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This New 'Star Wars' Music Will Light Your Saber For 'Battlefront'

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If there's one thing more iconic than glowing lightsabers in the "Star Wars" franchise, it's Jar Jar Binks gleefully leaping into the placid waters of Naboo following his brisky morning munchy and -- er, wait, no it's the music.


Definitely the music.

When "Star Wars: Battlefront" launches for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC next week, you'll hear familiar musical cues. But there are also new, original songs composed by Gordy Haab in the style of the classic films.


That's a pretty tall order. John Williams' compositions on the original movies are the stuff of legend -- who isn't familiar with the main title theme of "Star Wars"? 


"As a child of the early 80's, the music of 'Star Wars' made a huge impact during my formative years -- long before I understood anything about composing music. I recall being 6 or 7 years old and playing the soundtrack albums over and over while acting out the scenes from the films," Haab told The Huffington Post.


"So rather than being an arduous chore, composing music to sync up with the classic 'Star Wars' musical aesthetic was quite effortless. As though it had been waiting all these years to just pour out," he continued.


Haab shared some of the new tracks with HuffPost in advance of the game's release on Nov. 17. The first is set on the ice planet Hoth -- which you might recall from "The Empire Strikes Back" -- while the second is based on the rocky planet Sullust. Listen below: 







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17 Great Podcasts For The Spiritually Curious

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If you've always wanted to explore the world's great religious traditions, but can't find time to read the right books, watch the appropriate documentaries, or attend a worship service, here's a solution that you'll definitely have time for: podcasts. 


The glorious thing about podcasts is that they let you make use of learning time that often goes to waste -- when you're commuting to work, for example, or doing laundry. Religion podcasts have an uncanny ability to drop you right into the center of an already thriving religious community. They paint a picture of religion in action, giving seekers an insider's look at the culture surrounding a particular faith and what kind of real impact or benefit these beliefs have on people's lives. Basically, everything a seeker wants to know before taking a deep dive into a specific faith.


Here's a list of 17 great religion and spirituality-based podcasts. There's a wide range of beliefs (and unbelief) represented here that will surely challenge you no matter where you are in your faith journey. So clear up some space on your phone immediately and invite these great spiritual traditions into your headspace.


(Descriptions taken from iTunes)


 



Have we missed any of your favorites? Tell us in the comments below.  


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This Is What Disney Princesses Would Look Like If They Aged Naturally

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Here's proof Disney princesses get even more regal with age.


Brazilian artist Isaque Arêas' series “After and Before -- Disney Princesses,” puts a twist on our beloved Disney royalty, showing us what they'd look like today if they’d aged naturally from the time their movies were released. Arêas hopes that through his work, people of all ages will be able to relate to the princesses. 





"My first objective with this artwork was to show people -- mainly women -- that they can identify with these characters even if they get old," he wrote on Bored Panda, where he recently shared the photos.





The series includes 92-year-old Snow White, 42-year-old Ariel and 33-year-old Mulan -- and they all look as fabulous as ever. The artist told The Huffington Post that he started the project back in 2013, but put it on hold because he thought he needed to improve his skills. He resumed the work this year. 





Though he isn't certain what his next project will be, Arêas said it'd be interesting to reimagine male heroes, or perhaps some of the children from Disney classics. 





 Check out some more of Arêas' princesses below! 














To see more of Arêas' work, visit his Facebook page here


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White Actor Cast As MLK Jr. In Ohio Production, Playwright Katori Hall Speaks Out

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The decision by a black director to cast a white actor as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a production at Ohio's Kent State University has come under fire from the play's author Katori Hall.


In September, director Michael Oatman debuted his interpretation of "The Mountaintop," an award-winning drama that imagines Dr. King on the eve of his assassination. In three of the six performances, Dr. King was portrayed by a black actor; in the other three, a white actor performed the role.


Oatman addressed his casting choice when the performance was initially announced. "I truly wanted to explore the issue of racial ownership and authenticity.  I didn’t want this to be a stunt, but a true exploration of King’s wish that we all be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin,” he said in a statement. "I wanted the contrast... I wanted to see how the words rang differently or indeed the same, coming from two different actors, with two different racial backgrounds."






The performances went ahead as planned and seemed to garner little attention after the show closed on October 4.


In late October, however, a Twitter user asked "The Mountaintop" playwright Katori Hall for her thoughts on the casting choice, which she called "tone deaf."










A few days later, Howard Sherman, director of the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts, weighed in as well, noting that news of the performance had started to circulate. "People are dumbfounded," he wrote. "People are incredulous. People are angry."



While it is quite surprising to imagine Dr. King, or Malala Yousafzai, or Cesar Chavez played by white actors, let’s remember that we are now in the post-Hamilton era, which suggests to the narrowminded that roles meant for people of color can now be played by white actors if traditionally (or historically) white characters can be played by actors of color. I would, and frequently do, argue that this is a false equivalency.


 


Could such specificity lead to playwrights declaring that their characters can only be played by white actors? Yes, and whether we like it or not, that’s their right. For as long as work is under copyright, it is the decision of the author (or their estate) to decide what may be done with or to their work. Yes, that may seem to stifle creativity on the part of directors and limit opportunities for actors in some works, but in the theatre in the U.S. – as opposed to film or television – the authors own their plays and have the final word.




On Monday, Katori Hall addressed the issue at length in an essay for The Root. She called Oatman's casting "dangerously distorted," an experiment that "proved to be a self-serving and disrespectful directing exercise."




Black writers dedicated to using black bodies, who remain at the center of a devalued narrative, are committing a revolutionary act. We are using theater to demand a witnessing... The casting of a white King is committing yet another erasure of the black body. Sure, it might be in the world of pretend, but it is disrespectful nonetheless, especially to a community that has rare moments of witnessing itself, both creatively and literally, in the world. [...] 


