Artist Buries Gold In Abandoned Mansion To Illuminate Peru's Troubled History

June 8, 2015, 5:47 am

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Have you ever gone hunting for gold? Brooklyn-based artist Iván Sikic’s new installation, "LOOT" ("SAQUEO" in Spanish), revives that childhood dream of uncovering priceless ore. But he adds a harsh political edge, framing it in a history of colonial oppression, miner exploitation, and good ol' human greed.

To do so, Sikic buried a 24-karat gold nugget beneath 54 tons of dirt in an abandoned mansion in Peru’s capital city, Lima. Then, he asked people to engage in the artwork by, well, digging. Whoever found the hidden nugget would be able to keep it -- which is no small success, as it’s worth around $2,000.



“LOOT tackles an issue that is the result of human behavior,” Sikic wrote to The Huffington Post, “and I felt it was important to put the viewer at the center of the work (by inviting them to participate in the creation of it) in order to best expose the repercussions of humanity’s actions.” The artwork thrusts the normally passive art-goer into a morally precarious position: he both relishes the dig and must question that enjoyment.

That’s because gold has a long and troubled history in Peru, where Sikic grew up. European settlers ravaged indigenous populations to extract it, and today’s mining practices are similarly destructive -- both to the Amazon Rainforest and to the lives of over 400,000 illegal miners. Those problems, however, are rarely addressed in urban centers like Lima.

“Peru is an extremely centralized country,” Sikic wrote, “where the issues that take place outside the capital (in this case, that of illegal gold mining and its consequences), for the most part, tend to have a soft focus put on them, which only gets sharpened sporadically.”

Sharpening that soft focus required a mix of partnership and good fortune. A Peruvian jeweler helped him source the gold and acquire extensive quality certification, but the abandoned mansion was acquired through pure luck. Sikic’s Lima gallery Gonzalez y Gonzalez was located across the street from the derelict. When they inquired, gallery representatives learned it was scheduled for demolition -- and the property developers were happy to give Sikic free artistic reign. The installation was open to hunters for just three days, but when no one was able to uncover the nugget, Sikic himself took on the role of miner to unearth it.

While the performance piece may no longer be open for those seeking riches, it continues to address the unacknowledged ways income and lifestyle disparities can emerge from those riches. “I realized that the reading of it went well beyond that of my original intention,” Sikic wrote, “and the work seemed to also speak a lot about human greed for anything that we consider to be of significant value.”

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Inside The Not-So-Private Life Of A Nude Model

June 8, 2015, 5:52 am

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(Illustration by Dexter Miranda)

It’s a situation that would terrify most people: sifting through Craigslist ads, meeting with a stranger, and immediately disrobing. “It’s never been a big deal to me,” Claudia Eve says, appearing a bit bored by the over-cautious sentiment.

“There are certain trigger words I have learned to steer clear of,” the art model explained to The Huffington Post. “I will never respond to an ad if someone uses ‘female’ as a noun, but if it’s an adjective, that’s okay.”

Claudia looks like a runway model and acts like an artist: thoughtful and assured. Her towering, spindly frame is hidden underneath a button-up shirt and blazer, her short, rain-spritzed hair tucked behind her ears. The pouring rain nearly drowned out Claudia’s hushed voice as she sipped a black coffee in a Manhattan bookstore.

The Montreal-born model began posing nude for artists at 19. She had experience in fashion modeling and dreams of being a curator, so the unconventional teenage decision to be an art model made a surprising amount of sense.
“I don’t really remember my first session,” she says. “I don’t think I was nude for that one; I was wearing a kimono. I still wear a kimono mostly, but of course now I take it off.”

For the past 10 years Claudia has been modeling on-and-off, charging between $20 an hour and $500 a day, depending on the gig. (The flexible hours and control allow her to curate on the side, often incorporating the artists she models for in her own shows.) The atmosphere dictates the specifics of the pose and choreography­ -- a Wednesday night “Drink-n-Draw” night would require a far different state of mind than a one-on-one session with a specific painter and his vision.

“The quicker poses are performance art,” she explains. “The longer ones I call subsidized meditation.”

Craigslist is where most of the matchmaking goes down, making every “day at the office” into a possible life threatening situation or once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“There was this one artist who turned out to be, like, a big artist. I just happened to answer his Craigslist ad.” Who? Postmodern pioneer David Salle, whose female forms are known to straddle the line between pornography and “abstract choreography.” The two have been working together for years now, which means Claudia gets to summer in the Hamptons, roll around in paint (channel Yves Klein) and make all other less savvy Craigslisters infinitely jealous. “I have an algorithm,” she says. “I know how to find the right gig.”

Her algorithm doesn’t account for every possible situation, however. “I haven’t had anyone be creepy or disrespectful to me,” Claudia says, flipping through the client list in her memory. “This one man, he wasn’t a creep, he was an affable, older Asian man, but his art was like, manga anime style. So he had me in poses that were way sexier than I normally like to do,” Claudia says, spreading her legs and slouching forward to illustrate for the entire coffee shop. “He was very nice, but I didn’t want to be manga! That’s my face on there! If I don’t like the work someone makes, I won’t model for them again.”

Still, even with less overtly sexual positions, the tension can be as palpable in the room as the paint fumes.

“Yeah, I’ve slept with a few of the artists,” she dryly states, with neither embarrassment nor hubris. One tryst occurred during a contemporary version of Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2,” in which Claudia was climbing up and down said staircase, naked, for hours. She pauses, continuing with a hint of uncharacteristic sentimentality: “There is not much of a story. We bonded. We saw each other for a little while.”

While there is a certain romance to this image, it also borders on an old-world muse and master power play that feminist artists and activists have been working hard to move beyond. Yet from Claudia’s perspective, the artmaking process is a collaborative one, and not dependent upon restrictive standards of beauty. “Some people choose me because of how I look, but others turn me down. Some say, ‘she is too thin.’” In Claudia’s eyes there is no ideal nude model. “Many of the artists I work with aren’t even drawing me as a human. There are architects and animators who find the shapes hidden in the bodies.”

For Claudia, one shoot for artist Spencer Tunick -- who photographs large-scale nude installations, with hundreds, even thousands of bodies at a time -- nicely captured this sentiment.

“There were so many different types of bodies; everyone was so happy. There was one man in a wheelchair. There was a young girl who was clearly anorexic -- she had long, fine hair growing all over her. Someone had brought her there to show her all of these people with all of these different bodies. It was beautiful.”

A version of this interview was originally published in 2012. The professional nude model preferred to keep her surname confidential.

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Bookindy Allows Users To Browse Amazon, Buy Indie

June 8, 2015, 6:06 am

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Amazon -- the bookselling empire turned drone-building superstore -- has largely been bad news for the brick-and-mortar book business. Since its launch in 2000, we've waved goodbye to Borders and seen a decline in Barnes & Noble locations across the country -- much to the puzzlement of readers who prefer in-person recommendations. Luckily, indie bookstores haven't suffered a similar fate just yet.

Now, the site's biggest offering -- convenience via mega-fast and fairly inexpensive shipping -- can now be honed and used elsewhere, thanks to a new service offered by Bookindy. The site and Google Chrome extension allows users to browse for titles, authors or interests on Amazon, and find indie stores with comparable or cheaper prices that are willing to deliver the titles to you. Right now, the service is only available in the UK, but the founders are "working on updating the extension for US and other countries."



