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Yoko Ono Calls To End Gun Violence On Anniversary Of John Lennon Murder

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It’s been 36 years since John Lennon was gunned down in the archway of the Dakota building in New York City, but his death continues to strike a chord with all those impacted by gun violence today. 


On Thursday, his widow Yoko Ono commemorated the anniversary by sharing a powerful image of blood-stained glasses on Facebook with a harrowing statistic of the number of people who’ve been killed by guns in the United States since Lennon’s murder in 1980.


“Every day, 91 Americans are killed with guns,” she captioned the image. “We are turning this beautiful country into a War Zone. Together, let’s bring back America, the green land of Peace. The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience. After 36 years, our son Sean and I still miss him.” 





Others touched by Lennon’s legacy paid tribute to the slain Beatle with moving posts across social media. His son Sean Lennon shared a photo of his parents with a link to a song about his father, while the estate of George Harrison posted a throwback of the two former bandmates in happier days. 



http://youtu.be/rhN7_NzdpGU

A photo posted by Sean Ono Lennon (@sean_ono_lennon) on







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Alabama Execution Of Ronald Smith Back On After Supreme Court Lifts Stay

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The U.S. Supreme Court lifted a second stay late on Thursday within hours of the death sentence for a former Eagle Scout condemned in a 1994 convenience store killing, clearing the way for his execution.


Ronald Smith, 45, had originally been set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. CST  at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, before the Supreme Court twice ordered his execution put on hold with just hours to spare.


The court later lifted the second hold at about 9 p.m. CST (0300 GMT), after which his attorneys immediately filed a petition for another stay.


The Supreme Court offered no explanation for any of the three orders it issued in the case on Thursday.


If Smith is put to death, he would be the 20th person executed in the United States this year and the second in Alabama, according to the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center.


The Supreme Court granted a last-minute hold to stop Alabama carrying out another man’s death sentence a month ago. Justices also did not give a reason for the stay of execution in that case.


Alabama’s death penalty process is under scrutiny after the high court ruled in January that a similar death penalty law in Florida gave too much discretion to judges.


Smith was convicted of murdering Casey Wilson, a convenience store clerk in Huntsville, during a failed robbery.


The jury that convicted Smith recommended a sentence of life in prison without parole. However, trial judge Lynwood Smith, now a federal judge, imposed a death sentence, as allowed by state law.


According to trial testimony, Smith had been an Eagle Scout and a member of the National Honor Society but struggled with alcoholism as an adult.


In an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Smith’s attorneys argued that his death sentence should be overturned.


They contended that Alabama’s process was similar to Florida’s, which the court struck down this year. The justices ruled that Florida judges were given powers that juries should wield in deciding eligibility for the death penalty.


The U.S. Supreme Court has since ordered Alabama to review similar practices in four other cases not involving Smith, according to court documents. Those reviews are pending.


Alabama argues that its law is different from Florida’s and that the Supreme Court ruling in the Florida case was not retroactive to earlier cases.


 


(Reporting by David Beasley in Atlanta; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Leslie Adler and Paul Tait)

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Mexican Children's U.S. Dance Trip Cancelled Over Post-Election Fears

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A group of Mexican children won’t be making a planned trip to dance in the United States next year due to concerns over visiting the country during the presidency of Donald Trump


Grupo Folklorico, comprised of middle- and high-school students from Instituto Blaise Pascale in Oaxaca, was planning to visit the sister city of Palo Alto, California, in April.


However, after Trump’s election, parents started to cancel, according to Neighbors Abroad of Palo Alto, a volunteer group that coordinates sister city activities.


“They are parents like... parents anywhere,” said Bob Wenzlau, the organization’s president. “When they are sending their children without their being there, there’s a heightened sensitivity, like any of us have.”


Palo Alto is an affluent city in the progressive San Francisco Bay area, but that distinction may not mean much to parents in a faraway part of Mexico, a country that was often targeted by Trump during the presidential election. 


“We know we can tell them things are safe here,” Wenzlau said. But in their view, sending the kids to anywhere in the U.S. in this climate could still be risky.


“These are parents that are afraid to send their children into a little bit of harm’s way up here,” he said. “They’re a long way away.”


Wenzlau shared a portion of an email from the event’s organizer in Mexico, which cited “the socio-political situation in the U.S.A.” as the reason for the cancellation. 


The story was first reported by the local Palo Alto Online.  


It’s as yet unclear what effect, if any, Trump’s presidency will have on tourism, especially from Mexico. However, last week Canada lifted visa requirements on Mexican visitors in a bid to encourage both investors and tourists ― and perhaps capitalize on concerns among Mexicans leery of visiting the United States as Trump takes office next month.

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Play Darth Vader's Theme On A Coffee Stirrer To Wake Up On The Dark Side

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Here’s how to give your morning cup of joe an interstellar “Star Wars” twist.


Pinging a simple plastic coffee stirrer on the edge of a table, Deita Meira achieved a rousing rendition of Darth Vader’sImperial March” theme.


Meira, from Ufa in central Russia, posted the clip to YouTube on Tuesday and it’s since garnered more than 1 million views.


