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How To Bring Out Your Inner Witch, According To Our Favorite Feminist Occult Artist

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Marjorie Cameron was born in Belle Plaine, Iowa in 1922. At the age of 18, she joined the Navy as a cartographer, where she honed her childhood interest in drawing into a signature artistic vision, characterized by spindly lines and delicate yet sensuous forms. After the Navy, she moved to Los Angeles, where she would soon be referred to only as Cameron, and sometimes, Cameron the Witch Woman, the Scarlet Woman or Cinderella of the Wastelands. 


This fall, Deitch Projects is honoring the work of this far too overlooked artist and counter-cultural heroine, exhibiting paintings, drawings and writings made throughout her ravenously creative life. The exhibition is an expansion of MOCA's show last year, diving deeper into the enthralling life of a woman so magnetic most who encountered her truly believed she was supernatural. 


Cameron's work oozes with feminine, mystical force. Her depictions of walking birds, dancing lionesses sisters, serpentine witches and gossamer spirits combine ancient occultism with the fresh pulse of 1950s Los Angeles' underbelly. 


So you want to be like Cameron? Me too. Unfortunately, while becoming a famous artist is hard enough, aiming to become a witch queen puts even more work on your plate. Below is my fool proof guide to becoming a Scarlet Woman yourself, according to the life of the inimitable Cameron.


Warning: you'll need long, black nails and a hearse. 



Don't shy away from obscenity ...


Iconoclasts and rebels get started breaking the rules early, and Cameron was no exception. "I was sitting in the back row and I drew a picture of somebody shitting," she recalled, referring to a memorable incident in second grade. Soon a crowd of classmates gathered around, causing the teacher to attempt to confiscate the image in question. "She took me to the principal's office and I sat there all afternoon with that paper in my hand, refusing to give it up ... I call that my first exhibit."


... No matter how many people try to shut you down.


In 1957, one of Cameron's drawings, titled "Peyote Vision," was featured in an exhibition at Ferus Gallery. The drawing depicted a woman having sex with an otherworldly spirit and, yes, she was experiencing pleasure in the act. The LAPD vice squad shut down the show for its "provocative" material. "As result of that Cameron vowed to never show in a gallery again," Cameron's friend Scott Hobbs explained. "And she pretty well kept to that."


Create, create, create, learn some things, create some more.


Cameron was an artist, actress, poet, occultist and counter-culture icon. She was constantly digesting her surroundings and channeling them into her work, which she created at an incessant pace. Disparate movements including occultism, Kabbalah, Surrealism, beat poetry, medieval manuscripts, feminism and astrology all contributed to Cameron's bountiful yet utterly singular vision.


And don't pay too much attention to the dominant trends.


At the time of Carmen's artistic peak, the ruling art world trends were sleek minimalism, elegant conceptualism, the remnants of pop, and California's "light and space" movement, dominated by artists like Robert Irwin, John McCracken and Peter Alexander. (Also, yes, most were men.) 



Fall in love, hard.


When Cameron first met her future husband, Jet Propulsion Lab co-founder John Whiteside Parsons, the two fell hard. They famously spent the first two weeks after they met in bed. (Actually, some of their love-making, inspired by the sex magic rituals Parsons was into, strangely included Parsons' buddy L. Ron Hubbard chanting and invoking spirits while the two had sex.) 


Collaborate with your lover on creative projects.


During their time together, Parsons and Cameron collaborated on a series of poems and illustrations they called Songs for the Witch Woman. The opening poem, an ode by Parsons to his love, reads: 



And under your sorcery I fare forth
To fabulous lands and meadows green with Spring
And caught on the gossamer web of evening
I behold incredible things no poet ever told.




Make strange friends.


For example, Aleister Crowley, L. Ron Hubbard, Leonora Carrington, Kenneth Anger, Anaïs Nin, Dennis Hopper, Wallace Berman, George Herms. Like that. 


Cultivate your own spooky style. 


Cameron was a vision. With long red hair, long black nails and an all-black wardrobe, she was easy identifiable as Los Angeles' resident witch queen. Also helpful: she drove around in a hearse as her preferred mode of transportation. 


In fact, let the moon's cycle dictate your fashion sense.


Partly as a result of her relationship with Parsons, Cameron became obsessed with the magical powers of astrology. As a result, she adopted cosmic knowledge as her style inspiration, dressing up in ensembles that coordinated with the moon's phases. "It was a very serious belief system for her," curator Yael Lipschutz explained. 



If history is oppressive and depressing, dream up an alternative.


As a creative young woman in the 1950s was surely well aware, historical precedent and systemic inequality forecasted a bleak vision of Cameron's potential future as an artist.


Rather than accepting the narrative suggested by historical events, Cameron embraced mythology and the unconscious visions that sprung up as a result of her own truthful guides for navigating into the unknown. "If not written," MOCA Director Philippe Vergne, explained, "a history that can be hallucinated is the only strategy to overcome the gruesome cruelty of a culture that has neglected the values of humanity for too long; a culture that might leave the negative trace of systematic erosion, destruction, and obliteration."


