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This Table For Two Forces You To Be Mindful

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If you have trouble resisting the impulse to check your smartphone while you’re out with friends or having dinner on a date, this table might help: By literally strapping two people together for the duration of the meal, it forces them to pay attention to each other.

“With more and more people addicted to mobile technology, it happens more frequently that people have meals absentmindedly,” says designer Michael Jan, who created the Napkin Table along with fellow industrial design students at Tunghai University in Taiwan. “This inspired us to consider what ideal dining is, and figure out if there is a new dining experience that can draw attention back to the dining table.”

Architect Frank Gehry Attempts To Make The Classic Philadelphia Art Museum Modern

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Traditionalists can rest easy knowing architect Frank Gehry's vision for the Philadelphia Museum of Art does not include wrapping the neoclassical building in his trademark chunky silver swooshes.

But he just might take a chunk out of the famed "Rocky" steps. Gehry was not the obvious choice to design an expansion for the elegant Beaux Arts institution, which is marked by grand columns and golden sandstone. Yet museum officials say they are elated with his proposal to create badly needed gallery space without radically altering the structure.

A new exhibit, "Making a Classic Modern," details Gehry's master plan through several scaled models of the facility and grounds, with cross-sections that look like intricate dollhouses.

"The DNA of this building is so powerful," Gehry said during a preview last month. "I think we're doing something pretty exciting."

Gehry, 85, is known for creating the modern, metallic exteriors of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In Philadelphia, he focused on a massive interior renovation that will allow for more art displays, an education center and amenities like a new cafe.

His blueprint creates underground galleries lit by skylights embedded in the museum's terrace. It relocates the auditorium to open up the building's core, which officials say will improve sight lines and give visitors a better sense of orientation.

The plan also reopens a street-level vaulted walkway that once served as a public entrance but has been closed for about 50 years so staff could use it as a loading area.

The goal was to create more room for a collection that has grown about 20-fold since the museum opened in 1928, said director and CEO Timothy Rub. Officials wanted to expand displays of Asian, American and contemporary art in particular, all while making the building more navigable and letting in more natural light.

The graceful hilltop edifice is an architectural and cultural landmark in the city, beloved for its outer beauty, the art inside and its role as a civic gathering place. So for aesthetic and geographical reasons, the challenge was "to find the future within the building itself," Rub said.

Officials are seeking public and private funds for the initial five years of the project, which Rub said would begin soon and cost about $156 million. Implementing the entire master plan could take a decade, he said, and would add 169,000 square feet of exhibition space.

And what about the museum's famous steps? The outdoor staircase, featured in the movie "Rocky," is ascended countless times each day by joggers, tourists and even wedding parties for its breathtaking skyline view.

Gehry's idea: Build a sunken seating area in the middle of the steps with a window peeking into the art galleries. Museum-goers can look out at the city, and stair climbers can look in.

"It invites people into the museum," president Gail Harrity said. But she stressed it's only a suggestion right now and is not included in the first phase of renovations.

The Gehry exhibit runs through Sept. 1.

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Follow Kathy Matheson at www.twitter.com/kmatheson

These Amazing Before-And-After Drawings Show The Real Value Of Practice

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"For the first couple years you make stuff," public radio host Ira Glass stated once, "it's just not that good. It's trying to be, but it's not."

Glass' pep talk, directed at creatives but applicable to pretty much everyone, may sound familiar. "There is this gap" between your ambitions and reality, he declares, going on to explain how that disappointment is too, well, disappointing for some, who abandon the pursuit of whatever it was they were trying to achieve. "They quit," he said simply.

But eventually, those who practice will have a lot more to show for their efforts. "It's only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap," Glass said. Below we give you before-and-after examples of artists who tried hard to do precisely that in their own work, and it's clearly paid off.



After years of practicing his observation skills, Ethan Tens now works as a graphic designer.

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banksied comparison

Tens explained on Reddit how he improved after he learned to disassociate personal bias from his subject and "see it as pure visual information." That, and a lot of doing what you love.

"All it is is time and practice," he wrote. "I think practice shouldn't be labor."



It took the self-taught Marc Allante nearly two decades to find his own unique style.

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marc allante progress

Allante now works as an artist, but he told The Huffington Post that "a huge part" of his success has been "constant practice." Still, he feels he has more to learn, visiting museums and reading technical guides to pick up any tips he can.

"It is not a static process," Allante said. "I would say to anyone who has passion for art and creating to not stop ... regardless of what gets thrown your way."



Years of drawing celebs has left Ray Sampang with some hyperrealism skills to envy.

