A recent video from BuzzFeed shows just how devastating it can be for sexual assault survivors to come face to face with their attackers. 

Written by BuzzFeed producer Ali Vingiano and directed by Steven Kanter, the short film titled “When I Saw Him Again” tells the story of a young woman who runs into the man who raped her in college. The 22-minute clip is a gut-wrenching look at the trauma many survivors experience years after their assault.

The main character, played by Vingiano, bumps into her rapist in a coffee shop and starts following him throughout the day. She follows him to work and, later on, to a restaurant where he has dinner with a woman who seems to be in a relationship with. As the two leave dinner, Vingiano confronts the couple and reveals to the woman that this man raped her in college. 

Vingiano told The Huffington Post that she was inspired to depict a survivor following her rapist because “a rape follows a survivor around for so long,” adding, “it’s an inescapable part of your everyday existence.” 

After she confronts the couple, Vingiano spins into a state of anxiety and PTSD as she attempts to figure out how to cope with being re-triggered. 

Warning: This video includes discussion of sexual assault and rape that some readers may find triggering. 

Vingiano, who said she’d experienced a similar assault, wanted to depict life after rape because it’s a topic that’s not discussed enough. “The actual experience of life after rape, and what it’s like to live in the world with your rapist, are stories that are never seen,” she told HuffPost. “Those are the stories I’m interested in.”

She said the effects of PTSD and trauma can be extremely exhausting and time-consuming. “Seeing what survivors go through is so necessary to understanding the impact of sexual assault,” Vingiano said. 

While every survivor reacts differently if and when they face their attacker, Vingiano’s short film is an important commentary on the trauma and devastation many sexual assault victims endure months, years and even decades after their attack.

Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.

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After threatening both Gotham City and Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy’s defining feature is his husky voice. The last place you’d expect to find the actor, who has built his young career playing gruff heavyweights, is in a musical. But “London Road” isn’t your everyday musical. It’s a thriller about English serial killer Steve Wright, and, at least in this exclusive clip, Hardy seems right at home singing about the gruesome killings. 

Based on the well-received musical of the same name, “London Road” opens Sept. 9.

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Since 2011, Curtis Wiklund has been drawing sketches that show snippets of his life with his wife and two sons. The illustrations, which range from fun and upbeat to poignant and romantic, have attracted a large following on Facebook and Instagram.

Two weeks ago, he shared a powerful sketch that tackles an emotional and somewhat taboo topic: miscarriage. 

Curtis and his wife Jordin, who work as wedding photographers in Michigan, are parents to 3-year-old Casen and 1-year-old Hayden. At the beginning of the summer, they learned that they were pregnant with their third child. But at their first ultrasound on July 22, they received heartbreaking news.

“At the nine-week ultrasound, I got my phone out to video the ultrasound screen,” Curtis told The Huffington Post. “The ultrasound technician asked if I could put the video away, so she could check to make sure everything was okay. That was the first time I had really considered that it might not be.”

“When the ultrasound technician left, Jordin started crying. She knew,” the dad continued. When the doctor entered the room, she explained that the baby had stopped growing at six weeks, and there was no heartbeat. 

“She was very kind about it,” Curtis recalled. “Jordin tried to keep composure in the office, but was feeling urgently like we needed to leave. The doctor pointed us to a side exit door if we wanted to use it.”

Though Curtis and Jordin had arrived at the appointment in separate cars, they got in one vehicle together and let the devastating news sink in. “We cried for about a half hour. We left other car in the parking lot and drove home.” 

The couple had made lunch dates and organized a family party to announce their pregnancy to their loved ones later that day, but they canceled those plans.

When they arrived back at their house, Curtis went into his office and cried over the loss. “I felt like I needed to document it somehow,” he said. “It was an instinct in reaction to grief I think. Some people need to go for a run or do something physical, some people need to write music or paint, I felt like I needed to document the experience as accurately as I could.”

Curtis initially didn’t want to draw the experience because he typically draws positive and upbeat moments, and this situation felt too heavy. “But after attempts to journal, I couldn’t accurately explain what I was feeling with words,” he explained. 

So he drew the powerful sketch, illustrating that moment of grieving in the car. Once the drawing was finished, Curtis felt relieved and ready to let the moment live only in his sketchbook, but he then developed a strong feeling that he should share it.

“Of course, it felt too vulnerable, too exposed, to share online, and I didn’t think Jordin would want me sharing it,” he said. “But it felt important for some reason. I hoped it would comfort others who are hurting.”

Though Jordin was unsure if she wanted to share their news so openly, she ultimately gave her blessing.

She told The Huffington Post that she believes it’s important to acknowledge the difficult moments in life, and not focus solely on the positive images that inundate social media. “Even though I did not initially want our personal story to be public, I always want to be real and approachable,” Jordin told The Huffington Post.

“After the miscarriage, one of the greatest gifts during that time were the friends who reached out to me who had miscarriages in the past, who could relate to what I was going through,” she continued. “Because it’s such a deep and personal loss, it’s hard to imagine that anyone else can relate, that I wasn’t the only one.”

“Miscarriage is a very lonely experience, and if Curt’s sketch could help others feel the comfort I felt from friends knowing that I wasn’t alone, then it was worth it to share it,” she added.

Curtis agrees with his wife’s rationale for sharing, and they feel they’ve been validated by the outpouring of comments on Instagram and Facebook.

“Some of them were so specific to this drawing, like ‘that is exactly the car scene of me and my husband,’” he said. “We couldn’t believe how many there were. Sharing our experiences is important. It is healing.”

H/T Today

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Alabama’s Athens-Limestone Public Library want its books back.

With roughly $200,000 owed to them in overdue book fees, the library is going to start enforcing a mostly unknown city ordinance that will prescribe further fines and the possibility of jail time for those who’ve neglected to pay fees, according to The News Courier. 

