Magical Fairy Sculptures Will Take You To Another World Where The Fay Folk Rule (PHOTOS)

July 19, 2014, 5:04 am

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When U.K.-based artist Robin Wight captured a photo of light streaming into a clearing in the woods, the resulting picture had something unusual about it. In the top left corner the light had gathered in such a way as to create the illusion (or was it?) of a small fairy gracing the photograph. Illusion or not, the fairy captured Wight's imagination and he ran with it.


The photo Wight took -- note the blurry patch in the top left.

Wight took the inspiration and began creating wire sculptures of fairies which he wove throughout his forested property. "I put one up in the trees along my drive," Wight told HuffPost, "and the people in the local village spotted it and it became a local landmark."

Fairy folklore may derive from ancient Greek and Arabic mythology, though the term "fairy" is traced to the Middle Ages in Europe. Legends often depict fairies, also sometimes referred to as the fay folk, as mischievous winged creatures with supernatural powers.

Wight's sculptures, now on display at English landscape park Trentham Gardens, capture the whimsical mystery of these mythical creatures. Many are paired with intricate dandelion sculptures which nods to local folklore, Wight told HuffPost, in which dandelion seeds are referred to as "fairy wishes."

Whether you believe in fairies or not, these magical sculptures might just sway even the most cynical heart. And they are certainly a site to behold:

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In ‘The Devilers' Comic Book, Exorcists Converge To Stop Hell From Breaking Loose

July 19, 2014, 6:32 pm

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(RNS) There’s never a better time for a bunch of holy avengers than when all hell actually breaks loose.

The Dynamite Entertainment series The Devilers debuts Wednesday (July 16) as an action-packed supernatural comic book full of demonic beasties, big-picture philosophies and heroes that have to put religious differences aside in order to save Vatican City – and the world – from being turned into brimstone.

“When suddenly it’s ‘Oh that is a giant hellmouth that opened up in front of me,’ that changes your beliefs,” said series writer Joshua Hale Fialkov (The Bunker, The Life After), who’s doing the The Devilers alongside artist Matt Triano.

The main conceit behind The Devilers is the Catholic Church, which has had an armistice with Satan’s forces for hundreds of years to keep the demonic element downstairs, but not surprisingly the deal doesn’t hold. Horrific creatures arise when they stop caring about what mankind and the heavenly host can do to them, thereby beginning a new war on Earth.

Father Malcolm O’Rourke, whose faith has waned since having an otherworldly encounter as a child, is called into action by the church’s head exorcist, Cardinal Michael David Reed, as well as other potential saviors from all over the world.

Every issue of Devilers focuses on a different character in the group, which includes Mossad agent and rabbi Brenda Davide, a pro at revealing true evil; the tricky and persuasive Samir Patel; Raab Al-Fayed, a noted demonologist who controls a powerful entity; Chun-Bai, a woman able to bend nature to her will; and the teleporting man-bear demon Rex.

“As we’re discovering the world, each of them is discovering the world, too, and you get a sense of who they are that way,” said Fialkov, adding that the team readers meet in the first issue may not be there going forward.

The cardinal is a pretty hardcore sort but he in a sense reflects the stakes involved with the hellish situation.

“You can have dogma as much as you like, but when the rubber hits the road, you have to be practical,” Fialkov said.

Even though he had a childhood experience that for most people would be proof positive that there are higher powers at work, Malcolm, the priest and exorcist, is still more practical than spiritual.

“He’s had time soften the one thing that really gave him faith, but now suddenly it’s jammed in front of his face,” Fialkov said. “There’s no arguing with the things he sees.”

While the Devilers has a philosophical side, it’s still as big and crazy as a 1970s X-Men comic, according to Fialkov.

Fialkov’s I, Vampire series for DC Comics merged vampires and a monster world into a landscape of superheroes, and he’s trying to do something similar with The Devilers, an inherently dark book that’s more funny than bleak.

Triano illustrates a frog flipping off the cardinal in the first issue, and the holy man tells an atheist who gets a little too close to Rex, “Don’t kick the demon, son.” “That’s just me being me,” Fialkov said. “Anytime anything feels pretentious, I have to take the wind out of the sails.”

The next couple of issues feature the protagonists journeying through hell, “literally heading toward Satan’s throne room,” Fialkov said. “But the question is, who’s actually sitting on that throne? It might be a surprise.”

Beyoncé Released A Teaser For The '50 Shades Of Grey' Trailer

July 19, 2014, 8:23 pm

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Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, oh, no, no: Beyoncé used Saturday night to tease "Fifty Shades of Grey." The singer posted a teaser to the forthcoming film's trailer on her Instagram account, whetting appetites for the S&M drama that's due out in theaters on Feb. 13, 2015. Things to note: Christian Grey's hand, Anastasia Steele's thighs and a new version of "Crazy in Love," one with more breathiness than ever before. According to the clip, the first "Fifty Shades of Grey" trailer will arrive on Thursday, July 24. Let's assume Beyoncé has some involvement with the soundtrack? Or maybe she's just a big fan:

'Spite Homes' Are The Delightfully Genteel Way To Irritate Your Neighbors (PHOTOS)

July 20, 2014, 5:00 am

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File this under "Revenge Tactics Of The Genteel And Moneyed." Spite houses are exactly as they sound -- homes built expressly to upset a neighbor. Some are built to block views, while others are designed in protest of land zoning. We'd like to tell you the story of a particular spite house, a sprawling mansion that was the outcome of a rather messy inter-familial argument.


A view of the home in 1960.

