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'Some Lady Parts' Tumblr Spotlights Absurdly Sexist Casting Calls

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Casting calls for women can be incredibly sexist -- and one woman is sick of it.

Katrina Day, an aspiring actor in NYC, created the "Some Lady Parts" Tumblr in response to her experiences facing sexism in the acting industry. On the Tumblr, Day shares character breakdowns in casting calls for women that are particularly sexist, fat-shaming or stereotypical.

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Day's aim, according to the Tumblr description, is to "call bullsh*t on the insidious sexism that lurks in character and project breakdowns on popular casting websites."

She told The Huffington Post that her own experiences with sexism in acting are not limited to casting calls, but include interactions with directors, instructors and fellow actors:
I had people advise me not to wear my engagement ring while interacting with the industry because people “wouldn’t know what to do with me then." I watched double standards play out in classrooms where instructors would admittedly not give a damn how the guys were dressed, but nitpicked everything about the women’s appearances. I had characters I was playing described to me by directors as “hysterical” and “f**kable." And I read hundreds upon hundreds of casting breakdowns jam-packed with sexist bullshit.


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Day hopes that her blog will assure other actors that they're not alone in facing sexism, and empower them to fight back against industry standards.

"Being a feminist in this industry -- especially as an early-career, no-name female actor -- can be incredibly difficult," she told HuffPost. "This blog is my attempt to open up the discussion of that struggle among other female actors, so that we can all help each other be more thoughtful and rigorous about the ways in which we interact with the industry. Being selective about which roles we do and do not submit for is a way that we can advocate for ourselves in this industry."

See more examples from the blog below.

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Beck Bennett Looks Back On His 'SNL' Audition

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Beck Bennett has been one of the biggest bright spots on "Saturday Night Live" during his first two seasons, appearing in a bevy of sketches, both live and pre-produced. (Bennett's Good Neighbor team of cast member Kyle Mooney and writer Nick Rutherford have taken up the slack left behind by Andy Samberg's Lonely Island.) In a HuffPost Live interview on Monday, Bennett spilled details of the audition that landed him the position.

Bennett, who stopped by HuffPost Live with Reid Scott ("Veep") and Chris Lowell ("Veronica Mars") to chat about their upcoming film, "Beside Still Waters," said he did three impressions -- Tobey Maguire, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christoph Waltz -- along with three original characters.

"Last minute, I came up with one of the characters I did on the show, which is Baby Boss," Bennett told host Ricky Camilleri. "I came up with it like two nights before."

The Baby Boss sketch was hailed as one of 2013's best. Bennett said he was filming a movie in Austin, Texas, when he got the call to audition in front of "SNL" execs.

Watch the rest of the clip above, and catch the full HuffPost Live conversation here.

Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live's new morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before!

This Chart Will Help You Understand 'Interstellar' Better

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Still confused by "Interstellar"? Is your brain hurting in an attempt to piece together the time-warped timeline? Have no fear, because this simplified chart will blow away all that mental dust.

Spoiler alert: If you have not seen "Interstellar," stop reading this post now. Traveling through a wormhole will not save you from spoilers!

Frame-Tale designer Dogan Can Gundogdu decided to break down Christopher Nolan's latest in a visually-appealing chart that maps out the film's puzzling timeline. If you couldn't quite figure out where Dr. Mann's (aka that actor we do not name) planet was in time in relation to Earth, or if you were confused about the movie's ending existing in two separate times, then this will clear things up. Oh, and Gundogdu only saw "Interstellar" once before making this chart, so clearly it's not that hard to comprehend.

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Also, everyone out there still listing all the plot holes in "Interstellar," Nolan has a message for you: your efforts are fruitless.

"I’m very aware of the plot holes in my films and very aware of when people spot them," Nolan recently told the Daily Beast, "but they generally don’t."

If you're still confused -- and convinced that "Interstellar" makes no sense -- take a dive into this intricate chart by Reddit user sto-ifics42. Either way, Nolan is of the belief that not all films need to be understood as much as they "need to be felt."

This Is What It's Like To Fly Above Manhattan

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George Plimpton once wrote, “From above, the city looks empty: so little moves that is discernible. All the descriptive adjectives about New York -- ‘teeming,’ ‘bustling,’ ‘cacophonous,’ and so forth -- are pertinent only at the street level. From above they simply do not apply.” And that's why photos of New York from the air are so captivating.

Rob Marshall is a vice president and pilot for New York On Air, a company specializing in aerial photography and cinematography. He has been flying helicopters for three decades -- and you can tell. There’s no shake when Marshall lifts the helicopter from the company's helipad in New Jersey. From there, the helicopter speeds across the Meadowlands and Liberty Park, the Manhattan skyline rushing into focus.

“Okay, let’s open those doors!” Marshall yells to two photographers in the back, as the helicopter hovers 20 or so yards above the Hudson River. Marshall then lifts the helicopter high above the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges on the East River. The photographers, attached to harnesses, lean out of the sides of the helicopter and begin to shoot.

Marshall knows all the good places. He circles the top of the Empire State Building.


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And the top of 432 Park Avenue -- now New York’s tallest residential building.

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He flies directly over the silver crown of the Chrysler Building.


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At one point, one of the photographers, William Anderson, lets his feet dangle from the chopper.


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North and south, the city stretches on for miles, and the only real discernible movements are the rivers of yellow cabs cutting through the steep canyons of Midtown.


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And at times, the city appears so intricately designed, made up of so many harsh right angles, that it looks almost like a microchip.


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Flying with New York on Air is an experience that’s both exhilarating and peaceful -- and one that, thanks to Instagram, more and more viewers and photographers are getting to have.

At the beginning of this year, New York On Air had about 400 Instagram followers. Now, it has over 280,000. The company is taking advantage of its popular Instagram feed in a number of ways. It has started offering “instaflights,” in which photographers, both amateur and experienced, pay to go up in the helicopter and take photos of the city. The flights, also known as “photo experience flights,” cost $300 - $500 each. They offer a unique opportunity to photographers, as well as great publicity for New York On Air when participants post photos from their rides on Instagram and other photo-sharing sites.

But the flights can also end up being a kind of “paid audition,” said Vin Farrell, a New York On Air board member and photo contributor, as well as global chief content officer at the ad agency Havas. If your photos are good enough, New York On Air might just ask you to be a contributor.

While no contributors have been recruited directly through "instaflights" yet, the company has used the photo-sharing service to vet photographers. In the past year, over 20 Instagram photographers have been selected as New York On Air contributors.

“We basically share copyright with those contributors,” explained Farrell. If contributors end up selling any of their photos or videos, he said, the company gets part of the profits. The company also licenses out its aerial photos and videos for movies, TV shows, commercials and more. (Clients have included ESPN, Time, Fox Sports, Edelman, and the Governor’s Ball Music Festival.)

Farrell says Instagram has been a wonderful tool to help grow the company, but more importantly, to share the thrill of riding in a helicopter above Manhattan.

“It's fucking sick,” he said. “It's legitimately a thrill of a lifetime. It satisfies the thrill-seeking mentality. You have the opportunity to see the world through a perspective that few people get to see.”

“There’s an artistic component,” Farrell added. “The challenge to get an angle no one else has done yet.”

The company has even used Instagram to hire new employees. Three of New York On Air’s employees -- an operations manager, a sales representative, and a marketing assistant -- were all hired after responding to job listings posted on the photo-sharing site.

