As the sun rises over a wide patch of Nevada desert, the color of the sky morphs from the deepest pink to a bright crystal blue. Bunches of shrubs and a single, singed white flag atop a tall, skinny pole become more visible as the sun ascends higher and higher. It's a breathtaking moment, one made all the more moving because it's unfolding to the swelling opening notes of "Where the Streets Have No Name," U2's anthem about the vitality of human connection that has been a staple of their concerts for more than 36 years.
The thing is, technically, it’s not entirely real. That striking visual environment is an illusion created by 260 million pixels inside a massive 16K LED screen that wraps around the entire performance space within Sphere, a $2.3 billion 366-foot-tall, 516-foot-wide rotunda adjacent to the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. (James Dolan, the controversial head of MSG Entertainment and MSG Sports, is responsible for it.) From the outside, Sphere looks like half a planet that accidentally dropped from outer space. Its exterior consists of 580,000 square feet of LED screens that project a rotating series of images— sometimes a big emoji with expressions that range from annoyed to sleepy; a huge semi-disturbing eyeball; or, even more disturbing, an ad for the upcoming third Trolls movie.
Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin October 09 - 22, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin October 09 - 22, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
