Kenneth Lonergan's latest film grabs your attention and holds it the minute you spot Casey Affleck on a fishing boat out on the water in Massachusetts. "Manchester by the Sea" is already the talk of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival after its world premiere on Saturday, garnering rave reviews from top industry critics and scoring a deal with Amazon, who reportedly picked up domestic rights to the film for a cool $10 million. 

The movie, produced in part by Matt Damon, tells the story of Lee Chandler (Affleck), a Boston janitor/handyman who becomes the legal guardian of his brother's 16-year-old son after the brother's untimely death. But there's much more to the story than meets the eye as Lee returns to his hometown of Manchester-by-the-Sea and relives his painful past while grieving his only sibling.

Affleck shines in the film, which is a slow-burning look into the life of a man who has seemingly lost everything. It's a role that Damon himself turned down due to scheduling conflicts, and one which will hopefully garner Affleck some Oscar buzz next awards season. Damon discussed the casting issue during the post-screening Q&A. 

“Casey and I did one of Kenny’s plays in London, 14 years ago, and Kenny’s our favorite writer. We went to Kenny with this idea, John Krasinski and I -- and originally the idea was for me to direct this movie and John was going to be in it,” Damon explained. “Then I read a very, very rough draft -- it was about 4,000 pages -- and I just begged Kenny, I said, 'You have to direct it.' And he eventually saw the wisdom of my thinking."

"And then I was going to be in it, but in a really bizarre and atypical fit of generosity, I gave it to Casey. And immediately regretted it. Basically it’s one of the best roles I’ve ever seen," Damon continued. "I had a full slate and I wouldn’t be able to do this movie until next year, and they could go last year with Casey. And I didn’t want to get in the way of a great movie getting made. I had already said to Kenny that I will not give up the role to anyone but Casey Affleck. And Casey instantly took the role. Because he saw what we all saw."

Kyle Chandler of "Friday Night Lights" fame plays Lee's brother Joe, but it's budding new star Lucas Hedges who steals the spotlight alongside Affleck as Lee's nephew Patrick. The 19-year-old son of writer Peter Hedges and Susan Bruce Titman delivers a powerhouse performance as a coming-of-age teen who suppresses his grief by heading to band practice and trying to date/get into bed with two different girls. In all honesty, he gives off a bit of a Damon in "Good Will Hunting" vibe, Boston accent included.

"I'll take that! Matt Damon is amazing, great-looking ... that's awesome," Hedges told The Huffington Post during a chat at Sundance. "I played his son in a movie two or three years ago actually, called 'The Zero Theorem.'"

But Damon comparisons aside, Hedges truly invested his whole self into the project, making sure to collect as many tips from his on-screen uncle as possible.

"At first, it was very intimidating because it's a film that has Boston accents in it and Casey is one of the quintessential Boston actors. He's got that famous line in "Good Will Hunting," you know the 'My boy's a genius' one or whatever ... "

(Side note: Yes, we know.)

"But he really opened up and he gave me a lot of tips throughout the course of filming just in terms of this idea that there's no distinction between action and cut," he continued. "You're living your life the entire time in both worlds -- it's not like they say, 'Action!' and here we go, that's where bad acting comes from."

With Affleck and Hedges' performances, as well as Michelle Williams' brief but riveting turn as Affleck's ex-wife, there's no doubt Lonergan's latest will be buzzed about for months to come. 

“I have an aversion to the idea that there’s some kind of closure or catharsis. I guess people find ways to live with real tragedy. But some people don’t,” Lonergan said at the Q&A. “I thought that maybe those people deserve to have a movie made about them too. I’ve seen a lot of really good movies about people coming fully back to life. I wanted to do something different, something that seemed a bit more understandable to me.”

Check back for more updates from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. 

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Film festivals are all-day affairs, stuffed with one movie, interview, party and hurried pizza slice after the next. By the time I took my seat for Sundance's Saturday evening premiere of "Captain Fantastic" -- my seventh screening in three days -- I was glassy-eyed and ready for a nap. Two hours later, I was on my feet, joining the entirety of the large Eccles Theater in a standing ovation. Suddenly, my Sundance spunk was renewed. 

It's easy to get swept up by a movie that stands out amid a bunch of lukewarm fare. It happened last year when the Eccles crowd rose in adoration for "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl," a movie that spent the rest of 2015 facing backlash and box-office defeat. (For the record, I wasn't a fan.) I'm confident "Captain Fantastic" is no "Me and Earl." There is a dying girl, but no matter: This is a spirited film celebrating life and ingenuity. 

It's Matt Ross' second directorial effort, following 2012's "28 Hotel Rooms." You'll recognize Ross as Gavin Belson on "Silicon Valley," Alby Grant on "Big Love" and Dr. Charles Montgomery on "American Horror Story." For "Captain Fantastic," he cast a committed Viggo Mortensen as Ben, a bearded yippie living off the grid in the Pacific Northwest with his six children, eschewing capitalism and all things mainstream (Christmas, traditional schooling, meat from animals they don't personally slaughter). Ben and his Buddhist wife, Leslie, have established their own jubilant mini-society.

This is no cult, and it's not "Dogtooth" redux: The kids read Middlemarch, recite the Bill of Rights, play musical instruments by the campfire, debate Marxism and train to defend themselves in the wilderness. Part of the way Ben educates his kids is by holding nothing back, explaining sexual intercourse and mental illness and all the things most parents shield from their youngsters. But the clan's estrangement is disrupted when Ben travels to town to find a telephone line and discovers that Leslie, who  was recently hospitalized for late-onset bipolar disorder, has died. 

Stéphane Fontaine's cinematography accentuates the movie's opening, shimmering with gleeful sunbeams. When tragedy befalls the family, resilience -- spiritedness, even -- is the only solution, and Ross never foregoes the ebullient energy he first establishes, even during its angstier moments. Leslie's father (Frank Langella) loathes Ben, blaming him for his daughter's alternative lifestyle. He bans Ben from attending Leslie's funeral, and at first, Ben intends to company. But the kids, assuming the fortitude Dad taught them, insist they go, partly to ensure Leslie is cremated according to her wishes. The pile into the family vehicle -- a green school bus they call Steve -- and trek to civilization.

