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If Only All Superheroes Were As Cute As The Ones In The 'Big Hero 6' Trailer

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Superheroes have never looked as adorable as they do in the new "Big Hero 6" trailer. The animated take on the little-known comic series introduces the first full-on collaboration between Disney and Marvel since the Mouse House acquired Marvel Entertainment in 2009.

This trailer focuses heavily on the goofy robot Baymax, voiced by Scott Adsit (aka Pete on "30 Rock"). Baymax teams up with robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada (voiced by "Supah Ninjas" star Ryan Potter) to uncover a criminal plot in the town of San Fransokyo. The other heroes in question, who aren't seen much in this trailer, are voiced by Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr., Génesis Rodríguez and T.J. Miller, with Maya Rudolph and James Cromwell playing supporting characters.

"Big Hero 6" and all of its unbearable cuteness opens Nov. 7.


Photographer Captures The Future With Mixed Race Family Portrait Series

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The Census Bureau has predicted that by 2043, no single racial group will make up a majority in the U.S. Furthermore, the number of people who self-identify with multiple races is on the rise, increasing significantly more than the number of people who report a single racial identity.

But this phenomenon is not limited to the U.S. In her new photo series "Mixed Blood," photographer CYJO has captured stunning photographs of mixed-race families in both New York and Beijing. The families in these photos have multiple citizenships, ethnic identities, and traditions.

For the artist, who identifies as an American of Korean ethnicity, studying these families allowed her to further explore the multiculturalism that defines her own life. CYJO told The Huffington Post in an email, "[H]ow does that shape an individual’s identity? For many families, it meant that they weren’t exclusive to a side, a team, a tribe, a culture, a citizenship, and a race."

CYJO drew inspiration for "Mixed Blood" from one of her earlier projects, "KYOPO," which featured over 200 people, mostly Korean-Americans. After photographing and interviewing her subjects, CYJO was struck by the handful of individuals who had other ethnic identities, in addition to their Korean background.

The artist was also inspired to create "Mixed Blood" after noticing a trend in China, where modernization and increased access to travel has led to more interaction between people with different ethnic backgrounds. "Historical migration movements continue to help shape the American culture as it does for other countries, and it was important to share this reality, which is also my reality, outside of the American cultural context."

Looking back on the project, CYJO said she learned a great deal throughout her experience with the mixed-race families she photographed. "[W]hat I find intriguing about these families is that they defy the border and racial conflicts that we read about or may have experienced. Although there can be some complexities that hint at the tensions and differences from the power of heritage, these portraits and narratives illustrate how their love naturally crosses boundaries."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves. Check out some of the stunning photographs below.

Mixed Blood is a traveling exhibition in China that launched at Today Art Museum in Beijing and is sponsored by the US Embassy in Beijing, China. It us curated by Nik Apostolides and designed by Timothy Archambault.





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'Blended' Photo Series Captures The Unconditional Love Between An Adopted Child And His Family

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Photographer Kate T. Parker is one proud aunt.

Her sister and brother-in-law adopted her 5-month-old nephew, Sam, in February 2014. But Parker knew she'd want to celebrate the newest member of the family in a special way from the beginning. "Throughout their entire adoption process, I knew I wanted to document whatever lucky baby we would welcome into our family," she told The Huffington Post in an email.

In a photo series which she calls "Blended," the Georgia-based photographer captures Sam's first moments with his family. She explained that the project also documents "the power of love, the agonizing wait (and then elation) of adoption, the welcoming of another life into our clan, and what it means to be a biracial family."

Aside from showing off Sam's adoption journey, his loving family and squish-worthy cheeks, Parker simply can't get enough of him. "He's the happiest, cutest baby on the planet," she told HuffPost. "I feel so lucky to have that little man in my life."

Based on the pictures below, we can see why.



(hat tip: My Modern Met)



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Travel Between Tokyo And San Francisco In 83 Awesome Seconds

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What a view!

This time-lapse video lets you see the sights on a flight from Tokyo to San Francisco in less than 90 seconds.

Posted July 10 by YouTuber psp747, the video takes the viewer on a journey across the Pacific -- from Tokyo’s Narita Airport to San Francisco. The flight, which the Verge notes usually takes about nine and a half hours, is cut down to just 83 seconds. The time-lapse video is made up of more than 3,400 separate images shot on a GoPro camera plugged into a portable iPhone charger, the poster wrote on YouTube.

The shots depict a Boeing 747-400’s journey from takeoff to landing and includes a stunning sunset and sunrise. The video description notes that the planet Venus can be seen around the 0:40 mark.

(Story continues below.)

A map from Tokyo's Narita Airport to San Francisco International Airport. It's worth noting that the video does not specify the San Fran airport where the flight landed.


