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JK Rowling Will Release Another Book, 'Career Of Evil,' As Robert Galbraith

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Robert Galbraith is back with yet another Cormoran Strike crime novel. J.K. Rowling will publish Career of Evil, the third book under her pseudonym, and it will be released in the fall, according to Little, Brown's UK Imprint.




Rowling has been tweeting updates on her own Twitter account, as well as Galbraith's, confirming that the book is the third in the Cormoran series:







(The answer is Blue Oyster Cult, for the record.)

Galbraith's two previous books, The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm, both of which will be adapted for a BBC One TV series, received rave reviews upon release. Rowling has said before that she has seven books planned for the series, which follows Cormoran Strike, a Afghanistan war veteran who became a private investigator, and his assistant Robin.

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Yes, These Are Photographs Of Actual Caves And Icefalls On Planet Earth

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Jagged fangs of rock candy. Puffy clouds of crystal. Rainbow rocks, slowly dripping. The following photographs seem to capture an alien planet, or perhaps a well-crafted amusement park. And yet, the fantastical rock piles and underground grottos are all found right here on planet Earth.

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Japanese photographer Hayato Wakabayashi captures these otherworldly caves and icefalls in a mesmerizing series, titled "Gravity." Wakabayashi began the project as a follow-up to an earlier series on volcanoes and typhoons. "I started to become interested in the slow and organic variations of nature," the artist explained to The Huffington Post. "I have always been fascinated with the imperceptible growth built from repeated elements in nature."

From the experience, one indisputable fact became clear: "Nothing can escape gravity."

Wakabayashi became obsessed with the unavoidable natural phenomenon by which all physical bodies are governed. He resolved to capture on film the most extreme, rare and beautiful manifestations of the earthly occurrence across the globe, those we're not often exposed to in daily life.

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Traveling through lone roads in the village of Minamimaki, Japan, and around coastal areas near Morioka, Japan, Wakabayashi discovered visual gems that put the stuff of National Geographic to some serious shame. "There is a natural order that exists outside our rationalized ideas," he writes on his website. "I show nature’s order by photographing these effects of gravity that we are not usually aware of in our daily lives."

"I am interested in what people do in their spare time; things that are outside their daily routines," Wakabayashi continued via email. Yet most of all, the photographer seems enthralled by the almighty power of Mother Nature. As he explained: "Nature does not have a free will. It exists as part of a universal order. Nature is the source of tremendous power, so it brings us both blessings and disasters. We follow gods or faiths in order to connect with its sublimity. We exist as a part of nature. I’d like to express the beauty and similarity there is between the two juxtapositions of humanity, and the sublimity of nature."

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A Couple Hundred Bulldogs Got Together For An Insanely Cute Party

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At this party, the dogs eat first.

On April 11, at the 4th annual Bullie Que festival, sweet spoiled dogs got even more special treatment than usual. Nearly 300 people and about 200 dogs -- mostly bulldogs, but a few Frenchies and pugs sneaked in, too -- gathered in North Carolina for a bulldog superhero-themed costume contest, a silent auction to benefit bulldog rescue group Bullies 2 the Rescue and a dog-friendly spread.

"Brisket, no seasoning," says Courtney Vaux, organizer of Bullie Que, the yearly gathering of bulldogs and their passionate fans. "Pineapple and green beans. It's hysterical."

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Photo by Brian Batista


Photographer and bulldog enthusiast Brian Batista was there taking pictures, and says he had a few "starstruck moments because you get to meet all these dogs that you see tons of photos and videos of but now you meet them in person."

"They come from all walks of life and they are so happy to hang out with their humans and other friends," he says. "There are so many dogs."

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Photo by Brian Batista


Unlike, say, those hyperactive corgi gatherings where hundreds of dogs romp for hours in the ocean, Bullie Que can be a slower affair.

"They love food, they love watching TV or wrestling in the floor, but mostly they love just being with their family. Oh and gas, you gotta love a dog who will fart on you and then move away like you did it," observes Batista, who is quick to add that "I love short-faced breeds. Not taking anything away from other breeds, but there is just something charming about them."

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Photo by Brian Batista


Their owners are pretty terrific, too.

Vaux told The Huffington Post that the first Bullie Que, in 2012, came about as an adoption event for nine bulldog puppies born to a mom who'd been rescued out of a dumpster while very pregnant.

Two hundred people signed up to attend, that year, and brought 150 bulldogs along with them.

All nine puppies found homes -- after being fussed over at a pre-adoption party.

"Cake, presents, just like a baby shower but baby bulldogs," said Vaux.

Since then, the yearly festivities have grown, pulling in folks and dogs from all over the country -- two of the puppies from that first Bullie Que, were even there, meeting for the first time again since.

"It's like a family reunion, is the best way I can put it," says Vaux. "It's awesome."

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Photo by Neely Waring


Vaux tells us next year's Bullie Que theme will be "Bullie Stock," like Woodstock -- for bulldogs. Yeah, we really want to be there, too.

Keep tabs on dates and other details on Facebook.

Check out more of Brian Batista's work here, and see more photos from Bullie Que below.

And get in touch at arin.greenwood@huffingtonpost.com if you have an animal story to share!







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Writer-Performer Justin Sayre Skewers Russell Tovey's Remarks On 'Effeminate' Men

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In his latest clip for HuffPost Gay Voices, writer-performer Justin Sayre takes "Looking" star Russell Tovey to task over the actor's controversial remarks about "effeminate" gay men.

"You would be lucky to be effeminate in later life, because let me tell you, it gets you out of lots of jams," Sayre quipped, referring to Tovey's headline-making comments in a March 1 interview with The Guardian's Tom Lamont.

In the interview, Tovey, who is openly gay, recalled his father's refusal to send him to a "theater school" during his teen years, because attending would have made him "really effeminate" and therefore unable to play straight roles.

"If I'd have been able to relax, prance around, sing in the street, I might be a different person now," Tovey said. "I thank my dad for that, for now allowing me to go down that path."

Sayre's "International Order of Sodomites" (I.O.S.) gathers once a month for "The Meeting," honoring an artist or a cultural work that is iconic to the gay community.

The next installment of "The Meeting" hits San Francisco's Oasis on April 25, with special guests Veronica Klaus, Connie Champagne and D’Arcy Drollinger.

In other news, "Sparkle & Circulate with Justin Sayre," the official I.O.S. podcast, has just released its sixth episode, featuring an interview with "Queer as Folk" icon Randy Harrison.

Meanwhile, you can also view some previous performances from "The Meeting" on Sayre's official YouTube page. For more Sayre, head to Facebook and Twitter.




