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Here's Your First Look At The Female-Fronted 'Ocean's Eight'

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By the looks of this image, we’re in for a treat when “Ocean’s Eight” hits theaters on June 8, 2018.


Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures released the first photo from the all-female “Ocean’s” spinoff on Monday morning ― and it’s got us more than excited to see what writer and director Gary Ross cooked up.


The picture features Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Helena Bonham Carter and Awkwafina looking chic as heck on the New York City subway. 



According to a press release, the film follows Debbie Ocean (Bullock) as she attempts to pull off the heist of the century at New York City’s star-studded annual Met Gala. Her first stop is to assemble the perfect crew: Lou (Blanchett), Nine Ball (Rihanna), Amita (Kaling), Constance (Awkwafina), Rose (Carter), Daphne Kluger (Hathaway) and Tammy (Paulson).


Reportedly, some men will make cameos, including Matt Damon and James Corden. Damian Lewis will also star in the film


Ross ― whose credits include “Seabiscuit” and “The Hunger Games” ― wrote the screenplay with co-producer Olivia Milch. Steven Soderbergh and Jon Kilik are producing, while Michael Tadross, Susan Ekins, Bullock, Diana Alvarez and Bruce Berman are executive producing. 

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Bruce Springsteen Takes Powerful Stance Amid Trump’s Immigration Ban

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Bruce Springsteen didn’t shy away from sending a political message at his concert in Adelaide, Australia, on Monday, just days after President Donald Trump unveiled the administration’s controversial immigration ban.


On Friday, Trump announced an executive order barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States for three months. The move erupted in protests at airports and elsewhere over the weekend, and not surprisingly, caught the interest of The Boss.


“America is a land of immigrants,” he said during the concert. “This is fundamentally un-American. This is a song about immigrants.” Springsteen then went straight into the song, “American Land,” with the crowd exploding in cheers, according to Australia’s Herald Sun.






The song features the lyrics: 



I docked at Ellis Island in the city of light and spire
I wandered to the valley of red-hot steel and fire
We made the steel that built the cities with the sweat of our two hands
We made our home in the American land



That wasn’t the only political mention of the night. While singing “Land of Hope and Dreams,” Springsteen changed the lyrics to include: “This train carries immigrants.”



The New Jersey rocker’s latest comments come on the heels of remarks he made about the Women’s March on Washington at another concert in Australia. 


His words also came at the same time as the SAG Awards, where many celebrities spoke up about the ban both on the red carpet and in speeches. 

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'1984' Sales Have Skyrocketed. Here’s What To Read Next.

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Last week, after Kellyanne Conway gave an interview describing falsehoods as “alternative facts,” sales of George Orwell’s decades-old classic 1984 spikedThe book, a part of so many high-school syllabi, appears to be helping people contextualize political rhetoric; the sales boost even led Michiko Kakutani at The New York Times to write an homage to the still-relevant novel, headlined “Why ‘1984’ Is a 2017 Must-Read.”


But, as The New Republic pointed out, it’s not the only title that can offer valuable insight. Writer Josephine Livingston suggested that Franz Kafka’s The Trial might be a more salient comparison. Sophie Gilbert noted in The Atlantic that Sinclair Lewis and Hannah Arendt books have also seen sales boosts in the past year.


When it comes to undermining the media, controlling the dissemination of information and political leaders’ contradictions, there’s plenty of literary precedent. If you’ve read Orwell and are looking for more novels on these topics, there’s a range of dystopian and realistic fiction grappling with censorship and propaganda. We’ve collected a few below:


The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra



Marra’s connected stories span generations, showing how history erodes certain truths and throws others into relief. The first story is about a more concrete kind of censorship; its protagonist works in Joseph Stalin’s Department of Party Propaganda and Agitation, literally removing faces from paintings and newspapers. When he fails to do his job, haunted by the face of a familiar-looking ballerina, there are consequences.


The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon



The dystopian world imagined by Graedon isn’t so dissimilar from our own, which is what makes her novel particularly frightening. A sort of neurological disease has the potential to infect the tech-obsessed, making them no longer able to communicate clearly. Deeper readers remain more or less immune to the affliction, anchored as they are in context.  