"Nice timelapse," one YouTube commenter joked. "I guess using electronics during takeoff and landing is not as bad as airlines say."

"Wow! That transition from dark to light gave me chills. Makes you feel a whole lot smaller, this video," wrote another.

Check out the video (above) and tweet your thoughts to @HuffPostTravel.

6 Kids Who Put Up A Damn Good Fight Against The Monsters Under Their Beds

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After their parents have tucked them into bed and turned off the lights, it's not uncommon for kids to be overwhelmed by a common fear: terrifying monsters that live under their beds and in their closets.

In her photo series "Terreurs," French photographer Laure Fauvel gave this scenario a new twist. Instead of cowering in fear, the pajama-clad kids in these pictures are ready to battle against the monsters in their rooms. The monsters, meanwhile, look terrified and ready to surrender.

"I wanted to show children who aren’t scared of monsters and who are able to fight them and be stronger than [their] fears," the photographer told The Huffington Post in an email.

So, parents, next time you hear loud noises coming from your children's rooms at night, it might just be a monster fight.

Check out the photos below:



(hat tip: Neatorama.com)



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Japan Arrested The 'Vagina Artist,' But These 5 Phallic Toys Are Apparently Fine

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The Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi has long been on a mission to make vaginas "casual and pop." It seems in Japan, that's a battle cry. Early this week, Igarashi, who goes by the name Rokudenashi-ko or “Good-For-Nothing Girl,” was arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.






Her crime was honoring the terms of a crowd-funded project. In a bid to raise money to build a boat shaped like her vulva -- status quo for our girl -- Igarashi offered a prize that runs afoul of Japan's obscenity laws. (See the rather innocuous project video above.)

Donors of a certain level received files containing the 3D data the boat is modeled on, whereby they could, if they wanted, print out Igarashi's vulva for themselves. Japanese police seem be interpreting this as a sale, rather than a donation-based exchange. The arrest has made international headlines, and inspired at least one Change.org petition demanding Igarashi's release, with more than 10,000 signatures so far.

Igarashi isn't an unthinking exploitation artist. As the 42-year-old explained last year in an interview with HuffPost, her interest in demystifying female genitalia is personal. She was once ashamed of her body. Like so many women worldwide, she underwent vaginal rejuvenation surgery. She puts the choice down to ignorance. Female genitalia, rarely discussed in Japanese society, seemed to her inherently imperfect. "I did not know what a pussy should look like," she wrote on the boat's crowd-funding page.

Igarishi decided to elevate the vagina's status by honoring it with pop art pieces (and using unabashed terms like "pussy"). Size can matter, she told HuffPost, which is why her vulvic art, like the boat, is so large. "People bear the sense of reverence against a big thing."

For proof, look no further than Japan's annual penis festival. Rooted in ancient tradition, the Kanamara Matsuri, or "Festival of the Steel Phallus," sees thousands of men and women celebrating male genitalia in every way imaginable, save perhaps the most obvious: licking anatomically correct lollipops, grinning from behind penis-shaped novelty glasses, and hoisting enormous phallus sculptures into the air for all to enjoy.

Then there is Igarishi's 3D vulva. As reference, here is the article of Japanese penal code she allegedly overstepped by sharing the potential to recreate it:

A person who distributes, sells or displays in public an obscene document, drawing or other objects shall be punished by imprisonment with work for not more than 2 years, a fine of not more than 2,500,000 yen or a petty fine. The same shall apply to a person who possesses the same for the purpose of sale.


To which, we offer the following images from this spring's Kanamara Matsuri:

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2014-07-15-PENISFESTIVAL_original.jpg

International African American Museum To Be Built Where Slaves First Set Foot On U.S. Soil

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Organizers say a $75 million International African American Museum will be built beside the Charleston harbor where tens of thousands of slaves first set foot in the United States.

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley announced Tuesday that the museum will be built near where a wharf once stood in the South Carolina city where the Civil War began. During the late 1770s and early 1800s, tens of thousands of slaves crossed the wharf entering the nation. Riley says there is no better site for the museum. The location is on the waterfront, just down and across the street from the original site planned for the museum.

The project was first announced 13 years ago.

Riley says construction on the 42,000-square-foot museum could begin in early 2016 with completion in 2018.

The Bleachers Telethon 'Thank You Very Much' Is REALLY Weird And We Love It

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Bleachers' most excellent debut "Strange Desire" dropped on Tuesday, and as if that wasn't enough, Jack Antonoff and friends have supplied us with a hilarious pseudo-telethon-music-video hybrid, titled "Thank You Very Much." Without so much as a word, the half-hour show aired across 20 cable access channels in the U.S., giving viewers the impression that they had joined them in the final minutes of a 24-hour telethon.