Indie bookstores are still flourishing in the age of Amazon, thanks to many stores' emphasis on building communities and organizing events. Still, Bookindy is a much-needed step in the convenience department; though ample light has been shed on Amazon's negative impact on the publishing industry, the site's ease of use seems hard to resist. Science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin has been outspoken on the subject and published an article this month about her problems with Amazon's model, titled "Up the Amazon with the BS Machine, or Why I keep Asking You Not to Buy Books from Amazon."

She writes:

If you want to sell cheap and fast, as Amazon does, you have to sell big. Books written to be best sellers can be written fast, sold cheap, dumped fast: the perfect commodity for growth capitalism. The readability of many best sellers is much like the edibility of junk food. Agribusiness and the food packagers sell us sweetened fat to live on, so we come to think that’s what food is. Amazon uses the BS Machine to sell us sweetened fat to live on, so we begin to think that’s what literature is.

She's far from the only author to voice such concerns. During the anticlimactic dispute between Amazon and big-five publisher Hachette, 900 authors signed a petition asking the site to back down. So, if you're with Le Guin and others, Bookindy may be one viable means of appeasing your voracious reading appetite without binging on "junk."

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Music Professor Claims Discovery Of New Leonardo Da Vinci Portrait

June 8, 2015, 6:31 am

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For centuries, a 500-year old engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi sitting in the Cleveland Museum of Art was thought to depict the Greek mythological figure of Orpheus, rocking out on his lira da braccio. However, Ross Duffin, a music professor at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University, has a different idea.

In an article for Cleveland Art magazine, Duffin illuminated the differences between Orpheus -- often rendered as a clean-shaven youngin' -- and the man in the image -- a jolly older fellow with noticeably luscious locks.

After a bit of detective work, Duffin noticed that while the handsome man in the 1505 work didn't quite adhere to the common depictions of Orpheus at the time, they did have a lot in common with a certain Renaissance master: Leonardo da Vinci.



There exist only two portraits of the elusive Leonardo, but, according to Duffin, the features depicted in them resemble those apparent in Cleveland's mysterious engraving. He writes: "[A portrait by Francesco Melzi] shows a man with a beard and long curls, and the very slight bump in his nose and the ridge above the brow are an excellent match for the long-haired, bearded [man] in the Marcantonio engraving."

Not only does Leonardo bear resemblance to the long-haired man in the image, the two also share a musical passion. As art historian Giorgio Vasari wrote in 1550: "Leonardo brought with him that instrument which he had made with his own hands, in great part of silver, in order that the harmony might be of greater volume and more sonorous in tone, with which he surpassed all the musicians who had come together there to play."

Between the physical resemblance and the lira factor, Duffin's art historical theory has gained some momentum. "This is serious and stands some chance of being right," Leonardo scholar Martin Kemp, a professor emeritus of art history at Oxford University, wrote in an email to Live Science.


Leonardo da Vinci, Head of a Man (Possibly a Self-Portrait?), red chalk, from Leonardo's Codex on the Flight of Birds, c.1505 (Biblioteca Reale, Turin)

The remaining question is: how and when did these two men -- Raimondi, a Bologna-based engraver, and Leonardo, who spent time in Florence, Milan, and Rome -- cross paths? "The problems are of time and place," Kemp continued. "Marcantonio was working in Bologna at this early stage of his career, and there is no obvious way they would have met. At this stage, I would say that it is temptingly possible but unproven."

Duffin does posit a scenario that could have served as the potential meeting place -- a 1506 production of "Orfeo" in Milan. In fact, it's even possible that Leonardo starred in "Orfeo," an opera, as the lead character of Orpheus, instrument in hand. If not, Duffin also suggests Raimondi could have created the work from a reference portrait without ever having met Leonardo in person.

We reached out to Carol Herselle Krinsky, Professor of Art History at New York University, who seemed ambivalent about the discovery, and even more so about the engraving itself. "Professor Duffin was right to notice that this is an uncommon portrayal of Orpheus," Krinsky wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. "If [Raimondi] made a print with Leonardo as Orpheus, and did it on speculation that people would buy it, he might have wanted to show the great man even more conspicuously and suggest his own familiarity with him. Here, the musician competes for our attention with a bear and a scratching dog. It's true, though, that the engraver was still young when he made the print and not yet at his most mature and thoughtful."


Leonardo da Vinci, Head of an Old Man (Possibly a Self-Portrait?), red chalk on light brown paper, c.1495 or c.1514 (Biblioteca Reale, Turin)

Krinsky was most intrigued by the unusual decision to align a mythical figure and an artist, as opposed to a nobleman. "The interesting part is not the face itself but rather the portrayal of Leonardo as Orpheus -- in other words, as a musician in addition to being an artist, a scientific investigator ... Identifying a living person with a divinity is an idea that became even more popular as time went on, but if I'm not mistaken, the people so identified were usually kings, dukes, counts, and other noblemen rather than people who had to work for a living, as Leonardo had to do."

Krinsky concluded that even if Leonardo is depicted in the engraving, the artwork reveals little we don't already know about the Renaissance legend. "We are not looking at a new work by Leonardo himself. We learn little about his appearance that wasn't already known. The interesting discovery is that the face might be Leonardo's, and if so, one of Leonardo's contemporaries thought so well of him that he identified him with an Olympian divinity. Professor Duffin certainly deserves praise for drawing our attention to the print and its potential meaning, even if the print itself is no masterwork."

Dennis V. Geronimus, Associate Professor of Renaissance Art and Chair of the Department of Art History at NYU, was more skeptical of Duffin's claim. "A connection between the seated musician and Leonardo is possible, but I would not say that it's probable," he wrote. "There is no other Renaissance master from whose hand one might wish a newly discovered or previously overlooked image possibly to have sprung. The same may be said of of his own captured likeness, especially when that likeness corresponds with that of a long-haired and bearded, almost sorcerer-like figure. In both cases, the visual evidence very seldom bears up to sustained scrutiny."

He concluded: "In the case of the Raimondi engraving, the most straightforward interpretation is also the likeliest: The seated musician is Orpheus among the animals, the mythical figure shown playing a contemporary instrument -- be it a lute or, in this case, a lira da braccio -- as was so often the case in Renaissance imagery. [But] one could also imagine Raimondi possibly casting Orpheus in the guise of Leonardo, knowing as we do that the latter was something of a musical virtuoso."

If Duffin's theory turns out to be true, the clever professor will have discovered what's only the third known portrait of the iconic artist in existence. And one of the other two is in pretty bad shape, specifically, "damaged beyond repair." We're hoping Duffin's pivotal theory checks out and the world will have another shot to ogle Leo's curly locks.

We reached out to the Cleveland Museum of Art for comment and they have yet to respond.

h/t Live Science

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Foster Huntington Is Living Your Most Whimsical Treehouse Dreams

June 8, 2015, 7:21 am

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When Foster Huntington quit his job designing for Ralph Lauren in 2011, he didn't have a plan except to buy a VW van and drive far, far away from New York City.

After wandering the country, publishing multiple photo books, and coining the popular hashtag #vanlife, he's proven that overhauling your life can be a beautiful adventure.

But in 2014, Huntington decided to put some roots down. Or rather, build some up. The 27-year-old gathered a group of friends and started planning a treehouse in western Washington, near the Oregon border. "I have always loved treehouses," he told Outside Magazine. "So I thought it was time to build a big-boy one."

A year later, The Cinder Cone was complete. The multi-level structure consists of two connected treehouses, a soaking tub, and a skate bowl, smack dab in the vast wilderness of the Columbia River Gorge.

“I feel like it’s important to live in a place that’s really inspiring to live," Hungtington told adventure site Mpora.com, "and in this day and age of the Internet you can kind of work from wherever.”

