Model Crush Monday: Ethan Waldo

November 2, 2015, 9:15 am

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With chic stoner vibes and sultry looks, model Ethan Waldo has perfectly embodied the spirit of the 70's. His timeless steez and modeling work for Opening Ceremony, Gypsy Sport and other fun brands has earned him our Man Crush Monday title. Check out Ethan's answers to our MCM questionnaire and his MCM shoot below.

Styling by Savannah White
Hair by Janelle Chaplin

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This Creepy Japanese Curry Comes With A Fake DVD Girlfriend

November 2, 2015, 9:30 am

≫ Next: Brad And Angelina Grant Us A Rare Joint Interview About Their Movie, Angelina's Medical Issues

≪ Previous: Model Crush Monday: Ethan Waldo

Village Vanguard, a Japanese novelty book shop, is now selling an instant orange curry that comes with a DVD of a "sexy model" who will "pretend to be your girlfriend" while you eat.

Dubbed "Delusion Curry," the sexy model is one Mao Harada (aka Haradan), who plays into 3 different fantasies via super creepily-titled chapters ("The Younger Girlfriend,""The Older Girl Who Lives Next Door and is Sort of Risque," and "Haradan Made a Home-Cooked Meal") -- all for $13 USD. Talk about marketing it as multimedia experience.

ただ今全国のヴィレヴァンにてはらだんのコラボ商品が絶賛発売中です！妄想Tシャツ＆男の妄想カレー、どちらも夢が詰まっているよおお！プレゼントにもぜひぜひっ(´∀`)🍛💞 通販はここから✡http://t.co/JO8WWAYeaP pic.twitter.com/tlnQSO8s9L
-- 原田真緒 (@Harada_Mao) October 16, 2015

[h/tFirst We Feast]

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Brad And Angelina Grant Us A Rare Joint Interview About Their Movie, Angelina's Medical Issues

November 2, 2015, 9:45 am

≫ Next: Australians Are Teaching Feminism To Their High Schoolers

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In a rare appearance on the Today Show, Brad and Angelina were interviewed together by Tom Brokaw about their upcoming drama By the Sea, and Angelina's multiple medical procedures to stave off the likely threat of cancer.

Looking characteristically luminous, the married demigods confirmed, once again, that the gorgeously turbulent marriage they're bringing to life in By the Sea -- which was written and directed by Jolie -- is NOT autobiographical, as many assumed.

"I'm counting on the audience to know that if [the movie] was close to us at all, we could never make this film," Angelina said, laughing.

****"FOOLS!" Angelina yells, throwing a slab of raw meat at us*****

The couple also touched on Angelina's double mastectomy in 2013 to reduce the 87% chance she had of developing breast cancer; her 50% chance of Ovarian cancer was diminished by having her fallopian tubes and ovaries removed this past March.

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Of his wife's ordeal, Brad gushed on her bravery, saying, "There was no vanity to her decision," and how all of her decisions were brought on by the desire to be present for their six children; "It trumps everything," he added.

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"This wasn't going to be something that made me feel like less of a woman; my husband wouldn't let that happen," Jolie said of Pitt's dedication.

Jolie's cancer concerns stemmed from the death of her grandmother, and her own mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who tragically died from ovarian cancer in 2007 at the age of 57.

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But her mother seemed to have prescient instincts, and during her own struggle, made her doctor (who is now Angelina's doctor) promise that she would remove Angie's ovaries someday.

Feel free to upload that Zip drive of emotion, and let those tears flow.

Watch the interview below.

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Australians Are Teaching Feminism To Their High Schoolers

November 2, 2015, 11:01 am

≫ Next: Style Fiends: Rainbow Brites for Rainbow Nights

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Fightback's Fitzroy High School Chapter / Facebook

It's no surprise that high school culture, with its body shaming and stringent whore/prude dichotomies, is rife with casual misogyny. But thankfully, one Australian territory is taking is taking institutionalized sexism to task by introducing a mandated feminist curriculum in their high schools.

Starting November 26th, the territory of Victoria will be implementing a student-designed, gender discussion-based curriculum adapted from a "resource kit" originally created by a feminist collective called Fightback. Founded in 2013 as a lunchtime gathering by Melbourne teacher Briony O'Keeffe, Fightback has (obviously) since grown into a full-fledged activist organization. However, O'Keeffe knows that there's still work to be done, as she's currently touring the country to encourage other high schools to teach the curriculum.

"We're trying to get young men and women to think a bit more critically about the sorts of sexist behaviors they might either engage in or see on a daily basis," she told Vice Australia -- an incredible initiative that's also making it look like we're moving to Australia next year.

[h/tVice Australia]

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Style Fiends: Rainbow Brites for Rainbow Nights

November 2, 2015, 3:00 am

≫ Next: Future Imperfect: YACHT On Buzzfeed, Futurism And Loving LA

≪ Previous: Australians Are Teaching Feminism To Their High Schoolers

Actress and fashion illustrator Amy Davis dreams up her favorite mix-and-match looks this month.