Altogether now… “Dum Dum Dum, Dum-te-Dum, Dum-te-Dum.”







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The Story Behind ‘Killer Tofu,’ An Anthem For ‘Doug’ Fans Everywhere

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If we are what we consume — not just gastronomically, but mentally, too — then early Nickelodeon shows might help to explain why ‘90s kids crave the twee, the vibrant, the nostalgic, the anti-machismo.


The cartoons we grew up on — shows like “The Ren & Stimpy Show,” “Rugrats,” and “Rocko’s Modern Life” — are plumb with pastiche, cultural references, and strange, inventive characters. Shows like “Doug” don’t star superheroes saving the world. Instead, they riff on the concept of heroism, all within the confines of an introverted character’s imagination (Remember Quailman?).


“Doug” plays with other cartoon tropes, too. Even its intro sequence pokes fun at the idea that its characters ― Doug, his sporty crush Patti Mayonnaise, his best friend Skeeter, and his frenemy Roger ― wear the same outfits each day, thumbing through closets full of identical getups. It is, in many ways, a cartoon about the silly conventions of cartoons. But it’s also a touching story of a quiet kid navigating school, crushes, friendships, and bullies.


“It was really a gentle, funny story,” Alan Silberberg, a former writer on the show, told The Huffington Post. He recalls being impressed with the originality of “Doug,” which first aired in 1991 alongside “Rugrats” and “Ren & Stimpy,” a then-new slate of Nickelodeon cartoons aimed at young viewers.


“Those three cartoons were amazingly, divergently different from anything that was happening,” he said. “A lot of [other] cartoons then didn’t really have a personal voice that spoke to kids.”


Silberberg ― who interned after college with future “Doug” creator Jim Jinkins before going on to work as the head writer for Nickelodeon’s “Double Dare” ― said he fell in love with the show’s pilot episode and reached out to his former boss to try to land a job.





“I made a reference probably not many people saw,” Silberberg said. “There’s one little scene, there’s a Halloween party and there’s a dancing ham. And I said, ‘I love the To Kill a Mockingbird reference,’ and he was like, ‘Cool, you saw it!’”


Silberberg ended up writing several full episodes of “Doug,” including the storyline that first introduced The Beets, the fictional band that Doug and Skeeter fawned over. In “Doug Takes a Hike/Doug Rocks,” he and Skeeter win tickets to see the group ― a British foursome, so, yes, the pun is intended ― but miss the show because Skeeter’s on parent-enforced house arrest.


For the episode, Silberberg wrote the lyrics to a hit by The Beets called “Killer Tofu,” contributing to their several-song discography, which consisted of gems “Shout Your Lungs Out” and “I Need More Allowance.”


Who actually made the music for The Beets from Doug?” a Redditor asked in 2011, inspiring a lively thread that never reached a satisfying conclusion. Silberberg put the question to bed, confirming that Dan Sawyer and Fred Newman ― who also did the voice of Skeeter and Doug’s dog Porkchop, as well as the beat-boxing bit that kicked off each episode ― were the musicians behind the fictional band. On-screen, The Beets resembled a ‘90s take on British rock, with a Lennon-like frontman, a mustached drummer, a platform-wearing keyboardist, and a bassist with a purple chili bowl ‘do. But behind the scenes, they were the creation of a team of writers, sound designers and voice actors. 


Silberberg describes The Beets’ lyrics as “definitely goofy.” “Fast food feels fuzzy / ‘Cause it’s made from stuff that’s scuzzy,” a nasally frontman sings. “I used to feel like such a nerd / ‘Cause I refused to eat that strange bean curd.”


For “Killer Tofu,” Silberberg said he borrowed the title and premise from his time put in at “Double Dare,” where, he explained, tofu was among the many “food-like substances” used as goopy obstacles and punishments on the show.


“There was a lot of criticism that a lot of food was wasted on that show, and the producer always said, ‘We throw tofu! Tofu’s not real food.’ So I kind of held onto the idea that tofu was a funny word. A funny idea. It sounds funny,” he said. “I wanted goofy, and I wanted a little subversive, you know, for 7-year-olds,” he said.





Although the humor of The Beets could certainly appeal to adults, Silberberg says the jokes imbedded in the song ― and in the episodes he helped write ― aren’t aimed at parents, but younger “Doug” viewers.


“I wanted to be smart, and sincere, and funny. And sometimes when those three things come together, you do create something that is appreciated on separate levels,” he said.


The sincerity of the show stuck with Silberberg, who went on to write his own first-person children’s books, told from the perspective of earnest young boys. The book he’s most proud of, Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze, is about a 13-year-old who copes with the death of his mother with humor. Just as “Doug” creator Jinkins imagined a heartfelt character by channeling his own childhood experiences, Silberberg drew from his personal life with Milo.


There’s a certain lack, Silberberg says, of such affecting stories for young boys today.


“Sometimes, it’s hard for certain books to get into the right hands,” he said. “And although the books may exist, it’s hard for a boy to necessarily grab that book. I think the world is much more suited now to teachers and librarians and media specialists not paying attention to the norms and just trying to get the right books to the right kids.”


