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Horse Owner Complains Man Took Prize-Winning Equine Selfie Without 'Consent'

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The owner of a photogenic horse in Wales is claiming she deserves some recognition from a man who won a contest after taking a selfie with the animal.



David Bellis and his son, Jacob, were awarded first prize in U.K.-based travel company Thomson Holidays’ “Made Me Smile” selfie competition for a photo taken with a mare named Betty near their home in north Wales, according to The Guardian. The prize was a vacation worth £2,000 (about $2,884).


But when Betty’s owner, Nicola Mitchell, learned that Bellis won, she complained that the man should have asked for her permission for the snapshot.


“I was really annoyed to hear he had won a £2,000 holiday and had used a picture of our horse without our permission,” she told The Guardian. “He should have asked for our consent. There should be some token gesture as it is our horse that has really won them the holiday.”


Plus, she said, if she had known about the competition, she could have taken her own photo of Betty and won.


Bellis told the Telegraph that Mitchell’s friends have been contacting him, calling his actions “shameful and stupid.”


But he said since the prize was a vacation — not cash — there’s not much he can do to share the prize unless Mitchell wants to go on vacation with him and his son.


Intellectual property lawyer Wayne Beynon told The Guardian that Mitchell doesn’t really have any legal claim over the photo, since Bellis took it on a public path.


Thomson Holidays confirmed on Facebook Tuesday that the father and son would be receiving the prize as planned.





At least the owner isn't trying to prove that Betty herself owns the photo. Just ask wildlife photographer David Slater, who has been battling PETA over the rights to a selfie taken by a monkey for months.


More HuffPost horses:


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Your Visual Guide To The Timeless Queens Of Pin-Up

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The bombshell above is Fannie Belle Fleming, also known as Blaze Starr, the stripper and comedienne hailed as the Queen of Burlesque. She was known for her fiery red hair and even more fiery sense of humor, often ending an erotic strip tease by releasing smoke from between her legs. 


Blaze was skilled at her craft and she knew it, often refuting the slut-shaming mentality of more mainstream modes of thought. "Society thought that to be a stripper was to be a prostitute," Ms. Starr told The New York Times in 1989, a statement that today would sound outdated, but for her time period, was revolutionary. "But I always felt that I was an artist, entertaining. I was at ease being a stripper. I kept my head held high, and if there is such a thing as getting nude with class, then I did it."


The burlesque star, and her all-American little sister, the pin-up girl, were crucial ingredients to American pop culture throughout the 20th century. In conjunction with the image of the modern, independent woman, these women were exploring their sexuality and flaunting their agency, although often in a manner directly dictated by the male gaze. 



Dian Hanson, author of The Art of the Pin-Up, explained the particulars of the American babe to The Huffington Post. "Her sexiness is natural and uncontrived, and her exposure is always accidental. A fishhook catches her bikini top, an outboard motor shreds her skirt, a spunky puppy trips her up or the ever-present playful breeze lifts her hem, revealing stocking tops and garter straps, but never the whole enchilada."


The history of the pin-up girl is bound up with the rise of feminism and women's liberation, which you can read more on here and here. But you came here to look at images. Glamorous, sexy, powerful, flirtatious, the women below embodied eroticism and shaped the fantasies of countless devoted fans. From the coquettishly cute to the boldly risqué, these are the beautiful icons of pin-up history, from the 1930s to the 1960s. 



 


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Here's What Witchcraft Can Teach Us About Feminism

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Later this month, debut director Robert Egger’s terrifying “The Witch" -- which won the Best Director Prize in the U.S. Narrative Competition at Sundance last year, not to mention boatloads of praise -- will finally hit theaters. It’s being touted as a horror film that’s as gorgeous as it is scary.


Set in paranoid, Puritanical New England, the movie centers on a familiar premise: when freaky, unexplainable events crop up, a scapegoat is found in a teenage girl, who the townspeople decide is hiding a witchy secret life behind her sweet public appearances.


Although “The Witch” casts new light on the old trope, it’s worth taking a look at all the ways witchcraft has been used in film to chastise -- or praise -- subversive women. Which is why Jesse Trussell, Program Coordinator at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, put together a slate of witchy films to prep viewers for the new movie’s big reveal.


“I’ve found there are multiple meanings of witches for filmmakers,” Trussell said in an email exchange with The Huffington Post. “They can be connected to the fear of women and the natural world but also to a supernatural and deep connection to it. They can also be explicitly feminist critiques of the modern world and -- my personal favorite -- a source of assertive, pointed comedy.”


Check out BAMcinématek’s Witches’ Brew lineup, and read about a few fictional witch tropes, too.


The outcast witch
from “Day of Wrath” (1943)





If you fancy yourself any sort of witch scholar, you already know Salem wasn’t the only site of actual witch hunts. “Day of Wrath” is an adaptation of a play about a supposed Norwegian witch, Anne Pedersdotter, who was burned at the stake in the 1500s. In terms of spookiness, it’s definitely more Scarlet Letter than “Blaire Witch Project,” as it explores how we funnel womens’ supposed wrongdoings -- like adultery -- into a stock form of public shame and banishment. Trussell says this movie “powerfully depicts the feeling of real world witch-hunts.”


The screwball witch
from “I Married a Witch” (1942)





This 1942 film is understandably complicated given the time period when it was made. Veronica Lake plays a spurned Salem sufferer reincarnated as an attractive modern-day woman, hell-bent on making the ancestor of her abuser unhappy. But -- shocker -- she falls in love with him instead, deciding on a “Taming of the Shrew”-like moral lesson: “Love is stronger than witchcraft.” Trussell says “quick-talking, screwball comedies” like this one “specifically position their protagonists as the heroes of the story.”


The mysterious witch
from “Bell, Book and Candle” (1958)





“My personal favorite of the films is ‘Bell, Book and Candle,'" Trussell says. “It features an incredible performance by Kim Novak, the same year she also appeared in ‘Vertigo,' that allows her to be mysterious, scary and funny.” Although this movie is another rom-com, it takes a more nuanced view on the warring values of love and independence, through the lens of Novak’s witchy character, Gillian. She forfeits her powers in favor of Jimmy Stewart’s affections, but the resulting relationship is rocky.


The powerful witch
from “The Craft” (1996)





This 1996 cult classic is getting a remake, with a woman director at its helm. In the meantime, the original will more than do. In it, a crew of supernatural teenage girls form a coven and use their powers to enhance the usual traits valued by high school-aged women: beauty, power and affection. Things get out of hand, of course -- but it’s a refreshing twist on the self-quelled witches from earlier films. Trussell calls it “one of the very best coming-of-age films in the last 25 years.”


The feminist witch
from “Neither God Nor Santa Maria” (1967)





Trussell says “Neither God Nor Santa Maria” is an example of the ways “filmmakers have used witches as a way to explore women’s lives.” Visually, it may be the movie most in line with the upcoming “The Witch,” with its ethereal shots juxtaposed by a frankly related storyline. Men narrate footage of an elderly woman’s daily life, connecting her with fabled witch-hood. It’s up to the viewer to determine whether she should trust the lovely, faded images, or the starkly opposed voiceover.


Bonus: Also screening are a few witchy films you might not have seen, including "Black Sunday," "The Witches Cradle," "Haxan," "Suspiria," and "The Wicker Man." Films are screening from Feb. 16 - 29. 