ADDY (girl on left):

Sweater with jeweled owl by MANISH ARORA (FW 2015-16)
Skirt by SIBLING (SS 2016)
Thigh-high boots by CHRISTIAN DIOR (FW 2015-16)
Bag by PEANUTS X LeSPORTSAC (collabo)
Bangles by COCO'S BANGLES
Solid Sterling Silver Thick Needle Ring by Jennifer Tull Westberg

STANLEY (boy on right):

Cap by HIGH PONY
Sequin jacket by YSL (SS 2016)
Knit shirt by GUCCI (SS 2016)
Pants by AU JOUR LE JOUR (SS 2016)
Face bag by YUSUKE TAKAHASHI for ISSEY MIYAKE (FW 2015-16)
Shoes JOHN ELLIOTT (SS 2016)

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Future Imperfect: YACHT On Buzzfeed, Futurism And Loving LA

November 2, 2015, 6:00 pm

≫ Next: Watch Tinashe's Video Game-Inspired Video for "Player"

≪ Previous: Style Fiends: Rainbow Brites for Rainbow Nights

Back to the Future Part II takes place in the year 2015, also known as right now. You'll note that we don't have any flying cars or self-lacing shoes. If this strikes you as complete bullshit, well, YACHT has your back. The Los Angeles-via-Portland pop scientists examine the frustration of living in a world that never quite lives up to its potential on their new album, I Thought the Future Would Be Cooler. "Maybe we don't deserve those things," says band member Claire L. Evans about all the fun toys Doc Brown promised up, "because we don't even have human rights, morally accountable police or gender equality."

While the album, the group's sixth, deals with some weighty concepts (the key song is called "War on Women"), it's their most unabashedly danceable offering yet. "We're really interested in the interplay between complex ideas and approachable music," she says. "I think we just got better at it."

YACHT has always carried itself more like a multiplatform art project rather than a mere music-making concern. To promote the album they organized a fax machine scavenger hunt for their fans and created a GIF-heavy "tracklisticle"for Buzzfeed, but their most ambitious non-music undertaking is 5 Every Day, a website and app that Evans and bandmate Jona Bechtolt founded that lists five interesting things to do in Los Angeles. "There's so many things happening every day in Los Angeles," says Bechtolt. "So we thought about it for six months, we prototyped it and were like okay, yeah, we have to do this.' Hey, maybe the future didn't turn out to be a complete bust.

So you've been doing a lot of multimedia stuff recently, like with the fax machine stunt, where you sent the album's artwork to fax machines and then sent your fans to track them down, or the Buzzfeed gifs tracklisticle. How much of that is just promoting the album and how much of that is like a natural extension of the ideas of what the album is about?

Jona: I think it's 100% natural, and it just happens to be promoting the album, but these are projects that we'd probably do anyways and that we spearheaded, rather than the label trying to get us to promote the record or anything like that.

Claire: Yeah, making a record is a thing on its own, but we also see making a record as an opportunity to take on a whole bunch of different kinds of online and offline experiences for artists and designers. It's really fun to have an opportunity like a record; you have an excuse to do weird stuff, which is what we love to do anyways.

So where did the idea for the fax machine album cover art quest come from?

Jona: I don't know. I've kind of always liked fax machines. I was in a pop-punk band in the mid-'90s and we, in earnest, used fax machines to spam record labels and show promoters to get them to try to book shows and maybe work with us in some capacity.

Claire: You know, before the Internet.

Jona: Yeah, it never worked. I'm also really interested in different ways of image processing. When fax machines send images, it's a binary of one and zero, black or white. And the way that it processed the album cover, I just really loved.

Claire: Fax is a technology for us that's really interesting, just in the sense that it continues to exist in the world, even though it's not the primary mode of communication for people, but we saw it as an opportunity to kind of engage with this latent technology that is just sort of sitting there waiting for something weird to be done to it. The combination of its slight inferiority of image quality and its limited distribution was really interesting to us.

It reminds me of the way that younger bands these days are putting their albums out on cassette. It's such an obsolete, dead medium that in a way becomes kind of nostalgic and romantic.

Claire: I think that's an inevitable part of the way technology is developed and then passed by. The things that are limiting about technology then become the things that are charming about them and you don't realize that often until they've come and gone.

So tell me about the ideas behind the album and the album title, I Thought The Future Would Be Cooler. Would you both consider yourselves to be futurists?

Claire: I think being a futurist, like a self-defining futurist, is kind of a racket, frankly. We're both very interested in the future, and I am an editor of science fiction and I care a lot about the future, we're both always paying attention to technology, but nobody has a claim on it. That's what's interesting about the future, you know? Anyone who comes up and tells you that they know what computers are gonna look like in 25 years, run away, because they don't, nobody knows.

Jona: But it's always fun to see people fail. David Byrne said that computers would never be used to make art or music.

Claire: No one's predictions of the future are ever right. I think for us, it's a question of looking forward and understanding the present. That's what's interesting about science fiction is that it tells us way more about the present of its writing than anything about the actual future. It becomes like a time capsule. "This is about the Cold War." Futurism is the most accurate way of representing the present that there is.

And for this one, you've brought in some bigger names on the production side. In the past, you've always been kind of a self-contained unit. But for this one, you worked with Jacknife Lee and Justin Meldal-Johnsen. How'd that come about?

Claire: Yeah, I mean we've made every record ourselves for the past 12 years.

Jona: Yeah I mean our bass player, Bobby Birdman, has always been a collaborator before even playing with the band. We've never imagined ever working with anyone other than one of the three of us, and so when we got to meet Jacknife, we were very afraid of even the potential of working with someone else, just because we kind of make everything in a vacuum. We like what we like. It's hard to talk about ourselves and to explain where we're coming from and so it's much easier when we collab with someone we've been friends with for more than ten years and they're like, "Yeah, I understand what you want to make and what you like."

