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Groom Photobombs Wife In A Seriously Adorable Wedding Shoot

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As far as photobombing wedding photos goes, it's not usually the groom doing it.

But when Waleed Abbasi and Sidra Zahid were posing for their wedding photos with Nuvoria Studios photographer Jason Arvaci in Washington, D.C., Abbasi decided to do something unexpected: He photobombed one of his bride's solo shots and shared the hilarious result on Reddit.

"The funny thing is she had no idea that this was going to happen," Abbasi wrote. "The photographer was taking her solo shots when I decided to do this ... Nobody knew that I was going to do this except me."

photobomb

The shot wound up making it to the front page of Reddit, with commenters complimenting his handmade khussa shoes and her stunning red lehenga.

Arvaci shared more photos of the gorgeous couple with The Huffington Post. Check them out below.



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UNICEF And Snapchat Join Together To Protect Children Affected By Boko Haram

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Social media is being used for social justice to protect children in West and Central Africa.

UNICEF has teamed up with Snapchat for a campaign to raise awareness for the hundreds of thousands of children that have fled the violence of Boko Haram. Members of UNICEF and professional Snapchat artists are producing images based off drawings of children living in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger, who have suffered the impact of the conflict between Boko Haram, military forces and civilian groups. Since 2009, at least 15,000 people in these areas have been killed by the militant group, and children have fallen victim to this violence. Through these drawings, children are able to express and relieve their emotions about the terror that has surrounded them.

"[The drawings show] us how deeply affected children are," said Marzia Vigliaroni, a UNICEF manager for a child-friendly space in Diffa, Niger, in the report Missing Childhoods. "We work with them individually; we try to help them forget the traumatizing events they have experienced and continue their lives like other children and forget what they had to live through."


By following the @Unicef handle on Snapchat, users can view the recreated drawings. Part of the initiative also asks the public to use the platform to illustrate what they would miss most, were they forced to leave their home, and share those images on social media using the hashtag #BringBackOurChildhood.

unicef snapchat

Snapchat is the chosen platform for this project because it is “a social platform where messages disappear, [and it highlights] the plight of the hundreds of thousands of children who are missing out on their childhoods as a result of the conflict,” a press release from UNICEF states.

The campaign comes a year after more than 200 girls were abducted by the militant group Boko Haram. A new report from UNICEF shares that a staggering 1.5 million people that have fled their homes due to violence -- 800,000 of them being children.

unicef snapchat

“Missing Childhoods” also includes scans of the drawings created by children to express their emotions about the attacks, which are the inspiration for #BringBackOurChildhood.

“The abduction of more than 200 girls in Chibok is only one of endless tragedies being replicated on an epic scale across Nigeria and the region,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa. “Scores of girls and boys have gone missing in Nigeria – abducted, recruited by armed groups, attacked, used as weapons, or forced to flee violence. They have the right to get their childhoods back.”

Currently, UNICEF is publishing a selection of the images on a campaign Tumblr.

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Meet The Art Student Who Spent 60 Hours On An Amazingly Realistic Beyoncé Portrait

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When Christopher Minafo decided to honor Beyoncé through art, he took on something bigger than himself -- literally.

The New York University art student painted Queen Bey on a canvas that's taller than he is. The painting took him more than 60 hours across a period of 14 days, and Christopher got it all on video.

“Since this was the biggest project I’ve taken on thus far I wanted to make sure I got the entire thing on video, so I could share my process with anyone that was curious,” he said in an email to The Huffington Post.



The artist just turned 20, but made the painting when he was 19. He called the project “a send away” for his teen years and chose the singer as his subject because of the impact she’s had on his life.

“The painting is really meant to be a thank-you for all the times Beyoncé’s music has made my day that much better,” he said.

Paint is not the only medium Christopher uses to display his talent. While he says painting is “probably the most exciting,” he enjoys going digital on tablets for intricate details and appreciates using pencils since they’re so portable. Using a variety of tools, he’s completed works of art that focus on other celebrities like Rihanna and Emma Watson.




Miniature #coloredpencil #drawing of Emma Watson #photorealism #new #like4like

A photo posted by Christopher Minafo (@thephotorealist) on





The celebrities Christopher chooses to spotlight with his art are inspirations to him because of their work ethic. Beyoncé is at the top of that list, which also includes Christina Aguilera and Ariana Grande. Though their expertise is in music, they’re dedicated to their art just like Christopher is dedicated to his.

“They have a kind of skill that takes a lot of practice to acquire. I really respect that.”

Check out some of Christopher’s work below (including his finished Beyoncé painting) and head over to his Instagram for more.







Pen sketch at work of @arianagrande #new #pen

A photo posted by Christopher Minafo (@thephotorealist) on




So freaking excited for @sarabareilles concert Saturday!!!!! #new #drawing #art #love

A photo posted by Christopher Minafo (@thephotorealist) on








H/T Seventeen

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A Comic For Anyone Who Is More Than A Little Freaked Out By Parenthood

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When Canadian illustrator Lindsay Ishihiro was halfway through her maternity leave, she started chronicling her adventures at home with her new baby in a "slice-of-life" comic series she calls "How Baby."

"How Baby" -- which initially appeared on Ishihiro's Tumblr -- covers the mom's day to day musings and real life experiences as she raises her now 18-month-old daughter, whom she refers to by the nickname Momo.

how baby

"I like to think that 'How Baby' provides a counterpoint to the sweetly saccharine tone of popular parenting blogs, where every story -- even the ones about how parenting is hard -- ends with an uplifting affirmation about how being a parent is the best thing that ever happened to them," Ishihiro told The Huffington Post. "I'm happy for those people, but that's not the only story out there."

The mom hopes that her comic can be "something for everyone else," she said. "People who love their children too, but who also often feel overwhelmed, scared, sad, antagonized, or just plain bored by ... well, parenthood in general, but specifically motherhood, and all the cultural baggage that comes along with it."

For Ishihiro, that cultural baggage includes the challenges she faces as a working mother maintaining a freelance career in the arts. Her comic "Damned If You Do" covers this topic and arose from her frustration with trying to find childcare so that she could get more work done. After hearing a few "passive aggressive comments" from friends and acquaintances about how often she was looking for someone to watch Momo, the mom created this particular strip.

how baby

"It felt like I was stuck between two equally unfair ideals: the person who effortlessly sails through motherhood without letting it affect her career or social life, and the person who selflessly devotes her whole life to her children," Ishihiro said.

The artist is the first to admit that her transition into motherhood was difficult. "I chafed under the yoke as I tried to reconcile my identities as an artist, a gamer, and a feminist with this often overwhelming, entirely new identity that I'd been told would completely change my life," she said.

But Ishihiro has been able to channel her conflicting feelings into her art. "How Baby" shows how all those identities are still a part of her. "I want to tell stories for people who are struggling the same way."

Keep scrolling or go to the How Baby website to see Lindsay Ishihiro's funny, difficult, and relatable adventures in parenting. To support her work as an illustrator, visit her profile on Patreon.