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Edward Gorey's Forgotten Book Cover Art Will Make You Happy And Afraid

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Edward Gorey’s work dwelt at the intersection of visual art and literature. He published over 100 books before his death in 2000, yet many of them contained no words at all -- only his distinctively unsettling Edwardian-style drawings. Others, like his famous Gashlycrumb Tinies, blend macabre verses with grim illustrations in classic picture-book style.

So his early incarnation as a book cover designer, both in-house for Doubleday and freelance, suited his artistic proclivities perfectly. Though this epoch in Gorey’s career has been largely forgotten in light of his later achievements, a new book, Edward Gorey: His Book Cover Art and Design (Pomegranate Communications), has compiled an array of his covers that make a strong case for remembering it.

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Gorey, born in Chicago in 1925, illustrated and hand-lettered covers for books by André Gide, T.S. Eliot, and Franz Kafka, among many others, and his voracious reading aided him in transforming the books into art. In his essay introducing the collection, Steven Heller points out that at the time, cover artists were expected to work from very little information, maybe a paragraph of plot summary. Gorey’s covers, informed by his literary background, went beyond this; they “evoked moods or set off sparks of recognition.”

Heller notes the clear influence of 19th century cartoons and classical drawing in Gorey’s cover art -- the jaunty, loose-limbed figures and pen-and-ink detailing -- but his use of space typically lends the antiquated style a different aura. A small figure, dwarfed by a barren landscape in a few, flat colors, signals an ominous isolation that is pure Gorey.

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Gorey became the go-to cover artist for Doubleday's Henry James editions, illustrating classics such as What Maisie Knew and The Awkward Age. His subtle, suggestive style may not have been the traditional approach to James' covers, but it captured the essence of the the novelist's murky, intrigue-riddled books. Unfortunately, Gorey loathed James' work, according to Heller, once stating baldly, "I hate him more than anybody else in the world except for Picasso."

what maisie knew

Though we may tend to classify him as such, Gorey was not a children’s book author, exactly. In a 1978 interview with People magazine, he noted, “A lot of my books I've intended for children primarily, but nobody would ever publish them as children's books.” Perhaps this was for good reason. In the same interview, he freely admitted, “I've never known any babies. I don't have any relationship to children.” Nor did he seem to particularly like them. So while many of his fans latched onto Gorey’s work as children -- kids can handle more darkness and doom than adults think -- his work is a unique blend of childish whimsy and adult horror.

But his commissioned covers demonstrate his true range; his carefully cross-hatched style could be sunny and uplifting when the book called for it, either on the cover of campus comedy Lucky Jim or of a traditional children’s book.

All images excerpted with permission from Edward Gorey: His Book Cover Art and Design, published by Pomegranate Communications.

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A Brief And Enchanting Visual History Of Los Angeles' Iconic Magic Castle

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A death-defying trick: Bill Larsen, Sr. enlists an audience members for a death-defying trick utilizing the Thayer head chopper, while Geraldine (in mock horror) and Milt look on, circa. 1940. "I grew up in a kind of Alice in Wonderland world," Milt Larsen said about his upbringing on the road in a family Vaudeville act.




The Magic Castle, one of Los Angeles' most prized (and private) landmarks, is the headquarters of a members-only club that is intensely dedicated to the art of magic. Called the Academy of Magical Arts, the castle doors opened in 1963, but its history goes back much, much farther.

The 1910-era Gothic Renaissance chateau sits in the middle of what is now historic Hollywood and was originally the personal residence of a wealthy banker, Rollin B. Lane. The mansion fell into disrepair by the late 1940s, even serving for a time as a boarding house, before Bill Larsen Jr. and his brother Milt Larsen purchased the property to breathe life into their parent's lifelong dream of opening a magic club.

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The Lane Mansion under construction, 1909-1910: The Lane Mansion, which would later be rented by the Larsen brothers, was originally called Holly Chateau. It was built amidst the famous orange groves of Hollywood, California in 1910. The brothers secured the property in 1961 on nothing more than a handshake.


The Larsen family is a true magic dynasty. William Larsen, Sr. and Geraldine Larsen were pioneers in the field of magic. Geraldine was one of the rare female magicians of the day -- at a time when women were magician’s assistants (being sawed in half), not magicians themselves. She also became the first woman to perform magic on television in the late 1930s.

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Geraldine Larsen performs one of her signature tricks: Geraldine Larsen, often referred to as "the First Lady of Illusion,” performs with Peterkin the rabbit -- an act that is re-enacted on stage today by her great granddaughter, Liberty Larsen, in a contemporary, live magic show.


On top of all that, in 1936, the Larsens launched Genii, the longest, continually running magic magazine in the world, which is still published today. During the Depression, the family, including sons Bill, Jr. and Milt, began touring as the “Larsen Family of Magicians,” playing upscale, resort hotels all over Southern California.

Today, guests from all around the globe travel to the castle to see its high quality magic shows. The AMA’s membership includes entertainment’s most preeminent magicians and illusionists, including Penn and Teller, Lance Burton, David Blaine, and Siegfried and Roy. There is a strict formal dress code and one can only visit if already a member (or, as the plus one of a member for the evening).

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The Larsen Boys: Bill Larsen, Sr. teaches young sons, Bill, Jr. (left) and Milt, the ropes of magic and an escape trick, circa. 1930.


Back in the day, Hollywood royalty like Cary Grant and Johnny Carson visited often, and today, Johnny Depp, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman and Katy Perry are frequent guests. This year, Perry rented the whole castle out for her costumed birthday party.

The Magic Castle combines illusion and mystery with a kitschy history of Hollywood. Much of the ornate decor was rescued from wrecking balls on construction sites or from Hollywood studio sets before they were dumped into the trash. Secret doors and panels hidden all over the castle lead to the 13 different performance stages.

The Huffington Post acquired vintage photos directly from the Academy of Magical Arts (many have never before been published) to see what magic used to look like.

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The Larsen Family of Magicians: Bill Larsen Jr., Bill Larsen Sr. and Geraldine Larsen pictured performing the ubiquitous balls and cups trick. The family appeared at Southern California’s finest resort hotels at the time performing full, evening magic shows.


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A call for members: Advertisement in Genii magazine in May 1962, soliciting membership, eight months prior to the club’s opening.


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1963 issue of Newsweek: On Jan. 14, 1963, Newsweek magazine ran a story about the opening of the Academy of Magical Arts and the Magic Castle. In the article’s accompanying photo, magician Mark Wilson levitates his wife, Nani.