Additionally, some prominent professional photographers and artists have discovered the company through Instagram. Artist Daniel Ashram, National Geographic photographer Jimmy Chin, and former New York Times photojournalist Vincent LaForet have all signed agreements with New York On Air.

Here are aerial photos taken from New York On Air flights by LaForet, Chin and others:












✨ Welcome to NY! By Taylor Swift | #NYonAir #instaflight http://flights.nyonair.com

A video posted by nyonair (@nyonair) on







A video posted by @letsgomathias on




The Drop | @nyonair

A photo posted by vinfarrell (@vinfarrell) on



George W. Bush Made This Portrait Of His Dad And Himself

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George W. Bush has worn many hats over the years, and lately, the former president has been trading in his Stetson for a beret. The result of his latest artistic endeavor is a portrait of himself with his father, former President George Bush, that the younger Bush unveiled Monday in an interview with NBC's Savannah Guthrie.

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Speaking about the painting, Bush told Guthrie that he wanted to capture his feelings for the elder Bush -- feelings that he elaborates on at greater length in his new book, 41: A Portrait of My Father, slated for release this week.

"I was proud to be standing next to a man I admired greatly," Bush said, adding that he struggled to get the noses right. "I tried to paint a gentle soul, and I did."

After leaving the highest office in the land, it wasn't the power or the fame that he missed. "The first shocking experience was that I didn't have any responsibilities," Bush confessed. "But then you get this sense of longing to make sure you remain stimulated. Painting helps fill that void."

Bush emphasized that the painting, like the book, which he describes as "a love story" for his father, is more about the elder Bush. He wasn't as attentive while painting himself as he was while working on his dad. "I bumbled through," he said.

Although George W. Bush didn't consult his dad when deciding to run for president, he said, his father played a significant role in guiding his path when he was a young man.

"When I first moved to [Midland, Texas,] I was single and drinking pretty hard," Bush told Guthrie. "There was a moment when I got into Harvard Business School. He said, 'It'll open up new horizons,' and that was very sage advice. He was right."

The portrait is hardly our first glimpse of Bush as an artist.

His first appearance on the art scene was in February 2013, when a hacker gained access to his sister's email account and published photographs of several paintings, notably, self-portraits set in the bathtub and the shower.

"Yeah, I was annoyed. And nor do I want my paintings to get out," Bush said at the time. "I found it very interesting the first painting that came out was the one I painted of myself in the bathtub. I did so because I wanted to kind of shock my instructor."

But Bush soon changed his mind, and stopped hiding his hobby. About a year later, his oeuvre went on display for the first time at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, in a solo exhibition called "The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy."

Bush perplexed the art world with a repertoire that included portraits of animals and family members, as well as the era's great political players from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Czech playwright and President Vaclav Havel, represented in a style Gawker characterized as "awkward" and "simple."

But, hey, the best artists are never appreciated in their own time.

2014 MIX Queer Experimental Film Festival Coming To NYC

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One of the largest annual queer community efforts in New York City is slated to open to the public tomorrow, Nov. 11, and it's a week-long event that you don't want to miss.

The MIX NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival is a longstanding and major event that takes a slew of volunteers to pull off. While primarily a film festival, in reality MIX is so much more. Existing as a art space with massive installations and a queer community space outside of a mainstream context, MIX has become known as a staple within the NYC queer scene. In fact, over the years, the festival's influence has come to extend beyond the borders of NYC onto an international scale.

In order to better understand the ideology driving the MIX festival -- currently in its 27th year -- and what this week-long endeavor represents to those involved, The Huffington Post chatted with a number of the festival's organizers this week.

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The Huffington Post: What is the MIX NYC festival? How long has it been around?
Stephen Kent Jusick: It’s a film festival, art exhibit and temporary autonomous zone for queers of all sorts who are looking for something other than a pre-packaged homogenized experience. MIX NYC was created out of the friendship of a gay man and a lesbian, Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman respectively, who were sharing a joint in 1987 talking about the lack of venues for queer (then “lesbian and gay”) experimental film work. The few gay venues weren’t so interested in experimental film, and the film venues didn’t want the gay stuff. So they pluckily decided to put on a festival, working out of their homes in the East Village. The first venue was Millennium Film Workshop, in the basement of La Mama on East 4th Street.

Sloan Lesbowitz: MIX NYC started out in 1987 as the NY Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival. Founders Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman noticed how spaces for experimental film were very straight, and gay festivals only showed narratives and documentaries. There was a real need for queer experimental films to be seen and promoted. It is significant that this festival started from the friendship of a gay man and a lesbian, and with a strong commitment to formally experimental film. MIX has evolved and changed in so many ways, but the elements of queer friendship and experimental film remain essential.

How has the MIX NYC festival developed and changed over the years?
Stephen Kent Jusick: Jim and Sarah worked on it for six years, but decided that they wanted to involve more voices. So starting in 1992, guest curators were invited to submit proposals and present their own take. This really opened things up to other ideas of what experimental film is to various communities. In that first round of guest proposals there was a show about queer zines, a program called Fire!, after the Harlem Renaissance journal showing new black work, as well as work from Brazil. That eventually led to the founding of MIX Brasil in 1993, which the NY staff helped program but MIX Brasil was always run by Brazilians in Sao Paulo who had their own understanding of their own community. In 1993 Shari Frilot, who had curated Fire, took over, expanded the festival and pursued an agenda of encouraging and showing more work from people of color. She also produced the first festival catalog and the first festival trailer made by Karim Ainouz. Shari also gave space and resources for the presentation of media-based installation art. This was very unusual for film festivals at the time and unheard of at queer film festivals. This was a period of growth and change. Venues were added and the festival had a base in Harlem at the Victoria Theater in 1996. Shari then left for Outfest and later Sundance. Rajendra Roy took over in 1997 and was able to ride the New Queer Cinema wave to energize more volunteer staff to get some grants and sponsorships, like Absolut. Raj left for the Hamptons Film Festival and eventually became of the Chief Curator of Film at MoMA.

The importance of installations waned in the later 1990s and early 2000s, until 2006 when a new staff decided to make installation a central component of the festival, to provide a different experience to complement the film screenings. We decided to forego traditional theater spaces to use lofts, storefronts, abandoned department stores and other kinds of spaces to contain the festival. In 2010 it became clear that there was something about the space -- the world -- that MIX was creating that audiences were responding to. The idea of a lounge space that was free and open to all became a big deal. We had off-site parties scheduled, but no one wanted to go to them because it was so fun at the MIX space. Since then we’ve made a more conscious choice to create welcoming and comfortable spaces for queers to congregate, and have tried to make the temporary MIX Factory (this year called the MIX Hive), into a place that people can have their needs taken care of. We moved from serving hors d’oeuvres to full meals each night. There are performances and pillows to lie down on, and we try to keep the space lively and open for the whole six days.

Other MIX festivals cropped up. MIX Mexico started in 1996, and is still run by its founder Arturo Castelan. The Milan Lesbian & Gay Film Festival became MIX Milan in 2008, and Copenhagen’s festival became MIX Copenhagen in 2011. We’re still sort of a small organization but there’s a lot of tendrils around the world.

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In what ways is MIX a queer community event?
Diego Montoya: Well, it’s built by the community. It's not just us showing this work -- it’s designed in a way where the process is as important as the end result with hundreds of volunteers taking a hand in making it happen. It’s truly a collaborative community event.