The ordinance allows the municipality to fine or jail for 30 days library patrons who have “failed or refused to return” rented materials. 

If you’re thinking this library is way harsh, Tai, then consider the following: 

The library automatically renews most rented materials twice. Reminders of due dates are sent via text and email and overdue notice letters are sent ahead of receiving a bill. In conjunction with Unique Management Services, a collections agency specializing in library fines, the library sends certified letters to patrons to ensure they’re aware of their lateness.

Also, intriguingly enough, UMS also has something they call the “Gentle Nudge®” process ― “a 120-day series of letters, calls, skip tracing, and credit reporting tailored specifically for libraries. It is based upon the Golden Rule to ‘Treat others the way you would like to be treated.’” 

So, if people can endure four months of borderline harassment and credit-hounding and still won’t give their books back, they sound literally (wink) terrible and deserve to be punished.

The Athens-Limestone Public Library will be issuing arrest warrants for large past-due balances, something that chief of police Floyd Johnson told the Courier isn’t an empty threat.

“It’s been a good long while, but we’ve had people who have been picked up over overdue library books.”

All that said, the library indicated that only a small number of patrons would be impacted by this ordinance and that they wouldn’t go after any “5-year-olds with overdue copies of ‘Clifford the Big Red Dog.’”

The moral of this story, friends: Don’t mess with a library’s books, or the library will mess with you.

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Warning: This article contains photos depicting sexual assault and rape that some readers may find triggering. 

A recent photo series is taking a raw and honest look at the devastating costs of rape and sexual assault. 

The series titled “It Happens” was created by photographer Yana Mazurkevich in collaboration with the sexual assault awareness media platform Current Solutions. The images are a powerful ― borderline-graphic ― look at just how ubiquitous sexual assault has become in our society.

Mazurkevich created the project in response to former Stanford student Brock Turner’s early release from jail last week. The 21-year-old served just three months of his six-month sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster in 2015. 

The main photo in the series, featured above, is supposed to depict Brock Turner’s victim after she was assaulted by him. The caption Mazurkevich included beneath the photo is from the Stanford sexual assault survivor’s victim impact statement that went viral in June. “You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside me, and that’s why we’re here today,” the caption reads. (Read her full letter here.) 

This is Mazurkevich’s second series in response to the Brock Turner case. The first one, “Dear Brock Turner,” focused on the victim-blaming so many sexual assault and rape survivors experience. 

“It Happens” features nine images, each paired with a real survivor’s story. According to Current Solutions, survivors submitted their stories anonymously to the media platform. The people pictured in each photo are models, not the survivors themselves, and not all of the anecdotes are directly depicted in the corresponding images. 

Mazurkevich told HuffPost she created such a raw depiction of assault “because this is the reality.”

“This topic is hard to discuss, which is why it needs to be discussed,” she said. 

Every 2 minutes a person is sexually assaulted in the U.S., according to RAINN. One in 6 American women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes and 1 in 10 rape victims are male. The statistics for sexual assault are even more glaring for transgender people, with 50 percent of transgender people experiencing sexual violence at some point in their lifetimes. 

“I just want a conversation,” Mazurkevich said in reference to why she created the series. “I want people to see that these things happen, and that without a dialogue and awareness, people here and all over the world won’t be obligated to finally take a stand.”

Warning: The below images depict sexual assault and rape that some readers may find triggering. 

Head to Mazurkevich’s website to see more of her work or head to Current Solutions to learn more about their mission. 

Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.

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This season, we’re all feeling a little wanderlust. Whether we’re daydreaming of island-hopping in the clear waters of the Mediterranean or strolling along the banks of the Seine, our minds tend to dwell anywhere but here. But what if we could satisfy our globe-trotting cravings in our own backyard? All it takes is opening our eyes to the hidden gems and Euro-inspired surprises that are right around the corner ― the ones you find on paths you never expected. We partnered with Sanpellegrino® Sparkling Fruit Beverages and its new Delightways app to bring you nine American adventures that meet each and every one of your Euro-travel dreams ― no passport required.

Know of another hidden gem in the U.S. that didn’t make our list? Share it in the comments!

No matter where your adventures take you this season, take time to experience the joy of wandering and exploring new paths. Sanpellegrino® Sparkling Fruit Beverages is bringing a taste of Italy and The Life Deliziosa to the U.S., inspiring us to savor the flavors of life’s little joys ― the ones you find where you least expect them. With the help of Delightways, a new app by Sanpellegrino® Sparkling Fruit Beverages, you can discover more delight-filled gems off the beaten path by creating custom wandering routes through cities including San Francisco, New York and Chicago. Delight isn’t only in the destination, but in the moments of joy we find along the way ― as long as we take a moment to explore.

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Hallow-lu-jah! A new “Harry Potter” theory is sweeping the internet faster than a Nimbus 2000. But is it truly magical?

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 10 years since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published and five years since the last movie came out. You’d think by now we’d all move on. As Dumbledore says, “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.” 

Nah. Forget that! Reddit is again attempting to change the way we look at the Harry Potter story, though this one could have fans ready to duke it out like the Battle of Hogwarts all over again.

The theory: Harry Potter was actually killed by Voldemort, but he was resurrected by the Deathly Hallows. 

When Voldemort casts the Killing Curse at Harry Potter at the end of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” we’re expected to believe that Voldemort only kills the part of his soul that’s trapped in Harry and that The Boy Who Lived continues to do so.

Dumbledore says to Harry, “I think we can agree that you are not dead.” But what if Dumbledore lied?

Reddit user WippitGuud theorizes that Harry did actually die in the woods that night.

In the books, Dumbledore says Harry wasn’t killed by Voldemort because the Dark Lord had used Harry’s blood to recreate his body. “Your blood in his veins, Harry, Lily’s protection inside both of you! He tethered you to life while he lives!” Dumbledore explains.