Huntington still works as a social media consultant, a freelance photographer, and a blogger, but doing it all from the treehouse makes life a bit more sweet. “I could’ve bought a house,” he told The New York Times. “But this is so much better. For me, it’s realizing a childhood dream.”

A very particular Pacific Northwest aesthetic takes hold of everything Huntington does: simple, rustic, and acutely Tumblr-worthy.

Huntington documented the process of building The Cinder Cone and is publishing a book of photos. On his Kickstarter for the book, he describes the project as multi-functional: "Think of it as one part instructional book, one part photo book, and one part tiny homes book," he writes.

An instruction manual, you say? Perfect, because we'd like one of our own.















Below, watch the process unfold:



All photos courtesy of Foster Huntington.

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Anish Kapoor Put A Vagina Sculpture In Versailles' Garden, And People Are Unimpressed

June 8, 2015, 1:32 pm

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It's tempting to categorize each and every artwork we encounter as either phallic or yonic, regardless of just how strong the genitalian resemblance is. However, when the artist himself dubs the work the "queen's vagina," you know you're free to let the naughty allusions flow freely.

Today's vagina-centric artwork is brought to you by Turner Prize-winning artist Anish Kapoor, the mind behind Chicago's iconic "Cloud Gate," as well as the more recent installation "Descension," a vortex of perpetually spinning black water installed in a gallery floor. Kapoor is attracting headlines with "Dirty Corner," a massive steel funnel set in broken stone, placed in the garden of the legendary Palace of Versailles.



As the artist explained to French publication Le Journal du Dimanche: "Facing the castle, there will be a mysterious sculpture of rusted steel 10 meters high, weighing thousands of tons, with stones and blocks all around. Again sexual in nature: the vagina of the queen who took power." (The "again" references another sculpture on site, a very phallic-looking cannon entitled "Shooting into the Corner".)

As is the case with many vagina-esque sculptures of yore -- not to mention the occasional butt plug -- innocent onlookers are pissed. Mayor of Versailles, François de Mazières, tweeted, "Anish Kapoor slips up on the green carpet." Tourists have called it "dirty" and "gross."



The Guardian's Michele Hanson was perturbed not by the presence of the vagina itself, but by its unremarkable execution. "I know the queen had her faults, but it’s a very odd vagina –- a vast, brutish, metal, grubby-looking, gaping funnel into a black hole."

Kapoor is the latest artist to contribute to Versailles' initiative of introducing contemporary art in dialogue with the historic grounds. The first participating artist, in 2008, was Jeff Koons, followed by Takashi Murakami, both of whom prompted their fair shares of debate. However, this may just be all a part of Versailles' master plan; as Le Figaro pointed out: "Any controversy will just bring more visitors."



Whether or not controversy was Kapoor's intention, he's certainly not averse to stirring the pot with his work. "Placing objects here and there means nothing," he told The Guardian. "My idea was to upset the balance and invite chaos in ... while preserving the integrity of this historic place –- that was the principal difficulty."

While the primary group offended by Kapoor's massive vagina is of a more traditional bent, those on the left have a different objection to the work. As Michele Hanson further explains in her piece "Artists have done vaginas to death –- will someone please tell Anish Kapoor ... Olga, an artist and female critic, thinks this one is more like the entrance to a storage unit. She is right. Oh dear. Is this how some men still see women? As dirty storage units? And I thought feminism had got somewhere. We still have a million miles to go."

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'United We Feed' Photo Series Supports All Moms -- However They Nourish Their Children

June 8, 2015, 2:15 pm

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Photographer and mom of two Caitlin Domanico hopes her latest project will provide support for all parents navigating the world of pumping, nursing and bottle feeding.

"United We Feed" is a series of photos Domanico took of clients, friends, and acquaintances nourishing their babies in the manner that is best for their individual families. For many of the women, that's breastfeeding. For others, it's pumping and bottle feeding. And for some, it's tube feeding.

"Everybody's journey is so different," the photographer told The Huffington Post. "I love being able to tell their story and hopefully chisel away at that silly term 'Mommy Wars' with one photograph at a time by showing that we are all humans with a unifying goal in mind -- to love our little babies with all of our soul."

Domanico drew inspiration for the series from her own experiences as a breastfeeding mom. While her oldest daughter breastfed for six months and then drank pumped milk and formula from a bottle, her younger daughter nursed exclusively for 18 months because she refused to drink from bottles and often threw fits. "I have talked endlessly to family and friends about my daughters and how I was feeding them, why I was feeding them that way, and how I felt about it," the mom recalled, adding "I sought support from women when I felt unsure, scared, proud, guilty, and determined."



The other moms in her life were also sources of inspiration. "I have offered support and suggestions, mailed tea to women, cheered when I received a text of a selfie of a woman whose baby just latched, and hugged them as I agreed with them that it was absolutely okay to choose formula feeding/pumping, or to be tube-feeding because it was medically necessary," she recalled.

"I love when I am able to give to other women, to listen, to hug them, to offer encouragement, support, and remind them that they are rocking the role of mom," she continued. "Because at the end of the day, each woman was making a decision to love and nourish their baby no matter what the method of delivery may be."

The response to "United We Feed" has been "incredible" and "humbling," Domanico said, noting that she's received countless messages from mothers wishing to thank her for representing their experiences or even requesting own photo shoots. Recently, the photographer was moved when she photographed a lesbian couple feeding their new baby. After one mom pumped and prepared the bottle, her wife fed the baby. Another powerful experience was capturing a mom whose baby with Down syndrome was finally gaining weight after months of difficulty taking a bottle.

Ultimately, Domanico aspires to host a gallery of images in the Philadelphia area where her studio is located. She also dreams of publishing a book that celebrates the variety of parenting decisions and experiences -- in different cultures across the U.S. and eventually, around the world.

Through her messages of support, the mom hopes to break down some of the feelings of "mommy guilt" that stem from breastfeeding and bottle feeding. "It can lead to defensive and competitive behavior from women, who at the end of the day all have the same goal in mind- to love and nourish their precious and tiny babies!" she said.

"It is through this project I envision uniting mothers across all walks of life, while simultaneously teaching my daughters that other women are not the enemy," she added. "We owe it to each other to foster a community that is deeply rooted in respect for one another, after all, motherhood is amazing. It is filled with joy, love, and can be so incredibly gratifying."

Keep scrolling and visit Domanico's website and Facebook page for a look at her beautiful series.





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Charles Manson Prosecutor And 'Helter Skelter' Author Vincent Bugliosi Dead At 80

June 9, 2015, 1:06 am

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Vincent Bugliosi, the former Los Angeles attorney who prosecuted cult leader Charles Manson before becoming a bestselling true crime author, died on June 6 of cancer, The Associated Press reported. He was 80.

The Minnesota native earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Miami and a law degree from UCLA. In the 1960s, the ambitious young lawyer joined the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, where he built a reputation as a top-notch prosecutor, securing convictions in 105 of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder cases.

Charles Manson (Getty Images)

Out of all his cases, Bugliosi was best known for prosecuting Charles Manson and four other defendants in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, a trial he later wrote about in the book "Helter Skelter."

Actress Sharon Tate was married to director Roman Polanski and eight months pregnant on Aug. 9, 1969 when she and four others -- coffee heiress Abigail Folger, director Voytek Frykowski, celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring and friend Stephen Parent -- were killed inside a house she sublet from producer/songwriter Terry Melcher. Polanski was out of the country at the time of the slayings. The following night, the mutilated bodies of grocers Rosemary and Leno LaBianca were discovered bearing the same grisly crime signature.