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drawing comparison

But Sampang wouldn't want you to compare yourself to him. "In the beginning," he told HuffPost, "I compared myself to other artists that were lightyears ahead of me ... and got frustrated and discouraged when I couldn't match up to them." Sampang is entirely self-taught and credits the tutorials he found online with his improvement.

"As long as you keep at it and continue enjoying what you do," he said, "you'll get to where you want to be."



Self-proclaimed dinosaur enthusiast RJ Palmer credits school for some of his progress.

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But not all of it came from school, Palmer told HuffPost. Although his experience at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco was overwhelmingly positive, simply signing up for classes won't get you all that far. "You have to really want it," he said, "and push yourself really hard to become successful."



Practice, clearly, is one thing you won't regret.
My drawing improvement over six months.

According to Isabella Addison, these two images were drawn only six months (!) apart. She now updates her Instagram feed with new drawings.

This Dead Dutchman Teaches Us That 'Consumerism' Isn't Always A Bad Thing

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We’re deeply suspicious of the word ‘consumerism’; it’s become a stick with which to beat the modern world. Yet consumerism doesn’t have to be stupid. At its best, what the word refers to is a love of the fruits of the earth, a delight in human ingenuity and an appreciation of the vast achievements of organised labour and trade.

This picture by a Dutch artist called Van Utrecht, painted in 1644, takes us to an instructive time long ago when abundance was new and not to be taken for granted.

Graffiti Artist Electrocuted By Third Rail In Brooklyn: Gothamist

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A Queens graffiti artist was electrocuted by the third rail in a subway station in Brooklyn this week. Jason Wulf, 42, who went by the tag DG, was found dead on the subway tracks just before 10 p.m. Wednesday at the 25th Street Station in Sunset Park. Police are unclear whether this is the same person who died after falling onto the subway tracks while trying to switch between cars that evening.

How One Artist Merges The Digital And Physical Future Of Art

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The following is an excerpt from a panel discussion about the future of museums, moderated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist with Taryn Simon, Katharina Fritsch and Jeff Koons. It was held at the meeting of the International Council of Museum Berggruen in Berlin in late June. Click here to read the entire transcript.

Taryn Simon: The museum is so bound to the diagram of the past. As contemporary art is now being produced more and more for the space beyond the walls of the museum, or non-space, the museum has to adjust or even vanish in some instances.

Hans-Ulrich Obrist: That brings us to Image Atlas, which has to do with your work in the context of the museum. How does Image Atlas work?

Taryn Simon: Image Atlas concerns the different ways of thinking about language in the future. It is about the global versus the local; about the loss of language and how we're all communicating now through images and abbreviated text. We communicate much less these days through the considered written word.

Is that creating the possibility for a universal language? Or will that visual language still be subject to the same cultural differences and similarities that exist with the written word?

To explore this, I created a website with the Internet activist Aaron Swartz. Right before his death from suicide last year, we created Image Atlas to directly address that there is a flattening of culture occurring -- in which case we could be discussing the possibility of the global museum. I am, however, also constantly arriving at the need for specificity and thinking about demographics and local population.

The website we developed looks at cultural differences and similarities attached to different terms. You type in a word, phrase or sentence and it translates it into any language in the world.

It then enters the word, phrase or sentence into local search engines throughout the world. In effect, it is automatically curating from the image bank of the world by giving you the top six images associated with that term in the local search engine.

So you can compare what Iran is thinking about one certain term visually with what Afghanistan, America or Germany is thinking and make cross-cultural comparisons.

For example, if you type in “jew,” you will come across pictures of Jude Law since jew in German is Jude, and he is far more popular that the word itself. If you type in Isis, you can see the goddess of fertility and motherhood slowly being replaced by stories about the extremist group ISIS in Iraq.

In this way, you can consider if we are creating a language that is universal or not.

When that work was presented in the museum, it was projected on the walls of the museum, but was not technically in the museum.

Hans-Ulrich Obrist: You alluded to the idea of bringing work back to the museum, which is a problem of digital art in general. The project took place online. So what does it mean to bring the work back to the museum?

Taryn Simon: What it highlights is that the museum of the future really can be the vanguard of education and scholarship. The behavior of what people type into the search engine in the museum versus at home or in other environments is radically different. Having that environment where people are actually contemplating history and taking a quiet moment away from consumerism and distraction does make a visible difference.

Here's What 'Family Guy' Characters Would Look Like In 'Game Of Thrones'

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One gifted artist has merged “Family Guy” and “Game of Thrones” beautifully.

The hilarious "Family Guy" characters take on new life as their Westeros counterparts: Patriarch Pete Griffin is transformed into Ned Stark, the lecherous Quagmire becomes Theon Greyjoy and paralyzed neighbor Joe Swanson is Brandon Stark, to name a few.