Originally located in Phippsburg, Maine, the home was built by Thomas McCobb in 1806. He was the heir to his father's land and shipbuilding business, which had presumably included the family's crown jewel of a property, dubbed the "Mansion In The Wilderness." Though it sounds like a twee wedding venue, the house was considered one of the finest in the region. However, McCobb had the unfortunate experience of returning home to find the mansion occupied by his stepbrother.

McCobb, however, moved on...to a plot of land right across the street from his stepbrother. He then began the process of building an mansion even more luxurious than the old family home. The resulting structure was an elegant Federal-style home topped with an octagonal cupola.


Another view of the "Spite House," including a peek at the addition.

Life proceeded, presumably under frigid social relations and awkward family gatherings, until the McCobbs vacated the home. Years later, the property was purchased by a wealthy businessman, who moved the house to a new location in Rockport, Maine, and added on two wings. Though the house still stands today, according to the blog Down East Dilettante, the wings are long gone.

Today, spite houses are much harder to build. It seems the "golden age" of spite-building was the early 19th-century through the early 20th-century, when creating a new home wasn't as tied up in red tape as it is now.

From battles between brothers to disagreements over city plans, here's a brief history of homes built to make someone mad.

'We Are The Youth' Chronicles The Diversity Of Queer Youth In America (PHOTOS)

July 20, 2014, 5:20 am

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An incredible new photographic journalism project is documenting the lives and stories of a handful of queer kids across America through a project titled "We Are The Youth."

What began as a web-based initiative four years ago has developed into a compelling photo book through the efforts of award-winning journalist Diana Scholl and photographer Laurel Golio. The book contains photos of over 80 queer youth from all walks of life, as well as interviews with each featured individual. As a whole, "We Are The Youth" shows the beauty and diversity of queer youth throughout the nation and serves as a documentation of the vast spectrum of queer identity.

In order to better understand "We Are The Youth," The Huffington Post chatted with Scholl this week about her efforts to document these lives and experiences over the past four years, as well as what she and Golio are attempting to accomplish through this book as a whole.



The Huffington Post: Why did you and Laurel Golio decide to embark on this project? Why is it important?
Diana Scholl: Laurel and I decided to start this project four years ago because we felt that there were lots of stories to be shared about LGBTQ youth that we didn’t see represented. It was important for us that people from all walks of life could read the individual stories of others, and know they were not alone. We also realized when we started the project that we were -- and still are -- at a pivotal point for LGBTQ rights in the United States both politically and culturally, and we wanted to document this time through the eyes of today’s youth.



Why did you decide to turn this from a web-based project into a book?
The Internet has been an incredible outlet for our work, and the project would not exist without it. But because part of what we have aimed to do is create an archive of how LGBTQ youth live, a book is still a more permanent form then a website, which can constantly be changed. That’s why we were thrilled when independent publisher Space-Made approached us and asked if we wanted a book. We hope the book can be something of an artifact in the future.



Who are some of the individuals featured in We Are The Youth?
The book shares the stories of 40 youth who we have profiled since 2010. These include Noah, who was kicked out of his private high school in Georgia for being gay and who went on to become president of his college’s Gay-Straight Alliance; Kaden, who raised money for top-surgery by being a street performer; Izabela, a young woman in Nebraska who idolized Marilyn Monroe.

I have to say, it feels weird for me to soundbite these youth even though their 400- 600-or-so-word interviews essentially are a soundbite into who these youth are. In the interviews, I aim to give a snapshot into each of the youth, though know that it’s impossible to convey the whole of a person in one profile.



What do you hope readers take away from this project?
We hope readers will be able to see the diversity of LGBTQ youth, and the individual humanity in all of these stories. We hope they will relate to some of the stories, think about the world in a different way, and come away from the book with a more complete view of a community on the brink of change.



When will this book be available? Where is it available for purchase?
It was released on July 15 and can be ordered now here along with Space-Made’s LGBT*Love issue ,which also shares incredible stories about the LGBT community.

"We Are The Youth" is now available in print through Space-Made, an alternative media company, in conjunction with Interrupt Magazine.

After Dark: Meet William Noguchi, Artist And Nightlife Personality

July 20, 2014, 5:36 am

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This is the tenth installment in HuffPost Gay Voices Associate Editor James Nichols' ongoing series "After Dark: NYC Nightlife Today And Days Past" that examines the state of New York nightlife in the modern day, as well as the development and production of nightlife over the past several decades. Each featured individual in this series currently serves as a prominent person in the New York nightlife community or has made important contributions in the past that have sustained long-lasting impacts.

HuffPost Gay Voices believes that it is important and valuable to elevate the work, both today and in the past, of those engaged in the New York nightlife community, especially in an age where queer history seems to be increasingly forgotten. Nightlife not only creates spaces for queers and other marginalized groups to be artistically and authentically celebrated, but the work of those involved in nightlife creates and shapes the future of our culture as a whole. Visit Gay Voices regularly to learn not only about individuals currently making an impact in nightlife, but those whose legacy has previously contributed to the ways we understand queerness, art, identity and human experience today.

The Huffington Post: What did your journey to becoming a fixture in the New York nightlife scene entail?
William Noguchi: To start off, I lived in New York City for about three years before I experienced real NYC nightlife. I moved to the city for school to study theatre and was too busy with studio work to really go out. At that point, going out for me consisted of v-necks and skinny jeans.

Through school, I was exposed to artists like Lypsinka, Leigh Bowery and Nelson Sullivan. I became fascinated with old New York nightlife culture. I obsessed over any visual archive I could find that documented the beautiful people who have passed through nightlife. I realized that nightlife was a much more suiting arena for me to express myself and create my form of theatre.