H/T Reddit



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This Illustrator Perfectly Captures The Struggle Of Being A Millennial

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Adam Ellis gets it. Being a millennial is hard.

Is it socially acceptable to be an introvert? What happens when a delivery person/your best friend judges your Seamless order? Do you really have to eat kale?

Ellis is an illustrator and animator for BuzzFeed Distributed and has uploaded some incredible comics to Reddit chronicling the battle of being a normal 20-something.

Take a look at a few of them below, and check out BuzzFeed BFF's social channels to see more of Ellis' everyday struggles.

Kids Today Will Never Know The Struggle




What You End Up Doing Every. Single. Night.




The Ideal Day




What Happens When You Order Too Much Food




The Perfect Salad Recipe




The Perils Of Being An Introvert At A Party




Every Single Time You Make Tea




Every Single Time You Do Dishes




Biggest Pet Peeve




Maybe it'd be better if we could just all be cats...





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Hillary Probably Wouldn't Want You To See 'Clinton! The Musical'

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Off Broadway plays can get really weird. Like, watermelon-being-smashed-to-bits-on-stage weird. So when the basic Broadway lineup starts to feel tired, it can be difficult to navigate theater options that extend beyond seeing "Wicked" for the fourth time. Here to help you avoid being needlessly splattered with fresh fruit, we bring you the April edition of our monthly roundup of five Off and Off Off Broadway shows.

"Clinton! The Musical"
Great For: Bottoms For Hillary, Linda Tripp

clinton

"Clinton The Musical" relives the the Clinton administration with a sense of humor that has metastasized in the almost two decades since our president did not have sex with that woman. The well-trod story is told through Hillary and two Bills -- one self-serious, the other a sax-playing sex savant -- struggling to keep control of the presidency against the machinations of a maniacal Kenneth Starr. The joke about Ken having a gay crush on Bill hasn't changed much since 1998, so "Clinton!" escalates it by having him strip down into BDSM gear adorned with glittering red stars, after singing, "when you wish upon Ken Starr."

All the major players are here as caricatures. Newt Gingrich is dopey and plus-sized, his lips glued to the straw of a Big Gulp. Monica is horny and naive -- gracing us with multiple renditions of her solo song: "I'm Fucking The Fucking President." It's Hillary who gets the most tame satirical treatment, her ambition summed up in visions that she will someday run for president (a premonition which is vaguely interesting to watch following her announcement).

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The most cutting look comes not from the dynamics of the sex scandal, but the media swooping in and out of White Water and the impeachment trial as a sort of Greek chorus. There's an entire song devoted to journalists not being entirely sure what White Water even is, and it's the most cutting aspect of the show.

Ultimately, behind the doors of an Oval Office is a man (or, here, two men) fumbling to be effective between blow jobs, while the woman really running the show is reduced to an easily-duped pantsuit in the hands of the media, flinging snippets of half-accurate information out to the public. It's in this pocket of representation "Clinton!" picks up on the bumbling absurdity of the D.C. Armando Ianucci paints with "Veep." Only here it's set to music.

In performances at New World Stages.

"Vintage Live"
Great For: Apple fanboys who enjoy a good Billy Joel song

vintage

"Vintage Live" finds its home in Le Qube -- an 18,000-square-foot pop-up theater on the piers off Hell's Kitchen. The show is request-based. But instead of yelling out "Play 'Free Bird'!" over whiskey sours, each song selection is based off an algorithm that takes into account quizzes filled out by audience members before the show, as well as digital messages texted to the band during the performance.

Basically, "Vintage" is a makeshift piano bar that has acquired a fancy iPad. Although, the whole thing is pretty fun. And it's impressive to watch piano man Gregory Charles conduct an entire band through each song using what his reps call "a mix of sign language and baseball signals." Toward the end of the show, Charles reverts to a paper raffle for a challenge round: if you request a song he can't play, Charles and the band come to your house for a private performance. (Please ensure your 18,000-square-foot pop-up theater permits are ready for inspection.)

In performances until May 2 at Le Qube.

"Revenge Of The Popinjay"
Great For: Beyoncè devotees who don't mind gratuitous fake blood

revenge

"Revenge of the Popinjay" is a satirical play with rap musical elements about a serial killer targeting straight people. It's a sort of modern day "American Psycho" enacted by a young actor with the comedic chops of a '90s (and still thirsty) Ben Stiller. Basically, replace Phil Collins with Beyoncé and misogyny with homophobia and you have something resembling this show. That all sounds a bit overly high-concept and experimental (because it is), but the two-man team behind "Revenge" (called Animal Parts) -- along with their minimalist set -- make it work, where a bigger cast and high production value would likely undermine the effectiveness of the dark comedy.

In performances until April 25 at Dixon Place.

"Broken"
Great For: High school students who missed the PSA on bullying and school violence

broken

"Broken" takes place in a state-run prison and depicts a therapy session with an inmate that enfolds in real time. Sometimes too-fast paced dialogue moves doctor and patient through the details of the crime that put Kevin McFadden behind bars: murdering 17 people in a mall. The character is equipped with an overwhelming sense of anger that he hasn't gotten what he deserved -- no girls wanted to go out with him, his writing career never took off. So, despite having a mom that loved him and being just 25 years old, he set off to make others feel his pain. The psychological insights are less than insightful. Perhaps unintentionally, what peels back is a portrait of male entitlement that is frustrating à la an episode of "Law & Order" begrudgingly written by David Mamet.

"Broken" is infuriating and difficult to sit through. But maybe that's the point.

In performances until April 26 at Shelter Studios Theaters.

Dagger & HELLO Musical Improv
Great For: Millennials who can't afford to see "Book of Mormon" again

hello

Musical improv by the Dagger and HELLO troupes seems deceptively easy. In a double-header show, the two put on back-to-back musicals based on an initial suggestion from the audience. At the mercy of a piano player, they start off with three scenes that launch into songs with little warning. These are typically structured with one scene that introduces the protagonist, one that introduces the antagonist and an X-factor scene to be weaved into the narrative as a subplot. Working from that formula and their singing voices (ranging from decent to impressive) alone, they put on easily the best low-budget musical you will ever pay $10 to see. (Note: It helps to grab a drink at the bar beforehand.)

In performances at the People's Improv Theater.

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Kelsey Higley's 'Manipulated' Shows What It Would Be Like If You Could Mold Your Body Like Clay

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A new video shows one way to make yourself beautiful -- mold your body as though you are made of clay.

Kelsey Higley, a student of Media Art at the University of Oklahoma, created a stop-motion video featuring 126 digitally-altered photos of her body. The result is an eerie video in which Higley appears to reshape herself to fit various ideals of beauty by slimming down her waist and hips, making her breasts bigger and widening her eyes.

Higley's video is part of a larger project called "Manipulated," which includes portraits of women who have been digitally altered to reflect beauty ideals in different time periods.

"The self-portrait video loop works in conjunction with these photographs to depict my own struggle with beauty and how my perceptions change throughout a much shorter period of time," Higley wrote in her project statement.

Higley said that working on the project has helped her love her own body and be more critical of messages she receives about what beautiful really is.

