Month: October 2022

Sadness is the trump card in Belgian concert halls. Ticket sales are stallingso hard that many artists have already canceled their tours because they knowthey will turn a loss. Mental worries and the coronavirus also keep many bandsaway from the stage. “This is a worrying signal for the new generation.”

Jasper Van LoyOctober 24, 202203:00

Last week Little Simz won the Mercury Prize, the trophy for best British albumof the year. That news made the papers, as did the star-rated reviews of_Sometimes I Might Be Introverted_ the praising comments about her show onPukkelpop and her role in Venom. What you might have missed: Little Simzcanceled her US tour in April, because it would be so lost that she couldn’tmentally bring herself to start the series.

She wasn’t the last act to throw her fall tour in the trash due to financialor logistical problems. Metal bands Anthrax and Shinedown canceled in the AB,indie band Let’s Eat Grandma sent his cat to the Botanique and Sohn canceledhis British concerts because ticket sales were disappointing. AnimalCollective was supposed to play Trix’s Filter festival at the end of nextmonth, but couldn’t get the budget together. Same story with Santigold, whoannounced her cancellation with a cynical tweet: “Covid may be over buttouring is still dead.”

Santigold announced her cancellation with a cynical tweet: “Covid may be overbut touring is still dead.”image rv

That bands sometimes make losses with tours is a pity, but not news. Forstarting groups it is even part of it, it is called investing. Sleeping in thevan, greasy chips from the gas station and cheap beer: you hope to telljournalists about that later with your third gold record under your arm. ButSohn, Animal Collective and Santigold are artists with experience, releasingwell-received albums and until recently had no problem touring.

“Bands that have been around for a while sell less easily than new, up-and-coming acts that are in the spotlight”, says Steven Thomassen of bookingagency Toutpartout. “I deliberately put my big tours of Kurt Vile and BeachHouse before and during the summer because I didn’t know what was coming.Today I am happy about that.” It is an evolution that worries Jarri Van derHaegen. As manager he has two big, promising acts on the foreign track withSylvie Kreusch and Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul. “This is a worrying signalfor new musicians, who see that years of good work no longer guaranteeanything. I understand bands like Animal Collective. After all this time, whyinvest in a tour that you can predict will lose?”

Room rate times seven

Many Belgian bands abroad are still in the investment phase: they invest moneyin their tours, which they only see in the form of press attention and newbookings. None of the groups we call for this piece has had to cancel aconcert, but it’s not easy. “A full tank of petrol has become twice asexpensive and the time when you could fly to Berlin for 18 euros is now over,”says drummer Joris Casier of STAKE, who is in the United Kingdom at the timeof reading this. for his new album LOVE, DEATH AND DECAY to promote. Van derHaegen sees corresponding price increases: “Before corona, Charlotte Adigéry &Bolis Pupul played a tour in the US and we were able to stay at a hotel for aweek with four people for 1,000 euros,” says Van der Haegen. “Now it is 3,500euros, for a room of two instead of four. So that’s times seven.”

STAKE manager Simon Lamont drew up his budget months ago, when inflation wasmuch lower. So that was recalculated, and there wasn’t much slack. “Lastsummer there were four of the band on the track: no sound guy, no tourmanager, no roadie. In that line-up we played at Sziget and another festivalfor 100,000 Poles. There is no other way: the difference between taking staffand not taking staff is 1,000 euros per day.” Brutus’ colleagues also tour inlimited numbers. “Recently I said it to a group of young musicians in a paneldiscussion: do everything yourself as long as possible,” says bassist PeterMulders.

Sylvie KreuschImage © Stefaan Temmerman

For him and many other musicians there is another problem: the United Kingdom.Once the promised land for European bands, an administrative den of Plutosince Brexit. If you want to piss off a guitarist or drummer, start talkingabout the carnet , the deposit you have to pay to get your stuff across theBritish border. For that you have to submit a detailed list of everything youhave with you, says Casier: “That goes from guitar pedals to what size we havehow many T-shirts to sell afterwards. The whole procedure not only costsmoney, but also travel time.”

Every day that an artist is on the road is precious, especially if you don’tplay on that day, but only drive or rest. Van der Haegen now tries to limitthose jumping days and to schedule them as well as possible, but he points outthat you cannot save indefinitely. “If I book a cheap hotel miles from thevenue, my band will sleep less. I can send Charlotte on the road without a LEDwall, but at an international level you really can’t do without a light show.Every single thing you skimp on has repercussions somewhere else and in theend everyone is broke anyway. Touring and comfort don’t mix unless your nameis Dua Lipa or Harry Styles.” That also applies to Brutus, says Mulders:”Sleeping on the floor in basements is no longer possible, touring has becomemuch too heavy for that.”

