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35 Photos Of Adopted Siblings That Show Family Is About Love, Not DNA

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Many parents who have adopted find that people sometimes ask, "Are your kids real siblings?" In honor of Adoption Awareness Month, we asked the adoptive parents of the HuffPost Parents Facebook community for photos of their children that show the sibling bond is about love, not DNA. 


Here are 35 beautiful, love-filled photos.



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Woman Reading A Book At A Trump Rally Should Inspire A Movement

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On Monday, presidential candidate Donald Trump gave a speech to a raucous crowd in Springfield, Illinois. As he ad-libbed his way through the kind of weirdly unfocused diatribe you might expect from your tipsy, politically minded uncle at Thanksgiving -- while a suspiciously racially diverse selection of attendees sat behind him -- something unusual happened in the upper right quadrant of his human backdrop: A young woman whipped out a book. 


And she kept on reading throughout much of Trump's speech. In fact, one of the Trump supporters sitting near the reading woman apparently grew so incensed that he tapped her on the shoulder to remonstrate with her, but after a spirited exchange, she returned to reading. 


Not just any book, either, but it seems to be Claudia Rankine's searing poetry collection Citizen, which delves into America's history of ongoing racial injustice. The distinctive cover couldn't be more visible to those watching Trump on video -- including Buzzfeed's Saeed Jones:






Jones tweeted out a Vine by Vic Berger IV that condensed the exchange into a snappy back-and-forth, but the full argument, as well as the woman's quietly disruptive behavior throughout the speech, is worth checking out. When she's not reading, she often simply holds the book up, so the cover remains visible. Without a rude sign or a single shout, she's made her message clear.


"We Are All This Woman Refusing to Put Down Her Book at a Trump Rally," wrote Jezebel's Kara Brown. Truth. 


Let's go one step further, though: We all should be this woman refusing to put her book down at a Trump rally. Openly reading a book at an event is a highly underutilized form of protest. It can't be construed as actively disruptive, like a large sign or loud chanting, but it conveys disdain and lack of interest much more effectively than checking Twitter on your phone. This woman, for example, spent other parts of the rally staring at her phone and adjusting her hat, but it was when she opened a book that her lack of interest became obvious.


Smartphones are widely known to be distracting. The constant stream of social media notifications and cat videos that smartphones facilitate has been known to dilute people's attention even while they're watching a good movie or talking with a loved one; checking your phone can be an almost unconscious reflex.


Books, on the other hand, generally aren't. We don't hear about friends stacking their paperbacks on the dinner table so they'll actually talk to each other for a couple hours. We don't have trend pieces about relationships suffering because one partner compulsively has their nose in a book, even at parties and on date nights.


Reading a book is deliberate. Reading a book at a performance or speech implies that you already expected to be bored when you left the house. It's a very conscious choice to devote your attention to something other than the events around you. 


It's a great bonus that reading a print book allows you to promote great writers, as well as send a pointed message, as this woman did by holding up Citizen -- at a rally for a candidate who's made a torrent of comments deemed, at best, racially insensitive. 


This woman refusing to put down her book at a Trump rally has set an example we should all follow: Political protest through pointed book-reading. Let's make this happen.


 


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One Photo Sums Up The Problem With Smartphones At Weddings

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Think about the last wedding you attended. How many guests had their smartphones out, immortalizing every second of the special day with their digital cameras? Did they keep getting in the way of the professional photographer hired for the event? Did it look something like this?



Thomas Stewart, a 33-year-old wedding photographer from Sydney, Australia, captured this picture at a recent ceremony. Last week, he posted it on his Facebook page, along with a plead for brides and grooms to have "completely unplugged" ceremonies.


"This groom had to lean out past the aisle just to see his bride approaching," wrote Stewart. "Why? Because guests with their phones were in the aisle and in his way.


This kind of thing is a serious hindrance to his job, he said. Guests often get in the way with their cameras and end up ruining many of his shots. More importantly, Stewart added, technology distracts attendees from the true purpose of the event: celebrating the love that two people feel for each other. 


That said, there are polite ways for guests to keep their phones on them and subtly take pics at weddings.


, a blogger for The Huffington Post and the co-founder of a site that creates wedding videos by stitching together footage and photos shot by guests, has a list of tips attendees can follow to snap away without disturbing a ceremony or reception. One piece of advice she shares: Be mindful of the professional photographer. 


"[S]ome photographers sit in the back of the church and use a long lens to capture the ceremony. Make sure you're not blocking their shot!" she writes. 


As of Wednesday, Stewart's photo had gained more than 105,000 likes and had been shared by over 70,000 people on Facebook. He told The Huffington Post he was "pretty amazed" by the attention it's received.


You can check out some of Stewart's professional work on his official website. 


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Striking Images Of A Vigilante Group Protecting India's Cows

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By day, they are city dwellers going about their daily lives. By night, India's "cow vigilantes" band together, to catch people who smuggle and kill cows for profit.


Last weekend, Bangladesh-based Getty Images photographer Allison Joyce followed a local cow vigilante group in the Ramgarh district of Rajasthan, an Indian state along the Pakistani border, as they patrolled the streets for cow smugglers come nightfall.


Hindus worship cows as sacred beings, and many of the animals can be seen wandering around India's streets ungoverned. Many of the Ramgarh vigilantes are members of militant Hindu groups, the BBC reported. During the day, they are teachers, lawyers, marble sculptors and politicians, per Getty Images.


