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Contortionist Transforms Body Into Alien Beings In Bewitching Photos

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We know what a naked body looks like, right? We see our own every day. Arms go here, belly lands there, thighs then knees then calves and feet. Easy, right?


And yet, gazing upon the photographs of French artist Arthur Cadre, that crystallized vision of the body you thought you knew melts into an otherworldly medley of joints, limbs and folds. 



Cadre is a dancer, acrobat, contortionist, handbalancer and a photographer. (When he's not twisting his body into various misshapen configurations, he's also an architect.) After performing his first breakdancing step at the age of nine, Cadre immersed himself in the world of international breakdancing competitions. The self-taught performer incorporates techniques from parkour, ballet and circus into his work, thus crafting a style all his own. 


See Cadre's mostly nude body bend and stretch in the images below, as a variety of international natural landscapes serve as a background for his alien invasion. 



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Here's Where The 2016 Oscar Race Stands After Fall's Big Festivals

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Oscar season has begun, if you subscribe to the adage that the September film festivals -- Telluride, Venice and Toronto -- are what shift the movie calendar from gargantuan summer blockbusters to gargantuan awards caliber. The race is young, but critics' reactions to fall releases can make or break their Oscar buzz. With the Toronto Film Festival having come to a close on Sunday, we have a mildly clearer picture of what the nominations could look like come January, even if many pundits agree a durable front-runner hasn't yet emerged. 


BEST PICTURE 



"Spotlight," Tom McCarthy's admirable portrait of the Boston Globe's 2001 investigation into local Catholic priests' child sex abuse, won favorable reception at Telluride and Venice, but it exploded at Toronto, where some dubbed it the new Best Picture front-runner. Boasting both social resonance and the sort of traditional storytelling that has a toehold with the Academy, think of "Spotlight" as a contemporary "All the President's Men," which earned a nod in 1977.


The other festival fortress appears to be the moving transgender drama "The Danish Girl," buoyed by Tom Hooper's recent Academy endorsements, "The King's Speech" and "Les Misérables." Its timely subject matter lends "Girl" added gravitas, and the movie is shot in the lush period-piece stylings that appeal to awards groups. The other big Toronto hits -- "The Martian," "Truth," "Beasts of No Nation," People's Choice Award winner "Room" and Sundance holdover "Brooklyn" -- will face a tougher battle, largely because they must contend with still-unseen titles from Steven Spielberg ("Bridge of Spies"), Quentin Tarantino ("The Hateful Eight"), David O. Russell ("Joy") and Alejandro González Iñárritu ("The Revenant"). I expect most of the festivals' iffier gambles will succumb to rapturous Cannes favorite "Carol" and Danny Boyle's new Steve Jobs biopic, which Telluride critics called "electric" and "sophisticated."


Predictions: "Carol," "The Danish Girl," "The Hateful Eight," "Inside Out," "Joy," "The Revenant," "Room," "Spotlight," "Steve Jobs"


BEST ACTRESS



Could this race be Cate Blanchett vs. Cate Blanchett? She won for "Blue Jasmine" just two years ago, but she's destined to pick up a nomination for either "Carol" or "Truth," where she stands out as the stately CBS producer who spearheaded the chided "60 Minutes" report that led to Dan Rather's downfall. As it turns out, the last actor to earn two noms in the same year was, in fact, Cate Blanchett, who was up for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and "I'm Not There" in 2007. No one has ever accomplished that feat in the same category, though, so we can probably toss out the "Truth" recognition in favor of Brie Larson, who is stunning as a young mother held captive in "Room."


There were additional Toronto rumblings about Maggie Smith's performance in "The Lady in the Van" (a role she originated onstage in London), while Charlotte Rampling strolled through glowing "45 Years" reactions with her Berlin Film Festival actress award and Saoirse Ronan still toted Oscar buzz from Sundance as an Irish immigrant in the coming-of-age drama "Brooklyn." The weepy "Beaches" update "Miss You Already" won't be high on the Academy's radar, but Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore are at least worth a look. A huge determiner in the race will be whether Focus Features stumps for Alicia Vikander's exceptional "Danish Girl" performance as lead or supporting. It should be lead, as the story is just as much hers as it is Eddie Redmayne's -- but the studio might see an easier portal within the (slightly) less-crowded supporting field. At this point, it looks like 2016's Best Actress derby could be as congested as Best Actor was in 2015. I haven't even mentioned Lily Tomlin in "Grandma" or Charlize Theron in "Mad Max: Fury Road."


Predictions: Cate Blanchett, "Carol" / Brie Larson, "Room" / Jennifer Lawrence, "Joy" Charlotte Rampling, "45 Years" / Saoirse Ronan, "Brooklyn" 


BEST ACTOR



Eddie Redmayne won Best Actor this year for his physically daunting turn as Stephen Hawking. Oscar statistics indicate the Academy favors older actors, so I'm dubious the 33-year-old Redmayne can pull off another victory, despite his elegant work portraying the first person to undergo gender-confirmation surgery. Matt Damon carries a lot of "The Martian" on his stranded shoulders, but the movie's populist sci-fi may be too broad to go to bat against Michael Caine in the old-age meditation "Youth" and Johnny Depp's terrifying Whitey Bulger stint in the otherwise messy "Black Mass." If you're of the mind that children should earn Oscar nominations, pay attention to Jacob Tremblay, the 8-year-old actor charged with experiencing the world for the first time in "Room." And if Variety is correct in reporting that Mark Ruffalo's "Spotlight" role will be campaigned as a lead, he might make the shortlist too. (I retract my earlier statement -- it looks like the Best Actor contest is just as crowded this time.)


But plenty of gentlemen fizzled out at Toronto, namely Tom Hiddleston in the flaccid Hank Williams biopic "I Saw the Light" and Tom Hardy playing gangster twins in the cartoonish "Legend." Bryan Cranston's "Trumbo" turn, on the other hand, sits somewhere in between -- he effectively channels haughty Old Hollywood as blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, but the film is something of a missed opportunity, even for a voting body that adores movies about itself. I'd keep your money on Michael Fassbender's Steve Jobs portrayal for now, but don't discount Tom Hanks' latest Spielberg collaboration, "Bridge of Spies," which has yet to screen for critics. 


Predictions: Johnny Depp, "Black Mass" / Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant" / Michael Fassbender, "Steve Jobs" / Tom Hanks, "Bridge of Spies" / Eddie Redmayne, "The Danish Girl"


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS



Rooney Mara won Cannes' actress prize for "Carol," so everyone else in contention is swimming in her waters. From the festival scene, Vikander is probably her biggest threat, if she goes supporting. Jane Fonda has a memorable role in "Youth," but it may be too brief to hit the Academy's register. Ellen Page plays second fiddle to Julianne Moore in the gay-rights drama "Freeheld," but the movie is too flat for either performance to make a dent. Keep an eye out for several undercard players, though: Julie Walters is a hilarious highlight of "Brooklyn," Rachel McAdams has the only female role in "Spotlight," Rachel Weisz is touching in "Youth," Helen Mirren is devilishly campy as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in "Trumbo" and Jessica Chastain grounds "The Martian" as the commander of its central mission. Tough break for Elle Fanning, however, whose trans drama "About Ray" has suffered dicey critics and the politics of Harvey Weinstein. (Julianne Moore deserves brownie points for playing a Danish academic diva in the Baumbach-esque comedy "Maggie's Plan," but it doesn't have a distribution deal yet.)  If I had my way, there would be room for Kristen Stewart ("Clouds of Sils Maria"), Elizabeth Banks ("Love & Mercy") and/or Kristen Wiig ("The Diary of a Teenage Girl") too. At least Kate Winslet can count on "Steve Jobs" kudos, which will hopefully give her reason to forget the atrocity that is "The Dressmaker."