Make art for the ritual, not the reward.


Cameron made art constantly throughout her life, paying little attention to what became of the works afterward. In the words of KCET's Shana Nys Dambrot, Cameron "tended to view her works as ritualistic energy totems, rather than as precious objects for commerce and archive." As a result, she payed little attention to filing and protecting her work, often leaving them unsigned and even lighting entire series on fire. "At one point in the early '50s she destroyed all of her work," her friend Hobbs added. "She burned it. Some of it survived because she sold it to friends for little."


Be scrappy and change the world. 


Although Cameron's unorthodox treatment of her work -- read: burning it all -- negatively affected her legacy as an artist, it was crucial to her artistic mission, one which transcended normative ideas of success. Market value and name recognition could never compare to the value of being an individual and a creative, wild and free. As Cameron said in 1980: "We were the raggedy-ass kids. We had nothing except each other, and a lot of balls. Because we were sure that we were unique."


***


"Cameron, Cinderella of the Wastelands" runs from Sept. 8 to Oct. 17, 2015 at Deitch Projects in New York. 



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Sorry, White People, Sylvia Plath Did Not Invent 'Basic'

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Guys. I thought we’d been over this. I thought it was settled.


“Basic,” a slang term perceived by mainstream white America as referring to blond women wearing yoga pants and holding pumpkin spice lattes, has been repeatedly investigated and determined to derive from black slang, not the verbal stylings of white girls on the Internet.


It was not popularized by Kate MossAnd no, it was not invented by Sylvia Plath.


However, every time a white person uses a term appropriated from African-American Vernacular English, the media rush to attribute the miraculous invention or elevation of this term to said white person. Unfortunately, a tongue-in-cheek tweet from writer Alana Massey earlier this month has, unintentionally, given the white origin rumors for “basic” new life.





“You'd be forgiven for thinking that this insult was invented by young people very recently,” wrote Helena Horton in The Telegraph, “but an eagle-eyed Twitter user managed to spot the word being used as an insult, apparently in the same context by the writer Sylvia Plath in The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath.”


You’d be forgiven for not giving due credit to a white poet’s private journal for creating a slang term which originated in, and was popularized by, black Americans within the past few decades. It’s okay! You should have known it could all be traced back to white people, just like rock ’n’ roll and voguing. But it’s not too late to educate yourself.


Not that this was the intention of Massey’s original observation; in later tweets, she clarified:








Horton’s article in The Telegraph, as well as a later piece in The Guardian, fail to mention a single black person by name, or black culture at large, in reference to the formulation of the term “basic” in its modern, informal sense. 


The Guardian, at least, points out the obvious: that Plath’s usage of “basic” seems to differ from the current slang connotation. “Her ‘basic’ interactions with her date, after all, see her getting ‘lost in his eyes’ and ‘loving him for sharing a little of what matters with you.'" "Basic," in a dictionary sense, simply denotes the most elemental or easy aspects of something, and her deployment of it here more likely intended to evoke this, than to summon an image of basic bitches in pearls. Though for the modern reader, it does conjure a topical chuckle.


Still, we apparently remain desperate for an origin story we can understand, for a version of history in which “basic” was thought up by Sylvia Plath and reinvigorated by Kate Moss and Kreayshawn. Figures like comedian Lil Duval, the group Klymaxx, Tyga and The Game rarely factor into these investigations by white writers, who are writing for predominantly white audiences.


Or, even better, we can simply ignore the origins altogether and focus on how self-deprecatingly basic we are, with our Starbucks addictions and our proclivities for TSwift and skinny margs and "Sex and the City." All us white girls who somehow came to be described as basic without help from anyone else.


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Geometric Paradise: Explore The Realms Of Wild Tiling

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Read the original article on ArchDaily.








What do mathematics and your kitchen backsplash have in common? More than you might think: according to recent findings published in The Guardian, mathematicians have had a breakthrough in the world of pentagons, resulting in a new class of mathematically tiling shape. This newly discovered iteration is capable of continuously tiling a surface without gaps, unlike the majority of its similarly five-sided cousins. Known in mathematics as the most elusive tile shape due to its seemingly endless angular possibilities, the pentagon has been the focus of serious scrutiny for over a century.


With the discovery of the fifteenth type of pentagon last month at the University of Washington Bothell, we've decided to compile a list of the most eccentric and intriguing tiles currently available. Dive into the world of wild backsplashes and unorthodox ceramics after the break.








 





Diagram showing the 15 types of pentagonal tilings so far discovered. Image via The Guardian

 


Tile has played a crucial role in design for centuries, dating back to the ancient gilded mosaics of the Byzantine era. Gone are the days of ordinary monochromatic tiles: technological and mathematical advances have transformed designs from dated to inspired, producing ceramics in every shape and size imaginable. From honeycomb to scalloped, tiledesign has evolved far beyond simple rectangles and squares.


