Volunteers Ink Over Women's Prison Tattoos To Help Give Them Fresh Start

February 2, 2015, 7:17 am

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One group is helping former prisoners put the past behind them with a little bit of ink.

In an ad by Poland's Pedagogium The College of Social Sciences and creative agency Isobar Poland, women who got tattoos behind bars have an artist cover up what they views as regrettable marks with larger, beautiful designs. The video, which is part of Pedagogium's "Freedom Tattoo" campaign, shows former inmates moving on to brighter futures without the visual reminders that have hindered their potential.

"Now I can discover a part of myself again," one former prisoner said in the video. "I am a woman. Now I can take another step. And this is fantastic because I don't have to be locked up anymore in that gray world that held me back."

The tattoos are provided free-of-charge, and tattoo artists and parlors volunteer their space and efforts for the project, Isobar Poland told The Huffington Post. A few fixed costs, such as ink and needles, are covered by donations from Pedagogium's private donors.

The video points out that prison tattoos -- typically crafted poorly using improvised tools -- can stigmatize the people who have them, and may discourage employers from hiring former inmates. Also, tattoos done in prison are often more difficult to remove and can result in scarring. The "Freedom Tattoo" project aims to create designs that are "better looking and better perceived by society."

"If they decided to get tattoos, then it means that they wanted to express something," Professor Konopczynski of Pedagogium's Warsaw School of Social Sciences explains in the video. "We help them express themselves better."

If you'd like to support "Freedom Tattoo," visit the project's website.

H/T Adweek

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'Star Wars' Exhibit Shows The Force Is With The Costumes

February 2, 2015, 7:50 am

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SEATTLE (AP) — The creators of a new traveling exhibit on the costumes of Star Wars are hoping to gather geeks, fashionistas and movie fans together to discuss how clothing helps set the scene.

But mostly, the exhibit that opened this past weekend at Seattle's EMP Museum is an opportunity to see 60 original costumes from the six Star Wars movies in one room — from Princess Leia's slave bikini to Queen Amidala's wedding dress, which has not been part of any previous public display. The exhibit, "Rebel, Jedi, Princess, Queen: Star Wars and the Power of Costume," was created by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts and will be traveling across the United States through 2020. The exhibit is scheduled to be in Seattle through early October and the creators have not yet announced the next stops.

The exhibit designers want people to know this is a rare opportunity to see the costumes up close and personal, without Plexiglas in the way. But be warned, the alarm system will loudly rebuke anyone who leans in too close.

Photography is allowed, but no flash, tripods or selfie sticks. The Darth Vader costume is set off on its own, perfectly arranged for selfies.

Videos of filmmaker George Lucas, costume designers and star Natalie Portman, along with the descriptions under the costumes, share a wealth of insider information about costume construction and idea development.

The displays also talk about cultural influences from Africa to Asia. Quotes from actors talk about the way the costumes made them feel, from Carrie Fisher's experience in what she called the bikini from hell, to the power the Sith lords felt in their getups. Gloomy lighting and music from the films permeates the exhibit space.

"The costumes help the characters really come to life," said Laela French, the Lucas Museum's senior manager of exhibits and collections.

She talked about the visual clues the costumes offer, such as the way Anakin Skywalker's Jedi robes darken as he gets older and closer to becoming Darth Vader. Most people don't notice that Luke Skywalker's robes also darkened through his trio of films, showing the mix of light and dark in his character as well, French said.

Star Wars experts may not learn anything new, but a lot of people probably don't know that the lights in Queen Amidala's dramatic red throne room gown were powered by a car battery that had to be worn underneath the heavy costume during filming of "The Phantom Menace."

Among the other display descriptions: Amidala's wedding dress was made partly out of an Italian lace bedspread; and Chewbacca's fur is a combination of Yak hair and mohair.

The costumes are displayed on faceless mannequins instead of life-size figurines to put the emphasis on the clothes and not the characters, French said.

Because the costumes for the second trilogy of films — the prequels — were so much more elaborate and interesting, the exhibit shares many more of them, including several walls of clothing worn by Queen Amidala and her attendants.

But the highlights of the exhibit for most people will be the old ones, including the two droids, which were costumes worn by people, not puppets as some assume. Most of the puppets and computer-generated creatures are not represented. Yoda is present, but slightly hidden.

There are no hints of the new movie, scheduled to come out at the end of 2015.

Some gift shop highlights: Chewbacca slippers, storm trooper knit cap and a travel T-shirt that says "Welcome to Tatooine."

___

If you go:

"Rebel, Jedi, Princess, Queen": Jan. 31 to Oct. 4 at the EMP Museum, 325 Fifth Ave. N., Seattle, http://empmuseum.com , 206-270-2702. Open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Timed tickets from $23 to $29 weekdays; $24 to $30 weekends; children 4 and under free.

How An Email From Gus Van Sant Led To James Franco's New Film

February 2, 2015, 8:01 am

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In recent years, James Franco has played his fair share of gay characters. There was Allen Ginsberg in “Howl,” poet Hart Crane in “The Broken Tower,” and most notably, Scott Smith, the boyfriend of Harvey Milk in the acclaimed film “Milk.”