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Jay Ose's close-up: Late magician Jay Ose (1911-1967), one of the AMA-Magic Castle’s first resident magicians, performs close-up in the mid-1960s. While the mansion was being renovated in stages, Jay lived upstairs for a time, in a room that had not yet been remodeled.


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Milt Larsen performing his “Illusion-Delusion” effect: Larsen in in the 1970s during his signature carpenter’s magic show. The Illusion-Delusion was performed by three generations of the Larsen family.


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Lane Mansion in 1920: For 30 years, Holly Chateau was one of the most recognized addresses in Hollywood and was a popular destination for the area’s social elite. Katherine Lane was a renowned hostess and hundreds of newspaper articles attest to the elegant and elaborate luncheons, teas, musicals and lawn parties held for artists, orphans, community leaders and world travelers.

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Renovations for the Magic Castle begin in 1962.


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The Magic Castle today.


Captions, in part, provided by the Academy of Magical Arts.

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The Other Entrepreneurs: Not Just A Boys' Club

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the other hundred


With more than one million companies run by women -- more than one-third of the country’s total -- Poland is one of Europe’s leading centers of female entrepreneurship. Many of these businesses were set up during the years of Poland’s economic transformation after the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe. The closure of many large state-owned businesses left many people with no other option than becoming self-employed -- a trend which has been maintained since.


Warsaw, Poland | Photographer: Isabella De Maddalena

isabella de maddalena 1


Marta Zieba-Szklarska runs Alter Group, a consultancy with offices in Warsaw and Krakow, and is active in a range of projects supporting entrepreneurship in Poland. “Women in business are able to build relationships based on trust, loyalty and quality. For men, business is like a war, they are better competitors than us. But I think that women have the advantage and ability to communicate with each other, to cooperate.”

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Ania Chagowska owns Salsa Libre, a dance school in Warsaw. “Apparently the strong character of Polish women is a consequence of the [Second World] war. I’ve been reading a lot about it. For many years women couldn’t count on men’s support in the family. Many men died during the war, or were in the army, or were taken into socialist prisons. Women had to stand on their own, they had to work and care for their homes and children. This is why we have a tradition of strong feminism.”

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Maria Nowinska is the designer of the Nowinska Bag, one of Poland’s most successful leather bag brands. “It was very difficult at the beginning. Warsaw never had an artisan tradition so we had no know-how, no experience to build something, and it was hard to find workers. I lost three years of my life creating my company, I had no private life. But I’m a self-made woman and I learned everything by myself, so now I know that there are no impossible things.”

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Julia Wollner is editor-in-chief of La Rivista, Poland’s first magazine about the culture, lifestyle and language of Italy. “To be successful, you need to give all you have and put it all on the table. It’s not enough to just do your job quietly; you need to give and share your personality, your sense of humor, everything that you are.”

the other hundred




"The Other Hundred" is a series of unique photo book projects aimed as a counterpoint to the Forbes 100 and other media rich lists by telling the stories of people around the world who are not rich but whose lives, struggles and achievements deserve to be celebrated.

The second edition of "The Other Hundred" focuses on the world's everyday entrepreneurs. The book offers an alternative to the view that most successful entrepreneurs were trained at elite business schools. Here are people who have never written a formal business plan, hired an investment bank, planned an exit strategy or dreamt of a stock market floatation.


More from The Other Hundred
Inside Gaza
Cairo's Blind, Female Orchestra
The Reality Of Education In Liberia
Inside North Korea
One Of Europe's Poorest Countries

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'You Are Beautiful' Is A Global Campaign To Share Women's Portraits And Authentic Stories

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Photographer Jade Beall wants to create a new kind of site for women -- one that features unaltered portraits taken by photographers around the world, accompanied by the subjects' stories.

(Some images below may be considered NSFW.)



Beall, the photographer behind The Bodies Of Mothers, is currently fundraising for "You Are Beautiful," which she described to The Huffington Post as "a rad new media platform for female photographers from all over the world to contribute un-photoshopped images and inspiring stories of women from around the world to promote healthy self-esteem, self-love and empowerment for women and our wee ones."

The site will feature portraits of women accompanied by narratives about their lives and bodies.

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"My body is a mother's body. I may not always like every lump and bump and mark I see. But I will remember that clarity of a child's perspective. This body was home to each of my four children, and has fed and nourished every one of them. And, at least for that, I cannot help but love it."


Beall is revamping her current site, A Beautiful Body, to create You Are Beautiful. She hopes that the new site will be a source of support and community for women struggling in their lives, as the existing site has been.

"So many women feel alone and unsupported as they deal with their bodies changing, going through pregnancy, post-partum, miscarriages, eating disorders, depression, weight gain, weight loss, cancer, illness and accidents," she wrote. "A Beautiful Body Project has been a lifeline for thousands of women around the world."

See some of the gorgeous portraits and excerpts from women's stories below, and learn more about You Are Beautiful here.


you are beautiful

"When I look at a photograph of myself I zero in on all my flaws – extra flab, double chin, eyes too close, cellulite, discolored skin. Oh, I can go on and on. I can look and feel fabulous, but then see a picture of that moment and hate what I see."





beautiful body

"I know all of these things are what have made me who I am today and I should be proud of my marks internal and external. My sagging breasts and stretch marks are stories of the journeys of creating and growing all five of my miracles. I try to remind myself of that daily."





beautiful body

"It's sad to me how the word 'beautiful' has been so cheapened by our culture, that it now only applies to a (very narrow) sort of physical appearance. Beauty is not just physical attractiveness, and physical attractiveness is variable by culture, time period, and individual people's preferences. I tell my children they are beautiful in the real sense.. they are amazing creatures capable of so much."





beautiful body

"When I see other women doing things that I do not understand and by learned un-authentic habit I want to 'judge.' But then I remember my truth and I internally smile: their unique way of living which I do not understand and which I need not make assumptions about is an incredible opportunity to expand my ability to love and my understanding of this world of being human!"





beautiful body

"What is important is that I have not restricted in 49 days. What is important is that I don't wake up every morning in a panic over what I ate the day before. What is important is that I can help myself out of an anxiety attack. It is important that my inner monologue is love, with many reminders and reframed affirmations. It's important that I'm here. That I could write this."

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Shooting Victims' Clothes Displayed As Art Activism To Help Get Guns Off Streets

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Blair Holt was shot and killed while he shielded another classmate from the bullets a gunman sprayed on a CTA bus in Chicago in 2007. His father is a police officer and his mother is a fire department chief, and that’s what they had taught him to do.