The vigilantes are helping enforce strict government policies on cow slaughter and beef consumption -- seven of the country's 29 states ban the killing of cows and most others have severe restrictions on cow slaughter. In the state of Jammu and Kashmir, people can face up to 10 years in jail for the voluntary slaughter of cows, calves, oxen or bulls.


Since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power last year, there has been a clampdown on the beef trade, as well as increasing reports of mob violence over alleged cow smuggling. The New York Times reported last week that there have been at least four deadly attacks by Hindus on Muslims they accused of stealing, smuggling or killing cows in the previous six weeks. 


Take a look at Joyce's photos of the "cow vigilante group" in Ramgarh below.


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Jesus Has Been Reimagined As A Trans Woman

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The Bible doesn't say Jesus was transgender, but this playwright has decided to tell it that way anyway. 


Jo Clifford stars in a one-woman show called "The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven" that depicts Jesus as a transgender woman. The show toys with many other biblical parables, and a screening of a past performance will be shown on November 15 at the Outburst Queer Arts Festival in Ireland.


"There's a little sermon that reminds the audience that Jesus never had a single word of condemnation for transpeople," Clifford told The Huffington Post. "The show is a reminder that we have existed throughout this world and many cultures have accepted and celebrated our existence."



But not everyone agrees with her. The show received some serious backlash when it debuted at the Glasgay! arts festival in 2009. Droves of angry Christian protesters picketed the theater, holding signs that read "God: My Son Is Not A Pervert." Box office staffers received death threats, and a plain-clothed police officer was in attendance at the live performance to make sure Clifford didn't get attacked. 


"I was very upset and very traumatized," she told HuffPost. "It brought back distress from early emotional abuse that I suffered."


Clifford identifies as a trans woman, but the 65-year-old spent years suppressing her authentic self. Writing and performing theater pieces allowed her to explore her feelings and realize she was happier identifying and presenting as a woman.


"Being an artist helped me enormously because I would always make female characters the central characters of the play and I could live out in my imagination the female identity in my life," she said. 



Clifford is also a practicing Christian, but was estranged from her faith for many years.


"It was very clear to me that the only way I could belong to the church was through being in the closet and living a lie," she said. Now, she credits her renewed Christian devotion to a particularly LGBTI-friendly church she attends in Edinburgh. 


"Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven" has received far less negative responses since that first show. In fact, Clifford has performed in churches and theaters across the country, and has even garnered interest from international theaters. 


"It's been moving and exciting to see how many Christian people are supporting me now, as well as non-believers," she said. "It seems to speak to them in a way that I find really beautiful."


For more information about the play, head here.


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New York Hearts Carly Rae Jepsen

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The intimate space at New York City's Irving Plaza holds just 1,025 people. The relentlessly engaging tracks off Carly Rae Jepsen's critically lauded "Emotion" feel like they could fill a stadium. 


But the crowd-size constraints of Wednesday night's performance made for a memorable evening. The audience was a concentrate of die-hard fans of the pop singer's latest effort -- there was no room for any Johnny-come-lately who bought a ticket because they just knew the chorus to "Call Me Maybe." 


Between the raucous applause at Jepsen's opener, "Run Away with Me," and encores of both the 2011 hit and "I Really Like You," the first single off of her latest album, the crowd was all in. Occasionally, the house lights came on to illuminate the enthusiastic masses, who couldn't stop applauding so long after a song finished that all Jepsen could do was acknowledge it with a smile and a wave.



At one point in the show, the band stopped playing after Jepsen finished "When I Needed You" -- but the rest of the house wasn't done with it. A spontaneous singalong broke out for another round of the chorus, sans instruments.


"That was the best feeling so far," Jepsen told the crowd afterward. "And you gave that to me."


New York was the second to last stop on the East Coast before Jepsen takes her Gimmie Love tour to Japan. Next, she'll hit a few U.S. states in the Southwest before taking on her home country of Canada. 


During the show, Jepsen introduced the song "LA Hallucinations" by saying, "It's no secret that I love New York City." On Wednesday night, New York City loved her right back.






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Romantic Texts Posted On Movie Theater Marquees Will Break Your Heart

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"Okay just forget about it." "It's possible we just missed each other." "How was I?" Everyone's phones are clotted with these text messages -- shorthand expressions of the common anxieties surrounding our relationships. Yet, to each of us they seem personal, specific.


In Victoria Crayhon's haunting photographs, those deeply intimate yet universally understood messages become public, blared from classic movie-theater marquees across America. The marquee lettering evokes a nostalgia for a past when, as Crayhon explained via email, the movie theater functioned as "a social space that is maybe going to be gone forever soon."


Our new gathering spaces give a greater illusion of privacy, but actually result in less -- Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and texts make it easy for us to share our innermost selves as widely as if our words were on a signboard. "I think I am making fun of the insatiable need to 'update one’s status' in the various ways we do it," said Crayhon.



The texts, which range from garbled and odd to poignantly pedestrian, are actually "a mixture of truth and fiction about myself," Crayhon told The Huffington Post. "The texts come from my rephrasing of my own memories of thoughts and conversations within past or current relationships, ad campaigns, made-up truisms, quotes from particularly ridiculous celebrity interviews, snippets from 'romance' stories from vintage women’s magazines, movie or TV character titles or dialogue, all sorts of things like that."


This semi-fictional alter ego plays on the archetype of the social media oversharers and their real, if performative, pains. The resulting mixture is heart-achingly relatable. 