My first night out I went to Vandam at Greenhouse, wearing all black with an aurora borealis rhinestone necklace and a simple pair of lashes. Somehow, throughout the course of the night, I managed to get into the VIP section and found myself sitting next to Amanda Lepore and Kenny Kenny. From that moment on I was hooked. There was an excitement being in the middle of all these fabulous people that I had never experienced before. Studying theatre I was always watching the stage; here I was able to be part of the entertainment and be exactly who I wanted to be -- whatever that looked like that night.

How does your work as Visual Manager at Patricia Field intersect with your identity as a nightlife personality?
Working as Visual Manager, and at Pat’s in general, was one of the most amazing and eye-opening experiences I’ve had. I really feel like I discovered who I was while working at the store. I finally found a store I wanted to shop at and really got invested with styling. That self-understanding helped me be successful both at Pat’s and in nightlife.

In terms of how the two jobs intersect -- I would say from nightlife to being visual manager, all of the tips and tricks I learned from one allowed me to push forward with the other. As I learned more from styling my own personal looks I was also learning to work with garments at the store that I had never encountered before. I was able to create more interesting looks for mannequins based off the tricks I had learned from going out the night before. I was constantly studying queens' looks and trying to figure out what their look was actually made of. Seeing how creative people got allowed me to break the boundaries I had about style.

Nightlife taught me that whoever you are is a beautiful thing and you should let that shine. If that means wearing twenty-five straw hats stapled together as a dress then so be it -- whatever makes you feel good is what you should wear.



Why do you think so many prominent people in nightlife either are or have been involved with Patricia Field?
To put it in so many words Pat, and the House of Field, have a reputation for being a safe house for young creative people. Pat is always searching for new talented and passionate people to turn a look at her store. I think she really loves seeing how the younger kids bring new energy to New York and shake things up a bit.

Creative minds are drawn to the store and when they take a bite from the forbidden fruit they feel the House of Field fantasy. That’s why so many people get their start at Pat’s. It is a place where you can dress how you want and sell what you wear. What more can a creative style junkie ask for? So when you think about the fact that she has be cultivating creativity for over fifty years there is no doubt so many people have been involved with her.

How do you conceptualize your ideas and aesthetics for both your looks and window displays? Do you ever feel like you're wearing your windows?
My windows and looks both start from some single point of inspiration. It might be a necklace, a designer, a painting, an editorial or whatever I'm interested in that week. There is always something visual in my life that inspires me to replicate it somehow into a look. Often that one dot of inspiration connects to another dot of inspiration from last week and so on and so on until all I have to do is connect the dots and my outfit is a complete cross-referenced dream!

For my personal looks I tend to base my outfits off an accessory. I might be walking through Chinatown, see a boat that really grabs my attention, glue it to a headband and I've got a headpiece. From there I find an outfit that compliments the headpiece and tells a story.



The same idea is how I style a window but on a much grander level. In a window everything needs to have ten times more impact than a typical look so that it will catch a person's eye on the street and draw them into the store. I take a great amount of inspiration from the windows at Bergdorf Goodman. I love how they create a shadow box filled to the brim with utter fantasy. I like to think that I am able to achieve that same thing on a smaller scale at the store.

I've never put a full look I've worn in a window or on a mannequin, however I do test things out to see how people react to a new styling of something. In that sense I don’t wear my windows, but I do wish that I could be in them -- killing it with a perfectly styled look 24/7! That’s the turn up, as they say [laughs]. For now I'll just leave it to my mannequin girls to carry out my fantasy.

How do you see what is happening now in New York nightlife today as building on a historical legacy of artists, performers, musicians and personalities over the past decades?
I have a theory that there are always certain types of people in nightlife. If you look at nightlife now, nightlife ten years ago and nightlife twenty years ago you always see these categories of people. For example, butch queen, camp queen, fem queen, glam queen, andro queen, body queens etc.

I like to think that whomever had the first party in New York invited all the people that were the pure raw forms of these different styles of people and everyone has been trying to recreate that fabulous party since then.

Because of this set up there is somewhat of an apprenticeship in nightlife. As new people come into nightlife they learn from the old, and as the older ones start to go out less the new kids fill that place. The beauty is looking at how the “glam queen” was glam in the '80s and what it means to be a glam queen now.

The various genres of queens all find a way to relate to the current culture they live in and respond to that in some way.



Leo GuGu talked in his feature about nightlife spaces as art galleries/community centers/wreck rooms. How have you seen this play out in your own nightlife experiences? Why are these kinds of spaces important?
I totally agree with GuGu. Nightlife is just the P.M. version of all those places bundled together. One of the coolest things about nightlife is, depending on who comes to the party, the venue can change from being an art gallery to a community center to a wreck room -- or all three at once. For example, there are people like Muffinhead who give you living art realness with their looks and make the club their gallery. I love that about nightlife.

Do you consider yourself to be a creative team with Danielle Mahoney in any capacity? How do your looks and work inform one another?
Oh totally, we are sort of like Sunny and Cher mixed with Ken and Barbie mixed with Thelma and Louise. Danielle was the first person I really became friends with after I moved to New York and we have basically been inseparable ever since. We have seen it all together. Because of this we sort of have a third sense about each other. Even if were getting ready to go out in separate rooms, we always seem to go together.

There have definitely been nights when we coordinated looks and shopped in the wholesale district together though. Lord knows we like to plan a look [laughs].

