Chris Marker's Groundbreaking Photos Illuminate Life In North Korea

February 11, 2015, 6:09 am

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First released in 1989, Noonbit Publishing’s The People of the North (also titled Coréennes, which is French for "Korean") was an immediate hit in South Korea’s photography community for its fascinating documentary portraits of North Korean life. But just 2,000 copies were printed in its first run, and though it sold out completely, the book didn't come back into print until 2008, despite demand from collectors.

"The People of the North" was a groundbreaking photography collection, stitching together a searing portrait of life in North Korea from small, achingly ordinary fragments. French film director and photographer Chris Marker’s 140 black-and-white photos, taken just after the war ended in the 1950s on a trip to North Korea, were enough to make waves in the local photography community. While North Korea was trying to escape from the scars of war through reconstruction, Marker captured the "People of the North" with his roving lens.

The photography collection also reflects two themes that went on to inform Marker's later work in film. His most famous film, "La Jetee" (1962), explores the aftermath of nuclear war; the acclaimed "Le Joli Mai" (1963) captures the hopes, fears and dreams of ordinary Parisians, culled from 55 hours of interview footage shot by Marker and collaborator Pierre Lhomme. In People of the North, Marker's sensitivity shines through in the individual moments he chose to capture and highlight, moments of intense, abiding humanity that are still arresting decades later.






This is Hye-soon Li, who the photographer met one night during the intermission of "Simcheongeon" (a classic Korean play). Recalling the scene where the story's heroine is offered to the god of the sea, the sensitive Hye-soon Li dabs her face with a handkerchief, sobbing.






A child standing in a field, holding her tired younger brother or sister. Perhaps she is looking for her parents?






Once feared as much as a wild animal, this armored car lies abandoned in a field. Recently planted rice grows around the armored car. The scars of war and the efforts of reconstruction can be seen in this one shot.






Hanboks (traditional Korean clothing) and leisure can be found in this open market.






Six children at the edge of the market.






Women getting a perm under a sign reading: "cheers for peaceful unification."






The effort to rebuild a country scarred by war carries its own burdens.






Boatman resting his tired body on the Daedong River.






Lumberjacks starting out early in the morning.






Standing under a mountain of machinery, this woman's gaze reveals an internal struggle.






Men engaging in the ancient hobby of archery.



A town sharply divided between tile and thatch houses can be seen in the background. What is the girl in focus thinking about?

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The Veiled Feminism Of Moroccan-Born Photographer Lalla Essaydi

February 11, 2015, 6:15 am

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In his landmark book, Orientalism, the late scholar Edward Said wrote of "exteriority," a disconnect between the traveler's fantasies and reality. Reading the travelogues of French writers, Said once explained that he found "representations of the Orient had very little to do with what I knew about my own background in life."


From Bullet, by Lalla Essaydi.

The work of photographer Lalla Essaydi sits somewhere inside the gaps Said felt so keenly. Part of a new wave of Moroccan artists enjoying success under the liberalized reign of King Mohammed VI (who holds some of Essaydi's pieces in his private collection), she lives in New York City and works from her family home in Morocco, a large and elaborate house dating back to the 16th century. The portraits she shoots inside -- always of women -- recall 19th century French depictions of Arab concubines, popularly known as odalisques.

In Essaydi's portraits, you can see the ghost of the naked odalisque -- objectified even in being termed. But Essaydi's women show little flesh. They gaze into the camera, as if challenging the viewer directly. Some look positively regal, like the women in her "Bullet" series, who wear a sort of chain metal she fashioned out of flattened bullets.


From Bullet Revisited, by Lalla Essaydi.

Stretches of the body not hidden under fabric are obscured by calligraphy drawn on by Essaydi herself, script that she calls "deliberately indecipherable." In much of the Arab world, calligraphy is traditionally taught exclusively to men. Essaydi uses the art form as a way to dismantle preconceptions of what women can do or be. Having trained herself in it, she adorns much of her set with henna, a dye associated with weddings and femininity. The text is a mishmash of words loosely inspired by conversations on identity she has with her subjects, who are often family members and friends. In an email to HuffPost, she explained that she writes unintelligibly, so as to throw into question distinctions between "the visual and the textual, along with the European assumption that text constitutes the best access to reality."


From Harem, by Lalla Essaydi.

She is largely inspired by the work of Jean-Léon Gérôme, a foundational 19th century Orientalist painter who famously depicted slave markets and bathhouses based on his travels to Egypt. Gérôme belonged to a tradition rooted in England and France, countries with colonies in the Middle East. For these painters working before the popularization of the camera, the aim was partly to create a historic record of the dishes, fauna, and other stuff of life so far from the West, yet still possessed by it. Along the way, they indulged in fantasies, often to do with Arab women.


From Les Femmes du Maroc Revisited, by Lalla Essaydi.

Meanwhile, Essaydi actually grew up in a technical harem; her father had multiple wives. It was while pursuing an MFA in Boston that she first encountered the Romantic documentation of her world. She saw little to relate to in the sensual scenes of half-naked women lounging on divans. Her home life had been domestic, full of children running through the halls, and moms attending to housework. Though centuries stood between her childhood and Gérôme's travels, she knew the naked bodies of harem wives were never items to be displayed. Compelled to reconcile Gérôme's vision with her reality, she began turning out bizarro, pointed reworkings of the fantasy.


From Harem, by Lalla Essaydi.

In her email, Essaydi describes a long and intensive art making process, starting with months of henna work. She and her subjects then typically "spend weeks together in old family homes, reflecting on our status as Arab women." The shoots are often held in rooms traditionally meant only for men. Simply to exist inside them can be a moving experience for the women, which Essaydi considers part of the project.


From Harem Revisited, by Lalla Essaydi.

Critics decry a new sort of Orientalism in the final images, which are breathtakingly lush, even editorial. But Essaydi sees the efforts of Gérôme and his colleagues as a response to the authentic beauty of North Africa. She says she hopes to perform a delicate balance in their wake: capturing this beauty without exploiting it. "Everything is planned carefully," she says, to the question of how visual impact determines her choices. "I won’t include anything beautiful for mere aesthetic."

