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Met Opera Cancels Live Transmission Due To Anti-Semitism Concerns

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NEW YORK, June 17 (Reuters) - New York's Metropolitan Opera announced on Tuesday that it has canceled its plans for a live transmission of the opera "The Death of Klinghoffer" in movie theaters because of concerns that it could fan global anti-Semitism.
The opera house made the move after an outpouring of concern about the John Adams opera about the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship by Palestinian militants in 1985 and the killing of disabled, elderly American Jewish passenger Leon Klinghoffer.
"I'm convinced that the opera is not anti-Semitic," Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, said in a statement. "But I've also become convinced that there is genuine concern in the international Jewish community that the live transmission of 'The Death of Klinghoffer' would be inappropriate at this time of rising anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe."
The transmission of the opera, which premiered in 1991, had been scheduled for Nov. 15. It is part of the Met's "Live in HD" series that shows performances in movie theaters in the United States as well as countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia.
The Met praised Adams' work and said it would go ahead with the eight stage presentations from Oct. 20 to Nov. 15 but would include a message from Klinghoffer's daughters on its website and in the show's playbill.
"John Adams is one of America's greatest composers and 'The Death of Klinghoffer' is one of his greatest works," Gelb added.
The Met said it made the decision after talks with Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, representing the wishes of Klinghoffer's daughters.
It added that earlier productions of the opera, in London, New York, St. Louis and California were performed without any problems. (Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Eric Kelsey and Lisa Shumaker)

YouTube To Remove Some Really Great Music In 'A Matter Of Days'

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YouTube just hit the big red button in its fight with musicians over streaming music.

Any artist who doesn't want to join YouTube's new ad-free music service will be scrubbed from the site entirely, the company said on Tuesday. The service, which will show you ad-free songs for a small fee, has been in the works for a while, but some artists are not happy with the financial arrangements YouTube is proposing.

YouTube's head of content and business operations told the Financial Times that artists who aren't happy with the new rules, including Adele, the Arctic Monkeys and Jack White, will be blacklisted from YouTube in "a matter of days."

That's right, soon you won't be able to listen to Adele's "Someone Like You."



Or The Arctic Monkeys' "Do I Wanna Know?"



(The Arctic Monkeys, were one of the first bands to gain fame through the Internet, by the way.)

Google plans to begin testing ad-free YouTube among Google employees in the coming weeks.

The new streaming music service will help musicians make even more money off of YouTube, the company told The Huffington Post in a statement. However, YouTube hasn't publicly disclosed the terms of the deals surrounding the new service. The website is already the world's largest online streamer of music.

“Our goal is to continue making YouTube an amazing music experience, both as a global platform for fans and artists to connect, and as a revenue source for the music industry," a YouTube spokesperson told HuffPost. "We’re adding subscription-based features for music on YouTube with this in mind -- to bring our music partners new revenue streams in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars YouTube already generates for them each year."

Of all the music labels that have previously signed deals with YouTube to share ad revenue, only 5 percent of have yet to sign up for the new service, a YouTube spokesperson told the Huffington Post.

All hope is not lost for Adele fans, however. Third-party video-hosting services that have agreed to new deals with YouTube will continue to be able to use the music of banned artists. Or at least, that's what a Vevo spokesperson told TechCrunch. This means that Adele, who works with Vevo, will still have a YouTube presence in some form:



Making matters even more confusing, different artists sign to different labels in different countries. And that means that a musician's work might soon be available in one country but not another, a YouTube spokesperson told HuffPost.

Just about every big tech company you can think of is driving into streaming music. Amazon launched its own service for Amazon Prime members just last week. Apple bought Beats Electronics in part for its Spotify-like streamer just last month.

And in a testament to how saturated this market is, Google already has a streaming music service out there with Google All Access.

'The Book Of Mormon' Comes To 'South Park' And It's Glorious

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Well, this is just a beautiful thing.

Animator Simon Chong wondered what would happen if the characters from Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "The Book Of Mormon" turned up in (Trey Parker and Matt Stone's) "South Park." So, using his impressive skills and the opening number from the Tony-award winning musical, he decided to answer his own question (and our prayers).

Watch Chong's fantastic unofficial music video for "Hello" above, featuring Elder Price, his brethren and some of your favorite "South Park" characters.

Note: This video is in no way affiliated with either production. As Chong wrote in the YouTube description, "It was made out of a genuine love for both the TV show and the stage musical... I hope so much that they don't kill me for what I've made!"

We do, too.

Via Viral Viral Videos

Idina Menzel Handles Her Onstage Wardrobe Malfunction Like A Boss

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If Idina Menzel was feeling the pressure at her sold-out, one-night-only concert at Radio City Music Hall on June 16, she sure didn't let on. Even when Menzel almost suffered a wardrobe malfunction onstage, she not only kept her cool, but made some pretty hilarious jokes about it.

A video uploaded from the concert shows Menzel in the midst of singing "Take Me Or Leave Me" from "Rent." It appears that Menzel gets a tip from the audience that her leather bra top is sliding its way up her chest. "What? My boob's coming out?" she asks the crowd before a crew member rushes to assist her. Instead of freaking out or rushing offstage in shame, Menzel simply examines herself and quips, "These divas need their stage!"



Let's hope all the parents who brought their little "Frozen" fans to the show were able to cover their kids' ears before she blurted out, "Well, f**k it! They're real."

This Spoken Word Poem Imagines Suffragettes In A Whole New Way

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In her spoken word poem "Suffragette 69" posted by Button Poetry and performed at Macalester College during the 2014 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational semifinals, Anna Binkovitz pays tribute to Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Bloomer and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

However, instead of offering a history less on women's suffrage, she pays homage in an unconventional way: by celebrating the hard-fought battles that allow modern women to ''Let their freak flags fly." For some, those flags are sex positivity.

"I owe these women so much. They're the reason I can swallow safe sex. The reason women can vote for president. The reason insurance does not see femininity as a symptom to be calculated. They're the reason that I," says Binkovitz, and then pauses with a sly grin. "Can be such a whore."