“It felt very therapeutic editing each photo as my appearance became unrecognizable and less human with every click,” Higley told HelloGiggles. “This project reminds me that these things I categorize as my flaws are what makes me human. And I love that.”

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Etch-a-Sketch Artist Recreates Iconic Obama Image for 4/20 (VIDEO)

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April 20th is upon us once again. To celebrate cannabis culture’s “high-holiday” we had Etch-a-Sketch artist Bryan Madden recreate the iconic image of a puffing future President Barack Obama.

While Obama has openly discussed his pot use on several occasions -- “I inhaled frequently, that was the point!" -- the photographer who shot the image during Obama’s freshman year of college claims it is not a joint but rather from a “pack of cigarettes” Obama brought to the shoot.

Yeah, sure, we totally believe you.

Recreating the photo with the classic art toy took Madden three attempts over the course of four hours. A tedious task to be sure, but fortunately Madden often has a little 4/20-appropriate assistance. “[Smoking pot] is helpful because Etch A Sketching is a very tedious operation so anything to make it a little more enjoyable is a benefit” he explains. “Most artists, I think, probably smoke pot. It does, you know, enhance creativity with a lot of people.”

While Madden is pro-legalization of marijuana, his portrait subject has not fully come around on the issue. During a interview with Vice, Obama said that legalization “shouldn’t be young people’s biggest priority.” Instead the President encouraged America’s youth to make causes like climate change and jobs their primary concern.

For his part, Madden understands that making big changes to policy is not always easy. His project is about seeing the President from a different perspective, not taking him to task for his stance on pot.

“I feel the photo depicts young Obama as a cool guy and makes him relatable. I'd sooner vote for that guy than an antiquated, Prohibition-era type,” he told The Huffington Post. "Legalization is going to happen, but I don't put it on Obama to make it happen now, regardless of his stance on the issue. He has important things to do and I can't imagine this topic is at the top of his list.”

But should the opportunity ever arise, Madden would be more than happy to take a toke with the Commander In Chief.

“I would happily smoke a joint with any president,” the artist said. “Any president that’s not an evil dictator or runs a suppressive regime.”

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This New Play Brings Pennsylvania's School Funding Crisis To Life

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Playwright Arden Kass doesn't just want you to know the statistics regarding school funding disparities in Pennsylvania -- that the state's poorest schools receive 33 percent less in state and local funding per pupil than the richest schools. She wants you to feel them.

"When you are presented with news reporting and statistics and graphics, it's very easy to distance yourself from the problems in the public schools if you happen to be a Pennsylvania resident who doesn’t have kids exactly in a public school," said Kass, who currently has one child in the Philadelphia public school system and another who recently graduated. “But what theater can do is humanize things and intellectualize things and get to people’s hearts.”

Kass is the co-creator of “School Play,” which showcases a series of monologues from characters who have been hurt by the slashing of school budgets. Their stories are based on interviews with more than 100 individuals, including teachers, students and parents

The production -- which Kass developed with fellow playwright Seth Bauer and director Edward Sobel -- made its debut in a Philadelphia theater in early April. “School Play” ran for only a few nights in Philly, but it is the hope of Kass and her collaborators that people around the country will use the script to promote school funding in their own communities. The goal is 20 performances of the play between now and June.

Scroll down to listen to audio from “School Play.”

The idea for the play grew out of Kass' volunteer work in 2013 with Public Citizens for Children and Youth, an advocacy group that ultimately funded the development of the show. Kass was helping PCCY in its effort to deliver letters from schoolchildren to state lawmakers. The letters contained pleas to increase school funding.

school play
Jaylene Clark Owens and Bi Jean Ngo perform in "School Play." (Photo courtesy of Anthony Hopkins/PCCY)


“I found the kids' voices so powerful. I really couldn’t stop thinking about them,” said Kass.

When she mentioned her idea for the play, PCCY jumped at the opportunity to get involved.

“We were looking for a way to bring the school funding crisis happening in Pennsylvania and also across the country into the homes and communities in every part of this state,” said Donna Cooper, executive director of PCCY. “We expose problems, but I was looking for a vehicle that would get out of people’s heads and get into their hearts.”

Below are "School Play" monologues recorded by two of the actresses for The Huffington Post. In the first, actress Jaylene Clark Owens speaks as character Marlene Goebich, a drama teacher.



Do I feel appreciated by the kids? Yes. By the larger district? Not at all, no. I'm a cog in the machine. If I fell over, then some other cog would replace me. Like, I can't imagine that the superintendent wakes up at night and worries that I have paper or I have to run off a test. I'm sure he doesn't worry. Or he doesn't worry like, like -- we're in a costume room, I could walk around the costume room, and what I've paid for, most of what is in this room because that's where it comes from. And did we make enough money to reimburse me? Well, if we do, we do, and if we don't, whatever, it's what it is.

I have three jobs. My other job is I'm a waitress/bartender for private party service and -- I'm embarrassed. And the other one is I do taxes in the offseason. And oh, and then my fourth job I guess like -- in the summer it depends, some years I'm, um, a delivery driver for Primo's Hoagies. Sometimes I'm a waitress. Depends.

I have a doctorate in education. Education and with a specialty in creativity and theater. And I have four jobs to support my job. So I'm single. I spend five, six thousand dollars a year, that's like cash for supplies. Yeah. Can you imagine telling a lawyer, "Bring your own paper?"


In the next monologue, actress Bi Jean Ngo plays a school guidance counselor named Melana Sims.



A family came to me last year. They were new to the area. From New York. And when I met with them, as we meet with all the new students, something just told me to ask them what was bringing them here. So I started to ask questions, and they started telling me that basically they came here with nothing. And when some people say we have nothing, it's interpreted like they might not have everything they need. And sometimes it literally means nothing.

So I asked where they were staying, and they were staying in one of our housing projects. And I told them, I said, well, I'll gather some stuff up and I can drop it off, I live five minutes away. And when I got there that night, they were sitting on the linoleum floor in the projects. You know, there are a lot of times people think they have it rough or they think that they're poor, but that, in fact, is poor -- when you're sitting on a bare floor waiting for your counselor to come with a pot so you can cook the food that you just got off your food stamps. So I went into panic mode and gathered up a bunch of stuff from people. At least got them some bedding and pillows and things like that.

It's, it's discouraging sometimes whenever people will criticize or critique how we do on standardized testing versus some of the other districts. But our demographics are very different. But we're making gains, we're always making gains. Sometimes it's just not portrayed in such a way where we're at the level that we need to be, but we are getting there. We're making positive ... We’re taking steps to, to improve upon that, and we do, you know, make gains.


Below, Owens speaks as character Doug Herman, a high school teacher.



There was one student -- he was in 10th grade at the time. He really struggled, like connecting with his peers. He didn’t know how to just be a kid, and it was because of the experiences he was having outside of school. He was living a very rough life. There were some moments when he felt like he was kinda homeless. Other times he just witnessed stuff -- in his real day-to-day life, where people that he cared about got killed, and then he’d come to school and it really wasn’t a safe place. There were a couple of places it was safe. He’d come to my classroom, we’d have lunch.