See Jon Stewart In His First Episode Of 'The Daily Show'

February 11, 2015, 6:35 am

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On Tuesday night, Jon Stewart announced he will leave "The Daily Show" this year. If you can dry your tears for just a moment, commemorate the comedian's beloved tenure by watching some precious footage from his first episode as host.

Stewart's first show was back in 1999 with guest Michael J. Fox. In one segment, "Final Blow," the comedian blasts then-President Bill Clinton and Strom Thurmond just before the start of Clinton's impeachment trial. Fact: Stewart has been on the air for quite some time.

Elsewhere in the episode, Stewart makes Popeye jokes and takes on the NBA lockout.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

This Is What Your Office Could Look Like In 2035

February 11, 2015, 6:43 am

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In 20 years, the typical workplace may look less like "The Office" and more like your own living room.

Today's offices are noticeably different from a decade ago. Many companies have jettisoned corner offices and tightly packed cubicles in favor of open floor plans, which feature sprawling rooms packed with row after row of desks and few dividing walls. At the same time, more employees are choosing to work from home. But both trends have limitations: The former has been shown to hinder workplace productivity, among other complaints, while the latter can stifle collaboration.

It's up to the office of the future to fix these issues, says Steve Gale, London head of workplace strategy at M Moser Associates, a Hong Kong-based architecture firm specializing in designing and building offices for global businesses. Gale has a solution he calls the “convivial workplace,” an office that promotes social interaction between employees. When workers socialize, Gale told The Huffington Post, they begin to swap ideas and develop a greater sense of shared purpose.

Here's what this professional utopia might look like:

A rendering of the office of the future. It will place particular emphasis on the "primordial interest in coffee and things to eat," according to architect Steve Gale.

“The only reason left for going in to work is to interact with other people,” said Gale, pointing out that technology gives most office workers access to the tools they need to do their job from the comfort of home. “But people need to [meet face to face] for a multitude of reasons. And that, I think, is one of the biggest issues we need to address over the next 20 years.”

Jeanne Meister, a workplace expert and co-author of a book on corporate innovations, notes that progressive tech companies like Google and Facebook use workspaces as a way to establish a corporate identity, more than as a place to get work done. "Space needs to communicate the culture as a way to attract the right employee," she told HuffPost, adding that flexible working conditions are a key determining factor in attracting and retaining top talent.

"At the end of the day, millennials don't want to go to a place to do work. They are more interested in having an experience." said Meister, who envisions a future office space that resembles a living room or even a bar -- not unlike this rendering Gale sent us from M Moser:

Both Meister and Gale predict that offices of the future will resemble trendy cafes or bars.

“When you want to do the boring stuff like making phone calls, you can do that anywhere," Gale said. “But businesses will say, ‘Guys when you come to work, wouldn’t it be nice if you really looked forward to it? And you knew it was going to be entertaining, stimulating, engaging?'"

Experts we spoke to agreed that workplace amenities such as in-house cooks, gyms and health care will become more important than ever. But while Facebook and other companies may already provide some of these perks, few have truly adopted the full change in perspective that Meister and Gale expect to see in the coming years.

For example, Gale pointed out, most offices already have common areas where employees can socialize. "But it hasn’t got the ambience that’s actually truly social," he said. "It’s a wipe-down place that’s a bit echoey. People will use it if there’s nowhere else to go, but it’s not part and parcel of your daily work routine. That’s the shift in the center of gravity to a different way of thinking and working."

Offices of the future will provide a variety of work environments designed for specific work activities, according to Gale.

Whatever the workplace of the future turns out to be, it sounds like it'll be an improvement. Twenty years from now, workers may reflect on the offices of 2015 as "dark satanic mills," Gale said. “There’s no doubt about it. [They’ll say] ‘did you actually get up in the morning, commute for an hour and half, sit there and then go home again? You’re nuts!’” he added.

Even HuffPost's New York City office -- with its open floor plan, small huddle rooms and mechanized standing desks -- may one day be thought of as arcane and unproductive.

“Everyone wants to be open and wants to be collaborative, but when you really do the research, a lot of workers are struggling with being effective and productive in totally open workspaces,” said Meister, digging at modern-day office setups. “How do you enable collaboration without sacrificing a worker’s ability to really focus on the job at hand?”

The Bottom Line: 'Find Me' By Laura Van Den Berg

February 11, 2015, 6:49 am

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Find Me
by Laura van den Berg
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26.00
Publishes Feb. 17, 2015

The Bottom Line is a weekly review combining plot description and analysis with fun tidbits about the book.

What we think:
Gallivanting across America by bus, the lonely Joy plays a road trip game to pass the time. When she enters a new state, she tries to recall everything she associates with the place. The details she digs up typically aren't factual -- no census information is related. Instead, she thinks about personal stories and small, cherished details. This practice makes sense for Joy, who astutely observes, “What is a memory but the telling of a story?”

Joy’s journey has an ambiguous goal: She’s headed to Florida in search of her mother, who left her on the steps of an adoption facility when she was an infant. Since then, Joy’s drifted from North Eastern group homes to foster care facilities and back again, only forming a deep bond with one fellow orphan: a boy she grows to love, named Marcus. Her endless, listless string of relocations is interrupted when a disease-induced apocalypse -- “an epidemic of forgetting” -- slams the country. Victims are marked by a rash of silver scales across their faces, followed by rapid memory loss and death. “The disease” is highly contagious, but some remain mysteriously immune. A handful of the lucky few are contacted by a health care facility Joy refers to simply as “the Hospital,” where patients are instructed to meditate, complete personality surveys and otherwise stay busy and optimistic.

Joy is mostly content with the set-up; patients are allowed limited, supervised Internet and television access daily, and she cherishes the time, as it allows her to track down details of her mother, whose identity she learned of only recently, from her dying aunt. On The Discovery Channel, Joy watches the woman who abandoned her -- an “underwater archeologist” who tracks down ships after they’ve gone missing -- swim and dive, and dreams of reuniting with her.