But Franco’s study of gay characters in film has just deepened with his starring role in “I Am Michael,” where he plays real-life figure Michael Glatze -- a former gay rights activist who suddenly announced that he was straight, publicly denounced homosexuality, left his boyfriend of 10 years and went to seminary school to become a pastor.

While the sudden shift of a gay rights leader shocked and saddened so many in the gay community at the time, it wasn’t until a former friend of Glatze’s traveled to Wyoming to interview him for New York Times Magazine that the story caught the eye of filmmaker Gus Van Sant.

Van Sant, who directed "Milk," emailed the piece to Franco, noting that the story might make a good film. Franco knew the writer of the article, Benoit Denizet-Lewis, and reached out to him.

“If I hadn’t followed up Gus’ pretty casual suggestion, we probably wouldn’t be here right now,” Franco told The Huffington Post last week at the Sundance Film Festival, where “I Am Michael” had its premiere. “I have learned to listen to whatever Gus says."

Indeed, it was Van Sant who also connected Franco with the future filmmaker of “I Am Michael,” first-time director Justin Kelly, assistant director on “Milk”.



Kelly spent over a year working on the script, traveling to meet Glatze and some of his former friends, most notably three of his ex-boyfriends in Nova Scotia. According to Kelly, those men helped fill in the meat of the story and bring color to who Glatze had been in his gay advocacy days.

But how does a young man who spent years fighting for gay rights, traveled the country to educate teens and passionately studied queer theory go from being an editor at XY Magazine and in love with his male partner to suddenly renouncing his sexuality and identity entirely?

These are questions that arise in “I Am Michael,” even if Franco and Kelly aren’t cocky enough to answer them themselves.

“The power of the movie comes from this very question that you’re asking right now, which is essentially, is he genuine? Is he hiding something from himself? Is he lying to himself? Did he go crazy? Is he happy now, is he not? That is what makes this so interesting,” Franco said.

One of the biggest emotional influences in Glatze’s life, both Franco and Kelly speculate, is the loss of both of his parents at a young age. While he wasn’t raised particularly religious, Glatze’s mother was Christian and he was very close to her.



In the film, Franco's Glatze starts to dig into deep questions about the afterlife and our purpose as humans. It's his powerful desire to be reconnected to his family in heaven that appears to have tipped him towards such a drastic existential change.

“It made me really sad, because I don’t believe that,” Kelly about Glatze's desire to see his family again. “But I could see he did, and who am I to say he’s wrong? It helped us to create this character.”

But why did this happen? And why at this point in Glatze's life? The film doesn’t attempt to analyze the why as much as it seems to strive for the what. It documents the events that occurred and tries to capture what Glatze must have been feeling along the way.

“It’s not so simple,” Franco said. “We came to this belief that the character really did believe that he was changing. That he’s not lying to himself. He was somebody who, for his whole life, had been grappling with and defining identity. Or defying identity. It was already something that was at the forefront of his mind.”


Michael Glatze with James Franco at the Sundance Film Festival.

Perhaps the only thing more shocking than Michael Glatze’s story is the fact that Michael Glatze loved the movie. He's not exactly vilified in the film, but it's not a positive story, either. And yet, Glatze fully cooperated with all of the filmmaker's questions, and he and his wife even showed up at Sundance for the film and actually thanked both Franco and Kelly for making the movie.

The Art Of Street Eating In New York City, Captured In Photos

February 2, 2015, 8:02 am

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New Yorkers are a very skilled, if unique, breed. They're accustomed to greeting a cat in the neighborhood bodega, they know where to score a steaming hot bowl of ramen at 5 a.m. and they treat subway rats like second cousins (well, sorta).

One thing New Yorkers have certainly mastered is the art of eating while navigating a crowded city street. In a city that never sleeps, there's not always enough time to linger for a long meal; there are things to do, people to meet. This is no obstacle for New Yorkers. In fact, there are more than 13,000 pizza joints on the island of Manhattan alone, some just a mere kiosk without seating, built on the understood foundation that New York Pizza is a privilege to nosh on while in motion. Beyond the ambrosial slice, there are innumerable street meat stands, hot dog and pretzels carts and specialized food trucks -- all without a place to sit -- across the Big Apple.

We hit the streets of this very city to capture the beautiful, messy moments coupled with eating on the go. See them below and send your own to taste@huffingtonpost.com.

In A Fictional World Where Only Women Exist, One Filmmaker Is Exploring The Realities Of S&M

February 2, 2015, 8:55 am

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It's easy to call “The Duke of Burgundy” a period drama about a lesbian S&M relationship, or perhaps even describe it as “Blue Is the Warmest Color” meets “Fifty Shades of Grey” in the style of ‘70s sexploitation films. But each of those are mere labels that distract from an intricately layered third film from British filmmaker Peter Strickland (“Berberian Sound Studio”).

