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Barber Goes To Great Lengths To Make Boy With Autism Feel Comfortable During Haircut

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A barber's unique approach paid off with one tiny customer.


James Williams, of Jim the Trim barber shop in Briton Ferry, Wales, posted photos on Facebook showing himself lying on the ground next to Mason, a boy who has autism, and cutting the tot's hair.





While the technique isn't one traditionally used, the post explained that Mason had been uncomfortable with haircuts in the past and by going "down to a child's level, literally," the barber could finally give the boy a trim. Since Williams posted the photos on Tuesday, he's received praise from people on the social media site, admiring his simple gesture. 





According to the Facebook post, Mason's parents, Jamie Lewis and Denine Davies, have brought the child to Williams' shop before. Over the past few months, they've experienced no success with getting their son's hair cut. 


"He wouldn't allow me to go near one of his ears," Williams explained in his Facebook post. "He would run away [at] times if he wasn't up to it." 





Though Williams had tried various techniques in the past to complete the boy's cut, everything changed when he noticed that the boy was comfortable on the floor. 


"I went on the floor as I found that's where he always wanted to be. He played on his father's phone, watched random programs, and that entertained him," Williams, who also quieted the rest of the shop for the cut, told People.com. "So I thought, 'Let's join him and lay with him and see if it works.'"


Not only did his theory pay off, he got a sweet reward from Mason at the end. 


"I asked for a high-five, he hugged me," Williams wrote on Facebook. "True barber love!


Williams told BuzzFeed that he's flattered by the attention he's received, and hopes the photos will raise awareness about the challenges that families who have kids with autism face. 


 


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Scalia Goes On Hobby Lobby Shopping Binge, Just To Feel Again

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear seven new appeals regarding the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate, an issue raised by the Christian craft store chain Hobby Lobby in a 2014 case. 


Knowing full well that the new cases will unleash a flurry of criticism his way -- just the fix he was looking for -- Justice Antonin Scalia made a trip to his local Hobby Lobby and consumed like a man possessed.


 



After leaving the checkout with his purchases, Scalia sat on the hood of his car in the Hobby Lobby parking lot, taking deep hits off a cigarette, which he put out in his own palm, releasing a pleasure-filled primal groan.


Reporters surrounded his vehicle, bombarding him with questions, but he simply sat there, a crooked smile creeping below cold, dead eyes.


Their antagonism made him strong. He got into the car, punched the inside roof of his car repeatedly and howled with delight.


Thick smoke overtook the reporters as Scalia spun his tires as he sped away.


Also on HuffPost:



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'Love,' Gaspar Noé Style, Means Complicated, Graphic 3D Sex

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Nestled among fall's awards-bait onslaught is something that won't attract the Oscars' attention but might arouse yours -- that is, if a theater near you is willing to screen it. That movie is "Love," the latest offering from provocateur Gaspar Noé. It is, in effect, a 3D sex film. But don't tell Noé that.


The Argentinian director wrote "Love" around the same time he penned his previous two features, the 2002 thriller "Irreversible" and the psychedelic 2009 drama "Enter the Void." He presented the project to Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci "many years ago," around the time they starred in "Irreversible" and were, as Noé told The Huffington Post last week, "the magic couple of French cinema." Cassel and Bellucci read Noé's treatment and decided it wasn't for them. After seeing "Love," it's not hard to imagine why. The movie, which opened in limited release last weekend, begins with a couple engaging in three minutes of mutual masturbation that results in a young woman licking her partner's emission off of his erect penis.



Said partner is Murphy (Karl Glusman, who appeared in September's "Stonewall"), the central fixation of "Love." After the aforementioned scene ends, we discover that Murphy is an American filmmaker living in Paris with his girlfriend (Klara Kristin, who Noé spotted dancing in a club) and their young daughter. Through extensive flashbacks, it is revealed that Murphy's bedmate from the film's opening (Aomi Muyock, who Noé met via a mutual friend) is now his ex. He was dating her when Murphy unintentionally impregnated the woman who became the mother of his child. In the present day, Murphy receives a phone call from his ex's mother, who informs him that her daughter has gone missing, having possibly committed suicide. That sets him on a downward spiral of longing that turns into agony over the absence of the woman he declares the love of his life. Our shallow protagonist is not the family man his current girlfriend assumes he is. 


Along the way, the decade's most explicit sex scenes trace the evolutions of Murphy's relationships, resulting in a cum shot that flies out of the screen. Oh, the things a filmmaker can do with 3D.


"On the first day of shooting, when we’re wrapping, I said, 'No, no, no, let’s do now today the cum shot on the camera," Noé said in slightly broken English. "Then I remember, I was behind the camera and Karl looked at me and said, 'Can you please move? I cannot concentrate.' And then we shot that scene and he said, 'I thought maybe I should just take a plane and run back to my country.' But then he slept and the next morning he was back. We’re making a movie that represents something we all know."


Even if audiences focus on the fornication that feels more at home in an adult film than something playing in mainstream cinemas, Noé doesn't. His movies may seem outre, but in the director's eyes, he's simply depicting something not often seen onscreen. With "Love," he wanted to showcase the "realistic" sex that "makes your life so exciting," just as he wanted to make "Enter the Void" in an attempt to leap inside the head of someone traversing his way through a hallucinogenic trip. 