Her single-minded ambitiousness drives her to escape the Hospital, in spite of the few friendships she’s made with its doctors and patients alike, and journey towards Shadow Key, a city just beyond Key West. She hops on a bus that takes her through Kansas City, where she meets a man called No Name who rummages for valuables in empty hotel rooms, and Birmingham, where she’s shocked to be joined by her childhood friend, Marcus.

The duo’s exploits are a little reminiscent of van den Berg’s earlier works -- short stories peopled with gritty, sometimes derelict, and often selfish heroines. But the writer’s edginess softens in Find Me, as she uses Joy and Marcus’ observations to comment on the subjectivity of memory, and the important role inventiveness plays in optimism. Rather than noting the detritus that’s overtaken post-apocalyptic America, Marcus picks up on poetic details: “the clock hands stuck at noon; a replica of the Statue of Liberty.” The effect is cloyingly twee at times, but ultimately makes for a complex twist on dystopian stories -- one that also involves the malleability of memory and storytelling. In van den Berg’s world, those who value imagination, and the truth underlying dreams as opposed to reality, are protected against calamity.

This thesis -- that constructed stories are honest and valuable -- is echoed by slews of writers. Literature takes a special interest in how memory functions. After all, the factually inaccurate but emotionally truthful retelling of stories is a perfect metaphor for penning fictional tales.

Neruda famously lamented, “Love is so short, forgetting is so long.” It’s a sentiment most of us relate to: We cherish memories of loved ones lost to life’s whims. We bask in nostalgia, and in fact benefit from doing so. Laura van den Berg’s first novel takes the value of nostalgia a step further, as her characters demonstrate that the past, when replayed through a rose-colored lens, can shield us from future harm.

The Bottom Line:
A fresh spin on apocalyptic stories, Find Me beautifully evaluates memory loss and the stories we tell ourselves.

What other reviewers think:
Publisher's Weekly: "The earlier chapters are hampered by future-isms that are cliché and conclusions that feel tedious or foregone -- but in Joy, van den Berg has created a voice that never feels false, only lost and dreaming of being found."

The Rumpus: "In addition to her clean, beautiful prose voice -- a voice that makes you want to follow it anywhere -- van den Berg has an urge as a writer that feels unusual in contemporary literary fiction: her stories have plots."

Who wrote it?
This is Laura van den Berg's first novel. She's the author of two short story collections, What the World Will Look Like After All the Water Leaves Us and The Isle of Youth.

Who will read it?
Anyone interested in literary dystopias, such as Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven and Edan Lepucki's California.

Opening lines:
"Things I will never forget: my name, my made-up birthday, the rattle of a train in a tunnel. The sweet grit of toothpaste. The bitterness of coffee and blood. The dark of the Hospital at night. My mother's face, when she was young."

Notable passage:
"After the Hospital, I run through strands of trees that have been turned into white skeletons by winter, the branches grabbing at my sweatshirt sleeves. I fight through drifts that swallow my knees and want to keep me with them forever."

Four 'Forever'-Era Spice Girls Demos Leak Online

February 11, 2015, 6:56 am

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The Spice Girls haven't released new music since 2007's greatest-hits album, but if you close your eyes, you can pretend the group is back together thanks to four leaked demos from their third and final album, "Forever." That's the one that was released in 2000, after Geri Halliwell left the group and the remaining quartet tried to reinvent themselves with an R&B sound by recruiting Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who'd produced hits for the likes of Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige and Whitney Houston. The album peaked at No. 39 in the United States, but let's rewind and pretend the millennium is new and the Spice Girls are still seasoning our pop-music landscape.

It's easy to do with "A Day In Your Life," "If It's Lovin' On Your Mind," "Pain Proof" and "Right Back At Ya," demos of which have now appeared on both SoundCloud and YouTube:









H/T Digital Spy

Jessie Kahnweiler Wants To Use Comedy To Change The Conversation About Eating Disorders

February 11, 2015, 7:27 am

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"I said, 'I have to do this. I have to make a project about bulimia.'"

That's what filmmaker and comedian Jessie Kahnweiler has to say about her new web series, The Skinny. The project follows a feminist comedian living in LA who struggles with bulimia. (Scroll down to see a preview.)

Kahnweiler is currently raising funds on Kickstarter to complete post-production the pilot, which was produced by Wifey TV.

"I was in recovery for my eating disorder, and I had wanted to do something about it for a long time," Kahnweiler told The Huffington Post. "But the whole question of, 'Do I make it funny? How personal is it? Am I healthy enough to take this on?'"

She moved forward with the project after "thinking about the little girl in me that would have loved to have had some dialogue about eating disorders that wasn't a Lifetime movie or Princess Diana."



Kahnweiler has used dark comedy to tackle difficult, personal topics before, notably in her short film "Meet My Rapist." In a blog for The Huffington Post, Kahnweiler explained: "The film was inspired by my frustration at not being able to 'get over' my own rape, no matter how much therapy I went through. The movie helped me confront the effect my rape had on my identity, relationships and sexuality."

Addressing bulimia head-on through comedy work has been both "terrifying" and "deeply rewarding" for Kahnweiler. She hopes that her project will be part of a larger conversation about disordered eating.

"I don't know anyone who hasn't been affected by this in some way," she told HuffPost. "Let's start talking about f**king food and body stuff! It shouldn't feel like we have to figure it out of on our own."

Learn more about The Skinny here.

The Problem With Network Television's One-Hour Dramas

February 11, 2015, 8:39 am

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When it comes to drama development in the last few years, the output of the broadcast networks could fairly be compared to a medium-sized dumpster fire. In a world where consumers have an exploding number of options and there are multiple entertainment temptations for every taste, the broadcast networks have too frequently created bland, safe and derivative one-hour fare.

It's not that there haven't been the occasional successes and decent performers, but in the last few seasons, it's been hard to avoid the sense that the broadcast networks have suffered a crisis of confidence in the one-hour realm. Seeing so many competitors carrying off big chunks of their turf hasn't made the biggest networks brazen and bold (at least, not often enough) -- quite the opposite. The increasing amount of quality competition has led these once-powerful entities down some pretty pathetic pathways; recent seasons have featured a numbing parade of expensive, interchangeable widgets with most of their edges sanded off.

