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Here's A Bus Stop In London Made Out Of 100,000 Lego Bricks, And It's Pretty Delightful

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London commuters may be in for a surprise the next time they catch the W1 bus on Regent Street near Hamleys toy store. There they will find a fully functioning bus stop made entirely out of Legos.

The installation is a part of Transport for London's "Year of the Bus" which celebrates the vehicle's importance to Londoners and marks some transport anniversaries, including 100 years since the world's first mass-produced motor bus carried soldiers to the frontline of WWI.

The bus shelter, which was built with around 100,000 Lego bricks, took two weeks to create and will be on display until July 15.

"Many thousands of people pass along Regent Street each day," Leon Daniels, Transport for London's managing director of surface transport, said in a release, "And we hope the new shelter will bring a smile to the face of even a hardened commuter."

Well, it must be working so far because it certainly brought a smile to our faces!



To see more images from TfL's "Year of the Bus," check this out.

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From The 'Oprah Show' Archives: Michael Jackson Shares His Life Purpose In 1993 (VIDEO)

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Wednesday marks the fifth anniversary of Michael Jackson's tragic sudden death in his home at age 50. As Jackson family members and fans around the world pay tribute the late pop star, his legacy lives on through his children, music and rare candid interviews about his complicated life, like the one he gave Oprah in 1993.

Back then, Jackson had invited Oprah to his California home, Neverland Ranch, for his first interview in more than 14 years. During the conversation, the King of Pop revealed his deepest desire and life's purpose.

In the above video from "The Oprah Show" archives, Oprah asked Jackson what it feels like to have legions of loyal fans screaming for him and cheering wildly when he performs.

"[It feels like] love," Jackson told her. "I feel lots of love. I feel blessed and honored to be able to be an instrument of nature that was chosen to give them that."

Giving the world music, he added, was why he was put on this earth. "My purpose, I think, [is] to give in the best way I can -- through song, through dance, through music," Jackson said. "I am committed to my art."

Jackson explained that art in any form acts as a union between the material and the spiritual, the human and the divine. "I believe that to be the reason for the very existence of art, and I feel I was chosen as an instrument to give music and love and harmony to the world," he told Oprah.

"What do you want the world to know about you most?" Oprah asked.

Jackson answered that he wanted to be known for being a great artist. "I love when I do and I love people to love what I do," he said. "I just simply want to be loved, wherever I go."

More on Michael Jackson:
What Oprah really thought about her 1993 Michael Jackson interview
Janet Jackson on the family's failed attempts to help Michael
The last time Lisa Marie Presley spoke to ex-husband Michael Jackson
What sister La Toya Jackson wishes the world knew about Michael

More from "The Oprah Winfrey Show" archives



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John Waters' 'Carsick' Will Teach You How To Hitchhike

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Filmmaker and author John Waters is funny, brash and brilliant. For decades, the so-called "Pope of Trash" has been peddling camp and gore -- and then some -- with films like "Pink Flamingos," "Female Trouble" and "Hairspray."

For his latest literary endeavor, "Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America," Waters hitched rides from his home in Baltimore to his San Francisco apartment in just eight days, armed with little more than a cardboard sign that read "I'm Not Psycho." The first two novellas imagine best and worst case scenarios: a kindly drug dealer hands him a bunch of cash, no strings attached; Waters is taken hostage by a wild drunk. The third part recounts actual events.

The Huffington Post sat down with the cult icon for a conversation in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Peering through dark sunglasses, Waters didn't hold back discussing hitchhiker sex, heterosexual discrimination, jazz junkies and his mustache:

I've never hitchhiked.
You never did? You pussy! You should try it up here [in Provincetown], to the beach or something, ease into it. I always hitchhiked. I mean, I never did this far when I was young, but I was raised that it wasn't bad to. All the kids in private and Catholic school hitchhiked home every day -- the parents expected you to. I had nostalgia for hitchhiking I guess, and so I thought of the idea like, let me challenge myself. Let's not play it safe.

Honestly, when have you ever thought to "play it safe"?
Fair point.

It gets a little graphic, so to speak, in "Carsick," the fictional parts at least ...
I imagined first, though, all the best and the worst that could happen so I could get all my fears and excitement and fantasies over with before I did it for real. I was preparing myself for reality.

If I hitchhike -- and I'm not saying I'm going to -- what's the etiquette I should know to follow?
First of all, you never do business in front of them, you don't talk on your cell phone, you don't check your emails. When you get into the car, it's improv -- you're in a little play and they're in charge. But you can take over psychologically, depending if they want to listen or talk, and I prefer that they talk because I feel like I have to do interviews all the time, you know what I mean? [laughs]

I think I do know what you mean. You were much more interested in their lives.
Yes, I was. I could tell if they had never heard of me, and that was fine. If they had never heard of me and they asked what I did and I'd say I make movies, I could tell when thought I was a liar, some homeless man with delusions of grandeur. Some came over to give me money and started screaming and laughing when they realized it was me. But they were all people who were trying to help me.

You didn't publicize the trip, so were people surprised to find you when they did recognize you?
I never even answered the press when the story did break. I didn't confirm that I was doing it. And it wouldn't have helped me anyway because I didn't know where the hell I was, standing on some road. It's not like fans are going to come running 200 miles into the middle of Kansas to give me a ride to California.