So, what happens in the video? Well besides a few recorded performances from the band's debut, we have no idea. The video opens with some dancing mouse-man, followed by a number of other random guests -- George Wendt, Alia Shawkat, Mark Borchardt and Steve Little among those who make an appearance -- as Antonoff raises money for some reason that is never revealed. It's really weird and confusing, but they all say "thank you" a lot and that makes us smile.

TL;DR: Greatest album promotion ever.


Noel Wells, John Milhiser & Nasim Pedrad Out At 'Saturday Night Live'

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"Saturday Night Live" has shed two freshman and one veteran from its sprawling cast. Featured players Nöel Wells and John Milhiser and long-time cast member Nasim Pedrad will not return to "SNL" for the show's 40th season, this according to Deadline.com. When asked to comment on the news by HuffPost Entertainment, a representative for NBC said that the network does not discuss casting changes on the show.

Wells and Milhiser joined the "SNL" cast as featured players before the start of the 39th season in 2013; Pedrad has been with the show since 2009. Her departure is at least in part due to her co-starring role on Fox's "Mulaney," which debuts this fall.

"I haven't heard any official word so far, but I love ['Mulaney'] so much," Pedrad told BuzzFeed back in June when asked about her "Saturday Night Live" status. "I have an apartment in L.A. and, as far as I know, I'm in L.A. now."

The news of these departures comes on the heels of another rookie cast member, Brooks Whelan, being let go from the show as well. Wheelan tweeted the news on Monday, July 14.




It has long been expected that "Saturday Night Live" would make big adjustments to its cast before the start of Season 40. "We're still in the middle of rebuilding," executive producer Lorne Michaels told Deadline.com back in June. "So there will be changes this year."

For more on Milhiser, Wells and Pedrad, head to Deadline.com.

[via Deadline.com]

The 10 Best Places To Become A Landlord, According To CNN Money (PHOTOS)

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Between unexpected repairs, late rent checks and difficult tenants, being a landlord is not always an easy job. But these days, it is absolutely worth it, according to data released by CNN Money and and real estate analytics company RealtyTrac.

The findings, which looked at annual income on 3-bedroom rental properties across 370 major U.S. counties, among other factors, shows that landlords across the country stand to earn double-digit returns of sometimes 10 percent or more.

Fueled largely by millennial and baby boomer migration and settling, the landlords on the top-listed city, for example, are raking in a whopping 15.3 percent on their rental properties. Talk about return on an investment. Here are the cities that came out on top.



Source: Home prices from RealtyTrac sales deed data and local Multiple Listing Services; fair market rents from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development; unemployment data is from U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.


To discover more details of the report, head over to CNNMoney.

More from CNNMoney:

Top-Earning Towns

25 Best Places for Affordable Homes

Best Big-City Neighborhoods

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This Tiny Home Doesn't Have A Toilet, But It Might Hold The Key To Happiness (VIDEO)

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When faced with the stresses of living the typical busy life, it's nice to fantasize about getting away from it all. Perhaps an escape to the middle of nowhere, in a simple home that isn't filled with screens, distractions and clutter. Sounds nice, doesn't it? While most of us leave that fantasy right there, one New Zealand couple has decided to make that dream a reality.

Enter Wayne and Anita, who recently gave a tour of their mobile tiny home (it was once a furniture truck) to the Living Big In A Tiny House web series. The house was specifically designed for optimum space, featuring all the usual features of a microhome. There's a lofted bed, an extremely compact kitchen and a small heat source. However, we left one thing out of this list: A toilet or shower.

Wayne explains that this was a deliberate omission made while planning the home, so the couple could carve out a little more space. Instead, they use a portable outdoor toilet that has its own tent. However, this structure has blown away in the past, so they often make sure to park near appropriate facilities.

While this is a trade-off that would make even experienced campers shy away from this particular arrangement, Wayne explains that it really isn't so bad. "It's incredible, you know, how much we're conditioned to feel we need all these things," he says." But it's also incredible how quickly you can adapt."

Six months in, the couple says they haven't been happier. The main benefit seems to stem from having to accept a slower pace. "[It's] a big change, in a culture that demands us to often to be so stressed, in our relationships, in our work, everything we do has to have that degree of busyness, so we're sort of doing the opposite," Wayne says.

While the tiny house movement has attracted more attention in recent years, it's one that hasn't taken off on a wide scale just yet. In the United States, homes keep getting bigger and the use of self-storage units continues to grow. Though we can look to the extreme living situations of tiny house dwellers with awe, perhaps it's time we considered taking inspiration from the decision to live happily with less. You can start with this helpful list of the top things you can get rid of -- guilt-free -- in your home.

These 12 Singing Siblings Took The Stage At 'America's Got Talent,' And Totally Won Us Over

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Move over The Jackson 5, Jonas Brothers and Hanson, because there's a new sibling sensation on the rise -- The Willis Clan.

