By now, most art history devotees know that on Christmas Eve in 1888, painter Vincent van Gogh allegedly took a razor to his left ear and chopped the appendage right off. Nearly none of them, however, know why. 

A new theory from author Martin Bailey attempts to shed light on one of the darkest moments in the history of art. While researching for his book Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence, Bailey discovered that van Gogh’s act of self-mutilation occurred just after learning that his brother Theo had gotten engaged. 

“Vincent feared that he would then ‘lose’ Theo, his closest companion,” Bailey explains in the book, per The New York Times. “He was equally worried that his brother might withdraw the financial support which had enabled him to devote his life to art. All this was threatened by the unexpected appearance of a fiancée.”

Bailey’s theory is largely based upon a letter, from Theo, delivered to Vincent just half a day before the ear incident occurred. The letter has since been lost, and there is no certain evidence of exactly what information the letter conveyed, but Bailey’s assembled enough information to reasonably infer that Theo’s letter announced his plans to wed. 

“It’s a matter of putting all the clues together,” he told CNN. “We don’t have that letter, but in another one Van Gogh sends in January, he mentions receiving money from his brother on the 23rd of December.”

So we know that Vincent received a letter from Theo on Dec. 23, 1888, the day in question. Couple that with the fact that Theo’s bride-to-be, Johanna Bonger, received a telegram of congratulations from her older brother Henry on the same day.

It’s reasonable to deduce, Bailey reasons, that Henry was alerted to the wedding plans on Dec. 23, and Vincent, also a brother of one of the betrothed, would be alerted at the same time. 

Once it’s established that this mysterious letter contained news of wedding bells, it’s not all that surprising that van Gogh, who was already struggling with mental illness, would be disturbed by news of his closest companion’s engagement. Van Gogh depended on his brother, both emotionally and financially, as he had yet to sell a single painting.

“It was fear that pulled the trigger and led to the breakdown,” Bailey told CNN. “Fear of being abandoned in both an emotional and financial way.” 

Since there is no hard proof confirming Bailey’s theory, it has its skeptics, including Nienke Bakker, a curator of van Gogh paintings at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. 

“It might have contained the news of Theo’s engagement, but this cannot be proven,” Ms. Bakker wrote in an email to The New York Times. “It is equally possible that Theo only informed Vincent of his marriage plans when he visited his brother in hospital — thus after the ear incident.”

Pior to Bailey’s hypothesis, the leading theory surrounding van Gogh’s psychotic episode posited that the artist suffered a psychotic break following a passionate fight with his close friend and fellow painter Paul Gauguin.

It is also possible, of course, that both the wedding and the argument contributed to van Gogh’s mental unease ― hence, the ear chopping. 

We may never know for certain what led van Gogh to harm himself that fateful night, but the theories that continue to emerge sketch an increasingly detailed picture of the legendary, tortured life of an iconic artist, making his visceral paintings all the more haunting. 

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On March 22, 2011, Senior Police Officer Buddy Christian was shot and killed while responding to an attack on a fellow officer. The 34-year-old Georgia cop left behind a wife, Melissa, daughter, Callie, and son, Wyatt.

To honor his father’s legacy, Wyatt celebrated his eighth birthday this October with a special remembrance photo shoot.

Photographer Mary Lee took pictures of Wyatt with some of his father’s belongings, like his badge, hat and boots ― as well as the folded American flag the family received at Buddy’s funeral.

Melissa told The Huffington Post that remembrance photo shoots have become a tradition in her family. “When Buddy was killed it was very hard to have family pictures and birthday pictures done without him in them,” she said. So, during their first family photo session after Buddy’s death, they posed with the folded flag and a photo of him in uniform.

“We took some pics without them and some with,” she said. “It was a great way to include him in our pictures the best we could.” The Christians continued incorporating these items in holiday photos and annual shoots for Callie’s and Wyatt’s birthdays. 

Wyatt and Callie have also taken pictures wearing kid-sized versions of their dad’s police uniform, which they had made for their first trip to Washington, D.C. when Buddy’s name was added to the National Police Memorial Wall in May 2012. 

And on special occasions, they release balloons to the sky to “send them to Buddy.” They sometimes attach little notes to their dad. This tradition is one of the kids’ favorites, so Lee photographed balloon releases for Callie’s and Wyatt’s birthdays as well. 

“It is my hope that they can look back on this pictures one day and see that their dad may not have been visible to them, but he was always with them,” Melissa told HuffPost. “He didn’t mean to go away. It was not his choice. It was taken from him. And, we must live for him and take nothing for granted. No one is guaranteed tomorrow.”

Melissa said Wyatt loves his remembrance photos and honoring his dad’s legacy. “I have kept all of Buddy’s hats, belt’s and ties, and Wyatt keeps them in his room,” she said. “He likes wearing his ball caps from time to time.”

The Christians also refer to Melissa’s office as “Daddy’s room” because it’s where they keep all of Buddy’s medals, awards and other personal items. The kids like to look at and touch all these items. 

“We talk of their dad often, and they are very proud of him,” said Melissa. “They know that he is a hero and was serving our community. They know he loved Ford trucks, John Deere tractors, Honda motorcycles, the color red.”

She added, “I try to make sure they know and remember him as much as they can. But, there is fine line of talking about and remembering him just enough that they are happy in their memories but not sad. It is hard to balance this, but we do the best we can.”

Melissa describes Wyatt as smart, loving, compassionate and witty. “He reminds me daily of his father,” she said. “He has his caring soul and wants to make others smile and laugh.”

The mom added that her son looks a lot like Buddy and often smiles or stands like him. “Buddy loved being a dad,” she continued. “Wyatt’s favorite memory is of Buddy pushing him in the swing. He still loves to swing, and says he feels close to his daddy when he is swinging. He dreamed of all the things he and his kids would do.”

