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How This Man's Desk Job Led To A Career in Furniture Design

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Julianne Moore Wants This Book To Be Turned Into A Movie, ASAP

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It was the first day of class for New York City public schools, and Julianne Moore came prepared. After making sure to eat a substantive breakfast, she headed to a small studio at the James Hotel in Soho, ready to talk about literacy.


It’s a cause she’s pursued in earnest recently, alongside an organization called Project Literacy, which launched a social media campaign last week. The effort highlights the potential effects of illiteracy, which correlate (although perhaps not causatively) with shorter life expectancy, gender inequity, malnutrition and poverty in general. Reading, Moore says, is often thought of as a personal pursuit, but the problem is: illiteracy is a social one.


It’s fitting that Moore, who is often typecast as a cerebral, confident character (Maude in “The Big Lebowski,” Julian in “Children of Men”), would be an evangelist for such a cause. She’s starred in a bevy of book adaptations, including “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” “A Single Man,” “The Hunger Games,” and a forthcoming film based on a historical children’s novel, “Wonderstruck.” And her love of books, she says, is responsible for her interest in acting in the first place.


“More than anything else, I loved reading,” Moore told The Huffington Post. “It was my constant companion. We moved around a lot, and that was one thing I could always count on. Once I started acting, I realized that I was seeking the same sensation I had when I was inside a book. When you read, you enter into a story, and you feel like the story is around you. And that’s how I feel when I’m acting.”



It’s important to have a sense of individuality and a sense of community at the same time, and I feel like that’s inherent in reading.



Moore says her passion for reading has influenced her specific approach to acting. When deciding which roles to pursue, she’s most interested in a film’s storyline, rather than her character’s personality as it exists in a void. Moore said, “I think it’s why when people say, ‘What character do you want to play?’ I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t think in terms of character, I think in terms of story. What narrative would I like to be in the middle of? What’s happening in this narrative? What engages me?”


One recent part that caught her attention was that of a German academic, opposite Ethan Hawke and Greta Gerwig in “Maggie’s Plan.” Moore showed her range as an actress in the film; her character was brainy and humorless, but caught up in a whirlwind, screwball story. Moore’s interest in the power of language comes through as she talks about the role.


“What’s interesting about that movie is, we were working on a scene, and what I love about it was that we were having an intellectual argument and a marital argument at the same time. And so it’s all in this academic language that can be potentially obfuscating. And academics do that deliberately,” she said. “That was what was kind of fun, playing with all of those ideas in their so-called work, and also setting up the argument [with Ethan Hawke’s character, John], which is, ‘you’re too practical,’ and ‘you’re a dreamer,’ which basically means, ‘get a job.’”


Moore’s devotion to literature goes beyond playing bookish characters, or characters in book adaptations. She’s a published author herself, and has written nine children’s books, including Freckleface Strawberry, the story of a young girl who learns to embrace her differences. Moore takes pride in the fact that her book is instructive; “It’s important to have a sense of individuality and a sense of community at the same time, and I feel like that’s inherent in reading,” she says.


One of her upcoming films, “Wonderstruck,” is based on a kids book, too, by the same author who penned the imaginative book-turned-film The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It’s set in both the ‘20s and ‘70s in New York City, and Moore will play a handful of characters, but the details, she says, are a surprise.


In spite of her schedule ― now that “Wonderstruck” has wrapped, she’s at work on a crime mystery and a spy comedy, both out in 2017 ― she makes time to read, too. Although, she hasn’t caught Ferrante Fever just yet. “I’m like, is there something wrong with me?” she joked of Elena Ferrante’s popular Neapolitan novels. “I couldn’t get into it. I wanted more of the female friendship.”


One book she does appreciate, however, is Madeleine L’Engle’s classic children’s story A Wrinkle in Time, which, she says, is due for a proper film adaptation. “I feel like there’s never been a really good production of A Wrinkle in Time,” Moore said. “I mean, I know they tried. I think they can do better than that. I know it!” (Ava DuVernay has recently signed on to direct a Disney adaptation of the novel.)


Here’s hoping that Moore, with her passion for storytelling and her subtle, affecting approach to acting, helps to make that happen.

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'Fifty Shades Darker' Looks Like A Crazy, Sexy Masquerade Party

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Valentine’s Day 2017 is about to get a whole lot naughtier.


Since 2011, E.L. James’ book series “Fifty Shades of Grey” has had men and women everywhere feeling like they need to ... keep reading.


After last year’s blockbuster film adaptation of the first book, we’ve been given another saucy treat ― one that promises to have no rules, no punishments and no more secrets.


The trailer for the sequel, “Fifty Shades Darker,” was released Tuesday, and it looks like a great damn time. There’s a masquerade ball (how very “Eyes Wide Shut”), a creepy lurking woman, shower sex, Kim Basinger and Dakota Johnson’s bangs.







Another haunting rendition of Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” plays in the background, this time sung by the soulful Miguel.


Watch the whole thing below:






The film is slated for release Feb. 10, 2017. Get your handcuffs ready.






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In 'Jackie,' Natalie Portman Rages And Grieves As A Damaged First Lady

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Toward the start of “Jackie,” a stunned Jackie Kennedy wipes her late husband’s blood from her face ― slowly at first, and then more and more feverishly, as though the sight of it becomes too much to bear. The camera lingers tightly on the First Lady’s face as she scrubs the splotches, her expression becoming more pained and panicked with each second. It’s like watching a scarred debutante’s privilege fade into the ether, a charmed life ripped at the seams by a ghastly crime. 


Such is the work of Natalie Portman, who seethes and grieves throughout the movie, a 95-minute examination of Jackie’s psyche in the hours and days immediately following John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination. I call her Jackie, rather than Kennedy or any of the formalities we assign to our presidential royalty, because Pablo Larraín’s stunning film grants her so many dimensions. She is not just Mrs. Kennedy, the blueblood whose life on and off the political stage became (and remains, 22 years after her death) a national pastime.


This is one of the sharpest films of 2016. It is an unconventional biopic so artfully rendered and emotionally astute that it becomes soul-tugging. I’ve shed a lot of movie tears during the ongoing Toronto Film Festival, but none more debilitating than while seeing “Jackie” at a press screening on Monday. In fact, I am tearing up as I write these words. 