Predictions: Jennifer Jason Leigh, "The Hateful Eight" / Rooney Mara, "Carol" / Alicia Vikander, "The Danish Girl" / Julie Walters, "Brooklyn" / Kate Winslet, "Steve Jobs" 


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR



If there's any festival performance that should headline the supporting-actor conversation right now, it's Joel Edgerton, who showcases the perfect dose of warmth in his sleazy "Black Mass" FBI informant. Toronto critics extolled him, but Edgerton may suffer from serving as benchwarmer to a much showier Johnny Depp. Idris Elba could keep us from seeing another #OscarsSoWhite year with "Beasts of No Nation," where he plays a tyrannical West African warlord. But the movie's Netflix platform makes its impact unpredictable, and his young co-star, Abraham Attah, commands a lot of the project's plaudits. It's Michael Keaton, then, who seem the likeliest festival darling to carry his buzz all the way to January. Keaton's "Spotlight" outing rises above the film's ensemble, giving the actor a chance to claim a trophy after losing for "Birdman" this year. I'm also here to say that a supporting bid for Paul Dano's top-notch work in the Brian Wilson biopic "Love & Mercy" is category fraud, but I'll accept it if it means he gets the nomination. That's a tough one considering the movie premiered at Toronto in 2014. You're probably likelier to hear the words "Oscar nominee Seth Rogen" in a few months, thanks to "Steve Jobs."


Predictions: Idris Elba, "Beasts of No Nation" / Tom Hardy, "The Revenant" / Samuel L. Jackson, "The Hateful Eight" / Michael Keaton, "Spotlight" / Mark Rylance, "Bridge of Spies"


 


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One Comic Summarizes The Life Story Of Mexican Hero Frida Kahlo

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It's not hard to fall in love with Frida Kahlo. Her unflappable courage, searing artistic vision, torrential passion and iconic sense of style. But Kahlo is more than just a fashion icon, she's a true visionary, and for many, nothing less than a lifesaving force. 


Enter Sissy Biscuit, a comedy writer and cartoonist in the Philadelphia area. Biscuit -- yes, it's a pen name -- recently expressed her love for the surrealist badass in a lengthy, cursive-laden cartoon complete with fun facts and charming illustrations. Any Frida lover may want to print this one out. 


Biscuit's obsession with the Surrealist artist, as she explained in an email to The Huffington post, extends beyond an aesthetic appreciation. "I didn’t mention this in the cartoon, but when I was 14 years old I had a near-death experience with severe Lyme disease that left me bedridden for three months," she explained. "I was a painter and art lover before my illness struck, and I had a lot of art history books lying around, one of which had some of Frida’s works."


"To say I fell in love with her would be an understatement," she added. "She was so bold and honest about her situation. She was saying things that I wished the people around me would say. Yes, death might be near. Yes, life is brutal and strange and sometimes unfair. And yes, we should laugh at it. We should revel in it. Most comedic writers have other comedians as inspiration, I have Frida Kahlo. I guess I’m a weirdo like that. She would have approved."


We think so. See the perfect Frida tribute below, just in time for National Hispanic Heritage Month.




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Punk Rock Frontman's Drug Addiction Almost Killed Him, But He Lives To Scream About It

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Given that some of FIDLAR's best-known songs have titles like “Cheap Bear” and “Cocaine,” it’s hard to blame fans of the Los Angeles band, itself an acronym for “Fuck It Dog, Life’s a Risk,” for associating the skate punk outfit with a live-fast-die-young party-hardy ethos.


But it wasn’t until very recently that most FIDLAR fans realized just how serious the partying had gotten, particularly for frontman Zac Carper.


As Carper and his bandmates -- Brandon Schwartzel, Elvis Kuehn and Max Kuehn -- began doing interviews promoting the Sept. 4 release of their second full-length album, “Too,” that reality surfaced as songs with titles like “Overdose” and “Sober” required some explanation. Carper has not minced words about the turmoil that almost killed the band. And him.


In conversations with music journalists from Vice, Spin and other outlets, Carper spoke in detail about how his struggles with addiction to a wide gamut of drugs -- including cocaine, meth and heroin -- and his efforts to, finally, sober up served as the source material for many of the songs. 




Carper’s newfound sobriety --  he’s been clean for over a year following six stints at rehab and a pep talk from Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, a fellow California punk who's dealt with addiction -- may have come as a surprise to some fans accustomed to the beer-slamming, YOLO-friendly party jams that dominated their successful, self-titled debut record, released in 2013. But in conversation with The Huffington Post backstage following the band’s high-energy set at Riot Fest in Chicago, Carper said he couldn’t imagine it any other way. 


“I was a fucking junkie and a meth head for like the whole [previous] tour cycle and after doing this record I was like, I just gotta be honest,” Carper explained. “I’ve felt so much better saying in the press, you know what, I don’t get fucked up anymore.”


Some fans have reached out to him to share that they’ve dealt with similar substance abuse problems, but there’s also been some backlash, of course. Others seem to liken the news of Carper’s struggles to something of a buzzkill -- Carper’s sister told him that one person on the band’s Facebook page called him a “fucking narc,” he laughed.


“I’m not going to let that fuck with me. This is the only fucking thing I know how to do and I love doing it,” Carper said of the negative comments. “It’s the classic, especially in punk music: ‘Oh, God, he’s sober, album’s gonna suck, man.’ Look at old punk rock dudes. They’re either dead or sober. Really, there’s no fucking in between.” 



Fans and music writers alike who have latched onto the band’s party-centric tone have been missing the point all along, Carper argues. Their coverage in the press has been a source of frustration for him.


“The way that the first record turned out, the press really pushed that we were the skater-party-punk people but that wasn’t the case with us. … I never preached getting fucked up,” Carper said. “All the songs were just shit about shit I was going through. A lot of people make assumptions and I’m half to blame here -- I wrote songs called ‘Cocaine’ and ‘Wake Bake Skate’ and ‘Cheap Beer’ -- but I just wish people would just take the songs and interpret it for themselves and not think it’s, like, who I am really.”


Compared to the mostly loud, relentless jams on FIDLAR’s first album, many of the songs on “Too” take a slower and more nuanced approach.


The result is a sort of aural hangover. A handful of songs -- like “Punks” and “West Coast,” which originally appeared on a 2012 EP the band released -- wouldn’t have felt out of place on that first album, while its darker, more confessional moments -- like the mid-album trio of “Sober,” “Overdose” and “Leave Me Alone” -- are new territory for the band. They make for some of the album’s finest, most unexpected moments.


The self-deprecating lyrics on these songs dive into Carper’s experiences with overdosing on heroin a reported three times in one month, his intervention -- when a group of friends and family members gathered and told him, “Dude, you’re fucking dying” -- and his mixed feeling about sobriety. 


The band worked with a producer, the Nashville-based Jay Joyce, for the first time on this album and Carper credits Joyce with how those songs turned out. “Sober,” he added, wouldn’t have been on the record were it not for Joyce’s influence. The song deals with Carper’s reaction to his girlfriend at the time breaking up with him over the phone while he was in rehab.




Though they cover darker subject matter than FIDLAR's older work, songs like the regret-laden “Stupid Decisions” fit in seamlessly with the older, lighter material in the band’s Riot Fest set. The band's fans crowd-surfed and pumped their fists in the air.


The contradiction between playing songs including the lyrics “I’m spending all my cash on cheap cocaine / And I’ve been wasted, every day” and the newer songs in live sets today is not lost on Carper. Channeling the emotions behind songs written about the darkest moments of his life serves a function “like therapy” for him, he said.


It's not all gravy, of course. Life on the road comes with a minefield of triggers -- he admits he misses "getting fucked up” -- so he deals with lingering temptations by listening to a lot of music and helping produce records for other bands while on the road. He’s already produced work for bands including the Frights and Swimmers and is also working on a new album for the Australian band Dune Rats. He is also in ongoing therapy to help him along in his recovery.


But all things considered, Carper said the sober life is getting better each day. He described the band as tighter than ever and said he finds it easier to connect with fans at shows now that he’s not using. He also believes the band’s live sets are stronger than when he was high. 


“I’m really grateful I’m not fucking sticking heroin up my ass and smoking meth,” Carper said. “You can’t shoot dope like a gentleman. You can drink like a gentleman, you can smoke weed like a gentleman, but once you start shooting dope.. That heroin chic thing never worked for me.”

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Reunited Punks L7's To Millennials: 'Get It Together, Step Up'

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Everywhere a music fan turns these days, it feels like a band at their height in the ‘90s is reuniting -- and the quality of the ensuing musical output has varied widely from inspired to “why?!”