The illustrations were posted to Reddit and signed by artist Eric LaSorda on Saturday.

Speaking with The Huffington Post, LaSorda said he was inspired by the "Family Guy" parodies of the "Star Wars" films.

"I knew the types of characters ['Family Guy'] matched in 'Star Wars,' so I tried to mimic that," he said, adding that he hopes his illustrations will inspire "Family Guy" to do a similar parody of the HBO fantasy hit.

Check out the collection below for a wonderful mashup and a good laugh. (Our favorite is Stewie on the Iron Throne.)

























For more of LaSorda's "Game of Thrones"-inspired illustrated mashups, visit his Imgur page.

This post has been updated with a comment from the artist.

Why Pit Bull Prejudice Is 'An Injustice'

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Documentary maker Jeff Theman thinks it's downright un-American to deem a dog dangerous due to nothing more than the way it looks -- which is what happens in jurisdictions across the country that ban pit bulls and dogs that merely look like them.

These "breed specific laws," as they're called, are "an injustice to the dogs who never did anything wrong and usually resulted in death, and the people suffered hardships as well when they are forced to turn over a family member or risk further penalties," Theman says. "They are disguised as a way to enhance community safety, but fail miserably at that task too. How cruel does one have to be to think these laws are actually helpful to any community?"

In his film "Guilty 'Til Proven Innocent," Theman looks at the people and the animals who are affected by that cruelty, including himself.

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Jeff Theman with his dog Preston


Lakewood, the Ohio town where Theman used to live, enacted a pit bull ban in 2008. Faced with the choice between his pits and his home, Theman chose his three dogs. They, in turn, inspired his documentary.

The Huffington Post: What are you hoping viewers get out of "Guilty 'Til Proven Innocent"?

Jeff Theman: I mainly wanted to provide credible information to those unaware about the issue, and inspire them to be the change in their area. I just wanted to dissect the issue and seek the truth, no matter what the end result would be.

I believe we completed that task, and I am incredibly proud to say we represented the issue truthfully, which is probably the reason we have received the support from the national animal welfare organization Best Friends Animal Society. They use our film to send as a tool to legislators around the country who are proposing to implement or repeal breed discriminatory laws.

We have also been contacted by a few other [lawmakers] around the country when they were looking to repeal their laws, so we are indeed getting the response we hoped for. And the satisfaction of it feels pretty good.

The general response has exceeded all our expectations, and we hope this is just the beginning. We have had people email, message us, post on our Facebook page, all the different emotions they felt while we took them on this journey.

Your film features a whole bunch of people whose dogs were seized, or almost seized, in jurisdictions that ban pit bulls. The dogs were given genetic testing -- and were mostly found not to be pit bulls at all. What lessons can we learn from this?

Yes, I think the most blatantly obvious thing about Lakewood and this film is all the dogs shown that were deemed to be pit bulls all have come back with little to no American Staffordshire terrier, or any other breed under the umbrella term "pit bull."

So what does that tell us about the shoddy enforcement of the law? There were only a handful of dogs where the people were able to get their due process. All the others they basically scared enough, where the owner complied and either re-homed the dog outside the city or moved.

To me, the title means the dogs and their owners were automatically guilty, which is of course goes against what our country is supposed stand for -- so it's our job to inform and prove innocence. The effect of these laws is felt on both sides -- the dog and the owner. It became clear early on one of the primary motivating factors for breed specific legislation was to target social and racial classes of people legally. The dogs were used as a tool and excuse of sorts to harass individuals in mostly the urban settings.

One of the politicians in the film says that he'd support a pit bull ban even if it stopped just one child from being bitten. What did you think of that statement? And why not just ban all dogs, then?

I think that statement made by former Ohio senator Neal Zimmers was completely offensive to the men, women and children who were bitten by other breeds. It shows a lack of compassion for those individuals suffering what is a traumatic life altering experience.

Banning all dogs wouldn't even be an option simply because America loves dogs! But, I will add, there are some policies in place that make it extremely difficult to have a dog, especially housing and insurance restrictions. It's not breed specific legislation, but it is often the same outcome: tearing families apart.

You yourself are featured in the film, along with some of your family members both human and canine. The humans can speak for themselves. Tell me all about the canines!

I now live with three dogs, all who came from shelter environments. Preston is the inspiration to the film, and I adopted him on October 4, 2008, from a rescue, after I left Lakewood because of the ban. He was pulled from a shelter in the Akron, Ohio, area. Some of his past is unknown, but he was saved during a drug bust where the owners allegedly used him for fighting. I could go on and on about him, he is my soulmate, but I've written about him a lot and his story can be found on the website.