Also on HuffPost:


This Is What It’s Really Like To Be A Witch Today


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Watch 100 Years Of Dominican Beauty (And History) Come Alive

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The "100 Years of Beauty" series by The Cut has taken the Internet by storm for months. Now it's inspired producer Kayla "La La" Rodriguez to show the changing beauty styles of the Dominican Republic. 


Rodriguez went beyond the hairdo transitions and make-up changes and gave fans a second "behind the looks" video too, revealing which historical figures inspired each look. She explains, for example, how the 1910's "campesina style" was inspired by rural farmer activist Mama Tingo and the 1940's glamorous look was inspired by Hollywood star María Montez. And, yes, she even explains why Dominican women poured beer on their hair in the 1980s. 


Rodriguez didn't shy away from some of the darker moments in Dominican history either, using dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo's daughter, Angelita, as the inspiration for the 1930s look. 


"It was a very dark time in Dominican history that lasted 30 years," Rodriguez explains in the video. "[Angelita] was a very controversial figure at the time... We didn't want to show in this video only the positive side of history, but also the negative side. And we wanted to show how sometimes politics can influence a lot in pop culture and the media in general."


Watch Rodriguez continue to explain the inspiration behind other looks below:  





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Meet The Girl Who Dreams Of Becoming The First Muslim Hijabi Ballerina

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Had such a fun photo shoot the other day!

A photo posted by sᴛᴇᴘʜᴀɴɪᴇ ᴋᴜʀʟᴏᴡ (@stephaniekurlow) on




Meet Stephanie Kurlow. She's a 14-year-old girl from Sydney, Australia, who, like many other young women her age, dreams of becoming a professional dancer.


According to The Sydney Morning Herald, however, Kurlow -- who's been performing on stage since she was 2 years old -- felt the need to quit ballet after converting to Islam with her father, mother and two brothers six years ago. Living in the southwest suburbs of Sydney, she said that she couldn't find a school who would accept her wearing a hijab to class.


Today, Kurlow is again working to become the first Muslim hijabi ballerina in the world. She's created a LaunchGood campaign with the hopes of raising enough money to pay for tuition and fees associated with one year of ballet school. But her ultimate goal is grander than a crowdsourced education. Kurlow wants to use her expertise to eventually open a diverse performing arts academy that caters to children and teenagers of different religions, races and backgrounds. 




"This school will have special programs for specific religions, support groups for our youth and people who are from disconnected communities," she outlines in her LaunchGood campaign. "I will provide for our future generations a chance to express and heal themselves and others through the magnificent art of performing and creativity."


Kurlow was initially inspired by what she sees a broader "lack of facilitation for youth who are disengaged or of a different religion or race." Be succeeding as the first Muslim ballerina, she aims to "inspire so many other people to believe in themselves and pursue their dreams."


While she's encountered some negative feedback online, particularly strict followers of Islam who believe dancing is "haram" or forbidden, she remains committed to her goals. She draws inspiration from African-American ballerinas Michaela De Prince and Misty Copeland, as well as hijabi Emirati lifter Amna Al Haddad and hijabi American television news anchor Noor Tagour -- other "firsts" in their field. Not to mention Kurlow's mother, Alsu, who has already opened a performing arts academy in the Sydney suburb of Bankstown, teaching ballet, martial arts and aboriginal art classes to the local community. 



Had such a fun photo shoot the other day! #wedanceasone

A photo posted by sᴛᴇᴘʜᴀɴɪᴇ ᴋᴜʀʟᴏᴡ (@stephaniekurlow) on




"The hijab is so important to me because it's a part of who I am and represents the beautiful religion that I love," Kurlow told Mashable Australia. "If people have the right to dress down then I have the right to dress up and my hijab is my expression of love to my creator and I believe it covers my body but not my mind, heart and talent."


Check out more of Kurlow's story on her LaunchGood page. And head over to her Instagram to see snapshots of her practice at home.







Here's my practice turnboard video for @officialturnboard #teamturnboard #turnboard

A video posted by sᴛᴇᴘʜᴀɴɪᴇ ᴋᴜʀʟᴏᴡ (@stephaniekurlow) on





Had such a fun time shooting photos on a farm!!! ✌ ️Leave a comment below which picture you liked the best ✌ ️

A photo posted by sᴛᴇᴘʜᴀɴɪᴇ ᴋᴜʀʟᴏᴡ (@stephaniekurlow) on




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Artist Born Without Hands Draws Beautiful, Hyper-Realistic Portraits

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Polish artist Mariusz Kędzierski does things a bit differently.


“I was just a kid who went to school and who was playing football with friends, but I was a little different,” 23-year-old Kędzierski told The Huffington Post. “I was born without arms.”




The 23-year-old fell in love with art when he was just 3. He figured out how to draw and paint despite his disability until the age of 12, when he had to stop for health reasons. Yet, after a 2008 surgery, everything changed. He was able to draw again, which was a tremendous relief.


“A few years ago I couldn't even imagine that art would be a part of my life,” he said. “But now it is!”


For the past seven years, Kędzierski has created 700 hyper-realistic portraits that took him over 15,000 hours to create. He draws by holding a pencil against the ends of his arms.




“Each drawing takes me more than 20 hours,” Kędzierski said. “But if you want to be the best, you have to practice, and you can not look for any excuses.”


Kędzierski said he felt very ashamed of himself when he was a child and uses his portraits to communicate that pain.




“Though people's faces and eyes, I can express my own feelings,” he said emphasizing that every detail in his work has a strong meaning.


The self-taught artist won second prize in “Best Global Artist” in Vienna in 2013 and he has sold some of his work in the U.S., U.K. and South Korea.




His latest series, called “Mariusz Draws” was sketched during a whirlwind trip through Europe, in which he drew while sitting on the streets of Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Athens, Barcelona and Rome. He hopes that his adventurous and can-do spirit will inspire others by teaching them that limitations can be overcome.





“It is not difficult to be an artist or whoever you want to be if you truly believe that you want to do it. Then nothing stops you,” he said. “For me, a disability doesn’t mean that I can’t live my own, great life.”





To keep up with all of Kędzierski's work, check out his Facebook page.


H/T Bored Panda


 


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The Women Of 'Broad City' Want You To Paint A Mural

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Do you have plans this weekend? Because if they don't involve painting a community mural for the women of "Broad City," you're doing something wrong.


Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, the stars of their own Comedy Central show and my personal stoner heroines, have invited anyone -- read: you -- to paint at Kinfolk Bar in Brooklyn, New York, this Saturday, Feb. 6, from 12 to 5 p.m. 


The to-be-painted mural was designed by Mike Perry, the artist behind those trippy "Broad City" intro graphics. Other things you need to know about the event: the first 100 "queens" to arrive get a free "Broad Fucking City" shirt and Bingo Bronson will be in attendance.





Sadly, a representative from Comedy Central has informed us that Abbi and Ilana will not be present. My question: Will Garol be there?





Check out the Facebook event page for more details. And while you're busy dreaming about that sweet, sweet "Broad City" swag, check out our past interview with Jacobson about her own art. Spoiler: it's great. 



Also on HuffPost:



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Before 'Serial,' Two Women Set Out To Bring True Crime To Podcasts

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Maya (not her real name) opens the third episode of "Criminal" describing a guy she had a crush on as a student at NYU: tall, muscular, good at basketball.


