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The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus Will 'Bring Light' To Red States

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The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus is taking a proactive musical approach to Donald Trump’s shocking ascension to the U.S. presidency. 


The chorus has re-routed a planned 40th anniversary tour to include performances in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, as well as other U.S. states that voted in Trump’s favor, in an effort to “change hearts and minds” in those communities, ABC 7 News reports


Director Tim Seelig told the news outlet that the chorus had originally planned to visit nations where LGBTQ people face heavy discrimination, including China and Cuba, on its 2018 tour. Once the election results rolled in, however, the men nixed those plans and opted to stay domestic instead. 


“We decided we have as much work to do at home as we would do abroad,” Seelig said. “We want to go to those places that are still strongholds of this kind of discrimination and bigotry, and bring our voice. And encourage people there with our music.” 


Executive Director Chris Verdugo echoed those sentiments in a statement on the chorus’s website, noting that “we, as a country, have a long road to travel.” 


“Our LGBT youth fear what their future might look like. We have a duty to them and an obligation to protect the freedoms we have rigorously fought for,” he said. “We believe this tour is a step in the right direction that will build bridges of understanding, compassion and empathy.” 


Along with the tour announcement, the chorus released a video featuring a performance of “Light,” a ballad from the Broadway musical, “Next to Normal.” The clip, which can be viewed above, proclaims, “As we move into the unknown, it is our duty to defend and protect the advances we’ve made, to fight for our lives, keep hope alive, and bring forth the light.” 


The news also caught the eye of Broadway and television star Laura Benanti, who has collaborated with the chorus in the past. The Tony-winning singer-actress has made no secret of her own views on a Trump presidency through a series of hilarious impersonations of Melania Trump on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and offered her praise on Twitter. 






No doubt these guys deserve a round of applause for vowing to fight the racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia which fueled so much of Trump’s campaign in the first place. 

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Junot Diaz Captures How To Cope With Trump's Win In Powerful Essay

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It’s been nearly a week since the 2016 election came to a close with a result that left many shaken with grief. Yes, real grief.


The hours and days after Donald Trump’s win have been particularly difficult for many people who belong to marginalized communities, as they fear for their safety and future in a country where they now feel unwelcome.  


Pulitzer-prize winning author Junot Díaz perfectly captures that grief and fear in the New Yorker’s post-election essay series “Aftermath.” The Dominican-American is one of 16 writers including Toni Morrison, Atul Gawande and Hilary Mantel, to pen a piece for the magazine print and web edition about Trump’s America. 


Díaz writes his essay, “Radical Hope,” as a letter addressed to “Querida Q,” who after the election voiced her grief, shock and feelings of uncertainty. While the author may have not know what to say then to console her, he now writes that there is a need to “connect courageously with the rejection, the fear, the vulnerability that Trump’s victory has inflicted on us, without turning away or numbing ourselves or lapsing into cynicism.”


We must all mourn our losses first, he advises, but we must also not forget to organize and fight in the name of our safety and justice. He continues: 



For those of us who have been in the fight, the prospect of more fighting, after so cruel a setback, will seem impossible. At moments like these, it is easy for even a matatana to feel that she can’t go on. But I believe that, once the shock settles, faith and energy will return. Because let’s be real: we always knew this shit wasn’t going to be easy. Colonial power, patriarchal power, capitalist power must always and everywhere be battled, because they never, ever quit. We have to keep fighting, because otherwise there will be no future—all will be consumed. Those of us whose ancestors were owned and bred like animals know that future all too well, because it is, in part, our past. And we know that by fighting, against all odds, we who had nothing, not even our real names, transformed the universe. Our ancestors did this with very little, and we who have more must do the same. This is the joyous destiny of our people—to bury the arc of the moral universe so deep in justice that it will never be undone.



In the end, Díaz explains why “radical hope,” in these moments, is “our best weapon against despair, even when despair seems justifiable; it makes the survival of the end of your world possible.” 


Read the author’s full letter here

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'Motherhood: Unfiltered' Photo Series Exposes The 'Real' Side Of Parenting

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Photographer Eran Sudds wants to expose the real, raw beauty of parenting. With her “Motherhood: Unfiltered” photo series, she’s doing just that.


Sudds’ series features 12 moms in everyday moments with their children ― from kitchen chaos to bedtime snuggles to playtime.



“So often, we get caught up in wanting to create that ‘picture perfect’ moment ― everyone dressed the same, hair and makeup done, sunlit field, all smiles and looking right at the camera,” Sudds told The Huffington Post. “Those photos are beautiful, but are they really real? Do they represent real life? I wanted to show the beauty in the everyday life as a mom.”


The photographer found participants in her local Vancouver community by issuing a “casting call” through her professional photography business and on The Good Mother Project ― an online support community for moms that she founded in 2015. She asked interested participants to share their stories and why they wanted to get involved in the project. 



About 80 moms responded to the call, and Sudds read through their stories to narrow the group down to 12. 


“Each mom was asked to not do anything special with their hair or makeup or clothing that day, to not take any extra care to tidy their homes or their lives, to just have their homes exactly as they would have them on any regular day of the week ― which is a scary thing when a total stranger is coming to take photographs!” Sudds explained.


“But they were all incredibly brave and vulnerable, and I was so appreciative that they all let me into their lives in this way,” she added.



Sudds told HuffPost she believes it’s important to show the “unfiltered” side of parenthood because people don’t appreciate how beautiful it really is.


“Some days it’s hard, chaotic, trying, frustrating. But all of that can be beautiful too,” she said. “We work so hard as moms to display this ‘perfect’ image ― posting filtered, cropped and perfected images on social media, images that often took us 15 tries to capture! I wanted to show what motherhood was like behind this mask of perfection, and that we are all truly so similar, even if our stories are different.”


Sudds added, “We all have days without makeup or a shower. We all discipline our kids. We all feed our kids. We all cuddle and kiss our kids. We all get bored. We all play on the floor. We’re all in the same boat. And I believe all of our experiences are uniquely beautiful.”



The photographer said she also hopes other parents see themselves in these images and realize it’s OK to expose their own imperfect realities.  


“I hope that they will see how beautiful they are as parents, and that they will see how their children look at them, look up to them and admire them,” she said. “We don’t need all the filters and makeup and perfection ― motherhood can be and is beautiful, in and of itself.”


Keep scrolling and visit the photographer’s website and Facebook page for more “unfiltered” glimpses into parenthood. 



 


 

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The Peach Emoji Looks Like A Butt Again

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The peach emoji is a treasure.


When Apple dropped the first iOS beta for iOS 10.2 with a lot of new, revamped emojis, the response to the redesigned peach emoji was ... not very good. 



















The peach emoji is sacred and we all know that it’s raison d’etre is for sexting. To make it look exactly like an actual peach... well, it’s just wrong.



Luckily, Apple knew they messed up and they just released a new beta with a positively butt-shaped peach emoji.


Look at it:



It looks more bootylicious than the first one. 










The iOS 10.2 beta 3 was unveiled yesterday and isn’t available to all users just yet. You can expect the upgrade on your phone “in the coming weeks,” according to TechCrunch.


Keep being sexy, peach.

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'Saved By The Bell' Producer Spills Secrets In New Memoir

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Twenty-six years after Jessie Spano’s legendary caffeine pill breakdown hit the Saturday morning airwaves for the first time, the truth about the famous scene has finally come out.