With the help of a jailhouse tip, police linked the murders to Manson and his "family" of followers. They were arrested two months later and put on trial in 1970. The high-profile case, which involved dozens of witnesses, lasted more than nine months and cost the county a then-record $1 million. In the end, however, Bugliosi convinced the juries that Manson was a murderous cult leader who had masterminded the slayings. Manson's followers Susan Atkins, Charles “Tex” Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten were convicted of perpetrating the crimes.


Deputy district attorneys Vincent Bugliosi, left, and Aaron Stovitz, holding picture of gun, during the county grand jury hearings on the Sharon Tate murders, Dec. 1969. (AP)

“I don’t think I’ve ever known anybody to be as hard a worker as Vince,” Stephen R. Kay, a former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who worked with Bugliosi on the Manson trial, told The Los Angeles TImes. “He would go home after the trial every day, take a nap for an hour, get up and work until 3 or 4 a.m., sleep for a couple more hours and go back to work. And he always appeared fresh, never tired.”

Manson and his followers were originally sentenced to death for the murders, but those sentences were commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972, the Los Angeles Times reported. Atkins died in prison in 2009 while the others remain behind bars to this day.

"The execution of a condemned man is a terrible thing, but murder is an even more terrible thing," Bugliosi told the Los Angeles Times in 2009. "They deserved to die, these people, and I asked for the death penalty and I would do so again...I'm disappointed, of course, particularly with respect to Manson."

Although Bugliosi would spend the 1970s in private practice, writing books became his second career. "Helter Skelter," which he co-wrote with Curt Gentry, was the first of his many bestsellers all of which he penned longhand on yellow legal pads. "Helter Skelter" spawned two TV movies, Variety reported, as did the books “And the Sea Will Tell” and “Till Death Us Do Part." “Reclaiming History,” Bugliosi's 1,600-page take on the Kennedy assassination and the book he considered his magnum opus, served as the basis for the 2013 film "Parkland."

More recently, Bugliosi caused a stir with the 2008 book “The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder,” not just because of its controversial content, but because most print and TV media outlets refused to discuss it, The New York Times reported. The book, which laid out a legal case for holding President Bush “criminally responsible” for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq, hit the bestseller list despite the blackout.

His son, Vincent Bugliosi Jr., told The Associated Press that his father simply had "an unflagging dedication to justice."

Bugliosi is survived by Gail, his wife of 59 years, his son Vincent and his daughter Wendy.

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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's Enigmatic Portraits Show Black Figures That Never Were

June 9, 2015, 5:28 am

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"Any Number of Preoccupations," 2010

Artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye paints, almost exclusively, portraits of black figures. More often than not, the person is juxtaposed against a black background, or at least one mired in darkness, allowing the features of the foreground to camouflage with their surroundings, creeping towards invisibility.

"Where painters including Barkley L. Hendricks, Kehinde Wiley and Mickalene Thomas have taken a celebratory, triumphant and sometimes showy approach to the black subject, Ms. Yiadom-Boakye makes it nearly invisible," Karen Rosenberg wrote in 2010. "She favors a dark, near-monochromatic palette and loose, even sloppy brushwork. Faces are inchoate, bodies phantomlike. Her figures don’t really inhabit their clothes, or the spaces around them."

The artist's enigmatic works are now on view in "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Verses After Dusk," at London's Serpentine Gallery.


"Highriser," 2009

Yiadom-Boakye was born in London in 1977, the daughter of two nurses born in Ghana. She attended Falmouth College of Art and received her MA at the Royal Academy Schools. She began working full time as an artist in 2006, after winning an Arts Foundation award, and in 2013, received a new rush of widespread attention after being shortlisted for the Turner prize.

The artist's portraits, in a strange way, communicate they're not to be trusted. And for good reason. The images, rather than highlighting specific individuals in time and space, conjure fictitious presences, people that never were, outside of the realm of canvas and paint. The artist uses no photographs or preliminary sketches to create her startlingly realistic portraits. The detailed depictions are concocted entirely in the imagination, and executed in paint during the course of a single day.


"Yes Officer, No Officer," 2008

The longer you look into the eyes of Yiadom-Boakye's mythical subjects, the more their impossibilities float to the surface. Particularities place each subject in multiple eras, locations, even genders. As Jennifer Higgie wrote in Frieze: "Despite the fact that there is something determinedly average about these people –- who, apart from the children, tend to be neither very young nor very old, seemingly neither rich nor poor –- they exist in atmospheres touched by a compellingly faint frisson of something not quite explained."

As the artist explained to New York Times Magazine in 2010, she does not paint her subjects. Rather, the subject is paint itself. "Painting for me is the subject. The figures exist only through paint, through color, line, tone and mark-making."


"A Passion Like No Other," 2012

Although her characters defy any singular origin, Yiadom-Boakye's style has clear roots in the trajectory of Western art history. Her works contain the darkness of Francisco de Goya, the flurrying movement of Edgar Degas, the slow leisure of John Singer Sargent, the rough handling of Édouard Manet. Of her influences, Yiadom-Boakye told The Guardian: "I wasn’t intimidated by those painters. It made it easier: there was so much I could look at and learn from." Through channeling these historical giants, Yiadom-Boakye raises awareness of the lack of black representation throughout the history of art.

"Historically, portraits have conveyed the wealth and authority of their subjects through poses projecting confidence and strength and through clothing, accoutrements and surroundings used strategically to indicate social hierarchy," Amira Gad writes in an essay accompanying the exhibition. "Commissioning portraiture was a symbol of status, and only the elite were entitled to be immortalized within the ranks of historical painting. With Yiadom-Boakye’s layering of references, her paintings draw attention to the flawed perception of race in historical paintings. In depicting black subjects doing everyday things, she advocates both the normalcy and intricacy of blackness."

"Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Verses After Dusk," will be on view at Serpentine Gallery until September 13, 2015.

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How To Talk To Kids About Racism In America -- With A Picture Book

June 9, 2015, 5:29 am

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How do you start a conversation with children on America’s legacy of racial injustice? You tell them the story of an artist who confronted segregation and exposed that legacy.

A new picture book, Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America, takes on the admirable task of translating challenging material to readers ages 5 to 8. Written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Jamey Christoph, the book traces Parks’ journey from Fort Scott, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., as he nurtured his interest in photography as a way to document and expose oppression in the Untied States.



Inspired by Parks' focus on Washington, D.C., in particular, Weatherford and Christoph produced writing and illustrations that highlight a very real American urban setting. While working on the project, Christoph retraced Parks’ steps in D.C., wandering through the same streets and landmarks to immerse himself in the environment. “It was so exciting,” Christoph said to The Huffington Post, “to be able to just go walk around and be inspired by the actual areas that he walked.”

Parks' career blossomed in the nation's capital, but eventually took him to Harlem, where he would shoot for Vogue and Life magazine, taking iconic portraits of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael and Muhammad Ali, among others. He'd go down in history for these thoughtful photo essays addressing prejudice and activism in the U.S., along with his forays into a variety of other artistic forms. You might also remember him as the director of the 1971 film "Shaft."



Weatherfords’ book, though, keeps the scale small, honing in on the staging of Parks’ most famous piece, “American Gothic, Washington, D.C.” The photograph plays off the classic Grant Wood painting, replacing the memorable Iowa-bred couple, the man with a pitchfork in hand, with a lone black woman named Ella Watson, shown holding cleaning supplies in front of an American flag.

