Quantcast
Channel: Culture & Arts
Viewing all 18483 articles
Browse latest View live

Clever Browser Extension Helps You Find New Library Books — On Amazon

0
0

Remember libraries?


They’re institutions where you can withdraw books and other media to enjoy at home for a short period (often two weeks) ― for free, unless you forget to return it and incur a small fine. Library borrowing is cheap, it prevents you from filling your home with stacks of finished books, and it functions as way to show support for a pillar of civic life.


Then again, shopping for discount reads on Amazon is so much easier these days.


Just open your laptop, browse through the new bestsellers, and click “Buy.” But changing your book-procurement method doesn’t have to be too onerous, with a browser extension called Library Extension. Install it on Google Chrome and it will pull up listings of the books you’re scoping out on Amazon at your local libraries. (Where, again, they will be free to borrow.)



The extension, which also works on a few other sites, including book-tracking community Goodreads and Barnes & Noble, does a neat role reversal on the old problem of showrooming.


When Amazon, with its quick shipping and rock-bottom prices, rose on the book-selling scene, brick-and-mortar bookstores noticed that customers were coming in to browse their offerings only to turn around and buy the books they selected online, at a discount. Book Court, the store mentioned by author Emma Straub in a 2011 Time piece on showrooming, shuttered late last year. 


But via Library Extension, this practice is turned on its head: Web users browsing for their new read from their couch can quickly locate copies of the book they want locally, and choose to support a nearby library instead.


Though not all libraries appear to be on the extension, reviews suggest that the app’s developers are prompt about responding to requests to add more local branches. Wrote one, “A friend told me about this and they didn’t have my library. I sent them a request and my library was added within 5 hours!!”


Reviews of the extension, overall, are glowing, with an average rating of 4.5 stars. One librarian wrote, “There is such value in sharing materials, and this app will help the members of my community save their hard-earned money. In a poverty-stricken area like mine, this is essential to leading a happy, healthy, productive life.”


Amazon has already decided to dive into the bookshop pool with stores opening in several cities over the past year, and more planned. If libraries are the new competition, maybe an Amazon local library will be the next step.


H/T Bustle


type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related... + articlesList=586e54e8e4b0c8575a775684,585845c3e4b03904470a1efb,563cf3dfe4b0b24aee4a2bb5

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have A Dream' Speech In Full

0
0




Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a remarkable man who valued equality, justice and love. 


Each year, as we celebrate MLK Day and reflect on his iconic legacy, let us be reminded of his relentless fight and profound dream to have all men and women be treated equal. Perhaps no other speech sums up Dr. King's hopes for America more perfectly than the “I Have A Dream” speech he delivered in 1963 in Washington, D.C.


In memory of Dr. King and in honor of his legacy, revisit the speech by watching him deliver the remarks in the video above or reading the text in full below: 




Full text to the “I Have A Dream” speech:




I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.




Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.




But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.




In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.




It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.




It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.




But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.




We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.




As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.




I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.




Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.




I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.




I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”




I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.




I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.




I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.




I have a dream today.




I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.




I have a dream today.




I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.




This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.




This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”




And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!




Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!




Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!




But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!




Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!




Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.




And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”



 



 




 

 



 


 


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

President Obama's Best Pop-Culture Moments

0
0



As Barack Obama rides out his final week as president, we’re remembering him as America’s signature pop-culture president.


Oh sure, television got John F. Kennedy elected in 1960, Ronald Reagan began his career as a movie star, and Bill Clinton amplified his cool factor by playing saxophone on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1992. The Obamas, however, are the first presidential family to treat popular culture as a clear extension of politics, and not in the Trumpian reality-TV way.


From Oprah Winfrey’s victory-sealing endorsement to frequent late-night appearances and an affinity for Broadway’s “Hamilton,” Obama’s relationship to pop culture was no mere political maneuver ― he’s kept a keen awareness of the role entertainment plays in history and a verifiable appreciation for the arts.


With that, we’ve compiled a list of Obama’s signature pop-culture moments (or at least the ones with audiovisual evidence). Watch our supercut above, then browse the individual items below for an overview of the past eight years, gone too soon.


Nov. 3, 2007: Obama appears in a “Saturday Night Live” cold open in which he attends the Clintons’ Halloween party.





Dec. 8, 2007: Michelle Obama welcomes “first lady of television” Oprah Winfrey at an Iowa campaign rally, about seven months after Winfrey first endorsed Barack Obama. Economists later concluded that Winfrey’s support won Obama 1 million votes in the primaries and caucuses. 





April 17, 2008: Responding to negative campaign ads, Obama alludes to Jay Z’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder.” 





Jan. 20, 2009: At an inaugural ball, the Obamas share their first dance as the first couple while Beyoncé sings Etta James’ “At Last.”





March 19, 2009: Obama becomes the first sitting president to appear on a late-night talk show. 





Dec. 6, 2009: Obama calls Bruce Springsteen “one cool rockin’ daddy” while feting the singer at the Kennedy Center Honors. “I’m the president, but he’s The Boss,” Obama says.





Dec. 12, 2010: Obama and his family sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” alongside Mariah Carey, Ellen DeGeneres, Matthew Morrison, Maxwell, Annie Lennox, Andrea Bocelli and Miranda Cosgrove during TNT’s annual “Christmas in Washington” special.





Jan. 16, 2012: Obama wishes Betty White a happy 90th birthday. 





Jan. 19, 2012: During a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater, Obama sings a few charming bars of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.”





April 24, 2012: Obama slow-jams the news on “The Tonight Show” for the first time, encouraging Americans to sign up for health insurance. 





Oct. 19, 2012: “We talk about the same things I talk about with all my friends,” Obama says of his rapport with Beyoncé and Jay Z. One of those so-called normal conversation topics includes making sure Jay Z is helping out with Blue Ivy around the house.



Dec. 29, 2013: The New York Times publishes a detailed account of Obama’s viewing habits. His favorite television shows are “Boardwalk Empire,” “Breaking Bad,” “Downton Abbey,” “Game of Thrones,” “Homeland,” “House of Cards,” “Mad Men” and “The Wire.” (He’d previously told TV Guide he also watches “Modern Family” and “Parks and Recreation.”)



Jan. 28, 2014: In his State of the Union address, Obama says, “Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work. ... It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a ‘Mad Men’ episode.”





March 11, 2014: Obama becomes the first politician to appearing on Zach Galifianakis’ “Between Two Ferns,” where he encourages Americans to sign up for health insurance. (Hillary Clinton appeared on the web series during her 2016 campaign.)





March 12, 2015: Obama reads Mean Tweets.





April 1, 2015: Obama impersonates Kevin Spacey’s fictional “House of Cards” president in an April Fools’ Day video. 





April 25, 2015: Obama invites Keegan-Michael Key’s Luther the Anger Translator to interpret part of his speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. 





June 22, 2015: Obama appears on the podcast “WTF with Marc Maron,” where he says Sasha and Malia find him “completely boring.”





Dec. 17, 2015: Obama survives the Alaskan wilderness on “Running Wild with Bear Grylls.”