The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes 



Barnes’ latest novel isn’t a dystopian one, but an intimate look at the life of an artist under tyrannical watch. Composer Dmitri Shostakovich goes unnoticed by Stalin until the ruler makes his negative thoughts on his music clear. He’s neither killed nor exiled, but instead made to represent Soivet ideals, forcing him to question which is more valuable: his art or his life.  


Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour



In his review of Mandanipour’s novel, the critic James Wood reminded readers that “tyranny is the mother of metaphor, and all that.” In other words, a novelist hailing from a country where censorship is a literary restriction might get creative with his storytelling methods. Such is the case in this love story, centered on what can and can’t be communicated publicly about a private relationship.


The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus



Ah, teens. Their tendency to spew righteous, thinly researched nonsense is annoying, but it’s harmless ― endearing, even. Right? Not so in Marcus’ experimental novel, where the language of young people is physically harmful to their parents. Naturally, chaos follows; unethical testing practices ensue, and the novel’s hero, Sam, strikes out on his own to find a cure. Which is all to say that words are as capable of harm as actions.


The Circle by Dave Eggers



When we imagine censorship, we imagine good citizens silenced by overt governmental mandates, finding clever new ways to express themselves in spite of noxious restrictions. In Eggers’ novel ― soon to be adapted into a film ― censorship is more complicated than that. It stems instead from a well-meaning corporate culture gone awry. At the Circle ― a Google-meets-Facebook conglomerate ― openness is valued over privacy, and self-censorship arises as a result.


The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood



Another beloved book soon to be adapted for the screen, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is about a religious fundamentalist movement that occurs swiftly, oppressing women in its wake. In this imagined dystopia, called Gilead, women are issued uniforms and are separated from their families. They’re also not allowed to read ― knowledge, after all, is freeing.


Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart



If the choppy-sounding title of Shteyngart’s most recent novel ― Super Sad True Love Story ― doesn’t sound to you like Doublespeak, maybe the 1984 connection will be made clearer by its premise. In a near-future society where personal devices and individual “scores” are obsessed over, relationships are stripped of their nuance and intimate connection is nearly impossible. Sad!


The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson



In Johnson’s portrayal of North Korea, the government is prone to doing one thing while publicly declaring that it’s doing an entirely different thing. It’s a tactic that, on an individual level, can lead citizens to question their own perceptions of reality; on a large, governmental scale, the method of control is even more potent. To illustrate the rift between private and public knowledge, the book is told both from a first-person perspective, using the language of sheeny propaganda.


Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut



An apolitical playwright — American born, German raised — stays in Germany during World War II, and joins onto the Nazis’ propaganda campaign. After the war, he returns to America, where he eventually becomes a symbol of a white supremacist group. The story, like Vonnegut’s Bluebeard, is written as he narrates the writing of his own diary.

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Global Artists Come Together For Anti-Trump Track Celebrating Queer Love

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At a time when the daily onslaught of news out of Washington seems bleak (to say the least), a handful of artists are coming together to present a message of support, community and love for one another ― and the world at large ― in the face of extreme turmoil.


A powerful example of this is “Love Makes The World,” a new video from collaborative duo and queer married couple Sateen and Exquisite, which brings together a group of diverse artists from NYC and around the world, including Amanda Lepore, Rify Royalty, Stephanie Stone, Merrie Cherry, Will Sheridan, Sussi Suss, Violet Chachki, Love Bailey and more.


Sateen and Exquisite told The Huffington Post that they wrote “Love Makes The World” immediately after President Donald Trump won the election as a way of redirecting their anger into something positive.


“The tides seem in favor of Trump and people like him, but we and many people like us have awoken to an alternate vision of the world,” the pair told The Huffington Post. “We want him to know that we believe in dismantling the patriarchy. We want to stress to him that equality for the entire spectrum of humanity, whether it be race, creed, or gender, is not a debatable issue. There is no ‘alternative fact’ to the objective reality that countless injustices have been and are being forced upon so many of the people whom he has supposedly been elected to represent. But most importantly, we would tell him, ‘you will not ignore us.’


Check out the uplifting video for “Love Makes The World” above and head here to see more from Sateen and Exquisite. 