One thing I will say that will help everybody understand why I say he is my soulmate is because, he was going to be killed on July 28, 2006. My birthday is July 28. His new life started on my birthday.

I decided to foster my girl, Era, on June 30, 2011. I named her Era because it was going to be a new Era in her life, I just didn't know at the time that it was going to be with me. The plan was to foster her for a couple weeks and then she would go on a transport bus off to somewhere in New England. Preston and her were best buds from the moment they met each other, so I couldn't lose her and decided to officially adopt her after a few weeks. She's a pretty girl and she knows it, let me tell you. I nicknamed her Violent Love because she has a knack for hurting me all in the name of kisses.

Fergie was also a Cleveland city kennel dog. In August of 2012, I decided I could do more for rescue, as most of my work was in advocacy, and open my home to foster another dog.

Fergie was very ill, she was diagnosed heartworm positive, among other more treatable ailments. She was scared, and it showed. I had to seclude her from my other two dogs for two months while she was in treatment. Any stimulation could kill her, so she was only allowed out for bathroom breaks and short term couch cuddling.

When it came time to introduce her with my other dogs, it went extremely well. It helped that they all had time to adjust, and it was done slowly. I really wanted to find her a new home, but everybody was begging me to keep her, including my own mother, who was against the idea of me having a third dog in the house since I am single and it is a lot of work when you pile it on top of the other commitments I have.

Needless to say, I gave it one year, and said if she did not find a home by then, I will keep her. I am no longer allowed to foster dogs.






I understand that you've come up with a bucket list for your dogs. How is it going so far?

I came up with a bucket list for Preston mainly. One night a few weeks ago, it became painfully obvious that he is getting old. I was on the couch with the girls, and Preston attempted to jump up too. He missed and fell to the ground. When he got back up we just looked at each other and he let out a little sigh.

I helped him up and thought about some of the others who started bucket lists for their dogs. But the thing that is possibly different with mine is, he is not diagnosed with any terminal illnesses -- yet, at least -- and I didn't want to wait until that moments does happen. It was my way to keep myself in check, so I don't go days without appreciating all that he brings me.

The following day we went and spent some alone time together visiting some of the local famous landmarks within Cleveland that I always wanted to go to, but just never had time. I was able to share those moments with him, which was extremely important to me.

I had wanted to mark off the second item on my list, which was to bring him to a GTPI function, and we had our second screening in Cleveland coming up, but the building we had doesn't allow pets unless they [are] service animals, and I didn't want to take advantage of a law meant to help people out of my own selfishness. Maybe one day we will be able to cross that one off, but not now.

The next item I have is we are planning a road trip to Michigan for an animal conference I am going to. All the details haven't been worked out for that yet, but I am fairly confident we will be able to pull that one off.

I'm constantly adding to the list, and we hope to cross off more in the near future. I just want to make sure I never forget the importance of him -- and my girls, for that matter -- and it is easy to just go on with life and it not hit until something tragic happens.

Do you think things are getting better for pit bulls lately?

Oh, it is day and night better for pit bull dogs. They have definitely become the trendy dog to adopt. Celebrities are shown with them, they are featured in positive news articles nearly every day, are in print ads intended to sell household name products. The comparison isn't even close to what it once was. We still have a little ways to go, and that goes for all dogs, but we have come so far as a society to finally get it.

As far as around the county, we are noticing a progressive movement where cities are repealing these laws at a much faster pace than they are being adopted. This tells me we are turning the corner about how we view the dogs -- and their owners.

If there is one thing I wish people understood about dogs we call pit bulls it's that they are just dogs. Breed simply doesn't matter.

This interview has been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Find out more about Guilty 'Til Proven Innocent here, and get in touch at arin.greenwood@huffingtonpost.com if you've got an animal story to share!

Your Ears Will Thank You For This Acoustic Cover Of Avicii's 'Wake Me Up'

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There is little doubt in our minds that you are familiar with Avicii's smash hit song "Wake Me Up" at this point. For that matter, you've probably heard it at least a few dozen, hundred or possibly even thousand times by now.

What you haven't heard, but need to immediately listen to, is an acoustic cover by Sam Meador on a percussive guitar in this video posted by Erthe and Axen Records.

Okay, why are you still reading? Click play to take in this incredible performance! Trust us, your ears will thank you for it.

Why John Green Loves Wearing Makeup

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While getting ready for a recent appearance on "The Colbert Report," John Green revealed that he really likes wearing makeup and that he finally understands why some girls do, too.