But the Reddit user isn’t buying it.

The evidence:

WippitGuud condenses the evidence to three main points:

1. 
   

   When Harry was hit by the killing curse as a baby, it rebounded and killed Voldemort, necessitating that he create a new body. This did not happen the second time.

   
   


2. 
   

   When Harry was hit by the killing curse as a baby, it left a visible mark. This did not happen the second time.

   
   


3. 
   

   To destroy a Horcrux, the container must be destroyed.

   
   

The Redditor explains that if Harry had not died, the portion of Voldemort’s soul would have also survived. As additional proof, the Redditor says the protection Harry gave his friends at Hogwarts is more evidence that he died:

Because Harry sacrificed himself to protect others, the people in Hogwarts had the same protection that Harry had when Lily sacrificed herself to protect Harry. From the book:

“I’ve done what my mother did. Haven’t you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can’t torture them. You can’t touch them.”

For that to have actually affected everyone, Harry would’ve needed to truly die.

But if he died, how’d he come back?

The Redditor believes it was the Hallows. Because Harry was master of the Deathly Hallows — the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak — he was able to come back from death.

WippitGuud argues that Dumbledore didn’t tell Harry he was dead to protect him.

“Dumbledore lied to Harry. Probably to protect him — knowing you’re the master of the Hallows could make anyone power hungry,” wrote the Redditor.

The case against:

Ten points to Reddit for outstanding moral fiber! But the theory has some strong arguments against it, too. 

1. Harry doesn’t have the Resurrection Stone.

You’d think the Resurrection Stone would be handy in bringing Harry back to life, but the dude just drops it in the forest. He doesn’t have it. As WippitGuud wrote, “Yes, but he still used it. The effects can be lingering.” 

Fellow Reddit user rj20876 responded by saying that explanation was a “stretch.” It is. The series has been known to make wild stretches before, though. It’s about a kid who goes to wizard school, after all.

2. Dumbledore does tell Harry he’s the master of the Hallows. So why lie?

The theory explains Dumbledore lied to Harry and said he wasn’t dead in order to save him from being power-hungry. It’s true Dumbledore himself was power-hungry and had worried Potter would get the Hallows at the wrong time. One problem, though: Dumbledore outright tells Harry he’s the master of death.

Dumbledore explains:

You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying.

He also tells Harry, “You are the worthy possessor of the Hallows.” So Potter basically knows he’s the man right now. Why lie about him actually being dead or not?

3. Harry explains how he could cast a sacrificial protection spell without actually dying.

In his final confrontation with Voldemort, Harry tells He Who Must Always Be Lame that he won’t be able to kill any of his friends again because he was ready to die for them.

“But you did not!” says Voldemort.

“I meant to, and that’s what did it. I’ve done what my mother did. They’re protected from you,” says Harry.

So it appears you can make the sacrificial protection spell without actually dying. That’s good to know.

19 paragraphs later ...

OK, so after all that, what do you think? It can be argued either way. Sure, the book says he didn’t die, but it may have just been Dumbledore lying again. If that’s the case, we’re just Done-bledore with that dude.  

H/T Reddit

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Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert revealed in a Facebook post Wednesday that she is in love with, and committed to, her best female friend, Rayya Elias.

The lengthy Facebook post details Elias’ battle with cancer and the depth of her friendship with Gilbert ― with the author also sharing that the intensity of her relationship with Elias contributed to the end of her marriage last spring. She then goes on to say that the two are in love and partnered. 

Gilbert shares in the post: 

Death — or the prospect of death — has a way of clearing away everything that is not real, and in that space of stark and utter realness, I was faced with this truth: I do not merely love Rayya; I am in love with Rayya. And I have no more time for denying that truth. The thought of someday sitting in a hospital room with her, holding her hand and watching her slide away, without ever having let her (or myself!) know the extent of my true feelings for her…well, that thought was unthinkable.

Gilbert then states that she decided to share the nature of her relationship with Elias because she needs “to live my life in truth and transparency, even more than I need privacy, or good publicity, or prudence, or other people’s approval or understanding, or just about anything else.”

We think Gilbert being open about her relationship is absolutely amazing, and we wouldn’t expect anything less from the author of an inspirational memoir which stressed the importance of sharing one’s truth and living authentically.

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What does New York Fashion Week have in common with the Democratic and Republican National Conventions? A lot more than you’d think.

As NYFW kicks off this week to a mob of models, designers, stylists, editors, bloggers and photographers, the rest of us get backstage access through the unique eyes of Landon Nordeman, a photographer who has been documenting these shows (”spectacles,” as he calls them) in New York, Milan and Paris for four years for New York Magazine and the New York Times.

But he also recently shot the Democratic and Republican conventions for Time, to strikingly similar results.

So which was more fun, the fashion shows or the political rallies? He told HuffPost that he loves worlds where everything is meant to be gawked at.

“I like to be in an event where people are expecting that there are going to be photographers. There is this sort of expectation that there is this celebratory event, [whether a] political rally or fashion show, and people are there to photograph it,” he said. “Where it gets a little interesting is where I’m trying to photograph someone in the audience, a spectator, and they don’t expect to be photographed. And they don’t understand, like ‘why are you trying to photograph me?’”

Politics and the fashion scene are “very similar worlds,” he said. “It’s become apparent to me that the people who go to these things ― to fashion week and to the political rallies ― they like to express themselves with what they’re wearing.”

He’s put his fashion week images together in a new book (his first), called “Out Of Fashion” to be published in October by Damiani books. It’s 112 images of typical fashion week substance: loud colors, clashing patterns, odd juxtapositions, famous faces and tall models, all cast in Nordeman’s signature dramatic flash.