The portrait is a heavy photograph for any age demographic. According to the Library of Congress: “[Watson] had struggled alone after her mother had died and her father had been killed by a lynch mob. She had gone through high school, married and become pregnant. Her husband was accidentally shot to death two days before their daughter was born. By the time the daughter was eighteen, she (the daughter) had given birth to two illegitimate children, dying two weeks after the second child’s birth. What’s more, the first child had been stricken with paralysis a year before its mother died.”

“Through Gordon’s lens, her struggle gained a voice,” writes Weatherford, proving that clarity is the best tool for addressing heaviness. When discussing the difficulty of capturing that scene in illustration, Christoph stressed how he tried to preserve its simplicity. “That was the genius of the photo,” he said. “It’s just her with the tools of her trade in front of the American flag. So stark.”



And how have young readers received that narrative so far? Christoph reports that the images are already provoking discussion. The illustrator recounted how at a recent reading, inquisitive hands shot up immediately to ask about his segregation imagery. “Some of the first questions were, 'Why did they have those signs?' They couldn’t process that,” he said. With just a short picture book, the difficult conversation had begun.

This conversation-starter arrives at a time of renewed focus on Parks’ life and oeuvre. The Boston Museum of Fine Art’s exhibition “Back to Fort Scott” displays a series of Parks’ photographs investigating segregation in his hometown. Last week, the Gordon Parks Foundation Awards Dinner saw the likes of Usher and Pharrell Williams take the stage to honor Parks’ legacy.

Weatherford and Christoph, though, pay homage to the artist in a different way: not with flashy performances but by translating his ideas to young audiences. Their work, like Parks’, challenges even young readers to ask what struggles lie unexposed -- and how they can be given a voice.

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Queen Victoria Wrote This Adorable Kid's Book When She Was 10 Years Old

June 9, 2015, 5:29 am

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A young girl with blonde ringlets and a ribboned dress bitterly embraces her father, begging him not to leave her alone at bedtime. "Dear Alice," he consoles her, "it is necessary for you to go my love, so go to bed my dear, and be ready for me tomorrow morning."

Her resentment comes from her impending visit to a school, for which she's been recommended for her "great respectability, amiability and sweetness of temper." If you think this sounds like a sweetly stodgy British fairy tale, you wouldn't be far off -- it is a quaint kid's book written by Queen Victoria, when she herself was a child.

Penned and illustrated in a little red notebook, it's being published as a storybook with updated and restored versions of the original drawings. The story has all the plot, intrigue, and moral lessons of contemporary children's literature, and follows its protagonist, Alice Laselles, on an adventure to solve the mystery of "who put the cat in Miss Duncombe's kitchen."

Peculiar and charming, in a meticulously drawn, Wes Anderson-like manner, the book has full-page illustrations of ornate outfits from Queen Victoria's era, and curious insights into the psyche of a historic young royal.





Images courtesy of Royal Collection Trust and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2015.

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Did The Internet End Cultural Elitism? New Study Shows Snobbery Is Alive And Well

June 9, 2015, 5:29 am

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When I inherited my first car -- a beloved hand-me-down -- I was ecstatic. It was a smallish SUV that grumbled and shook like Anakin Skywalker’s dinky pod racer. But I was giddy at the thought of driving it around, and burned a handful of mix CDs for my long trek to and from school. Stalwarts included Sufjan Stevens and The Shins; blacklisted were "boring" classical tracks and the worst offender of all, country western crooning.

My 17-year-old self saw these choices as carefully selected identity markers. However, according to a recent study rooted in over 50 years of sociological research, taste -- especially taste in music -- is directly correlated with class.

University of British Columbia professor Gerry Veenstra surveyed a range of participants about their musical preferences, and found that likes and dislikes, from opera to reggae, are linked with wealth and education.

These findings seem at odds with the current narrative that the Internet has been a democratizing cultural force, or that it's now widely considered snooty, if not uninformed, to shun top-40 tracks. Music reviews like those on Pitchfork are fairly non-discriminate in terms of genre -- you're as likely to find pieces on jazz as you are hip-hop. But is this diversity the result of a genuine expansion of interests? And, if so, has taste finally been divorced from class? The answer, like Spotify's discoverability algorithm, is complicated.

Experts have long posited theories that cultural interests are predetermined by your lot in life, beginning with Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class and reaching a peak with French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s 1979 study, "Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste." Nothing, according to Bourdieu, “is more classifying than music.”

It’s not quite as prescriptive as it sounds, though. “Classifying,” to Bourdieu, doesn’t just mean sorting people into economic groups of varying value. Instead, he says taste can be attributed to different “fields,” which are then determined by intersecting “capitals,” “lifestyles,” and “habitus.” Essentially, engineers in France in the mid 20th century might’ve preferred Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue" and other such “accessible” tunes. Meanwhile, in the '80s in America, this theory would illuminate a correlation between the wealthy and a predilection for jazz; middle-class and subversive rock; lower class and heavy metal.

This would at least begin to explain why, as a teenager, I wrinkled my nose up at most of the alternatives to my narrow range of interests. At the time I lamented the low ratio of miles I traveled to the number of country music stations available in Dallas -- a notably sprawling city. What I disliked about Tim McGraw et al. was that they seemed indistinguishable from each other, using lyrics like Mad Libs filled in with “dog,” “horse,” “gal,” and other such terms plucked from halcyon times. In retrospect, this bare revelation of the singers' emotions, untouched by metaphor or individual anecdote, was dull to me. Music should make you think and feel in nuanced ways, not zone out or partake in a watered down, collective pleasure -- or so I firmly believed. I’d have taken pride in how my favorite bands ranked on a 2009 chart analyzing and comparing SAT scores with musical tastes listed on Facebook.

Bourdieu would’ve slapped me with a petite bourgeoisie label in a second.

I was, in a word, priggish. But, I was a teenager, and like others my age, crafted lists or collages of beloved albums and novels, hoping they could stand in for a fully formed identity. “Anything but country,” I’d assert when asked what kind of music I preferred, as so many self-proclaiming “alternative” high school students would say. When I shared this observation with classmates, their responses varied. Those with similarly ramshackle modes of transportation, like my art school neighbor who saved up for a super-cheap VW van, agreed; he, for example, preferred lo-fi instrumentals and decidedly bad singers. Meanwhile, the cheer squad girls with pristine BMWs were almost invariably Pat Green concert attendees. Bourdieu's theory was at play here, in my pre-Internet exploration days of musical discovery; punk and indie listeners and their counter-culture identities bear resemblances to his new petite bourgeoisie and their opposition to the social status quo.

But, when I was in college, and around the time we collectively graduated from Limewire and other Napster-like programs to alternatives that focused on random discovery, my musical interests shifted. Thanks to algorithm-based streaming services, I was able to see the similarities between my love for Rilo Kiley and the country music I'd long shunned. I was finally able to see the beauty of intertwining genres, and, later, the venerability of artists remaining devoted to a more straightforward sound in an age when overlapping and newness is valued. Thanks to the freedoms and information provided by the Internet, I now have varied interests that you could collectively call my “taste.” My perception of my former habits is that they were embarrassingly closed-minded.

By Bourdieu's logic, this shouldn't be the case. With my middle class upbringing, my listening habits should be restricted to the "Carrie & Lowell" Pandora station. And while his impressive research made sense as recently as a few decades ago, I'm not the only one whose musical awakening runs counter to his findings today.