One day he came to talk to me on a Friday -- we always had a staff meeting on Friday afternoons -- he came to me right at the end of the school day. And I was like, “Hey, man, I gotta go to the meeting.” And then I heard all this chaos out in the hallway -- like stuff like smashing and breaking. And I found him like just losing his mind. I tried to calm him down and he turned on me. Like, he started to attack me. He was just in a blind rage, and I calmed him down, I got him to relax.

But then I recognized that we were about to go into a long weekend. And he was now going to have like three or four days of not having this safe place to go to and not knowing where he was going to sleep and if he was going to have food -- and so he had this like really crazy moment where he just lost his cool completely. And there was something in me that was like, We Need To Put This Kid On The Stage. I saw -- the emotions that I saw coming out of that child in this moment, I was like, if we can channel that and show him how to use that.

We started a drama program. And by the end of the year, he went from that kid who everyone avoided, and he became like the star of the school. He was amazing on stage. He graduated, he went to college, he went into acting. He still looks back with kind eyes. He knew if he didn’t have that after-school program and that summer program, that he envisioned a very different future. He just thought he was going to jail.

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15 Color-Drenched Photos That Will Make You Taste The Rainbow

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"Sunset is still my favorite color, and rainbow is second," young poet Mattie J.T. Stepanek once said. We know how he feels. It's not easy to pick a single hue from the spectrum when drinking them all up at once is so very delicious.

Luckily, today, we don't have to choose. We're ogling a selection of color-happy photos from Instagram's #WHPcolorplay challenge, which invites brazen photographers to upload and hashtag their favorite moments of rainbow glory. From dripping paint to fresh fruits to sushi rolls to tropical frogs, the following subjects reveal that color isn't just in a box of crayons, it's all around us.

A photo posted by skylar bartlett (@skyzzle) on












A photo posted by Alisha Johns (@alishylishy) on











A photo posted by Evan Sheehan (@evantsheehan) on






A photo posted by Guangzhou (@itwhy) on
















A photo posted by Ali Maudoodi (@alimaudoodi) on











A photo posted by skylar bartlett (@skyzzle) on











A photo posted by Camila (@camitalpone) on






A photo posted by Garima (@garima259) on










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9 Tidbits From George Lucas' Chat With Stephen Colbert At The Tribeca Film Festival

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The chance to see George Lucas discuss his career ranked fairly high in our Tribeca Film Festival priorities, especially with Stephen Colbert conducting the interview. Apparently we weren't alone: The festival sold out one of its largest flagship auditoriums for Friday's hour-long panel, part of the Tribeca Talks series, and spectators lined up with posters and DVDs for the "Star Wars" overlord to autograph. Inside, it took no time at all to realize there is very little the 70-year-old Lucas hasn't already been asked about his well-documented career.

Even an adept moderator (and "Star Wars" obsessive) like Colbert couldn't squeeze out many fresh tidbits from the talkative director, though he did display his signature wit throughout, particularly when Lucas sneezed and Colbert responded by saying, "May The Force be with you." These guys! So silly!

But even the nerdiest of "Star Wars" fans can stand to revisit morsels about the iconic franchise -- and hey, maybe there's even something in here that you didn't already know. Here are nine quickies from Friday's conversation:

1. George Lucas is not a fan of being a celebrity. He's happy to wear sneakers and avoid Hollywood galas, which has prompted some in the industry to liken him to the reclusive Howard Hughes.

2. There's at least one downside to directing "Star Wars." "The one thing I regret about doing 'Star Wars' is I never got to see it," Lucas said when asked whether he's anticipating "The Force Awakens," which opens in December. "I never got that thrill."

3. "American Graffiti" started as a dare from Francis Ford Coppola. The duo became pals after Lucas won a scholarship in film school that allowed him to work on a Warner Bros. project of his choosing. He selected "Finian's Rainbow," Coppola's 1968 musical starring Fred Astaire and Petula Clark. (Coppola was 29 when "Rainbow" opened; Lucas was 24.)

In 1969, the directors opened their own studio, American Zoetrope, which released Lucas' infamous 1971 sci-fi flop "THX 1138." (It was a joint venture with Warner Bros., which "told Francis Ford Coppola and me, ‘We want our money back,'" Lucas said. In order to pay off that $350,000, Coppola made a little film called "The Godfather.") Coppola then told Lucas to lay off the experimental "robot" stuff, daring him to write a comedy instead. Confident he could do it, Lucas channeled his California youth to write "American Graffiti," which went on to earn five Oscar nominations and become 1973's third-highest grossing movie across North America.

4. Lucas is fully aware of what you think about his most recent "Star Wars" scripts. "I'm notorious for wooden dialogue," Lucas said, presumably referring to criticism that defined the franchise's second trilogy. Frankly, he doesn't care, largely because dialogue, in his mind, is secondary to visuals and sound. In keeping, he considers "Star Wars" a silent film that generates meaning from its movement. "You could be 2 years old and not understand what anyone’s saying, but still understand the movie," he said.

5. The only one of Lucas' director friends who supported "Star Wars" was Steven Spielberg. Lucas' posse includes Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese, but Spielberg was the only one who said "Star Wars" would be a hit after Lucas screened it for his buddies. De Palma, who released "Carrie" a year before 1977's "A New Hope" opened, instead asked, "What the hell is The Force?"

6. Lucas learned of the "Star Wars" momentum from a news report. Alan Ladd Jr. was the producer who gave "Star Wars" the green light, and he remained Lucas' only supporter when 20th Century Fox wanted to nix production due to escalating budgets and location snafus. Lucas insisted Ladd wait a few weeks after "A New Hope" opened to gauge its performance, once the movie could transcend the fanatics who will show up for any sci-fi flick. A week after the movie hit theaters, Lucas was on vacation in Hawaii when he saw a CBS news story showcasing the fandom that had already erupted -- it was then that he grasped its proliferating impact.

7. But Lucas never wanted to make Hollywood blockbusters. He was interested in experimental films, à la "THX 1138." Today, he says he's retired and tinkering around with the type of movies that studios didn't want him to make. "They’ll probably never get released,” he joked. “I’m just screwing around in my garage.” He can afford to screw around because he worked to secure "Star Wars" sequel rights from 20th Century Fox after "A New Hope" became a hit. “That’s how I got to be rich," he said, smiling.

8. As of Friday, Lucas hadn't seen the latest "Force Awakens" trailer. And he has no idea what the new movie is about, despite receiving a "creative consultant" credit. (He didn't watch the first teaser until almost two months after it debuted.) "I'm excited, I have no idea what they're doing," he said. The original, however, remains a family saga -- his intent was to make a movie about "the father, the children, the grandchildren.”

9. Lucas thinks Colbert should replace Jon Stewart. "Don't you think the perfect choice to replace that Jon Stewart fella would have been you? And now you're working at 'Late Show,' where nobody sees you," Lucas quipped, to which Colbert responded by saying that he was previously on at 11:30 p.m. and will now be on at 11:35. He never wanted to take Stewart's gig because he would forever live "underneath his shadow."