There have been a few bright spots, among them "How to Get Away with Murder," "Empire" and, last season, "Sleepy Hollow." And go figure -- many of the dramas that caught on with viewers had unusual or exciting elements and performances or approaches that set them apart. Though I might take issue with how those elements have been deployed (all of the shows named here have encountered their share of stumbling blocks), when they're working, these programs are not usually fear-driven collections of least-common denominators.

But the shows that buck convention and try something beyond the same-old, same-old are the exceptions. To be clear, nobody expects a 100 percent success rate, creatively or commercially, at any network, but come on: Too many of the the one-hour shows on the broadcast networks have been excessively bad.

To be fair to CBS, nobody's really expecting it to put another "Good Wife" on the air; it's a fluke they support but don't appear to want to repeat (the overly broad "Madame Secretary" is proof of that). And the CW is mostly exempt from the flop-sweat epidemic; in the last few seasons, it has done an impressive job of drilling down to its core strengths and finding ways to create distinctive worlds on thrifty budgets. I'm likely outside their target demographic, but I watch a higher percentage of the CW shows than any other network's. What its scrappy programs have in place of extensive budgets are lively energies and a willingness to truly focus on character development and even moral conundrums.

But the products from the drama factories at ABC, at NBC and, to an extent, at Fox? Oy.

Fox has shown at least a partial willingness to try new things, and though "Sleepy Hollow" went seriously awry for much of this season, "Gotham" is a frequently tiresome mish-mash and "Empire" hasn't fully gelled yet, I'm glad the network has at least taken a few chances. Whatever my issues with the uneven pacing and non-Cookie characterizations of "Empire," it's fantastic that the hip-hop drama is a breakout success, because it might encourage other broadcast networks to check out bracing ideas from a wider variety of creators.

Heaven knows, NBC needs to try something.

As I've noted before, in recent years, there has been a sad procession of one-word title shows on the Peacock network that felt as though they arrived pre-canceled. Is anyone still shedding a tear for "Believe," "Crisis," "Crossbones," "Deception," "Dracula," "Ironside" or "Revolution"? If you expand the search parameters beyond one-word titles, you add gems like "The Firm" and "Do No Harm" to the list of shows people forgot about (sometimes while they were watching them). Last week, the network debuted another one-worder, "Allegiance," which, like so many other NBC dramas, took a concept and cast that might have worked and flattened the whole enterprise with colorless, uninspired execution.

And that brings us to "The Slap," which, I guess, is NBC's attempt to try something new and different. Too bad it makes some of the same mistakes of many of the shows listed in the previous paragraph.

Imagine that you're on an endless email chain with a group of parents or community members about a problematic incident within a school or social group. Imagine it's one of those grievance-related email chains that becomes a quagmire of perceived insults, frustrated miscommunications and thinly veiled provocations. Then imagine that someone took that email chain and turned it into a TV show, with all of its indignant asides, pompous posturing and oversharing intact. Good times, right?

The funny thing is, parts of that premise could actually work: It's a miniature miracle that HBO's "Togetherness" somehow successfully mines the angst of middle-class, mostly white people who have generally unexciting lives. Over the course of that show's eight-episode first season, it manages to have an impressive cumulative effect, emotionally and thematically. But NBC seems unwilling to make "The Slap" as nuanced, searching and intelligent as "Togetherness," which is one of the reasons the new drama falls short of its own apparent goals.

Hang on a minute: "Togetherness" might be bearable because each episode is about 25 minutes long, which may be the limit for how long I can dwell on the domestic problems of moderately unhappy urban professionals. Each installment of "The Slap" -- which is based on an Australian series and will air as an eight-hour miniseries -- clocks in at around 40 minutes, and by the end of the second installment, I was praying for deliverance from whatever the show was hamfistedly attempting.

Given the title, it's not a spoiler to say that the show revolves around an adult man who slaps another character. To the show's credit, it's a novel idea for a TV drama: There is a lot that filmmakers and TV creators could do to explore and interrogate the culture of toxic masculinity that produces men who think physical violence is a valid solution to their problems. The show also takes on differences in parenting styles, a deceptively civilized phrase for a topic that is as potentially explosive as Firestorm on "The Flash."

Unfortunately, "The Slap" gestures at these kinds of deeply rooted social and cultural attitudes and issues without showing any signs of wanting to investigate them with rigor or courage. "The Slap" wants to be an attractive, semi-superficial network drama about well-to-do people who make big but understandable mistakes, but it also wants to be an in-depth, challenging character-driven drama that delves into an inflammatory set of topics -- domestic violence, child-rearing, class, etc. The attempt to do both of these things leads to a lot of tonal whiplash, and ultimately "The Slap" largely fails in both arenas.

The biggest problem is that the characters generally hew to types: pushy mother-in-law, lax granola mom, tightly wound career woman, anti-authoritarian artist, overworked dad tempted by the babysitter, etc. Despite the talents members the cast have displayed elsewhere, I had no desire to get to know these people any more deeply -- in fact, I wanted to get far away from them, given how unpleasant, self-aggrandizing and oblivious they could be. And just to make sure viewers weren't missing anything about the underlying tensions within this group, a random narrator would pop in from time to time to kill off any halting attempts at nuance and subtext.

Zachary Quinto, Peter Sarsgaard, Uma Thurman, Thandie Newton and Melissa George all try their best, but this is not a legal drama or a cop show, where a near-miss can more or less work. You either nail this kind of challenging material or you don't, and "The Slap" ultimately fails to live up to the potential implied in its attention-getting title.

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First 'Trainwreck' Trailer Makes Amy Schumer A Glorious Mess

February 11, 2015, 9:19 am

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The first trailer for "Trainwreck," Amy Schumer's comedy about a woman who doesn't know how to have a healthy relationship, is here. Schumer plays Amy, a journalist at a men's magazine who was taught from childhood that "monogamy isn't realistic." She falls for Aaron (Bill Hader), a sports doctor who -- oh no! -- calls her after they have sex. She also has fun friends like Vanessa Bayer, who worries Amy's on antibiotics when she only has four drinks. Directed by Judd Apatow and written by Schumer, "Trainwreck" also stars Brie Larsen, Tilda Swinton and LeBron James (lol). It's due out this summer.