Earlier this month, a mannequin modeled after Holt’s height and weight, which was clothed in items his mother had saved, stood at the St. James Cathedral plaza in Chicago. From the light gray hooded jacket down to his Nikes with a bright orange swoosh, the structure nailed Holt’s signature style.

Everything, but the victim’s face -- which was decidedly left blank.

Hope to see you today at the #unforgotten

Posted by Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence on Friday, April 10, 2015


The mannequin was one of eight erected in an art installation created by the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, an advocacy group that’s working to get illegal guns off the streets. The group’s “Unforgotten” campaign, which will travel throughout the state, hopes to get more supporters involved in its mission by enabling gun violence victims to tell their stories.

“It is a reminder of who Blair was as a teenager and as a young man and how he carried himself,” Chicago police Cmdr. Ron Holt told Red Eye Chicago of the mannequin fashioned after his deceased son. “He was a young man of promise and hope."

Ever year, nearly 1,000 residents in Illinois alone lose their lives to guns.

The council is working to reduce gun violence by educating the public and advocating for legislative goals, among other pursuits.

Currently, the nonprofit is urging supporters to sign a petition that pushes for obligatory background checks on all gun states, requiring state licenses for gun dealers and giving families the power to remove guns from people in crisis.

“I’m trying to make the world a little better for others, so other kids and families don’t have to go through this,” Tom VandenBerk, who’s son was killed in 1992 in a shootout, said in the group’s PSA. “That’s something I feel I have to do.”

Find out more about the Illinois Council Against Gun Violence and how you can get involved here.


H/T AdWeek

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Kids With Special Needs Become Superheroes In Mom's Awesome Photo Series

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When mom Renee Bergeron took superhero-themed photos of her son with special needs, the little boy was so overjoyed with the experience that she decided to offer her services to other children like him.

The result is an inspiring photo series called "The Superhero Project," which shows kids with special needs dressed as superheroes, showing off their power poses.

Bergeron's 4-year-old son Apollo was born with a double aortic arch, a rare heart defect, she told The Huffington Post. He's had two heart surgeries, G-tube surgery, and several other minor surgeries since he was diagnosed at 18 months old. Today, he is doing "very well," the mom said, adding that he still has his feeding tube to help him take in extra calories and grow.

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To help her son feel strong and powerful, despite his physical limitations, Bergeron took superhero photos of him, and the pictures were more than she could've anticipated. "Apollo LOVED posing as a superhero and loved the resulting images," she said. "When I saw how much he enjoyed his photos, I knew I wanted to give that same gift to other children. I knew I never wanted him to feel self-conscious about his body or G-tube, and assumed other families would feel the same way."

Bergeron, who is mom to 14 children, launched her own photography business, Little Earthling Photography, in 2009, and she specializes in taking pictures of births and kids with special needs. Through raising Apollo and interacting with other children with special needs, the mom said she has "learned to look beyond appearance, to make effort to get to know people who are different, that everyone has a unique story that is worth taking the time to hear."

"I hope that people will learn the lesson I have: people, whatever their needs or differences, are all equally valuable," she continued. "Each person has their own distinct personality and gifts to offer the world. We often get too caught up in what meets the eye initially, and don't take the time to see inside of people. "

Keep scrolling and visit Bergeron's blog and photography website to see more of her Superhero Project photos.



H/T The Stir



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'Most Likely To Succeed': Schools Should Teach Kids To Think, Not Memorize

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Fourth-grader Scout is struggling to keep her composure during a parent-teacher conference as the teacher expounds upon the character-building aspects of having failed a math quiz. She fixes her tearful gaze in the distance. "I know that face," says her father, filmmaker Greg Whiteley. "That face is saying, 'This is bullshit. This whole thing called school is bullshit.'"

Whiteley's latest documentary, "Most Likely to Succeed," delivers a message Americans need to hear, and desperately: our schools are failing our children, leaving them unable to think critically and contribute to an innovation economy.

The educational system is broken. Or at least outmoded, says Larry Rosenstock, founding principal and CEO of High Tech High, a network of schools upending the current framework in California. "We have a system that was created over 100 years ago and everyone has a mental model that says that's the way it has to be," he told The Huffington Post.

For too long, the primary focus of education has been the acquisition of knowledge, explains Tony Wagner, expert-in-residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab. "The whole idea is: [if] you know more stuff, you're going to be better off, for whatever sets of reasons. And the only way to get it is through the teacher," he says in the film. "You don't have to do that anymore. Today, content is ubiquitous, it's free, it's on every Internet-connected device, and it's growing exponentially and changing constantly."

High Tech High's methods eschew the traditional instruction of what educators call "content knowledge" -- equations, dates, facts. Instead, the schools strive to foster creative problem-solving with a multidisciplinary curriculum. In lieu of tests, students present collaborative projects that require artistic vision, mathematical prowess and historical understanding. As in life, failure is not a letter grade.

But success is what most students find. Boasting a 98 percent college-matriculation rate among graduates, High Tech High warrants a closer look, and Whiteley's documentary devotes a full year to examining the project.

"The film derives its strength from Greg [Whiteley], a caring father who starts on this thinking we should have more testing and longer school days, and he makes the same path and the same journey as he wants our audience to take, " says executive producer Ted Dintersmith. "I spent 25 years in venture capitalism, and I could see a few things very clearly: one is how quickly routine jobs are going to be replaced by automated solutions."

Stressing the urgency of changing the education system amid America's lousy job market, he added: "The only surviving skills that will save young kids are creative and innovative. As the current school system is now, for 12 of 16 years, you're not in an environment that brings that out of them."

Rosenstock strives to uncover educators who connect student work to the practical world. Mark Aguirre, a humanities teacher at High Tech High since 2001, is a prime example of the type of educator Rosenstock seeks out. "You've been trained to raise your hands," Aguirre tells his students in the film. Out of character for most ninth-grade teachers, Aguirre employs Socratic seminars, instructing his students to imagine a classroom without his presence: "You need to talk to each other and get used to that instead of always looking at me."

As often as parents and students embrace Rosenstock's model, others communicate uncertainty, particularly as High Tech High's unconventional approach relates to teaching math skills.

"We're not for everyone, and parental anxiety about math is most common," said Rosenstock. "Parents think, 'If my kid's good at math, they're smart; if my kid is bad at math, they're not.' We know that's not true. Anxiety about a child's math ability slips off around ninth or tenth grade, when the level of math that the child is doing is still what the parent can handle. After that, it's no longer math that they can do themselves because they don't use it because they don't need it." By focusing on application, High Tech High dispenses with rote memorization.