From there, you'll have to experience "Captain Fantastic" for yourself. Think "Beasts of the Southern Wild" meets "Little Miss Sunshine." Funny and vivacious, the movie is an ode to triumphing over the weight of the world, whether that means evading it or embracing it. Ross' biggest accomplishment is crafting a script that doesn't feel like a hodgepodge of tree-hugging tropes -- in fact, by the end, it's the opposite. There's wisdom to glean in Ben's philosophizing, which can be purposefully grating at times, and there's wisdom to glean in everything he gets wrong about the ills of a systemized society, even if it means "the powerful control the lives of the powerless." "Captain Fantastic" is about a guy figuring out how to care for his children, and how to course-correct when he realizes he hasn't gotten everything right.

With winning performances across the board, particularly one from Kathryn Hahn as Ben's disapproving sister and another from George MacKay as Ben's eldest son, "Captain Fantastic" is an ensemble outing with enough heart and pep to fill a room, on or off the grid. Assuming I wasn't drunk from the joy of seeing a movie without a dozen stipulations about its quality, it's screenings like this that remind tear-stained festival crowds why they spend all day shuffling in and out of movie theaters: in hopes of seeing something that's too good to remain seated.

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In a state known for top-notch coffee, it takes a lot to stand out ... or maybe it only takes a little.

Washington State's drive-through coffee stands are pretty plentiful, and they've been around for a while. Butt But the big buzz, according to the video above from Zagat, surrounds bikini baristas who brew espresso while scantily clad in outfits ranging from tasteful bathing suits to a few strategically placed stickers:

The proliferation of such coffee spots has once again caused conversation to percolate around whether half-clothed servers are okay for kids -- and customers in general -- to see. One Spokane city councilman has been trying to pass regulations concerning the businesses for years, as the video details. 

But let's get to the point: Do they make good coffee?

One Yelp user says she'd "definitely recommend" Smokin' Hot Espresso, where mochas come with side of midriff:

And a Foursquare visitor reports "the spiced chai is delicious" at Banana Hammock Espresso, the state's only all-male bikini barista stand according to Zagat:

The debate over bikini baristas continues to brew among locals. But served with clothing or not, we're always up for a healthy cup of joe.

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Orgasms are hard to describe. The reigning classification of the climactic sensation seems to be -- you'll know it when you have it. Popular explanations include vague phrases like "intense release" or are illustrated with analogies referencing warm waterfalls, lightning bolts and tiny explosions. 

Well, seems like it's time to add one more orgasm description to the list, and this one involves a bundle of electricity that starts at your feet and expands upwards, turning your whole body into a buzzing circuit of static energy pulsing from your fingers, toes, and face. Oh, and your head as a massive eyeball.

Behold, the amazing illustration from a 1949 issue of Sexology Magazine, featuring a surrealist depiction of the lady's little death. Needless to say, I'll have what she's having.

The retro clipping contains a textual snippet asserting that, according to sexologists, over 30 percent of women in their sample did not experience orgasms during marital union. It then proceeds to describe an orgasm as an "all consuming nervous explosion which permeates the entire being ... both physically and mentally," and is "unique and unmatched in all other human experiences." 

The glorious drawing is a friendly reminder to ladies everywhere, wed and unwed, to chase that orgasm and fight for the right to come. Don't you want to turn your body into a Salvador Dali drawing? 

h/t Buzzfeed

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While people across the U.S. were stuck at home during Winter Storm Jonas this weekend, one creative dad shared what his family does on snow days.

Reddit user DiabolicalDialogue posted a photo of his son rocking some elaborate tattoo art. The Lexington, Kentucky dad noted in the comment section that he is an aspiring tattoo artist and bonds with his son by drawing new designs on him.

"I'm doing my best trying to kill the dad game," he wrote in a comment. "Sadly I'm not working at a shop right now, I'm grinding at a factory until I find a shop willing to take on an apprentice with another job and a kid. But being a tattooist is my lifelong dream. But being dad comes first."

In response to safety concerns from other users, the dad quickly pointed out that he draws the body art with a "skin pen," which is "basically a washable marker" that tattoo shops use to sketch out designs. 

Though the dad has tattoos himself, he said he won't let his son consider getting one until he is 18 -- though he's not even sure the boy is interested.

"Believe it or not he doesn't seem as infatuated with them as a lot of his friends are," he wrote. "To him they're just an everyday thing. I'm more concerned about the $3,000 Les Paul [guitar] he's already wanting lol."

Sounds like a rock star in the making. 

H/T Mashable

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Four years after the Costa Concordia cruise ship capsized off the Italian coast, stunning images taken by photographer Jonathan Danko Kielkowski give a rare look inside the wreckage. 

On Jan 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia struck a submerged rock on its way around the Mediterranean Sea and sank near the island of Giglio. The tragedy claimed the lives of 32 people. Captain Francesco Schettino, who left the ship while it sank, was later found guilty of 32 counts of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The Costa Concordia wreck was towed to its final resting place in the Italian port of Genoa in July 2014, where it will eventually be dismantled. Photographer Kielkowski, who's based in Germany, swam out to the wreckage in to document the scenes of the abandoned ship's once-buzzing rooms. The images are featured in his new book "Concordia," published by White Press.

"The wrecked Cruise Ship is visible and attracts me like a magnet, so I finally venture to swim across," Kielkowski writes in his book. "Against all odds, I find the shipwreck freely accessible — neither fences nor security personnel! Rather, the doors are open, lights are turned on, no man can be seen—nothing in the way to document…"

Jonathan Danko Kielkowski will be appearing and signing copies of CONCORDIA at the book's launch at the Los Angeles ArtBook Fair Feb. 11-14. For more information and to order the book, go to whitepress.com.

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Make no mistake: To love someone after you've had your heart broken in the past is an act of bravery -- but it's definitely worthwhile, as the illustrated comic below points out so beautifully. 