 


Theater is a sacred space, with audience members sitting in the same room, breathing the same air, bearing witness to an experience that is unlike their own. Tears streaming down an actor’s face trigger the rising sting behind our own eyes and a growing pang of empathy in our own hearts... This is why I tell the stories of my people to build a bridge over our country’s ever widening racial empathy gap. Theater has been my way of demanding empathy for a people so often robbed of it.




Hall added that a new stipulation has been included in the licensing agreement for her play: "Both characters are intended to be played by actors who are African-American or Black. Any other casting choice requires the prior approval of the author."


Also on HuffPost:


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This Is What LGBT Life Is Like Around The World

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As a gay couple in San Francisco, Jenni Chang and Lisa Dazols had a relatively easy time living the way they wanted. But outside the bubble of the Bay Area, what was life like for people still lacking basic rights? They set off on a world tour in search of "Supergays," LGBT people who were doing something extraordinary in the world.


In 15 countries across Africa, Asia and South America — from India, recently home to the world's first openly gay prince, to Argentina, the first country in Latin America to grant marriage equality — they found the inspiring stories and the courageous, resilient and proud Supergays they had been looking for.





See more on this topic at TED.com.



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A Living Copy of Vincent Van Gogh's Ear Comes To New York

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 This article originally appeared on artnet News.


A little piece of a long-dead artist is coming back to life in New York this fall when Diemut Strebe's creepy living copy of Vincent van Gogh's ear makes its New York debut at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts.


Titled Sugababe, the ear was created using genetic samples Strebe collected from Lieuwe van Gogh, the great-great-grandson of Theo van Gogh, the Post-Impressionist artist's brother. Strebe used computer imaging technology to recreate the ear's shape based on its appearance in van Gogh's self-portraits, and a computer processor the simulates nerve pulses allegedly allows the ear to hear.


Though Sugababe is admittedly macabre, visitors at the original exhibition at the Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany, "loved the ear," Strebe insisted in an e-mail to artnet News. 



"I'm not sure that everyone understands the full scientific and biological implications," the artist writes. "The scientific approach is based on the Theseus's paradox by Plutarch… He asked if a ship would be the same ship if all its parts were replaced. This paradox is brought into a 21st-century context by using a living cell line (from Lieuwe van Gogh) in which we replaced (at least as a proof of principle) his natural DNA with historical and synthesized DNA."


Perhaps the most famous detached body part in all of art history, van Gogh allegedly cut off his ear when he had a mental breakdown, although some German historians now think Paul Gauguin may have cut off van Gogh's ear with a rapier following a heated argument between the two artists, according to the book Van Goghs Ohr: Paul Gauguin und der Pakt des Schweigens (Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence). Though the ear has been recreated, scientists haven't been able to slow the fading of van Gogh's paintings.



The scientifically-minded show also includes Social Sculpture: The Scent of Joseph Beuys, a scent-based piece inspired by the German Fluxus artist's 1974 performance at René Block's gallery in New York titled, I Like America and America Likes Me. With the help of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., Strebe has reduced Beuys's original work into seven scents, like "gallery" and "coyote," which are meant to evoke Beuys's experience living for a week with a wild coyote in the gallery space.


Diemut Strebe's "Free Radicals: Sugababe & Other Works" is on view at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, 31 Mercer Street, New York, November 7–December 5, 2015. 


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Another Thing 'Master Of None' Nails: Immigrant Decor

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Aziz Ansari's new show "Master of None" has been getting justifiable raves since its first season dropped on Netflix last week.


The show resonates with a generation that's grown to love feeling totally understood. The signature reaction to Millennial Internet -- consisting of spookily accurate Buzzfeed nostalgia, on-the-nose memes, niche subreddits, and the notion of #relatableaf -- is generally something along the lines of, "Get out of my head!" But as the consuming public becomes more diverse, it becomes harder, and more valuable, to produce that feeling. Particularly in television.


Because of their episodic format, television shows can come as unrealistic, simply because nothing in life wraps up in 26 minutes. So it's a feat that "Master of None," in one short season, renders so many modern experiences in a viscerally relatable way. It shows, or rather mirrors, things like getting lost in a Yelp k-hole searching for tacos, how adult best friends don't actually hang out on a regular basis at the same places, and that walking home at night is routinely terrifying for women. When do you ever see such things on TV? Relatable af.


Here's something else that the show nails: the insides of immigrant homes. "Master of None" has the first mainstream depiction of the under-furnished, somewhat kitschy decor common to many Asian-American residences. In the poignant second episode, "Parents," which follows Ansari's Indian-American character Dev, his Taiwanese-American friend Brian, and their respective immigrant parents, we get a look inside two Asian-American homes.


The opening shots of Brian's dad's house feel like a mic drop. 



Thin plywood kitchen cabinets, a Cantonese calendar, a bottle of chili paste on the fridge, the plastic-framed print on the wall, a couch that has seen better days, and most of all, unpainted walls. This is real. It looks exactly like the dozens of Asian-American interiors to which I was privy growing up in New Jersey, not to mention, at times, my own. 


Becoming a homeowner in America is such a wonderment that cohesively decorating said house strikes immigrant parents like gilding the lily. My parents were so happy to move from an apartment into a five-bedroom house, when I was seven, that they walked from room to empty room, marveling at their existence, for months, before buying enough beds. In the show, we can compare Brian's barely decorated childhood home to the hut in Taiwan in which his father is shown to have grown up, which begets similar wonderment. 


Compare the naturalism in "Master of None" to a network show's idea of an Asian-American home in "Fresh Off the Boat." Symmetrical lighting, tastefully painted walls, matching wallpaper, matching blond wood chairs: this is an American dream by way of Better Homes and Gardens.





Immigrants are usually too busy working to professionally decorate their homes. Our parents would sooner spend a windfall on technology or tangible goods than second-order luxury items like wall sconces. (The flashback scene with Dev's father's excitement at having brought home a computer gets this right.) Immigrant homes end up walking a fine line between sparseness and kitsch, which is beautifully rendered in "Master of None."


