Day: April 1, 2018

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg is going into the future with his virtual reality adventure Ready Player One. Based on Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name, the film takes place in the dystopian world of 2045, while referencing 1980s popular culture.

Set more than 25 years in the future, the characters are driven by overpopulation and poverty to escape into a digital universe. One of them is young Wade Watts, a poor orphan living in the stacks, a poverty-ridden area in Columbus, Ohio, who escapes to the Oasis through his virtual avatar, Parzival.

WATCH: Spielberg’s New Film Goes into the Future

He is not alone. Billions of displaced people the world over escape into the digital universe, using aliases and idealized appearance through their avatars. The reason? As Watts says in the film, this “is a place where the limits of reality are your imagination. People come to the oasis for all the things they can do, but they stay because of all the things they can be.”

He describes the Oasis as “the only place it feels like I mean anything.”

Control the Oasis

The Oasis is the brainchild of reclusive James Halliday, played by Oscar winner Mark Rylance. Halliday is a genius and also a fan of 1980s popular culture.

Upon his death, Halliday reveals he has created a virtual reality game where players are called to discover a hidden object, an Easter egg. Whoever finds it first gets a half-trillion dollars and total control of the Oasis.

That sets Parzival and his friends on a collision course with the head of iOi, Innovative Online Industries, a huge virtual reality corporation, and its CEO Nolan Sorrento, played by Ben Mendelsohn. Sorrento will do anything to win the contest and control the Oasis. So, a brutal hunt for the Easter egg begins inside the virtual world, and also outside, in the real world.

​World run amok

Spielberg says this spectacular, escapist and addictive virtual future is the product of a world run amok.

“Having spent so much time trying to imagine what the future could be for all of us in that circumstance, I suddenly saw a future that Ernest Cline, the writer of the book, and Zak Penn, the screenwriter, envisioned, and it wasn’t that far away from what I think is going to happen,” Spielberg said in a release about the film.

To further accentuate the stark contrast between the Oasis and the grittier real world, Spielberg shot the scenes of the dystopian future on film, while scenes in the virtual universe were captured digitally.

Tye Sheridan, who plays Wade and his avatar Parzival, describes shooting the digital part of the film. 

“We did that in a motion-capture studio. We are wearing these suits with head cams and dots all over our face so that they can track, they can record our facial performances and put those on our avatar, animate us and create a virtual world around us.”

Sheridan says during filming, a monitor displayed the virtual version of their movements in real time. This enabled the actors to perform while seeing themselves as their avatars walking around, tracking the actors’ movements.

1980s deja vu

Throughout the film, Spielberg references 1980s popular culture, building on the nostalgia of his fan base. Video games like Adventure released for the Atari 2600 video game console, 1979-1980; movies such as Stanley Kubrick’s horror flick blockbuster The Shining, and Stephen King’s equally popular book by the same title, or dance moves from Saturday Night Fever. They all happen in the seductive cyber world of the Oasis, where the main character finds purpose, love and social justice.

Spielberg notes, however, that though Ready Player One builds on virtual reality cutting-edge technology, it also warns about VR’s addictive potential and encourages its viewers to disconnect from technology regularly in order to find real beauty in the world. He also says as impressive as his digital production is, it is ultimately meant to advance a story about real characters and the human condition.
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Thousands of fans gathered in Washington for the city’s comic convention, called Awesome Con. During the three-day event, they meet their favorite artists and actors, have their comic books autographed, and do a little shopping. Many also dress up in costume. From Washington, VOA’s Jill Craig has more.
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From aging crooners to bubbly K-Pop starlets, some of South Korea’s biggest pop stars flew to North Korea on Saturday for rare performances that highlight the sudden thaw in inter-Korean ties after years of tensions over the North’s nuclear ambitions.

The concerts in Pyongyang on Sunday and Tuesday come ahead of a historic summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a border village April 27. The meeting, which will precede a planned summit between Kim and President Donald Trump in May, could prove to be significant in the global diplomatic push to resolve the standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons and missiles program.