You'll never know. Was there anybody that you ...
Did I have sex?

Sure. Did you?
No. I didn't. But in the good and the bad part of the book I do. And when I was young I always did, yeah. I would've, but it's different when you're 66 and not 18.

commander cornum


Did anyone offer a ride and you thought to yourself "nope, too creepy"?
No. After waiting for eight hours, you get in with anybody. I didn't want to hitchhike at night and I probably wouldn't have gotten on a motorcycle, but that was never at option. At the end, I was desperate enough, I would have gotten on a motorcycle, I think. I waited 10 hours one day, almost had to sleep on the ground.

Where is the worst and the best place to hitchhike in America?
Bonner Springs, Kansas -- the worst. Ohio was bad everywhere. The best? Truckee, California -- nice air, I knew I was going to make it. It gets easier as you go West. People are going further. The worst is cities. The enemy is a local ride.

Is there anything that you quickly realized you had forgotten to pack?
The scissors for my mustache. I had to go into a damn Walmart for the first time in my life. I use cuticle scissors.

You write in "Carsick" -- a joke, I'm sure -- that an idea for your next book might be, "I'll retake every drug I ever took, in order (hash, pot, LSD, amphetamine, morning glory seeds, glue, heroine, MDA, opium, mushrooms, cocaine) and then do bath salts"?
A joke, I'm sure. Well, I think I'm joking. I wouldn't look forward to tripping though. I took a lot of acid -- I loved it. I don't take drugs now. It's just boring. And heroin, the only thing heroin is good for is listening to jazz. Jazz is the sound of heroin. You can't be a jazz musician and not be a junkie -- really!

Do you spend all summer in Provincetown?
I do. I wrote half this book here, a lot of my movies here. I'm not on vacation. I spend some of the winter here too, but not all of it. When I'm here and it's quiet, I feel ghosts. I know so many people who died here from AIDS and I feel ghosts. It's not a bad feeling, but it's not something I want to spend the whole winter with.

The Provincetown International Film Festival is happening during this interview. Do you think its important to have an "unofficially queer" film festival?
I don't think it's a gay film festival. I mean, if it's in Provincetown -- everything is kind of gay. I'm an anti-separatist. I don't think there should be gay film festivals. I think it should all be together. Gay is not enough.

Is it ever?
It used to be. When it was illegal it was. But now it's hard to feel too discriminated against [laughs]. At least personally. In the arts, I mean, I think straight people get more discriminated against. I want to have a whole hetero pride parade here in Provincetown, and I'm the grand marshal, and it's in February!

This interview has been edited and condensed.

PVRIS' Video Is Something To Sing About

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When you see a band's big break, it rocks. This music video from Massachusetts-born PVRIS -- their first release on a big-time label Rise Records -- is a perfect pop-rock confection with edge. We think it's going to blow up.

For PVRIS' charismatic frontwoman, Lyndsey Gunnulfsen (stage name Lynn Gvnn), the release of "St. Patrick" is truly one for the books.

"We've been waiting over six months to release anything," Gunnulfsen told The Huffington Post. "It feels incredible to finally unleash it to the world. So many more people are into it than we even imagined!"

At only 20 years old, there's another reason Gunnulfsen is celebrating: PVRIS is the only female-fronted band on their label.

"It means I have to be a boss," she said. "It feels totally awesome."

Rock on, Lynn.

Love PVRIS' sound? You can catch them next at Warped Tour this summer from July 2-13.

First Look At 'The Giver' Poster Should Please The Book's Fans

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Here's your first look at "The Giver" poster, which debuts exclusively here on HuffPost Entertainment. The image features Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites and Odeya Rush with the tagline "Search For Truth Find Freedom."

The poster shows both black and white and color images that mirror the emphatic response the film's first trailer elicited.

"I don’t think anyone realized quite how protective fans of the book might be to that concept of restricted perception," director Phillip Noyce told The Huffington Post in an interview earlier this month. "I was amused by all the controversy in a way because I knew that wasn’t how the film was shot or how it would be released." (A second featurette showed more greyscale footage, assuaging fans' worries. )

In addition to the four main characters, Taylor Swift, Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgard were seen in the first character posters, and are mentioned by name on the official promo. Take a look below. "The Giver" is out Aug. 15. Fans can check out Lois Lowry's new forward for the book by heading here.

the giver

Why Going Into Fashion Can Help Launch A Career In Any Field

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To say that Cindy Farkas Glanzrock is a jill of all trades would be a gross understatement. She's sold shoes at legendary department store Alexander’s, run by her father George, worked in advertising, fashion PR and real estate before landing at her current gig decorating hotel lobbies. As such, there is little this power woman can't offer by way of career advice.

Though Glanzrock's days of working with designer Zandra Rhodes and at Ann Taylor may be behind her, her work in fashion taught her many valuable lessons that have helped her in other industries.

Lucky for us, we got to sit down with her to find out exactly how she transitioned from career to career and learn the most valuable advice she picked up along the way -- of which, she has plenty!

On how she got her start in fashion:

My father always had us wear Charles Jourdan pumps [when we worked at his department store], so I gave him the idea, [to knock them off]. When I say knocking off, I mean, designers knew they were being knocked off and wanted to be knocked off to get exposure. And he loved the idea. So we went and made this whole shoe program in Madrid and I learned all about making shoes. I went to the factories and picked colors. I pulled people literally off the escalators when I worked in the shop and I didn't sell them one pair, I sold them three or four.

