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25 Artists You Need To Start Listening To In 2015

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2015 should be an amazing year for music. Between expected releases from Kendrick Lamar, Modest Mouse, Kanye West, Radiohead, Drake, Adele, Chance The Rapper, Frank Ocean, James Blake and Fleetwood Mac, to name but a select few, this year should make up for the lack of impact albums that marked 2014 (even if there was still some great music in 2014). But beyond the returning titans, there are a lot of new, rising artists and long-game players, who are finally receiving their much deserved recognition, to be excited about. Here are 25 artists that you should start listening to in 2015:

Boots


Boots might be known as the guy who produced a majority of Beyonce’s self-titled album, but he’s quickly making the name for himself he deserves. His mixtape “WinterSpringSummerFall” proved his abilities to write beautiful songs, and then subsequent tracks like “Mercy” and “I Run Roulette” proved he isn’t afraid to get loud and aggressive.

BØRNS


One listen to “Electric Love” will demonstrate why BØRNS’ spacey jams have so swiftly propelled him into the spotlight.

Vic Mensa


Whether he’s laying down bars in dizzying rhythmic patterns or discussing his Film The Police campaign, Vic Mensa is exactly what hip hop should be aspiring towards.

James Bay


With a voice like James Bay’s, he could record basically the same album repeatedly with different vocals and they would all sell. Bay proved across three EPs that he is quick to improve all facets of his craft, and his debut full-length, “Chaos And The Calm,” will be the most dynamic and enjoyable of all ... at least until the next album.

Tyler Carter


A marriage of Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber and James Blake, Tyler Carter is an inevitable pop star. We saw Dallas Green go from hardcore to folk, Sonny Moore (Skrillex) go from hardcore to EDM and soon Carter from hardcore to R&B/pop.

Misterwives


It’s hard not to love the quirky sound of Misterwives, who have somehow managed to mix indie and folk-rock and then make it impossible not to dance to.

Joey Bada$$


The Pro Era captain Joey Bada$$ is finally ready to put out his debut album, and with tracks like “Teach Me” included, his experiment in sound beyond the New York boom bap that brought him to attention will be critical to his success.

Jon Bellion


If there’s a reason people love Jason Derulo’s “Trumpets,” it’s Jon Bellion. A masterful meld of J Dilla and Disney, Bellion’s “The Definition” grows stronger in its swagger with each listen, and is the prelude to the album that will inevitably put him at the top of the pop pyramid.

Glass Animals


What is there to say about Glass Animals other than that they are one sexy band. They even make the word “gooey” sexy.

Years & Years


This electro-pop trio has all the appeal of acts like Disclosure and Chvrches, and with the charisma and allure of vocalist Olly Alexander, they will soon become party favorites.

Alex Wiley


Determined to constantly challenge himself and the listener, Alex Wiley’s last release, “Top of the World,” left us with a flash of Kid Cudi-inspired differentiation. In Wiley’s next album, listeners can expect music from a hip-hop artist with visions of Nirvana in his head.

Ryn Weaver


Just like Banks and Tove Lo won the hearts of the pop world in 2014, so too will Ryn Weaver in 2015.

Little May


With the haunting nature of Daughter, soothing bloom of First Aid Kit and stomp-fest peaks of Mumford & Sons, the ladies of Little May are about to have a big year.

Yeo


Yeo has no discernible allegiance to any sort of genre, but as he points out, it really doesn’t matter -- especially when the Australian artist is consecutively pumping out great tunes. Dreamy and catchy as hell, Yeo is about to cross the sea with hits like “Kobe."

Raury


If being flown out to meet with Kanye doesn’t say enough about the talent and promise of a young artist like Raury, then just look to his first project, “Indigo Child.” Raury wants to become music’s savior,

Broods


The brother-sister duo Broods’ music is exactly what its name sounds like: synthpop that mulls over the weight of every word sung. But functioning as more contemplative than self-pitying, their debut full-length, “Evergreen,” feels more like a snowy day than a rainy one.

Mark Ronson


This isn’t Mark Ronson’s first rodeo, but his Bruno Mars collaboration, “Uptown Funk,” is finally garnering him the wider audience he deserves. Continuing his era-themed albums -- all of which deserve to be explored by new listeners -- the '70s flex of "Uptown Special" is sure to be a hit the whole way through.

Daye Jack


Daye Jack is a perfect representation of the rising wave of internet-cultured artists: extremely talented at a young age and swirling together the styles that previously had been so carefully separated, all with a big grin. Whether he’s rapping or doling out sweet melodies, it’s all working and it’s all got soul.

The Districts


Forget that none of the members of The Districts are of legal drinking age, their blend of blues, rock and folk has proven them amongst some of the best today, and their new album, “A Flourish and a Spoil,” will only see their clout rise.

Tink


The Chicago emcee has been on the rise for some time, but with a Timbaland co-sign, Tink isn’t just going to be the next hottest female in hip-hop, she’s going to be that rapper. Oh, and did we mention she has got a great singing voice, too?

Marian Hill


Minimal electronic beats; delicate, sensual vocals and the occasional saxophone solo. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Hail Mary Mallon


Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic have long been players in the underground hip-hop scene, but, like Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike and El-P, they are at their best together. Teaming up with DJ Big Wiz, their sophomore album “Bestiary” is as nasty as it sounds.

Catfish and the Bottlemen


The British indie-rock four-piece just released their debut album, “The Balcony,” and it won’t be long before their catchy tunes dominate the radio.

Hopium


Having only released two tracks so far, there is little to known about the duo behind Hopium. However, with releases like “Dreamers,” Hopium is quickly gaining the attention of the musical community.

All Get Out


All Get Out’s Southern heart with an often spicy attitude is modeled around Nathan Hussey’s vocals: a homey twang with a proclivity for cracking into yells. It’s been four years since “The Season,” but 2015 marks the long-awaited return of some good southern rock ’n’ roll.

BONUS:

Polyenso


Polyenso was on our list of artists to know in 2014, and we will keep adding them until they get the recognition they deserve. After debuting their first new single, “17 New Years,” the trio followed up with “Moona Festival.” It’s unlikely we will hear a more emotive and beautiful song for the rest of 2015.

After Years Behind The Camera, Jay Duplass Steps Into The Light

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Jay Duplass is having a moment.

The longtime filmmaker made his major acting debut this summer in "Transparent," the much-buzzed about Amazon original series depicting a trans woman (Maura, played by Jeffrey Tambor) beginning her late-in-life transition. Duplass plays one of Maura's three adult children, Josh, an emotionally stunted music producer trying to piece together his own identity. Now, on Sunday, Duplass' new drama “Togetherness” -- made with younger brother and creative partner Mark Duplass -- premieres on HBO.

But while his television pursuits may be fresh, Duplass, along with his brother, has been inside the entertainment industry for years. The brothers first garnered a following in the indie film community with hit Sundance features “The Puffy Chair,” and “Baghead," which put their true-to-life, emotionally grounded aesthetic onto the map. They then transitioned to mainstream success with the studio-releases “Cyrus” and “Jeff, Who Lives At Home.”

As the two rose through the ranks of Hollywood, their traditional labor breakdown often put Mark acting onscreen, while Jay worked behind the camera. That division, coupled with Mark branching out to play roles in projects outside the family -- such as in projects like Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty,” Melissa McCarthy's "Tammy" and the FX series “The League” -- gave audiences more familiarity with the younger Duplass brother. He quickly gained a reputation as one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, working at a rate he himself characterized as compulsive. Jay, meanwhile, was portrayed as the more careful, balanced sibling, off editing an indie film somewhere in the wings.

“Jay would rather make one movie every two years that we direct together and then garden and run and get centered,” Mark joked to Grantland in 2012. “ And I just feel desperately compelled to work. Down to the core of my being. I have no idea why.”

But now, for the first time, that dynamic has shifted. While the two brothers were editing “Togetherness,” Jay was doing double duty on the set of “Transparent."

“We switched roles a bit this summer,” Jay told HuffPost Entertainment in a recent interview. “He sort of became the dude on lockdown, and I became the one having an affair with my other show. I kind of came to an appreciation of how challenging his life is by jumping around for different things.”

In advance of Sunday’s “Togetherness” debut, HuffPost Entertainment got on the phone with the writer/actor/director to talk about his perspective on the Duplass brothers’ origin story, his newfound passion for acting at 40 and what to expect on the upcoming HBO show.

