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Here's Footage Of Puddle Of Mudd's Wes Scantlin Riding A Luggage Carousel, Getting Arrested

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Life's a ride when you're a rock star. Sometimes, that's just a ride around an airport luggage carousel -- and it ends with said rockstar getting arrested.

Puddle of Mudd lead singer Wes Scantlin -- one of the brains behind the 2001 hit, "She Hates Me" -- was arrested last month for hopping on the oversize baggage carousel at Denver International Airport. Yesterday, Denver's 7News published security camera footage of the incident:


"Evidently, someone in their group was egging him on to do it," Seth Daniels, the promoter behind the band's January 16 show in Denver, told Westword after the incident. "They were videotaping it for, I don't know, TryToStayRelevant.com," he joked.

Days later, Scantlin appeared to acknowledged the incident, posting this pseudo-apology on Facebook:




In an email to The Huffington Post, DIA spokesman Heath Montgomery said this was a rare incident for the airport. He could only recall one other carousel-rider, almost 20 years ago. In this case, Montgomery said Scantlin "was detected and apprehended almost immediately."

As for why it's illegal, Montgomery explained Scantlin was actually trespassing. The rear of the carousel accesses a section of the airport that's off limits to passengers.

"There is a baggage make-up area used by the airlines behind the carousel," he explained. "It’s a secured area of the airport and restricted to airport and airline employees."

Compounding matters, 7News reports Scantlin was already a wanted man in Denver. In 2006, police caught him driving without a license, speeding 25 to 39 mph over the limit. He failed to appear in court and had a warrant issued for his arrest.

This isn't the rocker's first run-in with airport security, either. In 2012, a JetBlue flight had to make an emergency landing in Texas after Scantlin created a disturbance onboard. Police in Austin charged him with public intoxication.

Disney Princesses Depicted As Acid Attack Survivors Reflect Global Fight Against Atrocity

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Sometimes art can be an impactful catalyst for change, and that's exactly how Alexsandro Palombo likes it.

In his new illustrated series -- launched Monday on Palombo's Facebook page -- Disney princesses are depicted as acid attack survivors. Burns, disfigurations and scars mark their animated faces, meshing the harsh reality of acid attacks with the innocent and lighthearted world of Disney.

Palombo launched the series with the hashtag #StopAcidAttack ahead of International Women's Day on March 8, he told The Huffington Post in a statement.

"If we just observe and stand still, then we are all accomplices," Palombo said. "And [to] be complicit means to take the side of those cowards, monsters and criminals."

(Story continues below. All images courtesy of Alexsandro Palombo. Visit his website or Facebook page to learn more.)

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Palombo isn't alone in his fight against the cruel act, described as the deliberate use of acid to attack another person, according to Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI). Photographer Rahul Saharan also used art to raise awareness on the issue by featuring women who've survived attacks in beautiful photos. The issue is often a gender-based crime: Experts say 75 to 80 percent of acid attack victims are women and girls, BBC reported in 2013.

An activist associated with advocacy group Stop Acid Attacks, Saharan told The Huffington Post last year he wanted to give the women a powerful platform to tell their stories of survival.

Efforts from people like Palombo and Saharan have helped protect women and elevated consciousness of the human rights abuse in regions where it's needed most. Laxmi, a survivor who was involved in Saharan's photo shoot, created a petition with 27,000 signatures demanding that India -- a country that sees an estimated 1,000 cases of acid attacks a year, according to ASTI -- reduce the sale of acid.

The initiative made it to the Indian Supreme Court, which ordered central and state governments to increase regulations on acid sales. The court also demanded the country's parliament make violators easier to prosecute.

(Story continues below.)

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According to ASTI, acid may be thrown on women who deny sexual advances by men or refuse their hand in marriage. It can also be a tactic to dissuade women from accessing education. The Pakistani Taliban, for example, orchestrated the atrocity as a means to scare girls away from the classroom.

"We will never allow the girls of this area to go and get a Western education," Qari Muhavia, a Pakistani Taliban leader, told CNN in 2012. "If and when we find any girl from Parachinar going to university for an education, we will target her (in) the same way, so that she might not be able to unveil her face before others."

According to ASTI, there are about 1,500 cases of documented acid attacks every year, as BBC reported. And while the issue disproportionately affects women in Central and South Asia, it's a problem facing women around the world. ABC News reported in 2010 that rates of attacks in Western nations had been increasing.

Palombo -- who has also created campaigns using Disney princesses that have highlighted domestic violence prevention and disability awareness -- is aiming to change the status quo through thought-provoking imagery.

"No one should remain indifferent to such atrocities," he said in the statement to HuffPost. "Violence against women is unacceptable and must be fought always and relentlessly."

Learn more about how to join the fight against the atrocity at Stop Acid Attack's website.

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How Libraries Are Adapting To Help Homeless Find Jobs, Health Services

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Jeffery Bailey spends nearly every day at his public library.

It's not just that he loves books. For the 43-year-old who sleeps in a tent outside a local church, the library is pretty much the only place he can go that won't charge him to provide safety, warmth, useful services and entertainment.

Many public libraries discourage homeless people from hanging around all day. "It could be the way you dress, the way your hair is," says Bailey, whose scruffy denim jacket could use a good wash.

But just as Bailey needs his library, the library needs him: In this digital age, many people who used to depend on libraries can find what they need online without leaving home. Menaced by budget cuts, many public libraries are effectively failing to justify their relevance, reducing their hours year after year.

At the same time, libraries are more important than ever to people who can't otherwise get connected: Nearly two-thirds provide the only free computer and Internet access in their communities, according to the American Library Association.

In the 25 years since the ALA adopted a policy urging full access for poor and homeless library patrons, few have taken this mission as far as Nashville's main downtown library, where Bailey arrives early each day, standing on an icy sidewalk in below-freezing temperatures with a half-dozen other people until the ornate bronze doors open.

Once inside, he goes directly to the third floor, where rows of computer terminals are quickly occupied by people carrying bags filled with their worldly possessions.

The library recently renovated this section with their homeless patrons in mind, ditching countless shelves of bound copies of "Popular Mechanics" and other periodicals that are now available electronically, and making way for 68 computers and more tables with ethernet connections and power outlets.

"They have a good book selection, a good music selection, movies," Bailey said one morning after using Facebook to check in with his family. Without being able to stay at the library, "I'd probably do a lot of walking and trying to find a place to use the Internet."

More than 70 percent of librarians surveyed several years ago said they weren't aware of any libraries that successfully serve the poor, according to an ALA report.

"I think there are still a lot of punitive policies and a lot of barriers ... rules about the size of baggage you can bring in or policies about odor or no-sleeping policies," said librarian Julie Ann Winklestein, who co-wrote an ALA pamphlet to help librarians better serve people who have already been turned away by other institutions.

The single most important thing libraries can help people do online is find a job, the ALA found. Even fast food restaurants require online applications now. But many libraries still require patrons to have an address and photo identification to get a library card, and then limit the time patrons can spend online.

Librarian Liz Coleman, who serves on a new Homelessness Advisory Committee at the Nashville Public Library, says her co-workers are frustrated they can't help everyone. One regular patron died of exposure; another was hit by a car and died shortly before he was to receive housing.

"It was a feeling of kind of helplessness," she said. "You see these folks every day, so you can't help but care about them. But what are you going to do? You can't take them home with you."

But librarians don't have to shoulder the burden alone: In a partnership with other agencies, the Nashville library hosts drop-in hours with city social workers and mental health counselors.

They helped Susan Hulme's sister-in-law after she was hospitalized and couldn't work to get food stamps and other resources for finding a new job. The woman was embarrassed, and intimidated by the bureaucracy of the social services agency. Going to her library made it easier.

"It was more friendly, more accessible," Hulme said. "It was a safe place for her to tell her story."

Other exceptions include Pima County, Arizona, where public health nurses wander the county's 27 libraries with stethoscopes around their necks, offering blood pressure checks and identifying difficult cases for more care.

In Weber County, Utah, public housing workers rely on librarians who know their homeless patrons by name to help them locate people approved for housing vouchers.

Librarians with The Queens Library in New York City work with the Department of Education to go into homeless shelters to hold library card drives, read stories to children, give away books and lead discussions with teenagers. The library also connects people to emergency food, shelter and legal services through a mobile phone application.

Pooling resources like this may seem obvious, but these agencies still don't work together in many communities. Winklestein says that needs to change, since providing information to the public is what libraries are supposed to be all about.

"Librarians can't solve people's problems, but we can provide them the resources to solve their own problems," she said.

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Extraordinary Portraits Of Life In The Extreme North Of The World

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At 66° 33' 39" -- north of the equator -- there lies an imaginary line, beyond which it is almost impossible to live. Cristian Barnett has been traversing the boundaries of this line of latitude in and around the Arctic Circle for almost ten years, venturing through all of the countries it crosses: the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

In his portrait collection “Life on the Line,” the English photographer seeks out human life in the most extreme climates. His focus is not untouched landscapes of icy vastness, but the inhabitants of the Far North, where the sun never sets in summer and never rises in winter. With the aid of his trusty Hasselblad camera, he captured an incredible human variety, all within 35 miles of the Arctic Circle. The Gwichin, Saami, Khanti, Nenet, Evenk, Yakuts and Inuits helped him to discover that the cold and darkness can be a part of everyday life.

“The cold is not only accepted, but often welcomed," Barnett explains. "The long hours of darkness signify a daily change in life, a change that is not necessarily worse than the hottest months." According to the photographer, the true threat to the four million inhabitants of the Arctic Circle comes from man-made pollution and the effects of climate change.
Barnett found warmth, hospitality, joy and serenity among the people of the frigid north, whose daily life is surprisingly familiar, filled with books, music, Facebook, DVDs, both fun and work.