My parents' house in New Jersey still has fingerprints of kitsch despite my tireless decade-year long interior design crusade. Even when my parents actually commissioned a redecoration last year, established principles of entertaining superseded design concerns. Like a low, oversized coffee table amenable to an oversized spread of snacks. I suggested smaller ones that were shot down for their inability to facilitate this: 



The lush cinematography of "Master of None" elevates these immigrant interiors and makes them as worthy of our gaze as the New York brownstones, upscale watering holes, and grand Nashville boulevards of the show's other scenes.


These homes, despite their brief screen time, are part of the show's subtle and realistic dramatization of Asian-American life, which is, by TV standards, often just not that showy. Dev's and Brian's parents immigrated very far, but as white-collar professionals, worked hard and propelled their children to bourgeois life. They owned stable and functional homes for their families that weren't ever cohesively beautified. 


These characters unsettle stereotypes of what "ethnic homes" should look like -- either overly colorful and loud (a pitfall particularly of Indian culture packaged for TV, which Dev's parents' muted home subverts) or unrealistically whitewashed, like in "Fresh Off The Boat." These characters are so compelling because they are realistic. Nailed it.


 


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This Dad Pushes His Daughter In Wheelchair Through All Her Marching Band Performances

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This family knows how to show school spirit.


During every home football game, Kevin Houston joins his daughter, Eva, and her Omaha, Nebraska, high school marching band on the field for the halftime show. The 14-year-old freshman has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. Eva’s father pushes her chair during each practice and performance, allowing her to move in formation with the rest of her bandmates, Today.com reported.


"You drop your kids off at school and you don't get to experience their day with them,” Houston told the news outlet. “So I'm very grateful to be part of her life."



After attending a band camp over the summer, Eva came to Westside High School in the fall with hopes of joining the music group, but knew she needed an aide to help her with the marching. So the teen turned to her father, a former musician who once played for a national drum and bugle corps, Omaha World-Herald reported. Houston had the rhythm and experience to make himself and Eva the perfect team.


“I think we have it easier,” Eva told the news outlet, “because he only has to memorize the drill, and [I memorize] the music.”



Four days a week, Houston leaves his job to attend band practices with Eva. At football games, he sits in the stand, but then joins Eva on the field during halftime. The extra time spent together has been extra special for both the father and daughter.


"At first I was doing it for Eva and didn't realize how much I'd enjoy it as well," he told Today.com. "I've always been in bands throughout high school and college, so it brings back a lot of memories for me."


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A Texas Startup Is Bringing Kids' Drawings Of Monsters To Life

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Combating the decline of arts in schools, a Texas-based start-up has set out to destroy this monstrous trend, by challenging school children to draw.


The aptly named Monster Project enlists established artists to bring kids' monster drawings to life, transforming the students' doodles into new, collaborative projects. Its strategy is simple: First, an elementary schooler creates an illustration of, say, a purple, people-eating monster. Then, that illustration is handed over to a professional artist, who morphs the drawing into their own rendering, equipped with complex colors, shapes and scenarios.





"As artists ourselves, we know firsthand how important that initial exposure to art can truly alter the shape of a child's entire life," creator Katie Johnson explains on the startup's Kickstarter campaign. "By collaborating with the students and finding inspiration from their imaginings, we hope to help them recognize the value of their ideas and make them feel excited about the potential of their own minds."


Most experts agree -- early exposure to art in a classroom setting not only contributes to visual learning, it can also supplement language development, general motor skills, and the ability to excel in math and sciences. "I have no hesitation in saying we need to add the letter A," says Harvard University education professor Howard Gardner, when discussing the acronym STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). "An education devoid of arts … is an empty, half-brain kind of education."


With over one hundred monsters and counting, the Monster Project hopes to expand to more schools through crowdfunding. So far, the group has only worked with two schools, one in Austin and one in Dallas, but it hopes to launch a volunteer group in New York City next. 


See a preview of the Monster Project below:



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Here's What Kurt Vonnegut Can Teach You About Life

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Kurt Vonnegut, the beloved novelist we have to thank for Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle would have turned 91 today. Aside from his terrific and inventive page-turners, Vonnegut is often remembered for his outspokenness about both political and moral issues, as well as the importance of art. He advocated humanism both in interviews and in his books. It makes sense, then, that many of his novels contain quotable advice on how to live well.


Here's some of the best advice gleaned from his novels, essays, and interviews:



1. It's important to stand up for what you believe in.


After hearing that his book was not only banned, but burned in a school's furnace, Vonnegut wrote a personalized letter to the head of the school board, stating, "If you were to bother to read my books, to behave as educated persons would, you would learn that they are not sexy, and do not argue in favor of wildness of any kind. They beg that people be kinder and more responsible than they often are. It is true that some of the characters speak coarsely. That is because people speak coarsely in real life."


This sort of assertiveness was characteristic of Vonnegut.


2. Laughter can cure just about anything.


Vonnegut has some adamant opinions about laughter; he believes it's a means of coping with discomfort or sadness, but that doesn't make it a bad thing. He says, in "Hypocrites You Always Have With You" (1980), "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion, to the futility of thinking and striving anymore. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward -- and since I can start thinking and striving again that much sooner."



3. Kindness matters.


In the aforementioned letter to the head of the board at Drake High School, Vonnegut defended himself and his books, stating, "They beg that people be kinder and more responsible than they often are." This simple mantra is echoed in a number of his more formal writings, including God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, a 1965 novel about a philanthropic organization gone wrong. In it, Vonnegut famously writes:



Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies -- God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.



4. Unplugging is essential.


Vonnegut's fiction is peppered with his opinions on modern technology and forms of communication. The consensus? It can, of course, be useful, but also has the potential to create feelings of isolation. In an interview with PBS, he offers an anecdote to illustrate his thoughts on the allure and instant gratification of things like email and online shopping. In response to his wife asking why he doesn't order envelopes in bulk online, he responds:



I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up ... The moral of the story is, is we're here on Earth to fart around.