During our conversation, Rosenstock stepped into the hall at High Tech High to read aloud from a prominent banner scrawled with Campbell's law: "The more any quantitative social indicator (or even some qualitative indicator) is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor."

"Most Likely to Succeed" implores viewers to consider the human consequences of education. "The question is," said Rosenstock, "who do you want your child to be?"



"Most Likely to Succeed" is featured at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.

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This Bizarre Trick Will Get A Catchy Song Out Of Your Head

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Do you have an obnoxiously catchy song lyric stuck on repeat in your brain? New research suggests that the secret to getting rid of these "earworms" may be as simple as chewing a stick of gum.

According to a new study conducted by psychologists at the University of Reading in the U.K., chewing diverts attention away from the catchy melody or lyric.

Earworms happen to as many as 90 percent of people at least once a week, psychologist Vicky Williamson told NPR's John Donvan in 2012. The University of Reading researchers said in a press release about their work that one study found 15 percent of people classify their earworms as "disturbing."

The researchers, who published their work this month in the quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, said that learning how to reduce the occurrence of earworms may have implications for other types of intrusive thoughts, such as those that characterize psychological disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

For the experiment, researchers asked 98 study participants to listen to catchy songs like "Payphone" by Maroon 5 and "Play Hard" by David Guetta. For three minutes after listening to the song, the participants were asked to hit a button whenever the song popped back into their head. During the three-minute period, the participants chewed gum, tapped their finger on the table or did neither.

The researchers found that people who chewed gum after listening to the songs "heard" the song playing in their mind a third less often than those who were not chewing gum.

How does it work? Reading psychologist Dr. Phil Beaman explained that chewing gum co-opts some of the brain's regions involved in earworms.

"Brain regions involved in hearing, remembering and imagining tunes include not only the auditory cortex but also regions more usually associated with speech production," Beaman told The Huffington Post in an email. "By forcing these regions to be active in chewing the gum, they were less available to support the involuntary generation or recollection of an earworm."

Beyond earworms, Beaman hopes that the research may pave the way for methods of managing more debilitating invasive thoughts in people with psychiatric conditions.

"Interfering with our own 'inner speech' through a more sophisticated version of the gum-chewing approach may work more widely," he said in a statement. "However, more research is needed to see whether this will help counter symptoms of obsessive-compulsive and similar disorders."

In the meantime, make sure you have a pack of Juicy Fruit at the ready for when this song comes on the radio:

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'Fire Island: Out In the Sun' By Photographer Koitz Documents Queer Vacation Mecca (NSFW)

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For many queer people, Fire Island, located just outside of New York City, has been an integral part of life for decades. Now, experience some of the magic of this vacation destination through this new selection of images from photographer Koitz.

Currently running as an exhibit at the University of Southern California, "Fire Island: Out In The Sun," on view from April 24 - 28, is a look at modern day life in the beloved gay mecca.

The Huffington Post chatted with Koitz about his work and what he is trying to accomplish with "Fire Island: Out In The Sun."

fire island

The Huffington Post: Who are the individuals captured in these photographs? Why is documenting Fire Island important?
When I started photographing gay Fire Island, my idea was not to document it in an academic sense. As a matter of fact, the first summer that I went there, to Cherry Grove, I did not feel too comfortable or particularly welcomed. But I also did not feel unwelcomed. It was a strange world, even for me as a gay man. For one thing, it was something that I had never seen or encountered before: young and old people interacting in a special way; the drag queens, the muscle boys… The island itself is so special -- right from the start, there’s getting there on a ferry, the wooden walks, the fact that there are no cars (people aren’t even allowed to ride their bicycles on them!) By the second summer I went out to the island, I was very attracted to all this but even then it was not until a few years later, when I started taking photographs for The Fire Island News, a local seasonal newspaper, that I started going to parties and events that offered me the possibility of photographing moments of the kind I had never seen before. I wanted to capture these moments for people -– gay or not -- who, like me, had never seen anything like them before.

fire2

First off, capturing gay life in a normal light is very important to me. I don’t want the viewer to think of my subjects as freaks or oddities but simply as people living their own lives in their own world according to their own wishes. Many of these people have a unique form of expression that deserves recognition and promotion and, in a way, my idea is always to take this extraordinary spectacle and somehow convert it into something like reverence. For this reason above all, my photographs of Fire Island are almost always “happy,” colorful and full of life. Even though I select whom and where to shoot, for me it is also extremely important to photograph with complete honesty. When I work on Fire Island, I choose not to photograph scenes that show the sadness or examples of failure I might see around me. It is important to me that I never photograph a person in an undignified or disrespectful way and, believe me, there are plenty of opportunities to do that! And yes, that could be a great picture too but that’s not how I want to photograph people. While I don’t manipulate any situation, I want people to look their best and to be at their best. I like to celebrate them.

How did you see Fire Island change during the ten years it took you to complete this project?
For years, my boyfriend Doug and I have had a house in the Grove along with our friends Jim and Richard. Myself, I have very personal and long-standing relationships with both gay communities on Fire Island -- Cherry Grove and the Pines -- and I have, of course, witnessed many changes in each place throughout the years. In my opinion, I feel that the Grove in particular is the community that has changed the most. When I went there for the first time, I would say that the population was on the “older” side and that there were not that many young people, unless you counted the staff at the bars and clubs and the entertainers. I must say a lot of credit should be given to Daniel Nardicio and his famous “underwear party” (among the many events he’s organized for the last few years in Cherry Grove) to help diversify the community in a big way. Daniel helped to change the perception of the Grove as a [merely] “lesbian” and “old” community.

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Like the weekly Underwear Party, regular Grove performers like Shequida, Hedda Lettuce, Logan Hardcore, Porsche and Busted also attract many people to their Grove performances from outside the community, in particular from the Pines, which every year seems more aware and familiar with its older, “sister” community.

Personally, I hope that the Grove and the Pines remain mostly LGBT-majority communities. No, I am not meaning this in any “heterophobic” sense at all -- for one thing, it is amazing and gratifying how well gays and open-minded straights coexist in the Grove and the Pines today -- but even then it is hard not to remember that heterosexuals have the rest of the world available to them and it seems only fair that we gay people should have a little bit of space -- both physical and psychological -- for ourselves. In addition, I love interacting with older people and I actually get along extremely well with them, men and women, gay and straight.

And, believe it or not, in the past few years, I’ve even found that the guys in the Pines, famously more snobbish, have become more “approachable.” This new generation of residents of both the Grove and the Pines is certainly different, more “normal,” a little less obsessed with their bodies and the way they look, and more open to differences.