On the importance of working retail if you want to work in fashion:

Ralph Lauren's first job was at Alexander's doing inventory. Donna Karan told me that she once had a job there. There are so many well known people that have worked in retail. So I would say, how can you design something when you don't know what it means to put it out on the floor and you don't know what it's like to interact with the clothing and your potential clients? It's very important to be able to talk the talk and walk the walk with the sales people. Good designers come in and they actually teach the staff how they were inspired, where their colors came from, where their silhouettes came from. So that's the most important thing to me, working in retail.

On her job right now:

I merchandise lobbies. So it's looking at who are the tenants of the building are, the neighborhood, if there is any sort of pedigree with the building or something that the building is known for. For example, one of the buildings I'm working on right now is a small building, 184 Fifth Avenue right off of 24th Street, and I look at the tenants, I look at how old the building is, who are the original architects and I take all of that into consideration when I'm deciding on the art. So it's sort of like merchandising for a store -- knowing who your tenants are, knowing who your clients are, your demographic, and then dressing it up so that when people walk through a lobby they have a fulfilling, fun experience.

On how her experience in fashion helped to propel her career forward:

You sit in these merchandising meetings and... there are a lot of things you have to decide on in terms of the budget. That's what I do. I go back and forth with the architect and the PR. [I ask myself] Is it different? And if I don't go a little edgy--think graffiti, pop art, street art--that's what made me different. Everyone else was just doing things that looked pretty. It was the right scale and the right colors but it wasn't [innovative]. These are landlords who used to hate graffiti artists because people would paint on the outside of their buildings and now they are putting a canvas of graffiti inside their lobby.

cindy

On the hardest part of her job:

Keeping everyone happy--the landlord, the tenants and the ownership. Sometimes there are partners that have put up money and they have to approve the budget. And, of course, coming up with art that the artist wants to lease, that the gallery wants to lease, because a lot of people don't want to lease the art, they just want to sell it. There are so many people that I need to make happy, so it's juggling a lot of different balls, so it's about coordination, curation and diplomacy.

On the best piece of business advice she has ever received:

Listen, watch and then participate.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

What Your Nail Polish Color Says About Your Personality

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Before I started bringing my own nail polish to the salon, it would take me 10 to 15 minutes to pick a color for my manicure and pedicure. And I'd often regret my decision with the first swipe of polish, sending my manicurist into a hissy fit.

Ultimately, my mood determines which nail polish color I choose. If I'm feeling especially feminine, I reach for a sheer nude with a hint of pink like OPI Samoan Sand. If I'm feeling big and showy, I stick to a vibrant yellow or pink color from Avon Nailwear Pro+ Nail Enamel line. When I'm just indecisive, crazy nail art tends to happen.

According to Paintbox manicurist Gerry Holford, a person's attraction to particular shades can speak volumes about their personality. Holford believes that there's a certain psychology to nail polish colors, and she shared her take on the subject with us below. Where do you fall?

If you always wear black nail polish, you are...

nail polish personality creative

"I feel that a beautifully painted black manicure is extremely chic. Having said that most gals wearing a black mani are creative types that think out of the box -- and a little bit of a rebel. I think it takes a lot of confidence to wear a black manicure, and for most women that do wear one, it's their signature look."

Pro Polish Pick: Nails Inc. Black Taxi

If you sport neon nail colors, you are...

nail polish personality energized

"Bright colors are an awesome visual for anyone wearing them. You have no choice but to get your energy up and get going!"

Pro Polish Pick: Floss Gloss Con Limon

If you are into pretty pastels, you are...

nail polish personality relaxed

"Soft colors like pale pinks, creamy beiges and even variations of bright colors like a soft yellow or coral can definitely add to a relaxed state."

Pro Polish Pick: Essie Romper Room and Deborah Lippmann Build Me Up Buttercup

If your go-to nail polish is orange, you are...

nail polish personality impulsive

"Shades that would be ballsy or impulsive are a bright pop of orange, an opaque baby blue or a metallic green."

Pro Polish Pick: China Glaze Orange Knockout, Sephora by OPI Havana Dreams and Dior Mystic Magnetics #802

If your nails are painted in a rich wine shade, you are...

nail polish personality sexy

"Sexy, sultry for me is always a dark burgundy nail. It’s a modern classic."

Pro Polish Pick: Chanel Le Vernis Vamp

If you prefer a clean white mani, you are...

nail polish personality youthful

"My favorite manicure at the moment is a solid white one. It’s fresh and very chic. It works on all ages and lends an element of youth to anyone wearing it."

Pro Polish Pick: Chanel Le Vernis Eastern Light

If you like to mix it up with neutral and bright colors, you are...

nail polish personality happy

"My go-to happy manicure right now is a beige nail with a pop of metallic, bright or neon color on the tips. You can even switch it up by putting a different color on each tip. Play around with designs, too; you can do a chevron tip, a classic French, asymmetrical or even a row of dots. The possibilities are endless!"

Pro Polish Pick: Dior Vernis Safari Beige Nail Lacquer and Zoya Pippa

If your nails are always a fiery shade of red, you are...

nail polish personality
"I’d like to think there isn't such a thing as an 'angry' manicure, but if I had to choose, I would venture to say a blood red manicure could be construed that way."