Dec. 30, 2015: Obama appears on Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”





Jan. 15, 2016: Obama says he’d pick Kendrick Lamar over Drake in a rap battle, naming “To Pimp a Butterfly” his favorite album of 2015.





March 14, 2016: The Obamas invite the cast of “Hamilton” to the White House to perform the opening number from the smash Broadway musical. (In 2009, Lin-Manuel Miranda performed a rough version of the song at the White House Poetry Jam. No one had heard it before. Miranda said it was from a “hip-hop concert album” he was working on.) 





March 15, 2016: Obama invites Miranda to the Rose Garden for a freestyle rap about the government. 





April 30, 2016: Obama concludes his final White House Correspondents’ Dinner with the words “Obama out” and a mic drop. 





June 9, 2016: Obama meets longtime supporter Madonna, who was the musical guest on his last appearance on “The Tonight Show.”



For Once I 'm Speechless...........President Obama @jimmyfallon

A photo posted by Madonna (@madonna) on




Aug. 11, 2016: Obama releases a summer playlist.





Oct. 31, 2016: Michelle and Barack dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” at a Halloween celebration. 





Jan. 10, 2017: In his farewell address to the nation, Obama borrows a quote from To Kill a Mockingbird hero Atticus Finch to remind America of the importance of empathy. 




-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

This Rare 1967 MLK Interview Will Give You Hope For Tomorrow

0
0



We’ve observed the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in books, speeches and transcripts. But the opportunity to witness the trailblazing civil rights icon speaking candidly in an interview beside some of his most valued friends is much more scarce. 


In a rarely circulated episode from June 1967 of The Merv Griffin Show, Dr. King, who appears alongside his close friend and fellow activist Harry Belafonte, shares powerful insight on the state of race in America at the time. 


The interview ― referred to by Griffin as a “rare opportunity” for the show and recently obtained by getTV ― gives us a glimpse into King’s reflections on the Vietnam War, civil rights demonstrations as well as the evolution of the black American’s spirit.


“It’s given the negro a new sense of dignity, a new sense of somebody-ness and this is maybe the greatest victory that we have won,” King said on the effect the civil rights movement had on black Americans. 


King also spoke on the resiliency of those involved in the movement as well as their white allies. Despite several legislative and judicial accomplishments, he acknowledged that there was much more work to be done to defeat the “cancerous racism” affecting black Americans.


While the feat is something we’re still working towards overcoming today, King had no qualms about what the resiliency of the movement’s supporters could accomplish.


“I’m not at all pessimistic about the future because I think the negro has a kind of determination,” King said. “And I think there are numerous allies in the white community with the same kind of determination. And with this kind of creative and constructive coalition we can move forward.”


This special episode of the Merv Griffin Show will premiere Monday at 8 PM ET on getTV

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

'Nasty Women' Art Shows Raise Over $50,000 For Planned Parenthood

0
0

Nearly 700 “Nasty Women” artists teamed up to protest President-elect Donald Trump earlier this month, contributing to an exhibition responding to his infamous debate barb.


The show, co-organized by New York-based artist Roxanne Jackson, featured “nasty”-related works priced at $100 or less ― all of which were sold to benefit Planned Parenthood. The pieces were on view from Jan. 12 through Jan. 15, at Queens’ Knockdown Center, and, over the course of three days, sold out, raising $42,500, according to Jackson. 


The NYC version of “Nasty Women” is but one of several shows planned in various cities across the country. As Jackson explained in an email to The Huffington Post, a “Nasty” show in Phoenix, Arizona, that opened on Jan. 14 sold out of over 200 works in the opening night alone, raising $11,000 for Planned Parenthood.


In total, the “Nasty” organizers have raised over $50,000 for the nonprofit organization devoted to reproductive health services ― and counting. The significant contribution is timely. Trump has expressed a desire to defund Planned Parenthood and “punish” women for having abortions.



Jackson originally posted a callout for a “Nasty Women” group show on Nov. 14, 2016. “Hello female artists/curators! Let’s organize a NASTY WOMEN group show!!! Who’s interested???” she wrote, tagging women artists, curators and writers in her circle. 


Soon after posting, the message went viral as artist after artist responded to and passed on the message. “I had no idea how much this would escalate and evolve,” Jackson explained to HuffPost in a previous interview. Within the first hour of posting, she had 300 responses. Jackson’s team accepted every work offered after that and, as a result, they acquired approximately 1,000 pieces by the time submissions closed. 


“This show isn’t necessarily about highlighting individual artists,” Jackson explained. “It’s about female-identifying artists coming together against the Trump regime.” 


There are currently almost 30 “Nasty Happenings” scheduled for the next two months, located mostly in American cities with a few shows set abroad. On the official “Nasty Women” website, Jackson and her team invite artists interested in organizing their own “Nasty Women” show to add their own dates, providing instructions with only one caveat: all shows adopting the “Nasty” name must donate their proceeds to an organization benefiting women’s rights.  


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

The Best Inauguration Week Music Won't Be Found At The Capitol Building

0
0

Donald Trump has had some serious trouble locking down musicians to perform at his inauguration festivities. In part, this might be because some of the best contemporary artists are busy planning alternative performances on and around inauguration weekend, aimed at protecting the people threatened by the president-elect’s administration, including women, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals ― and also, the Earth.  


Several live performances planned this month are taking a loudly anti-Trump stance, including the Planned Parenthood and All Access concert “Show Up!” The event, taking place at the 9:30 Club in D.C. on Jan. 19, will be headlined by Common and The National. The show is free, but sadly, tickets are still required and extremely limited.


A more feasible option for D.C.-bound marchers might be “NO THANKS: A Night of Anti-Fascist Sound Resistance in the Capital of the USA.” Set for Jan. 20, the lineup features Waxahatchee, Sadie Dupuis, and Pure Disgust, with proceeds benefitting Casa Ruby and ONE DC. Bonus: tickets are only $20.


If you’re more into Broadway than indie rock, no worries. Luckily there are plenty of categories of artists equally terrified about the future of our country! Broadway stars Chita Rivera, Bebe Neuwirth, Rosie O’Donnell, and Rosie Perez are among the performers participating in “Concert For America: Stand Up, Sing Out!” ― an evening dedicated to the values of free expression, hope, and multiculturalism that have always made our nation great. 


The show, scheduled for Manhattan’s Town Hall on Jan. 20, will showcase a proudly diverse roster of musical talent, with all proceeds benefitting Planned Parenthood, the NAACP, Sierra Club Foundation, Southern Poverty Law Center, and National Immigration Law Center.


Not able to catch a live show inauguration week? There’s a carefully curated song list for that: “Our First 100 Days.” Every day, for the first 100 days Trump is in office, the project will release a rare, unreleased or exclusive song on Bandcamp. Angel Olsen, How To Dress Well, Mitski, Toro Y Moi, and The Range are among the many artists releasing new music for the cause.


Subscriptions cost $30, with all proceeds going towards organizations working to protect marginalized communities, support reproductive rights, and prevent climate change, including All Above All and Cosecha.