5. Reading enriches your life.


Of course, this is a popular opinion for a writer of novels to have. But Vonnegut, more so than many other writers, was outspoken about the importance of reading. Although he never got around to reading much of classic literature until he was in his 40s, he was always a voracious reader of less academic titles. Perhaps it was his role as a writing instructor, or as a father of six, but he frequently championed the written word. In Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage, he wrote, "I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle."


6. Art can be therapeutic.


In addition to writing and teaching, Vonnegut was passionate about visual art. He created felt tip pen illustrations for both Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions, and even created the art for a Phish album. His novel Bluebeard chronicles the life of an aging abstract expressionist painter, and hints at the importance of meaningful art. In his bestselling essay collection, A Man Without a Country, Vonnegut writes:



Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.




7. Patience is a virtue.


Vonnegut's first novel, Player Piano, was published when he was just 30, after he'd already published a handful of short stories. He'd turned to writing after attending the University of Chicago's graduate program in anthropology, but failing to pen an acceptable dissertation. Penniless, he took a job at a Saab dealership. Decades later, he was awarded his honorary Master's Degree, with his novel Cat's Cradle serving as his dissertation. He preaches such patience in his writing, too, stating:



Novelists have, on the average, about the same IQs as the cosmetic consultants at Bloomingdale’s department store. Our power is patience. We have discovered that writing allows even a stupid person to seem halfway intelligent, if only that person will write the same thought over and over again, improving it just a little bit each time. It is a lot like inflating a blimp with a bicycle pump. Anybody can do it. All it takes is time.



 


A version of this post originally appeared on the site in 2013. We have reposted it here in honor of Kurt Vonnegut's birthday.


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For Jason Segel, The End Of One 'Tour' Is The Beginning Of Another

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Jason Segel was strolling down the street in Austin, Texas, when he rang up The Huffington Post to chat about "The End of the Tour" on the eve of the movie's DVD release. His most cerebral role yet, Segel plays David Foster Wallace during the author's promotion of the 1996 magnum opus Infinite Jest in the film. But don't assume that means "Billion Brick Race" -- the "Lego Movie" spinoff he's co-writing -- is a cinch. Segel is familiar with the "funny guy does drama" narrative, as he starred in the Duplass brothers' 2012 indie "Jeff, Who Lives at Home," and because almost every comedian is subjected to it eventually. But now the 35-year-old multihyphenate must turn his attention to Oscar chatter and all the other mixed blessings that come with giving one of the year's most acclaimed performances. We gabbed with Segel about playing Wallace, navigating awards buzz and why he no longer consumes entertainment news.


I've been hoping to catch you since I saw the movie at Sundance in January. Does it feel like you lived in the world of "The End of the Tour" a long time ago?


You know, it’s funny -- this has been a really unique experience for me in the way that it’s unfolded because we shot it in February of last year and then we waited for Sundance, so that was pretty close to a year wait. And then after Sundance we waited until August for it to come out, and now it’s getting ready for the DVD release, which, for a movie this size, is a little bit like the wide release. People are going to get a chance to see it who didn’t otherwise. It’s been a really slow and interesting unfolding for me.


Have you been writing “Billion Brick Race” throughout the whole thing?


Yeah, I’m writing a few things, actually. I’m writing that, and then I also write this series of books for middle-grade kids called Nightmares. I’ve been writing the second and third in those series, and I’ve been writing a couple of screenplays, as well.


Is it weird to vacillate between writing kid-centric projects and fielding heavy questions about playing David Foster Wallace? 


It’s interesting, the headspace you get into with something like “End of the Tour,” I think, is best in low doses. So it was actually kind of nice to go from “End of the Tour” to working on “Lego.” It wiped the slate clean a little bit because, as you can imagine, that was a pretty intense experience. 


There's always a certain novelty to seeing funny performers do dramatic work. Did you see yourself existing in a comedic realm before people informed you that you had just done a dramatic performance? 


Oh, I was fully aware of what the tone of the movie was -- it’s part of what made it so terrifying to do. You have these beliefs about yourself. I definitely felt like I was capable, but the reality is that once you’re given the opportunity, you’re faced with this possibility that you’re going to prove yourself wrong. That’s a scary thing, but I’ve been of the mind lately that you walk toward the things you’re scared of.


The second extension of this is Oscar chatter, which seems noisy and intrusive in its own right. It’s only November, so we have a ways to go before it ends in late February. I heard you on Vanity Fair’s Oscar podcast recently, so you must be willing to play the game, at least to some degree. 


Well, the way I view it is that I’m very proud of what we achieved with the movie. My real feeling now is anything that encourages people to see the movie and to pick up David Foster Wallace’s writing is stuff I’m really excited to be a part of. It’s very flattering that people have responded to the performance the way they did. I think it would be untruthful to say that wasn’t a very exciting thing.


Absolutely. Do you read that sort of stuff? Are you familiar with all the prognosticating?


No, it’s funny you ask. I made a decision quite a few years ago to sort of remove myself from entertainment news. Not that I’m above it, but more that I would over-focus on it. I found the best thing for me is to just focus on what’s actually going on in my life and in my immediate surroundings.


Was there a moment you can recall where you said, "I’m not doing this anymore"?


I think there’s probably a frustration that can happen. It goes back to our earlier conversation. You’re you, and in terms of just where you are work-wise, you’re ahead of what other people know. I just always have found it a frustrating thing to read uninformed opinions. It’s sort of distracting from living your actual life and doing what’s right in front of you.



It's tough when other people create a narrative for you. Did you feel you weren't given adequate opportunity to respond to what was being said about you?


No, I actually found that when I disengaged from entertainment news, everything was just fine [laughs]. Does that make sense? I think as a reader of the stuff or as the subject of the stuff, you can be drawn into the idea that something is actually happening. Magically, if you don’t pay attention to it, nothing is actually happening. Your life just continues.


And even when things are happening, seeing two dozen news outlets say the same thing can make it seem so much noisier than it actually is. 