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Stunning Photos Show Italy Like You've Never Seen It Before

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A new exhibition in Milan showcases some absolutely stunning views of Italy, depicting the tourist mecca as we’ve never seen it before.

Encompassing some 70 years of Italy’s history and featuring the work of dozens of foreign and local photographers, “Italy Inside Out” offers a chance to examine the people, events and off-the-beaten-path locations that make up Italy.

From a stunning panorama of Capri to the piercing gaze of a schoolgirl in Palermo, let these photographs take you on a journey to Italy that no tour package can offer--one that takes an intimate glimpse into a country’s soul.




A version of this post appeared on HuffPost Italy.

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ASSEMBLAGE: Meet Queer Artist And Cultural Visionary Love Bailey

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“ASSEMBLAGE“ is an inquiry into the different ways artists utilize performance and technology to explore and express different notions of identity. An effort to push forward marginalized artists with a focus on people of color, non-western nationalities and those along the queer/trans spectrum, “ASSEMBLAGE” provides a platform for analysis of how art and performance intersect with the lives of these individuals who are visibly and openly existing in the digital age. This is the fourth installment.

Love Bailey is a queer artist, designer, performer and cultural visionary with heavy ties to the worlds of fashion and music. Having worked with the likes of Fiona Apple, Rihanna, Azealia Banks and Britney Spears, Love Bailey's career recently brought the artist into a new realm of experience that focuses heavily on bringing like-minded artists and creatives together in a new practice in queer community culture: the formation of an artist community on a ranch outside of Los Angeles.

Love Bailey's identity and passion for creative exploration finds its roots in his relationship with his showgirl grandmother, Betty Bailey, calling her his guiding light -- his source of energy that gave birth to his eccentricities. "Dressing for pleasure and channeling characters was part of our daily routine," Love Bailey explained. "Boundaries, rules, and judgement had no place in our lives as we fetishized about outrageously high heels, painted ourselves with every shade of lipstick, and danced to our own beat of unconditional love."

Love Bailey followed in the footsteps of his grandmother's career and began training as a dancer, eventually leading to his heavy involvement in the fashion world.


Medley curated by Elias Tahan featuring footage from Ryan Heffington's disco fantasy

Following a rich career of glamour and luxury, Love Bailey recently shifted the focus of his work away from the fashion and music industries to the formation of Savage Ranch. The ranch is an artist community that serves as a central meeting point for creatives from around the world to come together and live, create and invest in community. In the eyes of Love Bailey, Savage Ranch represents much more than just a change in personal career direction -- it is a shift to a more humanistic and compassionate focus to his work as a whole.

"I see my life transitioning and moving into a genre where it’s not about selling garments anymore -- it’s about creating a lifestyle that inspires people to be better humans," he told The Huffington Post. "To enrich themselves with beauty and light and life and love and making meals together, sharing stories together and exploring what it means to be part of a community -– to love someone and be present with them -- and what it means to be present."

With seven people currently living at Savage Ranch, the community is in its early, formative days. However, the goal is to create a space where artists can create, thrive and collaborate with a focus on the humanity of their work, while not necessarily having to exist day-to-day in an urban environment.


Manifested by Love Bailey & Remy Holwick/DP: Dylan Gordan // Family Members pictured: Simon Seapony, B.J. Dini Megan Edwards & Andi, Kyle Kupres, Master Slather

The changing nature of Love Bailey's career doesn't necessarily represent a de-emphasis on performance and the way that intersects with his queer identity. Rather, the role of performance is changing to fit a form of cultural production that emphasizes humanity through a socially responsible lens.

"For me, performing is a natural gesture," Love Bailey elaborated. "It’s not something one does on stage anymore. For me, performing is performing to my best ability in this moment right now -- who am I, what am I, what am I projecting, what am I serving, what’s the vibration I’m giving to the universe. That’s my performance and that’s what I’ve learned from being a competition showgirl to being a better human. I think that transition is my focus now."

love bailey

This changing role of performance, in the eyes of Love Bailey, involves turning a critical lens onto the worlds of fashion and music that he is currently moving away from. That is, questioning what purpose these industries are actually serving and how disconnected they seem to feel from a compassionate understanding of the human condition.

"Knowing what the fashion industry is and breaking it down into the illusion -- it’s not the fantasy that we were sold as kids. Like, I just want to live in the open field and let my hair down and slather it up. You can’t do that in fashion because you have to sell a certain thing, pose a certain way and there’s this hierarchy that’s been created that’s not really doing anything for the good of humanity. We’re constantly putting forth Vogue after Vogue and it's this revolving door of filth. Especially in the digital age, you would think that we would lessen. We have the knowledge to be better humans and to work towards a better environment but we choose not to use those tools that we learn."

love bailey

One of the most compelling parts of Savage Ranch is the opportunity to explore queerness and engage in cultural production in a very isolated setting, but then amplify this work to the world via the Internet and social media. Artists no longer have to live in urban meccas like New York City or Los Angeles in order to make the value of their work known. In fact, it is precisely the isolated nature of Savage Ranch that allows for this new experiment in queer community culture to manifest in such a unique way.

"The Internet and social media are these wonderful things that can be destructive tools or positive tools," Love Bailey continued. "For me, I’m able to switch gears into focusing my efforts onto something that’s bettering humanity and not get consumed in 'what’s my daily selfie.' That’s not my fantasy. Our community, at the ranch, we share this similar vision where we can come together and build a life that hopefully one day will be sustainable and that we can give back to the universe what we take from it. A lot of times people, especially in America, they just take and they don’t give. The ranch goes beyond that built-in audience of a social network -- it encourages you to look beyond yourself."


VHS acid fantasy curated by Marina Fini & Tristan Wheeler featuring Ivy Levan // Music by Edward Vigiletti

Love Bailey and Savage Ranch represent an important intersection of the future of queer performance and technology. As we continue to deplete the world's natural resources and isolate ourselves from one another within the framework of the digital age, community-based efforts to create and build work with an emphasis on social responsibility will become more important than ever.

"The universe will have its plan and that’s something you have to let manifest itself," Love Bailey explained. "But I want Savage Ranch to be a sustainable farm where we can grow and cultivate the land and also share an artist collective where people can fly in from other parts of the world and create with a working studio, a recording studio -- anything anyone would need to create their fantasy. I want to make that happen. I want to see to it that their fantasy gets brought to life. That’s the fantasy."

Want to see more from Love Bailey? Head here to visit the artist's website.

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'Gone With The Wind' Dress Sold For $137,000

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DALLAS (AP) — An outfit Vivien Leigh wore when she played Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 film "Gone With the Wind" has fetched $137,000 at auction.

Heritage Auctions offered the gray jacket and skirt, featuring a black zigzag applique, plus other items from the Academy Award-winning film at auction Saturday in Beverly Hills, California. Dallas-based Heritage said more than 150 items from the movie, including costumes and props, were offered by James Tumblin. He formerly was in charge of the hair and makeup department at Universal Studios.