Caitlin Rose Sweet: MIX is queer on every level. The people organizing, building, curating, attending, designing this festival are all queer. MIX creates a space for queer people to exist outside of the heteronormative gaze. We craft a space in which we get to tear down walls and take off our protective layers to let out all our wild queer selves. It's a beautiful experience to watch a group of people volunteer their time, skill and labor to build this world, see and meet so many talented queer artists and feel the space fill up with so many queer bodies. Mix is one giant queer art build -- it's a labour of love for the community and a space to celebrate queerness in its endless formations. The installations, performances and screenings are curated in a specifically critical way. We are looking for queer art that tears down boundaries and push queer art beyond the limitations of identity politics. The pieces are complex, layered, and using media experimental ways.

Devon Gallegos: MIX has become somewhat of a season -- a time in the year that has a feeling like Thanksgiving or Christmas -- but instead of taking time off work you take time off to do the work you've been kept from all year. Most of the important work of culture is done with your friends and chosen family -- those who want to revise the world alongside you; so MIX becomes one of the places where clusters of folks gather together, by truck or train-hop, to come and co-build temporarily better worlds through stories and senses, and the derangements of both.

How does MIX create spaces to put these important films in a queer community context? Why is this important?
Stephen Kent Jusick: On one hand, MIX NYC shows films that don’t show elsewhere. So there is a unique opportunity to see this work. But in some cases a film has shown elsewhere and we try to to make the experience of it at MIX different in some way. So when we showed "Fig Trees," a film about AIDS activism in South African and Toronto that had already screened at New Fest and AMNH, we handed out homemade fig treats and gave out HIV+ t-shirts to all audience members. That made the screening more specific to us and is just one way we extended the themes off the screen and into life.

Sloan Lesbowitz: In 2007 we screened film footage from 1970 gay pride shot on 16mm by Kate Millet. It was silent, and artist Sharon Hayes collaborated with Millet to add sound. The experience was as close to time travel as I can imagine.

In both 2007 and 2008, guest curators included short experimental films by David Wojnarowicz in their programs. In addition to the rare opportunity to see these films, when the controversy arose in 2010 around a Wojnarowicz film being censored from a show at the Smithsonian, I for one -- and I suspect some of our audience -- were now not only already familiar with his work but passionately committed to the importance of experimental films that are as difficult in their anger, imagery and politics as his.



In 2009 we screened "Maggots and Men" as our closing night presentation to a fully packed house. Not only was it was powerful to see a film by, for and about transmasculine people, it was beautiful when most of the cast and crew were present to receive applause and questions at the end.

In 2010 we showed two films with very descriptive titles in the same night: "Too Much Pussy" and "50 Faggots." Both gay men and lesbians were at both screenings. Gay guys found the dyke film to be lacking in the explicit sex they were expecting and lesbians agreed. Lesbians found some of the opinions flying around the "50 Faggots" Q&A to be misogynistic, and gay men literally cheered us on as we voiced these observations.

In 2011, Occupy Wall Street was happening at the same time as the festival. In fact it was being shut down during the festival. Our executive director Stephen Kent Jusick had been out at Liberty Park the night the police were clearing it out and was losing his voice the next day at the festival from screaming at the police, but somehow he still managed the following night to project one of his own Super8 films and do live manipulation of the projection, and we were treated to spontaneous spacial and sound distortion, and more than a little burning emulsion. The film was shot near the piers in NYC, another once liberated space. That same year, one of our volunteers appeared on the front page of the NY Times website being arrested. We cheered when he returned to us. And unfortunately one of our film makers, AK Burns, was unable to make a personal appearance at her film screening due to receiving a concussion from the police.

In 2012, we celebrated our 25th festival with some retrospective screenings. During one of our Q&A periods, a question was raised about the relevance of Barbara Hammer's "Dyketactics," which apparently seems relatively mild by modern pornographic standards. We got into an excellent discussion with an audience of all different ages and genders, about the importance of a ground-breaking experimental film that emphasizes women touching women. We even got into the dearth of images of lesbian bodies and touch, despite the increased commodification of images of bodies in our culture, since the film's creation in 1974.

What can attendees expect when they attend MIX?

Sloan Lesbowitz: It will be beautiful. It will be imperfect. You will be immersed in a queer art landscape. The venue will be comfortable and the staff will be welcoming. The films will be thought-provoking, challenging, beautiful and politically-charged. You will laugh, you might cry, somebody will make a mess and somebody will help clean it up. You can meet artists and they can meet you. There will be food and drink. There will be music and dancing. You will investigate interactive installations. You will see performances. There will be art that has a clear message and art that is ambiguous and puzzling. The film programs are curated with specific visions and themes that you will not see at any other festival. And you might fall in love.

Devon Gallegos: You can expect to see sopping wet keyboards and art happenings on Second Life. You can expect to lay in a bed, look up and see the folk who were on the bed five minutes before. You can expect to look up from where you're pooping and see constellations of flowers. You can expect to lose their keys under the cushions; my advice is to just keep looking, you'll find them eventually...

Diego Montoya: To be overwhelmed and fully embraced. We are building an opulent beehive cathedral. Expect tons of gold and jewels (faux of course but equally sparkling). The space will be animated with custom media -- video projections of kaleidcscopic honey-drenched jewels and queers. In addition to the screening room, our lounge area is centered around pollination. We’re building a suspended geodesic dome with a million hand-made flowers. We’re painting the ceiling the on the floor like a reverse Sistine Chapel -- and lots of cloud pillows.

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What is the future for this festival?
Stephen Kent Jusick: Boom or Bust! We’ve had a lot of growth the past eight years and lots of change. We do an incredible build each year now that takes weeks and weeks, as tons of volunteers clean, paint, build and create, making a beautiful space for people to hang out. Even our “staff,” the people who are committed long-term and think and work year-round, are volunteers or get a paltry stipend. The money that we do raise goes directly into renting a venue, lights and equipment to show the films and installations and make everything happen. With Jim and Sarah in the 1980s it was a labor of love -- and it still is that today, but on a different scale. It’s been hard to sustain, though, and that only happens because people WANT it. I’ve given my time doing the sometimes-boring admin work for free for the past six years because I want MIX NYC to exist and to thrive. MIX can be what the community wants it to be. It will change in the future, with different people making decisions and having new ideas.

Diego Montoya: We seem to be getting bigger and bigger. The design team is developing and getting closer so the conversation between the space, the installations and the screenings is much tighter and more integrated. From a design perspective I think it keeps getting more ambitious. We’re including more experimental media in the design of the space, where before it as treated with non-media elements.

MIX NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival opens Tuesday, Nov. 11. Head here for more information.

Starz Orders 'Evil Dead' TV Series

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Get ready for more Ash Williams and "Evil Dead." Starz announced Monday that it would turn Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" movies into a new series, "Ash vs. Evil Dead." Bruce Campbell, who played Ash in the original movies, will return to reprise his role.

The network said in a statement that the 10-episode series will premiere next year. Ash is now a "stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead." Per Starz, "When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons -– personal and literal.” Raimi will direct the first episode, which he wrote his brother, Ivan Raimi.

“I’m really excited to bring this series to the ‘Evil Dead’ fans worldwide -- it’s going to be everything they have been clamoring for: serious deadite ass-kicking and plenty of outrageous humor,” Campbell said.

The first "Evil Dead" movie premiered in 1981, and was followed by three more installments: "Evil Dead II" (1987), "Army of Darkness" (1992) and "Evil Dead" (2013).