Despite their connection, Maya ignored her paramour's inconsistencies, which emerged the longer she knew him -- a jumped train turnstile here, a stolen projector there. "When you're infatuated with someone, you can convince yourself of a lot of things," host Phoebe Judge calmly narrates in between clips of Maya speaking.


"I didn't help him until we started counterfeiting money," Maya ominously explains.


To be human is to sort things into categories: right and wrong, good and bad, guilty and innocent. "Criminal," a podcast from Radiotopia and PRX, reminds listeners with every episode that the truth is many shades blurrier than that. "Our job is not to hold moral judgment," Judge (who plays off her apt surname in the show's ads; she uses sponsor Squarespace to create the free-advice site Phoebe, Judge Me) explained over the phone.


"I hope what we do is put forth an interesting story in as unbiased a way as possible and allow the listener to decide what they think," she added.


Sitting at the Venn diagram overlap of public radio listeners and "Law & Order" fans, the podcast, in so few words, is about crime. It's doesn't rest on the unedited voyeurism of the televised "Cops," nor does it offer the clear resolution of a fictional courtroom drama like "The Practice." Instead, "Criminal" covers the human aspect of the many roles -- perpetrator, victim, enforcer, witness -- that surround a wrongdoing. 


Judge and co-creator Lauren Spohrer, both veterans of public radio, were brainstorming podcast ideas when Spohrer hit upon the idea that radio listeners also love a good crime story, even if "they might not want to admit it." 


"There also weren’t many crime shows as podcasts at that point," Judge noted. "You know, when [Spohrer] said that -- 'Why not crime?' -- I thought, 'That’s the smartest thing I’ve ever heard.' Because I knew we would never run out of stories." Their first episode launched in January 2014, 10 months before the acclaimed "Serial" landed online.


"That’s how 'Criminal' was born," Judge said, "This idea of us taking crime in a broad sense and doing a podcast about it." Both Judge and Spohrer maintained their preexisting radio jobs while working on the podcast at night. They've only recently been able to make "Criminal" their full-time jobs.





"Crime stories also have this: They kind of write themselves," Judge said, "they have this built-in narrative arc. There’s usually always a consequence of some sort."


Using this framework for storytelling, Judge has investigated a book thief, an impostor, a serial killer, and the tourists who raid petrified forests in search of million-year-old wood, to name just a few criminal subjects. All are explored in the same measured, compelling way. "I hope what we do is put forth an interesting story in as unbiased a way as possible and allow the listener to decide what they think," she emphasized. "Even better if you can put the listener in the shoes of the subject that we’re portraying, be that a victim or a criminal, and let the listener think, 'What would I do?'"


There was a moment, Judge explained, when she interviewed a man who had murdered someone, for an episode called "Bloodlines." "He’d lived a very violent life. I was interviewing him and I was seeing that I was kind of shying away from calling him a murderer," she said. "And finally he said, 'You mean, ‘cause I’m a murderer.' He said it. And I said yeah, and the idea was that many of us have never done things like murder. It’s so big and taboo and wild and strange. But to this guy, it was one part of who he was."


The intimacy of a podcast, in which you can hear someone's voice without landing on the inevitable conclusions one might draw from physical appearances, allows this revelation to resonate more deeply. "He was like, 'I did this terrible thing, and this is what I’ve done with the rest of my life. So, yes, call me a murderer!'" Judge continued. 


Judge describes podcasts in general as "intentional listening," wherein listeners deliberately choose to set aside time to enjoy an episode, and the tightly edited nature of "Criminal" benefits from that medium. "For us and the stories that we’re putting out in 'Criminal,' a lot of times they’re pretty complex and complicated and they’re not something that you can really walk away from for 30 seconds and come back."


Another bonus of the podcasting format is the variable length. Unlike TV viewers, listeners don't expect shows to fit into a neat hour or half-hour slot, which means episodes have ranged from 13 minutes in length up to 27. There's no need to sacrifice details or draw out a story unnecessarily: "It is what it is," Judge said. "One of the things we hear most is people writing in, saying, 'I wish 'Criminal' were longer.' We love to hear that. We hope we can hear that person every day. It means, I guess, we’re doing something right."


 



True crime allows the listener to be a detective for a minute. They’re allowed to collect the information, evaluate it, make decisions. It’s an interactive experience. - Phoebe Judge



I spoke to Judge in January, as most everyone I knew with a Netflix account was coming down from a "Making a Murderer" frenzy. I wanted to ask her, a dealer of true crime stories, what made the genre so compelling for audiences.


"Crime is one of those topics that kind of taps into our base curiosity about things: good and bad, right and wrong, and also human emotions," she said. "True crime allows the listener to be a detective for a minute. They’re allowed to collect the information, evaluate it, make decisions. It’s an interactive experience, whereas some other stories, you’re being told a story, and it’s entertainment."


We gain the thrill of the crime and the satisfaction of weighing the evidence, all while retaining the ability to turn it off when we begin to feel uncomfortable. 


What sets "Criminal" apart, Judge explains, is the focus on strong personal stories. An episode that sticks out is from the podcast's early crop, titled "Call Your Mom." It covers a mother and daughter in Wyoming who both happen to be coroners. The episode focuses on the way they view death and the unique dinner-table conversations that are an inevitable part of their lives.


"That’s the funny thing about 'Criminal,'" Judge explained. "It’s not all terrible, dark, sad stuff. We really are very deliberate in thinking about the types of episodes we put out, and the fact that if we just put out a dark episode, the next one can’t be so dark." 


"That’s the great thing about crime: It’s so big; It’s a big word. I think sometimes in the true crime genre, we equate it with sadness and misery and death and blood and gore. It’s not that way for 'Criminal,' and that’s very intentional that it’s not that way."


Maya, the woman who began counterfeiting money with her boyfriend, describes her and her partner's process of creating fake bills with an inkjet-printer "child's play." She admits that she was generally the one to "drop" the money at bars and bodegas, feigning innocence if the cashier accused her of giving a fake bill. But she was the one who finally ended the scheme after a close call at a nightclub. 


"Do you think of yourself as a criminal?" Judge asks Maya.


"I don't," Maya answers. In retrospect, she explains, it's become more of a funny story to tell at a party, because ultimately, she didn't get caught. 


Listen to "Criminal" via iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite streaming app. Episodes also available here.



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‘The Bachelor’ Has A Race Problem, And This Bachelorette’s Exit Is Proof

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After four episodes of Season 20 of "The Bachelor," one contestant was an unlikely standout: Jubilee, a black, Haitian-born veteran with a deadpan wit and some level of social neuroticism.


On a show that has never allowed black contestants to proliferate or flourish, Jubilee seemed like an anomaly. She got lots of sympathetic screen time fleshing her out as a human, the Bachelor seemed genuinely excited about her, and it seemed possible she might stick around into the home stretch of the season.


Well, about that. 


On Monday night -- the first night of Black History Month, no less -- Jubilee was rather abruptly sent home mid-episode. Clearly feeling a bit disheartened after a long group date with the women who were so unfriendly and hypercritical of her after her one-on-one two episodes ago, Jubilee confessed to Ben that she sometimes felt "overshadowed by the Lauren Bs and the Beccas and the JoJos ... Do you remember little old me, and our one-on-one date?"


After assuring her that he did remember her, Ben revealed that he no longer felt confident in their relationship because she'd pulled back. "Even little moments," he said, "where I get my chance to see you ... and I just want to grab your hand, Jubilee, and you're like, 'No, no, no,' and you pull away from me." 