But there have been few reunions met with as much exuberance of critics and fans alike than that of L7, the explosive all-female Los Angeles grunge-punk outfit fronted by the effervescent Donita Sparks and known for their trashing, high-energy songs like “Shitlist” and “Shove.”


it all started a couple of years back when Sparks began curating the band’s Facebook page, posting photos, fliers and other band ephemera she was in the process of digitizing. In that process, Sparks also came across many hours of videos the band had shot during their original run. She showed them to filmmaker Sarah Price and the group decided to pursue the creation of a documentary using the newly discovered footage, launching a successful $130,000 Kickstarter campaign to fund it. 


The fan response to the Kickstarter and Facebook posts was so deafening the band, whose original lineup had last performed together in 1996, decided to give live shows another go, playing their first show in almost two decades together in LA in May. They followed that show up with a run of 11 shows in Europe and are in the midst of a mini-tour of 15 U.S. cities, playing Riot Fest in Chicago earlier this month.




The response to L7’s resurrection, especially from fans so young they weren’t alive when the band’s most recent album was released in 1999, came as a surprise to Sparks, she admitted shortly before taking the stage in Chicago’s Douglas Park. Her band is a good place, she said.


“A lot of people are like, ‘L7? Who are they? Who cares?’ And other people are like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s fucking L7!’” Sparks said. “We’re kind of in this cool, weird spot that we dig. We don’t have to be known by the masses, we just want to be known by the cool people anyway. We don’t have to convince the squares that we are a decent band.”


Decent doesn’t even come close to doing the band justice. Sparks and her bandmates -- Suzi Gardner, Jennifer Finch and Demetra “Dee” Plakas -- ripped through 13 songs from their catalog over the course of a taut hourlong set that felt like one of the packed weekend’s loudest and most-anticipated. One would have never guessed they were watching a band that "peaked" some 20 years earlier.


Closing with the thrilling “Fast and Frightening,” the band delivered on a request they made of the stage’s sound tent earlier in the set: to “melt off their balls and titties, in a nice way.” 



As much as the shows have represented a family reunion of sorts for L7, the Riot Fest set was also a literal homecoming for half the band’s lineup, as both Plakas and Sparks were born in Chicago.


Growing up in the Chicago area, Sparks said she turned to bands like the Ramones, Blondie and the B-52s, all of whom represented a level of eccentricity and unapologetic weirdness that provided solace from her “square” suburban surroundings.


After high school, she spent a year working in downtown Chicago as a foot messenger for a photo lab to save up money to move to Los Angeles, where she launched L7 with Gardner in 1985. The hotel the band was staying at while in Chicago actually overlooked the office building where Sparks delivered artwork on foot to advertising agencies. 


In Los Angeles, the band worked to develop their signature sound, a fiery blend of punk, metal and grunge elements, and were signed by Sub Pop, the label known for breaking artists like Nirvana and helping create Seattle-style grunge.


L7 didn’t quite breakthrough to the mainstream until their third album, 1992’s “Bricks Are Heavy.” They were even featured in a John Waters film, playing the part of a band called “Camel Lips” alongside Kathleen Turner in 1994’s “Serial Mom.”




They went on to influence a whole generation of women-fronted bands associated with the riot grrrl movement not only because of their music but also because of their politics. The band founded Rock for Choice, a decade-long series of feminist, pro-choice women’s rights benefit shows.


Sparks has stated in other interviews that she can see the need to revive the Rock for Choice series. Still, she admitted that she is disappointed in what she perceives as a lack of younger artists today who are embracing political activism at a time when many of the same pressing questions that prompted benefits like Rock for Choice remain unanswered today.


She is particularly concerned about environmental issues and though she said she was thrilled by the Supreme Court’s decision this year on marriage equality, she quipped, "If we’re all underwater, who cares if you’re gay [and] getting married.”


“I scratch my head and wonder why aren’t these younger bands doing benefits, I mean, are they? Are any of them organizing?” Sparks said. “We fucking built [Rock for Choice] from scratch. The Beastie Boys built the Free Tibet series from scratch. Are any young bands stepping up because I don’t know, they should be. I don’t get it. It’s needed now more than ever. Basically we’re the fucking Titanic sinking on every issue that we can think of. Millennials, get it together. Step up!” 



While Sparks is happy to see more popular artists embracing the term “feminist” she added that she would like to see more action in that arena as well.


“They probably are feminists but I don’t know how much that is speaking to teenage women, I really don’t. I mean, rock and roll women,” Sparks said. “If I were a teenager I’d be looking for ways to get my aggression and frustration out. I’d really just want to scream and yell at a concert because there’s a lot of stuff to be pissed off about.”


As for L7’s future past a string of shows on the west coast in November, Sparks said there are currently “no plans” for the band to create new music and that they have been exclusively focused on the live shows and the forthcoming documentary. Beyond that, she added, “you never know.” 


“We’re not being salespeople to get people to like our new album,” Sparks said. “We don’t care. We’re playing shit that’s 20 years old that people really like and they want to hear. It's been a love fest.”

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38 Honest Cards For New Parents With A Sense Of Humor

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Welcoming a new baby is a special occasion that calls for flowers, gifts and of course, cards. 


Sometimes the words you want to say to the new mom or dad simply can't be found in a Hallmark card. But that doesn't have to be an obstacle. 


Here are 38 honest, creative and hilarious cards to give to parents who just welcomed a new baby into their lives.



 


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Books Had A Great Emmys Night, Despite Andy Samberg's Best Efforts

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"The Emmys are all about celebrating the best of the year in television," 2015 Emmys host Andy Samberg proclaimed on Sunday night during his opening monologue. "So, sorry, books, not tonight!" A reaffirming "Suck It, Books" in LOLcat style Impact font covered his face to underline the point.


Any book lover forgetting the date and errantly tuning in to Fox hopeful for a marathon reading of Moby-Dick likely then turned away to weep into his or her vintage card catalog, rescued from the days when print was king and before technology -- especially the most banal technology, television -- ruined everything. 


But, despite Samberg's best efforts, books ended up having a pretty good time at the 67th annual awards. Books looked great in her custom designed couture dress, but refused to tell Ryan Seacrest about it, because duh, #AskHerMore. Books also got selfies with Jon Hamm and Viola Davis, nbd. But most important, Books got a serious nod in the form of "Olive Kitteridge," the HBO miniseries adaptation of Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name that garnered six wins.





While those who tuned in to watch "The Voice" win for Outstanding Reality Competition were all, "Huh?," Books smiled serenely in her seat next to Amy Poehler (who, a fan of books, has even written one). Frances McDormand, however, was Books' biggest champion. She first stated it during her short yet effective acceptance speech for Outstanding Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. 




Stories, apparently, can be told both in written and televised format. Interesting. But in case it wasn't clear that McDormand was pro-books, she made sure the world -- and Samberg -- knew when she returned to the mic to accept the award for Outstanding Limited Series for "Kitteridge."


"It started as a book! It started as a book, OK, Andy?" 


For those unfamiliar with the book, Strout's Olive Kitteridge is a novel-short story collection hybrid that follows the titular character through her life in the small town of Crosby, Maine. Olive feels constricted -- so constricted that she cannot determine the source of her rage -- in the confines of her small-town life as a wife. Readers learn about her, and by succession, the town of Crosby and its inhabitants, through the vignettes each story provides.


So if you were firmly on team TV before, perhaps Sunday night's accolades will help you see the other side. 




Not tonight, Andy!!!



 


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3 Things The New U.S. Poet Laureate Knows About Love

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Love is without question among the most written-about subjects in literature. It is also one of the most complicated. Countless authors and poets have tackled the topic, exalting love's virtues and cautioning against its blind spots. For Juan Felipe Herrera, the new U.S. Poet Laureate, it's as complex as an emotion can be, but there are three things that Herrera says he knows for sure about love.


1. It really is mysterious.


There's a reason love is such good fodder for poetry -- it's full of mystery and possibility. "It doesn't really have a shape or an equation or formula," Hererra explains.


Love also tends to hit with such force that even if you wanted to step back from it and analyze what is happening, it's impossible. "It happens to deeply and so quickly, that there's no time to think about it," Herrera says.


2. It changes as time goes on.


Herrera calls love "a process of complete evolution."


"It changes, it changes and it changes, so we really can't stick to the first feeling of what it was or the past," Herrera says. "We can't go back there and say, 'What happened to that love?' Well, that love has its time, and the love we have now, it has its time."


