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38 Of The Most-Requested Emojis (Including Bacon) Might Be Coming Soon

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There are more new emojis coming. You asked, and Unicode answered. Seriously, though, the folks at Unicode took into account which emojis were most requested on Emojipedia, searched on Google, requested from Apple and written about online. They're listening!

Unicode, the group that makes the code behind all emojis, just released 38 emojis that it's planning to create for 2016, Yahoo reports. After Unicode creates the code, it's up to Apple, Android and others to illustrate them for your phones, so there's no guarantee that you'll get the following emojis on your device, but here's hoping!

These are a bunch of the new images Unicode has provided:

new emoji

And here's what these images represent, starting with the top left image and moving to the right:
  • Face with cowboy hat

  • Clown face

  • Nauseated face

  • Rolling on the floor laughing

  • Drooling face

  • Lying face

  • Call me hand

  • Selfie

  • Raised back of hand

  • Left-facing fist

  • Right-facing fist

  • Handshake

  • Hand with first and index finger crossed

  • Pregnant woman

  • Face palm

  • Shrug

  • Man dancing

  • Prince

  • Man in tuxedo

  • Mother Christmas

  • Wilted flower

  • Scooter

  • Motor scooter

  • Octagonal sign

  • Clinking glasses


But wait! There's more!

new emoji

  • Black Heart

  • Croissant

  • Avocado

  • Cucumber

  • Bacon

  • Potato

  • Carrot

  • Fox face

  • Eagle

  • Duck

  • Bat

  • Shark

  • Owl



You should take a moment to read through Unicode's descriptions of each emoji, since it explains why each was chosen and lists a few of its possible uses. The eagle was chosen, for example, because it's a common animal, it's often requested, people search for it and it's the national bird of 15 countries.

Now just cross your fingers that we finally get that crossed fingers emoji.

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These Stunning Images Of A Funky Real-Life Dollhouse Will Rock Your World

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This is just our funky cup of tea.

"A House for Essex" is basically a human-sized dollhouse in the English countryside that's available to rent -- if you're first lucky enough to win a chance to do so through a lottery system. When contemporary artist Grayson Perry was commissioned to design the home for an architecture project, he did what any incredibly creative person would do: He invented an imaginary woman named Julie Cope, and filled the home with trinkets that describe her "life" -- she was married, then divorced after an affair -- and tragic "death" by motorcycle collision.

The house is all kinds of bizarre, but irresistibly cute. Four staggered sections are lined in green-and-white tile with unconventional accents like a motorcycle chandelier, voluptuous clown-like sculpture and massive murals of Julie Cope -- who does not actually exist, if you'll recall.

This is pretty much the trippy, down-the-rabbit-hole wonderland of our dreams.


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Artist Al Hirschfeld Celebrated With New-York Historical Society Exhibit And Comprehensive New Memoir

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To his legions of admirers, Al Hirschfeld was a prolific artist and a visual journalist who chronicled a century's worth of Hollywood legends, Broadway icons and rock stars in a linear calligraphic style that became his signature.

As ubiquitous as Hirschfeld's sketches of Groucho Marx, Judy Garland, Ringo Starr and Aerosmith, among others, have been to generations, the artist's behind-the-scenes life and personal evolution through the years has remained uninvestigated -- until now.

The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld,” which opens May 22 at the New-York Historical Society in Manhattan, will offer an inside look at Hirschfeld and his artistic legacy. The show coincides with the release of a comprehensive new memoir, The Hirschfeld Century: Portrait of an Artist and His Age, which examines Hirschfeld's best-known works, many of which first appeared in The New York Times and other publications, as well as his influences and techniques. Along with several famous pieces, Hirschfeld's sketchbooks, videos and assorted ephemera will also be on hand.

west side story
"West Side Story," 1957


“There have been other Hirschfeld shows in New York, but there was never a ‘soup-to-nuts’ retrospective, and it was high time to do that,” David Leopold, who penned The Hirschfeld Century: Portrait of an Artist and His Age and guest curated the exhibition, told The Huffington Post in an interview. Both the book and the show, he added, showcase decades of popular culture “through Al’s art and through the refinement of his critical eye, which was not only devoted to theater, but also to cinema, politics and just plain show business.”

Leopold was Hirschfeld's friend as well as his personal archivist before the artist's death in 2003. Still, he couldn't have found a more perfect collaborator than Hirschfeld’s wife, Louise Kerz Hirschfeld, a theater historian who likened her husband’s work to that of a mechanic, except that “his tools were more delicate than those found in a garage.”

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"Hairspray," 2002


“There were pencils, erasers, simple wooden pens and an imperious bottle of India ink,” quipped Kerz Hirschfeld, who organized the show. “The artist saw everything with the most compassionate, large brown eyes, and his white beard radiated a spiritual quality.”

Ultimately, Leopold hopes visitors come away from “The Hirschfeld Century” with a better sense of the artist's unique cultural imprint as a whole rather than the topical value of much of his work.

exhibit iii
"Guys and Dolls," 1950


“He lived in the present -- completely in the present. The past and the future meant nothing to him,” he said. “It will be very educational for many people, but also very nostalgic.”

"The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld" runs at the New-York Historical Society through Oct. 12, 2015.

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Artist Georg Baselitz Still Thinks Women Make Bad Painters, Is Ridiculously Wrong

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Another Georg Baselitz interview, another senseless comment about gender imbalance in the art world. He's said it once, and he'll likely say it again: Women just can't paint.

Baselitz, a German painter famous for his saturated, inverted images, treated the Internet to this very particular prerogative back in 2013, in an interview with Der Spiegel. Women painters, he posited, "simply don't pass the market test," referencing the gaping inequality in price of art made by men versus that made by women. "As always the market is right," he jabbed.

Now Baselitz-- who was born in 1938 -- is giving The Guardian a dose of his outdated logic, bemoaning once again that there are no female equivalents to Picasso, Modigliani or Gauguin.

“Even though the painting classes in art academies are more than 90 percent made up by women, it’s a fact that very few of them succeed," Baselitz unabashedly mused to interviewer Kate Connolly. "It’s nothing to do with education, or chances, or male gallery owners. It’s to do with something else and it’s not my job to answer why it’s so."

It's not his job, yet he goes on to willingly posit a reason for this global gender conundrum.

"If women are ambitious enough to succeed, they can do so, thank you very much. But up until now, they have failed to prove that they want to. Normally, women sell themselves well, but not as painters.”