“Saved by the Bell” executive producer Peter Engel reveals in his new memoir that the world has NBC’s censors to thank for the character’s less-than-realistic addiction. 


“What fans don’t know is that, when I originally wrote the episode with Tom Tenowich, Jessie was hooked on speed, not caffeine pills. But Standards and Practices, the censorial department at NBC, vetoed it saying speed was too serious for Saturday mornings,” Engel writes in I Was Saved by the Bell.





Engel explains he didn’t want to abandon the storyline, believing that it was important for the show to delve into more serious subjects like drug use and the pressure teens put on themselves to succeed. The solution ―  a Saturday-morning-friendly caffeine addiction. 


“So we compromised,” he writes. “We kept the episode virtually the same, but swapped out the speed. I wasn’t pleased about it ― after all, the average caffeine pill, was the equivalent of a cup of coffee, so we might as well have had Jessie get addicted to Earl Gray, or breaking into The Max to snort coffee grounds. But hey, we had to start somewhere.”


Admittedly, the fact that Jessie was originally supposed to develop a speed addiction is probably the biggest revelation the memoir has to offer when it comes to spilling secrets about the show. If you watched Lifetime’s embarrassment of an unauthorized movie about the series, then you’re already familiar with whatever so called “juicy” moments went down behind the scenes.


But when the Huffington Post sat down with Engel, who is also the producer behind “California Dreams,” “City Guys,” Hang Time” and “Last Comic Standing,” he said that “Jessie’s Song” was an episode that “astounded the audience,” who were in tears when they filmed it. The show is pure nostalgia for most fans, who tend to remember it as lighthearted fun, but it might have actually made more of an impact than most realize.


When asked about the decision to make Jessie a feminist, Engel told HuffPost, “I thought it would be interesting to have an empowered young woman who was the flip side of Zach and yet his best friend.” He went on to say that the show’s frequent use of the word “feminist” was a conscious choice. “[Jessie] wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice or the first Female President of the United States and it was a choice. We did a lot of choices that were not children’s show things and that was one of them.”


Engel said he thinks the show was ahead of its time, pointing to the way it tackled certain subjects. 


“We did an oil spill episode in 1992 and Matt Damon did the exact same scene in ‘Promised Land’ four years ago, where he showed how the community was going to be from fracking,” he told HuffPost (Ed note: Damon’s co-star Jon Krasinski actually performs the demonstration in “Promised Land). “Mark-Paul Gosselaar picks up an oil can and squired it all over the model back in 1992.” (Ed note: The oil spill episode of “SBTB” actually aired in 1991).



Of course, it wasn’t all so progressive. Recently, Gosselaar apologized for a 1990 episode that saw his character dressed in a Native American headdress and face paint after learning he had Native ancestry. Engel told us he hadn’t heard about Gosselaar’s apology, but said he didn’t mean for the episode to come across as offensive. 


“I think we were trying to show it the other way,” he said. “The proudness of the heritage ... I think it may have been misunderstood by those who were offended because in my recollection of that episode, which isn’t much, I think that we were trying to say the opposite. But obviously it didn’t come off that way. The intention obviously wasn’t to make fun of Indians, or of anyone else’s heritage.”


 I Was Saved By The Bell: Stories of Life, Love and Dreams That Come True is available now. 

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Sexual Assault Survivor Draws Powerful Comic About Election Day

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In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s win, one woman put her feelings on paper in the form of a gut-wrenching illustration.


Created by artist Amy Camber, the short comic illustrates what so many sexual assault survivors experienced during such a tumultuous and triggering campaign season. As a survivor herself, Camber told The Huffington Post that she felt compelled to create the comic. 



“These past weeks have shaken me to my core,” Camber said. “Every woman I know was reeling after hearing Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women. What he said, along with his dismissal of those words as ‘locker room talk,’ reminded us every time we’ve been demeaned, treated as less-than, spoken to inappropriately, or touched without our consent.”


Over a dozen women have publicly accused Trump of sexual assault, and yet ― somehow ― our country still voted him into the highest office of power.  


“It was one thing to endure this [misogyny] during the campaign but, now, this is our President-elect,” she told HuffPost. “It’s sickening. And I don’t want people to forget about what he said.”


While Camber pointed out that this comic illustrates her specific experience with assault and the triggers she faced during the election, she realizes it’s an experience many survivors share. 


Now, more than ever, Camber hopes that survivors will come forward with their stories. 


“In the upcoming weeks, we will be asked to suspend judgement, to wait and see what he’s ‘really like,’” Camber said. “But just as we’ve seen a rise in hate crimes and despicable acts of racism and xenophobia this past week, the damage of Trump’s campaign is already done.”


Head over to Camber’s personal website to see more of her work. 


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



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Nana, Are You Proud To Be Black?

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My Nana is not one to joke around. Like many black women her age, Virginia Louise Evans is usually quite stern and, at times, blunt to the point of cruelty. At 69, she has earned the right to say whatever she pleases.


But she was cheerful last Thursday evening, when I sat down with her to talk about the election, and about politics and blackness more broadly. We’d been laughing and chatting over pasta salad and Cheerwine for a few hours when she looked at me from across her big wooden kitchen table, which is crowded into her small kitchen. Her large brown eyes ― the eyes she passed on to my mother and me  ― dulled a bit as she asked, “You ready?”  


“Let’s start with what you think about Donald Trump,” I said.  


Nana was born in 1947 in Lexington, North Carolina. She never attended an integrated school and graduated from the segregated Dunbar High, named after black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, in 1965. Her experiences as a black woman born and raised in the Jim Crow South shaped her political identity. She learned to see the smallest of blessings, saying that life as a black woman in Lexington wasn’t as bad as it was in Birmingham, Alabama.


Nana, like many elders, is a living link to the past. She’s wise and prides herself on knowing what she’s talking about. The first thing she noted about Trump was his lack of political experience and personal honesty.


“He’s talking about Hillary Clinton with the emails, but he never said anything about his taxes. He never said anything about messing with these young girls ― he never brought any of that up,” Nana said, her voice rising. “But he always brought up everything that everybody else had done. But nothing on him. So I don’t think he’s fit to be president. If you gon’ talk about somebody else’s deal, talk about yo’ deal.”


“I hope that he will be able to run the country without being prejudiced about anything. Because he said all through his campaigning about the Mexicans, the blacks ― and he’s racist to me.”



I pivoted to a happier topic: President Barack Obama. I wanted to know how Nana felt when he was elected in 2008.


“I loved him,” she said. She abruptly stood up from the table, returning a few minutes later with the family Bible. The large white book with gold-edged pages includes a list of family names dating back to Columbus Fortune, a former slave born in the mid-1800s. Nana became the keeper of this information in 2012 after the death of my great-grandmother Muss, who raised Nana, my mother and me.


Nana slid her finger down the table of contents and then flipped to Judges 4:4, a verse she has underlined.


She read aloud: “And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth–el in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh–naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, ‘Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?’”


She turned her head to face me. Her tone grew a bit more serious.


“Deborah called Barak to help get the nation up out of the situation that they were in. She called Barak to help get Israel out of their misery,” Nana said.


To her, Barack Obama was a gift from God.


“Did you ever think you’d live to see a black president?” I asked.


“Nope, I never did. It’s like it wasn’t possible, but God has a way of turning things around,” she said. “It was always white men in there. … Obama stepped out on faith, and he won.”