Picture Of Guy Getting His Shoes Shined Is Thought To Be The First Photograph Of A Human Being

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This certainly isn't your average photo.

Taken by Louis Daguerre -- the man responsible for the development of the daguerreotype, a very early type of photography process -- the image below is thought to be the first photograph of a human.

The photo, taken by in Paris in 1838, shows a man who is most likely getting his shoes shined, according to a post by Mashable and Retronaut, a site whose team "mines archives online and offline" to collect thousands pictures from the past. (Look at the bottom left of the image.)

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Jacques Louis Daguerre (French, 1787-1851), Boulevard du Temple, Paris, thought to be the first photograph of a living person, 1838, daguerreotype.

Although this man is the only clearly visible person in the photograph, Retronaut's Amanda Uren tells The Huffington Post that it's probably because anyone else on the street was moving too quickly to be captured in the photograph.

"The man must have been standing very still, as he is well defined," she said. "The shoeshine boy is mostly blurred out. I'm wondering if the blur behind the man is due to his coattails moving, possibly in a breeze."

How long did it take to snap the picture?

"Length of exposure would have been variable depending on how the plate was prepared, the amount of light available and the lens in the camera," Uren continued. "In order for most of the people and carriages to be blurred out, it must have been a matter of minutes. Ten minutes seems to be the consensus."

Daguerre developed his first successful picture in 1837, PBS notes. While he believed he had stumbled upon something genius, the process didn't start taking off until 1839, after scientist Francois Arago agreed that photography was something special.

So, how long did it take for selfies to come about? Apparently, not long at all.

Matthew McConaughey May Have Given Away The Ending Of 'Interstellar' In A Lincoln Ad

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Matthew McConaughey's Lincoln commercials were infused with inscrutable Rust Cohleisms, but thanks to Redditor Gandalfs_stolen_cart, it looks like one of the ads actually had a spoiler-y connection to "Interstellar."

Warning: If you have not seen "Interstellar," stop reading now -- serious spoilers about the ending ahead!

In one of McConaughey's three Lincoln commercials, he rambles on about the past, the future and the ability to rather ambiguously move through both. "Sometimes you've got to go back to actually move forward," McConaughey says in the ad. "I don't mean going back to reminisce or chase ghosts. I mean, going back to see where you came from, where you've been, how you got here, see where you're going."

Could anything better encapsulate the ending of "Interstellar," in which Cooper (McConaughey), who's future presence is sensed in the past and believed to be a "ghost" by his daughter, literally moves through time via wormhole? Let's also not forget that Cooper's daughter, Murph, also literally "goes back" to her childhood home and thus makes the ultimate discovery that saves the people on Earth. But wait, there's more.

"I know there are those who say you can't go back," McConaughey muses in the ad. "Yes, you can. You just have to look in the right place." Hmm, the right place ... why not travel through a wormhole and end up in a five-dimensional bookshelf where you can communicate with your past self and your daughter in order to save the fate of humanity? Yeah, it sounds like he was looking in the right place. Besides wondering if McConaughey was messing with us all along with these ads, we're also curious if Lincoln is going to come out with a TARS model. If so, it better feature talking GPS in Bill Irwin's voice.

Watch the ad for Lincoln, then proceed to realize that time is indeed a flat circle, guys.

For more "Interstellar" theories, head to Reddit.

Azad Right Puts Middle Eastern Hip-Hop Artists On The Map With 'For The Hopeful'

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Back in March, Akon made a passing comparison between Azad Right and Nas. Months later, Complex chose to single that quote out as part of a burgeoning trend. To no one's surprise, it stirred up some controversy.

"That was personal, that was just his opinion," Azad told The Huffington Post of the comment, which was also picked up by Champs Sports. "[They] also used a really R&B-looking picture of me, so you're looking at it and you're like, 'How is this guy like Nas at all?' I get it. But I'm intelligent enough to think for myself and so maybe I will end up liking it or maybe I won't. But I can make my own decision on it."



Azad's family was exiled from Iran for being politically active -- "My dad’s first wife was executed, and my uncle was also executed," he said -- and proceeded to move around quite a bit: Turkey, Germany and France, before coming to America and Los Angeles. He grew up playing piano and violin, but he explained that his father's relationship to poetry was the great influence on his musical career.

"My dad immediately went to UCLA to get his PHD," Azad said. "The entire time he was traveling around doing these poetry shows. I was able to go with him, not only because he was going blind, but also because I had an affinity for words."

In seventh grade, Azad purchased his first hip-hop albums, Eminem's “The Slim Shady LP” and “The Marshall Mathers LP.” Obsessed with Eminem's wordplay and phrase construction, he printed the lyrics out and highlighted the patterns. Drawn in by the audible passion, he continued on with artists like Nas and Jay Z. In high school, after “8 Mile” hit theaters, a lot of online rap battle forums started cropping up, and so Azad started recording little battle bits on his computer. At the beginning, he would whisper them in his room, afraid that his dad would hear him. Unsure if his father would understand, Azad wasn't ready to broach the topic (and he hadn't figured out if he loved the idea of becoming a rapper himself). But before long, Azad was going to open mics and dropping mixtapes in a city that was quickly beginning to know his name.

"When a lot of people hear Iranian-American they think I live in Beverly Hills and that I’ve had this privileged life, but they don’t know I grew up poor with a blind single father," Azad said. "I don’t hold it against them. When people ask me what I do, I laugh when I say I’m a rapper. It even sounds funny to me. More often now, I have been introduced as an artist, which is what I believe I am. I don’t just rap. I’m in the studio from the inception of the melody, to the beat, to the drums, to the hook, to the singer, to writing my bars, to the engineering. I went to school for this, so this is what I do."

Heritage is important to the art Azad creates as well. "There’s no Middle Eastern influence in pop music," he said. "I think we are underrepresented, but when kids come up to me after a show and I’m trying to see who is relating to the story, it’s not only Europeans and Middle Easterners, it’s the black kid, the latino kid, the white kid."

Dedicating 2014 to both honing his sound and releasing "For The Hopeful," everything seemed to be on track for Azad until he split ways with his management. While out on tour, he was hit with a cease and desist by his former producer that said Azad was no longer allowed to use at least half of his album. Numerous samples had to be removed, and the album's first single was taken down from SoundCloud. But the setback was no matter to Azad: In four days, he recorded the new songs and remixed the entire record.

"The publicists that had been working with us were like, 'This is a mindfuck for us. You had us service these records and now none of the songs and none of the videos are part of it,'" Azad said. "But they were all really happy because it was better music. There’s live bass, live guitar, strings, organs. At the beginning there’s a Pink Floyd record for the intro, and for the outro, there’s a jazz band. That’s about it for the samples. The other stuff was smaller.’"

“For The Hopeful” is meant to reflect on the music of Azad’s childhood. It's meant to bring hope to someone who yearns for the depth and sound of the Golden Age of hip-hop as much as it is for someone who comes out of school and is struggling to find a job. Songs like "Hoop Dreams," with its soulful vocals and huge drums, serve as trunk bangers, while others like "Crashing Down," a somber, guitar-driven confession, dish Azad skeletal.

No, Azad isn't Nas, but no one believed that for a second. So, who is Azad? That remains to be seen. Kanye didn't become Yeezus after his first breakthrough project. These things take time. But with "For The Hopeful" as his foundation, who doesn't have the time to let Azad tell his story?