Usually we end up looking like sisters or mother and daughter. Who plays who always changes from night to night, but one way or another we always seem to match. I think it's because so many of our inspirations come from fabulous women. Often both of us might have the same inspiration but just might go different directions with it. Like I might go for a Oscars Cher moment and Danielle might go for "Half Breed" Cher.



What do you want your legacy within the consciousness of New York nightlife to be?
I think I would love to leave behind the idea of glamour at the club. That might sound stupid but I feel like the art of glamour is slowly drowning in a cyber wave. I have nothing against that look at all, I'm just more drawn to glamor.

I'd like to think that my small contribution to nightlife has been the rebirth of the rhinestone. I'm not trying to say I started wearing rhinestones out, but my girls and I definitely brought them back. When I first started going out the most rhinestones people would wear were just a necklace -- maybe the full set if you were a drag queen.

We would wear rhinestone harnesses, multiple tiaras and a small village of necklaces in one look just to give you that added sparkle. Afterwards people started picking up on this and the rhinestone hit the scene again! I love it. I want everyone to have some rhinestones [laughs].

What do you see as the future of nightlife in New York City?
I think there is a cycle New Yorkers go through where they make nightlife all-inclusive and then shift to more sectioned off and back and forth. After nightlife died down in New York for a second I feel like people stayed in their own corners and didn’t mix. Now people are tired of the same old bitches turning the same looks every week.

As more and more promoters host parties together, the crowds change and the parties become more interesting. People are always looking for something new and mixing crowds is always going to give you something new.

With more and more performance art-based nightlife people, nightlife will become, I think, more of an all-inclusive performance gallery space.

Missed the previous installments in this series? Check out the slideshow below.

The Queen's Guard Performing 'Game Of Thrones' Theme Is The Best Thing You Will See All Day

July 20, 2014, 8:16 am

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After long pondering the glory of transplanting the Iron Throne to Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II's subjugation of Westeros appears to have finally begun. While we were never blessed with a picture of the queen lounging in her rightful seat, we at least have this video of the Queen's Guard performing the "Game of Thrones" theme. There have been many reinterpretations and renditions of the HBO title track, but there's something perfect about the Queen's Guard cover, and despite a few awkward shuffles to get back in place by the percussion section, they totally nail it.

Weird Al's 'Lame Claim To Fame' Stop Motion Video Name-Drops Celebrities He Almost Knows

July 20, 2014, 10:11 am

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Continuing his video-per-day Internet takeover, Weird Al presents us with some Sunday mandatory fun in his latest release, "Lame Claim to Fame."

Paired with a neat stop motion video, Weird Al jabs at people's celebrity obsession, pointing out that standing behind Steven Seagal in the checkout line, or using the bathroom stall next to Jonah Hill doesn't make one friends. He even gets a little meta when he makes a reference to the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The song is written in the style of Southern Culture on the Skids.

In case you missed any of Weird Al's previous "Mandatory Fun" releases, make sure to check out "Tacky," "Word Crimes," "Foil," "Handy" and "Sports Song."

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'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' Tops Box Office For Second-Straight Week

July 20, 2014, 11:07 am

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NEW YORK (AP) — The summer box office continued to lack mojo, as the R-rated "Sex Tape" failed to turn on moviegoers over a weekend where "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" maintained its rule.

20th Century Fox's science fiction sequel outmuscled a trio of new films to top the North American box office for the second-straight week with $36 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The acclaimed sequel to 2011's reboot of the chimp franchise has now made $139 million domestically in two weeks. Its closest completion over the weekend was the home-invasion horror thriller "The Purge: Anarchy," written and directed by James DeMoncaco. Universal's low-budget sequel to last year's surprise hit, "The Purge," opened with $28.4 million, down from the $34.1 million the original scared up on opening weekend.

Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, though, noted the stronger competition this time around and the overall "depressed" business at movie theaters. Weekend revenue was down 24 percent from the same weekend last year, continuing a cold summer for Hollywood that's more than 20 percent off the pace of summer of 2013.

But "Anarchy," which imagines an America where all crime is legal for 12 hours every year, was made for only $9 million, making it immediately profitable for Universal. Such success is the envy of most movies, particularly Sony's "Sex Tape," a starrier, more expensive release made for about $40 million that opened with $15 million.

The Jason Segel, Cameron Diaz R-rated comedy failed to entice moviegoers or critics. "Sex Tape," in which a married couple makes a pornographic home video to stoke the flames of their lagging sex life, came in fourth place behind Disney's "Planes: Fire & Rescue." The animated sequel to 2013's "Cars"-offshoot, "Planes," opened with $18 million.

"It was kind of a middling weekend unless you were the top film," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak. Dergarabedian looks ahead optimistically to upcoming releases "Lucy," starring Scarlett Johansson, and the Marvel space film "Guardians of the Galaxy," of which he noted: "A lot of pressure is being put on that movie. It may be the last big summer blockbuster."

But as July turns to August, Hollywood's summer is certain to be a down one.

In a limited release of 68 theaters, Zach Braff's crowd-funded "Wish I Was Here" also arrived with a tiny weekend opening of $495,000 for Focus Features. The film, Braff's directorial follow-up to 2004's "Garden State," was much criticized for depending on fan contributions for funding. "Wish I Was Here" will expand to more theaters next week, but it will fall far short of the $26.8 million "Garden State" earned.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.

1. "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," $36 million ($61 million international).

2. "The Purge: Anarchy," $28.4 million ($420,000 international).

3. "Planes: Fire & Rescue," $18 million ($9 million international).

4. "Sex Tape," $15 million ($3 million international).

5. "Transformers: Age of Extinction," $10 million ($81.2 million international).

6. "Tammy," $7.6 million.