A slew of academics have cropped up in the past two decades opposing Bourdieu’s theory, and presenting an alternative: that “high-brow” is a dwindling label, and that a new marker of social status is the possession of a medley of interests, rather than a few, cherry-picked ones. Now that the whole world is available at the click of a mouse, possessing a breadth of knowledge is representative of ample leisure time. In short: it’s more socially valuable to like jazz and hip-hop, rather than one or the other, or neither.

This theory is called “cultural omnivorism,” and while compelling, Gerry Veenstra's new study claims it's bogus. Its findings imply that the Internet, and globalization, have actually done little in the way of influencing the link between status and artistic interests. That “high culture” is alive and well, and that openness to new genres among cultural mavens -- the grown-up 17-year-old elitists -- isn’t changing for the better. Though participants claimed to have “eclectic” music tastes, these self-categorizations proved in this case to be just that -- self-categorizations.

The study concluded by proclaiming “the odds of disliking classical music was more than eight times as high for the least educated respondents as for the best educated ones.” But, because Veenstra's respondents are a select sample size of Vancouver residents -- not all of them young -- it's necessary to consider other factors. Doctor Randolph Lewis, an American Studies professor at the University of Texas, offers a different vantage point.

Among Millennials, he's witnessed overlapping and cornucopian tastes that never existed before. "It seems that musical tastes have become far more eclectic among young people who grew up digital," he told The Huffington Post. "Back in the 1980s, the metal fans were often working class, just as the classical and jazz fans skewed upward as you might expect. Nowadays, it’s harder to pigeonhole someone by their musical tastes."

But, he adds, that doesn't mean class lines aren't drawn in ways other than genre. Lewis cites music volume and quality of devices as class dividers, but it can be even subtler than that.

“Are your song selections eclectic in a manner that seems coolly ironic and knowing or problematically uncool?” he said. “Even if regular folks can access ‘elite’ musical forms on the Internet in a new way, Americans can never hide their class identity as much as they would hope.”

Still, I’m hopeful that things are slowly shifting, if not only based on an ethnographic study of… well, myself. Last weekend, I went back to Texas for a friend’s wedding. Said friend and I have always been drawn to each other for our differences. So, although we were close, I was unprepared for the amount of two-stepping and Garth Brooks crooning involved, and mostly sat at my assigned place setting feeling embarrassingly uninformed and uncultured. I felt mostly like a snooty killjoy for not expanding my tastes to include those of others, but also like a person who should’ve studied up more on the genre -- or at least dance along, even without knowing the words.

For me -- and I think for others -- Bourdieu's theory stopped making sense around the same time my rumbly SUV stopped jump-starting, and trips to the record store became impossible -- and unnecessary. With free, unlimited access to an ocean of genres, I've dipped my toes in most of them, and have enjoyed quite a few. And, at the next country western wedding I attend, I assure you I'll be on the dance floor.

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Wild Animals And The Forest Meet In Digitally Merged Photographs

June 9, 2015, 5:29 am

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Norwegian artist Andreas Lie’s merged photographs look deceptively simple: the outlines of wolves and bears encompassing misty photographs of woody landscapes. A second glance, however, shows there’s something more going on: a fox whose red fur melts into fiery orange treetops, a crow whose knobby feet give way to lonely tree trunks in the depths of a forest. The two photographs -- a wild animal and a wild landscape -- have been matched and blended with such subtlety that it’s difficult to tell where the fur ends and the leaves begin.

Lie’s works build from photographs, but he is careful to note that he is not a photographer. “I am a digital artist,” he clarified in an email to The Huffington Post, explaining that he uses stock photographs that fit his concept, then overlays them in Photoshop.

Though some of Lie’s work takes human or other subjects, he seems to have found a comfortable spot working with natural subjects. “I started experimenting with merging landscape photography in humans, and I had also done some work with animal portraits before so it was a natural progression to combine the two,” he says. What’s more, the untamed beauty of each animal -- a wolf, a fawn, a squirrel -- aligns with the stately wilderness Lie juxtaposes with their forms, making it seem as though the creatures are materializing like spirits from their habitats.

Lie says he’s happy if his art has any impact (he mentions that people have gotten tattoos of his work), though he doesn’t imbue it with a specific message. Despite this, a clear one seems to come through: The indomitable spirit and dignity of the wild animals and landscapes he celebrates in his art.

Check out more of Lie's art on his Tumblr.

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All Hail The Badass Lady Illustrators Of Instagram

June 9, 2015, 6:00 am

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While the majority of us are using social media to upload images of brunch, cats and cats eating brunch, this talented group of women are using the platform to spread their irreverent, adorable, mystical, kitschy, revolutionary and utterly fierce illustrations to the masses.

Ogle them, praise them, follow them. These are the lady illustrators of Instagram.

1. Ambivalently Yours for the creepy/cute feminist mantras

Who wants to join my fictional all-girl group: Girl Germs & Feminist Dreams?! #ambivalentlyyours #91daysofdrawing #pink #drawing #feminism #feminist #grrrl #art

A photo posted by Ambivalently Yours (@ambivalentlyyours) on May 7, 2015 at 12:34pm PDT

2. Maria-Ines Gul for all your minimalist nudes

A photo posted by Maria-Ines Gul (@mariainesgul) on Mar 18, 2015 at 7:41am PDT

3. Hailee Va for a dose of bewitching sisterhood

Coping

A photo posted by hailee va (@slimesistren) on Mar 13, 2015 at 3:05pm PDT

4. Sarah Rimington for some patterned princesses

A photo posted by @sarah.rimington (@lacun.a) on Mar 27, 2015 at 8:11am PDT

5. Jenny Knifefight for no-frills, too-cute creatures

A photo posted by Jenny Zych (@jennyknifefight) on Feb 10, 2015 at 3:42pm PST

6. Ceci Marez for some glam rock-infused mythical fantasies

Thanks for the Phyllis Gill visitors, much appreciate it

A photo posted by Ceci Marez (@prettyuglyhrs) on Feb 19, 2015 at 1:13pm PST

7. Ginevra Mandelli for all the hair-centric art you ever needed

Again

A photo posted by Ginevra Mandelli (@ginginx) on May 26, 2015 at 10:35am PDT

7. Kendra for neon-infused cultural commentary

Snotty situation

A photo posted by Kendra (@unadoptable) on Jan 28, 2015 at 10:37am PST

8. Tuesday Bassen for the feminist characters you wish were on Cartoon Network

From my line with @paperlesspost More designs coming soon!

A photo posted by Tuesday Bassen (@tuesdaybassen) on May 27, 2015 at 12:21pm PDT

9. Frida Wannerberger for the simple and elegant femme portraits

A Swiss swim after a day strutting around @aubadeparis goodies ❤️ #Sousvetements #fashionillustration

A photo posted by Frida Wannerberger (@fridawannerberger) on Jun 3, 2015 at 1:38pm PDT

10. Josephine Demme for the illustrated daydreams

Sexy Dancing In The Hot Heat Of Summer Dancing Like a Magic Good Fun Time Party

A photo posted by JOS (@fag_prince) on Jun 4, 2015 at 9:54am PDT

11. Kate Prior for all your nasty, feminist nutrition

BRISTOL! These gruesome dudes and more original drawings are in the evil clutches of @richtpaint to be shown at the TRICK OR TREAT exhibition on Halloween - more info on his Instagram!

A photo posted by Kate Prior (@priooor) on Oct 27, 2014 at 9:13am PDT

12. Rebekah for some more surreal hair-centric keepsakes

let it all out, baby!!!