You can download Azad Right's "For The Hopeful" for free here.

before the beat drops

Before The Beat Drops is an artist introduction series dedicated to bringing you the rising acts before they make their break. Our unlimited access to music of all kinds is both amazing and overwhelming. Keeping your playlists fresh, we'll be doing the leg work to help you discover your next favorite artist.

Here Is Bob Ross Beating Paint Brushes For Over Three Minutes. You're Welcome.

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The world loves Bob Ross so much, we'll watch him do just about anything with a paint brush. As long as he's gently cooing at us from beneath his globular afro, there's nothing good ol' Bob and his happy little trees can't do.

He might look like the world's creepiest uncle, painting the world's most epically conventional landscapes, but by golly! do we love a soothing "Joy of Painting" supercut. Bring on the 500-branch evergreens! The little snow-covered mountains! The perfectly toned glaciers! We have an insatiable appetite for your kitsch and carefully coiffed chest hair.

So, naturally, when we came across this three-and-half-minute collection of the "Joy of Painting" guru beating brushes, we couldn't help but pass on the love. Yes, he's just cleaning brushes, tirelessly, with his storied odorless thinner. But it's all we need.

We live vicariously through Ross' brief moments of anger, channeling our own frustration as he "beats the devil out of" his beloved tools. We watch with bated breath as he moves toward the beater rack, eager to pummel his crew with tiny droplets of paint. Are we scared? A little. Is our adrenaline pumping as vigorously as his poor paint brush? Absolutely.

"This is when the brush beater rack will save your marriage," he once advised. He just likes to wash brushes, guys. Just let him wash the brushes.

H/T paavi2005 and A.V. Club

The First Reviews Of 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' Have Arrived

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"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" isn't out in U.S. theaters until Nov. 21, but the film had its world premiere in London on Monday night and first reviews soon followed. The consensus? Mixed, with many critics citing Lionsgate's decision to split Suzanne Collins' source novel into two parts as a demerit. "Like an overgrown and bloated trailer for a film yet to come, Francis Lawrence's 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' spreads perhaps 45 minutes of dramatic material across two far-too-leisurely hours," wrote Todd McCarthy for The Hollywood Reporter. If sick burns aren't your speed, there are other opinions about the film below.

1. "'Harry Potter' started it, and now it’s bedevilling 'The Hunger Games' too. But the trend for dividing in two the last film of a series (see also 'The Twilight Saga') has less to do with story-tellers indulging our appetite for delayed gratification and more to do with executives enriching themselves." -- Brian Viner, The Daily Mail

2. "A film with the full title of 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1' may sound too self-consciously like a franchise building block to be best in series so far. And yet it is. [...] Francis Lawrence, his actors and crew have given us a blockbuster that uses all its wit and wile to fly on the wings of what makes us human." -- Sophie Monks Kaufman, Little White Lies

3. "Katniss arms up ... against anyone expecting diminishing returns from a four-part trilogy. With measure and muscle, Lawrences Jennifer and Francis nail the job of selling the long, twisting road towards revolution." -- Kevin Harley, Total Film

4. "Unsubtly resonant, at times quite rousing and somewhat unsatisfying by design, this penultimate series entry is a tale of mass uprising and media manipulation that itself evinces no hint of a rebellious streak or subversive spirit: Suzanne Collins' novels may have warned against the dangers of giving the masses exactly what they want to see, but at this point, the forces behind this hugely commercial property are not about to risk doing anything but." -- Justin Chang, Variety

5. "It may disappoint young fans who relished the sheer fantasy verve that drove the first parts, but as a thoughtful and at times moving preamble to a tough climax, 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' delivers." -- Mark Adams, ScreenDaily

6. "This is basically the third time that we’ve seen the whole 'split the final book into two movies' gimmick, and this is frankly the first time I believe said choice has done the material an artistic disservice. [...] The acting is solid and there are interesting moments and beats throughout, but the film sadly feels like the first part of a two-part television series finale, with all of the proverbial 'good stuff' held in reserve for the theoretical final showdown." -- Scott Mendelson, Forbes

7. "'Mockingjay - Part 1' is still very much a 'Hunger Games' movie, yes, but it calls to mind smart political comedies like 'Wag the Dog' and 'Tanner '88' as well." -- Alonso Duralde, TheWrap

8. "'Mockingjay – Part 1' is all queue, no roller-coaster. The third of four films in the successful and admirable 'Hunger Games' series is any number of good things: intense, stylish, topical, well-acted. But the one thing it could never be called is satisfying." -- Robbie Collin, The Daily Mail

"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Sam Claflin, Natalie Dormer and Donald Sutherland.

NYC Porn Film Festival Announces Open Call For Submissions

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What does porn look like in 2014?

New York City will consider this idea next year when the new NYC Porn Film Festival opens at Secret Project Robot in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. Billed as an exploration of sex, sexuality, gender identity and porn-economics, this festival is a grassroots, DIY initiative for the artists of this city, focused on this "mainly veiled yet enthralling part of our mainstream culture."

The festival will run Feb. 28-March 1, but organizers have released an open call for submissions over the coming months. The Huffington Post chatted with Creative Event Programmer for Secret Project Robot Simon Leahy -- and co-organizer of Bushwig Drag Festival at the same location -- about what he hopes to see accomplished with this festival.

porn festival

The Huffington Post: Why is a festival like this important?
Simon Leahy: It's important promote discourse around sex, sexuality, porn-economics and gender. NYC sometimes seems like such a white-washed, gentrified space. We live in a hyper-sexualized society but some have archaic Victorian values around sex. Porn is something we all take part in, whether it be jacking off behind closed doors or walking down the street consuming an image of Nicki Minaj's butt. To progress culture we need to have these conversions to challenge the older values around sex and sexuality. Homosex and Hetrosex need to find meeting points -- ideally, we want to spark the next sexual revolution. I want to live in a world in which these labels don't exist. I would like to point out that the festival isn't a "queer" festival or a "hetro" festival. We want to include the full range of sexualities, fetishes and genders.

What types of submissions are you looking for?
Homemade films! Art films! Shorts! 1min clips! Performances! Talks! Discussions! Ideas! Everything porno!

What can attendees of the festival expect?
We want to keep the submissions really open to everyone. This is New York's festival so everyone is invited to submit work. The submissions will form the scheduling. We have invited some artists and smaller independent film magazines to curate programs. More information will be available on that soon! I hope that the festival will liberate and challenge people's ideals.

Interested in submitting to the NYC Porn Film Festival? E-mail nycpornfilmfestival@gmail.com. Head here to visit the festival's Facebook page.

10 Reasons It's Still Worth Watching 'Supernatural' After 200 Episodes

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Familiarity breeds contempt, so they say. But the truth is, sometimes familiarity breeds affection.

Take "Supernatural," which recently began its 10th season and airs its 200th episode Tuesday. There aren't many shows I've watched for 200 episodes, but I've never been able to let go of the Winchester brothers. For a decade, I've stuck with their quest to carry on "the family business": hunting demons and other supernatural critters.

There have been so many epochs and eras on "Supernatural," so many highs and a number of lows. Seasons 2 through 5 were laudably ambitious, and those family-driven arcs often packed quite a cumulative punch. Then there were villains, eras and episodes that simply didn't work (and to its credit, "Supernatural" regularly draws attention to some of its own missteps). Through it all, I never gave up, even when my mid-episode grumbling made me sound like Dean Winchester denied access to pie and alcohol.