“The Duke of Burgundy” examines intimate female relationships unlike most films before it, with some exception for Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1972 “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant" that similarly featured an all-female cast. There’s something different and captivating about “Duke,” which is essentially the paragon of passing the Bechdel test: there isn’t one mention of the male gender (besides the title itself). Set in a fictional world where only women exist (even the mannequins in the background of one scene are dressed female), the gorgeously shot “Duke” follows the S&M relationship of two women with opposing needs. Evelyn (Chiara D'Anna) is the masochist in need of sexual and psychological torture, inscribing the details of her desires on note cards for her partner Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) to enact -- what to say, how long to wait and what punishment to carry out. Yet as time goes on, Cynthia finds the role-playing and consensual abuse grating on her sensitive, loving nature.



With that description alone, “Duke of Burgundy” could easily sound like a film rife with erotic sex, and the work could even fall into the same controversy Abdellatif Kechiche faced as a male filming a sex scene between two women. But there’s actually very little sex in the film at all, as the doors are usually closed (literally) most of the time Evelyn experiences her punishment, leaving more of a focus on the emotional cause-and-effect rather than the act itself. In an email interview with Strickland, the writer-director told The Huffington Post that while much of “Duke” was inspired by the films of Jess Franco, Walerian Borowczyk, Alain Robbe-Grillet and Jean Rollin, to name a few, his film doesn’t function in the same ways.

"Should there be a timetable on the wall for whose turn it is to get off?”

“The Euro sleaze films are mostly a male heterosexual's idea of lesbian erotica made for a mostly male heterosexual audience,” Strickland told us. However while that genre was in itself an appropriation of lesbian erotica, Strickland says, in retrospect, he views “Duke” as an appropriation of an appropriation: "The only difference is my end goal is not to get people off.” Instead, he used the erotic as a means to explore the “transactional nature of desire and how consent veers into compromise and even coercion.”

"Duke of Burgundy" clearly isn’t a film to titillate viewer’s latent fantasies or attempt to tell a love story from a woman’s perspective. Strickland says he acknowledged his male presence and gaze from the start; he attempted to “be less male in [his] vision by paying less attention to anatomy.” The lack of sex scenes is also likely the reason Strickland hasn’t come under fire the way Kechiche had. But this is also perhaps due to the film's emphasis on intimacy over sexuality, on the emotional torture one experiences as partners cause pain (or pleasure) for the ones they love.



Setting his film in a world without men, and where “sadomasochistic expression is the norm,” “Duke” is at once both unrealistic and relatable. Strickland admitted that the fictional, fantasy realm of the film is a “preposterous” one, but one that was necessary for his story. Yet he also doesn’t classify his characters as lesbian, or “Duke” as queer cinema. On one hand, Strickland is hesitant to label them queer since by existing in a one-gendered world his characters could not “be considered gay in a classic social context.” But he also said he wouldn’t define it as a “heterosexual straight film either,” as the issues between Evelyn and Cynthia are ones he believes are “universal whether one is gay or straight, into kink or not.”

Through stripping away any social or political issues concerning gender and sexuality, as well as sexual taboos that may exist in a contemporary society, Strickland gets at the questions of codependency, power dynamics and compromise inherent in any relationship. By normalizing perverse sexual behavior in his fantasy setting, “Duke” further challenges us to look at relationships from a new perspective. This is even apparent through the stylized editing of the film as it jumps back and forth to reveal both women’s perspectives on their agreed role-playing, painting each as victims within their own contexts.

“It doesn't matter how niche or vanilla one's intimate needs are,” Strickland said. “It could be the most common bedroom activity, but what if that activity is neutral, distasteful or even repellent for one partner? Should there be a timetable on the wall for whose turn it is to get off?” Using sadomasochism as an entry point for these tough questions about pleasure -- and selfishness versus selflessness -- in a relationship is just part of the brilliance of “Duke of Burgundy,” and hopefully it's a film where audiences will leave expectations at the door.

“There are too many people ready to judge,” Strickland said, “and if this film can neutralize a few wagging fingers, that's a bonus.”

"The Duke of Burgundy" is now playing in select cities.

Nat Geo WILD Wants To Know If You're The Next Great Wildlife Filmmaker

February 2, 2015, 10:07 am

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Do you want to be the next great wildlife filmmaker?

Nat Geo WILD is hosting its second annual WILD To INSPIRE film festival. The competition is calling for entrants to submit their original short films that feature exceptional wildlife stories in five minutes or less. Three entrants will be selected to have their films screened in Sun Valley, Idaho, and the winner will be flown to Africa to shoot on assignment for Nat Geo WILD.

Filmmaker Dan Duran won the inaugural festival last year with his short film "Wolf Mountain," which he created in film school with his classmates Sam Price-Waldman and Brendan Nahmias. Duran recently returned from a trip with Nat Geo WILD to Tanzania, where he documented conservation efforts in the Maasai Steppe landscape. He told The Huffington Post that although he'd never thought of himself as a conservationist, many environmental stories are just waiting to be told before it's too late.

"If people don't get their act together, I feel like there's a real risk of losing these national parks, of losing all this magnificent wildlife," he said. "There needs to be attention given towards conservation and poaching and overdevelopment. There's a lot at stake."

Take a look at his submission below.

Wolf Mountain from Dan Duran on Vimeo.

You can submit entries to the competition until noon ET on February 9.