The comic, illustrated by Gavin Aung of Zen Pencils, is an adaptation of a quote from C.S. Lewis' 1960 book, The Four Loves. Head to Zen Pencils to see a larger version of the comic below. 

(A larger version of the comic can be read here.) 

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The 2015 film "Behemoth" opens with an mining explosion and closes with a ghost city. The 84 minutes in between are a wordless exploration of what connects the two -- the environmental tragedy that has mirrored China’s economic miracle. Shot over several years in the Chinese provinces of Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, "Behemoth" bears witness to grasslands swallowed by mines, lungs caked with coal dust and skies shrouded in smog.

The movie is the latest attempt by the acclaimed filmmaker Zhao Liang to walk the line between art house cinema and didactic documentary, between the visually lush and the politically potent.

“All artists will express things about society in their work, but the most important is still the work of art itself,” Zhao told The WorldPost. “I’m not that kind of news-focused artist. I prefer to use the language of art to create something.”

"Behemoth" contains no dialogue. The only semblance of narrative derives from subtitled lines from the "Divine Comedy," the 14th-century Italian poem considered one of the great works of Western literature. The poem depicts its author, Dante Alighieri, being guided through hell, purgatory and heaven by the Roman poet Virgil and Dante’s beloved Beatrice.

Zhao read the "Divine Comedy" while shooting "Behemoth," and decided to incorporate the poem into his otherwise wordless film, tweaking the language where necessary. Instead of hell, purgatory and heaven, Zhao’s camera plunges through pitch-black mines, hellfire iron furnaces and a gleaming ghost city. Where Dante followed a Roman poet, the movie's point of view follows a nameless miner, face smeared with coal dust, as he goes about his workaday life. There is also a naked man whose face we never see, though we follow his gaze as he regards strip mines, skyscrapers and other features of the new China.

Balancing cinematic artistry and social impact is something Zhao has been doing for two decades. He first rose to international prominence for gritty documentaries that examined the dark underbelly of the Chinese state: police abuse of suspects and the plight of ordinary citizens who appeal local grievances to the central government, only to be beaten and arrested.

Those films garnered praise abroad, but never received theatrical release in China because of their politically sensitive content. Zhao’s work finally saw domestic acceptance -- and some controversy with fellow artists -- when he worked with the government’s Ministry of Health for a film on discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS.

In filming "Behemoth," Zhao once again worked outside the government approval system. After over a year driving around China in search of subject matter, Zhao settled on the mining industry in China's northern province of Inner Mongolia. Knowing that if he truthfully described his project he wouldn't get access to the mines or approval from censors, he was forced to use half-truths and outright lies in explaining what he was doing. At times he'd pretend he was a painter shooting material he could later work off of. Other times, he purported to be a director from state-owned TV sent to make an uplifting documentary about China's working class.

Despite the socially charged bent of Zhao's material, he chose to take on environmental devastation through visual expression alone. He described the film's non-narrative structure, and its use of the "Divine Comedy," as an attempt to break out of traditional documentary tropes. That move toward a more stylized approach was also driven by a frustration with the limited reach of independent documentaries in China.

Zhao says that after making the film, he attempted to gain approval for "Behemoth" to be released in China, but his efforts were blocked. The film will instead be screened at various film festivals (it has already appeared at several, beginning with the Venice International Film Festival in September), as well as on some television broadcasts in Europe.

“When you put [an independent film] out there, what are the odds that it can actually change society? I’ve shot several films, but think about it -- what effect have they had?” Zhao said. “It’s a disappointment, a real disappointment. So I’ve gone back to just expressing myself. That’s the stuff I like."

While the "Divine Comedy" provides a scaffolding for Zhao's story, the real power of "Behemoth" lies in its patient visuals. In one scene, the dust from passing coal trucks repeatedly obscures a frame that once held a white village home.

“I had always wanted to film this kind of shot: The dust rises and falls, rises and falls,” Zhao told The WorldPost. “I think this kind of cycle is a really beautiful thing, just like breathing.”

In the final act, Zhao takes viewers to Ordos, a city of pristine new buildings that has sprung up from the Inner Mongolian desert in recent years. Built on the back of a local coal boom, Ordos stands largely empty today, a ghost city without a soul in sight. In Zhao’s telling, Ordos is a false paradise -- a cardboard heaven for which Chinese people have sacrificed their land and their bodies.

Walking down Ordos’ empty streets, the camera follows a man carrying a mirror on his back. Zhao has taken over an hour to conjure righteous indignation against “the monster” embodied by these mines, but here he turns that back on the audience, whose own consumer desires drive the industrial beast. 

“This isn’t a dream," he said. "This is us. We are that monster and its minions."

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Eleven-year-old Marley Dias told her mom she was "sick of reading books about white boys and dogs."

The sixth grader from New Jersey told The Huffington Post that she loves to read, but that she has a hard time relating to the characters in the required books she reads in school because she has nothing in common with them. 

"I was frustrated... in fifth grade where I wasn't reading [books with] a character that I could connect with," she told HuffPost.

Her mom, Janice Dias, asked Marley what she planned on doing about it. At first, Marley said that she decided to create a book guide which would feature black characters, but she ultimately decided to take her idea a step further. So she initiated #1000BlackGirlBooks in November, a book drive where she collected books in which black girls were the main characters -- not the sidekicks or background characters. 

Marley, who works with her mom's organization GrassROOTS Community Foundation, plans to collect 1000 books by Feb. 1, to donate to children. On Feb. 11, she'll travel to her mom's hometown, St. Mary, Jamaica, to host a book festival and give the books to schools and libraries. Marley said she hopes this book drive helps more young black girls read about characters they can relate to. So far, she's collected nearly 500 books.

"I know there's a lot of black girl books out there, I just haven't read them," she said. "So if we started this I would find them and other people would be able to read them, as well."

However, Marley's budding career in philanthropy started long before #1000BlackGirlBooks. Last year, Marley won a Disney Friends for Change grant to teach girls how to tap into their talents at a youth empowerment camp and gave food to orphans in Ghana. She also regularly serves food at a soup kitchen with two of her peers as a part of their nonprofit, BAM, which stands for the first letter in the three girls' names -- Briana, Amina and Marley.