Thinking about all the things Buddy has missed in his children’s lives is a painful exercise for Melissa. “Sometimes I even feel guilty because I get to enjoy these things with them and he does not, but I know he is very proud of Wyatt and what a great young man he is becoming,” she said, adding that her husband’s legacy will live on through his children and grandchildren some day.

The family also honors his legacy through the Buddy Christian Foundation, which they created with the mission to protect law enforcement officers by enhancing safety and serving others who have lost family members on duty.

“This is our way of making something good out of something bad,” Melissa said. “We never want people to forget Buddy and the sacrifice he made serving his community.”

As her children get older, the mom hopes they will keep the foundation and Buddy’s memory alive. They already enjoy being involved with fundraisers and events. 

Photographer Mary Lee told HuffPost she was touched by the Christians’ story. “I want others to understand the importance  of the pain and hurt that is left behind for the children and families of these officers,” she said. 

As for Melissa, she wants the photos to inspire others. “I hope when people look at these photos they see a boy who loves life, yes he lost his father when he was very young, but he is not bitter ― he is wrapped in love,” she said. “I hope they see a boy whose father is gone from the visible eye but he carries the love of his father in his heart always.”

Though it has been unspeakably difficult to live life without Buddy, Melissa said she knows that’s what he would’ve wanted. “We must carry on for him,” she said. “We have not moved on we are simply moving forward and adding chapters to our book.”

Ultimately, Melissa wants to offer this advice to other parents: “Live each day like it might be your last. Take nothing for granted. Kiss your spouse and kiddos every day and tell them how much you love them. You never know when you might have said your last ‘I love you.’”

Continue scrolling to see more of Wyatt’s powerful emotional photos.

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As Broadway hero Lin-Manuel Miranda stated in a tweet earlier today, he’s been working on “The Hamilton Mixtape” for years. And his fans ― probably, the ones who celebrated #Hamilween earlier this fall ― are past patiently waitin’ for the record to drop. 

Thankfully, the man who brought America’s first Secretary of the Treasury to the stage has good news: You can preorder the damn thing starting Friday, Nov. 4. But you can gaze upon “The Hamilton Mixtape” full tracklist (finally!) now.

There are tons of names to geek out over: The Roots are there, of course. Busta Rhymes, Sia, John Legend, Chance the Rapper, Nas. Regina Spektor and Ben Folds even got an invite! Our favorite collaborators, though? Ashanti and Ja Rule, who will both be featured on the track “Helpless.” (Because they are always there when we call, guys. Also, they co-headlined a tour this summer, so they are technically reuniting again.)

Earlier this year, Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter of The Roots told EW that the mixtape would be a “sort of a love letter from both sides. One from Lin to the artists and M.C.s who inspired the songs that were part of the Broadway production and then on the other [side], from the artists who were inspired by ‘Hamilton,’ and who were massively affected in a great way by the experience of the play.”

Several outlets are reporting that the mixtape will be released on Dec. 2, citing a U.K. Amazon listing. Until then, you have this tracklist to dream about. Or you can always watch the “Hamilton” documentary again. 

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Twenty years after “Trainspotting” tripped out enough people to become a modern cult classic, the first trailer for the movie’s sequel is here. Mark “Rent Boy” Renton (Ewan McGregor) is enlightened, having given up heroin ― supposedly. In typical fashion, he urges us to “choose life.” But it looks like he and his Scottish pals haven’t changed much at all. 

Based on Porno, Irvine Welsh’s sequel to his original novel, “Trainspotting 2” reunites the cast with director Danny Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge. Porno is set 10 years after Trainspotting, but Boyle has said the movie will deviate from the books’ timeline. “Trainspotting 2” opens Feb. 3.

CORRECTION: An earlier headline misspelled the name of the film.

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Sure, Alexander Hamilton was mostly a New York guy — but you can’t deny he didn’t know hardship. Even if he wouldn’t have been a Chicago Cubs fan, he’d certainly be sympathetic to their 108-year run without a championship.

Now we know the Cubs would serve that love right back, thanks to a darling Twitter exchange between “Hamilton” musical creator/all-around genius Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Cubbies themselves after their historic 8–7 win over the Cleveland Indians that clinched the World Series Wednesday night. 

This is the kind of social media stuff we live for. With the success of its New York run, Miranda’s “Hamilton” expanded to the Second City in late September, bringing the Founding Father without a father to Midwestern fans.

Hilariously enough, Wednesday’s baseball game provided an unexpected boon for theater fans, with ticket prices for the Chicago show dropping from an average of $200 to $300 to a low of $158, according to the Chicago Tribune.

There’s only one thing to say: We won, we won, we won, we won!

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A black candidate for Linn County Sheriff in Kansas has found one of his campaign signs was defaced with white graffiti reading “KKK.” 

Democratic candidate LeRoy McConico told The Kansas City Star that he’d noticed some of the signs he placed throughout the county had been tampered with, but the Ku Klux Klan lettering was the most severe offense.

“There’s some people that just got some dark hearts,” he told the local outlet. “They saw an opportunity to do something in the dark.”

McConico, who currently serves as chief of police in Parker, Kansas, said that the racist graffiti doesn't reflect Linn County as a whole.

“This is a very good county, a good place to live in,” the 70-year-old said. “The people are very, just awesome, awesome people. My family, we have enjoyed living here. We’re not going to let nothing like that defer what we believe and how we feel.”

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This article first appeared on QuietRev.com

Robert Benchley once remarked that there are two kinds of people in the world—those who divide people into two kinds and those who don’t.

We are the former. If you’re a reader of Quiet Revolution, you probably love personality tests as much as we do. We’ve got the list you’ve been looking for!

1) The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most famous. Based on the typological theory described by Carl Jung, it was created in 1943 by a mother-daughter team, Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers. Neither Katherine nor Isabel were trained in psychology, although Katherine was a devoted reader of Dr. Jung.