 Though there are few tile designs that take advantage of the 15 different types of tessellating pentagon, Madrid-based DSIGNIO created an asymmetrical pentagon for Harmony-Peronda reminiscent of the surface of the Watercube swimming centre in Beijing. Smooth to the touch but swollen in appearance, the tiles shatter the plane to create a curious tactile experience.


 via Kelly Home Design


via Kelly Home Design

 


Currently one of the most popular styles, honeycomb tile comes in many forms. Formed of a perfect hexagon, the motif has endless applications and a simple, pleasing aesthetic. And, by using a variety of surface heights, the tiles can eliminate the grid effect to enhance visual stimulation. The Portland tiles by Land Porcelanico in honeycomb add a three dimensional element to the mosaic, eliminating visual monotony.



 


Let's not forget decorated tile, of course. Beyond shape, a patterned motif can add stimulation to a space quite simply. Here, the honeycomb is taken to a new level as seen on the popular Instagram account I Have This Thing With Floors









Scalloped tile is also quickly becoming one of the most popular styles. California-basedFireclay Tile has been producing unorthodox tile designs since 1986, including the highly-sought after scalloped motif in dozens of colours. The whimsical style can be applied in a variety of directions to varied effects: 








Herringbone isn't new to the market, but the age-old style has modern incarnations. This multicoloured pattern is a perfect example of herringbone combined with glass, an emerging tile material:








Now to the exciting tiles. Home to a serious collection of curious patterns, Fireclay Tile has options for the wildest of imaginations. Roam free, tile lovers:
















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Joseph Smith's Many Wives Come To Life In Mormon Artist's Portraits

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When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dropped a bombshell statement last November confirming that founder Joseph Smith was a polygamist, one faithful follower was shocked.


Leslie Peterson, a 60-year-old Mormon, had always dismissed the rumors about her faith's founder, and believed that those who spread them were engaging in anti-Mormon propaganda, which is what her spiritual advisors had told her. They were adamant that Smith had just one wife, Emma Smith.


But the church's confirmation that Smith was in fact a polygamist came with the admission that Smith had about 40 wives -- including a 14-year-old child and other women who were already married to some of his followers. 


The revelations were part of a series of essays the church has released over the past few months in an effort to clarify the more controversial parts of its doctrine and history. The statement on polygamy didn't come as a surprise to many members, but for Peterson, a fifth-generation Mormon from Cottonwood Heights, Utah, they were truly startling.


"I realized the history I’ve been told all my life isn’t the history I'm learning about now," Peterson told The Huffington Post.


Instead of shaking her faith, the news about Smith fueled her curiosity. She set out to learn as much as she could about these women, diving into family genealogies and historical research, like historian Todd Compton did in his book, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives Of Joseph Smith.


For nearly 200 years, the church tried to "gloss over" the polygamous practices of its founders, including Smith and his follower Brigham Young, according to Reuters. While some splinter sects, such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, still practice polygamy, the mainstream church officially banned it in 1890.


"Plural marriage was difficult for all involved. For Joseph Smith's wife Emma, it was an excruciating ordeal," church leaders wrote in the essay explaining polygamy.


Peterson wishes she'd heard about Smith's many wives sooner.


"By not talking about these women, [the church] really robbed us of the heart and soul of Mormonism," she said. "These women are what's good and right about Mormonism, and that they have kept this quiet was really disturbing to me."


Peterson turned to art to help her process this journey of discovery. She created a series of 34 vivid portraits of Joseph Smith's wives, finding inspiration in old photos or in descriptions she found about them.


"I fell in love with these women, and I fell in love with Mormon history," she said. "I wanted to bring them to life. In the original pictures, they were so stoic, they never smiled, it was black and white. But after reading their stories, I knew these women were vibrant."


Scroll down to see Peterson's portrait series.


HuffPost Religion also did a deep dive into the lives of Joseph Smith's wives. Click here to read about what we found out.


H/T The New York Times



 


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Take A Look Behind The Scenes Of The Secret Service

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Though it's certainly had its scandals, the U.S. Secret Service still carries the huge responsibility of protecting U.S. presidents and their families. Photojournalists like Jacquelyn Martin of The Associated Press get to tag along and photograph the work the service does in the background.


"In my time covering the White House the U.S. Secret Service and its visual alphabet of dark suits, sunglasses and earpieces has fascinated me," Martin wrote on a recent AP Images Instagram post.


Martin curated a selection of her photos from over the years and posted them in stark black and white to her Instagram, allowing us to see the Secret Service blend in at work.


See the photos from Jacquelyn Martin's series below:













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Street Artist Paints Moving Donald Trump Portrait On NYC Street

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Hanksy, the Banksy parodist, has bestowed upon the streets of New York City a grand portrait of America's leading Republican presidential candidate.


Behold!