While Toby Keith and the ‘90s band who sang that “Superman” song are slated to perform near the Capitol on the day Trump is sworn in, be sure to check out these other significant musical events, going down in D.C., New York, and a Bandcamp near you. 

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

2Cellos Conquer King's Landing With Epic 'Game Of Thrones' Theme Rendition

0
0



2Cellos deserve the freedom of the Seven Kingdoms for this breathtaking rendition of the “Game of Thrones” theme song.


The two cellists from Croatia ― Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser ― totally own the track with their version, for which they were accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra.


Warning: Their epic interpretation may make your spine tingle almost as much as composer Ramin Djawadi’s acclaimed original.





The duo filmed the video for their version in the Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik, where scenes for King’s Landing in the epic fantasy drama television show are actually shot.


It’s from their upcoming new album, “Score,” which will also feature songs from movie soundtracks including “Schindler’s List” and “The Godfather,” reports Mashable.


Watch the full performance above and see how it compares to the original theme song below:





type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related Coverage + articlesList=56cae793e4b0ec6725e3168f,5749539ce4b055bb117255fc,5736f72be4b060aa781a7804

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Green Day Rips Donald Trump In New 'Troubled Times' Video

0
0



Green Day takes aim at President-elect Donald Trump in its latest lyric video.


A Trump-like figure wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap appears to spew antagonistic rhetoric to crowds from a podium in the new clip for “Troubled Times,” which the punk rock band posted online on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Monday).


KKK rallies, footage of Civil Rights Movement protests and people holding “Stop racism, Islamophobia and war” signs are interspersed in the trippy video, which is now going viral.





“A new day dawning. Comes without warning. So don’t think twice. We live in troubled times,” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong prophetically sings. The clip ends ominously, however, with someone pressing a big red button to cause a gigantic mushroom cloud.


The video is decidedly apocalyptic, but the band said in an accompanying statement that, “Today we celebrate love and compassion more than ever.”





While the group doesn’t mention Trump by name in the video or song from its album “Revolution Radio,” it has not been shy about criticizing the former reality television personality in the past.


At the 2016 MTV Europe Music Awards, the day before the presidential election, they changed the words to their 2004 hit “American Idiot” from “subliminal mind-fuck America” to “subliminal mind-Trump America.”


And two weeks later at the American Music Awards, the rockers added the extra line of “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA” while performing “Bang Bang.”





type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related Coverage + articlesList=587dd347e4b0d4cc08847140,5879e127e4b0e58057ff11ea,5879fa81e4b0b3c7a7b19f7f

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


Yep, Scott Patterson's Favorite 'Gilmore Girls' Moment Is That Jess Scene

0
0

Scott Patterson’s favorite Luke moment on “Gilmore Girls” is ours, too.


The actor, who plays the perma-grumpy diner proprietor on the show, answered some fan questions for Elle Magazine in a video posted Monday. Asked about Luke’s best scene from the original WB (and later CW) series, Patterson recalled one where he doled out some tough love.


“Pushing my nephew Jess into the lake,” Patterson said. “No. 1 moment, probably in my life.”






The moment, from Season 2, Episode 5, comes shortly after Luke’s nephew Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia)  arrives in Stars Hollow to live reluctantly with his uncle. After being accused by Taylor Doose of stealing from a donation cup in the market, Luke becomes so frustrated by Jess’ lack of explanation and general sour attitude that he pushes the high schooler off a bridge.


Here’s the full scene in all its glory:





In his other responses, Patterson revealed his own diner order, what he does to relax instead of fishing (like his character) and his favorite “Luke-ism.” (”Red meat can kill ya. Enjoy.”)


Asked whether Luke and Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) should, in fact, end up together as they’re shown in last year’s Netflix revival, despite the couple’s many doubts, the actor responded definitively.


“You bet your sweet bippy we should,” Patterson said.


Netflix hasn’t made any official announcement on whether we can expect more “Gilmore Girls” episodes. But, given the revival’s unresolved ending and one  enigmatic tweet from the streaming service, fans can certainly hope.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

'Nasty Women' Is The Intersectional Essay Collection Feminists Need

0
0

What do we talk about when we talk about women’s rights?


For some women, affordable contraception is the most personally affecting issue; for others, the fear of deportation is more urgent. Our needs aren’t homogenous. We do make up over half of the world’s population, after all.


With the fast-approaching Women’s March on Washington, the question of how activists can give each of these rights credence under a single banner is timelier than ever. Organizers succinctly outlined their mission this weekend, prioritizing intersectionality.


“Women’s rights are human rights, regardless of a woman’s race, ethnicity, religion, immigration status, sexual identity, gender expression, economic status, age or disability,” the march site reads.


A similar credo is supported by an adjacent project, raising funds on Kickstarter for the next two weeks. 404 Ink, an indie publisher based in the U.K., plans to release an essay collection in March called Nasty Women, featuring a chorus of women’s voices and covering topics ranging from immigration to sexual assault.





“2017 is the year to push back against post-truths and sensationalism,” a YouTube video promoting the book begins. “Here is a book of real stories with real voices in it.”


In an interview with The Huffington Post, co-editor Heather McDaid said, “We don’t believe there’s a point in publishing a collection of real experiences if they’re an echo-chamber of the same story.” 


So, the day after Trump won the election, she and her collaborator, Laura Jones, decided to begin reaching out to writers who might want to participate in their project, allowing them to choose the topics of their own essays.


“There was a sense of shock to many, anger and sadness to others, particularly as women having watched someone sail to the presidency on such misogynistic rhetoric,” McDaid said. “With downplaying experts, and post-truth replacing reality, we wanted to do our part in pushing back with real stories and shouting about women’s experiences as loudly as possible while others try to sweep them, and many others’ stories, under the carpet.”


She described the resulting essays as being about, “everything from being a proud daughter of immigrants, to surviving sexual assault, the fetishization black women face, to more personal tales of family, mental health and role models, and hobbies that instill a sense of power.”


So far, the project’s been successful, gaining support from The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood, YA author Louise O’Neill, and author and TV writer Nikesh Shukla. And, McDaid and Jones have surpassed their fundraising goals, confirming that there’s an appetite for real stories told by real women.




-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Bolshoi's Youngest Prima Ballerina To Star In 'Sleeping Beauty'

0
0



You know the story. The lovely Princess Aurora, cursed by the evil Carabosse, falls into a deep slumber on her 16th birthday. Only true love’s kiss could break the spell.


No matter how many times you’ve read Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or “Little Briar Rose” by the Brothers Grimm ― or, for that matter, watched the Disney movie ― there is no experience quite like “The Sleeping Beauty,” the ballet. Tchaikovsky’s enchanting 19th century score brings the classic fairy tale to life, as it pulses through the movements of Olga Smirnova, Bolshoi Ballet’s youngest prima ballerina. 



“I danced as Aurora only once before on the Bolshoi stage,” Smirnova explains in a video interview. “I have to say that for a ballerina, this ballet is a celebration. It’s such a true combination of youth, energy, the beginning of life, it’s no wonder Aurora means the dawn of light. And you can see it in the dancing.” 