The government is an important buffer for Belgian bands, says Lamont. “We havereceived 7,000 euros in subsidies and without that amount we will make a hugeloss. But at the time you confirm the tour, you don’t know if that money willbe awarded to you.” Brutus’ colleagues are still anxiously awaiting: they tooare going into the red without government money. In our country, LIVE2020, theemergency fund set up during the corona crisis to support live music inBelgium, announced that it would provide grants for groups who want to tour intheir own country. According to the organization, about sixty bands havealready submitted an application.

38 euros for a ticket

Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Arlo Parks, Wet Leg, Sam Fender, Demi Lovato andYard Act have also canceled concerts in recent months. Not because they didn’tget paid for them, but to work on their mental health. Not all artists havefelt like playing again with the reopening of the halls: after two years offorced closure, that is a painful conclusion. Speaking of corona, the viruscannot be pushed completely into the wings. Regina Spektor, Car Seat Headrestand Ringo Starr, among others, had to _ ‘cancelled’ _put after their nameafter an infection.

And the many artists who can still play, often have to make do with fewervisitors. “You know that you will spend more and you can anticipate that, butthe big uncertain factor is how many tickets will eventually be sold,” saysArno De Ruyte, who will soon leave on a European tour with Sons. KendrickLamar left a long waiting list in the Sportpaleis four years ago, now thereare still many tickets available one week before his new show. Ticket sales atthe AB fell by 30 percent, while the Brussels hall saw its energy bill go upby four times. Acts that have a young audience and have a hype around them,such as Central Cee in the Trix and Goldband in the AB, still lose theirtickets quickly.

brutusStatue Thomas Sweertvaegher

Be.at, which manages large venues such as the Sportpaleis and the Lotto Arena,has already announced price increases. Those who have not yet done so will atleast consider it in the coming months, even if it drives even more peopleaway from the concert halls. “When we played the support act for metal bandCave In, it turned out that a ticket cost 38 euros. We hadn’t determined thatprice ourselves, but then you start thinking about it,” says Lamont. “Fansalso have to get into the room by car or bus, if they want a drink… If theymight buy another T-shirt, they’ll lose 100 euros. People will be stricterabout what to watch and the bands will be fighting.”

This is certainly a big problem for artists who do not score well on streamingplatforms with their music and who have fully focused their revenue model onperforming. Many of them will therefore try to sell more merchandising, StevenThomassen thinks: “But in the meantime, pressing vinyl records and printingT-shirts has also become more expensive.”

So there are still hard times ahead for many musicians, on and off stage. “Ifyour group isn’t playing,” concludes Van der Haegen, “hundreds of bands areeager to take your place and go into debt in your place. That’s how you getthe short straw as an artist, unless you’re so big that people only want tosee you. Until then you are always dependent on the whims of someone else.”

**LOVE, DEATH AND DECAY from STAKE and Unison Life from Brutus are out onHassle Records. **

MusicA return of excitement, because the comeback concert of X!NK on February23, 2023 was sold out in no time. Tickets for the second concert on 24February also flew out like hot cakes. But Jonas and co are making up fordisappointed fans: they are planning two more concerts on March 23 and 27.

To get a ticket for those extra shows, it’s best to sit in front of yourcomputer on Tuesday morning at 10 am.

In 2003 they defended Belgium at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest inCopenhagen. Now, exactly twenty years later, the men of X!NK are making acomeback. They do this with a reunion concert in the Ancienne Belgique. Forthe occasion, Jonas, Niels, Thomas and Philip are giving their old hits, suchas ‘De Vriendschapsband’, ‘Let me set free’, ‘The other side’ and ‘Think ofme’ in a new jacket.

Ticket price (incl. service costs and mobility) is 25 euros. Tickets are forsale via abconcerts.be and Livenation.be

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‘Nice try’ is the name of the first single by Charlotte Canoot (25), who youknow from ‘Regi Academy’. A reference to her own love life. “How often do menthink they can ‘convert’ me, or that I haven’t met the right one yet?”

While Charlotte took her chance in ‘Regi Academy’, she also worked behind thescenes under the name CHAR on her own single. “Nice try” is about my ownlife,” she says. ‘I like women, but most people who hear that fall completelyout of the blue.’

What will you hear?

Men who think they can ‘convert’ me, that I haven’t met the right one yet, orpeople who question my sexuality because I’m ‘so feminine’. As if only boyishgirls can be lesbian! Although I have to admit that I made that mistakemyself.