The next part of the conversation really struck me as it unfolded, because Jubilee is clearly empathetic enough to get why he felt that way, but she also wanted to express what was going on with her -- and her stumbling explanation, which referenced the scrutiny of the other women in the group, was pretty revealing:



Little things I pick up on, like just walking past the girls -- I think a lot of it comes from what a lot of people are saying, like the first time we left on our one-one-one date, and that really got in my head. It sucked, hearing that. There's going to be nine girls, honing in on every single movement, every single thing that I make. And I know how it feels.



The fact that JoJo lightly mocked Jubilee as she walked away with Ben, for requesting that they not hold hands in front of the other girls, seems like evidence enough that she's not being paranoid. What's more, the entire third episode stacked up plenty of proof that she was disproportionately targeted for her inadequate "gratitude" and "humility," based on the slightest of grounds.


Jubilee's not wrong to be hypervigilant about how people are reacting, fairly or not, to her: She's not being judged by the same standard as the Lauren Bs or the JoJos or the Beccas, or even the Olivias. (Olivia, witness, is still around despite her shockingly narcissistic cankles-pity-party response to Ben's loss of two close friends, and after going to aggressive lengths to actively alienate nearly everyone in the group.)


Unsurprisingly, this microscope proved to be Jubilee's downfall. Emotionally distracted by the snide gossip and ungenerous observation of her every lip purse, she became insecure, self-critical, and hesitant to do anything but sit quietly. After all, anything else might come off as aggressive, disrespectful, queen bee-ish, or any other adjective she was dubbed for simply having a rose two weeks before. 


At which point Ben, despite having this explanation clearly given to him, gave up on her. This was to be expected. This is, after all, "The Bachelor."


On his weekly People blog, Ben praised mean girl Olivia for prioritizing time with him, while castigating Jubilee for making "snide" comments -- the same kind of comments he learned weeks ago are her joking reaction to feeling awkward and nervous. He also criticized Jubilee for isolating herself and pulling away from the other women, though it's evident by this point, at least, that she withdrew because the other women were nitpicking and ostracizing her. Not being able to make friends with the other soccer moms can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, if the other soccer moms are determined to see you as somehow undeserving.





To be clear, Ben and Jubilee obviously aren't the best match. He needs someone a bit more upbeat, and she needs someone who appreciates her neuroticism and dry humor. But his lack of generosity in handling her struggles was unlike him, and prevented a potentially stronger relationship between them blooming before her (inevitable) departure.


Many of the girls, and commentators, applauded Ben for being respectful by sending Jubilee home at that point if she wasn't the one. At least he didn't string her along, right? Well, I'm calling bullshit on that one.


Does he really, realistically, see a future with Emily? Or Leah? Or Jennifer? Are they further along than Jubilee with him? They're still there for one reason: "The Bachelor" operates under the principle that just a few women will be sent home each week, until just two women are left standing for the finale. If a Bachelor just sent home every woman as soon as he wasn't into it, the show could easily be over by the second international location. This is also why Bachelors will sometimes make a point of sending single moms home to their kids "as soon as" they know it's not right -- that's a tacit admission they're not doing so with everyone else. It's a game being played for our entertainment.


Being strung along isn't pleasant, but it's also the whole scaffolding of "The Bachelor" -- and, hello, it's how we wind up with a new Bachelorette. The woman who is most painfully dumped after the most dedicated period of stringing along has the best shot of getting her own pool of 25 bachelors to court; that's how we got Kaitlyn Bristowe, who was dumped after going to the fantasy suite with Chris Soules. Juan Pablo Galavis was a surprise exception, being named the Bachelor after being eliminated in week 6 of Desiree Hartsock's season -- a full week later than Jubilee.


Fusion did a deep dive into past seasons of the show, and found that no black contestant has ever made it past week 5. With current seasons lasting, typically, 10 episodes, this means black bachelors and bachelorettes aren't making it into the second-half stretch, when fan favorites and frontrunners tend to solidify. 


An ABC executive has hinted that the next Bachelorette will be "diverse," and with Jubilee gone halfway through the season, it seems a safer bet than ever that this points to Caila Quinn, who is half-Filipina. She seems perfectly nice, and yes, progress is progress. But it's also a reminder that ABC knows how to make change if it really wants to. Shepherding a bachelorette like Jubilee to the final stages of the show to set her up as the next star of "The Bachelorette" seems well within the power of producers, who have so much influence over how the women choose to interact with each other, and with Ben. 


So, how about this: In a show of good faith, how about ABC picks Jubilee as the next Bachelorette, despite the early exit? Something tells me the fans will tune in. Of course, I'm keeping my hopes low. As Jami, a still earlier-to-exit black bachelorette from this season, put it:





For more on this week's episode of "The Bachelor," listen to the new episode of HuffPost's podcast, "Here to Make Friends": 





  


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Hey, Remember When Bernie Sanders Played A Rabbi In A Rom-Com?

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We all knew that Bernie Sanders’ real-life love story is basically an adorable romantic comedy, but it turns out the Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate once appeared in an actual romantic comedy.





“My X-Girlfriend’s Wedding Reception,” a low-budget film from 1999, features the then-Representative Sanders as a rambling rabbi oddly obsessed with baseball.


Though Buzzfeed covered the clip back in April, Sanders’ performance is making a resurgence online this week after surfacing on Reddit.


And in case you had any doubts, his campaign confirmed to CNN that yeah, it’s really him.

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The Modern Parenting Crisis You Never Hear About

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This article first appeared on QuietRev.com


My experience growing up highlights the value of benign neglect. I had ample time alone to roam the woods around my neighborhood, ride my bike, and just goof off. As an introvert, I kept my social group small, and I often spent large chunks of time in solitude. My parents weren’t negligent, but neither were they overly involved in every single aspect of my life. They had their own interests to pursue and didn’t feel guilty about doing so.


You won’t hear about it on the evening news, and you may not even realize how it may be affecting you, but we are in the midst of a solitude crisis. Simply put, the lack of time, ability, or permission to be alone is a silent source of stress, undiscussed yet pervasive. It is caused, in large measure, by the busyness of daily life. Contemporary demands, especially for parents of young children, are unsustainable.


While it may seem counter-intuitive to assume that mothers who work more hours today spend more time with their children than stay-at-home moms in the 1960s, this is indeed the case, especially when the time spent “teaching and playing” is considered. According to a study by Liana Sayer and her colleagues, in 1965, mothers spent 36 minutes per day actively engaged in teaching and playing with their kids. In 1998, that number had swelled to 129 minutes.


And 1998 fathers were spending more time caring for and having fun with their kids than 1965 fathers, reflecting a cultural shift towards “involved fathering.” Contemporary fathers are also doing more primary child care than their early compatriots. However, while fathers are having more time with their kids than they did in the past, they are still not doing as much as mothers (for example, 1998 married moms spent 99 minutes per day in child care versus 51 minutes for dads).


I see these study results in my own psychotherapy practice. Many of the parents I work with have no time to themselves and no energy for self-care. Almost all of their spare moments, it seems, are spent driving their kids to soccer or hockey practices and tournaments and other activities. These parents don’t have the room to pursue their hobbies or to practice adequate self-care through exercise, rest, and meditation.


