In its movies, Marvel loves throwing subtle -- sometimes not-quite-so subtle -- nods to comics, television shows and other films in its expansive catalog. MTV News undertook the great task of compiling as many Easter eggs as they could find into one video, from "Iron Man" to "Thor: The Dark World," making sure to point out all of Stan Lee's fantastic cameos along the way. While there are certainly some deeper gems unearthed, and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" are absent, it's still impressive, and can only mean there's more to come.
Nearly Every Marvel Easter Egg Compiled Into One Video
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Brandy Tearfully Opens Up To Oprah About Her Involvement In Fatal Car Accident (VIDEO)
On Dec. 30, 2006, Brandy was driving home when she was involved in a fatal car accident on the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles. One of the other drivers, Awatef Aboudiha, a 38-year-old mother of two, died from her injuries the following day.
Though an investigation determined that there was insufficient evidence to charge the singer with manslaughter, Brandy continues to carry with her the pain stemming from her involvement, as she tells Oprah on a recent episode of "Oprah: Where Are They Now?"
"Being involved in something that tragic... I couldn't believe it," she says in the above video. "I don't think that's something I could ever get over or ever truly understand, but that was one of the worst times in my life."
Following the accident, Brandy says she communicated with Aboudiha's loved ones. "I did speak to her family," she tells Oprah.
As Aboudiha's family tried to heal, Brandy faced verbal attacks and harsh judgment from the public. The experience taught her something very profound. "I realized that God is real," Brandy says. "Because I had no one else to turn to. I had no one else to depend on."
Feeling alone, Brandy says she turned to her faith to help cope.
"I did a lot of speaking to God," she says. "A lot of praying and a lot of journaling. A lot of Gospel music."
"Oprah: Where Are They Now?" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.
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Though an investigation determined that there was insufficient evidence to charge the singer with manslaughter, Brandy continues to carry with her the pain stemming from her involvement, as she tells Oprah on a recent episode of "Oprah: Where Are They Now?"
"Being involved in something that tragic... I couldn't believe it," she says in the above video. "I don't think that's something I could ever get over or ever truly understand, but that was one of the worst times in my life."
Following the accident, Brandy says she communicated with Aboudiha's loved ones. "I did speak to her family," she tells Oprah.
As Aboudiha's family tried to heal, Brandy faced verbal attacks and harsh judgment from the public. The experience taught her something very profound. "I realized that God is real," Brandy says. "Because I had no one else to turn to. I had no one else to depend on."
Feeling alone, Brandy says she turned to her faith to help cope.
"I did a lot of speaking to God," she says. "A lot of praying and a lot of journaling. A lot of Gospel music."
"Oprah: Where Are They Now?" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.
Like Us On Facebook | 
Follow Us On Twitter↧
Chris Pratt Never Forgot About Dre, Crushes Eminem Verse
Call Tuesday off, since this is the best thing anyone will watch on the Internet during the next 16 hours. "Guardians of the Galaxy" star Chris Pratt recently appeared on "The Whoolywood Shuffle" with DJ Whoo Kid, and when the discussion turned to musical taste, the 35-year-old revealed his love for Eminem's "The Slim Shady LP" and Dr. Dre's "Chronic 2001." To prove his bona fides, Pratt then rapped Eminem's verse from Dr. Dre's "Forgot About Dre." Add this video to Pratt's wall full of plaques. He's our king now.
[via Vulture]
[via Vulture]
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Radio DJ Elvis Duran Reflects On His Career As He Celebrates His Milestone 50th Birthday
Since he was a child, Elvis Duran wanted to be on the radio.
"I had a little radio and I listened to music in my bedroom when I was supposed to be sleeping," Duran told HuffPost Entertainment. "I was probably 6 or 7 years old and I loved the DJs who would come on and talk about the artists and the songs they were singing and they gave away prizes. I was like, 'This is a cool job!' I loved how they used theater of the mind, and colorful words to describe things -- I thought that was so me," he continued. "So as I say to people, I was seduced by radio at a very early age. Before 10 years old, I knew exactly what I wanted to do."
For the past two decades, Duran has fulfilled that childhood dream: He's the host of Z100's beloved radio program, "Elvis Duran and The Morning Show" (formerly "Elvis Duran and the Z Morning Zoo"), which originates from New York, but airs in over 70 markets, including Philadelphia, Miami, Cleveland, St. Louis and Austin. With more than seven million listeners per week, Duran hosts the No. 1 nationally syndicated and Top-40 radio show in the country.
Over the last 20 years, Duran has interviewed almost every artist in the music industry. As listeners know, he's always interested in the day's trending topics, the Daily Sleaze (a gossip segment) and, of course, phone taps. Duran turns 50 on Aug. 5, and he celebrated the milestone by giving HuffPost Entertainment a run-down of his career thus far.
You're turning 50! Tell me about this milestone and how you're feeling.
I'm feeling great about it. A lot of people freak out when they start turning these benchmark numbers and I think that's so silly because there's nothing you can do about it. Hello! But I think it's great because I'm starting to really notice life from a different set of eyes. I'm much more mindful of who's around me, where I'm going, what I'm doing and what I'm smelling and eating. I think it's a wonderful thing turning 50. I think everyone should do it at least once.
What are you looking to accomplish in the coming years?
I'm definitely not even thinking of retiring. Look, it would be great to be on a beach and doing nothing for a while, but what we do, our passions, are who we are -- and this is what I love and going to work every day and working with my favorite friends ... I can't imagine not doing this. But as far as new options, I think there aren't any! I mean this is it. Oh, shit, this is it! Maybe I'll start waking up later and doing something later in the day, but other than that, I can't really see myself doing anything else. I love it so much, I can't imagine.
![elvis mariah]()
Elvis with Mariah Carey in 1990.
How did you begin your career? Did you major in radio or broadcasting in college?
I actually got a job at a little local radio station in suburban Dallas before I was in college. I was in high school -- I was 14 years old, actually, very young. And then when I went to college, I studied some radio courses and I was already doing major market radio in Dallas on the weekends and all of the professors were just saying the wrong things and I didn't know what they were talking about. So I actually flunked out of Radio 101 because I was doing it and I didn't agree with what they were saying. So, I just started doing it. That's the best way to get into it.
Do you have a favorite interning experience?
I never interned. The first job I ever had was a very low-paying job, and the guy running the radio station was so poor, he couldn't pay us sometimes -- so it's almost like an internship, right? The little station I worked for had no listeners whatsoever, so it was a great training ground for someone at 14 years old. To prove my point, I went on the air and offered $50 to the fifth caller, and no one called! I knew then I was destined for greatness.
What's the best advice you got along the way?
Be yourself. It's very simple, but if you want to be a communicator in your business, my business or any business, never underestimate who's listening to you, because they know if you're full of crap or not. People are very smart. So if you're yourself, they may not like what you're saying, but they should at least appreciate that it's coming from a very honest place. Honesty and being yourself, I think that's the best advice I ever got.
Speaking of being yourself, you publicly came out in 2010, but you told HuffPost last year that you never were closeted on the air, you just chose not to make a big deal about it. Still, did anything change after that moment? Or were you exactly the same person?
I don't think I'm a different person, but as far as on the show, it really was a lesson of my own advice, and that was to be yourself and be honest. Being able to talk about my private life, my personal life, was very freeing. It was just a great experience. And I was always the host of the party and I encouraged everyone else on the show to give everything and talk about your private life, because people want to hear it so they can relate, and I never really gave myself a chance to do that. And I wasn't hiding from being gay. It's just ... I never wanted it to be the "Elvis is Gay" show, and I was afraid it would become that. I didn't want that to be my whole self. And it turns out, I was wrong the whole time, it never took over. I'm still me, no matter if I'm gay or straight or whatever. But it did give me license to be more free and to tell it like it is. I learned something from that, I really did.
![elvis duran]()
Elvis in studio on August 12, 2013.
I think you are extremely inspiring and definitely a voice of our generation. How does it make you feel to know there are millions of people listening to you every morning?
It makes me feel great. At the end of the day, this is a business and there are some people sitting in a room somewhere making a lot of money from our shows [laughs]. But you know what? Our success in our circle comes from getting in there and having fun every day. It's crazy that they actually pay us to come in here and have fun. But it makes me feel good when we meet people on the street or on the phones or on social media that are actually responding to what we're saying -- it's good to get that recognition.
You started on "The Morning Show" in 1996, almost 20 years ago. Sum up the experience working for Z100.
It's great, because I used to do afternoons in a room by myself playing songs in a row and all that stuff. And I never got to stop the music and talk to people and interact with people. They really want you to "keep the music going! Stop talking!" And that's not me! You can tell while you're talking to me, I like to talk [laughs]. But, on "The Morning Show," we're allowed to bring our friends on with us and have conversations with them and get people on the phone and learn about the lives of people around the world. I love that, that's my favorite part. Being able to interact and respond to people, I get such a high from it. As long as you're listening to what people are saying, there's so much to learn.
Who's the first artist you ever interviewed?
I know I interviewed some artists that I can't even remember because either I was stoned or they don't have careers anymore. But, I remember interviewing Tina Turner way back in the day and I remember Jon Bon Jovi a long time ago, back before they were anything. I don't remember what we talked about, because like I said, I think we were having cocktails! [laughs] That hasn't changed.
![elvis duran jon bon jovi]()
Elvis with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora on September 21, 2012.
Do you have an embarrassing story from when you interviewed anyone?
I think every time I meet anyone, I embarrass myself to a certain degree. I could tell you, we've interviewed almost everyone. There's a few we haven't gotten to, but from the '80s and '90s, all of music's biggest stars, we've interviewed, and also a lot of movie and TV stars, and I still get more impressed by regular people who do big things -- raise money for people and help others. I get more of a thrill out of that. If you told me Justin Timberlake was coming in tomorrow, I would be very excited about it, but just as excited to interview someone who just raised a ton of money for a family who lost their house. After years, the celebrities aren't celebrities anymore. It's kind of weird, do you understand what I'm saying?
![elvis duran justin timberlake]()
Elvis with Justin Timberlake and Bobby Bones on September 21, 2013.
I totally get that. When you meet them in person and you're chatting, you honestly can't believe it was such a big deal, because they're sort of normal! But like, to me, you're a celebrity, I love you and grew up listening to you.
I'm not a celebrity! That's so weird you said that.
To some of us, you are! For example, my mom was freaking out that I was talking to you today.
Ugh, I love your mom. What's your mom's name?
Mary.
You tell Mary that Elvis said hi! You know what it is? Here's the difference between a celebrity and a radio person: [A DJ] is someone you listen to every morning, or hopefully, and are a part of your life, just like your toothbrush or your car. A celebrity, to me, is someone you see once and a while and they have the best life of all time and they always look glamorous, you know? We're just normal Joes who come in every day and tell fart jokes. [laughs] But, I'm glad you listen, and you tell Mary I said hi.
Oh, I will! Who's your favorite artist you've ever met or interviewed?
We've had so many fantastic interviews and artists. You know, Gaga always comes to mind because she's always been so great for us. Enrique Iglesias always is great. It's neat when people you interview aren't afraid to open up and talk about things from the heart and the soul. And we've had so many of them -- I don't even know where to start. I'm at a loss for words.
![elvis duran lady gaga]()
Elvis with Lady Gaga on October 27, 2009.
In your opinion right now, who is the artist of the moment or who is going to explode?
We had Jessie J on and she's been a superstar in every country in the world except for the U.S. This is her third album coming out and she never really clicked here for some reason. Her single "Bang Bang" came out and it's No. 1 on iTunes, and everyone is saying, you know what, she's about to come into her own here in the U.S. Charli XCX is doing great, Iggy Izalea, of course, Sam Smith. But there's a lot of great music out there right now and it's an exciting time to be doing what we're doing. To be able to talk to them one-on-one about where their music comes from and to be able to get into their heads and into their hearts, what a great career! How much fun is that? It's great to get to know people.
![elvis duran lady gaga]()
Elvis with Sam Smith on June 17, 2014.
How often are you recognized? Do people know your face or just your voice?