Yeah. I’m lucky to have people in my life who I really trust and who know me well who, over the course of the “End of the Tour” process, have told me little snippets of lovely things that were written. That sort of stuff is perfect and wonderful and flattering in the right dosage.


How do you temper that praise? Surely those people you love aren’t feeding you the negative stuff, as well. 


It's helpful not to overindulge in the positive either. I’ve found in my life it’s nice just to stay right in the center. Don’t let the highs get too high or the lows get too low, and just put one foot in front of the other.


It's interesting that the studio is going to promote your performance as a supporting role for the Oscars. Even though it isn't a conventional cradle-to-grave biopic, you and Jesse Eisenberg are co-leads, so it feels like a bit of category fraud to me. How do you see it?


I feel very comfortable with it. I always viewed it as a supporting part, if that’s helpful to the discussion. Jesse’s in the movie for 20 or so minutes longer than I am. David Foster Wallace is the subject of the movie, so it feels that way, but it really is David Lipsky’s story, I think. I think “Whiplash” is a good example of a similar dynamic.


Another debate that’s crept up is whether David Foster Wallace would have wanted a movie made about him at all. Some people who feel they knew him have essentially called this blasphemous. What do you make of that? 


I think you want to make movies that don’t have 100 percent level of agreement. I think something like “Toy Story” should have 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but I think a movie about complicated subjects should spark a discussion from people on both sides.


What do you think of the idea that a literary critic or a film critic can feel he or she has enough ownership over DFW’s legacy to say whether or not this film is worthy?


First of all, and this is after a lot of thought, I have great empathy and respect and love, frankly, for the fact that David Foster Wallace has people who love him in varying capacities. I understand that is a very complicated situation. I personally think the movie is less about the life of David Foster Wallace and more an exploration of the themes that he wrote about, so I felt very comfortable. I read Infinite Jest, and I read it hard and thoroughly before we started, and to me, the movie is an extension of those themes. 


This movie cements how much your career has spanned the whole gamut. You’ve done a beloved show that didn’t survive and a show that was very mainstream for a long time. You’ve done movies that generate $100 or $200 million at the box office, and with this, a movie that, on paper, doesn’t appear to have grossed much. It’s “niche,” as people say. Despite the great résumé that gives you, as a producer, is it a bummer there isn’t more of a happy medium in terms of what makes a dent culturally? 


I’ve been doing this for 18 years now, amazingly. I’m 35 years old and one of the things I’ve learned is about adjusting the criteria for success. If you do a big-budget studio comedy, part of the expectation is that it’s going to make a lot of money at the box office. When you do a movie like “End of the Tour” for so little -- the budget of the movie is $3 million or something like that -- I think the criteria for success is that people see it and it moves them. In that regard, I think it’s been a mission accomplished. You take “Freaks and Geeks” versus “How I Met Your Mother” -- both of those feel like huge successes to me. 


The goal is always to tell good stories, but do you think there is a steep difference in making those two types of projects -- in getting an “End of the Tour” off the ground versus getting a “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” off the ground?


It’s an interesting question. I’m pausing so I can give you a good answer. I look back at “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and it actually felt pretty similar in that I was scared. I was really scared going into both of them, and I think that’s a really good place to start because it drives you to make sure everything is as good as it can possibly be. I think the landscape of movies is changing. It’s become very polarized. There are the big tentpole movies that you hope make $100 million or more, and then there’s this art-house, independent kind of film, which is where interesting, smaller movies can be made. I think the middle area of movies has moved to television. So I think there is a changing landscape, but there’s room to do interesting stuff in both places.


You mentioned working on different scripts lately, so when you decide to tackle something, do you feel like you have to figure out what piece of the pie it will fit into? In other words, do you have to begin with a sense of whether it's studio movie and how it will be marketed and what audience it serves? 


That’s really interesting you ask. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about that over the past couple of years. When "How I Met Your Mother" ended and I started to think about how I wanted to proceed for this next phase of my career, I think the more strategic I’ve gotten the less creative I feel. So, for me, I am focusing on, “What do I watch at night?” And then when I think of an idea, "Would I want to watch this?" And that’s really all I can focus on.


So what do you watch at night?


Oh man, the last few things that I watched that I loved were “Frank" and I loved “Room.” It’s so good. I loved “Only Lovers Left Alive.” I just saw that and it is gorgeous.


Final Oscar question: If you were to get that supporting nomination, there’s a good chance you could be up against your pal Seth Rogen. So what kind of rivalry are you guys in store for in these upcoming months?


Oh, I would just think that would be the most amazing journey ever. I wouldn’t view that as a rivalry one bit. I would be really proud of the both of us.


A friendly rivalry, of course.


Of course, but I think, for me, I would just feel tremendous pride in the both of us. We met when we were teenagers!


"The End of the Tour" is now available on DVD/Blu-ray and digitally. This interview has been edited and condensed. 


 


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The D*ck-tionary You Need To Decode All Those Crappy Texts

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Text messages are deceptively simple -- so few letters, yet so much time spent on anxiously decoding what they mean.


According to a previous Pew study, Americans who texted four years ago were sending on average a whopping 41.5 messages in a typical day -- and that data is from 2011! Today, there's What's App, Facebook Messenger, Kik, Snapchat messages. Recent reports says we're sending 30 billion What's App messages every day worldwide, plus 20 billion SMS. 


You would think that with such constant texting, we’d have this form of communication down to a science. But there are some phrases in texting lexicon that can irk, perplex and worry the most tech-savvy of us, and for good reason. As Kelly Conaboy wrote in Gawker last week, "It’s easy to interpret any standalone affirmative response as a sort of 'fuck you' if you’re paranoid enough, or if you deserve it."