“The Arctic Circle is much more than hunters and polar bears," Barnett adds. "There are many modern villages, so you’re more likely to come across a hair stylist than a reindeer herder." The photographer managed to capture his unique experiences throughout 11 voyages. He found out he was the sixth foreign visitor in 10 years to Zhigansk, Siberia; in Jokkmokk, Sweden, he experienced a summer of 70-degree weather followed by a winter of -18 degree weather. But he never suffered on his travels, because, as he explains it, “the reality is, most places are not extreme environments; they’re just places to live.”

The book “Life on the Line” was published in 2014 by Polarworld.



This post originally appeared on HuffPost Italy and was translated into English.

Inside The Racy, Blood-Soaked Drama Of Laura Krifka's Painted World (NSFW)

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Note: This exhibition contains lots of (painted) nudity. Be warned.

With all the juicy melodrama of a telenovela and the gravitas of a Baroque painting, Laura Krifka pumps her canvases full of love, lust and a thirst for blood. Her exhibition "Reap the Whirlwind," now in its final week at CB1 Gallery, features paintings and sculptures of sex, mischief and betrayal, postmodern parables filled with obvious symbolism and overblown innuendos. They're over the top in the best possible way, appealing to Renaissance audiences and TV addicts with a single sharp stroke.

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Laura Krifka, Judith and Holyfernes, 2014, Oil on canvas, 60" x 48"


The works on view depict instances of punishment, both slight and severe. In "Flying," a nude young man floats temporarily above a menacing crowd of cacti, while in "Judith and Holyfernes," a woman giddily slits a nude man's throat while a third woman crouches nearby, smelling the victim's hair. Despite the noticeable gash spurting from his neck, the new Holofernes' expression appears placid, even pleasured. In "The Prick," an androgynous blonde gazes open-mouthed at the viewer, displaying a needle and blood-soaked finger. Although the golden curls, soft breasts and willowy physique hint at femininity, a penis poking out from tight white shorts complicates the frame.

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Laura Krifka Lambs, 2014 Oil on canvas 48" x 48"


Although Krifka doesn't hold back when it comes to depicting sex, her aesthetic, teetering between classical realism and caricature, fully embraces the ridiculousness of its subject matter without ever veering into the ironic. Her faces, despite their relative naturalism, feel more like board game characters who've jumped out of "Guess Who" than genuine human beings. Beautiful Decay dubbed them "renaissance blowup dolls," alluding to the inflated nature of both traditional values and debauchery, and the spaces where both can coexist.

Aside from the paintings, Krifka also creates small, lumpy mixed media sculptures, similarly dressing explicit content in fairy tale whimsy. The gloriously rendered, morally questionable scenes lead the viewer to take pleasure in the subjects' pain.

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Laura Krifka The Prick, 2014 Oil on canvas 40" x 30"


Thematically, the show centers around ideas of moralized violence and the desire for retribution. Whether in a Hollywood film or a classical painting, entertainment often revolves around the ambition of serving punishment where it's due. But why? When did we embrace this high-minded bloodlust, finding in others' anguish? In the words of CB1 Gallery, "This artificial and vicious world pushes the question of when and why we root for punishment, why we crave the purge of destruction yet weep when it touches our own world."

"Reap the Whirlwind" runs until February 28, 2015 at CB1 Gallery in Los Angeles. See a preview of the exhibition below.

6 Women Writers To Add To Your Bookshelf

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Last week, we asked editors at The Huffington Post to share which books they think all men should read, as a way of subverting the typically macho roundups of books for dudes. The responses ranged from Jane Austen to edgy young essayists such as Roxane Gay. But we also think it's important to highlight the great female authors who aren't always in the spotlight.

These women don't necessarily address women's issues directly. In fact, one of them, Deepti Kapoor, wrote in a blog for us last week about maddeningly only being placed on panels that discussed the changing role of femininity in India, while more lofty topics were reserved for her male contemporaries. Another, Kelly Link, writes fantastical stories packed with very real emotions, and another, Laura van den Berg, has penned a dystopian book with a strange twist. Check out these 6 stellar books by women that we recommend adding to your bookshelf ASAP:



Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me
"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?”

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."
Read our full review here.





Deepti Kapoor, author of A Bad Character
"A Bad Character has drawn comparisons to Marguerite Duras’ class- and race-conscious erotic classic The Lover, but it also bears echoes of Elizabeth O’Neill’s Nine and a Half Weeks, a pseudonymously published erotic memoir about the author’s passionate affair with a man who leads her into increasingly sadomasochistic sexual experiments. As in Nine and a Half Weeks, A Bad Character hints only slightly at the dark turn the ardent love-making and all-consuming infatuation might take, at least until we’re deeply involved in the psyche of the narrator and the sexual dynamic of the couple."
Read our full review here.




Nell Zink, author of The Wallcreeper
"Nell Zink's debut novel begins with a car crash and a miscarriage. It's a weighty scene for a single sentence to carry, but then, Zink has a propensity for packing pages densely with meaning. The Wallcreeper is rich with metaphors worth mining -- in fact, the entire novel is somewhat of an extended metaphor, wherein an inconspicuous but vibrant bird serves to represent a woman who's chosen to fly under the radar rather than discover or foster personal interests.

Bird-as-feminist symbol isn’t exactly a new trope. But Zink’s references to cages and songs are fewer than her observations about the natural environment and the role her protagonist plays in it. Tiffany gets married young and suddenly to a man she hardly knows, and moves with him to Berne, Switzerland where she promptly begins an affair and otherwise fiddles around playing house, sans children. She’s frank about her immorality, both with the reader and with her husband, Stephen, who’s understanding mostly because he’s the same way."
Read our full review here.




Lindsay Hunter, author of Ugly Girls
"A few notable symptoms of sleep deprivation: confusion, false memories, mania, temper tantrums. To call the short, spastic chapters of Lindsay Hunter’s first novel sleep-deprived isn’t an insult -- her sentences, like her characters, are burning at both ends. They’re punchy and fascinating and planted firmly in the present.

Ugly Girls is Hunter’s first novel. As she states in the acknowledgements, she began as a poet, then found her home in flash fiction -- short stories that don’t exceed 2,000 words. Her background is evident, as her scenes are both quippy and psychologically deep."
Read our full review here.




Samantha Harvey, author of Dear Thief
"The title of Samantha Harvey’s new novel, Dear Thief, can also be read as the first line of the book. Dear Thief is a letter, and the title its salutation. The unnamed narrator addresses herself throughout to some enigmatic, distant other; a thief who is also, somehow, dear to the aggrieved speaker; a thief who was once a beloved friend.

The letter, which veers from guilt-ridden to accusatory, chatty to anguished, maps the tortured psychology of a close friendship marred by betrayal."
Read our full review here.




Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble
"Kelly Link is known for imbuing quotidian events with a touch of the extraordinary. Her stories begin in settings we understand -- on a prime-time TV show, or in a quiet neighborhood -- and slowly creep somewhere stranger and darker. In a recent interview she said, 'I love ghost stories with all my heart.' Her affection for the strange is evident: with stories populated with aliens and superheroes. But aside from the wacky characters, the plots she weaves feel much like real life. Any fan of Karen Russell, Ursula K. Le Guin, and any other smartly written, fantastic stories should not miss out on Kelly Link."
See our short story collection recommendations here.

Adorable Photos Of Men And Cats Prove Few Things Are More Manly Than Cat Ownership

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Dogs are, as the saying goes, man's best friend. Cats, however, are often aligned with a feminine owner, however unfairly. Photographer (and cat enthusiast) David Williams set out to prove that expressing your masculine side and embracing your adoration for felines are not mutually exclusive.

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"I found that the way society genderizes animal ownership very compelling," Williams explained to The Huffington Post. "As a portrait photographer I was interested in capturing the relationships of my male friends and their feline friends. It was also a good excuse to hang out with a bunch of cats!"

Williams' delightful photographs each capture an intimate moment between a dude and his kitty. Some don tattoos, others bushy beards, while some clutch beers and sit in the close vicinity of wood. The mishmash of gender stereotypes broadcasts the silliness of such arbitrary symbols. "I want to show that regardless of the stereotypes put on cat ownership, many people have found the joy that cat companionship can bring. I also want to stress how important it is to rescue your pets!"

Look at the photos below and just try not to smile. Bros, man up and show off your cat to your friends tonight.

Designer Andre Landeros Michel Goes Genderless In Stunning New Collection

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Last week Andre Landeros Michel debuted his second collection, entitled Version II, during New York Fashion Week.

The New York-based designer founded his label LANDEROS NEW YORK in 2013 and since then has been churning out his "dark, romantic and gender neutral" clothing, as he describes it, which is inspired by the goth, punk, new wave and industrial music of his youth.

The Huffington Post caught up with Michel after his NYFW presentation to chat about his stunning new collection, why he's committed to the idea of genderless clothing and more.

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(Andre Landeros Michel)

The Huffington Post: I'm often surprised by what influences your work -- and how those influences manifest themselves in your collections. Tell me what inspired your newest collection that you just showed at New York Fashion Week.