Because of social media and a little bit of TV, yeah, I'm recognized a little bit. The voice, definitely. You know what I get a lot of? I get someone saying, "Gosh, you look familiar, but I can't figure it out." And I'll just go, "No, I don't think we've met before, but I don't know." [laughs] I don't know how real celebrities deal with it, because I know down the street from my house, there are hotels the paparazzi are always hanging outside of and waiting for whatever celebrity is coming or going, and I can't imagine what that's like, so again, that's a celebrity. I don't think I'd want that at all.
Did you ever oversleep and miss an airing of the show?
One time, I overslept and I was about five minutes late. That's it!
Wow, one time in how many years?!
I mean, I've called in sick, but I'll let them know the day before ... when I start to pretend to be sick. [laughs]
What do you think is the hardest thing about your job?
Waking up before 10. [laughs] No, we have so much fun from 6 to 10 a.m. and then sometimes after 10 o'clock we have to get to work and we have to organize and do those things that people in the business do, which I find so icky. Luckily, I'm surrounded by some of the people that do a lot of that, so I get to have fun, but other than that, I can't think of anything about my job that's all that awful. I'd like to sleep in, but what are you going to do, you know?
Lastly, I want to give you the chance to talk to your fans and say whatever is on your mind as you celebrate this big milestone.
Oh my God, you're putting me on the spot, Leigh! What do I say? [pause] Thanks for the opportunity to come on and do what I love every day. I know that that's kind of simple, but it's true. Without listeners, we wouldn't be here, so there you go! It'll all come crashing down one day, but until then, we're going to have a lot of fun.
Happy Birthday, Elvis Duran!
Listen to some birthday messages to Elvis from some of his biggest celebrity fans:
"I had a little radio and I listened to music in my bedroom when I was supposed to be sleeping," Duran told HuffPost Entertainment. "I was probably 6 or 7 years old and I loved the DJs who would come on and talk about the artists and the songs they were singing and they gave away prizes. I was like, 'This is a cool job!' I loved how they used theater of the mind, and colorful words to describe things -- I thought that was so me," he continued. "So as I say to people, I was seduced by radio at a very early age. Before 10 years old, I knew exactly what I wanted to do."
For the past two decades, Duran has fulfilled that childhood dream: He's the host of Z100's beloved radio program, "Elvis Duran and The Morning Show" (formerly "Elvis Duran and the Z Morning Zoo"), which originates from New York, but airs in over 70 markets, including Philadelphia, Miami, Cleveland, St. Louis and Austin. With more than seven million listeners per week, Duran hosts the No. 1 nationally syndicated and Top-40 radio show in the country.
Over the last 20 years, Duran has interviewed almost every artist in the music industry. As listeners know, he's always interested in the day's trending topics, the Daily Sleaze (a gossip segment) and, of course, phone taps. Duran turns 50 on Aug. 5, and he celebrated the milestone by giving HuffPost Entertainment a run-down of his career thus far.
You're turning 50! Tell me about this milestone and how you're feeling.
I'm feeling great about it. A lot of people freak out when they start turning these benchmark numbers and I think that's so silly because there's nothing you can do about it. Hello! But I think it's great because I'm starting to really notice life from a different set of eyes. I'm much more mindful of who's around me, where I'm going, what I'm doing and what I'm smelling and eating. I think it's a wonderful thing turning 50. I think everyone should do it at least once.
What are you looking to accomplish in the coming years?
I'm definitely not even thinking of retiring. Look, it would be great to be on a beach and doing nothing for a while, but what we do, our passions, are who we are -- and this is what I love and going to work every day and working with my favorite friends ... I can't imagine not doing this. But as far as new options, I think there aren't any! I mean this is it. Oh, shit, this is it! Maybe I'll start waking up later and doing something later in the day, but other than that, I can't really see myself doing anything else. I love it so much, I can't imagine.
Elvis with Mariah Carey in 1990.
How did you begin your career? Did you major in radio or broadcasting in college?
I actually got a job at a little local radio station in suburban Dallas before I was in college. I was in high school -- I was 14 years old, actually, very young. And then when I went to college, I studied some radio courses and I was already doing major market radio in Dallas on the weekends and all of the professors were just saying the wrong things and I didn't know what they were talking about. So I actually flunked out of Radio 101 because I was doing it and I didn't agree with what they were saying. So, I just started doing it. That's the best way to get into it.
Do you have a favorite interning experience?
I never interned. The first job I ever had was a very low-paying job, and the guy running the radio station was so poor, he couldn't pay us sometimes -- so it's almost like an internship, right? The little station I worked for had no listeners whatsoever, so it was a great training ground for someone at 14 years old. To prove my point, I went on the air and offered $50 to the fifth caller, and no one called! I knew then I was destined for greatness.
What's the best advice you got along the way?
Be yourself. It's very simple, but if you want to be a communicator in your business, my business or any business, never underestimate who's listening to you, because they know if you're full of crap or not. People are very smart. So if you're yourself, they may not like what you're saying, but they should at least appreciate that it's coming from a very honest place. Honesty and being yourself, I think that's the best advice I ever got.
Speaking of being yourself, you publicly came out in 2010, but you told HuffPost last year that you never were closeted on the air, you just chose not to make a big deal about it. Still, did anything change after that moment? Or were you exactly the same person?
I don't think I'm a different person, but as far as on the show, it really was a lesson of my own advice, and that was to be yourself and be honest. Being able to talk about my private life, my personal life, was very freeing. It was just a great experience. And I was always the host of the party and I encouraged everyone else on the show to give everything and talk about your private life, because people want to hear it so they can relate, and I never really gave myself a chance to do that. And I wasn't hiding from being gay. It's just ... I never wanted it to be the "Elvis is Gay" show, and I was afraid it would become that. I didn't want that to be my whole self. And it turns out, I was wrong the whole time, it never took over. I'm still me, no matter if I'm gay or straight or whatever. But it did give me license to be more free and to tell it like it is. I learned something from that, I really did.
Elvis in studio on August 12, 2013.
I think you are extremely inspiring and definitely a voice of our generation. How does it make you feel to know there are millions of people listening to you every morning?
It makes me feel great. At the end of the day, this is a business and there are some people sitting in a room somewhere making a lot of money from our shows [laughs]. But you know what? Our success in our circle comes from getting in there and having fun every day. It's crazy that they actually pay us to come in here and have fun. But it makes me feel good when we meet people on the street or on the phones or on social media that are actually responding to what we're saying -- it's good to get that recognition.
You started on "The Morning Show" in 1996, almost 20 years ago. Sum up the experience working for Z100.
It's great, because I used to do afternoons in a room by myself playing songs in a row and all that stuff. And I never got to stop the music and talk to people and interact with people. They really want you to "keep the music going! Stop talking!" And that's not me! You can tell while you're talking to me, I like to talk [laughs]. But, on "The Morning Show," we're allowed to bring our friends on with us and have conversations with them and get people on the phone and learn about the lives of people around the world. I love that, that's my favorite part. Being able to interact and respond to people, I get such a high from it. As long as you're listening to what people are saying, there's so much to learn.
Who's the first artist you ever interviewed?
I know I interviewed some artists that I can't even remember because either I was stoned or they don't have careers anymore. But, I remember interviewing Tina Turner way back in the day and I remember Jon Bon Jovi a long time ago, back before they were anything. I don't remember what we talked about, because like I said, I think we were having cocktails! [laughs] That hasn't changed.
Elvis with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora on September 21, 2012.
Do you have an embarrassing story from when you interviewed anyone?
I think every time I meet anyone, I embarrass myself to a certain degree. I could tell you, we've interviewed almost everyone. There's a few we haven't gotten to, but from the '80s and '90s, all of music's biggest stars, we've interviewed, and also a lot of movie and TV stars, and I still get more impressed by regular people who do big things -- raise money for people and help others. I get more of a thrill out of that. If you told me Justin Timberlake was coming in tomorrow, I would be very excited about it, but just as excited to interview someone who just raised a ton of money for a family who lost their house. After years, the celebrities aren't celebrities anymore. It's kind of weird, do you understand what I'm saying?
Elvis with Justin Timberlake and Bobby Bones on September 21, 2013.
I totally get that. When you meet them in person and you're chatting, you honestly can't believe it was such a big deal, because they're sort of normal! But like, to me, you're a celebrity, I love you and grew up listening to you.
I'm not a celebrity! That's so weird you said that.
To some of us, you are! For example, my mom was freaking out that I was talking to you today.
Ugh, I love your mom. What's your mom's name?
Mary.
You tell Mary that Elvis said hi! You know what it is? Here's the difference between a celebrity and a radio person: [A DJ] is someone you listen to every morning, or hopefully, and are a part of your life, just like your toothbrush or your car. A celebrity, to me, is someone you see once and a while and they have the best life of all time and they always look glamorous, you know? We're just normal Joes who come in every day and tell fart jokes. [laughs] But, I'm glad you listen, and you tell Mary I said hi.
Oh, I will! Who's your favorite artist you've ever met or interviewed?
We've had so many fantastic interviews and artists. You know, Gaga always comes to mind because she's always been so great for us. Enrique Iglesias always is great. It's neat when people you interview aren't afraid to open up and talk about things from the heart and the soul. And we've had so many of them -- I don't even know where to start. I'm at a loss for words.
Elvis with Lady Gaga on October 27, 2009.
In your opinion right now, who is the artist of the moment or who is going to explode?
We had Jessie J on and she's been a superstar in every country in the world except for the U.S. This is her third album coming out and she never really clicked here for some reason. Her single "Bang Bang" came out and it's No. 1 on iTunes, and everyone is saying, you know what, she's about to come into her own here in the U.S. Charli XCX is doing great, Iggy Izalea, of course, Sam Smith. But there's a lot of great music out there right now and it's an exciting time to be doing what we're doing. To be able to talk to them one-on-one about where their music comes from and to be able to get into their heads and into their hearts, what a great career! How much fun is that? It's great to get to know people.
Elvis with Sam Smith on June 17, 2014.
How often are you recognized? Do people know your face or just your voice?
Because of social media and a little bit of TV, yeah, I'm recognized a little bit. The voice, definitely. You know what I get a lot of? I get someone saying, "Gosh, you look familiar, but I can't figure it out." And I'll just go, "No, I don't think we've met before, but I don't know." [laughs] I don't know how real celebrities deal with it, because I know down the street from my house, there are hotels the paparazzi are always hanging outside of and waiting for whatever celebrity is coming or going, and I can't imagine what that's like, so again, that's a celebrity. I don't think I'd want that at all.
Did you ever oversleep and miss an airing of the show?
One time, I overslept and I was about five minutes late. That's it!
Wow, one time in how many years?!
I mean, I've called in sick, but I'll let them know the day before ... when I start to pretend to be sick. [laughs]
What do you think is the hardest thing about your job?
Waking up before 10. [laughs] No, we have so much fun from 6 to 10 a.m. and then sometimes after 10 o'clock we have to get to work and we have to organize and do those things that people in the business do, which I find so icky. Luckily, I'm surrounded by some of the people that do a lot of that, so I get to have fun, but other than that, I can't think of anything about my job that's all that awful. I'd like to sleep in, but what are you going to do, you know?
Lastly, I want to give you the chance to talk to your fans and say whatever is on your mind as you celebrate this big milestone.
Oh my God, you're putting me on the spot, Leigh! What do I say? [pause] Thanks for the opportunity to come on and do what I love every day. I know that that's kind of simple, but it's true. Without listeners, we wouldn't be here, so there you go! It'll all come crashing down one day, but until then, we're going to have a lot of fun.
Happy Birthday, Elvis Duran!
Listen to some birthday messages to Elvis from some of his biggest celebrity fans:
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17 Ballet Icons Who Are Changing The Face Of Dance Today
Ballet has long suffered from a diversity problem. "Classical ballet celebrates pale princesses and fair swans," Olivia Goldhill and Sarah Marsh wrote in The Guardian in 2012. "It's a world where dancers cake their limbs in white powder, and where performers with darker skin don't always feel welcome."
"Ballet has a lily-white reputation," Pointe Magazine reiterated this year.
Take one look at the dance landscape of the world's most popular ballet companies and it's not difficult to see that white men and women dominate the field. Before Misty Copeland, there hadn't been a black soloist at the American Ballet Theater (ABT) for 20 years. Critics have taken notice, urging mainstream choreographers and directors to readdress their recruitment practices for black and Asian dancers.