Short Film Roots: "This is John," and "Scrapple"

thisisjohn

Mark has said before that there was an early period where you both were editors trying to make the day job work. Then your dad helped you out financially and you were able to really focus on making things. Do your first short films come out of that period?
Yeah. We both went to college at the University of Texas. I arrived there when Richard Linklater’s "Slacker" was in the midnight theater, in the early '90s. That’s when we first started coming to the awareness that human beings made movies -- that they weren’t just like piped in over cable from some mysterious place. We graduated from college and we were just sort of hanging out in Austin, making stuff and editing for other people. Just trying to find, I guess, our voice. For a long time we were hooked on trying to be the Coen brothers and failing at it miserably.

"For a long time we were hooked on trying to be the Coen brothers and failing at it miserably."

Was the appeal that you were also brothers?
That was probably a small part of it. More, we were weirdly obsessed with their stuff, which is funny now because our stuff couldn’t be more opposite. They’re like the most heady, on the rails, controlled filmmakers; Mark and I, we do write scripts but we’re waiting for lightning to strike on set, for surprises to happen. And we shoot in a documentary style. It’s funny how diametrically opposed we ended up.

Your first film that started getting buzz was “This is John,” a short that went to Sundance. Was that the first time you felt like you were finding that voice?
Yeah, that was really the first movie ever. It was just a weird accident, where I was pushing 30 and on the verge of a nervous breakdown because I hadn’t made anything great yet. Mark was just like: “We’re gonna make a movie today. Come up with an idea.” Basically I came up with a thing that had happened to me the day before. I tried to perfect the personal greeting of my answering machine and had a breakdown. I couldn’t get it right and I was like “Oh fuck, if I can’t do this, I don’t know how I’m going to make it as a filmmaker.” We did it in one take and we edited it down to seven minutes. It truly cost $3. We shot it with our parents’ video camera and it did more for our careers than the previous 10 years of just kind of meandering about.



Did you make your follow-up short “Scrapple” with the intention of going back to Sundance?
Yeah, that was the very specific goal. After we made “This is John,” we wrote a couple of feature screenplays. We got an agent [at Sundance], and he told us to do that. But the agency at the time wasn’t doing anything to move it forward. That’s when we were first starting to realize: Oh yeah, agents don’t really do stuff for you when you’ve just made a $3 short film. So we were like, "Okay let’s make another film and go back to Sundance!"

So we made this time a film that happens in a kitchen and a living room, added one person and made it for $50! So it was very incremental steps. At that point, literally people who worked [at Sundance] were like, "Guys, are you gonna make a feature or not? You’re ready." It was really cool. I always tell young filmmakers: Don’t go make a feature. Make a short. When you’re ready to make a feature, people will tell you. Your friends will tell you, your fans will tell you, festivals will tell you. Listen to your audience.

First Feature: "The Puffy Chair"

A lot of people see "The Puffy Chair" as a spin on the classic road trip genre. Was that a conscious decision on your part?
No, it was really just, we were terrified to make a feature, because we had made some movies in our early 20s that were terrible, and we don’t show them to anyone. We had come to this place where we were like, "Okay, we know how to make short films. The whole world has told us that we’re good at that." Because we were winning awards at festivals for a $3 movie. So we were like, a road trip is a great way to integrate spine to build a relationship movie. And just more immediately, a road trip film is like a spine to hang, like, 13 great short films on. We felt very confident doing that.

Do you still approach feature writing like creating a spine for shorts?
No, now I would say we’re actively going in a different direction in terms of plotting. Because I think we realized at the time we released "Puffy Chair" that the minor plotting things that we were doing -- like tracking certain elements that we would set up and then revisit and pay off later -- were extremely powerful. I think it’s what sort of differentiated us. Everyone was saying we were mumblecore filmmakers at the time, which doesn’t really mean anything. Mark and I have always just been trying to make something that didn’t suck. We’ve never been trying to be part of a movement. But I think "Puffy Chair," the meager plot that it had was still three times more plot than all the other movies that were coming out at the time. We know for a fact that’s why Hollywood came calling immediately.

Development Inertia: "Baghead," "Do-deca-Pentathlon," "Cyrus," and "Jeff Who Lives At Home"

cyrus

So Hollywood came right after "Puffy Chair" did Sundance?
Yeah, definitely. That’s when we started doing our general meetings. Everyone wanted to meet with us. They were like, "Oh my god, these little dudes made this movie for $15,000. What if we gave them $15 million? The movie would be a thousand times better!" Which wasn’t true. But like, we didn’t do anything to dispel that. We were like, "Sure, we’d love to have some money to make a movie." We’d been struggling for so long.

From those meetings come your bigger Studio features, "Cyrus," (2010) and "Jeff, Who Lives At Home." (2011) Where does "Baghead," which came out in 2008, fit into the timeline?
We started sort of dating Hollywood right after we made "Puffy Chair," and we started developing "Cyrus" pretty soon. But that development process was long-winded. It was new to us, it was challenging. It just seemed to go on forever. So we decided to continue to make movies. We were lucky because we knew how to make movies for a few thousand dollars. So we just went back to Austin and made "Baghead."

"I’ve been holding up universes for a long time, and it’s fucking exhausting".

Did you find there were things you had to sacrifice during the long development process for your bigger budget features?
No, we never sacrificed anything. We just had to work extra hard to explain everything, and to fight for things. And we did. It’s not like development was all bad -- there are good ideas that come up. A lot of it just had to do with justifying. It makes the process so much more long-winded. It just grinds you down is really what it comes down to. Mark and I are super picky about what we want to do. By the time we’ve vetted and processed a script, we’re kind of done. And it's not about ego, it’s really about the little amount of energy that we have, and also our process. We’re kind of like cavemen who are trying to feel things out in the dark and there’s a little bit of mystery to the process that we feel is important. When you have to justify it to all these executives, it really changes the nature of the process.

We never felt like we compromised anything -- we made the exact movie we wanted to. But we just got beat up during the process. Not that the executives were beating us up -- just the process beat us back a lot. Before we started making "Cyrus," we only made a $15,000 movie that looked really rough. I think the studio was trying to be super careful we didn’t make a $7 million movie that looked like a piece of shit.

"Cyrus" was the only development process that we had because "Jeff, Who Lives At Home" was sort of like championed by Jason Reitman. He kind of just set it up at Paramount. We didn’t change a thing about the script, we went right into production. We've only done that [development process] once and we’re not gonna do that again.

Hollywood Relief: "Kevin"

jay duplass ke

You then move on to make the solo-project documentary "Kevin," which tells the story of a prominent '90s musician in Austin who suddenly disappeared from the scene. Did your exhausting development experience make you consciously want to do a project that was so "un-Hollywood?"
Yeah, definitely. Mark and I have been obsessed with [Kevin Gant] since I was like 18 and Mark was like 15. That was more like a life experience that also happened to be a film. It was something that was totally uncontrolled. I was the entire crew -- I didn’t even have a sound guy. It was just me alone with him the whole time. It was very personal. Really a way for me to spend a lot of time with this guy I loved and admired for so long and try to give something back to him because I guess he’d inspired me so much. The movie was more about complete freedom and lack of control. It was just chaos shooting that. We didn’t know what was happening. I was just following him.

Your experience doing the film kind of mirrors what Kevin says about his own career in the movie. I'm thinking of the moment when you ask him why he's getting back into music after so many years if not to "make it," and he says, "life." Is that kind of what this project was for you, too?
Yeah, that was exactly what the project was for me. When he said that -- in that moment I knew that I had a film. That we had something to say and we had found the thing we were saying together.

The TV Chapter: "The Mindy Project,” “Transparent" and "Togetherness"


jay duplass

You've recently been transitioning to more onscreen work. I love your arc on "The Mindy Project," in which you and Mark play a brothers' midwife duo that competes for clients with Mindy's OBGYN practice.
I ended up having so much fun on that show it was just natural and kind of easy to do it. I had never really acted that much before that. I’ve always been the camera operator on our movies so it’s never even really been an option to get in front of the camera because I've been literally stuck behind it. I’ve definitely had friends like Mindy [Kaling] and Jill Soloway all through the years like meet me and say, like, wow you probably should act. I don’t know -- I was always just busy writing and directing and shooting.