The 12-member band, made up entirely of siblings ages 3 to 21, recently took "America's Got Talent" by storm with their rendition of "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music."

The family performed their own unique version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune, setting the lyrics to a catchy country beat. With their string instruments and lively Southern twang, they clearly impressed the judges.

"I'm getting really excited for season 9 now. You just kicked it into high gear," judge Howard Stern said.

Watch the performance from the Nashville, Tennessee, natives above. And be sure to check out the show-stealing jig by 3-year-old Jada, at the 3:15 mark.

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ABC Heralds Diverse Lineup Of Shows At TCA

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For years, television networks have danced around the idea of diversity, but all too often their half-hearted attempts to reflect American society have amounted to having one or two non-white characters in the cast -- if that.

The stats on diversity in the entertainment industry often paint a dire portrait, but something might be shifting. The fall schedule on the broadcast networks features one of the most diverse array of actors in years, and executives are not just commissioning shows that embrace issues of race but are also acknowledging how much further the industry has to go.

This season, ABC will debut "Black-ish," a family sitcom that humorously deals with issues of class and race, as well as "Cristela," a show about a Hispanic family, and "Fresh Off the Boat," a half-hour show about an Asian clan.

ABC will also debut "How to Get Away with Murder," a one-hour drama that features a multi-ethnic cast and Viola Davis as the lead. "Murder" comes from Shonda Rhimes, whose three shows now occupy ABC's entire Thursday night lineup, and who made "Scandal," led by Kerry Washington, into the most buzzed-about show in years. (Rhimes other hit series is "Grey's Anatomy.")

"Let’s not pretend we’re there yet," when it comes to the television industry accurately reflecting the demographics of America, ABC president Paul Lee said at the Television Critics Association press tour Tuesday. "I think we’re taking a very good step along that journey. But to be able to pull this off, you need not just stars on air [...] [y]ou need the storytellers and you need the executives. I’m very proud of the fact that if you look at the executives who do development and do programming and marketing, across ABC, it’s a very diverse group of people.

"If you look at shows now that seem to lack diversity, they actually feel dated, because America doesn’t look like that anymore," Lee said.

Davis talked about what it was like to be the acknowledged star of a project, not a supporting player.

"I will be bold enough to say, I have gotten so many wonderful film roles, but I've gotten even more film roles where I haven't been the show," Davis said. "It's like I've been invited to a really fabulous party, only to hold up the wall. I wanted to be the show. I wanted to have a character that kind of took me out of my comfort zone, and that character happened to be in a Shonda Rhimes show. So I did the only smart thing any sensible actress would do -- I took it."

Davis also rejected the idea that taking on a television show was a step down in the entertainment-industry pecking order.

"The day of TV somehow diminishing your career as an actor or actress has changed," Davis said. "I think people migrate toward material, especially after they reach a certain age, a certain hue, a certain sex."

Rhimes was asked if it would be meaningful for there to be two programs on network TV with black women as leads, but the prolific writer/producer wasn't inclined to speculate about that.

"We'll see, don't you think?" Rhimes said. "That remains to be seen. It hasn't happened yet."

The ABC show that takes on race most directly is the promising comedy "Black-ish," which stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross as suburban professionals with four children -- one of whom would like to have a bar mitzvah, like the other kids at his prosperous private school. It's based on an experience Anderson had with his own son (who did, in fact, have a "hip-hop bro-mitzvah," a term that Anderson trademarked).

Executive producer Larry Wilmore of "The Daily Show" and Kenya Barris, the show's creator, said "Black-ish" would be as much about class, upward mobility and culture clashes as it is about race.

Would it feature instances of characters experiencing overt racism? "God, I hope not!," said Laurence Fishburne, who is an executive producer and who plays a grandfather on the show.

"It's so passe these days," he added with a laugh.

"We'll save that for behind the scenes," Anderson joked.

Speaking more seriously, Barris and Wilmore said "Black-ish" will often dwell on issues of assimilation, and what a person or family may lose when they ascend the ladder of success. Some of those issues will touch on race, but much of the show will revolve around a dad from a working-class background raising much more well-to-do kids.

"We're not running away from the title," Barris said of "Black-ish," but he added that class is often "more divisive than race or culture."

As Barris observed, "we are living in a post-Obama society, where race and culture are talked about less than ever before. My kids are living in such a homogenized world."

"Even with the Obama thing, he's called the first black president," Wilmore said. "But he's mixed. He's really the first black-ish president."