"Thoughts on Romance from the Road" isn't Crayhon's first project to place personal text in public settings. "I try to take a photograph that doesn’t try and make the viewer aware of me as the photographer but of the architecture and signage itself," she said. Her documentary-style aesthetic can almost trick the eye into thinking it's an unaltered marquee, until the highly private message registers.


"I hope the viewer can perhaps relate," Crayhon said. "But also I want them to be mysterious and funny -- so I hope there’s that too. "


See more of Crayhon's work at her website, and check out more from this series below.



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When Bling Becomes A Matter Of Survival

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Step into a Jamaican dancehall and prepare to encounter peacocking. That is, men, expressing machismo through flamboyance, be it in bright colors, bold patterns or lots of bling.


To a more conservative Western audience, displaying an attention to the glittery surface of clothing might be considered traditionally effeminate, but in the contemporary dancehall, individuals channel their conception of masculinity through impeccable and outlandish tastes. According to Jamaican artist Ebony G. Patterson, this new breed of macho fashionistos is not simply the result of a consumerist age. Every gold chain, patterned pantaloon and furry vest is hardly just a fashion statement but an intimation of something more direct: the simple yet implausible desire to be seen.


For her newest exhibition "Dead Treez," now on view at the Museum of Arts and Design, Patterson presents a blinged-out deluge of colors, patterns, sparkles and pop, in the forms of hand-embroidered tapestries, sculptures and a site-specific installations. Incorporating jewelry culled from MAD's permanent collection, Patterson conjures the vibrancy and swagger of an entire bustling nightclub, concentrated into a single, dizzying vision. Nodding to the flamboyant masculinity of Kehinde Wiley, the unapologetic glamor of Mickalene Thomas and the hip hop reverence of Rashaad Newsome, Patterson seduces her viewers into confronting difficult questions about race, gender and identity.  



"I grew up in Jamaica so I guess I can say Jamaican dance hall is something that's been with me ever since I was a child," Patterson explained in an interview with The Huffington Post. "As a teenager, having gone to a school that was located within the vicinity of downtown Kingston, a lot of the girls came from varied socioeconomic backgrounds and what connected us was this interest in popular cultural music. This was in the early '90s, which was when dancehall for me was really at its height in terms of its creativity and inventiveness." 


Although Patterson bonded with her female classmates over a love of dancehall music, the scene at large was, and remains, predominately male. "Women do participate but they are very male-dominated," Patterson said. "It's interesting because Jamaica is a very matriarchal society, but the dancehalls are patriarchal."


In a sense, the dancehall acts as a sort of carnival, where norms are reversed, magnified and put on display. Although dancehall offers an opportunity to present gender on stage, front and center, Patterson believes that gender is always performative, whether in the club, on the street or in the home.


"There is definitely a sense of pageantry and a lot of performance when it comes to masculinity. In Jamaica there is a term that we use [meaning] braggadocious, or bombasticwhich was popular in the '90s because of Shaggy," Patterson continued. "There are all of these expectations about what it may or may not mean about what it is to be masculine or feminine and we're trying to negotiate what those thing are. These popular cultural spaces provide an opportunity to expand upon these preconceived ideas and also build a kind of self-identity outside of the larger expectations of what that should be. Popular culture provides an opportunity to demonstrate uniqueness and individuality." 



Patterson pays homage to the dancehall as a palace of bling through a pack of pattern-covered mannequins, squeezed together like a squad rolling up to the club for a group photo. Their masculine power emanates from every unlikely sequin, sparkle and pom-pom. Although she is interested in the pervasive performance of gendered identity, her artwork also addresses how the desire to "dress to impress" stems from the will to survive.


"The need to peacock is not only about showing off. It's very much about creating a sense of presence," she says, "creating a moment of encounter where one has to acknowledge the person. The fashion and the garments become an entryway in seeing that individual."


Just as rappers and hip hop stars are often dripping with designer goods, diamonds and gold, so dancehall attendees don bright colors and sparkly goods in order to demand the attention they've so long been denied. "In order to force one's way out of invisibility one has to create a reason to be seen," Patterson cautions.


Another trend permeating the dancehall scene as of late is skin lightening, a practice that dates back to Antebellum plantations, when slaves with lighter skin were given preferential treatment. Decades later, light skin is still seen as desirable. "I cast no judgment," Patterson expressed. "I have a personal position, of course I think skin lightening is really problematic. You're corroding your skin from a medical perspective. But as to understanding why people do it, if you think about the plantation, the darker-skinned slaves were the ones who worked the fields and the lighter-skinned slaves worked in the house. Lighter meant better opportunities, better clothes, better quality of food. A lot of the associations around color are around shade."


"The history of colorism in many ways impacts the reasons people lighten; there is a sense of de-value in being darker," Patterson continued. "And skin lightening is not unique to dancehall, it's really popular in countries in Africa and India and even in Japan and China. I refer to it as 'skin blinging,' because it also creates a moment of illumination. This idea of erasing oneself into presence. Erasing one's local pigmentation as a way of creating visibility, and skin becomes an extension of the garment." 



While Patterson's sculptures primarily revolve around gender identity, her tapestries tap into more disturbing questions of race. The tapestries, hypnotic in their indulgent use of neon hues and sparkly finishes, attract the viewer like a clickbait-y headline or an NSFW Instagram post. Upon closer look, the embroidered roses, lace and fringe disperse to reveal black bodies, lying prostrate amidst the excess. The tapestries, spread on the gallery floor, transform viewer into witness, approaching the lifeless human forms camouflaged within the surrounding environment.