"I confess that in high school I was one of those guys who was like, 'You don't need to wear makeup, you're beautiful just the way you are,'" he admits in the video above that was posted to his YouTube account, vlogbrothers.

But now, the author realizes that girls don't apply makeup in hopes that guys will tell them they're beautiful -- girls wear makeup for themselves, the same way Green isn't putting on makeup to impress audiences.

"It's like really beautiful armor because it makes me feel more confident and somehow kind of protected as I go through my day," he said.

In the "about" section on YouTube, Green also lists his favorite makeup tutorials and makeup gurus he has been following. We knew we loved this guy!

These Photos Show A Side Of Australia Rarely Seen

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the other hundred
"The Other Hundred" is a unique photo book project aimed as a counterpoint to the Forbes 100 and other media rich lists by telling the stories of people around the world who are not rich but whose lives, struggles and achievements deserve to be celebrated. Its 100 photo stories move beyond the stereotypes and clichés that fill so much of the world's media to explore the lives of people whose aspirations and achievements are at least as noteworthy as any member of the world's richest 1 percent.


Wilcannia, Australia
Photographer: David Maurice Smith


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Sunno sits before his home in Wilcannia, one of the most remote communities of New South Wales.

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In preparation for winter, Sunno hauls firewood to his home with his nephew and a friend.

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More from The Other Hundred
Cairo's Blind, Female Orchestra
The Reality Of Education In Liberia
One Way Dubai's Migrant Workers Spend Their Day Off

How To Make An Even BETTER Hit Pop Song

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A couple weeks ago, comedian Brett Domino had us laughing when he taught the world how to make a hit pop song. Plus, his hilarious insights earned him over a million views.

However, since we all want to keep sharpening our musical skills, Domino has released a Part 2 (above) that is equally watch-worthy.

On the bright side, his new example song is inspired by Iggy Azalea. But on the dark side, he delves deep into the depths of autotune and adds a hashtag -- circa the infamous #Thicke from "Blurred Lines" -- to the mix.

It's all so real. But still, so good.

'Pageant: The Musical' Star Marty Thomas On Becoming A Southern Beauty Queen

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Having left his mark on Broadway and New York’s cabaret scene, Marty Thomas sees his latest role as a full-circle moment.

The 34-year-old actor dons sequined gowns and stiletto heels as one of the six stars of Off-Broadway’s “Pageant: The Musical,” which is billed as “Miss America meets ‘The Birdcage.’” Although it's his first proper experience in drag, Thomas says the part of Miss Deep South is a perfect fit, as his inspiration during his early years in theater was his older sister, Amy -- herself a competitive beauty queen in the ‘80s.

“I don’t know if I would be a performer if it weren’t for her,” Thomas, who jokingly refers to the Miss America Pageant as “my Super Bowl,” says. “She taught me how to sing, she taught me how to be onstage. Because she was teaching me how to be onstage while she was in pageants … so much of my stage persona is built on what it means to be a pageant girl, and I’m a man.”

Thomas, whose Broadway resume includes stints in “Wicked” and “Xanadu,” says Amy and his family are thrilled by his “Pageant” turn. Currently in previews at New York’s Davenport Theatre, the musical offers audiences the chance to witness its all-male cast -- which includes Nick Cearly, Alex Ringler and Curtis Wiley -- face off in hilarious pursuit of the coveted Miss Glamouresse crown.

Check out photos of "Pageant: The Musical," then scroll down to keep reading:


Written by two-time Tony nominee Bill Russell (“Side Show”), Albert Evans and Frank Kelly, “Pageant” was first staged in New York in 1991. The 2014 revival was first staged as a special five-show engagement benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in February, which quickly sold out.

The 1991 production, which opened at the Blue Angel, preceded the drag trend that has been thriving in a variety of incarnations on and off Broadway in recent years, from the smash 2010 revival of “La Cage aux Folles” to 2014’s “Casa Valentina.”

What makes “Pageant” unique, however, is that the six beauty queens are presented in the context of the musical as legitimate women, even though men play the characters. In addition, the audience is given the opportunity to select the winner each night, lending the show a level of spontaneity not enjoyed by its predecessors.

“We never talk about the fact that we’re men in dresses because it’s not a thing; we’re playing legitimate women,” Thomas notes. Still, he says that conceit presents some unusual challenges for him and his co-stars. “You can’t just go by the standby strikes or clichés of drag queens. It’s a celebration, rather than a camp mimicking, of women, as can only be told through the voice of gay men.”

So what has Thomas learned most from his stint as a competitive pageant queen? Among other things, he says, is the ability to be a team player as well as a star.

“You’re a constant politician in a swimsuit,” he quips.

Currently in previews, "Pageant: The Musical" opens at New York's Davenport Theatre on July 14. Head here for more information.