See Smirnova discuss what the role means to her, and hear from Bolshoi prima Ekaterina Shipulina, who has danced the role of Lilac Fairy, in the behind-the-scenes interview above. 


Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema’s production of “The Sleeping Beauty” will play at theaters across the country on Sunday, Jan. 22. Visit the Bolshoi website for tickets and more information. 


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

The Wild And Sometimes Frightening World Of ‘Punk’d’

0
0

Serena Williams almost started to cry as she drove the Ford SUV through traffic at speeds approaching 100 miles per hour.


Her voice shook as she spoke. It was easy to understand why. In front of Williams, an Escalade with two abducted children inside of it ― one of them a baby ― was racing along palm tree-lined Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles at dangerous speeds. Next to Williams was the baby’s mother, who was also the other child’s aunt.


“I’m almost crying for your baby,” Williams said to the woman. Overwhelmed by the weight of the situation, the tennis star took one hand off the wheel and held it over her heart.


Just minutes before, Williams had been waiting in the Ford SUV for her friend to use the bathroom. She was parked in a strip mall lot, where she had met the woman now seated next to her during the chase. As Serena witnessed in the parking lot, the woman’s teenage nephew had locked himself and her baby in a neighboring Escalade because the supposed aunt wouldn’t buy him coffee. Then, Williams watched the teenager jump into the driver’s seat of the car and speed away.


The aunt could have called the police. But instead, Williams acted fast, telling the mother and Williams’ friend, Jackie Long, to hop into the Ford SUV. Then, the chase began. But when she finally caught up to the Escalade, she saw something strange: The teenager was no longer driving the car; an unfamiliar man was.


Unbeknownst to Williams, she wasn’t the only person chasing down Ventura Boulevard at that moment. Just behind Williams, multiple cars were following her, too. Inside the trailing cars sat employees of the MTV prank show “Punk’d,” who were barking instructions over radio waves to people in both Williams’ car and the Escalade.


The aunt and her nephew, it ended up, weren’t related at all, but two actors on the show. The baby inside the car in front of Williams? A doll. And the Ford SUV Williams found herself driving? Fixed with multiple hidden cameras that were filming Williams’ every word and move.


The showrunners had never expected Williams to grab the wheel of the Ford SUV and chase after the abductor. Williams’ friend Jackie, who was in on the prank, was supposed to drive. “[But] as things always seem to do on ‘Punk’d,’ [the prank] went a bit differently than expected,” Rob Pinkston, who played the teenager for the prank, told The Huffington Post.


The “Punk’d” team decided to run with it anyway once Williams took control. “I had [“Punk’d” co-creators] Jason [Goldberg] and Ashton [Kutcher] in my ear during the bit, and they told us to keep going, as long as it was safe,” Pinkston said. 



I think we stretched the ‘safe’ part a bit ... But it was worth it in the end.
Rob Pinkston, "Punk'd" field agent


Exactly what “safe” meant, however, was open to some interpretation. In the moment, Pinkston felt like he needed to take the prank as far as he could to impress his bosses and keep his job. “I think we stretched the ‘safe’ part a bit,” he said. “But it was worth it in the end.”


Julia Wolov, who played the aunt, said in an interview with HuffPost that she remembers feeling terrified as she sat in the passenger seat next to Williams, watching the speedometer climb.


While Williams tried to catch up with the supposed abductor, Jon Huck, a producer who had been hiding in the back of the Escalade, took the wheel from Pinkston (who had only a learner’s permit at the time), which explained the unfamiliar man Williams saw in the car. In Wolov’s recollection, Williams assumed Huck had somehow abducted the kids once they left the parking lot, raising the stakes in her eyes even higher.


“She didn’t know it was a prank, so her reaction could have been more dangerous there than it was,” admitted Huck.  


“Jon [Huck] wanted to save the sketch and escape Serena, and I wanted to keep my job ― let alone survive the car chase!” said Pinkston.



The prank was featured in the third episode of Season 4. But when it aired on March 20, 2005, there was no indication whatsoever that a high-speed chase had ever occurred. Williams drove Wolov around Los Angeles in the televised scene, but the editing makes it appear she was told pretty quickly to just drive to a location the nephew had gone to. Then, she gets there and Ashton Kutcher jumps out. Odd as that might seem now, many of the more questionable moments in “Punk’d” history never made the show. 


Last year, Kutcher and his longtime friend, actor Danny Masterson, who Kutcher once pranked on the reality series, bragged on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” that they still had lots of “Punk’d” footage that was too compromising to air. “The footage that doesn’t make it on is incriminating to say the least,” Masterson said.


Those who were involved in “Punk’d” agree, if perhaps not in the way Masterson implied. HuffPost spoke to “Punk’d” actors and writers for this piece, as well as a producer and the show’s head lawyer, who oversaw risk management for MTV productions on the West Coast. Most of those interviewed worked on the show in the mid-2000s, during the middle of its original run. What emerged is a portrait of a show that at times stretched the limits of safety.


When reached for comment, Kutcher only had a brief statement about the conclusion made by his “Punk’d” co-workers. “I’m sure that The Huffington Post took the time to interview the lawyers that ‘Punk’d’ had on set for every-single-episode,” said Kutcher. “The primary responsibility of these lawyers was to ensure that at no point in time were we breaking any laws or endangering anyone, in any way.”



I sort of felt like I was the referee in a basketball game, but one where it was decided to let the players play and not call too many fouls.
Jeffrey Schneider, "Punk'd" head lawyer


Jeffrey Schneider, who was head lawyer for the show, used a sports metaphor to describe his role. “I sort of felt like I was the referee in a basketball game, but one where it was decided to let the players play and not call too many fouls,” he said.


No one ever sustained a significant injury during filming. But multiple actors who spoke to HuffPost felt the show put their safety, as well as the safety of some of the celebrities, at risk. That no one ever got hurt is to the credit of Kutcher, Goldberg and Schneider, who developed a system of calculated risk in which their pranks could operate. (Jason Goldberg’s representation originally agreed to do an interview for this article and then declined. MTV’s current legal team also declined to comment.)


Certainly some luck was involved, too. The show created moments, such as the Williams chase, that easily could have turned dangerous had things gone ever-so-slightly different. The benchmark set by “Punk’d” influenced a decade of reality shows. But reaching those highs sometimes required some questionable risks along the way.


When MTV hired Schneider in 2003, “Punk’d” had only just started. The lawyer had been tasked with overseeing business affairs in the television channel’s West Coast office. But what he found, he said, was a company with “no systematic approach to legal issues that came up during [TV] production.” He made it his mission to fix that, “Punk’d” included.


“The problem with a lot of the other lawyers back then ― particularly on reality television ― [was] they were either really, really, really rule-bound and they just decided that they didn’t want to take any risk at all, or they didn’t have any idea what they were doing and they just let everything go,” he said. “We tried to balance it.”


Schneider decided to work closely with the “Punk’d” producers, vetting the show’s proposed pranks and providing on-site instruction as to whether a prank should be stopped. Looking back on the show, however, he’s less struck by the risks it took than with the ability of those involved to make sure everything stayed just safe enough.