3. It's everywhere.


Here's a big reason why it's so difficult to pinpoint one all-encompassing definition of love. "It's really not one person, it's not one thing. It's not one way and it's not one kind of love," Herrera says. "It's everything, everywhere, forever, and beyond our lives."


More from Oprah.com:


The difference between love and romance


4 types of love (and which one you really want)


What marriage counselors want you to know about real love


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Denise Bidot: ‘There’s So Much Pressure As A Latin Woman To Be Perfect’

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Denise Bidot is a known advocate for a more inclusive fashion industry, and for the second year in a row, the 29-year-old plus-size model walked the Fashion Week runways.


Ahead of her runway appearances for Chromat and Addition Elle last week, Bidot spoke intimately with The Huffington Post about her personal experience with body image growing up, how she plans to pass on her body positive mindset to her 7-year-old daughter and why she wants everyone to know there’s no wrong way to be a woman.


Take a look at the conversation with the model, of Puerto Rican and Kuwaiti descent, below: 



Curves are a common beauty standard in the Latina community. Do you think there are certain body struggles that are more common among Latinas?


Totally, I think there are a lot of expectations. I did a thing for HBO Latino for "Habla Women" and one of the woman talked so much about how we’re expected to be almost this perfect woman. We have to be super sexy but we have to be super classy. We have to have our curves in all the right places and have our red lipstick on and our heels on and be the perfect mother. I think there’s so much pressure as a Latin woman to be perfect, and none of us are perfect in any which way or form.


Growing up, because my mother struggled so much with her weight, it could’ve gone one way or another. She could’ve pushed all those insecurities on me and I could’ve been miserable -- [but] I refused to be. I just knew there was something bigger. I just couldn’t understand why to me the most beautiful girl in the world couldn’t understand she was beautiful. And I remember thinking she was more beautiful the bigger she was because she was more comfortable when I would lay on her [laughs] -- which she doesn’t want to hear. But I was never ashamed of her and I felt like her being so embarrassed by her size or never feeling happy or feeling confident really helped me realize what I didn’t want to lose my life dwelling over.


And now you’re a mother. In this information age -- in which kids have more access to images that promote impossible body standards -- how do you think we can teach children to love themselves?


We’re in a different generation than when I was growing up or when my mother was growing up. I saw when the entertainment industry changed as I was growing up and how much that helped push my confidence level. I think we always think that there needs to be a conversation with kids or there needs to be a way to teach them, but I think what we’re doing on our end is so much of what is going to help them in the long run because being able to look at a billboard and see people that they relate to, to be able to see those people on TV or owning businesses -- I think that’s the conversation that is unspoken and that they’re not going to have to worry about.


How do you plan to teach that kind of body positivity to your own daughter?


I keep wanting to figure out that there is a science to how I’m going to help her feel beautiful or understand that about herself. But I think just traveling with me, going to photoshoots, hearing me talk, the way [I] feel -- kids are a direct reflection of you. I feel beautiful therefore she feels beautiful. She doesn’t see that there is a problem, she doesn’t see color.


[Kids] don’t see those types of things. Those are the things we train the brain to think. No kid wakes up and thinks "oh you’re fat" or "you’re skinny" and that there’s a problem with that. It’s whatever their parents show them or what they see on tv that helps mold the way they feel. So I think I try to keep the conversation open and keep breaking boundaries and keep pushing for diversity in all aspects of the entertainment industry because that is what kids are seeing.


Your mantra is “There’s no wrong way to be a woman” -- is that because you feel people commonly exclude other women when attempting to be inclusive to curvy women? The once popular “real women have curves” statement comes to mind, for example.


I’m so with you on that wavelength. I do a lot of media interviews and a lot of time they’re like “oh well, how can we change the way curvy women feel?” And I’m like, this this isn’t a problem just for curvy women, this is an epidemic with women where we don’t feel beautiful and we don’t understand our bodies and we’re not confident enough.


That’s why my statement is “There’s no wrong way to be a woman,” because I don’t want in any one way shape or form to make it seem as though I’m pioneering for one or the other. No, I’m here for the woman. I want every woman to feel beautiful. I want every woman to understand their power and be confident and go through life that way and be happy.


Career-wise, it’s certainly paid off to hold onto that attitude. You opened the Chromat show for Fashion Week in 2014 and it was quite a revolutionary moment. So how do you feel about the strides the industry has taken to be more inclusive?


It’s crazy because rewind to September 2014 and I couldn’t believe I was walking one show. I was opening the Chromat show and then I closed the Serena Williams show in front of Anna Wintour. I never thought runway would be my thing nor did I think plus-size modeling would be nor did I think I’d be that girl who would be at the forefront of change and walking these runways.


There’s so much I think has changed as far as Fashion Week all together. From Mercedes-Benz no longer being involved to designers really stepping up and admitting and understanding that the woman requires change. Change is something they’re willing to give now. The conversation is out there. Change is no longer something we’re waiting for. It’s just a matter of seeing how big it gets.


This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.


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A Virtual Psychic Is Using Cat GIFs To Tell Your Fortune

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Do you believe in something bigger? Something beyond what the eyes can see? You know, some divine force that can't be proved or explained? Oh, also, do you believe in cat GIFs? 


If you answered yes to the questions above, you better get your virtual self over to the 24HR PSYCHIC, your one stop shop for spiritual enlightenment and internet lolz. The brainchild of LA-based artist Lisa Solberg, the online experience hopes to open up new portals of understanding in an age where GIFs don't just provide cheap laughs, they may have the answers to your deepest questions and darkest desires. 



"I’ve always been a believer in what’s beyond the physical, beyond what we can see in front of us," Solberg explained to The Huffington Post. "I think that stems from an optimistic standpoint that anything is possible."


Twenty four hours a day, you can take a trip to the 24HR PSYCHIC and enter your most probing questions into a Google-esque search bar. In under a day's time, your email inbox will be hit with a mysteriously generated GIF responding to your message. 


"The idea is to invigorate the individual’s own sense of life," Solberg continued. "We can ask Google anything so quickly; everything is so immediate. It’s about slowing that down and helping the individual realize that maybe the answer is within them. It’s about reversing our habit of putting everything outward and instead looking inward." 



Why, you may be wondering, does Solberg enlist GIFs as her primary mode of divine communication? In a word, because they're cool! "I use GIFs because I’m really aesthetically interested in them. I’ll send my friends weird funny GIFs and it just has a really awesome effect on people, it brightens their day. Idealistically maybe it opens something up for them. When you’re happy or when you’re laughing it does open up different portals or vessels in your brain and your body. It lets you see things in a new perspective."


Solberg is the creator and curator of the virtual art space, though not necessarily the psychic force running through it, she says. As for the process behind the scenes, Solberg remains coy, stating: "I don’t have a specific answer to that question right now, but it will be revealed in time."


Until then, she's most interested in how participants, sometimes up to 300 a day, are willing to divulge their innermost thoughts to a virtual stranger. "Not many people are really inquiring about who it is [behind the site], which I find really interesting," she said. "They expose their souls and true desires and desperate needs at times, and it goes out into the world wide web. They trust whoever is responding to them might provide an answer."


And that answer could be:



As for what those burning questions actually are, most seem to revolve around L-O-V-E. "One might presume that a lot of it would be about relationships, love, does he like me, yadda yadda yadda," said Solberg. "It’s actually about 97 percent of the questions. That sort of baffles me. What’s cool about the project is what I’m gaining from this data. This information about what people want, what people are yearning for."


If you like what you see, visit the 24HR PSYCHIC website and let the personal questions fly. If you're in the Los Angeles area, Solberg will be holding a physical 24HR PSYCHIC roving exhibit, taking place in a moving van at different Los Angeles locations for 24 hours between Friday, Sept. 26, at 11 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 27, at 11 p.m. Check the website for location details. 


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The Pinks And Blues Of Early Japanese Photography Are Staggering

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Before the turn of the 20th century, photographers in Japan were masterfully experimenting with the use of color. The images of the era, filled with blushing cherry blossoms and azure kimonos, predated the advent of actual color photography. Instead, the medium employed hand-tinting -- or "colorizing" -- turning otherwise sepia-toned prints into portraits and landscapes bursting with pale pinks and light blues.