Some day, we'll gaze back fondly on President Trump's grassroots 2016 campaign as we ruminate on the boundary-busting legacy left by another white male who managed, against the odds, to bootstrap his way into the race for the White House.


The bricks that host this homage to the American political establishment will have long been carefully removed from the building's foundation and reassembled in the Smithsonian, next to President Obama's real birth certificate and Megyn Kelly's lipstick. 


What a world that will be!


For more on Hanksy, check out our past coverage here.


 


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The 'World's Largest Outdoor Mural' Pops Up In Norway

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If you happen to be traveling by plane over the Norwegian countryside (or, maybe, spying aerial perspectives of the region by drone) we'd suggest flying over a little municipality called Klepp in Rogaland county. There, you'll find artists and organizers prepping for a not-so-little street art festival known as Nuart, set to open its 15th iteration on Sept. 4.


But more than that, you'll be able to take in a bird's-eye view of one of the world's largest murals, visible from planes flying into and out of the nearby Sola airport. The work comes courtesy of French artists Ella & Pitr, along with an army of volunteers who helped bring "Lilith and Olaf" -- that's the title of the mural, which is currently taking up most of the 21,000 square-meter (approximately 226,040 square-foot) roof of Block Berge Bygg -- to life.


According to James Finucane, Nuart Festival's general manager, "Lilith and Olaf" is the "world's largest outdoor mural," which Ella & Pitr's team completed in an impressive four days. While it's difficult to confirm such a feat given the ephemeral nature of murals, Jaime Rojo and Steven Harrington, the co-founders of Brooklyn Street Art, estimate that the work is likely "the worlds largest figurative mural." 




Rojo and Harrington, frequent HuffPost blog contributors, named Nuart Festival as a "pivotal street art moment" of the 2000s. "We've always admired their willingness to push past comfort zones and embrace a hybrid of academic programming and a rebellious streak that stays true to graffiti's roots," the two noted in a statement to The Huffington Post this week. "[Founder and director of Nuart Festival] Martyn Reed continues to shepherd a shrewdly curated collection of rogues and standard bearers every year. They're already breaking records and we haven't even gotten there!"


The BSA experts cited Jamie Reid (the "original Sex Pistols graphic designer"), Futura (a "NYC graff guy who painted live behind the Clash while they played for an entire tour"), Icy & Sot and Ella & Pitr as people to watch at this year's festival. Stay tuned for their coverage of the 2015 event next month. In the meantime, check out photos of ... a very large mural in Norway below!


Photos courtesy of ©EllaPitr. For our past coverage of the duo, check out stories here and here.









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Lego Hacks To Help Piece Together Your Messy Life

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You can do just about anything with Legos. Play with them, eat them, become a professor and teach about them. So why wouldn't they help organize your life, too?


 A new video by Brick Ultra, a Lego news and entertainment network (yes really), offers up six nifty life hacks using the beloved building blocks. Tips include a way to keep track of your keys, a remedy for losing the back of an earring and more.


 The video even offers up a tutorial on how to create your very own stop motion camera stand, so your lego movie making dreams can finally come true. 


Take a look at the video below, and snap to making the most out of your Lego set. 




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These Photos Capture The Spirit Of New Orleans, 10 Years After Katrina

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It's been a slow recovery since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans 10 years ago, but residents are hopeful that the city is returning to its roots.


New Orleanians are repopulating their city, reestablishing festive traditions, repairing historic landmarks, rebuilding churches and reinvigorating the educational system.


Things like "Who dat Saints" and Mardi Gras have always been staples in its rich history -- but it is the people who have undeniably made New Orleans the cultural hub it is today. 


President Obama described the city as a place where “the jazz makes you cry and the funerals make you dance,” during his speech in New Orleans on Thursday.


Here are 35 uplifting photos that show resilient New Orleanians and capture the spirt of the city, one decade after Katrina: 


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Misty Copeland Makes Her Broadway Debut

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Just one week after becoming the first African-American principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre history, Misty Copeland announced another career milestone -- she would make her Broadway debut in the revival of “On The Town” on August 25th.


The 32-year-old dancer may be one of the top ballerinas on the planet, but she’s never publicly sang in her life. With only two weeks of prep and one “put-in” rehearsal, she was scared.


“Stepping into this theater for the first time -- I felt nervous and it’s been a long time since I’ve really felt nervous about performing,” Copeland said. “Having one ‘put-in’ rehearsal with the full cast did not feel like enough before making my debut.”


Watch the video above to see Copeland’s journey through rehearsals until her opening night.


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As Much As I Can, As Black As I Am: The Queer History of Grace Jones

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Grace Jones is perched on a ledge above the dancefloor of New York’s 12 West, the state-of-the-art, members-only gay disco, about to take the stage for one her first performances. The year is 1977, and no one is prepared for what’s about to hit them.