Larraín and his cinematographer, Stéphane Fontaine, shot “Jackie” predominately in haunting close-ups. Cutting between various threads surrounding Jackie’s grieving process and the funeral preparations for her husband, we meet a Jackie Kennedy who lives a large part of her life in front of cameras. “I want to talk to the press,” she says a few times throughout the movie, much to her confidants’ discouragement. In one chapter woven throughout the film, Jackie talks to the Life magazine journalist (Billy Crudup) who wrote the famous article in which the new widow compares her experience in the White House to the mythical Camelot, now come and gone. The comment stings because we don’t know how many of Jackie’s reflections are artificial, carefully managed by someone with a keen awareness of her public image, and how many are earnest. Considering both the heartache of a lost spouse and the mythology surrounding the Kennedy clan, particularly that of JFK’s many affairs, the remark is wrenching either way. “Nothing is ever mine, not to keep, anyway,” she says at one point, resigning herself to the fact that even the poshest of lives cannot guarantee all of the spiritual luxuries one needs to thrive. 


It takes guts to play someone so widely probed, someone whose polished mannerisms and complicated psychology still haunt her image. Portman is a marvel. She is Jackie Kennedy, and yet she also creates a character completely original. “How do I do this?” Jackie asks her close friend (Greta Gerwig), referring to the process of informing her children of their father’s death. But she hardly waits for an answer before turning around and doing so with such performative poise ― a poise that is drenched in rage throughout much of the rest of the story. She is mad at her husband’s death, but she also may be mad at him. “Sometimes he would walk through the desert, just to be tempted by the devil,” she tells the Life reporter, implicitly conjuring the rumors of JFK’s mistresses. “But he would always come back to us, his beloved family.” It sounds like a rehearsed speech, and for someone who grew up surrounded by socialites, perhaps it is. Portman gives every moment exceptional weight, heightened as Larraín continues to monitor Jackie’s face in tight shots. The movie is claustrophobic in the best possible way. 


“Jackie” entered the Toronto Film Festival without theatrical distribution. Fox Searchlight, the studio that pushed “12 Years a Slave” and “Birdman” to recent Best Picture wins, snatched up the film late Monday night, coasting on the positive buzz that has circulated throughout Toronto. The movie will open on Dec. 9, assuring Portman has Oscar potential. She deserves it, as does Larraín, who is having a great 2016 thanks to “Jackie” and a forthcoming Pablo Neruda biopic. 


More important than Oscar chatter is the film itself. At once arty and accessible, “Jackie” unfolds in devastating layers. As its title subject walks through the White House and its surrounding area, we walk through her mind. It is astonishing. We mourn for her. We ache for the system that has subjected her to such scrutiny. We hope for her future, the one we know will be plagued by paparazzi and depression. The gilded life, in all its riches, is never as golden as it appears.


Now I have to go, before I start crying again. Oh, wait. Too late.

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Roald Dahl's True Genius Was As An Audiobook Reader

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The celebrated British author Roald Dahl, whose children’s and adult books have found a devoted global audience, was born on Sept. 13, 1916, making this year his 100th birthday. Dahl, who died in 1990 at 74, didn’t sugarcoat childhood ― despite literally coating a child in chocolate during one colorful scene in his most iconic novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Instead, he painted the world as somehow both magical and threatening, dark and whimsical.


The resulting blend offers a sharper-edged experience than most children’s classics, which is perhaps one reason many readers, young and old, cherish special memories of Dahl books. He approached his readers like they were still capable of appreciating the fantastical, yet ready to recognize that life would be rough and tumble. And, just as important, his books were hilarious. 


But, with due respect, you haven’t properly experienced the comic genius of Dahl until you’ve heard him reading his books aloud. Wait, hear me out!


In the 1990s, when I was a kid, keeping the whole family entertained during six-hour road trips presented a real challenge. (Our minivan didn’t have built-in DVD players on the back of each headrest.) Fortunately, my parents had a few surefire tricks to occupy one motion-sickness-prone girl (me) and two rambunctious boys ― and one of the most effective involved Roald Dahl.


In the 1970s, Dahl recorded several of his books, some in abridged form, for Caedmon Audio. Those recordings are now available from Penguin Audio and in various older forms on Amazon and elsewhere. Here’s a snippet of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:





My family and I loved these books, which we had on cassette tape. (Of course. This was the ‘90s.) 


Sure, the material itself couldn’t be beat for keeping under-10s and over-30s entertained ― wickedly funny, weird, off-the-wall. I suspect my parents also saw them as enjoyable morality plays for their squirming kids. “What made them so arresting and funny was the swift savagery of his demolition of greed and selfishness,” my dad told me today when I reminded him of the audiobooks. “’What a repulsive boy!’” 


Dahl’s dry, even delivery ― the audio version of keeping a straight face ― somehow plays up the witticisms and comic moments scattered liberally throughout each page. Then, when he chooses to rap out a line of dialogue in an overtly sarcastic or nasty tone, the line packs all the greater of a wallop.


Plus, as the author, who better to judge which moments should be dramatized and which should be delivered wryly? Since Dahl’s writing is comedy, and he’s clearly adept at performing it as well, it just makes sense that he would enhance the delivery of his own material by reading it with impeccable timing and tone.


So if you’ve read everything Dahl has to offer, including roundups of his best quotes and his brilliantly unsettling short fiction, try celebrating his 100th another way. Tonight, kick back with a cup of tea while the author’s own sardonic tones tell you the tale of a little boy named Charlie Bucket, who loved chocolate.

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This Bride's Airbrushed Dress Is The Stuff Of Technicolor Dreams

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For some brides, a traditional white wedding dress just won’t cut it. 


Take Taylor Ann Linko, the bride who’s shaking up the Internet with her multicolored wonder of a wedding gown. An artist by trade, Taylor Ann bought her dress at a discount store and used an airbrush to carefully tint it with layers and layers of rich color. She’s one of many brides who have recently chosen dip-dyed or airbrushed dresses for looks that are anything but typical. 


(Story continues after the photos.)




There are many tutorials for dip dying dresses online, but not much in the way of DIY airbrushing. Tackling the task yourself takes some serious guts, even for an artist like Taylor Ann.


“Twenty minutes into coloring, I thought I ruined my dress,” she wrote on her blog. “It took a few days for me to regain confidence and work on it again.”


It’s a good thing she did, as the dress meshed beautifully with the rest of the wedding. Taylor Ann’s bouquets, rainbow hair, ombre games set and colorful accents were perfectly coordinated. 


See more photos from the colorful wedding below.







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This Period Board Game Is Smashing The Stigma Of Menstruation

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Unfortunately, we still live in a world where young women are taught that menstruation is embarrassing and even shameful. A new period-themed board game aims to turn this stigma into a fun and empowering experience.