Ron Howard Is Making An Authorized Beatles Documentary

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The long and winding road of Ron Howard's illustrious career has taken him to The Beatles. The Oscar winner will direct an authorized documentary about the Fab Four, with participation expected from Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison. (Ono Lennon and Harrison will represent their respective late husbands, John Lennon and George Harrison.) The untitled film will focus on The Beatles' touring years, which ended in 1966. Apple Corps Ltd., White Horse Pictures and Imagine Entertainment will produce the movie.

"I am excited and honored to be working with Apple and the White Horse team on this astounding story of these four young men who stormed the world in 1964," Howard said in a press release announcing the documentary. "Their impact on popular culture and the human experience cannot be exaggerated."

As noted by the press release, the project was first brought to Apple Corps by One Voice One World, and the company "has conducted extensive research around the globe, including inviting Beatles fans to send in clips of home movies and photos that they acquired during this extraordinary period." In keeping with those requests, the film's website includes a section that offers Beatles aficionados the opportunity to participate in the production process.

If you or someone you know has visual or audio materials that document the Beatles' live tours, we want to hear from you! We are looking for rare or unusual footage, photographs, and audio recordings, particularly those that highlight the fan experience -– what it was like to be a part of the frenzy.

If you have materials you believe belong in this film, please contact us using the form below.


This Beatles film is Howard's second documentary as a director. His first focused on Jay Z's Made In America festival.

For more on the film, head to beatlesliveproject.com. No release date has been set just yet.

How One Artist Got To Know New York City, With Colored Pencils And Paper

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It's hard to remember how you first experienced the world. Back before you'd mapped out your surroundings, when every new turn, every unexplored face, every fresh interaction exploded with possibility and loomed over you with haunting importance.

There are a few ways to re-ignite this particular way of seeing, where everything is raw and big and a giant question mark. One way is to move to a new city. Another is to see through the eyes of an artist who's experiencing the world as such. Today we're obsessing over the meticulous pencil drawings of Sophia Martineck, a Berlin-based artist whose renderings of New York perfectly capture that overwhelmed posture of a little kid in a big city. Her colorful drawings of urban life's ups and downs are making us relive our first New York days in the best possible way.

new york


Martineck entered the art world through photography before becoming interested in illustration. "I was 21, in art school and totally lost," she explained in an email to The Huffington Post. "A friend of mine took me to an illustration course.
There I found out I was a better at making pictures rather than taking them, so I abandoned photography." She had dabbled in photography as a child, describing the hobby as "more the bad weather option." Now the art form takes up a much bigger chunk of Martinek's life; her work has appeared in publications from The New Yorker to The Financial Times to Le Monde.

It was drawing that brought Martineck to New York, where she was slapped in the face with the rush of newness. "I studied fine arts for one term in New York in 2005. First, it was very scary (flat hunting with rubbish English skills). New York gave me the what-it's-like-to-be-a-newborn feeling. Everything was strange and new and for the very first time. I loved it to have it all to myself."

martineck


It's this "what-it's-like-to-be-a-newborn feeling" that makes Martineck's drawings so irresistible. Her colorful, flattened images juxtapose everyday happenings like typing on the computer or polishing silver with far more surreal occurrences, such as collecting frogs into a bucket or watching your neighborhood flood. Through Martineck's eyes, it's all a level playing field, every occurrence carries in it something magical.

With a knack for turning what some might think of as banal into a site of bizarre wonder, it's no wonder Martineck works with colored pencils. "Pencil works perfectly for me. It's pure." The humble medium captures that childhood innocence that runs throughout Martineck's images. "Plus, my work fits in my handbag."

Step inside Martineck's pencil-colored universe and experience the immediate emotions that permeate her illustrations. For more things Martineck, check out her reimagined illustrations of classic Sherlock Holmes stories.


Disturbing Photos Reveal Just How Much Trash Americans Consume In One Week

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It's easy to forget how much trash we produce each week: a wrapper here, a bottle there, a half-eaten carton of bad strawberries. But all those trips to the garbage bin add up.

To demonstrate people's waste footprint, photographer Gregg Segal snapped images of a handful of volunteers and paid participants surrounded by a week's worth of their refuse. Shot in Segal's yard in California, the images include people of all ages, from an array of socioeconomic backgrounds, lying in grass, sand or water, surrounded by piles of their own garbage. In one photo, a family of four rolls atop white sand littered with watermelon rinds, empty frozen food boxes and ramen wrappers. In another, three young women float in a pool of orange peels, old french fries and crushed snack boxes.

seven days of garbage

Dana, by Gregg Segal


In an interview with Slate, Segal said some of the participants "edited" their trash piles, likely due to embarrassment over the "really foul stuff." "They thought it was kind of gross. I think there’s something mildly humiliating about it, but in a constructive way,” he added. “It’s kind of a once in a lifetime experience for people to be photographed with all their stuff. I think it’s seen as a kind of novelty for some people and the question of grossness was mitigated by the novelty factor."