Two Vatican Mummies Declared Fake

February 2, 2015, 10:08 am

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They're fake! That's what archaeologists are saying about two mummies that have long been part of Vatican's collection of antiquities.

The small mummies, each about two feet long, had been thought to contain the bodies of children or small animals that dated back to ancient Egypt.

But when Vatican researchers analyzed the mummies using 3D CT scans, X-rays, DNA tests, and infrared and ultraviolet light, they found that the mummies actually contained a hodgepodge of adult human bones from the Middle Ages, along with a single nail dating back to the 19th Century, Catholic News Service reported.

Archaeologists and experts say two mummies in the Vatican Museum are fakes http://t.co/Y2XUOk39ws pic.twitter.com/fgFgxjRWpj

— Donna Yates (@DrDonnaYates) January 22, 2015

DrDonnaYates/Twitter

The tests also revealed that the yellowish resin painted on the cartonnage (plastered layers of papyrus or linen that make up the mummy's case) dates back to mid-19th century Europe, The Telegraph reported.

The bandages are the only part of the mummies that actually date back to ancient Egypt.

The researchers say the fake mummies are probably the product of the "mummy mania" that hit 19th Century Europe in the wake of Napoleon's 1798 expedition to Egypt and the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

“These mummies are important evidence of the phenomenon of falsification that managed to regularly fool collectors and sometimes scholars,” Alessia Amenta, curator of the Vatican Museum's department for the antiquities of Egypt and the Near East, told The Telegraph.

At that time, upper-class Europeans often purchased mummies to show off to their friends, and newly founded Egyptian museums also tried to acquire them, according to a written statement posted on the Vatican website.

"It would be hardly respectable, upon one's return from Egypt, to present oneself without a mummy in one hand and a crocodile in another," a monk wrote in 1833, CNS reported.

The research was conducted as part of the "Vatican Mummy Project," which was started in 2007 to study the nine mummies and 18 body parts in the Vatican's collection. It was presented in Rome on Jan. 22 as part of the Vatican Museum's lecture series "Thursdays of the Museums."

If You Could Tour The Solar System At The Speed Of Light, It Might Look Like This

February 2, 2015, 10:46 am

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Just how vast is our solar system?

An eye-opening new animation (above) really puts things in perspective. It shows that even if you travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), the trek from the sun to the Earth and other planets takes a really long time.

The 45-minute video, created by Los Angeles-based artist Alphonse Swinehart and posted on Vimeo on Jan. 26, starts at the sun and zooms out into the solar system. You reach the Earth and our moon at around 8:20, and the journey ends after reaching Jupiter and its moons (at around 43:20). The distance traveled and time elapsed is visible in the frame's upper left corner.

"I've taken liberties with certain things like the alignment of planets and asteroids, but overall I've kept the size and distances of all the objects as accurate as possible," Swinehart says in the video's description. "I also decided to end the animation just past Jupiter as I wanted to keep the running length below an hour."

If the video continued on to Saturn, it would have lasted another 34 minutes.

(Story continues below GIF.)


"I think this is [a] super cool way to understand the enormity of space," Vimeo user Joe Sullivan commented on the video. "You might want to note... if you were actually a photon traveling at the speed of light you would not experience any time or distance. The time you are expressing is the time as measured by a stationary observer."

Now we feel small.

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This Chart Proves The Sophomore Slump Is Real (At Least, According To Critics)

February 2, 2015, 11:54 am

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No artist wants to fall into the sophomore slump, but even many of the best artists who have produced some of the best debut albums in history have struggled to craft equally as impressive follow-ups -- at least according to critics.

Concert Hotels put together a chart that pulls from the artists who were featured in Rolling Stone's 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time and compares the critics' scores of those artists first and second albums (via Album of the Year). The vast majority of artists received a lower score on their second album, like Nas, whose first album, "Illmatic," received a critic score of 96, while his second album, "It Was Written," received a 60. Some artists like Bruce Springsteen and Bon Iver received the same score on both albums, while artists like The Beastie Boys went from a score of 84 ("License to Ill") to a score of 97 ("Paul's Boutique"). Check out the interactive chart:

David Duchovny Wrote A Novel Called 'Holy Cow,' And It's Totally Bizarre

February 2, 2015, 12:53 pm

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We’re living in what might be deemed a golden era of Hollywood literature. Female comedians from Mindy Kaling to Amy Poehler have been producing funny memoirs that transcend the celeb tell-all genre, and several notable male celebs have recently tried their hand at serious fiction and poetry -- with mixed results. B.J. Novak’s short story collection, One More Thing, received plaudits; James Franco’s Palo Alto and more recent poetry collection were received with more bemusement than admiration. Surprising everyone, America’s beau Tom Hanks published a short story in The New Yorker late last year, and though the quality left much to be desired, it was far from a catastrophe.

Perhaps even more surprising, however, is the entry of David Duchovny, known to most red-blooded Americans as Mulder from “The X-Files,” into the ranks of writer-actors. His debut novel, Holy Cow, is out Feb. 3.

Coverage of the book has repeatedly cited Duchovny’s “master’s degree in English literature from Yale,” though of course, non-celebrities who receive degrees in English are not generally considered likely to turn out high-quality works of fiction, especially on their first try. Still, could Mulder Duchovny have been the novelist we were waiting for this whole time? Is his new book more Novak or Franco, or, like Hanks, somewhere oddly in between?