“It was a revolutionary show in that we were able to do things that seemed very risky and very wild and out-there but we did it, I think, in a very controlled and very responsible way,” he said. “I think it was a model for all the hidden camera shows that followed.”


He added, “It was as safe as you can make a show like that.”


 


“Punk’d” actors felt intense pressure not to bail on pranks. 



Julia Wolov, the actress who rode in the car with Serena Williams, had worked on other prank shows before “Punk’d,” including Oxygen’s “Girls Behaving Badly.” But in her opinion, Kutcher and Goldberg’s show was both “the most terrifying and the most intense.” The actors often felt they needed to pull off the prank to Goldberg’s specifications, whatever they were, or risk losing their jobs.


Another actor on Season 4, Jordan Black, said of Goldberg, “He would really be going over beat-by-beat exactly what he wanted us to do and what he needed from us ― sort of putting the fear of God into us [to] not screw this up … So there was a lot of that pressure.”


It wasn’t just that they only had one shot at these pranks, but they had to move fast. “I remember just sweating, being really nervous sometimes. Because you really only have one chance,” said Wolov. “Kirsten Dunst is not going to stay an extra 20 minutes!”


Wolov still remembers preparing to prank the rapper Jadakiss. The prank involved Wolov and another “Punk’d” actress, Dana Goodman, attempting to push Jadakiss to a boiling point. Producers warned that he could be armed.


Wolov recalls being told, “But don’t worry about it ― just keep going.”


For the Jadakiss prank, Goodman, working with Wolov, was asked to yell in the rapper’s face. Even though she had been told Jadakiss might have a gun, she was still willing to go through with it. “It was like one of our first jobs and it was way better than waiting tables,” Goodman said. “Whatever they wanted us to do, we would have done.”


Nothing transpired during the prank, however, to suggest that Jadakiss had actually been armed, and his management team declined to comment for this article.


 


Guns got pulled often enough that “Punk’d” producers created loose guidelines to deal with them.



For part of a Season 2 prank, “Punk’d” production crew members and Schneider tailed Hilary Duff in a car. The show had orchestrated a fake driving lesson for the young star and Schneider’s associates in the car were there to film from behind and make sure the vehicle-based gags didn’t get out of hand.


But when a separate car, not related to the “Punk’d” crew, pulled alongside Schneider’s out of the blue, the situation quickly changed. “I roll down my window and [the driver] looks at me with this weird face,” the lawyer said. “He raises his left arm and he’s got a gun in it.” Schneider started hastily explaining he was working on a prank show. Then suddenly, the gunman drove away without explanation. 


“Whenever you’re shooting in public, you never know unless you control the set what will happen,” said Schneider, who still doesn’t know why the man with the gun was there.


But other gun-related stories on “Punk’d” were less mysterious. As the lawyer recalled to HuffPost, that same season, a member of Outkast’s entourage admitted to Schneider that he was on the point of pulling out his gun on a “Punk’d” actor during a prank. And as multiple sources confirmed to HuffPost, when the show tried to prank The Black Eyed Peas for Season 3, an entourage member did draw his gun.


“We decided from that point forward, we needed to have a different way of dealing with this,” Schneider said. 



If you see a weapon, it’s over. It’s done. Let’s reveal, and we’ll go after somebody else on a different day.
Jon Huck, "Punk'd" producer


Producer Huck said the policy became, “If you see a weapon, it’s over. It’s done. Let’s reveal, and we’ll go after somebody else on a different day.” According to Schneider, however, “Punk’d” producers stopped short of telling celebrities’ friends they couldn’t be armed. “We just wanted them to be informed [the prank] was going on,” he said.


 


At least in one instance, a “Punk’d” actor felt rushed through safety training. 



For Season 4, “Punk’d” producers tasked actor Jordan Black with getting into a road rage-related incident while playing Ciara’s driver.


“The scary part was I had to jerk the car at a certain point,” Black said. “I had to jerk my car as if I was going to ram [another car].”


The task would have been a complicated one even for a stuntman. But Black was not a professional stunt driver, and he only received an afternoon’s worth of training before the prank started. “To me, it should take months [of training] to do a stunt like that,” Black said. He still remembers feeling nervous in the lead-up to the prank.


Schneider noted that the team sometimes cut stunts short if they seemed to have become too risky ― on one occasion the “Punk’d” team stopped a prank when it appeared Steve Austin might punch “Punk’d” actor Chris Elwood ― but he also admitted he could “totally understand” if actors felt pressured to attempt stunts that potentially seemed unsafe to them.


“I do think, whether spoken or unspoken, there was a bit of pressure from the production crew [not to bail on a prank],” Schneider said, adding that he felt he had the backing of his bosses at MTV to stop any prank he and his team saw as too dangerous.


 


Zach Braff once got so mad during a prank that he started punching one of the “Punk’d” actors.



Rob Pinkston was among the teens tasked with pranking Zach Braff for Season 4. The plan was to spray fake graffiti ― that could later be washed off ― on Braff’s new Porsche while his friend and fellow “Scrubs” actor Donald Faison distracted him at a nearby convenience store.


But when the seemingly mild-mannered Braff spotted the group of teens, he bolted after them, screaming profanities. “I was wearing really baggy clothes that I couldn’t run in very well,” Pinkston said. To escape the enraged Braff, Pinkston decided to run toward Chris Elwood, who was playing a security guard.



He definitely wanted to stomp the ever-living crap out of this kid.
"Punk'd" field agent Chris Elwood on Zach Braff


Braff swung at Pinkston a couple times, but the baggy clothes and Elwood’s arms ended up shielding his body. “Zach tried to pummel Rob, but instead pummeled my arm,” Elwood said. “He basically hit my arm as he was trying to hit this kid. He definitely wanted to stomp the ever-living crap out of this kid.”


“I felt the swings hit the jacket, which was terrifying,” Pinkston said.


The “Punk’d” team ended up cutting Braff’s punches from the final edit of the show, while leaving Braff’s profanity-laden tirade. Neither Braff’s nor Faison’s publicists responded to multiple requests for comment.


 


Every scene filmed in California may have technically been illegal.



“The problem is,” lawyer Schneider said, “Every time we filmed in California we were breaking the law, because California is a state that requires all parties who are being taped to know they are being taped or else you’re violating the hidden recording laws in California. So we made a conscious decision every time we shot a bit in California that we were going to violate the law.”


MTV’s current legal team chose not to respond to Schneider’s claim that “Punk’d” broke California laws during its filming, nor did they provide comment more generally. But California’s wiretapping law does require “two-party consent,” which means it is a crime in the state to record or eavesdrop on confidential communication, including a private conversation or telephone call, without the consent of all parties in the conversation. There can be exceptions, including situations where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.


That would make it necessary for the “Punk’d” lawyers to have at least some of the celebrities involved sign documents that prevented any legal action against the show, which apparently happened. But Schneider said his team was never too worried about a lawsuit in the off-chance somebody refused to sign, either.


“No one was going to sue us because celebrities don’t want to sue MTV,” he said.