What do you think it is about you that makes people say that?
I don't know what it is. I can tell you something that has occurred to me since. My whole life, I’ve been the one in my family that’s always too emotional and too sensitive. That’s like my role in my family. Now that I’m acting, I’ve realized that I don’t have a lot of barriers. Certain actors have a hard time with anger, or with joy or with whatever, and, I don’t know, I don’t seem to have those barriers. So now I feel like weirdly exonerated because, like, yeah, I have thin skin and I am very emotional and I feel everything more than other people do. And now I’m getting paid for that shit! It’s always right there on the surface for me. It’s weird. It’s interesting to be 40 and to be discovering something that feels very natural, like something totally new. Because acting is so different from writing and directing.

"Josh has had more sex in one season of 'Transparent' than I’ve had in my entire life."

It sounds like maybe for you that difference has to do with being in control versus not?
Yeah, that's a big part of it. I think part of acting is allowing yourself to lose control and also to just surrender to the moment. When you’re writing and directing you’re like holding a whole universe in your arms and in your brain. When you’re acting, your job is to do the opposite -- to be extremely microcosmic and extremely focused on just what you want and what you need and how you’re gonna get it. It's therapeutic for me in a lot of ways just to focus on one thing because I’ve been holding up universes for a long time, and it’s fucking exhausting.

jay duplass mindy

The lore is that you ended up in "Transparent" because you ran into [creator] Jill Soloway at a party.
It truly was a party. We east side of L.A. directors have little get-togethers and we talk about actors. We talk about everything because directors don’t get together a lot. One of the things that was happening was that Jill was about to make this show. She had this amazing cast and she was dying because she couldn’t find the brother. It was absolutely the last role -- like the last straw -- and she was kind of freaking out.

I was just sitting with her, and she was like: I need like a wildly charismatic-slash-insecure, brilliant-stunted mid-30’s Jewish guy. And I was like, "Dude, I know all those guys! They’re all my friends. Those are all the actors in town that I know." So I was just going through all my favorite guys and she was like, "No, thought of them, thought of them, not right, not right, not right." So we just left it alone. Then we were talking for like 30 more minutes and she just stopped and said: “It’s you. You are him. You’re gonna play him.” I was like ... Jill! I’m about to make an HBO series. I am not an actor. I am not Jewish -- I’m like 1/8th Jewish, I'm not really Jewish -- you know, I don’t really think so. And she's like, no. And in Jill's sort of good witchcraft way, she was like you’re coming in to my reading room tomorrow and you’re gonna read with me. I went in there and I did these roles with Jill. She played the sisters, and it turns out that the way she and I work is incredibly similar. I started running with the role.

The other thing is I’m really different from Josh. Josh has had more sex in one season of "Transparent" than I’ve had in my entire life. I’ve always been sort of like the female role in my relationships. I'm, like, super careful sensitive and Josh is the opposite. I mean, Josh is very sensitive, actually. I think that somehow has something to do with why people are interested in him. I’m a super softy that’s doing a lot of bad behavior onscreen.

Yeah, Josh is totally sensitive. He’s like the resident asshole of the family, but you can tell he's also delicate.
Yeah. It's funny -- somebody figured out toward the end of the season, after like my eighth crying scene -- they were like, “I think Josh cries more than anyone else in the show.” And I was like, “Yeah, it feels like it, man.” I’m like a whole lot of tears at this point.




Could you tell while you were working on the show that it was going to be something so special?
I knew it was gonna be special from the first reading that I did with Jill the morning after she said “It’s you.” That energy was present, that feeling was there. Then I read with Gaby [Hoffmann] and we did some stuff in front of Amazon with Amy [Landecker] and we were just like, “Oh my god. This is crazy. This is totally crazy.” Honestly, I think it does all stem from Jill. She kind of creates this nest, this like family nest.

Have you been trying to take any of that experience to “Togetherness?”
Well, it’s interesting because “Togetherness” was in motion years before “Transparent.” We shot the pilot of “Togetherness” in the spring of 2013, and we shot the whole first season of ‘Togetherness” before we even shot “Transparent.” It’s weird because the way that I’m talking about Jill is kind of how everybody’s been talking about me and Mark. Like, they feel safe and comfortable and it feels like family and it feels like you’re not only allowed to fall on your face, you’re encouraged to. In a weird way, I saw from the other side why people have been so excited to be on [our] sets. It’s wild to me because those are the only two sets I’ve gone deep on, and they’re very similar. Just creating a family and trying to make something beautiful, and allowing failure to be a part of that equation.

Now that you’ve been doing more acting, are you going to write yourself a part in “Togetherness?”
If a part came up for me, I might do it. It’s been interesting because I’ve been getting a lot of acting offers and the show’s only been out for a couple of months. That’s been new and exciting and weird just because I’m so busy -- it’s very hard to fit them in because creating my own TV show is pretty much a full time job all year around. But right before [this interview], I was meeting with a director about potentially doing a movie as an actor. So I do love it. I think I will be very picky about acting because I know damn well that I am spoiled. My first big job is on this phenomenal television show with like these phenomenal human beings and people I love and at the center of a civil rights movement. I’m not taking it for granted.

It’s pretty amazing to have your first acting job to be on one of the best TV shows in history.
Yeah! I mean, to that point, it’s interesting because my wife and I, when it released, sat down to watch it. And it was scary for us because Josh has a lot of sex in episode 1, in the whole season. Episode 1 and every episode he’s having some kind of sex. For me and my wife, that’s not something she signed up for. She didn’t walk into our marriage knowing that I was gonna be an actor, or particularly an actor on a show with the most intense sexual situations ever. So we were both nervous. Like, Is this gonna make a mess that we’re gonna have to like work on really hard? And as we started watching, as the episodes rolled through, it was amazing how all of those concerns went right out the window because we both realized we were watching the show we had been waiting for like 10 years. We were both like, “This is my favorite show.” This is like possibly the best show just as viewers. We were just in tears and laughing like everyone else who watches it and it just didn’t seem to matter after that.

"When your boyfriend is gonna leave you, it’s probably not like this big impressive argument down by the river. It’s probably like he doesn’t make me breakfast Monday morning and you know that it’s the beginning of the end."

What made you and Mark want to make the transition to television?
We had this idea, and the more we started to talk about it, the more we realized that it just seemed to go on and on. I don’t know what it was, but we got through like a feature’s worth of material and it just seemed like the beginning. That story, being in your late 30s and living on the fringes of LA, trying to be a part of it, trying not to be a part of it, trying to take care of your kids, trying to take care of yourself. How trying to balance the reality of your own dreams and your family seemed to be like you’re like a millimeter away from drowning at any given point in time. How hard that seemed to be. The other couple is in their late 30s and they aren’t married and they don’t have kids and they’re not finding their person and they’re freaking out even more. Not only was everyone in our world going through one of those two scenarios, but like, that’s all we talk about when we go out to dinner or now, when we have playdates. Just the horrendous impossible shit that we’re going through every day to just try to, like, enjoy our lives and achieve what we want to achieve. It just seemed tragically funny in the way that we love and to just be an instant amount of material. So we pitched it to HBO and they were like, yeah, absolutely, that’s a show.

jay duplass ke

Have you found there are differences you didn’t anticipate switching from feature writing to episodic narratives?
I think the biggest difference is that narrative feature work is like a closed universe. That’s how we’ve been talking about it. You start setting up all your stuff in the first 20 minutes of a feature, and you’re already thinking about how you’re gonna be setting all those things off 90 minutes later. Whereas TV is an open universe -- where you do have to set up and pay off things from episode to episode -- but in terms of characters, in terms of development, in terms of emotional closure, you don’t really go for closure. You go for opening. It took us a while to get to that and HBO actually helped us with that a lot. That was the only quote on quote development we went through and it was very welcome, because they deal with a lot of feature people who make that transition and that’s probably the main issue that they go through. We’re always trying to close storylines and it’s like nope, don’t close them, just continue to open them. It’s been pretty wild because given Mark’s and my vérité aesthetic, it's actually way more realistic and way more like life. To complicate emotions and to complicate relationships and to continue to do that -- that’s how life actually works.

It’s interesting. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I think there’s something beyond just the fact that we all have home theaters why TV shows are really grabbing everyone’s attention. I think there’s something more innately human about the way that they move and change and function. They’re a lot more like real life. They feel like our lives more than movies do and I think that’s a big part of viewership right now.