Well. Thank you, Mr. Baselitz. It's not often that we come across such a sweeping generalization, one that hilariously ignores any social or economic systems that enforce male dominance in art and beyond. Really, we don't get enough of these shallow revelations that deny the existence of oppression, reducing success to a game of objective determination. Your words are the critical equivalent of a "talk to the hand" gesture to those pesky feminists calling for a broader understanding of gender, race and class relations in the marketplace. Where's an applause emoji when I need it?

Sigh. Cue bitterly sarcastic eye roll directed at all 360 degrees of the patriarchy. May the Guerrilla Girls have mercy on your soul.

While we could draw Baselitz's attention to a number of realities connected to labor: the institutional hurdles of motherhood, women of color's historical lack of access to higher education, or even the gender pay gap to just name a few, we doubt any of this would be news to him. So, instead, we leave you, Georg, with this:

Yayoi Kusama

yayoi kusama

Frida Kahlo

frida kahlo

Mary Cassatt

cassatt

Faith Ringgold

faith ringgold

Georgia O'Keeffe

georgia okeeffe

Artemisia Gentileschi

art

Joan Mitchell

joan mitchell

Mickalene Thomas

mickalene thomas

Helen Frankenthaler

helen frankenthaler


Marlene Dumas

marlene dumas

Romaine Brooks

romaine


Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

lynette yiadomboakye

Lisa Yuskavage

lisa yuskavage

And that's just off the top of my head.

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Lena Dunham Offers Support To Emma Sulkowicz After Posters Attacking Both Women Appeared In NYC

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Actress Lena Dunham took to Twitter to show support for sexual assault activist Emma Sulkowicz after posters accusing both women of lying about being raped appeared Wednesday around New York City.

When Sulkowicz graduated from Columbia University this week, she also concluded an art project -- in which she carried a mattress around campus for nine months -- that protested how the school had handled her sexual assault report. Some posters showed Sulkowicz standing with her mattress and called her a "pretty little liar," presumably due to the student she accused of assault going public in recent months to refute her claims.

Other posters targeted Dunham, who wrote about her experience with sexual assault in her 2014 memoir, Not That Kind of Girl. Although the man she said assaulted her was never named, a former Oberlin College student claimed Dunham's depiction unfairly raised suspicion that he was the culprit. Her publisher said it would alter some details in future editions to make the alleged assailant less identifiable.

Wednesday night, Dunham tweeted:




Sulkowicz declined to comment on the posters.

In December, Dunham wrote a BuzzFeed essay saying others who had publicly discussed their assaults had inspired her to share her story. She also wrote about the negative responses she'd received since coming forward:

I have had my character and credibility questioned at every turn. I have been attacked online with violent and misogynistic language. Reporters have attempted to uncover the identity of my attacker despite my sincerest attempts to protect this information. My work has been torn apart in an attempt to prove I am a liar, or worse, a deviant myself. My friends and family have been contacted.
...
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what is written about me individually. I accept the realities of being in the public eye. But I simply cannot allow my story to be used to cast doubt on other women who have been sexually assaulted.

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Amazing Awareness Campaign Transforms Cartoon Characters Into Breast Cancer Survivors

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alexsandro palomo

It's a problem faced by many television characters we know and love, from Kristina Braverman on "Parenthood" to Samantha Jones on "Sex and the City." But breast cancer has rarely made it into animated series.

Artist AleXsandro Palombo has created a series called "Survivor" that imagines what well-known female cartoon personalities would look like after undergoing surgery to combat breast cancer. Jessica Rabbit, Snow White, Wonder Woman and Marge Simpson are among the featured characters depicted with either a partial or full mastectomy.

Palombo told The Huffington Post he was inspired to start the project after one of his colleagues died from the illness. He originally released the images last October, during Breast Cancer Awareness month. He chose to highlight surgery scars in order to shine a light on the strength and courage that survivors exhibit when fighting the disease.

"You must be very strong to be able to react psychologically and accept the new appearance of your own body," he said. "My message is one of hope and courage. I believe that we must also create awareness to young people and teach health education."

There will be more than 230,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer in the U.S. this year, and 40,000 women will be killed by the disease, according to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

"Art is a powerful way to raise awareness about important social issues," Palombo said. "I am an artist who believes and fights for the right of expression, freedom and equality."

Take a look at the images in the slideshow below.

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Poet Aja Monet Confronts Police Brutality Against Black Women With #SayHerName

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"Melissa Williams,” Aja Monet reads, “Darnisha Harris.” Her voice is strong; it marches along, but it shakes a little, although not from nerves. She’s performing a poem that includes the forgotten names of girls and women who’ve been injured or killed by the police. She finishes forcefully, then pauses, exhales. “Can I do that again?” she asks. “It’s my first time reading it out loud, and ... ” she trails off.

Monet had written the poem -- a contribution to the #SayHerName campaign, a necessary continuation of the Black Lives Matter movement focusing on overlooked police violence against women -- earlier that morning. That evening, she’d read it at a vigil. Now, she was practicing on camera, surprised by the power of her own words.



As a poet, Monet is prolific. She’s been performing both music and readings for some time -- at 19, she was the youngest ever winner of New York City’s Nuyorican Poet’s Café Grand Slam -- and her work has brought her to France, Bermuda and Cuba, from where her grandmother fled, and where she recently learned she still has extended family. Next month, she’ll return to visit them. But first, she wants to contribute to a campaign she believes in.

Though she’s disheartened that a hashtag is necessary to capture people’s attention -- “I think #SayHerName is the surface level of the issues but beneath that there is the real question of, 'Why?'” she says -- Monet wields her art to achieve social and political justice. While discussing political poetry with a fellow artist in Palestine, he observed, "Art is more political than politics." "I feel him," she says. "I think he's right."



Can you explain #SayHerName in your own words?
It is us calling out the lack of attention on women of color also affected by state violence. We recognize the power of our voices and so we raise the spirits of our sisters by daring to utter their names.

A recent Washington Post write-up said it’s difficult to even quantify police brutality against black women. How will #SayHerName honor those whose stories are lost?
I can't speak for what a hashtag will do in the actual hearts of people but I know that anything worth paying attention to these days in America has to be sold and marketed as if worth buying into. We recognize that the attention span of our generation is so short: How else do we make the issues we care about accessible and also relevant? This is what activism has come to. This is where we are at in the age of the Internet. We must be honest with ourselves about how human interaction is now only affirmed or confronted based on the projected world we live in through screens.