Not many movies exemplify Noé's intentions, but he cited the 1976 art film "In the Realm of the Senses" and 2013's "Blue Is the Warmest Color" as precursors to "Love." He also listed 2012's decidedly unsexual "Amour" as inspiration. (Fellow firebrand Lars von Trier should also be mentioned, as his films, like "Love," are said to incorporate unsimulated sex.) The movie is certainly unlike anything else on the big screen this year, and Noé, for his part, relishes anyone's hesitancies, particularly in regard to whether theaters are willing to screen the film. Russia's culture ministry, for example, has banned it, even though the distributor offered the country a "softer" version of the one that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. 


"If people tell you a movie has been banned, you want to see it," Noé said. The primo example, of course, is the racist 1915 Civil War epic "Birth of a Nation," which frequently inspires "should it be banned?" queries. "Love" offers a wink-wink in its direction by plastering a poster of "Nation" on Murphy's kitchen wall. 


It seems, so far, that Noé is correct about heightened intrigue. The movie's initial rollout entailed a mere two screens, but it collected an impressive per-theater average that rivaled the weekend's dismal wide-release revenues. "Love" expands to additional theaters this weekend, meaning you can send your kiddos to "The Peanuts Movie" while you take in a 135-minute ode to lovemaking whose thesis can be summed up in a line of dialogue that makes Murphy seem like a Noé analogue: "My biggest dream is to make a movie that truly depicts sentimental sexuality."


"Why wouldn’t you do a movie about that?" Noé said.


 


Also on HuffPost:


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2015 MIX Queer Experimental Film Festival Coming To NYC

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MIX NYC Queer Experimental film festival, an underground, week-long festival that showcases work by a diverse range of artists and is one of the best examples of large-scale queer community building and engagement in NYC, is returning this month for the 28th year.


The festival is currently involved in a Kickstarter campaign with only a couple of days left to raise the funds to pull off this year's initiative. Last year, we brought you an extensive history of MIX NYC and the festival's legacy in the context of queer culture in NYC and on an international level.


This year, we talked to leaders and organizers of the festival about what makes MIX so special and why it is still so important after nearly three decades. Check out their responses and some photos from the building of the MIX space below, as well as photos from previous festivals.



"While there any many great festivals in the world, for many reasons, it's the personal, visceral and emotional response that MIX NYC evokes from people that make it worthwhile for me.  I've been involved with the organization in various capacities for over 20 years, and I've seen it change many times, and I've heard people question whether we need a queer film festival or whether MIX NYC needs to continue --especially during lean economic times. But then I hear from visiting filmmakers or hardworking volunteers or first-time attendees who give deeply personal tribute to their experience, as eye-opening, or somehow...life-changing. One attendee (who later was a participating artist) told me that MIX changed their understanding of their own sexuality. That's big. And that's beyond experiencing aesthetic pleasure or edification from the films. That's a strong feeling that comes from communing with others -- you can't get that from TV or corporatized experiences.

 

There's something about being in a fairly unfettered space in a non-commercial context that is liberating. Not everything has to be transactional, or so stringently rule-bound as so may parts of our other lives are, and the MIX NYC's festival allows for that. It's been an evolving place where people can be themselves." --Stephen Kent Jusick, Executive Director


"Queers watch experimental film together to remind ourselves who we are, to reflect on our differences and consider what we share. Our embodied experiences are honored through radical expression, and at MIX we facilitate this expression in film, in shared immersive space, installations and performances.


Conventional narrative cannot approach doing justice to our lives. At MIX we show art that is queer in both form and content, because this combination is what speaks to us.


Things have certainly changed since the festival began, but the essential idea at MIX is that our unconventional queer lives and emotions are uniquely well-represented through experimental media, and we especially love art that upends normalcy and challenges us too." --Sloan Lesbowitz, Board President



"MIX NYC is one of the last left of its kind; a noncommercial queer space without the usual boundaries found in New York City. It is a family space made by the community that for a week gives us a place to be together and experience queer art that isn't shown anywhere else. Also, the scale of this production is crazy, especially with such limited resources. MIX NYC exists because of the love from the community. When the city has shifted so drastically into the mainstream it is good to see an organization like MIX NYC still standing." --Diego Montoya, Venue Designer



"...I'll just share that for all the social shade that can get thrown around at big queer events, I had this intense appreciation this year [2014] for the festival's underground nature as a free-for-all space. For better or worse, MIX is one of the last vestiges of the underground arts scene that is clearly dying -- especially in NYC. There are fewer and fewer spaces where queers can bring their full selves and full lives, especially as NYC gets more corporate, gay and mainstream. One of the two nights I came to party, I just stuck around to catch friends, eat and talk, and watch all the...mayhem. No other space like it -- really. And we all know how much threat there is to that kind of free space, especially for artists who thrive and survive on it as the place for full self-expression. This might be a little sentimental, but I really had some big feelings about how important MIX is -- and the immense and amazing scale of the festival. It's all influenced by how, as an artist striving for more engagement and recognition, I'm looking for spaces for my work and feeling the pressure of having to learn a super heteronormative and capitalist business model language. It's disheartening and challenging and vulnerable. Partying late into the night at MIX was super special this year." --Zave Martohardjono, past programmer and MIX NYC artist



"MIX NYC 2014 is one of the first places/communities I have felt embraced by and welcomed into in a very long time. Thank you for making a space feel welcoming to all different bodies and experiences. Thank you for devoting your love and energy towards making a warehouse into a dreamy wonderland and filling it with amazing works and bodies.” --January Hunt, MIX NYC 2014 artist



Want more info about MIX NYC? Head here.