Pro Polish Pick: MAC Maleficent Nocturnelle Nail Lacquer

All art by Raydene Salinas/HPMG.

9 Lessons From Real-Life Entryways (PHOTOS)

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Not only is the entryway the first place guests will see (other than the front door, of course), but it's the place that can make all the difference in how you feel every time you leave or enter your house. So why does it so often go ignored?

Well, between the pressure of making a Pinterest-worthy welcome and dealing with an area that tends to become a magnet for clutter, it's understandable that foyers haven't really been getting the attention they deserve -- until now, that is. These real-life rooms don't need a double staircase and grand piano to make a statement. By actually giving practicality a chance, they set a home's tone and remind us that it's a space worth personalizing.

It's all about making a bold first impression no matter the size of the space.


Adding pops of color brightens things up.


And incorporating mirrors and reflective accents really lightens things up.


Including seating makes guests feel welcome and comfortable the second they walk in the door.


And creating a go-to command center for your family is a smart, efficient use of space.


Just make it more than a place to hang your keys.


And don't forget to include a personal touch that will really welcome you home.


Because even minimal accents liven any space...


...though going luxe and layered never hurt anybody.


Have something to say? Check out HuffPost Home on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

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Are you an architect, designer or blogger and would like to get your work seen on HuffPost Home? Reach out to us at homesubmissions@huffingtonpost.com with the subject line "Project submission." (All PR pitches sent to this address will be ignored.)

We Never Thought We'd Say This, But These Skulls Look Good Enough To Eat

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Now here are some skulls that we'd love to sink our teeth into.

An Etsy shop is selling life-size human skulls made of chocolate, and they look super scrumptious -- even if they do make us feel like cannibals.

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chocolate skulls

Pretty realistic, huh?


The United Kingdom-based BlackChocolateCo makes these grim treats using a mold of a genuine human skull. Once cast, each edible is given a light dusting of cocoa powder to give it that just-dug-up look.

The skulls are about $120 each, weigh 1.5 kg (about 3.3 pounds) and come in your choice of either dark chocolate, chilli chocolate, caramel chocolate or milk chocolate. According to BlackChocolateCo's Etsy page, they'll keep for 6 months, if stored under the right conditions.

chocolate skull


“Delicious, stupendous to look at,” one Etsy reviewer wrote.

“This item will make anyone’s party!” reads another.

chocolate skulls


"My partner and I have a great passion for chocolate, and ... we are very passionate about art as well,” reads BlackChocolateCo’s description on Etsy. “We thought -- 'why not combine the two?' And that is when BlackChocolate was born."

(Hat tip,Dangerous Minds)

12 Modern Pools That Make A Big Splash (PHOTOS)

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There are certain things that just help make summertime summertime and a relaxing place to get your feet wet is definitely one of them. And as our friends at Dwell.com know, that place should be more fabulous than an inflatable kiddy pool if you can swing it.

From their minimalist elements to bold accents, these amazing pools prove that everyone deserves a beautiful water-filled escape -- even if only for daydreaming.





Have something to say? Check out HuffPost Home on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

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Are you an architect, designer or blogger and would like to get your work seen on HuffPost Home? Reach out to us at homesubmissions@huffingtonpost.com with the subject line "Project submission." (All PR pitches sent to this address will be ignored.)

Progressive Christian Festivals Put Spotlight On Visual Art, Sustainability

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(RNS) Words and music are the stock-in-trade at most Christian festivals, but the Wild Goose Festival is adding another component: the visual arts.

wild goose
The 2013 Wild Goose Festival featured a gallery called “Imaginarium.” RNS photo courtesy Wesley Duffee-Braun


This year’s progressive Christian smorgasbord of culture, justice and spiritual exchange June 26-29 in Hot Springs, N.C., near Asheville, will feature plenty of speakers. Keynoters include newsmakers such as the Rev. William Barber, leader of the state’s Moral Mondays campaign; Jim Wallis, poverty activist and founder of Sojourners magazine; and Frank Schaefer, the United Methodist minister who was defrocked in December for performing his son’s same-sex wedding.

Run River North and Jars of Clay will headline the musical offerings.

But as with last year, the festival is making an intentional shift to include more visual art; more than 13 artists and arts groups will present their work.

This year’s theme of “Living Liberation” will attempt to challenge conventional Christian art with liturgical painting, a collaborative mural project, experiential storytelling and an exhibit called Faithmarks that explores spirituality and tattoos.

“That’s important because it demonstrates that the visual arts are an equal partner in the dialogue, which is a step away from what might be seen as cliché Christian art,” said Ted Lyddon Hatten, an Iowa installation artist, theologian and arts director for the festival. He’s creating the “sacred seeing” space, a micro-gallery at the festival.

Hatten’s installation art at this year’s festival uses 12 reliquaries, or holy containers, to focus on the spiritual stories birds tell humanity. It is aptly titled “Ornitheology.”

Festival organizers hope that emphasizing the visual arts might spur faith leaders to be more open to creative worship.

“I like to imagine that other clergy come and experience a wide variety of different kinds of art, and worship,” said festival director and Episcopal priest Rosa Lee Harden, “and that exposure to something other than their own kind of worship will broaden what they offer when they go home.”