Patterson sourced the bodies in her tapestries from social media, each of a specific person of color who had suffered a violent death. Although many cases of violence go unreported, the images of lifeless bodies often spread far and wide across social media platforms, detached from their origins, floating through cyberspace. 


"Social media creates an opportunity for visibility in the way larger popular culture does not," Patterson said. "But I was interested in the kind of visibility that was created. These images become spectacle, become object, and there is a disengagement with value. So many times the images are of people who are working class people and they're often black or brown people. If these people were of a higher echelon would we have as easy access to so many of these images?"



Through her decadent tapestries, Patterson hopes to recreate that moment of seduction that so many of us encounter on the Internet, the guilty pleasure of watching a violent YouTube video, clicking on a graphic photo for that momentary surge of attraction, repulsion and empty empathy that's soon forgotten with the closing of a browser window. 


"People comment on [photos] and share them. But there's an absence of engagement that this was someone," Patterson added. "How would you feel if a member of your family's image was passed down for random commentary? It's one of the pitfalls of social media -- we swallow it and we spit it out without engaging with the information."


The juxtaposition between Patterson's mannequins and tapestries illuminate a dismal realization: black bodies are denied visibility throughout their entire lives, only to have their images propagated thoughtlessly after death. 


This sentiment echoes Patterson's 2014 performance "Invisible Presence: Bling Memories," a spectacular procession of coffins decked out with feathers, tassels and sparkles, inspired by the funeral practices common in Jamaican, lower-income communities. 


"That tradition grows out of communities who feel neglected," Patterson explained. "There is a popular cultural anthropologist Donne Hope who wrote this essay called 'From the Stage to the Grave' about the bling funeral phenomenon. There's this statement she made that's always been with me, something like, 'You may not have noticed me when I was alive but you'll damn will notice me when I leave.' Taking absolute control of how she wants to be seen, even in death, is such a powerful sentiment."


"Dead Treez" is on view until April 13, 2016 at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. See a preview below. 



 This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.


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Watch Otto The Skateboarding Bulldog Totally Shred A World Record

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He was a sk8er pup, he said seeya l8er pup.


Otto the Bulldog just set a totally sweet new world record -- longest human tunnel travelled through by a dog skateboarder. The pooch snagged the prize by sliding through the legs of 30 humans lined up in Lima, Peru.



The feat was attempted in honor of the 11th Annual Guinness World Records Day, on Thursday, when nearly 650,000 people around the world are attempting to set or break records. Otto, though, is totally the top dog.




The 3-year-old English bulldog’s humans, Luciana Viale and Robert Rickards, were inspired by the late and great Tillman -- another English bulldog who gained Internet fame for his sweet skating skills, and sadly died in October.



Otto’s record, though, is an awesome tribute to a fellow skater pup.




Keep on rollin', Otto!


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Taking A Trip Inside This Queer Man's Closet Is Absolutely Ethereal

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BULLETT Magazine launched a mini-documentary this week that elevates the life and story of a queer artist navigating the nightlife scene in Chicago, Illinois.

 

Produced by BULLETT editor Justin Moran, the video is part of the "Chicago After Dark" project that offers a response to what the writer sees as a heavier focus by media on the cultural production happening in larger cosmopolitan areas like New York or Los Angeles. In Moran's eyes, Chicago is home to a rich and vibrant community of nightlife creatives who don't necessarily get the recognition they deserve because of their choice to live in a smaller metropolis.

 

The mini-documentary follows artist Jojo Baby, a legend in the scene who has been working in nightlife since he was 14 years old. Jojo largely embodies a pre-internet mentality to his work and has mastered the art of doll-making -- but in a way that you wouldn't expect.


The Huffington Post chatted with Moran about his project this week and the legendary status of Jojo Baby.


The Huffington Post: What is the "Chicago After Dark" series -- what are you trying to accomplish?

Justin Moran: Since I've started working long distance for several New York-based publications from Chicago, I've noticed that mainstream media has a tendency to favor stories from certain cities over others. Chicago has an incredibly rich, authentic queer scene that almost always gets glossed over, even by local media, which sadly caters to the more conservative midwestern reader. I launched "Chicago After Dark" to elevate the important voices in my queer community and introduce them to BULLETT's global readers to try and balance the larger LGBT conversation that seems to focus exclusively on people in New York or Los Angeles. 


Why are legendary figures like Jojo Baby so important to the Chicago queer scene?

Chicago is inherently a conservative city, which inevitably influences the queer community. Someone like Jojo Baby, who's so genuinely himself, is vital to shaking up the club scene, which at times can feel overwhelmingly homogenous. Being that Jojo Baby is so deeply rooted in the national queer conversation, as well as local, I think people are really thankful that he hasn't uprooted to another city, like so many successful people do. (People seem to always stay here for just a bit to quietly foster their craft and move on in hopes of rising to the next level in their career). For me, Jojo's a glimpse into the past -- a pre-Internet world where there were far more dangers to being publicly queer, more barriers to entry in the nightlife scene and little-to-no communication between like-minded people. Jojo feels like a warrior in that sense, which you can see in the documentary translates through his tattoos of names people have called him, like "fruitcake" or "faggot" stamped across his chest. 