I think #SayHerName is the surface level of the issues, but beneath that there is the real question of "Why?" Why do I need to make saying her name a hashtag for you to pay attention? The goal is to use this as an opportunity to redirect the attention of people, to hopefully get folks researching the names and stories of all the women we've lost. To educate themselves so we are all more informed on how policing works. Black women's bodies are the most policed bodies in this country.

Also, I didn't read the Washington Post write-up, but it seems silly to me. Like, of course it's difficult to quantify any brutality against human beings. It's not more difficult when it comes to black women, I think it's just easier for us to ignore them because if we acknowledge them then we must acknowledge all of the women affected by violence and brutality, not just by police but by an entire patriarchal, racist system. We keep scratching the surface of these issues and neglecting the root, which is this country never loved black people, and of course that meant black women. We who birth the men they also hate. We are an extension of each other.

aja monet

What inspired this poem, and what inspires your poetry in general?
I was at an event where I read a poem in solidarity with my Palestinian brothers and sisters, and Eve Ensler was in the audience. We spoke briefly after and she admired the poem I read. I was honored and she gave me her email. I followed up immediately the next day and informed her that if she ever needed a poet at any point, I'd be there, no questions asked.

She responded with this vigil for #SayHerName and asked if I'd be willing to read a poem. I have been meditating on this issue of women of color affected by police brutality, but the poem hadn't quite come to me yet. I started writing a piece for Rekia Boyd but it just isn't ready to be done yet. So I woke early the morning of the vigil and forced myself to write this poem. I sat with all the names of the women and I asked them that I may find the words to do justice. They came to me hours before I had to meet with you all to record.

And maybe they'll change, but the process of inspiration is a strange thing. For the most part I call on my ancestors. Not to be all, "I call on my ancestors," but it's true. I know I'm not the only one writing when I write. I also know that more times than not inspiration is subjective. You can find inspiration in anything if you pay attention. If you're careful enough to notice how divine this world is and we are, to be here together, creating.

aja monet 2

Obviously you appreciate overtly political art -- why do you think political art can be powerful?
I met an artist in Palestine who said "art is more political than politics." I feel him. I think he's right.

I think being an artist, you are in the business of telling it like it is. You create of the world you live in, unapologetically. What that means is you aren't catering to an eye or group or specific niche so much as your own truth as you see fit. Politicians, on the other hand, are constantly determining their worth and issue relevance based on approval ratings and polls. They are always campaigning, which becomes less about the issues we need to be dealing with and more about who can be bought to speak about what you want them to speak about. It's an ugly game I want no business in.

Art that addresses the business of politics recognizes its power and influence. It unveils the mask of "politics" and gets to the people we are fighting for. It does the difficult work of reaching people's hearts and minds. No great change takes place without art. It's necessary.

Who are some fellow poets you currently admire?
Since we are in the spirit of saying her name, here's a few names: Jayne Cortez, Wanda Coleman, Carolyn Rodgers, June Jordan, Audre Lorde and, of course, my sister, Phillis Wheatley.

aja monet

Monet's two books of poetry, Inner City Chants and Cyborg Ciphers and The Black Unicorn Sings are available online.



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Want To Encourage College Students To Love Art? Loan Them A Picasso

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oberlin






Jay Z starts one of his singles from 2013's "Magna Carta Holy Grail" by claiming, "I just want a Picasso in my casa, no, my castle." At Oberlin College, students fulfill Jay Z's dream by hanging a Picasso in their very own castle dorm room, thanks to the work of art world luminary and professor Ellen Johnson.

With a budget of a few hundred dollars as the school's art librarian in 1940, Johnson founded the Art Rental program at the Allen Memorial Art Museum, which allows (and trusts) students to rent authentic works at an affordable $5 per semester. Each year, hundreds of pieces by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein and Salvador Dalí, among others, go on temporary display in student housing.

oberlin

In his song, Jay Z reveals his ambitions to blow up Jeff Koons' balloons. But Oberlin's students have proven themselves to be far more trustworthy. Abiding by a few rules -- keep the works out of sunlight and uphold the school's honor code -- not a single incident of damage to the priceless pieces has been recorded.



Works are often kept above students' beds, occasionally hung beside a "Harry Potter" poster.

oberlin

How students choose to present their works is varied and often has a curatorial vibe.

Maisy Byerly, a studio art minor at Oberlin, chose "Local" by Red Grooms and "Portrait of Benny Andrews" by Alice Neel while sharing a house with other students who rented art last semester. They decided to display all eight of their framed works in the common are downstairs, saving valuable wall space in their rooms for for posters. On the opposite spectrum, Cohen recalled a friend who proudly displayed a work by Picasso right next to a "Harry Potter" poster.

Adding her own touch, senior Mallory Cohen's borrowed Lichtenstein had twinkle lights hanging over it last semester. Seth Flatt, also a senior and a student-athlete, displayed his beside Andy Warhol prints, an American flag and other "normal college stuff." He and Nicholas Olson both had works prominently featured above their beds. Asked how this affects relationships, Flatt took a long pause. "It's surreal sometimes," he said.

Then again, some works are too large to hang at the head of an extra long twin bed. The work by Joan Miró that Parkorn Wangpaiboonkit rented, for instance, took up a full quarter of the wall. Instead, he hung a piece by Marc Chagall. "I can see it before I go to bed and when I wake up every day," he said. Wangpaiboonkit's roommate put his piece in the closet.


Students are trusted not to party with the Picassos. But of course, they're still "really cool to show off" to friends.

oberlin

Byerly placed a Picasso directly above the liquor cabinet, but that it's a refined space. "I've never seen art rental up at any parties where there's smoshing or bands playing," said Byerly. "I imagine if there had been art rental pieces up, they would have moved them right before the party. The people who are having the ragers are not going to have beer pong next to their art rental."

Even temporary possession of a meaningful piece of art is point of pride for the students. "It's really cool to show off," said Olson. "It's one of those things like, I don't mean to brag, but I totally mean to brag."

Olson explained that he gleefully taunts visitors with a game of "guess the artist. An abstract piece by Miró, Wangpaiboonkit said, was often mistaken as a childhood drawing of his own making. Flatt spoke fondly of out-of-town visitors who've inquired, "Oh, you literally have two Picassos hanging on your wall and you're a college student, how do you do that? ... Oberlin is a very unique place."