7. "22 Jump Street," $4.7 million ($3.2 million international).

8. "How to Train Your Dragon 2," $3.8 million ($14 million international).

9. "Maleficent," $3.3 million ($8 million international).

10. "Earth to Echo," $3.3 million.

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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to Rentrak:

1. "Transformers: Age of Extinction," $81.2 million.

2. "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," $61 million.

3. "Tiny Times 3.0," $30 million.

4. "The House That Never Dies," $21 million.

5. "How to Train Your Dragon 2," $14 million.

6. "Step Up: All In" $10.3 million.

7. "Planes: Fire & Rescue," $9 million.

8. "Maleficent," $8 million.

9. "Blended," $6.7 million.

10. "The Fault in Our Stars," $4.6 million.

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

New Yorker Launches Website Redesign

July 21, 2014, 6:40 am

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The New Yorker announced the official relaunch of its website on Monday.

The redesign comes ahead of the magazine's 90th anniversary in February. The newly crafted site includes single-screen scrolling, larger photographs and is "a great deal more attractive," the New Yorker said.

But the new look of newyorker.com isn't the only change. Along with a new blog known as the "Daily Cultural Comment," the magazine is also promising to make every new piece of content that they publish available to all readers-- not just subscribers-- for the entire summer.

"Beginning this week, absolutely everything new that we publish—the work in the print magazine and the work published online only—will be unlocked," the magazine wrote. "Then, in the fall, we move to a second phase, implementing an easier-to-use, logical, metered paywall."

The newspaper is taking a page from the New York Times, which also uses a paywall and offers limited access to non-subscribers. With the new system, New Yorker subscribers can access all content online while non-subscribers can only see a limited amount. The magazine also said that it would be amping up its archives, putting every story its published since 2007 on the website this week with a fresh format.

Ultimately, the magazine promised to continue to publish "the best work possible."

"In all forms-- digital and paper-- we intend to publish in the same spirit of freedom, ambition, and accuracy as Harold Ross did when he prowled the halls nearly ninety years ago, the latest model of pencil stuck behind his prominent left ear," it wrote.

Scarlett Johansson's Role In 'Lucy' Cements Her Status As Hollywood's Kick-Ass Actress

July 21, 2014, 7:39 am

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Scarlett Johansson has been in the film business for 20 years, making her big debut at the age of nine as John Ritter's daughter in the 1994 movie, "North." She then went on to star in "Manny & Lo," "The Horse Whisperer" and "Ghost World," before nabbing her breakout role in Sofia Coppola's 2003 film, "Lost in Translation," for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

Now 29, Johansson has expanded her resume, appearing in movies that range from rom-coms to action-adventure. And speaking of those latter features, Johansson has slowly taken on the title of the "it-girl" when it comes to playing strong (ahem, kick-ass) female characters. After starring in a handful of Woody Allen films, Johansson put her husky voice to good use once again as she took on the iconic role of Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, proving that she's perfectly fit to play a superhero.

Her latest performance in "Lucy" also sets her up for world domination. In the action-drama -- directed, written and edited by Luc Besson, the visual guru behind "The Fifth Element" -- Johansson goes from your average Joe to superhuman after a drug implanted in her body by the mob accidentally leaks into her system, allowing her to use more than the normal 10 percent of her brain's capacity. (Yeah, it's as crazy as it sounds).

Johansson spoke with HuffPost Entertainment about this unique character, her career and the rumors surrounding her role in the latest Coen Brothers movie, "Hail, Caesar!"

What drew you to playing this role in “Lucy”?
I first met Luc when the script was sort of a work in progress. I was doing a play in New York at the time and Luc had come to see it. Normally, I probably wouldn’t have taken a meeting while I was doing a play -- just because it’s so hard to think about the next project while I’m already on one -- but I was really interested to hear what he was doing next as a director. And he really came with this passion for his project that he’s been developing for 10 years. I think he needed to meet with me to sort of describe the story and his vision for it because it’s pretty abstract. Even reading the eventual script, it was pretty sparse. It was accompanied by a huge visual dictionary of sorts that he had put together because I needed those references to know exactly what he was imagining. This project is a conceptual one, maybe even more so than some of his previous work, it’s really coming from his visual kind of world that he’s known for and that he lives in.

I guess it was the challenge of the project itself that drew me into it. It was me having to put trust in Luc and him having, in turn, put trust in me. We had to weed each other into finding the core of the character and the story.


Johansson in 2014's "Lucy."

I saw the movie and, yes, it’s abstract in many different ways. There are so many visual effects, which I’m sure you’re used to working with in the Marvel movies, but how did you get in character for all those scenes that would eventually be dominated by visuals?
I guess as an actor you’re not always reacting to things that are right in front of you or that are really tangible. Sometimes you’re already kind of existing or free-floating in a story that you’ve constructed for yourself and the character. I mean, it’s always nice to have the actual tangible thing to react to, but you’re already coming from a place that doesn’t really exist. Your emotions are there for what you created for the character, but it’s a “make believe world," in a sense -- that’s a silly way of saying it, but it’s true. And I think the next step in that is [realizing] it doesn’t really matter what you have in front of you, or whether the things are real or not, because you’re in the reality of the emotion that you created. And, of course, more and more actors get to channel some level of imagination because there is so much production work in movies now. But I wouldn’t say it’s more challenging than doing an improv class where you don’t have all these physical tools. It’s part of being in the moment, I guess, and you trust your instinct about something and it appears! [laughs]