Though it was published by the prestigious Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and not, notably, by Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers, early coverage billed it as a children's book. Kirkus described it as more of a “pseudo-children’s book that smart adults should greatly enjoy.” Okay.

Appropriately, the book seems to have no real idea who its audience is or what it’s actually about (vegetarianism? religion? peace in the Middle East? the foibles of Hollywood?). Something of a mash-up between Animal Farm and "Chicken Run," Holy Cow is the story of Elsie Bovary (yep), a milk cow on an upstate New York farm whose life changes when she learns about industrial meat farming. She hatches a plan to flee to India (where cows are sacred), and is joined by a pig headed for Israel (where pork is unclean) and a turkey headed for Turkey (he, well, hasn’t thought it through fully).

Along the way, we’re treated to excessively goofy, Pixar-esque dialogue (Elsie and her bff Mallory call everything “cray cray” and “amazeballs,” while the turkey tries on affected accents that would be far more humorous aloud), truly painful farming puns, asides about Elsie’s transparent attempts to make the book more marketable, and extended rants on animal rights. If you’re thinking that the juvenile tone and made-for-animation humor might sit oddly with the long screeds about the cruelty of leather and turkey sandwiches, you would be right. Even more confusing is the sharp left turn the novel takes into the religious conflicts of the Middle East -- apparently there’s a meat-based solution to the centuries-long clash between the Jewish and Muslim peoples! Thank goodness.

The sheer absurdity of this roller coaster of a book makes for some knee-slapping moments, however. Here are 11 incredibly ridiculous lines from David Duchovny’s book that suggest he shouldn’t quit his acting career just yet:

***

Most people think cows can’t think. Hello. Let me rephrase that, most people think cows can’t think, and have no feelings. Hello, again. I’m a cow, my name is Elsie, yes, I know. And that’s no bull.

***

Humans love us. Or I thought so, we all thought so. They love our milk. Now personally, I think it’s a little weird to drink another animal’s milk. You don’t see me walking up to some human lady who just gave birth, saying, “Yo, can I get a taste?” Weird, right? Not gonna happen. It’s kinda nasty. But that’s why you love us. The ol’ milk. Leche.

***

Life on a farm. It’s pretty chill. Spend a lot of time out in the field hanging with my bffs, getting the hairy eyeball from the bulls.

***

Then we moo-ve on. Boom. Didn’t see that coming, did you?

***

Selfies, they call ‘em, and that makes sense ‘cause even though they’re sending these pictures to others, it still smells like selfish to me. Is that why they call it an “I phone”?

***

See what I did there? I left you on a poetic cliffhanger. And a chapter title again. Gives you a chance to take a break, maybe dog-ear a page, get something to eat, and when you come back the chapter heading will refocus you on the story. Like a Jedi, I tell you, a Jedi.

***

Dogs are the broccaflower of the animal kingdom.

***

I knew it was cray cray, but I had to see what the story was. Curiosity killed the cat, not the cow, so I figured I was safe.

***

We had the foresight to register Tom as a comfort turkey, an emotional-support fowl [...] He had taken the course on the phone, and had learned some rudimentary therapeutic insights. Which made him very annoying. He kept lapsing into a German accent and saying things like “Zat pig has ein ‘edible complex’” or “Tell me about your mother.”

***

“I like me a feisty bitch,” the dog growled comically. “Well, all right now. Look at you standing tall on your hindies -- you go, girl. Can I holla at ya? Can I holla? Can I holla?”

***

My editor says, “Sugar, there’s no way Hollywood will make a movie about a Jewish pig in Israel being stoned by Muslims. Too many hot buttons. Too niche. Too indie. We have to think tent pole. Not Sony Classics. Can’t the pig go to New York, you know, and meet a girl? Kind of like "Babe" meets "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"?”

5 Super Bowl Commercials About Something Greater Than Selling A Product

February 2, 2015, 1:03 pm

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Sunday night wasn't just about football and Katy Perry -- several social causes got their time in the spotlight, too.

This year, Super Bowl advertisers chose to emphasize messages that promoted gender equality, fought back against domestic violence and prioritized inclusion. Although there were plenty of ads that lacked any sense of social consciousness -- everyone caught Kim Kardashian's selfie-obsessed, 30-second spot for T-Mobile, right? -- it was evident brands were willing to bet that the game's record-breaking number of viewers were craving commercials that matter.

Here are five of our favorite socially minded Super Bowl ads:

1. Always' "Like A Girl"

What's so bad about doing things "like a girl"? Always questioned the phrase's negative connotation by depicting girls fighting, running and throwing like capable athletes. The feminine hygiene brand's empowering message -- which noted a study that showed girls' confidence drops while they're going through puberty -- proves the phrases we use do matter.

2. Toyota's "How Great I Am"

Athletes with disabilities may face unique challenges, but that hasn't stopped Amy Purdy. In Toyota's ad, the snowboarder -- who won a bronze medal in the 2014 Paralympics and became a finalist on "Dancing With the Stars" -- is shown gliding down mountains and tearing up the dance floor. The ad took two often overlooked groups in athletics -- women and people with disabilities -- and gave them the spotlight during America's biggest sporting event.