When my friends talked about handsome boys, I could never have a say. Thatdidn’t interest me, I didn’t feel what they felt. It didn’t dawn on me that itwas because I liked women. After all, I did not recognize myself in the imageof the outside world of the LGBTQ world, in which lesbian girls often haveshorter hair, are boyish…

While you are just a very feminine type.

Voila. I like to sing and dance, have no interest in football. Maybe that’swhy I didn’t know any lesbian women, so it wasn’t until later, when I startedmy higher education, that I started to realize that I like women.

Can you blame the men who think you are ‘too feminine’ to be a lesbian?

Somehow I understand them. But I regret that I always have to defend myorientation. And that’s what I try to make clear with my song: we do pretendas a society that we are very open-minded, but when it comes to orientation,we still think very much in boxes.

Yes. For example: I am single. I’ve never had a really meaningful relationshipwith a woman and I find it quite difficult to date. I have a heterosexualgroup of friends and go to standard pubs and dances the way I like. But thereality is that much of the gay community has its own cafes and clubs. Thatmakes dating a lot easier, but why should I suddenly have to go to differentcafes than my friends? To find a lover? Well, at the moment I don’t lose sleepover my relationship status. If it comes, I’ll be happy, but to be honest I’vegot my hands full with my music career now.

Frankie Muniz is familiar with surreal. After all, he was a teen idol.

“I mean, really, my whole life, when I think back [on] it, I did so manyincredible things at a young age. People think, they always go, like, ‘Oh, areyou sad that you didn’t get to go to prom?'” Muniz, now 36, tells YahooEntertainment. “I was at the Emmys and the Golden Globes and traveled allaround the world and hanging out at the Playboy Mansion. Almost to the pointwhere I look back, and I go, ‘Was that real?'”

So, no, he wasn’t broken up about having missed the prom. He was the star of ahit TV show, Malcolm in the Middle by the time he was 14. In his laterteens, Muniz also starred in movies such as Agent Cody Banks with HilaryDuff — he was Banks — and Big Fat Liar alongside Amanda Bynes.

“I remember the first time that I got recognized. Malcolm hadn’t evenpremiered yet, but all the billboards were all over New York City,” Munizsays. That’s where my family lived, and I was taking the subway, and all thesepeople were staring at me… I didn’t understand that, like, maybe they had seenpreviews or whatever. And people started coming up to me before the show evenpremiered, ‘You’re going to be on that show.’ And it was honestly, like, themost incredible feeling ever.”

Frankie Muniz appears in a promotional photo for Malcolm in the Middle.(Photo: Michael Lavine/Fox Network/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Muniz ended up starring in seven seasons of Malcolm and he has continued toact since it ended in 2006, appearing in shows, such as Last Man Standing ,Harley Quinn and The Rookie as well as movies, including Extreme Movie_and _Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. He’s also ventured into professionalrace car driving, and he plans to drive full-time for NASCAR next year.

But first, he tried out reality TV, by joining the cast of the upcoming seasonof The Surreal Life. The buzzy show originally aired for six seasons, from2003 to 2006, and it spawned countless spinoffs, from My Fair Brady to_Strange Love_ starring former cast members Flavor Flav and Brigitte Nielsen,and all its incarnations, including Flavor of Love and Rock of Love.

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Muniz was cautious, because he’d seen the original, drama-filled series, buthe was told that the new iteration is more of “a positive, funny, soul-searching type show.” And he thought it would be a challenge.

“I was a little afraid of [the craziness of the original]and I didn’t knowwhat to expect in the sense of who your roommates are gonna be, because theydon’t tell you before you head to the house,” he says. “But there wassomething about putting myself out of my comfort zone, you know, to kind ofjust have life experiences that I wouldn’t normally put myself in.”

Muniz and the rest of the cast — August Alsina, the musician who had an> “entanglement” with Jada Pinkett Smith; singer and reality TV star Tamar> Braxton; Living Single actress and comedian Kim Coles; porn star Stormy> Daniels, who’s long alleged an affair with Donald Trump; makeup artist and> YouTuber Manny MUA; former WWE star CJ Perry (aka Lana); and former NBA star> Dennis Rodman, who really needs no description — filmed the revamped version> of the show last year.

“I’m so happy that I did [it], because I feel like I learned a lot aboutmyself. I learned a lot about the other people in the house that I wouldn’thave expected. And I got to do some pretty cool stuff,” Muniz says. “Now,there was definitely drama and all that, that’s just part of putting eight bigpersonalities together in a house in Mexico City. But it was both anincredible, incredible experience and also one of the craziest things I’veever done, for sure.”

To that point, in the trailer, Muniz says, “We’ve all seen Dennis Rodman’sdong.”