Beyond race, ballet dancers have been held to tyrannical body standards. The sport is physically demanding to be sure, but the industry has had a reputation of favoring impossibly tall and thin figures over the muscular, athletic types. And retirement comes too early for most. "Dancers usually receive oblique indications that their time is up, like not being cast for roles they once danced or seeing younger dancers chosen in auditions," Maroosha Muzafaar wrote in The Atlantic. "Most know that’s a sign to let go and move on to something else."
While ballet has a long way to go in addressing these issues, there are plenty of dancers in the contemporary realm who are actively working to change the white-washed, body oppressive world of ballet. Behold, 17 ballet icons who are changing the face of dance:
1. Misty Copeland
![misty]()
Misty Copeland became the third African American female soloist at the American Ballet Theater back in 2007. Since then, she's spoken openly about racism in the dance world. "[Ballet is] such a traditional and historic art form that people are afraid to change it," she said in an interview with New York Magazine. "But I think it has to if it’s going to last in the world we live in today. It's hard to change someone’s ideas when they might not even really consciously know that they’re being racist, or have racist ideas, just because ballet has been this way for hundreds of years."
Her new Under Armor ad has been making waves online this week, effectively conveying a contemporary interpretation of what it means to be a ballerina.
2. Yuan Yuan Tan
![yuan yuan tan]()
Yuan Yuan Tan is a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet. In the late 1990s she became the youngest principal in the company’s history and the first Chinese dancer to be promoted to that level.
3. Shannon Harkins
![shannon harkins]()
Shannon Harkins was 13 years old when The Washington Post called her "the face of African American ballet dancers' struggles." At that time, she was the only African American girl at Level 7 at the Washington School of Ballet -- the highest pre-professional level.
4. Kayla Rowser
Kayla Rowser is a company dancer at the Nashville Ballet who has spoken out about the importance of diversity -- "diversity in body types, diversity in movement quality, diversity in all types of things" -- in ballet. She was featured as one of Dance Magazine’s “Top 25 to Watch” last year and has worked with Project Plie, an ABT project aimed toward increasing racial and ethnic representation in ballet.
5. Desmond Richardson
![desmond richardson]()
Desmond Richardson is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, a company that seeks to reinvent dance by creating an open environment that embraces multicultural forms of movement. Richardson also performed as a principal dancer at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for seven years.
6. Natalia Osipova
![natalia osipova]()
While Natalia Osipova may look like the stereotypical image of a ballerina, her viewpoints express anything but. "I am not interested in sporting diamond tiaras on stage, or having my point shoes cooked and eaten by my fans," she explained to The Spectator this year. "Ballet has evolved and the ballerina figure with it. The world around us offers new challenges, new stimuli and new opportunities, and I believe that it is the responsibility of every artist to be constantly ready to respond to these. There is simply no reason, nor time, to perpetuate century-old clichés, such as the remote, semi-divine figure of the 19th-century ballet star."
Osipova's attitude eschews the celebrity of a glamorous field, and we can't help but love her progressive tone.
7. Chi Cao
You might remember Chi Cao from his acting debut in "Mao's Last Dancer," portraying dance star Li Cunxin. Like Li, Cao moved from his home in China to join a Western company, leaving his family behind to pursue a career in ballet. "We both went out to the West when we were very young. We had to face a lot of things, a lot of harsh realities when we were very young in a different society."
Cao eventually became a principal dancer at the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
8. Chehon Wespi-Tschopp
![chehon wespitschopp]()
Chehon Wespi-Tschopp became America's Favorite Dancer back on "So You Think You Can Dance" Season 9. Being the first contestant to identify first and foremost as a ballet dancer, he brought the art form into the realm of mainstream television.
9. Evelyn Cisneros
Evelyn Cisneros is considered by many to be the first Hispanic prima ballerina in the U.S. A principal dancer at the Boston Ballet School, she has long been aware of her status as a Latina icon. “It was instilled in us at a young age that we were role models for our people. I carried that through my whole life,” she explained to NBC in 2012. “I always felt my Mexican heritage gave me a richer well to draw from, not the opposite.”
10. José Manuel Carreño
![jose manuel carreno]()
Born in Cuba, former ABT star José Manuel Carreño is the Artistic Director at the Ballet San Jose. After dancing as the Prince in "Swan Lake" as his final performance, he ventured from New York City to Northern California to lead the financially-troubled company.
11. Wendy Whelan
![wendy whelan]()
Wendy Whelan has become something of a figurehead for veteran dancers, advocating for financial support and career services for ballet icons nearing retirement. “We are not supported federally at all once we leave the ballet. There is no support whatsoever, financially or insurance wise for dancers in the United States."
After 30 years at the New York City Ballet, the principal dancer will bid her adieu this October, with plans to continue dancing with the likes of Edward Watson and the folks at Manhattan's City Center.
12. Aesha Ash
Aesha Ash left the New York City Ballet in 2003, back when she was the only black female dancer. She then started the Swan Dreams Project, a campaign that seeks to "change the demoralized, objectified and caricatured images of African-American women by exposing young ladies to the beauty of ballet."
13. Cassa Pancho
![ballet black]()
Cassa Pancho is the founder of Ballet Black, a company devoted to inspiring opportunities for "dancers and students of black and Asian descent."
"All through ballet school I was really aware of the lack of black people around me," she explained to The Guardian. "So for my dissertation I thought I would interview black women working in ballet and see what they had to say –- but I couldn't find a single black woman working in ballet, and that really stunned me. When I graduated, I decided, very naively, to do something about it myself."
You can read more about Cira Robinson, Damien Johnson and Sayaka Ichikawa -- all senior artists at Ballet Black -- here. (Photo of the company by Bill Cooper.)
14. Carlos Acosta
![carlos acosta]()
Cuban-born Carlos Acosta, a principal guest artist at The Royal Ballet, has spoken openly about the lack of representation in ballet.
“The percentage of classical black ballet dancers around the world is sadly minimal, which is quite embarrassing,” Acosta has said. “In most companies, when a talented black dancer is chosen as a member, they don’t know how to cast them properly. Still, there is this mentality, especially with directors, that a black ballerina in the middle of a flock of white swans would somehow alter the harmony.”
15. Sylvie Guillem
![sylvie guillem]()
Sylvie Guillem made a name for herself after leaving the Paris Opera Ballet to become an international freelance ballerina. Now in her late 40s, the woman bold enough to appear on the cover of French Vogue nude and without makeup (long before the makeup-free selfie craze) is happily bursting through barriers between the modern dance world and ballet with works like "6000 Miles Away."
16. Shiori Kase
![shiori kase]()
Tokyo-born Shiori Kase is a soloist with the English National Ballet who recently wowed critics in the London staging of the "psycho-thriller" ballet, "Coppélia."
17. Michaela DePrince
![michaela deprince]()
Sierra Leone-born Michaela DePrince spent her early years in an orphanage after her father was killed during the civil war in her country. After being adopted by an American family and entering the world of ballet, she was told at the age of eight that America wasn't "ready for a black girl ballerina." Despite her challenging childhood, she's gone on to win a position in ABT's preprofessional division and the Dutch National Junior Company.
"Ballet has a lily-white reputation," Pointe Magazine reiterated this year.
Take one look at the dance landscape of the world's most popular ballet companies and it's not difficult to see that white men and women dominate the field. Before Misty Copeland, there hadn't been a black soloist at the American Ballet Theater (ABT) for 20 years. Critics have taken notice, urging mainstream choreographers and directors to readdress their recruitment practices for black and Asian dancers.
Beyond race, ballet dancers have been held to tyrannical body standards. The sport is physically demanding to be sure, but the industry has had a reputation of favoring impossibly tall and thin figures over the muscular, athletic types. And retirement comes too early for most. "Dancers usually receive oblique indications that their time is up, like not being cast for roles they once danced or seeing younger dancers chosen in auditions," Maroosha Muzafaar wrote in The Atlantic. "Most know that’s a sign to let go and move on to something else."
While ballet has a long way to go in addressing these issues, there are plenty of dancers in the contemporary realm who are actively working to change the white-washed, body oppressive world of ballet. Behold, 17 ballet icons who are changing the face of dance:
1. Misty Copeland
Misty Copeland became the third African American female soloist at the American Ballet Theater back in 2007. Since then, she's spoken openly about racism in the dance world. "[Ballet is] such a traditional and historic art form that people are afraid to change it," she said in an interview with New York Magazine. "But I think it has to if it’s going to last in the world we live in today. It's hard to change someone’s ideas when they might not even really consciously know that they’re being racist, or have racist ideas, just because ballet has been this way for hundreds of years."
Her new Under Armor ad has been making waves online this week, effectively conveying a contemporary interpretation of what it means to be a ballerina.
2. Yuan Yuan Tan
Yuan Yuan Tan is a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet. In the late 1990s she became the youngest principal in the company’s history and the first Chinese dancer to be promoted to that level.
3. Shannon Harkins
Shannon Harkins was 13 years old when The Washington Post called her "the face of African American ballet dancers' struggles." At that time, she was the only African American girl at Level 7 at the Washington School of Ballet -- the highest pre-professional level.
4. Kayla Rowser
Kayla Rowser is a company dancer at the Nashville Ballet who has spoken out about the importance of diversity -- "diversity in body types, diversity in movement quality, diversity in all types of things" -- in ballet. She was featured as one of Dance Magazine’s “Top 25 to Watch” last year and has worked with Project Plie, an ABT project aimed toward increasing racial and ethnic representation in ballet.
5. Desmond Richardson
Desmond Richardson is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, a company that seeks to reinvent dance by creating an open environment that embraces multicultural forms of movement. Richardson also performed as a principal dancer at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for seven years.
6. Natalia Osipova
While Natalia Osipova may look like the stereotypical image of a ballerina, her viewpoints express anything but. "I am not interested in sporting diamond tiaras on stage, or having my point shoes cooked and eaten by my fans," she explained to The Spectator this year. "Ballet has evolved and the ballerina figure with it. The world around us offers new challenges, new stimuli and new opportunities, and I believe that it is the responsibility of every artist to be constantly ready to respond to these. There is simply no reason, nor time, to perpetuate century-old clichés, such as the remote, semi-divine figure of the 19th-century ballet star."
Osipova's attitude eschews the celebrity of a glamorous field, and we can't help but love her progressive tone.
7. Chi Cao
You might remember Chi Cao from his acting debut in "Mao's Last Dancer," portraying dance star Li Cunxin. Like Li, Cao moved from his home in China to join a Western company, leaving his family behind to pursue a career in ballet. "We both went out to the West when we were very young. We had to face a lot of things, a lot of harsh realities when we were very young in a different society."
Cao eventually became a principal dancer at the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
8. Chehon Wespi-Tschopp
Chehon Wespi-Tschopp became America's Favorite Dancer back on "So You Think You Can Dance" Season 9. Being the first contestant to identify first and foremost as a ballet dancer, he brought the art form into the realm of mainstream television.
9. Evelyn Cisneros
Evelyn Cisneros is considered by many to be the first Hispanic prima ballerina in the U.S. A principal dancer at the Boston Ballet School, she has long been aware of her status as a Latina icon. “It was instilled in us at a young age that we were role models for our people. I carried that through my whole life,” she explained to NBC in 2012. “I always felt my Mexican heritage gave me a richer well to draw from, not the opposite.”
10. José Manuel Carreño
Born in Cuba, former ABT star José Manuel Carreño is the Artistic Director at the Ballet San Jose. After dancing as the Prince in "Swan Lake" as his final performance, he ventured from New York City to Northern California to lead the financially-troubled company.
11. Wendy Whelan
Wendy Whelan has become something of a figurehead for veteran dancers, advocating for financial support and career services for ballet icons nearing retirement. “We are not supported federally at all once we leave the ballet. There is no support whatsoever, financially or insurance wise for dancers in the United States."
After 30 years at the New York City Ballet, the principal dancer will bid her adieu this October, with plans to continue dancing with the likes of Edward Watson and the folks at Manhattan's City Center.
12. Aesha Ash
Aesha Ash left the New York City Ballet in 2003, back when she was the only black female dancer. She then started the Swan Dreams Project, a campaign that seeks to "change the demoralized, objectified and caricatured images of African-American women by exposing young ladies to the beauty of ballet."