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What do you hope people take away from this project?
I have been preparing a book of photos of gay Fire Island for awhile now and I believe that my photos add a new and significantly different perspective on the perception of gay people today. Yes, there are drag queens, both professional and amateur, in my photographs, just as there are pictures of people at parties having fun, but there is always a sense of normalcy, of fun and of great camaraderie in them. That is something I’m happy to say that the architect Victor Jones, curator of the photo exhibit of my work at the Verle Annis Gallery at the University of Southern California, recognized immediately. I am an honored recipient of the USC Founders Cultural Award and I will be forever grateful to them for helping me to put these images -- my vision -- out there for public review. The University of Southern California Office of Residential Education’s mission is to enrich the cultural experiences of students living in the USC residential communities and this exhibition will, I hope, help them accomplish that.

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A friend of mine, former art gallery owner Nicholas Davies, has put my photographs in the historical context of works, including photographs, by other Fire Island artists such as Paul Cadmus, Jared French, and Margaret Hoening French, who painted and photographed in the 1940s on the beach with a still startling freshness in their magical-realist style. A context which, Davies feels, is reflected also in Tom Bianchi’s Polaroid photos taken in the Pines from 1975-1983 during that golden period now recalled with the poignancy of hindsight, photos -- almost photo sketches -- that show both the playful liberation and carefree innocence that were cut short by the unexpected onset of AIDS.

The poet W. B. Yeats wrote, Davies pointed out to me one day in regard to what he felt my photographs did for him and for others looking at them, “the world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” For that beautiful reason alone, I hope we can appreciate my work and the work of other photographers for helping us all focus our attention on the truly extraordinary around us. I am very honored and humbled to be considered a part of that “magic” of Fire Island.

Check out the slideshow below for more images from "Fire Island: Out In The Sun" and visit Koitz Photography here for more info.

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Bruce LaBruce, Queer Filmmaker, Get His Own Retrospective At NYC's MoMA

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Bruce LaBruce is one of the most iconic names within the world of queer film. Now the artist is being honored with his very own retrospective at New York City's Museum of Modern Art, which recognizes his work as a whole from over the past several decades.

Having opened on April 23, the retrospective showcases all nine of the films LaBruce has made as he reaches what he describes as a "mid-point" in his career. The exhibition is also features LaBruce's latest film "Gerontophilia," a project that explores intergenerational queer love.

The Huffington Post chatted with LaBruce this week about what the retrospective means for his career and what we can expect from the filmmaker in the future.

bruce

The Huffington Post: What is your overarching vision for this exhibition at the MoMA?
Bruce LaBruce: The film exhibition at MoMA is a retrospective, so it's an opportunity to look back at my work at a more or less "mid-career" point and ponder how I got this far making the kinds of films that I make. The exhibition corresponds with the US theatrical debut of my film "Gerontophilia," which opens May 1st at the Village Cinema East in NYC, and with the recent release on Blu-ray of my movie "Hustler White" for its 20th anniversary. MoMA is showing all nine of my feature-length films and a program of my short films.

I started out making short, experimental super 8 films in Toronto in the mid-80s, showing them in alternative art spaces and punk venues. My first no-budget feature, "No Skin Off My Ass," was shot on super 8 and blown up to 16mm. My next two films where shot on 16mm, and then I transferred to digital but still incorporated some material shot on film. My latest features, including "Gerontophilia" and "Pierrot Lunaire," have been shot entirely on HD digital. So my work has bridged the gap between film and video, which has had interesting implications in terms of aesthetics and process.

bruce2

I also started making fanzines and films before the Internet popularly existed, and I promoted and exhibited much of my early work myself. I considered promotion and distribution part of the creative process, and still do to this day. And in terms of queer politics, I was one of the first filmmakers to be showing sexually explicit and even pornographic gay imagery in films that were playing at major international film festivals (four of my films have played at Sundance and three as world premieres). So it seems like a good time to reflect back on that trajectory, and figure out where I'm headed now.

As an artist, what does this moment in your career represent for you?
Although I've always shown my work at more "queer" and alternative venues and festivals, I've also avoided only preaching to the perverted, and have tried to reach broader audiences, even with very provocative and (homo)sexually explicit work. So to be shown and recognized by MoMA is a great way to give my work more visibility, and to put it in a larger context of the gay movement and the avant-garde. The MoMA film department is also talking to me about including my films as part of their permanent collection, so it's a good opportunity for me to have my work properly archived. I've made mostly no- and low-budget films, so there have been very few restrictions on my imagination as a filmmaker. I've been allowed to do pretty much whatever I want, without interference, which has encouraged me to really push the envelope and explore some unchartered territory. So it's great to see MoMA supporting this kind of work.

gentro

What are your thoughts about the possibility of viewers truly getting an accurate sense of who you are as an artist by experiencing this exhibition?
The MoMA retrospective is presenting all of my movies, even the most controversial ones. My film "Skin Flick," an art-porn film that takes as its subject a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads, was my first film to be picketed when it played a three-week run at the ICA in London. "L.A. Zombie," a gorn movie (mixing gore and porn) was banned in Australia and caused a ruckus when it was screening in competition at the Locarno Film Festival. So I'm happy that MoMA is not shying away from showing these films as well, because they really do give the full picture of my work. "Gerontophilia," which opens the retrospective, is my first and only non-sexually explicit feature film to date!

bruce3

What's next for Bruce LaBruce?
I'm hoping to continue to make more of both kinds of films, both no-budget and experimental, and more mainstream. I have three projects in development. One is unannounced, one is called "Twincest," which is a feature film without sexually explicit content, and one is a no-budget sequel of sorts to "The Raspberry Reich" entitled "Ulrike's Brain." Hopefully there will also be more photography, more writing, and more controversies!

The Bruce LaBruce MoMA retrospective is running through May 2. Head here for more information.

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Jay Z Responds To Tidal Criticism On Twitter

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Jay Z's music- and video-streaming service Tidal has been experiencing a wave of bad press ever since its March launch. Critics have predicted the failure of the subscription-only service, enumerated its problems and declared it already a flop based on its position in Apple's App Store. Mumford & Sons and Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard have been among the musicians to speak out against it. But Jay Z is standing by his service.

On Sunday, the rapper and mogul took to Twitter to offer a multi-part defense of Tidal, using the hashtag #TidalFacts. Jay Z assured his followers that "Tidal is doing just fine" with more than 770,000 subscriptions. "Please give us a chance to grow & get better," he wrote.









































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'To Kill A Mockingbird' Play Continues To Run In Harper Lee's Hometown

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MONROEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee has started a nonprofit company that will produce a play about the book, ending a dispute that threatened to derail the long-running performance, a publishing group said Saturday.