Tom Moulton, father of the dance mix and Jones’ early producer, describes the scene: “All of a sudden the spotlight hits her. She starts singing ‘I Need a Man’, and the place goes crazy. After she finishes, she goes, ‘I don't know about you, honey, but I need a fucking man!’ Talk about a room-worker.Whatever it takes. She was so determined.”

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Finally, A Movie Where Elisabeth Moss Isn't The Only Woman Around

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Elisabeth Moss' new movie opens in a dim room with a closeup of her teary, mascara-stained face. She is finishing a conversation in which she learns her boyfriend was having an affair when her father died. She says she hates him, buries her face in her hands and demands to be left alone. Right when Moss' character seems devoid of energy, when a brief quiet has washed over the scene, she looks up. With a flash of devilish malaise, she unleashes a guttural "Go!" so terrifying it might as well shatter the screen. It is then that the title card announces "Queen of Earth" in blood-red cursive. 


The opening moments appear to signal a horrific drama surrounding a romantic relationship with a man. In fact, Moss' best-friend-turned-adversary is another woman, played by Katherine Waterston ("Inherent Vice").


The film, written and directed by Alex Ross Perry ("Listen Up Philip"), is about the disintegration of a years-long friendship. Moss told The Huffington Post that the movie was a treat to make because it was the first time she has been part of a female-dominated project, albeit a dark one. 


Told in the vein of the classic genre that Perry describes as "psychotic-women cinema" -- think "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and Brian de Palma's "Sisters" with a touch of "Rosemary's Baby" and Woody Allen's "Interiors" -- "Queen of Earth" is an eerie look at the claustrophobia that sets in when childhood fixtures become relics. The relationship between her and Waterston's characters may be fraught, but it allowed for one of the most harmonious offscreen relations of Moss' career.


"I work with men predominantly," the actress said. "It's just different. I’m always the only girl. This was the first time that the main relationship in the film was with a woman. I have yet to have a really good relationship with a woman in film or in television, but it was a totally different dynamic offset for me. Katherine and I got along so great, and it was kind of awesome for me to be like, “Oh my God, there’s, like, a girl here!”



In Perry's opinion, however, the reason Moss hasn't had pristine relationships with women onscreen is because she isn't attracted to such carefree storylines. It's a claim her résumé supports: Since breaking out on male-driven series "The West Wing" and "Mad Men," Moss has played Jonah Hill's career-driven girlfriend in "Get Him to the Greek," a neglected wife in "On the Road," a troubled detective on "Top of the Lake" and one-half of a floundering couple in "The One I Love." 


Much of that work centers on emotional vulnerability, and that is precisely what "Queen of Earth" is about. Except now, Moss plays a character who isn't positioned largely among men. It's the horror-movie version of the road that often diverges in two friends' lives.


When Catherine (Moss) and Ginny (Waterston) vacationed at the same Hudson Valley home the previous summer, Catherine's co-dependent romance made her blissful and unresponsive toward Ginny's bitterness.


Now, the roles have reversed: Catherine is heartbroken and Ginny is reveling in flirtations with the boy next door (Patrick Fugit). But the relationship's fragmentation can't be pinned on the men who flit in and out of their lives. Intimate conversations, often portrayed via menacing closeups, reveal the deep-seated divisions that have cut through the friendship. It is the story of two confidants' inability to step outside of themselves to grapple with the downward spiral for which they blame each other. That springs to life through an urgency that resembles a thriller.


"We could have made it a little bit of a looser, less piercing tone, but we really just went for it," Perry said. "I said this movie could support a few moments where the foucs of the lens is on whoever’s listening, not whoever’s talking. In doing so, that will suggest a lot about this relationship if you’re watching these women react to one another instead of just watching what they're saying."


Perry, who will soon set sights on his first big-budget project by writing a live-action "Winnie the Pooh" update, employs restless camera techniques with precision. But he isn't interested in instilling fondness for the characters. Where "Mad Men" fans rooted for a Peggy-and-Joan union, no one watching the "Queen of Earth" characters self-destruct rests on any sense of hope for these women -- and the movie is all the most honest for it. Still, even though it's Moss' "favorite" movie she's done, she is looking forward to the day when the female rapport is as jovial onscreen as it was offscreen during the making of "Queen of Earth." 


"I love those movies, like 'The Holiday,'" Moss said. "I need to make that kind of movie. I need to get into a Nancy Meyers film, stat."




"Queen of Earth" is now open in limited release, with expansions planned throughout September.


 


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Broadway Actor Kyle Jean-Baptiste Dies at 21 After Tragic Fall

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Kyle Jean-Baptiste has sadly passed away at age 21 after tragically falling off his mom’s fire escape.


 

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Kyle Jean-Baptiste, First Black Actor To Play Lead In 'Les Miz' On Broadway, Dies At 21

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Kyle Jean-Baptiste, the youngest actor -- and the first black actor -- to play the lead role in a Broadway production of "Les Miserables,” died after a tragic fall from his mother’s fire escape Friday. He was 21.