I followed up: “Why do you think it’s important for little kids to see Barack Obama and Michelle Obama in the White House?”


“It gives them encouragement to step forward and say, ‘If they can do it, I can do it. If he can do it, I can do it.’ He’s a role model. Anything is possible,” she said.   


I told her that when I was little, I had asked Muss if I could be president. Muss looked at me and said, “Yeah, you can do anything that you wanna do.” But that didn’t really seem possible until Obama. Now, I said, “You can point to a picture of Barack Obama and say, ‘Yes, you can do this.’”


“God told Jeremiah to walk around the wall seven times, and the seventh time blow the trumpet and the wall would come crumbling down,” Nana said. “So Obama blowed the walls down.” And she threw her head back and laughed. 


Then she got serious again, flipping the pages to Revelations 1:14.


“Now help me interpret this,” she said, reading a passage describing Jesus. “’His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire.’”


Her eyes returned to me: “We got wooly hair.”


She continued, “‘And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.’ Now what that sound like?”


“It sounds like black skin to me,” I said.



I asked Nana about the state of black life in America. Do black lives matter?


“All the time,” Nana said. She added that all lives matter, but that the conversation deservedly focused on black lives, given ongoing police violence and the lack of justice afterward.


“Black lives have always mattered, even when they brought our forefathers over here from Africa,” she said. “They had to come on a ship and went through a whole lot of stuff. That’s why I say it’s important for us to vote and have our voice in there because our forefathers fought and died for this stuff ― got beat up, whipped up, killed up, all of that.”


“What about the way black protesters are treated?” I asked, pointing out that even peaceful demonstrators can be pepper-sprayed or arrested for very minor infractions. 


But Nana chose to comment on another sometime aspect of public protest.


“As long as they’re out there protesting peacefully, I don’t see anything wrong with [protesting] at all. But throwing rocks and wanting to hit people and stuff ― that’s not protesting friendly,” she said. “Going back on Martin Luther King, he protested peacefully. Even though he got put in jail and got beat and all this stuff, he still didn’t do violence.”


“Also, why you tearing up your own property, burning your own building, breaking into your own stores and stuff?” she continued. “Just protest peacefully because these people got to still live. And you just tearing up your own black folks’ property. Don’t do that. Just protest friendly and the voice will still get heard.”


I asked her whether it mattered if the stores were not owned by black people, if they were places where the protesters had been racially profiled. Her opinion didn’t change. I knew it wouldn’t.


Black elders often encourage young folk to ascribe to respectability politics ― the idea that black people should behave a certain way to somehow show they’re worthy citizens. They tell us we should exercise our right to vote because our ancestors died for us to do so, and we shouldn’t be “tearing up our own neighborhoods” during protests against police violence.


I wasn’t going to debate Nana on this ― or get into how being “respectable” doesn’t save black folks from experiencing racism. It wasn’t the point of the conversation and I understood she had grown up in a different world.


Instead, I asked her to recall the first time she was called a “nigger.”


She didn’t remember, she said, because the slur was thrown around all the time. “White people just liked to call you ‘nigga.’ They ain’t have no shame in they game. ‘There go that nigga.’ ‘That nigga this, that nigga that.’ That’s been all our life.”


“It didn’t really have to be a situation,” she continued. “That’s just how it was. And some of them do it today. That has not changed.”


I told her I remembered the first time. “I was 11,” I said. “This white boy in social studies called me and my friends ‘nigger bitches.’ And we jumped on him, beat his ass.”


Nana stared at me for a few seconds. “Back then we had to take it,” she said.



I waited until the end of our conversation to ask about black womanhood, so that she had loosened up a bit. This was the most important part of our talk. The value of defining black womanhood for myself had been a hallmark of my upbringing, and I had been raised to be outspoken and brave. I asked her what it meant to her.


“It’s a strong black woman. I learned that from my father and my mama,” she said. Muss and my great-grandfather had both been raised on farms, working in fields picking cotton and tobacco, tending vegetable gardens. They grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, during the Great Depression, and to Nana, that had made them strong.


“Today we take that as nothing ‘cause you can go in the store now and buy what you wanna buy,” Nana said. But living through that kind of privation “made them strong.”  


“My mama was a strong black woman ― and you know that for yourself,” she said. “Stand on your own two feet, hold your own ground. That’s why I’ve been strong all my life.”


I asked her what she would want any future daughter of mine to know.


“Be strong. You have to learn to be a strong woman, have strong issues, have strong opinions, have a strong mind and speak your piece,” she said. “Muss would always say, ‘I ain’t gon’ hold my piece because I’ll have a heart attack. And I ain’t gon’ have no heart attack. I’m gon’ say what I got to say.’”


She paused briefly, giving us a second to laugh together at my great-grandmother’s over-the-top descriptions of why she was or was not going to do something. “They say a woman is supposed to be silent, but sometimes a woman has to speak out because a man won’t speak out,” Nana continued. “Some of them are weak. You got some weak men. So the woman has to speak out.”


We sat at the kitchen table and talked for a little while longer. Then I asked my final question. “Nana, are you proud to be black?”


“You better believe it,” she said. “I was born like this, so I have to uphold my heritage.”


She turned my question back on me. “Are you proud to be black?”


“Every day.”

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See 'Beauty And The Beast's' Animated And Live-Action Films Side By Side

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Fans of the 1991 animated movie “Beauty and the Beast,” rejoice.


A new video produced by Movie Pilot shows Disney’s original film together with the upcoming live-action version starring Emma Watson as Belle.


If the video above is any indication, Disney used their magic touch to keep the live-action remake as close as possible to the first movie based on the classic French fairytale.


The results are enchanting.


It’s almost as if Belle, the Beast and Mrs. Teapot from 1991 stepped out of our childhood TV sets and came to life ― that is, aside from Belle’s new British accent.


We’ll have to wait until March to see if the entire remake and its storyline stay true to the original.


For now, watch the video above to see the live-action version side by side with the 1991 animated film.



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Artists Are Drawing The Faces Of Marginalized People In An Effort To Spread Love

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Illustrator Tyler Feder’s reaction to the election of Donald Trump, and the loss of presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, is one many can relate to: “I felt completely defeated after the election results came in,” she told The Huffington Post over email this week.


The results, she specified, made her ― a Jewish woman ― feel as though half the country didn’t care about her. Yet “being aware of the enormous privilege I have because I am straight, white, cis, middle-class, and able-bodied,” she added, “I knew that there were so many Americans feeling even worse than I did. I wanted to use my art to help marginalized people feel visible after an election that made us feel like we didn’t matter.”


Drawing portraits and posting them online, she thought, seemed like the best way to do that. And so a project was born.



A photo posted by Tyler Feder (@tylerfeder) on




Soon after Feder posted a callout on Instagram, asking followers who’ve felt marginalized by this election to add their images to the hashtag #DrawMeTyler, she was completely overwhelmed (”in a good way!”) by the response.


Over 800 people tagged their selfies with the hopes that Feder would transform them into illustrations ― mostly women and non-binary individuals, though a handful of men have tagged their photos, too. For the record, Feder has drawn two men so far: a trans man and a little boy with Down syndrome whose mother requested the portrait.