Dramatic Publishing Co. had refused to extend the performance rights for the production in Lee's hometown of Monroeville, but the Illinois-based publishing company said Saturday on its Facebook page that Lee has founded a new, nonprofit group called the Mockingbird Company. The organization will produce the play beginning next year. "We are also happy to announce that the play will be performed by Mockingbird Players, who have acted this American classic so well for so long," the statement said. "We believe that this is the best way (from the stage) to celebrate Ms. Lee's masterpiece throughout the greater Monroeville area."

The Monroe County Heritage Museum has staged the play for years, but it has been involved in legal disputes with Lee in the past.

Lee sued the museum in 2013 over "Mockingbird" souvenirs sold in its store after the museum opposed her application for a federal trademark for the title of her book. The dispute has since been settled.

The play is currently in its 26th season in Monroeville, which was the template for the fictional Maycomb in Lee's book. The performances this month and next are sold out; excitement over the upcoming publication of Lee's second book, "Go Set a Watchman," helped tickets sell out faster than normal.

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Mystery Artist Wanksy Paints Penises Around Potholes To Get Them Fixed (NSFW)

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Armed with a can of washable spray paint, an artist in Greater Manchester, England, has embarked on a worthy crusade: to rid the region of potholes… by drawing penises on them.

The anonymous artist, who goes by the name “Wanksy,” told the Manchester Evening News that he decided to draw attention to the “appalling” pothole-ridden streets after some of his cyclist friends were badly injured on the roads.

“I wanted to attract attention to the pothole and make it memorable. Nothing seemed to do this better than a giant comedy phallus,” he said. “It’s also speedy, I don’t want to be in the road for a long time. It seems to have become my signature. I just want to make people smile and draw attention to the problem.”

Here's a nice long one for you all.

Posted by Wanksy - Road Artist on Saturday, April 18, 2015




Here's a nice big wanksy to cheer you up as you go back to work .

Posted by Wanksy - Road Artist on Monday, April 6, 2015




The artist, who uses non-permanent paint that he says washes out within a week or two, told BBC Newsbeat that his scheme has proven successful so far, with potholes apparently getting fixed more quickly.



"People will drive over the same pothole and forget about it,” he said. “Suddenly you draw something amusing around it, everyone sees it and it either gets reported or fixed."





Another success story

Posted by Wanksy - Road Artist on Friday, April 10, 2015




Wanksy, whose pseudonym was inspired by street artist Banksy, has apparently won himself many fans for his antics. The local government, however, is not amused.



A council spokesman in Bury, a town in Greater Manchester, told the Evening News that the artist’s actions “are not only stupid but incredibly insulting to local residents.



“Has this person, for just one second, considered how families with young children must feel when they are confronted with these obscene symbols as they walk to school? Not only is this vandalism, but it’s also counter-productive,” the spokesman said. “Every penny that we have to spend cleaning off this graffiti is a penny less that we have to spend on actually repairing the potholes.”

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JooYoung Choi's 'Cosmic Womb' Explores Issues Of Adoption And Race In America

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JooYoung Choi has a tendency to speak about the fictional universe she’s invented as matter-of-factly as she would the facts of her real life.

The 32-year-old, Houston, Texas-based artist sets most of her ever-expanding body of paintings and video art on a “parallel planet” she calls "The Cosmic Womb.” The planet -- which has its own Wikipedia page -- plays home to imagined races (called Tuplets), invented antagonists (the Munoes, or “evil octopuses that feed on negative thoughts”), and even a television station, Cosmic Womb TV.

“Pleasure Vision, the Spirit of Television and Sight and Sound, transmits TV to everyone in the Cosmic Womb,” Choi described gravely in a phone conversation with The Huffington Post.

thanks for the cosmic knowledge
"Thanks For the Cosmic Knowledge," by JooYoung Choi


Initially created as part of her MFA program at Lesley University in Massachusetts, Choi has been expanding her notion of the Cosmic Womb since 2012. But its roots lie far deeper in her past. Growing up in an adopted American family, Choi was one of a few dozen Asian-Americans in her hometown of Concord, New Hampshire.

“Three years before I was adopted, the 1980 census stated that my hometown had about 60 Asian people in it, out of a population of about 30,400,” she explained. “I only knew a small handful of adopted people. Often I was reminded by other children that I looked 'different' or I was so 'weird'… As a child, I used popular media and art to make sense of my situation of feeling and looking so different than those around me.”

Throughout her childhood, Choi collected a motley crew of media figures -- from Kristi Yamaguchi to Lotus Blossom of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" -- to serve as a surrogate “tribe.” Choi met her birth parents in 2007 and 2008, but issues of “adoption, race, systemic oppression, loss and liberation” continue to influence her work, she says.

The tendency to find meaning in disparate characters, and the importance of visual media, would later inform her creation of the Cosmic Womb. As would a book called The Primal Wound, by Nancy Newton Verrier, which addresses the emotional complications of adoption. The name "Cosmic Womb" is partially derived from the Korean word for womb, which translates literally to "baby house."

cosmic womb
"The Sacrifice of Putt Putt," by JooYoung Choi


"I decided that if there is a possible primal wound that affects adoptees, there must also be a Cosmic Womb for them to heal [in]," Choi added. "The idea that Koreans saw the womb as a house or location versus an internal organ interested me... I thought, what if my art could provide a place for the healing of loss, for the things that we lose in life, or have never known or have been forgotten?"

Her comprehensively imagined universe differs radically from life on Earth. For starters, the Cosmic Womb is populated mainly by beings Choi calls "Tuplets" -- humanoids who resemble East Asian girls (humanoid boys are rarer, she says). Most of the animals are male, however, and they can talk. The Tuplets of the Cosmic Womb sometimes have superpowers, and embark on adventures enshrined in Choi's paintings. Some of these characters are imbued with names and backstories, such as C.S. Watson, Choi's proxy in the Cosmic Womb -- a former denizen of Earth, reborn on the distant planet.

Oh, and the leadership of the Cosmic Womb is distinctly female: Choi's intricately imagined mythical world is ruled by the compassionate Queen Kiok (sometimes played by Choi in the Cosmic Womb video art), and its spiritual realm is peopled by two goddesses, Pleasure Vision and Quan Yin, the Goddess of Compassion.

have faith
"Have Faith, For You Have Always Been Loved," by JooYoung Choi


"The major difference is that the Cosmic Womb is a safe haven for all the forgotten dreams, and people and places and ideas that we on Earth have abandoned," Choi explains. "For example, the version of Pluto that is still regarded as a planet can be seen with a telescope from the Cosmic Womb. When the brontosaurus and triceratops were said to 'never exist,' they emerged out of the waters of the Cosmic Womb, to start their new lives in a place where their existence would be acknowledged."