Here is the trailer for @TrainwreckMovie #Trainwreck We are very proud. I hope you like it https://t.co/Sla2xMbGw2

— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) February 11, 2015

Students Around The World Discuss Racism And Learn The World Isn't As Small As They Think

February 11, 2015, 11:07 am

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What makes you happy? What are some stereotypes that people have about you? Have you experienced racism and, if so, how?

These are the questions kids from around the world are asking to learn about each other.

"The World Is As Big Or As Small As You Make It," a short documentary made with a grant from Sundance Institute and support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, focuses on the Do Remember Me project and the way it uses technology to connect students in Philadelphia and New York with kids their age across the globe.

Founder Sannii Crespina-Flores uses online chat sessions to let the students talk with kids from countries like Kazakhstan, Nigeria and France.

"I look at it as retooling what they already have, which would be their cell phones, their iPods, their iPads," she said.

Interactions between the kids range from giving each other tours around their neighborhoods to showing off their dance and beatbox skills. They discuss the weather, their heritage and even serious topics like race.

After one African-American student described his experience with racism, the foreign student he was chatting with shared that news surrounding the deaths of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin had gone global and reached her country.

Though thousands of miles separate them, the kids are able to create relationships on a level that Crespina-Flores says provides more bridges than gaps between the youth of the world.

"Puberty is puberty. Being a teen is a teen. They find that there are so many similarities. They're more connected and more alike than they are separate. It's an exchange of possibilities."

H/T A+

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8 Behind-The-Scenes Stories You've Never Heard About 'Friends'

February 11, 2015, 12:15 pm

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The very first line on "Friends" was "There's nothing to tell." Over a decade later, that's still not true at all. With all 10 seasons of "Friends" available on Netflix -- and to celebrate star Jennifer Aniston's birthday -- The Huffington Post spoke with original set decorator Greg Grande, art director (or today's equivalent, production designer) John Shaffner and also combed through old interviews with the cast to get deeper trivia about "Friends" than just that it used to be called "Insomnia Cafe."


1. The iconic orange couch was found ripped and tattered, deep in the corners of a prop basement.



It's hard to remember a time when "Friends" wasn't a huge money-making, cultural hit. But in the early days the show, the series just had a regular sitcom budget. That forced Grande to use materials that were within arm's reach.

"The first thing I did was scour the Warner Bros. prop house," Grande explained. "Literally in the basement, deep in one of the corners of the basement, was this sofa that was absolutely beautiful and the line of it was just gorgeous. It was very tattered. We cleaned it up a little bit, it had quite a few rips in the fabric. But we cleaned up."

Not enough for NBC it turns out. The network had Grande reupholster the couch and clean it up even more. Grande said that the still memorable but slightly less recognizable green chair was also found in that basement. Grande attempted to find out what Warner Bros. had used these seats for in the past, but never had luck.

The orange sofa, along with the rest of the Central Perk set, is on display at the Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour in Burbank, California.



2. The frame around the peephole was originally supposed to have a picture, but then the glass was accidentally broken.



Grande bought the frame from the Rose Bowl Swap Meet and initially dressed it into the set as a normal picture holder that sat on a table.

"I originally had it as a picture frame that had a back on it," he said. "And while we were dressing the glass in it broke and I told one of the guys, 'Well let's see what that frame looks like around the peephole.' And they put it up there for me and that's where it lived for the next 10 years. It actually was as simple as that. Kind of a funny mistake."

The origin of the idea might have come from John Shaffner pushing for Grande to do something special with the door. Shaffner really doesn't like when doors in sitcoms are lackluster. "It's one of my pet peeves," he said, "especially in sitcoms in New York, what's on the back on the door."

So before the break of the frame, Shaffner had been telling Grande, "Come on, Greg, what're we going to do with the back of the door? What're we going to do with the back of the door?" Then Grande had the broken frame and figured he might as well try it out.



3. Chandler's awkwardness around women and habit of stressing the word "be" in questions was actually based off Matthew Perry.



According to a 1995 article in People, Chandler Bing's trademark awkwardness came from Matthew Perry himself.

Particular dating mishaps would even make it into the show. That said, of course the Bing character was made more ridiculous than Perry for the sitcom. The actor is quoted as saying, "These characters are slightly exaggerated, slightly more entertaining versions of ourselves."

Beside the awkwardness, arguably Bing's most memorable aspect -- exaggerated questions -- also comes from Perry. "He has this way of speaking, using questions like, 'Could this be any more this or that?' So they wrote an entire episode about how everybody at his office makes fun of him because of the way he talks," Jennifer Aniston said.



4. Jennifer Aniston and other cast members were scared of Matt LeBlanc before meeting him, just based on reading his character's forward personality.



In an article from People, writer Craig Tomashoff explained how Matt LeBlanc was perceived before he'd even met the cast:

Some cast members were also nervous about LeBlanc, 27, who hails from Newton, Mass. (his father is a mechanic and his mother makes circuit boards), and whose résumé includes a stint looking studly as a Levi's model. "I was scared of that type of guy," says Aniston, who assumed he'd be muy macho. "He thinks it's very funny now. And actually, he can sit down and comfort me just like Courteney or Lisa could."

Having someone constantly hitting on you asking, "How you doin'?" might get sort of annoying, but LeBlanc was more of a "How are you doing?" person in real life.



5. The real reason Monica's apartment was so big was actually different than what the show claimed. It was based of the set designers' own apartment from the 1970s.



Co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane, producer Kevin Bright and the designers John Shaffner and Joe Stewart each drew from their own New York experiences to create "Friends." Specifically, Shaffner and Stewart lived together in an apartment that ended up becoming the inspiration for Monica's apartment and the show's home base.

"We'd all had similar New York experiences in the late '70s, so we kind of reached into our communal New York lives and withdrew a lot of elements that we felt were appropriate for the story," Shaffner said. "And we had lived in a sixth-floor walkup, so we knew you got a bigger apartment for less money if you're willing to climb six flights of stairs."