Camping outside the museum is a way for students to get the best spots. Once inside, it's a bit like an Easter egg hunt.

oberlin

Students queue up early and wait eagerly to get the best picks. They don't have to stand in line as check-ins occur every few hours, but that still makes it impossible to stray too far away from the museum. Trusted with a great deal of agency, the students keep the the rental system constantly in flux, freeing the museum of responsibility and liability. Olson took charge the last time around, instituting a system of QR check-ins and a disallowance of student proxies in the line -- a system that was deemed both successful and controversial due to some students lack of smart phones or having work commitments keeping them from check-in. For what is typically viewed as an enjoyable tradition, students play cards and guitars as they wait in line. In the fall, they sleep in tents outside.

Once inside the museum, more than 100 students frantically search for the pieces they want in groups of five in a process that is very much like an Easter egg hunt. Cohen, who worked at the museum for the last two years, decided for this art rental that she had to "go hard or go home" and went straight for the Lichtenstein she'd had her eye on since freshman year. As all the works --which are separate from the museum's main collection -- are scattered about a long circular gallery, it isn't always easy finding that exact piece.

Byerly explained that the museum guards and curators act as helpers, responding to inquiries with teasing hints such as, "Yeah, I think I saw that maybe back there." She successfully found a Francisco Goya hidden in a back corner after arriving late in the line. Wangpaiboonkit once asked for such a hint when searching for a Chagall and was directed to look down by his feet.


Despite the light security that comes with campus houses, a work has never been stolen or ruined in the program.

oberlin

"Giving you the value of the artwork would really take away from the point of Art Rental," said Cohen. "The point of art rental isn't how many hundreds of thousands of dollars of art can I have in my room at any given time." The value of the artworks is never disclosed. Working at the museum, Cohen said it was "interesting to see what students take in beginning, as it's not always the Picasso or the Matisse." Most students opt for a work that is "beautiful to them personally," he said.

None of the students had ever heard of works being stolen from parties or dorms, and most pointed out that the school prides itself with a working honor code. "There's literally never been any problem," said Cohen, who did explain that the frames and front glass put around the works are fairly indestructible, but that doesn't discredit the amazing lack of theft.

If anybody tried something malicious with the art, "students would yell at them," joked Cohen. On top of the $5 each student has to cough up, only a minimal liability agreement is signed, although the full consequences for damaging a work are unknown to the renters.


The experience has intensified students' love of art.

Flatt described the entire program as "such a great experience," especially since it's unique to Oberlin. "I was planning to go to a place like Duke and I was planning on camping out for the Duke-UNC basketball game," said Flatt. "And now I find myself camping out for art, which I never would have thought about in high school." Now he makes it a point to visit a city's museums whenever he's on a trip.

Byerly said she once visited the Louvre, where she found a room entirely devoted to the piece of work she had hanging in her freshman dorm room.

Olson said he has sought ways to begin an art collection of his own, adding that he is not the anonymous purchaser of a Picasso which recently sold for a record $179 million.

"I literally woke up every morning and looked at a Lichtenstein for this entire semester and then looked to the left and there was my Picasso just chilling on the other wall," said Cohen. "I can't think of another time in my life that I would have works by artists like that in my room."



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Photographer Creates Adorably Wacky Lego Scenes

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If only we could design a world like this.

France-based photographer Sofiane Samlal has a talent for creating incredibly delightful scenes using Lego characters. Samlal, who goes by Samsofy, arranges the tiny toy people around everyday objects and backgrounds to produce photographs of anything from a man washing windows to a dog owner picking up her pooch's No. 2.

(Story continues below.)
lego

dog

The photographer told The Huffington Post via a translator that he worked in a toy center in the past, and has experience taking pictures of toys. But it wasn't until after his son was born that he started creating these whimsical scenes.

"When my son was born I decided to stop working to take care of him, and during [his] naps I took care to create the universe with my Lego," he told HuffPost. He added that it's a project which has become "more and more important" to him over time.

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Check out more of Samsofy's Lego photos below. (And try to refrain from singing "Everything Is Awesome" over and over.)

toaster

superman

lego

lego

lego

hulk

fish

lego

princess

To see more of Samsofy's work, visit his website here, or check out his Facebook page here.

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This Guy's Panoramic Drawings On Coffee Cups Are So Much Better Than Latte Art

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And you thought the stamp your favorite coffee shop uses to decorate its cups was cool.

Adrian Hogan, an illustrator living in Tokyo, has been crafting stunning panoramas of local scenes as part of his daily sketching practice. Hogan got the idea to draw on the cups from another local artist, Mariya Suzuki, and captures everything from a bookstore to the Imperial Palace.

“When I first arrived in Tokyo, my drawings were focused on the city and objects,” Hogan told Quartz. “Lately, I’ve focused more on my friends and the people I encounter here. The coffee cups have been a great way for me to look around again and be open to fresh inspiration.”

Hogan uses a combination of pens and watercolors to put the illustrations on cups left over from his daily coffee order, Mashable reported.

Take a look at some of the artist's stunning panoramas below, and follow him on Instagram @adehogan.




















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Kanye West Makes Record Donation To Chicago-Based Youth Program, Donda's House

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After months of raising funds to secure future programming, Chicago arts institution, Donda’s House has reportedly received a record donation from its co-founder, Kanye West.

According to a press release, West recently donated $133,000 of the proceeds from his Louis Vuitton Foundation concert series to the organization, which was among 30 Chicago social service programs who lost state funding that was awarded through former Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration.

Donda's Houselaunched in 2013 in honor of West’s mother, Dr. Donda West. It hosts a 12-week program providing instructional classes in creative writing, studio recording, and health/wellness education to artists between the ages of 14 - 24 years-old.

Donda’s House Executive Director, Donnie Smith, expressed her gratitude for West’s contribution and said that it will improve their “capacity with new staff as we deliver the high-quality arts programming that our participants deserve.”

Donda’s House Creative Director and co-founder, Che "Rhymefest" Smith echoed Smith’s comments by noting how the rapper’s influence has made an impact on Chicago’s youth and the program.

“His leadership has enabled Donda’s House to grow quickly and impact the lives of over 160 of Chicago’s young people already in our short history,” he said. “This is a great honor and a true tribute to his mother’s legacy, who did so much for young artists."

For more info on Donda’s House click here.

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Eiffel Tower Closed After Workers Walkout Over Anger About Pickpockets

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PARIS (AP) — The Eiffel Tower closed to the public for most of the day Friday as workers protested a rise in aggressive pickpockets around the Paris landmark that attracts thousands of visitors daily.