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Stephen Colbert Calls Out J.K. Rowling For 'Harry Potter' Reveals

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Just call Stephen Colbert he who must not be silent.


"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling keeps revealing secrets about the franchise that change its whole story, and the "Late Show" host thinks it's getting a bit riddikulus.


For example, Colbert pointed out during his show on Friday that Rowling recently announced the "T" in Voldemort is actually silent, and we've all been saying it wrong. Like, what? The revelation prompted The Huffington Post to review the tapes and find example after example showing Rowling pronouncing the "T," too.





Plus, if the "T" is actually supposed to be silent, why didn't Rowling tell the movie producers that everyone is pronouncing one of the most important names in the series incorrectly?


Well, in order to prevent any future bombshells, Colbert decided to reveal what he called all of Rowling's future Potter secrets. Expecto to be completely shocked. Among the revelations: Snape is apparently short for Snapple, Horcruxes aren't dishwasher-safe and Harry once got drunk and tried to make out with his Patronus.


So there you have it, Potter fans (aka PotHeads, according to Colbert). Now all the secrets have been revealed.


Scared, Rowling?





"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS.


Also on HuffPost:



 


Colbert called Rowling out about it in his Friday show, saying that he'd now he's going to reveal secrets from the books before Rowling can.


Among Colbert's revelations, Snape is apparently short for Snapple, Horcruxes aren't  "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling keeps coming out with new secrets from the franchise after the fact, and called out

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Try, Try Again, And Keep Recording

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Peter Bresnan isn’t famous.


At least, not yet, but that’s what he’s trying to be -- or, if not famous, at least funny -- in his new podcast following his adventures in trying to be a stand-up comedian. It’s aptly titled: “Tell Me I’m Funny.”


His first two episodes provide a look into a world few see, save for other up-and-coming comedians: the open mics, the joke critiques, the feeling that his mom is his only fan. Stand-up comedy, for Bresnan, is “something I’ve always loved, but I’ve never actually tried doing before,” as he says in Episode 1. This isn’t the story of a Steve Martin or Sarah Silverman, or someone who’s had a bit of success on his local circuit.


Bresnan is an absolute beginner.


Other podcasts have followed their hosts as they try something new with unknown results: “First Day Back” garnered attention for Tally Abecassis’ vulnerable documentation of her return to the workforce after a long break; Megan Tan’s “Millennial” showcases the recent college grad’s attempts to find herself, and a career, through that early 20s haze. And, of course, there’s “StartUp,” which in its first season followed Alex Blumberg as he created what is now Gimlet Media, a podcasting powerhouse in its own right with nary a missed note in their catalog.


What draws us to these underdog stories, tales of attempts, of unsure outcomes? It follows logic to be interested in someone successful: in interviews and profiles, we want to know about Stephen King’s writing habits; Amy Schumer’s comedic brain; Steph Curry’s smooth court moves. But it’s unlikely that Wanda from down the street will appear on the cover of a magazine anytime soon. To an extent, it makes sense: why inquire about a stranger’s life? We shouldn’t care as much.


Yet, it turns out, we do.


Podcasting doesn’t necessarily incur the large costs that most life examiners -- book deals, documentaries, magazines -- have to contend with, meaning they’re also not bound by the need to have an insanely huge fan base to exist. Anyone with a microphone, a story and some computer know-how can start their own show. This is not to undercut the skill level and logged hours needed to create a good podcast, which is clear in Tan’s, Bresnan’s, and the other aforementioned shows, but let's agree the startup costs are lower and the pathways more accessible in the digital content realm than, say, in Hollywood.



They’re journeys that, thanks to the hosts, tap into basic feelings we’re all equipped with: questioning our worth, having a dream, feeling hopeful, feeling static.



As a listener and non-famous person, I can conjecture that these stories are enjoyable because of some existential comfort they provide: I can see myself as the unsure stand-up finding out how his act went over onstage, or the woman who is unsure how to be outside of the assured path of college. If they’re not journeys I’ve been through myself, they’re journeys that, thanks to the hosts, tap into basic feelings we’re all equipped with: questioning our worth, having a dream, feeling hopeful, feeling static.


The journey these “beginner” podcasts follow also carries the weight of the unexpected. Will Tan get the highly coveted NPR internship she discusses in "Millennial"? Will anyone tell Bresnan he’s funny? All we know, as listeners, is that the odds are against them. Success isn’t guaranteed, a factor that taps into our love for the underdog. Daniel Engber explored this phenomenon on Slate in 2010. While his article generally focuses on underdogs in sports, the takeaways transfer: “... the expected value of a bet on an underdog -- its average payoff in raw, chest-bumping excitement -- will always be higher than the expected value of a bet on the favorite.” The story of, "I'm perfectly satisfied and will continue to be," doesn't really have the satisfying arc we crave in our narratives.



A photo posted by Megan Tan (@mmmmtan) on




There’s also the confessional nature inherent to these podcasts; the feeling while listening that you’ve stumbled upon a stranger’s audio diary. There’s personal stuff that many would typically conceal from others (think missteps, fears, insecurities) being piped right into our ear buds. A sense of trust is built, a closeness wherein it seems natural to want to support the hosts in their missions. Most people wouldn't recognize them on the street, but hosts of these personal-diary-type podcasts show that, with the right framing, an individual's own journey can be a compelling one.


We’re fixated on -- and, yes, rooting for -- the protagonist’s lives, which can be tricky for a creator when the story she's covering is her own. As your reality shifts, your product does, too.