What initially began as a one-day project quickly morphed into a series with no foreseeable end. “I have the very unpredictable schedule of a freelance illustrator, but I plan on fitting in a portrait or two whenever I can,” she explained. She continues to ask for participants on Instagram, promising to draw free portraits for the random individuals she chooses from the hashtag.



Bright light @timajgarad ✨ #drawmetyler

A photo posted by Tyler Feder (@tylerfeder) on




Though the project began as a gesture of visibility, Feder is hoping to channel her sentiment of solidarity into more concrete action ― a dilemma many people finding solace on insular spaces across social media are facing. Once she’s accumulated “a certain amount of portraits,” Feder says that she’d like to compile them into a format she can sell to raise money for a charity, citing Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and other smaller organizations as potential donees.


When asked whether she, an artist with a modest following on Instagram, felt a responsibility to react in any way to the election, she replied: “If there is any way I can use the art I do to engage my small following in the causes I feel are important, I try to make it happen. I felt that way before the election and I feel it even more strongly now.”



Ray of sunshine @raising_blossoms ❤️ #drawmetyler

A photo posted by Tyler Feder (@tylerfeder) on




Others ― for example, illustrator Danielle Veit ― have also turned to art as a way of both expressing distress and spreading hope. “@tylerfeder had a brilliant idea to show love in a unique way during this trying time,” Veit wrote on Instagram. “I will be joining this action by doing FREE portraits for the remainder of the week. Tag #drawmebubbsy on your selfie and I will get to as many as possible.”


Those who stand in opposition to Trump’s xenophobic, racist, anti-LGBTQ and misogynist viewpoints ― that threaten to disproportionately affect many members of American society who have already felt marginalized ― will undoubtedly be asked to translate their despair and anger into clear and thoughtful action in the coming months.


However, simple acts of kindness can simultaneously have a profound impact, as evidenced by the countless messages of gratitude accompanying Feder’s images. “The love and support you’re spreading are highly appreciated,” one participant commented on her portrait. “This is so beautiful thank you so much you beautiful being of light and positivity,” another replied.



Bright light @creasetoefurr ✨ #drawmetyler

A photo posted by Tyler Feder (@tylerfeder) on





Bright, rainbow-colored light @carabslagle ✨ #drawmetyler

A photo posted by Tyler Feder (@tylerfeder) on





The beautiful @_sidvicious ❤️ #drawmetyler

A photo posted by Tyler Feder (@tylerfeder) on





The shining star @dumloud ❤️ #drawmetyler

A photo posted by Tyler Feder (@tylerfeder) on





Bright light @steph_spines ✨ #drawmetyler

A photo posted by Tyler Feder (@tylerfeder) on





Bright light @mariaga8riela ✨ #drawmetyler

A photo posted by Tyler Feder (@tylerfeder) on





Bright light @awomanontheinternet ✨ #drawmetyler

A photo posted by Tyler Feder (@tylerfeder) on





Bright light @spiritbirdsie ✨ #drawmetyler

A photo posted by Tyler Feder (@tylerfeder) on



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A Beginner's Guide To Moving Forward In Spite Of Election Grief

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LOS ANGELES ― There have been two prevailing feelings among the many groups of people who voted for Hillary Clinton last Tuesday: grief and fear. And on Monday night in Hollywood, a group of artists, activists and celebrities attempted to move their own moods ― and the moods of those watching them ― from grief to action. 


Most of the attendees at Glamour’s annual Women of the Year Awards expected to witness a very different kind of night. Instead of a raucous, celebratory ceremony marking the shattering of that “highest, hardest glass ceiling,” the evening felt like an attempt to shine a light into a week filled with darkness.


Held at the NeueHouse in Hollywood, the event was intimate and emotional. In addition to honoring 11 incredible women, from Black Lives Matter founders Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrice Cullors to pop star Gwen Stefani, and one incredible man, Bono, the night provided those in attendance with some (very elegant) group therapy. It also left those watching with some actionable guidelines for how to move forward in the face of, as “Blackish” star and the night’s host Tracee Ellis Ross put it, “a reality I do not like.” (And one that for many groups of Americans ― Muslims, African-Americans, Jews, queer people, women ― is proving quite terrifying.) 


Below are six lessons to keep in mind when moving from mourning to action:


Find small moments of joy and share them with those you love.


For those who feel real grief in the wake of last Tuesday, it can be hard to take pleasure in anything. But as Tracee Ellis Ross pointed out: “We must continue dancing together, even if that means showing the world that sometimes I need alcohol to find my inner rhythm.” With liberty, dance parties and justice for all. 


Do not fight hate with more hate.


When confronted by hatred and fear, you must fight back. But the way to fight back effectively is rooted in love and compassion, not more hatred and fear. One of the night’s most moving speeches came from activist Nadia Murad, a young Iraqi woman who was kidnapped by ISIS and sold into sex slavery. She escaped and dedicated her life to being a voice for other women and girls. As Murad reminded the audience: “We cannot fight the terrorism with racism, because they are both the same base and the same ideology.” 


Understand your privilege ― and use that privilege in the service of others.


The way the fallout of this election impacts you is determined in many ways by your identity. Whatever kind of privilege you may have, whether it’s based on your gender identity, your skin color, your socioeconomic status, your religion or your sexual orientation, it’s vital to understand how that privilege impacts your life and shapes your blind spots. Once you see and check that privilege you can do two things: listen to those who do not share your privilege and amplify their voices. 


During a panel at Glamour’s first Women of the Year summit, which was held just hours before the awards ceremony, Lena Dunham pointed to the way white privilege played into voters’ perceptions of Donald Trump throughout election season. She specifically pointed to the reaction to the now-infamous Access Hollywood tape. “In a way, even though I am white woman, even though I am a survivor of sexual assault, even though that tape chilled me to my core, I was a little bit angry that that was the moment, that we, as a country, decided Donald Trump wasn’t a safe person,” said Dunham. “Everyone who didn’t have the privilege of being a college-educated white voter knew that on a deep, deep level already.”


The lesson here? Listen, listen, listen. 



Stand with other women, because we are stronger together.


“When more women want the right to control our bodies, we are the wall,” Dunham said during the same panel. “Women have the skills, the power, and the passion to protect each other.”


Engage men in the fight.


If men are ever going to understand what many women feel in the wake of this election, we need to start talking to them. Women-only spaces are vital, but it is equally important to find male allies, because resistance cannot happen among women alone. Bono addressed this country’s president-elect directly, in solidarity with women: “Look across to women. Make equality a priority. It is the only way forward. The train is leaving the station. Be on it or be under it.”


Build a movement. 


Perhaps the most important lesson of all came from Black Lives Matter founders Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrice Cullors ― three women who know a whole lot about building a movement. “What happened in our country on Tuesday is something that we can fix,” Garza said. “This is not the time to sit back and wonder what we’re going to do, this is the time to build a movement in the millions.”


Go forth and build and fight and love. 

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Latin American And Latinx Artists To Take Over Southern California Art Scene In 2017

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Look on a map and the boundaries that divide North and South America, Southern California and Mexico, are as clear as the thick lines that demarcate them. Yet, in real life, the borders separating these regions ― the people that inhabit them, the cultures they cultivate, the myths they pass on and the memories they leave behind ― are far more nebulous. 


Perhaps nothing illustrates the fallibility of borders like an art object ― a single painting, sculpture or video that can collapse the categories between here and there, then and now, you and I. An artist born in Mexico who studied in Paris and later moved to Los Angeles makes work that weaves together elements of them all, contorted, of course, by memory and imagination and the other invisible forces that govern the way we see, think and create. 