Andre Landeros Michel: Each collection starts with the music. I immerse myself for weeks at a time in the music of my youth. Bands like Scritti Politti, Arcadia, Propaganda, Cabaret Voltaire all help to inform my design process. I spent countless hours as a kid watching their music videos and reading everything I could get my hands on at the time especially magazines like Smash Hits and NME New Musical Express. Like a sponge, I absorbed all the fan knowledge I could and stored it up until now. Then I just connected the dots. The album artwork for the band Arcadia, Duran Duran's side project, had been created by the notorious fashion illustrator Tony Viramontes. His extreme contours, fluid brush strokes, strong women and softer men have had a huge impact on my work to this day.

Other references in the collection come from various sources: The sci-fi animated cult classic "Fantastic Planet," (La Planète Sauvage) by René Laloux; the art of famed artist Dan Flavin; the works of contemporary dance choreographers Michael Clark and William Forsythe; Japanese traditional clothing; and a metal dress form on the album artwork of '80s band Propaganda.

My LANDEROS NEW YORK Fall 2015 collection, titled Version II, pays homage to the '80s band Scritti Politti, whose alternate versions of tracks were simply referred to as ‘Version,' hence "Version II" -- my second NYFW presentation.

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The clothes are referred to as "genderless." Talk to me about that. Is there a political foundation to that decision?
Initially I started out creating clothes for men. However, I quickly realized the need to expand my reach to accommodate smaller sizes. Designing for a specific gender to me felt a bit antiquated especially given my penchant for blurring the lines between the two. I've never differentiated before, so why start now?

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It seems that the idea of "genderless" or unisex clothing is catching on -- Selfridges in the UK is now only selling gender neutral clothing and other designers have talked about moving in that direction. Do you think genderless clothing will be the norm in the future?
I would like to think so. For my brand LANDEROS NEW YORK, from a design and production vantage point, it makes total sense. From a sales perspective I hope ultimately the customer will be able to educate the retailer about their wardrobe needs, instead of a preassigned sales approach based on sex.

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Do you consider yourself a queer designer? How does (or doesn't) your sexuality inform your work?
Above all else, I consider myself an outsider. Growing up on Long Island listening to New Wave radio station 92.7 WLIR/WDRE featuring punk, goth and industrial music and being an active member in those subcultures labeled me an outsider. I gravitated towards the misfits, punks, goths and club kids who wholeheartedly embraced the LGBT community. During my club kid years I was fortunate to experience the glamour and excess of New York underground nightlife and soon realized for myself it was a non-issue.

Who are you making clothes for? Who is your customer?
For a confident person who loves luxe fabrics and non-traditional materials combined in an unexpected manner.

What's up next for you?
Hopefully more artist collaborations! I've had the pleasure of collaborating with the swedish design duo MURKY Mike Årsjö and Emelica Lidman on neck collar pieces using recycled silver for my fall 2015 collection. I throughly enjoyed the collaborative process and hope to continue with them and other artists with a similar aesthetic.

Check out a slideshow of images from the LANDEROS NEW YORK Fall 2015 collection below. For more from Andre Landeros Michel, visit his official website. Also make sure to check the label out on Instagram and Facebook.


'Transitioning Cambodia' Photos Show Vanishing Worlds Behind Rapid Development

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Until just a few years ago, Boeung Kak Lake in the capital city of Phnom Penh was a prime tourist location and home to thousands of Cambodians. Today, it lies under the sand.

In 2007, a company owned by well-connected Cambodians received a lease to develop the land around the lake. Just a year after it took control, the company started pumping the landmark full of sand, making way for a high-end building project. Thousands of people were forcibly evicted in the process.

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A resident of Boeung Kak rows a wooden boat against a storm moving in over Phnom Penh on July 7, 2011. The new buildings of the Council of Ministers and the office of the prime minister can be seen in the background.

The upheaval in Phnom Penh is one of the subjects of the forthcoming photography book Transitioning Cambodia, a collaboration between photojournalist Nicolas Axelrod, journalist Denise Hruby and designer Fani Llaurado. The book covers modern development in Cambodia and the effects on its society and landscape.

"For the hundreds of families that were violently evicted from their homes in the city center, development meant that they were relocated to barren plots of land. Schools, health-care centers, markets or any income opportunity were out of reach," Hruby writes in an article about the book for the Asian Correspondent. "The ones who fought for their land were violently suppressed, driven out of their homes with tear gas and water canons."

Axelrod has been documenting the rapid pace of development in Cambodia and its impact on the country since 2008. After covering the situation in Boeung Kak, he started photographing other Cambodian communities facing eviction, as well as the emerging middle class who moved in to take their place.

"It’s a phase of Cambodia that we will never see again," Axelrod told Voice of America Khmer. "It’s impressive how quickly the middle class has grown and there is so much more wealth than before. But what worries me and what I am scared of is that a lot of people have been left out in this change," he said.

Take a look at a selection of Axelrod's work below, and go to the Transitioning Cambodia crowdfunding campaign to support the book.


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A worker dismantles a house on Boeung Kak, Phnom Penh, on Aug. 23, 2010. Residents had the option of accepting 8,500 dollars in compensation or receive 500 dollars to relocate to housing provided by the developers on the outskirts of the capital.

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Vin Thy (center) and Chanty (center right) sit in front of their corrugated iron homes in the center of Phnom Penh on March 3, 2009. Their community is slated for a second eviction. The first one saw them move out of their homes in Borei Keila and relocated to a nearby community; their pending eviction will send them to live on the outskirts of the capital.

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An elderly resident of what is known as the 'Green Buildings' in Phnom Penh packs her family's belongings during an eviction on March 3, 2009. The community, made up mostly of families with at least one member affected by HIV, was relocated to corrugated iron sheds in the outskirts of Phnom Penh, with no access to jobs, running water or adequate health care.

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A child plays in muddy water that is spraying out of a broken pipe in Phnom Penh on March 27, 2009. The pipes are pumping sand into a natural lake in Borei Reakreay community. The community was evicted from their homes in mid-2009 to make way for residential complexes.

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Residents flee a bulldozer as it charges into the rubble of destroyed homes during the forced eviction of Dey Krahorm, Phnom Penh, on Jan. 24, 2009. The community of Dey Krahorm in central Phnom Penh was largely made up of artists and musicians. The eviction saw residents relocated to the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

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Camko City, an urban development project three kilometers north of central Phnom Penh, pictured on Jul. 27, 2012. The high-rise buildings and town houses in the satellite city were largely built on land reclaimed from natural lakes.

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Salespeople talk on the phone during an expo about Cambodia on Koh Pich, or Diamond Island, on March 30, 2014. Satellite cities have been developed all around Phnom Penh, offering kit houses in vast residential complexes. Koh Pich was once home to a community of farmers, called Sambok Chap, who were evicted in 2006.

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A group of women look at fried chicken on display at Aeon Mall on Jun. 30, 2014. Aeon Mall is Cambodia's first mega-mall. The inauguration was attended by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and groups of residents from various economic backgrounds were trucked in to attend the event.

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Kunthea and her son Panha (right) travel in a tuk-tuk with her cousin in central Phnom Penh on June 5, 2014. Kunthea is a single mother, working as a cleaner for four different expat families.

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Roza preforms at his friend Sam's birthday party in Phnom Penh on Nov. 30, 2013. Sam is the lead singer of 'No Forever,' the first post-hardcore metal band in Cambodia. Along with her band members, she is pushing alternative music in Cambodia.

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A model poses for a fashion shoot in a boutique hotel in Phnom Penh on Feb. 10, 2012. In 2009, fashion became a trendy investment in Cambodia, with high-end labels starting to become available in the capital. In 2011, Cambodia hosted its first annual fashion week.

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Monks get ready on day four of a 10-day human rights march into Phnom Penh on National Road 6, Kampong Thom, on Dec. 4, 2013. After Cambodia's general elections in July 2013, groups of monks took an active role in politics and promoting human rights.

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Radio station owner Mam Sonando (not pictured) and his supporters clash with riot police during a demonstration in Phnom Penh on Jan. 27, 2014, demanding the government expand his radio's reach and allow him to open a TV station. Television stations are largely controlled by the state, though foreign newspapers and some radio stations are allowed to operate independently.

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Crowds gather in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh to pay their respects to King Father Norodom Sihanouk on Oct. 21, 2012, after he passed away on Oct. 15. The death of the late King Father marked the turning of an era, as he had overseen Cambodia since the country's independence from France in 1953.

Here's What Really Happened To The Cars From 'Pimp My Ride'

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"Pimp My Ride" premiered on MTV in 2004 with a straightforward premise that was beautiful in its simplicity: Take a kid with a beat up car and have the rapper Xzibit orchestrate a massive and ridiculous upgrade. The theme song explained it all in just a few lines: "So you wanna be a player, but your wheels ain't fine / You gotta hit us up, to get a pimp't out ride."

But although the show operated within such a minimal framework, things were a bit more complicated behind the scenes. From cars that would break down in a matter of weeks to fat-shaming a contestant to one MTV employee apparently trying to convince another car owner to break up with his girlfriend to fit into the narrative, there was a lot more to the creation of this show than Xzibit simply saying, "Yo dawg."

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The Huffington Post spoke with three of the kids who got their cars pimped: Jake Glazier from Season 4 and Seth Martino and Justin Dearinger from Season 6. All three had previously done brief AMAs on Reddit about their time on the show. (It should be noted that each appeared on "Pimp My Ride" near the later half of its run.) And for a perspective from the other side of the camera, co-executive producer Larry Hochberg responded to a few of the claims made by contestants.

Although all of the people spoken to about "Pimp My Ride" ultimately had mostly positive experiences, the reality of what it took to get pimped ended up being even more strange than expected.