“The tricky thing about this podcast is, I’m documenting my life and enough really crazy amazing things, or interesting things have to be happening in for it to be a good podcast,” Tan said in an interview with PRX. “So I question the longevity of it, but I also think there’s a potential for it to boomerang in a different direction.”


Similar podcasts have undergone this boomerang she mentions: “StartUp,” once Blumberg’s company was, well, started up. It shifted its focus to documenting another beginner of sorts in Season 2: Dating Ring, a matchmaking service in its early stages. And when “First Day Back” felt complete as a season, Abecassis promised, in the latest episode, that she’d be back with stories of other people’s first days back.


It’s unclear how Bresnan’s comedy career will go; whether Abecassis can enter the same film industry she left when she became a mom; if Tan will get the radio-producing job of her dreams. But they’ve made us care about what will happen next -- whatever, indeed, that might be.


Previously in podcast thoughts: Even Without Visuals, Eerie Podcasts Are Taking Hold


 


Also on HuffPost:


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Women Continue Being Underrepresented In Theater Despite Being Half The Population

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Newly published research by the League of Professional Theater Women reflects the gender parity in Off Broadway shows. In research collected for an initiative called "Women Count," Martha Wade Steketee and Judith Binus studied employment in thirteen positions over five years and found that almost all  -- with the exclusion of stage managers and costume designers -- are dominated by men. 


Moreover, of the 22 theaters they considered, only six of them featured 50 percent or more plays by women, including one that is actually called "The Women's Project." Just nine featured 50 percent or more plays directed by women.


Steketee and Binus also charted high and low percentages for each theater-related job between 2010 and 2015, noting that, over the course of the study, only between 22 and 36 percent of set designers and between eight and 16 percent of lighting designers were women (or, as they write in the study, "lighting designers are overwhelmingly men").


So, how can we change things?


"If they aren't already aware that there is an issue, every employer must be made aware that there is an issue," Binus wrote to The Huffington Post in an email.


"Private, confidential conversations need to take place," she said. "One strategy is to put theaters who have complementary strengths and weaknesses in conversation.  Our study is a tool for those theaters to analyze and find those theaters that will best serve that purpose."


Each year, The Kilroys, a "gang of female playwrights and producers" focused on gender parity, compiles a list of recommended plays by women as a tool for those producers who claim plays by women are hard to find.


"We created The List because time and time again we heard that artistic directors would love to produce female playwrights, but were having trouble locating good plays," member Zakiyyah Alexander told HuffPost back in June. "Ultimately, we know it's possible to program an exciting season of theater that reflects the landscape we live in, which is more than just a landscape of men."


It's important that theaters be aware of the statistics and, more importantly, be conscious of their role in the rampant inequality on and off stage.


The entirety of Steketee and Binus's findings are available for your sobering consideration at theaterwomen.org. For more on this all-too-obvious issue, consider HuffPost's past coverage of female playwrights. As they say, all the world's a stage, and apparently the only players that matter are men.


Also on HuffPost:


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Baby's Weekly Onesie Photos Bring Puns To A New Level Of Cute

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Marketing manager Ceylan Sahin Eker has degrees in graphic design and illustration, so when she became a mom, she channeled her creativity into an adorable photo series of her newborn.


The Istanbul-based artist takes creative weekly photos of her 9-month-old son Timur dressed in funny (and often pun-y) onesies. "During my pregnancy I bought tons of cute onesies but soon realized after my son's birth that he was growing faster than I expected," Sahin Eker told The Huffington Post. "The onesies were getting smaller by the minute and I had to at least use them once before putting them away."



"He changes every day and I don't want to forget any moment," the mom added. "So this project gives me a chance to document his uncontrollable growth. Babies do grow freakishly fast."


Because Timur was born on a Thursday, Sahin Eker selected that day for her weekly Instagram posts and named the series "Happy Thursdays." Her husband Bediz helps out as art director. "He always comes to my rescue when I am sleep deprived and brain dead," she said.


So far, Sahin Eker has taken 31 photos for project, first on her iPhone and then her higher quality Canon camera. She also began incorporating props related to the theme of each onesie, and even created homemade onesies as her supply ran low. "The whole thing got bigger and bigger every week as everybody (myself included) started waiting for the next one," the mom said. 


As for baby Timur, he enjoys himself during the photo shoots and especially likes playing with all the props. If he doesn't seem to be having fun, Sahin Eker said she finds a different activity.


The mom said she plans to print out the photos and put them in an album for Timur's first birthday. "I know for sure that he will not remember this year of his life but with these photos he'll see how he grew week by week in the future."


She's happy to let others enjoy the project as well. "My son is the reason why I want to wake up in the morning and be a better person," she said. "I hope these photos can put a smile on people's face." 



H/T BabyCenter


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These Awesome NICU Nurses Made Halloween Costumes For Their Preemie Patients

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A group of special NICU babies helped usher in Prematurity Awareness Month and bid farewell to October with their precious Halloween costumes.


On October 31, the NICU nurses at Loyola Medicine in Maywood, Illinois dressed the hospital's tiniest patients in sweet handmade costumes for their annual contest. This year, the contest featured a baby Yoda, lion, minion, peanut butter and jelly, Michael Jordan and more.


The hospital shared photos of the babies in their costumes on Facebook, along with a festive message -- "We wish all families and their little goblins a safe and happy Halloween!"


Scroll down to see the tiny contestants.  