The ongoing series, which Segal calls "7 Days of Garbage," is a natural extension of his earliest forays into photography. "My mother tells me she knew I'd become a photographer when after she got me a camera for my eleventh birthday, I photographed our neighbor's garbage," Segal writes on his website. "I'm lucky I had the sort of mother who saw photographs of garbage as art -- or at least as material worthy of documentation."

Check out more of his photos from the series, below:





"7 Days of Garbage" is on display until October at Brooklyn Bridge Park's "The Fence" exhibit in New York.

With The Ambitious 'Boyhood,' Patricia Arquette Snags Her Strongest Role In Years

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Patricia Arquette stars in "Boyhood," one of the most ambitious projects to hit the big screen in years, and 2014's only film to date that's garnered a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's a hit, too: Opening in just five theaters last weekend, "Boyhood" had the second biggest per-screen average of 2014, behind only Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel."

Celebrated writer-director Richard Linklater ("Dazed and Confused," "Before Sunrise," "School of Rock") filmed the movie in three- and four-day intervals over the course of 12 years, documenting the fictional coming-of-age story of a young boy, Mason (Ellar Coltrane), and his family. Arquette portrays Mason's mother, Olivia, while frequent Linklater collaborator Ethan Hawke is on hand as his distant father. (Linklater's daughter Lorelei plays Mason's sister.) Coltrane is the movie's center, but "Boyhood" is as much a depiction of Mason's parents' evolutions as well. That narrative structure allows Arquette, who won an Emmy for "Medium" in 2005, to walk away with her strongest role in years.

HuffPost Entertainment sat down with Arquette at the New York press day for "Boyhood" to discuss what it was like to make such a sprawling film.

Was it hard to make a 12-year commitment to a movie?
No. I think if I was more of a cerebral person, if I didn’t trust my instincts so much, maybe it would have been. But my instincts were immediately like: This is going to be amazing. I’m so excited to be a part of this. As soon as Rick [Linklater] called me and said he was thinking of doing this movie for 12 years, I was like, "Oh my god, that’s amazing, are you thinking about me?" And then I said I should probably read a script, and he said, "I don't really have one." He told me my main character’s beats during the first conversation we had, but he also left a lot of openness because we didn't know what the world was going to be. Kids could be getting drafted at 18. All of his friends could be going to war. People could be dying. He could be a football player -- that would be a whole other thing. Rick always had the perfect balance of structure and openness.

What was your first meeting with the two kids like?
It was so beautiful because obviously it means they had a lot of faith in me. But they introduced me like, "Okay, this lady is going to play your mom." And then I had them for the whole weekend, so I cooked for them, we did arts-and-crafts projects, we played dinosaurs in the backyard.

Down in Texas, where the movie was filmed?
Yeah. And kids are so pure and honest, so we'd be shooting a scene but they'd be like, "I have to pee," "I need a peanut butter and jelly sandwich," "I'm hungry." And I'd say, "Okay, wait, I gotta make them a sandwich."

patricia arquette

Were you guys ever nervous the two kids would back out?
Well, Lorelei wanted to be in the movie originally, but at one point she did ask to die. Not be killed, not some grisly murder. Just somehow lay down and die.

Because she wanted to be done?
Yeah, at that moment. But now she wants to act again, so it was a transition. I don't remember exactly what year, but Rick had also talked to her all the way along the line, asking whether she was sure she wanted to do this. You have to really commit to this role. I think the kids got a great part of the experience of the gypsy community of making a movie without the weird stuff of it coming out and your friends thinking you’ve changed or you didn’t. This is the weird part now, it's coming out. We had a history of making a movie for so many years. This is the first time we actually put out a movie together, so this is the strange new thing.

What were the homes you shot it? Surely the $2.4 million production budget wasn't large enough to construct sets every year.
We had a great art department, and we had a lot of our key grips who stayed 10 years or more, and some stayed the whole time. So they would pack up props and store them through the years -- family pictures and different things. We would make relationships with certain people, like the location manager, who owned a house. We shot in his house for two years. We did lose an apartment one year, so Rick said, "Okay, you guys are moving now." They had a two-year deal with an apartment, and the apartment kicked them out, sort of the way the family would get kicked out.

Did the people who were actually living in said apartment vacate for you guys?
Yes.

Did you keep in touch with Ellar and Lorelei between shoots?
Not that much. Sometimes we would occasionally. I love those kids. I feel really bonded to them. Lorelei’s a great painter. Ellar’s a painter and a photographer. They’re just really cool people in their own right. Even at the beginning, Rick really had them contribute. Even when they were babies, they’d be in the backseat and he’d say, “Okay, guys, you’re fighting. What do you think you’d be fighting about? Well, let’s practice a few different things.” But then as they got older they really started contributing a lot.