"I was very excited and naïve, so they could have told me unicorns were making me breakfast and I wouldn’t have questioned it," Martino said. Viewers of this aughts-spectacle ended up having the same experience ...



Sometimes additions to the cars were just for the show and would be taken out of the vehicle immediately after filming.

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In Justin Dearinger's Reddit AMA, he claimed that "they actually take out a lot of the stuff that they showed on TV," such as in his case, a "pop-up" champagne contraption and a "drive-in theater." Further explaining to HuffPost, Dearinger said that they removed the champagne part because the show didn't want to condone drinking and driving and the theater was removed for not being street safe.

According to Larry Hochberg, however, the removals were done with a specific purpose in mind. "Sometimes we did things for safety reasons that the kids on show interpreted as us 'taking away' some items," he said. He gave an example where 24-inch spinner rims on a 1977 Cutlass would look amazing for television, but "out of abundance of caution" they'd end up switching the spinners to "beautiful 20s for daily driving."

That said, it seems as if things were occasionally put into cars with no intention of them ever working in real life. For example, a robotic arm installed into Seth Martino's car was, as he put it, actually solely "controlled by commands that were entered into a laptop by the spiky haired guy off screen." In reality, it "was just a robotic arm with a bunch of wires hanging out of it."



And often additions -- such as the famous backseat TV screens -- simply wouldn't work.



Seth Martino's car seemed to be particularly low quality. "There were plenty of things wrong with it," he told HuffPost, including television screens never working again after filming. As Martino recalled, some things that didn't work on the car included the LED lights that were put in the seats. "They would get really hot if left on so I couldn't drive with them on," Martino said. "They took the gull-wing doors off because the pistons used to lift them kept them from putting seat belts in the back which was highly dangerous." A cotton candy machine they installed was fit into the trunk without leaving enough room for the dome top to keep the cotton candy strands "from flying all over the place."

Apparently, Mad Mike would try and help out when cars would have problems. MTV also had flatbed tow truck driver on call according to Larry Hochberg. "The people who had cars that appeared on the show would call me, and I would leave my desk, run to meet up with the flatbed tow truck and go help them," he said. Hochberg also said the cars would occasionally have wiring issues, which he would coordinate in getting back to the West Coast Customs or eventually the GAS shop. At least it seems for the serious issues, MTV attempted to reconcile problems. "I made sure that things were fixed on cars that needed fixing," Hochberg said. But speaking of the root of those more serious issues ...



Although the cars were visually pimped, the insides were seemingly given far less attention.

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From the onset here, it should be noted that Larry Hochberg says that "it's not accurate to say that we didn't work on the mechanics of the cars" and that the contestants on the show had a misconception of what had happened with their vehicles. As Hochberg explained to HuffPost, "Some of the cars were so old and rusted that they would have mechanical issues no matter how much work you put into them [and] the production team and the car shops worked their butts off to get parts for these cars." In one instance, MTV even sent someone all the way to a desert junkyard in Arizona just for a replacement hood on a car. A lot of these cars were almost spent and this wasn't a show about saving cars from breaking down, it was a show about pimping. That said, as mentioned before, the cars did break down.

Jake Glazier, who felt "there were a lot of problems" with the mechanics, sold his car after just about a month. He was then told by the new owner that it had already blown out. Glazier told one example of what he felt was shoddy work: the car needed a muffler, and so a fake exhaust pipe was installed to make it seem as if that's what the car was supposed to sound like, "even though it was just lack of a muffler."

"There wasn't much done under the hood in regards to the actual mechanics of the vehicle," according to Seth Martino. "For the most part, it needed a lot of work done to make it a functioning regular driver, which they did not do." Martino said he had a hard time even driving the car home. "They added a lot of extra weight but didn't adjust the suspension to compensate so I felt like I was in a boat, and every time I hit a bump the car would bottom out and the tires would scrape inside the wheel well." According to Martino, that the car would only run for about a month. Then he had to save up his own money to replace the engine.



This happened many years after the show -- and after extensive outside work -- but one car exploded into flames.



Five years after the show, with extensive and expensive outside work done by Dearinger himself, his pimped car burst into flames. Dearinger was driving home with his girlfriend when smoke started flooding the car. Then the two jumped out on the side of the road and within just moments the car was destroyed. You can watch the aftermath in the video above.



Although probably expected, those reveal shots of excitement were staged.



At the beginning of segments, Xzibit would be shown ringing the doorbell to a contestant's house to surprise them. These houses were often times not the contestants' homes; instead, each dwelling had been rented by MTV. Contestants were told to wait in the house and that at the door would either be someone holding something like a $100 Pep Boys gift certificate or it would be "ya boy Xzibit." So the surprise of Xzibit at the door was real, but in maybe a weirder way than you expected.

Less real was the famous freakouts of contestants jumping up and down when their pimped out car was revealed. All contestants spoken to ended up having to do multiple takes of their reaction with Justin Dearinger explaining, "I guess I didn't show enough enthusiasm.' The director specifically told him to "be more energetic and jump around and scream."

Jake Glazier had a bit of a different experience, remembering they had to coax him to go "ape shit" as his natural reaction to being genuinely excited is a more silent shock. His first real reaction to the car was just a quiet amazement where he said, "This is good" and they immediately yelled "re-do!" And then things got a bit weirder.

"I remember this very clearly, Big Dane, very big dude, he like puts his arm around my shoulder, kind of walks me around the shop for like 10 minutes and he's like, 'Listen, we put a lot of work into this ... we expect you to be a little more fucking enthusiastic,'" Glazier recalled. From there, Glazier went full over the top and his reaction (pictured above) even became a bit of a meme.



The show made it seem as if the cars were in the garage for a few days, but it was actually about half a year -- causing daily problems.

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From watching the show, you might have thought that the vehicles were in the shop for about a weekend or even a week or two and then were given back to their owners. Not the case at all. At least for the contestants spoken to by HuffPost, the cars would actually be in the garage for about six to seven months, which obviously caused some problems.

Seth Martino had a particularly frustrating time where he had to go through a "really small, shady company off the freeway by LAX because they were the only ones willing to rent to me because of my age." According to Martino, at first MTV only paid for a couple months and then he had to pay out of pocket. He held on to the receipts and then about two years after the show aired MTV reached out and finally reimbursed him. "It sucked having that rental car because they wouldn't take payments over the phone so once a month I had to drive all the way from West Covina to LAX just for them to swipe my card," Martino explained.



At least in these instances, the backstories and interests of the contestants were kind of made up.

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For Jake Glazier, MTV "pretty much just went with what I told them," but with exaggerations. Glazier had said that his grandmother smoked in the car. For the show, MTV threw an "extra few dozen cigarette butts in the car to maker her just look like a total disgusting person."

MTV apparently didn't really listen to Justin Dearinger when they asked about his favorite colors. He said he "hated red" and then the interior of his car ended up being almost entirely that color.

The damage of the cars in the pre-pimped stage was also exaggerated by the show. Dearinger remembered that they added aircraft remover to help with the paint removal and made the bumper "look like it was falling off."

But besides small exaggerations of likes and dislikes, MTV seems to have kind of messed with the contestants lives for the sake of the show...



MTV dumped bags of candy in one contestant's pre-pimped car and told him to act as if he always had it there in case he got hungry. He felt as if they were going out of their way to make fun of his size.



In Seth Martino's Reddit AMA, the contestant said, "I know im fat, but they went the extra mile to make me look extra fat by telling the world that I kept candy all over my seat and floor just in case I got hungry. Then gave me a cotton candy machine in my trunk." Further explaining the situation, Martino said, "I sat there and watched them dump out two bags of generic candy."

HuffPost asked Martino about the instance and he stressed again, "I did not have any candy all over my car. That was completely fabricated for the story."

Why didn't he speak up and say something about how MTV was treating him? "At the time, I didn't question anything because it was an exciting experience and I just kind of went with the flow," Martino said. He further felt as if this was all just a reason to install a cotton candy machine. "I know it is kind of mean, but I think they just wanted to put a cotton candy machine in a car and used the fat guy as the opportunity to do it."



A suggestion to another contestant: dump his girlfriend for the half hour show because the premise was becoming a "playa" through the pimped ride.



Jake Glazier remembered who he thought was one of the producers mentioning that breaking up with his girlfriend would be good for the show. As he explained to HuffPost, the apparent producer said something about how it would play better into the storyline of him having a "shitty car" and needing the pimping to no longer be lonely.

The MTV employee apparently suggested to "basically either get rid of her or have her not be a part of the program."

For what it's worth, Larry Hochberg said that he was not aware of either this instance of the fat-shaming story. "Why would we want a kid to break up with his girlfriend?" he asked. "How would that have helped the show?"



Despite everything though -- all of the contestants still enjoyed their time on the show and their pimped out cars, even if they caused much more attention from the cops.

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"I felt like a celebrity when people recognized me/the car," said Seth Martino who enjoyed driving the car once he "put the $1700 of work" into fixing the engine. He particularly like the sound system.

Jake Glazier only had the car for about a month as he sold it fairly quickly for about $18,000. He had originally bought the car for $500. But Glazier also regretted selling the car as the buyer -- MTX, the audio company whose product was in the car -- really just wanted their sound system back so it didn't fall into the hands of their competitors. He had a really good time taking his little brothers and sisters to school in the car because them and their friends were so excited.

After the show, Justin Dearinger actually joined a car club and put about $20,000 more of his own money into the car (possibly causing the aforementioned fiery end). The car would attract a lot of attention from cops however, with Dearinger saying he was "getting pulled over on a daily basis." Every time, Dearinger would have to explain the show "Pimp My Ride" to the cops and most of the time they "were really cool about it."