And then there’s performance art. The self-proclaimed “holy fools” of Carnival de Resistance will pedal bikes to each performance location, paint murals, teach sustainability classes, camp and compost their waste.

The idea is to reconnect people to the Earth and to God.

wild goose
Artists in Carnival de Resistance tell stories at a recent performance. RNS photo courtesy Wild Goose Festival


In a video for the Carnival, member Tevyn East said her group’s performances are “about environmental justice and radical
theology.”

“We are working to re-animate the stories of Judeo-Christians and show how they are about resistance to empire, resistance to the domination system, and that there are very relevant pieces within these stories that provide tools to handling the ecological crises we’re dealing with right now.”

The ability of the visual arts to tap into Christian mysticism fits the nature of Wild Goose, Hatten said.

“Christianity gets so lost in its head many times, and Wild Goose is inviting people to come out of that head into a more embodied experience.”

Corvette Museum Likely To Keep Part Of Sinkhole

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A massive sinkhole that swallowed eight prized sports cars at the National Corvette Museum has become such a popular attraction that officials want to preserve it — and may even put one or two of the crumpled cars back inside the hole.

The board of the museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, said Wednesday it is in favor of preserving a large section of the sinkhole that opened up beneath the museum in February. It happened when the museum was closed, and no one was injured. What started as a tragedy has turned into an opportunity to lure more people off a nearby interstate to visit the museum, which struggled in prior years to keep its doors open, museum officials said.

"This gives us one more asset ... to be able to attract those folks that maybe just having Corvettes on display would not get them to come here," museum Executive Director Wendell Strode said in a telephone interview. "We think it will continue for some time to be of great interest."

The damaged cars toppled like toys amid rocks, concrete and dirt when the sinkhole opened up in the museum's Skydome. The cars carry a total value believed to exceed $1 million. The extent of damage varies widely from car to car.

The cars were eventually pulled out of the giant hole to great fanfare. Visitors can take a close look at the sinkhole and the damaged vehicles.

Attendance was up nearly 60 percent from March to the start of this week, compared to the year-ago period, museum officials said. Sign-ups for museum memberships are up sharply, as are merchandise and cafe sales at the museum. The museum sells sinkhole-related shirts, post cards and prints.

Museum board members considered three options for the sinkhole: fill it in, preserve the entire sinkhole or keep a portion of it.

They opted to maintain about half the 40-foot-wide, 60-foot-deep sinkhole, Strode said. There's a "strong probability" that one or two of the damaged cars will be put back in the hole, he said.

The project's estimated cost is $3 million to $5 million, Strode said. How much insurance will cover is still being determined, he said.

Plans are to leave the entire sinkhole and the eight Corvettes on display through the end of August, and construction on the "revised" sinkhole would then begin in September, the museum said. The museum is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an event in late August.

Jason Swanson, a University of Kentucky assistant professor in hospitality management and tourism, said keeping some of the hole is a smart decision.

"It's definitely a good thing to maintain some of that attraction that happened, to continue to capitalize on that," he said by phone. "Putting the cars down there is a great idea. It lets people see some of the actual damage that can be done by nature."

No final decision has been made on how many of the cars will be repaired. Chevrolet stepped forward to oversee restoration efforts.

The cars that took the plunge were a 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette, a 1962 black Corvette, a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder, a 1984 PPG Pace Car, a 1992 White 1 Millionth Corvette, a 2009 white 1.5 Millionth Corvette, a 2009 ZR1 Blue Devil and a 1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Corvette.

The museum owned six of the cars, and the other two were on loan from General Motors.

Sinkholes are common in the Bowling Green area, located amid a large region of karst bedrock where many of Kentucky's largest and deepest caves run underground.

The museum is close to where Corvettes are made at a plant in Bowling Green. The museum is situated an hour north of Nashville, Tennessee, and less than two hours south of Louisville, Kentucky.

Mickalene Thomas Delivers The Most Stylish Philosophy Lesson Of All Time

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We like to think of Mickalene Thomas as an interior decorator of art history. Instead of delving into some drab real estate as a fixer upper, she sets her attention on the iconic, and very white, canon of art classics.

mick
Untitled #1, 2014 acrylic, oil paint, glitter, rhinestones, oil pastel, dry pastel, graphite, and silk screen on wood panel 96 x 82 inches 243.8 x 208.3 cm Courtesy Mickalene Thomas and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong, and ARS (Artists Rights Society), New York Photo by Elisabeth Bernstein



In 2012 her exhibition "The Origin of the Universe" spruced up the likes of Gustav Courbet and Édouard Manet, among others, trading in Romantic renditions of milky skin and auburn curls for glamorous black women, their nude forms replaced with bold, printed ensembles, playful wigs and electric makeup. Thomas' subjects aren't just the subjects of paintings, they're already all dolled up, literally painted themselves.

In these complex yet wildly appealing collage-like paintings, Thomas does far more than insert black women into an artistic narrative from which they were, for so long, excluded. The artist toys with the ways beauty and identity are historically transmitted through paint. In traditional portraiture, Odalisques and muses of the like glow with a sort of internal, perhaps ethereal beauty. Instead of gazing into a magic mirror, Thomas takes a hammer to it, letting her models' beauty crack and emerge in strange and unexpected formations.