The 120-member group that flew to Pyongyang also included government officials, reporters and a taekwondo demonstration team that will perform in Pyongyang on Sunday and Monday. Another team of 70 South Korean technicians went to Pyongyang on Thursday to set up equipment.

Singer Yoon Do-hyun, who previously performed in Pyongyang in 2002, was emotional after landing in the North Korean capital.

“My heart is bursting,” Yoon told reporters, his eyes welling up with tears. “I am most curious about the reaction of the audience, how it would be different from 16 years ago.”

The artists were greeted by Hyon Song Wol, the photogenic leader of Kim Jong Un’s hand-picked Moranbong girl band who has been working out the details of the performances with South Korean officials.

“Your arrival in Pyongyang brings big expectations,” she said. “A lot of famous singers have come.”

A look at the South Korean singers who made the trip and a certain horse-dancing specialist who didn’t:

​The legends

During stormier times, North Korea described the South’s society and culture as a “corrupt bourgeois lifestyle.” Still, that didn’t stop southern pop singers from performing across the border when relations warmed.

It’s the second trip for the iconic Cho Yong-pil, perhaps South Korea’s most influential musician of the past 50 years. He staged a solo concert in Pyongyang in 2005 during a previous era of rapprochement between the rivals.

“It will be as comfortable performing in the North as it is to perform in the South,” the 68-year-old singer said at a news conference at South Korea’s Gimpo Airport on Saturday. “There’s no reason for me or other singers to be nervous. We all finished rehearsing and will have a fun and comfortable time showing our music.”

Seoul hasn’t officially announced the titles of the songs by the South Korean artists. Cho’s “Dear Friend,” a ballad about a long-lost friend that reportedly drew an enthusiastic response from the Pyongyang crowd 13 years ago, will almost certainly be one of them.

It would be the third North Korean performances for female balladeers Choi Jin-hee and Lee Sun-hee, who are relatively well-known in the North.

The 61-year-old Choi will likely sing her biggest hit, “Maze of Love,” which is rumored to have been a favorite of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the late father of current leader Kim. Lee, who at 53 still might have the best pipes in the business, may sing “To J,” one of several South Korean songs North Korean musicians performed during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

“I hope we can create a stage where we can make an emotional connection and convey the warm feelings between the South and North,” Choi said.

The girls

It won’t be all slow ballads in Pyongyang. It will be interesting to see how the North Koreans react to girl band Red Velvet, currently one of the most popular acts in the highly competitive K-Pop scene.

The genre, which has a huge following across Asia, has been defined by synthesized music, powerful visuals and dance moves, and teasing sexuality. In recent years, South Korea’s military has used K-Pop for psychological warfare, blaring it from loudspeakers along the heavily armored border between the rivals.

“Happiness! Hello, it’s Red Velvet!” band member Seulgi cheerfully shouted during the news conference.

“We’re the ‘maknae’ (youngest of the group), so we will make sure to deliver our bright energy to the North,” the 24-year-old said.

K-Pop groups have performed before in North Korea. The now-disbanded Sechs Kies and Fin.K.L sang and danced in Pyongyang in 1999, as did boy band Shinhwa in 2003. Some of the artists said later that the reaction from the audience was awkward and quiet.

Red Velvet may find a better reception more than a decade later as cultural tastes change, even in isolated North Korea. Currently, the most popular music act in North Korea is Hyon’s Moranbong band, whose members often perform suggestive shimmies in short skirts with electric guitars.

Park Hyeong-il, an official at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, said North Korean officials didn’t show any discomfort about Red Velvet and also didn’t take issue with the “red” in the band’s name.

Red Velvet is originally a five-member band, but only four made the trip to Pyongyang — 22-year-old Joy stayed in South Korea to film a soap opera.

​No ‘Gangnam style,’ please 

Despite constant questioning from reporters, South Korean officials aren’t offering a clear explanation on why PSY, the “Gangnam Style” singer, was left out of the concert lineup.

South Korea’s culture ministry spokesman Hwang Seong-un said without specifying that the YouTube rapper had been initially considered for the Pyongyang events before being excluded. He said he couldn’t confirm a media report that North Korean officials had rejected PSY.

“What I can say is that we explored ways to include him, but it didn’t work out,” Hwang said. “We hope there will be better opportunities for him in the future.”