Well, fret no longer. We decided to analyze the meanings behind common crappy texts, particularly those standalone, anxiety-inducing responses that seem to contain a multitude of meanings. If you’re guilty of sending these phrases to people, stop -- it’s a dick move. If you're presently rehashing an incredibly maddening text, read on.







ah  
I’ve just had the most boring epiphany ever thanks to you.


basically 
You’ve reduced an idea to it’s simplest, most moronic form. But I’m not going to even attempt to go into the nuances you've missed, because they’d just go over your head ... again.


cool
I couldn’t give less of a shit.


 def
The opposite of definite -- probably the most uncertain affirmative. I'll probably forget this conversation in a few minutes.


eh
I don’t care much -- just enough to let you know how uninterested I am.



fwiw
Short for “for what it’s worth.” I’m using this to preface a statement that is, in fact, utterly worthless.


great (no exclamation point)
I’d rather die. A verbal slap in the face.


hey 
I’m bored, lazy, and possibly horny. I took on the weighty task of texting you first, so it’s now your responsibility to carry this conversation. Timing is also a factor here -- the later into the night someone sends this salutation, the deeper the hole of desperation.


interesting 
I can tell
you think what you said is interesting, but I don’t. I might also be trying to convince you that I’m paying attention, but I’m really catching up on "The Walking Dead."







just sayin’
I’m using this phrase following an offensive remark to protect myself from any thoughtful critique or debate.


kk
The irritatingly upbeat cousin to the nihilistic “k.” This is the Tracy Flick of text messages. 


lol
Don’t be deceived -- there's a high probability that I am not, in fact, laughing out loud. But you’ve said something that I find somewhat amusing, or I simply don’t know what else to say.


meh
I hate it/you/everything.A stronger form of “eh,” graduating from casual indifference to active dislike. 







np 
I’m oozing nonchalance, usually in response to thank you. The more effusive and sincere the gratitude, the harsher a “no problem” abbreviation feels. 


oh
I just had an epiphany -- you're an asshole. I’m offended, but I won't actually come out and say that. 


perf  
I’m too busy and important to include that last syllable. You’re likely here to do my bidding, or I just want to make you feel that way.


QQ (crying)
It's time to quit, you crybaby. 


rlysry
I’m not that sorry -- I didn’t even care enough to properly spell out this apology.







sup?
I am offering nothing yet expecting everything from you. I am a brick wall and have a hard time being vulnerable.  


thx 
This is my perfunctory expression of gratitude. You did something that (a) means nothing to me, or (b) was your responsibility, so I truly don’t owe you anything.


um 
I don’t even know where to begin with how wrong you are.


v.
I'm the picture of chill yet still want to communicate that I feel strongly about something. 







who dis
I’m agitated, yet intrigued that I don’t know who you are. Or I know exactly who you are but want to make you feel worthless and forgotten.


xo
I haven’t learned how to show affection since high school so I’m going to go with this old standby rather than develop my communication skills as an adult.


yep
You just asked me an obvious question, you idiot, and I hate you.


zzz
I’m not really sleepy or sleeping (unless I have a rare condition in which I can lucidly dream text), just bored out of my mind.







Finally, in order to capture the rich language of SMS, we have to address the texts that speak volumes with mere punctuation.


 
Why haven’t you responded to me yet? Helloooo? Or I have no words for the weird thing you just said. Following actual words, this means, "I don't want you to feel to comfortable, so I'm ratcheting up the suspense in this conversation."


:/  
I disapprove of whatever you just said, but I’m also going to leave you in the dark as to why.


? 
What the what? I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.


 


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Portraits Showcase The Appeal Of Online Shopping Across China

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From the vast steppes of Inner Mongolia to a snowy village in Harbin city, online shopping is making the world a little smaller.


In January, Chinese photographer Huang Qingjun traveled across the country and asked families to pose next to everything they had every bought on Taobao, a popular Chinese e-commerce site owned by Internet giant Alibaba.


Today, almost 60 percent of people in China shop online -- compared to just over 30 percent in 2009, according to a 2015 Statista report. Last year, on "Singles Day" on Nov. 11 -- China's version of Cyber Monday shopping day -- online sales on Alibaba alone exceeded $9 billion.


By documenting how different people shop online, Huang learned a little about their lives, too. "For people living in remote areas, Internet shopping is a lifeline to the outside world -- a way to access a host of products that would never be seen where they live," Huang said.


Scroll down to take a look at the photos:



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Startling Photo Series Explores How Our Phones Have Become Our Identities

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Our phones, it seems, are an extension of ourselves. More than half of American smartphone owners check their device a few times an hour, according to a 2015 Gallup poll, and 81 percent say they keep their phones nearby during waking hours almost all of the time. For some, a smartphone might as well be an extra limb. 



That's what artist Antoine Geiger depicts in his photo series "Sur-Fake," highlighting our attachment to the the ubiquitous devices by depicting people's faces stretched and connected to the smartphones they hold in their hands. 


"The [smartphone] screen works just like a cigarette," he wrote of his project. "It is about the reflex, the underlying, the standard. It appeases the consciousness, stimulates it, orders it, subjugates it. Your arm isn’t long enough for your ego, no problem, selfie stick is here!"


The images remove human faces and replace our most distinct and recognizable features with a piece of plastic and glass. With this effect, Geiger shows that our smartphones -- or what lives inside them -- have become more of our identity than our physical selves. The photos are startling: If we're constantly attached to a screen, are we under its control? Geiger seems to think so: 



The small anodyne object that purrs in your bag when you receive a call, that cries when it’s battery [is] low, which place is it actually occupying in your mind? The sur-face, sleek, reassuring, becomes sur-fake. This polymorphous inter-face is turning into a dialogue between your neurosis and your psychosis. Who is who in this story ? The screen probably incarnates our lives, and with such talent, it is soon more real than our own ‘carne’ (flesh).



See more of the photographer's series below. When you're done, you may want to consider a digital detox.



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Russia Says DNA Tests Confirm Remains Of Last Russian Tsar

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MOSCOW, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Russian investigators said on Wednesday new DNA tests conducted at the request of the Orthodox Church had confirmed that the exhumed remains of Nicholas II, the country's murdered last tsar, and his wife, were genuine.