It seems like there’s something even to the effect of just spending more hours with the characters makes it feel like you know them better.
And you do know them better! And like, what Mark and I are doing, we’re trying to do subtle, subtle, subtle, stuff. That communicates. It feels big. When your boyfriend is gonna leave you, it’s probably not like this big impressive argument down by the river. It’s probably like he doesn’t make me breakfast Monday morning and you know that it’s the beginning of the end. And what we love about TV is that you can get to know your characters so intimately that you will perceive that now as a viewer. We can get to the tiniest subtlest levels of tragedy, which is how it happens to us in real life.



"Togetherness" debuts Sunday, Jan. 11 at 9:30pm on HBO. This interview has been edited and condensed.

11 Vanished Vintage Baby Boys' Names Ready For Revival

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Not too long ago, Arthur was a "grandpa name", and Theodore was the family name you vowed you would never use. Now that those names are both back in fashion, which boy choices could be the next to stage a comeback? Here are 11 candidates, from those already rising, to the well-why-not?

Otis

olivia wilde jason
Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis named their son Otis.

Hollywood parents love Otis. Tobey Maguire gave the name to a son in 2009, and Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde welcomed their Otis last spring. Soulful singer Otis Redding inspired Wilde & Sudeikis, and makes this name part-retro revival, part-hero choice. Cousins Otto, Odette, and Ottilie have all gotten some attention in recent years, too.

Roscoe

roscoe dukes of hazzard
Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane

Daring namers should take note of Roscoe. Sure, Roscoe was the bumbling sheriff on "The Dukes of Hazzard" in the 1980s. But consider how well Hazzard names have fared -- Luke, Beau, and Daisy are all quite stylish. While Roscoe might feel hillbilly to some, the name is originally Norse. With that bright 'o' ending, Roscoe deserves a place on the list for parents who love Arlo and Maceo.

Rufus

rufus wainwright
Rufus Wainwright

Rufus feels edgy thanks to indie singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright. But Rufus has roots in Latin, and was worn by early saints. King William II of England was better known as William Rufus thanks to his red hair -- or possibly his fiery temperament. If Scarlett, Ruby, Rowan, and Rory are all stylish, why not the equally colorful Rufus?

Dexter

grant the philadelphia story
Cary Grant as C.K. Dexter Haven

Dashing C.K. Dexter Haven was Cary Grant's character in "The Philadelphia Story." Now the most famous Dexter is a television character slightly more sinister. And yet, Dexter has lots to offer -- that great 'x' in the middle, the nickname Dex, the 'r' ending. The name has recently returned to the Top 400 in the US, suggesting that Dexter is already on the rise.

Chester

chester arthur
President Chester A. Arthur

If Dexter is ready for a revival, can Chester be far behind? Nickname Chet plays well with Max, Hank, and Gus. It's a White House name, too, thanks to Chester A. Arthur, 21st president of the United States. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have a son named Chester, known as Chet. He's followed dad and big brother Colin into the movie business.

Louis

louis armstrong
Louis Armstrong

If classics like William and James dominate your shortlist, Louis might be one to consider. Saintly and regal, Louis has history to spare. Louis Armstrong lends this name a jazzy, upbeat vibe. Sandra Bullock named her baby boy Louis in 2010, and Prince George's full name is George Alexander Louis. In the UK, Louis is pronounced like Louie. In the US, Americans say the final 's'. Either way, Louis has a serious-but-approachable vibe that wears well.

Floyd

pink floyd
Pink Floyd

Finn led to Flynn. Could Flynn lead to ... Floyd? A Top 100 favorite from the nineteenth century through the 1930s, Floyd is rare today. The name isn't forgotten, though, from Depression-era bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd to legendary rock band Pink Floyd. The musicians were inspired by Floyd Council, a blues musician from the 1930s. If the hundred-year rule applies for baby name comebacks, Floyd is right on time.

Peter

peter pan live
Peter Pan

Like Louis, Peter is a classic that is much less common than many go-to names for boys. From Peter Rabbit to Peter Pan to Peter Pevensie, the name is a staple in children's literature. And yet Peter is handsome on a grown-up, too. Few religious figures are as widely known as Saint Peter, and the solid meaning of this name is well known -- "rock."

Harvey

harvey weinstein
Harvey Weinstein

Regal Henry is a Nameberry favorite. Harvey is Henry's quirky cousin. The name came to England with the Normans, and was revived in the 19th century -- and again in the 21st, at least in the U.K. While British parents have already rediscovered Harvey's charms, American parents are slowly warming up to this possibility. But with that sharp 'v' sound, Harvey feels right at home in 2015.

Stanley

stan lee
Stan Lee

Stanley spent many a year in mothballs, the name of everybody's great uncle, but nobody's son. Adventurous namers seem to be interested in Stanley again. And why not? A Top 100 favorite through the 1950s, there are plenty of admirable Stanleys to consider, like Spider-Man creator Stan Lee, born Stanley Lieber. Children's book character Flat Stanley is a perennial favorite.

Rex

rex harrison
Rex Harrison

Royal names like Reign and King are on the rise. Rex -- from the Latin word for king -- fits right in with those oh-so-regal names. And yet, there's something subtle about this commanding choice. Maybe it's because Rex has a long history of use. Actor Rex Harrison won an Academy Award for his role in 1964's "My Fair Lady." Or maybe Rex just fits right in with Alex, Felix, and Jax.



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Montclair State University To Spend $210,000 On Hawk Statue

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MONTCLAIR, N.J. (AP) -- Some students at New Jersey's second-largest public university are not feeling the spirit even though Montclair State University is spending $210,000 for a 12-foot bronze statue depicting the school's red-tailed hawk mascot.

The students, who pay $11,000 in annual tuition and fees, believe the money could be better spent elsewhere.

"You know what could really help school spirit? If tuition weren't so high, if there were parking spots for everyone, if everyone actually knew who their academic adviser was, and if the administration actually listened to students like they say they will," student Jo Landau told The Record newspaper.

About half the cost for the project will be paid by mandatory student fees from the Student Government Association, school spokeswoman Suzanne Bronski said. The rest will come from university funds. About $4,000 in private donations have been raised.

The Red Hawk has "come to stand for the determination of our students to make something important of their lives and for the courage it takes to challenge oneself to truly fulfill one's potential," Bronski said. "When freshmen come to campus, they become Red Hawks, and we hope that helps them find their new identities as independent young adults."

Bronski said the statue will help generate enthusiasm for the school's Division III athletic program and reinforce a sense of community for the school's 20,000 students.

The statue is being crafted by Hanlon Sculpture Studio in Toms River, New Jersey, and is expected to be installed in front of the Panzer Athletic Center by the start of the fall semester, school officials said.

Common Explains The True Inspiration Behind His Song 'Glory' From 'Selma' (VIDEO)

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In the movie "Selma," which chronicles the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery protest marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., actor and hip hop artist Common plays the part of James Bevel, a prominent civil rights leader. "Selma" director Ava DuVernay had wanted Common specifically for this role -- perhaps, he says, due to his personal experience.

"I'm a conscious person... I'm aware of who I am as a black man and the struggle that black people have been through in this country," Common tells the web series #OWNSHOW in the above video. "I think that created a foundation for Ava to feel that I would be a great person to [play] James Bevel."

Common doesn't just appear in "Selma," but also co-wrote the Golden Globe-nominated song "Glory" with John Legend for the historical film.

As a hip-hop star, Common has collaborated with many great talents and won both awards and acclaim throughout the music industry. But the 42-year-old artist says this particular project holds special meaning for him, citing the influence Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has had on his life. "He was one of the first people that I looked at as a hero," he explains. "He was my first hero."

The song "Glory" is a powerful and poignant anthem with lyrics like "Every day women and men become legends / Sins that go against our skin become blessings," "That's why Rosa sat on the bus / That's why we walk through Ferguson with our hands up," and "No one can win the war individually / It takes the wisdom of the elders and young people's energy." Common's inspiration for writing those lyrics comes down to one thing: offering people a voice.

"To learn more about [Dr. King] and the people of Selma and the people around the country that came and contributed -- just everyday people -- it just was like, 'I'm writing this for those people,'" Common says. "That, connected to what happened in '65 to what's happening in 2014 to 2015... I wanted a voice for those people, too."

More with Common: Common also explains why he views being black as a gift.