But there was always a perennial question about the show: How did Monica afford such a huge apartment?

"The answer was it's the sixth floor of a walkup," Shaffner said. The explanation of rent control was written into the show as it was easier to explain to the wider audience, but this was always the real reasoning in his mind.

Since the characters were largely broke in the beginning of the series, the decorating inspiration was thrift stores and flea markets and even other people's garbage. "When you need to furnish your place and you don't have much money, one of the great places to shop is the streets of Manhattan," Shaffner said.



6. NBC expected to get tons of hate mail for the gay wedding, but only received a handful of complaints.



As The Daily Dot recently argued at length, "Friends" was an important show for pushing equality. Earlier seasons relied on problematic gay panic jokes, and the show certainly got criticism for having an all-white cast, but even by just Season 2, a whole episode was focused on a gay wedding.

According to David Wild's book, Friends ... 'Til the End, the network was expecting a lot more pushback than they received for "The One with the Lesbian Wedding." Executive producer Marta Kauffman said, “NBC expected thousands and thousands of phone calls and hate mail.”

Instead, NBC received only four complaints by telephone.


7. The famous "mistake" in the establishing shot actually has an explanation.



It's often labeled as a mistake that the establishing shot for Monica and Joey's apartments is wrong. There is a fire escape where there shouldn't be; there's no balcony. John Shaffner had the same exact reservations. Initially they had wanted him to make a window for Monica's apartment that was sort of special and gave it a kind of identification, hence the big multi-paned window in the show. Shaffner wanted the exterior shot to match so as he said, "I went to New York and came back with an armful of pictures of the tops of the sixth-floor buildings with windows like that."

But then the show used something else entirely and Shaffner wanted an explanation.

"They got an establishing shot with arched windows and I'm like, 'Well, we don't have any arched windows in the set,'" Shaffner recalled. "So that was always, to me, kind of like where are these windows. So they said, 'Don't worry, we're just showing the building, their apartment is on the other side, don't worry.'"

The establishing shot is supposed to be showing the other side of the building. Perhaps unorthodox, but at least it clears up that supposed error?

Image: WikiCommons



8. Central Perk was actually kind of, sort of based on a particular restaurant in Manhattan.



Shaffner wanted to make it clear that any specific restaurant used as inspiration was then tweaked to create the wholly original Central Perk. That said, there is one place that seems to have been particularly on his and the creators minds.

"The coffee house came about because there was a little restaurant that we used to all go down to on West 4th Street in Manhattan, and it had a door in the corner," Shaffner said. "So we went to Kevin and Margaret and David and when we showed them the model and I said, 'We want to do a little corner door like the restaurant that we used to go to,' and they remembered it as well. It was called Arnold's Turtle."

Unfortunately, Arnold's Turtle, which was a vegetarian restaurant, is no longer open. In it's place -- at 51 Bank Street -- is now Hamilton's Soda Fountain & Luncheonette. Not exactly Central Perk, but, for superfans, maybe worth a trip.

Both Shaffner and Greg Grande talked about how this was sort of "before the coffee craze." So despite pictures of New York coffee shops, the main inspiration came from, as Shaffner said, "yesteryears bohemian coffee shops where people really came in and hung and played music and did all that stuff." Grande also mentioned Internet cafes where people would actually hang out for a few hours as a reasoning for why these friends would spend so much time at Central Perk.



BONUS: Yes, the orange couch at Central Perk was always reserved, it just wasn't supposed to take us 10 years to discover that.



Bustle recently pointed out that the reason the characters always got their spot at Central Perk was because there was a very subtle "Reserved" placard on the coffee table. This realization briefly broke the Internet.

"Early on in season one, as we always found them at that table and the discussion was now, 'They got there early. Or they were the first ones there. Or why do they always get this table?'" Grande said. "So the smartest solution was just to actually put together a reserved table and let your imagination, suspend your imagination so that as we progressed in the years -- who knew it was going to be 10 years? -- it was theirs."

He added, simply: "That was always their space, so we put a reserved sign on it."

Above image is screenshot from "Friends." All other images Getty unless otherwise noted.

Photo Series Shows That Despite Looking Different, All Families Are The Same At Heart

February 11, 2015, 12:29 pm

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Statistics show that the American family looks quite different than when June Cleaver represented the model mom. Currently, roughly six million kids and adults have an LGBT parent, and the number of children living with two married parents is on the decline. Photographer Michele Crowe portrays these statistics in a stunning photo series to show that families today come in all forms.

She has photographed 40 U.S. families so far -- from interracial and multicultural relatives to same sex partnerships to non-blood relatives -- for her project, titled "The Universal Family." "There will be a new 'normal' someday and I want to help get us all on board with that!" Crowe told The Huffington Post.

The photographer captures her subjects in their own homes, "where they are most comfortable and can be themselves," she explained.



While each family has a unique "vibe, environment, and dynamic," Crowe says she hopes people who see the photos will recognize the universality in the project. "This project belongs to everybody," the photographer said, adding, "We are all fundamentally the same, and we are all just trying to protect our loved ones." Crowe plans to take her project abroad in the spring.

Keep scrolling for a sample of "The Universal Family" and follow Crowe's blog to watch the project progress.



H/T BoredPanda



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Do The Grammys Have A Race Problem? The 2015 Grammys The Whitest In 35 Years

February 11, 2015, 1:15 pm

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Just like the Oscars, conversation has been stirring about the whitewashing of the Grammys. In the past six years, Best Rap Album has gone to a white guys four times: three wins for Eminem, the other to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. In the big four categories, there were no black artists (or artists of any color) up for Best New Artist, Record of the Year or Song of the Year (Album of the Year included Beyonce and Pharrell).

While it's hard to base a statement on representation presented from one year, the folks at Vocativ have put together a chart monitoring the nominees in these four categories starting in 1960. The trend lines show the Grammys are the whitest they have been in 35 years.


via Vocativ

Vocativ looked further than the Recording Academy, examining the disparity in race on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Starting in 1965, the chart shows extremely similar movement, heavily white in its earlier years, balancing out in the late '90s and early 2000s, climbing back towards where it started through 2015.


via Vocativ

For more information, head over to Vocativ.