H/T PopSugar


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Here Are The Rejected 'SNL' Promos Written By Trump And His Staff

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Donald Trump is hosting "SNL" this Saturday with musical guest Sia. By now, you've seen Trump's promos with Cecily Strong. NBC has already removed one promo where Trump calls Ben Carson a "total loser." We have learned there were actually a number of promos, written by Trump and his staff, that didn't even make it to tape. Below are the scripts for the rejected promos.








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Watch Benghazi Veterans Recount The Events Depicted In Michael Bay's '13 Hours'

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The moviegoing world still has plenty left on its 2015 calendar, but buzz for next year's releases has already begun to escalate. The Huffington Post has an exclusive featurette centered on one of 2016's first high-profile titles. Like "American Sniper" and "Zero Dark Thirty" before it, "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" chronicles military crews at a pivotal moment in recent history. In this case, it's the fatal 2012 Islamic attack on the American diplomatic compound in Libya.


The featurette presents reflections from the real-life military men who were involved with the incident, juxtaposed with footage from Michael Bay's movie. John Krasinski, James Badge Dale and Pablo Schreiber are among the actors who portray the main players in what has become an inciting incident in global politics, and what could now become one of 2016's first big-screen hits. 


Watch the clip below. "13 Hours" opens Jan. 15. 





 


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First 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' TV Ad Offers Even More New Footage

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If you're hoping to spot Luke Skywalker in the first official television promo for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," then these aren't the droids you're looking for. But you will see Han Solo looking distinctly Hoth-ian, a battle between the evil First Order and the Resistance, and a voice-over from Lupita Nyong'o's motion-capture space pirate.


Keep your eyes peeled for clues that -- spoiler warning -- Daisy Ridley's Rey could be Han and Leia's daughter. After this clip and last week's great Japanese trailer, The Force is definitely awake now. 


As if you didn't already know, the new "Star Wars" installment opens Dec. 18.





 


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Here's The Famous Nude Painting Expected To Fetch $100 Million At Auction

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NEW YORK (AP) — Works by Amedeo Modigliani, Roy Lichtenstein and Paul Gauguin are poised to set artist auction records in a curated auction at Christie's.


The centerpiece of Monday's sale is Modigliani's "Reclining Nude," which the auction house estimates will fetch in excess of $100 million. Considered one of his best known works, the 1917-1918 painting nearly created a scandal when it was first exhibited in Paris. The auction record for a Modigliani now stands at $71 million.


A Lichtenstein work not seen on the market for 20 years also is on tap. "Nurse," which has a stellar exhibition and provenance history, is estimated to bring $80 million, exceeding the auction record for the pop artist of $56 million.


Impressionist, modern and contemporary art by well-known artists "do not require a tremendous amount of aesthetic or intellectual risk on the part of the collector," said Sarah Lichtman, assistant professor of design history at Parson School of Design. "They are beautiful paintings — some even exceptional as is the Modigliani — but they are tried and true."


Christie's expects to sell at least $1 billion of art over a series of evening, day and online sales this week.


"There is clearly good appetite among collectors for exceptional works of art offered with appropriate estimates," said Brook Hazelton, president of the Americas for Christie's. "This is a very broad and globally diverse market at the moment, with strong interest in paintings, sculpture and works on paper from the $10,000 level straight up to multimillion-dollar masterpieces at the top end."


 



Spirited bidding also is expected for two major works by Gaugin from his Tahiti period.


"Therese," a carved wooden figure of a Tahitian female, could set an auction record for a sculpture by the artist if it sells for its presale estimate of $18 million to $25 million.


The other Gauguin, "Young Man with a Flower," is a painting of a Tahitian youth wearing a white shirt, loose cravat and a white blossom tucked behind his ear. Christie's estimates it could bring $12 million to $18 million.


The portrait's first owner was Henri Matisse, who paid 200 francs for it in 1900. Later owners included John Quinn and Lillie Bliss, one of the original founders of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.


The current auction record for a Gauguin painting is $40.3 million.


Among other highlights of "The Artist's Muse" sale is Pablo Picasso's "Man with a Sword," a self-portrait of the artist as a musketeer created in 1969 and estimated to bring as much $25 million. Christie's said interest in Picasso's late period musketeer portraits has grown dramatically in recent years.


Also of interest are two works by Lucian Freud.


"Naked Portrait on a Red Sofa" is a portrait of the artist's daughter, the fashion designer Bella Freud. Its pre-sale estimate is $20 million to $30 million. One of a series of portraits of his daughters, it is the first time it's being offered at auction.


On Tuesday, Christie's is offering Freud's "Brigadier," a portrait of Andrew Parker Bowles, the former husband of Camilla Parker-Bowles, now the wife of Prince Charles. It was on view at the 2012 retrospective of the artist at the National Portrait Gallery in London and portrays the career soldier wearing his sumptuous army brigadier uniform. It's estimated to sell for around $30 million.


Tuesday's post-war and contemporary art sale also has a mammoth bronze "Spider" sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, estimated at $25 million to $35 million. If realized, that price would exceed the artist's current auction record of $10.7 million and set a record for a sculpture by a female artist.


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Online: http://www.christies.com


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How A Brazilian Graffiti Artist Is Empowering Women Around The World

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Panmela Castro is speaking out through her art to combat Brazil's high rates of violence against women


Based in Rio de Janeiro, the feminist graffiti artist and activist uses her skills to create murals addressing the country’s problem with domestic violence, gender inequality and the mistreatment of women.


"We face different situations that we are conditioned to obey and that most of the time are oppressive and/or prejudiced," she told The Huffington Post via email. "This is why we have to change what it means to be a woman in the world."