Today, it’s used for evaluating job candidates, executive development, and even marriage counseling. The test looks at four dimensions of personality, allowing the test-taker to indicate a preference for either of the two choices on each dimension. The dichotomous dimensions are introversion/extroversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving.

Each preference is coded by a letter, and the resulting personality type will have four letters, describing a person’s preference for the way they perceive the world and like to make decisions. Two examples of 16 possible personality types are ISTP: The Analyzer Operator or ENFJ: The Envisioner Mentor.

The test is so widely used that IMDB lists the personalities of fictional characters.

Take the test here.

2) The Big Five (or five-factor) is the test that’s more commonly accepted within the field of psychology today. Francis Galton created an early version of the test in the 1880s, and in 1980, American psychologist Lewis Goldberg gave it the trendy name of Big Five, bringing the test into wider use. According to the test, there are five dimensional factors of personality: extroversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience.

Unlike in the MBTI, every factor is a spectrum, so you can be somewhere between extroversion and introversion.

Take the test here.  

3) The Enneagram test is popular in both business and spiritual circles. Its origins are the most fuzzy and least research-based. Unlike in other personality tests, one of the Enneagram’s focus areas is on the relationship between the types. All of the nine types are related to each other by connecting lines around a circle. Like in the MBTI, each type has a name: 3 is the Achiever, and 8 is the Challenger.

Each type is described incredibly in depth, with information about its ego fixation, holy idea, basic fear, basic desire, temptation, vice, and virtue.

Take the test here.

4) The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) differentiates itself by describing only bright-side personality qualities—qualities that describe how we relate to others when we are at our best. Psychologists Robert and Joyce Hogan created it in 1980 specifically as personality assessment designed for use in business settings.

Participants take a test comprised of 206 true-false items that measure personality along seven scales: adjustment, ambition, sociability, interpersonal sensitivity, prudence, inquisitive, and learning approach. Example questions include:

• Y/N: I like everyone I meet. “This question evaluates someone’s empathy and sensitivity. People who answer ‘yes’ tend to be more prosocial and considerate toward others,” explained Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, CEO of Hogan Assessment Systems and a professor of business psychology at University College London, to Business Insider.


• Y/N: I am destined to be famous. “This question measures how ambitious someone is,” he said. “People who say ‘yes’ are more driven and have higher expectations of success. This may indicate that they are more willing to work harder. However, research also shows that people who say ‘yes’ are typically more narcissistic and entitled.”

The test has been widely studied by psychologists, and many research studies have shown that it does use valid personality measures to help organizations and people get the right people in the right roles. This one is used by the FBI and other US government agencies and departments when assessing candidates.

No free online version of this test is available, but you can find out more information here.

5) The Hogwarts Personality quiz measures which Hogwarts house a person would be sorted into. The sorting hat is currently unavailable, but you can find close replications from BBC America and from Buzzfeed. The tests are based on neither science nor magic but on the sorting hat’s preferences.

To our knowledge, no businesses are using this personality test yet for hiring or team dynamics, but it’s only a matter of time.

Here are Mollie’s assessment results:

• Myers-Briggs: INFJ (just like Dumbledore!)


• Enneagram: 2 (helper)


• Hogwarts: Hufflepuff or Gryffindor (mixed results)

Here are Liz’s assessment results:

• Myers-Briggs: INTP (just like Gandalf!)


• Enneagram: 4 (individualist)


• Hogwarts: Slytherin

More from Quiet Revolution:

What Are Your Greatest Character Strengths? Take This Quiz to Find Out

Do Introverts and Extroverts See Reality Differently? (And What Does This Question Have to Do With Your Relationships?)

The First-Ever Grumpy Introvert Sampler: Speed Advice for All Three Types

This article originally appeared on QuietRev.com.

You can find more insights from Quiet Revolution on work, life, and parenting as an introvert at QuietRev.com

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Tony Goldwyn, best known for playing President Fitzgerald Grant on “Scandal,” has some words for his fellow Americans ― but mostly the dudes: “2016 has been a really f**king annoying year for women.” 

In a sketch with Vox senior correspondent Liz Plank, as part of the series “2016ish,” Goldwyn expresses the frustration many American women have felt watching a man who has a staggeringly lengthy, well-documented history of overt misogyny (and alleged sexual aggression) run for president against the first woman nominee for a major party in U.S. history:

Donald Trump is accused of assaulting, groping or harassing 17 different women. Yet he’s still got a serious shot at sitting behind this desk. And now, the latest October surprise for the first female candidate of a major party is because of Anthony Weiner? Are you f**king kidding me?

But his pointed speech doesn’t end with a healthy dose of female rage, but rather brings “dudes” and “broskies” into the conversation. After all, when it comes to fighting for gender equality ― and electing candidates to political office who care about the issues that impact American women ― men are key.

“Women don’t need your pity,” says Goldwyn. “They need you to treat them as equal members of society.” 

He also points out that Donald Trump’s rhetoric does not reflect the way all, or even most, American men think:

Donald Trump doesn’t represent all men. In fact, he gives decent, respectful men a bad name. We men need to lead by example and set our own definition of what masculinity is.

Nasty women ― and men ― unite. 

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly
incites
political violence and is a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-911_565b1950e4b08e945feb7326"> style="font-weight: 400;">serial liar, href="http://www.huffingtonpost
.com/entry/9-outrageous-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-latinos_55e483a1e4b0c818f618904b"> style="font-weight: 400;">rampant xenophobe,
racist, style="font-weight: 400;">misogynist and href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-birther_us_57e31b1be4b0e80b1ba04348?7i5ir4bn4b1emi"> >birther who has
repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from
entering the U.S.

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High fashion runways don’t usually feature older models, let alone those with more than half a century in life experience. But this 80-year-old grandfather is proof designers have been making one BIG mistake.