As a result, "Pale Pink and Light Blue" is a pretty appropriate title for an exhibition of early modern Japanese photography. We have the Museum for Photography in Berlin’s Kunstbibliothek to thank for such a gorgeous historical survey, packed with captivating shots of geishas, samurai, shrines, and, yes, the mythic cherry blossoms in bloom. 



The museum is currently showcasing 200 images captured between 1868 and 1912, the period during which commercial photography first surged in Japan. Photography represented "the absolute embodiment of Western technology and progress," the museum writes in a description for the exhibition. So certain sections of society, particularly those who felt Japan should open itself up to foreign influence, subsequently embraced the medium. Japanese artists and craftsmen followed in the footsteps of the few American and British-owned studios that popped up in the quickly modernizing country in the late 19th century, opening up their own shops that would give way to icons like Ueno Hikoma, Uchida Kuichi, Kusakabe Kimbei and Ogawa Kazumasa.


But how exactly did hand-tinting produce such vivid and saturated images? "Pale Pink and Light Blue" features an array of ethnographic typologies, staged genre scenes, stylized portraits, nature studies and architectural photographs, most of which began as monochrome photographs. Many of the photographers used either albumen (found in egg whites) or salt printing to capture the original image from a negative. From there, those photos would be hand-colored using watercolors or a variety of pastels, oils and dyes, a painstaking process that involved applying paint to the surface of the image using brushes, fingers or other utensils. (Compare this to the contemporary method of colorizing photos: Photoshop.)



Skilled Japanese watercolorists and woodblock printers were particularly adept at this intricate practice, memorializing moments both natural and artificial. The museum notes that most of the scenes on view depict "traditional" views of kabuki actors, shamisen and sumo wrestlers, a stark contrast to the Meiji period of "unconditional Europeanisation" marked by the introduction of things like the steam engine, gas lights, and the hot-air balloon.


The inclusion of these familiar scenes "embody the stereotypes of the paradisal land of the cherry blossom that had been widely perpetuated in the West since the 16th century. The photographs exploit these clichés," the museum writes, adding: "At the same time, they often seem to cast doubt on the authenticity of the depicted experience."


More from the exhibition, check out the stunning photos:







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'The Paybacks' Proves Superhero Comics Can Be Legitimately Funny

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Debt is an all too common occurrence in America -- credit card debt, mortgage debt, student loan debt. But how do you cover the subject of debt in a superhero landscape? Superheroes are supposed to be the image of perfection. They're rich playboys or invulnerable aliens or exquisite goddesses. 


This was the welcomed challenge of Dark Horse writers Donny Cates and Eliot Rahal in their new series, The Paybacks



 


THE ORIGIN STORY


Cates and Rahal have been friends for over five years. They’ve essentially grown up together in the comic industry, meeting as editorial interns at Marvel and bonding through the rough and lonely terrain of New York City internships. 


Cates’ love of comics began early. He was obsessed with Spider-Man and actually learned to read in part thanks to comic books. Rahal’s love affair with comics started later, in high school, but as a child he was busy with the worlds of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.


The internship would not be their final stop. 


"We we would go to Marvel and work on comics, then go to Donny's place in Queens and work on our comics," says Rahal. "It was really fun -- special." 


They had one thing in mind while collaborating: the comics they set out to write were comics they themselves wanted to read. That seems obvious, but Cates doesn't think it’s always that simple. “A lot of books don’t seem to have as much fun as they should."


 


THE PAYBACKS


Nearly two years to the day after Cates and Rahal sold their first ever comic Hunter Quaid, the story of a "drunken, misanthropic, time-traveling detective from the forties" -- yep, that old tale again -- the duo is releasing what is truly a labor of love: The Paybacks. The comic they would want to read.


This is a world where superhero-dom is commonplace, so much so that not all superheroes can make a living doing it, and many fall into the red trying to maintain the lifestyle. Superheroes rack up enormous debt fighting crime and a repo squad known as The Paybacks hunts down the super-debtors to collect. This is the anti-super superhero comic. 



In perhaps a similar vein to "The Tick” or Rising Stars or even Watchmen to a degree, The Paybacks is the "off-hours" superhero story. And that’s a concept that has always fascinated Rahal and Cates.


What’s the superhero world like when the villain has been beaten and everyone's gone home, when the heroes are in their bathrobes binge-watching Netflix? What's super-downtime like? 


This is the story that begins after the romantic, action-packed golden years of fighting crime are over. These are heroes past their prime, physically and, as it turns out, financially.


For any avid comic fan, reading Paybacks will at times feel self-referential, a parody of of the form, but the writing duo insists they had no intention of changing the landscape or making a grand statement on the state of comics. The Paybacks is simply about two friends who love comics, writing what they want, and trying crack each other up in the process.


 


THE FUNNY


Many comics make an attempt at humor, but more than often fall flat. The jokes have no weight to them, and few ever leave you actually laughing. But The Paybacks is funny. Cates and Rahal, who is also a standup comedian, believe laughter is an incredibly powerful storytelling tool.


“Laughter is the fastest way to connect with a human being,” says Cates. “If you can make them laugh, then you can make them cry and fall in love.”


"I'm really looking forward to hurting people,” Rahal adds with a laugh of his own.


The Paybacks #1 starts with the team visiting the home of Archibald Primrose III, a man who fights crime in London as Night Knight. He and his trusty unicorn Knight Mare are past due on their super payments and it's time to repossess their gadgets and invisible jet and suits of armor. 



The first issue is filled with funny takeaways, from a team van that has a seemingly infinite square footage similar to the "Doctor Who" T.A.R.D.I.S. to a character named Miss Adventure fighting off Sister Mary Frankenstein and bi-polar bears.


"I love puns,” says Rahal. "I think they're funny, and irritatingly funny. The puns in the book are the result of us trying to make each other laugh.”



 


THE LANDSCAPE


Being in the industry can make it difficult to really see the industry, the guys told The Huffington Post, but Rahal says he'd love to see a comic landscape that is more creator-driven; writers telling the stories they want to tell.


What about this theme of debt in their latest work? Is this a story they wanted to tell about the current sociopolitical landscape?


Cates and Rahal say they are not necessarily looking to take any major social or political stances in their work. Ultimately, The Paybacks is an extension of their friendship and mutual love of comics.


But they do understand the power they wield. "We do generally see ourselves as a force for positive change," says Cates.


"We do realize that we have a big microphone."



 


THE TOUR


Eliot Rahal and Donny Cates are hitting the road for a six-day tour, from Oct. 2 til Oct. 7, called "An Evening with The Paybacks." Each night they'll hold a variety show in a different city, on their way to the New York City Comic-Con. Check out the dates and stop by if they show up in your town.


 


The Paybacks #1 is out on shelves now and the second issue is due out Oct. 21.


 


 

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Rare 100-Year-Old Videos Capture Monet, Degas And Renoir At Work

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Have you ever closed your eyes, clasped your hands and prayed to the almighty powers of art to transport you back in time to see your favorite creators in action?


Have you, say, wished for the power to witness Claude Monet breathing in that fresh Giverny air, puttering around the studio, wondering whether to paint water lilies or some other kind of lilies? Or what about Degas, strolling down the street with incredible sideburns and a classy umbrella-cane? Or perhaps Rodin, applying some finishing touches to his sculptural masterpieces in a floppy beret? 


If these very particular desires ring true, your prayers have been answered.  


1. Claude Monet


In the video below, dating back to 1915, you'll see old man Monet in the zone, donning a bushy beard, crisp white suit (to paint? Really, Claude?) and wide-brimmed hat. Monet, 74 at the time, is joined by a tiny fluffy dog, adding to what already seems to be the best art studio setup in history. 


Beard game: 8.9




2. Pierre-Auguste Renoir


Here, we take a glimpse into the life of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, also 74 years old in the 1915 video. Renoir, however, seems far older than his contemporary Monet, unable to walk and grappling with contorted hands, a result of rheumatism. In the video below, Renoir's son Claude helps him grasp the paintbrush as he gets to work despite his physical impediments. 


Beard game: 6.7




3. Auguste Rodin


Here we have the man behind "The Thinker," Mr. Rodin at 75, sculpting away at the Hotel Biron. Although he would die two years later, the artist appears buoyant at work, chipping away at a variety of three-dimensional forms in a proto-Kangol cap and ombre-dipped beard. 