But for a generation of young creatives, there was “Doug,” an 11-year-old who holed away in his room, playing his banjo, listening to music, and telling stories in his journal.



Hit Backspace for a regular dose of pop culture nostalgia.

Also on HuffPost:


How Have Cartoons Changed Since The ‘90s?

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5 Things To Know About Pixar's Dia De Los Muertos Movie 'Coco'

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It’s been a long journey for “Coco,” Pixar’s Day of the Dead animated film. 


When the movie was first announced in 2012, it had no title and no clear focus besides being centered around Mexico’s Día de los Muertos celebrations, which begin on Oct. 31 and end on Nov. 2. But now Pixar and director Lee Unkrich, who worked on “Toy Story 3,” have begun to reveal the cast, plot details and concept art for the film.






There’s still plenty of time before the animated feature premieres in November 2017, but in the meantime here’s what Pixar fans need to know about this film.


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Inside 'Africa's Little Rome,' An Eerie City Where Time Stands Still

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“How do you photograph something that you are not allowed to see?” photographer Eli Durst asked in an interview with The Huffington Post. This was his central question when traveling to the East African city of Asmara, camera in tow. 


Specifically, Durst was referring to the human rights abuses that plague Eritrea’s capital city, home to around 560,000 people, many of whom are desperate to leave. According to a 2014 report from The New York Times, almost 4,000 Eritreans flee the totalitarian-ruled country each month. 


Eritrea was colonized by the Ottomans, the Egyptians, the Italians and the British before finally winning independence from Ethiopia in 1991. There has not yet been a single national election since independence was gained. The president has remained Isaias Afewerki, a man one Asmara teacher accused of “isolating [the] country so that nobody can see what happens here.


From the outside, Durst explained, the city’s tyrannical order is invisible, though not imperceptible. Protestors and criminals are imprisoned without trial and subjected to conditions that can only be described as torturous. An ominous veil of enforced calm blankets the streets. “A lot of people say it’s the safest city in Africa,” Durst said, “which in some senses is true because people are too afraid to commit crimes.”


Durst, who recently graduated with an MFA in photography from Yale, became interested in Asmara while volunteering at Casa Marianella, an emergency homeless shelter in East Austin, Texas, which provides shelter and legal advice for refugees seeking political asylum. Helping out his mom Sarah Woelk, an immigration lawyer, Durst took identification portraits for the applicants, getting to know many of them during the process. 



Many of the immigrants Durst worked with came from Eritrea. Time and again, when they found out he was a photographer, they urged him to visit their homeland, a place that remains so largely unseen. “They would all say, ‘You should photograph Asmara,’” Durst said. “I kept hearing it over and over again.” Durst was intrigued by the antithetical nostalgia attributed to a place people were simultaneously so desperate to leave. 


There is one crucial detail that helps account for the widespread reverence regarding the politically oppressive city: Its architecture. Most of Asmara’s structures were built under the Italian colonial rule of Benito Mussolini in the early 20th century, before Britain took control of the city in 1941. The city, which still retains the nickname “Africa’s little Rome,” is a peculiar sort of time capsule, full of art deco buildings that are otherwise only visible in classic Italian films, the stuff of Fellini.


In the summer of 2015, Durst received a grant to photograph the city of Asmara; he was there for 15 days. Although he embarked upon the project with no clear-cut idea of what he’d end up with, Durst was certainly seduced by idea of the architecture he’d heard so much about.


“These buildings were meant to be symbols of a fascist utopia,” he said. “They serve as visual symbols for the current autocratic state.” 



And yet, when he arrived, Durst found many of the structures he’d intended to document were either strictly off limits or in a state of decay. “There was this gorgeous, art deco pool all painted green,” Durst recalled. “I was so pumped to photograph it, but it was locked up and in total disrepair. It had been closed for 10 years.”


Durst was ignorant to the neglect, in part because Eritrea has no free press, and so little information about it reaches beyond its borders. “This building had just been closed for years and no one knew.”


During his stay, Durst was forbidden from photographing government buildings, and furtively followed by government handlers to ensure he complied. The photographer found himself in a position that, for Eritreans, was all too familiar. How do you convey what cannot be explicitly shown? As Durst put it: “How do you get at that underlying trauma or paranoia of the place?”


Durst found his answer in the cinematic quality of the architecture. Specifically, Durst felt a kinship between his environment and the films of Michelangelo Antonioni ― both characterized by a looming tension and anxiety ― palpable yet out of sight. 


The photographs in Durst’s “In Asmara” series operate similarly. At first glance, they’re mundane, yet something about them feels off, eerie, frustratingly unresolved ― a small scab that compels you to keep picking.


In one image, “Portrait with Beetle,” an identification photo rests on an empty street, accompanied only by a beetle wandering by. Shot from above, the image positions the viewer as a stranger strolling by, pausing momentarily to peer down at the abandoned, anonymous ID photo, incongruously juxtaposed with the bug twice its size. Durst’s time taking ID photos for escaped refugees comes to mind, though the image resists absolute resolution, as staunchly indeterminate as the snapshot within it. 