Wang Deshun is an actor and artist from China with one goal: to defy the aging process by staying fit and challenging himself to try new things. This includes his modeling career, which launched when he absolutely knocked it out of the park during a runway show at China Fashion Week last year:

Deshun works out three hours per day, according to a recent feature in The New York Times. He taught modeling and organized fashion shows in his earlier days, but it was only last year that he debuted on a runway and turned into something of a national icon.

He’s commonly referred to as China’s “hottest grandpa” on social media, and fans openly admire him for breaking into modeling at such an advanced age. He’s the subject of a video titled “Be the fiercest” that’s been viewed more than 300,000 times on Youtube since August. 

Deshun says the key to succeeding in fashion ― or anything, for that matter ― is choosing a goal and never giving up. 

“It’s about your state of mind. It’s not about age,” he told The New York Times. “Nature determines age, but you determine your state of mind.”

We couldn’t have said it better.

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Regardless of how well your life is going, there are some moments when things just ... suck.

It’s not a terrible, life-draining suckage. It’s just kind of a situation normal, all fouled up kind of misery.

Like when you purchase soda, but the can gets stuck in the machine, or your golf putt almost makes it the hole, but not quite.

Maybe that firecracker fizzles instead of shooting into the horizon.

The video above by Parallel Productions, a motion design studio in Paris, immortalizes those not-so-great moments.

No, not the ones where life and death is at stake. Just the ones that ... suck.

The video above captures those moments with just that perfect sense of ennui.

But creating this video alone wasn’t satisfying enough for the studio. Now they’re asking others to join in their “unsatisfaction” by submitting their own “unsatisfying moment” video.

Here are the details, according to the contest web page:

Storytelling, art direction, colors, style and technique are totally up to you, but you just have to respect a few rules:

Start with 2 seconds of title card (title is up to you, but must begin with “The”)

• One to 10 seconds of animation


• Two seconds of ending title


• The video must be 1080 x 1080 square pixels


•  No music, but please sound design


• Of course, feel free to imagine whatever you want in the world (or in another one)!

Once the “unsatisfying” video is uploaded onto Vimeo account, send the link to challenge@unsatisfying.tv, along with the title, name and website (or Vimeo URL).

The videos are supposed to be featured on the page starting Nov. 14.

Or will they?

HuffPost reached out to that email only to have it bounce back.

How unsatisfying. 

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Quentin Tarantino promises his filmmaking days are nearing the finish line. 

In 2014, the director said he would retire after making 10 films. Then, earlier this year, he said that if he decided to make another movie when he’s an “old fucking man,” it wouldn’t count toward the definitive Tarantino Ten. (As we well know, Tarantino prefers his own logic.) But now the Oscar winner has pledged not to make anything at all after finishing his 10th project. 

“Drop the mic. Boom. Tell everybody, ‘Match that shit,’” Tarantino said Thursday at an Adobe-sponsored creativity conference in San Francisco, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

So, let’s recap what comprises the Tarantino oeuvre. Since it’s only movies he’s directed by himself, we can discount his scripts for “True Romance” and “From Dusk Till Dawn,” as well as the segments he helmed in “Four Rooms,” “Sin City” and “Grindhouse.” His first feature, “My Best Friend’s Birthday,” never received proper distribution. That leaves “Reservoir Dogs,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Jackie Brown,” “Kill Bill” (counting both volumes as one entity), “Death Proof,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Django Unchained” and “The Hateful Eight.” 

What will be his final two films? Based on the information we have right now, it may not be the rumored third installment in the “Kill Bill” series. Tarantino has spent four years steeped in research about 1970, with plans to make a non-fiction project that isn’t clearly defined yet. “It could be a book, a documentary, a five-part podcast,” he said on Thursday. 

Then he may start working on a script he teased at the beginning of the year, a “’Bonnie and Clyde’-ish” story revolving around outlaws in 1930s Australia. Assuming these two endeavors come next and count toward his quota, his 10-film opus will be complete. But neither has been greenlit, and, as far as we know, he’s still pondering the outlaw tale. And he might not even count the 1970 enterprise if it winds up not being a movie. Maybe Beatrix Kiddo will rise again? Or maybe she, like Tarantino in several years, has fought her last cinematic battle. 

Either way, he has unsurprisingly high hopes for his legacy. “Hopefully, the way I define success when I finish my career is that I’m considered one of the greatest filmmakers that ever lived,” Tarantino said. “And going further, a great artist, not just filmmaker.”

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The “crazy cat lady” stereotype has been around for a very long time. In fact, 100 years ago, it was used to promote the idea that women shouldn’t vote. 

While looking into vintage suffrage propaganda for another piece, I accidentally mistook a few suffrage pamphlets and postcards as pro-suffrage because, well, they had cats on them, and cats are a woman’s best friend.... right? I quickly realized that the adorable cats wearing “Votes For Women” sashes around their cute furry bodies were in fact part of the anti-suffrage propaganda disseminated during the early 1900s. 

According to Director of Gender Studies at Monmouth University Dr. Corey Wrenn, cat imagery was very commonly deployed by those opposed to women’s suffrage. Suffragists were portrayed as cats on anti-suffrage pamphlets, news paper ads and posters. 

All minority groups are animalized to present them as other and lesser.
Dr. Corey Wrenn, Director of Gender Studies at Monmouth University

In a 2013 blog post, Wrenn explained that “the intent [of showing suffragists as cats] was to portray suffragettes as silly, infantile, incompetent, and ill-suited to political engagement.” This was in turn meant to minimize their demand for voting rights. 

“All minority groups are animalized to present them as other and lesser,” Wrenn told HuffPost. “It was done to Japanese and German persons during World War II, it has been done to African Americans, it is done to disabled people, and it is also done to women. These groups have been so othered that they are sometimes framed as another species altogether.”

