Taylor Swift welcomed followers to “The Tortured Poets Division” Friday night, debuting a music video for “Fortnight,” her first single off of her new album.

The music video options the singer-songwriter and Submit Malone, who options on the one, forged as ex-lovers who, per the lyrics, carried on an affair that solely lasted 14 days. Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, who starred in “Useless Poets Society,” additionally make shock cameos as a pair of scientists finishing up assessments on Swift, who overpowers the heavy equipment and sends it into electrical crackling. Intertitles evocative of silent cinema bookend the music video.

“I wished to point out you the worlds I noticed in my head that served because the backdrop for making this music.  Just about all the pieces in it’s a metaphor or a reference to 1 nook of the album or one other,” Swift wrote in a press release on social media timed to the music video launch. “For me, this video turned out to be the right visible illustration of this report and the tales I inform in it. Submit Malone blew me away on set as our tortured tragic hero and I’m so grateful to him for all the pieces he put into this collaboration.”

“Fortnight” had been closely teased as the primary music video off of “The Tortured Poets Division,” although Swift solely formally introduced its debut shortly earlier than the brand new album dropped Friday at midnight.

“The primary single from The Tortured Poets Division is…………. Fortnight,” Swift informed her followers on Instagram Thursday afternoon. “I’ve been such an enormous fan of Submit due to the author he’s, his musical experimentation and people melodies he creates that simply stick in your head without end. I obtained to witness that magic come to life firsthand after we labored collectively.”

Swift first introduced “The Tortured Poets Division” in her acceptance speech for finest pop vocal album on the Grammy Awards — marking a swerve from what many followers anticipated can be a reveal of “Repute,” one of many final two remaining albums in her “Taylor’s Model” re-recording challenge. Pre-order hyperlinks promptly went up on Swift’s official web site and socials.

In Selection’s assessment of “The Tortured Poets Division,” senior music author and chief music critic Chris Willman wrote that Swift’s newest “feels prefer it comes the closest of any of her 11 unique albums to only drilling a tube immediately into her mind and letting listeners mainline what comes out” and hailing it as “bracing, and wounded, and cocky, and — to not be undervalued on this age — handmade.”

Swift additionally shocked followers (and media members) by asserting that “The Tortured Poets Division” was a secret double album, releasing 15 additional songs within the early a.m. to make the occasion launch that rather more eventful. The artist additionally broke Spotify information on launch day, with the album changing into the first-ever to achieve 200 million streams inside 24 hours.

Watch the “Fortnight” music video right here.

Indie horror hit “Late Evening With the Satan” follows the real-time Halloween episode of a fictional ’70s speak present, which rapidly descends into insanity. The movie’s writers and administrators, Australian brothers Cameron and Colin Cairne, had been impressed by the sense of pleasure and hazard from the after-hours speak reveals of their youth.

“These late-night reveals had been very thrilling for us as younger boys,” Cameron Cairne says. “Staying up late to look at TV was one thing of a taboo, however we might, and we might see issues that youngsters most likely shouldn’t see. So we had been making an attempt to seize that vibe, in addition to the hazard of dwell TV, the unscripted nature of it.”

Utilizing a restricted finances, the duo, together with their artistic crew, was in a position to create their very own period-appropriate U.S. speak present in Melbourne. Manufacturing designer Otello Stolfo instantly studied the late-night reveals they hoped to emulate, all the way down to the smallest particulars.

“We began reveals like Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett and the rest that was round at the moment,” he says. “We began how their units work and every thing else. I knew how I’d performed these interview units earlier than, so I had an concept. We checked out their backgrounds and the finishes and the colours and issues and went from there. I stated, ‘Let’s go predominantly browns and oranges.’”

In the end, even after drafting correct designs, Stolfo needed to recalibrate based mostly on the dimensions of the undertaking.

“Time and money budgeted us,” he says. “After they instructed me how a lot, I stated, ‘OK, let’s see what we will do.’ It was fascinating, as a result of once I did my first structure and despatched it out for preliminary internet hosting, it got here in means over what I had, so we needed to rethink the method. We got here into some intelligent issues by resourcing methods to go and arising with new concepts and new methods of doing it. In order that was the great aspect of it.”

Apart from the units, the Cairnes knew the camerawork should mirror a particular period in tv, so that they employed Matthew Temple as their director of pictures. Temple was an business veteran with a background taking pictures in studios with pedestal cameras within the late ’80s.

“He unearthed his outdated scrapbooks from the ’80s when he was a trainee digital camera operator,” Colin Cairne says. “It was what all the old-fashioned guys from the ’60s and ’70s had taught him about find out how to shoot tv. That grew to become the Bible for his digital camera crew. It was fantastic to see them embrace a brand new model of taking pictures — they needed to unlearn find out how to be cinematic to make an genuine tv present. Even the lighting: It was a matter of going to all these outdated warehouses and dusting off all of the outdated lights, issues they hadn’t utilized in 30 years, and rigging these up. It was like that throughout all departments.”