Another, “Eritel,” depicts the derelict sign of a cyber cafe, many of the letters teetering off balance or missing their casing. The neglected marquee speaks to the corresponding scarcity of what the internet allows and represents ― free speech, information, visibility, and communication. 


All of Durst’s photos imbue banal scenarios with cinematic intensity, capturing the anxious underbelly of a city through gesture, contrast, and atmosphere, mimicking the lack of access, transparency and dissent that constitutes Eritrean life. 


When Durst returned to Austin, he showed many of the immigrants the photos he took abroad, describing the experience as bittersweet. “There is a real, deep connection to this place,” Durst said, “a place they were desperate to leave. That is the paradox that first attracted me. A lot of people said, ‘Wow, it looks so much worse than when I was there.’ There is a sadness that nothing is being maintained. A deep sadness.”


Durst’s “In Asmara” won the 2016 Aperture Portfolio Prize. The work will be on view at Aperture Gallery in New York from Dec. 10, 2016, until Feb. 4, 2017.

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Artist Chronicles Her Transition In Hilarious And Heartfelt Comics

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Around six weeks ago, comic artist Julia Kaye tried something new. Until that point, she’d mostly populated her Instagram account with absurdist gag comics digitally rendered in bright colors. But for a few months, Kaye had been working on a private project, something more personal.


She’d been documenting her gender transition in hand-drawn, black-and-white drawings. At times silly, at times somber, but always full of realness, the comics illuminated the daily ups and downs of transitioning. And Kaye decided to share her work with her followers. 


She uploaded a drawing she created with the caption: “Thought I’d try posting something new: I’ve been making serious autobio comics about my transition and posting them on twitter (@upandoutcomic) on Thursdays. I’m not looking for pity or anything, just trying to say ‘hey! here’s an actual thing that happened to me cuz I’m trans.’”




The response was overwhelmingly positive, and this inspired Kaye to keep drawing, and keep sharing. She dubbed her new project “Up and Out.” 


“I realized I had an opportunity,” the artist explained to The Huffington Post, “that by eventually sharing them (when I was ready) I could reach other trans folks, maybe give them content they could directly relate to. I also had hopes that the strips could also give insight to allies what living with gender dysphoria can be like.”


Kaye’s drawings depict the everyday moments imbued with significance for a trans woman ― when actions like looking in the mirror, getting a haircut, or connecting with an old friend are steeped in gravity. 


In one bittersweet drawing, Kaye deletes old photos from Facebook, saying goodbye to a self she no longer recognizes, along with all the memories associated with it. In another, she agonizes over which public restroom she should use, not wanting to make anyone uncomfortable while also avoiding being harassed.


Through simple line drawings, Kaye communicates her victories and disappointments with an authentic voice and compelling force. 




“The experience was pretty exhausting,” Kaye expressed. “Amidst the mental stress of my work and transitioning itself, adding a daily comic to the mix could be really rough some days. But it was incredibly important to me to be making the strips: it was a sort of therapy, giving me a chance to reflect on what I was going through.”


Kaye, whose favorite comic artists include Benji Nate, Joey Alison Sayers, Miranda Harmon, Hannah Blumenreich and Anna Syvertsson, was initially worried about changing the direction of her work so dramatically, both in terms of the subject matter and the authenticity of her tone. “I worried about being emotionally vulnerable to a mass audience on a near daily basis,” she said, “allowing my private thoughts and experiences to be up for interpretation and comment.”


Yet so far Kaye’s described the reaction to her new artistic direction as overwhelmingly positive. She hopes the artwork will do its part to uplift trans individuals and enlighten others interested in learning more about gender transition. “I hope to just reach people who need it,” Kaye said. “People who need support, people who need hope, people who want to learn.”


Check out more of Kaye’s work on Twitter and Tumblr























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Christmas Carol Sung By A Computer Is Probably The Theme Song For Hell

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Well, we did it: We found the Christmas song of your nightmares.


Researchers in Toronto taught a computer to write and sing a holiday carol using a technology called “neural karaoke,” in which they fed the computer popular music and festive imagery for inspiration.


The result is 57 seconds of hell.


The lyrics are incredibly bizarre and involve statements like “I hope that’s what you say,” with no intimation as to who the “you” or the “I” is. There’s also a very disconcerting mention of “music coming from the hall.” Is this what we hear before we die?







Apparently, the computer that wrote this song listened to 100 hours of Christmas music to nail down a melody and then it added chords and drums, according to The Guardian. It was also shown pictures, and lyrics based on the words associated with those pictures, to create the horror you just listened to.


Why was this a venture that time, energy, and money was put into? We may never know. But, maybe, we did just find out the inspiration for The Nightmare Before Christmas 2.

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Over 1 Million People RVSP To Girl's Quinceañera After Invite Goes Viral

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Rubí Ibarra García and her family were planning to throw quite the bash for her quinceañera, but the internet had even bigger aspirations. 


More than 1 million people have RSVP’d to the party to be held in a rural town in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi on Dec. 26. And it all started with a viral video invite in which Rubí’s father Crescencio details the event before warmly announcing: “You’re all hereby cordially invited.”