Broadway World confirmed the news of his death, publishing a statement from Jean-Baptiste's company that expressed condolences to his family.


"The entire LES MISERABLES family is shocked and devastated by the sudden and tragic loss of Kyle, a remarkable young talent and tremendous person who made magic - and history - in his Broadway debut,” the statement says. “We send our deepest condolences to his family and ask that you respect their privacy in this unimaginably difficult time." 


The actor made his debut on Broadway this summer in the iconic role of Jean Valjean, the protagonist in "Les Miz," the longest running musical in the world. Thursday was his final show.


“Today is my last performance as Valjean on Broadway,” he wrote on Instagram beneath a before-and-after picture of him in costume. “What an incredible experience. I’ve learned and grown so much. Grateful for the people I’ve met and this opportunity. I will never forget it. Dedicating this performance to someone special to me. They know who they are. Also sending love to everyone who supported me. Family friends etc. Until next time.”


Jean-Baptiste appeared on HuffPost Live in July to discuss his passion for acting and how it felt to make history as the first black actor to take on the role of Valjean on Broadway.


"I had always wanted to play Valjean when I was younger, but never thought it possible on Broadway because I'm black," he said. "Now that I've done the role, I've realized how this news can inspire."




Jean-Baptiste recently graduated from Baldwin Wallace University. He also attended the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York.


Our thoughts and condolences go out to his family and friends.

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ISIS Destroys Part Of Another Ancient Temple In Palmyra, Monitor Says

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BEIRUT, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The hardline Islamic State group has destroyed part of an ancient temple in Syria's Palmyra city, a group monitoring the conflict said on Sunday.


The militants targeted the Temple of Bel, a Roman-era structure in the central desert city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.


It is the second temple Islamic State has targeted in Palmyra this month. The group detonated explosives in the ancient Baal Shamin temple on Aug. 25, an act that cultural agency UNESCO has called a war crime aimed at wiping out a symbol of Syria's diverse cultural heritage.


The extent of the damage at the Temple of Bel was not known, the Observatory said, citing its contacts on the ground.


Activists on social media also reported the destruction at the temple, one of Palmyra's most important structures.




 Islamic State seized Palmyra in May from government forces in a sudden offensive and is tightly controlling communications in the city, according to activists.


The group, which has proclaimed a caliphate in territory it holds across Syria and Iraq, has regularly demolished monuments it considers sacrilegious as well as carrying out mass killings.


This month the group beheaded the 82-year-old Syrian archaeologist who had looked after Palmyra's ruins for four decades, and hung his body in public, according to Syria's antiquities chief.


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Legendary Horror Director Wes Craven Dead At 76

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Wes Craven, the director of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream," died Sunday at 76. The celebrated horror master battled brain cancer, according to The Hollywood Reporter


Craven is one of the past few decades' most recognizable filmmakers, having transformed the slasher movie with the aforementioned box-office triumphs, both of which spawned numerous sequels. "Scream," in particular, is credited with reinvigorating the teen horror film thanks to a tongue-in-cheek script that both parodied and praised the genre. 


But long before "Scream" became one of 1996's highest-grossing releases, Craven cemented his status as the influential writer and director of exploitation films like "The Last House on the Left" (1972), "The Hills Have Eyes" (1977) "Swamp Thing" (1982) and "The People Under the Stairs" (1991). He broke from his signature genre with the 1999 drama "Music of the Heart," for which Meryl Streep earned an Oscar nomination, and one of the shorts within the acclaimed 2006 anthology film "Paris, je t'aime." He returned to form with the thriller "Red Eye" (2005), the supernatural box-office dud "My Soul To Take" (2010) and the long-anticipated fourth installment in the "Scream" franchise (2011). At the time of his death, the Craven-produced MTV series based on "Scream" was days away from airing its Season 1 finale.


Craven was born in 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in a strict Baptist family. He earned a Master's degree in philosophy and writing from Johns Hopkins University. He taught college briefly before abandoning academia for the world of cinema, rapidly establishing himself as an auteur who imbued his chilling films with questions about the nature of everyday existence. But Craven said in a 2009 interview that his horror legacy was pure "coincidence," as his debut film, "The Last House on the Left," came about after he and producer Sean S. Cunningham were approached by financiers to make a scary drive-in feature. That launching pad allowed the remainder of his career to channel a singular vision that can be defined by Skeet Ulrich's quote in "Scream": "Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative."


The news of the director's death broke during the MTV Video Music Awards, but Hollywood took to Twitter to praise Craven's contributions to American cinema. 






































The Huffington Post contacted Craven's representatives for further comment but has not heard back.



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Taylor Swift's 'Wildest Dreams' Channels White Colonialism

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Taylor Swift arrived at the VMAs with her squad of thin, mostly blonde women and proceeded to premiere her music video for "Wildest Dreams" on Sunday. It featured Scott Eastwood, those high-waisted pants that the villains wear in "Pocahontas" and what sure felt a lot like some harkening back to white colonialism. 