Claire: It's interesting to see how other people hear your music while you're making it. It's useful to have that outside ear.

Jona: We just always assumed that we were the greatest pieces of shit. And then Jacknife, from the outside, was like, "No, this is actually good, this is how I'm actually hearing it," which is so humbling and also overwhelmingly positive.

So were there any particular ideas or like directions he suggested that surprised you that you don't think you would have thought of on your own?

Claire: In terms of what they brought, I think that there were definite structural things that were helpful, just like "Hey, what if you cut this part in half or like turned it upside down, would it sound better?" And then we'd be like, "Oh yeah, we hadn't even thought of that."

Jona: Yeah, we never really prided ourselves on like reading every manual and learning every technical thing about creating music. We've always approached it with a much fuller perspective or feeling as much as we can -- without having years of relying on every piece of perfect software. I've always tried to use computers like... if I can't just jump into something without reading the manual, then it's not worth working in. So, having like a team of people work on this record that have way more technical knowledge, it's really interesting and a great resource to have access to.

So you released your tracklist on Buzzfeed with a bunch of gifs for each song. I couldn't tell if you were purposefully subverting Buzzfeed, gif and Twitter-type culture, or celebrating, or mocking in it. What was the idea behind that?

Jona: Yeah, so we're 100% subverting it. We wanted to make fun of Buzzfeed and coming up with the idea "tracklisticle" was 100% in jest.

Claire: I mean, there's this culture now of just being a fan in the 21st century, and this endless treadmill of trying to make sure that you're up on all these playlist platforms and that you're distributing things in the most unique and interesting and innovative way. Like, you can't just put up a song anymore, you have to put up a song and some type of gimmick. It has to be a 3-D VR experience (laughs), which is fun for us because we love design projects, we're not one of those artists who are like "fuck the bullshit." But at the same time, it's a lot to ask of people who spent their time working on a song. It's tough, trying to write material within that restraint, like the restraint of the tracklisticle, that can still be profound and interesting and reflect what our world means to us. It's not about reducing it to its simplest element and dumbing it down and making fun of it, but how can we use these parameters, which are parameters being imposed on us and other artists, and do something meaningful within that framework.

Yeah, because on the one hand, stuff like Buzzfeed and Twitter are kind of dumb and we should all be better than that. But on the other hand, it's kind of fun and hey, it gets the message out there.

Jona: Well, the tracklisticle is not dumb.

Claire: Yeah, well, Twitter is dumb. But it's also the most important tool of protest. So there are all these things happening in layers and layers and one thing I'm interested in is trying to hit both the high and the low, and hopefully at once, because that's the world that we live in. We all want to do projects that are both intellectual to a certain extent but at the same time can be reduced to 140 characters. And if you can do both, then I guess you can kind of integrate yourself into the larger picture.

The band was originally based in Portland, right?

Claire: Mhm, yeah.

When did you move to LA?

Claire: We moved to LA four years ago. I went to college here.

What made you decide to pack up and move there?

Jona: We've been on tour around the world and every weird little corner, and LA is our very favorite city in the world. I can't imagine living anywhere else. And we definitely don't want to live anywhere else right now.

Claire: And I'm one of those LA street geeks who's so interested in, like, water politics in California, all that stuff. I mean, LA's just a weird, improbable place. It was never meant to be here. The environment cannot stand existence, and yet, by sheer force of will it created itself and engineered itself into existence. And I feel that every day.

And on the same topic, what was the idea behind the 5 Every Day website and app you're doing?

Claire: We started it when we first moved back.

Jona: We moved here and we were just trying to figure out where to look for worthwhile events and restaurants and anything like that, and stuff like Time Out and Zagat kept falling short for us. And we were like, "Where's the cool version of this?" These guides are fine, but how come none of them were well written?

And do you two still write it yourselves every day?

Claire: Yeah, well. I wrote everything for about a year and a half, and now we have a head writer that I collaborate with, he's also a co-host of the 5 Every Day radio segment on NPR down here.

Jona: But yeah, we still do the majority of the curating work, which is really simple. We just use Google spreadsheets to share everything.

Claire: Yeah, it's a lot of work, but it's such a valuable resource for people, or that's what we're told anyways. It's so meaningful to us, because it allows us to give back to the city that means so much to us and to educate people about what's interesting about LA. It's not just like, "Hey, this band's performing tonight," but like, "Hey, did you ever notice this building? Well, it turns out this building doesn't have any windows because it's where all the films in Los Angeles are archived. Did you know that?" This is weird shit, learning about everything around you. What's fascinating about Los Angeles is that everywhere you go, there are hidden histories and you just simply ignore them because things are kind of ugly and spread out and everyone's driving in cars, so you don't pay attention, but there's so much happening. It's fascinating here and so we kind of wanted to share and reveal that to people.

So it sounds like a full-time job. How are you able to do that and do an album with a very complicated media strategy?

Jona: Time management. Just getting deeper and deeper into time management.

Claire: We get up early. We drink a lot of coffee. And blow off our friends. You wake up early in the morning and you have one thing that's really important that you have to do that day so that becomes the priority of that day. And the next day is something else.

Jona: There's other stuff we're not telling you about. It's endless.

Claire: But yeah, we do almost everything ourselves. I mean, we're at home working. Unless we're on tour, we're in our home office at the computer creating material for the world.