Being a woman in Brazil can come with its dangers. According to the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, a woman is assaulted in Sao Paulo every 15 seconds. Earlier this year, President Dilma Rousseff signed a law that created stricter sentences for murders connected to domestic violence, citing the startling statistic that 15 women are killed every day in Brazil, many because of domestic violence. 



Castro hopes to spark a broader conversation about gender and feminism through her work, as well as through an organization she started called Rede Nami, which holds workshops throughout Brazil and around the world to help empower women using art.


"In the workshops we have a safe space to create a work that gives a voice to women who in other situations would never talk about that part of their lives," she told HuffPost. "In this way, graffiti is a tool for communication."


Though she is based in Brazil, Castro has done street art around the world, using her work to teach others that art can make an impact.


"In the arts, there is not the wrong or the right, good or bad, nice or ugly," she said. "It is a space for experimentation, freedom, and thought. Art is how we can be influenced and be an influence."


Check out more of Castro's work below.



H/T Mitú


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The Baby Name That Is Most Popular In 9 Countries

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Sofia has taken over the world -- and not just one Sofia. Lots of them.


A new analysis of baby name statistics from naming expert Laura Wattenberg finds that Sofia (along with its variants) is the top baby name in nine countries -- nations as far-flung as Mexico, Italy and Russia. Meanwhile, the name is the number two or three choice for parents in a whopping 20 countries, including the United States, where "Sophia" is currently the third-most-popular name for girls.


In fact, Sophia/Sofia and other local spellings are among the top 25 baby names in two-thirds of the countries (mostly in Europe and the Americas) that report baby name statistics, Wattenberg found.


Sofia's popularity transcends borders, she discovered.


"It just blew me away that so many different languages and cultures would arrive at the same sound at the same time," Wattenberg told Live Science. "I guess that really says something about the way culture is transmitted today."


Sofia's popularity may be even more widespread than Wattenberg's analysis suggests. Many countries don't keep baby-naming stats, including large nations like Brazil. There's no single celebrity or fictional character who can account for the name's runaway popularity.


Sofia does have some innate factors that make it a good candidate for international popularity, Wattenberg said. It means "wisdom." It's pronounceable in a variety of tongues, for one thing. But Sofia's inherent charms failed to place it on the radar a generation ago. Two decades in the past, Sofia/Sophia and its variants weren't top names anywhere, Wattenberg said.


"I can point to qualities that would seem to make this name desirable," she said. "The hard part is saying why it wasn't just as desirable a generation ago."


Certainly, a more individualistic naming style has swept the world. The old cross-cultural names of Mary, John and their local variations (e.g. Maria and Ivan) were religiously based, as is, indeed, the reigning most-popular boy's name in the world today, Mohamed. Now, Wattenberg said, parents choose names based on style. And though parents are leaning toward fresh, unique-sounding names for their little ones, she said, tastes are remarkably trend-driven. Once people throw off the limitations of religious and family tradition, they tend to gravitate toward similar sounds, suggesting perhaps that everyone's always shared a taste for trendy names, Wattenberg said.


"It's actually a little unnerving to discover that the name that happens to sound nice to you also sounds nice to the entire Western world," Wattenberg said.


With so many Sofias and Sophias running around so many countries, will the name start to feel boring? It's possible that Sofia could soon peak, Wattenberg said.


"Just the fact of tracking what the top 100 baby names are makes peoplecompetitive," she said. "Everyone is trying to avoid the number-one name, because they think that's too ordinary, so names rise and fall faster than they used to."


Original article on Live Science.


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We Spent A Day On The Set Of Tina Fey And Amy Poehler's New Movie

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It was a balmy June day, and a party was raging on Long Island. Music was thumping, a keg was pumping and holiday lights -- that signature house-party fixture -- were strung throughout a living room that, for the moment, belonged to America's prized spiritual siblings: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Except this time, the duo were more than soul sisters -- they were shared-a-bedroom-and-wore-matching-Easter-dresses sisters. 


At least for several weeks.


It was 2014 when I visited a soundstage about 30 miles outside of New York City where Fey and Poehler were filming their first feature together since 2008's "Baby Mama." At the time, it was titled "The Nest." Now it's called "Sisters," but on the surface, not much else has changed. The cast and crew -- led by director Jason Moore ("Pitch Perfect") and writer Paula Pell ("SNL") -- already knew that their scheduled release date of Dec. 18, 2015, would put the movie head-to-head with the new "Star Wars" installment. (It, too, has netted a new title in the interim, as no one knew yet that "Episode VII" would be called "The Force Awakens.")


Despite the massive warehouse surrounding the "Sisters" set, it was easy to eyeball the makeshift home and imagine Florida suburbia, where the story is set. Reversing the archetypes they adopted in "Baby Mama," where Fey played a grounded career woman and Poehler her puerile opposite, America's favorite Golden Globe hosts star as kin who throw one final blowout before their parents (Dianne Wiest and James Brolin) sell their childhood home. 


The scene I witnessed was shot at Gold Coast Studios. The exteriors and the portions that don't revolve around the party were captured mostly in other New York suburbs, including Pearl River, where the movie's first set photos originated. The art department built the house to scale atop a sizable stage. The backyard, so to speak, was somewhere you or I might actually want to attend such festivities. A wooden porch led to a proper pool, replete with water, lawn chairs, artificial grass and the remnants of escalating, margarita-soaked bacchanalia. Windows peered into a living room where Poehler and Fey filmed some of the party's inaugural moments, when the night's guests -- mostly the sisters' high-school pals -- begin to arrive. I watched the action unfold on a monitor stationed at the edge of the stage, right outside the house.