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This Singing And Dancing Toddler Is What We All Need Right Now

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Nothing lifts people’s spirits quite like an adorable dancing baby does.


On Jan. 24, Meyoka Carmichael posted a video on Facebook that shows her 1-year-old daughter singing and dancing to “Go Get It” by gospel duo Mary Mary. The toddler is clearly feeling her moves, and her social media audience loved it. 


Carmichael’s video reached over 1.5 million views, plus an additional 2.8 million views on the Facebook page, Because of Them We Can.


Watch the tiny dancer in action in the video above. 


The HuffPost Parents newsletter offers a daily dose of personal stories, helpful advice and comedic takes on what it’s like to raise kids today. Sign up here.

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Artists Are Offering Free Drawings In Exchange For ACLU Donations

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There are obviously urgent and ethical reasons for donating to the American Civil Liberties Union today. But in case you needed extra incentive, artists are here to sweeten the deal.


Emily Flake, a cartoonist for The New Yorker, posted a message on Instagram Sunday promising to mail a free drawing to anyone who emailed her a receipt after donating $50 or more to the ACLU.


She attributed the idea to comic artist Sarah Glidden, whose graphic novel Rolling Blackouts puts the refugee crisis in visceral and comprehensible terms. 






Glidden, in turn, thanked artist Cathy G. Johnson for the idea. In 2016, Johnson created fundraising drawings in support of the Legal Support Fund in Ferguson, Missouri, following the killing of Michael Brown. 


This weekend, Johnson tweeted out support for Glidden and all artists using their gifts to fight President Trump’s assault on American values and human rights. Other artists quickly followed suit, demonstrating the ways creative skills can contribute to political opposition and activism. 
















Since President Trump signed his anti-immigrant executive order on Friday, banning refugees from Syria and temporarily blocking travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, the American Civil Liberties Union has collected over $24 million in online donations


The ACLU was victorious in fighting the deportations of individuals trapped in airports around the country who were in transit when the order went into effect. Federal judges in New York, Virginia, Seattle and Boston ruled to block aspects of Trump’s ban, protecting individuals with valid immigrant and non-immigrant visas, or who are otherwise legally authorized to enter the United States. 


This ruling preserves the status quo and ensures that people who have been granted permission to be in this country are not illegally removed off U.S. soil,” said Lee Gelernt, the ACLU lawyer who was in court Saturday arguing the case, in a statement.


Although many of the artists’ offers only lasted through the weekend, your donation is more crucial now than ever. Learn other ways to fight the #MuslimBan here. 

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Ryan Adams Calls Out Donald Trump With Gripping Cover Of 'Karma Police'

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Ryan Adams stopped by the BBC Radio 2’s Dermot O’Leary show on Saturday to spend some time talking up his forthcoming album, “Prisoner.” After a rendition of the new single, “Doomsday,” Adams channeled current political unrest with a haunting acoustic take on Radiohead’s “Karma Police.” 


The musician explained the song selection to Jo Whiley, who was sitting in for O’Leary. Not surprisingly, it was inspired by “pretty awful person” Donald Trump.


“I woke up this morning and I was jet-lagged, and I had a full day of press. But I wanted to do a couple of covers. And I know plenty, but I wanted to do something new that I hadn’t done before,” Adams said. “So I went, what are two or three songs I could try to learn before I have to go to my first thing? And this was one. I don’t know if I’ve learned it in a great new and interesting way, but I also thought it’s fitting, because there’s a pretty awful person who just got elected in the United States. So I don’t know why, but that song popped into my head this morning.”


You can listen to “Doomsday” and “Karma Police” here: 





 


The full interview is available below:




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New 'Game Of Thrones' Story Will Quietly Debut In A Fantasy Anthology

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A new tale of Westeros is coming ― but not the one many fans have been waiting for.


An Amazon listing has been created for a fantasy anthology, The Book of Swords, edited by Gardner Dozois, slated to publish in October. The still-slight description of the book advertises “[f]ifteen original tales celebrating fantasy’s golden age of sword and sorcery,” and specifically promises a tale from “George R.R. Martin set in the world of A Game of Thrones!”