“I love using the flash,” he told HuffPost, “and I love how it can exaggerate and amplify the intention of a photograph. I’m never trying to consciously make someone look bad or make someone look funny, I’m just trying to photograph what I see in the best way that I can. What I’m there to do is look and document with my eye and with my heart; it’s a physical, whole body experience for me. And I guess the flash is just part of that kind of expression.”

If you’ve ever been to any fashion show that’s ever existed, you know there tends to be a lot going on, a lot to look at. It can be overstimulating.

“You have to remember that your role and your purpose is all part of the whole spinning wheel. You know?” Nordeman said. “And that, in a way, the entire spectacle is made to be photographed and documented and shown. I think the challenge is that people expect, and they’re used to, a certain type of photograph, where there’s a certain part of, ‘Oh this is the part that we want to show or where we expect you to shoot.’ And whenever I’m in these type of situations I try to remind myself that any part of it is fair game. And that is what is true about photography. The picture can be anywhere ... don’t just say, ‘Oh that’s not a picture because that’s the waiting room.’ Even in the waiting room, there could be some amazing picture.”

So what is the dream gig for Nordeman, who has taken supremely close photos of celebrities at The Met Gala (he’s taken photos of Jennifer Hudson and Kanye West) and on the political road (see Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton)? 

“I would like to photograph the Vanity Fair Oscars party,” he said. “I find that fascinating. Being in that room, where the invitation is so exclusive... I love this idea of having this very controlled environment. I love being in there and photographing it in an uncontrolled way.”

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Where some people see creepy-crawlies in need of squashing, Jennifer Angus sees beauty: Rather than rely solely on paints and dyes, the 55-year-old professor of textile design creates kaleidoscopic patterns from thousands of vibrant grasshoppers, iridescent beetles, and more.

Call of the Wild

As a kid, Angus had a penchant for patterns, but she didn’t develop an interest in insects until her late 20s, when she was researching textiles in Thailand and discovered a garment called a singing shawl. “The fringe was made with metallic-looking green beetle wings,” says Angus. “I’d never seen beautiful insects—maybe because I grew up in Canada, where all the bugs were brown or black. I realized I could take insects and turn them into patterns.”

Source Material

Angus’s bugs aren’t backyard breeds. Most come from countries like Peru, Malaysia, and Indonesia. “I always try to use insects that have been farmed or gathered by indigenous people,” says Angus. And she refuses to work with endangered species: “If an insect seems hard to find, I won’t use it.”

Walls of Fame

Since 2002, Angus has created site-specific installations at galleries and museums around the world—like her latest piece at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. (through May 8). “My collection is very fragile,” says Angus. “I’ve been reusing some insects for more than 15 years, so I drive it everywhere myself. That means knowing exactly how many bugs I’ll use. I can’t get to a gallery and go, ‘I need another 500 cicadas!’”

From top: Angus installing her Smithsonian show, In the Midnight Garden, bug by bug; a closer look at a 2013 exhibit, starring thorny sticks, black cicadas, katydids, leaf insects, and weevils.

Fear Factor

Angus hopes to inspire a sense of wonder and appreciation in her viewers: “If people leave one of my shows thinking about insects in a new way—one that doesn’t involve a fly swatter or Raid—that’s a success,” she says. Although there’s still one bug that hasn’t quite won her over: “I can’t say I’m a huge fan of cockroaches.

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Searching for someone to date ― on Tinder, at a bar, through friends ― can feel like an absurd nightmare. Or, at least, a series of exchanges that follows dream logic more so than what you believed to be socially acceptable behavior.

He said what? She suggested that you should huh? You do your best to sift out meaning while questioning whether it’s your own actions that are ridiculous.

Several of the spare, funny short stories in Alexandra Kleeman’s new collection, Intimations, mirror this experience. The first, “Fairy Tale,” is from the perspective of a girl who seems to have either recently regained consciousness or developed amnesia. The story begins with her coming to, piecing together her surroundings and her relationship to the people in a small, lavishly decorated dining room.

Through terse, quippy exchanges, it’s revealed that her parents have arranged for her to meet several suitors ― one identified as her fiancé, another as her boyfriend ― and are urging her to choose one before she’s allowed to leave the house.

Although the situation is both dire and strange, the narrator thinks, “I wanted to ask: Couldn’t I choose none of them?” But, observing her mother’s tense mannerisms, she thinks, “I knew the answer would be no.” Already, the scene is claustrophobic, and the story continues this way until it reaches a violent pitch. It’s a surreal commentary on the way social strictures ― especially those imposed on women ― can be suffocating to the individual. 

In the story that the collection is named after, “Intimations,” another nameless woman narrator finds herself in a literal bind. She’s locked in a home with a stranger who claims to be her husband and does her best to balance proper behavior with her personal wants. In “Fake Blood,” a woman arrives to a regular party wearing a gory costume and tries her best to fit in, before a series of murders turns the event into a sort of whodunit. 

Not all of Kleeman’s stories are the David-Lynch-inspired sort. A few concern a theme explored in her novel, You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine ― the ways the physical experience of eating merge with the psychological experiences of hunger and desire. In “Lobster Dinner,” a vegetarian imagines a violent lobster uprising.

About half of the stories in the collection are realistic rather than absurd, but they still make use of Kleeman’s economic style. In “Jellyfish,” a recently engaged woman named Karen questions her relationship while on a tropical beach vacation. The resort is scarily idyllic; the sea is likened to toothpaste, and the conformity of the bungalows is described as utopian. A particularly funny scene shows Karen wrapped up in a fantasy, running off with the resort’s chef before realizing that, outside of the confines of the romantic venue, he’s kind of a jerk.

In “Choking Victim,” a woman ― also named Karen, displaying Kleeman’s playfulness and interest in rhetoric ― leaves her baby with a woman in a coffee shop to retrieve a broken stroller, reflecting on the realities of motherhood along the way.