The opening shot pans over antelope or some other sort of animal gathering in the desert. Then there's a giraffe, Taylor Swift with black hair and Eastwood, who is either squinting or confused as to why he is making this ambiguous movie about what, again, feels a lot like white colonialism. 


We had trouble tracking the plot of the pseudo-film within this video, which was directed by Joseph Kahn. It appears to include some of the lyrics to "Wildest Dreams" or maybe just the line which Eastwood mouths to Swift. "Say you'll see me again," he lip-syncs to her while still squinting. (There is  a clear romantic undercurrent to the major storyline in which the two acquire control over an moderately sized African region.)





Instead of the cultural appropriation that has become almost status quo in today's pop music, Swift has opted for the bolder option of actually just embodying the political exploitation of a region and its people. It's brave, really. Almost as brave as moving sensuously in the vicintiy of a real-life lion.


All of the proceeds were donated to African Park Foundation of America.


 


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Wayne Dyer, Motivational Guru And Bestselling Author, Dies At 75

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Wayne Dyer, the motivational guru and bestselling author of dozens of self-help books, died Saturday night at the age of 75.


His family shared the news with Dyer’s 2.4 million Facebook fans on Sunday. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.




Dyer, who was known to fans as the “father of motivation,” first gained worldwide fame in 1976 after the publication of his first book “Your Erroneous Zones.” Although he was said to have sold copies “out of the back of his station wagon," the tome became an international bestseller with an estimated 35 million copies sold.


Dyer would later write more than 40 books, almost half of which made The New York Times bestseller list, and appeared on many TV shows, including several PBS specials. 


Last year, Mind Body Spirit magazine ranked Dyer as the eighth most spiritually influential person in the world. 


Born in Detroit in 1940, Dyer spent part of his childhood in orphanages and foster homes before going on to serve in the U.S. Navy in the late 1950s. He earned a doctorate in educational counseling from Wayne State University and taught at St. John's University in New York until he found success as an author. 


Dyer, who counted celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey as some of his fans, espoused the power of positive thinking in his teachings.


“Take the last five minutes of your day,” Dyer told CBS Sunday Morning in 2014, “and put your attention on everything that you would like to attract into your life: ‘I am well. I am healed. I am in perfect health. I am abundant. I am happy.’ Say those things to yourself. Then you'll marinate for eight hours, and you'll awaken and you'll begin to attract the things that are in your subconscious mind.”


Dyer was diagnosed with leukemia in 2009, NBC News reported, and claimed to have treated the disease with “positive thinking, daily exercise and ‘psychic surgery’” performed by a Brazilian medium.


Dyer was also a proponent of the idea that death is but an “illusion.” In 2012, he told Winfrey: “Who we are is the part of us that is infinite, the part of us that never stops.”




Dyer's career was not free from controversy.


PBS ombudsman Michael Getlar wrote in 2006 that viewers had complained about Dyer’s “overtly religious” teachings. Several years later, Getlar said that “it is my sense that … Dyer’s presentations violate PBS’s Editorial Standards and Policies.”


In 2010, author Stephen Mitchell filed suit, alleging Dyer had plagiarized chunks of two of his books. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.


Many fans and friends of Dyer’s, including Degeneres, Winfrey and the motivational speaker Tony Robbins, mourned the self-help author’s death on social media.














Dyer, who lived in Maui, was separated from his third wife and had eight children. 


 


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A Guide To Awesome Korean Dramas

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Game of Thrones isn’t on, you’ve finished Orange Is The New Black, and fall TV hasn’t kicked in yet. You need something to get obsessed with. Allow me to suggest a Korean drama, or K-drama, as they’re called. You may have heard about them, or seen that American TV networks are considering remakes, or read the New York Timesreport that China’s fallen in love with them (2 billion views!), or read about how North Koreans are smuggling them in. You may be curious, but not know where to start. Well, I’m obsessed. So allow me to gently guide you.

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For Artists With Developmental Disabilities, Dance Provides An Outlet And Inspiration

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"I like to dance. I want to dance. I have to dance.
When you do the stage, you want to dance.
It makes me feel good, it makes me feel better. 
Dancing to have fun.
Power of dancing when you do have fun.
I want to do a better dance.
It makes me feel pretty, it makes me feel good.
Wonderful powerful good."
-Yolanda Ramirez, Creativity Explored artist 



Every Friday, during the last hour of the work day, Creativity Explored hosts a dance party. For the majority of the week, the space operates as a studio space for artists with developmental disabilities to create, exhibit and sell their work. However, for one hour every week, San Francisco-based Creativity Explored shifts gears entirely, transforming into a carefree, inclusive event revolving around rhythm and movement -- one that would probably benefit most work environments.  


The dance party has been an established aspect of Creativity Explored since before most of the current staff began working there. Not everyone participates; some artists sit on the sidelines or jump in for a song they love; others wait days, weeks or even years before gearing up to join the dance.