Marley credits most of her ambitious desire to help others to her mom, but she admits her more creative side comes from her dad.

"I write everyday," she said, in reference to her blog. Marley said she wants to become a magazine editor when she grows up and she hopes to maybe even write a book of her own for young girls like her one day.

"[Representation] definitely matters because when you read a book and you learn something, you always want to have something you can connect with," she said. "If you have something in common with the characters, you'll always remember and learn a lesson from the book."

To find out more about #1000BlackGirlBooks, visit Marley's website.

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A Nobel Prize-winning physicist at the University of Texas at Austin declared Monday that he will try to ban guns his classroom this fall, even if university rules and state law say he can't.

Steven Weinberg, who won the top prize in science in 1979, said at the university's faculty council meeting that he understands the decision could leave him vulnerable to a lawsuit. Most university task forces across the state have found that Texas' new campus carry law prohibits such a ban. But Weinberg said he believes that he would eventually win that suit, because forcing professors to allow guns quashes constitutionally protected free speech and academic freedom.

"I am willing by my own actions to expose myself to this," he said. "Let's have it heard. We should allow the courts to decide it."

UT-Austin officials charged with reviewing the law were unconvinced. Steven Goode, a UT-Austin law professor and chairman of the university's campus carry task force, said his group reviewed banning guns in classrooms and decided that it violated the new law. Attorney General Ken Paxton has agreed in a written opinion issued last month.

"I think that the notion that a First Amendment claim would win in court against [the campus carry law] is an illusion," Goode said. "I think it is an extraordinarily weak argument.

The campus carry law, which goes into effect Aug. 1, requires colleges to allow people with concealed handgun licenses to carry their weapons in campus buildings. University presidents can declare some rooms or buildings gun-free, but those declarations can't have the cumulative effect of banning guns campus-wide.

Many faculty members, especially at UT-Austin, have urged their presidents to ban guns in classrooms.

At UT-Austin, President Greg Fenves appointed a task force to review the law and suggest rules. That task force has recommended banning guns in dorms and allowing professors to ban guns in their individual offices. But it said that bans in classrooms went too far.

Fenves, who hasn't yet weighed in, said on Monday that he expects to propose his rules by mid-February. But in comments to the faculty council, he indicated that he would have to stick with state law. When asked whether professors can require students with handguns to sit in the back of the classroom, for example, Fenves said he didn't think so.

"As a public university, I am obligated to seeing that we carry out the law," Fenves said.

This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization. Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.

Related:Top Christian College Rejects Texas Law Allowing Guns On Campus

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Why does the Oxford English Dictionary portray feminists as rabid?

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Francisco Goya's "La Maja Desnuda (The Nude Maja)" introduced the painting world to a provocative image involving a nude woman reclining and unabashedly directing her gaze at the viewer. Inspired by Goya's perspective, Helmut Newton was one of the first photographers to explore sensuality and eroticism within the world of fashion photography. By creating a realm composed of corseted silhouettes, leather saddles and handcuffs, one of the stars of modern photography challenged traditions and experimented with satire.

Take, for example, an image of a mirror reflecting a nude model, shown below. The photographer can be seen at work behind her, while in the foreground, a woman seated on a director's chair observes the entire scene. The woman is Jane Newton, the wife of the artist who is wielding the lens in "Self Portrait with Wife and Models."

This photo, along with two hundred others in the series "White Women" (1976),
“Sleepless Nights" and "Big Nudes" will be on display from April 7to August 7, 2016, at the Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice, Italy.

On display are photos shot for Vogue, Marie Claire, Elle, Playboy, Vanity Fair and GQ,as well as work previously exhibited in New York, Paris, London, Houston, Moscow, Tokyo, Prague and Venice. The collection transcends fashion photography into portraiture, and portraits into news stories that seem to be taken straight from crime scenes.

To create the massive black and white photos for "Big Nudes," Newton took inspiration from posters distributed by the German police that had been used to track down Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorists. He earned himself a spot in museums and galleries the world over, and immortalized stars like Ava Gardner, Charlotte Rampling, Catherine Deneuve, Romy Schneider and Raquel Welch.

This list also includes Margaret Thatcher, the only woman to have ever frightened Newton. In a 2001 interview with The Guardian he confessed, “I had wanted to get her in front of my camera for years. The more powerful she became, the sexier she was for me."

Eventually, beauty became routine for him. At a certain point, the German photographer, who received his first camera at the age of 12 and at 16 was already working as an assistant at the fashion photography studio Yva, had had enough of perfect forms and gorgeous women. Whenever he was asked "Don't you think this girl is stunning?" he would reply, "She reminds me of work." 

Nonetheless, Newton's legacy endures.

This post first appeared on HuffPost Italy and has been translated into English.

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Inspired by J.K. Rowling’s occasional plot twists -- revealed on social media long after the series has satisfyingly concluded -- you’ve decided to re-read Harry Potter, swapping in a new pronunciation of “Voldermort,” or a new interpretation of Snape’s character.

Which is great! -- the first few times around.

But if you’ve got every sentence memorized as if they were lines from a beloved movie, it might be time to throw a few new magical reads in the mix. We've compiled a list of some of our favorite alternatives to Harry Potter's world of fantasy.

The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel

The author of Life of Pi has already proven that he has a knack for infusing his stories with a bit of whimsy, without falling prey to the gimmicks those narrative tricks can lend themselves to. His newest book follows protagonist Tomás on a quest for a powerful artifact that echoes on centuries later. It’s a fast-paced adventure peopled by ghosts, chimps and brave souls.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

If your favorite spot in the wizarding world is Diagon Alley, Sloan’s novel about a mysterious shop that contains much more than meets the eye is worth exploring. Protagonist Clay Jannon stumbles into a job at the shop after many “days when [he] rarely touched paper,” working in a web-based company in San Fransisco. In a lovely ode to the wonders of print, the book fuses the metaphorical magic of books with real magic.