The Period Game is a project by designers Daniela Gilsanz and Ryan Murphy. The game teaches kids about the menstrual cycle ― both the biology behind it and the practical side of having a period, like how to use pads, tampons and menstrual cups.



Gilsanz and Murphy initially developed The Period Game as a class project at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2014.


“We were in a ‘Design and Play’ class and were asked to make a game about the body, and thought that menstruation would be a great subject to tackle,” Gilsanz told The Huffington Post.


“When we first brought it up in class there was a fair amount of discomfort, which surprised us as we were all in our 20s at art school, but also confirmed that there was still a lot of work to be done in how we talk about periods,” she added.



The Period Game features a series of “Protection,” “Preparation” and “Specialty” cards and two instructional packets that teach players about menstrual products, PMS and the female reproductive system. The board also features a large abstracted model of a uterus.


Gilsanz and Murphy say the goal of the game is to create an open, taboo-free space where kids feel comfortable saying words like “tampon,” “period” and “ovaries.” They also want the game to be fun and informative for both boys and girls. 


“We hope that girls and boys get a fun learning environment where they are comfortable asking questions,” Gilsanz said. “The way the game is set up, it’s very easy to ask a question about the game where the answer relates back to your body, so you are learning two things at once: how to play and what is happening in the body. Also, we hope it helps with confidence and girl pride!”



The Period Game is targeted at kids ages 9 to 11. Gilsanz and Murphy have tested the game with girls in that age bracket and say they have received overwhelmingly positive feedback.


“One girl asked if she could keep her menstrual cup card throughout the game and always play it on period spaces because menstrual cups were supposed to be reusable,” Gilsanz recalled. “It was amazing to have someone not know what a menstrual cup was, and halfway through the game not only totally understand, but challenge the way it was used within the game.”



Ultimately, in addition to being educational, Gilsanz and Murphy designed The Period Game to be entertaining.


“It’s hard to tell just from the pictures, but it was important to us that the game stood on it’s own as more than just an educational tool that you would only play once,” said Gilsanz.


As of now, the game is still a prototype, but Gilsanz and Murphy are seeking partners to help make it a reality.


Until then, they’re just going with the flow.




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Gay 'SNL' Writer Brings His Personal Journey To The Big Screen

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Head ”Saturday Night Live” writer Chris Kelly has written and directed a new film that’s earning raves for the complex, nuanced queer protagonist at its heart.  


Released Sept. 9, “Other People” follows David (Jesse Plemons), a television writer who returns to California to care for his ailing mother (Molly Shannon) after splitting from his boyfriend. Once David arrives, however, he’s forced to confront his conservative father (Bradley Whitford), who never quite accepted his son’s sexuality. (View the trailer for “Other People” above) 


The movie, which debuted at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in January, has already earned praise from critics. The Chicago Sun-Times called it “smart, lovely, funny, occasionally edgy, slightly cynical and ultimately heart-tugging,” while Variety praised it for featuring “gay characters as three-dimensional figures.” 


Check out a scene from the film below, then scroll down to keep reading.  





The first openly gay head SNL writer, Kelly based “Other People” on his personal experiences following the 2009 death of his own mother.  


“I wanted to write something more tonally serious where the comedy comes from sadness... I wanted to write something I felt I could do in a truthful way,” he told IndieWire in January. Still, fans of Kelly’s humorous SNL sketches will find much to admire in the new film, too. “You’re seeing the movie through the eyes of a comedy writer and as someone who ‘escaped’ a small town to New York City, [who has] the tendency to see other people as jokes or punchlines,” he said. 


We’re tearing up already. Grab a tissue, and catch one final scene from “Other People” below. 




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'Love Jones: The Musical' Is A Theatrical Spin On A Classic '90s Love Story

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Nearly 20 years after its big screen release, “Love Jones” is receiving a theatrical makeover with “Love Jones: The Musical.”


The national tour, which stars an all-star cast featuring Tony Grant (as Darius Lovehall), and singers Chrisette Michelle (as Nina Mosley), Musiq Soulchild, Marsha Ambrosius, MC Lyte, Raheem Devaughn and Dave Hollister, is a musical adaptation of the 1997 film.


Dubbed as “a hip ‘When Harry Met Sally,’” the romantic comedy follows a young poet, Darius Lovehall (portrayed by Larenz Tate), and photographer Nina Mosley (portrayed by Nia Long) as they navigate their emotions for one another in Chicago.


While the essence of the film’s plot around Nina and Darius’ relationship is incorporated into the new musical production, veteran theater producer Melvin Childs chose to revamp the plot with additional characters, chart-topping hits, and original music to adhere to stage limitations.


“There’s lots of different characters in this stage play that you didn’t see in the movie,” Childs said during an interview with The Huffington Post. “We changed a little bit of the character’s personalities, because in movies you got two hours to do what you wanna do. We don’t have those luxuries in theater. It’s just no way you can make it exactly like the movie, or otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to make it as entertaining as it is. And I think for the most part, they’re actually pretty good changes.”


In addition to consulting with the original film’s director-writer, Theodore Witcher, Childs ― who was influential in creating Tyler Perry’s early theater productions ― says he also created an agreement with Warner Bros. studios to produce the musical. But he maintains that he and playwright Timothy Allen Smith and director Zadia Ife have operated independently as it pertains to creative input.


As for attracting the ensemble cast to participate in the 31-city tour, MC Lyte credits the cult classic’s impact on black culture through the years.  


“When you hear the words, ‘Love Jones’ it just took me back to such a great time in terms of the movie and what it meant, and the music, and the love story. It’s just one of those movies that sits with us,” says Lyte, who portrays herself as a club owner in the musical. “So the opportunity to become a part of something that gave such a good feeling was definitely on tap for me.” 


She went on to add that the accompanying 10-track soundtrack, which she executive produced alongside Childs, will feature original music from the ensemble cast and will be released on the production’s website in late September.


Upon its March 1997 opening, the film domestically netted $3.9 million during its opening weekend, and it has grossed $12.4 million to date, according to Box Office Mojo.


Despite the dismal earnings and Childs receiving skepticism from peers within the theater industry, he said he was determined to adapt the motion picture into a theatrical musical.


I embarked upon this journey with all kinds of naysayers and everybody in the theatrical business telling me that I’m crazy... I knew if I was able to accomplish (producing it) I knew it would be game changing, because the ‘Love Jones’ brand is iconic,” he said.