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British Teen Says A Stranger Gave Him A Banksy Print For A Random Act Of Kindness

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Be kind. Help a stranger in need. The world needs kindness, plus you never know when that stranger might just be the elusive artist Banksy. Or was it?

A spokeswoman for the artist says no, but Ben Azarya, a schoolboy from Kendal, England, has a curious tale nonetheless. He says a fellow train passenger gave him a signed Banksy print after Azarya helped the man pick up some spray paint that had spilled from his bag.

banksy
Azarya smiles with the signed Banksy print. If genuine, it could be worth an estimated $30,000.


Banksy, a street artist known for his politically-charged, sometimes whimsical art, keeps his identity a closely-guarded secret. One rumor has it that his real name is Robin Banks -- a name Azarya says he heard on the train.

“He opened his rucksack and had a gas mask and spray paints inside. He got out a piece of paper and had colors marked on it of what he had been trying out, and he dropped his colors," Ben told England's North West Evening Mail.

“I picked them up for him and after that he started signing it in weird letters and numbers," Ben continued. "He said, ‘Do you know who Robin Banks is?’ I said, 'No,' and he said, ‘This will be worth about £20,000 -– have a good life, brother.'”

A copy of the print in question, known as "Love is in the Air," sold at auction in June of 2013 for nearly $249,000:

banksy

Gallery assistants adjust 'Love is in the Air' by Banksy ahead of its sale at Bonhams auction house in London on June 24, 2013.


Reached for comment by the Daily Mail, a spokeswoman representing Banksy denied any knowledge of Ben’s claim. “It has got nothing to do with him,” she said. “[Banksy] doesn't know anything about it.”

According to the New York Daily News, Ben and his mother contacted Bonhams Auction House to have the piece authenticated. Should it prove to be the real thing, Ben says he'll likely sell it, buy a new phone, and save the rest.

This Gorgeous Proposal Photo Almost Didn't Happen

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Photographer Michael Justin was hired to shoot a proposal Monday night along the Long Island City waterfront in Queens. No big deal, he thought.

He set up his cameras and flashes -- using his camera bag as a weight to keep the light stand from falling over on the windy night -- and texted the groom to ask about timing. Then, his phone died.

"Time to stress the F out," Justin wrote on Imgur. "I went to do another test shot to make sure I had the correct composition ... nothing. My camera batteries were dead."

After running to and from his camera bag -- which was directly in the proposal area -- to retrieve new batteries, he returned to his spot in time to snap the pics. But thanks to a gust of wind that knocked down the light stand, he was forced to run back to the proposal area and reset it. That's when he noticed the guy and girl in the distance.

Luckily, he was able to run back to his secluded spot in time to take the photos -- and it's a good thing he did:

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Photo Credit: Michael Justin Films

The bride-to-be told The Huffington Post that the waterfront is the couple's favorite place in Long Island City, and they walk there often. After dinner that night, her boyfriend suggested that they walk along the water in order to see if it had started to freeze. There, he got down on one knee.

"All I remember saying was 'are you kidding me!? Are you kidding me?!' I was in complete shock," the bride told HuffPost Weddings. "I said 'yes' and we embraced. It was the happiest moment of my life!"

Check out more of the beautiful photos below.



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A 'Wet Hot American Summer' TV Show Is Coming To Netflix

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"Hey, let's all promise that in 10 years from today, we'll meet again, and we'll see what kind of people we've blossomed into." The rumored "Wet Hot American Summer" TV show is reportedly on its way to Netflix, according to Deadline.com Even better, the eight-episode limited series will include most of the original cast.

The reported returning cast includes Elizabeth Banks, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Judah Friedlander, Paul Rudd, Marisa Ryan, Molly Shannon, Michael Showalter and more. David Wain will again direct.

Rumors that a follow up to the cult classic was coming to Netflix began circulating in May, though few details were known. E! reports rumblings of a sequel had been going around for years, with Wain even saying in a Reddit AMA that the follow up would have the original cast.

Though Netflix would not confirm, Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos had previously teased the "Wet Hot" return. "We're really excited about the proposition of getting that show together," he said during the winter leg of the TCA tour. "Stay tuned."


Image: Giphy

For more, head to Deadline.com.

This '4D-Printed' Dress Just Became Part Of The Museum Of Modern Art's Collection

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The Kinematics dress, created by generative design studio Nervous System, is, in all cliches, not your average piece of fabric. For starters, the Museum of Modern Art recently acquired the fashionable objet d'art, along with the app that goes with it, adding it to the institute's growing collection of contemporary design products. Secondly, the dress is made from four dimensional printing technologies, meaning it's a 3D-printed object meant to "change shape or automatically reassemble" according to its environment.

dress
Nervous System (est. 2007), Jessica Rosenkrantz (American, born 1983), Jesse Louis-Rosenberg (American, born 1986). Kinematics Dress. 2013. Laser-sintered nylon. Image courtesy of Steve Marsel. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Architecture and Design Funds.


"We refer to Kinematics as a 4D printing system because it generates compressed objects that unfold into their intended shape after printing," creative director Jessica Rosenkrantz told Dezeen. "The garments that we've designed can only expand to their full size after being removed from the printer and they do so automatically, no assembly is required."

skirt

The dress is composed of thousands of interlocking pieces (2,279 unique triangular panels interconnected by 3,316 hinges, to be exact), taking the shape of a single folded nylon garment. The dress is entirely customizable, and is able to conform and move according to a body's flexibility. "This textile is not uniform," Nervous System explains, "it varies in rigidity, drape, flex, porosity and pattern through space."

The coordinating app allows anyone to design a Kinematics work, printed by Shapeways, "from an uploaded 3D body scan, selecting the size and shape of the modules and 'painting' them onto the dress or skirt in real-time," C-Net writes. Not only are the resulting garments verifiable works of art, they are part of a movement that seemingly democratizes the way we produce boundary-pushing fashion.

dress back

The Kinematics dress will go on view at MoMA as part of the upcoming "This Is for Everyone: Design Experiments for the Common Good," debuting on February 14, 2015. The title of the show takes its name from British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee -- you know, the inventor of the World Wide Web -- who tweeted the message as part of the Olympic opening ceremonies in London in 2012. While Berners-Lee's quote emphasizes the possibilities of information sharing across the internet, "This Is for Everyone" questions the sentiment through a series of design products that challenge the universality of that potential.

"We sometimes forget that new technologies are not inherently democratic," MoMA wrote in a press release for the exhibition. "Is design in the digital age -- so often simply assumed to be for the greater good -- truly for everyone?"

You can see a preview of the other pieces on view in the exhibition below.

These 8 Arab Cartoonists Fight For Freedom Of Expression Every Day

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As the world processes the devastating mass shooting Wednesday in the Paris offices of the satirical paper Charlie Hebdo, cartoonists around the world are making sense of the death of their colleagues in France. The code of the political cartoonist is universally held from Sudan to San Diego: at its core, a commitment to clever, useful, and often unwelcome expression.

Nowhere is this tenet more important and difficult to uphold than in countries where regimes and dictators rely on a fearful media. Below, we've rounded up some of the most powerful pen-wielders of the Arab world, whose comics support the mission of Charlie more than any hashtag can.