So, why cats specifically? Wrenn said that at the turn of the 20th century, cats were seen as domestic and feminine creatures, while dogs were seen as masculine.

“White women (who dominated the suffragette movement) are most easily animalized as cats,” she told HuffPost. “Cats are also creatures of the home, just as middle-class white women were expected to be. These associations hoped to remind the viewer that women were meant to be at home, quiet, apolitical and domestic.”

Likening women to animals unfortunately didn’t end with suffrage. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has belittled women by calling them “fat pigs,” “Miss Piggy” and “dogs,” among other discriminatory language. 

Amy E. Farrell, Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Dickinson College, told HuffPost in September that the way Trump talks about women is very similar to the way anti-suffrage activists did. 

“Historically, comments about women being ugly, fat or like an animal ― dogs, pigs, etc. ― have been ways to keep women in line,” Farell said. “That goes all the way back to the suffragists, who were painted as animals, painted as fat. These are ways to scare women into not speaking up.”

Less than a week before Americans head to the polls, with the option of voting for a woman for president, it’s worth remembering the women that fought for that right ― and the pussy-themed pushback they faced. 

Scroll below to see some cat memes that have been around way longer than the internet.

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WASHINGTON ― “Loving,” a film from writer-director Jeff Nichols (”Midnight Special,” “Take Shelter”) that opens in theaters on Friday, tells the story of Loving v. Virginia, the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case that overturned state bans on interracial marriage.

Instead of dramatic courtroom scenes or thunderous monologues, the film focuses on the couple at the center of the case, Richard and Mildred Loving, depicting the impact of their prolonged legal battle on their daily lives and celebrating their love story and unwavering resolve.

In 1958, Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a black woman, drove north from their home in Virginia to Washington, D.C., to get married. Upon returning to Virginia, they were dragged out of bed and arrested by the police. The Lovings’ marriage was not legally valid due to the state’s law barring interracial marriage. The ensuing legal battle upended the lives of the Lovings and their three children for almost a decade.

The film is beautiful in its restraint, anchored by tender moments in the couple’s life. Actors Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga bring a quiet intensity to their magnificent performances as Richard and Mildred. But by grounding itself in their love story, the film somewhat understates the significance of the Lovings’ case. Loving v. Virginia was and remains an important political and historical landmark, knocking down a major pillar of Jim Crow segregation and, more recently, serving as precedent in the fight to legalize same-sex marriage.

In one fell swoop, the court’s 1967 ruling, which concluded that Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage violated both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, invalidated all state laws that banned interracial marriage.

These anti-miscegenation laws, as they were known, represented one of the last existing formal mechanisms for segregation, according to Virginia Tech historian Peter Wallenstein, who has written two books on the Loving case. While many states that once had such laws had repealed them by the 1960s, interracial marriage bans remained on the books in almost the entire South, even after Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and the wave of civil rights legislation in the 1960s addressed most of the major Jim Crow laws that imposed segregation.

“The ‘64 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of ‘65 really had taken out all the formal support systems for Jim Crow segregation,” Wallenstein told the Huffington Post. “The one remaining pillar in that whole edifice ― for decades, generations, centuries ― the one remaining one was marriage. That was the last to go, and it is, of course, three years after the Civil Rights Act.”

As the film shows, the civil rights movement was what catalyzed Mildred Loving to seek legal action. She wrote to then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who referred to her to the American Civil Liberties Union. Two of the organization’s lawyers ultimately took on the case and represented the Lovings before the high court.

If the Lovings hadn’t come along, if Mrs. Loving hadn’t written that letter and then followed up, then we wouldn’t have a story to be talking about.
Peter Wallenstein, Virginia Tech historian

Wallenstein noted that the fundamental nature of marriage may have been a major reason why it was one of the last remaining areas of formal segregation.

“The bottom line is simply this: if white supremacy mandates maintaining a system that never accepts the prospect of blacks and whites meeting together on terms of equality, if ever there was a place where you might find just that, is marriage and the family,” he said.

Indeed, one of the arguments that the state of Virginia made in justifying the ban on interracial marriage involved labeling mixed-race children as “bastards” and portraying them as harmful to society.

In its unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court determined that marriage is “fundamental to our very existence and survival.” Under the 14th Amendment, “the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations,” Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the opinion. “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State.”

Beyond marriage, the Loving case also had important legal ramifications for property and child custody cases involving interracial couples, Wallenstein noted.

Over the last two decades, the historic ruling has taken on a new resonance, as many courts applied it to same-sex marriage cases. In rulings in favor of LGBTQ couples, judges used the same broad language and reasoning of the Loving case, and the phrase “freedom to marry” became a rallying call for gay marriage activists.

In last year’s Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court case which invalidated state bans on gay marriage, Justice Anthony Kennedy cited Loving v. Virginia several times in his majority opinion, noting that the case had established an “abiding connection between marriage and liberty.”

But even without the historical context, the film works effectively as a character study of the Lovings, allowing viewers to become intimately acquainted with them. Featuring warm scenes of their family life and devotion to one another, the film is deeply reverential toward the Lovings. As several suspenseful scenes portray, they lived in constant fear of prosecution in their home state, where it was a felony for two people of different races to live together.

“The love story is framed by this horror show,” Wallenstein said. “So on the one hand, it’s just beautiful. On the other hand, it’s just horrific. And the focus here is how one threatens the other.”

While they largely shied away from the spotlight, the Lovings came to understand the high stakes of their fight, particularly Mildred, who was more enterprising and outpoken than the taciturn Richard.

“This is a case that was not foreordained. If the Lovings hadn’t come along, if Mrs. Loving hadn’t written that letter and then followed up, then we wouldn’t have a story to be talking about,” Wallenstein said. “Somewhere, sometime, something like it would have happened, but it couldn’t have been then. It had to have been later.”