The walkout came a day after Paris authorities announced that crime against tourists in the French capital had dropped this year thanks to reinforced police presence and video surveillance. The tower didn't open Friday morning because the staff was concerned about petty crime around the site. Clusters of tourists streamed beneath the tower, unable to reach its viewing platforms.

It remained closed while staff and management held meetings about security measures, then reopened in the late afternoon, according to the company that manages the site. The tower is normally open every day of the year, but sometimes closes briefly for bomb threats or strikes.

Tower employee Denis Vavassori of the CGT union said the workers want a permanent police presence.

"It is a growing problem. There were always pickpockets at the Eiffel Tower but now we are really facing an organized group," he told The Associated Press.

Police officers patrolled the area Friday on bikes, on foot and in cars.

"Unfortunately there are here people who assault and try to steal. So we do feel less free, and lose the opportunity to visit this beautiful monument," said tourist Francisco Madeira of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who visited the site before the tower reopened. "There should be more organization and police."

Workers at the Louvre Museum staged a similar walkout in 2012.

Paris authorities said Thursday violent theft was down 25 percent and pickpocketing was down 23 percent in the first four months of 2015, compared with the same period last year. City authorities have also broken up several major theft networks, according to Prosecutor Francois Molins, who visited the Champs-Elysees tourist district Thursday to show how seriously police are taking crime against visitors.

Paris has also heightened security since January terror attacks in Paris left 20 dead, including three attackers.

The French capital is still attracting big crowds, however.

Dave Kleps from Old Forge, New York, said his Paris experience hasn't been overshadowed by crime.

"We've been here two days and I haven't felt unsafe," he said, speaking beneath the Eiffel Tower. "We are a little bit disappointed that it's closed."

___

Angela Charlton contributed to this report.

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There Are Infinite Reasons To Love This Photographer And Her 97-Year-Old Muse

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"Ever since I can remember all I ever wanted to do is draw," Philadelphia-based artist Marie Ulmer once said. "I drew myself a lot since I was always there in the mirror." In 1924, Ulmer created her first self-portrait at seven years old. She hasn't stopped since.

She spent thirty five years working at the Free Library of Philadelphia as a commercial illustrator, though self-portraits remained her specialty. Now, at 97 years old, Ulmer has devoted her life to creative expression, working in media ranging from pastels, watercolor and India ink, to prints, silkscreen, ceramics, jewelry and poetry.

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"The universe is very large," she told The Art Blog during a 2014 exhibition, "and yet you find the smallest things like grains of sand and moonbeams round. It is so wonderful to know God put them there for us to find." It's easy to fall in love with the passion and spirit of Ulmer, a life-long artist so unconcerned with fame, fortune or reputation.

Recently, photographer Candace Karch took notice. "Marie and I have been friends for almost 8 years," she explained in an email to The Huffington Post. "I began photographing her, more seriously, about four years ago. Our get-togethers would start with a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate, and end in a photo session. She is a ham and can act like a diva at times. I realized she was the perfect subject once she was in front of the camera."

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Karch photographs Ulmer in her element, whether cuddling up against laundry hanging out to dry, rubbing her cheek against the smooth curve of a plum or lounging around all prima-donna-like on her home's couch. Thus, a beautiful friendship and artistic collaboration was born. At the age of 93, Ulmer expanded her artistic repertoire once again, adding muse to the list.

Last year, Ulmer relocated to an assisted living facility, where Karch visits her constantly, camera in hand. One day, Karch hopes to create a book, combining her photographs of Ulmer alongside Ulmer's own self-portraits. "If I communicate anything, it's our relationship," Karch concluded. "Marie blossoms in front of the camera. I always hope that I am creating an interesting composition with an interesting subject."





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8 Frida Kahlo Quotes That Capture Her Infinite Wisdom And Fire

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Her passion, her devotion. Her vulnerability, her drive. Her vision, her fire. Her flower crowns, her eyebrows. There are infinite reasons to love Mexican surrealist painter and ultimate source of life inspiration Frida Kahlo.

In honor of the New York Botanical Garden's recently opened tribute to Kahlo and her garden, as well as her endless impact on the lives and minds of creative spirits everywhere, we've compiled some of our favorite quotations that capture the magic of Kahlo's inimitable spirit.







All illustrations by Priscilla Frank

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Underwear Company Features Double Mastectomy Breast Cancer Survivors In Empowering Photo Campaign

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Each October, popular culture becomes awash in pink ribbons, pink balloons and pink shirts for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The publicity of breast cancer research, treatment and survival through the pink campaign may the most well-known way to raise money and awareness, but it isn't inclusive of everyone.

Campaigns like "No Bra Day" have come under fire for being too "pinkwashed." The result isn't just glib, it also represents only one gender expression. That's why gender-inclusive underwear company Play Out is shedding light on the more complicated nuances of the disease through a stunning photo series. The empowering images feature women with double mastectomies who opted out of reconstruction and are bilaterally flat chested.

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Models Emily Jenson (left) and Jodi Jaecks (right).


Emily Jenson, Jodi Jaecks and Melanie Testa, three breast cancer survivors who underwent double mastectomies, modeled for the campaign, which also features androgynous model Rain Dove. Jaecks says she hopes it explains more about the reality of the disease.

"This takes the conversation outside the realm of basic breast cancer awareness. Breast cancer is a fact of the human experience and it is vitally important to place survivorship in the context of empowerment," she told The Huffington Post in an email. "I think that my natural androgyny and sexual preference have given me the advantage of self-acceptance far outside of cultural gender identification or definitive norms. This self-assurance informed not only my choice to have the double mastectomy, but the certainty that my choice would serve my self-confidence and strength moving forward in my life."

The Play Out photo series was created in collaboration with FlatTopper Pride, a cancer survivors support group for LGBTQ individuals who chose not to undergo reconstruction. Testa says the photos importantly call out a underrepresented group of people who may be stigmatized in the dominant culture.

"Living in a society that does not reflect the image of my body [type] -- breast-less, scarred, affected by cancer -- has great consequence and influence to those who are newly diagnosed," she told HuffPost. "Not all women choose reconstruction or feel that it will make them whole again; some feel quite whole without breasts and without the need to wear breast forms. I choose to embrace my body as is and blithely proceed with grace and dignity. My hope is that other women will see these images in their time of need and that they will feel empowered and informed about flat reconstruction as one option among many."