Was it difficult to shoot certain scenes with them when they were younger?
They really got along great, so no fighting was ever natural for them. It was always acting. The year before Ellar got the haircut that his stepfather takes him to get, Rick told Ellar, “Okay, you’re going to have this big haircut this year. You gotta grow your hair out. Can’t cut your hair this year.” And Ellar was on board. Then Ellar was dying to cut his hair, so that’s a testament. He was so little and he looks so bummed, but he was actually inside really happy. He’s actually thrilled to cut his hair.

So you basically got one take to make that happen. That's terrifying.
It is the test of: Are we going to pull it off, or will we see how happy he really is? But he does a great job. I mean, the kids were different than who they were on screen. Ellar’s parents were artists, and sometimes he’d have saggy pants and be listening to Nine Inch Nails and have a wallet chain, and Rick would be like, “Okay, your character can’t dress as cool as you are.” We’d all go to the Salvation Army to get our clothes, or we’d wear our own clothes. We’d find things and blend them together. Sometimes they’d just hate their clothes.

What sort of parallels did the movie have to your own life?
It’s a really weird amalgamation because there were definitely correlations to things. I had been a mom at 20. I really did feel like I went from someone’s daughter to someone’s mother, and that’s something I said. I remember when my son was really little, only having enough to buy diapers or food. But I was nursing, so I was like, "But if I don’t eat something, how am I going to make milk? But I also need diapers. How am I going to do this?" And I remember getting an acting job and working all night, letting the babysitter go at dawn when I got home, but then having to get up in two hours with the baby. So I knew that and I’d had the example of my mom.

During the course of the movie, my son went off to college. But my experience of sending him off to college was so different than my character’s. Ethan’s mom had said some of the things in that scene, and the producer had said some of those things in that scene to her daughter when she went off to school. So it wasn’t always my personal life. Usually it wasn’t. I would behave totally differently from my character in a domestic-violence situation. So there was a lot of difference, but there were also other people’s experiences that were more similar to my character’s.

Your character has a big moment where she breaks down before sending Mason off to college. Having watched Ellar grow up off-camera, was that a cathartic scene to shoot?
The good news is, for me, I got to shoot my last scene as my last scene. I am never sad when a project’s over. I love endings and I love not knowing what the future is. I love not knowing what the next adventure is. This movie, I was really sad it was ending. Him going to college was sort of the same as us ending the project: I don’t know where this is going and I don’t know when I’m going to see you again. Is this going to be the end of this thing? I don’t know what comes after, so there was some human chords of similar-ish feelings. Also, as a mom, I know in the moment where your kid goes away, subconsciously it feels like a death. But then the next day they call you and they forgot to pack their socks or they need another hundred bucks, and it’s all fine again. But in that moment, and there are little deaths in life: The moment you give birth is like a little bit of a death, and there are these different transitions that are difficult transitions. But you move through them.

Do you recognize the movie as a sort of record of pop culture and current events? There are so many timely songs and political references.
There were a few things Rick said that he knew. Like, "Okay, this computer is going to look old pretty soon." If you’re going to make a movie about Americans growing up in America, it’s unavoidable. Whatever technology, music -- whatever the culture is at the moment -- if you removed all of that, it would feel weird, because the truth is that it is such a part of our lives. Rick would write down some of the songs that were happening in that year. He would ask younger interns what they were listening to when they were 12. But he was also choosing music according to which character was listening to it. Olivia in her car would be listening to Sheryl Crow; she’s not going to be listening to Lady Gaga. The kids will be listening to Lady Gaga at a certain age. And then there were things that we didn’t know what we’d get clearance for. Like, I’m reading the kids the "Harry Potter" books because that was such a phenomenon, but I also read them another series of books. Lorelei sings a Britney Spears song, but she also sings this other song in case we couldn’t get clearance.

What was the other book series?
"Lemony Snicket." And then Lorelei sang “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” I think, and “Oops! I Did It Again.”

What was the most surprising thing about seeing yourself age both physically and emotionally, as an actress and as a character onscreen?
That was part of what I was really excited about. Having said that, it is a weird thing to see yourself so rapidly aging, and it sort of is that culmination at the end where she’s saying, "It just goes so fast, I thought there was going to be more." There’s not enough time in this life to cram in all the lessons and all the experiences you’d like to have through it all, so it is intense to see it rapidly. We all had conversations about not wanting to Hollywood it up. And you can do a lot to not age, but I didn’t want that. We’re organic species, and I really wanted to see this organic material go through its life cycle. But everything in Hollywood will tell you, especially as an actress, that you’re not supposed to do any of that. But I’m a little bit of an anti-authoritarian, punk-rock problem child anyway, so I liked taking that on.