Inside, the bedroom the two characters shared growing up brimmed with ‘80s artifacts, many of which were suggestions Fey and Poehler made based on the contents of their own teenage chambers: a large Michael J. Fox photo in one corner and a Molly Ringwald headshot in another; stacks of cassette tapes; lava lamps; "Out of Africa," "Xanadu" and "E.T." posters; snapshots of the actresses at a younger age, including one in which they grin alongside fellow “SNL” alumna Rachel Dratch. This, folks, was a party house built for the century's most beloved comedy duo. Soundstage or not, the cast certainly made themselves at home -- if you walked through the bedroom room during filming, you might have spotted one of them napping there.


I spent the day watching Fey and Poehler shoot various bits of the lengthy party scene that acts as the movie's centerpiece. Joined by Dratch, Bobby Moynihan, Ike Barinholtz, John Leguizamo, Samantha Bee, Jon Glaser and Greta Lee, the bash is an ensemble affair in the vein of "House Party," "Can't Hardly Wait" and "Project X" -- movies that Moore and Pell said they studied while readying "Sisters" for production. (Maya Rudolph and Kate McKinnon also have supporting roles, but they weren't on call the day I was there.)


The film was expected to wrap on Aug. 7, well over a year before it was slated to hit theaters, though the press spotted Fey and Poehler filming additional scenes in January 2015. That has given Moore, Pell and Fey -- who has been a producer since the project's inception -- ample lead time before we glimpse the fruits of their labor. I was on the set with a few other journalists, and throughout the day, various cast members sat down to chat with us as filming continued. Below are a few other tidbits I learned about what went down when pop culture's queens became family.



1. Pell got the idea for her script in part from the diary she kept as a teenager. She and her sister had a similar relationship to that of Katie (Fey), the wild child of the two, and Maura (Poehler), who's more straight and narrow. Pell was the Maura type. "My sister was three years older than me and she was like the stone-cold ‘70s fox," Pell said. "I looked like a short Polish farm woman, and so our journals were wildly different. Hers was always like, 'Mom and Dad went camping and I went to Bill’s. They don’t know it. P.S. I might be pregnant.' And mine was like, 'I changed the grid on my rock tumbler today. Amethyst is really shaping up. I put it on a tiepin. Drew a picture of my beagle. It’s very hard because there’s three colors, but I’m very pleased with it.'”




2. That same diary is one of the props Fey and Poehler shuffle through while revisiting their characters' adolescent relics in the film.


3. Pell considered titling the movie "The Rock Tumbler," but she figured people wouldn't know what it meant. She landed on "The Nest" because "one thing I kept picturing in the characters’ differences is the image of two sisters in a nest and one just has their mouth open like a baby bird, like, 'Feed me,' all the time, and the other one’s, like, begrudgingly being the caretaker and feeding them, and just thinking of a house as a nest."


4. This one might depress Tina and Amy disciples: Making a movie is sometimes the only way the busy actresses can ensure they spend time together. Barring the Golden Globes, which both agreed they never would have hosted individually, Fey and Poehler said they vow to "get together" for a project every seven years. "It’s going to be like the '7 Up' series," Fey said, jokingly referring to the British documentary films that chronicle the same subjects every several years. "You can watch us age."




5. Bobby Moynihan, who stars as that high-school friend who always thinks he's the funniest person in the room, has clearly mastered his signature laugh. The same high-pitched, gleeful chuckle that's become part of so many "Saturday Night Live" sketches is played to comedic effect in "Sisters."


6. Greta Lee, who you may recognize from "Girls" and "Inside Amy Schumer," plays the ringleader of a group of Korean women Katie recruits to attend the party. When they show up, Fey announces, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Korean pussy squad has arrived!" I watched Fey film that line about 10 times, and with each take she improvised a different faux accent. One reading was Russian and another British, for example, while others were just plain old Fey.


7. The house may seem like it's fully functioning, but it's lacking at least one component: a doorbell. When Ike Barinholtz's character -- Maura's love interest -- arrives at the party, a crew member hollers "ding dong" to announce Poehler's cue.


8. Pell, who also wrote two Season 4 episodes of "30 Rock" and cameoed on the show, has a method for fostering brilliant improv that the cast said they adore. "Paula's Post-its" is a "little system" she developed while punching up scripts on the sets of "Bridesmaids," "The Heat" and "This Is 40." As a take plays out, she sits on the sidelines and thinks of alternate lines of dialogue -- new jokes, in other words. Pell then scribbles the suggestion on a sticky note and hands it to the director, who gives it to the actor between takes so that the rest of the cast reacts organically. "It’s kind of like a fun little candy box of stuff that I’m always passing around, like Santa giving people little gifts," she said. The practice also provides a plethora of options in the editing room to ensure the best gag is the one that survives. After Pell informed us of the technique, every single person we interviewed brought it up fondly. "It’s really a very generous way for Paula to continuously prove that she’s the funniest person on set," Poehler said.


9. If "Star Wars" is your competition, all you can do, really, is laugh -- and that's what everyone involved with "Sisters" did. "One of the things I told them we should do is a lot of advertising where we’re like, '"Star Wars," fucking bring it on. We’ll have 20 percent over your take.' Just cocky, cocky shit," Pell said.


 


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Adele's 'Hello' Is Even More Powerful In This Breathtaking Sign Language Interpretation

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We know you cried when you first heard Adele's "Hello." Well, get prepared to tear up again. 