Tumblin began collecting items associated with the MGM film in the 1960s. He paid $20 for the Scarlett O'Hara outfit after spotting it at a costume company.

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Kelly Clarkson & Josh Groban's 'Phantom Of The Opera' Duet Is Musical Magic

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Josh Groban and Kelly Clarkson have some of the strongest voices in the music industry, so you can imagine how insane a duet must sound.

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Harvey Weinstein Pilfered 'Mad Max,' Almost Fired Ellen Barkin And Still Mourns 'Lord Of The Rings'

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Harvey Weinstein is a linchpin in today's Hollywood landscape, and has arguably secured his spot as the most notorious studio head in the business. The charismatic but intimidating executive, who now runs The Weinstein Company with his brother Bob after co-founding Miramax in 1979, joined Deadline.com's Mike Fleming Jr. at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday for a discussion about his film career. A full house packed Manhattan's School of Visual Arts Theatre, where folding chairs were pulled out to accommodate overflow.

Weinstein's pervasive media presence means his legacy is well-documented (read Peter Biskind's Down and Dirty Pictures for some really juicy stuff), but he ticked off an hour's worth of anecdotes from the front lines of film development. Many -- like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon inserting a fake oral-sex scene in their "Good Will Hunting" script to ensure producers were actually reading it -- are already the subject of modern cinema lore.

Here are nine fresh Weinstein goodies to snack on:

1. Weinstein tried to get Quentin Tarantino to do "The Hateful Eight" on Broadway. After Tarantino staged a triumphant reading of the leaked script last April, Weinstein encouraged him to take the production to the Great White Way, where he is now a lead producer. "But in the end, cinema wins," Weinstein said after describing the film's shooting process. Tarantino insisted the production use actual snow in Telluride, Colorado, where it is filming.

"Anybody who doesn't believe in climate control or climate change should have been on our set because Telluride is where it snows incessantly. This year it didn't snow," he said. "But I promise you, having seen about 40 minutes of the movie right now, it's special and fun and sharp and new and edgy and good, really good."

quentin tarantino harvey weinstein
Tarantino and Weinstein at the "Inglourious Basterds" Hollywood premiere on Aug. 10, 2009.


2. Tarantino modeled his Hollywood approach off Clint Eastwood's. Warner Bros. didn't want Tarantino to direct 1993's "True Romance" because "they didn't know who he was," Weinstein said, so the studio instead recruited "Top Gun" maestro Tony Scott to helm Tarantino's script. Having already made "Reservoir Dogs" for Miramax, Tarantino channeled Eastwood's loyalty to Warner Bros. as inspiration.

He stuck with Miramax from then on, making it and The Weinstein Company "the house that Quentin built." When "Pulp Fiction" won the Palme d'Or after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1994, Eastwood, who served as the jury's president that year, told Weinstein he wanted to give the actor prize to John Travolta, but the festival's directors told him not to show that much affection for one movie.

3. "Life is Beautiful" owes credit to "Mad Max." Weinstein and Roberto Benigni added narration to the beginning and end of "Life is Beautiful" to frame the story after some found its humorous depiction of the Holocaust to be a "disgrace." "We took that from 'Mad Max,' so watch the movie again. We owe George Miller ... because the whole son thing at the end was 'The Road Warrior.'"

4. Weinstein told Errol Morris he'd hire someone to play him if he didn't give more interesting interviews. While promoting the seminal 1988 documentary "The Thin Blue Line," which Miramax distributed, Weinstein couldn't stand to listen to Morris give radio interviews because he was the "most boring guy [Weinstein] had ever worked with." Morris would drone on and on in his responses, so Weinstein sent him a letter demonstrating how to give short, effective answers and informing Morris that an actor would portray him if there were no improvements.

Weinstein said Morris "loved" the letter, but his only true concern was getting Randall Adams, the film's falsely convicted subject, out of jail. Weinstein rereleased the movie several times in Dallas, where the crime had occurred, and they were ultimately successful. That ignited a social consciousness in Weinstein that he says continued with movies like "Philomena," which addressed the Catholic Church's stance on out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and "The Imitation Game," which sparked a petition to pardon 49,000 British men who were prosecuted for being gay.

5. Weinstein is shocked he got away with depicting Lyndon B. Johnson's Voting Rights Act politics and "Selma" didn't. In discussing the alleged inaccuracies leveled against "The Imitation Game," Weinstein said it was even more shocking to watch "Selma" (released by Paramount) get pummeled for the same things depicted in "All the Way," the LBJ play that he produced starring Bryan Cranston.

"It was three hours of getting the voting-rights bill done. Johnson is twisting every arm in the room," Weinstein said. "This guy was not Plato or Socrates -- he was a tough senator from Texas who knew how to get a bill passed, so the idea that his people were criticizing 'Selma,' you know, why didn't they criticize us?"

"We're worse in terms of that," he continued. "I called Bryan and said, 'We got away with this. It's unfair what we got away with that those guys didn't. ... And we won Best Play last year, and Bryan Cranston won Best Actor. Nobody came after us; why did they come after 'Selma'? Makes you think."

6. Weinstein would rather five Best Picture nominees. He's always been "bothered" by the Oscars' recent decision to stuff as many as 10 movies in the category. If the awards want to be more mainstream, he says the Academy should add a Best Comedy field, like it did with Best Animated Feature in 2001.

7. He and Steven Spielberg did not have the warmest encounter after "Shakespeare in Love" topped "Saving Private Ryan" for Best Picture. "Ryan" began the 1999 Oscar race as the one to beat, but Miramax spent an unprecedented $5 million campaigning for "Shakespeare," ensuring the studio matched or bested every dollar Jeffrey Katzenberg spent on DreamWorks' "Ryan" campaign. Years later, it is still cited as one of the most suspenseful derbies in the awards' history. "When I saw Spielberg later, I don't think it was a love fest," Weinstein said. "That was a tough one."

harvey weinstein shakespeare in love
David Parfitt, Donna Gigliotti, Harvey Weinstein, Gwyneth Paltrow, Edward Zwick and Marc Norman at the Oscars on March 21, 1999.


8. Weinstein threatened to fire Ellen Barkin from "Into the West." Weinstein called Barkin "so difficult to work with," which is fitting given the reputation she'd developed around that time. While working on Mike Newell's 1992 family Western, Weinstein suggested he replace her with the largely unknown Catherine Zeta-Jones. Not wanting to be fired, Barkin asked him to give her one more day. When she returned, she was "amazing," even cooking food for the crew, Weinstein said. "The quote about that was, 'There's only one diva on a Harvey Weinstein movie: him," he said.