Westeros.org, a fansite for the series, posted an update on Jan. 26 noting that the anthology had apparently been underway since 2015. The book’s editor, Dozois, has frequently collaborated with Martin as a co-editor. 


Sounds like a cool bonus ― an unexpected original story for A Song of Ice and Fire buffs. Just one problem: Readers are still waiting, some more patiently than others, for Martin to deliver the next volume in the Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter. Apparently, though, he took a bit of a break to contribute a story to The Book of Swords. The last published installment of the series, A Dance With Dragons, came out in 2011.


Martin comes by his tantalizing pace honestly; though the first three books in the series were published in the space of four years, five years passed before the fourth book appeared, and another six years before A Dance With Dragons. But Martin has also teased fans with occasional hints that the new book would soon be finished ― only to repeatedly announce delays on the book’s delivery. Earlier this month, he revealed that he thought the book would “be out this year,” adding, “(But hey, I thought the same thing last year).”







In the past, Martin and his fans have clashed over his seemingly interminable writing schedule. He has blamed distractions such as junkets, increased demands on his time due to his fame, and writer’s block for his slow pace. Accordingly, some readers have closely observed his travel schedule and other commitments for evidence that he’s being pulled away from writing their long-awaited book.


So what’s with Martin contributing a story to an anthology instead of pouring 110 percent of his time and energy into The Winds of Winter? Everyone, stop asking him to do other things ― he’s made it pretty clear he’s not a great multitasker. No more invitations to Dubai, no more Jets training camp, no more cool anthologies or convention appearances. Let the poor guy buckle down and finish that book.


And in the meantime, at least we can all enjoy some fresh Game of Thrones content, thanks to this anthology. Now, to wait for October to come.

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'America's Got Talent' Alum Opens Up About Death Of Her Bandmate

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After being axed in the quarterfinals of “America’s Got Talent” in 2010, electronic violinist Lindsey Stirling was determined. She knew her unique mix of music and movement could stir people, and she soon launched a YouTube channel that proved the point. It was a success, so, with keyboardist Jason Gaviati by her side, the musician embarked on another adventure: touring. Stirling’s star was on the rise, but her world came to a screeching halt when Gaviati died.


Gaviati lost his battle with lymphoma in 2016, before Stirling’s Brave Enough tour. As she tells “Oprah: Where Are They Now?”, for all of her professional achievements, the last year has been a personal struggle.


“It’s been the hardest year of my life,” she says. “He was my best friend. He was my first-ever band member I ever had, toured around the world with me for four years. Talk about feeling like my heart was ripped out and wanting to numb more than ever, just not wanting to feel anything because it hurt so bad.”



Performing without Gaviati has been particularly difficult.


“To be honest, it’s been really hard coming on tour again without him,” Stirling says. “But I just started this journey and I was going to stay true to it.” 


Rather than trying to go numb, Stirling allowed herself to lean into the pain and experience those emotions. “Once I dealt with them, I wrote about them,” she says.


This catharsis led to Stirling’s third album, which she also believes is a true testament to perseverance.


“I believe so strongly that the key to success is the ability to rise from failure. Anyone who’s ever succeeded has fallen flat on their face ― not once, not twice, but so many times. But that’s what makes a winner. That’s what makes someone who succeeds. It’s not someone who never failed, but it’s someone who knows how to rise time and time again and gets stronger each time,” she says. “It took me many failures to learn that lesson, but, gosh, I’m glad I didn’t give up.”

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14 Photos That Show The Original Asian-American Resistance

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By the 1960s, Asian-Americans were already being portrayed as a U.S. “model minority” ― a group whose diligent work, personal responsibility and success proved that the American dream was attainable to all. It turns out, the label didn’t tell the full story. 


As a new exhibition at the Los Angeles Chinese American Museum argues, young Asian Americans of the time were busy writing their own narrative and protesting just like their Black and Chicano counterparts. Through protest and art, they denounced the Vietnam War and refused to be pigeonholed as model minorities who could easily overcome systemic barriers.


“Beginning in the late 1960s, Asian-Americans nationwide were building social service institutions and feminist collectives, marching against the war, critiquing and sometimes even trying to overthrow the U.S. government,” said Ryan Wong, one of the curators of the exhibition “Roots: Asian American Movements in Los Angeles 1968–80s.”