One of the early challenges for the actor was that he didn’t know how he’dhandle being a roommate, because he’d never been one.

“I tried to be easy going,” he says. “There was enough drama for me to not tryto throw more drama into the fire… At the same time, I didn’t back down when Ineeded to defend myself. And there definitely were times when I needed to. Weall did. But I think the cool thing about the show is every conflict reallywas resolved.”

And those conflicts came up early.

“It was, I’ll say, immediately, a little bit drama-filled with the roommatesituation, but me, Kim Coles and Manny MUA, we, for some reason, had thisbond. Instant bond,” Muniz reveals. “And I’m so happy that I had them throughthis experience, because we kinda really kept ourselves — our room, at least —sane. So when things were great, it was great. When things were bad, we hadeach other. That was a great thing. We’re still friends to this day, forsure.”

The Surreal Life premieres with two back-to-back episodes Monday, Oct.24 at 9 pm on VH1.

Travis Scott slammed rumors that he cheated on Kylie Jenner on social media.

Scott, who shares two children with Jenner, addressed the controversy on hisInstagram story on Saturday, Oct. 22.

The rapper wrote in part, “It’s a lot of weird s-t going on. An uninvitedperson was sneaking photos on what was supposed to be. a closed set while Iwas directing a video.”

“I’m saying this for the last time,” he added. “I don’t know this person. I’venever been with this person. So please stop with the continuous cyber gamesand fictional storytelling.”

2022 Billboard Music Awards – Arrivals (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Scott, 31, was seemingly referring to Instagram model Rojean Kar, whoaccording to E! had previously denied rumors in October 2019 that she had afling with Scott after his temporary split from Jenner.

However, the outlet reported that Kar recently posted a video on her privateInstagram story that showed Scott on set that made viewers speculate the twohad met up years prior to their alleged fling.

After Scott shared the message disputing the claims, Kar posted a series ofvideos on her story responding to his statement.

“OK so what we’re not gonna do is we’re not going to lie on me, because I’vebeen good. I posted whatever f—g story you guys wanted me to post, Ipretended I didn’t know you, went along with whatever f—g narrative you guyswanted to, no matter how much bulls- -t I got from it,” she claimed. “But tosay you don’t know me and you’ve never been with me when you’ve definitelybeen with me, when f—g everybody’s seen you with me, when I have picturesand videos of you with me. Come on. Come on, sir.”

Kar also claimed that she was with Scott on Valentine’s Day this year,accusing the rapper of cheating on Jenner frequently. She also doubled-down onthe 2019 story and said that the rumors from years prior did not involve herbefore adding, “But nothing he’s saying right now is true and that bothersme.”

“You know how I never responded to anything because I had a feeling itwouldn’t make me feel better,” Kar said in another Instagram story. “And Iwill tell you when 1,000% right now I do not feel any better. I feeldisgusting and I feel taken out of character and it’s not fun. You shouldnever how to talk to the internet about what’s going on. I shouldn’ t have tohave texts from our mutual friends telling me that I need to chill but whyaren’t you guys telling him to chill?”

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One Instagram user, who claimed to work with Scott, came to the rapper’sdefense in the comment section of an Instagram post on the popular account TheShade Room. Scott then shared a screenshot of the comment on his story.

“big cap. i’ve been working with travis for 8 years + i was on set all day ashe was directing a video for another artist,” the person wrote. “this lady isdelusional + she was not there with im. he does not fck with her in any way.nothing else to see here.”

Scott also seemingly responded to Kar’s claims about spending Valentine’s Daywith him this year, sharing a screenshot of a photo from Feb. 14, 2022 fromhis camera roll.

“If you wasn’t at this table on V day then you wasn’t with me,” he wrote ontop of the photo of a table set for two, adding several rolling eye emojis.

Travis Scott/Instagram

Scott and Jenner first went public with their relationship in April 2017. Lessthan one year later, the couple welcomed their first child together inFebruary 2018, a daughter named Stormi.

Though the couple ultimately welcomed their second child together in February2022, a son previously named Wolf, Jenner spoke out publicly about theirtemporary split in October 2019 on social media.

Entertainment Tonight reported that at the time, the couple had been split upfor over a month. In a tweet on October 3, 2019, Jenner addressed theircurrent relationship status,writing“Travis and i are on great terms and our main focus right now is Stormi‼️ Our friendship and our daughter is priority.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

Wayne Brady is going to make the 2022 American Music Awards a night toremember!

On Monday morning, the award show revealed that Brady will take on the role ashost — and he opened up to PEOPLE about how he’s preparing for the big night.

“I was ecstatic,” Brady, 50, says of the moment he found out. “I actually lostmy mind. That is one of the most amazing feelings. You feel like one of thecool kids in school.”