Beard game: 8.2




4. Edgar Degas


In the final video, we see Degas out of the ballet studio and strolling around town at a cool 81 years old. Rocking a steampunk look with a bowler hat, frizzy sideburns and an umbrella-cum-cane, you can see the aesthetic sensibility oozing from his every step. 


Beard game: 7.8




H/T Neatorama


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Now The 'Normal Barbie' Dolls Can Teach Girls About Periods

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In 2014, artist and researcher Nickolay Lamm designed the Lammily dolls, also known as "normal Barbies," using the CDC body measurements of the average American woman. An add-on pack allows kids to give their dolls cellulite, acne, stretch marks and more. And now, the dolls can teach young girls about periods.



The Period Party add-on pack, available online as of today, includes an educational pamphlet and doll-size menstrual pads, designed to help girls learn about periods. 


Lamm told The Huffington Post that he wanted to offer kids and parents a simple, fun way to discuss menstruation. 


"I've read horror stories of kids thinking that they were dying during their first period," he said. "Parents are also wary of approaching this subject. So I feel Lammily's 'Period Party' can introduce kids to menstruation in a very fun and disarming way, and give parents a very useful tool."



Lamm hopes that the kit will help young girls feel comfortable with the idea of periods. 


"Menstruation is still a taboo in our society," Lamm said. "More than that -- sometimes it's still used as an insult. I just don't think that something as core to a women's life and health as menstruation should be seen as embarrassing in any way, shape, or form."

 

Learn more about Lammily here.  


 

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8 Crucial Life Truths Everyone Can Learn From Mindy Kaling's New Book

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Mindy Kaling would probably be horrified to see this article. I'm assuming this firstly because the article is spinning a rather serious takeaway out of a hilarious, self-deprecating book, but also because Kaling judges the hell out of media coverage of her.


Here's an example, from her reaction to a blog post titled "Mindy Kaling Sure Likes to Pose with Her Hand on Her Hip": "I thought, Wow, this poor sad guy. I pictured all the time he must have spent scouring through photos of me to find the ones where my hand was on my hip ... This was a grown man. And that was his job."


Ahhh!! Please don't hate me, Mindy, I'm really nice, and I too like dessert, like, A LOT.


Anyway, that was the first lesson I took from Why Not Me?, a new book from the creator, star and showrunner of "The Mindy Project." The second: Kaling's next show (or first movie!) should definitely be drawn from her imagined second life as a Latin teacher at Dalton, featuring a torrid romance with a curmudgeonly history teacher with a heart of gold.


But if you don't blog about Mindy Kaling or decide which shows of hers to greenlight, this book is also packed with more broadly applicable lessons, ranging from the earnest ("confidence is like respect; you have to earn it") to the flippant ("self-pity gets results") to the mildly dangerous ("it's OK to drink tequila in the car if you just had a really good meeting"). So you don't have to read the book yourself*, here are the most meaningful, potentially life-changing pieces of advice I gleaned from the snort-chuckle-inducing pages of Why Not Me?



Spend money on tailoring, not clothes.


It’s painful to spend more money on clothes you’ve already purchased, but nothing makes an outfit look sharper than the right fit. If you must, start by raiding your grandma's closet.



Trying to make yourself look cool is boring.


Mindy knows perfectly well that we all get her TV characters mixed up with her actual self. It’s not uncommon with actors. Thanks to Mindy’s own creative choices, her characters are kind of awful -- but she chooses to put herself in those unflattering situations, because that’s what comedy demands.


A few of the things she lists as “Things Mindy Lahiri Would Do That I Would Not”: “Think Rick Santorum is hot,” “Flirt with a fireman while he was fighting a fire and be miffed she doesn’t have his undivided attention,” and “Sue a Boston Market for giving too-small helpings of sides.” All kind of absurdly terrible, but all way funnier than having a mild, sweet female lead. Being vulnerable and out there might open you up to judgment, but it’s a lot more interesting than walking on eggshells.  



Don’t be apologetic about who you are.


Mindy loves rom-coms. Mindy loves making out and pasty white guys. Mindy tries to look conventionally hot. Mindy just wants a real love story with a “sweet, mature, normal, loving guy, with no baggage. And who has an absolutely enormous penis.”


It can be hard to admit what you actually want or like. We’re desperately curating our images to show we’re not “basic” or “unfeminist” or “too feminist” or “too girly” or “too weird.” Being that chick who likes rom-coms and just wants to have a perfect meet-cute and fall in love is a bit uncool, especially in the Mindy Kaling world of bro comedy writers and career-driven ladies. But that’s who she is, and she owns it. 



Seriously though, rom-coms are a totally acceptable thing to like.


"The Mindy Project" is basically a rom-com, on TV, and it's hilariously awesome and heartwarming. Let's just collectively pretend we never saw "The Ugly Truth," okay?



Be entitled, but earn it.


“Confidence” has come to be one of those nebulous things that women should have more of, but no one can tell us how to develop. If you’re a confident woman or girl, that’s fantastic. But Mindy has some words of wisdom for the undeservedly confident men, and the self-doubting women: "Entitlement is simply the belief that you deserve something. Which is great. The hard part is, you'd better make sure you deserve it."


Nothing gives a confidence boost like becoming better at whatever it is you do, and putting in hard work that you can feel good about. But if you’re doing that, it’s past time to give yourself permission to act entitled to recognition. (If you’re a white guy, try reverse-engineering this one: Have you earned that ballooning sense of entitlement?) 



Growing up means your friendships will probably change, and that’s okay.


A lot of portrayals of female friendship are so aspirational it can be hard to watch them as an adult woman. Unless you have a tight-knit, nearby gang of bffs, á la “Sex and the City” or “Girls,” these shows can feel like a guilt trip for not calling your bestie back home often enough.


“The Mindy Project” got some crap for how Mindy Lahiri’s married-with-kids best friend rarely turned up in the show, but this, like her take on adult friendship in Why Not Me?, actually shows she’s learned a painful reality about friendship: As you grow up, you typically leave behind the time when you can devote yourselves completely to your friends and vice versa. That doesn’t mean you don’t still love each other, but you have different responsibilities and obligations now, and that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with any of you.



Still, friendship will always mean being there for each other as much as possible.


So don't whine about being a bridesmaid (too much). And don't wish you could be BFFs with Mindy Kaling instead of your loyal, supportive actual BFF. (Apparently she's just "a good friend, but not that great," according to her best friend Jocelyn.)



Accept your relationships for what they are.


Mindy’s weird, complicated friendship with her old “Office” costar B.J. Novak probably reminds a lot of us (right? right, guys?) of a time when we were infatuated with a friend who didn’t want to be with us, or who just wasn’t the right match for us.


Sometimes it seems like you’re actually soul mates, and they just can’t see it. But probably you’re just not soul mates, and you can’t accept it. But Mindy has the perfect way of summing up her friendship with B.J.: “‘Soul mates’ is what you aim for, but soup snakes is what you get sometimes.” When a relationship is close but no cigar, you can fight the inevitable, or you can sit back and enjoy it for what it is.


 


*J.K. you still have to read it; I left at least one Important Life Lesson out. Psych!


 


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How To Tell If Your Subversive Artwork Is Really That Subversive

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So you want to make a work of art. And not just any work of art, but a work that truly pops, shocks, offends, and mortifies. You want gasps and expletives and perhaps an outcry about the end of Western civilization.


Well, dear readers, crafting a work of truly subversive art is more than just a matter of slapping some blood on a canvas or running naked through a museum. Let's walk through it together. 



1. Has it been done before?


In the words of subversive spirit guide Marcel Duchamp: "Art is either plagiarism or revolution." Back in 1917, the artist aligned his work with the latter, by submitting the now illustrious "Fountain" to the Society of Independent Artists. The work, of course, is a porcelain urinal signed "R.Mutt" -- thought to be either the pseudonym of Duchamp himself or his Dada contemporary Baroness Elsa -- that has been flipped upside down and displayed proudly as a Work of Art. 



Many very serious art lovers of the time were very seriously pissed off by the assertion that a basically unmodified toilet, not all that different than those in the bathroom down the hall, could be hung alongside traditional portraits and landscapes. The surrealist journal The Blind Man came to the defense of the work:



"Whether Mr Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view -- created a new thought for that object."