What role do you think nightlife in Chicago plays in the city's relationship with queer culture?

This city -- like most metropolitan cities -- is painfully corporate and whitewashed, favoring the successful wealthy businessman over everyone else. So nightlife here seems to be the life support of local queer people, who're forced, for example, to take the bus everyday with straight cis-gender men wearing Trunk Club suits, briefcases and sperry's. And since daytime culture here is so straight-laced, that's why someone like Jojo Baby is important -- a friendly after-hours reminder to young queer people that it's okay to choose a different approach to life. 


What do you want people to take away from this piece?

Jojo Baby's studio, which he calls "Jojo Baby's Closet," is easily the most magical space I've ever been in, filled wall-to-wall with things he's created and collected. (His Greer Lankton shrine, his raggedy ann collection, his handmade dolls all modeled after friends using their real hair). Everything has a story, too -- he's so deeply invested in every facet of his work, his life, his identity. Like I said earlier, it's so inspiring to be around someone who's so shamelessly themselves. Jojo isn't at all invested in online culture like so many of us are today. He's built a genuine fantasy in the real world -- not one that only exists on an Instagram square, not one that's skewed through a million Tumblr reblogs. He's the real deal -- a standing queer identity that powered through years of social marginalization to be one hundred percent himself. Also, I'm really pleased with how this documentary dives into the human behind Jojo Baby; we see him comforting his three-legged rescue dog Venus and hugging passersby on the streets; we see his insecurities and his strengths. He's so much more than a painted face -- though his looks are incredible too. 

 

Stay tuned for more from this project.

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Today In Art, Jeff Koons Is Placing Blue Balls In Front Of Famous Paintings

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Dear #JeffKoons, no. Just no.

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For his current exhibition at Gagosian Gallery, Peter Pan's long lost uncle Jeff Koons is taking paintings he "enjoys" from art history and, in his view, making them even "stronger." The historically polarizing artist is accomplishing this by placing blue balls in front of famous artworks. No, seriously. 


In Koons' language, his aluminum blue orbs are called "gazing balls." He's exhibited his gazing balls many times before. This month at Gagosian, the balls -- hovering before paintings like the "Mona Lisa," "The Kiss," "Luncheon on the Grass" and other original artworks Koons definitely loves and did not find in a college art poster catalogue -- capture parts of the artwork behind them and the viewer in front of them, reflecting everything like a funhouse mirror. 


But the gazing ball experience isn't just about seeing your reflection juxtaposed with that of "Olympia," the artist asserts. As Koons explained to a group of Gagosian visitors, the gazing ball actually "represents everything."


Every. Thing. To be clear, there is no thing the gazing balls do not represent. 




Koons, who is worth an estimated $500 million, has long been an art world fixture both magnetic and maddening. His genuinely ecstatic adoration of life's simple joys -- from a kitsch balloon toy to a vacuum cleaner -- has paved the way for a long and wildly successful career that leaves viewers ogling the endless complexity of shiny surfaces, sometimes too transfixed to wonder if there's anything underneath.


His childlike wonder -- coupled with tidbits from his personal life, like the fact that he drives his family around in a Koonsmobile -- leads one to believe the second richest artist alive is actually a bright-eyed boy undergoing some "Big"-like transformation, all the while attempting to lure us into his pricey Neverland.




At Gagosian, Koons himself engineered the small shelves upon which the balls sit. The paintings behind the shelves, however, are not the original masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci or Gustav Klimt, nor are they mere copies made at FedEx at the last minute. As Koons explained, "These are all handmade paintings. Everything has been painted by hand. There is nothing printed. Every mark on here has been applied by a brush." (You can safely add the phrase "by my assistants" to the end of each of the aforementioned sentences.)


The artist hopes the work strikes a grand and all-encompassing dialogue between the individual viewer, the history of art, the contemporary gallery environment, and perhaps the Halal truck across the street. (Remember: Every. Thing.) There is, however one thing this work is not about, and that is copying.


As Koons puts it: "It’s not about being a copy. It’s not art that’s about copies. This is about this union of being together, this dialogue. It’s the concept of the avant-garde, of being together in a group and participating."


Koons, the art world's puer aeternus, seems to finally be entering puberty. So long birthday hats, balloon dogs, pool toys and Play-Doh piles. Hello stoner-esque epiphanies involving everyone connecting with everyone and forming a historical narrative that makes you think about what it means to exist in a community, man. 


In fact, Koons has spun his infectious narrative all the way back to cave art. "You know, it’s 3D," he said of the Paleolithic Lascaux caves in the south of France during his tour at Gagosian. "The drawings are against the ceiling that are amplifying the line that’s there. It’s always the highest strength of art when the 2D and the 3D are together. The gazing ball is functioning in the same way, where I had the purest form, which is just -- balls."


JUST. BALLS.


Jeff Koons' "Gazing Ball Paintings" are on view at Gagosian Gallery in New York from Nov. 9 to Dec. 23.



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Inked Heritage: Berber Women's Tattoos In Algeria

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In Algeria’s Aurès mountains, it was a tradition for Berber women to tattoo their bodies and faces. The shapes and symbols they used were both of cosmetic and therapeutic value, as the Berber community in eastern Algeria believed that tattoos could be used to heal illnesses and infertility.


The practice of tattooing, however, declined in the 1930s and 1940s, a development that has been attributed to the burgeoning influence of Islam in Algeria (which deems tattoos as haram, or forbidden). 