In her works, blistering hot patterns pop up indiscriminately in wallpaper, furniture, ensembles, jewelry and makeup like an unruly and glorious infection. Switching seamlessly back and forth between subject and setting, each more ornate than the last, Thomas comments on the fluid and performative nature of the self, and the always already painted nature of femininity.

Now, Thomas zooms in. For her current exhibition "Tête de Femme," the artist created nine collages of women's faces, all models from her former works. For these colorful canvases, Thomas cracks the mirror yet again, taking her depictions to a greater level of geometric abstraction than ever before. Goodbye Courbet, hello Picasso.

"For me they are still very much related to my collage work and the Odalisque paintings I do," Thomas explained to The Huffington Post. "The technique is still the same, but it's a direct and closer look at the portraits. Deconstructing their images in a Pop and Cubist way. I was thinking about my collage work and how I make those images, and wanted to really pare down and remove the familiarity of the person and just focus on the structure of their faces, in the same ways you would looking at an African sculpture, thinking about those angles and forms."

Thomas turns the human face into a geometric playground that makes Matisse's "Woman with a Hat" look representational.

mt
Untitled #2, 2014 enamel, acrylic, oil paint, glitter, rhinestones, oil pastel, dry pastel, graphite, and silk screen on wood panel 96 x 72 inches 243.8 x 182.9 cm Courtesy Mickalene Thomas and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong, and ARS (Artists Rights Society), New York Photo by Elisabeth Bernstein



The color-happy collages are simpler than Thomas' previous work in the sense that they've been cleared of all excess -- leaving only eyes, mouth and vague reference of nose -- and yet they still seem more complex. Viewing the fractured faces up close feels like looking into a magnified mirror and noticing the weird looking pores that, you can only surmise, had been there along.

"It came out of the work I was making in my studio looking at the makeup of the models during my photo sessions and being inspired by Andy Warhol's Interview magazine and also Picasso's 'Tête de Femme.' I'm always going back into history in some ways and trying to make some correlation to what I'm making at the moment. I had done this collaboration with my makeup artist for a particular show at the time. We were playing with makeup, and started cutting out shapes. From their we made some small collages. That's how it really started... I thought it was not necessarily a departure for me but sort of a growth, because it comes out of the making of my work. It's much more playful."

All but one of the works are untitled, yet each pertains to a distinct person. "There are specific colors for specific people to personify their personalities, their energy, their prowess, even the angles of their nose, the splatter of the rhinestones." In one piece, an eye looks relatively realistic while, for a nose, we get a glitchy waterfall of golden rhinestones. "I think there is an innate truth," Thomas said of her works' resemblance to their subjects. "It describes the energy of the person more than how the person looks in front of you."

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Carla, 2014 enamel, acrylic, oil paint, glitter, rhinestones, oil pastel, graphite and silk screen on wood panel 96 x 72 inches 243.8 x 182.9 cm Courtesy Mickalene Thomas and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong, and ARS (Artists Rights Society), New York Photo by Elisabeth Bernstein



Thomas' decision not to name all but one of her works -- "Carla" is the exception -- harkens back to the dual nature that characterizes much of her process. Just as the geometric faces are simple and yet complex, they're also specific and yet universal. "I wanted to remove that so that the familiarity that the viewer brings to the piece is their own and not what I'm telling them they should think." Thomas' reasoning goes beyond challenging her viewers' imaginations. "For me that's what is very exciting about this departure, although they're based on black women, we're all connected, they could be anyone. It's not necessarily rooted in the identity of blackness or black beauty but more beauty itself and the essence of a person."

If before we labeled Thomas art history's interior decorator, now we're imagining more of a plastic surgeon, splicing open art historical moments and glamming them up from the inside. Thomas' previous portraits turned her sitters into brazen shape-shifters, bleeding into their environments to reveal the slippery nature of identity and the profound influence of style. Now, Thomas shows the colorful patterns that we use to express ourselves via flashy blouses and bold furniture aren't on the outside seeping in, they were inside us all along.

What's outside and what's inside, what's flashy and what's deep. Thomas mixes and matches the seemingly disparate categories into transfixing patterns as if she's power-clashing. The resulting images are so dizzying we barely know what's what. Only Mickalene Thomas delivers a style tutorial, art history refresher and a philosophical breakthrough all at once. Fanciest philosophy lesson ever.

mt
Untitled #3, 2014 enamel, acrylic, oil paint, glitter, rhinestones, oil pastel, dry pastel, graphite, and silk screen on wood panel 96 x 80 inches 243.8 x 203.2 cm Courtesy Mickalene Thomas and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong, and ARS (Artists Rights Society), New York Photo by Elisabeth Bernstein



"Tête de Femme" runs until August 8, 2014 at Lehmann Maupin in New York.

Disturbing Animation Imagines A World Where Breathing Is Outlawed

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The London-based animation studio Beakus has created the ultimate dystopian future.

The world of "Last Breath" -- the film posted above, directed by Mak Ying-Ping -- has a lot wrong with it. Chief among the difficulties of living there is that citizens aren't allowed to breathe. And anyone who dares try meets swift punishment.

The plot follows Yeuk Seng, a man who realizes he's become a "social outcast as a breathing person," according to the Vimeo description. "Refusing to give in, he is now struggling to live in a city that he does not belong to anymore."

Surrealist touches like an anti-breathing video game and the fleshed out futuristic landscape make the extreme premise strangely believable. Take a deep breath and check it out above.