13. Cassa Pancho
Cassa Pancho is the founder of Ballet Black, a company devoted to inspiring opportunities for "dancers and students of black and Asian descent."
"All through ballet school I was really aware of the lack of black people around me," she explained to The Guardian. "So for my dissertation I thought I would interview black women working in ballet and see what they had to say –- but I couldn't find a single black woman working in ballet, and that really stunned me. When I graduated, I decided, very naively, to do something about it myself."
You can read more about Cira Robinson, Damien Johnson and Sayaka Ichikawa -- all senior artists at Ballet Black -- here. (Photo of the company by Bill Cooper.)
14. Carlos Acosta
Cuban-born Carlos Acosta, a principal guest artist at The Royal Ballet, has spoken openly about the lack of representation in ballet.
“The percentage of classical black ballet dancers around the world is sadly minimal, which is quite embarrassing,” Acosta has said. “In most companies, when a talented black dancer is chosen as a member, they don’t know how to cast them properly. Still, there is this mentality, especially with directors, that a black ballerina in the middle of a flock of white swans would somehow alter the harmony.”
15. Sylvie Guillem
Sylvie Guillem made a name for herself after leaving the Paris Opera Ballet to become an international freelance ballerina. Now in her late 40s, the woman bold enough to appear on the cover of French Vogue nude and without makeup (long before the makeup-free selfie craze) is happily bursting through barriers between the modern dance world and ballet with works like "6000 Miles Away."
16. Shiori Kase
Tokyo-born Shiori Kase is a soloist with the English National Ballet who recently wowed critics in the London staging of the "psycho-thriller" ballet, "Coppélia."
17. Michaela DePrince
Sierra Leone-born Michaela DePrince spent her early years in an orphanage after her father was killed during the civil war in her country. After being adopted by an American family and entering the world of ballet, she was told at the age of eight that America wasn't "ready for a black girl ballerina." Despite her challenging childhood, she's gone on to win a position in ABT's preprofessional division and the Dutch National Junior Company.
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Kindly Allow These Fabergé Fractals To Melt Your Brains Into Goo
The images below are dazzling, to say the least. But be warned, once you gaze upon their intricately textured exteriors, landing somewhere between a Russian jeweled egg and dizzying digital geometry, you'll find it hard to look away.
![fractal]()
These ornate art objects, "Fabergé Fractals" as they're called, are the work of Scotland-based laser physicist-turned-artist and web developer Tom Beddard, who also goes by the name SubBlue. The art-meets-science maven used a formulaic method to yield his three-dimensional models, combining the 19th century decorative overload that is Fabergé with fractals' self-perpetuating, never-ending patterns, self-similar at every scale.
Beddard explained his methodology to MyModernMet: "The 3D fractals are generated by iterative formulas whereby the output of one iteration forms the input for the next. The formulas effectively fold, scale, rotate or flip space. They are truly fractal in the fact that more and more detail can be revealed the closer to the surface you travel.
"The fascinating aspect is where combinations of parameters can combine to create structural 'resonances' of extraordinary detail and beauty -- sometimes naturally organic and other times perfectly geometric. But then like a chaotic system it can completely disappear with the smallest perturbation."
Whether or not you get the science behind the visuals, the images themselves -- blending organic growth and digital imagining in every blossoming pattern -- are enough to keep our minds spinning for days. Take a look below and continue reading for a behind-the-scenes video.
These ornate art objects, "Fabergé Fractals" as they're called, are the work of Scotland-based laser physicist-turned-artist and web developer Tom Beddard, who also goes by the name SubBlue. The art-meets-science maven used a formulaic method to yield his three-dimensional models, combining the 19th century decorative overload that is Fabergé with fractals' self-perpetuating, never-ending patterns, self-similar at every scale.
Beddard explained his methodology to MyModernMet: "The 3D fractals are generated by iterative formulas whereby the output of one iteration forms the input for the next. The formulas effectively fold, scale, rotate or flip space. They are truly fractal in the fact that more and more detail can be revealed the closer to the surface you travel.
"The fascinating aspect is where combinations of parameters can combine to create structural 'resonances' of extraordinary detail and beauty -- sometimes naturally organic and other times perfectly geometric. But then like a chaotic system it can completely disappear with the smallest perturbation."
Whether or not you get the science behind the visuals, the images themselves -- blending organic growth and digital imagining in every blossoming pattern -- are enough to keep our minds spinning for days. Take a look below and continue reading for a behind-the-scenes video.
Surface detail from subBlue on Vimeo.
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A Visual History Of The World's Tropical Disease Paranoia
Tropical diseases have mystified and terrified humans for centuries, inducing cross-continental paranoia at even the thought of a mosquito bite. While the very recent and devastating ebola outbreak in West Africa has brought global health fears to new heights, a new exhibition at Lisbon, Portugal's Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical is proving the world has a rather colorful record of publicly campaigning against the ailments that terrorize populations across the globe.
![disease]()
"Picturing Tropical Diseases" outlines a visual history of health campaigns targeted at malaria, leprosy, Guinea worm disease, kala azar, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, river blindness, tropical disease vectors and more. Gathering together images archived by institutions like the World Health Organization, the exhibition showcases an array of artifacts, from documentary photographs to the disease management posters that became a staple of public health in the 20th century.
"The harnessing of science to combat infectious diseases of poverty is fairly new -- it was only in the early 1970s when the vision of a global, UN-sponsored research effort to tackle some of the world’s most neglected diseases was first formed," John Reeder, Director of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), wrote in the show's companion publication.
Efforts aimed at educating the public on the threats discovered by scientists began long before the 1970s though -- namely taking the form of these posters and photographs meant to "frighten people into changing their behaviour." Eerie paintings of the "Tongue of Kala-Azar" dating back to 1907 illuminated the symptoms of visceral leishmaniasis, a disease caused by protozoan parasites associated with sand flies endemic to 47 countries. Monochromatic sketches showed surgeons removing guinea worm from patients in rather primitive ways. And ominous portraits revealed the reality of leprosy in London.
"Is the photograph posed, or does it look natural?" Dr. Alexander Medcalf and Professor Sanjoy Bhattacharya ask in Tropical Diseases: Lessons from History. "There are shocking, graphic images of disease and death, poignant images of children and families, and there are those which make us smile or spark our curiosity. Each one is a potent tool for making us think a certain way about the issue depicted."
Scroll through a preview of "Picturing Tropical Diseases," on view until September 30, below. Let us know your thoughts on the historical collection in the comments.
h/t Hyperallergic
"Picturing Tropical Diseases" outlines a visual history of health campaigns targeted at malaria, leprosy, Guinea worm disease, kala azar, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, river blindness, tropical disease vectors and more. Gathering together images archived by institutions like the World Health Organization, the exhibition showcases an array of artifacts, from documentary photographs to the disease management posters that became a staple of public health in the 20th century.
"The harnessing of science to combat infectious diseases of poverty is fairly new -- it was only in the early 1970s when the vision of a global, UN-sponsored research effort to tackle some of the world’s most neglected diseases was first formed," John Reeder, Director of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), wrote in the show's companion publication.
Efforts aimed at educating the public on the threats discovered by scientists began long before the 1970s though -- namely taking the form of these posters and photographs meant to "frighten people into changing their behaviour." Eerie paintings of the "Tongue of Kala-Azar" dating back to 1907 illuminated the symptoms of visceral leishmaniasis, a disease caused by protozoan parasites associated with sand flies endemic to 47 countries. Monochromatic sketches showed surgeons removing guinea worm from patients in rather primitive ways. And ominous portraits revealed the reality of leprosy in London.
"Is the photograph posed, or does it look natural?" Dr. Alexander Medcalf and Professor Sanjoy Bhattacharya ask in Tropical Diseases: Lessons from History. "There are shocking, graphic images of disease and death, poignant images of children and families, and there are those which make us smile or spark our curiosity. Each one is a potent tool for making us think a certain way about the issue depicted."
Scroll through a preview of "Picturing Tropical Diseases," on view until September 30, below. Let us know your thoughts on the historical collection in the comments.
h/t Hyperallergic
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Doily Artist Uses Her Own Hair To Weave Stunning, Feminist-Minded Designs
If you have -- like us -- been hiding in the depths of the Internet, waiting for that one artist to combine the politics of female hair with the delicate beauty of textiles, rejoice! Sula Fay is here to make your feminist-minded craft dreams come true.
![fay]()
"For me, hair is both political and deeply personal. It emphasizes identity and contains memories," Fay explained to HuffPost of her project, "Hair Embroideries," consisting of quietly beautiful renderings stitched onto vintage Victorian doilies... using her own hair as thread.
"As a person of mixed race, while growing up I found my wild curly hair did not meet western ideals of beauty and femininity. After years of straightening, combing and blow-drying, I started to wear my hair naturally, but still struggled to accept it."
From faded nude bodies to familiar, albeit outdated and sometimes derogatory phrases like "comely" and "blanquita," Fay's works depict the artist's personal experience dealing with oppressive versions of femininity passed down across cultures.
"There is a tradition of using human hair in art," she added. "From weaving it into jewelry to mourn a loved one to its use in Chinese folk art. I began to use my hair as thread to embroider images of idealized femininity onto antique Victorian doilies; the process became therapeutic and ritualistic, while I was able to showcase something very vulnerable."
For more feminist craft, check out Mo Morgan's embroidered mantras here.
h/t Booooooom
"For me, hair is both political and deeply personal. It emphasizes identity and contains memories," Fay explained to HuffPost of her project, "Hair Embroideries," consisting of quietly beautiful renderings stitched onto vintage Victorian doilies... using her own hair as thread.
"As a person of mixed race, while growing up I found my wild curly hair did not meet western ideals of beauty and femininity. After years of straightening, combing and blow-drying, I started to wear my hair naturally, but still struggled to accept it."
From faded nude bodies to familiar, albeit outdated and sometimes derogatory phrases like "comely" and "blanquita," Fay's works depict the artist's personal experience dealing with oppressive versions of femininity passed down across cultures.
"There is a tradition of using human hair in art," she added. "From weaving it into jewelry to mourn a loved one to its use in Chinese folk art. I began to use my hair as thread to embroider images of idealized femininity onto antique Victorian doilies; the process became therapeutic and ritualistic, while I was able to showcase something very vulnerable."
For more feminist craft, check out Mo Morgan's embroidered mantras here.
h/t Booooooom
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11 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Beatles, Even If You're A Superfan
If tomorrow never knows, then you definitely don't know these things. Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void of trivia.
The Beatles' "Revolver" was released on this day, Aug. 5, way back in 1966. To celebrate the anniversary of this revolutionarily "weird" album, here are eleven super weird things about The Beatles.
1. The Beatles concerts were said to smell heavily of urine due to overexcited girls.
![beatles]()
Multiple people have claimed Beatles shows were known for their urine. Notably, John B. Lynn, son of the owner of a venue The Beatles played, told The Washington Post that the concert hall smelled like the pee of over-excited girls after the show. Bob Geldof told Q Magazine in 2010:
2. George Harrison lost his virginity while the other Beatles secretly watched. They cheered when he finished.
![TK TK gifs]()
"Tune In," Mark Lewisohn's 3,000-page behemoth of a research anthology on The Beatles highlights the following quote from George Harrison:
3. The Beatles officially broke up at Disney World.
![disney world castle]()
In her book, "Instamatic Karma," and republished in The Daily Mail, John Lennon's former girlfriend, May Pang, recalled the moment that Lennon officially ended The Beatles:
4. The Beatles planned to start their own utopian community on Greek islands.
![greek island]()
In 1967, The Beatles almost bought an island off the coast of Athens, Greece, where they planned to set up a sort of utopian community with their friends and family. John Lennon seemed to be the one encouraging the plan and said, "They’ve tried everything else. Wars, nationalism, fascism, communism, capitalism, nastiness, religion – none of it works. So why not this?" Barry Miles' book "Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now," has a take from McCartney: "It’s a good job we didn’t do it, because anyone who tried those ideas realized eventually there would always be arguments, there would always be who has to do the washing-up and whose turn it is to clean out the latrines."
Image above is of a different Greek island.