They would all happily go on the show again and had "no real complaints."

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"Honestly, I missed it for many years," Glazier said of the show, while adding he had no real complaints.

Dearinger, too, enjoyed himself and said he'd be happy to do it all again. "Before then I was just a kid, I was shy, I was really shy," he said. "And then it's sad to say, but being on the show gave me some confidence. And it made me the person I am today. I'm the most outgoing person you ever met." Dearinger said the pimping truly brought more attention to him from girls saying "a lot of girls noticed me more."

Of the three, it was Martino who had more mixed feelings about the experience. "The whole situation was definitely not what I hoped for, and there were times I wanted to give it all back because of how frustrating it was, but now I look back and laugh." Martino said. "I have this really cool story that only a handful of people can really say they experienced. That makes it all worth it."

As for Hochberg, he "loved working on the show." Hochberg further explained his memories saying, "There were so many great kids on the show, and it was fun to give the cars to all of them." Hochberg said one of his favorites was pimping an Ice Cream Truck, a creation that ended up being parodied by "The Simpsons."



BONUS: But what was hanging out with Xzibit actually like?

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"Xzibit is the greatest," said Hochberg who interacted more closely with the rapper than the contestants. "He's a talented rapper, and he is a natural host. He's cool, funny and always thinking on his feet. I really enjoyed working with him."

Although he wasn't quite sure as wasn't involved in the initial discussions, Hochberg believed Xzibit may have gotten the job because he already was a frequent customer at West Coast Customs.

The contestants didn't get to talk with Xzibit too much at all, but each felt he was chill, easygoing and fun to be around. Martino said Xzibit would say things like "time to smoke" and that he "never got the feeling he was talking about cigarettes" although he couldn't confirm otherwise.

"He did smell of [weed]. A lot of it," Dearinger said. "Someone did at least, I don't know who did, but I'm pretty sure it was ... you know."

But Jake Glazier had hands down the best interaction with Xzibit ...


Yo dawg, this might be the most insane story inside a story you'll ever hear...

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"I don't remember why he brought it up, but we were just kind of talking about what we were doing that weekend and he said he's going to go down to hell to kill the devil so he can make some Satan skin boots."

Now that sounds like an amazing idea for a spinoff.


Image of Xzibit: Getty. All others Justin Dearinger's Myspace unless otherwise noted.






Why Magritte was like a standup comedian

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It is 117 years since the birth of the Belgian painter René Magritte. The 117th anniversary is the most important for any surrealist, so we can expect events, exhibitions and retrospectives throughout Belgium this summer. Everyone will wear bowler hats and hold apples in front of their faces, tubas will be set ablaze, businessmen will rain from the sky, and the mountaintops of Belgium will transform into giant eagles.

OK, so that’s probably not going to happen. I’m not sure Belgium’s got the mountains for it. What definitely did happen, earlier this month, was a sale of nine Magritte paintings, as part of Christie’s annual Art of the Surreal evening in London. Magritte is currently a darling of the market, says Olivier Camu of Christie’s, who curated the sale. He’s an artist with universal appeal, “free from all cultural, historical, religious or national associations. A pure conceptual artist.” That said, it’s not always easy to put your finger on what those concepts are. In Souvenir de Voyage, a masked apple stares at us, eyelessly, from a deserted beach. It’s an unsettling image, one that doesn’t straightforwardly “mean” anything. Which didn’t stop it fetching £2.6m.

What's The Matter With Dystopia?

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This story originally appeared on Public Books

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February 1, 2015 — Dystopia is flourishing. In the process, it is becoming routine and losing its political power.

If current fiction is to be believed, postapocalyptic wastelands will in the not too distant future be as common as parking lots, deadly plagues as widespread as the flu, and cannibalism no more unusual than a visit to McDonald’s. Dozens of writers have delved into the genre over the last decade, from newcomers such as Edan Lepucki (California, 2014) to old hands like Cormac McCarthy (The Road, 2006). Young adult novels in the genre abound, from Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy (2008–2010) and Veronica Roth’s Divergent series (2011–2013) to Lydia Millet’s Pills and Starships (2014). The scenarios stretch from hurricanes that devastate New York City, as in Nathaniel Rich’s eerily prescient Odds Against Tomorrow (2013), to global infestations of genetically engineered species that drive humankind to the edge of starvation, as in Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl (2009). The fall season of 2014 added a host of new offerings in the genre, including David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, Michael Faber’s Book of Strange New Things, and Howard Jacobson’s J.

Dystopia as a literary genre by and large developed in the 20th century, in the shadow of world wars, totalitarianisms, genocides, and looming threats of nuclear war and environmental crisis -- with a few earlier exceptions such as Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville’s Le dernier homme (1805) and Mary Shelley’s The Last Man (1826). Over much of the 20th century, it functioned as a powerful tool of political criticism, from E. M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” (1909), Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We (1924), and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), John Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up (1972), and Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time (1976). From the crowd of more recent titles, Bacigalupi’s Windup Girl distinguishes itself as a text with similar visionary power, among other things because it looks at the collapse of the current world order from Bangkok rather than New York or London. But many other recent dystopias fall flat even as they continue to sell copies: Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam, Chang-rae Lee’s On Such a Full Sea, and Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway’s The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future point to some of the reasons why dystopias, far from unsettling their readers, have become familiar and comfortable. Their focus on details of everyday life makes survivalists hard to tell apart from hipsters, their portrayals of apocalypse tend to recycle well-known motifs from earlier science fiction, and their visions of the future serve mostly to reconfirm well-established views of the present.

Atwood’s MaddAddam concludes the trilogy that began with Oryx and Crake (2003) and continued with The Year of the Flood (2009). In the first volume, as you may remember, the superbly talented bioengineer nicknamed Crake wiped out most of humankind with a lab-designed virus and replaced it with a new species, the Crakers, made from an innovative combination of human, animal, and plant genes. Humanoid in appearance but childlike and genetically deprogrammed from any tendency toward violence, culture, or spirituality, the Crakers were supposed to inaugurate a better future. Crake’s childhood friend Jimmy, one of the few survivors of the global plague, took on the task of shepherding them into their new life by telling them carefully crafted stories of origins and explanations of their present surroundings, converting genocide into genesis.

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Industrial landscape, Thames Estuary, London (2012). Photograph by Scott Wylie / Flickr


Storytelling for the Crakers remains the focus of MaddAddam. “Tell them a happy story,” says one of the survivors to Toby, the woman who takes over Jimmy’s role in this novel. “Vague on the details.… I just hope that fucker Crake doesn’t start performing miracles from beyond the grave.” Another one quips in reply, “Like turning everything to diarrhea? … Oh, excuse me, he’s already done that. Is there any coffee?” Such ironic switches from apocalypse to everyday routine and back also structure the architecture of the novel, which delivers the story of the world’s future in the alternating idioms of bedtime stories (for the Crakers) and rough-tongued adventure stories studded with vulgarities (for the humans). From the vast panorama of lies, self-deception, hypocrisy, exploitation, and violence the stories outline, a happy ending of sorts emerges: the surviving humans cross-breed with the Crakers, conclude a peace treaty with the highly intelligent pigoons (a bio-engineered kind of pig with a human neocortex), and summarily execute the remaining villains. But the bulk of the multilayered stories in MaddAddam continue to be devoted to the grand narrative of how the world went to -- well, diarrhea.

Or, perhaps more to the point, how it came to be without coffee. For, if there is one thing that stands out about the deluge of dystopias over the last decade, it is their untiring attention to routines of everyday life. From McCarthy’s The Road to Lepucki’s California, the breakdown of energy, economy, consumption, health care, law enforcement, and many if not all forms of government leaves the characters adrift in wastelands where they have to forage for cans of beans and Oreo cookies amid looming threats of violence and cannibalism. They have to disinfect wounds with maggots, manufacture crutches from chair legs, and stitch together clothes from leftover bed sheets. The return to such hunter-gatherer ways of life is meant to indict, tragically or satirically, the destructiveness as well as the ultimate fragility of current socioeconomic systems, and to remind readers that commodities and services they take for granted may themselves be put at risk by “business as usual.”

IF THERE IS ONE THING THAT STANDS OUT ABOUT THE DELUGE OF DYSTOPIAS OVER THE LAST DECADE, IT IS THEIR UNTIRING ATTENTION TO ROUTINES OF EVERYDAY LIFE.

But such by now thoroughly familiar survivalist scenarios no longer seem particularly scary in Atwood’s novel, especially when they rely on the attractions of hipster DIY and maker culture in their attention to walking, traditional medicine, mushroom foraging, and roasting of local wild roots for coffee. Never mind that the clichéd scarcity economy here actually stands in tension with the fictional givens of Atwood’s world -- why would Oreos and clothes not be in abundant supply in her depopulated future? What really counts is that the characters, in their break from the corruptions of the past, no longer have to deal with things like crowded cities, cumbersome democracies, and complex technologies. Whatever the hardships of their lives may be, they are better off without the world of corporations, biotech, and the Internet -- even, apparently, at the price of genocide.

In its critique of this world, MaddAddam lapses into simplistic black-and-white moralism. Adam and Zeb’s father, the hypocritical “Rev” of the evangelical “Church of PetrOleum,” is a caricature of violence, sadism, and villainy, as are the “Painballers,” rapists and cannibals who are executed at the end. That those who are judged to have been “reduced to the reptilian brain” can be dispatched by simple majority vote, without such bothersome complications as a judiciary system, also casts a shadow on the scenario of interspecies reconciliation on which the novel ends: pigoons with human neocortical tissue are worthy of a peace treaty, while some humans are obviously not. For all of its indictments of the mayhem and death obsession of the old society, the new society of the MaddAddam trilogy relies on exclusion by violence, at both the micro- and macroscales. Since this remains the basic plotline, it is doubtful that the Crakers’ acquisition of their own storytelling and writing skills at the end promises any world better than the one whose demise the trilogy has staged.