In 2017, a massive art initiative called “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA” will explore the influence of Latin American and Latinx artists on Southern California with a sprawling series of exhibitions taking over more than 60 venues across Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego and other California destinations.


The initiative will shine a spotlight on the many individuals and movements whose artistic visions traversed language barriers and geographic boundaries to share stories, challenge beliefs and create a visual vocabulary for future generations. Just as there is no typical Latin American or Latinx person, the interconnected exhibitions will show that there is no single definition of Latin American or Latinx art.



Although planning for “LA/LA” was underway far before last week’s presidential election, the art program will serve as a vital repudiation of the simplistic and intolerant messages communicated by President-elect Donald Trump regarding American identity. In response to dangerous stereotypes and shortsighted plans to build walls between us, hundreds of artists, curators and institutions will highlight the importance of intersectionality both in their artistic practices and approach to citizenship itself. 


There are too many exciting exhibitions and artists coming next year ― radical women in Latin American art, Afro-Brazilian art, queer Chicano art, Mesoamerican art, experimental film in Latin America and so, so, so much more ― to explain them all in detail. You can see the full list here.


In the meantime, we’ve compiled a very small selection of the artists coming to “LA/LA” in 2017, most of whom are still critically overlooked in terms of their influence and importance. Learn their names, mark your calendars and get ready to immerse yourself in all that is Latin American and Latinx art.


1. Laura Aguilar (b. 1959, America)



Laura Aguilar is a self-taught photographer whose portraits capture marginalized communities with grace and pride as they unravel traditional beauty norms. Her series “Latina Lesbians” chronicles the gay Chicano women in Aguilar’s community she felt had been rendered invisible by mainstream culture. 


“What I am trying to do with the series,” Aguilar wrote in a statement, “is to provide a better understanding of what it’s like to be a Latina and a Lesbian by showing images which allow us the opportunity to share ourselves openly, and to provide role models that break negative stereotypes and help develop a better bridge of understanding.”


The artist also takes stark portraits of her own (often unclothed) body in nature, which serve to challenge and dismantle photography’s monolithic norms regarding beauty and femininity.


Aguilar’s work will be on view at the following: “Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell” at Vincent Price Art Museum, East Los Angeles College; “Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A.” at the University of Southern California’s ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives; and “Home–So Different, So Appealing,” organized by the Chicano Studies Research Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.


2. Carmen Argote (b. 1981, Mexico)



Carmen Argote creates multimedia architectural installations to explore understandings of home and space as they relate to her as an immigrant. Her artworks delve into the intersections of memory and myth, house and home, and family and class.


“I work from an intimate and personal place,” she explained in a statement, “using shared experiences to connect the spaces that house us to notions of home and self. Often working with family, I explore our common immigrant experience as a layered, multigenerational, transnational experience that is echoed though shared memories, traumas, and aspirations, extending outward from the intimate space of home.”  


Argote’s work will be featured in Home–So Different, So Appealing.”


3. Juan Downey (1940-1993, Chile)



Juan Downey’s work in drawing, installation, new media, painting, performance, printmaking, and, most notably, video often explored notions of identity and otherness via experimental ethnographies challenging boundaries of all kinds. 


Originally trained as an architect, Downey began toying with new technologies in the 1960s. When the handheld video camera debuted later in the decade, Downey began using it to interrogate the relationship between Westerners and indigenous cultures in the Americas, obscuring the traditional categories of “self” and “other” through his split-screen and multi-channel videos.


In a statement, the late artist expressed his goal to “stretch the limits of the documentary format, to convey the intensely personal experience of which the primitive landscape is composed, by means of organized sequences of body movements and natural rhythms.”


Downey’s work will be featured in the following: “Juan Downey: Radiant Nature” at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and Pitzer College Art Galleries; “The Making of the Modern: Indigenismos, 1800-2015” at the San Diego Museum of Art; “Memories of Underdevelopment” at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; and “Video Art in Latin America” at LAXART.


4. León Ferrari (1920-2013, Argentina)



In the 1960s, León Ferrari published a manifesto that declared: “Art is not beauty or novelty; art is effectiveness and disruption.” Throughout his life, the artist worked in a wide range of media from ceramics to poetry to dismantle authoritarianism and establish parallels between religion and war.


One of his most well-known images, featured above, depicts Jesus Christ crucified on a fighter plane, a protest against the Vietnam war. Other notable works include a Virgin Mary statue in a blender and Christ figures in a toaster. 


“The only thing I ask of art is that it helps me express what I think as clearly as possible, to invent visual and critical signs that let me condemn more efficiently the barbarism of the West,” the artist wrote in 1965. “Someone could possibly prove to me that this is not art. I would have no problem with it, I would not change paths, I would simply change its name, crossing out art and calling it politics, corrosive criticism, anything at all, really.”


Ferrari’s work will be featured in the following: “Home–So Different, So Appealing”; “Memories of Underdevelopment’; “Copyart: Experimental Printmaking in Brazil, 1970-1990s” at the University of San Diego; and “Palabras Ajenas” at the Roy and Edna Disney/Cal Arts Theater.


5. Anna Maria Maiolino (b. 1942, Italy)



Anna Maria Maiolino was born in Italy to an Italian father and Ecuadorian mother. The family relocated to Venezuela when Maiolino was 12, and Brazil soon after that. Working in sculpture, drawing, painting, performance, video and poetry, the artist’s work returned to visceral sensations of uprootedness, longing and emptiness. 


The artist speaks in a primal visual language at once abstract and accessible, using the body and its everyday functions as a starting point to explore embodied feelings from desire to political unrest. 


“I would go as far as saying that my works about digestion come from what my mouth remembers of my mother’s breast, the comfort of that first food,” the artist said in an interview, “while as a counterpoint, I see defecation as the ‘first work.’ For, if the body is the architect of work, it is not surprising that in some cultures they refer to defecation as ‘work.’ We live and die from the mouth to the anus. I find it impossible not to talk, not to poetise about what comes in and out of the body, when these are experiences that are fundamental, corporal and vital to us.”


Maiolino’s work will be featured in “Anna Maria Maiolino” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and “Radical Women in Latin American Art, 1960-1985” at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.


6. Valeska Soares (b. 1957, Brazil) 



Through her organic installations, Valeska Soares infuses three-dimensional spaces with dreams and decay, exploring the effects of memory on the places we inhabit. Combining elements of minimalism, conceptualism, Land Art and Fluxus with features of her Brazilian artistic counterparts ― including Lygia Clark and Mira Schendel ― Soares investigates the effects of time and the ways it is perceived and experienced in the mind.


Using found and domestic objects, serial repetition and things prone to change and decay, the artist creates quiet theatrical sets that resist traditional notions of time and place, as well as boundaries between the personal and universal. 


“I’m interested in subjective borders,” the artist explained in an interview with Vik Muniz. “The limits that you impose on yourself and how illusionary they are. I’ve also been dealing with ideas of reflection and distortion, how you think things are and how you see them, and what gets distorted between those two perceptions. For instance, I don’t know how I look or how I’m perceived. I have this imaginary ‘Valeska’ in my mind. And each time I look at myself in the mirror, I can’t recognize myself because what I see reflected is not exactly who I think I am.”


Soares’s work will be featured in “Valeska Soares” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.