Original 'Dreamgirl' Sheryl Lee Ralph Remembers Dramatic Run-In With Diana Ross (VIDEO)

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Back in the '80s, the production "Dreamgirls" was taking Broadway by storm. It sold out theaters, produced chart-topping singles and earned 13 Tony Award nominations, winning six. At the center of the excitement was actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, whose character rose to fame as the lead singer of an African-American girl group in the 1960s -- a story rumored to be inspired by The Supremes and lead vocalist Diana Ross.

For three decades, those rumors have persisted, but Ralph tells "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" that from the very beginning, "Dreamgirls" writer Tom Eyen was simply intent on casting three African-American women as a singing trio.

"He cast specifically, but he was always very clear: He said, 'If you play Diana Ross, they will sue us,'" Ralph recalls.

Still, a Broadway urban legend swirled throughout the community that Ross snuck into the theater and watched "Dreamgirls" incognito. "There was a rumor that she would come in -- shrouded, dark glasses -- and sat in the back... and wasn't happy," Ralph says.

Ralph had never met Ross herself -- until a memorable lunch one winter at the famed restaurant Sardi's. Ralph was dining with her agent when the legendary singer walked in.

"Who breezes in like a warm breeze of summer in the middle of winter? Diana Ross," Ralph says.

Ralph walked over to Ross to introduce herself.

"I say, 'Miss Ross... I'm Sheryl Lee--' and she says, 'Ralph. I know who you are,'" Ralph deadpans.

Ralph quickly turned around and went back to her table, as her agent offered his sympathy over the icy encounter. But that wasn't the last time the women would meet. The next time, it turned out differently.

"Years later, I would see her again," Ralph says. "We talked about our children, we talked about life and that was that. I was very happy."

"Oprah: Where Are They Now?" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.



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Nude Bodies Transformed Into Vivid Masterpieces At World Bodypainting Festival 2014

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The World Bodypainting Festival bills itself as "most colorful event in the world." This year's event, a wild bash of eye-popping design, psychedelic colors and quirky headgear, was no exception.

At the 17th annual event, which ran from June 29 to July 6, artists from around the world descended on Pörtschach, Austria, to show off their masterpieces, worn by nude models painted from head to toe. Forty-seven countries competed in the pop art-themed event for top honors in the disciplines of body painting and special effects makeup.

Winners were named across a number of artistic categories including brush and sponge, airbrush, special effects makeup, special effects body painting, face painting and creative makeup. There was also a nighttime competition for the best use of ultraviolet paint.

Americans Scott Fray and Madelyn Greco took home first places for face painting and UV effects. Riina Laine, of Finland, won first place in the brush and sponge category. First place in the airbrush category went to Alex Hansen, of Brazil. Lorie Hamel, of Canada, earned top honors for special effects makeup. Austria's Gabriela Hajek-Renner earned the world champion title for special effects body painting. Russia's Alla Voronova took first place for best creative makeup.

Take a look at the photos below to see some of the stunning works on display at the 2014 World Bodypainting Festival.

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Study Says Making Art Is Good For Your Brain, And We Say You Should Listen

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“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life," so Pablo Picasso once famously proclaimed. Though we expect the pompous Cubist was being his usual haughty self when he uttered the well known quote, his belief in art's transcendent qualities might not be too far from the scientific mark.

New cognitive research out of Germany suggests that "the production of visual art improves effective interaction” between parts of the brain. The study, conducted on a small population of newly retired individuals (28 people between the ages of 62 and 70), concludes that making art could delay or even negate age-related decline of certain brain functions.

Essentially, if art isn't washing away the dust accumulating on your soul, it might be cleaning up your brain instead.

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Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" in Reina Sofia National Art Museum (Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia) with visitors in foreground.


To explore the idea, illuminated by the study's title, "How Art Changes Your Brain: Differential Effects of Visual Art Production and Cognitive Art Evaluation on Functional Brain Connectivity," researches gathered together 14 men and 14 women and randomly engaged half of them in a hands-on art class and the other half in an art appreciation course.

Those enrolled in the hands-on art workshop attended one weekly, two-hour class in which they learned painting and drawing techniques and produced their own original art. Those enrolled in the appreciation course learned from an art historian how to analyze paintings and took part in group critiques.

The study lasted for a period of 10 weeks, in which scientists at the University Hospital Erlangen tested the participants twice -- once before classes began and once at the end -- using fMRI technology and a scale meant to measure emotional resilience.