5. A dentist introduced The Beatles to LSD by secretly slipping it into their coffees.
![Beatles]()
John Riley, the "wicked dentist" as George Harrison described him, introduced Harrison, Harrison's wife, Patti Boyd, John Lennon, and Lennon's wife, Cynthia Lennon, to LSD when they were all hanging out. After putting it into their coffees, Cynthia Lennon described the room "as big as the Albert Hall" and George apparently felt as if he was "falling in love" with everyone he met that night. It is unclear whether Harrison and Lennon had been tricked into taking the dose or if they had asked the dentist to dose them when they least expected it. In "The Beatles Anthology," the incident is recalled by Harrison:
6. Soviet Russians had to listen to The Beatles music on converted X-Ray scans.
![greek island]()
The music of The Beatles, along with many other Western bands, was banned in the Soviet Union, which made acquiring their vinyl during Beatlemania very costly on the black market and even dangerous. An ingenious workaround was created where music could be cheaply imprinted onto used X-Ray scans, which were taken from hospital dumpsters or bought. These scans were called "music on the bones," among other nicknames. This practice started in the 1950s, but apparently Beatlemania caused these X-Ray records to spike in popularity.
Image: WikiCommons
7. After bathing in urinals for almost a year, The Beatles got kicked out of Germany for lighting a condom on fire.
![pete best beatles]()
In Hamburg, Germany, the band spent most of 1960 living behind the screen of a cinema called Bambi Kino. Paul McCartney described the situation: "We lived backstage in the Bambi Kino, next to the toilets, and you could always smell them." Apparently the band was forced to use the urinals for bathing and shaving water. Eventually, George Harrison got kicked out of the country for being underage. The Beatles then made plans to leave the Bambi Kino, but before McCartney and then-drummer Pete Best left, they lit a condom on fire in the room which angered the owner and got them arrested. McCartney and Best were deported.
Later, The Beatles returned to Hamburg and on December 25, 1962, the band ate a horse for Christmas dinner.
8. The Beatles were the first to do many things, including feature the "devil horns" rock hand on an album cover.
![yellow submarine]()
The Beatles are credited with being the first to do many things such as printing lyrics on a pop album, creating music videos and holding a stadium concert, but most bizarre is their role in the "devil horns" hand gesture taking off. John Lennon's cartoon figure on the "Yellow Submarine" cover is apparently the first time the symbol was on the cover of an album and is one of the earliest instances associated with a rock band ever.
Image: WikiCommons
9. A teenager in Maryland started Beatlemania in the U.S.
![beatles toy]()
According to legend, Beatlemania taking off in the U.S. can be largely attributed to a 15-year-old Marylander named Marsha Albert. After seeing a news segment about the band, Albert called a local radio station in Washington, D.C., and asked, “Why can’t we have music like that here in America?” The DJ then tracked down a copy of "I Want To Hold Your Hand," and the station playing the record caused demand to skyrocket and other stations to play The Beatles as well. Worth noting: A DJ named Dick Biondi attempted to make The Beatles "happen" by playing them on stations in both Chicago and Los Angeles but the songs didn't take off in either city. Perhaps that's in part because Biondi misspelled the band as "B-E-A-T-T-L-E-S."
10. John Lennon was day drunk when he first met Paul McCartney.
![john lennon paul mccartney]()
On July 6, 1957, Paul McCartney met John Lennon of The Quarrymen. After The Quarrymen show, the two ended up playing music together and Lennon was pretty drunk, recalled McCartney:
They were actually older than 12 though as McCartney was 15 and Lennon 16.
11. The Vatican's official publication named "Revolver" as the best pop album of all time.
![TK TK gifs]()
The announcement came in a 2010 article. This is despite the Vatican famously condemning The Beatles for being satanic after John Lennon said the band was "more popular than Jesus." The Vatican "forgave" The Beatles later in 2010, which Ringo Starr thought was unnecessary.
All images Getty unless otherwise noted.
The Beatles' "Revolver" was released on this day, Aug. 5, way back in 1966. To celebrate the anniversary of this revolutionarily "weird" album, here are eleven super weird things about The Beatles.
1. The Beatles concerts were said to smell heavily of urine due to overexcited girls.
Multiple people have claimed Beatles shows were known for their urine. Notably, John B. Lynn, son of the owner of a venue The Beatles played, told The Washington Post that the concert hall smelled like the pee of over-excited girls after the show. Bob Geldof told Q Magazine in 2010:
The Beatles was a case of watching females in excelsis. It's the old cliché, but you couldn't hear them for all the screaming. I remember looking down at the cinema floor and seeing these rivulets of piss in the aisles. The girls were literally pissing themselves with excitement. So what I associate most with The Beatles is the smell of girls' urine.
2. George Harrison lost his virginity while the other Beatles secretly watched. They cheered when he finished.
"Tune In," Mark Lewisohn's 3,000-page behemoth of a research anthology on The Beatles highlights the following quote from George Harrison:
My first shag was in Hamburg, with Paul and John and Pete Best all watching. We were in bunkbeds. They couldn't really see anything because I was under the covers but after I'd finished they all applauded and cheered. At least they kept quiet whilst I was doing it.
3. The Beatles officially broke up at Disney World.
In her book, "Instamatic Karma," and republished in The Daily Mail, John Lennon's former girlfriend, May Pang, recalled the moment that Lennon officially ended The Beatles:
When John hung up the phone, he looked wistfully out the window. I could almost see him replaying the entire Beatles experience in his mind.
He finally picked up his pen and, in the unlikely backdrop of the Polynesian Village Hotel at Disney World, ended the greatest rock 'n' roll band in history by simply scrawling John Lennon at the bottom of the page.
4. The Beatles planned to start their own utopian community on Greek islands.
In 1967, The Beatles almost bought an island off the coast of Athens, Greece, where they planned to set up a sort of utopian community with their friends and family. John Lennon seemed to be the one encouraging the plan and said, "They’ve tried everything else. Wars, nationalism, fascism, communism, capitalism, nastiness, religion – none of it works. So why not this?" Barry Miles' book "Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now," has a take from McCartney: "It’s a good job we didn’t do it, because anyone who tried those ideas realized eventually there would always be arguments, there would always be who has to do the washing-up and whose turn it is to clean out the latrines."
Image above is of a different Greek island.
5. A dentist introduced The Beatles to LSD by secretly slipping it into their coffees.
John Riley, the "wicked dentist" as George Harrison described him, introduced Harrison, Harrison's wife, Patti Boyd, John Lennon, and Lennon's wife, Cynthia Lennon, to LSD when they were all hanging out. After putting it into their coffees, Cynthia Lennon described the room "as big as the Albert Hall" and George apparently felt as if he was "falling in love" with everyone he met that night. It is unclear whether Harrison and Lennon had been tricked into taking the dose or if they had asked the dentist to dose them when they least expected it. In "The Beatles Anthology," the incident is recalled by Harrison:
The first time we took LSD was an accident. It happened sometime in 1965, between albums and tours. We were innocent victims of the wicked dentist whom we'd met and had dinner with a few times...
After dinner I said to John, 'Let's go -- they're going to be on soon," and John said 'OK,' but the dentist was saying, 'Don't go; you should stay here.' And then he said, 'Well, at least finish your coffee first.'
So we finished our coffee and after a while I said again, 'Come on, it's getting late -- we'd better go.' The dentist said something to John and John turned to me and said, 'We've had LSD.'
I just thought, 'Well, what's that? So what? Let's go!'
6. Soviet Russians had to listen to The Beatles music on converted X-Ray scans.
The music of The Beatles, along with many other Western bands, was banned in the Soviet Union, which made acquiring their vinyl during Beatlemania very costly on the black market and even dangerous. An ingenious workaround was created where music could be cheaply imprinted onto used X-Ray scans, which were taken from hospital dumpsters or bought. These scans were called "music on the bones," among other nicknames. This practice started in the 1950s, but apparently Beatlemania caused these X-Ray records to spike in popularity.
Image: WikiCommons
7. After bathing in urinals for almost a year, The Beatles got kicked out of Germany for lighting a condom on fire.
In Hamburg, Germany, the band spent most of 1960 living behind the screen of a cinema called Bambi Kino. Paul McCartney described the situation: "We lived backstage in the Bambi Kino, next to the toilets, and you could always smell them." Apparently the band was forced to use the urinals for bathing and shaving water. Eventually, George Harrison got kicked out of the country for being underage. The Beatles then made plans to leave the Bambi Kino, but before McCartney and then-drummer Pete Best left, they lit a condom on fire in the room which angered the owner and got them arrested. McCartney and Best were deported.
Later, The Beatles returned to Hamburg and on December 25, 1962, the band ate a horse for Christmas dinner.
8. The Beatles were the first to do many things, including feature the "devil horns" rock hand on an album cover.
The Beatles are credited with being the first to do many things such as printing lyrics on a pop album, creating music videos and holding a stadium concert, but most bizarre is their role in the "devil horns" hand gesture taking off. John Lennon's cartoon figure on the "Yellow Submarine" cover is apparently the first time the symbol was on the cover of an album and is one of the earliest instances associated with a rock band ever.
Image: WikiCommons
9. A teenager in Maryland started Beatlemania in the U.S.
According to legend, Beatlemania taking off in the U.S. can be largely attributed to a 15-year-old Marylander named Marsha Albert. After seeing a news segment about the band, Albert called a local radio station in Washington, D.C., and asked, “Why can’t we have music like that here in America?” The DJ then tracked down a copy of "I Want To Hold Your Hand," and the station playing the record caused demand to skyrocket and other stations to play The Beatles as well. Worth noting: A DJ named Dick Biondi attempted to make The Beatles "happen" by playing them on stations in both Chicago and Los Angeles but the songs didn't take off in either city. Perhaps that's in part because Biondi misspelled the band as "B-E-A-T-T-L-E-S."
10. John Lennon was day drunk when he first met Paul McCartney.
On July 6, 1957, Paul McCartney met John Lennon of The Quarrymen. After The Quarrymen show, the two ended up playing music together and Lennon was pretty drunk, recalled McCartney:
At Woolton village fete I met him. I was a fat schoolboy and, as he leaned an arm on my shoulder, I realized he was drunk. We were twelve then, but, in spite of his sideboards, we went on to become teenage pals.
They were actually older than 12 though as McCartney was 15 and Lennon 16.
11. The Vatican's official publication named "Revolver" as the best pop album of all time.
The announcement came in a 2010 article. This is despite the Vatican famously condemning The Beatles for being satanic after John Lennon said the band was "more popular than Jesus." The Vatican "forgave" The Beatles later in 2010, which Ringo Starr thought was unnecessary.
All images Getty unless otherwise noted.
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We Asked Helen Mirren To Pick Favorite Scenes From Her Own Movies
In "The Hundred-Foot Journey," Helen Mirren plays the matriarchal owner of a snooty French restaurant. When an Indian family transforms a run-down building across the street into a festively lit eatery of their own, Mirren's Madame Mallory launches a good, old-fashioned turf war. (As if the dame weren't enough, see the movie for its assortment of beautiful food imagery.) Mirren gives a fiery performance, rigorously commanding her kitchen staff and sparring with her new neighbors with gusto. Directed by Lasse Hallström ("My Life as a Dog," "What's Eating Gilbert Grape"), written by Steven Knight ("Dirty Pretty Things," "Eastern Promises") and based on Richard C. Morais' 2010 novel, "The Hundred-Foot Journey" is another entry in Mirren's scene-stealing catalog. HuffPost Entertainment asked the Oscar-winning actress to select her favorite scenes from a handful of her own movies.
"The Hundred-Foot Journey" (2014)
![hundred foot journey]()
"I very much enjoyed her first arrival in the kitchen. It’s Madame Mallory’s arrival in the movie almost, actually. You just see how in her element she is, giving orders, criticizing all the food that was served the night before, just being very, very on top of it and the boss and controlling everyone, and also in that wonderful environment of the kitchen, which is so magical. I love that scene."
"Hitchcock" (2012)
![hitchcock helen mirren]()
"I would say the arrival into Paramount in the car because it was so wonderful. The golden era of Hollywood is so romantic to me. It’s a costume drama, but actually driving in literally through he gates of Paramount as they are now and as they were then, in those ‘50s cars, wearing ‘50s costumes -- recreating that whole world was fantastic."