As the practice continues to fade, grandchildren and great grandchildren will likely one day ask: What does this tattoo on my ancestor's forehead, cheek, or chin mean? A book by Lucienne Brousse, titled Feminine Beauty and Identity: Female Berber Tattoos of the Regions of Biskra and Touggourt, seeks to answer that question. The book was showcased at the Algiers International Book Fair, or Salon International du Livre d'Alger, which ran from Oct. 28 to Nov. 7, 2015.


Brousse compiled the book through a long process of reconstruction and interpretation of hundreds of drawings made by her friend Eliane Ocre, throughout Ocre's nursing career in Algeria.



"The symbol known as "The partridge's eye" is a small diamond, its edges rounded or bearing a small cross," writes Brousse in the chapter titled "Complex Symbols." "For the women who wear this symbol, it represents the bird itself, a symbol of beauty, agility ... and to represent this symbol on oneself, is to attract what it symbolizes."


Relying on Ocre's notes, research on tattoos and her knowledge of Kabyle people and culture, Brousse has compiled what she calls a "modest study, neither exhaustive, historic nor comparative." 


Yet the work is an an invaluable reading manual on Berber tattoos and a formidable tool for decrypting their motifs. It even has accurate reproductions of the tattoos,  thanks to the digitization of Ocre's drawings. 


"The pictures showing the palm leaf, originating from the region of Touggourt, are particularly rich designs which, with some exceptions, aren't representative of anything," writes Brousse. “The palm leaf, just like the palm tree, represents, for some women, the (unspoken) status of "mother goddess," a source of wealth and a protective figure, like the protective shade of a palm tree."


Producing the book was "unexpected," Brousse explained to HuffPost Algeria, between meetings at the Diocesan Centre of the Glycines in Algiers. At 85, she still has exceptional vitality.


She said that before Ocre's death in 2004, her friend “wanted to destroy all the drawings she collected over the course of the years she spent as a nurse at the Touggourt, Biskra, Batna and Barika hospitals.” 


After persuading her not to throw them away, Brousse inherited all these little pieces of paper.


"Once the drawings were sorted, I took all the testimonials of women that Eliane had put together -- she asked them about the meaning behind their tattoos, always with great delicacy and spontaneity,” she said.



"In the works consulted, as well as in the collection, the most frequent motif, always on the forehead, is called abernus, or bunting," writes Brousse in her book. "Their depictions, at times simple, at times complex, are, within the same geographic area, extremely diverse."


"My professional history has nothing to do with anthropology," Brousse said during the interview in Algiers. "I am a linguist and teacher by trade. I worked on Arabic and in Tamazight for my research, not with the aim of producing theoretical writing, but making a useful contribution to learning."


That's how over the course of her 60 years in Algeria, from 1953 to 2014, Brousse developed several methods for teaching these languages: Tamazight, Algerian Derja, Classical Arabic, and French. She also translated Antoine Saint Exupéry's The Little Prince into Derja.


Her book on female Berber tattoos doesn't stray from this passion for transmission of culture and pedagogy.



"This "cross" sign with equal length arms doesn't have a name in the corpus, nor in other sources we consulted," writes Brousse in the chapter dedicated to "Simple Signs." "It's a staple in all realms of decoration: on headstones, weavings, pottery, paintings, jewelry ... and tattoos, with no connection to any religious, and in particular, Christian, base."


Toward the end of the book, Brousse describes three kinds of symbol that only appear in Ocre's corpus, and that denote, she writes, "an astonishing freedom of creation."


A young woman from the region of Touggourt who had this design tattooed on her arm told Ocre during an interview that when she was younger, she never had the time to play because she had to work or take care of her younger siblings. As a mother, she hopes that her daughters will be able to go to school and enjoy playing children's games, like hopscotch. "Isn’t this an expression of frustration and its overcoming?” Brousse wondered. 


 



“The dot is noted in the corpus in the plural form, "nuqat or nugat," writes Brousse. “A simple element, it can be depicted alone, and some take it to mean home, "ddar," that is to say, stability and security. You find it on the cheek, the forehead, the arms, just about everywhere, and it's often called ‘bull's-eye.’"


Heiress of Eliane Ocre's stories, Lucienne Brousse preserves part of the memory of Algeria's culture and heritage.


Thanks to Bruno Hadjih who graciously offered these photographs from his series "Fantasy of the Kahina," (2005-2010) taken in the Aurès.


This story originally appeared on HuffPost Algeria. It has been translated into English and edited for clarity.

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Indie Booksellers Power An Anti-Amazon Internet Book Club

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In the bookselling world, it's been a week of role reversals.


Last week, Amazon threw open the doors to its first brick-and-mortar bookstore, Amazon Books, in Seattle. The store features books selected based on demand, according to a number of metrics mostly derived from Amazon's sales. Most are promoted with a card displaying a glowing user review from the site -- a digital comment turned into a facsimile of that hallmark of the indie bookstore, the shelf talker (a typically handwritten personal recommendation from a bookstore employee).


Then, on Thursday, literary design startup Litographs launched a counterattack in partnership with four indie bookstores across the country. Litographs Book Club is taking one book recommendation from each bookstore each season -- four at a time -- and sharing the handwritten shelf talkers online. 



"Bookstores have long known that recommending books is a craft, and it’s one they’ve perfected over the course of helping millions find their next great book," declares the press page for Litographs Book Club, in a not-so-veiled rebuke to Amazon's algorithm-driven book recommendations. 