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

Whether you long to experience the steampunk-ish magic of Platform 9 3/4, or simply delight in riddles and labyrinthine plots, you’ve got to read Calvino’s best-known novel, which is really more like several novels rolled into one big comedic maze. Ultimately, it’s about two readers who attempt to read the same story, but are repeatedly interrupted by printing errors, resulting in a disconnect between their interpretations.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Fun fact: Morgenstern wrote her harried first draft of The Night Circus during NaNoWriMo, a feat that must’ve involved some kind of sorcery. Another fun fact: many of the sensual scenes were inspired by the hit interactive play “Sleep No More,” a production that appeals to anyone who’s ever craved magical treats. The story itself centers on star-crossed lovers who are fated to a magical duel.

Every Day by David Levithan

If you’re into Harry Potter because it harkens back to your early days of first discovering how great books can be, another YA book that employs fantastical elements might itch your scratch (or lightning bolt-shaped scar). Levithan crafts a magical character in “A,” a gender-neutral free spirit who hops from one body to another each morning after waking up.

Read our interview with David Levithan.

This Census-Taker by China Miéville

You might not walk away from Miéville’s cryptic, beautifully written book with neatly packaged bits of wisdom, but you will get to experience a very imaginative world, filled with keys with strange powers, and bold, lonely and fearful children. The book’s narrator is like Harry in many ways, mostly because he doesn’t discover his own strength until he meets an empowering crew of misfits.

Read our review of This Census-Taker.

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

Oyeyemi’s book, like Sloan’s, comments on the magic of storytelling. When a male writer’s muse, Mary, comes to life, the two navigate the travails of love in elaborate, tumultuous ways. Meanwhile, the man’s wife smells something fishy, and the author must choose between the drudgery that comes with real love and the whirlwind of his imagined fantasy. The effect is nothing short of enchanting.

Sleep Donation by Karen Russell

The “magical realist” descriptor has been applied to Russell more than a few times, but this short book might better be classified as weird fiction or sci-fi. A huge organization called the Slumber Corps works to undo an insomnia pandemic by lending hours of sleep for those in need. If that doesn’t sound like Hogwartsian shenanigans, nothing does.

Read our interview with Karen Russell.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

As Dumbledore once said, “The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with caution.” This would probably resonate with Murakami, who uses surreal scenes to illustrate emotional truths. In 1Q84, a traffic-dodging shortcut down an emergency escape lands protagonist Aomame in a universe that’s much like the one she comes from -- only slightly different. And that’s only the beginning.

Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan

Everyone knows Sirius Black is the most beloved Harry Potter character, partly because of his scoundrel's attitude, and partly because he’s an Animagus -- a wizard who can turn into a scraggly dog whenever he pleases. The subject of Kurniawan’s Man Tiger can’t exactly morph into another species, but he does possess within him the spirit of a tiger.

Red our review of Man Tiger.

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Do you consider yourself an OK Cupid connoisseur? A true Tinder talent? A swiping savant?

If you find yourself perpetually glued to the diminutive screen of your iPhone, ruffling madly through a string of potential partners, take a moment to consider an alternative lifestyle. Express your complex love-hate relationship with online dating apps in a more therapeutic manner: yes, I'm talking about a coloring book. 

Artist Adam Seymour has created an adult coloring book called Colour A Lover -- he's Australian -- turning the trials and tribulations of searching for love in cyberspace into sharp black-and-white drawings, just waiting for your touch. The coloring and activity book invites you to add pigment to your potential date's bad tattoo, navigate your way through his hipster beard, and determine his sexual proclivities by analyzing his favorite songs. 

"I've always been fascinated with social media and our ever changing relationship with technology," Seymour wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. "I have noticed that, with the increasing popularity of Tinder, more and more people can relate to this topic, and online dating apps are the new normal."

Seymour's past projects include creating watercolor portraits of Grinder profiles and moonlighting as a happy ending masseur while sketching his clientele. It's not too surprising that, given the skyrocketing popularity of the adult coloring book, Seymour opted to give it a shot. 

"Adult coloring books have become really trendy, especially with research emerging showing the therapeutic qualities it has," he explained. "It's also a fun way to zone out ... similar to the hours we spend online looking for love. I thought this was an interesting parallel. Rather than doing another art exhibition, I wanted to introduce an interactive element to my work, whilst putting a new spin on the coloring book trend. The activity book also has the hashtag #ColourALover so people can upload snaps of their colorful creations in response to my work. I can't wait to see what people come up with." 

Colour A Lover is available for purchase online, and it can also be bought in person at this year's upcoming LA Book Fair from February 12 to February 14, 2016.

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Colombian artist Juan Betancurth is known primarily for his sculptures, strange contraptions that recall blurry memories of punishment and domesticity. One piece features the bristly head of a hairbrush melded into a leather sock, laced firmly up the wearer's arm. Resembling bizarre mittens or a benevolent take on a torture device, the object seems both threatening and comforting, its purpose unknowable but its presence persuasive. 

In a new photographic series, a collaboration with photographer Benjamin Fredrickson, Betancurth delves into the history behind his work, tracing his practice back to his mother, Nydia. Betancurth, the seventh of eight children, was shaped by his mother's unusual expressions of authority, which often involved homemade inventions designed to discipline and punish her kids.

For the photo series, Frederickson returned to the place where Betancurth grew up, documenting Nydia wearing various disciplinarian gadgets made specifically for her by her son. In one, Nydia cleans the floor, on hands and knees, wearing the leather sock-brushes on her arms. In another, she dons a knit mask over her entire face while looking in the mirror. Positions of dominance and submission, authority and weakness, are thrown into disarray as a son's shadow returns home to address jumbled memories of fear, respect and love.

The series, titled "Nydia," is both a gesture of love and a soft act of revenge, as Nydia models the strange mechanisms, vaguely reminiscent of the ones she used on her children. Nostalgic with a hint of menace, the images reverse the roles of parent and child, imbuing the domestic sphere with a whisper of the uncanny. 

Below, Betancurth expands on his childhood inspiration and experience returning home:

Tell me about the small town in Colombia where you grew up.