A photo posted by rebekah (@birdbonez) on Feb 26, 2015 at 10:38pm PST

13. Charlotte Molas for the pop culture candy

A photo posted by Charlotte Molas (@charlottemolas) on Nov 18, 2014 at 10:23am PST

14. Calliope Bridge-Luna Lapin for a bit of bubblegum illustrations in your life

A photo posted by Calliope Bridge-Luna Lapin (@callyrabbit) on Apr 29, 2015 at 10:59am PDT

15. Amber McCall for all your super-nasty girl power

A photo posted by Amber McCall (@thunderpuss) on Apr 22, 2015 at 12:13am PDT

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Only English Speakers Capitalize 'I,' But That Doesn't Mean We're Obsessed With Ourselves

June 9, 2015, 6:26 am

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Here's your weird fact of the day: English is the only language that capitalizes "I."

Yep, no other language has made it a formal requirement to distinguish first-person singular nominative pronouns with capitalization.

We're all snowflakes!

What does that mean? Well, to profess love for fried potatoes, a German speaker could write "ich liebe Pommes" and a French speaker might admit "j'adore des frites." But an English speaker would have to write, "I love French fries." In Spanish, "I" is spelled "yo," and in Russian, it's a small "я."

This language quirk might make you ponder why we English-speakers think so much of ourselves. We don't highlight first person plural, "we," the same way. We could, you know, think about others for once and give "you" or "they" some special capitalized treatment on the page. But we don't.

Famed linguist Otto Jespersen wrote about this odd convention more than 100 years ago. "It is often said, on the Continent at least, that the typical Englishman’s self assertion is shown by the fact that his is the only language in which the pronoun of the first person is written with a capital letter, while in some other languages it is the second person that is honoured by this distinction," Jespersen wrote. In German, all nouns are honored with capitalization. In Spanish, it's generally only proper names of people and places.

But the real story behind the great capital "I," according to Jespersen, is an "innocent one."

Apparently, in the Middle Ages, it was easy for a little "i" to get lost on the page in a sea of lowercase letters. Perhaps in an attempt to avoid confusion, scribes began elongating "i" sort of like a lowercase "j" without the dot when it appeared at the end of a word. Or, in the case of our first-person pronoun, constituted the entire word. (This would explain, in part, why Medieval script is so hard for modern English speakers to read -- although it did look quite nice.)

When the printing press took off in the 15th century, that elongated "j" character was represented by a capital "I," Acrisio Pires, a linguistics professor at the University of Michigan, told The Huffington Post. And that, folks, is how we got here.

But, you might still wonder, could "I" actually affect English speakers' sense of self? The answer is: probably not. At least according to psychology professor Adele Goldberg of Princeton University.

"It's like saying Germans may be more materialistic because they capitalize all nouns. Or that Chinese speakers are less analytical because they can use a writing system that doesn’t analyze words into their phonemic segments. I don’t think anyone would entertain either claim," she said. Stanford University linguistics professor Paul Kiparsky echoed Goldberg's strong doubts, too.

"Note that only 'I' is capitalized [in English], and not 'me,' 'my,' 'mine,' 'we,' 'us,' 'our,'" Kiparsky pointed out. That is to say, if we were really in love with ourselves, we'd distinguish all our first-person pronouns and not just the nominative one. And considering how easy it is to type "i" on a keyboard without losing any meaning, we can't say capital "I" will remain the widespread rule forever. But for now, English speakers, you can save your energy for the real grammar issues at hand, like comma usage and single spacing.

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Chinese Rapper Shouts Out Uber And Calls Out Haters in Blistering Track

June 9, 2015, 12:42 pm

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BEIJING -- Chinese taxi drivers have been protesting, police have been raiding and politicians have been debating ride-hailing companies like Uber. And one Chinese amateur rapper has thrown down a blistering, profanity-laced track -- excerpts of which appear in full below -- shouting out Uber and calling out the politicians and taxi drivers who oppose it.

In the four-minute flow that has since been censored from Chinese websites, a little-known rapper who goes by Melo tears into local taxi drivers, rival ride-hailing apps and regulators who are trying to stop him from taking his beloved Uber.

“Where there’s oppression, there’s resistance,” Melo proclaims at the start of the song. “I only represent myself. I just like taking Uber. It’s just better than your taxi. What you trying to do? Bite me, bitch!”


Melo's Uber track has been reposted on Youtube. Click [CC] for English subtitles.

The San Francisco-based company has had a rocky few months in China. Since first entering some Chinese cities in late 2013, Uber has faced stiff competition from two main Chinese competitors that recently teamed up in a merger. In May, Uber’s offices in Melo’s hometown of Chengdu and other cities were raided by police investigating the company for allegedly offering illegal taxi services.

Melo’s rap is in the local Sichuan dialect, with a handful of English sentences and profanities thrown into the mix. According to The New York Times, the track was posted in May and briefly went viral before being taken down by censors. Melo, a 21-year-old engineering student in the city of Chengdu, said on his micro-blog that he was called in for questioning by the police about the provocative song. In China, political speech is tightly controlled, and the song appeared to cross the line when it came to criticism of the government.

After calling out taxi drivers for cheating passengers and local Chinese competitors for copying Uber, Melo lays into policymakers who he says protect taxi monopolies.

“Fucking government are you even human? Who dares to go big now? Go big and get shut down. They take all the benefits and say it’s because they love China.”

Those lines might have already landed him in hot water, but the next ones went even further:

“I don’t write political raps. But if you try to force me to stop rapping I’ll cut the politician’s heads off with a knife and lay it at the feet of their corpses.”

The song isn't all disses and gory threats, though. Melo praises Uber as the best alternative to the low-quality taxi services and jam-packed subways in Chinese cities.

“I can’t find a taxi. I take Uber.
The bus doesn’t come. I take Uber.
The subway’s too crowded. I take Uber.”

He even shouts out the free bottles of water found in many Uber rides.

Uber has been betting big on China, forging partnerships with top Chinese tech brands and heavily subsidizing rides -- something that may explain the low prices that Melo praises. But that hasn’t kept controversy at bay.


Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Chinese search giant Baidu's Chairman and CEO Robin Li shake hands after agreeing to a partnership in December 2014.

Both Uber and it’s main Chinese competitor, Didi Kuaidi, are operating in a legal gray area by offering taxi-like services via ride hailing apps. Taxi companies in the country must possess a strictly controlled license, and some have accused ride-hailing apps of operating illegally. Several cities have seen their Uber offices raided, and taxi drivers who see their business shrinking have protested and even beat up drivers using the apps.

Melo gives all of these groups a piece of his mind, and calls out people who are satisfied just being bystanders.

“You can choose not to care. You can choose to think it’s got nothing to do with you. But this time it was Uber getting investigated and next time it’s you.”

That prophecy proved true for Melo. After being questioned by police, he asked fans to listen but not repost the track on their micro-blogs. Despite that caution, his social media postings managed to maintain some hip-hop bravado.

“I’m not a gangster,” Melo wrote on his micro-blog. “But I do things more gangster than gangsters.”

Yes, Melo. Yes, you do.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Awkward Tennis Grunts Are So Much Better Set To Music

June 9, 2015, 2:03 pm

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Where there's smoke, there's fire.

And where there's professional tennis, you're guaranteed to find players awkwardly grunting on the court.

While some openly criticize that practice, Jimmy Fallon sees the primal screams for what they truly are: music.

To honor the close of the 2015 French Open -- and the sounds therein -- the late-night comedian set the best of the grunts to Johann Strauss II's classic waltz, "The Blue Danube."