“Though, it didn’t do as well as most people think in the box office, I always knew that it was one of the most loved films, and most loved movie soundtracks that has ever been made in the black community. And I know that didn’t necessarily translate into money in the box office, but I knew the deal... I want people to come in and be inspired by the story of black love and that it’s still alive no matter what the press or the media may portray at times.”


“Love Jones: The Musical” is currently running through Dec. 4. For more information, including tour dates, click here. Check out snippets from the soundtrack below.




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'12 Years A Slave' Actress Storm Reid Is Your New Sci-Fi Queen

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Classic children’s lit fans around the nation were probably psyched to hear in February that celebrated “Selma” director Ava DuVernay was attached to a forthcoming Disney adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. Then in July, it was announced that Oprah would be joining the cast, and Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon were reportedly in talks to join, too. 


Now, the news is just getting better: “12 Years a Slave” alum Storm Reid will be playing lead Meg Murry, the preteen heroine of the fantasy/sci-fi novel. The 13-year-old actress made her film debut in the 2013 Steve McQueen–directed project, and has also acted in roles for “NCIS” and “Chicago P.D.”


The upcoming adaptation marks a milestone for DuVernay: She’ll become the first woman of color to direct a live-action film with a budget upwards of $100 million. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is also looking for a nonwhite actor to play Meg’s friend Calvin, a schoolmate who travels with her and brother Charles to other planets.



If you need a refresher in fantasy children’s literature of the 1960s, here’s a brief synopsis: Meg and Charles’ father, a scientist, has gone missing after working on something called a tesseract. After a series of curious happenings, the misfit Meg joins forces with her younger brother and Calvin — a fellow outsider at school — to rescue Mr. Murry from his extraterrestrial exile, with the help of some supernatural neighbors.


The themes addressed in L’Engle’s classic are just as relevant today as when they were penned more than half a century ago. Her characters battle with good versus evil, love versus hate, moral responsibility and embracing one’s individuality. 


The book won the Newbery Medal in 1963, and more recently, Chelsea Clinton named it as an influential book of her childhood during her DNC speech.


What makes this news so exciting — aside from getting to see one of our favorite books come back to the big screen — is Disney’s apparent commitment to selecting a diverse cast for this project, for characters who have previously been portrayed as white, and in doing so, presenting a project for viewers that better reflects the diversity of our world.


It’s much-welcomed news after this past Oscar year’s #OscarsSoWhite landscape. Giving actresses like Reid leading roles is certainly a celebration for the books.




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This Disney Movie Looked Very Different Before 9/11

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“Lilo & Stitch” was the feel-good film the country needed when Disney released it in 2002. 


The animated hit features Hawaii’s beautiful scenery and explores themes of loss and unity ― which particularly resonated after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. 


But Disney made one major change to the film between the 9/11 attacks and the film’s release date.  


“Lilo & Stitch” originally was supposed to end with an action-packed scene featuring Stitch and Jumba hijacking a commercial airplane to rescue Lilo from evil Gantu ― something that’s visible in a side-by-side video produced by Vox. The protagonists take over a passenger-filled Boeing 747 and go on a high-speed chase through a dense city, brushing the sides of skyscrapers and coming close to pedestrians on the ground.


Deleted Scene:





Final Scene:





The original scene is still chilling to watch.





The filmmakers rewrote the film’s denouement after 9/11 to feature Jumba’s red, white and blue spaceship instead of an airplane, according to the film’s Wikia page. They also changed the scene’s setting, sending their characters over Hawaii’s picturesque mountains and volcanoes rather than a city skyline.


The original ending wasn’t made public until 2009, when Disney released a version of the DVD featuring an audio commentary track in which the filmmakers explain recreating the scene.


Watch the original and deleted scenes in Vox’s video below.




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Vibrant Portraits Capture The Faces And Stories Of Sikhs In America

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This is Lathan Dennis Singh, a retired engineer born in Kingston, Jamaica, and now based in Fairfax, Virginia. He converted to Sikhism over 48 years ago as a college student. Also, back in Jamaica, he was good friends with Bob Marley. 


Lathan is one of the subjects in photography duo Amit and Naroop’s upcoming book The Sikh Project, chronicling the diverse men and women of Sikh faith in the U.K. and the U.S. The British artists ― with Punjabi and Sikh heritage ― began the project three years ago after noticing a preponderance of beards on East London’s streets. Intrigued by the relationship between the facial hair trend and religious tradition, Amit and Naroop embarked upon a photography project about the identities of British Sikh men in particular. 


Sikhism is a religion dating back to the 15th century, originating in the Punjab region of India. All baptized Sikhs are obliged, according to their religion, to wear their hair uncut, tying and wrapping the hair on their head in a silk turban called a Dastar. The article of faith symbolizes honesty, one of five ideals of Sikhism. And, yes, most observant Sikh men have big, beautiful beards.



Amit and Naroop are Sikh themselves, though not devout; they do not wear their hair uncut. The project, however, instilled within them a newfound respect for their culture. “We felt a sense of pride,” they explained to The Huffington Post in an earlier interview. “It was great to see these men come into our studio. Their pride in their identity was so strong that it reinforced our belief in our religion.” 


Overwhelmed by these positive responses to the project, Amit and Naroop decided to think bigger. They set their sights on the Sikhs of America, expanding their series to include photos of women as well. The continental shift brought its own complexities. In a post-9/11 world, Sikhs are sometimes mistaken for Muslims, and as such, subjected to ignorant bigotry and Islamophobic violence. As HuffPost’s former executive editor of global spirituality and religion Paul Brandeis Raushenbush wrote in 2012, “Sikhs are not interested in being identified as ‘not Muslim.’ American Sikhs would rather their tradition be understood for what it is, rather than what it is not.”



Each of Amit and Naroop’s Sikh subjects, selected from an open casting call advertised on Facebook, posed for a portrait and shared their story. One subject, Raghuvinder Singh, spends time every week caring for his father, who was shot in the face at the Oak Creek, Wisconsin, Sikh house of worship during a 2012 mass shooting. His father, Punjab Singh, remains paralyzed and unable to speak. He communicates by blinking his eyes.


Through “The Sikh Project,” Amit and Naroop hope to share the many individual stories that make up the Sikh experience ― whether inspiring, silly, tragic, or somewhere in between. “We feel that ‘The Sikh Project’ isn’t just for Sikhs. It’s for everyone,” the artists wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “At its core, the project is about identity. Pride. Not conforming. Individuality. In this day and age, no one should feel that they need to fit in. Being like everyone else is boring. Staying true to who you are takes courage.”