I keep calling it a "small town" probably because it seems small to me, but Manizales is really a small city, situated at the peak of a mountain, in the middle of coffee fields, a volcano, and a rainforest. People there are friendly, committed to a simple way of living, very attached to family values and strong Catholic traditions. There is always a feeling that time never goes by or that it runs very slowly.

How would you describe your mother? 

A strong woman that didn’t have a a chance in life but to become a housewife. I have to say that I’m not sure if I really know her that well to make the right description. I can talk about how I perceive her: simple, humble and conservative, but I don’t really know how close it gets to the person she really is or she feels herself. That will remain to me as a mystery.

When I was younger, I was always afraid of her. I never felt comfortable with her around, it always felt like walking in a mine field. I never knew when I was detonating her brain out of her body. My impressions of her have been changing with time. As I grew older, I started to feel curious about that person that I had to call mother, I took the risk of putting myself in her shoes and they were not that comfortable. I think she is a women incapable of loving, or one with a very particular way of expressing it.

You've mentioned the unusual contraptions your mother occasionally used as means of punishment. Can you describe some?

I can't recall one in particular right now, there were several; the shape of one blurs in my mind into the next one. What I remember is my mother's precise manner of inflicting punishment on us. She was always agile, sharp and clever. I would say that she was a contraption herself.

What was your reaction to these punishments? How have your impressions changed over time, if at all?

I was afraid of them at the beginning, but they occurred so often that I probably developed a resistance or a sympathy towards them over time.

What compelled you to return home and incorporate your mother as a subject of your photography?

I was developing a body of work based on the ideas of a domestic life and how close it feels to me as an act of domestication. I started to twist domestic objects into control devices, day-by-day domestic actions into submissive behavior, kitchen tools into artifacts for pain or pleasure. I then realized that my own way of looking at that was coming from my own experience, so I decided to go straight to the source. That’s when Nydia came to play.

On the other hand, I feel that my mother and I had an unsolved deal. She was willing for me to see her in a different way and I was carrying this old fantasy of seeing her as powerless, following my commands. I found the situation rich in its content. I believe that there is much beauty to discover out of the darkness, but we are afraid of facing it or we just avoid it. Definitely that’s not how I want to live or do my work. Working with my mother was not a conscious act of catharsis but I must say, it made big changes.

How did the actual photographic process work for this project? 

I facilitated a situation in which my mother and the photographerBenjamin Fredrickson would spend a week together developing a series of photographs using her as the subject, interacting with a set of objects I had created for her.

I managed to convince my mother to participate, then I asked Benjamin to fly to Colombia to do the project. I have been a follower and big fan of his work, and we were also good friends. I knew he was the right person. He likes challenge. He has also a very charming way to make people feel comfortable and natural in front of the camera. I left them alone without any other direction than the presence of my sculptures. I was not available for them during that week: I told them no calls, no emails. Everything we see in the photographs is the result of an intimate interaction between Benjamin and my mother. 

Were you met with any unexpected challenges? 

One of the big challenges was to make my mother participate in the project. She was excited at the beginning but changed her mind when I showed her a couple of the objects during a Skype conversation. But I knew how to get her back on board. The language barrier was another issue to consider. Benjamin doesn't speak Spanish and my mother doesn't speak English, but they managed and had a very fluent dialogue.

What do you hope to convey through the series?

I challenged myself to make my work possible. I don't think that I was trying to communicate something in particular with this series. I had my own motivations and expectations regarding the project, which I explained before. What I have to say is how much I enjoyed developing a work based on trust and how wonderful it was to see my mother through different lenses, discovering so much talent on her, something I have never see before.

"Nydia" runs until February 27, 2016, at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York.

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Fascinated by Beijing's history, photographer Simon Song set out on a mission last year to teach his fellow citizens a history lesson.. albeit an aesthetically pleasing one. 

Beijing's old city gates, which have existed since the 15th century, used to guard the city against invaders coming from around the country. But after the fall of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1911, officials stopped maintaining the defense mechanisms. Gradually, authorities demolished the walls one by one, and many of them have now been replaced with new roads, buildings and subway stations, the outlet added.

Song, who works for the South China Morning Post, superimposed images of Beijing's old city gates onto those of the modern-day skyline to show where the monuments would have been had they not been demolished. He took the photos over three days last December and used the iPhone app Hipstamatic to create the final products.

"I want to show the beauty of the old Chinese architectures, and show readers that if these old city gates were still there, Beijing would look more beautiful," the photographer said. 

Take a look at the images below.

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Gina Rodriguez has always been vocal about the need for diversity in Hollywood, but now the "Jane the Virgin" star wants a little less conversation and a little more action when it comes supporting actors of color. 

And the actress led by example Monday, when she launched her new "Movement Monday" campaign via Instagram to highlight Latino talent in Hollywood. 

"With all this Oscar Talk and lack of diversity I decided to start a movement and speak from the perspective of a Latina American who desires to see more Latinos on screen," Rodriguez wrote. "There are 55 million Latinos in this country and although we all come from various backgrounds our unity can make a movie explode at the box office or a tv show soar to the highest viewers possible."

Rodriguez promised to spotlight a different Latino artist each Monday in the hopes of generating support for their work, and she asked fans to do the same on their accounts.  Her first pick was fellow Golden Globe-winner Oscar Isaac, who she felt had an "Oscar worthy performance" in "Ex Machina." 

The actress' reasoning behind asking fans to support Latino-centered films and tv series, she said, is because studio executives need financial incentive to green light more Latino projects. 

"I am told time and time again 'Latinos don't watch Latino Movies. Latinos don't support each other' and sadly that is true...if you want to see Latinos nominated for Oscars, we NEED to support one another," Rodriguez wrote. "The industry sees money, the excuse can't just be racism. We can make a difference in a very powerful way if we unite our support as one Latino community."

The star is certainly not alone in her call for more support from Latinos. On the topic of NBC's three new Latina-centered series -- "Telenovela," "Superstore" and "Shades of Blue" -- Eva Longoria said Latino audiences have the power to make sure these types of show continue to be made.