While the sexual revolution wouldn't gather legs until the 1960s, the suffrage movement allowed the 'personal' to become 'political,' and the striking piece serves as a reminder that without the struggles of Anthony, Bloomer, Stanton and so many more, women would still be relegated to a double-standard of opportunity and sexuality.

Binkovitz even manages to throw in a little erotic suffragette fan fiction wink within the spoken word work. Women's and gender studies professors: take note.

OK Go's New Music Video Will Warp Your Fragile Mind

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They've turned treadmills into a dance routine, converted a car into a stunt man's instrumental dream and made a Rube Goldberg Machine worthy of Mozart. Now, OK Go is back with another absurd -- and absurdly entertaining -- new music video.

Built around the track, "The Writing's On The Wall," the video employs all manner of mind-bending optical illusions to reinforce the narrative behind the song, which Rolling Stone identifies as a "pre-break-up report from a relationship in which two people keep seeing things in different ways."

And when we say mind-bending, we mean it. Here's how the video opens:


And, after much visual trickery, here's how it ends:


Rolling Stone adds the setup took a crew three weeks to build, and the video itself required 50 takes to get right.

The band's latest album, "Hungry Ghosts," is set to be released in October.

WATCH the full video, above, and a behind the scenes look, below:

Artist Emma Allen Turns Herself Into World Cup Trophy For Stunning Selfie (PHOTO)

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We know it's still early, but this may just be the best selfie of the 2014 World Cup.

World Cup Selfie

To commemorate this year's FIFA World Cup, London-based artist Emma Allen transformed herself into the competition's iconic trophy before snapping a selfie and posting it on the Interwebs.

"I painted myself as the World Cup," the 33-year-old artist wrote in an Imgur caption that accompanied the stunning snap.

According to the London Evening Standard, Allen -- who donned a bald cap before slathering herself in paint -- spent nearly three hours transforming herself into the World Cup trophy.

“The hardest thing was getting my arms and hands in the right position. I took a lot of pictures before settling on the final one," she said, per the news outlet.

Allen's World Cup selfie has been viewed on Imgur more than 570,000 times since being posted online last week.

We can certainly see why.

Meet The Musicians Who Are Spending Over One Million Seconds Playing The Same Song

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Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson has been holding down the fort at New York's New Museum since the beginning of May, performing a sort of abstract family reunion only the contemporary art world would recognize as wholesome fun. Enacted through live, orchestrated shows, drawings, paintings and video pieces, the exhibition introduces audiences to Kjartansson's brood of actors and theater nuts, a lot that definitely doesn't blush at the mention of taboo subjects.

From sexual desires to delusions of grandeur, "Me, My Mother, My Father, and I” covers the major bases of family dysfunction, that is, if the typical family engages together in tantalizing fantasies about plumbers or ten-part polyphony representations of feelings. The main attraction is undoubtedly the artist's ongoing performance "Take Me Here by the Dishwasher: Memorial for a Marriage (2011/2014)," a melody set to play 6,000 times throughout Kjartansson's exhibition.

Sigur Ros alumnus Kjartan Sveinsson composed the song, played by ten musicians -- live -- on the museum's fourth floor. When we say 6,000 times (occurring between May 7 and July 29 of the same year), we mean the misfit band will perform the piece a total of 308 hours. Or 18,480 minutes. Or -- wait for it -- 1,108,800 seconds. Kjartansson is inundating patrons with an earworm worthy of Scandinavian lore.

ragnar kjartansson
(Photo: Benoit Pailey)


The Dishwasher band, as we'll hereto forth call them, looks like the granola, free love version of Mumford & Sons, a comparison The New York Times has eagerly noted. All men, they don comfortable clothing and sit haphazardly around the space, lit by lamps and accompanied by footage of the previously mentioned plumber fantasy. The video is taken from a 1970s-era film, "Morðsaga (Murder Story)," starring Kjartansson's parents. (Ragnar was, so the rumor goes, conceived the night that scene was shot.)

Let The Guardian's Jason Farago give you a taste of the ambiance:

On the morning I visit, one of the singers isn't wearing any trousers. Another is barefoot and tangled up in a cheap bedcovering. One is lying fully dressed on a mattress in the corner, gazing at the ceiling like a lovesick pre-Raphaelite – Wallis's Chatterton just before the arsenic took hold, maybe. On the floor are beat-up Converses, frayed jeans and crumpled flannel shirts. All of the musicians have a few bottles of beer beside them, which they got from a fridge in the gallery. No matter that it's just after 10am.


And yes, this happens 6,000 times. For a total of 18,480 minutes. Or over one million seconds. And you can see a preview of the curious beauty above.

Kjartansson is no stranger to endurance-heavy performance. He took himself on a five-month long float trip/concert in Venice, a city that also played home to his six-month long "painting marathon." And who could forget his 12-hour loop of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro."

Check out his latest at the New Museum and let us know your thoughts on the artist in the comments.

Movies You Weren't Supposed To See As A Kid (But Watched Anyway)

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You're a child or young adult, you're watching television and you stumble upon a movie that you're definitely not supposed to see. But you keep it on anyway because #yolo no parents no homework no rules! Such is the premise for this post, a compendium of forbidden features watched by the editors here at The Huffington Post when they were far too young to process all the sex, violence and foul language. Enjoy the sometimes mortifying details below!

"Wild Things" (1998)



I can't quite remember the specifics of how my best friend and I were able to obtain and watch the very R-rated "Wild Things" when we were 13, but I do remember being very scandalized by Kevin Bacon's split-second full-frontal scene (which, in truth, might have been the part of our motivation for wanting to watch the movie in the first place). Being the very immature and sheltered suburban teens that we were, seeing Mr. Bacon's penis ended up being a catch all joke for years to come. #friendship.