The trap of this parenting style is so much part of the fabric of the culture that it has become the norm. Writers like Polly Young-Eisendrath in her book TheSelf-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance have started to question these norms. She says that contemporary parents subscribe to “I’m Okay—You’re Okay” parenting styles, such as helicopter parenting, which have “in common the belief that parents and children are on nearly equal footing when it comes to rights and needs, that parents should be friends with their children, and that children’s self-esteem must be promoted and protected at all costs.” Often that cost is parents’ solitude. Of course, you want your kids to be successful—but many parents believe that they have to do as much for their kids as possible even if it means sacrificing their own self-care. Ultimately, this is self-defeating.


Recent research by Melissa Milkie, Kei Nomaguchi, and Kathleen Denny indicates that our increased parental involvement—what they call an “ideology of intensive mothering”—isn’t helping our kids. The study found that for kids between the ages of 3 and 11, there was no correlation between parental engagement and the measured outcomes of behavioral or emotional problems, or math and reading scores. For older teens, more engagement was helpful in averting delinquency. But for mothers of younger children, the study results suggest “that mothers ease up on practicing more intensive mothering during childhood, especially given that it may end up exhausting them.”


Given that the cultural norm of intensive involvement is draining parents and not even helpful to the kids, perhaps there is another way to proceed. The pursuit of solitude doesn’t have to be absolute. You don’t have to sequester yourself within a mountaintop cave to get the rest you require. Brief periods of quiet, when you don’t have to answer to anyone else’s needs, can replenish your energy.


Solitude is like punctuation. A paragraph without periods and commas would be exhausting to read. In the same way, conducting relationships without the respite of solitude can lessen the benefits of those relationships. Downtime is important for youand your kids. They benefit from solitude too. Taking care of your own solitude will not only help you restore yourself but also show your kids this positive model of self-nurturance.


One powerful way to foster parental self-care is through mindfulness meditation practice. Sitting on the cushion provides a period of solitude each time it is practiced and also helps develop the skills you need to thrive in the world such as self-monitoring energy; disengaging thoughts from stressful stories; and helping you to engage more fully with your body, senses, and the world around you.


Parents could spend some of the time they would otherwise devote to their children meditating, and the kids could spend that time developing their own solitude skills through imaginative self-play, reading, gaming, or whatever else they enjoy doing alone. They could even practice mindfulness themselves!


In my book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness, I included a scene that you might be familiar with from traveling via airplane. Moments before the plane takes off, the flight crew tells you to “put your oxygen mask on first in case of emergency” because you’ll be no help to your little ones if you yourself are suffocating. Likewise, taking care of your solitude needs is your oxygen mask. It’s not selfish; it’s in the interest of everyone. First self-care, then others’ care. Your kids will appreciate your fresh energy. It’s a win-win scenario, and the data suggest your kids will be no worse off.


That’s a big fat permission slip—now, go meditate!



2015-02-04-Joni_Blecher_150x150.jpg
This article originally appeared on QuietRev.com.

You can find more insights from Quiet Revolution on work, life, and parenting as an introvert at QuietRev.com.

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Watch This Tattoo Actually Come To Life Before Your Eyes

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The next level of tattoo art is here in the form of "Ink Mapping."


Using an animated projection technique, artists are able to make it look as if the tats are coming to life in real time, moving, shifting and shaping across the human body.

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South Koreans, Banned From Protesting, Plan 'Ghost Rally' With Holograms

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Seoul activists plan to take to the streets in a very 21st century way after South Korea refused to allow anti-government protesters to demonstrate outside the presidential palace.


Members of Amnesty International Korea plan to call for greater freedom of speech and freedom of assembly by holding what they call a "ghost rally" on Feb. 24. They said they will project holographic images of people marching and chanting slogans in Gwanghwamun Square, one of Seoul's largest plazas. 


"Our message to the government is to allow freedom of peaceful assembly near Cheong Wa Dae [the presidential palace], where rallies have been strictly banned since the Sewol ferry disaster," Byun Jeong-pil, the protest's campaign manager, told the Korea Times. "We wanted to gather physically to make our message heard, but it's impossible." Holograms, he said, are the alternative. 


The organization invited supporters in an online appeal to send text messages and voice recordings, which will be used as picket phrases in the holographic rally, via popular messaging app KakaoTalk. It's unclear how the group plans to actually display the holograms.



A South Korean official told The Korea Herald that police denied permission to protest because they believed a rally would cause serious traffic and other disruption to the surrounding residential neighborhood. 


The Park administration has come under fire in the past for its handling of protests. 


Human rights activists and experts, including the United Nations Human Rights Council, have called on the government to relax curbs on freedom of speech and freedom of expression as police have cracked down on protests with violence.


Police in May used water cannons and pepper spray on protesters condemning the Park government's handling of the sinking of a South Korean ferry carrying hundreds of schoolchildren. 


And in November, at least 30 people were injured when police fired tear gas and water cannons as some 80,000 protesters marched across Seoul, demanding Park's resignation for high youth unemployment and labor policies that allowed businesses to lay off workers more easily. One protester remains in a coma after being hit by water cannons that day, the Korea Times reported.


Amnesty International's ghost rally will be the world's second virtual protest, the human rights group said. In April, activists in Madrid projected holograms of some 2,000 people in front of the city's parliamentary building to protest against a new "gag law" that prohibited people from burning the Spanish national flag and protesting outside the parliament.


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Inside Rihanna's Weirdly Emo Album Cover

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When Rihanna's newest album "Anti" dropped last week, the general reaction was a happy confusion. The reigning pop star known for her electro bangers and tropical reggae swagger presented a mellow mishmash of musical stylings highlighting her vocal flux and authentic soulfulness. If you were expecting a dance party, you were instead served a wobbly, psychedelic mixtape that compels listeners to light up a joint and write some experimental love poems.


The album art is similarly odd.


While Rihanna's other seven album covers feature close-up shots of Ri's face in various glamorous states of queendom, her newest album is more Art. The kind of Art that capitalizes Words that maybe should not be Capitalized. 


Rihanna originally unveiled the work at an art gallery in Los Angeles last year, along with the man behind them, Israeli artist Roy Nachum. His oil painting, presented with five other related original works included in "Anti"'s packaging, features a black-and-white image of a young Rihanna holding a balloon, her eyes masked by a gold crown. A deep red bleeds down the top half of the canvas, accompanied by a poem by Chloe Mitchell, written in braille. Similar poems, some by Nachum himself, are sprawled across the various pieces. One reads:



The world is pin drop sound compared to the boom
That thumps and bumps against the walls of my cranium.
I live it and love it and despise it and I am entrapped in it.
So being misunderstood, I am not offended by the gesture, but honored.
 




The entire album art project could be perceived as shockingly uncool, and, for those who love Rihanna, awesomely so. So self-aware it becomes unaware, the imagery eschews pop cover norms in favor of an overwrought allegory in paint -- perhaps, about the danger of power blinding one from virtue. While Rihanna's classic mode of artistry seems to be playful, irreverent and unfiltered, here she is Serious, Thoughtful, and Poetic. 


For better or worse, Nachum offers an accompanying vision both heartfelt and platitudinous, creating something that ignores the art world's mandates for cleverness and irony. In the end, Rihanna seems to still be following her bliss. Whether Instagramming her gem-clad bikini at Barbados' Crop Over Festival or expressing herself through an unabashedly rhymey poem, Rihanna continues doing Rihanna, ad infinitum. 