 


Duchamp's subversive move doesn't have much to do with the potty humor of the toilet itself, but rather his influence in shifting the artist's role from creator to curator. This distinction contributed to the rise of readymade art, found art, conceptual art and assemblage art, inspiring future artists to attempt similarly rupturing moves of their own.



For example, take Sarah Meyohas, the MFA candidate and young artist behind BitchCoin, a feminist cryptocurrency that encourages patrons to invest in artists themselves. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Meyohas explained Duchamp's role in coming up with the project: "Duchamp moved the point of creation to the conception of the piece, this is the opposite," she said. "Moving it to the valuation of the piece."


Some people see Duchamp's urinal and presume the (kind of) grotesque nature of the toilet is behind all the hoopla. Cue an endless onslaught of art incorporating poop, pee, puke and blood. But the reality is far more nuanced than that. Duchamp's subversion has little to do with the toilet itself and more with its recasting as a "Fountain" of art. Most notably, no one had really done this before, which gave his recasting the gravity it needed.



2. What exactly are you subverting?


Subversive is defined as "tending or intending to subvert or overthrow, destroy, or undermine an established or existing system." So before you embark on this game changing artwork of yours, make sure you know exactly what it is you're fighting against. Or, exactly what kind of system -- be it political or social or cultural or economic -- you're attempting to subvert. Too many artists don bad boy personas and rebellious dispositions without actually challenging anything at all. 


On that note, here are some things that rarely count as subverting a system anymore in their own right: getting naked for a performance piece (in America, at least), photographing nude women's bodies that conform to mainstream beauty standards, making sculptures out of illicit drugs (see: Damien Hirst above), working with bodily excrement, and creating anything to do with Tinder or Grindr. That's not to say that these ideas can't be incorporated into a thoughtful and provocative piece, but these once-shocking-but-now-kind-of-cliche elements alone do not a subversive artwork make. 



3. Does the work relate to your own experience?


There are, in 2015, many widespread systems of oppression and discrimination that should be examined through the lens of art. Make sure, however, that the experiences and realities you're illuminating through your work are yours to showcase. If not, the resulting artwork, even unwittingly, can veer into the realm of blind privilege and exploitation.


Take, for example Kenneth Goldsmith, the white poet who read Michael Brown's autopsy aloud as poetry, or Ti-Rock Moore, the white artist who created a life-sized sculpture of Michael Brown's dead body. Although Moore's piece was meant to comment on the injustice of white privilege, the work ended up embodying it. As Kirsten West Savali expressed in a piece on The Root, "a working definition of white privilege is white artists’ belief that they can claim artistic ownership of black death, while disowning their white guilt and being applauded for their 'courageousness.'"


Another example of an artist overstepping his boundaries is male photographer Cary Fagan, who took it upon himself to "reclaim women's bodies" through his relatively normative depictions of beautiful women. Although artists like Fagan and Moore may mean well, creating art based on an experience that remains alien to you, frequently comes off as tone-deaf and, even worse, exploitative. 



If, however, your work is based on personal experiences, the result can be immensely powerful. Columbia art student Emma Sulkowicz comes to mind, a young performance artist who, following her claim that she was raped by a fellow male student, carried a mattress around campus with her at all times, pledging to do so until either her alleged rapist was ejected from campus or she graduated.


The piece, called "Carry That Weight," translated the emotional burden of sexual assault into the physical realm. "Rape can happen anywhere," Sulkowitz explained of the piece. "For me, I was raped in my own dorm bed. Since then, it has basically become fraught for me, and I feel like I've carried the weight of what happened there with me everywhere since then." The work garnered a lot of attention, inciting protests against campus sexual assault around the world.



4. What's at stake?


If the masterpiece you're cooking up is so damn disruptive, what are its repercussions? Many of art history's greatest disruptors have made enormous sacrifices for their work. We're not saying you should seek jail time or persectuion as a means to becoming subversive, but you should be aware of the potential consequences of your work.


Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei, for example, consistently speaks out against the Chinese government in support of human rights, refusing to silence himself in a country where self-censorship is the norm. As a result, he's had his work erased from China-based exhibitions and has faced time in prison. 


Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi also risked jail time for her artwork -- specifically, for making a boat in the shape of a vulva. Using 3D technology to replicate the shape, Igarashi hopes to make vaginas "casual and pop" in a culture where they're all but invisible. In response to her work, she was arrested for violating Japan's obscenity laws.


Political artists aren't the only ones who endanger themselves and their reputations for the sake of art. In 1945, Italian artist Carol Rama exhibited a series of erotic watercolors featuring depictions of women with snakes emerging from their naked bodies. Very feminist proto-punk. Well, the show was shut down by authorities and many of the works were destroyed.



Similar fates struck similarly erotic feminist forces like Dorothy Iannone and Cameron, Cinderella of the Wastelands. Cameron resolved never to show her work in a gallery again, and stuck to it, never compromising her creative vision. The list of artists censored and attacked for their work goes on. Robert Mapplethorpe, Chris Ofili, Andres Serrano. 


There have been artists who've interpreted the whole "what's at stake" concept very literally, attempting work that radically challengers or alters their very bodies. In Marina Abramovic's "Rhythm 0,"she let audience participants do whatever they wanted to her immobile body, including tickle or cut her. French artist Orlan endured multiple rounds of plastic surgery to comment on the male gaze and standards of beauty. Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch choreographed a cult ritual involving animal carcasses, blood, crucifixion and other super fun things. These case are extreme, but they represent a number of artists who knew quite clearly the consequences of their work before they even embarked upon their subversive acts.


tl;dr: Take risks but no cheap tricks. 


These bullet points are a guide, but there's really no perfect recipe to creating an artwork that will drop jaws and open minds. Use your own experiences as a guide and don't be afraid to take a chance. Stay away from the go-to shock tactics and you'll be more likely to yield a work that's authentic and powerful. 


At the end of the day, please, don't pee on a canvas and pat yourself on the back. You're a better artist than that. 


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Dreamy Portraits Capture The Absolute Magic Of Sisterhood

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"Eyebrows should be sisters not twins," the artists behind the photography duo Sisters Not Twins explained to The Huffington Post. "It's just a jazzier way of saying, 'We're the same, but different.'"


The members of Sisters Not Twins are not actually biological sisters, let alone twins. Anne-Marie van Noortwijk is from a small fishing village in rural Holland. Melanie Hyams is from London. The two met while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2012. With mutual interests in film and photography, the two became friends, collaborators and each other's mutual muses. "When we met, we were both aliens in America," the artists continued. "The experience of being foreigners together was very freeing and cemented our friendship."



Today, as Sisters Not Twins, Melanie and Anne-Marie create dreamy portraits that channel the magic of sisterhood. Somewhere between a Rineke Dijkstra photograph and a throwback dance recital portrait (sparkly leotard included), they render warm, sugary and slightly surreal images packed with fuzzy feelings related to intimacy and friendship. 


"We have always maintained that our work sits squarely between documentary and theatre. Our own realities are triggers for stories," they added. "Little details from everyday life become exaggerated or tweaked in our work to create new worlds within the world we experience ... For us, as restless storytellers, there is not much more inspiring and therapeutic then watching the ever changing world from a car window!"



The photographers join an army of young women rebelling against the common formula of men behind the camera and women before it, choosing to represent youth and femininity on their own terms. At a time when complex, dynamic female friendships are finally and fervently being explored in literature, film and television, the artists specify that their work doesn't specifically comply with this mission, but stems from it.



"To us the work isn't about female friendship, but more that it's carved out of it. By that we mean that we are female, and we make work about each other and our relationship with each other, but female friendship as such isn't our intended focus."



 


"The story behind the image 'Turtles,' for instance, was conceived over the winter when we were both supporting each other through low points and longing for the warmth of summer," they continued. "Melanie read about turtles, who take turns to stack on top of each other to boost one another closer to the sun. The image is subsequently very personal, but also humorous." 


Just like that, Melanie and Anne-Marie transform everyday frustrations into portals of collaboration and creativity. "Just like eyebrows as two separate entities, we compliment each other, and we embrace our differences! Despite neither of us having a blood sister, we both imagine our friendship is what it could be like."