What saves MaddAddam from drowning in its own pieties is Atwood’s ironic juxtaposition of stories whose content and style clash with each other. The Crakers’ childlike ignorance and innocence are undercut by the rough and often vulgar but realist portrayals of the world by Zeb, one of the survivors. Zeb’s macho rebelliousness is put into a new light by his brother Adam’s far more underhanded and sophisticated resistance to the dominant culture before the genocide. The arbitrariness of the human survivors’ minimal culture is highlighted by the Crakers’ incessant questions about habits and objects foreign to their own way of life. This lively juxtaposition of alternating perspectives and idioms sustains the reader’s interest at times when the novel’s familiar and in the end fairly simple way of judging contemporary society will not.

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Chang-rae Lee, a novelist better known for exploring issues of Asian American identity and experience, also presents a mash-up of well-known sci-fi themes and motifs in his novel On Such a Full Sea, but twists them in such a way that readers cannot in the end be sure whether they are reading a dystopia or a subtle parody of dystopian fiction. A young man, Reg, disappears from a settlement called B-Mor that specializes in fish farming; his pregnant 16-year-old girlfriend, Fan, goes on a journey to look for him. Her voyage unfolds across a clear-cut tripartite social geography. B-Mor, the former Baltimore, settled by Chinese immigrants and rebuilt by them and a few remaining African American “natives” after some unnamed collapse, is a stable, moderately prosperous labor settlement. Its aquaculture caters to the privileged “Charter villages” that very few B-Mor children will ever become part of. Beyond B-Mor and the Charter towns lie the “counties,” lawless areas of poverty, illness, and political disempowerment. Reg, it gradually emerges, is partly African American; he may be immune to the dreaded “C” diseases (presumably different forms of cancer, though the novel doesn’t name them), and may therefore have attracted the interest of government agencies or pharmaceutical corporations. Fan’s baby, for this reason, might have commercial value.

May, might: motivations, agency, and causality often remain elusive in this novel, even protagonist Fan’s. Beyond the obvious social allegory of the three different settlement types, the real power networks of Lee’s society never become fully visible, and neither do the major character’s motivations and goals. This deliberate flatness -- a sharp contrast with the detailed psychological profiles of characters in Lee’s earlier novels -- is complemented by Fan’s journey through a series of scenarios that seem designed to stage familiar dystopian motifs. She is run over and nursed back to health by a veterinarian turned human doctor, Quig, a former Charter citizen who lost his practice when live pets were outlawed because of fears of disease. But she and Quig are captured by a family of cannibals from whom they barely manage to escape. And captivity looms yet again when Fan, somewhat later, ends up in the mansion of a wealthy couple who keep seven young women with surgically altered eyes as “pets.” Vikram Upendra, another doctor, allows Fan to get away in his ambulance when two of the young women become seriously ill, and introduces her to another wealthy Charter family, Oliver, Betty, and their kids. As it turns out, Oliver is none other than Fan’s own brother Liwei, long ago promoted from B-Mor resident to Charter citizen. But when Liwei’s wealth declines and he discovers the possible commercial value of Fan’s unborn baby, she is once again in danger.

MOTIVATIONS, AGENCY, AND CAUSALITY OFTEN REMAIN ELUSIVE IN LEE’S NOVEL.

If this sounds like a plot built from an unholy mix of Charles Dickens, Cormac McCarthy, and Paolo Bacigalupi -- long-lost family members, itinerant cannibals, and omnipresent fear of disease -- that is the point. More precisely, it shows that what matters is not so much the plot itself, with its fairly familiar ingredients, as what Fan’s departure and journey mean to those who remain in B-Mor. Reg’s unexplained disappearance and Fan’s voluntary exit trigger surprise, dismay, self-examination, and gradually mounting signs of social unrest in an otherwise stagnant community: “Stability is all here in B-Mor; it’s what we ultimately produce, day by night by day, both what we grow for consumption and how we are organized in neighborhood teams… In this difficult era the most valuable commodity is the unfailing turn of the hours and how they retrieve for us the known harbor of yesterday.” But once Fan has left, financial setbacks and diminished chances for upward mobility lead to the appearance of graffiti, vandalism of public places, and other signs that the community is no longer as stable as it once seemed. Fan’s venture into the unknown territories beyond B-Mor turns into a symbol of a hope for social change so vague that it doesn’t quite know what else to attach itself to.

B-Mor is not only the place where the middle class of the future lives; it is also the voice of Lee’s story. On Such a Full Sea is narrated by a “we” that is by turns the voice of the B-Mor community as a whole, the voice of certain groups within the community (elders engaged in reflection or youths trailing Fan into a mall), and simply the voice of narrative omniscience. If the Internet in the novel is curiously parochial -- it seems to serve mostly for news and conversations within B-Mor, rarely as the vehicle of any communication to or from the world beyond -- the shifting narratorial “we” functions as an Internet that is at the same time omniscient and incapable of knowing anything that matters. The “we” narrator knows where Fan goes and what she does, but does not know what has become of Reg or where Fan will go at the end; it knows why Betty, Oliver’s wife, conspires with Upendra to liberate Fan, but not what Fan’s own motivations are; it traces the scattered manifestations of social unrest in B-Mor, but is incapable of projecting a vision of what new community it might produce.

In its shifts and turns, its convenient omniscience and inexplicable silences, this narrative voice is the true protagonist of the novel -- obsessed with Fan as the uncertain icon of a social revolution Lee doesn’t manage to envision in concrete terms. His allegorization of the hope for social change in this shifting, self-questioning, and uncertain collective voice is both the novel’s achievement and its shortfall: it generates some of the most original, beautifully lyrical, and gently satirical passages, but it ultimately blocks any persuasive social vision. In the end, however much Atwood’s clashing voices, by turns childlike, humorous, satirical, harsh, and vulgar, differ from Lee’s meditating, hesitant, searching collective voice, both of their portrayals of what is wrong with the present are too caught up in the dystopian clichés of the past to yield an innovative vision of the future.

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The dystopian imagination falls even flatter when the imaginary future is simply used to reinforce present-day perspectives, as is the case in Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway’s The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future, a short science fiction–style text that developed from an essay on climate change Oreskes originally wrote for the journal Daedalus. Collapse is a salient example of the migration of tropes and narratives strategies from science fiction to environmental nonfiction, which was already visible in books such as Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us (2007) and Bill McKibben’s Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (2010). It purports to be the report of a historian in the Second People’s Republic of China in 2393 who looks back at the long 21st century on the occasion of “the tercentenary of the end of Western culture.” This futuristic viewpoint does not emerge from the text itself but from the authors’ brief introduction:

Science fiction writers construct an imaginary future; historians attempt to reconstruct the past. Ultimately, both are seeking to understand the present. In this essay, we blend the two genres to imagine a future historian looking back on a past that is our present and (possible) future.


With no central characters or plot to speak of, Collapse offers little in the way of narrative, and as a companion piece to Oreskes and Conway’s earlier nonfiction book Merchants of Doubt (2010), it mostly confirms with historical hindsight current environmentalist critiques of climate change denialism and neoliberal economics. Climate scientists’ dire predictions, by the 24th century, have become realities: a temperature rise of 3.9 degrees Celsius, catastrophic heat waves and crop failures, social unrest, disintegration of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet and the Greenland Ice Sheet, an eight-meter sea level rise, and displacement of 20 percent of the global human population.

ORESKES AND CONWAY SEEM UNAWARE THAT SCIENTIFIC FACTS AND FIGURES IN DYSTOPIAN FICTION TEND TO OPERATE NOT ONLY OR MAINLY AS LITERAL TRUTHS, BUT RATHER AS SYMBOLS OF NARRATIVE URGENCY.

To this apocalyptic scenario Oreskes and Conway add a few more speculative ingredients: a geoengineering project that injects aerosols into the atmosphere starts in 2052, but is halted when it turns out that it stops monsoons in India and causes large-scale crop failures there; the outbreak of plague due to a new strain of the pest bacterium that kills half of humankind; and the genetic engineering of a lichenized fungus that rapidly consumes carbon dioxide. This fungus spreads rapidly around the globe and brings carbon dioxide levels back under control in the last decade of the 21st century -- an original but incongruous plot element, since it shifts the solution to climate change toward technology and away from the socioeconomic reforms the book is ostensibly meant to encourage.

In an interview appended to their short narrative, Oreskes and Conway indicate that in constructing their future scenario, they were influenced by Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars and Science in the Capital trilogies. Yet none of Robinson’s detailed explorations of cultural differences resonate in Collapse, let alone his pronounced utopianism: the 24th-century Chinese historian sounds very much like a left-wing American historian of the early 21st century.