I reached out to Nachum to learn more about the album art and the process behind it. It was rumored he spent a week wearing a blindfold to experience blindness -- a move that, given the subject matter, is somewhat tone deaf. In our email conversation, his generous capitalization of Deep and Important terms speaks to the kind of art making that's often viewed as not cool or clever enough for the contemporary art circuit -- although Jay Z is a fan. 


In short, the confounding cover -- and equally confounding explanations from Nachum -- speaks to why so many of us will never be as free as Ri.



When did you become interested in exploring blindness and perception in your work? 


My work experiments with human perception and sight. I am a visual person, and as an artist, my life revolves around what I see, and using sight to create. I guess the idea of losing my sight has always been a personal fear and something I felt I needed to explore.


Perception is an ongoing subject. I like to experiment and push boundaries. I materialize my inner thoughts into a work of art, if the viewer consciously or unconsciously connects with these thoughts then I have achieved my objective.


By incorporating Braille into a painting, I expand the possibility of communicating with people who are blind. Braille is also “an eye opener” for those of us that take visual experiences for granted. I encourage people to touch and interact with the work. Human interaction keeps the work alive and breaks the barrier between the viewer and the “sacred object."


I read that you closed your eyes for a week to experience blindness temporarily. What did you learn from this experience? 


I wake up in the morning, I open my eyes, and I appreciate the ability to see. The day goes on and somehow I forget that feeling and get caught up in everyday life. Sometimes in order to "see," we need to close our eyes. Life is brief, and we must appreciate its fragility.


My work experiments with sight and perception and in order to work with this subject I felt I needed to Blindfold myself and fully immerse myself into Blindness. I wanted to forget what it was like to have sight, to be reborn in a way, and allow myself to be alone with only my memories. Today we are overloaded with visual stimulation because of technology, and it influences our decisions and our perception of our lives. I needed to escape.


Did you encounter any resistance to the idea? 


I did encounter a lot of resistance, mostly from family, but I felt strongly about the experiment. It allowed me to make the work I am making today. It gave me a certain understanding of Blindness, and what life and art is without sight. However, as difficult and as life-altering the experience was, I always felt it was unfair that I had the option to remove the blindfold at anytime.


What was the process in creating the cover art for "Anti"? Would you consider it a collaboration?


Rihanna saw my work for the first time in the private art collections of Jay Z and Ty Ty. She reached out to me and we talked about ideas, life and art, and seemed to share a clear idea of what we wanted to do from the start. I worked on ideas and sketches until we had something that felt right. 


Is the image of Rihanna on the cover a significant image?


I have been working with Braille and the reoccurring image of a child with his or her eyes covered by a gold crown for several years, together they stand as a metaphor for man’s Blindness caused by misplaced values and desire. Braille is also a tool, which allows people who are Blind to experience my work through touch. Everything that exists must have a meaning, otherwise it is meaningless. Art, to me, is about testing the limits.


What does the crown signify to you? 


The crown is a symbol of power and success that often renders people “Blind” and obscures true values, while the balloon, lighter than air, embodies the possibility of escape and human need to transcend physical reality.



Can you talk about the poem written in braille on the cover? How does it relate to Rihanna's work and your imagery? 


I write poetry in Braille, which I then sculpt on to the canvas and then paint in oil on top. I convert my words into Braille. I believe the fact that they are disguised makes you want to read them more. To a sighted viewer, the Braille poetry is abstract. I like the contrast between abstract and figurative.


This is the first time I collaborated with another person. The poem on the cover painting was written with Rihanna by poet Chloe Mitchell; she works with Rihanna. We had a meeting, talked about ideas. I explained to her the concepts behind my work, the symbolism of the painting and its meaning. I wrote the poems on the triptych of paintings seen in the album's inlay, and they express my concepts and ideas that relate directly to the work.


How do you see your imagery and Rihanna's sound interacting in "Anti"? 


I think she wanted to do something different with this album both sonically and visually. The cover image and the music connect because they are both very personal to her.


What do you hope to communicate through the image? 


I believe the essence of art is communication. I start a painting and I leave the viewer to complete it. My work does not reflect a singular approach that characterizes a cultural moment, and cannot be defined or even metered by time. I want to open people’s eyes. Art cleanses the body and mind from the ordinary patterns of life. Art is an illusion that allows us to see the truth.


How would you describe Rihanna's new album? Did you listen to it while creating the accompanying work? 


The album is fantastic, fresh and compelling. It’s different than anything I have heard before. It shows a new and diverse side to her. Rihanna visited my studio last year to complete the triptych. While she was interacting with the paintings, we listened to some of the new music for "Anti." The music seemed to flow from her into the paintings.



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The Bottom Line: ‘The Lost Time Accidents’ By John Wray

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When Orson Card Tolliver -- one of many funny, pitiable characters in John Wray’s ambitious new novel -- tries to write a book that’s devoid of time-related descriptors, all he’s able to churn out is smut. Three-boobed aliens and variations on intergalactic desire populate his popular sci-fi books, which go on to inspire a cultish religion devoted to the subjectivity of time. Influential though his prose might be, it’s not exactly artistic, or even palatable in the mind of his son Waldy, the narrator of The Lost Time Accidents.


By contrast, Wray’s novel, which begins in Vienna’s swinging salon days and ripples out to envelop the present, explicitly addresses the nature of time and how its passing can impact collective memory, familial relationships and nostalgia for lost loved ones. It's a lot of ground to cover in a single book, 500-pages or otherwise, but Wray's effort is commendable, and enjoyable to boot. 


At the story’s center is Waldy, who’s mysteriously woken up to find himself “excused from time.” Without knowing why, he’s been banished indefinitely to an existence where the clocks don’t move, but the setting is familiar: he’s stuck comfortably in his aunts’ musty library, where he reckons it’s time (or, you know, not time) to write down his family’s cursed history, for the sake of his own well-being, but also to explain his circumstances to the object of his affection, Mrs. Haven, who the story is addressed to. 


With a style that’s suitably unsuited to his period, Waldy begins by stiffly recounting what he knows about his oldest relative, his great-grandfather Ottokar Gottfriendens Toula, a pickler and a physicist who, just before dying in a car accident, wrote in his diary that he’d made an unprecedented discovery about the nature of time.


On recovering his writings -- senseless all-caps creeds such as "FOOLS FROM FUTURE’S FETID FIEFDOMS FOLLOW FREELY IN MY FOOTSTEPS" -- Ottokar’s two sons, Kaspar and Waldemar, devote their college research pursuits to deciphering whatever cryptic message might be hidden within them. While Kaspar’s studies are shelved due to a budding love interest -- Waldy’s fiery grandmother Sonja -- Waldemar’s labors are suddenly made irrelevant when he catches wind of Einstein’s theory of relativity, a neat explanation to the problem he’d been laboring to solve.


While Kaspar takes the news in stride, his brother mutters anti-semitic slurs against Einstein, foreshadowing a dark, maniacal turn in his life. Over the next decade, a violent swarm of prejudice sweeps over Vienna, whisking Kaspar and Sonja away to America, but swallowing up Waldemar, who goes on to perform horrific experiments related to his unrelenting belief in his own theories about time on victims at a concentration camp.