Jona: We don't have friendships; we have projects.

Claire: He means we collaborate with all of our friends. The best way to make friends with us is to get us working on a project with you.

Okay good, 'cause otherwise that sounded really sad. Now, one song that seemed to jump out and be the catchiest was "Don't Be Rude." With Twitter, and social media, people are shouting at each other and drowning each other out all the time, and I feel like this call for simple civility seems kind of weirdly radical in 2015.

Claire: Yeah, I would agree.

That was my take on it, where did it come from for you?

Claire: "Don't Be Rude" is kind of about like the simplicity of...survival requires certain element of niceness, and that's what the song's about. It's like, we all know we're in this maelstrom, but sometimes you just have to get your head above the storm and be like "la la la, my ears are plugged" and enjoy living, because what else can I do?

Right, if you think about how unfair the world is, how dark things are, or how fucked the environment is all the time, you'll never get anything done.

Claire: Yeah, and you'll never be able to do any good.

Right, well that makes a lot of sense in a way I think. You know, you have to sometimes be kind of naive, like you said.

Claire: I mean, ignorance is bliss might be too simplistically a way to think about it, but as human beings, we throw ourselves into things again and again, even though we know the results are going to be the same, because of some type of fundamental ambition that we have as a species. We continue to fall in love, even though we know that it's gonna end badly every time, because there's value in that, in the trying.

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Watch Tinashe's Video Game-Inspired Video for "Player"

November 3, 2015, 12:34 am

≫ Next: Sleigh Bells Says Demi Lovato Sampled Their Songs Without Permission

≪ Previous: Future Imperfect: YACHT On Buzzfeed, Futurism And Loving LA

Up-and-coming star Tinashe will soon release Joyride, her follow-up to last year's enormously successful Aquarius, and last night she dropped a video for one of the new album's tracks. Titled "Player," it's an enjoyable song that transforms a romantic dance into a video game, with several rounds of highly stylized combat in love. The video and song are both fun enough, except that Chris Brown has to show up and make everything squicky and gross. Maybe there'll be an edit at some point where he vanishes and never comes back? Watch the video for "Player" below.

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Sleigh Bells Says Demi Lovato Sampled Their Songs Without Permission

November 3, 2015, 3:30 am

≫ Next: Rejoice, Fetty Wap Already Has Another Project Coming

≪ Previous: Watch Tinashe's Video Game-Inspired Video for "Player"

Brooklyn-based noise pop duo Sleigh Bells took to Twitter to call out Demi Lovato (and her production team) for illegally sampling two singles from their blistering 2010 debut Treatsin her song "Stars" from her latest album, Confident.

Derek Miller, the guitarist and producer for the popular indie band, very politely suggested that Lovato borrowed the beats from "Riot Rhythm" and a few moments from "Infinity Guitars."

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Upon hearing "Stars," the sonic plagiarism is undeniable.

Lovato has not commented yet, but of course, her blood-thirsty militia of Lovatics have set out to vanquish Sleigh Bells, and all those who defend them, on Twitter.

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This summer, Lovato was also questioned for possibly ripping off Katy "I HATE NUNS!" Perry's classic "Kissed a Girl," and also Jessie J's "Domino" in her addictive hit "Cool for the Summer."

Demi tweeted this somewhat "Girl, what?" response.

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Waiting for Demi to tweet "I've never even heard of Crystal Castles."

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Rejoice, Fetty Wap Already Has Another Project Coming

November 3, 2015, 3:52 am

≫ Next: Scenes from Overthrow Boxing Club's Pre-Halloween Party

≪ Previous: Sleigh Bells Says Demi Lovato Sampled Their Songs Without Permission

Fetty Wap has been having a pretty excellent year -- in addition to the beaten-into-oblivion "Trap Queen," he had an enormous number of hit singles, led the Kansas City Royals to World Series victory through the power of positive thinking and the number 1738, and won the heart of Queen Bey. Now, even though he was recently in a serious motorcycle accident, Fetty is recovering nicely and has somehow announced he has a new project coming, full of fresh material.

Droppin a Ep soon all songs nobody ever heard 🔥 real soon 💯
-- FettyWap1738 (@fettywap) November 3, 2015

This is a pleasant surprise indeed -- which mostly means we should listen to "679" on repeat until he finally decides to have this new EP come our way. [via Complex]

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Scenes from Overthrow Boxing Club's Pre-Halloween Party

November 3, 2015, 4:00 am

≫ Next: If a Kardashian Has a Party and There Wasn't a Photo Booth, Did It Really Happen?

≪ Previous: Rejoice, Fetty Wap Already Has Another Project Coming

For those looking for a little something on extra on Halloween, Overthrow Boxing Club, the boxing gym in Soho started by model-photographer-boxer Charlie Himmelstein, hosted a bash on Friday night that featured attractive guests decked out in costumes and, yep, boxing matches. The crowd could go back-and-forth between two floors for drinks and to hear a live performance by rapper Le1f and towards the end of the night, some good-looking fighters stepped into the ring for a throwdown. Take a look at photos by Rebecca Smeyne below.

Le1f

Charlie Himmelstein and Ashley Smith

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If a Kardashian Has a Party and There Wasn't a Photo Booth, Did It Really Happen?

November 3, 2015, 4:44 am

≫ Next: Meet Jon Moody, the Painter Beloved By Rappers, Lee Daniels and Pepsi

≪ Previous: Scenes from Overthrow Boxing Club's Pre-Halloween Party

Today, Kendall Jenner turns 20.