Amit and Naroop are raising funds on Kickstarter to compile both the U.S. and U.K. Sikh portraits into a single photography book. Click here to help them meet their $62,000 goal by Oct. 10. “The Sikh Project” will be on view at 530 Broadway in New York from Sept. 17–25.


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How The 20 Jews Left In Kolkata Are Using Food To Keep Their Culture Alive

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As borders shrink in an increasingly globalized world, some unique communities are nearing extinction. The Jews of Calcutta are one of them.


As the capital of British India in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Calcutta in eastern India was once a migrant hub. Communities such as the Parsis, Armenians, Burmese, Chinese, Greeks, and Jews settled there to establish trade and escape their respective wars and displacement. In the early 19th century, it became home to Baghdadi Jews, who comprised one of the Middle East’s most significant Jewish populations until they began to travel as merchants during the 16th century. But after India’s independence from Britain in 1947, nearly all of the 6,000-odd populace re-emigrated west or re-settled in the newly formed Israel.


Today, only about 20 Jewish descendants of the original Baghdadi Jews remain in Kolkata (as it was renamed in 2001 in recognition of its Bengali moniker). The city’s Jewish Community Affairs body has stopped counting the number of Jews who call the city home, and nearly all of them have aged into their seventies. This has prompted fears that the Jews of Calcutta will soon be history.


But there is one thing that may be able to preserve the legacy of this unique community: food.


A new restaurant, Calcutta Stories, aims to draw attention to Kolkata’s Jewish heritage. Calcutta Stories is trying to pique the city’s interest in the migrant cuisines of Kolkata’s roots, including Jewish, Parsi, and Armenian Indo-fusions. It is owned by Prithvish and Baishali Chakravarti, who launched the traditional Kolkata-Chinese eatery Tak Heng last year. The Jewish section of the menu was crafted by 86-year-old Flower Silliman, who has been chronicling Jewish-Calcuttan cuisine through cookbooks in a bid to preserve an essential part of the community’s culture.


Silliman was born in Calcutta, where she lived for about half her life before moving to Israel and, later, to the US to live with her children. “My mother wasn’t a good cook, but my grandmother was,” Silliman says of her younger days in Calcutta. “She was incredibly inventive. For instance, she used to make a delicious jam with the pith of pomelos, and even though the fruit is bitter, the jam wasn’t. It was her way of combining the cooking techniques of the Middle East—she was from Basra—with what was available in India.”


Over time, Middle Eastern culinary traditions began to merge with Indian ones, creating a unique flavor profile. The most popular Jewish-Calcuttan dish within the Jewish community is probably alu makallah. “I always say this dish came about because two Bengali and Jewish housewives were neighbors,” Silliman says.



Believed to have been inspired by the chopped fried potatoes that are indispensable throughout West Bengal, the state of which Kolkata is now capital, alu makallah is made by peeling whole potatoes, pricking them all over with a fork, and deep-frying them in oil with salt and turmeric. The outside turns crisp and brown, while the inside is soft and delicious. They’re best eaten by hand, because they tend to jump off plates if you try to cut them with a knife and fork.


The gradual fusion of Bengali and Jewish cuisines over the centuries included assimilating Judaism’s strict dietary laws with Indian culinary techniques. Having trained as a nutritionist, Silliman’s interest and expertise in Indian food led her to open the world’s first kosher non-vegetarian Indian restaurant, Maharaja, in Israel in the 1970s. “At the time, Israelis were starved for information about India,” she says. Silliman hired a cook from India and decorated the restaurant with classical paintings to make it as authentically Indian as possible, and ran it successfully for around eight years.


Silliman retained the “Indian-ness” of the food at Maharaja without combining it with local flavors, but at Calcutta Stories, she has reflected the marriage of Middle Eastern and Indian cuisines. Jewish food was blander and lighter in the deserts of the Middle East, but it became spicier and fuller when the Baghdadi Jews came to India.


New ingredients and access to fresh greens made unique interpretations of standard dishes possible. For example, Jewish households in Kolkata added fresh ginger—which isn’t available in the desert—to hilbeh, a green chutney traditionally prepared with fenugreek seeds, garlic, lemon juice, coriander, and green chilies. Some versions also added mint leaves and/or parsley.


Living between these two cultures didn’t just mean applying different cooking techniques to foreign vegetables—it also meant finding ways around Jewish food preparation laws in a non-kosher country. Ian Zachariah, a 73-year-old food writer who works with Jewish Community Affairs, grew up in the only Jewish family in Jamshedpur, a city 290kms (180 miles) away from Kolkata. Since Jews make up only a small minority in India, kosher rules were tough to follow. “Our cook used to slaughter the meat because no one knew the kosher way,” he says.


When he moved to Calcutta over 50 years ago, kosher meat was easier to find because of the larger Jewish community. But as the number of Jews in the city shrank, they had to adapt. One alternative was to go to a halal butcher, because the method of slaughter as per Islamic and Jewish dietary laws is very similar. The meat would then be salted for an hour to draw out all the blood before it was cooked.


Other Jewish culinary rules were easier to adhere to, such as not mixing dairy products with meat. Coconut milk became a valuable substitute for dairy. Freshwater fish was a staple in every household, thanks to the abundant lakes and rivers in the state. A common stew was made by flaking fried fish into boiling coconut milk with fresh coriander and chilies. Tamarind also began to appear in some traditionally Jewish dishes, such as chitanee, which is a sweet-and-sour chicken preparation.


Until now, the new generations of Kolkata have only known of the city’s Jewish legacy through oral history. But thanks to Silliman’s cooking at Calcutta Stories, they’ll get to taste it, too.


This article originally appeared on Quartz IndiaYou can follow Tania on Twitter at @WriteTania. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

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Where The Hell Did Cussing Come From?

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You’re running late, you’re out the door, you’re sitting in traffic, and some *** **** has the nerve to swerve into your lane, forcing you to slam on your breaks, nearly causing a pileup. What the actual ****?


Your reaction, clawing out from the depths of your gut, is to scream profanities. To yourself, out the window, or by offering your middle finger, a gesture as blunt as any four-letter expletive.


Swearing may have been chastised as blasphemous, aggressive, unprofessional, and a lazy mode of communication, but there’s no denying that it’s a powerful one, and can have strong effects on both the swearer and the recipient of swears.