His vicious commitment to proving the worth of his own personal history wreaks havoc, leaving his ancestors -- Kaspar, his witchy twin daughters Genny and Enzie, his peculiar sci-fi loving son Orson, and our meek narrator Waldy -- to do their best to make sense of it all. Believing that time, and especially its relative nature, has cursed their family, each copes differently. While Orson tries to expurgate himself completely of the burden with his fictional explorations, Genny and Enzie hole up in an apartment that they transform into a peculiar museum of collectibles, and Waldy waxes poetic about a woman he loves, for whom time seems to stand still.


The resulting saga is appropriately filled with individuals spinning away on their lone axis, doing their best to sync up with others, but continually failing. Wray makes palpable the pains and pleasures of lost time, the nagging tick of bad memories, the lag of the secondhand during moments of pure, unadulterated joy. These blips of insight are worth the sometimes gnarled chapters that separate them, and ultimately The Lost Time Accidents, with its meandering plot and lovingly flawed subjects, is a joy to get lost in.


The bottom line


A big, enveloping story that’s also tenderly wrought, The Lost Time Accidents whips through Viennese pastry shops, cluttered libraries, and the chambers of its narrator’s sentimental heart.


What other reviewers think


Publisher's Weekly: "Wray’s ambition and attention to plotting is praiseworthy, but the structure can be exhausting, and there are instances of quirk standing in for characterization. Nevertheless, readers looking for a fully realized blend of science and history will find a deep world to dive into."


The National: "It’s an uncanny blend of science fiction, theoretical physics, historical drama, and what may well be the oddest coming-of-age story we see this year. And if it gains Wray the wider audience he deserves, well, you’ll forgive the phrase, but: it’s about time."


Who wrote it


John Wray also wrote Lowboy, The Right Hand of Sleep, and Canaan’s Tongue.


Who will read it


Anyone interested in science fiction, historical fiction, or multi-generational tales.


Opening lines


Dear Mrs. Haven--


This morning, at 08:47 EST, I woke up to find myself excused from time.


Notable passage


Over the next several hours, watching the sun decline behind the station’s soot-streaked ramparts, Orson came nearer to grasping the concept of infinity than he ever had before. To increase time’s velocity, he told the guard what little he knew of his family’s past, from his grandfather’s discovery in Znojmo to his father’s escape from Vienna.


The Lost Time Accidents


by John Wray


FSG, $27.00


February 9, 2016


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Toddler Answers Dad's Most Burning Questions About Love

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Following up on his viral "Interview With A Toddler" video, dad vlogger La Guardia Cross conducted another adorable Q&A with his 1-year-old daughter Amalah.


"Interview With A Toddler 2 -- The Meaning of Love" focuses on matters of the heart, just in time for Valentine's Day. With translation help from her dad, Amalah shares her advice for staying happy in a relationship, giving gifts to your loved ones and finding "the one."


Who knew toddlers could be so wise?


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Female Photographers Discuss The Real Anxieties Of Being Women

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"A woman must continually watch herself," critic John Berger wrote in Ways of Seeing. "One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at."


As a bona fide woman, I get the feeling. I've learned to both understand and subtly combat the way I envision myself looking to an outsider, when groggily preparing coffee first thing in the morning -- hair disheveled, eyes at half mast. So many actions are subconsciously played back to me in my imagination as they are happening, as if I'm constantly watching the movie of my own life. In this way, women are intuitive image-makers, constantly creating and starring in their own ever-shifting visions.


A photography exhibition entitled "The Real Thing," featuring artists Juno Calypso,Natasha Caruana,Pixy Yijun Liao and Melanie Willhide, is dissecting the various ways that appearance and reality become entangled in art and life. Dealing with identity, relationships, gender and sexuality, the artists explore the alien peculiarities from a distinctly feminine point of view. 



London-based Juno Calypso transforms hotel bedrooms and pink tiled bathroom into dystopian landscapes. Amplifying the anxiety of primping oneself to surrealist extremes, Calypso's photographs are part 20th century photographer Francesca Woodman, part "The Sexy Getting Ready Song." 


In her photos, mirrors reflect the images of women into infinite echoes, mimicking the scrutiny with which many of us examine ourselves. "I can trace my obsession with mirrors to when I used to play with my grandma's trifold vanity mirror," Calypso explained to The Huffington Post. "I’d stick my face in it and close the panels around my neck to create an infinity room of moving heads."


"From the age of 12 to 21 I developed an anxious regime of beauty rituals," Calypso continued. "Being young and financially unstable most of these took place in a bedroom or bathroom -- the type of room I stage all of my work in now. Preparation for an occasion could and would frequently begin three days in advance. Everything would be waxed, plucked, bleached and shaved. Layers of fake tan, butters and mousses would be applied, acrylic nails would be re-filled; hair extensions and eyelashes glued in. It was a very hot and sticky process. By the end you’d feel like a slippery bronze fish attempting to walk on land."



My grandma always calls putting on makeup "putting her face on," alluding to the many steps women endure to become "themselves." Maybe it's this commitment to image-making on a daily basis, Calypso suggests, that turns women into artists. "We’re used to crafting something and are willing to put in work till we achieve what we want to see."


While Calypso's images are fantastical and uncanny, Natasha Caruana works in a documentary style, sneakily photographing uncompromising details of her dates with married men. Caruana finds her unwitting subjects on online dating sites designed for affair, and uses their time together to discern their motivations for cheating. While some are purely sexual, many of the men express patterns of loneliness or alienation that lead them to infidelity. 


Her photographs are presented like clues of a crime scene, capturing a truthful encounter founded entirely on deceit. The husbands lie to their wives. The artist lies to her subjects. And yet, a certain authenticity rings through the images, captured in the moment.



Working somewhere between documentary and fiction is Pixy Liao, whose series "Experimental Relationship" captures her and her partner in a variety of poses based loosely on real life. The premise of the series stems from Pixy's Chinese upbringing, in which the ideal romantic partner was an older, authoritative and protective figure. Now, collaborating with her partner Moro, who is five years younger, Pixy toys with the expectations and realities of romantic partnership. 


In one image, Pixy acts as the protector while a naked Moro clings to her neck, almost like a child. Her images refract the typical male/female relationship into its more nuanced iterations -- the moments girlfriend is powerful, boyfriend is soft, girlfriend is scared, boyfriend is needy.


"The photographs in 'Experimental Relationship' are not a documentation of our real relationships," Pixy told HuffPost. "It’s more as an idea storyboard of my thoughts on relationships. Sometime I’m trying to describe our relationship. Sometimes it’s the things that I would love to do but cannot really do it in real life."



Melaine Willhide, on the other hand, creates imaginary mementos of romantic relationships in her series "Sleeping Beauties (The Box Under the Bed)." Exploring the ways photographic documents can supersede the real, Willhide meticulously crafts faux vintage photos, complete with scrawled personalized messages, fingerprints, glue stains, watermarks and other artificial imprints of time. The purposefully obscured objects conjure memories of romantic narratives that never were, while exploring the artifice always already embedded in romantic souvenirs.


For Pixy, the four artists in the exhibit almost represent four distinct stages of a woman's life. "I think all of the four artists’ work in the show are autobiographical in some way ... First, there’s Juno’s work as a single young woman. Then there’s my work of living with somebody. And later it’s Natasha’s work of having affairs. In the end, there’s Melaine’s work as the aftermath of the relationships." 


Together Willhide, Calypso, Liao and Caruana construct distinct interpretations on a single theme: reality, in whatever mediated, convoluted shape it may appear. "The Real Thing" is on view until February 27, 2016 at Flowers Gallery in New York. 