9. Losing "Lord of the Rings" is still his biggest disappointment. Miramax had distributed Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures" in 1994, and Weinstein jumped when the director said he longed to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien's series. Weinstein fought hard to secure the rights and make the films for a budget that was consistent with Miramax's $40 million cap. Negotiations began with the Weinstein brothers pitching one film based on "The Hobbit" and two inspired by the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

But as budgets swelled and Jackson became increasingly resistant to axing portions of the books, Weinstein continued to battle for the project, at one point attempting to recruit "Shakespeare in Love" director John Madden to take over. But Jackson convinced Weinstein to relinquish the rights, and he was able to get New Line Cinema to agree to three costly films. A few years later, Fleming saw Weinstein leave the 2001 premiere of "The Fellowship of the Ring" looking like his dog had been shot. It remains Weinstein's biggest loss as a project. "I know he was hurt -- I'm hurt, too -- and we've had a pretty good relationship since," Weinstein said of Jackson.

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We Need The Liberal Arts More Than Ever In Today's Digital World, Fareed Zakaria Says

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A liberal arts education is the best preparation for many careers, especially in the U.S., given today's global technology-driven economy, CNN host Fareed Zakaria says.

"The future of a country like the U.S. rests on our ability to master how technology interacts with how humans live, work and play," Zakaria said to The WorldPost. "And that depends on skills fostered by the liberal arts, such as creativity, aesthetic sensibility and social, political and psychological insight."

Because of tough economic times, the rising cost of higher education and an increasingly competitive job market, too many Americans -- and American politicians -- are turning away from the liberal arts under a false perception that they are a poor career option, Zakaria says.

In his new book, In Defense of a Liberal Education, Zakaria writes that America's success was built on a liberal arts education -- on multidisciplinary study for the sake of learning rather than vocational study for the sake of a set career path. Liberal arts subjects -- such as English, philosophy and political science -- teach people how to think, write and communicate; those skills remain useful through the many twists and turns of a career in today's ever-changing digital economy, he argues. And, he says, it is dangerous to overemphasize STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education as separate from or more important than the liberal arts.

Rather than pitting the liberal arts against STEM, Zakaria says, there should be more cross-pollination between the two groupings. Creativity and innovation occur when disciplines cross paths, he says. There are numerous examples of this in Silicon Valley. Facebook co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who was a psychology major before he dropped out of Harvard University, said Facebook is "as much psychology and sociology as it is technology."

Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple, credited a course in calligraphy for the font aesthetic of the Mac computer. When unveiling a new edition of the iPad, he said, "It is in Apple's DNA that technology alone is not enough. It's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing."

Zakaria notes that science used to be a bigger part of the liberal arts, and he advocates further integrating science -- especially technology -- into the liberal arts and creating hybrid programs. Some universities have already done so, with programs such as Stanford University's hybrid music and technology degree and various universities' digital humanities programs. Zakaria points to a new liberal arts school that's a partnership between Yale University and the National University of Singapore as a model. In addition to traditional liberal arts core requirements such as history and literature, Yale-NUS requires various science courses, ranging from computer science to biotechnology, with an emphasis on scientific thinking rather than memorization of facts.

However, such hybrid programs are far from plentiful. Zakaria says too many students faced with job-prospect pressures are lured not into STEM (which not everyone has the aptitude for) but into professional-sounding but debilitatingly narrow majors, such as business and communications.

A couple of years ago, statistician and writer Nate Silver pointed out the same trend, finding a rise in people majoring in health professions, hospital administration, nursing and business as well as some newer professional degrees such as criminal justice. Silver says this likely has to do with the fact that college has become a norm for a broader range of students, including some who may choose careers more associated with the middle class, such as nursing.

So are fewer people actually majoring in the liberal arts? There are varying reports since the liberal arts cover so many majors, and the data varies by major. But the pressure to be on a career track is clear. Last year, President Barack Obama said (and later apologized for saying), "Folks can make a lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree." And the governors of Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin have all suggested cutting liberal arts programs on the premise that they're not job creators.

They point to data that show liberal arts majors have relatively high initial unemployment rates and low initial earnings compared with STEM majors. And it's true: Many liberal arts majors have a rough start. However, it may get better with time. Zakaria points to a study showing that, later in their careers, liberal arts majors actually make slightly more on average than STEM majors and unemployment levels even out as well.

The WorldPost spoke with Zakaria about the role of the liberal arts today.

Why are the liberal arts important in today's digital world, in which technology is disrupting cultural norms and so many industries?

There's no question that the world we are living in is defined by two great forces: globalization and technology. Given globalization, you need some understanding of the rest of the world, which the liberal arts foster. The technological revolution has meant that a good deal of basic industrial work -- which used to be done by a skilled craftsman or even a low-level engineer -- is now fairly routine, commoditized and either being done by technology or through outsourcing. In other words, a machine is doing it, or a person in China is doing it (obviously that's exaggerating). For advanced industrial countries, the real challenge is doing something that is value-added -- something that adds some bells and whistles to this routine, commoditized work.

The future of a country like the U.S. rests on our ability to master how technology interacts with how humans live, work and play. And that depends on skills fostered by the liberal arts, such as creativity, aesthetic sensibility and social, political and psychological insight. Travis Kalanick, the CEO of Uber, told me that the world of bits and bytes is bumping up against the world of atoms. In other words, the digital world is bumping up against the real world. And that collision, which of course Uber is at the heart of, means that you have to understand computers but you also have to understand the world. And as Uber is finding out, part of that is understanding everything from local politics to traffic issues to work habits.

Anyone now can make a $30 sneaker somewhere in the world. The question is, how do you sell it for $300? To do that, you have to be great at branding, marketing, advertising and design. And that's a metaphor for almost every industry. To pull it off, you're going to need some education beyond basic STEM skills.

In the sciences today, some say we are playing (or even creating) God by building artificial intelligence, modifying genes, colonizing Mars and more. What role do the liberal arts play here?

There's a very important question that we forget to ask: To what end do we use science? It's a political, economic and moral question. We need a broad understanding of how these sciences will affect humans. Rather than having an ethical philosopher in every company, everybody involved should have some breadth of perspective. And that can be deepened with some training in the liberal arts.

You write that, "The greatest shift in liberal education over the past century has been the downgrading of subjects in science and technology." Explain.

Science was always a central part of the liberal arts. "Art" just meant as opposed to "craft." In ancient Greece and Rome and in the Middle Ages, people used to study science for exactly the opposite reason they study it now. Now, many people study it because it's intensely practical. In 1400, the reason you studied science was because you were searching for abstract knowledge. It had no practical application. If you wanted to get ahead in a career, you studied law, history and politics.

There was a conception that the liberal arts (including science) were interrelated largely because knowledge and wisdom came from a supreme deity. The interconnection was all part of God's magic and mystery. As science began to unravel that idea in a way, people began to compartmentalize, and science became something that scientists studied but that didn't have applications in philosophy, history, etc. That took hold by the late 19th century, and it created these two separate cultures: the sciences and non-sciences. And we're all poorer for it. It's unfortunate that there's such a high degree of scientific illiteracy in America today and that scientists are not as well trained as they could be in the humanities.

The liberal arts-versus-science division is particularly true with STEM, which, more than other sciences, is seen as vocational. I studied international political economy at Berkeley, and it never occurred to me to venture over to a separate college on campus to take a computer science course. But if students are encouraged to do that, they might feel less anxious about choosing a liberal arts major. Should the liberal arts be updated to include some basic technology and engineering courses?