That Collapse is uncompelling as a piece of fiction does not in principle diminish its value as an attempt to bring environmental science to a broad audience -- though it seems doubtful that its dry, wonkish prose serves this purpose well. Nor are Oreskes and Conway the first environmental scientists to use dystopian fiction as a narrative tool. In 1968, Paul Ehrlich used science fiction vignettes in The Population Bomb to drive home the human realities of his demographic projections, only to see himself fiercely attacked for scenarios that did not come true -- evidence, in the minds of his critics, that his scientific claims were also mistaken. Oreskes and Conway are aware of this pitfall. As they explain in the accompanying interview, “2093 felt close enough that it was scary, but not so close that the year would come and go within our lifetimes and people would say -- see you got that wrong!” Yet they seem unaware that scientific facts and figures in dystopian fiction tend to operate not only or mainly as literal truths, but rather as symbols of narrative urgency: the bigger the predicted disaster, the greater the call to social change. And even though they acknowledge the importance of economics rather than science in the climate change crisis, their book delivers little in the way of an alternative economic vision, and in the end falls back on biotechnology as the solution to the crisis.

Contemporary dystopias, as these examples show, aspire to unsettle the status quo, but by failing to outline a persuasive alternative, they end up reconfirming it. This weak cocktail of critique and complacency may explain the current popularity of “apocaholism,” as biologist Peter Kareiva has called it. Dystopian science fiction seems like a ready-made tool with which to engage current social and environmental crises -- but only because it so often recycles worn scenarios from the apocalypses of the past. At this point, postapocalyptic wastelands have themselves become too reassuringly familiar. Perhaps Michael Crow, the president of Arizona State University, was right in accusing writers of dystopian fiction a few years ago of being complicit in pervasive social pessimism, and calling on them for new utopian visions. When dystopia becomes routine, science fiction writers have new tasks cut out for them.

Ursula K. Heise is a professor in the Department of English and at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, and a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow. Her books include Chronoschisms: Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism (1997), Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global (2008), and Nach der Natur: Das Artensterben und die moderne Kultur (After Nature: Species Extinction and Modern Culture; 2010). She has just finished a book called “Where the Wild Things Used to Be: Narrative, Database, and Endangered Species.” Her website is www.uheise.net.

See more at Public Books here

Madonna Says Her Supposed Feud With Lady Gaga Is A Result Of Our 'Sexist Society'

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The media has had a field day assessing Madonna's alleged feud with Lady Gaga, which fermented when the latter's 2011 hit "Born This Way" faced accusations of ripping off "Express Yourself." In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Madonna dismisses the notion that the two singers are at odds, saying any conflict perpetuated beyond that one song is promoting sexism.

"I don't think she wants my crown," Madonna said. "We live in a world where people like to pit women against each other. And this is why I love the idea of embracing other females who are doing what I'm doing. The only time I ever criticized Lady Gaga was when I felt like she blatantly ripped off one of my songs. It's got nothing to do with 'she's taking my crown' or 'she's in some space of mine.' She has her thing. I do think she's a very talented singer and songwriter. It was just that one issue. And everybody's obviously run with it and turned it into a huge feud, which I think is really boring, quite frankly. And you know what? I don't care anymore. Here's the thing: one day everyone's going to shut up about it. You'll see! I have a plan."

Of course, this is hardly the only recent example of two female pop stars getting caught up in a supposed imbroglio. That narrative defined Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera's ascent to fame, and similar ones have surfaced regarding Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, Lorde and Selena Gomez, Perry and Taylor Swift and Bette Midler and Ariana Grande. Some accused the Madonna-Gaga battle of raging on late last year when a leaked demo from Madonna's forthcoming album, "Rebel Heart," contained the lyrics "You're a copycat, get back / I'm always on your mind." Madonna has taken multiple measures to squash the rumors since famously calling Gaga's music "reductive" in 2012, including appearing in a tongue-in-cheek "Saturday Night Live" sketch and posting a "Rebel Heart"-inspired photo of the younger singer on Instagram in December.

“It's still the one area where you can totally discriminate against somebody and talk shit," Madonna, 56, told Rolling Stone. "Because of their age. Only females, though. Not males. So in that respect we still live in a very sexist society."

For more from the interview, head to Rolling Stone.

Tanya Barfield's 'Bright Half Life' Traces A Lesbian Couple's Relationship Over 25 Years

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For her latest play, Tanya Barfield aimed for "a transcending love story" that would not only "embrace the dichotomies in life," but also break fresh ground in the world of queer theater.

"For many years, I wanted to write a romantic story," the Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright ("Blue Door") told The Huffington Post in an interview. "At the same time, I find the saccharine narratives that so often come when we think of love stories utterly boring. [I wanted to] speak honestly and truthfully about a relationship with all its highs and lows."

The result is "Bright Half Life," which has been deemed a "kaleidoscopic" examination of "love, skydiving and the infinite moments that make a life together." The off-Broadway play, which opens Feb. 25 at New York City Center Stage II, takes a non-linear look at the journey of an interracial lesbian couple, Erica (Rebecca Henderson) and Vicki (Rachael Holmes), as they navigate personal and societal pressures over 25 years.

In keeping with its contemporary tone, Erica and Vicki’s personal milestones align with the shifting climate on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues within the context of the play. For instance, they couple gets engaged just as the national debate over marriage equality hits an apex. Similarly, their relationship becomes strained as same-sex relationships become more socially accepted.

Take a look at the "Bright Half Life" cast and crew in rehearsal, then scroll down to keep reading:




The show also marks Barfield's fifth collaboration with director Leigh Silverman, who nabbed a Tony Award nomination for Broadway's "Violet," starring Sutton Foster, last season. The playwright and director, who are both openly gay, seem to have found a creative soul mate in one another, with each independently praising the other's "passion," "dedication" and "work ethic."

"Leigh knows how to get inside the soul of a story," Barfield said. "Just when I feel pushed to the limit, she makes me laugh and then I get back to work."

Added Silverman: "I feel better at the end of the day when we have tussled over something, maybe argued a little, maybe laughed a lot and collaborated and come up with something better than either of us would have [on our own]."

Barfield says the personal nature of "Bright Half Life" extends beyond its portrayal of a same-sex relationship, but she doesn't see the piece as being overtly political, at least in any traditional sense.

"As a biracial gay woman, the politics of simply being alive has been a part of my life since birth," she noted. "Existence within a larger social construct grace notes all of my work."

Saying that she was "proud to be among a small group" of playwrights who have produced stage dramas about lesbian relationships, she then added, "That said, 'Bright Half Life' isn't about being gay. It's about being alive and in love."

The Women's Project Theatre world premiere of "Bright Half Life" opens Feb. 25 at New York City Center Stage II. Head here for more details.

Meet The Teens Who Are Preserving Classical Music For Future Generations

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Simply having musical talent helps these teens succeed individually. When they come together, their love for music helps them achieve something more.

David Zhao, Shannon Cassady, Billy Wu, Nicole Po and Gene Pak are the directors of a nonprofit organization called Instruments for Change. Based in Seattle, the organization is devoted to promoting classical music and giving back to the musical community.

Since the young directors have been able to contribute to their community with their talent, they focus on encouraging other young people to make a difference using their own skills.

"In essence, our organization strives to send the message that the youth matter and that anyone can make a marked impact on this world by utilizing his or her talents," David said in an email to The Huffington Post.

instruments for change

For members of Instruments for Change, these talents vary. Some thrive off of performances, while others prefer music theory. Their instruments of choice range from jazz saxophone to classical piano. According to David, this mixture of music tastes and talents is what makes the organization stand out.

"Overall, I think that this diversity makes our organization so unique," he said.



Since launching in late 2013, Instruments for Change has put on local concerts in public venues as well as benefit concerts. After the March 2014 landslide in Oso, Wash., the organization helped raise more than $3,000 in relief funds.





Its future plans include a free music summer camp for youth from low-income households, but for now David wants the nonprofit to continue being a unifying factor in his community.

"Music also has the unique ability of bringing together communities as a whole, and Instruments for Change is attempting to harness this collective unity for society change."

H/T MTV

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How Jim O'Heir Wound Up Making Out With Aubrey Plaza On National TV

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The series finale of "Parks and Recreation" had many fans crying on Tuesday night, but an after-party to celebrate the ending on "Late Night With Seth Meyers" turned into a laugh riot thanks to Aubrey Plaza and Jim O'Heir. As Chris Pratt led the cast in a rendition of "5,000 Candles in the Wind," Plaza and O'Heir passionately kissed.

"It was funny, during one of the breaks she leaned over and said, 'Do you want to make out when we're doing the song?' I go, 'Yes!' Are you kidding?'" O'Heir told host Josh Zepps during an interview on HuffPost Live on Wednesday. "You know, I learned a lesson from Rob Lowe a couple years ago ... Rob said, 'When you're kissing a girl on stage, they have to call the shots. They decide how passionate it's going to be, they decide if a tongue is going to be involved.' So I very much learned that. So as we began, then I felt that tongue and was like, 'Let's go, baby. You've set that pace. Let's go. I got a monster in here. Welcome. Get a taste of this.' What a lucky girl."

O'Heir, of course, played the bumbling, forgettable Garry on "Parks," who ended up going by four names throughout the show's run as part of the running gag. O'Heir affirmed that "Parks" remains the outstanding achievement of his "journeyman" career.

As for he and Plaza, O'Heir joked that both of them know what's up.

"You know, this morning when she left my hotel room, it was a little awkward," O'Heir deadpanned. "But we're friends. It's fine. It's all good."

Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation here.

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After Letter Goes Viral, DC Comics Turns Girl Into Her Own Superhero

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In January, 11-year-old Rowan lamented the lack of female superheroes in a complaint letter to DC Comics which later went viral. The comic book publisher subsequently responded on Twitter with a promise of "more superhero fun for girls" to come.

To show their commitment to creating more strong female characters, DC Comics also reached out to the 11-year-old and sent her a basket of gifts -- including a sketch of Rowan as a superhero herself:




As her Today Show appearance makes clear, Rowan was thrilled with the "amazing" drawing of her superhero likeness and the exciting new "girl power" developments to follow.