3. McDonald's' "Pay With Lovin'"

One of the world's largest fast food giants might just let you pay for that burger with an appreciative phone call to mom. Promoting its "Pay With Lovin'" campaign, which will run through Feb. 14, McDonald's captured customers' delightful reactions to being able to pay for their food items by doing kind or fun gestures. The ad features a girl who has Down syndrome and her family, who were told "[their] total is one big family hug," as Disability Scoop reported. While the spot failed to show 8-year-old Grace Ramsburg speaking, it's undoubtedly a step in the right direction for those advocating for a more diverse media landscape.

4. NFL and No More's Domestic Violence PSA

For the first time ever, air time during the Super Bowl was allocated to raising awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault. After outcry over the NFL's handling of domestic violence cases involving players in 2014, the league gave a 30-second spot to advocacy group No More to address the crisis with a national audience. In the chilling and highly effective PSA, a woman calls 911 and "orders" a pizza, so her abuser, who is in the same room as her, won't know that she's reached out for help. Adweek reported that the call is based on a real-life one that a former police dispatcher posted about on Reddit last year. The NFL covered the production costs and donated air time for the spot.

5. Dove's "Real Strength"

Fatherhood isn't about toughness, according to Dove -- it's about showing you care. In the moving ad for the skin and hair care line, fathers are shown in everyday scenarios, helping, playing with, and supporting their kids. The spot aimed to remind Super Bowl viewers what parenthood is truly about.




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This Book Cover Judges YOU For A Change

February 2, 2015, 2:44 pm

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Have you ever turned your nose up at a novel simply because its title font was a girly script or a goofy sans-serif typically associated with pulp? The adage about not judging books by their covers may be one few readers actually follow; after all, designers work hard to accurately depict a novel's contents. Still, thanks to Amsterdam creative studio Moore, all of those tossed-aside titles may finally get their revenge. A new book they've created using face recognition software won't open until its potential readers view it with a judgement-free expression.

According to Thijs Biersteker, the product's creator:

If you approach the book, the face recognition system picks up your face and starts scanning it for signs of “judgement”. If you’re over excited or your face shows a sceptical expression, the book will stay locked. But if your expression is neutral (no judgement) the system will send an audio-pulse to the Arduino and the book will unlock itself.

H/T The Guardian

Meet The 11-Year-Old Who's Turning Surfboards Into Awesome Jewelry

February 3, 2015, 7:27 am

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For 11-year old Kia‘i Tallett, living on a remote farm on the Big Island of Hawaii means you learn to make what you want to wear with your own hands.

“We like to make things instead of buy them,” Kia‘i told HuffPost of her family. Her parents, artist Sally Lundburg and surfboard shaper Keith Tallett, encourage their daughter's creative process.

Kia‘i started knitting hats when she was five years old and eventually found herself with more hats than she knew what to do with. Her mom introduced her to Etsy, and Kia‘i decided to open a shop to sell her creations.

"I kept bugging [my mom] about it over and over again," Kia‘i said.

With Lundburg's help, Kia‘i launched Pixsea Handmade last December along with an Instagram feed and Facebook profile.

Currently, Kia‘i sells knitted cuffs and hats and felt flowers, but her resin rings are her biggest success to date, with a shop in Seattle, called Anima Mundi, placing a large order.

The unique, upcycled rings are made out of leftover resin from her dad's surfboard shaping. Kia‘i selects the material from her dad's shop, he helps shape them, and together they sand them down until Kia‘i is satisfied.

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Sally Lundburg (left) and Kia‘i Tallett are building a small business together out of Kiai‘i's handmade goods.

Kia‘i's family encourages her entrepreneurial and self-sufficient spirit. Kia‘i has learned how to price her products, how to ship them to her customers on a time schedule, how to find inspiration from other sources and how to incorporate and work on new ideas for her business while balancing her school work.

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Kia‘i works on the rings with her dad, Keith, a surfboard shaper and artist.





Lundburg says it’s been a learning experience for the whole family.

It’s Kia‘i's shop so that she can save money and slowly learn about starting and running a business... Our goal (and hers) is that she will eventually be able to run this little business herself. Keith and I will most likely branch off into our own separate shop, but for now this ‘learning about marketing online’ process is something we are all doing together.

Kia‘i is eager to offer advice to other entrepreneurs: “Find something you like to do or make, and make sure you really like it, not just the idea of it. Be consistent with quality, and start small. Find someone who can help you, or who wants to collaborate -- that makes it more fun!”

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New Documentary Steps Behind The Curtain Of One Of Ballet's Most Famous Institutions

February 3, 2015, 7:31 am

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In a dimly lit corner of his apartment, New York City Ballet dancer Justin Peck sits alone at a desk, reviewing rehearsal films with a pen in hand. The (then) 25-year-old corps de ballet member is choreographing the famed company’s 422nd original ballet for the 2013 winter season ahead. He has eight weeks.