"The Tempest" (2010)
![helen mirren the tempest]()
"'The Tempest' really was related to the words, and there are a couple of just extraordinary speeches. The most beautiful being 'Our revels now are ended.' It’s a famous Shakespearean speech, such a beautiful speech. Just to have the opportunity to have those words in your mouth is extraordinary, and I loved doing that. The great thing about doing Shakespeare on stage is that you get to do the same speech again and again and again, and the only sad thing about film is you only get to do it the once or the twice or maybe the three times. But that was a great speech, so that was wonderful."
"The Queen" (2006)
![the queen]()
"I loved driving my Land Rover. I did my own sort of stunt driving, if you could call it that. I was driving through the Scottish countryside, not being able to see where I’m going because there are two cameras strapped to the front of that vehicle. So it was a kind of stunt driving, and that was really fun. I loved that. I always love stunt driving. I do as much driving on my movies as I can. If there’s driving stuff to be done, I always beg or insist on doing it myself. Little-known fact: Helen Mirren, stunt driver. I’d love to be in a 'Fast & Furious' movie. I keep putting feelers out. I’d love to do 'Fast & Furious.' I love Vin Diesel as well. He doesn’t understand, I think he’s so cool."
"Calendar Girls" (2003)
![helen mirren calendar girls]()
"Another very, very happy experience. It was wonderful shooting the yoga scene where they’re doing yoga up on the mountains. It was a nightmare because we were being bitten by horrible, nasty little black flies, really nasty. But, on the other hand, it was such a beautiful countryside, to be up on that hillside, giggling away with all of those girls. It was lovely."
"Gosford Park" (2001)
![helen mirren gosford park]()
"I think, again, it’s related to a speech, which is, 'I’m a good servant, I’m the best.' I can’t remember who I’m saying it to; I think it’s the Kelly Macdonald character. It was a wonderful speech written by Julian Fellowes, a very, very good speech."
"The Madness of King George" (1994)
![helen mirren madness of king george]()
"I love costumes. I adore costumes. I’m so jealous when I hear of other people in costume dramas. I just want to be in that world. One of the reasons I became an actress is because of costumes. So the whole film, really, just being on the set with all those costumes, wearing the costumes. It was beautiful. I like Edwardian. I don’t like Victorian, but I love Edwardian costumes above all else: nipped-in waist, the shoulders. Edwardian is great, sort of Belle Époque-Edwardian, turn of the century, I love. And then that period of George V, 18th century. So I would say Belle Époque or 18th century."
"Caligula" (1979)
![helen mirren caligula]()
"'Caligula' was an adventure. It was a great adventure. Again, a costume drama, so I loved walking on the set. You’re in ancient Rome. There are all these amazing people in incredible costumes and makeup all around you. You’re walking into this surreal fantasy world. I loved that, I absolutely loved that. Our designer on that was Danilo Donati, who was one of the great Italian designers. The costumes especially were so spectacular. The headdresses were so painful, I’ve got to tell you. I love the death scene where they’re walking into the stadium and they’re all in white and they’re going to be stabbed to death."
"The Hundred-Foot Journey" opens Aug. 8.
"The Hundred-Foot Journey" (2014)
"I very much enjoyed her first arrival in the kitchen. It’s Madame Mallory’s arrival in the movie almost, actually. You just see how in her element she is, giving orders, criticizing all the food that was served the night before, just being very, very on top of it and the boss and controlling everyone, and also in that wonderful environment of the kitchen, which is so magical. I love that scene."
"Hitchcock" (2012)
"I would say the arrival into Paramount in the car because it was so wonderful. The golden era of Hollywood is so romantic to me. It’s a costume drama, but actually driving in literally through he gates of Paramount as they are now and as they were then, in those ‘50s cars, wearing ‘50s costumes -- recreating that whole world was fantastic."
"The Tempest" (2010)
"'The Tempest' really was related to the words, and there are a couple of just extraordinary speeches. The most beautiful being 'Our revels now are ended.' It’s a famous Shakespearean speech, such a beautiful speech. Just to have the opportunity to have those words in your mouth is extraordinary, and I loved doing that. The great thing about doing Shakespeare on stage is that you get to do the same speech again and again and again, and the only sad thing about film is you only get to do it the once or the twice or maybe the three times. But that was a great speech, so that was wonderful."
"The Queen" (2006)
"I loved driving my Land Rover. I did my own sort of stunt driving, if you could call it that. I was driving through the Scottish countryside, not being able to see where I’m going because there are two cameras strapped to the front of that vehicle. So it was a kind of stunt driving, and that was really fun. I loved that. I always love stunt driving. I do as much driving on my movies as I can. If there’s driving stuff to be done, I always beg or insist on doing it myself. Little-known fact: Helen Mirren, stunt driver. I’d love to be in a 'Fast & Furious' movie. I keep putting feelers out. I’d love to do 'Fast & Furious.' I love Vin Diesel as well. He doesn’t understand, I think he’s so cool."
"Calendar Girls" (2003)
"Another very, very happy experience. It was wonderful shooting the yoga scene where they’re doing yoga up on the mountains. It was a nightmare because we were being bitten by horrible, nasty little black flies, really nasty. But, on the other hand, it was such a beautiful countryside, to be up on that hillside, giggling away with all of those girls. It was lovely."
"Gosford Park" (2001)
"I think, again, it’s related to a speech, which is, 'I’m a good servant, I’m the best.' I can’t remember who I’m saying it to; I think it’s the Kelly Macdonald character. It was a wonderful speech written by Julian Fellowes, a very, very good speech."
"The Madness of King George" (1994)
"I love costumes. I adore costumes. I’m so jealous when I hear of other people in costume dramas. I just want to be in that world. One of the reasons I became an actress is because of costumes. So the whole film, really, just being on the set with all those costumes, wearing the costumes. It was beautiful. I like Edwardian. I don’t like Victorian, but I love Edwardian costumes above all else: nipped-in waist, the shoulders. Edwardian is great, sort of Belle Époque-Edwardian, turn of the century, I love. And then that period of George V, 18th century. So I would say Belle Époque or 18th century."
"Caligula" (1979)
"'Caligula' was an adventure. It was a great adventure. Again, a costume drama, so I loved walking on the set. You’re in ancient Rome. There are all these amazing people in incredible costumes and makeup all around you. You’re walking into this surreal fantasy world. I loved that, I absolutely loved that. Our designer on that was Danilo Donati, who was one of the great Italian designers. The costumes especially were so spectacular. The headdresses were so painful, I’ve got to tell you. I love the death scene where they’re walking into the stadium and they’re all in white and they’re going to be stabbed to death."
"The Hundred-Foot Journey" opens Aug. 8.
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Nicki Minaj Explains How The 'Flawless' Remix Came To Be
In Nicki Minaj's eyes, her "Flawless" remix is destiny. But this is the music industry, so we know it took a little more than fate to bring her and Beyonce together for this weekend's pioneering collaboration.
During an interview on Hot 97, Minaj revealed how the song came to be. G. Roberson, founder of management firm Hip Hop Since 1978, approached Minaj "a month or two ago" to say Beyonce would like her to remix "Flawless." Given how busy both ladies are, it's not an unfair assumption that they might have fashioned the remix without ever setting foot in the same room, but Minaj says that wasn't the case:
"After I got proper medical help and started breathing again, I was like, 'What?' She sent me a version that she wanted. She told me, 'I want you to be you. I don't want you to hold back." I said, 'You sure?' She said, 'Yeah. I want you to just be you and do you.' I was actually in New York writing the verse. I recorded the verse in New York and she stopped by the studio. She was such a sweetheart. She was hyping me up, like, 'Yeah, do your thing. Don't hold back. Go in.' And I said, 'Okay, all right.'"
Minaj says Beyonce told her the track would premiere during the course of the On the Run tour, and indeed it did. Fans woke up Sunday morning to the news that the reigning queens of hip-hop and R&B had joined forces.
"When I was putting out mix tapes and stuff, I would always remix her stuff," Minaj said. "I have a dope remix that my fans have always been in love with, to one of her songs, 'Sweet Dreams,' [that] me and Wayne did," said Minaj.
"I figured that eventually we would do something together. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. Recently I thought it would never happen 'cause I felt like if she was going to ask me, she would have been asked me. I think the stars aligned the right way. We are just in the right places in our careers that it makes sense now. I feel like, with the release to her last album, her records are geared to what I do now, and so it is what it is."
What Minaj does now is promote "Anaconda," her newest single, which samples Six Mir-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back." Maybe Beyonce can join her for the remix.
During an interview on Hot 97, Minaj revealed how the song came to be. G. Roberson, founder of management firm Hip Hop Since 1978, approached Minaj "a month or two ago" to say Beyonce would like her to remix "Flawless." Given how busy both ladies are, it's not an unfair assumption that they might have fashioned the remix without ever setting foot in the same room, but Minaj says that wasn't the case:
"After I got proper medical help and started breathing again, I was like, 'What?' She sent me a version that she wanted. She told me, 'I want you to be you. I don't want you to hold back." I said, 'You sure?' She said, 'Yeah. I want you to just be you and do you.' I was actually in New York writing the verse. I recorded the verse in New York and she stopped by the studio. She was such a sweetheart. She was hyping me up, like, 'Yeah, do your thing. Don't hold back. Go in.' And I said, 'Okay, all right.'"
Minaj says Beyonce told her the track would premiere during the course of the On the Run tour, and indeed it did. Fans woke up Sunday morning to the news that the reigning queens of hip-hop and R&B had joined forces.
"When I was putting out mix tapes and stuff, I would always remix her stuff," Minaj said. "I have a dope remix that my fans have always been in love with, to one of her songs, 'Sweet Dreams,' [that] me and Wayne did," said Minaj.
"I figured that eventually we would do something together. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. Recently I thought it would never happen 'cause I felt like if she was going to ask me, she would have been asked me. I think the stars aligned the right way. We are just in the right places in our careers that it makes sense now. I feel like, with the release to her last album, her records are geared to what I do now, and so it is what it is."
What Minaj does now is promote "Anaconda," her newest single, which samples Six Mir-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back." Maybe Beyonce can join her for the remix.
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This Shiba Inu Totally Wins At Customer Service
We guarantee you've never had customer service like this -- from a Shiba Inu dog.
In this video from Kuwana Ui, a Shiba Inu shows some serious people skills when a customer visits this kiosk -- and gets right up to greet the shopper in a welcoming (and oddly human) manner.
Awww, we want Shiba to greet us at every store we go into now.
![]()
In this video from Kuwana Ui, a Shiba Inu shows some serious people skills when a customer visits this kiosk -- and gets right up to greet the shopper in a welcoming (and oddly human) manner.
Awww, we want Shiba to greet us at every store we go into now.
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Betty Who Talks First Full Album, Due Out This Fall
Betty Who was tucked away on a side stage during Lollapalooza's final day, but to the fans singing her hit single "Somebody Who Loves You," it was the most important set of the weekend. "You guys are so amazing. I'm obsessed with you all!" she said to the crowd. They knew all the lyrics to every song off her two EPs, and when she covered Destiny Child's "Say My Name," fans pushed three feet forward, screaming every word.
After the set, Betty Who, also known as Jessica Newham and from Australia, posted on Instagram that Lollapalooza was her biggest show ever. With a couple of EPs, an appearance on "Late Night With Seth Meyers," and a gig opening for Katy Perry, Betty Who is poised to be the next huge pop star of the decade. She's set to release her first full album, headline her a tour in October and, if all goes to plan, take over the Billboard charts. The LP's tile has yet to be revealed but Newham told HuffPost that four songs from the EPs, including "Somebody Who Loves You," will appear on the record.
"More than anything, the emotional growth I’ve had over the last year is very prevalent," Newham said before her set at Lollapalooza in Chicago. "I fell out of love with someone who I was not supposed to be in love with in the first place, then I fell in love with somebody who’s absolutely the best person with this world. You feel that arc of this very taboo relationship and having that struggle being really tough, then coming out of it and moving onwards and upwards where it’s like, 'Wait I really love you and it’s really simple and this doesn’t have to be that hard.'"