Sisters Not Twins recently closed their first exhibition in Amsterdam.



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The Bottom Line: 'Gold Fame Citrus' By Claire Vaye Watkins

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Rumbling slow like a deadly tidal wave, a dry expanse of earth expands each day, conquering the once-fertile land it encounters. This is what an almost-apocalypse looks like through the eyes of Claire Vaye Watkins: no bombs or asteroids, but crawling desertification rendering America’s West uninhabitable. The growing wasteland is personified as a sort of militia, referred to by Watkins and her characters as the Amargosa Dune Sea.


That uninhabitable West is the setting of Gold Fame Citrus, Watkins’ anticipated first novel, named after the myriad reasons greedy citizens were once drawn to California. Joke’s on them, she seems to say.


Her story begins in a starlet's house, the starlet long ago replaced by a couple of vagrants. Luz Dunn is a former model, the fallen poster child for a mission to preserve California’s thirsty soil. She tries on the starlet’s clothes helplessly, sauntering around the mansion, wishing she had a pet to keep her company. Instead she has Ray, who’s tough in spite of nightmares about his military days.


They try to stay busy, and on a mission to gather food they stumble on a task that’ll surely help them bide their time: a young girl, pre-verbal due to her age or a learning disability, or both. Enamored with her blunt, earthy nature, Luz and Ray take the kid (who they temporarily call “Ig”) from her inattentive people -- a gang of young wanderers, surely too aloof to be her parents.


Worried they’ll get caught, and hoping for a better, tree-filled life for Ig, they set off, thanks to an old housemate willing to offer a gas-filled car. A few miscalculations land them on empty near the encroaching, deadly dune sea. Dehydrated and delirious, Ray looks for help. There, their path forks into two.


When Luz recovers, she finds herself and Ig in a stationary bus, being tended to by a supple, topless woman, who, implausibly, brings them fruit. Luz savors the citrusy slices -- she’s been missing out on luxuries like fruit for so long. She soon learns that Levi, the unofficial leader of a small band of nomads, is responsible for providing it, along with his crew: Cody, a wiz at cultivating vegetation, Jimmer, a wise, guru-type, and the Girls, a gaggle of beautiful young women devoted to the tiny society’s lifestyle. Grieving from the loss of Ray, Luz quickly adopts their mantra: that the dune sea curates, allowing certain people to live along with it, wiping out the rest.


Watkins is at her best here, characterizing the easy slide from isolation to the open arms of an accepting, if ultimately wayward, community. She makes Luz’s disorientation, her susceptibility to believing false information, relatable. Levi and his crew inflate her ego, only to knock it back down themselves. Soon, she’s convinced of a conspiracy theory that the deadly nature of the dune sea is a myth constructed so nuclear scientists in the East can deploy weapons, rather than shelling out costly sums to store them.


Watkins is well-acquainted with spirituality, cultlike and not, through research (she cites Harold Bloom’s The American Religion and Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven in her acknowledgements), and also through familial experience. Her father, characterized by family friends as a benevolent acid-head from the Haight and a charming and talented musician, was Charles Manson’s righthand man.


Though he died when Watkins was 6, the experience seems to inform Gold Fame Citrus, as well as Watkins’s short story collection Battleborn, at least via her characters’ lost quests for meaning. Her first novel is worth reading, if only to get lost along with them, picking up distinctly American nuggets of wisdom and faux-wisdom along the way. 


The bottom line:


Gold Fame Citrus is a different kind of dystopia; one that illuminates the spiritual coping mechanisms of those living in an apocalyptic wasteland.


Who wrote it?


Claire Vaye Watkins is a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" winner, and the author of the award-winning short story collection, Battleborn. Gold Fame Citrus is her first novel. She's an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. 


Who will read it?


Those interested in dystopian stories, and earthy, sonorous writing à la Richard Ford. 


Opening lines:


"Punting the prairie dog into the library was a mistake. Luz Dunn knew that now, but it had been a long time since she'd seen a little live thing, and the beast had startled her." 


Notable passage:


"Day, night, another day. Day. Day. Day. Why was there so much more day? Why were the nights not cool anymore? Luz asked, What season is it, Ig? Ig answered or didn't." 


 


Gold Fame Citrus


By Claire Vaye Watkins


Riverhead, $27.95


Publishes September 29


The Bottom Line is a weekly review combining plot description and analysis with fun tidbits about the book. 


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This 1970s Hit May Just Be The Most Feel-Good Song Of All Time

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Scientists may have found the most feel-good song ever written, and it's an infectious anthem from the 1970s. Any idea what it might be? 


If you guessed Queen's infectious hit "Don't Stop Me Now," you guessed right. 




OK, it may not be the single most feel-good song ever written. But if you believe this new research, it's a perfect example of the "feel-good formula" for music: fast tempo (roughly 150 beats per minute), major key and happy lyrics. 


In a survey commissioned by British electronics manufacturer Alba, 2,000 U.K. adults were asked to share their favorite feel-good songs, the most commonly cited of which was Queen's upbeat, anthemic hit. 


When cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Jacob Jolij, who completed the data analysis for Alba, examined the elements of the 1978 single, he identified the trifecta mentioned above as the equation that gives a song its feel-good quality. 


"My analysis confirmed very nicely what we already knew from the literature: Songs written in a major key with fast tempo are best at inducing positive emotions," Jolij, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Groningen, told The Huffington Post in an email. "Virtually all 'feel good' songs were in major key (save one or two), and all of them were at least 10 BPM faster than the average pop song."


Other feel-good songs cited by survey respondents included ABBA's "Dancing Queen," The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" and Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl." 


Still, more than anything else, our own positive associations with a song are what determine whether it will make us feel good, according to Jolij. 


"Although you cannot really pinpoint one song as the ultimate feel good song, what we can do is identify specific features of songs that lift people's spirits," Jolij said. "The more data we have available, the more we can learn about how music affects our moods."  




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Previously Unknown Work By M.C. Escher Goes On View In Holland

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It's probably fitting that, 43 years after the death of M.C. Escher, the beloved Dutch artist is still surprising experts with his infinite patterns and obsession with the intersection of math and art.


Just last month, the Escher Museum in Holland announced the discovery of a previously unknown work by the "Relativity" artist, revealing a sketch that had been largely forgotten since its creation in 1924. 


Escher's family had been holding onto the rare, untitled drawing, unaware of the location it depicted, until they decided to sell the piece to the museum. Thanks to curator Micky Piller, the public has not only been treated to a glimpse of the previously unseen sketch, but we now know just what Escher was sketching: Montecelio, Italy, a town 12 miles northeast of Rome.


In March of 1924, Escher visited Rome shortly before his wedding to Jetta Umiker. According to Piller, Escher would go for walks during this time, searching for settings to draw. One such setting was the Roman fort in Montecelio that dates back to 998, featured in the image above. 


We might loosely refer to the work on paper as a "drawing" or a "sketch," but in reality, the image is actually an impression created with stencils, stamps, rollers and stippling brushes, a unique method for Escher. The unnamed work is reminiscent of the artist's 1920 drawing of a farmer on the island of Texel in North Holland and a 1928 drawing of the Corsican town of Corte.



But beyond the particulars, most Escher fans will recognize the work's nearly tessellated pattern and optical illusion feel, as well as its nod to traditional Japanese illustration. "Taken together, these elements make Montecelio an important early work, linking Escher’s study at the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem and his later Italian panoramas," the museum wrote in a press statement. "After the Second World War, Escher transformed his experience of Italian landscapes in the prints with differing perspectives so typical of his work."


"It’s very rare for a work like this to emerge so long after the artist’s death," Piller added in an interview with The Guardian. "It contains some technical similarities to Escher’s other works, as well as elements that recur in his later work, so it’s an important discovery."


This discovery also highlights one of the most intriguing aspects of the art world -- that experts, foundations, families and unsuspecting shoppers are frequently happening upon "new" works by old artists. Sometimes a flea market shopper happens upon a $300,000 necklace by Alexander Calder, or a homeowner figures out the weird light fixture in her house is a work by James Turrell, or that trove of Nazi-looted art we've all been missing has just been hanging out in an octogenarian's apartment. Museums might get their hands on largely unviewed Monets or a gallerist might find a Monet taped to one of their existing pieces. The world is your oyster, art fiends. 


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