"We feel comfortable in the hands of people whose job it is to send you home with a good book," explained Jack Neary, Litographs' head of community, in an email to The Huffington Post. The hand-penned recommendations, he said, are "a natural extension of the warm customer service you'll receive when you spend time browsing in a bookstore." 


Just as importantly, this structure retains the influence of personal taste and enthusiasm. Litographs' official description emphasizes, "we’ve given our favorite indie bookstore clerks full autonomy in their choices." These idiosyncratic picks will very likely differ from the typical bestseller roundups and book-club standbys. 


The inaugural shelf talkers bode well: recommendations for Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist, Charlotte Gordon's Romantic Outlaws, Joseph Boyden's The Orenda and Louisa Hall's Speak reveal diversity in genre and author identity, and clearly show the workings of distinct personal tastes. 



To participate in the digital book club, readers just need to pick one of the four recommended books online, depending on which fits with their genre preferences or which shelf talker piques their interest most. Litographs hopes to foster conversation by sending participants a temporary tattoo or computer decal inspired by their picks, offering discounted copies of the books available through certain partner bookstores. Readers can also submit their own shelf talkers to contribute to the conversation.


But for the most part, Litographs Book Club hopes to remove the pressure and messiness that often plague digital book clubs by keeping things slow and straightforward. "Rather than stressing quantity and deadlines, we're offering a few thoughtful recommendations each season so you can focus more on genuinely enjoying the next book you pick up, whenever that is," said Neary. 


Genuinely enjoying a book -- in other words, exactly what reading should be all about.


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Emotional Family Photos Help Parents Honor Their Son After His Tragic Passing

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After Amanda and Wayne Hartwig tragically lost their son, photographer Renee Hattaway offered the family a special way to honor his life.


On September 4, Bo Hartwig passed away suddenly at the age of 11 months. Family and friends in the Hartwigs' Wisconsin community helped put together a basket of gifts and donations for the family. Recalling that Amanda had called to plan a family photo shoot prior to Bo's passing, Renee donated three free photography sessions with no expiration date.


Amanda and Wayne are also parents to 5-year-old Ariana, and an unborn third child due in February. When the mom reached out to Renee to set up their photography session, she expressed a desire to include all three of her children in the pictures. "I instantly had ideas in my head," the photographer told The Huffington Post.


Renee created beautiful remembrance photos that incorporated Bo through digital editing with older pictures of the baby boy.



On the day of the photo shoot, the photographer worried there wouldn't be enough sunlight to capture the images she'd envisioned. But the clouds in the sky seemed to disappear once they reached the shoot location, she said.  


"I had these weird feelings that Bo was actually there ... almost guiding me as to the shots that I wanted to get," Renee said, adding, "Bo may not have been there physically, but I have no doubt in my mind that he was there spiritually."


When Renee shared the finished photos with the family, Amanda was overcome with emotion. "She told me how these images will help them with the grieving process to know that Bo is and always will be by their side," the photographer told HuffPost.  


"My goal for these photos was to prove to Amanda and Wayne, as well as other people, that their loved ones that have passed away are still there, right by their side," Renee said. "Days will be tough, they will drag on, but that loved one they lost is standing right beside them. They always have and always will be."



Renee said she hopes her photos can comfort those who have lost loved ones and perhaps inspire others to create similar images. "I believe remembrance photography can definitely be a healing process," she said.


"When someone loses someone that they loved, their lives are torn a part," she continued. "By doing the remembrance photography and seeing your loved ones in the same photograph as you, it is almost as if you had one more time with them. One more memory with them that is frozen still in time in a photograph."


"It may also bring a smile to their face to see their loved one next to them in a photograph, and smiles can cure almost anything."


Keep scrolling and visit Renee's website and Facebook page for a look at her powerful photos.



H/T BabyCenter


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Jeezy Says Drake Is 'Smart,' Has 'A Different Type Of Skill Set'

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He might be only 29, but there's no question that Drake has emerged as a major force in the hip hop scene. According to veteran rapper Jeezy, however, that's due to more than just his music chops.


"Drake's smart, man," Jeezy told HuffPost Live on Thursday. "He understands. He studies music, and he sees it as a game. He's not just in it as an artist; he knows how to attach himself to certain things that are moving just to stay in the pocket, and that takes a different type of skill set. That ain't just getting in the booth and writing songs."


Jeezy added that before collaborating with Drake on the 2009 single "Fed Up," he had no idea who Drake even was.


"We met in New York, and I just sat back and was like, 'Oh, he's from Canada,'" the rapper recounted. "But I just saw how he was moving ... and I was like, 'Okay, they're really trying to make this kid big.'"


After the viral success of the "Hotline Bling" video, we'd argue that "big" is an understatement.


Watch more from Jeezy's conversation with HuffPost Live here.


Want more HuffPost Live? Stream us anytime on Go90, Verizon's mobile social entertainment network, and listen to our best interviews on iTunes.


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25 Books You'll Want To Curl Up With In A Reading Nook

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It's no wonder that reading nooks are a dream home feature for many book lovers. Reading nooks are cute, cozy, and a perfect escape from the daily grind. But what good is a comfy reading space if you don't have any great books to read? Enter the reading nook reading list.


These 25 books range from classic to contemporary fiction, from gothic romance to funny essays. They don't have much in common, aside from one thing: these books will transport you. Whether you end up on the moors of Wuthering Heights or on the battlefield in All The Light We Cannot See is up to you. So pick a book, snuggle up and settle in for a long, languid afternoon of reading. 