Beautiful, just beautiful.

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Community Piano Helps Bring Sense Of Calm To Struggling New Jersey City

June 9, 2015, 2:03 pm

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CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — With his plastic bag of clothes resting by the bench, Bruce Chorzelewski is sitting down at an upright piano in front of City Hall and improvising a tune.

It's the first chance he's had to play a piano since last fall, when he was in a mental health center. The instrument is weather-worn, some keys are missing and others, he says, are dead, but playing brings calm to a man whose life has been turbulent. "It relaxes me," says Chorzelewski, 51, who remembers the 1980s — before a brain injury, two heart attacks and a stroke, depression, alcohol addiction and stints of homelessness — when he played guitar in clubs with a band called Destiny.

The piano is part of a pop-up park that opened last year on Roosevelt Plaza, a new park in Camden, a city that ranks among the country's most impoverished and crime-ridden.

Chorzelewski, a former supermarket manager who has been living on the streets for the past few days after a rift with his roommates, had been eyeing the keyboard for a while but played it for the first time on a hot day last week after an appointment at a mental health center. He likes guitar best, but given his financial condition, doesn't have one right now.

The piano is his instrument. It's everyone's.

The players that day had different stories. Yet for all of them, the public piano meant a place to achieve a few moments of inner peace.

Kobie Mack dropped by during a lunch break from his work as a plumber on a construction project a few blocks away to play some neo-soul/R&B/rock and roll compositions of his own, his hard hat sitting by the bench.

"If you can play a broken piano," he said triumphantly after his time at the keys, "you can play anywhere."

"I think this is the greatest thing they've ever done out here," said Mack, 42, who sang along as he played. "There's a lot of talent here."

The Camden one certainly isn't the first public piano. In a project that does not include the Camden instrument, British artist Luke Jerram has been putting pianos in public places since 2008. More than 1,300 pianos have been put in 46 cities worldwide, each with the instruction, "Play Me, I'm Yours."

Camden, a former industrial hub across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, is different from most places.

About 40 percent of the 77,000 residents live in poverty, and one-third of the adults do not have high school degrees. There were 32 homicides in the city last year — and that was a huge improvement from 2012, when there were a record 67.

There's an almost constant effort to reinvent the city. In the past few years, the county government has taken over police patrols and hired more officers, and the state has taken over operations of the school district. State tax incentives are also being used to attract more businesses.

The pop-up park that includes the piano is part of a project to bring life to underused open places.

It's on the site of the former Parkade building, which housed offices and a big parking garage. That building went up in 1955 as a way to try to keep suburbanites coming to the city's department stores — now all long gone. The building stood for decades as an eyesore, and then things got worse in 2003, when the Legionnaires' disease bacterium was detected there.

Now, it's a green oasis in the city's heart that has won a handful of design awards. Professionals from City Hall eat lunch there on nice days, people coming or going to a methadone clinic across the street sit on benches, and sometimes women hand out religious pamphlets.

Joe Sikora, president of Sikora Wells Appel, the landscape architecture firm that designed the park and dreamed up including the piano, said the plan was to put the instrument away for the winter. But it became such a part of peoples' routines that it could not be removed. He said it will be replaced in coming weeks with another used — and possibly more durable — instrument.

Reinaldo Suarez, whose gray beard falls to the middle of his chest, said he has been playing his salsa compositions on it since the piano arrived under a small tin roof.

He shows the marks on his arms from years of heroin addiction and talks about how, when he was in prison in Philadelphia more than 20 years ago for auto theft, he spent his time getting his GED and making music.

He's self-taught, he says, and plays only his own songs — another trait shared by several of the people playing.

"When you write a song," he said, "you've got to write a song from your heart."

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Seniors Living Out Their Childhood Dreams Prove It's Never Too Late

June 9, 2015, 2:10 pm

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It's been said that it's never too late to become what you might have been -- and we've got the photos to prove it.

A group of Dutch seniors are living out their childhood dreams in a new photo series entitled "What I Wanted To Become." Ingrid Meijering, who co-founded Get Oud, which translates to "Get Old," said the motivation for the series was to show the world that even older people have dreams, regardless of their age.

The project featured around 50 volunteers, ages 75 and up, from Dutch senior homes. Over eight months Meijering used props, makeup and costumes to transform each model into what they always wanted to be as a child. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints, societal pressures, the responsibilities of family, and other issues, many of these people never were able to pursue their childhood dreams.

And these dream jobs ran the gamut, including everything from a disc jockey to an opera singer to a prima ballerina.

"We had lots of fun with the models," Meijering told The Huffington Post. "Most of them had really good memories and said, 'OK, I did not became what I always wanted, but I'm happy!'" Beautiful.

It just goes to show you're never too old.







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This Striking Image Flips The Narrative Around Black Women And Police Brutality On Its Head

June 9, 2015, 3:15 pm

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When 29-year-old artist Markus Prime watched footage of a McKinney, Texas police officer aggressively manhandling a 15-year-old black girl, he was overcome with emotions.

Markus said he felt a rush of anger followed by seeping frustration as he watched the viral video of patrol supervisor Cpl. Eric Casebolt’s blatantly disrespect a teenage girl, whose name is Dajerria Becton. He said watching footage of Casebolt forcing Benton face-down to the ground and sitting on top of her as she cried out for her mother triggered an immediate need to respond. He decided to channel these emotions, use them as fuel and express them through art.

“It struck a nerve,” Markus told The Huffington Post. “This particular incident spoke to me because these things happen every day but this time it happened to a child.”

Markus said the officer’s actions were inexcusable, and the narrative around police officers using excessive force against black individuals, specifically black women, is an all-too-common and overlooked concern.

Markus wanted to show what it would look like if a black woman were awarded the kind of respect white men receive.



The image shows a white police officer lying face-down on the ground with his hands tied behind him. Meanwhile, a black girl wearing an orange swimsuit stands over him with one leg placed on the officer’s back and her hands triumphantly on her hips.

“The video bothered me and I didn’t want [my response] to be anything complicated," he said. "I just wanted to make my point in the most simplistic but powerful way possible.”

Though the figures pictured draw parallels to Becton and Casebolt, they are faceless in Markus' image, which reflects the ongoing harsh treatment of black lives at the hands of the police. The message it sends is symbolic of the entire Black Lives Matter movement, Markus said.

The image captures the scope of #BlackLivesMatter, while putting systemic nuances into sharp focus. With these two characters, Markus hones in on a group that has largely gone overlooked in the national conversation around race and policing: Black women and girls.

Markus explained that the positioning of the players in the drawing are important. “The officer is restrained and under control, that’s the point,” Markus said, explaining that he thinks officers should practice these traits more often. “They’re not supposed to create more chaos.”

Markus said using his artwork to react to real-life events is the sort of thing he doesn’t do too often, mainly because he despises the idea of using his work as a prop to gain more attention. But watching Becton forced face-down to the ground by a police officer was something that he, as an artist, couldn’t ignore.

“I'm behind her, I support her and I hope that there's some kind of justice and closure for her and her family,” he said.

As an artist, Markus said he simply wants to create -- and isn’t too concerned with the praise or recognition he receives. Most of his work is centered around various empowering depictions of black women and reimagining how they’re presented.

“Black women are strong and powerful,” he said. “They’re resilient because they deal with everything a black man deals with, plus some. Personally, it's an obligation because of what we're going through as a race, we should put black women at a higher platform.”

And if viewers don’t recognize that message reflected in this image, Markus doesn’t seem to care. He says he’d rather share his work with those who do.

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