Thousands, near and far, took those finals words to heart as 1.3 million have agreed to attend the party on a Facebook event. There’s even an unauthorized website for the party, which describes the birthday bash as “the biggest 15 in the world. We’re all invited!”


Rubi’s mother, Anaelda, told a local television station that the family only intended to invite people from the area.


“My husband made the invitation, but to people who live in neighboring regions,” she said, according to the Associated Press. “I don’t know who copied it, but they posted it and it blew up, as if it were an invitation to the entire world.”


The viral video invite also prompted a slew of memes that only strengthened the event’s popularity. Companies, like Mexican airline Interjet, even created ads in its honor and offered customers discounts on their travels to Rubí’s quince.










Even Mexican actor and “Mozart In The Jungle” star Gael García Bernal got in on the fun by starring in a parody video of the video invite





Anyone concerned that Rubí’s father had rescinded the invite after his daughter became “sad” that her party had been hijacked, can rest assured. After the family made peace with the attention, Crescencio welcomed everyone to what is bound to be the event of the century. 


“Everybody who wants to come, you’re all invited,” he said, according to AP.  


So, who wants to carpool? 

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Book Publishers Are Scrambling To Release Trump 'Survival Guides'

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The day after Donald Trump’s election win, many Americans experienced feelings akin to grief. And, actually, searches for the five stages of grief spiked on Nov. 9.


If the fifth stage in the grieving process ― which, by the way, is far from universally accurate ― is acceptance, the sixth, for Never Trumpers, might be mobilization. If your fears have been realized, what do you do?


Apparently, book publishers are swooping in to provide the answer. Yesterday, Publisher’s Weekly wrote about three titles being released in January that are aimed at providing guidance for those who struggle to cope with Trump’s upcoming inauguration.


Two of the three books are essay collections. What We Do Now: Standing Up for Your Values in Trump’s America will feature writing from the likes of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren; Radical Hope will compile heartening takes on the power of optimism and activism. The third title, The Trump Survival Guide, sounds like a jokey stocking stuffer but will actually feature practical advice.


All three titles were, of course, conceived after election night, making the turnaround time for their respective publishers ― Melville House, Vintage and Dey Street ― much quicker than usual.


But, rushing out timely titles isn’t unheard of. The Guardian points out that “a handful of books have been revised and rushed out in the runup to Christmas, to meet demand for information in the wake of the Brexit vote.” A reissue of the book Glory & Bollocks: The Truth Behind 10 Defining Events in British History has been revised by its publisher, Oneworld, with an added chapter on Brexit.


Both U.K. and U.S. publishers have already responded to Trump’s candidacy and election with less-serious books, too. In July, Michael Ian Black released a jokey riff on children’s literature, A Child’s First Book of Trump, published by Simon & Schuster; next week, Bard of the Deal: The Poetry of Donald Trump, a goofy parody, will come out from HarperCollins.


For more earnest analyses, more time is needed. After an election cycle fueled by regional divides and fake news shared on social media, it’s heartening to see publishers contributing much-needed, deliberately arranged collections to the conversation. One hopes it’s not too little, too late.


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Tiny, Magical Shops For Mice Are Popping Up In Sweden

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If you happen to be walking through the Swedish city of Malmö, make sure to pay attention to the little details.


If you take a look down you may notice something amazing inside a basement window in the neighborhood of Möllevången. Tiny businesses — a bakery and a “cheese and cracker” shop — just the right size for mice.



#anonymouse #anonymouse_mmx #Malmö #möllan

A photo posted by AnonyMouse (@anonymouse_mmx) on




“It’s just too darn charming to imagine a world where mice lives parallel to ours but just slightly out of sight,” said one representative of the artist group Anonymouse MMX, who wishes to remain anonymous. (The group has no connection with Anonymouse.org, a site devoted to online privacy.)


They cited the works of Don Bluth, Disney and Astrid Lindgren as “big influences” for the idea. The photos appear to show only two adjacent shops, but the group says they have plans for more.



#anonymouse #anonymouse_mmx #Malmö

A photo posted by AnonyMouse (@anonymouse_mmx) on




So what goes into the construction of a store for mice?


“They are built of things that we had laying around and also things we collected, like caps, lids from tin cans, matches, buttons, a lamp shade, Italian stamps etc.,” one of the artists said in an email. “The idea was to use things mice themselves could have collected and reused.”



The shops aren’t actually open for business, though.


“The nuts are real but the store is closed at the moment, so unless the mice possess some kind of lockpicking talent we doubt they’ll get it,” an artist said.


But it does sound like the place certainly has some human fans.


“The idea is for them to stick around until someone breaks them, and for them to become an organic part of the city,” the mysterious mouse artist said. “Already people have started to interact with them ― someone has baked miniature buns and posters have been added to the scenery.”



#anonymouse_mmx @anonymouse #möllan

A photo posted by AnonyMouse (@anonymouse_mmx) on




We can’t wait to see what critter-centric establishments crop up next.