As show producer Huck further explained, getting pranked on “Punk’d” eventually became something of a “badge of honor” for celebrities. “It kind of meant that you were somebody or you were going to be somebody,” he said.


 


“Superwoman” Serena Williams truly earned the “Punk’d” actors’ respect. 



Near the end of the prank on Serena Williams, the actors lured the tennis star to a parking lot, where Kutcher awaited. Once Williams saw the “Punk’d” co-creator, she collapsed to the ground out of relief.


Schneider had not been on location for this prank, due to other duties with the legal department that day. By his estimate, he missed about 10 percent of the shoots. He would have an outside consultant manage those instances.


Of the Williams prank, Schneider said, “I remember when [the consultant, the name of which escaped him] came back and gave her post-shoot report on that. She expressed some concern but she didn’t make it seem like it was a really dangerous situation, so I don’t know.”


Williams’ feeling of relief was shared by the cast and crew. What just a few short minutes before seemed like a dangerous gamble ― to those inside the cars at least ― had paid off in the ultimate way: Serena Williams had been successfully “Punk’d.” 



She was like a hero.
"Punk'd" field agent Julia Wolov on Serena Williams


But she had also earned the “Punk’d” actors’ respect with her willingness to risk her own safety to help children she didn’t know. Pinkston, who played the young teenager that Williams chased, likened her to “Superwoman.” Wolov, the woman who was next to Williams in the car, said, “She was like a hero.”


“It made her look amazing,” she added.


“Punk’d” had a way of capturing unknown aspects of celebrities’ personalities. For some, like Zach Braff, that wasn’t great. For Williams, it was ― even if you never would have known from the episode. But what tied all the celebrities together is perhaps best summarized by something Wolov said about Williams’ reaction.  


“She could not believe it happened to her.”


 


Edited by Maxwell Strachan and Samantha Storey.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Marvel’s New She-Hulk Reminds Us That Anger Can Serve A Purpose

0
0

In 1980, Marvel introduced a new character to its canon that deviated from its norm. Neither a brawny male hero nor a tiny, big-haired female damsel, She-Hulk was brought in as the cousin of Bruce Banner, gaining his anger-filled transformative powers after a blood transfusion.


She-Hulk’s character is a criminal defense lawyer who’s smart, savvy and levelheaded ― except when she’s not. Bursts of anger turn her into a bulkier, greener version of herself, which she chooses to inhabit permanently in one Marvel storyline. She-Hulk, née Jennifer Walters, eventually becomes part of the Avengers and, in a 2008 comic, forms a group of women fighters called the Lady Liberators that includes Storm and Spider-Woman.


In “Hulk #1,” an installment of Walters’ story released by Marvel at the end of last year, She-Hulk becomes a better-rounded character. She’s taken the place of her cousin, Bruce, who’d recently died in Civil War II ― a major event in the series. Barely surviving herself, she spends much of the issue coping with post-traumatic stress, reconciling her roiling inner feelings with the work she must focus herself to accomplish.


“I think it’s a great topic for a superhero story, because every heroic event has a next day and consequences,” “Hulk #1” writer Mariko Tamaki told The Huffington Post, adding, “I think these consequences dig into the human element of being superhuman.” 


Reflecting on the human element of comic book characters is something Tamaki is comfortable doing. Her graphic novels Skim and This One Summer both feature heroines who grapple with young adulthood, body image and general feelings of isolation. The latter is regularly challenged in schools for its incorporation of adult themes in a book for young readers.


“In the big picture, the experiences of women, the social issues relating to women, are important to me. When I write, I try not to reinforce stereotypes about how a woman should be ― in terms of size, in terms of appearance, in terms of what is ‘appropriate’ and so on,” Tamaki said. “I want the characters I write to feel ‘real’ and I want them to mirror the diversity of experiences that make up being a woman in the modern Western world.”


So, her Jennifer Walters isn’t just a one-dimensional “She-Hulk” expected to be always simultaneously strong and appealing. Instead, she’s both, in turns, and she’s dealing with issues unrelated to her gender: trauma and the death of her cousin, an injustice that spurs, yes, more anger.


Asked whether she wanted to confront the stereotype that woman expressing their anger are villainous in her work, Tamaki said simply, “I think anger, fear and pain are interesting things to write about. They are a key element of stories about the human experience. What’s a good story without a little rage?”


Read an excerpt of “Hulk #1” below:





Find the comic on Amazon or at your local bookstore.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Get Ready For A '9 To 5' Reunion At The Screen Actors Guild Awards

0
0

Pour yourself a cup of ambition, because this is an ‘80s dream come true: Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton will present Lily Tomlin’s lifetime achievement prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards later this month.


Fonda, Parton and Tomlin starred in the successful 1980 feminist comedy “9 to 5,” playing secretaries who team up to take down their sexist boss. The film has since earned spot No. 74 on the American Film Institute’s list of greatest comedies, and Parton’s title song was nominated for an Oscar and three Grammys. The trio have also remained friends, making regular public appearances together over the years and hinting at a potential on-screen “9 to 5” reunion ― Parton recently floated the possibility of appearing on Fonda and Tomlin’s Netflix series, “Grace and Frankie.”


But now it appears they’ve decided not to wait for casting directors to get their act together. (What a way to make a living!


The SAG Awards air live on TBS and TNT on Jan. 29. In the meantime, you can make your day a little better with these photos celebrating Tomlin, Fonda and Parton’s friendship:









-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

11 Documentaries About Immigrants Everyone Should Watch Right Now

0
0

Donald Trump ran his presidential campaign partly on promises of overhauling the United States’ immigration system. 


While the president-elect seldom shared specific policies or actions he’d take, he’s made several promises when it comes to immigration. His most infamous proposal: building a “Great Wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border, a structure he recently said U.S. tax payers will pay for until he gets Mexico to reimburse costs. Trump has also said he’ll deport or imprison millions of undocumented immigrants shortly after taking office.


And the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which gives undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children temporary deportation relief, remains uncertain. 


Political debates on immigration can make it easy to forget that millions of human beings will be affected by what’s decided in Washington. That’s where the arts ― and in this case, documentarians ― come in to offer some personal perspective.


These 11 standout documentaries from the last thirteen years serve as a reminder of the human struggle and spirit that drive many of the immigrants living in the United States. From those who make the dangerous journey across the U.S.-Mexico border to those who fight on the front lines for immigration reform in Congress, these films will help you put a face to an often divisive but important issue. 


Take a look at the trailers and synopsis of all the documentaries below: 


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


'Solitary' Trailer Explores The Damaging Effects Of Prison Confinement

0
0



In supermax, no one can hear you cry.


The new HBO documentary “Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison” provides unparalleled access to the world of super-maximum-security prisons, where the worst criminal offenders are held 23 hours a day in confined 8-by-10 cells that look like small bathrooms.


The Huffington Post has the exclusive premiere of the trailer for “Solitary,” for which director Kristi Jacobson (”A Place at the Table,” “Toots”) was granted unprecedented entry into a tough Virginia penitentiary. Jacobson filmed there for a year, during which correctional officers attempted much-needed reform.