She collaborated with powerhouse producers Claude Kelly, Martin Johnson, Mag, Starsmith and Babydaddy on the new tracks, and recorded most of the album in Los Angeles' Westlake studio. "I finished the rest of it literally in my producer’s bedroom," she said. Inspiration also came from one unlikely piano. "When I was writing one of the songs, I was playing on Michael Jackson’s piano that him and Paul McCartney wrote 'The Girl Is Mine' on. I was writing this song and I could feel the energy and it was probably one of the craziest experiences of my life, playing the piano and singing this song that I was writing. It was insane."
Betty Who's fans have been waiting for new music with anticipation fueled by a strong and steady internet buzz. She's a huge One Direction fan -- "My phone case literally has Harry Styles on the back of it" -- but Newham has gained an obsessive fan base whose loyalty is on par with the British boy band. She's the star of internet memes, a Twitter force to be reckoned with and has no problem asking her audience to be on "nipple patrol" while she's on stage.
Newham and her band, made up of friends from Berklee School of Music, have a strict pre-show ritual. Before jumping on stage, they huddle up and chant. Inspired by a line in One Direction's movie, "This Is Us," Newham will yell out, "I’m just a little girl from [insert city/ festival/ music venue here]!" Her band responds "And now I'm smashing it!" After a show, she said, they just turn up.
![betty who lollapalooza]()
See more of our Lollapalooza coverage here:
10 Of Your Favorite Artists Pick The Song Of The Summer (Spoiler: It's Not 'Fancy')
R. Kelly Showed Up At Chance The Rapper's Lollapalooza Set
Rihanna Was The Best Thing About Eminem's Lollapalooza Set
After the set, Betty Who, also known as Jessica Newham and from Australia, posted on Instagram that Lollapalooza was her biggest show ever. With a couple of EPs, an appearance on "Late Night With Seth Meyers," and a gig opening for Katy Perry, Betty Who is poised to be the next huge pop star of the decade. She's set to release her first full album, headline her a tour in October and, if all goes to plan, take over the Billboard charts. The LP's tile has yet to be revealed but Newham told HuffPost that four songs from the EPs, including "Somebody Who Loves You," will appear on the record.
"More than anything, the emotional growth I’ve had over the last year is very prevalent," Newham said before her set at Lollapalooza in Chicago. "I fell out of love with someone who I was not supposed to be in love with in the first place, then I fell in love with somebody who’s absolutely the best person with this world. You feel that arc of this very taboo relationship and having that struggle being really tough, then coming out of it and moving onwards and upwards where it’s like, 'Wait I really love you and it’s really simple and this doesn’t have to be that hard.'"
She collaborated with powerhouse producers Claude Kelly, Martin Johnson, Mag, Starsmith and Babydaddy on the new tracks, and recorded most of the album in Los Angeles' Westlake studio. "I finished the rest of it literally in my producer’s bedroom," she said. Inspiration also came from one unlikely piano. "When I was writing one of the songs, I was playing on Michael Jackson’s piano that him and Paul McCartney wrote 'The Girl Is Mine' on. I was writing this song and I could feel the energy and it was probably one of the craziest experiences of my life, playing the piano and singing this song that I was writing. It was insane."
Betty Who's fans have been waiting for new music with anticipation fueled by a strong and steady internet buzz. She's a huge One Direction fan -- "My phone case literally has Harry Styles on the back of it" -- but Newham has gained an obsessive fan base whose loyalty is on par with the British boy band. She's the star of internet memes, a Twitter force to be reckoned with and has no problem asking her audience to be on "nipple patrol" while she's on stage.
Newham and her band, made up of friends from Berklee School of Music, have a strict pre-show ritual. Before jumping on stage, they huddle up and chant. Inspired by a line in One Direction's movie, "This Is Us," Newham will yell out, "I’m just a little girl from [insert city/ festival/ music venue here]!" Her band responds "And now I'm smashing it!" After a show, she said, they just turn up.
See more of our Lollapalooza coverage here:
10 Of Your Favorite Artists Pick The Song Of The Summer (Spoiler: It's Not 'Fancy')
R. Kelly Showed Up At Chance The Rapper's Lollapalooza Set
Rihanna Was The Best Thing About Eminem's Lollapalooza Set
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Slaves of Happiness Island
My message to the head of the Louvre would be to come and see how we are living here,” said Tariq,* a carpenter’s helper working on construction of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, a $653 million Middle Eastern outpost of the iconic Parisian museum. Set to be completed in 2015, its collection will include a Torah from 19th-century Yemen, Picassos, and Magrittes.
“See our living conditions and think about the promises they made,” Tariq told me through a translator.
“See our living conditions and think about the promises they made,” Tariq told me through a translator.
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Gay College Student Recites Spoken Word About The Courage To Love
Remember your first crush -- the excitement, the nerves and the anticipation for what seemed like a world of possibilities? Gay college student Steven Boyle wants to take you back there with his lovely spoken word poem.
Performed as a piece titled "I Hit Send, or Modern Meltdown," the poem encompasses Boyle's feelings surrounding his first crush after waiting 20 years to come out of the closet. The work is both hilarious and heartfelt, and will speak to anyone who ever struggled to become comfortable with their sexuality and dating.
"In attendance [at the reading] was my poetry class who I had grown to love dearly, but had never alluded to that I was gay," Boyle told The Gaily Grind. "I changed every pronoun before that night, and stayed away from the fact that my muse at the time was a boy who had broken my heart. Also in the audience was everyone who came out to see their friends do poetry, strangers I had never met, and a small group of my own friends who had no idea what I was going to read since I rarely, if ever, shared my writing... What happened next was one of the most memorable nights of my life."
Check out the touching poem above.
(h/t The Gaily Grind & Towleroad)
Performed as a piece titled "I Hit Send, or Modern Meltdown," the poem encompasses Boyle's feelings surrounding his first crush after waiting 20 years to come out of the closet. The work is both hilarious and heartfelt, and will speak to anyone who ever struggled to become comfortable with their sexuality and dating.
"In attendance [at the reading] was my poetry class who I had grown to love dearly, but had never alluded to that I was gay," Boyle told The Gaily Grind. "I changed every pronoun before that night, and stayed away from the fact that my muse at the time was a boy who had broken my heart. Also in the audience was everyone who came out to see their friends do poetry, strangers I had never met, and a small group of my own friends who had no idea what I was going to read since I rarely, if ever, shared my writing... What happened next was one of the most memorable nights of my life."
Check out the touching poem above.
(h/t The Gaily Grind & Towleroad)
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See The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Evolution Over The Past 30 Years
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" hits theaters on Friday, and fans have been sure to point out the turtles' new look. With help from CGI, the "teenagers" don't look so pubescent anymore. Halloween Costumes' blog put together a handy infographic tracing the origins of the turtles' transformation. See how Leo, Mikey, Donnie and Raph have changed since 1983.
[via Halloween Costumes]
Infographic Created by HalloweenCostumes.com
[via Halloween Costumes]
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George R.R. Martin To Republish 'Game Of Thrones' Children's Book
If there’s one thing we’ve all thought as we watched a brutal swordfight or X-rated act of incest on HBO's drama “Game of Thrones,” it’s definitely “I wish I had an age-appropriate way to share this story with my young kid/niece/nephew/godchild.” Now, finally, winter is coming for the kids as well. This fall, Tor is rereleasing George R.R. Martin’s 1980 children’s story The Ice Dragon, which is set in the same A Song of Ice and Fire world as "Game of Thrones."
The Ice Dragon was originally published as part of a 1980 anthology, Dragons of Light. In 2007, the story was released as a book, but it is no longer in print -- meaning for several years now, children have had no way to experience "Game of Thrones" mania for themselves, short of scouring used book stores and eBay for a used copy. The new edition, re-imagined with delicate, dreamy illustrations by Spanish artist Luis Royo, hits bookstores Oct. 21.
Adult fans of Martin's universe, admittedly, may not find much to excite them in the story. The Ice Dragon does not specifically mention Westeros or the characters familiar to fans of Martin's other work, and is not marked by the graphic violence of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. Instead, it reads rather like a fairy tale, albeit one set in a long, harsh winter reminiscent of those in Martin’s adult books. The fable tells the story of a little girl who meets an ice dragon, with which she forms a fierce bond -- a bond that may later save her village.
Despite the kid-appropriate angle of the book, however, series enthusiasts may not wish to pass up any new offering from Westeros. As "Game of Thrones" hype continues to spread, Martin's sales have risen in conjunction with the popularity of the HBO show -- but readers have been waiting since 2011 for the next novel in the series, The Winds of Winter, to be released. Though his notoriously impatient fans have been champing at the bit for a new Westeros book to dive into, it remains to be seen whether they will be placated by the rerelease of The Ice Dragon -- or whether the pressure on Martin to set a publication date for The Winds of Winter will continue unabated.
The Ice Dragon was originally published as part of a 1980 anthology, Dragons of Light. In 2007, the story was released as a book, but it is no longer in print -- meaning for several years now, children have had no way to experience "Game of Thrones" mania for themselves, short of scouring used book stores and eBay for a used copy. The new edition, re-imagined with delicate, dreamy illustrations by Spanish artist Luis Royo, hits bookstores Oct. 21.
Adult fans of Martin's universe, admittedly, may not find much to excite them in the story. The Ice Dragon does not specifically mention Westeros or the characters familiar to fans of Martin's other work, and is not marked by the graphic violence of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. Instead, it reads rather like a fairy tale, albeit one set in a long, harsh winter reminiscent of those in Martin’s adult books. The fable tells the story of a little girl who meets an ice dragon, with which she forms a fierce bond -- a bond that may later save her village.
Despite the kid-appropriate angle of the book, however, series enthusiasts may not wish to pass up any new offering from Westeros. As "Game of Thrones" hype continues to spread, Martin's sales have risen in conjunction with the popularity of the HBO show -- but readers have been waiting since 2011 for the next novel in the series, The Winds of Winter, to be released. Though his notoriously impatient fans have been champing at the bit for a new Westeros book to dive into, it remains to be seen whether they will be placated by the rerelease of The Ice Dragon -- or whether the pressure on Martin to set a publication date for The Winds of Winter will continue unabated.
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Prize-winning Poet W.S. Merwin Still At Work At Age 86
NEW YORK (AP) — He is 86 years old, his eyesight is failing and much of his recent work reads like a man saying goodbye.
But W.S. Merwin continues to write poems; he cannot help himself. "I wrote the last one about 10 days ago, it doesn't stop, and I don't know where it comes from," says Merwin, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate widely regarded as among the greatest poets of the past half-century.
"I remember, just over a year ago, after several readings and two red-eye flights, I was absolutely exhausted. But in the middle of the night, I woke up with a line and a half of poetry to write."
Speaking by phone from his house on the island of Maui in Hawaii, Merwin said he hopes to finish at least another book, health permitting, and also discussed his latest collection, "The Moon Before Morning." Like his Pulitzer Prize winner from 2008 "The Shadow of Sirius," its themes are age, time and memory. Phrases such as "this unrepeatable present," ''the current music of vanishing" and "the long-gone night pasture" can be found throughout.
In "Relics," he writes of his affinity for worlds that have disappeared.
Before I knew words for it
I loved what was obsolete
crumpled at the foot of the closet
lost in the street
left out in the rain
in its wet story
from another age
"I think I've seen so many things in my lifetime just as they were vanishing, and sometimes I realized it was happening and sometimes I didn't," Merwin says. "I remember one wonderful period of late summer and autumn into winter, way up in the mountains of northern Portugal, an area that really had not changed since the Romans. So this was very, very ancient in so many ways — the architecture, the way of farming. I was just hugging myself. It was wonderful."
Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Merwin is a Presbyterian minister's son whose earliest memories of language include writing out the sermons of his father. He was composing his own verse while still a boy and was class poet at Princeton University. His first collection, "A Mask for Janus," won the Yale Younger Poets prize in 1951, and by the end of the decade, his friends and acquaintances included Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell.
His style and subject matter would change profoundly, from the classical influences of his early poems to the anti-war themes of the 1960s to the more condensed and philosophical verse of recent years, influenced by his immersion in Buddhism. Throughout, he has been a man of peace — he was a conscientious objector during World War II — a recorder of the past, a believer in nature and a skeptic of humankind. At his Princeton graduation, he read a commencement poem that mourned those who had died in war and explained to the graduation committee that he had "little optimism" about the future.
