Art Craft and Leisure news

Rock group The Darkness have written and produced a theme tune for the live action reboot of the 1980’s He-Man series.

Dan Hawkins, the Suffolk band’s guitarist, and his brother, Justin, singer and lead guitarist, watched the animated show as children.

He told BBC Look East that Daniel Pemberton, the score composer for the new film, was looking for a theme tune “as camp as He-man and as rocking as Queen”.

As well as the Lowestoft hard rockers, The Masters Of The Universe soundtrack features music from Brian May, lead guitarist of Queen.

American writer Courtney Maum’s first novel of this decade is a modern take on an age-old problem: consumerism, and the resultant need for more of it. Its title character, Alan Anderson, is an ad exec used to winning – so when his seemingly foolproof advertising pitch starts to fall apart, he’s in trouble.

His redeemer comes in the unexpected form of a Gen Z dairy farmer who his hopes had been pitched on. Alan discovers that less is more, begins to question the purpose of his life, and decides to – yes – opt out, going back to basics to the extent of stopping wearing shoes.

Wife Vivian, though, is a cleverly drawn foil as she comes to terms with her husband’s newfound lifestyle while focusing on keeping up appearances with the neighbours – one of whom holds the keys to Vivian becoming part of the neighbourhood’s elite Queen Anne’s Club – and her daughters’ own burgeoning ambitions. (One has an unusual relationship with wildlife and conservation; the other wants to write plays.)

Family tensions rise as Vivian tries to balance her life and keep everyone happy. But as her husband is mentally purging his brain of advertising, cut off from his phone and laptop, something unusual begins to happen. As Alan’s ambition wanes, new values begin to surface. Could it be that people start to want the very thing Alan isn’t selling?   

Alan Opts Out is an enjoyable read with a satirical edge, cleverly dealing with our relationship with materialism, the need for power and the hope for happiness. Seen from two different angles, it focuses on the family nucleus and the need for praise and approval from others, even those we don’t really like: a quirky, witty and engaging read, with some laugh-out-loud moments.

What did the photos show?

At first glance, the photos look pretty realistic. They show a smiling Zendaya and Tom in their wedding outfits and the couple exchanging vows – all against a background that looks like Lake Como.

Photos shared by a creator called AK on X on 4 March also appeared to show Robert Downey Jr, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Jake Gyllenhaal at the wedding. This post had over 100,000 likes.

A viral Instagram photo dump of AI-generated ‘wedding day’ images, including one showing “Tom” holding a Spider-Man mask, received more than 10 million likes.

The caption said the images had been created with AI as an “artistic recreation” but some people appear to have been fooled and have commented to say congratulations. Others were less impressed and said they couldn’t believe an AI image had had so many likes. One of these comments on Instagram said: “AI slop getting 10 million likes… what has the world come to”.

Some remarked on how it can be difficult to tell the difference between AI and real photos as technology advances. One person questioned: “It’s real?” while another wrote: “Can’t tell if it’s AI”.