The East Asian faces that fill Choi's canvases are part of an effort, she says, to increase the visibility of Asians in ways that she did not experience as a child.

“In part, I make work first for that younger version of me that never saw an Asian adult on 'Sesame Street,' who never saw an Asian face in a stained glass window, and feared maybe people who looked like me didn't get to go to heaven,” Choi explained. “But this concept of the child who cannot see herself in the mirror has grown into a broader purpose of creating work that uses narrative, imagery and sound to address an issue most humans have faced in their lives: feeling invisible, forgotten, displaced or lost. “

The national motto of the Cosmic Womb -- “Have Faith, For You Have Always Been Loved” -- is part of Choi’s way of addressing her troubled past self. Through the parallel planet, she mitigates the oppression, rootlessness and sorrow she encounters on Earth.



In person, Choi wears enormous eyeglasses and a chipper mien. You might find her engaged in enthusiastic conversation in her smoky, tremulous voice, perhaps carrying at least one of the 10-12 puppets she uses in her video work -- moving images that eventually become the stuff of Cosmic Womb TV. The childhood roots of her artistic motivations are readily apparent in these videos, which take the familiar tropes of children’s entertainment and add a hefty dose of the surreal -- with Choi’s engaging presence as an anchor.

Choi hopes to incorporate further elements of nostalgia into her current work, planning to create 1980s-esque dolls in the style of Rainbow Brite, another childhood companion. Despite the bright tones and childlike elements of Choi’s work, her paintings often seem to grasp at darker themes, depicting exposure, peril, and ecstasy. For Choi, there is no contradiction between the bubbly, bright aura of the Cosmic Womb and the complex themes addressed in her work.

“As an artist I have a choice to make,” she told HuffPost. “I can focus on targeting a specific demographic with my work, or I can reach out to the child in all of us, that miraculous stage in human development where we relied on imagination and creativity to make our little way in a big world of unknowns. The part of us that was unashamed to believe in the fantastic.“

blue
"Blue And The Helping Hands At MC Customs Body Shop," by JooYoung Choi

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Inclusive Playground Makes Playtime Magical For Kids Of All Abilities

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Playtime is one of the best parts about being a kid.

The Magical Bridge Playground has everything a kid could want from a playscape. There are giant slides, a jungle gym, musical instruments, swings and a custom playhouse. Everything is cheery and colorful. But what makes this playground truly magical is its inclusiveness. Every single detail is designed to accommodate children, and parents, of all abilities.

The playground, which celebrated its opening day in Palo Alto, California, on April 18, was dreamed up by Olenka Villarreal about six years ago. Villarreal’s daughter, Ava, was born with developmental, physical and cognitive limitations and was using swinging as therapy. However, Ava had difficulty comfortably navigating the playgrounds in her community.

“In this beautiful town of Palo Alto, we have 34 playgrounds, and not a single one could accommodate my daughter,” Villarreal told The Huffington Post. “A message needed to be made that everyone was welcome.” So she took action and raised $4 million to build The Magical Bridge Playground.

magical playground

After speaking with the city of Palo Alto, Villarreal was approved for a space and began raising money for an all-inclusive playground. To design Magical Bridge, she consulted with a group of landscape architects, inclusive experts, designers and a focus group of families to make sure the playground was fully interactive, fun and functional for everyone.

“One of the biggest limitations in most parks today is ground surface,” Villarreal explained to HuffPost. “Many parks still use sand, which is extremely inaccessible.” Engineered wood chips are the most commonly used ground cover in public parks today because they are inexpensive and ADA-compliant. However, Villarreal claims they are "impossible for wheelchairs and walkers to navigate through."

All the surfaces in the Magical Bridge Playground are completely flat, and are made from rubbery, spongy soft materials. The playground is also divided into seven play zones for different activities, like a swinging zone and a music zone. Retreat huts are scattered throughout the park to accommodate children who get overstimulated or overwhelmed by typical playground noises. Having these designated sections allows users to feel safe and aware of the activity happening around them. Yet, Magical Bridge operates as one, large playscape, where children can all engage with each other and play freely.

magical bridge playground

"[This is more] than just the ability to have everybody in the playground," Villarreal says. "It's time to plan public parks to include each ability and disability and only then will real magic happen for everyone."

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Tumblr 'Of Sparrows' Creates GIFs That Will Transport You To Another World

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Can we please live in this woman's imagination forever?

An artist in Japan has drawn and brought to life a collection of warm, meditative scenes that perfectly complement the arrival of spring. The artist, who wishes to go by A. Sparrow, posts the art on her Tumblr page, Of Sparrows, after spending anywhere from 15 to 30 hours on a single GIF, she told The Huffington Post.

http://ofsparrows.tumblr.com/post/112752202697/it-never-works-with-the-roses-they-dont-like


"I started doodling in the margins of texts and forgot to stop and the doodles got bigger and bigger and now they’ve taken over my life and I don’t do anything but doodle," Sparrow told HuffPost in an email. "I’m waiting for the point at which they gain sentience and start complaining about how badly I am drawing them."

http://ofsparrows.tumblr.com/post/79523841045/happy-pi-e-day-dont-buy-your-pie-filling


Sparrow said she takes inspiration from everything around her, then gets to work meticulously drawing and animating her art.

"I do thumbnail sketches, then the background, followed by all the different bits of the drawing that need to be animated on separate layers," she told HuffPost.

http://ofsparrows.tumblr.com/post/112009929246/supersymmetry-for-loika-who-gave-me-a-rose


When asked how she's able to make her GIFs so fluid, Sparrow said it helps to have fewer frames.

"I’m more impressed at those Tumblr GIF blogs that manage to convert video footage into beautiful high-quality GIFs," she said. "That’s actual proper sorcery right there."

http://ofsparrows.tumblr.com/post/117475655888/never-underestimate-the-vocabulary-of-a-seabird


http://ofsparrows.tumblr.com/post/110126527212/its-a-bit-early-for-valentines-but-you-really


http://ofsparrows.tumblr.com/post/111526603419/breakfast-sorcery-the-only-superpower-i-want-to


http://ofsparrows.tumblr.com/post/79017003395/i-like-to-think-that-howl-and-calcifer-just-sat


Check out the full collection on the artist's Tumblr page.



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