The statement brings closer the possibility that the entire Romanov family -- who were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918 -- could be laid to rest together with the purported remains of Alexei and Maria, two of the tsar's five children, also interred in St Petersburg with the others for the first time.


The church, which canonized the slain family in 2000, has been pushing for extra proof that the remains of Nicholas, whose Romanov dynasty ruled Russia for 300 years, are bona fide, a precondition for Alexei and Maria to be buried.


It has also asked for more tests to check that the purported remains of the two children, found only in 2007, are genuine.



Forensic experts from Russia's Investigative Committee exhumed the remains of Nicholas and his wife Alexandra in September, taking DNA samples that had not previously been analyzed.


Those samples corresponded with earlier findings and showed that the remains were genuine, the committee said in a statement.


"These samples revealed heteroplasmy -- a rare genetic mutation that was present in (earlier) samples of Nicholas II," it said.


Nicholas II, his wife, and their five children were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918 along with their servants in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals.


The bodies of Nicholas and Alexandra and three of their daughters were reburied in St Petersburg in 1991 and an initial five-year investigation, launched in 1993, confirmed the authenticity of those remains.


The committee said on Wednesday it would conduct further tests to reach a "highly reliable final conclusion." It said last month it also planned to exhume the remains of Tsar Alexander III, the father of Nicholas, as part of the same investigation.


(Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Andrew Osborn)


 


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76 Incredibly Accurate Pet Peeves That Will Drive. You. Nuts.

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How annoying is everything? Very.


From colleagues' obnoxious behavior to strangers' inexcusable ways, we've polled The Huffington Post newsroom to find out exactly what drives everyone crazy. Sleep better tonight knowing that your side-eye is not alone.







1. Loud chewing, or peoplechewing with their mouths open.


2. When people are late or make me run late because I'm waiting for them. 


3. People who are chronically late. A one-off I can maybe understand, but it's incredibly rude to think your time is more valuable than the 15 to 30 minutes you're making me wait.


4. People who scuff their feet as they walk down the street, especially if they're wearing UGGs.


5. People smoking electronic cigarettes around non-smokers. Smoking is smoking.







6. People who chew gum loudly and attempt to blow bubbles in confined quarters.


7. The feel of chalk.


8. People who walk into the subway and stand right in front of the door.


9. People who don't cover their mouths when they cough.


10. People who discuss being on a diet while you're in the middle of eating something unhealthy.


11. People who say "ew" to the food on your plate.







12. People who eat food off your plate without asking first.


13. When people ask if they can have some of your food as they make a grab for it


14. People who use redundant hashtags on Instagram, like #me #human #girl #selfie.


15. People who say "no offense" as if it downplays anything insulting they say.


16. People who say "literally" when what they mean is not literal.


17. People who "woo" when their favorite song comes on.







18. Hearing people bite their nails.


19. People that clip their nails at work, while sitting at their desk. 


20. When groups of people take up the entire side of the street. MOVE.


21. People who walk slowly or stop suddenly in the middle of the sidewalk.


22. People who text like they're gchatting, sending "OMG" then "How did you know!" then "LOL" within seconds.


23. Line cutters. There are social rules you must follow.







24. People who don't know how to get through airport security efficiently. It's been 15 years. You know you have to take your goddamn shoes off and can't have liquids and get your computer out of your bag. 


25. People who stand on the left side of an escalator. Right is for standing! Left for walking! 


26. When you let a car cut in front of you and they don't wave to thank you


27. Misspelled signs.


28. Misspelling my name when it's right there in the email staring you in the face.







29. When dog owners leave their dog's poop on the sidewalk.


30. Slow cashiers.


31. Saying "Let's make plans!" then acting surprised when I try to follow up and make actual plans.


32. Online stores that charge for shipping.


33. Food that only pretends to be organic.


34. People who don't "see" age or race.







35. Gluten-free fanatics who have no medical justification to avoid gluten.


36. Subway pole huggers.


37. People who say something "will give you all the feels."


38. People who talk over you when you're clearly still in the middle of the sentence.


39. When people say "on accident." It's BY accident.







40. Passive aggressive behavior. If you have something you want to say, just say it.


41. When you can hear someone eating their cereal.


42. Strangers on the subway who choose to listen to their music through the speakers, instead of headphones.


43. When you're running after the bus, you lock eyes with the bus driver in the rear view mirror, and they still drive straight past you.







44. When you open the door for someone and not only do they not thank you, they also glide straight past you as if people should open doors for them.


45. Mis-pluralized last names on holiday cards. Do not expect me to keep, read or even acknowledge your card if you sign it "The Green's."


46. When people call Latinos Spanish. Most of us weren't born in Spain. 


47. People who groom themselves on public transportation.







48. When people repeatedly hit the elevator button, as if that'll make the elevator arrive sooner. 


49. When people shove past you on the street and say "excuse you!"


50. This non-apology: "I'm sorry you feel that way." 


51. When people spend more time on their phone during dinner or brunch than they do interacting with the people present at the table.


52. People who sing out loud out of nowhere in a crowd of people.







53. The reply-all that asks to be taken off of an email thread. Oh, you were getting too many irrelevant emails and it got annoying? So now you're putting one more on the damn chain so everybody else can suffer? Great, thanks.


54. People with an inflated sense of their own importance.


55. People who say "no problem!" or "no worries!" in response to "thank you." The appropriate thing to say in return is, "You're welcome."


56. People who seal a ziplock bag without removing the air first.







57. People who say "myself" instead of "me" or "I."


58. Adults who say "yummy."


59. Clapping at the end of a movie in theater.


60. The term "touché."


61. People who don't silence their phone when they play a game in public.







62. Receiving emails from a colleague with my boss CC'd.


63. People who take selfies when there are other people around to take the picture.


64. When people say "cool beans."


65. When people go to irrational lengths to keep their middle name a secret.


66. People who say "you should have been there" when you clearly weren't there.







67. People who say "this is she" when someone on the phone asks for them. Just say "Yes."


68. Companies that post 14 Instagrams in a row because they form a larger image on their account. No one goes to your account page.