Three Generations Of Women Don The Same Outfit In A Perfect Portrait Of Womanhood

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Photographer Nina Röder has imagined a beautiful way to pay homage to the strong matriarchal bonds in her family.

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The concept is simple: three women of three different generations don the same clothing, posing amongst eerily familiar bathroom tiles and ornate furniture. The models are Röder, her mother and her grandmother, and the setting of the series, "Mutters Schuhe (Mother's Shoes)," is Röder's childhood home. From daughter to grandma, the images create a visual continuum across the years.

As the title suggest, the series centers on the artist's mother, a hairdresser and Bavaria native whose personal experiences and memories became the pinpoints for the photographs. "I wanted to tell something about my mothers memories in her youth, because I wanted to get to know my mother better and maybe I wanted to learn indirectly more about myself," Röder explained to HuffPost. "I wanted to see her not only as my mother –- but as a woman who had a life before me. A life full of hopes, first loves, dreams and ideas."

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The clothes in the photos belonged, at one time or another, to Röder's mother, and the series' poses and props stem from recollections of her past. A bouquet of carnations harkens back to a terrible prom date, while a vanity table brings about memories of first experimentations with dress-up. Spanning the facial expressions of daughter to grandmother, each recollection is filtered through the other women, as they model the dresses and stare into the shared mirrors. Perceptions of the past changes ever so slightly from frame to frame.

Overall, "Mutters Schuhe" is a nostalgic tribute to female lineage that oozes with love and respect for the bonds that tie women of one family together. “The personal narrative of my mother and my grandmother effects my life in a very dominant way," Röder said to Feature Shoot. "Almost every artwork I’ve done so far is influenced by conscious or unconscious aspects of family stories."

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Check out more of Röder's work here.

How Physically Intense Is Ballet?

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This post originally appeared on Slate.

ballerina

By Quora Contributor

Answer by Joshua Engel:

Here's one way to look at it: Have a look at what happens to a ballerina's feet. I'm not going to post a picture, because it's not for the weak of stomach, but here's a link to a Google image search.

That kind of damage comes from spending hours a day training. They move as if they don't weigh anything at all, but that's a carefully crafted illusion: They move that way because they are intensely strong. They combine that strength with a grace that comes from practicing the same moves over and over and over until it looks as if it's weightless.

It breaks a body. Most ballet dancers are completely shot by their mid-20s, and many will suffer lifelong disabilities from the effort.

Pound for pound, ballerinas are some of the most intense athletes out there. Not only are they tremendously strong, but they have to do it while looking like little stick figures blowing in the wind. It will come as no surprise that eating disorders are rampant among ballerinas.

Do not let the ease and grace fool you. These are dedicated athletes doing an unbelievably hard thing.

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Answer by Melissa Stroud:

It is very physically demanding and hard on a dancer's body. I studied for about 11 years, three or four of them on pointe. By the time I stopped studying, I was wearing ankle braces and knee wraps on both legs during every practice. Moleskin and Nu-skin are a dancer's best friends and were always applied liberally on the toes before putting on pointe shoes. My feet never got quite as bad as the linked images above, but they were a bit ugly.

Have you ever walked up five flights of stairs? Know how your legs start to burn a little bit? Imagine doing a solid hour of exercises that constantly have you supporting your weight while trying to balance or continuously doing squats while balanced on your toes. The stair example is the best I can think of for people who haven't studied ballet. Leg strength and flexibility are key to preventing serious injury.

I'm sure you've seen dancers who do pas de deux, "dance for two." Looking at it, you would think it's the man doing all the work, lifting his partner, catching her, guiding her. It is just as hard for the woman and requires quite a bit of upper body strength for her as well. When her partner is holding her simply like so, she is keeping her upper body at the correct angle to help keep the balance point. Also, look at his hand holding her leg. She has to keep pushing against his hand to keep her legs at the proper angle.

And think of this iconic lift from Dirty Dancing.

I have personally done this lift, and it is very hard. Yes, my partner had to grab my hips in the right spot and use some of my forward momentum to muscle me over his head, but I had to have my arms and legs positioned and held correctly to help stop the forward momentum once I was up there. And that balance point is very hard to hold. Yes, we practiced on very thick mats for a while until we were sure I wouldn't face-plant. There were a lot of tumbles, though. Not fun.

People tend to misjudge how much strength, stamina, and sheer will are required to dance ballet because the best dancers never let you see anything but the ethereal image they are trying to portray.

Japan's 'Toilenniale' Is Shaping Up To Be The World's Best Toilet-Themed Art Festival

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In news that was bound to happen, a city in Japan is planning what seems to be an ambitious arts festival, with a twist. Oita, a midsize manufacturing city, hopes to "make its mark" by hosting the world's first ever "Toilenniale" next summer, reports Quartz:

The city is commissioning artists and designers to turn 12 of its public lavatories into working art installations with sculptures, murals, and interactive displays. Theatrical performances will be staged inside some of the bathrooms (in stores and public spaces), and a collection of toilets created by outsider artists will be exhibited throughout downtown. For souvenirs, the city plans to sell tiny replicas of “Fountain,” Marcel Duchamp’s famous urinal readymade.


