces its roots back to the 18th century when female entertainers began to entertain guests at tea houses and restaurants in Kyoto. Over time, the geisha evolved into refined artists who became synonymous with grace, sophistication, and elegance. The Geisha Districts of Kyoto Kyoto is home to five geisha districts known as hanamachi, each with its own distinct character and charm. Gion, located in the heart of Kyoto, is the most famous and prestigious geisha district, renowned for its historic tea houses, traditional architecture, and narrow cobblestone streets. Pontocho, another well-known hanamachi, is famous for its vibrant nightlife, riverside restaurants, and atmospheric lantern-lit alleys. These geisha districts serve as living museums of Japanese tradition, where visitors can experience the enchanting world of the geisha up close. Geisha Training and Apprenticeship Becoming a geisha is a rigorous and demanding process that requires years of training, dedication, and discipline. Young girls, known as maiko, typically begin their apprenticeship at a geisha house, or okiya, in their early teens. Under the guidance of senior geisha, maiko learn the art of traditional dance, music, and etiquette, as well as the intricacies of conversation and hosting. The maiko stage is characterized by distinctive attire, including elaborate kimono, intricate hairstyles adorned with floral ornaments, and striking white makeup. Cultural Significance and Legacy
The geisha hold a special place in Japanese culture as symbols of beauty, grace, and tradition. Through their performances, geisha preserve and promote traditional arts that date back centuries, ensuring that Japan's cultural heritage continues to thrive in the modern era. Despite the challenges of modernization and changing societal norms, the geisha tradition remains resilient, attracting visitors from around the world who seek to experience the timeless elegance of Kyoto's cultural ambassadors. In conclusion, Kyoto's fame as a cultural mecca is inextricably linked to its rich history and traditions, particularly the captivating legacy of the geisha. As custodians of Japan's cultural heritage, the geisha embody the grace, elegance, and refinement that define Kyoto's cultural identity. Through their performances, the geisha continue to enchant audiences and perpetuate the timeless beauty of Kyoto's traditional arts. In a rapidly changing world, the geisha serve as a poignant reminder of the enduring power of tradition and the importance of preserving our cultural heritage for future generations. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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