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Models Rain Dove (left) and Melanie Testa (right).


Ultimately, Jaecks wants the body-positive images and her personal story to inspire strength in others who may be experiencing similar challenges with breast cancer.

"This is a disease, not just a woman's disease. Therefore, it [shouldn't] be an assault on a woman's gender identity, sexuality, femininity, body acceptance or self-confidence," she said. "Most people do not realize that over half of post-mastectomy women do not have reconstruction. If we can extend the comfort zones of women who make this choice -- who long to live openly and freely -- without prosthetics, we will evolve well beyond the cancer shame of the past."

To see more photos from the campaign, check out the slideshow below:

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The Best Way To Use Instagram Filters To Get More Likes, According To Science

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Overwhelmed by all the choices on Instagram? You're not alone. With 27 filters and endless ways to customize your photos, it's hard to decide how best to edit your pictures to get the most satisfying results. Thankfully, science is here to help.

Researchers from Yahoo Labs and Georgia Tech have figured out which filters and edits tend to result in the most views and comments.

It might be trendy to tag your photos "#nofilter," but filters can actually help an Instagram photo's performance, the research shows. Filtered photos are 21 percent more likely to be seen and 45 percent more likely to receive comments, according to this new paper.

More specifically, higher contrast, exposure and warmth tend to correlate to more comments and views. Adding an aged effect has a positive impact on the photo's views and a negative effect on how many comments it gets. The opposite is true for higher saturation, which has a negative effect on views and a positive effect on comments. ("Views" here means views on the Flickr mobile app, where some people post their Instagram pics after editing them.)

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Here's how the researchers figured it out: They interviewed 15 people -- all regular users of Instagram and Flickr -- about their filtering and editing habits. They also analyzed 7.6 million photos on Flickr that were uploaded through either the Flickr app or Instagram.

The researchers found that the people they interviewed enjoyed editing and filtering their photos, even though the tweaks took some time. "Many of our participants mentioned that ... changing their photos through filters makes those photos more special and fun," the paper reads.

Perhaps, the researchers suggest, that's why people are engaging with filtered and edited photos -- because those pics feel special.

H/T Science Of Us

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A Brief Yet Complex Color History Of Crayola Crayons

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Few things stir up childhood nostalgia as quickly as a fresh box of crayons. It's easy to see what makes them an appealing collectors' item. For Ed Welter, a former Nike project manager from Oregon, the allure went a step further.

No one, not even Crayola, had recorded a full history of crayons. So it became Welter's challenge.

As a devoted collector, he began focusing on crayons around 2000, soon after selling off an extensive beer-can collection. Welter gathered box after box, with some dating back to the 1880s. Old catalogs from libraries around the country (and, later, on Google Books) allowed him to cobble together a timeline. By 2014, Welter had amassed over 3,000 boxes of colored wax, about half of which were Crayola. Then he sold everything (Crayola purchased its namesake boxes while the others went to various collectors) and retired to Spain.

What Welter had discovered in his 14 years of collecting is that Crayola's color history is absurdly complicated. On his website, Crayon Collecting, Welter laments how singlehandedly piecing it all together was difficult not only "just from the sheer amount of detail, but also because of the convoluted swapping and renaming of colors." For example, the crayon which the company named "Blue" when it got its start in 1903 was not the same "Blue" by the 1930s. It was given a new name, which no longer exists today, and "Blue" became a brighter shade of the color.

Confused? It's okay. It took about eight whole months for Welter to piece together Crayola's history, which he described to The Huffington Post as "complex" and, pun intended, "colorful."


There are crayon colors that no longer exist today, many of them coming from old painters' palettes.

In essence, Crayola became such a hit because the company figured out a way to inexpensively combine paraffin wax with safe pigments, according to Welter. Colors in the early years drew from paints available from art suppliers at the time, and many of these shades have since dropped out of production.

Among the original shades that have been unceremoniously discontinued, according to Welter's research: Burnt Umber, Celestial Blue, Charcoal Grey, Cobalt Blue, English Vermillion, Madder Lake, Ultramarine Blue, Van Dyke Brown and Venetian Red. Raw Sienna lives on in name, but as a different shade of brown than its predecessor. Crayola officially "retired" Raw Umber in 1990 along with seven other shades. Still others have dropped out without so much as a goodbye.

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Original Crayola shades that have been discontinued. Courtesy Ed Welter.



"New" Crayola crayons aren't often new, just renamed. By 2013, Welter had counted 755 color names that had ever been sold, but only 331 individual colors.

In 1903, the company used 54 names for 38 separate colors. By the end of 1958, the company had created 138 names for 108 colors sold at any point in time. By 2015, it had bestowed 759 names upon 331 colors.

Special crayon boxes with colors like Iron Man Blue and Liberty Blue are just the plain old Blue you'd find in any regular box. Sweet Georgia Peach is really just Melon. Tye Dye Lime is Green Yellow. (Crayola might be on to something, though, for wanting to keep things simple.)

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Blue and red shades from Crayola's early years, compared. Courtesy Ed Welter.



Crayola once issued a box with several crayons of the same color under different names.

In 1949, Crayola debuted a new 48-count box of crayons, filled with lies.

"They pulled a fast one on everybody," Welter wrote on his site. Light Turquoise Blue and Turquoise Blue look identical, as do Dark Green and Green. And good luck figuring out the difference between Brilliant Rose, Medium Rose and Light Magenta. Or Medium Violet and Violet.

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Courtesy Ed Welter.



Certain colors have been renamed for political reasons, like "Flesh."

What color is flesh? According to Welter, it's the lightly pigmented, roughly universal shade we see on our palms -- like the Crayola crayon by that name. For most people, however, flesh refers to skin tone, and the problem with making one beige-y shade the only skin-tone crayon available is obvious. But until the early 1960s, Welter explained, the company hadn't yet realized how the name could cause consternation. A social researcher noticed children using the shade to draw people, teasing darker-skinned classmates who didn't match the crayon. Shortly after the researcher wrote a letter to the company in 1962, (after a couple back-and-forth years with the name Pink Beige, for some reason) the Crayola shade became known as Peach.

Indian Red was also renamed, though not until 1999. The name actually referred to a pigment from a plant found in India, Welter told HuffPost, and could have been tweaked to "India Red." To avoid misconceptions, however, the company chose a completely new -- and completely neutral -- name: Chestnut.

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"Flesh" or "Peach"? Courtesy Ed Welter.



