Words: Gery Hristova

#1

Jim Carrey, Tyler, the Creator, Lil Wayne and many more are featured on The Weeknd’s newly released album ‘Dawn FM’. The Canadian musician had been teasing the new project for months, but he released a minute-long trailer on his YouTube channel, which seems to keep with the same cinematic inspirations for his 2020 blockbuster, After Hours.

Watch the video to The Weeknd’s new song ‘Sacrifice’:

#2

There’s no way we couldn’t mention this week’s hot topic – the OpenSea’s NFS Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), which is a popular art collection of 10,000 unique bored apes created by Yuga Labs paintings reached over 1 billion in sales. The milestone was reached just a few days into the new year as celebrities are flocking to get on the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) bandwagon.

When people buy NFTs, they gain the rights to the unique token on the block chain, not the artworks themselves. But the fact that the information on a block chain is next to impossible to alter makes NFTs appealing, especially to collectors and artists. For the uninitiated, an NFT is a digital asset that uses block chain technology to record who owns a digital object such as an image, video, or in-game item. While anyone can view the asset in question, only the buyer can say they’re the “official” owner.

Whether you like the paintings or not but would like to start collecting, the price of a single picture of the animated monkey could cost you between a few thousand to a few quadrillion dollars and some of the celebrities that already own one are the NBA star Stephen Curry and the rapper Eminem, who just bought one for over $450,000.

#3

At the time of what would have been his 75^th birthday David Bowie’s songs were sold to Warner Music Group for over 250 million dollars (£185m). Last year Warner Music Group reached a deal with the Bowie estate that gave Warner Music licensed worldwide rights to Bowie’s recorded music catalog from 1968 – this includes more than 400 songs. Among them are “Space Oddity”, “Ziggy Stardust”, “Fame”, “Rebel Rebel”, “Let’s Dance”, and 26 studio albums released during his lifetime, as well as the posthumous studio album release “Toy”.

Meanwhile, his collaborator and ‘Aladdin Sane’ pianist Mike Garson celebrated Bowie’s birthday with the second year of his celebrity-laden concerts, streamed online on January 8. The three-hour concert featured Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Living Colour, Noel Gallagher, Ricky Gervais, David Sanborn, Gary Oldman and others with proceeds from the $25 ticket going to Save The Children.

See rollinglivestudios.com for info.

#4

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope officially launched on December 25, successfully unfolding its solar array – the purpose of this is to help the machine provide power to the observatory that it’s carrying. The mission of NASA’s machine is to seek the light from the first galaxies in the early universe and to explore our own solar system, as well as planets orbiting other stars, called exoplanets.

The world’s largest and most complex space science observatory will now begin six months of commissioning in space. At the end of commissioning, Webb will deliver its first images.

#5

The Irish government is set to pay approximately 2,000 musicians, actors, and other performers a basic income for three years. A figure of 2,000 people was suggested, however, if more people are eligible then participants may have to be selected at random, though it currently remains unclear as to how many arts workers will benefit.

As with the rest of the world, due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions, entertainment and arts venues in the Republic of Ireland, as were those in Northern Ireland, were forced to close for long periods throughout 2020 and 2021. That’s why the Government’s aim is to provide a weekly payment to a specific group of workers within the arts industry to help them pursue creative projects. A basic payment of €10.50 (£8.75) per hour is suggested, though the overall income is yet to be confirmed.