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When they’re not flexing their carefully sculpted triceps, biceps and glutes, how do world-class bodybuilders spend their time at competitions?

In 2014, Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek, a photographer interested in dedicated, insular communities, went to the World Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Championships in Vienna, Austria, to find out.

His previous project, “The World We Live In,” was “all about small worlds and microcosms. Worlds people build for their own while they put a lot of passion and effort into what they are doing and forget about everything else,” Gebhart de Koekkoek told The Huffington Post in an email. So, it occurred to him to photograph bodybuilders, who he said “live in their own small world.”

But when he registered to shoot the event, he was told he wouldn’t be able to work backstage. He’d only have access to what the crowd could see, which, for Gebhart de Koekkoek, was not the best way to catch a glimpse of the competitor’s real passion.

Not to be deterred, he snuck behind the scenes anyway, snapping both offhanded photos of the bodybuilders preparing each other with makeup and oil, and more posed portraits of men and women flexing in the venue’s stairways and parking lots. 

“With my camera I’m always a secret observer and capture natural moments while nobody is watching,” Gebhart de Koekkoek said. “But sometimes I talk to them to find out what exactly they are doing and why they are doing it.”

The resulting photos show the competitor’s hard bodies, but they showcase tender moments too — moments of compassion shared between sparsely outfitted men and women, offering to help one another roll tinted oil on hard-to-reach spots.

“I usually don’t use artificial lights. I mostly shoot with natural light. But for the bodybuilders, I needed hard light and strong shadows to make their muscles work and to have them look more three-dimensional,” Gebhart de Koekkoek said.

Although he wanted to showcase the body builders’ finely chiseled abs offset by the delicate application of eye shadow, he said it was most important that he convey “the passion and love they put into that sport.”

See more of Gebhart de Koekkoek’s work here.

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“Dance as an art form is bittersweet,” Daniil Simkin, a principal at the American Ballet Theatre, writes in the forward of The Art of Movement. “On one hand, its beauty is instantaneous and visceral, and on the other, it only exists in a very fleeting moment of ‘now.’”

Simkin is one of the many dancers photographed by Ken Browar and Deborah Ory, the duo behind The Art of Movement, a collection of wildly romantic images of some of the world’s most recognizable ballerinas and leading men from around the world. Browar and Ory are the the minds behind The NYC Dance Project, an ongoing documentation of the ballet world centered in New York City. Each of their shoots, they write online, is “prepared as though it were its own dance production, with attention paid to every detail ― movement, lighting and the feeling of each photograph.”

The Art of Movement features photographs of Misty Copeland, Tiler Peck, Xin Ying, Marcelo Gomes, James Whiteside and so many more. Some are dressed in the leotards, pointe shoes and tutus we’re used to seeing on stage; others can be seen in tuxes and floor-length dresses, leaping to incredible heights at impossible angles. Alongside the images of the so-called silent storytellers are quotes from some of the subjects themselves, expressing what they’ve learned from years in the ballet world.

You can check out a preview of the book, published on Oct. 25 by Black Dog & Leventhal, here ― along with some bits of wisdom form ballet’s greatest. The following images offer a peek into NYC’s dance world, where ballerinas defy gravity in ballgowns.

“Dance isn’t just movement, it is expression.” ― Ashley Ellis

“Other people’s words are very powerful ... you can’t let them define you. Take what you think is going to help you and don’t let it beat you down.” ― Misty Copeland

“The first time I performed Mr. Ailey’s Revelations and the curtain went up in Oslo, Norway, to reveal us standing in the famous opening stance ... I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I cried my way through that performance — tears of happiness and the utmost gratitude.” ― Sean Aaron Carmon

“When you go on stage, you’re giving your emotions to the world, you can express your inner world, become a goddess, die, and then kill, transform yourself over and over again. I would say don’t be afraid to throw your soul to your audience, if you want to be a dancer.” ― Charlotte Landreau

“If a child told me they wanted to be a dancer, I would say being a professional dancer is a ton of hard work, but it’s the best job in the world. If dancing makes your inner light shine bright, and you love being challenged and constantly learning, then go for it! Get in as many dance classes as possible, make your own dances, and have dance parties in the rain whenever possible. Find professionals that inspire you, and simply, fly!” ― Rachael McLaren

“Having confidence in yourself will help you become a stronger dancer. It’s not about being conceited or worrying about whether you are good enough, but feeling focused and confident about your dancing. This will improve your artistry and presence and help you stand out more. Also, having confidence allows you to take more risks and realize your full potential.” ― Miriam Miller

“I wish more people knew what it felt like to actually dance. I’m not referring to the difficulty of learning a technique or a combination. I mean the part that comes after everything clicks. When your most-focused mind, your most-moldable body, and your truest spirit all intertwine at their highest level. That point will look different for everyone, of course, but I wish everyone could attempt to reach it at least once. It can literally feel like flying.” ― Fana Tesfagioris

“The path that you think you might have or want, isn’t the one you’ll have. There is absolutely no way of knowing how one’s career will go. There will be unexpected twists and turns.” ― Holly Dorger

“I wish I had known how to accept myself when I first started dancing professionally. I let my limitations define me, which is something I have worked very hard to shed. They linger on the outskirts, instead of dominating the center.” ― James Whiteside

“If I could be any animal, I would be an eagle. I have always had long arms, which often made me embarrassed and self conscious. Dance taught me to embrace and use them to speak the words I could not say.” ― Michael Jackson Jr.

“I wish I had known how to take care of my body when I started dancing. Dance is an extremely physically demanding career and it is really important to be good to your body because it is your instrument.” ― Tiler Peck

“Remember that there is something unique about you that brought you to dance in the first place. It is more than worth your time to explore why.” ― Masha Dashkina Maddux

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“The Hamilton Mixtape” finally has a release date: Dec. 2, 2016. And you can officially pre-oder the album on Amazon today. Could there be better news?