This year you had “Under the Skin,” “Captain America 2” and “Lucy,” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is currently filming. Have you enjoyed playing these strong, kick-ass female characters? Is that, sort of, your “thing” now? Because, hey, you’re very good at it!
Oh, thank you! Those characters are so different, of course. My experience shooting “Under the Skin” was so different than playing Black Widow in “Captain America 2” or “Avengers” and doing “Lucy” brought its own sort of challenges. The character of Black Widow is a person with a history. She’s someone who’s hardened and flawed and she’s a superhero with quite a complex emotional vocabulary. And Laura in “Under the Skin” is not a person at all -- she’s a different species and there’s no vocabulary for the emotion that she feels because she doesn’t have any feelings that we can, at all, relate to. She’s walking around with a different set of very primal instincts. And in “Lucy,” the character’s challenge is that she’s in a constant state of transition. At any given moment, something extraordinary is happening inside of her and she’s having this incredible insight, but it’s a constant change. So what’s she’s desperately holding onto is any kind of remnants of the person that she was that she can still connect back to humanity in some way.

So all the characters of those films, they’re different, but they are all sort of survivors, I guess in a way. Maybe that’s what you mean by strong -- they have a drive for a specific purpose, and it’s kind of a selfless one. If you find a purpose in the character that you’re playing, that’s the key. I look for a character that has some purpose as apposed to can this character kick ass -- although, that’s nice too! That comes with it, I guess.


Johansson in 2014's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier."

“Horse Whisperer,” “Lost in Translation,” “Match Point,” “The Other Boleyn Girl,” “He’s Just Not That Into You” -- you’ve been in so many genres of movies and played so many roles. Is there any specific film, character or experience you can remember where you thought, “Wow, I want to be an actress for the rest of my life”?
It’s hard to say because I’ve been working for 20 years and that has changed over different periods of time. Like, when you have more choices in the work that you’re doing, you understand why you’re doing what you do -- it’s clearer to you. But then, there are other times where you might struggle to find the work that you connect to and you can question your purpose as an actor, like, “Why am I doing this? What am I looking for? What work would be satisfying to me? What does this job mean?” And then all of the sudden you’ll have some breakthrough -- a challenging role that really inspires you -- and you say, “Hey, this is why I’m an actor! I love my job! I feel fulfilled.”

I think every artist has a career that sort of flows in that way. Mine, I’ve had those kind of moments of profound satisfaction at different points. Certainly doing theater has excited me and fueled my drive, my passion and my curiosity for what I do. When I did “A View from the Bridge,” it came at such a wonderful time and it was kind of perfectly placed in my life and in my career -- I needed that challenge to help me understand myself better as an actor. And that’s happened at various times over 20 years. It would be hard to pinpoint a specific one. Even doing “Girl with a Pearl Earring” when I was 18 was such a wonderful experience for me. Shooting that and having the ability to work in such a quiet and nuanced way, I felt very deeply connected to that project. And at that time they were still using film and camera and you could hear and enrich the experience. So, there have been different challenges along the way that have reignited that flame that I have for what I do.


Johansson in 2003's "Girl with a Pearl Earring."

Speaking of career-defining moments, there are rumors floating around that you are going to be in “Hail, Caesar!” -- the new Coen brothers movie. Can you speak to that?
No, not really, but I know the project and I think there are talks of working that out! I would love to be able to work with the Coen brothers again -- it’s been a decade or more [since "The Man Who Wasn't There" in 2001] -- and I’m always grateful for the opportunity to collaborate time and again with someone. I see that as a compliment. And it’s another opportunity to try and get it right, so hopefully that will come true, that will happen.

"Lucy" hits theaters July 25.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

The Giant Rubber Duck Has Disappeared In China, All 54 Feet Of It

July 21, 2014, 7:57 am

≫ Next: Robin De Jesús On 'Mother Jones And The Children's Crusade' At The New York Musical Theatre Festival

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Bad news, Giant Rubber Duck fans. The 54-foot inflated masterpiece that resembles your favorite childhood bath toy has disappeared. It was last seen floating down the Nanming River in China last week, but alas, its massive yellow body is missing. All 2,000 pounds of it.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the duck fell victim to the serious flooding that's swept southwest China this summer. The torrential rains have tragically led to at least 32 weather-related incidents already, and has inflicted $50 million worth of economic losses in Fenghuang county.

While the duck is an inanimate object, and its disappearance is far less harrowing than the human deaths and structural damage throughout the region, the fact that a one-ton sculpture could simply vanish in Guiyang city speaks to the levels of destruction this storm has caused.

“The duck flopped over and was flushed away really quickly by the torrential flood. It disappeared right in front of me in several seconds,” explained Yan Jianxin, a coordinator charged with overseeing the duck, to China Real Time.

“The duck itself weighed around one ton, together with its over 10-ton floating metal platform, and several steel wires fixing it to the bottom of the river," Yan added.



A "duck-hunt" of epic proportions aims to relocate the avian objet d'art, with one local radio station encouraging listeners to call in with tips, The Weather Channel reports. “If you live along the river and see an 18-meter tall big yellow duck, please call 5961027.”

This is the first time the duck, designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, has disappeared. It has, however, run into similar problems throughout its much-publicized global tours. For example, while in Hong Kong, the blow-up bird deflated into a fried egg-esque puddle. In Taiwan, it saw a similar fate.

WSJ claims that a "back-up duck" is on its way from Taiwan, so hopefully the country can focus on repairing the toppled buildings and providing shelter for those affected.

Robin De Jesús On 'Mother Jones And The Children's Crusade' At The New York Musical Theatre Festival

July 21, 2014, 8:06 am

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Before his film debut in the cult musical "Camp" and Tony-nominated stints in "In The Heights" and "La Cage aux Folles," Robin De Jesús was a standout performer at Crystal Theatre, a Connecticut-based nonprofit drama company.