First, the party begins with a movement circle, in which every dancer enters the middle and performs a certain move or stretch, with the rest of the circle quickly following suit. Next, there is a freestyle dance-a-thon, where all the true-blue dance aficionados can really break it down. Finally, the group finishes off the week by holding hands, closing their eyes, and dancing together. Each dance party is a temporal event unique unto itself. It's a repetitive ritual that's consistent but never mundane.


And for the artists of Creativity Explored, like many self-taught and visionary artists, repetition is at the core of their artistic practice. 



"It makes me feel carefree," Creativity Explored artist Joseph "JD" Green told The Huffington Post of the weekly tradition. "It makes me think of movement, the body. You can do things with your arms and legs at all these different angles. It's fun to draw, like you can really feel the movement."


Inspired by the uplifting power of getting down, Creativity Explored visual arts instructors Leeza Doreian and Mara Poliak have curated an upcoming exhibition on the subject, aptly titled "Dance Party!" 


Both Doreian and Poliak were independently roused by the energy cultivated through the weekly dance parties, a practice they consider, as Poliak explained to HuffPost, "a central axis upon which Creativity Explored spins ... It affects their identities, how they see themselves as people and as artists."


The central touchstone of a dance party offered a unique opportunity for the diverse roster of artists to riff on a shared theme. This is especially unusual given the undeviating nature of most Creativity Explored artists' work. While many fine artists in the gallery circuit emphasize evolution and experimentation as core aspects of the artistic process, many self-taught and visionary artists find an artistic beat and stick to it, for life. 



As a result, it's difficult to find a unifying concept for a Creativity Explored show, one that appeals to those who create personal, representational drawings and repetition-based, abstract systems alike. "Not everyone works figuratively, not everyone wants to draw people dancing," Doreian explained. "So we started thinking: how do we make the container bigger and expand beyond just our dance party? We started thinking of the ephemera and the lights and the clothes people wear and the pop culture associated with it all."


J.D. Green, for example, who feels best drawing creatures, animals and people, created four mixed media pieces inspired by Oakland-based hip-hop, funk and punk group The Coup. In one work, Green rendered a still from the music video for "The Guillotine," as seen through an old fashioned TV set. The old school television directs attention to the near-extinct art of the made-for-TRL music video in today's YouTube age. 


Kate Thompson opts for a more fantastical approach with her detailed line drawing "Lion Tamer Dance Party," which depicts stone-faced cavemen and emotive lions engaging in a stream of dance duets. The lions' expressions vary between enthralled, terrified and entertained, capturing the range of gut feelings you'd expect to experience in a prehistoric hoedown. 


For those artists, however, who prefer not to work with figuration, Doreian and Poliak suggested taking inspiration from the many patterns, textures and abstract visions that manifest themselves, somewhat sneakily, at dance parties. The overwhelmingly popular example: disco balls. "We have a lot of work that is just different representations of disco balls," Poliak said, "wildly different, some very geometric and deconstructed." 



Of all the artists on view, however, only one diverges from the visual arts into the performative. Her name is Yolanda Ramirez. The artist, who normally works with food-centric drawings and needleworks, doesn't usually participate in Dance Fridays. But when a particular song stirs her, she jumps up from her seat and mounts an impromptu dance that stops others in their tracks.


For many of the Creativity Explored artists, dance provides a social outlet and a safe space for community building. But for a select few, dancing is a form of expression in itself. "When she dances in the studio she really is performing," Poliak said. "She demands attention and she is captivating. Both Leeza and I have seen her dance over the years and thought, if only there was a way to share this with a wider audience. One of the things she is is a performance artist."


"It's really oozing out of her pores, that artistry," Doreian continued. "It's very moving for both of us. We both have concerns about not wanting her to look like a spectacle but like an artist. There were some things that had to be considered before making the decision to feature her work as a performance artist that wouldn't apply to other people."


For her two performances, filmed at San Francisco's Roxy Theater, Ramirez moves to a Tango song by Otros Aires and Nina Simone's "I Put A Spell On You." The videos, featuring Ramirez alone on a jet-black stage, are bewitching and disarming, like the performance that followed "Llorando" in Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" that never made it into the film. Ramirez's improvised gestures flow from her fingers to her face to her knees to her feet. She switches characters, giggles, hides behind her hands, jiggles her watch. She's clearly swept up the moment in a way that, for most of us, is only a cliche. 


The multimedia exhibit offers the chance for visual artists to explore the overlap between dance and art, the body and the imagination, improvisation and careful repetition. Despite their differences, both dance and art offer the artists of Creativity Explored an opportunity to communicate in means outside the standard practice -- language. "They're both forms of creative expression, they both exist out of word-based language," Doreian said. "Human expression can be very verbal, and both art and dance offer a different way of being in the world and creating."


"Dance Party!" runs from Oct. 8 to Nov. 22, 2015 at Creativity Explored in San Francisco. 


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