According to Wong, it’s no coincidence that the term “model minority” was being coined around the same time the Asian-American movement was radicalizing a generation of young people. Groups of Asians protesting for their rights wasn’t the story most media outlets or social theorists wanted to acknowledge.


“The ‘model minority’ idea was used as a weapon against the social movements of the civil rights era, suggesting that activism wasn’t necessary if a group could only ‘work harder,’” he said. 



The Asian-American movement chronicled in the exhibition shatters that myth, he added. 




Told through photographs, posters and oral histories, “Roots” shows how Asian-Americans formed civil rights organizations at colleges like UC Berkeley, fought against gentrification and ultimately banded together to form a new pan-Asian political identity.


“Until about 1968, you either identified with your country of origin ― mostly China, Japan, and the Philippines at that point ― or were lumped under the term ‘Oriental,’” Wong said. 


By the late 1960s and early 1970s, Asian-Americans of different ancestral countries recognized their shared history of racial discrimination and realized they’d have a stronger voice together. 


“That idea spread like wildfire across campuses and organizing centers nationally, which is amazing in a time before social media,” Wong said. 



For many, the Vietnam War was an obvious entry point into activism. Unlike the mainstream anti-war movement, many Asian-American activists perceived the United States’ participation in the war as a form of imperialism.


Others saw parallels between the treatment of the Vietnamese abroad and the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II, according to Steve Wong, the chief curator at the museum.


War helped unify Asian Americans. It connected anti-imperialist movements in South East Asia to the oppression of Asians in the U.S.,” Steve explained. “A common slogan during this time was ‘No Vietnamese ever called me a Chink.’ Asians brought attention to the racialized component to the Vietnam War.”



Some pieces in the exhibition reveal a more radical side of the movement, like Leland Wong’s Black Panthers–inspired “Year of the People/Off the Pigs.”


Riffing on 1971 as the year of the pig in the Chinese zodiac, Leland’s illustration shows Asian-Americans attacking what they perceived as oppressive power structures in their community ― far from “model minority” behavior. 


It’s an illustration that can be shocking if you’ve never heard about early activism in Asian communities. Let’s face it: Asian-Americans might be the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, but their complicated history in American society tends to get the short shrift. 



“If you’re like me, you were never taught this history in school and never saw it depicted in TV shows, movies or newspapers,” said exhibition curator Ryan, who grew up in Los Angeles in 1990s. 


Few Asian-Americans today know about Gidra, a newspaper of the movement that featured wry political illustrations and commentary, Ryan noted  ― or the fight to free Chol Soo Lee, a Korean-American immigrant who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1973.


At the opening of the exhibition earlier this month, many young attendees were taken aback by the material. 


“Someone came up to me and said, ‘I’ve been organizing since 2004, and I thought that was a long time,” Ryan said. “It’s incredible to see how people our age ― in their 20s at the time― built a dynamic movement that reshaped their communities.” 



Ultimately, he hopes the exhibition creates a sense of continuity between today’s activists and older ones. 


“If these histories are erased and buried, each generation feels a little more alone, like we are starting from scratch,” Ryan said. “I hope people see how the past informs not only today’s movements, but our futures.” 



“Roots: Asian American Movements in Los Angeles 1968–80s” is free (donations are welcome) and will run until June 11. Check out the Chinese American Museum’s website for additional information. 




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This 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' Song About Period Sex Was Too Dirty For TV

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A period sex anthem exists ― and, of course, it’s sung by “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s” Rachel Bloom. 


The CW’s musical comedy TV show is known for tackling feminist issues and plotlines with wit and humor. But according to Vox, having sex while on your period crossed the line for CW, and the network opted not to air Bloom’s minute and a half ode to period sex.


On Friday, Bloom ― the writer, star and co-creator of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” ― uploaded the full “Period Sex” song and video to YouTube.






As usual, Bloom and the “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” team’s ability to bring levity to a taboo (err... messy?) topic did not disappoint. 


The catchy anthem includes gems like, “Put down a towel and party ‘till it’s dry with some period sex,” and, “Think of it as Mother Nature’s juice cleanse.”