7. Hector Hernandez (b. 1975, America)



Hector Hernandez’s work toys with shape from the human figure to geometric sculpture. The artist creates hybrid forms that are part person, part other, and documents them moving in space, bringing whiffs of science fiction, camouflage and fantasy into everyday life.


“I am interested in the tension that exists between a form such as human legs or cylinders and the space which it both occupies and is contained by,” the artist explains in a statement. “My long history with mixed media and photography has driven my most current work, as I have returned to such traditional materials as paper, fabric, photographed images, and fabricated artifacts to produce works that focus on the process of creating surreal characters/creatures.”


Hernandez’s work will be featured in “Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas” at the University of California at Riverside.


8. David Lamelas (b. 1946, Argentina) 



David Lamelas is regarded as a pioneer of conceptual photography and avant-garde film. At only 21 years old, his work represented Argentina in the São Paulo Biennial and in the Venice Biennale the year after. Lamelas deals with issues of time, movement, space and popular culture. 


The artist, who now lives between Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Europe, is known for his fictional documentaries and fake Hollywood film stills, which predate Cindy Sherman in their manipulation of photography’s claims to truth. In them, Lamelas pretends to be a rock star, investigating the way images do not archive celebrities, but create them. 


Lamelas’s work will be featured in “David Lamelas: A Life of Their Own” at the CSU Long Beach University Art Museum. 


9. Marie Orensanz (b. 1936, Argentina)



Marie Orensanz’s work deals with fragments ― fragments of marble, fragments of thoughts, fragments of symbols ― to represent the fragmented self. In 1978, shortly after becoming a French citizen, the artist detailed the mission of her work in a Manifesto of Fragmentism: “Fragmentism searches for integration of a part with a totality; transforms by multiple readings in an object non-terminate and unlimited, traversing time and space.”


Working in photography, painting, drawing and sculpture, Orensanz’s aesthetic aligned her disparate media ― a style that is sparse, ambiguous, symbolic and yet eventually indecipherable. Much of her work hinted at a hidden meaning that remained unsolved, alluding to the indecipherable nature of truth and life. In the artist’s words: “The incomplete is a constant of my work, because I think that we are all fragments of a whole: at the same time, we are part of a past and of a future.”


Orensanz’s work will be included in “Radical Women in Latin American Art, 1960-1985.”


10. Alfredo Ramos Martinez (1871-1948, Mexico)



Martínez, a painter and muralist, is known by many as the “Father of Mexican Modernism” thanks to his empathetic depictions of traditional Mexican peoples and landscapes at the turn of the 20th century.


Living in Mexico, Paris and eventually Los Angeles, Martínez incorporated elements of Mesoamerican art, French Impressionism, Cubism and Art Deco into his designs while maintaining a traditional Mexican aesthetic. Combining pulsating lines, geometric shapes and subtle shading, Martínez achieved a singular aesthetic that incorporated elements of architecture and abstraction. 


The Mexico that Martínez depicted was both real and imagined, inhabited and remembered, full of beauty and sorrow. As poet Rubén Darío wrote, “Ramos Martínez is one of those who paints poems; he does not copy, he interprets; he understands how to express the sorrow of the fisherman and the melancholy of the village.”


Martinez’s work will be featured in the following: “The Making of the Modern: Indigenismos, 1800-2015”; “Mexico/LA: History into Art, 1820-1930” at the Laguna Art Museum; and “Mexico and California Design, 1915-1985” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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Michelle Williams Does Not Have Time To Be A Cool Mom In This 'Manchester By The Sea' Clip

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If you’ve heard anything about “Manchester by the Sea,” it’s probably something along the lines of “bring Kleenex.” That’s solid advice when going to see “You Can Count On Me” director Kenneth Lonergan’s new movie, which opens in limited release on Friday. But beneath the somber story about Lee Chandler, a repressed Massachusetts handyman (Casey Affleck) left to care for his nephew (Lucas Hedges) after his brother (Kyle Chandler) dies, lies a wealth of humor. Lonergan understands that life’s tragedy operates in tandem with its comedy.


The Huffington Post and its parent company, AOL, are jointly premiering an exclusive scene from “Manchester by the Sea” that displays some of the film’s comedic relief. In the flashback, Lee’s wife (Michelle Williams) interrupts a rowdy night with the boys that becomes a fulcrum for the story. Beware NFSW expletives.




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This Tweet Pushed Merriam-Webster To Change Their Messed Up Entry On 'Femininity'

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Merriam-Webster just got served.


When writer Ali Segel was “gathering submissions for a zine meant to get people ‘engaged and involved’” after last week’s election, she spotted a pretty offensive entry on Merriam-Webster’s website.


When explaining the definition of “femininity,” the example sentence the dictionary used said: “She managed to become a female CEO without sacrificing her femininity.”






Segel told Cosmopolitan that a zine contributor had sent her some poetry along with a screenshot of this offensive definition of femininity.


“I decided to tweet it out because yeah, that’s nuts!,” she told Cosmopolitan. “Can you imagine: ‘He managed to become a CEO without sacrificing his masculinity.’”


Segel also told The Huffington Post that at first, she thought it was a “meme or a joke.”


Not long after Segel sent out her tweet, Merriam-Webster responded on Twitter, saying that they were removing the offending example.










The Merriam-Webster site has indeed taken down the sentence, but has yet to replace it with an alternative.


The entry for “femininity” currently looks like this:



Segel expressed her joy for the updated entry with a celebratory tweet, celebrating her own femininity. 






”I think when we frame femininity in a sentence as something that’s sacrificed if we succeed instead of something that’s celebrated, that’s the first problem,” she told HuffPost. “The words feminine and femininity in general... What makes someone stereotypically female is changing.”


After Ali’s initial tweet, women jumped in on Twitter with sentences that use “femininity” in a more accurate way. Below are just a few Merriam-Webster could use now that it has taken down its own example sentence:














When reached for comment by HuffPost, Merriam-Webster responded:



“Lexicography has always been a back-and-forth between dictionary readers and dictionary writers, and one of the great things about social is that we have a direct line between those two. When a reader stumbled across a sentence that was inappropriate, we were happy to remove it, and we were grateful for their feedback.’”


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Swedish Academy Confirms Bob Dylan Won't Attend Nobel Prize Ceremony After All

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American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature last month, has decided not to attend the award ceremony in Stockholm, the Swedish Academy said on Wednesday.


The notoriously media-shy Dylan said three weeks ago he would accept the 8 million crown ($870,000) prize, after repeated attempts by the award-giving academy to contact him since it named him as the winner on Oct. 13.


The Academy said on its website that it had received a letter from Dylan explaining that due to “pre-existing commitments” he was unable to travel to Stockholm in December.


“We look forward to Bob Dylan’s Nobel Lecture, which he must give ― it is the only requirement ― within six months counting from December 10,” it said in a statement, adding that it would provide additional information on Friday Nov. 18.


The lecture need not be delivered in Stockholm. When British novelist Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel literature prize in 2007, she composed a lecture and sent it to her Swedish publisher, who read it out at a ceremony in the Swedish capital.


Other Nobel Prize winners who have not attended the prize ceremony include Britain’s Harold Pinter and Elfriede Jelinek of Austria.


The ceremony is planned to be held on Dec. 10.