After reveling in the best moments and nearly quitting during some of the worst, I've come to terms with what "Supernatural" is now: an old friend I like to check in with once a week. It may not be as ambitious as it was, and it may be less thematically and structurally dense than it was at its heights, but the interplay among the characters is still entertaining on a fairly reliable basis.

It's a staple of "Supernatural" lore that 10 years after a person sells his or her soul, the demon who made the deal comes back to collect. Ten years into its demonic adventures, I hope "Supernatural" gets an extension or two on the deal it's made with the crossroads demons who run television. But I don't have many fears about its future: Given how bullish the CW is on the show, I imagine the Winchesters will be putting many more miles on their car.

That said, executive producer and showrunner Jeremy Carver acknowledged in a July interview that it is harder to craft mythology twists on a show heading into its 10th season. "I'm not going to lie and say it's become less difficult," Carver said. "One thing that has helped is that [creator] Eric [Kripke], [former showrunner] Sera [Gamble] and myself -- we all have slightly different perspectives. I think that has helped."

Even if many long-term "Supernatural" arcs feel familiar -- and these days, they usually do -- there are usually worthwhile aspects to whatever ongoing story the show is exploring. (For instance, Jensen Ackles is having a lot of fun with Dean's current incarnation as a murderous demon.) But there's no denying that there are a lot of miles on the Winchester's odometer, and the brothers and their friends and frenemies have endured many trips to heaven, hell, purgatory and every roadhouse in between. It's hard to find new places for the characters to go, and the ongoing mythology has accordingly receded into the background.

So have the scares: There are still regular stabbings and beheadings and the like, but they aren't the focus of the show (if they ever were). The original premise had the brothers investigating urban legends and carrying on the legacy of their father, John, a committed demon hunter, and one of the reassuring things about the show is that the packaging is familiar: The audience expects eviscerations in dark alleys and fisticuffs in shadowy warehouses. Every week, as the brothers traverse the country in their trusty '67 Impala, they come across barns, bars, stores and dimly lit kitchens where nothing good ever happens. In cheap apartments and low-rent motels, the Winchesters find the scariest things the world has to offer, and yet, when the show is working, the darkness is far from overwhelming.

In fact, my affection for this show resembles my love for long-running, well-crafted sitcoms like "NewsRadio," "Scrubs" and "Park and Recreation."

As is the case with my favorite character-driven comedies, I like hanging out with these people, and when it's done well, I enjoy the way the show plays around with its own in-jokes and home-grown tropes. "Supernatural" is comfortable with being both silly and serious, sometimes within the same scene, and that's not easy for any program to pull off. Sure, ambitious mythologies can be great (and the show's epic early years bear comparison to "Lost"), but I've made my peace with what "Supernatural" is as it heads into its second decade: It's a show about family, relationships, devotion, loyalty and men who wrestle with their feelings as often as they tussle with otherworldly creatures. And it's funny!

Like many long-running comedies, "Supernatural" has a strong sense of tone and place, and the things that happen within its storytelling borders make sense, as odd as they might seem on any other show. "Parks and Recreation" has Leslie Knope's office, "The Office" had the Dunder Mifflin branch, the Winchesters have their '67 Impala: each one is the centerpiece around which the whole enterprise rotates.

Given that the brothers are usually on the road, the world around the Winchesters isn't quite as built up as the Springfield of "The Simpsons" or the Pawnee of "Parks and Recreation," but Dean and Sam Winchester bring their world with them. No matter what town they're in, there will be beer, pie, burgers, budget motel rooms, acerbic quips, friendly locals (who may have terrible secrets) and devious evildoers (who may be amusing and smart). There will be an occasional sense of futility, a reminder that family is forever and often an episode-closing conversation in or near the Metallicar that is full of repressed emotion.

At this point, the show revolves around four people -- Sam, Dean, Crowley (Mark Sheppard) and Castiel (Misha Collins) -- whose lives are irrevocably connected. They all have long histories with each other and they aren't always on the best of terms or working toward the same goals. But often, their interests align, and for any number of reasons, they're stuck with each other. But their relationships are more or less voluntary, there's a fair amount of barbed affection and loyalty on display, and their repartee with each other is often quite amusing.

I am telling you, Season 10 is the year "Supernatural" finally morphed into "The Golden Girls."

I'm fine with that, because innovation and ambition are wonderful things, and I would hope "Supernatural," which has displayed an adventurous spirit from time to time, is always willing to try new things. But sometimes what you want is the comfort that can come from knowing a show's world and characters well. You want the Golden Girls to bicker, you want Leslie Knope to do something overly ambitious, you want Michael Scott to haplessly display his neediness. You want to watch the show do the thing that it does -- ideally not in a repetitive way. But creative familiarity that displays a loving attention to craft and detail -- well, that isn't such a bad thing, is it?

It's fitting then that according to Carver, Tuesday's 200th episode, "Fan Fiction," which features a production of "Supernatural: The Musical," is intended as a big platter of comfort food for fans.

"It's going to be one of our meta episodes," he noted. "It's going to be fun, and it's going to be, I think, poignant. There will be some chills. There will be song. As potentially saccharine as it sounds, it's a love letter to the fans. All the fans. It's trying to acknowledge, in its way, that we understand that it's a big, messy fandom out there and there are all kinds of fans, and we're all under this one umbrella. We celebrate that."

Carry on, wayward sons.

And speaking of celebration, without further ado, here are 10 more reasons I still watch "Supernatural." It's not an exhaustive list, but it'll have to do until Episode 300 rolls around:

  1. The leads. I've written a lot of Mo-nifestos about the show, when it was making me happy and when it was not. But in just about every post, I've singled out the show's two leads for praise. There's no way "Supernatural" would have lasted as long as it has without the versatility and dedication of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. They do their level best with the iffy and downright bad episodes, they consistently elevate the good material they're given and they're both deft with the show's black-edged humor. All in all, without their obvious camaraderie and energy, this crazy venture just would not work.


  2. Castiel. Since his arrival in Season 4, Castiel has fulfilled so many functions within the "Supernatural" saga: He's been an ally, an enemy, a villain, a thorn in the Winchesters' sides and a goad and an obstacle to all manner of ambitious humans, angels and demons. Structurally, he's an incredibly important character, but none of that would have worked if Misha Collins had not been able to infuse the angel with such humor, heart, confusion and earnestness. I can't imagine "Supernatural" without him: Long may the king of the battered trench coat reign.


  3. Crowley. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to insist on being played by Mark Sheppard. Okay, so Crowley is merely the King of Hell, not Lucifer himself, but who cares about semantics? The fact is, no other actor could have attacked this role with more devilish glee. Years after he was introduced as an occasional foil, Crowley and his nefarious plans have become an integral part of the "Supernatural" universe, and Sheppard's accomplishment has been making Crowley much more than just a one-trick pony. The demon is not what you'd call good, but his pragmatism, his intelligence and his weird loyalty to the Winchesters -- not to mention the emergence of his more human side -- has made the character into a endlessly enjoyable frenemy. I can't imagine "Supernatural" without him either: Long may the King of Hell launch withering barbs at the boys.