Watch the full video above to jive to some truly awesome “period sex” tunes. 




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Amazon Is Running Out Of Dystopian Books That Eerily Reflect Our Present Political Moment

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George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984. Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here. Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism. 


One by one, classic books depicting dystopian dictatorships ― and the factors that allow such governments to “happen here” ― have been shooting to the top of Amazon’s hourly-updated best-seller lists, and, in some cases, selling out on the site, leaving publishers rushing to fulfill demand.




It’s a fitting sequel to the dire literary warnings bandied about regarding a potential Donald J. Trump presidency during, and immediately after, the long campaign. Authors such as J.K. Rowling and George R.R. Martin compared Trump’s promised vision of America with the darkest dystopian elements of their own works, and critics invoked the chilling alternative histories The Plot Against America by Philip Roth and The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (as well as the Amazon series based on it) as warnings of what could come to pass.


Now that the Trump presidency has actually commenced, interest in such literary examinations of totalitarianism and malevolent dictatorships has only appeared to grow. Trump’s first week in office was packed with overtly false statements from his press surrogates, as well as drastic executive orders that many Americans saw as evidence that his time in office would match the least optimistic projections. Following massive protests and federal court orders responding to his ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, these orders were reportedly flouted, leading experts to warn of a constitutional crisis


Meanwhile, just as Rep. John Lewis’ award-winning graphic memoir series March rocketed up the Amazon charts and sold out on the site after the civil rights icon sparred with Trump earlier this month, classic works of fiction and nonfiction that depict oppressive regimes have taken up residence at the top of Amazon’s best-seller list.



George Orwell’s 1984, which portrays a dystopian government’s use of disinformation and revised history to solidify power, sold out on Amazon last week after it saw sales explode by upwards of 9,500 percent following the inauguration, according to Penguin Random House’s Craig Burke. (The publisher’s Signet imprint puts out editions of classics, including 1984.) Animal Farm, another political satire by Orwell, has also seen higher demand, Burke told HuffPost in an email. “Last week, Signet ordered an additional 300,000 copies of Orwell’s novels,” Burke said ― a number which includes a 75,000-copy reprint of 1984 announced last week.


He added, “We printed last week about half the copies of 1984 that we sell in a typical year.”


It Can’t Happen Here, a less widely read classic by Sinclair Lewis, has also been selling strongly for Signet. Described as the satirical, yet unsettlingly realistic narrative of “a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press,” the book’s eerie resonance with current political events has made it another popular choice in recent weeks. About 45,000 copies of Signet’s It Can’t Happen Here have been sold since Inauguration Day, said Penguin Random House ― and as of Monday, it had also sold out on Amazon: 



Perhaps most jarring is the sudden popularity of Hannah Arendt’s 1951 doorstop The Origins of Totalitarianism, a hefty work of political philosophy that traces the roots of both the Nazi and Stalinist regimes. It’s not a light read, given both the subject matter and its 500-plus page count. Nonetheless, the book ascended the Amazon chart and, as of Monday, was sold out on the site. “This,” wrote Jezebel’s Hannah Gold, “is extremely metal.”



Edging Arendt out for the top spot in current history best-sellers: the 1988 oral history The Journey Back From Hell: Conversations with Concentration Camp Survivors by Anton Gill. 


Based purely on these Amazon snapshots of current demand, it seems America is in a rather pessimistic mood these days. Of course, nothing eases a sense of pervasive existential despair like curling up with a good book. Anyone need to borrow a copy of The Hunger Games?

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7 Comics About The Everyday Magic Of Finding Your Person

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It may take a while, but when you find a partner you want to share your life with, everyday life begins to change. Suddenly, simple acts like shopping for sweaters or going out to lunch contain a spark of magic that’s impossible to ignore.


Illustrator Sundae Kids captures the feeling perfectly in her adorable comics below. Take a look below.


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8 Sundance Movies You'll Want To See This Year

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At first, this year’s Sundance Film Festival lineup seemed bereft of many must-see titles. Thankfully the clouds parted and the indie-film gods shone down on Park City, where another Sundance came to an end on Sunday. Based on what I saw during my time at the festival, here are eight movies that should be on your radar as 2017 continues. 