1. Khalid Albaih

Born into a political Sudanese family, Albaih took to cartooning early: his first creation as a child was Supernamusa, a superhero mosquito set on eradicating malaria. During the Arab Spring, his more mature drawings -- spread on the internet via Facebook (and now Instagram) -- became icons of the revolutionary movement, pasted on walls from Egypt to Lebanon. Albaih's diverse concerns are still tightly wound around the concept of revolution; among his most popular works is a silhouette of Hosni Mubarak captioned with a double entendre about the longtime Egyptian leader's intractability, and an homage to the Tunisian worker whose suicide set off a wave of uprisings in 2011. In the first comic below, he unravels the statistic linking former torture victims with terrorism.

arab cartoons

arab cartoons


2. Stavro Jabra

Known popularly by his first name, the veteran Lebanese artist Stavro Jabra calls himself a "super revolutionary." His inspiration comes from the news, and revolves primarily around the shifts in his beloved home country. For years, he has published regularly in the Lebanese papers and on the evening television news -- in Arabic, English and French. When news of the massacre in the Charlie Hebdo offices broke this week, he was quick to air his respect for his slain colleagues, with an image of a shot pencil stamped with the French phrase for "freedom of the press."

stavro jabro


arab cartoonists


3. Andeel

If there is a rock star cartoonist of the Arab world, it's Mohamed Qandeel. The 27-year-old Egyptian polymath better known as Andeel has already built a career impressive for someone twice his age. At various points, he's been a stand-up comedian, a cartoonist at the progressive weekly, the Egypt Independent, a writer of sitcoms, and a podcaster. His target is always "the strongest man in the country," as he told Guernica in a recent profile, a focus his employers at Egypt Independent didn't always support. He eventually left the paper so as to make work without restrictions, using his Facebook page as a platform.

arab cartoons

arab cartoons


4. Emad Hajjaj

With the development of his Jordanian everyman character -- the mustachioed, witty, Abu Mahjoob -- Hajjaj established himself as a leading voice in his country. His classically drawn comics tackle small and large concerns. In the latter camp, he famously tempered the celebratory mood during the 1999 Pan Arab games in Amman with a comic questioning the pride of a nation in which honor killings still take place.

arab cartoons


5. Amr Okasha

The well known Egyptian cartoonist and writer has been published worldwide, picked up and commissioned by publications such as the Associated Press, the BBC, The Economist and the Washington Post. But his concerns are local: a beetle-browed caricature of Hosni Mubarak figures heavily in much of Okasha's work. In the 2011 cartoon below, he illustrates a popular analogy comparing the recently toppled Mubarak regime to a deeply rooted tree system that remains even after the trunk has been dismantled.




6. Aimantoon

The Saudi-based anonymous cartoonist made international news at the height of violent tension in Gaza this summer. His cartoon, "rescuing Gaza," commented on the gap between action and hollow sympathy, with its depiction of a teen gazing tearfully at the thousands of "Likes" anointing a pro-Gaza Facebook page, as he devours fries and sodas. There's a jarring, Dilbert-esque quality to the Aimantoon ouevre, which pairs bright, often mundane vignettes with difficult existential truths.





7. Baha Boukhari

Boukhari, a Palestinian cartoonist, knows firsthand the dangers of his craft. In 2008, authorities in Gaza suspended publication of the popular newspaper Al Ayaam, where he was an employee, claiming that a comic he drew insulted Hamas. Boukhari and two senior employes faced a prison sentence until a series of demonstrations in Ramallah led to the dissolution of the charges.

arab cartoons

8. Khalid Gueddar

Another crusader for freedom of the press, the Moroccan cartoonist Khalid Gueddar was dealt a three-year suspended prison sentence in 2010 for portraying a member of the Moroccan royal family. He was fired from posts at two national dailies, only to see his reputation expand. He now publishes his single panel cartoons in a handful of journals and papers around the world. The two examples posted below comment on the recent tragedy in Paris, the first by referencing the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the second with a visual distinction between terrorism and the tenets of Islam.

arab cartoons

arab cartoons

This Optical Illusion Will Make Your Eyes Bulge And Your Brain Burst

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This article originally appeared on Slate.
By Phil Plait

I love optical illusions, especially ones where you know what your eyes are telling your brain is wrong, but you can’t seem to get your brain to see that.

check

Those lines are straight. Seriously. Measure them!


The famous Checkerboard Illusion is a great example of this. Look at it: You know it’s an illusion, and you just know those squares are straight—their borderlines all parallel and perpendicular—but you can’t get your dumb brain to ignore your lying eyes.

Cory Albrecht made a great page for this, with a slider bar that shows you the board with and without the dots, so that you can see for yourself the lines are all straight. Even then, the board looks all bulgy. Amazing.

The illusion itself is attributed to Akiyoshi Kitaoka (the creator of what I consider the single greatest illusion of all time), but what causes it?

Sebastiaan Mathôt, writing at the CogSci website, talks about the margins, the distance between the dots and the edges of the similarly-colored squares.* The dots don’t actually touch the border; they’re inset a bit, leaving a margin. He speculates our brains interpret these margins as lines, skewing our perception, changing the apparent angle of intersection of the square borders. Instead of all right angles, some apparently becoming acute, some obtuse.

Certainly the arrangement of the dots is crucial. At the center the squares seem to bulge outward, and it has two black dots flanking each of its four its vertices. But closer to the edge the lines look slanted, and the dots are arranged differently (black squares have a pair of white dots in opposite corners, and vice-versa). On the left is a 3x3 crop of the upper right part of the board; see how the vertical lines appear to slant left? (It may help to look a bit to the side of the picture to see it, oddly.) The dots are arranged differently there.

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A subsection of the board, from the upper right.


This may be a variation of the Hering Illusion, where parallel lines are distorted when placed over lines radiating from a point. If so, it could have something to do with how we perceive distances, since the Hering Illusion relies on perspective based on the vanishing point. Interestingly, this means it could be related to the Moon Illusion, where the Moon looks bigger on the horizon than overhead! It also relies on our brain getting confused about distance.

Obviously, using Albrecht’s slider, you can see the dots are important. But the margins? I’m not sure. I thought of a way to test this: The margins are very thin, thinner than the dots themselves. If I move away from the monitor, at some point I’ll get far enough away that my eyes won’t see the thin margins any more, but I’ll still see the dots. If the illusion vanishes (I see the squares being square) then the margins are important. If not, then it may be due to the dots themselves.

I shrank the image down to make the distances manageable and tried it out. To my surprise, the illusion persisted even when I couldn’t see the margins (about a meter or so away from my monitor). I could still see the dots though.

Hmmm. I backed up farther. At about two meters away the dots blurred too much for me to see them against the squares … and the illusion vanished. This makes me think it’s the dots themselves governing this illusion. Try it!

I think it might have more to do with our brains trying to connect the oppositely colored dots themselves, and getting tricked by the dots around them. But, to be honest, I can’t be sure.

check
A smaller board makes the illusion stronger.


Interestingly, when I shrank the image down the illusion got far stronger! I placed the shrunken version here; to me, the lines appear far more curved, and I had to hold up a straightedge to them to convince myself the image processing routine I was using (Gimp) didn’t distort the field. Test it for yourself: The lines are still straight. Incredible.

But why? I’m not sure. I suspect it has to do with more of the smaller squares fitting into your central field of view; some illusions depend on where in your field of view things happen. That would be consistent with the idea that when you look at a small section of the board, it’s the surrounding dots that warp the lines. You can see them more easily in the smaller version.

In the end, I don’t think a lot is understood about the specifics of this illusion. That in itself is pretty cool! That means there’s more to learn.

And in the end, this illusion shows us something I’ve said over and over on this blog: Seeing should not be believing! What you see is never really what’s going on; there are a whole series of things going on between your eyes and your brain that distort reality.

How many times have you heard someone say, “I know what I saw”? I always smile ruefully when I hear that. They think they know what they saw. But what may have really happened may be far, far different.

Art Exhibition Champions Blemishes, Pimples, Scars And Other Glorious Flaws

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For much of the world, a zit is something to be eradicated, a pimple covered up. Wrinkles, scars, bumps and blemishes of any kind are best hidden and hopefully obliterated, bringing the host of said flaws one step closer to physical perfection.

That being said, when have artists ever wanted to be like everybody else?

rebecca
Rebecca Morgan Self Portrait Wearing My Favorite Scarf and Sweater/My Face The Fattest It's Ever Been, 2013 Oil and graphite on panel 14 x 12 inches


An exhibition at Invisible Exports, titled "Fetching Blemish," glorifies all your hairy moles, your chipped teeth, your discolored flesh and your ingrown toenail, too. The show features artists working in portraiture and figurative work that revel in our human defects, the various bloody, fuzzy, off-center things that make us who we are.

The group show explores physical deformities as manifestations of inner turmoil, ugliness as a crucial element of identification and self-horror as an opportunity for liberation and even transcendence.

cindy
Cindy Sherman Untitled #362 from the Hollywood/Hampton Types series 2000 color coupler print mounted on foamcore 27 x 18 inches 68.6 x 45.7 cm Edition 3/6 signed, numbered and dated 'Cindy Sherman 2000 3/6' (on the reverse)


The ecstatically grotesque exhibition features work from emerging names like Genieve Figgis and Rebecca Morgan alongside beloved artists Cindy Sherman and Nicole Eisenman. It's also a female-heavy roster, which we don't mind one bit.