After comparing the before-and-after tests, the team led by neurologists Anne Bolwerk and Christian Maihofner observed “a significant improvement in psychological resilience" as well increased levels of "functional connectivity" in the brain amongst participants of the visual art production group. The art-appreciation group fared worse on both.

pollock painting
Jackson Pollack making art.


So why did those who made art experience more improvement than the art-appreciators? Bolwerk and Maihofner are not sure, but they pose some possible explanations.

"The improvements in the visual art production group may be partially attributable to a combination of motor and cognitive processing. Other recent fMRI studies have demonstrated enhancements in the functional connectivity between the frontal, posterior, and temporal cortices after the combination of physical exercises and cognitive training. The participants in our study were required to perform the cognitive tasks of following, understanding, and imitating the visual artist’s introduction. Simultaneously, the participants had to find an individual mode of artistic expression and maintain attention while performing their activity. Although we cannot provide mechanistic explanations, the production of visual art involves more than the mere cognitive and motor processing described. The creation of visual art is a personal integrative experience –- an experience of 'flow,' – in which the participant is fully emerged in the creative activity."


While the study was small, its conclusions are intriguing, and could shed light on art's effect on aging individuals. "Picasso and Matisse produced work until their deaths at ages 91 and 84, respectively, while Louise Bourgeois...worked steadily until she died at 98. Their art was driven by fervent creative passion, but what if it was also the thing keeping them lucid?" Hyperallergic's Laura C. Mallonee asks.

As Judy Chicago remarked in a past interview with HuffPost, "Artists don’t retire. Every artist’s dream is to drop dead while they’re working." Maybe it's not their dream, it's just their M.O.

For more on art's relationship to the mind, check out NeuroImage's article on artist's increased amounts of grey matter and some University of Toronto researchers' exploration of our brain's capacity for enjoying art.

See the entire "How Art Changes Your Brain" article, published on PLOS One, here.

Carter Cleveland Says Art in the Future Will Be for Everyone

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Before talking about the future of art, I'd like to draw your attention to the past, to another form of human expression: music.

Pre-20th century, the music world in the West resembled the art world today. If you listened to professional music, were informed about the genre and attended performances, you were part of an elite class.

Oscar-Winning Film 'Black Orpheus' To Be Adapted For Broadway

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NEW YORK (AP) — With all eyes on Brazil and the World Cup, Broadway is getting into the act with plans to adapt the Oscar-winning film "Black Orpheus" for the stage.

Producers said Monday that Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage will write the story and Tony Award-winner George C. Wolfe will direct. The musical will have its world premiere on Broadway, but no timetable was set. "Black Orpheus" is the 1959 film by Marcel Camus, recreating the Orpheus and Eurydice myth in the Rio de Janeiro Carnival. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes that year and also a Golden Globe and an Oscar for best foreign-language film a year later. The soundtrack popularized the nascent genre of bossa nova.

The original movie — based on a play by Brazilian poet, lyricist, and playwright Vinicius de Moraes — was a French-Italian-Brazilian production directed by Marcel Camus and starred Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello. The new musical's producers will be Stephen Byrd, Alia Jones-Harvey and Paula Marie Black.

"We are so thrilled to bring this classic piece of Brazilian popular culture to life onstage," Byrd said in a statement. "The World Cup is providing a wonderful international platform for Brazil right now, and we look forward to further spotlighting this legacy on Broadway."

Set against the exotic pageantry of Carnival, "Black Orpheus" tells the story of a couple who fall in love during Carnival and are forced to take a mystical journey to the underworld. The soundtrack introduced Antonio Carlos Jobim, who wrote "A Felicidade," which opens the film, and Luiz Bonfa, who composed "Manha de Carnaval " and "Samba de Orfeu — the three tunes that became bossa nova classics.

The film got some renewed attention in the past year when the rock band Arcade Fire drew on the myth and the movie for its latest album, "Reflektor."

Nottage won a Pulitzer Prize for her play "Ruined," and her other works include "Intimate Apparel" and "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark." Playwright and director Wolfe has won Tonys for "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches" and for "Bring in da Noise/Bring in da Funk."

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Mark Kennedy can be reached at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

The Book We're Talking About: 'Land of Love And Drowning' By Tiphanie Yanique

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Land of Love and Drowning
by Tiphanie Yanique
Riverhead Books, $27.95
Publishes July 10, 2014

The Book We're Talking About is a weekly review combining plot description and analysis with fun tidbits about the book.

What we think:
One of the last sections of Tiphanie Yanique’s Land of Love and Drowning begins with an epigraph from Derek Walcott. She explains in her Author’s Note that it is his full response to the question “What makes Caribbean literature unique?” Walcott’s succinct reply: “It may seem so simple to say that it is sea. But it is the sea” -- an apt epigraph for a Caribbean epic awash in sea and sand and island air.