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Gina Rodriguez Promises To Use New TV Deal To Spotlight ‘Faces Unseen’

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Gina Rodriguez and her production company have signed a deal with CBS Television Studios, the studio that produces the CW’s “Jane the Virgin.”


The multi-year pact allows Rodriguez and I Can And I Will Productions to develop projects for networks, cable and streaming platforms, according to Variety.


After trade publications announced the news on Monday, the actress confirmed the partnership in an Instagram post later in the day. In the status she promised her followers that her projects would spotlight women’s talent, on-and-off screen. 




“We will INCLUDE stories unheard and faces unseen,” she wrote. “We will make it our top priority to put women in front of and behind the camera. Thank you @cbstvstudios for giving I can and I will Productions this opportunity. To my warriors, I am here because of you and we will make sure you feel represented and included in Hollywood. Period. The end.” 


Rodriguez’s first project under the new deal includes optioning the German format “Dr. Illegal,” a medial series, according to Deadline. 


The actress’ I Can And I Will Productions produced Rodriguez’s The Young Women Honors ceremony in December, which aired on the CW.  

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Read These Stunning Poems By Writers From Each Of The Muslim Ban Countries

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In the wake of the anti-immigrant and -refugee executive order put into effect by President Trump on Friday, many have responded with an outpouring of love for their immigrant families, friends and communities. 


Poet Kaveh Akbar responded to the unconstitutional order, which blocks refugees from Syria and temporarily blocks travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, by sharing poems from writers who have roots in Libya, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Syria on Twitter.






“When you read a poem by a poet who is living in Syria, you are granted access to an experience that is absolutely nothing like your experience living in Duluth or Montpelier,” Akbar said in an interview with PBS News Hour. “So I think that engaging in that work is one of the most empathetic things we can do right now.”


Despite the White House’s attempts to paint immigrants and refugees as terrorists and criminals, with a simple gesture Akbar made abundantly clear just who Trump’s executive order will keep off American soil: poets; artists; living, breathing, loving human beings.


Read their words and see into their worlds below. 





























































































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'This Will Be The End For Me': Peter Capaldi Is Leaving 'Doctor Who'

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Just who will be the next Doctor Who?


Scottish actor Peter Capaldi revealed on Monday that he was stepping down from the iconic sci-fi series’ titular role.


It will be my last,” Capaldi told BBC Radio 2 host Jo Whiley while talking about the upcoming season, which premieres in April. “This will be the end for me.”





Capaldi, 58, said he felt “sad” at leaving the “fantastic program” which had been “a privilege” to work on. 


“But I’ve always been somebody that did a lot of different things,” he said. “I’ve never done one job for three years, I feel it’s sort of time for me to move on to different challenges.”


Capaldi became the 12th actor to play the Doctor when he replaced Matt Smith in 2013. His character’s regeneration will take place during the Christmas 2017 special.


According to bookmakers Ladbrokes, British actors Ben Whishaw, Richard Ayoade, Rory Kinnear and David Harewood are all in the running to take over the role.


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James Cameron Says The Answer To The Huge 'Titanic' Raft Debate Is 'Simple'

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Having miraculously escaped the sinking Titanic, Rose and Jack huddle in the water with a plank: she’s on it and he’s holding on for dear life. Eventually, the frigid water takes its toll, and Jack ― lifeless ― slips away from his beloved.


But in the two decades since the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic” hit theaters, fans still disagree on whether Leonardo DiCaprio’s character could have survived if Kate Winslet had just scooched over a smidge. One viral image a few years back showed that, given the improvised raft’s dimensions, two people could have fit without a doubt.


In the past, director James Cameron has stuck by his film, stating that the problem wasn’t surface area but “buoyancy.” That is, the scrap of wood that floated Rose to safety couldn’t have held two bodies in the open ocean.


Still, unlike poor Jack, the debate will not die.


While recently chatting to the director about the Trump administration, a reporter for The Daily Beast brought up the door theory once again


“We’re gonna go there?” the director began. “Look, it’s very, very simple: you read page 147 of the script and it says, ‘Jack gets off the board and gives his place to her so that she can survive.’ It’s that simple.”