The Macaroni and Cheese crayon was named by a pasta-loving 6-year-old.

For much of the company's history, Crayola's crayon names were plain. Then in 1983, a new line for small children with names like Birdie Blue and Kitty Cat Black was introduced. Metallics, like Tiger Eye and Moonstone, followed a few years later with other specialty crayons. And, in 1992, the company opened up naming rights to anyone. Fans of all ages got the chance to name sixteen brand-new colors -- which Welter says were, indeed, not recycled from past boxes.

"I wrote a letter to Crayola (all by myself, a proud six-year-old), entering the contest," a grown-up Adrienne Watral told The Huffington Post in an email. When she found out that her submission had won a month later, the crayon company flew Watral's whole family out to Hollywood, showering them with "enough Crayola swag to last a lifetime." And the new orange crayon had a name: Macaroni and Cheese. "I remember being interviewed for various news stations on television and being asked how I thought of the name," she wrote. "This was the easiest question ... I named the color of my favorite food!"

Another famous color was named by a 12-year-old Sam Marcus, who drew small facial expressions to correspond with each new crayon. His "laughter" face was colored pink because, Marcus told HuffPost in an email, he'd blush when someone tickled him as a kid. Hence Tickle Me Pink was born.

We'd also like to note that Purple Mountain's Majesty was named by an 89-year-old Mildred Samson -- proving that coloring knows no boundaries.

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Adrienne Watral with her winning crayon. Courtesy photo.



Despite all the changes, Welter says the color quality has remained fairly consistent throughout the past century.

The biggest overall change, Welter explained, happened after World War II, when many of the pigment suppliers Crayola had been using for years could no longer sell to the company. Either the supply had been ruined or the business relationship had altered, putting the company in the odd position of finding new and ever-so-slightly-different sources.

"You know how people are with, 'Oh, back in my day, colors were so much richer!'" Welter told HuffPost. "But I actually colored on paper with all of them." By and large, there were only very gradual changes, like the new pigments and perhaps minor tweaks to different formulas. "Since the '60s, they've kept pretty true to their basic colors."

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Click to view the complete color chart


As for Welter, he now spends his time "virtually collecting" crayons by digging up information and fixing inaccuracies around the Internet. He warns that Wikipedia is particularly inaccurate when it comes to Crayola, but since the site does not allow contributors to cite their own research, the false information remains unchecked. It bothers him, but not enough to stop his efforts.

"When you're a collector," he said, "you're in it for the minutia."





Clarification: An earlier version of this post misidentified the social researcher who lobbied to change the Flesh crayon as a Crayola employee. She was not employed by the company.

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The Roots Aim To Expand Music Festival Following Record-Breaking Ticket Sales

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Music festival season is upon us, and that means that the legendary Roots crew will host their 8th annual Roots Picnic on May 30 at Philadelphia’s Festival Pier.

In response to the event’s growing popularity, the group has curated a diverse lineup which includes their performance, as well as Erykah Badu, The Weeknd, A$AP Rocky, electronic rock duo Phantogram and hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa, to name a few.

This year’s bill has helped the festival net its biggest ticket revenue yet, according to The Roots frontman Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter. “Eight years ago we didn’t have a sponsorship; we didn’t have that much support on a local level, either. The Roots Picnic began as something we did and said that ‘we’re going to do this and they will come,’” Trotter explained to The Huffington Post. “And so we did it and folks have begun to come around.”

“This year is our best year for ticket sales thus far, and this is going to be the largest that we’ve ever been in the past 8 years as far as expansion. But I feel like pretty soon, we may be growing out of the festival here in Philadelphia. Because we’re close to capacity now,” he added.

Trotter mentioned the group is looking to potentially expand the festival to places such New York, Washington D.C., Detroit and Baltimore.

While the group's place as the as the “Tonight Show” band has certainly helped ticket sales, Roots Picnic co-founder and group manager, Shawn Gee attributed this year’s record-breaking sales to the brand awareness surrounding the event.

“We toured the world for countless years and played these multi-act, multi-genre festivals and wanted to provide that same experience for our hometown fan base,” Gee told HuffPost. “I think we've delivered on that goal and now the Roots Picnic brand itself means something, regardless of the talent that we book.”

“People know what to expect and they know they will have a great time and discover new musical talent at our event. We have also organically grown the footprint and this year added a 3rd stage and more artists to the bill."

In addition to organizing this year’s 8th Annual Roots Picnic, in July the Philadelphia collective will also release a music project in conjunction with the Broadway play “Hamilton.” The special set is expected to feature interpretations of the production’s original recordings reworked by Busta Rhymes, Q-Tip, John Legend and Alicia Keys among others.

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'Tomorrowland' Is Full Of Wonder But Light On Meaning

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"Tomorrowland" is forecasted to top the Memorial Day Weekend box office. The receipts won't be nearly as hefty as last year's "X-Men: Days of Future Past" or 2013's "Fast & Furious 6," but the movie will nonetheless become one of only a few non-franchise properties to debut at No. 1 this summer. That's even more of a feat given how much secrecy has surrounded the film since it was green-lit in 2011. Inspired by the futuristic region of Disney's theme parks, "Tomorrowland" is a preachy take on the apathy with which humans have treated this planet. But it is not without a deep sense of wonder that director Brad Bird ("The Incredibles," "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol") presents his take on the state of the earthly union. (Bird co-wrote the script with "Lost" and "The Leftovers" co-creator Damon Lindelof, who also earns a story-by credit alongside Entertainment Weekly journalist Jeff Jensen.)

"Tomorrowland' is a secret no more, however. The buzzy $190 million spectacle has two perspectives at its core: that of a young Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson), a precocious kid who attends the 1964 New York World's Fair to present the homemade jet pack he invented. A snooty judge (Hugh Laurie) dismisses Frank's creation after seeing it leaves some functionality to be desired. But wait! An even more precocious young girl named Athena (Raffey Cassidy) tips him off to an underground lair accessed via Disney's "It's a Small World" ride, and there he finds a utopian kingdom that's two or three stylized daydreams removed from the real world. Years later, an ageless Athena tracks down Casey (Britt Robertson), a teenager living with her hothead single father (Tim McGraw) and doting little brother (Pierce Gagnon), who does everything she can to protect the nearby NASA plant from being destroyed. Casey receives a pin that, when touched, transports her -- and only her -- to Tomorrowland, which she comes to discover has been commandeered by that same surly judge who dismissed Frank Walker years ago. Casey tracks down a much older Frank (George Clooney) and insists they rescue this futuristic mecca from doom.