69. People who abbreviate things that don't need to be shortened. 


70. Colleagues that tell you they ate something really bad yesterday and should really stay home. Just say you're taking a sick day. Nobody needs to hear the details.


71. People who say "eh, you know" when you casually ask them how they're doing. A) I don't know, B) I probably don't care.







72. Public display of affection.


73. People who send emails longer than three sentences, or one paragraph. Call or explain in person. Who has time to read through all of that?


74. People who complain that they don't have time to read emails or tweets or know what's up because they're "too busy," implying that you're a loser with too much spare time. 


75.  Coffee that costs more than $2.


76. People who take home milk from the communal fridge at work. Nope.







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After The Sexual Harassment Of A 12-Year-Old Girl, Women Speak Out With #PrimeiroAssedio

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Valentina Shulz is one of the many young chefs hoping to show off her culinary chops on Brazil’s "MasterChef Junior," but when the series made its debut on Oct. 20, the 12-year-old girl instead became the target of online sexual harassment.


“If there is consent is it pedophilia?” wrote one Twitter user about Shulz.


Think Olga, a Brazilian feminist group battling against street harassment and abuse against women, decided to fight back against the men who were tweeting disturbing sexual messages about the girl and to expose the larger issue of harassment in the country. 


Using the hashtag #PrimeiroAssedio, which translates to “first harassment,” the group asked its Twitter followers on Oct. 21, to share the first time they experienced sexual harassment. 






Journalist and Think Olga founder Juliana de Faria told BBC Trending on Monday that the campaign started with her tweeting her own harassment story. And after seeing the overwhelming initial response from her followers, she decided to create the hashtag.


"Suddenly some readers and followers of Think Olga were writing me back with the first time they were harassed and they were very, very young, as young as five years old,” De Faria told BBC. “So I started retweeting that.” 


The hashtag has since been used more than 90,000 times, according to BBC.


One of the judges on Brazil's "MasterChef Junior," Paola Carosella, was one of the of women who shared her story. The Argentine chef recently told a São Paulo newspaper that when she was 11 or 12, a man pressed up against her and masturbated next to her while she was on a bus. 


"When I found the strength and courage, I pushed him and got off the bus," Carosella told the Folha de S. Paulo. "I couldn't walk. My legs were shaking. I never told this to anyone, because I was ashamed, as if it was my fault."


The hashtag continues to grow as more and more Brazilian women tell their harrowing stories, from being groped on the street to being victims of rape at a young age. It is inspiring women around the world to speak out.


Here are a few of the stories from #PrimeiroAssedio


WARNING: Some of the tweets below may be severely disturbing or graphic for some readers.  



The movement also recently prompted some men in Brazil to begin a campaign using the hashtag #MeaCulpa, a Latin phrase used to acknowledge fault, to encourage men to own up to their behavior and attitudes.


“Everything I read was terrifying. And worse than the atrocities being told was the realization that that evil was part of women’s daily life throughout all their lives,” author Pedro Neschling, who participated in the #MeaCulpa campaign, told O Globo.“It is the duty of all of us, men, to open our eyes and realize we have more fault than we care to admit.”


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These GIFs Of Shia LaBeouf Watching His Own Movies Show How Each GOP Candidate Did On Tuesday

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The Republican party held its fourth presidential debate Tuesday night. Despite two hours of back and fourth, pundits were scratching their heads trying to determine who won or lost. The polls didn't really change for any candidate except for Jeb!, who was considered to be one of the bigger losers of the debate.


In order to capture the general malaise of the GOP primary, we offer these GIFs of Shia LaBeouf watching his own movies to communicate how each candidate performed. 


Rand Paul:



John Kasich: 



Carly Fiorina: 



Ted Cruz:



Jeb Bush:



Ben Carson:



Donald Trump:



Marco Rubio:



GIF source: #ALLMYMOVIES


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Jazz Great Wynton Marsalis Honored For Humanitarian Work

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Jazz great Wynton Marsalis has been honored with an award named for a pioneering opera singer.


The Marian Anderson Award is given in Philadelphia to "critically acclaimed artists who have impacted society in a positive way." Anderson was the first black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera.


Marsalis has won nine Grammys and is the first jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize for music. His humanitarian work includes The Children's Defense Fund and helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. He's also the director of jazz at Lincoln Center.


During Tuesday night's awards ceremony, the trumpeter and composer took the stage with his original septet - something that hasn't happened in 20 years.


Past recipients include Richard Gere, Mia Farrow, James Earl Jones and Jon Bon Jovi.


 


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These Starbucks Cups Are Simply Spectacular -- No Controversy Here

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While there's controversy swirling around Starbucks' new holiday cups, we're pretty sure we can all agree that these cups are incredible. 


Carrah Aldridge, a 20-year-old from Newark, Ohio, turns regular Starbucks cups into vibrantly decorated creations fit for the most serious coffee drinkers. Aldridge told The Huffington Post that while she's been decorating the cups for a year and a half, her designs ended up drawing a great deal of attention after she recently shared her work on Imgur and Bored Panda



"It's kind of overwhelming," Aldridge told HuffPost. "Especially for someone who's usually so shy and quiet!" 


The 20-year-old's work was inspired by another artist, Kristina Webb, who's also made art out of Starbucks cups



To create the beautiful designs, Aldridge uses sharpies, a white gel pen and Copic markers. She told HuffPost that she usually decides on a theme and just runs with it while doodling on her cup canvases. 



And though the designs are going viral now, at the same time as the holiday cup controversy, Aldridge says the timing on her decision to share the cups online was purely coincidental. However, she does hope that her particular cups can bring people together. 



"I just like inspiring people as much as I can," she said. "What I set out to do was post and inspire people and share my work." 


Check out more of Aldridge's cups below: 





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