"The thing I tell the Latino community is things aren’t going to change if you don’t show up," Longoria told The Huffington Post. "You have to watch these shows so that networks see their is a demand for them. They have to see that their is an audience there."

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Thousands of Egyptians poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Jan. 25, 2011, to participate in mass demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak's long regime. The day would come to signify the start of dramatic changes in Egypt’s sociopolitical structure, and it would also spark hope in everyday citizens, young and old, who had become frustrated with the widespread corruption, persistent unemployment and police brutality that were so common under Mubarak.

A young graphic designer and artist who uses the name Ganzeer for his artistic work found himself among those in the heart of the revolutionary moment. He armed himself with the power of art and a newfound sense of purpose.  

"It just felt like the most important thing in the world," the artist told The WorldPost. 

With his massive murals on the walls of Cairo -- most notably his portraits of people who died in Tahrir Square -- and political posters available online to download and distribute, Ganzeer quickly became a public figure in the movement and acquired a large following. 

Ganzeer's often-satirical artwork, which unabashedly criticizes Egypt's leadership and challenges the moral codes of traditional Egyptian society, also gained international attention. The artist saw his work featured in exhibitions around the world and his name splashed on the pages of many media outlets, including The New York Times, The Nation and Vice.

Ganzeer moved to the U.S. in 2014, living first in New York City before relocating to Los Angeles. He won't return to Egypt for now because he's concerned for his safety, but he has continued to stay politically active through his work -- his recent focus on police brutality and the New York City Police Department being a prime example.

"I feel the need to make sure, when I spend time doing something, that it is something that needs to be done," he said.

Ganzeer talked to The WorldPost to reflect on the Arab Spring, Egypt's future and his own journey from a graphic designer to an artist who helped rally people wanting to bring down an autocratic regime.  

Let's go back to the beginning of the 2011 protests, when people were first taking to the streets. What was going through your mind?

To be honest, I thought the kids that gathered in public spaces were going to get their asses kicked. That’s as far as my thinking went. I didn’t think it would go any further at all.

What are your strongest memories of those two weeks?  

Jan. 25 is Police Day in Egypt, it still is. It’s a national holiday celebration of the "amazing" efforts of the Egyptian police force. I was off that day, and I was in downtown Cairo over at a friend's place, who also had the day off. 

There had been reports earlier that morning, of people tweeting how their friends got arrested and that people got picked up from cafes. It was obvious that the security apparatus was on edge and that something was going to happen. 

I started seeing updates from people on Twitter and from friends of mine, some who were showing live video feeds using an app called Bambuser, and I could see the marches from places like Mohandeseen. I had never seen protests that large before. I heard the chants in these videos and I thought, Oh, this is actually going to happen. 

So these big protests are happening and I was trying to follow the videos and figure out where the protesters were going. It didn't seem the protesters really knew where they were going at the time, until they decided to march toward the Ministry of the Interior. That was exactly where my friend lived! I was right next door!

I went to see what was going on, and police were lining up everywhere. To get to the Ministry, the protesters had to go through Tahrir Square, and that's where the clashes happened. I so happened to have spray paint with me, and one thing led to another. It was just by accident, nothing was planned really. But that's when I knew this was a revolution. If you asked me an hour before, I would have told you, Oh, no, that’s never going to happen. 

Fast forward a couple of years, when the protests are in full effect. What was the biggest challenge you faced? How did it shape you as an artist?

For me -- and I think this applies to a lot of artists from Cairo in general -- there has always been a need to, through art, do things that are socially engaging, that comment on the human condition that we’re in and to make work that was relevant. So, it just seemed so obvious to some degree.

I was working on a project for a client who was opening a really big furniture store in Ma'adi. I was doing all the branding and the graphics and the interior stuff for the inside of the store. They intended to open the store in February, so I had started working on the project a few months before January and there was a lot of work to be done that month. 

Of course when the revolution started to unravel, I just threw all the stuff away and started to engage with the revolution stuff. It just felt like the most important thing in the world. But I would still get calls from this client, who did not realize that this was a revolution. This was just a guy who owned a business and wants his store to open. I don’t think he realized what was going on. He was asking me how the designs are doing for the store and I was just like, "What the fuck are you talking about? Fuck your store. We’re in the middle of a revolution."

It dawned on me: If this store is not important now in this moment of time, then maybe it’s not important ever. So why spend anymore time out of our lives doing this sort of stuff? 

The revolution made it so clear, what was important and what wasn’t important. So that was a major thing for me in January. So, yes, I was obsessively doing this revolutionary kind of street art, putting out posters for people to download and print and stuff like that. A big part of it was this fear that this moment would be fleeting. That it would be gone and it wouldn't amount to anything and that we would lose it. So I think all these efforts that we were doing, or I was doing in particular, came from a need to hold onto it, to make sure it would snowball into actual results and not just die off. 

Was fear your biggest challenge as an artist during the revolution?

I guess. It was definitely the most amazing time of my life. It felt like the most important and the most enlightening and the most relevant time. It’s one of those things where you can try to put it into words and you can try to get close to describing it, but you’re not exactly there.

The revolution made it so clear, what was important and what wasn’t.
Ganzeer

During the Egyptian revolution, you distributed stickers and posters as part of "an alternative media campaign." Can you expand on that? Why was there a need for alternative media?

It became very clear that a battle for public opinion was taking place in Egypt. At the end of the day, that's what a revolution kind of is. You have the government on one hand claiming they are the good guys and they are the ones looking out for the interest of the people. Other people say the government is the bad one, that it is ruining people's lives and has to be taken down. Whoever wins the majority of public opinion in this case is the winner.

The alternative media campaign, that's what street art was. The actual media wasn't a doing very good job at being objective in any way. The government had the upper hand of media saturation and most of the media sided with the government agenda. They lied about what people were protesting about. They said the protests were funded by the Iranians or by Israeli spies. Whatever it was, they were trying to tarnish the image of the protesters in any way possible but weren't very clever about it. 