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There's a lot of plot in that paragraph, and even if it takes a while for it all to unfold, it only scrapes the surface of "Tomorrowland." There are Big Themes about disregard and environmentalism and pissy worldviews and doomsday media culture and loss of imagination stamped all over the film. Most of them are too heavy-handed, even for a family flick. Still, we wouldn't go so far as to say "Tomorrowland" isn't worth your time. In fact, a lot of it is quite fun and quite refreshing given the tired tropes that both young-adult fare and summer blockbusters cannot escape.

Here are a few things that make Bird's pageant worth your attention:

1. The three kid actors steal the show.
"Tomorrowland" has to contend with an unremarkable (possibly miscast?) George Clooney, who plays present-day Frank Walker, the cranky Tomorrowland alum who is now living in a secluded house bugged with so many whirling gizmos that it belongs in, well, a sci-fi movie. Clooney isn't phoning it in, per se -- he just doesn't bring much to the table that any moderately gruff middle-aged actor couldn't. Instead, count on the marvel of Britt Robertson, Thomas Robinson and especially Raffey Cassidy as the three charming kiddos at the film's center. Robertson is its lead, despite Clooney getting top billing; she plays the young teen recruited to travel with Frank back to Tomorrowland. Robinson is a wide-eyed delight as the younger Frank in flashback scenes, and Cassidy -- a Felicity Jones look-alike with small roles in "Dark Shadows" and "Snow White and the Huntsman" to her name -- dominates the film as the enigmatic British lass who shepherds most of its action. Cassidy's telling eyes are reminiscent of "Parent Trap"-era Lindsay Lohan, and she boasts the same confident comedic caliber to boot.

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2. The world of Tomorrowland is deeply imaginative.
The moralizing themes of the titular tract -- and the convoluted way the script presents them -- weigh down the second half of "Tomorrowland," but that only barely detracts from the stunning visuals punctuating what resembles a functional amusement park. Maglev trains look like roller-coasters zipping around a plaza of skyscrapers, while a pristine blue sky characterizes a utopia that's both idealistic and utilitarian. Brad Bird and production designer Scott Chambliss ("Alias," "Star Trek") have created a landscape that begs for dreams to be dreamed and new horizons to be plowed.

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3. Kathryn Hahn and Keegan-Michael Key make fun cameos.
The film's action, centered on a world where collective humanity has shrugged off things like climate control and space exploration, kicks into high gear once Casey (Robertson) leaves home to figure out why she ended up with a mysterious yellow pin ornamented with a blue "T" that transports her to the faraway Tomorrowland. She finds a Texas memorabilia shop looking for the same item on eBay, and after traveling there, meets the kooky married owners whose robotic mannerisms quickly raise suspicions. They're played by Kathryn Hahn and Keegan-Michael Key, both game to embrace the silliness of their scene, which whips out the laser guns as soon as it's clear that these two are not what they seem. Cue clever "Star Wars" allusions throughout.


4. This is a rare non-franchise blockbuster with a great female role model at the center.
"Tomorrowland" is technically an existing property, but it doesn't squeeze into the same franchise category as, say, "The Hunger Games" or "Divergent," two recent literary adaptations with stellar female leads. We know nothing about the "Tomorrowland" players before the movie's first frame, which makes it all the more rewarding to take this journey with the ambitious Casey at its helm. That shouldn't need to be something we celebrate, but considering last year's highest-grossing non-franchise film with a female lead was the very silly "Lucy," it is. Vulture's David Edelstein called this the "anti-'Hunger Games,'" and that makes sense. Katniss Everdeen is worth rooting for, but it's nice to spend time with a heroine whose action sequences don't involve killing other kids or contending with the "faction" to which she must subscribe. That isn't to say the "I'd Love to Teach the World to Sing"-style ending works, but it does add a certain freshness when a movie doesn't need to position the female protagonist in terms of her willingness to take no prisoners or contend with "Fault in Our Stars"-esque tragedy.

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5. Brad Bird and Co. do what most high-voltage blockbusters don't: They manage not to overclog the action.
If there's any reason to bypass comic-book movies -- and apparently there aren't many reasons, given their box-office stamina -- it's because most of them borrow the same plot beats and resort to similar cycles of endless action sequences sandwiched by slight exposition. But the action in "Tomorrowland" remains secondary to the plot. The script doesn't shy away from letting its characters talk, and even with glaring contrivances, it feels like (depressingly) new terrain to see a contemporary summer blockbuster grant its characters the space to think and breathe and brainstorm. That part of Bird's approach marks another quality that sets it apart from the many YA franchises serving action ahead of characterization.

"Tomorrowland" opens in wide release on May 22.

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Mosque Built Inside A Defunct Church In Venice For Biennale Is Shut Down By City Officials

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MILAN (AP) — Authorities in Venice on Friday closed a working mosque in an ex-church that was Iceland's contribution to the 56th Venice Biennale contemporary art fair on the grounds that it was being improperly used as a place of worship.

Swiss-Icelandic artist Christoph Buechel's exhibit inside a former Roman Catholic Church creating the first mosque ever in the historic center of Venice sparked controversy from the outset. The chairman of the Icelandic Art Center, which commissioned the project, complained that Venetian authorities "have tried to prevent its realization rather than assist in making it possible," under the claim "that the Icelandic Pavilion is not art." "Perhaps most disappointingly, the administration of La Biennale di Venezia ... has not supported this artistic endeavor in the way that would have been expected for an organization of its stature and proclaimed advocacy of contemporary art," Icelandic art center Eirikur Thorlaksson said in a statement.

He said the closure indicated that the Biennale, one of the visual art world's premier events, "is not a venue for truly free artistic expression."

Iceland chose the deconsecrated Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia for the exhibit titled "The Mosque" in Venice, which for centuries served as a crossroads between East and West and is infused with Middle Eastern architectural influences. The project envisioned a working mosque for the seven months of the Biennale, which opened May 8 and comprises national pavilions as well as a curated main exhibit.

After weeks of tensions, Venice city officials withdrew authorization for the installation citing violation of the terms, including a ban on using the pavilion as a place of worship as well as security concerns.

The Venice Biennale emphasized in a statement Friday that national pavilions are managed "in a completely autonomous capacity" by the participating countries. It said earlier that it hoped a solution could be worked out.

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