This authenticity was crucial each in entrance of and behind the digital camera, because the brothers knew that, even because the viewers suspended disbelief for gory Satanic happenings, any real-life merchandise that appeared misplaced would instantly zap the viewer out of the expertise.

“I bear in mind simply the microphones…we might have these conversations concerning the period-appropriate microphones,” Cameron Cairne says. “They needed to be lengthy and thin. I bear in mind in the future the props division pulled these very plastic-looking neon blue microphones and it’s like, ‘No, I simply don’t suppose individuals are going to purchase that.’ We should be devoted to this concept of authenticity throughout all departments.”

Regardless of the tactile parts on the set, the crew nonetheless wanted loads of onscreen magic to make the story come to life. Adam White, one of many movie’s producers who additionally oversaw visible results, says that with a $150,000 VFX finances, the crew did practically 300 visible results, leaving solely about $500 per impact. That restricted finances impressed some severe creativity from the crew.

“I come from low-budget filmmaking,” White says. “You simply make it occur. It’s simply the way it works. We might uncover issues alongside the way in which, despite the fact that we had been making an attempt to plan it, and generally you may have the perfect intentions of considering you already know precisely the way it’s going to occur. However till you begin constructing it, and with the constraints of our finances, it meant we needed to discover fundamental options.”

In the end, Colin Cairne is thrilled the industrious crew made a movie that’s resonating with audiences, bringing them the identical pleasure the crew felt engaged on it.

“It’s validation that’s a bit surreal,” he says. “We made the movie practically two years in the past, on the tail finish of COVID. It was nonetheless a fairly darkish time. We had been in lockdown for 100 days on finish, a number of occasions. So popping out of that and with the ability to make a movie that has been a labor of affection for years has been very particular. We really feel we’ve made one thing respectable.”

Hold scrolling to see set improvement and element drawings, in addition to on-set pictures, from “Late Evening With the Satan.”

The meat between Drake and what continues to be a powerful sect of the hip-hop neighborhood grows deeper. On Friday evening (April 19), the rapper launched a music on his social media entitled “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which makes use of A.I. vocals from Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg on a stopgap between diss information as he awaits Kendrick Lamar’s reply to his freshly launched “Push Ups.”

There’s a second in David Adjmi’s play “Stereophonic” when a discordant, mid-’70s band-on-the rise hears one among its songs performed again to them within the recording studio for the primary time, with all its a number of tracks layered collectively into an clever complete.

It leaves the ever-bickering band all of a sudden speechless, emotionally shocked and nonetheless with the belief that they’ve simply heard one thing actually nice.

Audiences could really feel the identical means after seeing this work of theatrical virtuosity, realizing that every one the tiny particulars, wild rhythms, and intelligent hooks introduced on stage have added as much as a piece that’s courageous, purposeful, and wealthy.

“Stereophonic,” which started at Playwrights Horizons, begins out at what looks as if a lightweight satire of drugged-out rockers, stuffed with foolish riffs, huge egos and comedian digressions. However ever so steadily, and with the very best of constancy, the play turns into one thing altogether contemporary and, on this play-with-music hybrid kind, indefinable.

As every of the 5 members of the almost-famous band arrives on the Sausalito studio to report its follow-up to its break-out album, you would possibly suppose you have been in the midst of a Robert Altman movie with its overlapping dialogue, a number of actions on stage and swings of temper and focus.

However over these layers of seemingly inconsequential verisimilitude, we glean that Diana (Sarah Pidgeon), the band’s proficient singer and co-songwriter, is insecure, feels stranded with out her tambourine and is intimidated by the risky Peter (Tom Picinka), her lover of 9 years and the band’s guitarist and forceful artistic energy.

Then there’s a trio of Brits: Holly (Juliana Canfield) on keyboards, whose relationship with drugged-out  bass whiz Reggie (Will Brill) is on the skids. Conserving issues cool and the group semi-grounded is drummer Simon (Chris Stack).

Overseeing the session on David Zinn’s well-worn, split-level set of engineering and glassed-in recording rooms, properly lit by Jiyoun Chan, are sound engineer Grover (Eli Gelb), who fudged his resume to get the gig, and his laid-back assistant Charlie (Andrew W. Butler).

One would possibly suppose at first this can be a tantalizing behind-the-music documentary on the making of a report like Fleetwood Mac’s era-defining “Rumours.” However these characters — and the terrific ensemble of actors who might in all probability tour as a band after the Broadway run — turn into uniquely suited to Adjmi’s thematic functions.

With their first album climbing the charts and the report firm upping the recording session’s funds with a clean examine, the stakes rise significantly together with the tensions of the group amid its shifting dynamics.