“Ballet 422,” a documentary directed by Jody Lee Lipes, follows Peck from conception to the world premiere of "Paz de La Jolla," a 20-minute ballet set to Bohuslav Martinů's "Sinfonietta La Jolla," featuring three principal dancers and a 15-member corp. It is the third ballet Peck will have choreographed for City Ballet. His previous work for the company, "Year of the Rabbit," debuted to glowing reviews. The New York Times referred to the piece as “a triumph not just for Mr. Peck but also for the institution that has nurtured him.”

Shot in a cinéma vérité style, “Ballet 422” lacks many of the storytelling elements audiences have come to expect from documentaries. There are no talking heads contextualizing the challenges of choreographing a ballet in mere weeks, no lower-thirds identifying people as they move through the frame. New York City Ballet chief Peter Martins does not appear on screen describing Peck’s choreographic talent with effusiveness. Instead, Lipes allows his audience to simply observe the process of a 21st-century artist creating a piece of work.

“I think the story told itself without needing lower thirds, and I think the story told itself without talking heads,” Lipes said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “My preference is to feel like something is happening before you, [as you] are watching it. That to me is just more engaging.”

With Peck, audiences witness a process that’s intensely focused and surprisingly quiet. The dancer-turned-choreographer seems to spend much of his time alone, whether that’s dissecting the music in solitude at home, or recording himself dancing movement phrases in a rehearsal studio.


New York City Ballet's choreographer Justin Peck poses for a portrait after directing rehearsal at the Lincoln Center's Samuel B. & David Rose Building in Manhattan, NY, on March 20, 2014. (Photo by Yana Paskova/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“[I set out to] document the whole process of [creating] a single ballet and really nothing more than that,” Lipes said. “Just to be present for all of the moments that I think told that story.”

There are eventual meetings about lighting and costumes, however Peck seems to move throughout each of these discussions with a sense of terseness. He is more expressive during dance rehearsals with his cast, though still less so than one might expect. It seems that choreographing a ballet, while collaborative in nature, is a personal and private experience.

“It’s a long, extensive process. It starts well in advance of getting into the studio with the dancers," Peck said. "It starts with finding a piece of music and deciding what I want to do conceptually... I kind of decipher the score so that dancers are able to count it in a way that works for them to hear what they're listening to."

When members of the cast enter the studio, Peck said the dancers will play a part in shaping the material. "What’s nice about that," he said, "is you can feel open to take on influence from other minds and that can create something beyond what I could imagine just by myself."

Peck's next ballet, set to Aaron Copland's "Rodeo," will premiere February 4 in New York City. His collaboration with Shepard Fairey for Miami City Ballet, called "Heatscape," will debut in March. The now 27-year-old choreographer, who has continued to wow audiences and critics with his work, is currently a soloist dancer and the Resident Choreographer with New York City Ballet.

“Ballet 422” received its world premiere at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. The film will be released in New York on Friday, February 6 with a national roll-out to follow.

'To Kill A Mockingbird' Author Harper Lee Is Publishing A Second Novel

February 3, 2015, 7:43 am

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Harper Lee, the author of the beloved novel To Kill a Mockingbird, will publish a second book this summer. Go Set a Watchman was completed in the 1950s, but set aside by the writer, who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for the only novel she ever published.

Lee's publisher, Harper, issued a statement this morning, in which the author said:

I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn’t realized it (the original book) had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it. After much thought and hesitation, I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years.

The news comes as a surprise for fans of the writer, as she's established a reputation as somewhat of a recluse. When a reporter released a biography of Lee and her sister Alice last year entitled The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee, the author responded by denying her involvement, stating:

I was hurt, angry and saddened, but not surprised. I immediately cut off all contact with Miss Mills, leaving town whenever she headed this way. [...] Rest assured, as long as I am alive any book purporting to be with my cooperation is a falsehood.

Go Set a Watchman, which will feature Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird as an adult woman, will publish on July 14.

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Some Of Your Favorite Stars Made This Year's Vanity Fair Hollywood Cover

February 3, 2015, 8:10 am

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This year, Vanity Fair loves Channing Tatum, Reese Witherspoon and Amy Adams. On Tuesday, Vanity Fair debuted its annual Hollywood Issue, featuring Tatum, Witherspoon and Adams as shot by Annie Leibovitz. David Oyelowo, Oscar Isaac, Benedict Cumberbatch, Felicity Jones, Eddie Redmayne, Sienna Miller and Miles Teller (and his mustache) also appear, behind the fold:





Last year, Vanity Fair was praised for its diverse Hollywood cover, which featured six black actors -- Lupita Nyong'o, Michael B. Jordan, Idris Elba, Naomi Harris, Chadwick Boseman and Chiwetel Ejiofor. This year, not so much.

For more behind-the-scenes photos, head over to Vanity Fair.

Here's Your First Look At The Return Of 'Frozen'

February 3, 2015, 10:27 am

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"Frozen" fans rejoice: the first look at the upcoming Disney short, "Frozen Fever," starring Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff is here. Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck return to direct the film, a short that picks up a few months after audiences left their favorite characters. It's Anna's birthday, but the party in her honor is threatened when Elsa gets a cold.