I also recall that the movie itself was incredibly convoluted and disappointing. And looking back on it now, it's hard to believe that anyone would cast Neve Campbell and Denise Richards as high school students. -- Stephanie Marcus

"Clueless" (1995)



I was 5 years old when "Clueless" came out, and I watched it for the first time with my sister and our babysitter as soon as it hit Blockbuster shelves. My sister is 18 months older than I am (and much, much wiser), so I was sure she understood all the hip lingo and why Christian liked "Spartacus" so much. (She didn't.) After our parents got home and the babysitter left, I asked my mom what "virgin" meant. More specifically, I think I asked her, "What's a virgin, and why can't virgins drive?" Mom was mad, and from then on we had to get all our VHS picks approved on parents' night out. -- Jessica Goodman

"Threesome" (1994)



"Threesome," the sexy story of a two-guys-and-a-girl love triangle, brought up themes I was certainly not familiar with at the age of 9. But I did get a sense of what college would be like: composing papers on a typewriter, doing tequila shots at your desk and, of course, roommates going to the bathroom with the door open. But nothing prepared me for 1994-Stephen Baldwin. Chain necklaces, earrings, cut-off denim and a backwards hat.

Lara Flynn Boyle (always seemingly on the verge of tears) is assigned to live with Baldwin and Josh Charles, whose character comes out as gay and reveals that he’s a virgin. Some lines that left an indelible impression on my 4th grade brain include: "If a girl wants you to f-ck her, you f-ck her." And, "You know, it's not a good time to be a sexually promiscuous homo."

"Threesome" might have been my first introduction to a gay character in film. But complicating what is already complicated as a college student comes out, is adding a love triangle on top of it. Literally. A ton of nudity and enough orgasms to make even a 9-year-old uncomfortable, "Threesome" left me with more questions than answers. Ominous music played while the three finally consummated their passion, and I imagine I asked myself, “Is this what sex is supposed to be like?” “Why is his hand there?” and “Is this what friends do?” Questions, that I’m afraid to admit, 20 years later, I still sometimes find myself pondering. -- Sasha Bronner

"Watership Down" (1978)



An animated film about adorable bunnies going on an adventure? What little girl whose parents just got HBO wouldn't want to watch that? I'm guessing it was the very early '80s when I first saw "Watership Down," and while it remains one of my favorite films (and books), it certainly did its fair share of psychological damage. The violence was shocking enough for a 6-year-old, but the final scene of an elderly Hazel floating off into the sky with the Black Rabbit Of Inlé pretty much ensured I would think about death 100 percent of the time for the next few years. So, naturally, I became obsessed and watched it whenever it was on. If "Fraggle Rock" hadn't come along I'm pretty sure I'd be in a straightjacket somewhere. Still, great movie. -- Carol Hartsell

"Dirty Dancing" (1987)



When I was 6 years old, I watched "Dirty Dancing" at my best friend's house with another girl who we knew from our Jewish pre-school. After that day, she was no longer allowed to play with us. I had no idea why at the time -- all I got out of the film was a vague understanding of a love story that culminated in a fun dance number to "The Time of My Life." But when I re-watched the movie years later, I saw why the parents of a kindergartener might think it emotionally traumatizing for her to view a film whose entire plot circles around a deeply tragic, mishandled abortion. -- Lily Karlin

"Scream" (1996)



Most of my forbidden movie titles as a child had to do with the buffets of genitalia on display, but "Scream" wasn't your average horror movie. It was of the semi-raunchy teen variety that rose to prominence in the '90s, so while my parents were all for me watching "Poltergeist" and "Halloween" at a young age, "Scream" was on the veto list. (To be fair, I was 6 when it came out.) I should clarify, though, that said veto list was mostly a function of my mother's parenting, so when she left town for the weekend shortly after "Scream" arrived on VHS (I was 7 by then), I had dear ol' daddio take me to Blockbuster to rent a copy. I didn't make it past Drew Barrymore's opening scene. The image of her boyfriend tied up to a chair did me in -- although not enough to stop me from watching "I Know What You Did Last Summer" about a year later. Good call, mom. (For the record, I've since made it past the first five minutes, and the film is among my favorites from the '90s.) -- Matthew Jacobs

"Scary Movie" (2000)



It was the summer of 2000, I was 9 years old and “Scary Movie” had just come out. Since there's no way a 4th grader was getting into an R-rated movie, I waited until it was at Blockbuster to ask my dad if we could rent it. To my amazement, one day he came home with it on DVD. We watched it, and even more confusing than the majority of the adult jokes, was why it was rated “R.” There weren’t any sex scenes, hardly any nudity and besides some cursing and silly violence, it wasn’t that inappropriate after all. I eventually went to school to brag about watching it, only to realize I had not in fact seen “Scary Movie” in its entirely. What bathroom ear scene? What part with her hair in the bedroom? I pretended to know what scenes everyone was giggling about as I slowly realized that my dad had self-edited the movie by skipping past all the bad parts. I eventually saw all of “Scary Movie” and that R-rating finally made sense. -- Erin Whitney

"Death Becomes Her" (1992)



Between the twisted revenge plots, disgusting plastic surgeries and that whole chandelier-through-the-torso imagery, "Death Becomes Her" shook my 6-year-old psyche to the core. I can still see the look on my 1st grade teacher's face when I came into class asking if you could really stay young forever -- and not in the whimsical, "Peter Pan" way -- but with the anxiety that comes after watching Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn use spray paint to keep their skin from peeling off ::shudder:: -- Katla McGlynn

"The Crow" (1994)



I don't know what my parents were thinking when they decided it was a good idea to let their 8-year-old daughter watch a movie based on revenge killings which take place on the most demonic night of the year. Maybe they were embarrassed of the fact that I had regular nightmares from watching "Teletubbies" and thought they needed to toughen me up? In any case, the lasting damage inflicted upon me after watching "The Crow" is too great to put into words. This movie has everything a pre-teen girl would hate, including a man dressed up as a member of KISS, with a bad makeup job, greasy hair and a deranged need to stab, slice, and impale anyone near him. It was the reason I stopped trick-or-treating before age 10 –- which, in itself is a tragedy -- and it's also the explanation behind my irrational fear of birds. Thanks, mom and dad! -- Jessica Toomer

"Loverboy" (1989)