The Japanese love their toilets, as people who collect worldly talking points know. Three-quarters of Japanese homes contain so-called "smart loos," toilets equipped with bidets, heated seats, and automatically opening lids. Some are even smarter, as The Wall Street Journal discovered this year, syncing with smartphones via Bluetooth, so users "can program their preferences and play their favorite music through speakers built into the bowl."

These machines don't need much more publicity, and that's not exactly what the Toilenniale is about.

The focus is on Oita. The Quartz story paints a picture of a city in the process of transformation. Organizers hope to make Oita's downtown into "a museum of modern and marginal art," the artist Eisuke Sato, who sits on the Oita Toilennale Executive Committee, told the publication. Increased tourism is a main goal, as well as urban beautification. Ahead of the festival, public bathrooms, fittingly, are being renovated. Simultaneously, a $196 million train station and commercial complex are in the works, as well as an art museum designed by the Pritzker-winning architect Shigeru Ban.

If it goes through, the Toilenniale won't actually be the first intersection of its kind. One of the most popular sights at this year's Venice Architectural Biennale was the "toilet room." On display inside was a physical timeline of sorts, iconic loos throughout history, from a chariot-shaped Roman stone latrine to the latest Japanese model.

As Sato pointed out to Quartz, the art and toilets aren't so different after all. Toilets and art share an "indispensable" quality. Both are "essential in order to have a life as a human being, not as an animal.”

Eerily Adorable Photo Series Captures Inanimate Objects In Love

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Many of us grow up digesting the mythology of monogamy, hoping if not predicting that someday we will find a partner, a soul mate, even another half, with whom to spend our remaining days. In his photography series "Alone Together," photographer Andrew Lyman extends this lore of everlasting love to the non-human set.

In the vein of Felix Gonzalez-Torres' "Untitled (Perfect Lovers)," Lyman captures unlikely lovers of all shapes, sizes and levels of sentience. The series, titled "Alone Together," features lo-fi pics of ceiling fans, sausages and brick chimneys in everlasting love -- or close proximity, your pick.

alone together


A subtle sense of cynicism looms over Lyman's images, which suggest the loneliness that prevails even in partnership. "In the setting that the photographs exist, there is a push to connect with others and to find someone to spend your life with. Along with this push comes the expectation of a complete and total togetherness," Lyman wrote to the Huffington Post. "There is an eventual point of realization and discovery of your own mental state and its perpetual solitude, transcending physical closeness with others. The photographs in the series evoke contemplation of this experience, through imagery of the mundane, capturing a quiet departure into a somewhat bizarre disconsolate self-investigation."

Not every photo captures something decidedly inanimate, but all seem strangely, for some reason or another, inhuman. One depicts a human couple, both donning plaid shirts, slow dancing, giving the impression that the shirts are in a relationship independent of their wearers. Another captures two long-haired people from behind, their hair eerily floating like creatures all their own.

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"I carried my mom’s old camera around with me for a few months finding these situations that resonated with my feelings towards love and not finding a boyfriend that I really liked," Lyman explained. "I was living in my grandparent’s attic and would come home from parties and going out with friends to being surrounded by wood paneling and weird things that old people collect. I was living a lot of contradictions, and found 'Alone Together' to be characteristic of facets of that experience."

When viewed together, the images resemble an assortment of vintage found photography or an early Juergen Teller shoot. Their gritty aesthetic contributes to their bittersweet message, one suspicious of, yet desperate for love. Check out the bizarre love affairs of painted cats and soap opera stars below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Photo Series Captures The Quiet Dignity Of Search And Rescue Dogs That Served During 9/11

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Not all heroes walk on two legs.

Three years ago, photographer Charlotte Dumas took a look at the search and rescue dogs of 9/11, a decade after the animals worked to find survivors in the rubble of the twin towers and the Pentagon. The result is her "Retrieved" photo series.

"These animals were all at the same place at the same time, one decade ago, for the same reason: to work," Dumas wrote on her website. "That experience unites them, and was the incentive for me to pursue this subject and to photograph the dogs."

Dumas says that the images on the news of these dogs relentlessly searching the rubble day and night stuck with her. Many years after their service, these dogs live all over the U.S., and, with the help of FEMA, Dumas tracked down 15 of them to create these striking portraits of retired canine heroes.

"I can still recall these images clearly," she wrote on her website. "The dogs searched and comforted, they gave consolation to anyone involved. Seeing these pictures, I was also comforted. They somehow emanated a spark of hope amidst this scene of destruction."






To find out more about the "Retrived" series, click here.

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Wine Bottle Lamps Are Finally Getting The Makeover You've Been Waiting For

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As any quick Pinterest search of "wine bottle craft" or "wine bottle DIY" will reveal, it's basically become a crime to throw out those empty glass containers when all the vino is gone. Turn them into candleholders? Sure. Use them as pretty vases for your flowers? Why not. Transform them into impressively gorgeous artisan lamps? Um, we'll let Nutcreatives Studio tackle that one.

The Barcelona-based company partnered with the eco-conscious glass studio Lucirmá and, using recycled bottles, has created a suspended lighting device known as the "LaFlor Lamp". As if the modern, copper lampshade wasn't enough of a compliment, the product comes in three distinguished colors (white, yellow and black-brown) that work in any space and "lasts for generations."

Yes, they'll cost you a pretty penny, but we say the $275 is a much better investment than the frustration that's bound to come with attempting to recreate your own.
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