These quiet scenes aren’t what Kleeman is quickly becoming known for ― her novel was compared to Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon ― but they may be her most resonant. They’re psychologically insightful while remaining subtle, with a few laugh-out-loud observations peppered in. And coming from someone like Kleeman, whose nonfiction has demonstrated an ability to write keenly about everything from mirrors to “Twin Peaks,” simple, unadorned stories will always be a pleasure to read.

The bottom line

In her first short story collection, Kleeman’s breadth as a writer is on display. She writes surreal scenes that are emotionally resonant and realistic stories that are affecting in their strangeness. 

Who wrote it

Alexandra Kleeman is the author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, which was a finalist for the Young Lions Award of the New York Public Library.

Who will read it

Anyone interested in books with playful language, funny characters and sharp observations about modern life.

What other reviewers think:

Kirkus: “For fans of the avant-garde.” 

Opening lines

“I was sitting at a long table with a lot of nice things on it. There was a large pitcher of water with an ornate handle that looked like it was made of real silver, and there were forks and spoons.”

Notable passage

“The groves of palm trees and bananas were a broad smudge around them, as EJ made alarming decisions about when to barrel through piles of palm debris and when to swerve suddenly, wrenching around them. Absolute time and absolute speed were difficult to gauge on a motorbike, Karen thought as she tried to cling to EJ’s sweat-soaked back without digging her fingernails into the flesh, but it seemed as though they could die on this ride.”

Intimations: Stories
By Alexandra Kleeman
HarperCollins, $25.99
Publishes Sept. 13

The Bottom Line is a weekly review combining plot description and analysis with fun tidbits about the book.

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Think of Burning Man today and images of “Mad Max”-style bikinis, MDMA-fueled massage circles, towering effigies of the future, and $390 tickets come to mind. In 2016, the playa community (originally built as an escape from the capitalist everyday) seems more like a summer camp for the tech elite or a dystopian hellscape.

But back in the day, man, Burning Man was punk as hell. 

A pretty amazing clip titled “Burning Man 1997: An ABC Nightline Investigation” popped up online recently, showing OG burners in their natural habitat. The ABC news team can be seen awkwardly approaching hippies and artists trying to build a goddamn bone sculpture, attempting to learn what this crazy festival is all about. 

“It sounded like it was the last cool thing to do,” one man dressed in traditional monk garb explains. Would Monk Man be a fan of Burning Man today? We can only guess. 

In 1997, stripped of expensive gadgets and so many selfies, Burning Man actually looks like a bunch of radical creatives getting weird in the desert. By the end of the segment, the ABC news guy finally gets it. He sums up his revelations while watching The Man burn on the final evening of the festival, as a man screams in the background, “Better than TV, I tell ya, it’s better than TV!” 

“Sunday night as The Man finally burns, it symbolizes it all at once,” the reporter concludes. “The desperate rage against the sameness, the blandness, the consumer culture of everyday life, and the futility of fighting it. Burning Man is built to be doomed, to explode and collapse in a moment of pure freedom.”

That’s right, Tom Foreman of ABC News. We hope you did a lot of drugs that night. Watch the entire video above, or catch the highlights below.

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When Melissa Spitz was 6 years old, her mother Deborah was institutionalized by the state of Washington as a result of her bipolar disorder. “Her life continued on a downward spiral after that,” Spitz wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “A hysterectomy, followed by a cancer diagnosis, a full round of chemotherapy and radiation, on top of her pre-existing mental health issues.”

Throughout the treatment, Deborah drank and abused prescription pills heavily. “This eventually led to my parents divorce,” Spitz recalled. Such a traumatic home life might, you could imagine, lead a child to distance herself from all the anguish, or at least look away. Spitz, however, decided to look closer ― with the help of her camera. 

In 2009, Spitz ― then an art student at the University of Missouri in Columbia ― began taking photographs of her mother in her home. Originally, the series was part of an open-ended photography assignment inviting students to document an element of their private lives. Spitz knew she wanted to go home for the project. “The camera became a way to expose while simultaneously hiding,” she said. “I used the camera as something to put up in front of my face instead of looking at the situation in front of me, and it became very cathartic.”

Seven years later, these photographs make up the ongoing series “You Have Nothing To Worry About,” which Spitz uploads constantly to Instagram. Some of the photos take up an individual post, while others are stretched into a grid that spans multiple rows and columns. The jumbled chronology imitates the often tumultuous and fragmented relationship Deborah has with her daughter and with herself. 

In one photograph, titled “Mom’s New Make-Up,” Deborah stares straight at the camera, her face painted up in brash colors and uneven shapes, like a little girl who just raided her mother’s makeup drawer. In another, called “I am what I am,” Deborah sits on the floor, her hands covering her face, surrounded by neon post-its with scribbled notes both painful and uplifting. “I worry about everything,” one says. “I want to die,” reads another. “I love myself I hate myself.” “I want to live.” 

Spitz described her photographic process as casual ― time spent working is time spent hanging out with mom. Toward the beginning of the series, Deborah was inebriated much of the time, leading her daughter to worry about whether or not her project veered into the realm of exploitation. Strangers often write to Spitz voicing similar complaints. Deborah has since, however, quit drinking, and in fact claims it was seeing herself in Spitz’s photographs that pushed her to change. 

In fact, Spitz’s greatest challenge throughout this whole process has been her mom’s enthusiasm about the project, and continuous demand that painful moments be permanently documented, and thus engrained in Spitz’s memory. “She will ask me to photograph her in situations that make me uncomfortable and in some way takes more control with forcing me to look than me wanting to see,” Spitz said. 