'House Of Cards' Season 3 Leaked On Netflix Two Weeks Before Premiere Date

February 11, 2015, 1:52 pm

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"House of Cards" appeared on Netflix two weeks early when viewers found most of the third season available to stream on Wednesday. The episodes were quickly pulled down, but viewers who had been watching the Season 3 premiere before Netflix remedied the situation were able to continue doing so even after the fix.

It appeared that 10 episodes in total leaked online, but according to a tweet from the official "House of Cards" account, the third season will have a full compliment of 13 episodes.

This is Washington. There's always a leak. All 13 episodes will launch February 27.

— House of Cards (@HouseofCards) February 11, 2015

"Due to a technical glitch some Underwood fans got a sneak peak," a representative for Netflix said in a statement, referencing Kevin Spacey's Frank Underwood. "He'll be back on Netflix on Feb 27. #no spoilers"

Watch All Of Your Favorite Actors In The Trailer For Cameron Crowe's 'Aloha'

February 11, 2015, 4:37 pm

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Outgoing Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal pretty much trashed Cameron Crowe's "Aloha" in emails leaked during the Sony hack in December, but the film's first trailer looks kind of good? We guess that's what happens when Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, John Krasinski, Danny McBride, Alec Baldwin and Bill Murray all appear in a movie. This one's a romance with a twist, one Crowe had in development for actual years. Back in 2008, it was a movie he wanted to make with Ben Stiller and Reese Witherspoon. But Cooper and Stone seem like good fits. "Aloha" is out on May 29. Watch the trailer below, via People.

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Murals Make It Valentine's Day Year-Round In Philadelphia

February 12, 2015, 9:13 am

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — This Saturday may be for sweethearts, but every day is Valentine's Day in one section of Philadelphia.

Dozens of "Love Letter" murals brighten the walls along nearly 20 blocks of elevated transit tracks. The art mixes funky lettering with graphics and heartfelt phrases like "Forever begins when you say yes" and "See me like I see you: Beautiful." For one couple, they made the Market-Frankford El the perfect place for a wedding.

Neal Santos and Andrew Olson got married Sunday aboard a specially chartered Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority train. The couple's friends and relatives witnessed the unusual wedding in the first car while 200 art enthusiasts packed the rest of the train for a tour of the murals.

"Once we kind of got over explaining it, that hurdle, people were really excited," Olson said. "And a lot of people have said, 'Wow, that's something that really fits you guys.'"

The "Love Train," sponsored by the city's Mural Arts Program, brought in lead artist Steve Powers to narrate the excursion as the train slowly trundled by the murals. Finding them is like a scavenger hunt — you have to look up high, down low and in between buildings. Tours also are available year-round.

Powers said he's not surprised at the enduring appeal of the murals, which he created six years ago. He describes them as his love letter to west Philadelphia — where he grew up as a graffiti tagger before going legit — and as a way for residents to see themselves in a public love story.

"People love ... the idea of somebody spray-painting 'Steve loves Mary' on a wall," Powers said Sunday. "It represents to them the largest, boldest expression of love that they would make. So we're happy to be that for them."

The city, of course, also is home to another "Love Train" — Philadelphia International Records released the O'Jays' hit song by the same name in the early 1970s.

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Online:


www.muralarts.org


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Follow Kathy Matheson at www.twitter.com/kmatheson

This Winning World Press Photo Is A Triumph Over Homophobia In Russia

February 12, 2015, 9:45 am

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AMSTERDAM (AP) — An atmospheric image of a gay couple in Russia by Danish photographer Mads Nissen was crowned the World Press Photo of the Year 2014 on Thursday.

The intimate image of Jon and Alex is part of a larger project by Nissen called "Homophobia in Russia" that highlights how life is increasingly difficult for sexual minorities in Russia. Nissen said he sees the image, shot in St. Petersburg, as "a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story" about two people in love but facing outside forces who want to deny them their feelings.

Its sensitivity also appeared intended to act as a counterpoint to gruesome photographs and video spread by terrorists that increasingly come to dominate the news.

"Today, terrorists use graphic images for propaganda. We have to respond with something more subtle, intense and thoughtful," World Press Photo jury member Alessia Glaviano said in a statement.

Contest organizers also criticized the large number of photos submitted for the prestigious awards that had been subjected to too much manipulation, saying they rejected 20 percent of images that reached the penultimate round of judging.

"It seems some photographers can't resist the temptation to aesthetically enhance their images during post-processing either by removing small details to 'clean up' an image, or sometimes by excessive toning that constitutes a material change to the image," said World Press Photo managing director Lars Boering.

He said photojournalists around the world need to find "common ground" on acceptable standards for post-processing images.

While the winning image was of an intimate moment, the world's hotspots of unrest and despair also featured prominently in the prizes with images from the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria and Gaza as well as the Ebola crisis in Africa.

Bao Tailiang of China's Chengdu Economic Daily won first prize in the Sports Singles category with a photo of Argentina star Lionel Messi gazing at the World Cup trophy after his team lost 1-0 to Germany in the final in Rio.

The contest drew 97,912 images from 5,692 photographers from 131 countries. Nissen wins a 10,000-euro ($11,330) cash prize.

'Live From New York,' An 'SNL' Doc, Will Open This Year's Tribeca Film Festival

February 12, 2015, 11:02 am

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Live, from New York, it's the new "Saturday Night Live" documentary, "Live From New York!" Directed by Bao Nguyen, the new film will open this year's Tribeca Film Festival on April 15.

"'SNL's' contribution to the arts and to pop culture has been -- and continues to be -- groundbreaking, and 'Live From New York!' offers an inside look at the show's inimitable ability to both reflect and impact American news, history and culture," Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal said in a press release. "This is the story of a creative journey from pilot to institution and a tribute to the moments that kept us laughing and talking long after the episodes aired."

"Saturday Night Live" is in the midst of celebrating its 40th anniversary, and NBC will air a special on Feb. 15 to catalog the show's history. Dozens of major stars are expected to appear on Sunday, including Eddie Murphy, Jack Nicholson, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Tom Hanks and Bill Murray.