"Loverboy" was one of those movies that HBO played infinity times during my pre-teen years -- or so it seemed. It was either "Loverboy" or "The Mission," and let's be honest: a movie about Jesuit missionaries in 18th century South America doesn't stand a chance when placed opposite a teenage gigolo who works at a local pizza place. So I watched "Loverboy," which is kind of a weird movie for a kid to see multiple times considering it's about infidelity and includes an almost-incest scene ripped straight from "Back to the Future" playbook. But I liked it anyway: the sex stuff felt taboo and "adult" (as in, "This must be how adults behave!"), Patrick Dempsey was a pretty good avatar for a goofy 12-year-old from Long Island, Princess Leia had a supporting role and the closing dance number starts because a guy on clarinet can play "They Can't Take That Away From Me" from memory. As a clarinetist, that might have spoke to me most of all. -- Christopher Rosen

"Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life" (1983)



Besides the incessant swearing and vulgar language, and the scene where that massively obese man vomits everywhere and then explodes in a restaurant, covering the rest of the customers with his entrails. Besides the children choir singing about heathens spilling their sperm “on the dusty ground” and other semen-related quips, and the rugby match where a team of adult men mercilessly pummel a team of little boys to near death. Besides the incredibly gruesome and forced removal of a man’s organs, there are two scenes where women are topless. Sorry, mom and dad, I was never meant to see breasts at a such a young age. -- Ryan Kristobak

"Election" (1999)



I was a sheltered youngster, and easily frightened to boot, so I rarely ventured outside parent-approved viewing material. However, my older brother had fewer qualms. He often watched over the younger kids when our dad was out of town, and he'd occasionally rent a movie for us to watch together (this is how I first saw "Clueless" -- thanks, bro!). One night, when I was around 13, he picked "Election," a vicious dark comedy that featured far more unsettling humor than I was accustomed to at that tender age. And the extra-squicky sex scenes? Let's just say I was curled up in a ball on the other end of the couch, wishing everyone I was related to was miles away. And that I could wash my eyes with bleach. "Election" is a marvelous movie, but I would have appreciated it more, and cringed less, with several more years of maturity under my belt. -- Claire Fallon

"The Lost Boys" (1987)



I first sat down to watch "The Lost Boys" with my dad because he said the Frog brothers were in it, and I was super into frogs at the time. What followed was 90 minutes of the worst hell of my pre-double-digits life, and not one damn frog. Between the close-ups of maniacally laughing vampires and the orgy of killing, the movie pretty much ensured my mom would be washing my bed sheets every day until I left for college. Additionally, vampire storyline aside, I was convinced the character Michael was getting sick because Star gave him cooties. Then halfway through the movie, they both take each other’s clothes off and wrestle, which is like cooties central, bro. I just couldn't get behind that. Now, almost 20 years later, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have flashbacks of Kiefer Sutherland with fangs, and I'm still waiting on the frogs. -- Bill Bradley

"The Exorcist" (1973)



We all had that one friend growing up who loved scary movies and found great pleasure in forcing their friends to watch them. That's how I got roped into watching "The Exorcist" at the ripe age at 9, and let me tell you, it wasn't the "Airbud" we had originally agreed on watching. Instead of an adorable golden retriever with a thing for basketball, I was greeted by a demonic little girl with a thing for making her head spin around in a circle. As if the movie wasn't absolutely terrifying already -- which, trust, it was -- it didn't help that my friend's brother talked in his sleep and I stayed up all night, convinced he was possessed. -- Lauren Zupkus

Japan Bans Child Porn, But Excludes Manga, Anime

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TOKYO (AP) — Japan's parliament has passed a law which bans possession of child pornography, but excludes sexually explicit depictions of children in comics, animation and computer graphics.

The upper house voted Wednesday to approve the legislation, which amends an earlier law that banned production and distribution of child pornography but not ownership of such materials. Japan is the last major industrial country to criminalize possession of child pornography, and had long faced calls to crack down on the loophole.

The law provides for prison terms of up to one year and fines of up to 1 million yen ($9,800) for having pornographic photographs or videos of children. It allows a grace period of one year for people owning such materials to dispose of them.

Pictures and drawings of children as young as toddlers posed in sexually suggestive ways are easily found online in Japan.

Child advocates and other critics of the new legislation say it is a long-overdue improvement but are unhappy with the exclusion of depictions of sexual fantasies involving children in "manga" comic books, anime and video games.

Those so-called "creative industries" are a pillar of the government's "Cool Japan" effort to expand culture-related exports and are worth hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenues.

The exclusion was made after publishers and lawyers' associations contended that a ban on such images would violate the constitutional right of free speech.

According to humantrafficking.org, Japan is a hub for the production and distribution of child pornography, part of a massive sex industry that includes prostitutes dressed in school uniforms and other outfits meant to cater to pedophiles.

The new law, which was approved by the lower house of parliament earlier this month, requires Internet providers and other such companies to cooperate with police in preventing and investigating distribution of child pornography, which it defines as photos and videos that expose or focus on children's sexual parts.

Police say widespread use of smart phones has aided the distribution of pornographic images of children. They reported 1,644 cases of child pornography in 2013.

First Look At '50 Shades Of Grey' Shows Christian In A Car

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Behold, the first official photo of Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey in "50 Shades of Grey" is here. Sure, there were some "Mad Men"-esque posters and a few promo shots, but the film tweeted out a photo of Dornan behind the wheel:




"50 Shades" also stars Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele, Jennifer Ehle as Carla May Wilks and Rita Ora as Mia Grey. Based on the earth-shattering, loin-exploding (we kid...) erotic novel by the same name, "50 Shades Of Grey" is scheduled to hit theaters on Feb. 13, 2015.

Tim Burton's Long-Lost 1983 Short Film 'Hansel And Gretel' Resurfaces

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For proof Tim Burton's sensibilities were just as odd back in 1983, a long-lost "Hansel and Gretel" short film the director made for the Disney Channel has resurfaced online. It would be another two years before Burton helmed his first feature-length movie ("Pee Wee's Big Adventure"), and by the time his "Hansel and Gretel" aired on Halloween night, the Disney Channel was only six months old. Naturally, "experimental" sounds like an understatement when describing this half-hour take on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

Made on a budget of $100,000, the film has made its way into art exhibits in recent years, but Disney shelved it after the initial airing and it's been largely unseen since -- until now. Watch the bizareness unfold below, and see what early Burton tropes (monsters' zany eyes, spinning spirals) you can detect.