It’s possible that officials from either the North or the South concluded that PSY’s bizarre humor and highly sexualized music would be too provocative for the North Korean public.

It’s not that North Korea had entirely ignored the global Gangnam Style craze. In September 2012, the North posted a video on its Uriminzokkiri website of a horse-dancing PSY character that had a photo of conservative South Korean presidential candidate Park Geun-hye’s face transposed on it. The lyrics had the character satirically defending Park’s late father, staunch anti-communist dictator Park Chung-hee.

Park went on to win the presidential race, only to be ousted from office and jailed over a corruption scandal in March last year.

Will Kim Jong Un attend?

The South Korean singers will perform at the 1,500-seat East Pyongyang Grand Theater on Sunday and then take part in a joint concert with North Korean artists on Tuesday at the 12,000-seat Ryugyong Jong Ju Yong Gymnasium. 

It’s unclear whether North Korean leader Kim will show up in any of these performances. His presence would be seen in the South as a proper response to Moon’s attending the North Korean performances in February. But Kim also was accused by Seoul in previous years of harshly punishing, and even executing, North Korean officials and people who were caught privately consuming South Korean popular culture. 

In 2014, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers that North Korea used firing squads to execute 10 officials that year for taking bribes or watching South Korean television dramas. 
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The Mormon church made history and injected a bit of diversity into a previously all-white top leadership panel Saturday by selecting the first Latin-American apostle and the first apostle of Asian ancestry.

The selections of Ulisses Soares of Brazil and Gerrit W. Gong, a Chinese-American, were announced during a twice-annual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The choices triggered excitement among a contingent of Mormons who for years have been hoping for the faith’s top leadership to be more representative of a religion that has more than half of the its 16 million members outside the United States.

“It’s a sign that the church is for everyone,” said Guilherme De Castro, a 37-year-old Mormon from Brazil who was in attendance for the announcement. “It doesn’t matter where you are from or the way you look.”

The selections come during a two-day conference happening as the faith grapples with heightened scrutiny about its handling of sexual abuse reports and one-on-one interviews between local lay leaders and youth. Mormon leaders hadn’t spoken about the topic as of Saturday afternoon, but a person in attendance shouted several times, “Stop protecting sexual predators,” as new people were announced to second-tier leadership posts.

The outburst came one day after about 1,000 current and former Mormons marched to the church’s headquarters, delivering petitions demanding an end to closed door, one-on-one interviews between youth and lay leaders where sexual questions sometimes arise.

The church changed policy this week to now allow children to bring a parent or adult with them to the interviews, but protesters said that doesn’t go far enough to keep children safe. The change came as part of more revisions to sexual abuse reporting guidelines following recent revelations that a former prominent missionary leader was accused of sexually assaulting two women in the 1980s. The ex-leader denied the allegations.
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Britain’s Prince Harry and his American fiancée, Meghan Markle, have chosen a London florist beloved of the fashion industry to arrange the flower decorations for their wedding in late spring, Kensington Palace said Sunday.

Philippa Craddock, whose client list includes designer Alexander McQueen and British Vogue magazine, will use seasonal blooms from around Windsor to decorate the ceremony venue, including white garden roses, peonies and foxgloves.

The May 19 wedding of Queen Elizabeth’s grandson, fifth in line to the throne, and Markle, star of the U.S. TV legal drama “Suits,” will be at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

The florist will also use branches of beech, birch and hornbeam from the surrounding parkland, and the couple themselves helped select the foliage.

“Working with them has been an absolute pleasure,” Craddock said. “The process has been highly collaborative, free-flowing, creative and fun.”

“The final designs will represent them as a couple, which I always aim to achieve in my work, with local sourcing, seasonality and sustainability being at the forefront.”

After the wedding, the flowers will be distributed to charities.

Harry, 33, and Markle, 36, have invited 600 guests to their wedding, although the names of the guests are still secret.

More than 2,500 members of the public and figures from charities the couple support are invited to watch the arrivals of the bride and groom and their guests, and to see them depart on a carriage procession around Windsor after the ceremony.
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