Yes, very much so. We do need to think more about how to integrate the more technical subjects of STEM into the liberal arts. I think of coding as similar to learning a foreign language. It broadens you and allows you to understand the inside of the machines that dominate our lives. We need to conceive of these kinds of course requirements for the liberal arts.

One problem is that, when I was on the board of Yale, I found that science professors were often not very eager to teach courses for non-specialists. I'm going to caricature but the great physicist would say, "Physics is hard. If you want to take it, then you've got to take Physics 101, then Physics 102 and so on. And you need to know advanced calculus. We're not going to teach physics for poets." And that's a mistake. It's important to try to educate people in basic concepts no matter what their eventual specialization. That is at the heart of the liberal education.

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24 Photos That'll Inspire The Perfect American Road Trip

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In anticipation of summer and road trip season, we teamed up with online photo community EyeEm to ask our readers for photos that capture what American means to them. The results are stunning! From familiar neighborhood faces to waving flags and landscapes, these photos represent the diversity you'll find on any American road trip.

The 30 images selected by EyeEm and The Huffington Post will be exhibited in San Francisco this summer. To learn more about the challenge, visit EyeEm.

The winner:


By Visual Thought

The runners up:


By Rebecca


By Anne-Sophie

The shortlist:


By nima


By Julen Garces


By Julia Elisa


By Jasmina


By Nei Cruz


By Nicola Buck


By Matt Lief Anderson


By Calen Barnum


By Adedizzle


By Anthony Tulliani


By Gra Cas


By piero migailo


By jon seaton


By m43photographer


By Jimmy Black


By Gabrielle


By Delyan Valchev


By John


By nikmock


By Simi vijay Afun-ogidan


By Meli

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Dictionary Of American Regional English Threatened By Lack Of Funding

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Language-lovers across the U.S. have the mulligrubs this month, and with good reason. The Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), which has cataloged vernacular terms and idioms from around the country since it was founded in the early 1960s, does not currently have the funding to continue operations after June 30, 2015.

Previously funded by various grants, including endowments from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the project will run out of money this summer.

Anna Lewis, a librarian at the project’s home institution, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has launched a GoFundMe asking readers to pungle down donations to keep the lights on. DARE responded on its website, stating, "We are so grateful to all who are being so 'givey' (generous [DE, VA])."

But with an annual budget of $525,000, DARE’s needs are unlikely to be met by crowdfunding; even the GoFundMe’s goal of $25,000, if met, would not be enough. “We have run out of places to go,” chief editor Joan Houston Hall told The New York Times.

You may be wondering why we need the Dictionary of American Regional English, but unless you’re just an aginner, you have to admit that there’s a charm to local dialects. Do we want to give up going on a rantum scoot, hunting for the elbedritsch, or hooky bobbing over fresh winter snow? Can our bland, Webster's-approved terms replace idiosyncratic idioms like "on the fritz" or "acknowledge the corn" or "I wouldn't know him from Adam's housecat"?

Sheer quirkiness isn't the only value behind maintaining and studying language diversity. As Minae Mizumura, author of The Fall of Language in the Age of English, wrote for The Huffington Post, the unique characteristics of different languages create larruping good, and distinctive, literature. "What made it possible for Tanizaki to write such a novel [The Makioka Sisters] was not only Japanese culture but the Japanese language itself," she argued.

Maryland dialect or Southern turns of phrase aren't the equivalent of a whole language, but the loss of bombazine and noodling would still limit our cultural exchanges. The nebby DARE researchers, by surveying and tracking language use across the country over the past 60 years, have been enriching it by easing cross-regional understanding, and that's a project worth continuing.

DARE's project can't be funded with a slick and a promise, but let's not holler calf-rope just yet. Humanities funding, often not considered a priority in tough times, was hit hard by the recession, and the 2014 State of the Humanities: Funding report showed that it still remains below pre-recession levels. But if the Dictionary of American Regional English can hosey federal funding, we'd all benefit.

Hopefully this won’t be the end of the line for this valuable project, but either way, we all owe a saddy to DARE.

H/T The Guardian

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Andrea Joyce Heimer's Domestic Scenes Recall The Magic Of Everyday Life

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To look at one of Andrea Joyce Heimer’s paintings is to feel at once comforted and confused. Bold patterns clutter the walls of her domestic scenes, which lean at implausible angles, distorting your perception. With plants and knickknacks scattered about living rooms and bathrooms, she builds settings of organized chaos. A framed image of a sinking ship hangs on the wall of a room where girls are swooning over an unobtainable crush. A homey wallpaper pattern peppered with apples and cowboys adorns another space, where a tame holiday party is underway.

“Everyday settings are where life happens,” she told The Huffington Post. “I have been devastated at kitchen tables, awestruck on car roofs while staring at the sky, and haunted by things I saw in backyards.”

The site of most of these hallmark happenings was Heimer’s hometown, Great Falls, Montana, where she grew up in the '80s. She was adopted, and consequently suffered from feelings of isolation and depression, comforting herself by observing those around her, and creating stories patched together from facts, myths, and personal beliefs.





“Through quietly observing the lives around me I was able to piece together neighborhood tales of madness, conspiracy, and love, often substituting my own theories to fill any missing pieces of the story. The result was a kind of vicarious connection to those around me -- a connection that somewhat sustained me during deep depressive bouts,” she said. “Part allegory, part autobiography, my paintings depict scenes of heartbreak, madness, and the emotional claustrophobia that stems from living as an outsider in my own backyard.”

Heimer stresses that her work is a practice in art therapy; not only has crafting these scenes allowed her to feel connected to the place she once called home, but the physical act of creating each piece has been a soothing exercise. The rich patterns, in particular, are a joy for her to illustrate.

“I cannot fully describe how grateful I am to have discovered patterning as an outlet,” she said. “When my depression erupts and I feel like climbing the walls, the repetitive action of painting tiny patterns can keep my brain distracted for hours.”





Such patterns include a bathroom scene in which a traditional, dainty bathmat spruced up with floral imagery is given a Surrealist touch: Pink, rainy skies shake up the design, making it a canvas for the subjects’ emotions. In the tub, two women bathe together, looking at ease.

Of the whimsical quality of her paintings, Heimer said, “Casting a dreamlike light on my life was the only way I made it through adolescence … magic is a way to live through monotony.”

Although her works evoke wonder, to call the process magic would undermine Heimer’s efforts. Though she’s received no formal arts education, she’s instructed herself in a number of mediums, including figure painting and silk screening. Because of her lack of collegiate-level training, she’s often classified as an “outsider artist.” Of the epithet, she said, “I try not to think about it too much. In my opinion the term has issues of its own.”

Instead, she’d prefer to be known as a storyteller. “The work is narrative,” she said. “I am a big storybook and I want you to sit down and listen to me and look at me -- sadly there is no art world term for this!”

Heimer's work will be displayed in a solo show at Lindsay Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, beginning May 1. Take a look at more of her paintings on her site.




















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