Then he brought up the “Mythbusters” episode where hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage attempt to prove the director right. Although buoyancy is an issue, in the segment, the hosts realize they can tie their life jackets to the underside of the raft and fix the problem so two bodies can fit.


Cameron didn’t buy that solution, though. He explained:



OK, so let’s really play that out: you’re Jack, you’re in water that’s 28 degrees, your brain is starting to get hypothermia. Mythbusters asks you to now go take off your life vest, take hers off, swim underneath this thing, attach it in some way that it won’t just wash out two minutes later—which means you’re underwater tying this thing on in 28-degree water, and that’s going to take you five to ten minutes, so by the time you come back up you’re already dead. So that wouldn’t work. His best choice was to keep his upper body out of the water and hope to get pulled out by a boat or something before he died.



On the subject of Hyneman and Savage, the director added: “They’re fun guys and I loved doing that show with them, but they’re full of shit.” As a man who’s explored the deepest depths of the cold ocean floor, we’d say Cameron might know what he’s talking about.


Catch the “Mythbusters” segment in question below:




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This Bold Artist Made A Bathroom Stall That’s Open To Everyone

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In 2013, photographer Lois Bielefeld decided to respond to the repeated mis-gendering of her partner in public spaces.


“We’d joke about it,” she told The Huffington Post in an interview.


Bielefeld had a similar experienced as a teen, when she dressed androgynously, and was sometimes misidentified as “sir.” So she sought to take portraits of people she knew who identified either as genderqueer or androgynous.


“The people I photographed are regularly mis-gendered, which means that they often have bizarre interactions in public, especially bathrooms, that can be anywhere from amusing to downright unsafe and hostile,” Bielefeld said.


As her project grew, she decided to also include transgender subjects, her initial hesitation being that these subjects typically identified as one gender. 


“It wasn’t until talking with transgender friends that I learned how the transition process creates an incredible social and physical uprooting where gender ambiguity is highlighted and at the forefront until they start to pass,” Bielefeld said.



Gender identification and policing begins at a young age, and children who reject the binary gender system are more susceptible to bullying and feeling out of place.



In addition to taking pictures of transgender, genderqueer and androgynous adults, Bielefeld took portraits of children who favored a genderless appearance.


“Gender identification and policing begins at a young age, and children who reject the binary gender system are more susceptible to bullying and feeling out of place,” she said. 


While taking portraits of her subjects, Bielefeld asked them questions about their experiences to help them relax. She realized, while listening to their stories, that she wanted to record them and incorporate them in the installation somehow. The resulting project — now in the permanent collection of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in NYC —was a non-functioning, two-stall public bathroom, where museum attendees could sit in a stall and listen to interviews with Bielefeld’s subjects.


“The photographs invite the viewers to look, stare, and question, which unfortunately is what happens to the subjects on a regular basis in public,” Bielefeld said. “It is in ‘The Bathroom’ that the viewer encounters the reverse where they can sit and listen to the subjects’ experiences, thoughts, and feelings.”


Allowing these individuals to share their unique stories emphasizes that gender isn’t as rigid as so many of us are raised to believe. Even the word “androgyny,” Bielefeld pointed out, comes from the Greek word andros, meaning “man,” and gyne, meaning “woman.”


“The irony is that it still hails from the antiquated binary gender system. This system is deeply ingrained in our culture and allows for no variation. You must check either a female or male box,” Bielefeld said. “Our bodies are so much more complex and varied than this, down to the chromosomal level. I wanted viewers to recognize the diversity of bodies and become aware of the social ramifications individuals suffer when others try to box them into the binary system.”


View her portraits below:



Lois Bielefeld is represented by Portrait Society Gallery.

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Ariana Grande And John Legend's 'Beauty And The Beast' Duet Makes It Debut In New Trailer

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When it was confirmed that Ariana Grande and John Legend would be singing the “Beauty and the Beast” theme song, we couldn’t wait to hear it. 


Well, it’s finally here. 


On Monday, Disney released the final trailer for its live-action remake of the classic tale as old as time, giving us a taste of Grande and Legend’s duet. As we expected, the two sound great together (just as good as ― or dare we say, better than ― Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson). We got goosebumps. 


“Beauty and the Beast” hits theaters on March 17. 

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