Molly Bartholomew performed a stunning American Sign Language interpretation of Adele's recent hit and shared a video of it on Vimeo earlier this month. If you thought the music video for the song made you emotional, then you really need to check this out. 


The interpreter's hands glide with the music while her facial expressions help project the song's beauty. 


Bartholomew has done incredible performances of other popular songs like Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off," and John Legend's "All of Me." It's pretty impossible to pick our favorite, but "Hello" is definitely up there. 


Now, could you please stop chopping onions around us?!


 


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New Children's Book Reveals Winnie The Pooh Is A Girl

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Winnie the Pooh is so much more than a cartoon bear who loves honey. He is, in fact, a she with a very rich history. 


That's right, the real Winnie the Pooh is actually a girl. (Side note: Yes, we know the cartoon Pooh bear was referred to as male, but there's a difference between the character and the original bear.)


Christopher Robin's best friend was named after a black bear called Winnie, who lived at the London Zoo. The bear's name was a tribute to the Canadian city of Winnipeg. So, not only is she a girl, she's also got Canadian roots. (Shout out to the Canadian Heritage Minute that taught this writer this very important history lesson.) 


The whole story behind "the world's most famous bear" is outlined in a new children's book called, Finding Winnie, by Lindsay Mattick. 




Mattick is the great-granddaughter of Lieutenant Harry Colebourn, a veterinarian who bought Winnie as a cub during the WWI. Colebourn paid just $20 for the bear and brought her along on his travels. Winnie became the unofficial mascot for Colebourn's regiment, but when he had to go to France with his unit, he left her at the London Zoo.  




At the zoo, Winnie was often visited by a young boy named -- you guessed it -- Christopher Robin. The boy loved Winnie so much he named his own toy bear after her. Oh, and Christopher Robin's father just happened to be A. A. Milne, the author behind the Winnie the Pooh character we've all come to love.


Fascinating stuff, isn't it? 


Finding Winnie is available in bookstores now. 


 


CORRECTION: This article previously misidentified Winnipeg as a province rather than a city. 


 


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14 Photos Show How Liberating It Can Be To Go All Natural (NSFW)

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Warning: Images below may be considered NSFW to some readers. 


A new photography book shows that going all natural has never looked so good. 


In her new book Unshaven, photographer Nikki Silver celebrates women who choose to not shave their body hair. Co-authored by sexuality educator Tina Horn, the book features both erotic and feminist images of amateur models showing off their body hair. 


"Showcasing and promoting women with body hair as being sexy is kind of my whole project and career," Silver told The Huffington Post. 


As an award-winning feminist porn producer, Silver said she had already been photographing women for her porn site NaughtyNatural when she decided to create Unshaven. She had a catalogue of over 40,000 photos to choose from between her porn shoots and specific photography taken for the book. 


"I'm not interested in telling anyone what to do with their body, whether that's to shave or not shave," Silver said. "I am however, very interested in personal freedom and bodily autonomy, especially for women and feminine presenting people, who society is so frequently trying to control."



While Silver stressed that personal liberation comes in all different forms for women, she said that -- as a hairy woman herself -- going all natural has been very liberating for her.


"Deciding not to shave may just be one small facet of making ones own decisions about visions of beauty and personal freedom, but it is significant and I think, very much worth celebrating," Silver said.  


While Unshaven includes a diverse range of models, there are many feminists who argue that growing out body hair as a political statement is often white-washed. In an interview with Cosmopolitan Silver addressed this point.


"I think that, just in a general sense of looking more normative, it's easier for white people period, just because of general racism," Silver told Cosmopolitan. "Just walking down the street, there's harassment that women of color face, and to add hair onto that I can totally empathize that that wouldn't be the easiest of choices [in the same way that it might be] for a white woman."



Silver said that her goal is to push people to make choices that liberate them personally, whether that includes going all natural or not. "Being 'Unshaven' is definitely liberating, for me," Silver said. 


Scroll below to see more beautiful, fierce and unshaven women from Silver and Horn's book below. 



Absolutely stunning. 


Head over to Amazon to purchase Unshaven. 


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Fourth Grader Shuts Down Math Problem By Invoking Girl Code

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A fourth grader's answer to a math problem shows the power of "girl code."


Maddy Douglas was filling out a worksheet for homework when she came across a question about the dating patterns of a group of high schoolers. 



In the question scenario, a group of four boys and a group of four girls go on dates in many different couple combinations. 


"I can't answer this problem because my mom says acoording to girl code you shouldn't date a friends x boyfriend," Maddy wrote in response to the question. Her mom shared a photo of the question on the HuffPost Parents' Facebook page with the hashtag #girlcodetrumpscommoncore.


Maddy's mom Jenn Douglas said she was shocked when her daughter showed her the math problem. "Maddy had never really seen me disgusted in that type of manner," she told The Huffington Post. "She could see my disgust and said 'Didn't you tell me that you shouldn't date your friend's ex-boyfriend?'"


Douglas was proud of her daughter's response, but she also wondered about the appropriateness of the question. 


"I consider myself to be a completely open-minded type person and as a single mom, try to teach my children about equality and about different types of people they will encounter, but my first reaction was it was not an appropriate question for a fourth grader or really any grade," Douglas said. 


Beyond the Facebook likes, Maddy's answer was well-received when she turned in her worksheet at school on Friday.  


Douglas told HuffPost, "Her teacher laughed at her answer and told her 'Good point.'"


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