The ocean laps through Yanique’s intergenerational epic, infusing it with a sense of magic only compounded by the magical realism elements. The story -- roughly based on Yanique’s own family’s history -- unfolds on breezy beaches, during salty night swims, and in seaside towns over the course of three twisted, troubled generations.

When Captain Owen Arthur Bradshaw drowns in a shipwreck off Anegada, just after the Virgin Islands became American territory, he leaves behind a too-beloved teenage daughter, her redhaired younger sister, and an unacknowledged son with the local Obeah woman. As the decades pass, the three siblings struggle to find stability and fulfillment in a small world, circumscribed by the shores of their islands, where so much is repressed and hidden.

Unable to discern their true relationships to each other, and to those who came before them, the three are even less able to understand the eerie happenings that mark them apart from normal families. Meanwhile, their own children arrive, into a tumultuous and rapidly modernizing island world, as the Virgin Islands lurch irrevocably and uncomfortably into postwar American society, with all the TV news and acquisitive white tourists and civil rights activism that implies. Their children feel the lure of the American mainland and culture, but neither are they free from their family’s supernatural strain and the tie to the islands it seems to signify.

To tell this tale, Yanique switches between several narrators -- proper Eona, the ravishing eldest daughter who has been denied her birthright; openhearted Anette, who never knew her parents and longs for a man to give her a family; occasionally Jacob, their secret half-brother; and a third-person narrative that at times feels more like a collective St. Thomas voice. Anette and Eona’s voices vibrate with humanity, allowing the reader to slip easily into their different but deeply intertwined consciousnesses. But the omniscient narration sometimes feels more like a stopgap, with uneven prose and occasionally forceful theme explication. Though Yanique often successfully evokes the blue-green clarity of the sea in her luminous, sun-dappled prose, at other times she seems to be striving too hard to evoke it. Characters are described as “streaming” from the room unfortunately often.

These awkward moments don’t prevent Land of Love and Drowning from painting a vivid, almost hyper-real world, or from weaving a compelling story. Though rough at points, Yanique's debut novel bursts with imagination and intoxicating atmosphere, and the deeply felt characters at its heart demand to be heard.

What other reviewers think:
Kirkus: "Bubbling with talent and ambition, this novel is a head-spinning Caribbean cocktail."

Publishers Weekly: "Through the voices and lives of its native people, Yanique offers an affecting narrative of the Virgin Islands that pulses with life, vitality, and a haunting evocation of place."

Who wrote it?
Tiphanie Yanique, who is from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, was named one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” in 2011. Her short story collection, How to Escape from a Leper Colony, was published in 2010. Land of Love and Drowning is her first novel.

Who will read it?
Lovers of magical realism and sweeping family sagas. Also, readers who gravitate to tropical, seaside settings.

Opening lines:
“Owen Arthur Bradshaw watched as the little girl was tied up with lace and silk. He jostled the warm rum in his glass and listened to the wind.”

Notable passage:
“I pitch myself into the flat and close the door. I lean against the door and believe I could feel it pulsing. Like the building have an ocean waving through it.
“This too wild and fast to be love. But it is. Like in the movies, only for real. These things happen, I telling you. Not always with songs playing, except for the one singing in your own skin. People can need each other like water.”

Rating, out of ten:
7. Land of Love and Drowning, though uneven, offers a thoughtful blend of magical realism as intoxicating as the “rum and Coca Cola” sung about throughout.

Read an excerpt of Land of Love and Drowning:

Britney Spears' 'Alien' Without Auto-Tune Is Not Meant To Be Heard

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This might not be the first time we've heard a Britney Spears track without any Auto-Tune enhancement, but it doesn't mean it makes us cringe any less this time around.

On July 2, the unedited vocal version of Spears' track "Alien," off of her most recent album, "Britney Jean," leaked. As the video picked up steam, track producer William Orbit posted a statement Monday, July 7, explaining that the track is a vocal warm-up session, not Spears' final take.

"I'd like to affirm that ANY singer when first at the mic at the start of a long session can make a multitude of vocalisations in order to get warmed up," Orbit wrote. "Warming up is essential if you’re a pro, as it is with a runner doing stretches, and it takes a while to do properly. I’ve heard all manner of sounds emitted during warm-ups. The point is that it is not supposed to be shared with millions of listeners.

"A generous singer will put something down the mic to help the engineer get their systems warmed up and at the right level, maybe whilst having a cup of herb tea and checking through lyrics before the session really kicks off. It’s not expected to be a ‘take.'"

Listen to the track below, and decide for yourself whether this is a warm-up or the real deal.

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