In an interview with Broadly, Spitz expanded upon the ways her mother has, at times, steered the direction of the series. “Sometimes I feel like the work gets very sugarcoated, because she is not a victim,” Spitz said. “She likes to be photographed and she likes to do these woe-is-me things and I think that’s why she loves doing the project, because she gets to be on this stage. There is so much power in that.”

Still, Spitz realizes the importance of endowing her mother with this power, of using her camera to make her feel like a valued human being, and even a star.

Since beginning the series, Spitz has received her fair share of criticism and praise. But it’s those who reach out sharing similar experiences that really leave their mark. “I’ve read that I exploit my mom, and that my pictures suck, also that I offend those whose are suffering from ‘real’ mental health problems,” she said, “but in my opinion those comments hold no weight compared to the happiness and validation that it gives my mother and the people who reach out to me.”

“You Have Nothing To Worry About” is part documentary, part family album, part performance, and part self-portrait. Although for the most part Spitz herself remains behind the camera, the connection between her and her mother is tangible. When Deborah is pictured with bruises and scrapes, gazing adrift into the distance, it’s easy to imagine that Spitz herself is just as wounded, just as lost. 

Spitz hopes to continue her series for as long as she and her mother are both able, hopefully culminating with an exhibition spanning a decade of work. In the meantime, Spitz hopes her photos speak sharply and precisely, without condemning her mother or sugarcoating the details. “I hope that I show an honest record of my personal situation with a mentally ill, substance-abusing parent,” she said.

“I know that my position is unique as a documenter and a daughter, so often the document and my fine art background bleed together. Ultimately I feel that the work is just as much about me as it is about my mother.”

Need help with substance abuse or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.

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”I am a woman and I love another woman,” Shahinoor, pictured above with her partner Nipa, told photographer Gazi Nafis Ahmed. “I want to live with my lover. I don’t want anyone to come between us. We don’t want anyone among us to commit suicide, to get hurt, to become addicted to drugs, to cut themselves. Let us live the way we want to. Now is the time to open up and talk about it.” 

Nipa and Shahinoor are just two of the individuals Ahmed documented in his series “Inner Face,” a tribute to the LGBTQ youth of Bangladesh. The country, where Ahmed himself grew up, is plagued by homophobia ― those arrested for “unnatural intercourses” can face a lifetime in prison, and many are subjected to random acts of violence and verbal abuse simply for the way they look and act.

With his camera, however, Ahmed carves out a safe space, where young queer people can express themselves and their love freely. “It works as a catharsis,” Ahmed explained to Slate. “I spend a lot of time with people reaching deep and opening doors. It’s like a ventilation. Some of the things that have been imprisoned inside you, through my working process, you let them out. You open the window.”

Before Ahmed took his first photograph for the series in late 2008, he spent a year getting to know the people he would eventually photograph, not just as subjects but as friends. “Though my work is rooted in traditional documentary, I cannot photograph people I cannot be friends with,” he said to The Guardian. “So it is important for me to first create a space for us to be comfortable. The work flows from that.”

Ahmed himself grew up in Bangladesh, where discussion of sex of any kind was strictly off-limits. It wasn’t until his time studying at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Denmark that Ahmed was exposed to LGBTQ activism. He knew he wanted to get involved. 

The photographer mostly captures younger queer circles before his lens, most of whom are lower- to middle-class, and thus more susceptible to the rampant homophobia that surrounds them. “I feel there is a culture of collective denial in my country,” Ahmed told The Huffington Post in an email. “And patriarchy plays an important role in this.” 

Ahmed went on to describe the singular way photography opens up a space where none existed before, within which subjects and creators can “play fluid roles.” The black-and-white photographs, then, are not only visual acts of protest but safe spaces sanctioned for play, exploration and celebration. 

Along with the images themselves, Ahmed also compiles written stories from his subjects, continuing to shed light on stories so often overlooked or covered up. “I want to talk about myself, but my profession frustrates my will,” one subject, Imam, writes. “I want to talk about my thoughts, my inclinations, my aspirations, but my profession forces me to bury these thoughts deep within me ... I have even been through religious ‘medical treatment’ but nothing has ever changed for me. I now believe that my condition is God-gifted. Today, I am happy, as I am, living peacefully with my hopes and dreams.”

Ahmed views his camera as a “weapon of love,” breaking down hate and prejudice through the simple act of sharing stories. “My work is driven by curiosity, curiosity to feel the human condition, while deconstructing organizational taboos,” he said. “I photograph people I am friends with, to help them divulge their inner selves to you.”

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Hollywood’s 2015 diversity report card is in and the results are a disappointing case of déjà vu. 

In the latest study by the Media, Diversity & Social Change (MDSC) Initiative at University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, researchers found little improvement in 2015 films when it came to the representation of women, people of color and LGBT characters.

In the top 100 films of 2015, the report found only 31.4 percent of all speaking characters were female (a figure that hasn’t changed since 2007), only 12.2 were black, 5.3 percent were Latino and 3.9 percent were Asian.

In fact, out of the 100 films analyzed, 40 films had no Latino speaking characters and 49 had no Asian speaking characters.

The study also found that less than 1 percent of speaking characters identified as LGBT and, for the first time, assessed characters with disabilities, who made up just 2.4 percent of all speaking roles.

“The findings reveal that Hollywood is an epicenter of cultural inequality,” Dr. Stacy L. Smith, founding director of the MDSC Initiative, wrote in the study which was released Tuesday. “While the voices calling for change have escalated in number and volume, there is little evidence that this has transformed the movies that we see and the people hired to create them. Our reports demonstrate that the problems are pervasive and systemic.”

Despite online advocacy like #OscarsSoWhite and efforts made by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to increase diversity among its members, separate studies have shown that issues of representation and inequality in Hollywood start at the top, with predominantly male and white studio executives.  