(Reporting by Helena Soderpalm; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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The Most Underrated Part Of 'You're The Worst' Is The Music

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”You’re the Worst” is a dark, filthy, sex-addled comedy that’s been praised for its attentive handling of gravely serious issues like death, mental illness and reproductive rights. Welcome to television in 2016.


Created by Stephen Falk, the show centers on a quartet of friends (and a few comically genius hanger-ons) who struggle with unceasing anxiety and a perpetual desire to flee from life’s problems. Gretchen the publicist, Jimmy the writer, Lindsay the housewife and Edgar the veteran caper through the Los Angeles area, finding unlikely friendship ― and even love, for Gretchen and Jimmy ― in each other. It’s not a typical romantic comedy, Google is quick to tell you, and that’s what makes its hilarity so biting.


But beyond the show’s writing, and the actors’ abilities to juggle subtle depictions of depression with rip-roaring moments of vulgarity, there’s the music. Composer Adam Blau is behind it all ― at least, the original music you hear throughout the show’s three seasons. The wordless tones that play in the background of a threesome? You can thank Blau for that. (That particular song has 9,000 listens on SoundCloud, actually.) The yacht rock ballad that Edgar plays in a solitary struggle with his own PTSD? Blau wrote that. (And somehow recruited a hit-making ‘70s band to bring it to life.) The songs Sam, Gretchen’s unruly client, raps? Blau made those, too. (Along with Falk, who Blau jokingly confirmed is on tape rapping Sam’s Odd Future-esque lines.)


Ahead of the Season 3 finale of “You’re The Worst” ― which has been renewed for a fourth season ― we checked in with Blau to hear more about his role in one of FX’s most millennial-friendly shows. And yes, he talked about “New Phone Who Dis?”



How did you get involved with “You’re The Worst”? 


I had worked a bunch with Stephen Falk, the creator of the show ― we have a long history of working together and it seemed a good fit. 


Did you see the pilot before you began working on the show?


No, I worked on the pilot. I saw cuts of it while it was being put together. But, yeah, it was in its early stages and then there were some tweaks made between the pilot and what turned into Episode 1 of the first season.


Working as a composer for a TV show ― I think the only insight into that job I have is from Jason Segel’s character in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” [in which he composes the music for a crime procedural show]. Is that depiction at all accurate?


[Laughs] It’s not completely far off! There are moments when it’s like that. I would say that working on “You’re The Worst” is pretty unique because there are so many different facets of it. Everything from the score to any time an in-show song appears in an episode ― whether it’s the soft rock song that Edgar plays in his car this season to all of the songs that the hip-hop group in the show plays, you know, Sam and those guys ― they are all created for the show. So it’s definitely a lot of variety.


I definitely want to get to that variety, but first I wanted to ask you about one of the words I’ve seen thrown around a lot in descriptions of “You’re the Worst”: “malaise,” usually in reference to a feeling of being uncomfortable or uneasy in your late 20s or early 30s. Have you found yourself thinking about malaise while working on the show?


I see what you’re saying ― presumably you’re talking about the malaise within the characters themselves. I don’t know that we focus on malaise strictly as malaise, but what I would say that [the show] is very unlike your sort of traditional sitcom. When a season is done, I compile all the music cues and, looking at them, if you play them all the way through, it does not play like a traditional sitcom. It definitely has some more dramatic turns in there, especially in the second season once we started dealing with Gretchen’s depression. And some of the stuff we were dealing with this season with Jimmy and his dad[’s death]. Or Edgar dealing with his PTSD. It definitely skews a lot more toward the dramatic. And it’s a question of striking the balance there. 


So I would say if there is malaise, it’s not necessarily straight-up malaise, it’s just the characters living their lives and sometimes there’s malaise and sometimes they’re struggling with interacting with each other, but also sometimes they’re just having a grand ol’ time, and we try to reflect that in the music.



Yes, there are moments in the show that are almost near-slapstick humor ― like when Jimmy dressed up as a really obscure British character for Halloween. What is it like for you as a composer to pivot from those different moments in the show?


I love it. It’s so easy, when you’re dealing with a project for a long time, to sort of go on autopilot. But [the variety] keeps it pretty fresh. I work closely with Stephen and so I like to get all the scripts early and trace the arcs of where the characters are going to go and see if there are any moments that will warrant a closer look musically. And so if we’re doing things like the Halloween episode, we might want to pay a little more attention to it.


I am a fan of comedy, for sure. I like to figure out those comedic timings for those scenes. But it’s a whole different ballgame when we shift to a different mode, and the challenge is trying to fit it into the world without the bottom dropping out and feeling like you’re in an entirely different show. Unless that’s the intent! Like scoring the “Sunday Funday” episode like an adventure movie. It’s a challenge, but a welcome one.


You’ve been working with these various characters now for three seasons. When you are composing, do you end up crafting different musical profiles for them?


I think there’s an extent to which we do. Jimmy and Gretchen have a little thematic motif that’s been there since the first season. The other part is that we really try to use the music wisely and we’re dealing with two characters who, although they’re dealing with navigating through this relationship, they run away from the more emotional moments. So if we scored the entire thing so closely like a traditional romantic comedy, it would be the exact opposite of what Jimmy and Gretchen would want, you know what I mean?


For the more emotional stuff with them, we’ll try to bring that theme out. I think it came out early on in the scene in the movie theater when they were eating Chinese food, when they started to click. And then toward the end of the first season when they move in with each other ― it pops up at critical relationship moments. This season, there’s been something with Jimmy struggling with his dad. I would say those moments are there. Otherwise, we’re sort of just playing tone. 


How would you describe the sort of sonic, thematic motif that you used when Gretchen was dealing with her own mental illness?


It plays at its most full at that moment in Season 2 when she delivers this monologue about the Mars rover to Jimmy. And it sort of plays twofold: it’s a series of three descending chords, and over it you had a little “de ne ne” motif that plays for Jimmy and Gretchen. It’s so hard to describe, but it has a sort of soft, gauzy sound.



Do you base any of this on particular musical inspirations?


I think we’ve developed a kind of palette for this show that is sort of a mishmash of music the characters might listen to. It’s a combination, at this point, of beats and indie, garage-y sort of guitar and ‘80s synths.


You mentioned that you write Sam’s music.


Stephen and I work together on almost all of the in-show song moments. And there is a pretty hefty collection of them. So this season we have the yacht rock song that Edgar’s brother had given him. And yes, all of Sam’s music ― “New Phone Who Dis?” was Stephen and I together. And even stuff that’s so deeply in the background. Like last season when Jimmy’s family came to visit, they were watching the Eurovision-style contest, so I did four really ridiculous songs for the show. Very over the top. This season, during “Sunday Funday,” there’s an old jazz standard that they find on a scavenger hunt that’s a clue. So we wrote that as well. “Happy Toes.” Jimmy sings that at the end. 


What are the musical references for Sam’s hip-hop group?


Odd Future is chief among them. 


What was the most fulfilling scenes or episodes for you to compose for? 


One that sticks out in the most recent season is “Twenty-Two.” It’s one of the more dramatic ones where Edgar is struggling with his PTSD throughout the entire episode; it’s a very heavy and serious episode. The song itself that plays throughout ― I was looking for a ‘70s-style yacht rock song, which is a genre I am well-versed in and totally love. So I tried to create this mellow, grooving song. We were able to bring in some musicians to play on it. We got the lead singer from Ambrosia. They sing “Biggest Part of Me,” an early ‘80s hit.