Rebecca Morgan's self portraits funnel the artist's visage through a Robert Crumb-style funhouse mirror, ballooning her flaws into hypnotic aberrations, turning the figurative portraits into a caricature's freakish cousin. Queen of glamorous self-contortion, Cindy Sherman dons the disguise of a gnarled Hollywood vamp, skewing her appearance just beyond recognition. And Celeste Dupuy-Spencer's oil paintings, straddling figuration and abstraction, muddle brushstrokes and human flesh, rendering murky visions of swamp girls and pizza delivery men that feel like half-remembered visions of a dream you're desperately trying to forget.

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Celeste Dupuy-Spencer Phoenicia Pizza Teen Oil on canvas 24 x 18 inches


The artists on view vary in generation, medium and style -- though all consider themselves outsiders in some sense of the word. Their work often reacts to the dominant contemporary culture, which claims to accept and cherish difference, and hold the importance of self-acceptance and self-love above all else.

Yet, as Invisible Exports explains, "To many, those shibboleths are a foreign language, a small consolation and perhaps even an affronting falsehood -- offering a narrative of full-inclusion that is so basically at odds with the lived intimate experience of otherness, no matter the cultural conditions, it can only be, for all its political virtue, an inert impersonal mantra and expressive nonstarter (and therefore its own kind of otherness). Ugliness is a much murkier, more enriching stew."

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Amy Sedaris Archival pigment print 2 x 2 inches Edition of 10


"Fetching Blemish" runs until February 15 at INVISIBLE-EXPORTS in New York. The other artists on view include Wolfgang Black, Nicole Eisenman, Genieve Figgis, Dan McCarthy, Aurie Ramirez and Amy Sedaris. Get a heavy helping of pretty ugly in the artworks below.

Oakland's New Mayor Has Been Driving Around Town In A Giant Burning Man Snail Car

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Libby Schaaf may very well be the first mayor of a major American city to ride around town in a flame-shooting Burning Man art car shaped like a giant snail. She notes that she may also be the only mayor of a major American city to have gone to Burning Man.

"To be fair, I went a long, long time ago," she told The Huffington Post of her visit to the annual celebration of art and creative expression in the Nevada desert. "But the Burning Man community is a complete asset to the larger Oakland community."

Voters in Oakland, California, elected Schaaf to the Bay Area city's highest office in November. As part of her victory lap, she drove the snail car, the brainchild of local artist and blacksmith Jon Sarriugarte, through the streets to meet with constituents. On Monday, she rode to her inaugural ceremony with her husband and two children in the same mutant vehicle.

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Schaaf arrives at her inauguration with her family at Oakland's Paramount Theater on January 5.


And this Sunday, the snail will be out and about in all its fiery glory at Schaaf's inaugural festival, which also features a parade of other Burning Man art cars along with fire dancers, musicians and food and drink purveyors -- all of whom call Oakland home.

"It's not your daddy's inaugural ball," Schaaf, a lifelong Oakland resident and graduate of the city's public school system, said with a laugh.

Sarriugarte told HuffPost he's been a longtime Schaaf supporter, having first met her while she was serving as an Oakland city councilwoman a handful of years ago. He volunteered for several mayoral campaign events, using the snail car as a conversation piece to attract voters.

"We would hold signs out on the street right next to a giant snail car shooting fire out of it," he said. "I joked that if she won, we should drive her around in it." Team Schaaf didn't take it as a joke.

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Schaaf with Sarriugarte.


One of the reasons Sarriugarte is such a fan of the mayor, he said, is because of her pledge to reinforce Oakland's burgeoning community of artists and "makers." "We have a wonderful make community," he said. "I want to see industrial areas set aside for making and producing things ... [Schaaf] is really good at taking feedback from the community."

For her part, Schaaf said she pledges to build programs that foster the growth of local arts institutions. "What makes Oakland Oakland is our diversity and our incredible arts scene," she said. "Our gritty industrial flavor, as well as our long history of embracing social movements. We are an incredibly creative place."

Schaaf added that one of her final initiatives as a councilwoman was to champion a law that requires private developers in Oakland give 1 percent of their project costs to benefit the public arts sector. The money helps create performance arts spaces, galleries and installations. And with nearby San Francisco becoming more unaffordable by the minute, many developers are looking toward Oakland as their next frontier.

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Schaaf and her family greet supporters.


But Schaaf says it's essential not to let new developments squeeze out the existing communities that make her city unique. "I'm very aware that we cannot sell our soul for growth," she said. "Part of that soul is our artist community. That balance of growth and revitalization but preserving our Oaklandishness -- our secret sauce -- that's an acute awareness I bring to this position."

How To Get More Followers While Live-Tweeting The Golden Globes

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The Golden Globes are a time for celebrating the arts and also live-tweeting said celebration. Amid the masses, it can feel like your hilarious commentary is not getting you the thousands of followers you deserve. With the fleeting glory of favorites and retweets in mind, HuffPost Entertainment spoke with Lara Cohen, Twitter Head of Talent, to figure out the best ways to build your numbers during the show on Sunday night.

Tweet at your favorite famous people.
Don't be scared, maybe Uzo Aduba will finally respond to you! "Tweet at your favorite nominees," Cohen said. "They're all on their phones, they're all checking Twitter while they're there. A lot of stars will even do things like answer questions during the limo ride to the show."

Tweet at other not even remotely famous people.
Interaction is a great way to both build your following and find more people to follow. Engage with other people during the event. And don't just favorite things you enjoy, actually respond to them. Cohen recommended spending more time actually tweeting back and forth with others.

Curate your newsfeed by making or subscribing to a list ...
A list provides a fine-tuned feed, without revamping your account. "It's good to do this in advance for the [specific] show you're watching," Cohen said. "Include a healthy mix of friends, comedians, entertainment writers, nominees and presenters who are on Twitter." (Pro-tip: Retta and Billy Eichner are A+ to follow during awards shows / all the time.)

... And / or by muting annoying accounts.
Muting is a great way to not have to see people who are either not tweeting about the awards or just not being as hilarious as you. And it's easier than throwing shade with an un-follow. "If there's, say, annoying 'Modern Family' fans, you can always un-mute them when the show is over," Cohen said.

Search for things that happen during the show.
If something funny happens and you have a really funny thing to say about that thing, it's likely other people do too. Use the search function to find a specific event or observation (i.e. "Jacqueline Bisset drunk") throughout the night.

Use the official hashtag: #GoldenGlobes.
This is good for finding other folks tweeting about the show (and can help them to find you). Also, pay attention to what's trending. "Both the hash tag and trending terms are a good way to find bigger names who you may not even know are on Twitter, because all of the verified accounts will surface to the top of that conversation," Cohen said.

Finally: Cohen says, "be authentic."
Always best to just be yourself -- kind of like in real life!

The Golden Globe Awards air Sunday at 8:00 p.m. ET on NBC.

The Full Golden Globes Winners List

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All the winners from this year's Golden Globes:

FILM

Best Motion Picture – Drama
"Boyhood"

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"

Best Actor – Motion Picture, Drama
Eddie Redmayne, "The Theory of Everything"

Best Actor – Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Michael Keaton, "Birdman"

Best Actress – Motion Picture, Drama
Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"

Best Actress – Motion Picture. Musical or Comedy
Amy Adams, "Big Eyes"

Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash"

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood"

Best Director
Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"

Best Screenplay
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris & Armando Bo, “Birdman”

Best Original Score
Johann Johannsson, "The Theory of Everything"

Best Original Song
John Legend and Common, "Glory" -- Selma"

Best Foreign Language Film
"Leviathan"

Best Animated Feature Film
"How to Train Your Dragon 2"

TELEVISION

Best Drama Series
"The Affair"

Best Actor in a Television Series, Drama
Kevin Spacey, "House of Cards"

Best Actress in a Television Series, Drama
Ruth Wilson, "The Affair"

Best Comedy Series
"Transparent"

Best Actor in a Television Series, Comedy
Jeffrey Tambor, "Transparent"

Best Actress in a Television Series, Comedy
Gina Rodriguez, "Jane the Virgin"

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
"Fargo"

Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Billy Bob Thornton, "Fargo"

Best Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Maggie Gyllenhaal, "The Honourable Woman"

Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Matt Bomer, "The Normal Heart"

Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Joanne Froggatt, "Downton Abbey"

Julianne Moore Wins Best Actress - Drama At 2015 Golden Globes For 'Still Alice'

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Julianne Moore won Best Actress - Drama at the Golden Globes for her role in "Still Alice."