He continued, “Besides being a host, and besides being a musician, I just lovemusic. So to be a music lover in the middle of music, all these musicians thatyou look up to and these new musicians that are paving the way and burstingonto the scene, it’s really a remarkable night to be a part of.”

Wayne Brady Tapped to Host the AMAs in a ‘Full Circle’ Moment

Leon Bennett/Getty Wayne Brady

RELATED: Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, Drake and Taylor Swift Lead 2022 AMAsNominations: See the Full List!

the Whose Line Is It Anyway? star also said he’s not afraid to show howhyped he is for the night.

“In this business and in life, people don’t like it if you feel too happy orexcited or too eager, it’s cool to be disaffected. But in my mind, I’m too oldto play that card,” he says. “I’m a grown-ass man, and when I’m a fan ofsomething or somebody, I yell it from the rooftops. So I’m giddy withexcitement. I am just over the moon, and I don’t care if it isn’t cool, I’mgoing to live my life that night.”

Hosting the award show is a full-circle moment for the star, considering hehosted the preshow nearly 20 years ago. “I’ve got all these years ofexperience to pull from now,” he says.

“I approach it like I approach every hosting gig, my job as a host is to makethe audience at home comfortable and to make the proceedings run smoothly,” hesays. “The night isn’t about me. It’s not the AWAYNEAs, it’s the AMAs. I’mthere to make this thing work.”

He continues, “I’m there to be the best traffic cop in the world. I’m there tomake the audience in studio laugh. I’m there to make the people at home feelgood and laugh, and set you up for all of the performances. So I think I’mprepared that way. I’ve got to listen to a lot of the new music that I haven’theard, so I’ve got to prepare in that sense. And then the other way to prepareis to be ready for anything, because like James Brown said, ‘If you stayready, you ain’t got to get ready.”

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As for how he plans to make it special? Wayne’s got an idea or two.

RELATED VIDEO: ** Dancing with the Stars : Teresa Giudice, WayneBrady, Selma Blair and More Celebs Join Season 31**

“I’m not going to say 100%, but odds are we’re doing an opening number. Imean, in the award shows that I’ve hosted in the past I’m kind of known forbeing able to pull those out,” he says with excitement. “So we’re going to doa really cool opening number. And then at some point, I would love to be ableto freestyle or do an improvisational piece using people from the audience,because as a fan, and as a music lover, and as a musician, to be able toimprovise musically on the AMAs would be the highlight of my life.”

“And maybe there’ll be an opportunity to show off a few of my Dancing withthe Stars moves later in the show,” says Brady, who is currently a contestanton the reality competition series.

Brady follows rapper Cardi B, who hosted last year’s award show.

The nominations for this year’s award show are led by Bad Bunny with eightnominations, and trailing closely behind are Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Drakewith six.

The year’s show will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles onNov. 20 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Fan voting for all awards is now open onVoteAMAs.com.

TVA new life can begin for Melanie Amollo (18) and Arno Louwette (22). Thewinners of ‘Regi Academy’ look forward with confidence to the future, althoughthat is also a big question mark. “We now have to wait and see for the nextsteps, there is no pressure from Regi in any case.”

Watch below how Melanie and Arno won the ‘Regi Academy’ in a fullSportpaleis:

They had the evening of their lives this weekend. Not only were Melanie andArno elected as the new pools of Flanders’ most popular producer, they alsosang their first single in front of 20,400 partygoers in the fullestSportpaleis of all time. That has been achieved. “But I don’t have a hangover,I still had to drive home by car”, Arno laughs the day after his victory. “I’mactually not recovered yet. For now it still feels very strange anduncomfortable, I am told that that is normal.”

The same goes for Melanie. “I’m still reminiscing, but I’m also a littleconfused when I think about everything that happened to us,” it sounds.“Without a doubt my favorite moment from the show was when the three of ussang ‘Hang on’. For the first time in front of such an audience, not normal.The third finalist Hanne was also there at the time, she deserved it just ashard as we did.”

School

It’s calm before the next storm for the two. Their first single will bereleased on Thursday, ‘If I lose myself’. “We are going to present these tothe radio stations and have also planned a number of press moments,” saysArno. “After that, we’ll see what comes our way, we just have to wait and seefor the next steps. But the artist life is definitely something I dream of. Ihope I can continue to evolve and only broaden my musical path.”

Arno has been organizing his life around music for some time now. In his musiceducation training he pressed the pause button to go all out. “School has togive way now, but if I want I can take it back at any time,” says Arno. “I’mnow seeing how busy it gets, then I want to finish the lessons again.” That isalso what Melanie, a first-year law student, has in mind. “Of course you hopeyou will win, but you don’t plan your life for it. In the short term I willcombine it, but it remains to be seen what is yet to come.”