Jay Leno To Win Mark Twain Prize For American Humor In DC

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly retired from "The Tonight Show," Jay Leno is now being awarded the nation's top humor prize by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Leno will be honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor by his fellow comedians in a performance Oct. 19 in Washington. The show will be broadcast nationally in November on PBS. Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein says Leno followed in the tradition of Twain and has offered a lifetime's worth of humorous commentary on American life.

In a statement, Leno says he's a big fan of Twain's. He said "A Tale of Two Cities" is one of his favorite books. But that novel was written by Charles Dickens.

Since leaving NBC, Leno has gained an international following online with his new creation, JayLenosGarage.com.

12 Amazing Books That Pass The Bechdel Test

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Belle, Divergent, and The Other Woman passed it. The Avengers and A Million Ways to Die in the West, not so much. The Bechdel Test, proposed by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in a 1985 “Dykes To Watch Out For” strip, evaluates movies based on a three-pronged question: Are there two women in it? Who talk to each other? About something other than a man? This metric has long figured in feminist discussions of pop culture, but in recent years it has reached the mainstream. In the past year, articles in publications such as The New Yorker, FiveThirtyEight, and Jezebel have judged upcoming films’ performance on the Bechdel Test and pondered the test’s value for viewers and the industry itself.

Literature has been largely left alone in these critiques, though plenty of attention has been devoted, of late, to the lack of gender equality in the publishing industry. Books are not unlike movies, however, in that the characters found inside can contribute to popular perceptions of what people are like. Far too many great books focus exclusively on the doings of men, or of men and one woman, and this particular focus leaves out much of the truth of living. Of course, many wonderful books do not pass this simple test, and this does not mean we should write off Hemingway’s entire oeuvre or Jane Austen’s marriage-focused social satires if they fail; they contain a great deal of truth nonetheless. But we rarely consider, even in the year designated The Year of Reading Women, whether our reading lists are diverse in the truths they show.

In A Room Of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf’s contemplative long essay about the structural obstacles faced by women writers, she gestures at a sort of proto-Bechdel Test, noting that women characters in fiction are “almost without exception [...] shown in their relation to men. [...] And how small a part of a woman’s life is that.” When we read a book that shows us women’s interactions with each other -- the friendships, their familial loves, even vicious rivalries not rooted in a dispute over a man -- we see a vital, often neglected facet of women’s true lives. Woolf’s own books don’t always pass the letter of the test, but there is a thwarted yearning for woman-to-woman intimacy that underpins many of her works -- a yearning that is rarely expressed in classic fiction.

Of course, despite the general predominance of male characters in literature, there are many books that do pass the Bechdel Test. So we decided to compile a list of just a few stunning pieces of fiction that show women in relation to each other -- not just men. Please suggest more of your favorite Bechdel Test-approved books in the comments!

Here are 12 outstanding books that pass the Bechdel Test:


Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
housekeeping
Marilynne Robinson opens a window into an intensely feminine, intensely unconventional world in this elegant, eerie novel. The narrator, Ruthie, and her sister, Lucille, were born into a curiously rootless family. Their mother dies by suicide when they are still young, and, their father not being in the picture, their mother’s sister Sylvie assumes their care. The women of the family have only ephemeral relationships with men, and with stability; like their mother, Sylvie has a yearning for freedom and movement that she only partly overcomes in order to stay with her nieces. As the girls grow older, Ruthie drifts more and more into her foremothers’ odd ways, while Lucille rebels toward conventionality. It’s a troubled, delicate family, but nonetheless it is a style of woman-centered family we don’t often see, and the power struggles within arise not from marriage or men, but from conflicting values and divergent personalities.
Quote:
Once Sylvie came home with newspapers she had collected at the train station. At dinner she told us she had had a very nice conversation with a lady who had ridden the rods from South Dakota, en route to Portland to see her cousin hanged.
Lucille put down her fork. “Why do you get involved with such trashy people? It’s embarrassing!”
Sylvie shrugged. “I didn’t get involved. She couldn’t even come for supper.”
“You asked her?”
“She was worried that she’d miss her connection. They’re always prompt about hanging people.” Lucille lay her head on her arms and said nothing. “She’s his only relative,” Sylvia explained, “except for his father, and he’s the one that was strangled… I thought it was kind of her to come.” There was a silence. “I wouldn’t say ‘trashy,’ Lucille. She didn’t strangle anyone.”





How Should A Person Be? by Sheila Heti
howshouldapersonbe
In this autobiographical novel, Sheila Heti captures something rarely portrayed in fiction: a friendship between women rooted in shared artistic ambition and a mutual exchange of ideas. Any girl who’s had a close friendship based on something other than hair product tips or giggling over boys (so, most of us!) can appreciate the relationship between Sheila and Margaux -- passionate, intellectual, inspiring, and sometimes painful, claustrophobic and frustrating. Sheila and Margaux have far more on their minds than men, and they have each other to share it with.
Quote:
As we walked down the side of the Miami highway, my arm linked through hers, the crescent moon faint in the sky overhead, I again brought up my fear. I explained that I felt my insides were a blank--a total neutrality--null.
“That’s amazing!” she said. “God, everyone else is like these automatic windup toys.”
“But I feel like other people are seeing and perceiving and synthesizing, and I’m--I’m not doing any of that!”
“You’re doing something, boy, let me tell you. I think mainly people have opinions on, Well, what do you think about abortion? Everybody we hang out with is pretty competent at vaguely intelligent party talk, but you say things that help me think better, you know?”
I shrugged, but inside was filled with something new, and prayed that what she said was true.





Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
janeeyre
Charlotte Brontë’s classic isn’t just a marriage plot -- it’s also a bildungsroman. This means we follow the heroine, Jane, from her early years, when passionate female friendships were a central part of her life and romance wasn’t yet a glimmer on the horizon. And while her love for Rochester is the crowning affair of the novel, her love for her teacher Miss Temple and for spiritual fellow student Helen Burns shows Jane’s affinity for meaningful relationships with women. Men scarcely seem to be a consideration in their schoolgirl world, except for their fear of visits from the cruel supervisor, Mr. Brocklehurst. When Helen falls fatally ill, she and Jane share a heart-wrenching final conversation.
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“I am very happy, Jane; and when you hear that I am dead you must be sure and not grieve: there is nothing to grieve about. [...] By dying young I shall escape great sufferings. I had not qualities or talents to make my way very well in the world: I should have been continually at fault.”
“But where are you going to, Helen? Can you see? Do you know?”
“I believe; I have faith: I am going to God.”
“Where is God? What is God?”
“My Maker and yours; who will never destroy what he created. I rely implicitly on his power, and confide wholly in his goodness: I count the hours till that eventful one arrives which shall restore me to him, reveal him to me.”
“You are sure, then, Helen, that there is such a place as heaven; and that our souls can get to it when we die?”
“I am sure there is a future state; I believe God is good; I can resign my immortal part to him without any misgiving. God is my father; God is my friend: I love him; I believe he loves me.”




The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
handmaidstale
Atwood’s classic novel depicts a chilling dystopian future in which a zealous theocracy has overthrown the United States government. Having first lost the rights to use birth control and own property, women have finally become nothing more than chattel for the patriarchal religious oligarchy. The protagonist, Offred, a concubine given to an official in order to provide him and his infertile wife with children, struggles with isolation, as speaking openly with even the other handmaids she meets is fraught with danger. And yet she courageously risks real connection with others, not only other women who chafe at their subjugation, and even with men who claim to be allies in their quest for freedom. In Atwood’s violently patriarchal world, however, real connections with other women are necessary.
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At last Ofglen speaks. “Do you think God listens,” she says, “to these machines?” She is whispering: our habit at the Center.
In the past this would have been a trivial enough remark, a kind of scholarly speculation. Right now it’s treason.
I could scream. I could run away. I could turn from her silently, to show her I won’t tolerate this kind of talk in my presence. Subversion, sedition, blasphemy, heresy, all rolled into one.
I steel myself. “No,” I say.
She lets out her breath, in a long sigh of relief. We have crossed the invisible line together. “Neither do I,” she says.
“Though I suppose it’s faith, of a kind,” I say. “Like Tibetan prayer wheels.”
“What are those?” she asks.
“I only read about them,” I say. “They are moved around by the wind. They’re all gone now.”
“Like everything,” she says.




Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
mrsdalloway
Mrs. Dalloway appears to be a mere society matron preparing to throw a party, but beneath the surface lie some decidedly unconventional thoughts -- in particular, her painful memory of the girl she’d loved so fiercely before she married her husband. Likewise, her daughter Elizabeth’s tutor Miss Kilman, a deeply religious and buttoned-up woman, nurses a passionate attachment to her student that she can only express in idle chatter. Woolf’s masterful dips into her characters’ streams of consciousness uncover much more than the mere dialogue, including a depth of emotion attached to female relationships that is more usually depicted only in heterosexual romances.
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“Are you going to the party to-night?” Miss Kilman said. Elizabeth supposed she was going; her mother wanted her to go. She must not let parties absorb her, Miss Kilman said, fingering the last two inches of a chocolate éclair.
She did not much like parties, Elizabeth said. Miss Kilman opened her mouth, slightly projected her chin, and swallowed down the last inches of the chocolate éclair, then wiped her fingers, and washed the tea round in her cup.
She was about to split asunder, she felt. The agony was so terrific. If she could grasp her, if she could clap her, if she could make her hers absolutely and forever and then die; that was all she wanted. But to sit here, unable to think of anything to say; to see Elizabeth turning against her; to be felt repulsive even by her--it was too much; she could not stand it. The thick fingers curled inwards.
“I never go to parties,” said Miss Kilman, just to keep Elizabeth from going.




Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
oranges
Where early 20th-century Woolf tiptoed around the taboo of submerged lesbian longing, draping it in a thin veil of homosociality, Winterson’s 1985 novel confronted it head-on. Her heroine Jeanette, a girl raised in a harshly Christian household, struggles with her disinclination for traditional heterosexuality, and is eventually forced by her family and church to choose between her love for a woman and her love for her faith. Jeanette and her beloved, Melanie, find moments of quiet and intimacy despite many attempts to keep them apart, and the very mundanity of these moments together is a revelation.
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Melanie was doing the gardening.
“What’s your mum planning tonight?” I asked her.
“She’s going to the club, then staying with Auntie Irene.”
“What do you want to do?” I went on, pulling up a few weeds.
She smiled at me with those lovely cat-grey eyes and tugged at her rubber gloves.
“I’ll put the kettle on for a hot water bottle.”
We talked a lot that night about our plans. Melanie really did want to be a missionary, even though it was my destiny.
“Why don’t you like the idea?” she wanted to know.
“I don’t like hot places, that’s all, I got sunstroke in Paignton last year.”
We were quiet, and I traced the outline of her marvellous bones and the triangle of muscle in her stomach. What is it about intimacy that makes it so very disturbing?




Middlemarch by George Eliot
middlemarch
Deemed by many the greatest 19th-century British novel, Middlemarch delves masterfully into the psychology of its characters -- especially the heroine, Dorothea Brooke. Idealistic, saintly young Dorothea makes a disappointing marriage early in the books, and from then on her character is most frequently seen in relation to men -- her husband, her husband’s artistic young cousin, an ambitious local doctor. But as the book begins, it is Dorothea’s sister, Celia, who has the closest and most revealing relationship with her. Practical, pretty Celia shares little in common with her high-minded sister, but their love for each other is undeniable. In early scenes, Eliot examines the sometimes-confusing love between sisters, especially girls who are struggling to establish their own identities amid a desire to remain close and in constant accord.
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Dorothea immediately took up the necklace and fastened it round her sister's neck, where it fitted almost as closely as a bracelet; but the circle suited the Henrietta-Maria style of Celia's head and neck, and she could see that it did, in the pier-glass opposite.
"There, Celia! you can wear that with your Indian muslin. But this cross you must wear with your dark dresses."
Celia was trying not to smile with pleasure. "O Dodo, you must keep the cross yourself."
"No, no, dear, no," said Dorothea, putting up her hand with careless deprecation.
"Yes, indeed you must; it would suit you—in your black dress, now," said Celia, insistingly. "You might wear that."
"Not for the world, not for the world. A cross is the last thing I would wear as a trinket." Dorothea shuddered slightly.
"Then you will think it wicked in me to wear it," said Celia, uneasily.
"No, dear, no," said Dorothea, stroking her sister's cheek. "Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another."
"But you might like to keep it for mamma's sake."