And, as the USC study points out, diversity behind the camera would likewise translate to more inclusive casting on-screen. As far as quick solutions to inequality in Hollywood, Dr. Smith found gender equality on-screen can easily be reached by 2018 if five female characters are added to scripts per year. 

Read the full report here.

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After six long weeks of tears, roses, tequila and Jorge, “Paradise” has finally come to an end. We wrapped up this (18-day) journey with three engagements, one new “Bachelor” and countless margaritas. 

Below are 38 tweets that nail the perfection that was your favorite (sh*t)show’s third finale:

For more on the finale of “Bachelor In Paradise,” check out HuffPost’s “Here To Make Friends” podcast below:

Do people love “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise,” or do they love to hate these shows? It’s unclear. But here at “Here to Make Friends,” we both love and love to hate them — and we love to snarkily dissect each episode in vivid detail. Podcast edited by Nick Offenberg.

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Horace Slughorn: Slytherin, Potions master ... and war hero?

In case readers have forgotten his cameo on the side of good during the Battle for Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the Pottermore Presents ebook Short Stories From Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists revealed more about the former Potions professor’s history, his unwitting role in the rise of Voldemort, and his hour of redemption.  

The three Pottermore Presents ebooks released on Tuesday weave together existing writing from the Pottermore site, written by both the author herself and Pottermore staff, as well as some new stories.

In the spankin’ new chapter Rowling penned on Slughorn, she delves into his background as the goodnatured only son of prideful Pureblood parents, who, “while [...] never militant in their pure-blood beliefs, [...] encouraged a quiet belief in the family’s innate superiority.” While Slughorn happily befriended Muggle-born students during his time at Hogwarts, this parental classism translated into “his own brand of elitism” ― as his later institution of the Slug Club (an informal group for after-hours socializing with his most promising students) would indicate, he loved surrounding himself with talent and prestige. 

Though his father was a high-ranking Ministry of Magic official, Rowling writes that Slughorn had the self-knowledge to avoid “the cut and thrust of politics [...] Perhaps he knew in his heart of hearts that he was not the stuff of which great Ministers are made, aware that he preferred a less taxing and more comfortable existence.”

Instead, he went back to Hogwarts as Potions master, where he cultivated mentorships of the students he deemed most likely to one day shower him in reflected glory ― students including Lily Potter, but also Tom Marvolo Riddle.  

After trusting Riddle with dangerous knowledge about the formation of Horcruxes, Slughorn was left racked with guilt when he realized his pet student had reemerged as the terrifying Dark wizard, Lord Voldemort.

Blaming himself for making Voldemort’s return to power possible (though Riddle had already learned about Horcruxes through other means before approaching Slughorn), the Potions master particularly distinguished himself in the Battle for Hogwarts. At first it appeared he’d led the Slytherins away to safety, but he soon returned, having rallied more troops to support Dumbledore’s Army ― and even dueled Voldemort personally over the course of the battle. 

For a man constitutionally prone to laziness and self-preservation, this was a heroic moment indeed. Rowling concludes, “Slughorn’s behaviour during the most dangerous night of his life reveals the worth of the man.”

In the wizarding world, with very few exceptions, the baddies are Slytherins. What’s more, Potions masters tend to be Slytherins ― like Harry Potter’s least favorite teacher, Severus Snape, who often wielded his power as a professor to benefit Slytherin. No surprise, then, that Rowling has admitted before that she viewed Potions as the wizarding equivalent of her own most loathed Muggle subject: chemistry. 

Of course, it turned out that Snape was a more complicated, even noble, figure than a villain ― a tension that launched ten thousand sympathetic fanfics. 

But before there was Snape, there was Slughorn, a Potions professor and Slytherin house head who, nonetheless, turned out to be more good than bad at heart. 

Maybe J.K. Rowling’s feelings about chemistry ― and Slytherin ― are more complicated than they initially seemed.

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In a homecoming of sorts, New York composer Will Van Dyke will take to the stage of an iconic New York gay nightspot next week for an intimate performance of new music. 

Van Dyke returns to The Duplex, which is located in Manhattan’s West Village, with cellist Allison Seidner for “A Beer and A Song” on Sept. 12. Joining the pair will be Broadway’s Katie Rose Clarke, whose résumé includes “Wicked” and “The Light in the Piazza.” 

The evening’s set will feature mostly new material, as well as songs from Van Dyke’s two “pop-theater” EPs, “Chasing The Day” and “A View of the River.” (Check out a video for one of his new songs, “The Snowman,” above) 

“September always feels like the beginning of a new year in theater,” he told The Huffington Post by phone from Seattle, where a production of “Writing Kevin Taylor,” a musical he co-wrote with Josh Halloway, was being presented in August. 

Van Dyke is best known to Broadway audiences as the musical director of the Tony-winning musical, “Kinky Boots.” Meanwhile, his work as a songwriter has been showcased on recent albums by Annaleigh Ashford and Matt Doyle, as well as other established performers. 

Despite this, Van Dyke admitted to having a few pre-show jitters before his Sept. 12 show simply because he’s rarely taken to the microphone himself over the years. He even joked that the evening’s title was borne out of this anxiety, noting, “Hopefully people will get so drunk they won’t remember the sound of my singing voice the next morning.” 

Van Dyke’s remarks, of course, were clearly meant in jest. Meanwhile, the venue itself has personal significance, too. 

“The first show I ever did was at The Duplex, which was about 10 years ago,” he said. “It feels very homey to me, because that’s where I first started sharing my work.”

No doubt the night will be a sweet return for this up-and-coming composer. 

Will Van Dyke and Allison Seidner will perform “A Beer And A Song” at New York’s The Duplex on Sept. 12, along with special guest Katie Rose Clarke. Head here for more details. 

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Lauren Graham is all about the “Gilmore Girls’” feminist legacy.