Watch the trailer above, and catch “Solitary” on Feb. 6 on HBO.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Prince Charles Co-Authors Popular Science Book On Climate Change

0
0



Prince Charles, long an outspoken advocate about the dangers posed by climate change, has teamed up with publisher Penguin Random House to co-author a popular science book on global warming.


The hardback, which will be released Jan. 26, was created in the style of the iconic range of Ladybird children’s books first made popular in the 1960s. Co-authored by the prince, environmentalist Tony Juniper and Emily Shuckburgh, a climate scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, the book explains the history, dangers and challenges of global warming and explores possible solutions with which to reduce its impact,” according to an Amazon blurb.


The volume, titled “Climate Change,” is part of a new Ladybird Expert series aimed at adults. Its cover features a scene inspired by the 2000 flooding of the British town of Uckfield — a disaster that, at the time, prompted Prince Charles to lament mankind’s arrogant disregard of the delicate balance of nature.”


Oxford University researchers later concluded that global warming had made the Uckfield floods between two and three times more likely to happen“It shows climate change is acting here and now to load the dice towards more extreme weather,” said researcher Myles Allen, who led the Oxford study, in 2011. 



Prince Charles has long warned of the dangers of climate change. In 2014, he called it the greatest challenge facing mankind.


“We are running out of time ― how many times have I found myself saying this over recent years?” he said in a video address screened during Climate Week in New York. “We simply have to win the battle against climate change to secure our future, and the future of our children and grandchildren. I fear there is not a moment to lose.”


Also in 2014, the prince skewered climate change skeptics, referring to them as the “headless chicken brigade” during an awards ceremony for entrepreneurs in the sustainability industry.


“As you may possibly have noticed from time to time, I have tended to make a habit of sticking my head above the parapet and generally getting it shot off for pointing out what has always been blindingly obvious to me,” the prince told the audience, referring to his climate activism. “Perhaps it has been too uncomfortable for those with vested interests to acknowledge, but we have spent the best part of the past century enthusiastically testing the world to utter destruction; not looking closely enough at the long-term impact our actions will have.”



Penguin told The Guardian this week that its new Ladybird Expert series will offer “bite-sized understanding” of challenging topics, such as quantum mechanics and evolution. Each volume in the series is penned by leading experts in their respective fields, the publisher said.  


Prince Charles’ climate change book was extensively peer reviewed by figures within the environmental community,” Penguin said. Several climate scientists, including David Warrilow, chairman of the climate science special interest group at the Royal Meteorological Society, scrutinized the manuscript before publication. 






In 2015, Ladybird launched its Books for Grown-ups line, a satirical series that covers such topics as hipsters, the zombie apocalypse, hangovers and the midlife crisis.


The series has reportedly sold more than 3 million copies to date. 






type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related... + articlesList=5822b97fe4b0aac624883f9d,5847dd05e4b08c82e888db36,567341d5e4b06fa6887cbd58,571712b4e4b0060ccda4d5ce

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Steve Harvey Finally Apologizes For Offensive Joke About Asian Men

0
0



After receiving a flood of criticism, Steve Harvey has finally addressed his offensive comments about Asian men. 


The daytime TV show host took to Twitter on Tuesday and apologized for a joke he made earlier this month in which he laughed at the idea that anyone could be attracted to Asian men.






“I offer my humblest apology for offending anyone, particularly those in the Asian community, last week,” Harvey wrote in a note. “It was not my intention and the humor was not meant with any malice or disrespect whatsoever.”


Harvey’s apology comes after several members of the Asian-American community spoke out against his distasteful jabs. Big names including Constance Wu and Jose Antonio Vargas condemned the host on social media.


Eddie Huang, a celebrity restaurateur, also penned a powerful opinion piece in The New York Times, explaining exactly why Harvey’s propagation of the harmful stereotype about Asian men stung so much. 


And Asian-American lawmakers including Representative Grace Meng (D-NY) and New York assembly members Ron Kim and Yuh-Line Niou, drafted a letter calling for Harvey’s apology. They also asked the host remove all forms of the segment.  


“Negative, false, and harmful depictions of Asians have persisted in media and popular culture for decades, and your disrespectful conduct has only worsened this issue,” they wrote in the letter signed by five lawmakers. “Asian-Americans’ numerous accomplishments and contributions have helped shape this nation, and we are not just another target for tasteless jokes on your show.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Topless Protester In Spain Grabs Waxwork Donald Trump's Crotch

0
0

A topless feminist protester groped a waxwork of Donald Trump during its official unveiling in Madrid, Spain, on Tuesday morning.


The unidentified woman, who had “grab back” and “grab patriarchy by the balls” scrawled in English across her bare chest and back, reportedly broke through a security cordon to grab the crotch area of the life-sized statue of the U.S. president-elect. 



Video footage posted online shows her repeatedly yelling out “grab patriarchy by the balls” in both English and Spanish, while trying to evade detention by an official at the Madrid Wax Museum.


Soon after, the woman was escorted away and removed from the building, according to Spanish media reports. It’s unclear whether she will face police action. The Huffington Post has reached out for more information.






The Spanish branch of the global feminist organization FEMEN ― which similarly disrupted Trump’s polling station in midtown Manhattan, New York City, on Election Day — later claimed credit for the incident.


FEMEN just grabbed Trump’s statue by the balls in Madrid,” it posted on Twitter in a clear reference to Trump’s sickening hot mic comments made alongside then-”Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush in 2005. 






While footage of the incident went viral, the museum’s press chief described the woman’s protest as “unpleasant.”


If they want to do this, they should do it directly to him,” Gonzalo Presa told Reuters. “This is too easy.”


The museum is now beefing up its general security, a spokesman told the Europa Press news agency. “Not just for Trump,” he said, but because “nowadays things occur that didn’t used to occur.”


type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related Coverage + articlesList=587de4eee4b0d4cc08847447,587dd347e4b0d4cc08847140,5879e127e4b0e58057ff11ea

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

16 Writers Reflect On The Magical Meaning Of Michelle Obama

0
0

In her forward to Veronica Chambers’ The Meaning of Michelle, filmmaker Ava DuVernay describes a historic scene. In the center of her story is, of course, Michelle Obama, the first lady who’s spent two terms standing beside and, in some ways, rocketing past her husband, President Barack Obama. On the particular day DuVernay chose to remember, Michelle ― in a deep red shift dress ― was touring her then-future home for the first time.


“Damn being demure! The sight of her striding up the White House steps was a transformative image to behold,” DuVernay writes. “In one wardrobe choice, this stellar sister brought a breath of fresh air to the hallowed halls of the world’s most famous residence [...] In that one photo op, Michelle infused the image of the First Lady with pride, panache and polish. Many of us saw a woman to be admired. A woman to be trusted.”


“Scratch that,” she adds. “Many of us saw a Black woman to be admired. A Black woman to be trusted. There it is.”