As Anonymouse says in their email sign-off, “Cheese out!”



#anonymouse #anonymouse_mmx #möllan #Malmö

A photo posted by AnonyMouse (@anonymouse_mmx) on




H/T BoredPanda

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Mark Burnett Presents: A Donald Trump Inauguration Day

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You can be highbrow. You can be lowbrow. But can you ever just be brow? Welcome to Middlebrow, a weekly examination of pop culture.



In light of a recent New York Times report on a meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and reality TV baron Mark Burnett, we have taken the liberty of imagining Trump’s Inauguration Day, reality-style. 







RYAN SEACREST, over silent montage of Donald Trump campaigning: You’ve seen his name plastered across skyscrapers, white nationalist internet forums and, somehow, ballots in the 2016 election. Now Donald John Trump has been elected your next President of the United States. Some thought it couldn’t happen.


DONALD TRUMP, audio clip from Oct. 19 debate: Wrong!


SEACREST, facing camera with a strained smile: Let’s watch as history is made. This is … Inauguration Day 2016! But first, let’s take a ride with the future first family as they get ready for the big day.


Int. Trump family limousine. 


IVANKA, overheard: Yes, tell Hillary I’ve—


DONALD TRUMP, scrolling through Twitter on his phone: Ivanka, have you taken care of the red carpet? I need to have “currant,” not “ruby.” The “ruby” is just terrible. Awful. It has to be “currant.” You’ll take care of that, right, Ivanka?


IVANKA, holding receiver: Yes, I’ve done the carpet, I have the POTUS Twitter account details saved in an email so you can start using that after the speech, I finally convinced Pence to stop quoting “Hamilton” lyrics — but just for this week — and I packed you an extra iPhone charger.


MELANIA TRUMP blows on her matcha tea before turning back to her People magazine. BARON TRUMP’s eyes do not move as he sits in front of a copy of The Art of the Deal; TIFFANY TRUMP reads Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling.


DONALD TRUMP, still looking at his phone: That Katy Perry has some very—


Camera cuts out as IVANKA smacks it to the limousine floor. 


TIFFANY, confessional: Whenever Dad says something dumb, I just grab the popcorn and wait for Ivanka to start giving him another speech about watching his tongue. I literally always have some popcorn in my bag with me. 


DONALD TRUMP, confessional: I was only going to talk about her follower count. No one has more respect for women than Trump.


Ext. White House.


SEACREST: The changing of the guard has a long history in this country. Take a look at how the nation’s 44th president, Barack Obama, is spending his final days here in office. 


Int. Oval Office, hidden-camera footage.


PRESIDENT OBAMA: Alright, girls. We won’t be standing in this room as a family for a while. Not until your mom decides to run for―


MICHELLE OBAMA makes a “zip it” motion.


PRESIDENT OBAMA: OK, well, she’s still deciding, but for now let’s take a look around and remember how many wonderful years we’ve spent in this house, all the cool stuff we found under the floorboards, all the turkeys we pardoned together, and—


BO: [barks at camera]


SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Sir, it appears there has been a security breach. I need you and the first family to step outside while— 


SEACREST, sounding tired: Unfortunately, the Obama family has declined to participate further in this production. 



Int. Trump Hotel.


DONALD TRUMP: Melania looks stunning. Mike, doesn’t Melania look stunning? She’ll be great on camera, just beautiful. The inauguration will be beautiful, I guarantee it.


MELANIA, softly: I was told I would not have to speak to the cameras. 


IVANKA, jogging in from another room, slightly out of breath: No, no, you’ll just have to smile! But Don Jr., we need you to smile less. You’re still creeping people out, remember. OK, where are the kids’ furs? Are they still at the cleaner? Jared?


JARED KUSHNER, looking at his phone, wordlessly holds up three glistening white fur coats slung over his arm. ARABELLA and JOSEPH enter the room wearing bejeweled gold crowns, followed by a nanny who carries THEODORE, draped in shimmering velvet.


KUSHNER, confessional: I actually just had the groomer do the furs after Ivana’s dog the other day. [Grins]


Camera pans to DONALD TRUMP and STEVE BANNON speaking intensely off to the side. 


BANNON: So Breitbart and Liberty Writers are in Pen 1, about 20 feet from the stage, and everyone else will be in Pen 2, which will be over by the Washington Monument. 


DONALD TRUMP: [Nods]


Ext. Capitol Building.


SEACREST, sipping from a straw planted in an opaque Coke-branded water bottle: America, the moment has finally come. Let’s take a look at these crowds! Let’s hear what they’re chant ― Um, let’s move over to the stage. 


KID ROCK emerges to sing the national anthem. DONALD TRUMP takes his oath on the Lincoln bible, which has been covered in gold leaf for the occasion. Upon his final word, the U.S. Army Band emerges wearing red “Make America Great Again” T-shirts over their uniforms to play “Hail to the Chief,” which morphs seamlessly into the theme from “Game of Thrones” as two large #MAGA banners unfurl from the Capitol Building between a heavily Photoshopped profile of Trump in the center. Cut to commercial.