"I think what we've been doing to the Earth, especially since the dawn of the machine age, is so appalling that I don't know (if) we can turn it back," he says during his interview.
The poem "No Flag" scorns the pursuit of earthly glory, noting that after "the speeches the medals the fame" comes the "unmapped cold of death." But some of the poems in "Moon Before Morning" are statements of gratitude, like "Variation on a Theme," a procession of "thank yous" for everything from friendship and language to the parts of his body and his windows "above the rivers."
Work these days can be a struggle for Merwin in part because he writes in longhand ("The computer and I are not friends," he explains) and has to make the letters large in order to read them. Still, the pictures are clear in his mind and words themselves make him hopeful. "I do not have to see/in order to believe," he writes in "The Color They Come To," from his new collection. "I know that the flame tree is flowering/when I see petals at my feet."
"I think of one of my greatest heroes, (William Butler) Yeats," Merwin said. "He wrote at length — although nothing of Yeats is too long — about old age. He came to it with real anger, as though it was an outrage."
"I think of old age as being a time like the others. It has its revelations of its own that you can't come to any other way. I don't have any of those feelings Yeats had at all. I accept it with a certain amount of curiosity."
But W.S. Merwin continues to write poems; he cannot help himself. "I wrote the last one about 10 days ago, it doesn't stop, and I don't know where it comes from," says Merwin, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate widely regarded as among the greatest poets of the past half-century.
"I remember, just over a year ago, after several readings and two red-eye flights, I was absolutely exhausted. But in the middle of the night, I woke up with a line and a half of poetry to write."
Speaking by phone from his house on the island of Maui in Hawaii, Merwin said he hopes to finish at least another book, health permitting, and also discussed his latest collection, "The Moon Before Morning." Like his Pulitzer Prize winner from 2008 "The Shadow of Sirius," its themes are age, time and memory. Phrases such as "this unrepeatable present," ''the current music of vanishing" and "the long-gone night pasture" can be found throughout.
In "Relics," he writes of his affinity for worlds that have disappeared.
Before I knew words for it
I loved what was obsolete
crumpled at the foot of the closet
lost in the street
left out in the rain
in its wet story
from another age
"I think I've seen so many things in my lifetime just as they were vanishing, and sometimes I realized it was happening and sometimes I didn't," Merwin says. "I remember one wonderful period of late summer and autumn into winter, way up in the mountains of northern Portugal, an area that really had not changed since the Romans. So this was very, very ancient in so many ways — the architecture, the way of farming. I was just hugging myself. It was wonderful."
Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Merwin is a Presbyterian minister's son whose earliest memories of language include writing out the sermons of his father. He was composing his own verse while still a boy and was class poet at Princeton University. His first collection, "A Mask for Janus," won the Yale Younger Poets prize in 1951, and by the end of the decade, his friends and acquaintances included Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell.
His style and subject matter would change profoundly, from the classical influences of his early poems to the anti-war themes of the 1960s to the more condensed and philosophical verse of recent years, influenced by his immersion in Buddhism. Throughout, he has been a man of peace — he was a conscientious objector during World War II — a recorder of the past, a believer in nature and a skeptic of humankind. At his Princeton graduation, he read a commencement poem that mourned those who had died in war and explained to the graduation committee that he had "little optimism" about the future.
"I think what we've been doing to the Earth, especially since the dawn of the machine age, is so appalling that I don't know (if) we can turn it back," he says during his interview.
The poem "No Flag" scorns the pursuit of earthly glory, noting that after "the speeches the medals the fame" comes the "unmapped cold of death." But some of the poems in "Moon Before Morning" are statements of gratitude, like "Variation on a Theme," a procession of "thank yous" for everything from friendship and language to the parts of his body and his windows "above the rivers."
Work these days can be a struggle for Merwin in part because he writes in longhand ("The computer and I are not friends," he explains) and has to make the letters large in order to read them. Still, the pictures are clear in his mind and words themselves make him hopeful. "I do not have to see/in order to believe," he writes in "The Color They Come To," from his new collection. "I know that the flame tree is flowering/when I see petals at my feet."
"I think of one of my greatest heroes, (William Butler) Yeats," Merwin said. "He wrote at length — although nothing of Yeats is too long — about old age. He came to it with real anger, as though it was an outrage."
"I think of old age as being a time like the others. It has its revelations of its own that you can't come to any other way. I don't have any of those feelings Yeats had at all. I accept it with a certain amount of curiosity."
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3 Simple Ways To Resist Rape Culture
Rape culture is everywhere -- and a new series of PSAs is trying to make more people realize just how pervasive it is.
The series of three posters, sponsored by the University of Ablerta Student Union's Gender-Based Violence Prevention Project, tackles rape jokes, sexual assault and the twisted ways women's bodies are viewed. The PSAs were created by artist Courtenay McKay.
![rape culture]()
Parker Leflar, Assistant Coordinator of the Gender Based Violence Prevention Project, told The Huffington Post in an email that the campaign launched in early 2014 with posters around the University of Alberta campus and Edmonton public transport stations.
"The campaign is intended to bring awareness to the ways that rape culture manifests in casual speech, in the media, and as part of our daily lives," Leflar told HuffPost. "By placing our attention on these situations, we can start to eradicate casual forms of rape culture by making different choices for ourselves, and by holding the people around us and those with decision-making power accountable."
![rape culture]()
Here's hoping these powerful images make someone think twice before using rape as the punchline of their joke.
![rape culture]()
[h/t Upworthy]
The series of three posters, sponsored by the University of Ablerta Student Union's Gender-Based Violence Prevention Project, tackles rape jokes, sexual assault and the twisted ways women's bodies are viewed. The PSAs were created by artist Courtenay McKay.
Parker Leflar, Assistant Coordinator of the Gender Based Violence Prevention Project, told The Huffington Post in an email that the campaign launched in early 2014 with posters around the University of Alberta campus and Edmonton public transport stations.
"The campaign is intended to bring awareness to the ways that rape culture manifests in casual speech, in the media, and as part of our daily lives," Leflar told HuffPost. "By placing our attention on these situations, we can start to eradicate casual forms of rape culture by making different choices for ourselves, and by holding the people around us and those with decision-making power accountable."
Here's hoping these powerful images make someone think twice before using rape as the punchline of their joke.
[h/t Upworthy]
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'Poor Behavior' Is A Milestone For Playwright Theresa Rebeck, But She's Already Looking Ahead
Theresa Rebeck will become the first American female playwright to have had 15 new works staged in New York when her new play, “Poor Behavior,” opens on Aug. 17, but says she’s hopeful for a “post-gendered” time when that won’t seem like such an artistic milestone.
“It’s a challenging time in the theater to get new work done, and it’s a big privilege to have a body of work,” Rebeck, 56, told The Huffington Post in an interview. “There’s certainly no question that a woman is writing these plays, but hopefully when you’re falling into a play as an audience member, the gender of the playwright is irrelevant.”
Still, gender politics is one of many elements at work in Primary Stages’ Off-Broadway production of “Poor Behavior,” which stars Heidi Armbuster, Brian Avers, Jeff Biehl and Katie Kreisler. A dark comedy, “Poor Behavior” centers on two couples -- Ella and Peter, Ian and Maureen -- that spend a “not-so-idyllic” weekend in the country where accusations of infidelity arise. Ultimately, the play “raises questions of what is considered socially acceptable behavior and what is not” while examining deeper themes about “the ethical choices we make in our lives,” according to Rebeck.
Although the play’s subject matter seems to shy away from the traditionally comedic, Entertainment Weekly hailed “Poor Behavior” as “bitingly funny” and an “addictive, farcical drama” after it premiered in Los Angeles in 2011. Rebeck says the plot was inspired by “a really disastrous week” she spent in a country home with her husband and some friends, and while she has revised the piece since its debut, she’s nonetheless confident that the New York version, directed by Evan Cabnet, keeps her original concept “on solid ground.”
The show also marks Rebeck’s return to New York theater after the saga of NBC’s Broadway-centric musical drama “Smash,” which premiered amid dynamite buzz in 2012 but was canceled last year after struggling to find an audience. Rebeck, who created the series and served as executive producer and showrunner, controversially stepped down after the show’s first season, which had been generally well-received.
“I was really proud of the work that we did and I loved doing it, and I felt that we were successful,” Rebeck said. “It was a very challenging, complicated show to do, [but] there were decisions made that I didn’t have any part of.” In the end, however, she’s grateful: “It’s a crowded field in TV and it made a big noise.”
With “Poor Behavior,” Rebeck is happily focused on theater once again, even if her artistic prolificacy means she's always thinking ahead. Another new play, "Zealot," was just produced in California as part of the 2014 Pacific Playwrights Festival, while New Jersey's McCarter Theatre Center will revive "The Understudy," which opened on Broadway in 2009, this fall. While she’s “grateful” that having 15 plays produced in New York places her among an elite group of playwrights that includes David Mamet and Tom Stoppard, Rebeck believes her work’s greatest strength is its ability to instigate and provoke.
“There’s no way to walk away from this play without having an argument,” she said. “You have to come with someone so that you can go and have a drink and then an argument afterward, which I think is a great thing for theater to do.”
Pausing for a moment, she then quipped, “One drink will be fine, but two will be better.”
Primary Stages' production of "Poor Behavior" is currently in previews at The Duke on 42 Street and will open Aug. 17. Head here for more information.
“It’s a challenging time in the theater to get new work done, and it’s a big privilege to have a body of work,” Rebeck, 56, told The Huffington Post in an interview. “There’s certainly no question that a woman is writing these plays, but hopefully when you’re falling into a play as an audience member, the gender of the playwright is irrelevant.”
Still, gender politics is one of many elements at work in Primary Stages’ Off-Broadway production of “Poor Behavior,” which stars Heidi Armbuster, Brian Avers, Jeff Biehl and Katie Kreisler. A dark comedy, “Poor Behavior” centers on two couples -- Ella and Peter, Ian and Maureen -- that spend a “not-so-idyllic” weekend in the country where accusations of infidelity arise. Ultimately, the play “raises questions of what is considered socially acceptable behavior and what is not” while examining deeper themes about “the ethical choices we make in our lives,” according to Rebeck.
Although the play’s subject matter seems to shy away from the traditionally comedic, Entertainment Weekly hailed “Poor Behavior” as “bitingly funny” and an “addictive, farcical drama” after it premiered in Los Angeles in 2011. Rebeck says the plot was inspired by “a really disastrous week” she spent in a country home with her husband and some friends, and while she has revised the piece since its debut, she’s nonetheless confident that the New York version, directed by Evan Cabnet, keeps her original concept “on solid ground.”
The show also marks Rebeck’s return to New York theater after the saga of NBC’s Broadway-centric musical drama “Smash,” which premiered amid dynamite buzz in 2012 but was canceled last year after struggling to find an audience. Rebeck, who created the series and served as executive producer and showrunner, controversially stepped down after the show’s first season, which had been generally well-received.
“I was really proud of the work that we did and I loved doing it, and I felt that we were successful,” Rebeck said. “It was a very challenging, complicated show to do, [but] there were decisions made that I didn’t have any part of.” In the end, however, she’s grateful: “It’s a crowded field in TV and it made a big noise.”
With “Poor Behavior,” Rebeck is happily focused on theater once again, even if her artistic prolificacy means she's always thinking ahead. Another new play, "Zealot," was just produced in California as part of the 2014 Pacific Playwrights Festival, while New Jersey's McCarter Theatre Center will revive "The Understudy," which opened on Broadway in 2009, this fall. While she’s “grateful” that having 15 plays produced in New York places her among an elite group of playwrights that includes David Mamet and Tom Stoppard, Rebeck believes her work’s greatest strength is its ability to instigate and provoke.
“There’s no way to walk away from this play without having an argument,” she said. “You have to come with someone so that you can go and have a drink and then an argument afterward, which I think is a great thing for theater to do.”
Pausing for a moment, she then quipped, “One drink will be fine, but two will be better.”
Primary Stages' production of "Poor Behavior" is currently in previews at The Duke on 42 Street and will open Aug. 17. Head here for more information.
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