Benjamin K. Bergen, linguist and author of What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains and Ourselves, explained in a phone interview that the visceral emotions swearing elicits may be due to the unique qualities of swear words, which, he says, are in a league of their own as far as language goes.


“It’s the type of language we use to invoke and pull out the strongest emotions in other people,” Bergen told The Huffington Post, noting that language scientists have known for over 150 years that even stroke victims who have lost the ability to speak are still capable of spontaneously cursing.


“They can’t look at a picture of a cat facing a dog and say, ‘The cat is facing the dog,’ but they can let out an expletive in frustration,” he said. This is because, linguists are discovering, cussing comes from a different part of the brain than other modes of spoken communication. “It’s [an] older, emotion-regulation part of the brain that we share with other primates and mammals,” Bergen said.


The primal nature of profanity might start to explain why so many expletives – despite originating from a few disparate, thematic sources – resemble each other so closely when it comes to the way they sound, and the way they feel in our mouths. At least in English.



It’s the type of language we use to invoke and pull out the strongest emotions in other people.



Think about most cuss words you know and use. There’s “damn.” There’s “shit.” There’s the F-word and the C-word. Many of our expletives are four-letter terms, a trend that’s so consistent it bears exploration. In his book, Bergen charted English-language examples, and found that three- and five-letter words were just as common, but most were a single, consonant-heavy syllable ― usually one with its consonants piled on the end.


“When new profane words are invented ― you can think about acronyms, like MILF, or THOT ― they follow this pattern,” Bergen said. “And even professional word-makers, people who invent swear words for invented languages like Dothraki or Klingon, still follow this same pattern.”


In addition to the brusque effect they have when said aloud, most profanities belong to one of four thematic categories, Bergen says: “Religious concepts; sex and sexual activity; body functions and organs therein involved; and terms for members of other groups, which are really just slurs.”



Religious curses were far more common in English centuries ago, with ‘gadzooks’ (God’s eyes) and ‘zounds’ (short for God’s wounds) ranking among the oft-used expletives.



So, in modern-day English, curses are sexual. But in some variations of French, for example, religious curses abound. Religious curses, Bergen points out, were far more common in English centuries ago, with “gadzooks” (God’s eyes) and “zounds” (short for God’s wounds) ranking among the oft-used expletives.


Bergen’s giddy enthusiasm for swearing as an academic topic is clear both in his book and while chatting with him; he opines the value of language that communicates more than facts and abstract concepts. But, he emphasizes that he’s not necessarily advocating for us to inject our language with more profanity than we already use. Instead, he wants us to think more critically about the power of words.


“I think of profanity like I think of nuclear reactions. It’s a concept we’ve created, it’s very powerful,” Bergen said. “Because it’s powerful, it can be used in lots of different ways. Nuclear reactions tell us how the universe works, and profanity tells us how humans work, how language works, how our brains work. Like nuclear reactions, it can be used, if you harness it, to great ends.”



Nuclear reactions tell us how the universe works, and profanity tells us how humans work, how language works, how our brains work.



While there’s no causative correlation between swearing and aggression ― people who swear aren’t more likely to be aggressive, studies have shown ― profanity can be used in aggressive contexts, or to assert power over individuals and groups. “Those are things that, whether they involve profanity or not, can cause harm,” Bergen says.


But there are benefits, too. “According to several studies, profanity can alleviate pain. It can make the swearer appear to be more confident, powerful, well-adjusted, funny,” Bergen said. He’s currently doing research in his lab to determine whether swearing can actually be a positive outlet for aggression, having a calming effect on the swearer.


“So I’m not advocating that people change how they use language necessarily,” Bergen said. “It’s not intrinsically good or bad, it’s just powerful. It’s what we do with it that makes a difference.”

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Kelsea Ballerini Believes It's A New Era For Women In Country Music

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The view is pretty good from up top.


Kelsea Ballerini reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart this week with her hit single “Peter Pan.” It’s a major accomplishment for the Tennessee native, who released her full-length debut album, “The First Time,” in 2015. And, for many, it’s nice to see some ladies dominating the country music scene. Ballerini remembers it was a bit of a different story just a couple of years ago.


“It was really hard for females at that time,” she told The Huffington Post, recalling a lot of talk around men taking prominent spots on country radio and elsewhere in the music world.


“It was just this constant conversation happening in Nashville. And I remember it was talked about everywhere, like, ‘Where are the girls on country radio other than Carrie [Underwood] and Miranda [Lambert]?’ I think, like everything, it was a trend,” the 23-year-old explained. “They called it bro country … and I don’t think there was anything wrong with that. It’s really cool when in every genre of music you can listen to a song and know what era it was from. I think that bro country became kind of an era for country music, and I like that there’s a new era and it’s women. It’s Maren [Morris], It’s Maddie & Tae.”


You can also add Ballerini to that growing list of female singers taking over the country music scene. Also a songwriter, Ballerini co-wrote “Peter Pan,” about heartbreak and past relationships.


“I try to be as honest as I can in writing. That’s what ends up translating and relating to people,” she said. “It’s so fun to make up stories, but I find that the songs that I’m most proud of came from a real thing in my life. ‘Peter Pan’ being one of those.”





Writing comes naturally for Ballerini, who says she always loved music and grew up singing in church choir and glee club. She just wasn’t sure how to go about pursuing her passion. 


“I was living in Knoxville, Tennessee, and I didn’t really know how you would become a singer. I didn’t even think that I could do it. I didn’t even dream about it. But when I was 12, it was that year where I got tall, boys got cute, everything was weird,” she said. “Then my parents split up on top of that, so it was a big year of change for me. I just randomly started writing songs. It honestly just fell into my lap. It became an obsession.”


And luckily others have caught on, including Taylor Swift. The country-turned-pop superstar actually helped push Ballerini’s career along.


“Taylor tweeted about my EP two years ago … No one knew who I was. And she randomly heard ‘Love Me’ when she was in Nashville and tweeted about it and completely changed the course of my life. We just started talking from there and now we’re buddies. She’s awesome.” 



Ballerini says she looks to people like Swift for advice on navigating the music industry, touring and more. Coming up, Ballerini, who’s opened up for the likes of Lady Antebellum and Rascal Flatts, will mark her first major headlining tour this fall.


She’s also plotting a full-length sophomore album.


“We’re four songs in right now. I’m still figuring out what the heartbeat of it’s going to be,” she said. “But what we have so far I’m really proud of.”


 


The Huffington Post receives a percentage from the purchase of tickets bought via a link on this page.