Finale Directed by Acedmy, Melanie, Arno, Hanne © JOKKO

Own numbers

Winning is nice, but it also creates pressure. “That’s right”, Arno nods. “Ofcourse you want to do it right, but I’ve also learned that not everything cango right the first time. On Saturday, for example, my sound box fell so that Icould no longer hear myself singing in front of a full sports palace.Fortunately I picked it up quickly afterwards, but moments like that are partof it. In any case, I don’t have the feeling that Regi is under pressure. Heis enthusiastic and will guide us calmly.”

Melanie, Arno, Hanne © JOKKO

Formulating their ultimate goal in music is not obvious to both of them. Afterall, Arno and Melanie have already checked the largest hall in the country.“That’s true,” Melanie laughs. “But I also write my own songs and music, whenI dream out loud, one day I’m there with my own songs.” Exactly what Arnothought. “Who knows if it will ever happen”, laughs the Limburger who broughtan entire fan base from the KSA to the Sportpaleis on Saturday. “But the mostimportant thing is that I just want to keep performing. Preferably as much as

Game reviewDarkness can also be incredibly beautiful, say the Swedish gamedevelopers behind the feisty 2D platformer ‘Gloom’. And that fits more or lessinto a local tradition.

What do those Scandinavian game makers have with dark worlds? Danish studioPlaydead has already plunged you into darkness with their top titles ‘Limbo’and ‘Inside’, last year Sweden’s Zoink Games scored high with its bleakfairytale game ‘Lost in Random’, and now it lands the by the also Swedishindie studio You Will Get There developed ‘Dismal’ on the PC. From the titlealone you can of course deduce that this is not a game with unicorns,gingerbread houses and rainbows.

But ‘Gloom’ also fits in again with a tradition: the world that you crosswhile jumping is – just like that of the aforementioned games – in a strangeway pleasantly sinister. “Our dimly lit world may seem scary at first,” saiddeveloper David Söderström upon the game’s release. “But like most things inlife, true beauty can often be found beneath the surface.”

Image from ‘Gloom’. © You Will Get There

Meditative and Mysterious

When ‘Lost in Random’ came out last year, we talked at length about theuncanny atmosphere that characterizes many games from that cold north, but atthe same time, a spark of hope bubbles up. It actually fits in with the sametrend from which, for example, Nordic Noir series on TV have arisen: inScandinavia it is pitch dark for many days of the year, which gives theotherwise quite happy inhabitants a melancholic touch. And that alsotranslates into the art and entertainment products they create.

That lyrical quality is also hidden under the shadows in ‘Somber’. Theindefinable, eyeball-shaped creature that makes you bounce through the two-dimensional scenery ends up in shady places, but they also have somethingdistinctly alive at the same time. The dangerous, helmet-waving flora that cankill your creature when it lands flat in the midst of it also seems to bebreathing. And then there’s that enchanting music, and the mysterious sounds,which give the fairytale world something extra meditative. If you have a pairof headphones handy, you’ll be doing yourself a favor by plugging them intoyour PC and putting them on.

Image from ‘Gloom’. © You Will Get There

Image from ‘Gloom’. © You Will Get There

damn hard

The hand-drawn design of ‘Somber’, which you immediately associate with theequally obscure illustrations in children’s books by Roald Dahl or fairy talesby Hans Christian Andersen, also works particularly well with the sometimesspicy difficulty level, which you already have fifteen minutes after startingthe game. to the edge of your desk chair. Certain jumps require impeccabletiming and precision, which of course quickly gets on your nerves. But themeditative world ‘Gloom’ brings you will keep you calm for much longer thanyou will in a game with a busier world. Also, ‘Gloom’ invites you, with itsoutstretched paths, to explore its world, so that you can take your mind awayfrom that difficult passage for a while.

This is a video game review, but we’re not rating “Dismal” for this occasion.We only say: buy it! The game only costs 7 euros, and for that price it is bydefinition difficult to advise against this little gem. Just pop in and letthis tenebral pearl move you, even if it’s just for a few hours, like abeautiful poem or painting can. Brief, but sincere.

The TV Dozjd studio, also known as TV Rain, looks slick with its four roboticcameras, five camera lights, well-equipped control room and news desk. Acameraman quickly paints a wall light gray, a technician adjusts a camera lampand in the control room the row of small screens is viewed.