The answer is yes, and that news is that you can listen to two singles off the record on Spotify right now.

The two songs available for listening are Kelly Clarkson’s belted version of “It’s Quiet Uptown” and The Roots’ thumping “My Shot (Rise Up Remix)” featuring the one and only Busta Rhymes (as well as Joell Ortiz and Nate Ruess).

On the latter track, Busta Rhymes raps the iconic (but slightly altered) words, “Rise up / if you’re living on your knees,” along with the additional lyrics, “Every city, every hood, we need to rise up / All my soldiers, what’s good? We need to rise up / We ain’t got no other choice, we need to rise up / Rise up!”

A full track list for the album, which features covers and remixes of songs from the beloved Broadway hit “Hamilton: An American Musical,” was announced yesterday, revealing that Ashanti and Ja Rule will be reuniting on the song “Helpless.” Cue aughts nostalgia.

Dec. 2 can’t get here soon enough. In other news, “My Shot” should be the unofficial anthem of the Cubs’ World Series win this year.

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Singer-songwriter Ryan Amador and musician Daniel Weidlein put a queer twist on the Hollywood gangster genre with the video for their new song, “Light Me Up.” 

Part of the Los Angeles-based pair’s music and video project, “(In) Body Vol. 1: Becom(in)g,” the clip is a sensual pas de deux between Charles South and Nathan Madden. Amador, who previously tackled gay themes with the music videos “Define Me” and “Spectrum,” told The Huffington Post that sonically, the tune reminded him of 1940s-style film noir. 

“We set out to make a video that played with something recognizable from the past but with a gay twist, since those classic genres rarely depict queer relationships,” Amador said. The result was partly inspired by the dance film, “Dead Dreams of Monotone Men,” he added, and features choreography by Broadway’s Ryan VanDenBoom.  

“We wanted to make something that was as sexy and quote-on-quote ‘masculine’ as the moves of Justin Timberlake or Channing Tatum, but add the complexity of man-on-man attraction into that same recognizable narrative,” he said. 

Watch the video for “Light Me Up” above. Don’t miss the rest of “(In) Body Vol. 1: Becom(in)g” here. 

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This election season has been stressful. Women (and sexual assault survivors in particular) have reported leaning on their therapists during this trying time, with many patients’ anxieties being tied to a potential Donald Trump presidency. In fact, the American Psychological Association came forward to outline some tips for those women ― and men ― coping with the very real Election Stress Disorder. Avoid political discussions, limit your media consumption, vote.

Since advice like, “Turn off the news feed. Stop reading everything if it just gets you more stressed,” isn’t always entirely helpful, we’d like to propose an alternative, or more accurately, supplementary treatment for those finding it increasingly difficult to deal with all this bullshit: Watch. Bob. Ross. And lots of him.

Now, our suggested remedy for Election Stress Disorder is by no means a cure. Allowing Bob Ross, host of the epic PBS series “The Joy of Painting,” to guide you through a Majestic Mountain tutorial is akin to listening to arbitrarily soothing ambient noises thanks to a random YouTube channel. The science behind ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos ― intended to lull their audience into a tingly state of momentary pleasure ― is slim.

But anecdotally speaking, watching Bob Ross helps. At no point during his less-than-30-minute segments does he ever broach the subject of politics. Instead, he paints sunsets and mountains and happy little trees. His voice feels like an aural epsom salt bath, candles and everything. 

Tending to your own mental health is hard ― and complex. Therapy is essential, and the APA’s guidelines are helpful. But sometimes you need Bob Ross. And in those times, these 17 extremely calming episodes will help. Let’s get through this damn election together. In the words of Ross himself: “That’s a crooked tree. We’ll send him to Washington.” “Every day is a good day when you paint.”

Bonus: You can watch Bob Ross’ other show, “Beauty Is Everywhere,” on Netflix.

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The ladies of Twitter never fail to brighten our days with their brilliant ― but succinct ― wisdom. Each week, HuffPost Women rounds up hilarious 140-character musings. For this week’s great tweets from women, scroll through the list below. Then visit our Funniest Tweets From Women page for our past collections.      

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According to archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, our earliest spiritual practices as humans revolved around a goddess creator figure known as Mother Earth, an all-powerful feminine force who embodied nature, fertility, creativity and destruction. Paleolithic figures dating back as far as 35,000 years ago, including the famed Venus of Willendorf, illuminate the fact that the earliest devotional altars were made to women.

Millennia later, although universal belief in feminine spirituality is no longer the norm, the spirit of the goddess creator lives on ― particularly through the vision and practice of feminist artists. An exhibition titled “Sisters of the Moon: Art & the Feminine Dimension,” now on view at the Louisville KMAC Museum in Kentucky, features the work of women artists who, in some way, have incorporated the eternal ideas of nature, spirituality, femininity and the occult into their work.

“There is an ancient spirituality that connects to the feminine divine, dating back to the Venus figurines,” Joey Yates, who curated the exhibition, told The Huffington Post. “These contemporary artists want to connect with this, through beliefs that have existed throughout most of our civilization in response to a more patriarchal view of God.”

The show features 16 women-identifying artists from a variety of backgrounds and belief systems working in a wide range of media. All grapple with the idea of feminine magic and what that looks like today. “I did also want to think about Western art and how it has been shaped by certain beliefs to look a certain way,” Yates added. “And us being an American art museum in Kentucky, there is always this dominant Western look. I wanted to include artists who can bring different perspectives, different than I would come to myself.”

Learn about 10 of the goddesses, witches, healers and artists featured in the exhibition below.  

1. Katarzyna Majak

In her series “Women of Power,” Katarzyna Majak photographed 29 Polish women who identify as modern-day witches, healers or spiritual leaders. Majak celebrates the powerful women who adhere to unorthodox beliefs ― whether they were influenced by Slavic ceremony, religion, pagan ritual or ancient superstition ― in a country that remains predominately Catholic.