Moore plays a Columbia professor diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease in "Still Alice," which is based on Lisa Genova's 2007 novel by the same name. Moore defeated Rosamund Pike, Reese Witherspoon, Felicity Jones and Jennifer Aniston for the honor. Moore was also nominated in the Musical or Comedy category for Best Actress for her role in "Maps to the Stars," but lost to Amy Adams for "Big Eyes." The actress previously won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television at the 2013 ceremony for "Game Change." (She was also part of the Best Ensemble Cast award, a special citation from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, for Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" in 1994.) This is Moore's second Golden Globe award overall.

Last year, Cate Blanchett won Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama for "Blue Jasmine."

Full HuffPost Entertainment coverage of the Golden Globes can be found here. The full list of Golden Globes winners is here.

'Boyhood' Wins Best Picture - Drama At 2015 Golden Globes

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"Boyhood" nabbed Best Motion Picture - Drama at the Golden Globes on Sunday, topping "Foxcatcher," "The Imitation Game," 'Selma" and "The Theory of Everything."

"Boyhood" earned five Golden Globe nominations, also winning Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette) and Best Director (Richard Linklater). The film, a coming-of-age tale made in small chunks over 12 years, lost Best Supporting Actor (Ethan Hawke) and Best Screenplay (Linklater).

"Boyhood" is widely favored to receive Best Picture recognition when the Oscar nominations are announced on Thursday, as are the other four nominees.

Recent Golden Globe winners for Best Motion Picture - Drama include "12 Years a Slave," "Argo," "The Descendants" and "The Social Network."

Full HuffPost Entertainment coverage of the Golden Globes can be found here. The full list of Golden Globes winners is here.

How Our Inventions Reinvent Us

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In two recent videos, Jason Silva visits the idea of ontological design—that as we design our tools, so our tools design us in return. We devise and engineer computers and the internet, and now computers and the internet are remaking us.

Silva describes the process as endlessly circular, like the serpent eating its tail.

Why does this matter?

7 Reading Hacks To Improve Your Literary Skills

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When we think of “hacks,” many of us think of tricks to make a task quicker and easier than we’d previously believed possible. And of course, people have been trying to “hack” reading for decades, whether through speed-reading courses or apps or … well, Cliff’s Notes. The temptation of speed-reading is strong; the sheer number of books to read in the world is daunting to even the most dedicated reader. If only we could read quickly and painlessly, maybe we could make a real dent in the world’s literature in our brief lifetimes!

Reading, however, isn’t like chilling a drink or opening plastic packaging: The experience itself has just as much to offer as the end result. Hacking the reading experience by speeding it up seems to miss the value of the reading process. Plus, speed-reading may not work as well as its proponents claim, especially for more complex texts, as faster reading tends to work out to worse comprehension.

That doesn’t mean we can’t use relatively simple tricks and techniques to improve our reading. These easy reading hacks may not allow you to breeze through books and articles at the speed of light, but they should help you concentrate better, process what you’re reading more effectively, and get more out of each book.

Here are 7 basic hacks to turn your reading up to 11:

Don’t read in bed
asleep in bed book
Okay, we all love reading in bed. It’s cozy, it’s relaxing, it feels like someone is dreaming a beautiful dream for you. And then, two minutes later, you fall asleep, only to wake up four hours later with a crumpled book on your face, confused. If you want to get some actual reading done, you have to do this the right way: in an at least somewhat vertical position. Stand at your standing desk. Sit on your exercise ball. Sit (don’t lie!) on your couch or armchair or at your kitchen table. Read with your mind clear and alert, in a place and physical position you associate with mental activity, not drowsiness.

Read alone
reading distracted
Reading isn't a group activity, and it certainly isn't one facilitated by Gchat or Twitter. Set aside time to read alone, without distractions. If possible, read in a different room from your family or roommates, where there's no TV blaring or conversation pulling you in. Definitely switch off your devices -- checking for new texts, Facebook notifications, emails, Twitter mentions, Gchats, and Instagram likes is a sure path to distracted, ineffective reading. We're so used to constant connectedness that after a couple pages it seems natural to check in ("I've been offline for five minutes, I bet that tweet's gotten some RTs by now!"), but this habitual checking in pulls our attention away from the page and interrupts the flow of our thoughts.

Read in print if possible
ereader
Sorry e-reader fans -- several studies have suggested that reading in print leads to superior comprehension and retention compared to reading on a screen. This suggests that trickier materials or books you hope to read more carefully should be read on paper, while the Kindle is reserved for fare you intend to skim or read purely for pleasure.

Underline
underlining
Books are precious, sacred objects. Nothing depresses us more than opening a used book we’ve purchased and seeing it covered with scribbled notes like, “LOL!” and “huh?” and “the tree symbolizes life” (no kidding?). However, you must leave this reverent attitude behind, as Tim Parks recently exhorted readers to do in the pages of The New York Review of Books, if you want to become a master reader. Start simply, with underlining. Hold a pen, or, if you’re still squeamish, a pencil as you read. Underscore lovely phrases, confusing sentences, or particularly memorable passages. By physically marking them, you’re forcing yourself to linger over them, taking extra mental note of the words and possibly giving yourself more opportunity to ponder their meaning. Plus, you may open the book years later and find it ready-annotated with your first reactions.

Take notes
book note taking
Don’t stop at underlining! It’s time to add some “LOL”s and “huh?”s to your own books. Reading is, on a basic level, a process of consuming another person’s thoughts and arguments, but on a more meaningful level it’s an active collaboration between the reader and the writer. To grasp the author’s full message -- and perhaps even to reach new conclusions that weren’t even intended by the author -- you shouldn’t just be passively taking in the words, but thinking them over, analyzing how different parts of the work hold together, and interrogating the book closely. Taking notes, either in the book, on Post-Its, or in a separate notebook, ensures you’re not only engaged in this active conversation with the book, but that you have a record of it you can review later.

Reread for clarity
reading quickly
Rereading won’t help you get through a book faster, it’s true. In fact, the speed-reading app Spritz aims to streamline the process in large part by cutting down on the instinctive rereading we all do, most likely in order to solidify our understanding. Being willing to sacrifice speed for thoroughness is an easy way to orient ourselves in the text and ensure we haven’t skimmed over any important details.

Read aloud, or mouth along
reading out loud
We’ll close with the hack that has the highest probability of making your fellow public transit users find another seat. It feels, at best, irredeemably nerdy to read aloud for your own benefit, rather than for a classroom of adorable pre-schoolers or your ailing great-aunt. Nonetheless, reading aloud deserves your consideration; it’s simple and possibly beneficial. A recent study suggests that reading aloud or at least mouthing along increases focus and concentration, perhaps because the physical engagement with the text prevents skimming or mind-wandering. If you wish to improve your memory of what you're reading, it may be best to only mouth or read aloud the more important passages: Another study indicated that mouthing or speaking certain words aloud improved retention of those words compared to others read silently. Since this effect is believed to arise from the mouthed or spoken words being made distinct and memorable compared to the silently read words, reserving it for selected passages is best.

Margaret Cho's Golden Globes Bit Accused Of Racism

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Tina Fey and Amy Poehler didn't shy away from controversial topics during Sunday's Golden Globes, but some viewers felt one of their bits went too far. During the broadcast, Fey and Poehler interacted with comedian Margaret Cho, who played the newest member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a North Korean army general. Here she is getting a photo taken with Meryl Streep.



The segments with Cho -- which also included the comic speaking with an exaggerated accent -- were met with some outrage online. Numerous viewers called the jokes racist, while many critics cited the gags as a show low point.

"Oh my gosh, the fake North Korean journalist is back. I’ve decided: This really needs to end," wrote Emily Orley for BuzzFeed.

"That bit with Margaret Cho as the Kim regime's representative in the Hollywood Foreign Press, which managed a trio of awards-show sins: it was unfunny, racist, and incredibly long," wrote Vulture's editors. "Twenty years ago, Cho was the first Asian-American woman to headline her own sitcom -- how did we end up here?"

Cho has a long relationship with Fey, having played Kim Jong Il on "30 Rock."



And while online reaction was negative, Fey and Poehler didn't seem to mind too much during the show. The duo brought Cho back out on stage to end the 72nd annual Golden Globes.



Full HuffPost Entertainment coverage of the Golden Globes can be found here. The full list of Golden Globes winners is here.
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