Because the sleep-deprived periods go from days to weeks to months and past, the theater-verité really feel established in the beginning subtly shifts and extra particular scenes of artistic and relationship dramas emerge, whether or not on break or whereas recording within the studio.

A pivotal meltdown scene between Peter and Diana is performed offstage and is eavesdropped on by the engineers — and us. The countless makes an attempt to get the proper sound for the drums wring humor out of the tedium and exhaustion of the inventive course of. A later recording session demonstrates that the fury amongst musicians at their breaking level can nonetheless end in beautiful harmonies.

On this rarefied recording world, Ryan Rumery does a miraculous job in what have to be an particularly difficult sound design; the fine-tuned music path is by Justin Craig. Enver Chakartash’s lived-in costumes assist outline the interval but additionally the emotional adjustments within the characters. (Diana’s free-flowing songbird of a gown on the finish is a pleasant nod to Stevie Nicks.)

The viewers could first be hooked by the rock archetypes, however Adjmi defies expectations. Peter could also be controlling and uncaring however as intensely performed by Pecinka, he has his personal insecurities, too — and although maddening, his artistic instincts are all the time proper.

Reggie appears to be the loquacious stoner barely able to going via a door, however he’s additionally a stunning guitarist, and Brill is a pleasure to look at in all the character’s evolutions.

Simon stands out as the cool and regular one within the group however as delicately performed by Stack, he’s a real household man with so much to lose and clearly weary of his mediating position as father determine. Holly is not only a supporting participant to the group — and complicated ally to Diana — however a delicate artist absolutely able to her personal rage. Canfield additionally has probably the greatest off-topic scenes, speaking about her love of the movie “Don’t Look Now” and its intersection of affection and grief, a observe that might resonate with the band.

Even Grover, who first seems to be the play’s comedian aid — and viewers stand-in in the course of the band’s lengthy sieges of insanity — seems to be one of the crucial authentic characters, and expertly performed by Gelb as a person who’s barely holding onto his job, if not his sanity. As for Charlie, nicely, even after a couple of years the band barely is aware of his identify, although Butler’s reactive efficiency is actually memorable.

However all through the three hours of the play’s recording periods, all eyes are on Diana, at first belittled and emotionally crushed by Peter’s brilliance and bullying. As performed by Pidgeon, Diana’s incremental discovery of her personal confidence, voice and braveness to go her personal means offers the play its emotional through-line.

Giving the present essential music cred are the unique songs by Will Butler, a former member of Arcade Fireplace. Within the half dozen partial or full numbers reflecting the woozy period of Brit blues-folk-rock-pop, Butler succeeds within the appreciable process of making a track that wants to remove the band’s breath in addition to ours. It does, thanks in no small half to Pidgeon’s exceptional efficiency.

In a means, director Daniel Aukin is very similar to Grover: the skilled craftsman and invisible hand on the controls, making the slightest changes in tempo and tuning to Adjmi’s composition and the performances to make all of it come collectively into a panoramic complete. The end result: A basic.

SPOILER ALERT: This comprises main spoilers for the finale of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

Banana fever reigns supreme after “RuPaul’s Drag Race” topped America’s subsequent drag famous person.

Season 16 winner Nymphia Wind snatched the crown from fellow finalists Airplane Jane and Sapphira Cristál. Together with her win, Nymphia makes “Drag Race” historical past because the first-ever Taiwanese queen and the third API winner following within the footsteps of season 3’s winner Raja and season 15 queen Sasha Colby.

In a remaining lip sync battle, the 28-year-old had the sting along with her dance strikes and lipsynching in opposition to Sapphira as they carried out to Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam.”

Topped America’s subsequent drag famous person, Nymphia instructed the viewers: “To those that don’t really feel like they don’t belong, simply bear in mind to stay fearlessly and have braveness to stay your reality.” She added, “Taiwan, that is for you.”

Nymphia who has turn into synonymous with the colour yellow, introduced shade and Asian style to the present this season along with her creations. Her entrance quote in the beginning of the season was “Bananas” and she or he calls her fanbase “Banana Believers.” She joins the few queens within the historical past of the principle present franchise by no means to land within the backside three.

Earlier this week, she sat down with the present’s choose Michelle Visage for a dialog on “Whatcha Packin’” She spoke about her dedication to win from the start. Nymphia stated, “All I stated to myself was, I’m right here to interrupt the Asian curse.”

The finale additionally introduced Miss Congeniality. For the primary time, there was a tie between two queens: Sapphira Cristál and Xunami Muse gained the title and have been awarded $10,000 every, courtesy of Olay.

RuPaul additionally honored Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) with the Giving Us Lifetime Achievement Award and performed a video tribute to rejoice the icon and frequent choose.

It was additionally introduced that the ninth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars: Untucked!” will premiere with two episodes on Could 17, solely on Paramount+.