Like most 20-year-olds, Kendall is a millionaire.

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So, to celebrate her passage into non-teendom, Kenny threw a birthday party last night in Los Angeles, featuring a host of fellow famous millionaires, including her very-much-still-a-teen sister, Kylie, who wore a wig.

Some of the roster of players: Kim Kardashian West and her husband, Kourtney/Khloe, Kris Jenner and her boyfriend Cory Gamble, Willow and Jaden Smith, Gigi Hadid, Tyler the Creator, Tyga, Justin Bieber, Drake, Ruby Rose, Gary Busey, Jean Claude Van Damme, the 1996 US Olympic Gymnastics Team, Sophie B Hawkins, The "Mambo #5" music video, Tiffany, Phil Spector (on Furlough), Suri Cruise, Princess Anne, Julia from that Model UN conference in high school who you haven't spoken to since 2007, a crow, Vera Farmiga, my mom texting "How do you copy and paste?", the state of Delaware, a fully in-tact Blockbuster video.

In true Kardashian fashion, there was a photo booth.

There is always a photo booth...

...and always black and white photos, and always "Silly take from a class Yearbook picture" faces.

Always, always, always; dozens, if not thousands, crammed inside.

Here are some highlights from last night's festivities:

Kylie Jenner, serving Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface

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"I'm gonna go wait in the car after this"-Kanye

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Charles Manson? That u?

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"You girls want to come over and check out my Criterion DVD collection later?"-Drake

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How do so many living humans fit into one frame?

It's astounding!

Good for them.

Here are some other unreleased photo booth snaps from Kenny Turns 10+10:

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Happy birthday, Kendall!

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Meet Jon Moody, the Painter Beloved By Rappers, Lee Daniels and Pepsi

November 3, 2015, 5:00 am

≫ Next: Watch Carly Rae Jepsen's Modern Cinderella Story in the Video For "Your Type"

≪ Previous: If a Kardashian Has a Party and There Wasn't a Photo Booth, Did It Really Happen?

Two skeletons emerge from a car parked on a street in the Bywater, a popular New Orleans neighborhood so close to the French Quarter the sounds of brass bands can be heard in the breeze. Near the car, a group of ghouls congregate by a bar. A pedicab, full of gold-wigged partiers, races off into the rain. Halloween night in Nola is a big deal, so people all around the city are on the hunt for the best party.

But inside Jon Moody's shared shotgun-house-turned-studio space, the 23-year-old artist is at work. In the past few months, he's had "splash style" portraits commissioned by Future, Trey Songz, and Lil Wayne. Oh, and one of his prints was recently hung in the White House's east ballroom.

"Growing up in New Orleans encouraged me to be an artist," he says. "There wasn't a doubt in my mind that I could do this."

Although Moody now gets commissioned by famous rappers, he started his art life like a lot of kids: by drawing cartoons. He'd watch Mickey Mouse and draw the Disney character in crayon (which he says was "terrible"). In high school, Moody would get in trouble for drawing in class rather than paying attention -- he remembers getting called out for illustrating one of his teachers with gum falling out of his mouth.

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During this time, he also played football and basketball. The word "artist" isn't often paired with "athlete," but Moody embodies both. He gets artistic inspiration from athletes and watches their training programs, motivational videos, and interviews with people such as boxer Floyd Mayweather.

"A lot of things go hand-in-hand in the two fields," he says. "Definitely discipline is the main thing. I looked at art as something very competitive."

In college, Moody ran track at Savannah College of Art and Design, where he received an undergrad degree in visual effects and a masters in painting. He returned to his home city and it wasn't long before the Likquid Art and Pepsi Creator team found him through his Instagram account and tapped him to create a painting in their Pepsi Art Dome at Voodoo Fest. The painting shows a young, black boy with blood trickling down his face. His background in visual effects made the Voodoo Fest animated installation especially appealing to him.

"For me, it was the future of how movies are going to be played," Moody says of the installation. "You're surrounded by the work, so it's more impactful on you -- it feels like you're moving."

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Moody is interested in animation, but right now he's more drawn to creating murals and painting by hand. His paintings are often large-scale and focus on the human form. They combine vivid colors and raw emotion to tell a story.

"My work is not just about a pretty image," he says. "My personal work has to have some type of meaning. There has to be some purpose behind it."

Fox's Empire co-creator Lee Daniels noticed the impact of Moody's art. One of his paintings can be found hanging in middle son Jamal's bedroom on the second season of the hit show. Daniels liked the work so much, he sent Moody a video message, which the artist saved on his phone.

"I'm so in love with this artist," Daniels said in the video. "He's a fucking amazing artist."

All of Moody's success has come before his first actual show. He hopes to have his official debut in January at his shared studio space, 622 Elysian Fields. The space is called "draw and jrink," because in the front room people can pay to drink wine and paint (Moody's large paintings stay mostly in the back room). He wants his first show to be a nontraditional experience that will get people talking for the weeks that follow. Until then, he'll be busy working.

"There's like this 'starving artists' idea, or that it's not going to pay bills," he said. "But growing up in New Orleans, I never felt like I couldn't live off being an artist."