This summer, the 29-year-old actor is getting a rare opportunity to re-connect with his roots in "Mother Jones and the Children's Crusade," a musical by Crystal Theatre’s co-founder Cheryl E. Kemeny, as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. De Jesús originally performed the musical, which is based on the life of early 20th century labor organizer Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, as part of Kemeny's troupe at age 13; the Broadway veteran is tackling the adult role of Jack Dorsey in the 2014 incarnation of the show, which opened for its seven-performance festival run on July 17, alongside Lynne Wintersteller as the titular character.

Kemeny, who has been focusing on historical musicals for children’s theater for some time, says the trailblazing Mother Jones -- who organized a “children’s march” from Philadelphia to the home of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in New York in 1903 -- was a natural fit for her repertoire. The musical’s addition to the festival lineup is just one step in what she hopes will be a gradual journey to Broadway.

“This woman re-invented herself and started an entirely new career in her 60s, so her backstory is amazing,” Kemeny said. Pointing to the deaths of Jones' husband and four children during a yellow fever epidemic in Tennessee before the turn-of-the-century, she added, “She used the tragedies in her private life to motivate her to become a relentless, tireless union organizer.”

For his part, De Jesús said returning to the show is “a joy,” while working alongside Kemeny, who he credits with helping to launch his career, “feels like home.”

“I had been asked to do other things this summer but I wanted to be able to, spiritually, give back to Cheryl Kemeny, a woman who has given me so much," De Jesús, who recently appeared in Lincoln Center's “Domesticated” as well as his solo cabaret show, "Crush to Crushed," said. “She knows all my colors and complexities and what I’m good at so she makes sure I can showcase all those things when I do her work.”

Of the character of Jack, he added, “It’s not the kind of role I get to play typically, and I think that’s why I love him.”

For more information on "Mother Jones and the Children's Crusade," which runs at the PTC Performance Space as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival through July 26, head here.

Check out another photo of De Jesús in the show below:

Pink Pipes Are Blocking Berlin Apartments -- And They're Totally Wild

July 21, 2014, 9:24 am

≫ Next: You Might Want A Cappella Groups To Only Perform Disney Medleys After Seeing This

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Only in Berlin can you wake up, walk to your window, draw the curtains and be greeted by none other than some hot pink historic piping...







Designed to prevent the city from becoming submerged by high groundwater levels, the pipes, which were painted pink as the result of a color preference study, have twisted through the city's parks, skies and buildings for decades and continue to spark conversation today.

“When I first visited the city 20 years ago and came across them, I was fascinated and irritated at once -- and those pipes stuck to my mind as a characteristic thing of the city," Instagrammer Michael Schulz (@berlinstagram) told the Instagram blog.

Cty staple or not, one thing's for sure -- they do at least offer the homes in the area a "characteristic" pop of color.







Have something to say? Check out HuffPost Home on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

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You Might Want A Cappella Groups To Only Perform Disney Medleys After Seeing This

July 21, 2014, 9:58 am

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When the a cappella group Voices received James Ray's arrangement for a Disney medley that included "You Can Fly" from "Peter Pan," "Let's Go Fly a Kite" from "Mary Poppins" and "When I See an Elephant Fly" from "Dumbo," they did not disappoint.

Watch the video above to see Voices make every Disney fan proud with their flawless renditions of each song. It's hard to believe there are no instruments used and that it's only the voices of Voices!

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Robert Downey Jr. Tops Forbes' List Of Highest Paid Actors Yet Again

July 21, 2014, 10:05 am

≫ Next: Musical Gold: Can Three Ambitious Siblings Turn Old Violins Into A New Investment Strategy?

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Earning an estimated $75 million, Robert Downey Jr. has topped Forbes' ranking of highest paid actors for the second year in a row.

As Entertainment Weekly notes, this is all the more impressive considering Downey Jr. released only one movie over the course of the year in question (June 2013 to June 2014). Jon Favreau's "Chef" was a "charming treat," but Forbes notes that the majority of Downey Jr.'s earnings come from backend payments off "Iron Man 3," which grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide in 2013.

Downey Jr. is followed by Dwayne Johnson, at $52 million, who has spent the year making movies like the upcoming "Hercules" and "San Andreas." Next on the list are Bradley Cooper ($46 million), Leonardo DiCaprio ($39 million) and Chris Hemsworth ($37 million).

Tom Cruise (who topped the list in 2012) is conspicuously missing, and it does seem that the combined net worth of this list has dropped off a quite bit from where it stood last year, but what's a hundred million dollars here or there between A-list stars?

Check out the full ranking over at Forbes, and remember the tally for next year starts today.

Musical Gold: Can Three Ambitious Siblings Turn Old Violins Into A New Investment Strategy?

July 21, 2014, 10:20 am

≫ Next: Chinese Businessman Sips Tea From $36.3 Million Ming Dynasty Cup, Angers The Internet

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One morning in February, Matthew Allain, the senior managing director of the Leo Group, a private wealth-management company, visited a town house on Central Park West in order to discuss an unusual acquisition. The town house was the headquarters of Carpenter Fine Violins, a dealer in rare stringed instruments. It was also the home of Sean Avram Carpenter, the company’s thirty-three-year-old C.E.O.; Sean’s sister, Lauren Sarah Carpenter, twenty-nine, who is the company’s C.O.O.; and their brother David Aaron Carpenter, twenty-eight, who serves as C.F.O.