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Elizabeth Olsen Isn't Pleased With Tom Hiddleston's Honky Tonkin' In This 'I Saw The Light' Clip

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We'd all like to imagine Tom Hiddleston as a nice, neat, chiseled gentleman, so forgive him if "I Saw the Light" asked Hiddleston to be the very opposite.


In "Flash of Genius" director Marc Abraham's film, which premiered at last year's Toronto Film Festival, Hiddleston plays Hank Williams, the troubled country legend who wrote such songs as "Hey, Good Lookin'" and "Your Cheatin' Heart." Williams struggled with alcoholism and infidelity, as evidenced in this exclusive clip, where his first wife, Abby (Elizabeth Olsen), derides his condition with his cold mother (Cherry Jones) while Williams performs "Honky Tonkin'." (Don't worry, Hiddleston is still plenty chiseled.)


"I Saw the Light" opens March 25.






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'Anti' Is The Rihanna Album We Need

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Rihanna's new album could be a turning point in pop music. Or it should be. 


We've waited since November 2012 for Rihanna to release a follow-up to "Unapologetic," an album that produced five Top 40 hits. Over the course of those three years, mainstream music became an amorphous bounty of distribution services and release patterns.


By the time "Anti" came out last week, following more than a year of teases, false starts and behind-the-scenes melodrama, Rihanna was part of a world where Beyoncé drops surprise albums at midnight -- and it shows. Not only did Rihanna debut "Anti" with no announcement or advance press (just a Tidal glitch), she peppered it with tracks that mostly sound unfit for radio spins.


Bravo.


The hit machine that is Rihanna has been an insuppressible force since "Pon de Replay" arrived in 2005. She's had a whopping 27 Top 10 songs, more than any other artist of her generation. (Three more and she'll surpass Michael Jackson.) It's no surprise, then, that many of the "Anti" reviews point out that it sounds far less commercial -- read: less club-worthy -- than Rihanna's previous work. Even those who praise her intent call the finished product "anticlimactic" "scattered" and a "roller coaster of experimentation."


There's no doubt that "Anti" is a departure for Rihanna, who, like Katy Perry, has become, foremost, a singles artist. Filler invades every album she's released. And even if you agree with me that "Love on the Brain" is beautiful and "Desperado" boasts subversive charisma and "Yeah, I Said It" is a fortress of sleek sensuality, none of that confirms that "Anti" is the Rihanna album we want. It is, however, the one we need.


We shouldn't settle for radio-friendly earworms in pop music. We should encourage cohesive albums that uproot the bloated production values that fostered the genre's sameness throughout the (very fun) Britney-Christina phase of the late 1990s and early 2000s. (It's worth noting that, for all her ubiquity, "...Baby One More Time" was Britney Spears' only No. 1 hit across her first five albums.) That era's uniformity has waned throughout the 2010s. Kanye West, for example, had three No. 1's before trading dance-floor decrees like "Gold Digger" for the uninhibited resonance of "Black Skinhead" -- and the alienating, jacked-up passion on 2013's "Yeezus" galvanized Kanye disciples, even though the album didn't contain anything as mainstream as "Stronger" or "Heartless."



Madonna, on the other hand, was mocked for chasing EDM trends on 2012's "MDNA," even though the album yielded a Top 10 hit and the year's highest-grossing tour. "MDNA" was a misguided attempt at seizing a youth audience that simply doesn't have ears for Madonna anymore, so on 2015's "Rebel Heart," she reasserted what made her indomitable in the first place: a perspective that's uniquely her own. "Rebel Heart" is still sexual and dance-able in a way that transcends Madonna's age, but by digging into a singular theme (the rebel-versus-romantic duality), the album plays like a more robust experience. For fans, it doesn't matter how far the singles travel. (But for the record, "Bitch I'm Madonna" became her 57th song to make the Hot 100.)


What Rihanna did with "Anti" was respond to the masses that exalt her as a figurehead, especially the ones who want her to reflect routine notions of pop curation. She released three singles in 2015 -- "FourFiveSeconds" (a collaboration with West and Paul McCartney), "Bitch Better Have My Money" and "American Oxygen" -- but none of them appear on the album, because why should they? Those aren't part of the "Anti" experience. You don't get the album just to hear the singles anymore. You buy (or stream or steal or whatever) the album because it's a singular unit of creative expression. That's why Lady Gaga's conventional "Artpop," which proved to be more "pop" than "art," will always be less interesting than Miley Cyrus' recent collaboration with The Flaming Lips, a psychedelic mélange that produced no singles after it was deposited on SoundCloud for free last summer. It's also why Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" is arguably the defining album of 2015, even though none of its singles charted as high as the ones from "good kid, m.A.A.d city."


Rihanna is reflecting the new frontier. Artists don't have to crank out singles, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber style, to be seen as successful. They can go the Carly Rae Jepsen route: release one fetching ditty ("I Really Like You") and then sit back and let the real fans appreciate how enjoyable the larger endeavor ("Emotion") is. During their hiatuses, they can appease listeners with one-off songs, then disappear to craft a collection that doesn't bend to the whims of radio trends, whatever that means anymore. It's clear that Rihanna, perpetual badass, recognizes the power she holds in popular music. Moreover, she recognizes that she isn't beholden to passé distribution models. (She only needs to ensure there aren't Tidal leaks.) 


By the next time Rihanna releases an album, we may not even expect singles. And that's for the better because it evens the playing field: If Rihanna helps to establish new hit-making rules now, she won't have to linger in the rearview mirror of her career in 30 years. Madonna doesn't need another "Like a Prayer," Bruce Springsteen doesn't need another "Born to Run," and by the time Rihanna is their age, she certainly won't need another "Rude Boy."


You can be highbrow. You can be lowbrow. But can you ever just be brow? Welcome to Middlebrow, a weekly examination of pop culture. Sign up to receive it in your inbox weekly.


Follow Matthew Jacobs on Twitter: @tarantallegra



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21 Provocative Books By Women Every Bookshelf Needs

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When actress Emma Watson announced recently that she was launching a feminist book club called Our Shared Shelf, many were skeptical. Any new book club, like a new restaurant, has a high chance of failure, and Watson hardly seemed the expert. 


Now that the club has moved into its second book, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, there's cause for optimism. Watson seems to be prioritizing diversity and intersectionality in her selections, while leaning toward fairly mainstream classics of the feminist canon (so far, at least).


As Slate's Katy Waldman notes, the book club's online discussion threads are energetic and thoughtful, if mostly rather rooted in the question of feminism itself. "A real 'feminist book club,' one profoundly animated by feminism’s ideals, doesn’t have to talk about feminism all the time," she realizes. 


Many of the books that have most fostered my, and my female friends', nascent feminism talk about gender and oppression obliquely, rather than in diatribes or manifestos. An essay that captures the tension between what we find ourselves wanting and what our ideals demand, or a novel that reveals a woman as something deeper than an object of desire or ridicule to a man -- these are the works that insinuate themselves into our minds, expanding our consciousness and starting conversations between us. 


While long-time feminist writers have looked askance at the celebrity activism of Watson, her book club seems to show that she's determined to learn and to encourage others to learn. And hey, there can never be too much of something good, so let's add to the shelf. Here are 21 books by women, about women, that are bound to make readers think about the world through a new lens:



Obviously this doesn't come close to covering it all. Chime in with your own recommendations in the comments!


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