↧

Watch Carly Rae Jepsen's Modern Cinderella Story in the Video For "Your Type"

November 3, 2015, 5:21 am

≫ Next: Kool A.D. Forecasts Your November Horoscopes

≪ Previous: Meet Jon Moody, the Painter Beloved By Rappers, Lee Daniels and Pepsi

Carly Rae Jepsen's sophomore LP E•MO•TION is perhaps one of the most underrated yet impeccably constructed pop albums of the year. Her new video for the anthemic "Your Type" sees Jepsen down-on-her-luck getting headphones stolen at the bus stop completely transforming into a glamorous rock star once she triumphantly takes the stage at a glitzy dive bar. The video concludes with the smooth radio DJ/narrator giving a cryptic moral "we need our imaginations to survive, or do our imaginations need...never mind" but I think the true take away is that you can turn your worst days into your best with a tiara and silvery high heels.

↧

Kool A.D. Forecasts Your November Horoscopes

November 3, 2015, 5:50 am

≫ Next: Frances Bean Cobain Apparently Has A Doll Made With Kurt Cobain's Hair

≪ Previous: Watch Carly Rae Jepsen's Modern Cinderella Story in the Video For "Your Type"

Trouble with love? Work problems? Mercury retrograde? Don't worry. Rapper, author of the forthcoming novel O.K. (Sorry House), and expert astrological navigator, Kool A.D. will safely guide you through the coming month.

SCORPIO

Every woman on earth is somebody's daughter. I know u know this but think about it and consider it more, truly sit with that knowledge and meditate on it. If ur a dude, consider how male privilege has benefited u and/or enabled u to hurt, further oppress, or otherwise impede the success or freedom of women. Apologize to all of the women in ur life u may have harmed, whether consciously or unconsciously and apologize to urself for damaging ur own karma in doing so. Consider any bad luck in ur life to be karma for things u may not have considered transgressions. We create our universes but our universes also create us so be kind to urself. Being kind to other people is another means of being kind to urself being that we're all one cosmic supersoul. If ur a woman, think about how every man on earth is somebody's son. Consider forgiveness conceptually but still fight for justice, which is a higher form of forgiveness. Evil and wrongdoing is not at the root of human beings, it occurs when human beings forget or lose sight of the love that is at their root. Consider the constructs of gender and also the biological oddities of sex, the hermaphrodites, the extra chromosomal beings, the eunuchs, stigmatization of human hairs in various forms, combinations and contexts, sweat-shaming, slut-shaming and body weight. Run thru the encyclopedia of gender studies issues then listen to Drake and read some Rumi or something, I don't know, literally do whatever u want. Think about how sex and gender play into race and class and society and how these and all other concepts are inextricably interrelated. Consider the billions of human hearts and minds on this planet and consider the hundreds of billions of planets in our universe. What's the difference between a hundred billion and infinity? Infinity. Consider human consciousness as merely one specific version of a greater cosmic consciousness. Love is a positive force that binds and fear is a negative force that destroys. The positive and the negative are created and informed by each other. Consider the physicality of the male orgasm and the metaphysicality of the female organism. Consider the woman's physicality in growing a human body within hers and the the man's metaphysicality manifested in his seed ripening into a human fruit. Consider abortion as a woman's right, being that possession is nine tenths of the law and that the universe is a mother spirit. Consider the metaphysicality of the physical realm, laying just above, behind, below, around it. Consider how the physical realm is a reflection of the metaphysical realm. Imagine a world of happiness, love and equality and then be that.

SAGITTARIUS

Bernie Sanders is a real one but astrologically speaking I'ma have to call it like this: 2016 to 2024 is Hillary (she may be crooked but that's the old school way and she "earned" it), 2024 to 2032 is Kanye, 2032 to 2040 is Michelle Obama, 2040 is u and then after that there's no presidents. But sure, throw Bernie in as veep on all of those.

Listen to Radkey, they're tight. Also listen to Brian Eno, MGMT, The Rolling Stones, Blind Boy Fuller, Radiohead, The Specials, Special Forces, Intrepid A.A.F., Tricky, Bjork, Primal Scream, Party Animal(particularly the new album Avant Garbage), Younger Lovers, Chest Full of Arrows, Unlocking the Truth, Cerebral Ballzy, Trash Talk, Death, Stoned Vengeance and Hirax. Sagittarius is a very Bad Brains-oriented sign, so keep em in the ro. Watch The Motivation and The Motivation 2. Do an ollie.

CAPRICORN

Kick it with a Scorpio. Listen to KOOL A.D. Get ur bars up. Dust off the MPC and make a slapper. Record a fire 16. Tweet at Thom Yorke. Hit the gym. Bench press 300. Tweet at Salman Rushdie. Learn to play the harp. The stars are aligned for u this month fam. Get active, go out and do the thang. Ante up. Yap dem fools. Ante up. Kidnap dem fools. Listen to Black Uhuru and Burning Spear. The world is full up of living contradictions, all we have is our convictions. That's Junior Murvin, I think. Consistency is key. Never worry urself with what could have been but rather think of what is and what will be. Live poetically. If u live poetically, any insult to ur character is automatically unpoetic and cannot move u. Poetry compliments the universe mane, poetry is not dead. Buy an Aztec calendar, throw on some Santana, smoke a doob and just gaze at the thang. A wise man by the name of Lao-Tze once said, AND I QUOTE:

"PEACE ALLAH JAH RASTAFARI CHANGO
PEACE ALLAH KINETIC PEACE
LOVE
LOVE
JOY
THE ACTUAL
LOVE IS ACTUAL
LOVE IS THE TRUTH
FORGIVE URSELF AND EVERYBODY ELSE
HELP URSELF TO THE DELIGHTS OF THE EARTH
THE EARTH HAS MANY NATURAL BEAUTIES AND DELIGHTS
PEEP THE FLOWERS, THE OCEANS AND ITS WAVES
PEEP MOUNTAINS
LOOK AT THE MOUNTAINS AND PEEP GAME
PEEP THE RIVERS
MY EYES HAVE PEEPED RIVERS AND MY SOUL HAS GROWN DEEP LIKE THE RIVERS
I HAVE BEEN UGLY AND I HAVE BEEN BEAUTIFUL
I NOW CHOOSE BEAUTY
BEAUTY OVER ALL ELSE
BEAUTY OVER EVERYTHING
THE REAL AND TRUE BEAUTIFUL TRUTH
I CAN'T HANDLE ANYTHING LESS IT MAKES ME TOO WEAK TO CONSIDER THOSE
OTHER OPTIONS NOW
I WISH TO GROW INTO A STRONGER ME
7 STORIES HIGH
UNFILTERED AND RAW BEAUTIFUL LOVE
LIFE MAN LOOK AT LIFE AND HOW IT FINDS US
WE ARE THE UNIVERSE GAZING AT ITSELF
SAY WOW
SAY WOW NOW
WOW NOW
THIS IS NOW
THIS IS THE MOMENT AND THE MOMENT IS NOW
UR HEARING THIS MOMENT IN UR EARS RIGHT NOW AND WHAT IS THAT DOING TO U
UR SEEING THIS MOMENT IN UR EYES
UR THINKING THIS MOMENT IN UR THOUGHTS
IS THIS THE NOISE OR THE MUSIC THAT U CUT THRU THE NOISE TO FIND?
THE DIFFERENCE IS IN UR MIND
THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN U AND ME
WHEN I RESIDE IN UR MIND I AM U AND U ARE ME
THESE ARE OUR VOICES AND VISAGES FOR OURSELVES TO HEAR AND SEE
IF U LIVE COMPLETELY FOR NOW THEN U LIVE ALSO FOR THEN AND ALSO FOR WHAT IS NEXT
NOW IS WHAT IS NEXT AND WHAT'S NEXT CONTAINS NOW AND WHAT WAS
TOMORROW IS THE SHADOW OF TODAY AND TODAY IS THE SHADOW OF YESTERDAY
PEACE SUN RA
PEACE TO THE SUPER BLOOD MOON AND THE BLOOD AND THE BILLIONS OF
EARTHLY MAMMALIAN UTERNE LININGS SHED WITH HER FULL TWIST
THE MOON
THE MOON
THE SUN TOO THE SUN
POETRY AINT DEAD MY NEGUS
IM AT FLOWERLAND WITH A MOCHA AND A CHOCOLATE COCONUT DONUT
TWO WHITE HIPPIES ARE UNLOADING A TRUCKLOAD OF FLOWERS
"BILLIONS OF TINY PURPLE BLUE THINGS" IS THE PULL QUOTE
EL CERRITO
THE HILL
THE LITTLE HILL
THE ANT HILL
IM A BACHELOR OF ENGLISH LETTERS BUT I FEEL LIKE A DOCTOR OR AT LEAST A MASTER
I HAVE RECITED POETRY AT IMPORTANT SCHOOLS AND PARLORS THRU OUT THE WORLD
BUT WHO CARES
MY SINS INCLUDE LUST, GREED, PRIDE, JEALOUSY, WRATH, THE OCCASIONAL GLUTTONY,
A REAL BIBLICAL MILIEU
PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING BUT ENVY
I GUESS I ENVY THE GOOD
SO YEA ENVY TOO
ALL SEVEN
WILL I ENTER THE KINGDOM OF EVERLASTING LIFE OR NAH?
DO HEAVEN AND HELL EXIST AS OTHER WORLDS ARE THEY MERELY ATTITUDES ON
THIS EARTHLY PLANE?
WE ARE ALREADY IN PARADISE
LOVE AND FORGIVE EVERYONE INCLUDING URSELF
ASK FOR LOVE AND FORGIVENESS AND PATIENCE
MOVE WITH CONVICTION
BREATHE IN AND OUT
SOME ADVICE IS TOO SIMPLE AND GOES UNHEARD
SOME ADVICE IS TOO COMPLEX AND UNFOLDS ITS PETALS AT A RATE THAT
NOBODY BOTHERS TO EXAMINE WITH PATIENCE
ALL THINGS COME TO AN END MANE, ALL THINGS ARRIVE AT THEY CONCLUSIONS
NO WORDS CAN EVER SAY ANYTHING
WE TRY TO BE GOOD I THINK WE ALL DO
I TRY TO BE GOOD
I WISH I COULD BE BETTER
I TRY EVERY DAY I REALLY DO
ANYWAY...

LO K ERES ERES
NO HAY MAS
NO HAY NADA, NADA
AMÓR, SEVGÍ
Et
Y
I WANT!
I WANT!
I DO NOT WANT!