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How X-Rated Feminist Art Came Into Power (NSFW)

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Warning: This article contains explicit imagery. If you don’t like it, leave! 



The year was 1993. Artist Ellen Cantor, then 32 years old, curated the exhibition “Coming to Power,” made up entirely of sexually explicit feminist work made by women artists, which was on view at David Zwirner Gallery. 


Slick, drooping phallic forms by Louise Bourgeois hung from the ceilings, while Joan Semmel’s psychedelic-colored sex paintings were mounted on the walls. Wads of rolled-up gum arranged by Hannah Wilke resembled disembodied vaginas, while Nancy Fried’s sculpted scenes of erotically charged lesbian domesticity, upon closer look, revealed themselves to be carved out of bread. 


Visitors left the exhibition riled and confused. “The show opened and I was excoriated,” contributing artist Marilyn Minter explained in an interview with The Huffington Post. “The worst nightmare for an artist. Many of the other women in the show had already been thrown out of the art world.” 


Minter, now 62 years old, creates lush, decadent paintings that ooze with lubed-up glamour. Her style, which has been referred to as “realism in drag,” exaggerates textures with a contagious hunger, bringing the fuzzy surface of a tongue or sticky strings of semen into sharp detail that supersedes real life.



In 1993, the reviews of her work were terrible. “It was a nightmare,” she said. “I was feeling pretty beat up.” Yet in 2017, a retrospective spanning 40 years of Minter’s work is heading to the Brooklyn Museum for a massive show called “Pretty/Dirty.”


Radical feminist performance artist Carolee Schneemann had a similar recollection of the 1993 show. “Some women [who] were upset by the art walked out, saying it was pornography,” she said in an email to HuffPost. “[The response] was varied, uncertain, but also excited. The work on view was on this threshold of context. It didn’t have an art historical shape around it yet. And this was 1993 ― which was relatively late.”


It does seem pretty late, especially for an artist like Schneemann, who had been making body-centric work since the ‘60s. Her 1964 video “Meat Joy” is a writhing and raw celebration of flesh, a tangled mass of men, women, chicken legs, paint, sausages and fish. In her 1975 performance “Interior Scroll,” she crouches atop a table, her body painted in mud, reading a feminist scroll pulled from her vagina.  


And yet, nearly 20 years post-scroll, sexually explicit work like Schneemann’s was still way out on the margins, even compared to the mainstream feminist dialogue. In the ‘90s, feminist ideology was dominated by individuals like Catherine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin, who believed that pornography was unequivocal sex discrimination and should be banned completely. 



“It was the pinnacle of political correctness,” Minter said. “It was traitorous, according to them, for women to recapture images from an abusive history and try to own them. It made me crazy. Why don’t we own our bodies? Why can’t we make sexual images for our own production? It’s a way to own power.”


Minter was staunchly committed to creating images purely designated for women’s pleasure, taking control of her own sexual agency in the process. At the time, she didn’t realize just how alone she was in her mission. “I thought everyone thought like me,” she laughed. “Like, nobody has politically correct fantasies. I thought I was part of a larger segment of the population, I didn’t realize I was an outlier.”


Thirteen years have passed since “Coming to Power” made its contentious New York debut, and Minter is an outlier no more. On Sept. 9, a re-staging of Ellen Cantor’s monumental 1993 exhibition opened at Maccarone Gallery. The show features the work of the same 25 feminist artists, many of whose names have shifted from the fringes of art world fame to their rightful spots as rebel goddesses. 


For Schneemann, the most striking element of the exhibition’s reprisal was the choice to paint the massive gallery space entirely black. “It was almost like entering a forbidden cave, or a coven,” she said. Or perhaps a pornographic theater. “That became a metaphor for me, about how before, the work was in a darker place that didn’t belong in the definitive art culture, one that was male, heroicized. Like we were off in some kind of a cave. But the work is now being appreciated and illuminated.”



This current iteration of “Coming to Power” exists in a far less controversial climate than its predecessor. Over the past 13 years, sex positivity has become a widespread pillar of contemporary feminism. As Minter would put it: “My side won.” The art world reflects this glorious shift. 


Artists like Narcissister, Leah Schrager and La Chica Boom incorporate their bodies ― naked, sexual and in control ― into their photographs and performances, earning money, power and prestige through their own manipulated image. Others like Rebecca Goyette, Faith Holland and Leah Emery explore the boundaries of porn, re-imagining pornographic imagery by and for women. And then there are photographers like Petra Collins, Olivia Bee and Sandy Kim, documenting femininity from the perspective of the female gaze. 


“I’m a big supporter of those girls,” Minter says, in reference to Collins and Kim. “They’re doing this post-punk backlash, I love it. They’re going against all the robotic images — the bikini lasering and face contouring ― who has time for this shit? What are you, crazy?” 


In part, Minter credits the internet with the recent rise of sex-positive femininity. To an extent, Schneemann agreed. “It’s oceanic,” she said. “It spreads information like crazy, so radical impulses can become more popular. It’s not as hierarchical as art history has intended itself to be.”



However, context is the major factor Schneemann deemed necessary for the rise and acceptance of erotic, feminist art. “In the ‘60s, we had no context,” she expressed. “How brave it was to build one. Ellen Cantor did that as a young artist who was not part of any authoritative realm. And now, the influence of the female gaze has transposed the traditional male gaze, which was assumed to be authenticating what we should look at and think about.”


When it debuted in 1993, “Coming to Power” was something of a battle cry, gathering up the few women artists speaking a similar language in an attempt to sway the overwhelmingly male perspective of the art world establishment and larger society surrounding it. Today, the exhibition operates more as a living history lesson, commemorating the pioneering artists that changed the trajectory of contemporary art. Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Table” and feminist group exhibitions like “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution” were also central to creating historical precedents and frames of reference where none existed before. 


That’s not to say, however, that the mission offered up in 1993 is fully accomplished. If anything, the progress made is currently under siege. “I was thinking that political correctness was over, but it came back this year!” Minter said. “Everything is based on policing women’s bodies ― politics, advertising, religion. There’s this huge backlash trying to stop the progress. If we start owning our own sexual agency, we have all the power. Keep us innocent and we’ll get plucked like little flower virgins, we get controlled by the patriarchy.”