The studio was set up in no time for the independent TV channel founded in2010, which was taken off the channel by Russia in March this year. After morethan six months, the station decided to move to Amsterdam to settle in thesame space as The Moscow Times from publisher Derk Sauer, which has beenhoused in the Init building of DPG-Media since March 21, 2022.

Sauer and the owner of TV Rain, Natalya Sindeeva, have known each other forover twenty years. Sauer: “She actually wanted to give up when the stationcould no longer broadcast in Russia in March. When she heard we were here with_The Moscow Times_ , she asked if they could also come to Amsterdam. We haveenough space here.”

Heavy prison sentences

Sindeeva calls it a “very difficult decision” to stop broadcasting in Russia.”I had to cry, but the decision not to continue was made unanimously by ourteam.”

It is a great relief to her that the station is picking up the thread again.“There are many viewers in Russia who do not listen to the propaganda stationsand are hungry for the truth. These people have so many enemies around themand have become disoriented. They need to know that we think the same as theydo and that we have the same standards and values. TV Rain is a unifyingfactor.”

TV Rain wasn’t the only news station that decided to shut down when a newRussian law passed that would allow heavy jail sentences for journalists forreporting on the war in Ukraine. BBC, CNN, CBS News and ABC News also ceasedoperations in Russia.

Mission

Political journalist Mikhail Fishman (49), one of the exiled TV Rainemployees, found it difficult to stop in Russia. He first fled with his familyto Azerbaijan for a month, and then spent almost six months in Israel. SinceAugust he has been living in Amsterdam with his wife, who is also a journalistat TV Rain.

It was a foregone conclusion for Fishman to continue with his journalisticwork. “I have a mission. My people need to know what’s happening. I neverthought I would leave Russia, but it became too risky and difficult to reportfrom Russia. I had no choice. It became more and more uncomfortable for methere.”

As a journalist, he would rather have stayed in Russia, he says. “I’m supposedto be there. That’s where I can best see and feel the developments in mycountry. I also have a responsibility to make sure the war ends.”

Fishman has worked for TV Rain since the station’s inception. Previously, fromthe late 1990s, he wrote for various media such as the Russian News Week and_The Moscow Times_ on political topics. He also wrote a book on Russianpolitics.

“At the time, TV Dozhd presented itself as an independent and fresh newsstation and gave me the opportunity to do my own TV show. That was aninteresting challenge for me. It was during the time of the ‘Medvedev thaw’,when the climate in Russia softened under the former president. We then hopedthat he would stay for a second term. There was hope for the future with himat the time.”

Family and friends

Fishman, meanwhile tried and tested, will continue in the same way fromAmsterdam. The TV station broadcasts on YouTube, which is not (yet) banned inRussia.

“I will make political analyzes about the situation in my country and conductinterviews with, for example, a Ukrainian adviser from the southern Khersonregion and a Russian economist about the effect of the mobilization on theRussian economy,” said Fishman, who briefly spoke after the interview. takes aseat behind one of the tables of the newsdesk.

Sauer, who plans in the near future also the Russian web platform meduza toAmsterdam, has respect for the journalists of TV Rain. “Bee _The Moscow Times_the journalists are anonymous. With TV Rain, they are more at risk becausethey come into the picture with their faces.”

Sindeeva is well aware that it can be dangerous for the journalists of TVRain. “The journalists have left family and friends in Russia on whom Russiacan exert pressure. Also, our people can even get a criminal file, which meansthat they can no longer return to Russia. But they continue. Because this istheir job. Besides, in Russia they were more at risk than here in theNetherlands.”

An early and a late broadcast of pointer on television Sunday evening andtogether they sandwiched nicely news hour. In fifteen minutes (Pointer 1)and 25 minutes (Pointer 2), respectively, a place that had been itching for awhile, was not scratched open to the point of bleeding and has not yet healed.You could also say: they were two well-selected news items on moving images.

First the migrant workers from the Pointer special. The fact that they work inpoor conditions in the Netherlands, and live in even worse conditions, is notnews in itself. That we know, but do nothing or too little about it, is whatPointer reminds us of.

In 2021 they already went on an inspection with officials of the HaagsePandbrigade, in 2022 they went again, and very much had not changed in theliving conditions of workers from abroad. A stuffy rented house, twelve peoplein the living room, seven mattresses on the floor, and another pile againstthe walls, 18 sleeping places in total. Another team finds forty youngSpaniards sharing one house, while workers in yet another share theirmattresses with bed bugs.

Who is responsible here? The employer who hires employees who pay just alittle less than he has to? The employment agencies that mediate betweenworkers and employers? In any case, it is a lucrative business for theintermediaries who not only provide work, but also housing and transport. Therent of a mattress: 109 euros. Weekly. The van between mattress and work: 25euros per week. Missing a bus: fine of 20 euros. Mattress next to that of yourboyfriend or girlfriend: that is 20 euros extra.