Beloved by Toni Morrison
beloved
A conversation with women living and dead, Beloved centers on a mother and her attempts to reconcile with a daughter she killed as a toddler to prevent her child from being returned to slavery. Sethe and her young daughter Denver, now living in Cincinnati after escaping enslavement, find their house is plagued by an unfriendly spirit, which Sethe believes to be that of her older daughter, known only as Beloved. Sethe and Denver struggle to escape the lingering presence of the past, but it only seems to dominate their lives more and more, as Beloved’s bitterness remains unabated. Men don’t seem able to tolerate the ominous specter of vengefulness, and only Sethe and Denver remain to grapple with it. Beloved, at its heart, deals in female love and female betrayal -- especially the tragedy of maternal doting that has been damaged and twisted by a heartless world.
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Baby Suggs died shortly after the brothers left, with no interest whatsoever in their leave-taking or hers, and right afterward Sethe and Denver decided to end the persecution by calling forth the ghost that tried them so. Perhaps a conversation, they thought, an exchange of views or something would help. So they held hands and said, “Come on. Come on. You may as well just come on.”
The sideboard took a step forward but nothing else did.
“Grandma Baby must be stopping it,” said Denver. She was ten and still mad at Baby Suggs for dying.
Sethe opened her eyes. “I doubt that,” she said.
“Then why don’t it come?”
“You forgetting how little it is,” said her mother. “She wasn’t even two years old when she died. Too little to understand. Too little to talk much even.”
“Maybe she don’t want to understand,” said Denver.
“Maybe. But if she’d only come, I could make it clear to her.” Sethe released her daughter’s hand and together they pushed the sideboard back against the wall.




Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
boysnowbird
Helen Oyeyemi’s “Snow White”-inflected fairy tale carries the same seeds of female rivalry and hatred found in the Brothers’ Grimm, but with the broader canvas of the novel, and a richer story-line, Oyeyemi has woven a tale of racial tensions, familial jealousies, and complex relationships between the women at its heart. Though for much of the novel half-sisters Snow and Bird are separated by Bird’s mother, Boy, they begin to write letters to each other sharing snippets of family history as well as their own secrets and girlish curiosities about each other. The blossoming friendship between this sisters has little to do with men and much to do with their own desire for family and a sense of mutual understanding, and it captures how rich the lives of girls can be.
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Dear Bird,
Your letter was such a wonderful surprise; really it was. I’m still thinking about how to answer the question in your postscript. I wasn’t expecting you to insist on honesty. Don’t you find that most people try and make each other say things that aren’t true? Maybe because it’s easier, and because it saves time, and… now it sounds like I’m trying to sell you dinner that comes in a can. (“So they got us eatin’ dog food now,” Uncle J says.)
I haven’t met very many people who seem to want me to say what I really think. So I’m out of practice. Wait for the next letter. I’ve got a question for you though--what do you mean when you say that you “don’t always show up in mirrors”?
Best love from
Your sister,
Snow




The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
goldennotebook
Doris Lessing’s hefty 1962 novel follows the lives of Anna, the narrator of the realistic novel-within-a-novel around which the book is centered and the writer of the four notebooks that make up the rest of the book, and Anna’s friend Molly. Though marriages, divorces, break-ups and children fill the pages of the book, their friendship remains central. And when they’re not grappling with troubled romances or the strains of motherhood, they might be debating Communism or art.
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“Last week, Molly came up at midnight to say that the Party members had been circulated with a form, asking for their history as members, and there was a section asking them to detail their “doubts and confusions.” Molly said she had begun to write this, expecting to write a few sentences, had found herself writing “a whole thesis--dozens of bloody pages.” She seemed upset with herself. “What is it I want--a confessional? Anyway, since I’ve written it, I’m going to send it in.” I told her she was mad. I said: “Supposing the British Communist Party ever gets into power, that document will be in the files, and if they want evidence to hang you, they’ve got it--thousands of times over.” She gave me her small, almost sour smile--the smile she uses when I say things like this. Molly is not an innocent communist. She said: “You’re very cynical.” I said: “you know it’s the truth. Or could be.” She said: “If you think in that way, why are you talking of joining the Party?” I said: “Why do you stay in it, when you think in that way too?” She smiled again, the sourness gone, ironically, and nodded. Sat a while, thinking and smoking. “It’s all very odd, Anna, isn’t it?” And in the morning she said: “I took your advice, I tore it up.”




A Room With A View by E.M. Forster
aroomwithaview
Prim Lucy Honeychurch undergoes a romantic awakening in this comedy of manners by E.M. Forster. Lucy’s unexpected passion for the blunt, lower-class George Emerson, whom she meets in Italy during her grand tour, calls her conventional, genteel life into question. Much of the novel depicts her attempts to submerge her yearning for real love in the name of propriety. Nonetheless, Forster works in some delightfully humorous scenes between proper but silently rebellious Lucy and her personality-filled lady companions, such as the rather eccentric Miss Lavish.
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Then Miss Lavish darted under the archway of the white bullocks, and she stopped, and she cried:
"A smell! a true Florentine smell! Every city, let me teach you, has its own smell."
"Is it a very nice smell?" said Lucy, who had inherited from her mother a distaste to dirt.
"One doesn't come to Italy for niceness," was the retort; "one comes for life. Buon giorno! Buon giorno!" bowing right and left. "Look at that adorable wine-cart! How the driver stares at us, dear, simple soul!"
So Miss Lavish proceeded through the streets of the city of Florence, short, fidgety, and playful as a kitten, though without a kitten's grace. It was a treat for the girl to be with any one so clever and so cheerful; and a blue military cloak, such as an Italian officer wears, only increased the sense of festivity.
"Buon giorno! Take the word of an old woman, Miss Lucy: you will never repent of a little civility to your inferiors. That is the true democracy. Though I am a real Radical as well. There, now you're shocked."
"Indeed, I'm not!" exclaimed Lucy. "We are Radicals, too, out and out. My father always voted for Mr. Gladstone, until he was so dreadful about Ireland."
"I see, I see. And now you have gone over to the enemy."
"Oh, please—! If my father was alive, I am sure he would vote Radical again now that Ireland is all right. And as it is, the glass over our front door was broken last election, and Freddy is sure it was the Tories; but mother says nonsense, a tramp."