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Tom Cruise Is Reportedly 'Freaking Out' Over Everything Leah Remini Said About Him

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Tom Cruise is reportedly not too pleased with the claims actress Leah Remini made about him in her new book Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology. 


A source tells Us Weekly that the 53-year-old actor is "freaking out” over the anecdotes in Remini's tell-all memoir. Now, the source didn't say if Cruise is jumping on a couch level freaking out or if he's more quietly fuming, but we can't say we find this surprising.







Let's review a few of the claims the former "King of Queens" star made about Cruise in her book and on the press tour: 


 1. She was disciplined by church officials after she told Cruise to "get a room." 


"He was like, forcibly kissing Katie. And I said, 'Hey, get a freaking room.' And uh, well. I was written up for that," she said in an interview with "20/20."


2. Cruise wanted to play hide-and-seek with her and some other famous friends, including Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. 


"At first I thought he was joking, but no, he literally wanted to play hide-and-seek with a bunch of grown-ups in what was probably close to a 7,000-square-foot house on almost three full acres of secluded land," Remini wrote in her book, going on to say she declined to play because was wearing five-inch Jimmy Choo heels. 


3. The actor had a meltdown over cookie dough


"Once, he wanted to make cookies, and there was a package of prepackaged cookie dough on the counter. He asked, 'Guys, where's the cookie stuff?'" The assistants fluttered around but they didn't point out to him that it was right there on the counter. "Tom seemed like a child who had never been told no," Remini wrote. "Get in the fucking present time, is what you need to do!" he allegedly screamed at his assistant. 


4. Remini claims she found Cruise' daughter Suri crying on the bathroom floor at the couple's 2006 wedding


"I found three women, including Tom's sister and his assistant, standing over the baby, who was lying on the tile floor. I didn't know if they were changing her diaper or what, but the three women were looking at her like they thought she was L. Ron Hubbard incarnate. Rather than talking to her in a soothing voice, they kept saying, 'Suri! Suri!' in a tone that sounded like they were telling an adult to get her shit together."


Remini wrote that she took control of the situation by getting Suri's bottle and asking someone to heat it up, after telling the women, "What are you guys doing? She's a baby. Pick her up!" 


5. Cruise's children Isabella and Connor don't have much contact with their mother Nicole Kidman. 


Remini wrote that after returning to Los Angeles following Cruise and Holmes' wedding in Italy, she asked the actor's kids if they saw their mother often. Isabella allegedly responded, "Not if I have a choice. Our mom is a f**king SP." 


Reps for the Church of Scientology have repeatedly denied claims made in Remini's book and request for comment made by The Huffington Post to Cruise's publicist has yet to be returned -- not that we're holding our breath. 


The actor could have somehow managed to remain ignorant of the things Remini is alleging since the Church of Scientology discourages its members from reading anything critical about the religion.


"Nobody in Scientology will read the book … because they see me as an enemy," Remini said in an interview with Howard Stern in October.


 


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Masked Bandits Caught With Their Tails Between Their Legs

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There's nothing more sinister than organized crime. 


Oregon's Newport Police Department responded to a call of suspicious activity at a local gallery just after midnight on Thursday. What they found when they arrived is chilling -- a group of masked mobsters in the midst of a high-profile art heist.



The band of burglars attempted to escape the grasp of the responding officers, but were eventually rounded up. 


The suspects are known only by their street names: "Home Dog," "Da Nails," "Squeaky Feets," and "2-Toes Todd," according to the Newport Police Department. Whatever you do, don't ask about what happened to the rest of Todd's toes. 


‘Squeaky Feets’ reportedly claimed that the furry foragers were merely trying to "rearrange" some pieces in the gallery. To which officers said, "Tell it to the judge, ‘Feets’. Tell it to the judge."



Officer Jerry Howe, pictured above, was one of the first on the scene. The agency told HuffPost via email that Howe will be retiring at the end of this month after 26 years on the force. No word on whether this particular encounter with the dark underbelly of society played a role the decision.


Call them what you will, but we'll call these aspiring art collectors the Jeff Coons Criminals. 


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Iconic Photos Give A Glimpse Of What Modern South Korea Used To Be

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Today, South Korea is known as a bastion of modern fashion, architecture and K-pop music. But it is almost surreal to see what the country used to look like and how people lived.


Across the 1960s to 1980s, 62-year-old Korean documentary photojournalist Min-jo Jeon, who worked at the Dong-a Ilbo and Korea Times newspapers for some 30 years, traveled around South Korea and took photos of an emerging South Korea. 


Min-jo Jeon's work will soon be displayed at the National History Museum in Jongno, Seoul. The exhibition, named "Pictures Tell the Story," starts Nov. 26 and will run for two months.


Scroll down to take a look at the photos:


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Shanice Williams And Stephanie Mills Kill It Performing 'Home' From 'The Wiz Live'

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A remake of the iconic musical "The Wiz" will debut on Dec. 3, on NBC. "The Wiz Live" features broadway veteran Stephanie Mills along with newcomer Shanice Williams, and the two have just given us a sneak peek at what we can expect. 


Williams, cast as Dorothy, is joined by Mills, who played Dorothy in the original 1975 production, for a jaw-dropping performance of "Home."


Check it out below:





 


Incredible! Job well done, ladies. 


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