Can that just happen? No of course not. But what can you do? Municipalitiescan hand out fines. But that turns out to be a calculated business risk forthe traders in labor migrants. Nail an overcrowded house and fine thelandlord? That is already happening. Criminal prosecution? That is difficult,Pointer shows. Stow people on mattresses in a house is bad, but notpunishable. You can’t call it human trafficking, legally speaking, it’s notreally exploitation either. Perhaps it is a mistake. And so we were remindedof that again.

Source of the threats

Pointer 2 found out who is behind the threats against companies that cleanedup the mess over the summer. Hay bales, car tires, dung heaps, everythingfarmers dumped on the highways had to be cleaned up. Those who came to do so,usually in the middle of the night, were called, texted, threatened andverbally abused. They were Nazis, collaborators, traitors and the enemy of thepeasant.

Thomas Mulder, Pointer’s investigative journalist, standing in an emptywarehouse, laptop within reach, reveals where the source of the threats is. Onthe Telegram messaging service, there is a ‘hotline for actions and treason’where photos and video of cleaning companies are shared. Plus name, telephonenumber and, if possible, home address of the owner.

Bert – not his real name – owns a green business and he has “pushed”threateners off his premises. His face is not in the picture, but his fistswith black mourning edges under the nails are telling enough.

The question is who is behind that hotline on Telegram. Thomas Mulder has alsoinvestigated this. The administrator of the hotline leads to Convoy Nederland,an action group inspired by Canadian truckers who oppose mandatoryvaccinations. Is that allowed, just throwing addresses on the internet toprovoke hassle? No of course not. That’s called doxing. And that is bad, butnot (yet) punishable.

The story of Swedish audio streaming service Spotify is one of growth: moreusers, more songs and artists available, and also more revenue. But for thefirst time since the IPO in 2018, the stock market has seen a different trend:a downward trend. The stock is currently more than 65 percent lower than ayear ago.

In mid-October, Spotify’s share price reached a record low of $78.50. Theimmediate cause was the news that Chinese TikTok owner Bytedance is in talkswith music labels to roll out its music streaming service Resso worldwide.That service, now only available in India, Indonesia and Brazil, wouldeventually be linked to TikTok, so that the more than a billion users of thatpopular video app can directly look up the songs they discover there in Resso.Should that happen, Bytedance will have a hard time overtaking Spotify, whichhas taken a huge lead over the competition. Worldwide, 433 million people nowlisten to Spotify every month. An increase of almost 20 percent from the 365million a year ago. In comparison: a competitor like Apple Music has justunder 100 million users. Other providers such as YouTube Music from Google andAmazon Music roughly half that.

Not everyone agrees with the lower valuation that Spotify, like other listedstreaming services, such as Netflix, has to deal with. According to analystAndrew Marok of investment bank Raymond James, streaming services are lumpedtogether too much by investors. Streaming music is a much more stable marketthan movies and series, where providers face price competition and higherchurn due to users who switch to other platforms. That churn does not knowSpotify with its loyal crowd of listeners, Marok argued in June.

Spotify is also by far the most popular platform in the Netherlands, saysanalyst Ed Achterberg of market researcher Telecompaper. His data shows thatSpotify has about 40 percent of the market here. Significantly more thanYouTube Music (around 10 percent) and Apple Music (under 5 percent). “Youngpeople in particular have Spotify on their mobile phones en masse. Theappreciation for the app is particularly good among the Dutch, and themajority also say they recommend the app to others,” says Achterberg.

Not all those satisfied users provide Spotify (annual turnover 9.7 billioneuros) with the same amount of revenue. The company has 188 million Premiumsubscribers worldwide. These are people who pay monthly and listen to musicad-free. This group generated 2.5 billion euros in turnover for the company inthe previous quarter. An even larger group of 256 million users listens forfree, but hears commercials in between. Spotify generated 360 million euros inadvertising revenue in the past quarter. In short, almost 90 percent of therevenue was collected from about 40 percent of the users. In addition, aquarterly loss of 194 million euros was reported below the line, mainly due tosharply increased personnel costs, acquisitions and marketing aimed at youngpeople and emerging markets. Because the music service is looking for moresources of income. The company expects to make a profit from podcasts withintwo years. It invested about 1 billion euros in this, which was at the expenseof profit and which also deterred the necessary investors. Spotify also sees afuture in audiobooks. It paid 117 million euros for audiobook platformFindaway.

Whether Spotify really is more than just music, the near future will show.Spotify will release its third-quarter results on Tuesday.