The way it’s featured is that Edgar goes through this whole journey and breaks from reality at some point. At the end, he reaches a little resolution within his story and he blisses out to the song. Given the emotional task, that one was a really rewarding one to work on. And they are now selling the song on iTunes to benefit the Wounded Warriors Project, to help soldiers who are wounded or are dealing with issues like PTSD.



Overall, what’s it been like as the composer to watch the show dive into these heavy topics and see the resonance ― your song going out into the world like that?


It’s a testament to the show itself and the characters and Stephen’s writing. The show itself is affecting people and really reaching people. And to have the music play some part in that ― of course, it’s incredibly rewarding. To be able to make some real world difference. 


Can you tell us anything about the season finale ― the third to last episode left fans wondering whether Jimmy and Gretchen will or won’t part ways?


Obviously, I can’t give anything away one way or the other. But I will say that the show stays true to form and it’s a good watch. I’m working on it now and I’ve seen the early cuts. It should be enjoyable. I hope.


“You’re The Worst” airs on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on FX.



This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Oxford Dictionaries' Word Of The Year Perfectly Sums Up Life Right Now

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“Post-truth” is Oxford Dictionaries’ 2016 “Word of the Year.”


The definition of “post-truth” (adj.) is: “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”


If this seems so on-the-pulse you nearly want to vomit, then you should know that editors of Oxford Dictionaries said that the term has ballooned by around 2,000 percent in 2016, courtesy of “the EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States.”


Basically, Brexit and Donald Trump are impacting more than just people’s lives, but also the English language.


















The Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year exists as a means of “reflect[ing] the passing year in language,” which explains why last year’s “word” was the “face with tears of joy” emoji.


Other options for this year’s word of the year included:



What a time to be alive.

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Hundreds Of Children's Book Authors Pledge To Combat Bigotry

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This week, hundreds of children’s book authors and illustrators signed a pledge to use their art to fight bigotry and to make young readers feel safe and accepted. 


The site The Brown Bookshelf, founded to raise awareness of African-American children’s book writers, posted the statement on Monday morning. The pledge specifically cites the recent presidential election as “a clear indication of the bigotry that is entrenched in this nation.”


It received over 400 signatures by the end of the day, including those of the site’s founding authors: Kelly Starling Lyons,Tameka Fryer Brown, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Don Tate, Gwendolyn Hooks, Tracey Baptiste, Crystal Allen, Paula Chase-Hyman, Varian Johnson and Jerry Craft. A note posted under the pledge stated that though signatures were closed on Monday night, they’d been reopened through Wednesday at 5 p.m. “because of the many, moving requests we’ve received.”


As of this writing, signatories include National Book Award–winning author Jacqueline Woodson, who was awarded the prize for her young adult work Brown Girl Dreaming in 2014. Woodson is a finalist again this year for her adult novel, Another Brooklyn, which also deals with questions of privilege, prejudice and exclusion. 


Prominent young people’s authors such as Daniel José Older, Jane Yolen and Laurie Halse-Anderson have also signed the pledge.


The pledge reads, in part:



Children’s literature may be the most influential literary genre of all. [...]


Therefore we, the undersigned children’s book authors and illustrators, do publicly affirm our commitment to using our talents and varied forms of artistic expression to help eliminate the fear that takes root in the human heart amid lack of familiarity and understanding of others; the type of fear that feeds stereotypes, bitterness, racism and hatred; the type of fear that so often leads to tragic violence and senseless death.



Read the full pledge at The Brown Bookshelf.


H/T The Guardian

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A TV Series About Selena's Life Is In The Works

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2016 seems to be the year of Selena Quintanilla. 


The Queen of Tejano music was honored with a Madame Tussauds wax figure in August and a sold out MAC Cosmetic line in October that sent fans into a frenzy. And now, according to Deadline, there’s a TV adaption based off of widower Chris Perez’s biography To Selena, with Love in the works. 


Selena’s fan base seems to have only grown stronger in the 21 year since her death. So its no surprise that Endemol Shine North America and Major TV would option the television rights to Perez’ 2012 book, which gives an intimate look at the singer’s life and the love story she shared with her husband before her death.



“I spent several years keeping the memories of my late wife bottled up inside,” Perez wrote in a statement posted to his Facebook on Tuesday. “To Selena, with Love allowed me to finally embrace my experience and understand the void it could fill in the hearts of so many others. I am now ready to take the important step of being fully transparent and bringing my everlasting relationship to life on the screen.”


Perez’s book will be adapted for both English- and Spanish-speaking audiences, according to Cris Abrego, CEO of Endemol Shine North America.  


When Perez released the biography in 2012, he spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how he hoped people would remember Selena. 


“People need to remember what she stood for, the values she had,” he told the publication. “If she gave any message to the younger generation, it would be: Stay in school, and anything is possible as long as you work for it. If people remembered her in that way, I’d be happy and I’m sure she would be happy, too.”

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8 Comics That Long-Time Couples Have Lived IRL

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One of the best perks of settling into a long-term relationship is the ability to be totally, unabashedly yourself ― quirks and all. And the doodles below, by illustrator Enzo of the comic series Cheer Up, Emo Kid, capture that perfectly.


Check them out, and go here for more. 


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These Are The Winners Of The 2016 National Book Awards

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The 67th National Book Awards were presented on Nov. 16 in New York City, where authors of fiction, nonfiction, young people’s literature and poetry convened to celebrate the art of writing. 


The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community was awarded to Cave Canem Foundation, and the Medal for Distinguished Contribution was awarded to biographer Robert. A Caro.


In accepting his award, Cornelius Eady, co-founder of Cave Canem, tied his organization’s feats, which aims to foster the growth of budding African American poets, to the current political climate. 


“It’s our job and our duty to make sure that we get to write our story. That we get to say who we are,” Eady said. “The fullness of who we are, the contradictions of who we are, in our own language, in our own way.”


Below are the winners in each of the National Book Award’s four categories.


Young People’s Literature


March: Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell


Poetry


The Performance of Becoming Human by Daniel Borzutzky


Nonfiction


Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi


Fiction


The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 


Under new leadership ― Executive Director Lisa Lucas, who comes from the literary magazine Guernica ― the National Book Awards have stated an intention to better reflect a diverse readership. 


In an interview with The New York Times shortly after her title new role was announced, Lucas said, “Look, I’m a black woman. I care a lot about racial inequity. But when I think about building a nation of readers, I don’t think it’s fair to leave anyone behind. If I say I’m going to focus only on racial inclusivity, and I don’t think about poverty or regional isolation, then I’m failing to connect people, which is what literature does.”


The new direction of the awards hasn’t gone unnoticed. A recent op-ed in The Daily Beast took issue with this year’s nominees, noting that several of the fiction options were short, rather than sprawling and ambitious. Readers on Twitter responded, defending Jacqueline Woodson’s lyrical meditation on girlhood, along with the other nominees.


The dissonance between readers and writers hoping for the awards to appeal to a wider readership and those wishing for them to celebrate more traditionally hailed work is longstanding. This year, the National Book Foundation bolstered the idea that works that are both rigorous and representative of a broad swath of America’s writers can be celebrated at once. 


As Lucas said at the ceremony, “Let us remember that books give us hope, give us comfort, that they light our way, and that they bring us together. Together, we can work to make that community of readers bigger, and stronger, and more powerful.”

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