Whitney — the only officially authorized documentary about the late pop diva Whitney Houston — opens in Taiwan this week to commemorate the singer’s 55th birthday yesterday. The documentary has received much praise since its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and comes highly recommended by Houston’s good friends such as US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.
Unlike previous, unauthorized documentaries about Houston, Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald interviewed more than 70 people for this film over the course of almost two years, including her family members and mentor, record producer Clive Davis. In addition to documenting her successful singing career, Macdonald says the film also captures Houston behind the scenes, hoping to bring the real Whitney to the audience.
Houston has been acclaimed as one of the greatest pop singers, and the only artist with seven consecutive US number ones. According to Guinness World Records, she is the most awarded female artist of all time, winning over 400 music awards before she died in 2012 at the age of 48.
Photo courtesy of Vievision Pictures
照片︰威視電影
(Eddy Chang, Taipei Times)
已故流行天后惠妮休斯頓唯一的官方認證紀錄片《永遠愛你,惠妮!》本週在台灣上映,以紀念她昨日五十五歲的冥誕。該片自五月在坎城影展舉行世界首映後,便獲得各界好評。而天后的好友們,例如美國脫口秀女王歐普拉溫芙瑞也強力推薦。
和之前未授權紀錄片不同的是,該片的奧斯卡名導凱文麥唐納在將近兩年的拍攝過程中,訪談了超過七十人,包括惠妮的家人和恩師、唱片製作人克萊夫戴維斯。除了紀錄其輝煌的歌唱生涯,麥唐納說該片補捉到了她在舞台下的一面,希望能呈現給觀眾最真實的惠妮。
惠妮被譽為最偉大的流行歌手之一,也是唯一曾連續得到七首美國冠軍單曲的藝人,還是「金氏世界紀錄」認證史上獲獎最多的女藝人,生前榮獲超過四百多座音樂獎。她於二○一二年猝逝,年僅四十八歲。
(台北時報張聖恩)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
It’s another school day with the same ritual. You wake up to your smartphone’s alarm, scroll through messages during your commute, and listen to your favorite playlist with your wireless earbuds between classes. These devices, integrated smoothly into your daily routine, certainly make life more convenient. However, where do these devices end up after you replace them? In fact, the issue of electronic waste is a growing global concern. According to the United Nations, in 2019 alone, we generated an astonishing 53.6 million tons of e-waste—an average of 7.3kg per person. Projections hint at the figure soaring to 110