Follow Sara on Twitter: @sara_bee

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Kate McKinnon To Join Ranks Of Comic Book Movie Stars As 'The Lunch Witch'

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After a widely beloved turn as Jillian Holtzmann in “Ghostbusters” this year, Kate McKinnon will be getting a movie of her very own.


As Deadline reported, the “SNL” star will lead in an adaptation of Deb Lucke’s YA comics series The Lunch Witch. In the books, the witchy Grunhilda takes a job as a school lunch lady based on her family’s penchant for stirring up magical brews. (No one believes in magic anymore, so times are tough.) She enjoys scaring her cafeteria charges until she warms up to a young outsider.


If McKinnon’s previous roles are any indication, it should be a hoot. The film is to be directed by Clay Kaytis, one half of the directorial team behind “Angry Birds.”


Check out Lucke describing the creation of The Lunch Witch below. 





While we wait for McKinnon to don her hairnet, you can catch her in “Office Christmas Party,” opening Friday.

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Dorothea Lange's Photos Of Imprisoned Japanese-Americans Need To Be Seen

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Photographer Dorothea Lange, well-known as a documenter of the Great Depression for the Farm Security Administration, captured the plight of poverty-stricken Americans with empathy, respect, and unflinching honesty. Her most famous work, “Migrant Mother,” reflecting the desperation and resilience of a mother working as a pea-picker, has become the defining image of that grim era in U.S. history. 


She is lesser recognized, however, for her work chronicling the prison camps in California, as well as Washington, Oregon, and Arizona, where people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated between 1942 and 1946 ― reportedly because the works were quietly censored by military commanders who reviewed and disapproved of the work. 



Directly following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, American military police began the systematic imprisonment of Japanese-Americans. A chilling FBI report from the time reads: “It is said, and no doubt with considerable truth, that every Japanese in the United States who can read and write is a member of the Japanese intelligence system.”


In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which, according to PBS, “permitted the military to circumvent the constitutional safeguards of American citizens in the name of national defense,” calling for the evacuation and imprisonment of Japanese-Americans.


Over 120,000 persons of Japanese descent, many of them children, were required by the military to evacuate their homes and businesses and relocate to prison camps, where they lived surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards for up to four years. Some, however, died in the camps due to lack of medical care, emotional stress, or were killed by military guards. Over two-thirds of those incarcerated were American citizens.



Lange, renowned for her work for the FSA, was recruited to create a photographic record of the “evacuation and relocation” processes by The War Relocation Authority. Despite, or perhaps because of, Lange’s moral objection to the prison camps, she obliged. Lange visited cities around California, photographing Japanese-Americans packing up their belongings, being packed onto buses, and shuttling to ramshackle temporary housing facilities. 


She made a visit to one of the nation’s largest camps, Manzanar, in the Southern California desert, where she documented without reservation the conditions under which people were forced to live. By the time the camps were decommissioned, Lange had taken over 800 photographs, images that objectively captured the humanity of their subjects and the brutality of their circumstances.


Some prisoners were supplied insufficient food and medical treatment, as well as substandard housing. Some, accused of resisting orders, were subjected to violence. Lange caught it all on camera. 



When the War Relocation Authority surveyed the photos, Lange’s political perspective was obvious. They promptly seized the images and, for decades, kept them from widespread public viewing. 


In 1946 the prison camps were decommissioned and detainees ― many of whom were impoverished, mentally ill, and elderly ― were released. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a Civil Liberties Act declaring that the decision to incarcerate Japanese-Americans was spurred by “racial prejudice, wartime hysteria and a lack of political leadership,” formally apologizing to all living survivors. 


Lange’s photographs, both powerful works of documentary photography and searing reminders of our nation’s grave historical abuses, have been making the rounds online recently. The photographs have become disturbingly foreboding in the wake of retired Navy SEAL Carl Higbie’s comments citing the wartime incarceration of Japanese-Americans as “precedent” for creating a federal registry for immigrants from Muslim countries.


Furthermore, President-elect Donald Trump himself has stated that, had he been alive during World War II, he might have supported the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans. “I would have had to be there at the time to tell you, to give you a proper answer,” he said. 



As the country fearfully awaits what will become of the nation under a Trump presidency, Lange’s photos serve as a crucial reminder of what is possible when fear clouds judgment and hate obstructs human empathy. In the words of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: “Now is not the time to tiptoe around historical references ... It is the astute response of those who know that history gives both context and warning.”


We’ve compiled some of Lange’s searing photos, drawn from the archives of the Library of Congress, here. Historical blogger Tim Chambers, who shared Lange’s work on his blog Anchor Editions, is currently selling Lange’s prints for $50, with half of all proceeds benefitting the ACLU, an organization that fought relentlessly against the unjust incarcerations and remains just as important today. 




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Awesome Is What The 2016 National Geographic 'Nature Photographer Of The Year' Winners Are

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Just like last year, the winners of the 2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Contest amaze and astound us. 


This year the Grand Prize goes to Greg Lecoeur’s jaw-dropping shot of the feeding frenzy that accompanies sardine migration along the Wild Coast of South Africa. 