The film, which will include a brand-new song from the Oscar-winning pair behind "Let It Go," hits theaters March 13, 2015 with Disney's new live-action "Cinderella."

'Ghost Of Jupiter' Photo Shows Spooky-Looking Nebula In A Whole New Light

February 3, 2015, 10:39 am

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We've known about the Ghost of Jupiter since 1785, when it was discovered by the German-born astronomer William Herschel (1738-1822). But a captivating new image released by the European Space Agency (ESA) shows the spooky-looking planetary nebula in a whole new light.

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Known formally as NGC 3242, the Ghost of Jupiter is located about 3,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra, according to ESA. It consists of a fading white dwarf star enveloped by a double-shell structure.

In the new image, the blue glow is evidence of super-hot, X-ray-emitting gas that's being buffeted by stellar winds gusting at 2,400 kilometers per second. The green glow marks cooler gas. Those two flame-shaped, orange features at the upper right and lower left? Those are pockets of even cooler gas.

The image is a composite of images captured by XMM-Newton, an orbiting X-ray observatory launched by ESA in 1999, and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets but were given that name by 18th Century astronomers who were confused by their roundish shapes, according to ESA. In fact, they are the puffed-up remnants of dying stars that--at 0.8 to eight times as massive as the sun--are considered relatively small.

And where did the Ghost of Jupiter get its name?

"Supposedly, it is so named because of its resemblance to the planet Jupiter," Dr. You-Hua Chu, a former professor of astronomy at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and one of the scientists behind the new image, told The Huffington Post in an email. "I confess that I do not see the resemblance."

Rick Rubin Explains How Kanye Wrote 'Only One'

February 3, 2015, 10:39 am

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Rick Rubin has worked with and produced some of the most iconic artists in history -- Kanye West, Jay Z, Adele, Johnny Cash and Beastie Boys, to name a few. Taking to the Genius lyric annotations, Rubin has shared a wealth of insight and details about working with these artists, anecdotes from the recording process and even commented on artists who he hasn't had the opportunity to work with, like Hozier and Beck. Below, Rubin's thoughts about Kanye and his latest song, "Only One" (featuring Paul McCartney).

I was in St. Barths two days before the single came out. Kanye said, “I’m thinking about putting out ‘Only One’ tomorrow at midnight.” I said, “Should we mix it?” He was like, “It hasn’t really changed — it’s pretty much what it was.” I hadn’t heard it in almost two months, so I asked him to send it to me, and he did. And I said, “I think this can sound better than it does.” We never really finished it finished it.

So we called all the engineers — and I’m trying to get all this to happen all remotely — and we got maybe three different engineers. This is the day before New Year’s Eve, and we’re all finding studio time, getting the files. Then they all start sending me mixes. I thought one was better than the others, and Kanye agreed. One guy mastered it, because it was due, and they turned it in. I had another guy master it, and it was better, but it was already too late. I think it switched the following morning. It was in real time! Like as soon as it was better, we had to switch it.

That’s how it works in Kanye world. It used to really give me anxiety, but now I just know that’s what it is. That’s how he likes to work.

...Kanye is a combination of careful and spontaneous. He’ll find a theme he likes quickly, and then live with that for a while, not necessarily filling in all the words until later. At the end, he’ll fill in all the gaps.

He was upset at one point when I said that he wrote the lyrics quickly. He’s right — they percolate for a long time, he gets the phrasing into his brain, lives with it, and then lines come up. It definitely starts from this very spontaneous thing.

On "Only One," a lot of those lyrics came out free-form, ad-libs. The song is essentially live, written in the moment. Some of the words were later improved, but most of it was stream of consciousness, just Kanye being in the moment.

Read the rest of Rubin's annotations -- something we highly recommend -- at Genius.

Neil Patrick Harris And David Burtka Take Architectural Digest Inside Their New York Townhouse (PHOTOS)

February 3, 2015, 11:35 am

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Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka are giving Architectural Digest readers some major real estate envy, showing off their five-story Manhattan townhouse in the magazine's March issue.

The couple, who tied the knot in Italy last September, told the magazine that they began searching for a New York abode once Harris' stint on "How I Met Your Mother" began to wrap in 2013. Although they'd been living in Los Angeles for nearly a decade by that point, Harris and Burtka always intended to head east with twins Gideon Scott and Harper Grace, and eventually settled on the townhouse, which is located on Fifth Avenue in New York's Harlem neighborhood.

Check out the cover, then scroll down to keep reading:



“I assumed the show would be a short chapter,” Harris is quoted as saying. “But the plan was always to come back to New York when the show ended and raise our family.”

Among the many highlights of the stylish new home are the kitchen, which features a Caesarstone-top island and Holly Hunt pendant lights, and the den, which is dedicated to Harris' passion for retro magic.

The newly relocated couple's respective careers remain in high gear. Both men appeared on "American Horror Story: Freak Show" in the later episodes of the smash FX series.

Harris will host the Academy Awards next month and is currently developing an NBC variety show, which is slated to debut later this year, while Burtka will return to Broadway in "It Should Been You," David Hyde Pierce's new musical comedy which co-stars Tyne Daly and Sierra Boggess, this spring.

Check out the full Architectural Digest interview here.