The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
thewomanupstairs
Claire Messud’s novel both earned adoring reviews and sparked a debate concerning its bitter, “unlikable” protagonist, Nora Eldridge. Messud famously defended her protagonist, arguing that “The relevant question isn’t ‘is this a potential friend for me?’ but ‘is this character alive?’” And Nora, a lonely, middle-aged woman looking back on a deeply absorbing friendship that ended in a traumatic betrayal, certainly jumps off the page. At first, her friendship with the glamorous, intellectual Shahids -- and their young son, her student -- appears to her to be a lifeline to the creative, bohemian existence she secretly longs for. She and Sirena Shahid decide to share a studio, where they work together and revel in artistic discussions. Nora, a limited artist herself, not only adores the charismatic Sirena, but envies her talent and the major exhibitions she’s offered. And while she’s also drawn to Sirena’s husband, Skandar, romantic rivalry barely factors into the complexity of her feelings toward Sirena.
Quote:
“And what do you do, then? Are you a historian, or an ethics person, or whatever, also?”
“No! I could never do such things. Words are not for me.” She looked at me closely, her marbled dark eyes alight. “I’m an artist. I make things. Installations. Sometimes videos.” She said this as calmly as if she were confessing to making cakes or collecting stamps, and I knew she was for real.
“You’re kidding.”
“No. Why?”
“I’m an artist, too.”
I’d lurched inside at her admission--this! Of course! we shared--but worried, from her smile, that her first impulse was patronizing. She was thinking that art must be a hobby for me. She was thinking that I was an elementary school teacher. But she was too polite to let on. “Really,” she said. “You must tell me about your work.”

'The Drunk Song' Understands Your Drinking Habits Too Well (VIDEO)

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If you've ever been drunk, or know someone who has, you'll be able to relate to Zoe Anne's hilariously accurate "The Drunk Song." Her upbeat melody, amusing facial expressions, well-crafted lyrics and underlying message about the realities of drinking make this YouTube hit worth your time.

A 20-year-old self-made musician, Zoe Anne is a YouTube sensation best known for her parodies. On her website, she states, "I arrange music for an A Capella Choir, of which I am the only member." Go, girl.

Aside from accurately describing any student's weekend going out drinking, her a capella skills are damn impressive.

[h/t College Candy]

These Stunning Images Show The Brain's Fragile Beauty & What Happens When The Wiring Goes Awry

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Ever wished you could peer inside your own brain? What's it like in there?

Complicated, that's what.

Scroll down for images.

“The human brain has more cells than there are stars in the Milky Way and these cells communicate through a thousand times as many connections," Dr. Sally Till, a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, said in a written statement released in conjunction with the opening of a new exhibit of brain micrographs on display at Edinburgh's St. Andrew's Square. "Our goal is to understand how even small changes in these connections can have such detrimental effects on learning and memory."

The images in the exhibit--which was curated by the university's Patrick Wild Centre for Research into Autism, Fragile X Syndrome and Intellectual Disabilities and the Scottish charity Mindroom--are absolutely stunning.

“These images are simply too beautiful to be hidden away in a lab," Sophie Dow, founder of Mindroom, said in the statement. "They were created to further our understanding of the brain but they can also be viewed as stunning examples of abstract art. Our hope is that people admiring the pictures on show will also come away with a greater awareness of what it means to be affected by learning difficulties and other brain conditions."

This Ad Combines The Internet's 2 Favorite Addictions: Cats And Selfies. And It's Adorbz

George R.R. Martin's 'Gay Of Thrones' Appearance Features Epic Twist

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The "Game of Thrones" Season 4 finale "The Children" is being called the show's best episode ever, so to match its level of awesomeness, the "GoT" recap show "Gay of Thrones" featured an appearance by George R.R. Martin himself along with an epic twist.

Without giving everything away, let's just say it'll finally make sense why the author's favorite catchphrase seems to be, "Hello. My name is George R.R. Martin. You are one of my main characters. Prepare to die."

Guitarist With No Hand Flawlessly Covers Van Halen's 'Eruption'

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John Denner may have been born without a hand, but that didn't stop him from railing on the guitar like Eddie Van Halen. After teaching himself how to play in his early 20s with makeshift picks, Denner began to capture the attention of audiences.

His 2007 performance on "The Howard Stern Show" put him in the limelight, and now Denner's story and incredible talent are getting more and more recognition.

Check out the video above to see Denner deliver an amazing Van Halen cover of "Eruption." Just by listening to all the intricate picking, you would never believe he has any disability at all.

Oldest Known Depiction Of Circumcision Is Now On Twitter

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Historians, anthropologists and religious scholars often disagree on the origins of circumcision, the surgical removal of the foreskin. But a colorful recreation of what may be the oldest depiction of circumcision has made its way to Twitter, thanks to online education site Open Culture.




The image comes from a relief on the tomb of Ankhmahor, a priest and advisor who lived during the 6th Dynasty -- roughly 2323-2150 B.C.E.

According to religion scholar Gerald A. Larue, ancient historian Herodotus visited Egypt in the 5th century B.C.E. and reported that the Egyptians "practice circumcision for the sake of cleanliness, for they place cleanliness before comeliness." Herodotus also suggested that Jews had adopted the custom from the Egyptians, though Larue notes there is no way to be sure of the practice's origins.

Religions and cultures around the world practice circumcision for different reasons, but perhaps none as devoutly as the Jewish community. According to the Torah, circumcision is a requirement laid out from God who in Genesis 17: 9-14 commanded Abraham to circumcise himself, all male members of his household, his descendants and all his slaves.
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