Schneemann, whose practice currently revolves around the atrocities taking place in Syria, hopes that feminist strides yield integrated results, penetrating other issues like ecology and militarism instead of merely, as she described, pleasurable junk. “Complicated things have become commercialized and commodified,” Schneemann said. “There is so much of everything that the sense of purposeful rigor is lost, and the more challenging issues are swamped. We’ve got to get strict and formulate a community to protect aesthetic values as they have a potentiality to contribute socially.”


If “Coming to Power” were to be exhibited again in the future, say, in another 15 years, that is the world Schneemann hopes it would inhabit. As for Minter, the future is looking pretty damn sweet. “We’ll look like geniuses then!” she laughed. “Yesterday’s smut is today’s erotica.”


Coming to Power: 25 Years of Sexually X-Plicit Art By Women” is on view until Oct. 16, 2016 at Maccarone New York


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Artists Will Not Stop Tormenting America With Nude Trump Statues

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Warning: Photos of naked Donald Trump statues lie ahead. Read on at your own risk. 



Anonymous street artist collective Indecline, still high off the unhinged hullabaloo caused by their last art stunt, are back at it again.


In the wee hours before daybreak on Sept. 14, they covertly delivered two more of their signature Cheez-Whiz-dipped nude Donald Trump sculptures to Miami, Florida, and Jersey City, New Jersey.


And we’re sorry to report, they’re here to stay. 


After their first round of sculptures were removed by authorities, the artists were contacted by New Jersey’s Mana Contemporary gallery, which offered to work with the collective to install two more of the undressed Trumps, where they will stay until the November election.


The Jersey City Trump now resides just outside the Holland Tunnel, and the Miami Trump is on a factory rooftop, facing the I-95. Both Trumps will be sold at auction following the election. 


To all Miami and Jersey City residents about to see a lot more Trump on their morning commutes, we’re sorry. We’re so, so sorry. 


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This Makeup Artist Transforms Herself Into Steve Buscemi

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You’ve heard of Steve Buscemi eyes, now check out Steve Buscemi face!


The very talented make-up artist Katelyn Galloway — who you may remember from her take on Ron Swanson — is here with another transformation, this time going full Steve Buscemi.


In a matter of just about four minutes (sped up, of course), Galloway dyes her hair, wrinkles her face, narrows her nose, and, most importantly, adds some serious bags under her eyes.


Luckily, no wood chippers appear in this video. 


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The Powerful Reason This Woman Forgave Her Sexual Abuser

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“I forgive you because I have to.”


That’s how Rachel Lacey begins her powerful poem “I Forgive You” [that was recently uploaded to the YouTube poetry page Write About Now.] Lacey’s spoken word tells the story of how she was sexually abused as a young girl and how she forgave her abuser in order to heal.


“I forgive you… even though you would get mad when I wouldn’t play your fucked up game,” she told the crowd. “Even though it wasn’t just one time or two or three or four or I don’t know how many times, but I know how many years it to me to forgive you.”


In the poem, which was recently uploaded to the YouTube poetry page Write About Now, Lacey explained that she was in a psychology class her freshman year of college when she received an assignment to write a letter of forgiveness. Although her professor told her no one would read it, she still had to write it. 


“I forgive you even though you never said ‘I’m sorry,’” she said. “Even though there was nothing OK about what you did. Because not forgiving you means hating you, means hating myself, means toxic, means poison, means hating myself.”


Her last line is the most impactful of them all, explaining to the crowd how she’s been able to heal through forgiveness: 





Thanks for sharing your story, Rachel. 


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

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Squee! A Dictionary Editor Defended The Use Of Internet Slang

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Squee! Squee! The Oxford English Dictionary announced its quarterly update this week, and among its bevy of noteworthy new words is one that gained its notoriety right here on the world wide web: “squee,” which means “an exclamation expressing delight or excitement.”


According to the OED, the word was first used in this way in 1998, in a “Star Wars” collectibles message board thread titled “Ewok Fangirl Needs Ewok 2 Pack.” “I’ll be getting one in the mail soon!,” the poster wrote. “Squee! I am so happy.”


“Squee” has been used as a joyful outburst for decades in fan communities, which have their own unique lexicon. “Shipping” and “meet-cutes” arose from the same world. Since then, “squee” has taken on a broader use, and can be found in comments on animal videos on YouTube, or threads about beloved, recently coupled-off celebs. 







Squee!







Squee!


But where did the word come from to being with? It’s a close cousin to “squeal,” tweaked to be used as a verb, making its connection with “squealing” a clear one.


One comic book fan, Richard Rae, says the word might’ve originated in a series from the 1960s called “Magnus, Robot Fighter.” To make his point, he compiled images of several uses of “squee” in comic books, meant to represent the sound a robot makes when it dies. He wrote to io9, “Whenever a robot was wrecked or beheaded by Magnus, its death cry usually consisted of ‘Squeee!’ or something akin to it (obviously the sound of the robot’s voice box feedback upon destruction).”


But Katherine Martin, Head of U.S. Dictionaries at Oxford, clarified that “squee” as a word predates the decades-old comic. “’Squee’ was a word we noticed had been represented massively, just representing a high-pitched squealing sound, as produced by an animal or a creaky hinge or something like that. It’s actually a violin in the first case,” Martin told HuffPost.


The first-ever use the OED could find dated to 1865, and read, “’Wheen, squee, rhepe, twiddle,’ went the third violin.” It’s evocative, onomatopoeia-filled gibberish, but, Martin explains, it makes sense that this usage transitioned into the exclamatory internet forum word we know today. 


“The pattern that you see here is actually not that unusual. When you’re using letters to express a sound, whether one made naturally like the sound of an animal, or one made by a person like the sound of an outburst, people will spell those in lots of different ways, and they’re pretty variable. But sometimes one of them will become fixed, and more prominent, and grow in usage over time, and that’s what happened with ‘squee,’” Martin said.


“There are probably many dozens of ways that people have expressed that sound back in 19th century. This one wasn’t in particularly frequent use, but then in the end of the 20th century it takes on this new, specific internet meaning, and its usage becomes much more common and more word-like. We have the word ‘squeak,’ so it’s not a huge leap.” 


“Squee” isn’t the only recent OED addition that took on its modern meaning on the internet. “Clickbait” and “YOLO” are among the new words with online origins. 


Martin explained that the OED takes a broad view of the English language, so it works to include regional English and other such vernaculars, including webspeak.


“People often talk about language on the internet as if it were somehow different from ‘real’ language,” Martin said. “But if you think about your life, how much of your daily interaction takes place by typing on a keyboard? The ability to post words publicly will be a significant factor in how language is developed overall.”

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