“I show women live examples of empowerment, women who live their own lives and follow their own paths and are courageous enough to show their faces with the hope that this will empower others,” Majak said in an earlier interview with HuffPost. “These are women who know who they are: They are their own queens.”

2. Lina Iris Viktor

In self-portraits combining photography and painting, Lina Iris Viktor transforms herself from human to icon. “The image is not about self,” she explained in an interview with HuffPost, “but rather dis-identification, abstraction and transformation.”

Drawing inspiration from science, history, cosmology and spirituality, Viktor disguises herself in vibrant patterns of blue, black, white and gold ― 24-karat ― transforming into an eternal figure reminiscent of ancient queens and spiritual goddesses. 

3. Saya Woolfalk

For years, Saya Woolfalk’s practice has revolved around the Empathics, a mythical species of shape-shifting women who morph and evolve through contact with other cultures and breeds. Her work often takes the form of a faux-anthropological study, documenting this fantastical breed that thrives upon creativity and collaboration.

Woolfalk’s multimedia practice combines painting, sewing, collage, video, performance and design to explore the hybridized nature of identity in an imagined sci-fi future. “Science can’t necessarily get to everything that humans experience and feel,” Woolfalk told HuffPost in June. “ When science and spirituality are allowed to complement each other, people may feel a bit uncomfortable, but together they allow a more complex understanding of our world.”

4. Maidens of the Cosmic Body Running

Denise Burge, Lisa Siders and Jenny Ustick make up the artist collective Maidens of the Cosmic Body Running, whose work toys with the relationship between the recorded image and the natural world.

More specifically, the artists build facsimiles of natural scenes and film dreamlike videos within them, employing mimetic images and fake backdrops to generate authentic rapture, relaxation and ecstasy. As the Maidens explained in a statement: “Faking it feels just as good ... Maybe better sometimes.”

5. Chitra Ganesh 

Chitra Ganesh’s artworks are a vibrant tangle of comic books and Bollywood, science fiction and Buddhist mythology, 1960s psychedelia and Grimm’s fairy tales. Tying all the deliciously disparate references together is a feminist perspective that imbues her female characters with agency, passion and a guarantee that the visual narratives will feature no simple, happy endings. 

As the artist explained in an interview with Guernica: “Having the space to have a lot of unanswered questions and unresolved narratives is really soothing. It’s oppressive to have happily-ever-after all the time. So oppressive.”

6. Renée Stout

Through painting, mixed-media sculpture, photography, installation and assemblage, artist Renée Stout explores African-American heritage, personal history and African-inspired beliefs as they exist in African diasporas across the United States. “They all have their basis in traditional African beliefs, although there’s a variation from environment to environment within the country, wherever you find the practices still alive,” she explained in an interview with the Charleston City Paper.

Stout takes inspiration from cult figures including Marie Laveau, the legendary Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. According to myth, Laveau used the occult to obtain information from the wealthy patrons who visited her brothel in the early 19th century. Stout also occasionally assumes the identity of a character, Fatima Mayfield, who engages in fortune telling and other spiritual rituals. 

7. Connie Roberts

Although trained as a figurative painter, Connie Roberts creates folk-inspired sculptures that take inspiration from pop culture elements including cartoons, politics, nursery rhymes, and snack food. Her piece “Gypsy Lady Head” depicts a Tarot card reader, alluding to the many unknown mystical forces that govern even the most mundane aspects of our daily lives. The statue also functions as a whistle, containing many whistle components hidden within the fortune telling devices. 

8. Elizabeth Insogna

Elizabeth Insogna’s acrylic and ink works reflect on the gods and goddesses of classical mythology, specifically the roles they play in contemporary society. In “Soul is a Serpent Bird,” featured above, for example, Insogna depicts the Mesoamerican god Quetzalcoatl, a combination of a bird and a serpent that symbolizes the soul’s journey after death.

“The ritual space functions as a kind of psychic cauldron for my imagery,” Insogna said in a statement. “I borrow from traditional pagan earth-based magic, but through queering at the roots it becomes deeply personal, workable, positive. For me it’s a space that purposefully digs toward the hidden, veiled and lost areas for the ever shape-shifting divine feminine which encompasses the whole thing, even the masculine parts.” 

9. Klara Kristalova

Klara Kristalova’s glazed stoneware sculptures exist somewhere between a real-life encounter and a distant memory, a dream and a nightmare, the crisp outlines of a fact and the fuzzy forms of an idea. Her work pays homage to Dresden porcelain dolls, though their sugary sweetness is replaced with something darker and stickier.

“For me, it’s hard to imagine happiness without ever experiencing sadness,” the artist said in an earlier interview with HuffPost. “I find my work boring if it totally lacks some kind of darker shade. And of course there is darkness in childhood as well as lightness.” Drawing from iconic imagery from myths and fairy tales, Kristalova crafts fuddled, disorienting visions that resemble somewhat successful attempts to recall the past night’s dream. 

10. Laura Donefer

Laura Donefer crafts what she calls “Witch Pots,” vessels made from glass, with materials like animal bones, feathers and snakeskin ensnarled within them. The glass pots exist in conversation with the traditional “witch’s cauldron,” the cast-iron receptacle that grants wishes and casts spells in fiction’s most well-known tales of sorcery and enchantment. 

“So I choose liquid heat as my main medium, and working with molten glass is like dancing with magma right out of the earth,” Donefer explains in her artist’s statement. “It is hot and it is dangerous, and sometimes it feels like you are making love with the very essence of creation. For me glass is a metaphor for life. It has become the perfect material for my expression, and it is an extraordinary sensuous act when I am working it hot.”

“Sisters of the Moon” runs until Jan. 8, 2017, at KMAC Museum in Kentucky.

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