The 49-year-old actress, who played Lorelai Gilmore, recently told Entertainment Weekly that the root of “Gilmore Girls’” feminism comes from the bond between Lorelai and her daughter Rory. 

“I would be remiss if I didn’t say that [Rory and Lorelai’s] main strength, even if they believe in true love, is that they have themselves and they have each other,” Graham told EW.

Graham added that the show is “sneakily” feminist because it features two strong and self-sufficient women. 

The show is sneakily feminist in that it’s always been great for them to have love, but they’re also okay when they don’t. That self-sufficiency is the first strength and that allows them to have these relationships. It’s why we sometimes bristle at: What team are you on?! It’s like: It doesn’t matter. Rory’s going to be great no matter what. And I think that’s an underlying message of the show, too.

All we have to say is:

Check out the trailer for the upcoming four-part revival series “Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life” here. 

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Almost every dimension of Justin Tipping’s full-length directorial debut, “Kicks,” embodies hip-hop. From the themes of inner-city sneaker culture and the perils of hyper-masculinity to the undeniable Bay Area-influenced soundtrack, the hip-hop thread runs throughout the film and helps tell the gritty story with surprising authenticity. 

In “Kicks,” a young curly-haired teen’s pride takes the form of retro red and black Air Jordans, which he scrapes to buy from a neighborhood hustler. A day later, his prized possessions slip away when an envious thug and his goons jump him and snatch the shoes. The brutal beatdown sets teenage Brandon on a dangerous journey from one rough Bay Area neighborhood to another, all in hopes of getting back the shoes and self-respect he so badly desires.

That scene encompasses several themes of the film ― the value of status symbols like shoes, for example ― all of which are displayed over a meticulously produced soundtrack that pulls from classic hip-hop anthems and lesser-known Bay Area tracks. While the film has garnered solid reviews for its stunning camerawork and “commitment to detail,” viewers can find yet another layer of meaning in its music, which takes many forms throughout the movie.

During the film, Brandon oftentimes retreats to his personal thoughts, which he communicates through hushed, poetic rap lyrics that spoken word artist Donté Clark specifically penned for the film.

“Brandon’s character, I think internalizes a lot of his fear of the world though rapping in his head,” Tipping told The Huffington Post. “And for me, it was an interesting way and true to the world to have someone have internal voiceover, but it be rap lyrics because I know I definitely did that when I was a kid, I still do it. And so I was trying to use that as almost his security blanket.”

After speaking with the budding filmmaker, it’s clear that Brandon, played by Jahking Guillory, is an extension of Tipping in more ways than one. Tipping co-wrote the script with Joshua Beirne-Golden and drew the film’s concept from his own experience getting jumped for his Nike Prestos in a dimly-lit parking lot at 16 years old. Tipping walked away from the fight barefoot with two black eyes and said the “defining moment” that occurred afterward taught him a lot about society’s understanding of manhood and its association with violence.

“I remember specifically my older brother saying, ‘It’s OK, you’re a man now,’” the El Cerrito native recalled. That moment instilled a sense of pride in the then high schooler, but was followed with a pang of pain and confusion.

“Why the hell is violence synonymous with becoming a man?” he asked. “Why is anger the only emotion we’re allowed to feel? ... It’s a harsh reality that I think all the kids in ‘Kicks’ and where I grew up, we were born into that.”

That concept of masculinity repeatedly ties back into the film’s soundtrack. Tipping remembered specifically selecting Trill Youngins’ song “I Look Fly” for its brash, yet playful lyrics about ― to put it simply ― looking fresh to impress the ladies.

“Their song plays in the background of the shoe store, where it’s like, ‘I look fly, don’t I? I look fly, don’t I?’ And it’s literally a song about where the character is emotionally in that moment, where the song is just about buying fresh clothes and shoes to get girls,” Tipping said.

Why the hell is violence synonymous with becoming a man?

While the music in that scene took on a pointedly literal (and arguably contrived) meaning, Tipping’s other references are more multifaceted. Chapter titles drawn from the lyrics of Nas, Mac Dre, Tupac and others punctuate the film and have the dexterity to continue the overarching hip-hop themes while providing context for an upcoming scene.

“Greek choruses and Greek plays would come out and state the themes and, to me, that was like the hip-hop Greek chorus,” he said. Tipping added that he chose lyrics that were both “universal” and “timeless” to help even the most novice hip-hop listener understand the next chapter of the story. For example the double entendre in the chapter title “Fresh To Death” was very deliberately ominous.

“Everyone knows that something is going to happen,” he said. “I wanted people to start to feel the omniscient foreshadowing.”

The chapter titles showcase lyrics from some of the biggest names in hip-hop, but the film’s soundtrack is filled with delectable tracks for those who prefer their music a little less mainstream. Aside from “C.R.E.A.M.,” which Tipping specifically wrote into the script, and “Party and Bullshit,” the soundtrack is comprised almost entirely of hip-hop gems from Bay Area stalwarts. Dave Steezy, Iamsu!, Roach Gigz and Oakland icon Mac Dre are all included, with a vibe-y Marc E. Bassy song that’s reminiscent of Dr. Dre’s G-Funk sound thrown in for good measure. 

Tipping worked closely with composer Brian Reiztell in threading the tracks with the film’s original score. The director said he crowdsourced potential songs from “friends of friends on Instagram” and his DJ buddies. Ultimately, Tipping hand-picked virtually every song that made it into the movie, so the heavy-hitting soundtrack ended up reflecting his own personal music taste.

“I grew up a hip-hop head … It’s just part of who I am,” he said. “I didn’t think, ‘I should make a hip-hop movie.’ I was just like, ‘I want to tell the story and this feels like it’s coming from my personal experiences.’ I think maybe for selfish reasons too, where I think this is cool. And if I can make it work, why not?”

“Kicks” hits theaters on Sept. 9.

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