Additional prizes are given in four categories: Action, Animal Portraits, Landscapes and Environmental Issues. 


Check out the rest of the awesome photography below:


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'Doctor Who' Does New York In This Year's Christmas Special

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Doctor Who” is going stateside this Christmas.


The BBC released an action-packed trailer for the sci-fi series’ holiday episode on Friday, titled The Return of Doctor Mysterio.” 


The teaser lasts only 30 seconds, but it does appear to show Peter Capaldi’s titular character teaming up with an investigative reporter and a figure known as “The Ghost” to save Manhattan from brain-swapping aliens.





The episode airs in the U.S. via BBC America on Dec. 25


Check out the full trailer above.


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Newt Gingrich: Donald Trump Sticking With 'Celebrity Apprentice' Is 'Weird'

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Stalwart Donald Trump supporter Newt Gingrich has denounced the president-elect’s decision to continue as executive producer of the reality show “The New Celebrity Apprentice” when he’s in office. 


“I think it’s weird. It’s weird. I don’t think it’s relevant,” he told Fox News on Friday.


“He is going to be the executive producer of the American government and a huge TV show called ‘Leading the World.’”


Gingrich suggested Trump turn the program over to his three eldest children. “He ought to just relax, give the executive producer to Eric or Donald or Ivanka. I think he is still going through some transition things here where it hasn’t quite sunk in totally,” he added.


The president-elect announced his plans on Thursday to continue his relationship with the NBC reality franchise. He’ll run the show in his “spare time,” Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said Friday, dismissing concerns that he won’t have much downtime as president.


“Were we so concerned about the hours and hours and hours spent on the golf course by the current president?” she said on CNN, in reference to President Barack Obama. “I mean, presidents have a right to do things in their spare time or their leisure time. I mean nobody objects to that.”


But Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) slammed Trump for continuing with the program when he apparently doesn’t have time for regular intelligence briefings, Politico reported. “I consider it bizarre,” he said. 


The president-elect has a “big stake” in the NBC production, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told ABC. And that’s what worries critics concerned about Trump’s potential conflicts of interest in the White House.


It would be difficult for him to be impartial about issues such as telecommunication laws, a rival TV program or legislative decisions that may affect brands advertising on his program, if Trump continues his association with the show, they believe.


NBC’s parent company, Comcast, is a media conglomerate regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, which he will soon oversee.


Trump will “be tempted, consciously or otherwise, to favor NBC or use the White House to promote this source of revenue,” Norm Eisen, who served as Obama’s chief ethics lawyer, told the Chicago Tribune.


The show that brought the New York City businessman to national attention is due to air again with new host, actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) in January.


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Photos Shine A Spotlight On Just How Beautiful Traffic Lights Can Be

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These photographs are simply traffic-stopping.


Lucas Zimmermann’s long exposures of a set of traffic lights near Weimar in central Germany are going viral, for all the right reasons.


The 23-year-old Bauhaus University student actually snapped the images in 2013, but they gained international exposure this week after Reddit user dittidot posted one of the pictures online.




Zimmermann, who is studying visual communications with a focus on photography, said he came up with the concept in a “purely intuitive” way.


“I was lucky to be at the right place at the right time,” he told The Huffington Post this week.




See more of Zimmermann’s photographs on his Behance account, Facebook page and website.


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Bob Dylan Honored At Nobel Prize Banquet Despite Absence

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The times, they are a changin’.


When word of Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize triumph caught wind, the literary world broke into heated, divisive debate. Does a songwriter deserve the recognition ― and money ― typically reserved for poets and novelists?


Just as dissenters began to accept the unexpected choice, Dylan stirred the pot. He declined to comment on ― or even accept ― the prize until two weeks after its announcement. Then, last month, the Swedish Academy announced that he would not attend the ceremony, “due to pre-existing commitments.”


The Academy noted in the same announcement that past winners — including writer Doris Lessing — have been unable to claim their prize at the ceremony.


So, diehard Dylan fans had no speech-in-song-form to anticipate, at least not one sung by Dylan himself. Dylan said he would write a “speech of thanks” to be presented at the banquet. Instead, Professor Horace Engdahl, a Swedish literary historian and critic, presented the award and delivered his own remarks.


“By means of his oeuvre, Bob Dylan has changed our idea of what poetry can be and how it can work,” Engdahl said. [You can read a full transcript of the speech here.]


Patti Smith attended the ceremony, and performed a cover of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” as tribute to Dylan. Smith was asked to perform before Dylan’s win was announced; she’d planned to play one of her own songs, but switched gears when Dylan, who influenced her own work, was awarded the prize.


“I have been following him since I was a teenager, half a century to be exact,” Smith said in an interview with Rolling Stone.


Smith stumbled at one point during the performance, forgetting the lyric: “I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’.” The singer apologized, explaining that she was nervous, and finished out the song. 





Perhaps one day, Smith will attend under different circumstances, as a musician-turned-literary influencer herself. For now, though, she sings Dylan’s words, chillingly apt for America’s current political climate. 


“I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,” she sang, highlighting the importance of words that can carry weight, and inspire change.

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