Keep soaring, Rowan!



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Kanye West Debuts New Track, 'All Day,' During Brit Awards

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Kanye West performed a new track, "All Day," at the Brit Awards, the British equivalent to the Grammys, on Wednesday. The broadcast was available to live stream in the U.S. via YouTube and you can watch the whole thing below.

A few hours before the show, rumors spread that West would debut a new song off his upcoming album, and he delivered with a surprise performance. "All Day" has been circulating for months and a rough bootleg appeared online as early as last April, but this was the first time West performed the track in full for a live audience. Taylor Swift was a fan:




Listen to "All Day" below.





Here's the Brit Awards live stream.

A Brief Guide To The Basic Fundamentals Of Art Therapy

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The British Association of Art Therapists defines art therapy as "a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as its primary mode of communication." There are no limits on who can participate and no constrictions on what artistic supplies can be incorporated. The field, available to children and adults of all backgrounds and circumstances, opens up avenues of communication that extend beyond verbal language, exploring feelings that cannot be spoken.

Over the past few months, we've published a series of articles suggesting relaxation techniques -- inspired by the field of art therapy -- meant to help readers unwind, heal and express these unspoken feelings. We are not art therapists, and although the various artistic methods are based on therapy methods, art therapy can really only be defined as such when enacted in the presence of a certified art therapist. So, we reached out to one.

Specifically, we spoke to Dr. Sarah Deaver, the President of the American Art Therapy Association. We were curious to learn about the relatively young therapeutic field, one which remains somewhat unfamiliar to outsiders despite its recent rapid growth.

To the readers who responded to our previous posts, we're listening. We are shifting gears and exploring the world art of therapy through the lenses of certified professionals who do the job day in, day out. Today we are starting with the basics -- namely, What is art therapy? After laying the foundation, we will survey a range of individuals working in various distinct branches of the field, providing vivid stories of the still unfolding field. Read on to learn the basics, in theory and in practice, of the beautiful profession where art and psychology intersect.

art therapy

How would you define art therapy to someone who knows nothing about the field?

Art therapy is a mental health profession in which an art therapist facilitates the client's use of art media and the creative process to reach a number of treatment goals or personal goals such as exploring feelings, reconciling conflicts, improving self awareness, behavior management, social skills.

How did you get involved with the field?

I've been an art therapist for over 30 years. When I was first starting out I didn't realize there was even such a profession. I was taking post graduate art classes at a local university and said to my classmates that what I really wanted to do was work somehow with art and children who were struggling in school. Someone in my class said, "That's called art therapy. And there's a graduate program down the street." So I came here to Eastern Virginia Medical School, before they even had a master's degree. I got a certificate and later finished it off with a master's degree in art therapy. I've been in the field a very long time, and I've watched it grow in a number of ways.

What advantages does art therapy provide over other forms of therapy?

The biggest advantage is that art can express things that are not expressible verbally. That's a huge advantage for people who don't have the language to talk about what's inside of them, children or adults. In many ways it bypasses the kinds of defensive thinking that can get expressed in verbal therapy. Such as, "Oh, I didn't mean to say that," or, "What I really meant was…" Art therapy is a very rich avenue for self expression.

art therapy

What does an art therapy session generally look like?

Art therapists work in many different ways. We work in individual psychotherapy sessions, and we also work in ways that are more connected with community and open studios and things of that nature. So, in terms of a more traditional approach, say an individual art therapy session, a client or patient might come to the session with her own agenda. She may come to the session saying, "I'm having this, that or the other problem," and art therapists are trained to present appropriate art media to explore or develop whatever the problem is. Some art materials are very regressive and are not the right ones to select for certain individuals and certain issues. In the case that a certain individual comes to us with a certain agenda or problem to address, the art therapist can guide that session by suggesting certain materials that facilitate a process that leads to insight or discovery.

Sometimes a person will come to a session but not really know how to talk about what's on his mind or what he's experiencing internally. In those cases art therapists can present directives -- "I'd like to suggest you explore this with art materials." That sort of thing. To get the client moving toward their goals.

Can you give an example?

It's so variable from patient to patient. I could give an example of, say, a group therapy session. A bunch of adolescents in a group therapy setting. And this is the first time they're meeting as a group; they don't know each other very well. An art therapist could present a task to them to all work on together -- an appropriate one there could be a magazine collage about yourself. Go through the collage boxes and collect items what you think says something about yourself that you'd like to share with the group. And so the collage takes away the anxiety that many people have about displaying their artistic talents, or lack of artistic talents, in front of others. Everybody is kind of on an even playing field there.

Art therapists usually stockpile all kinds of interesting images in collage boxes rather than giving people magazines. The kids in the group would then select whatever they want to select and by choosing that they're able to control what they want to share in a group. At the end of the session we clean up and have a discussion. The kids then share whatever they want to share to the extent that they can with each other. The job of the art therapist would be to point out similarities, to get the kids to look at the collages as a whole, and have a look at some of the images that are perhaps in common, and begin to develop an ability to see how these images can say something about me. They begin then to get a sense of what communicating through imagery is about. It's not threatening, it's success-oriented. And it offers some amount of control.

Do you ever do close readings of the clients' work?

It's much more about the process. From experience, I know if you offered interpretations of the work, the adolescents probably wouldn't' want to come back. It's getting them to discover how to discover the process for themselves.

What would you say to someone who claims they're not artistic or don't have talent?

That it's about the process rather than the product. Everyone can be successful at art therapy because it's not about artistic skill. It's about healthy expression through all of these art materials we have here in the art therapy room.

art therapy

What are your thoughts on the relationship between art therapy and outsider art?

Art therapists are interested in outsider art, but outsider artists aren't too interested in art therapy, I don't think. They are extraordinarily expressive in their own way, but I think art therapists are interested in outsider art because it is so expressive and so interesting. But mostly an outsider artist would be so involved in her art process she wouldn't need to go see an art therapist.

Would you ever advise your clients to use these art therapy techniques in the home or on their own?

Many people can use artistic means for self-care, relaxation and de-stressing. That's not art therapy. Art therapy happens with an art therapist. We're all for self-expression and self-care; in particular, being reflective, tracking your own experience through journaling and artistic means. Those are skills we teach our students in graduate school. Those are great. But they truly aren't art therapy.

Is there anything else you think readers should know about the field?

Art therapy is a mental health profession. Art therapists work in many places. It used to be that art therapists worked primarily in psychiatric hospitals, but now they practice along a continuum from the traditional individual psychotherapy session to community art settings. We work in residential treatment centers and jails and prisons and detention centers, alternative schools, veteran's affairs, medical centers. A lot of art therapists do work with older adults at assisted living centers. We engage in private practice. Also, there's a lot of art therapy in medical settings, working with people who have been traumatized, such as war veterans. Working with people who have chronic pain or serious illness such as cancer. People dealing with the psychological aspects of having a serious medical diagnosis. There are many places where we work.

If someone is interested in seeing an art therapist, what's the first step?

There are a couple of ways to find an art therapist. On the American Art Therapy Association website there's an art therapy locator. Also the Art Therapy Credentials Board, which is now in the United States, the board that awards professional credentials to art therapists, they also have a "find an art therapist" option on their website.

Centuries Before Memes, There Were The LOLCats Of Japanese Woodprints

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Before the age of memedom -- before LOLcats and Lil Bub and Grumpy Cat and Henri, le Chat Noir -- there was ukiyo-e.

Typically, we associate the centuries-old Japanese art form with wood print masters like Katsushika Hokusai and Hishikawa Moronobu, who rendered everything from "Great Waves" to Edo-era erotica. But, as a recent exhibition has graciously pointed out, cats played a surprisingly prominent role in the work of Japan's illustrators in the 17th century on. Behold: "Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection."

cats
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861), Cats Suggested by the Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō, 1847. Color woodblock print; each sheet 14 5/8 x 10 inches. Courtesy Private Collection, New York.


The upcoming show, on view at the Japan Society Gallery in New York, will showcase 90 little-known prints that place cats, cats and more cats at the center of their frames. The survey begins with "The Tale of Genji" by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, an early 11th century print considered to be the longest-lasting image of a cat in Japanese literature. From there, the exhibition moves to the crux of the Edo period -- the 1600s to the 1800s -- to capture the ways in which artists anthropomorphized felines in domestic and exotic scenes, proving a fascination with the more devious species of household pets has origins in the pre(pre-pre-pre)-internet days.

Miwako Tezuka, director of the Japan Society Gallery, hand-picked the works in "Life of Cats," no doubt capitalizing on the digital age's preoccupation with watching cats play keyboards. While on the surface, the show is a cheeky way of penetrating mainstream audiences, goading the less fanatic of art admirers into a gallery space with the promise of truly vintage whiskers, the works give a glimpse into a real art world treasure: the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection, based in Tokyo. We can't fault them for that.

The exhibition includes five categories: cats and people, cats as people, cats versus people... you get the gist. (The last two are "Cats Transformed" and "Cats and Play.") A press release for the show boasts a historical perspective on the ways in which our Japanese ancestors interacted with cats on a daily basis, either mimicking their ways in kabuki theater or channeling cat-related activities into their erotic fantasies. Some visions are more mundane, with cats lounging, provoking play time, gazing out windows. Life as seen through Ukiyo-e is, maybe, not so removed from today.

" Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection" will be on view at Japan Society Gallery from Friday, March 13 to Sunday, June 7, 2015.

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