Chinese Businessman Sips Tea From $36.3 Million Ming Dynasty Cup, Angers The Internet

July 21, 2014, 1:08 pm

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Public opinion does not favor the rich person who acts it. First there was Marie Antoinette, purportedly prescribing cake. Now there's Liu Yiqian, a Shanghai businessman who recently shattered records by buying a tiny porcelain cup with poultry painted on it for $36.3 million.

The problems started for Liu when he went to Sotheby's to pay for the Ming-dynasty treasure (which he reportedly purchased by swiping his American Express card 24 times). In a celebratory mood, he proceeded to sip tea from his new cup. Presumably, the celebration was meant to be private, but hey -- welcome to the Internet. A photograph of Liu mid-sip has gone viral, making him the latest symbol of excess in China.


The $36.3 million "chicken cup."

Chinese online critics see Liu as one in a line of self-inflated millionaires. “You think you can drink [out of the cup] and become immortal?" wrote one Weibo user, according to The Wall Street Journal. "In fact, isn’t it just a way to satisfy your vanity?”

Wrote another: "No people who are civilized would treat a cultural treasure like this. No wonder Chinese people are looked down on by other countries’ citizens.”

Valued at just more than $921 million, Liu is the country's 200th richest citizen. Above him, practically every one is a billionaire -- which is a lot of billionaires (only the U.S. has more). These are the folks driving up rates in the Chinese art market. They're also setting a national tone of excess, as seen in headline-making extravagances such as the "money bouquet" that recently did internet rounds, after someone placed the Kimye-esque order with a Yangzhou florist.

At the upper levels of wealth, you find indulgences like Liu's. For such a small thing -- just 3.1 inches in diameter -- his cup holds an important place in the Chinese consciousness. There are only 17 like it in the world. A Sotheby's agent, describing the so-called "chicken cups" to The Daily Mail, called them the "holy grail when it comes to Chinese art. Every time [one] comes up on the market, it totally redefines prices in the field."

The cups' status partly explains why Liu's countrymen and women would take issue with the obvious pleasure he gets from having intimate access to one. Owning a piece of dynastic history links a buyer directly to the "greatness of the past," as The Art Market Monitor points out, the kind of hubristic exchange probably best enjoyed behind closed doors.

Liu told the WSJ as much today, placing his sip in a pretty heady timeline. “Emperor Qianlong has used [the cup]. Now I've used it. I just wanted to see how it felt...Such a simple thing -- what’s so crazy about that?”

'Cloud Atlas' Author Releases New Short Story Entirely On Twitter

July 21, 2014, 1:27 pm

≫ Next: Everyone Should Find Time To Take A 'Dance Recess' Like This Guy

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Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell has released an original short story entirely on Twitter in order to promote his new book, The Bone Clocks.

Mitchell, who rarely uses the Twitter account, started tweeting the story on July 14. Throughout the course of six days and roughly 270 tweets, he released “The Right Sort,” a short story that takes place in the same fictional world as his upcoming novel.

The short story follows a young boy who takes some of his mother’s Valium and narrates the resulting drug trip. Mitchell notes that, in a way, Twitter is the perfect medium for the character's jumble of disjointed drug-fueled thoughts.

“The story is being narrated in the present tense by a boy tripping on his mother’s Valium pills. He likes Valium because it reduces the bruising hurly-burly of the world into orderly, bite-sized ‘pulses’. So the boy is essentially thinking and experiencing in Tweets,” the author told The Guardian. “My hope is then that the rationale for deploying Twitter comes from inside the story, rather than it being imposed by me, from outside, as a gimmick.”

We get off the Number 10 bus at a pub called ‘The Fox and Hounds’. ‘If anyone asks,’ Mum tells me, ‘say we came by taxi.’

— David Mitchell (@david_mitchell) July 14, 2014

‘I thought lying was wrong,’ I say. Butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth. Mum gives me a look. ‘It’s called “creating the right impression”.’

— David Mitchell (@david_mitchell) July 14, 2014

(Read the rest of “The Right Sort” on David Mitchell’s Twitter page. )

Mitchell admits that releasing a short story on Twitter is a bit of a marketing scheme.

“I’ll be doing some events to promote [The Bone Clocks], and my publicist persuaded me of the logic of having a Twitter account so at least we could tell people of these events," he told BBC Radio 4. “But it somehow bothered me, a little bit, that I was using this Arab Spring-size technology just to say, ‘Hi, I’m going off on the road, please come see me and buy my book.’ It seemed a bit cheesy, really. So I thought, how can I sort of find a use for it? And this led me to fiction.”

The Bone Clocks, due out in September, is about a young woman and her adventures involving psychic phenomena and "dangerous mystics," as well as the effects her decisions have on those close to her, according to the book's description on Amazon.

Everyone Should Find Time To Take A 'Dance Recess' Like This Guy

July 21, 2014, 1:34 pm

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You loved recess as a kid, right? Sure you did, it was the best.

But for some sad reason, once you become a teenager, that best thing in the world fades away. Fortunately, there are a few people out there fighting to recover our collective lost innocence with a little something called "Dance Recess."

So what if it's just a slightly awkward dance session performed alone in your studio apartment or bedroom? The point is, no one is judging you... except, possibly, YouTube trolls, but forget them.

This important trend -- or soon-to-be trend -- was brought to our attention by Charlie McDonnell. (McDonnell was inspired by this "Dance Recess" video from a screenwriter named Linda.)

Watching the sheer joy exuded by McDonnell as he dances his heart out has convinced us: this really should become a thing everyone incorporates into their day. So, start lobbying your boss now.