Said producer Lorne Michaels about the new doc: "After 40 years, the timing just felt right."

This isn't the first "SNL" documentary to appear at Tribeca. Back in 2010, James Franco debuted "Saturday Night," a documentary he directed about a single episode of the show. That film is now available on Hulu.

"The selection of 'Live from New York!' to open the 14th Tribeca Film Festival is personally gratifying to me on several level," Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Robert De Niro said in a statement. "Having hosted 'SNL' three times, and guested on several occasions, I speak from a first-hand experience about 'SNL's' rightful place in our culture as well as a welcome addition to our Festival."

More on "Live From New York!" via the film's website:

Saturday Night Live has been reflecting and influencing the American Story for 40 years. Live From New York! explores the show’s early years, an experiment from a young Lorne Michaels and his cast of unknowns, and follows its evolution into a comedy institution. The film looks at SNL as a living time capsule, encompassing decades of American politics, media, tragedy, and popular culture with an irreverent edge.

Archival footage is interwoven with stolen moments and exclusive commentary from SNL legends, journalists, hosts, musical guests, crew and others influenced by the comedy giant.

Live From New York! captures what has enabled SNL to continually refresh itself over nearly 800 episodes and keep America laughing for 40 years.

The Tribeca Film Festival runs from April 15 to April 26. More information on this year's fest is available at the Tribeca website.

Black History Heroines Brought Back To Life In Stunning #WeAreBlackHistory Photos

February 12, 2015, 11:44 am

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When it comes to torches of strong Black women civil rights legacies, there are a lot to carry.

Fortunately for us there are plenty of contemporary black women up for the task, and the #WeAreBlackHistory photo series was devised as the perfect way to honor them.

The project, launched on Elle.com, is a creation of three women co-founders of Style Influencers Group -- a network dedicated to connecting brands with prominent black influencers of the fashion and beauty worlds. Jessica Andrews, Christina Brown and Lexi Felder took inspiration from the #BlackLivesMatter movement to limelight current cultural figures that demand the same ideals of equality as the civil rights legends before them.

Elle.com matched black digital influencers of the 21st century with iconic photographs of beloved female members of the black community to recreate bold portraits. The series features fresh faces and old names such as Ebony.com senior editor Jamilah Lemieux as Angela Davis, BlogHer editor Feminista Jones as Betty Shabazz, and HuffPost Style's very own Julee Wilson as none other than Rosa Parks:



Each subject has a personal kinship to the idol they portray -- something that photographer Jerome A. Shaw flawlessly communicates with focused light in black and white.

Christina Brown explains the pairings of the series: “They were chosen not only because they are deeply inspired by their icons, but because they're making a tangible impact and shaping our history with their words, actions, and images."

The classic retro-styled hair, makeup and nails were crafted by Seto McCoy, Kayden Makeup Artistry and Gracie J, respectively.

“We aren't claiming to be the next iteration of these icons,” wrote Andrews, “but we do stand on their shoulders.”

And beautiful shoulders they are.

See the rest of the #WeAreBlackHistory photo series here.

Will Smith On Race In America: 'It's Our Responsibility To Clean Up The Mess'

February 12, 2015, 12:15 pm

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Minus cameos in "Anchorman 2" and "Winter's Tale," Will Smith hasn't appeared on screen since 2013's "After Earth." But Smith's return as leading man is set for the end of the month in "Focus," followed by many other films, including "Concussion," "Suicide Squad" and, eventually, "Bad Boys 3."

Sitting down with Esquire, courtside at a 76ers and Grizzlies basketball game, Smith discussed a wide variety of subjects, including the topic of Ferguson and race in America.

The change that has to happen is about to be so brutal and so painful. It’s not unlike the sixties. I think there’s actually a deeper issue at play that America is going to have to face. What we’re really talking about in this issue is people walking around the street with guns that can make a decision whether or not they’re going to kill someone, right? And that’s even more difficult, because there’s really no way back from that. This is a gun culture. And it’s painful for me, because I cannot figure out how to be helpful. I’ve always been telling my sons, We have to separate fault from responsibility—whose fault it is that black men are in this situation, whose fault it is doesn’t matter. It’s our responsibility to make it go right. It’s our responsibility. It’s a lot of people’s fault, systemic racism, and it’s a lot of people’s fault that the black community is in the situation that we’re in, but it’s our responsibility to clean up the mess.

Smith also opened up about 2013's "After Earth," which co-stars his son, Jaden (who, according to Smith, owns just five shirts, three pairs of pants and one pair of shoes). The film was a flop domestically, earning only $60 million, and garnering three Razzies. While Smith considers "After Earth" his greatest failure, he went into detail about the devastating news that soon followed that brought about a great revelation in his life:

"Wild Wild West" was less painful than "After Earth" because my son was involved in "After Earth" and I led him into it. That was excruciating. What I learned from that failure is how you win. I got reinvigorated after the failure of "After Earth." I stopped working for a year and a half. I had to dive into why it was so important for me to have number-one movies. And I never would have looked at myself in that way. I was a guy who, when I was fifteen my girlfriend cheated on me, and I decided that if I was number one, no woman would ever cheat on me. All I have to do is make sure that no one's ever better than me and I'll have the love that my heart yearns for. And I never released that and moved into a mature way of looking at the world and my artistry and love until the failure of "After Earth," when I had to accept that it's not a good source of creation.

"After Earth" comes out, I get the box-office numbers on Monday and I was devastated for about twenty-four minutes, and then my phone rang and I found out my father had cancer. That put it in perspective -- viciously. And I went right downstairs and got on the treadmill. And I was on the treadmill for about ninety minutes. And that Monday started the new phase of my life, a new concept: Only love is going to fill that hole. You can’t win enough, you can’t have enough money, you can’t succeed enough. There is not enough. The only thing that will ever satiate that existential thirst is love. And I just remember that day I made the shift from wanting to be a winner to wanting to have the most powerful, deep, and beautiful relationships I could possibly have.

For the whole interview, head to Esquire.