  4. The supporting actors. I've said it before: "Supernatural" has often gone wrong by eliminating or cutting back on its best recurring characters (he's not the only character whose exit was handled badly but I'm still mad about Rufus' pointless death). Death is part of this world -- as Dean would say, I get it. But the Winchesters need other good guys and bad guys to bounce off of; if they don't encounter reasonably entertaining allies and villains on a regular basis, their world can get airless and suffocating in a hurry. That's why the show's roster of guest actors -- who are often extremely well cast -- is so important. There are just too many worthwhile recurring actors to name here, but suffice it to say, "Supernatural" without dependably capable familiar faces is like "Cheers" without barflies. It's just wrong.


  5. The grudges. All "Supernatural" fans have complained, at one time or another, about disappointing elements of the show, and far be it from me to suggest that there aren't any. Some plots simply are tired rehashes. Some rank-and-file angels and demons are just dumber than a box of rocks. From time to time, some characterizations of lead and supporting characters have been way off. Episodes with bleh monsters of the week can be a chore. Some "jokes" are not funny and are in fact juvenile and tiresome, and occasionally the show has relied on intensely problematic ideas, cliches and tropes. I'm glad the fandom is as lively and passionate as it is, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who's spent time obsessing on how the show could do certain things better. These are among the most important things that unite us as "Supernatural" fans -- not just the need to voice our concerns, but the sincere desire to see the show scale the heights that we know it's capable of.


  6. The Metallicar. You could say that it's a rolling container for the conflicting emotions experienced by two brothers exploring evolving notions of masculinity, loyalty and love. Or you could just say it's badass.


  7. The dialogue. Once again, there are too many wonderful examples to list here, but the show's way with pop-culture references, cutting remarks and sarcastic asides is a lot of the reason I've stuck with it. If you want to make me laugh, just say, "You're my Marnie, moose!"


  8. Sam's hair. Seriously, how many hairstyles has he had? A lot! Who can say what the future holds for Sam's coiffure. Anything is possible!


  9. The rock. When "Supernatural" does a really great rock 'n' roll montage, especially at the start or end of a season, you can feel it in your bones.


  10. The ambitious episodes. If I could only choose one season for a TV time capsule, it'd be Season 4 (with Season 2 a close second). But most seasons contain at least one or two episodes that rise above the rest and contain a laudable and successful mixture of ambition, excitement and emotional resonance. Those very special episodes are one of the reasons I could never quit the Winchesters.


Ryan McGee and I talked about "Supernatural," as well as "Sleepy Hollow," "Doctor Who," "Jane the Virgin" and "The Comeback," in the latest edition of the Talking TV podcast, which is here, on iTunes and below.





'Snail Mail My Email' Is Back And Reminding Us To Put Down Our Phones

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No matter how cute the stationery, bringing back actual letter writing can be a hard sell. There's remembering how to actually write legibly, for starters, and then hoping all your handwritten hard work actually reaches its recipients some time this year. But if there were ever a time to give this lost art another try, it's right now, when San Francisco artist Ivan Cash runs his week-long "Snail Mail My Email" campaign.

From November 10 through the 16th, Cash is inviting visitors to his site "to type a message to anyone— family, friend, secret crush, or congressional representative" and submit it through the online form where he and his team will transcribe it and mail it as an actual, handwritten note -- for free.




Remind someone. #narwhal #sailboat #snailmailmyemail #superb #pachygerm #post #snailmail

A photo posted by Lara Buelow (@pachygerm) on






Granted, the process of having an actual letter written for you might not spur a trip to the stationery store, but for those on the receiving end, it could. Or, there are these inspired ideas for bringing back snail mail that we spotted over on Pinterest.



Follow Stephanie Baxter's board Snail mail on Pinterest.



Follow Fox and Star's board Snail Mail ✉ on Pinterest.





H/T Laughing Squid

Mark Wahlberg Was A 'Punk' The First Time He Met Leonardo DiCaprio

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Today Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo DiCaprio consider themselves close friends, but things were not always so rosy for the pair. And Wahlberg feels he still has a little explaining to do.

It's not the first time the star of the upcoming remake "The Gambler," with John Goodman and Jessica Lange, has mentioned the decades-old tiff. But at the film's world premiere Monday night at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles, Wahlberg discussed the origins of their '90s animosity in more animated detail.

Between spurts of laughter, Wahlberg said of DiCaprio: "We had a weird run in at an MTV Rock and Jock basketball game. I was performing in my underwear at half time and I think I had blocked a shot of his. I was a punk. I was a prick. I was not nice to Leo that day."

But Scott Kalvert, who was directing the upcoming film "The Basketball Diaries," saw something in the underwear-modeling, world-traveling rapper and approached him. "He only said this to three people -- Tupac, Will Smith and myself. He said, 'You guys should be actors and you will be actors,'" Wahlberg remembered. "He called me in for the film. Leonardo said, 'No way, I’m not making a movie with Marky Mark.' As did a lot of other people."

But he continued to audition. And his auditions became more and more entertaining. Eventually they convinced DiCaprio to read with Wahlberg.

"Of course I show up eight hours late, by accident. I was in New York and there was a huge snowstorm, so I went to Puerto Rico for the weekend with my entourage. Coming home, my flight gets canceled, I show up late, he’s sitting there, pissed," Wahlberg said.

In his defense, Wahlberg says he didn't necessarily feel Leo was right for the part in "The Basketball Diaries" either.

"He wasn’t a New York street guy basketball player. I was like, 'I’ve seen this dude play ball!' So we both had a bit of chip on our shoulder," he said. "But we started reading the scenes -- and I looked at him and he looked at me -- and I was like, 'Oh shit. This guy is good.'"

They gave Wahlberg the part.

the basketball diaries

At that point, Wahlberg's blossoming new career as an actor was really more of a bud. He had only shot one film, "Renaissance Man," directed by Penny Marshall and starring Danny DeVito, and that hadn't even come out yet. He was better known for leading the Funky Bunch and making girls scream.

But it's no surprise that as he found success in music and modeling, Hollywood came calling. "Not to play roles that would have given me an opportunity to have a real career, but kind of one-and-done sort of things," Wahlberg clarified. "The first role I was ever offered was to play the white rapper in 'Sister Act 2.' I wrote a little rap about Whoopi Goldberg, but I declined that part."

Penny Marshall, on the other hand, had lured Wahlberg to New York to meet with her and DeVito for "Renaissance Man."

"It was the first time I felt comfortable in the room. I could identify with them. They were neighborhood people," said Wahlberg. "Penny said, 'Why don’t you want to act? You’re acting anyway. You’re acting like a tough guy. You should give it a try.'"

marky mark

After that, Wahlberg decided he would only do music overseas so he could make money and would never do a film for the dollar amount. "I wanted to find roles that would help me grow as an actor. So I would runaround overseas, rap, and then come back here and pursue my dream of becoming a respectable actor."

Wahlberg has been in 39 films and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in Martin Scorsese's "The Departed." DiCaprio, who starred in that film, was not. But Wahlberg was quick to point out that DiCaprio scored an Oscar nomination that same year for "Blood Diamond," so no hard feelings.

Wahlberg even revealed that it was DiCaprio who got him a role in the 1996 thriller “Fear,” which really put him on the map. DiCaprio met with director James Foley for the role but felt it wasn’t for him. He told Foley to hire the rapper Marky Mark. As Wahlberg recalled, Foley said, “What?! Are you out of your fucking mind?” And DiCaprio said, “You should hire this guy.”

mark wahlberg the departed

So many years later, being nominated for an Oscar is the ultimate validation. And, for Wahlberg, this goes all the way back to his family roots.