The Meaning of Michelle, edited by Mama’s Girl author Chambers, is a collection of stories dedicated to the iconic first lady’s legacy. With essays from Roxane Gay, Tanisha C. Ford, Marcus Samuelsson, Phillipa Soo, Rebecca Carroll, Sarah Lewis and more, the book is meant to stand as a parting gift to Michelle, set to leave office a mere weeks after the book’s publication in January. The 16 writers cover everything from representational justice to fashion to stereotypes related to race and marriage to the “unapologetic power of blackness.”


For many of these authors, the allure of Michelle is both academic and personal, a draw so intimately connected to identities of womanhood, motherhood, blackness and beyond that her influence is rarely described without the object “us.” She stirs us, provokes us, leads us, emboldens us, so many write. Her achievements can be our achievements, so many intone; she is both singular and a reflection of a rising tide of women leaders. “Michelle!” DuVernay proclaims. “That name now carries a whole world of meaning.”


In honor of Michelle’s birthday on Jan. 17, and the final week of her eight-year run as first lady, here are excerpts from the 16 authors in Chambers’ collection. Together, they make up an ever-evolving definition of Michelle Obama:



Veronica Chambers on Michelle’s intimacy:


“There’s an intimacy we felt with her from the beginning. The mainstream media seemed flummoxed by her lack of political posturing: Is she on board with this whole political spouse thing? do the Obamas want it (meaning the presidency) badly enough? But it was that very same lack of fake warmth and glossed-over royal waves that let us, in the Black community, know that she was real, and this is what won our affection.”



She’s given us permission to be ourselves, on a national stage, to be proud of our Blackness, our realness, our humble beginnings, our regular-ness, our greatness.
Benilde Little


Benilde Little on Michelle’s pride:


“Michelle resonates for us on a deeply personal level. She’s given us permission to be ourselves, on a national stage, to be proud of our Blackness, our realness, our humble beginnings, our regular-ness, our greatness. To not be perfect and to not even have that as a goal, because she’s smart enough to understand that perfection is its own prison.”



Damon Young on Michelle’s acceptance:


“I believe that defense of Michelle helped many of us acknowledge, accept, confront, and attempt to alter some of the more unsavory and unflattering latent beliefs and sub-conscious feelings we possessed about our skin and our noses and our eyes and our hair. It’s a legacy I’m amazed by when I think of kids like my 9-year-old niece and 11-year-old nephew.”



It's easier to be brave in our era when possibility is modeled the way that that couple has.
Alicia Hall Moran


Alicia Hall Moran (in conversation with Jason Moran) on Michelle’s place in history:


“She has achieved what we Black people have really taken personally, what Maya Angelou called ‘the dream of the slave.’ It makes living in a contemporary society very easy. It’s easier to be brave in our era when possibility is modeled the way that that couple has.”



Brittney Cooper on Michelle and Beyoncé’s relationship:


“Both Michelle and Beyoncé are actively remixing the terms upon which Black womanhood has been cast. The denial of the right to ladyhood that has shaped Black women’s lives since the advent of slavery can no longer proceed unchecked into the twenty-first century.”



Why should [Michelle] be apologetic? Come to think of it, why should I?
Ylonda Gault Caviness


Ylonda Gault Caviness on Michelle’s fearlessness:


“Why should she be apologetic? Come to think of it, why should I? Michelle did not come to play. Yes, she is proud in her role as Mrs. Obama and, rightly so, she gives Barack his propers all day long, loving and supporting his candidacy. But she never set out to function as a mere prop to his ― or anyone else’s ― agenda.”



Chirlane McCray on Michelle’s self-definition:


“When First Lady Obama said her top priority was to serve as mom-in-chief, she was telling us that her family comes first. [...] I have tremendous respect for how she defined herself, right from the beginning, defined her role before there was too much speculation about what she would do.”



I have tremendous respect for how she defined herself, right from the beginning.
Chirlane McCray


Cathi Hanauer on identifying with Michelle:


“I wouldn’t be surprised if someone suggested I’m about as unlike Michelle Obama as two women roughly the same age with two children can be. Yet in one way ― and it’s an important one ― I really identify with Michelle. And that’s this: She and I have both had to learn to be The Wife.”



Tiffany Dufu on Michelle’s professional success:


“Michelle Obama is only the third [First Lady] to have a professional or graduate degree, public evidence of intellectual prowess and independence, and to have balanced her own high-profile career with her private role as wife and mother. She, along with Hillary Clinton, charted a path that allows future first ladies to do it their way. Her polarity inspires all of us to break the mold.”



She, along with Hillary Clinton, charted a path that allows future first ladies to do it their way.
Tiffany Dufu


Tanisha C. Ford on Michelle as “us”:


“We, as Black women, respected and admired how she lived between two tensions: the stature and visibility of the office of First Lady and the disturbing social responses to her Black womanness. [...] Even though her platform was larger than ours, her daily routine ― with her team of secret service agents who clocked and coordinated her every move ― different than ours, she was us. Even if she was the First Lady, first and foremost, she was a Black woman.”



Marcus Samuelsson on Michelle’s relevance:


“It’s an amazing achievement, for her to be so relevant in these conversations, whether it’s talking about Obamacare or talking about New York Fashion Week or kids’ food. Always aware that, no matter what she says, she’s speaking to the world. She is putting something out there to the world that the world has never seen before.”



Authenticity is not an achievement. Yet authenticity doest take effort if you are upending centuries of history with your mere presence.
Sarah Lewis


Sarah Lewis on Michelle’s authenticity:


“Authenticity is not an achievement. Yet authenticity does take effort if you are upending centuries of history with your mere presence. It takes work to let people stare, wonder, probe and prod to determine the veracity of your life.”



Karen Hill Anton on Michelle’s determination:


“Michelle, what I really like about you is that you did not settle for an assigned role. I imagine you saw early on the potential of the position of First Lady, and determined to use it to full advantage. I guess you also saw the risks, but went for it anyhow. Wow.”



She is a civil disruptor with a radical kind of benevolence.
Rebecca Carroll


Rebecca Carroll on Michelle as a politician:


“She is a civil disruptor with a radical kind of benevolence. She is focused and silly, compelling and humble. It would all be an act if it wasn’t. And while some might argue that this is precisely what politicians do and who they are ― polished, well prepared, articulate, unflappable ― Michelle Obama is not so much a politician as she is a manifestor; the hyper spectacular incarnation of a Black woman unbound.” 



Phillipa Soo on Michelle’s ability to bring people together:


“I could tell just from watching Mrs. Obama that she has such an awareness of what it means to bring people together, how important that is. We can all be doing our separate things amazingly, but when you bring groups together the ways she does, it can actually create something better than you could have imagined.”



I hope Michelle Obama does whatever her heart most desires when her husband's presidency ends, but I would love to see her make space for black girls and women in the public sphere.
Roxane Gay


Roxane Gay on Michelle’s future:


“I hope Michelle Obama does whatever her heart most desires when her husband’s presidency ends, but I would love to see her make space for black girls and women in the public sphere and the public imagination. In a perfect world, she might create and lead a robust and well-funded organization dedicated to black girls and women, one that implements a set of initiatives that encourage black girls and women to flourish.”


The Meaning of Michelle, published by St. Martin’s Press, is available on Amazon or at your local bookstore.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Viewing all 18483 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images