You mentioned domestic violence. What did you agree or disagree with in terms of the way Olivia handled the various stages of those troubling relationships?
I myself personally –- I don’t know if this would be better for kids to observe, but I would have climbed across the table and poked him with a knife. I had a whole conversation with Rick about this one moment where the second stepdad makes a comment about Mason’s nail polish. And we kind of came to agree on her saying, “Why don’t you get your sister some water?” Let’s just avoid a war. I was at first like, "Why wouldn’t I say to him, 'Don’t worry about his nails -- you have your own nails'? Why aren’t I standing up for him, having been through everything I’ve been through?” We had a lot of conversations about that.

As actors, we aren’t necessarily trying to portray our ideal person or how perfect people respond all the time. I think she didn’t have that warrior part of her that I have. I think she felt terribly guilty putting her kids in this situation because it was her second failed marriage now. And how do you extract them? And they love these other kids. Do you try to go to therapy and try to work this out with him and try to get him to calm down and stop drinking and get him to go to AA? All of these mechanisms she was going to try to do before she broke up another family and moved away from it. It’s a complicated situation, but I think it s a true, common thing that people deal with a lot.

I was bummed that we never got to see what happened to the first stepdad's two kids.
It’s funny because I said to Rick, “Can we invite them to Mason’s graduation?” And he was like, “Yeah, that’s a cool idea.” But we couldn’t find them. That’s kind of the way life is. You kind of do lose track of people. I mean, that’s the painful thing. As a kid, you’re powerless.

That's the one question the movie left me with. I know you couldn't take them in, but they were left in a violent situation as well.
I know. Well, that’s why I said, "Rick, okay, I can see why she’s leaving, not them, but the dad. But I do think we have to address everything she did: called Social Services, called the mom." Legally, things aren’t always set up to protect kids. You’re fucked. You can’t kidnap someone else’s kids. It was important to me to walk through that.

Head over to the Tumblr page for "Boyhood" to find out when it will open in your city. And read our interview with Ellar Coltrane.

'Dear White People' Cast Returns With Latest PSA About Whether Black Men Really Are Bigger

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We've all heard the stereotype that black men are, uh, well-endowed in the nether region.

However, this playful PSA from our favorite folks from the Dear White People film hitting theaters this fall debunks this myth. There is no -- we repeat, no -- correlation between race and penis size.

The video's page says it best: "Black men have small penises. Black men have big penises. Black men have penises of all sizes. Because they're people."

What a concept, right?!


'Big Hero 6' Features A Hidden 'Frozen' Cameo

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Disney placed a sneaky reference to "Frozen" in the trailer for new film "Big Hero 6." Released Tuesday, the trailer previews Disney Animation's first adaptation of a Marvel comic and is the studio's first post-"Frozen" feature.

"Big Hero 6" follows Hiro, a young boy, and his robot as they attempt to overcome evil in San Fransokyo. A closer look at the clips reveals at least one nod to Disney's blockbuster smash, "Frozen." Perez Hilton noticed a wanted poster taped to the police officer's cork board, with a face belonging to Hans from "Frozen." (He's featured above the officer's head, to the right, in the screenshot below.)

big hero 6 frozen

For those who believe all Disney movies exist in the same universe, this Easter egg provides yet another piece of evidence substantiating the theory. "Frozen" fans will remember seeing "Tangled" characters Rapunzel and Flynn at Elsa's coronation, and don't get us started on the whole Andy's-mom -in-"Toy Story" theory. (For more on that, lose yourself in JonNegroni.com.)

Watch the trailer for "Big Hero 6":



[h/t Perez Hilton]

In Case You Ever Wanted To See A Giant Wooden Yo-Yo In Action...

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There are yo-yo tricks, and then there's this.

In the stunning video above, a giant 72-inch wide, 370-plus pound yo-yo is brought into a California desert, hoisted 100 feet into the air by a 4-ton crane and then let go.

In a phrase: It's totally gnarly.

The video was created by paint company Benjamin Moore to illustrate the efficacy of a new line of wood stain. The company collaborated with a yo-yo expert and a team of craftsmen and engineers to create the massive yo-yo, which was made out of reclaimed Douglas fir wood.

Though described as the "world's largest wooden yo-yo" by Benjamin Moore, the Guinness Book of World Records listed an 11-foot, 9-inch yo-yo as the world's largest last year. That giant yo-yo, dubbed the "Whoa-Yo" by its creator Beth Johnson, was also made of wood.

The Huffington Post has reached out to Benjamin Moore for clarification but has yet to hear back.

Regardless of whether the larger-than-life Douglas fir yo-yo is a record-holder, the gargantuan toy is a real sight to behold, and its drop from the skies is spectacular. Now, all we need is a giant robot to grab that yo-yo and do some rad tricks. Around the World or Walk the Dog, anyone?
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