“I never had an interest in acting. But I had a very strong love of cinema. My dad was a huge movie fan and he was also a teamster,” Wahlberg said. “I was the youngest of nine, so I would be home alone and my dad would come home after work and say, ‘Let’s go to the movies.’” The first movie he took him to was “Hard Times,” with Charles Bronson. He was 7 years old.

“My dad was never impressed with the paychecks when they started rolling in. It wasn’t until I got nominated for the Oscar that he said, ‘Now you can consider yourself a real actor,’” Wahlberg remembered with a giggle. “He told me how he would watch the Academy Awards every year when he was a kid and how much it meant to him. So that was very special just because of that.”

Prince Took His First Selfie With A Real Camera

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Today in Prince: Prince took his first selfie. Here's more from the rock icon's publicist:

Prince used an old-school camera because he doesn't own a cellphone. He jokingly says, "We ban their usage anywhere around Us because We're allergic 2 lithium and 'Everybodyelsies.'"


We can't top that. Not even going to try. Take a look at the photo below.

prince selfie
Photo: Facebook

Military Community Shares Innovative Ideas That Are Changing Our World

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Got Your 6 wants all Americans to see the military community like it does.

The nonprofit, which works to empower military members to become leaders in their own communities after serving, launched its Storytellers 2014 series this week on YouTube. The initiative features "some of our country’s best and brightest veterans" in business, politics, the arts and everything between explain their ideas to make positive change.

Watch six Storytellers share their thoughts below:

More Leadership to Silicon Valley



Don Faul: Head of Operations at Pinterest, served as an Infantry and Reconnaissance leader in the U.S. Marine Corps




I've Spent My Life Unf--king Problems



Becky Kanis Margiotta: Co-founder of the Billions Institute, commanded two Special Operations/Airborne companies in the U.S. Army




Can You See the Existential Threats?



Eli Williamson: Director of the Veterans Program at the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, former staff sergeant with the U.S. Army




The Things We Carry



Michaela Coplen: Essayist, poet and advocate, from a military family




A Blood Red Moon



Phil Klay: Author of the short story collection "Redeployment," Marine Corps veteran




Bridging the Civil-Military Divide



Emily Nunez Cavness: Co-founder of Sword & Plough, active duty U.S. Army Officer




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Plant Sitter Loves Plant More Than You Love Your Children (PHOTOS)

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Sure, if you ask your co-worker to watch your plant while you’re gone, he’ll probably manage to water it every day. You hope.

But who’s going to show your beloved plant the devotion and care it really deserves? Who’s going to fertilize not only your plant's roots, but also its soul?

If your co-worker is Eric Freeman, have no fear.

“Co-worker asked me to watch her plant while she was out for the week," the 24-year-old posted on Reddit Monday. "Here’s what happened."

The photos that follow show Freeman and the philodendron cavorting on a playground, chilling at the park, and going on a terrifying car ride:

(story continues after photographic evidence of world’s best plant-sitter)



Freeman, who works at an IT company in Augusta, Georgia, told The Huffington Post he got the idea for a photo series shortly after his coworker asked him to watch her office plant last week.

“I thought, I’ll take a couple of stupid pictures. She’ll roll her eyes and laugh, whatever,” Freeman said.

However, the botanical bond proved too strong a force for Freeman to stop with just "a couple," and soon — with the help of his other co-workers — the catalog of man-plant camaraderie grew into the 23-photo collection seen above.

In response to unsubstantiated allegations that his superb plant care was merely a ploy to win the affections of his colleague, Freeman declined to comment.



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How The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Wings Are Actually Made

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wings 2013
Wings by Killer from the 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which serves as a mega-produced kick-off to the holiday season, has only become more of a must-watch event year after year. The show boasts top-notch musical acts, theatrical elements and beauties dancing around in gorgeous lingerie. Arguably the most iconic part of the whole spectacle, however, are the wings. Each year, new Angels are born and current Angels are introduced to yet another massive pair for the runway. The wings not only serve as a rite of passage for the models chosen to wear them, but as a piece of artwork that embodies the sexy aesthetic that is Victoria's Secret.

The story and process behind these wings are way heavier a lift (literally and figuratively) than you might think. On a warm October day, I trek eleven flights up and enter an unassuming gray door to find a team of publicists, Victoria's Secret executives and wing-designer Marian Hose aka Killer gathered for just one of many rounds of fittings.

killer

Aside from the golden, feathered wings the fit model Barbara is wearing when I arrive, about five more are displayed in various corners of the small space, posing some difficulty for anyone trying to move around. Wings are made in everything from leather and lace to five pounds of Swarovski crystals and up close the intricacies of the elaborate designs are clearer than ever. It's no wonder, then, that the lucky ladies who walk in the show wait their entire careers for the moment they get to don a pair of their own.

wing fram

It all starts when an artist, hired by Victoria's Secret, sketches out the concept for a wing. It's then delivered to Killer and her design team who bring the wings to life. "The best part is seeing just how Killer interprets the sketch," Sophia Neophitou, collection creative director for the show, tells me during my studio visit. After a drawing is finalized, it is projected onto a screen, where a model stands in to figure out scale. The team then gets to work. "It takes about a week just to make the frame [but] for a more intricate wing it takes much longer. For something beaded, for example, we have an entire team just working on that part of it," Killer says.

killer studio

While an entire team of beaders may seem outrageous to some, for Killer it's just another day at the office. Her extensive experience in costume design has prepared her for her uncommon title of "Wing Maker." After all, her resumé boasts time spent as a millinery consultant for Radio City Music Hall. She's also worked with the Metropolitan Opera and CBS. She was connected with the lingerie company back in 2009, when one of the sketch artists recommended they work together.

Once Barbara slips a pair of the wings on, it's time to adjust and customize the wings for each girl. "[Barbara] is a huge help because she puts on the wings and knows what we need to change -- she knows which girl poses which way, which is amazing," Killer says. And while the amount and structure of the wings can change up until moments before the show but by October, Killer pretty much has an idea about which wing each girl will wear.

wings

No matter how much you plan for the moment the model puts on her wings for the first time, there is absolutely nothing like experiencing it firsthand. That's where I meet Candice Swanepoel, nearly a month later, putting on those same wings I saw being fit for her specific body weeks prior. The room that has been buzzing with chatter, camera flashes and shuffling of feet is completely silenced once -- with a team of helpers -- Swanepoel has the wings on for the first time. It is a highly-charged moment, broken only by Candice's first glorious steps down a makeshift runway. The straps are a bit tight for her, and are swiftly taken off for an adjustment.

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"I love having the wings, but I need the freedom to enjoy them as well," Swanepoel tells me. "One year (before we worked with Killer), I tried on this massive pair -- two harps. They were absolutely beautiful. On the morning of the show I got really nervous and asked to try them on the runway, and let's just say it didn't go so well. We decided to forfeit them and go for something smaller."

candice

It's clear that the weight and wearability of the wings are just as important as having that perfect runway strut. It takes the right pair and the right girl to hold up the massive structure, which can weigh as much as a small child. The biggest pair Killer has ever made weighed in at 21 pounds: a pair of white, feathered wings made for Lindsey Ellington. "Lindsey is a real trooper," Killer says, adding, "it doesn't matter how much a girl wants her wings, if they're too heavy we can't use them."

From paper to production, it's clear it takes hard work, a lot of adjustments, some serious time and a whole lot of love in order to make these wings truly killer.

wing back

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show airs Dec 9 on CBS.
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