So people like myself have to rely on things like discussions or word of mouth or making art. With art in particular, you can create an image that is a more clever way of communicating what you want, and its impact is multiplied because people can take pictures of it and show it to other people. I also feel that strong images can have the power of planting an image in a people’s mind even if they initially disagree with what the image suggests. Perhaps it plants a seed that allows them to ponder it and think about it and maybe it will grow into something else later down the line. 

What power do you think art had when the revolution began back in 2011 and now five years later?

You can’t underestimate the effects of a revolution. The effects of the revolution are contradictory in some sense. Some people are interested in making meaningful art; on the other hand, artists have developed a distaste doing anything remotely political. They don’t want to deal with all this bullshit anymore. They're tired. 

But I think art in Egypt is far more developed than what you see in the U.S., for example. A lot of new artists emerged during the revolution. New artists made powerful art in different contexts, whether it was street art, visual art, or performative art in the street or showed art in independent galleries and spaces. 

All these efforts that we were doing, or I was doing in particular, came from a need to hold onto it, that it would snowball into actual results and not just die off.
Ganzeer

How has the Arab Spring changed you?

I’m definitely more careful to do work that hopefully is relevant in some way. When I spend time doing something, I feel the need to make sure that it is something that needs to be done. The revolution made me. But the timelines and when certain things start to happen is all blurry at this point. I probably would credit the revolution for giving me an outlook that is somewhat revolutionary. I also don’t trust governments anymore. I wonder if I thought that before, or how I thought about governments before the revolution.

Did the revolution change how you feel about your country?

Yes. Before the revolution, I was very bored with Egypt and very pessimistic about the future of the country. Things didn’t look so good. Things looked like there wasn’t going to be any change. 

Do you think it’s better now?

Well, at least now we know things can become much worse or become much better -- or stay the same, for that matter. At least you know it can be different instead of knowing it won’t change whatsoever. That's what was so depressing about it before, this constant numbness. You tried to do things different and it wasn’t working out and you had all these forces against you and it was just the way it is. But now, at least we all know that things can very much be different. Even if to some people, they see it going south. Just the fact that change is possible, it means that change for the better is also possible.

Would you do anything differently, if given those five years again?

I don’t think so. I can’t imagine being anything different actually.

It was definitely the most amazing time of my life. It felt like the most important and the most enlightening and the most relevant time. It’s one of those things where you can try to put it into words and you can try to get close to describing it but you’re not exactly there.
Ganzeer

When you came to the U.S., a lot of people expected for you to do more Egyptian art. Instead you mentioned it's important to make things that are relevant given your new location, which has led you to make art provoking the NYPD and the U.S. government. In the context of you provoking both countries equivalence of a "security force," how did Egyptians and Americans take to your art?

I think it depends on the art. The art I’ve been doing in Egypt is incredibly different from what I’m doing here. I think in both contexts, the stuff I do is a little weird, kind of peculiar. But there are different types of boundaries that are part of the social construct. In the States, people get more offended by overt critiques of the government. People in Egypt get more offended by a context that is sexually suggestive, while that is considered less offensive in the U.S. Both are social constructs that obviously needs to be dismantled. 

Living in the U.S. for the past couple of years, what do you miss about Egypt?

The conversations and the crowd, little things like that. 

Why did you leave Egypt and what is it like to be a part of your country from afar?

Initially when I left, there was a bunch of things happening at the same time. One, I was talking to some people about setting up an exhibition in NYC during the summer of 2014. But, what actually pushed me to leave was a show on TV hosted by Osama Kamel called "Al-Raes Wel-Nas" ["The President and the People"]. They had put my picture on TV and started to spread rumors about me. It was a private channel that was more sympathetic to the state. So when that happened, on that show, it also appeared on a couple of newspapers and I figured it may be a good idea not to be around for a while. And so that and this exhibition, and I signed up for a collective called Booklyn. I married my fiancé who is now studying in Irvine, and so one thing led to another and I ended up staying.

Do you have plans to return to Egypt?

I don’t have actual plans in place yet, but I will. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

This post is part of a series ​looking back at five years after the start of the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.​ More in the series: 

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If Peter Rabbit was one of your favorite childhood characters, we’ve got some great news for you (or your kids).

The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, a previously unpublished story by The Tale of Peter Rabbit author Beatrix Potter, is set to be published in September, the Guardian reports.

Publisher Jo Hanks discovered the lost work in 2013, after spotting a letter from 1914 in which Potter described the narrative about “a well-behaved prime black Kitty cat, who leads rather a double life.” (Don’t all cats, though?) It turned out that three manuscripts were hidden in the archive of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

Only one illustration by Potter appears to exist. Other letters indicate that she meant to finish the work, but was distracted various life events, according to the BBC. 

The version to be published in September will include illustrations by Quentin Blake, known for his work illustrating the books of Roald Dahl.

What really sells this one is the promise of a tubby Peter Rabbit.

”It has double identities, colorful villains and a number of favorite characters from other tales -- most excitingly, Peter Rabbit makes an appearance, albeit older, slower and portlier,” Hanks told The Bookseller.

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You may have taken a few panoramic pics on your iPhone, but these photographs, taken by Randy Scott Slavin, will make you rethink the entire format.

Slavin, a New York City-based director, started taking these amazing 360-degree panoramas for his "Alternate Perspectives" series. He captures the images with a high-resolution camera and a calibrated tripod so he can take hundreds of pictures, which are then stitched together.

"Part of what it means to be a director, at least to me, is to continually be keeping your eyes on things that are new and interesting in camera techniques," Slavin told The Huffington Post.

Slavin first developed his 360-degree technique while trying his hand at panorama photography and found he wasn't pleased with typical 2D landscape photographs. Inspired by of one of his Surrealist heroes, M.C. Escher, Slavin added his own flair.

"If there's one thing that connects [the photographs in the series] besides just the technique itself, it's seeing the world around me in a way that's different than normal," he said. 

His series lies somewhere between tiny planet and tunnel photography, Slavin says, merging styles while creating something completely unique.

"For me it's still an art project. Even though I do sell pieces and I've had a lot of recognition for it, it's still an art project," he said. "I like taking photographs and spending time in nature so for me I just add to the collection as often as I possibly can to keep it growing."

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