I HAVE NO TIME 4 LANGUAGE
2 CATCH UP 2
ME
POETIX AINT DEAD
ITZ ALIVE N WELL IN THE COMPUTERZ & ON THE MARQUEEZ ETC
ON TV
ON THA RADIO
NAW FUGGIT
ON NETFLIX N CHURL
ON THE HURLY BURLY SHOULDERS OF 8 BILLION SHRUGGIN ATLI
BUT HOOZ COUNTIN
N.-E.-WAYZ
LET UR DESIRE EVAPORATE
LET UR EGO DISSOLVE
TRU POETIX X-IST EN SILENCIO
THE TRUEST WORD IS NOT WRIT NOT EVN SPAKE
THE TRUIST DRAWERLING IZNT DRAW'D
TRUIST THOT UNTHUNK
Y BOTHER?
NO REEZIN
NO RYHME
JUST BREEZIN BEELZEBUB BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE CHANGO
ALLAH HU AKBAR JAH RASTAFARI YEMAYA YEMAYA AYE BABALU AYE CHANGO JAH
JAH ALLAH JAH RASTA PEACE ALLAH JESUS DIOS LAS DIOSAS LA
MAMMASANTISIMA YEMAYA YEMAYA CHANGO BABALU AYE

THE MOON AND UR HEART ARE IN LEO RN

PEACE ALLAH ZARATHUSTRA JAH RASTA CHANGO.

AQUARIUS

Feliz Dia de los Muertes. How come when black people loot and riot after senseless police violence that's all u see on TV but when hella black people peacefully marched on Washington in remembrance of the Million Man March, there was little to no coverage by any major TV news outlets? Dog, not to mention the USA bombed a hospital in Afghanistan last month and nobody seemed to want to talk about that either. Bernie won the debate but CNN said Hillary did and erased hella comments saying otherwise because they're owned by Time Warner who backs Hillary. The Bush family stole at least two elections in order to perpetuate war in the oil rich Middle East. The electoral college is a sophist scam to undermine popular democracy. And if that's just the news we heard about, who knows about all the foul shit that happened that we haven't heard about. Bruh we're basically living in Nazi Germany rn. The laundry list of atrocities committed ostensibly in our names is sickening. U feel like leaving the country but where to go? The world is fucked. The American problem is a global problem. U can't really run away from it. It just boils down, I think, to a matter of making every aspect of ur life an act of dissent and protest. And not like constantly screaming and breaking shit (while occasionally effective at key moments, it's a tiring and ultimately unsustainable way of living) so much as calmly asking urself what is needed of u in any given situation and generally just being a better and kinder person who thinks critically and compassionately. And also actively communicating with those around u about what collective actions can be made to change things. That being said, leaving America is not a bad symbolic gesture of protest if u can afford it. Move to Bahrain like Michael Jackson did or Cuba like Assata did or Paris like Josephine Baker or Richard Wright or Nina Simone too I think I don't know. Or whatever, do u. U have been doing a lot of introspection, lately and that's all good and healthy and whatnot and u have been concerned about ur selfish, hurtful and/or unrighteous actions in the past but it's time to turn ur attention to the present and its unfolding future. No matter how fucked up u may have been as a person at whatever points in ur life u can't go back and change that but u can always decide right now that u want to change for the better. The fucked up nature of the world manifests in the fucked up nature of the self and vice versa. Kill the cop inside of u. If ur actually a cop at the very least I guess just quit ur job.

PISCES

Sell some of ur stuff, Pare down to the essentials. Live like a solider of love. Listen to that Sade song "Soldier of Love" matterfact listen all the other Sade songs. Kick it with another Pisces and compare notes. Walk into every building like u own it but ur looking to sell it to the first prospective buyer then taking that money and burning it. Consider light and shadow as substantive creatures delivering the universal truth to ur person. Record a based freestyle mixtape and distribute it to friends and family. Who is Albert Einstein? Think about that. Watch that NWA movie. Listen to that Ice Cube album The Predator while watching the Arnold Schwartzenegger movie The Predator. Listen to All Eyez on Me by 2-Pac.

ARIES

U have been shedding excess spiritual baggage all year and this period of time is no different. Ur becoming newer with each breath. Ur a tour de force. Much of the world can't keep up with ur pace so u need to remember patience. Someone new is entering ur stage, ur dialog with them will greatly advance the plot. It's a studious time for u and that's pretty moon orientated but don't forget the sun in these times, feel me? I feel like I told u to listen to John and Alice Coltrane last month, right? I'd say stay on that kick. Also throw some Pharaoh Sanders on that list. Return a library book and check out a new one, literally or metaphorically. Change all of ur passwords. Listen to "The First Verse of the Tao Te Ching" by Party Animal.

TAURUS

Renovate and expand ur dream architecture. Perform an elaborate opera in ur dreamz. The opera house is seven stories high with a nine-story wine cellar. Heaven and hell are both earthly and attitudinal in nature. Write something for urself this month. Death is unnecessary. Life is eternal once the eternal is realized within the mind as a possible concept. Death is a game. To play it is to lose it. Life is a game too, to play that is to win it. Ceaseless game, baby, it's hot or cold, baby, it's ages and stages, feel me. It's all this plus that and the other. Build a bigger table, not a higher fence feel me a house not built is better never built at all or mayhaps ever built. Google "aeronaut." Do an ollie. Grind that rail. Hit a bump of molly out of somebody's bellybutton.

GEMINI

Think critically about ur political position in the world. Ask what u can do for ur people but also ask what ur people can do for u. We're all in it together but u don't have to go full martyr to be a compassionate person. Go watch somebody speak to a large group of people using a microphone. Maybe do that urself too. The trouble with imagining Utopias is that the radical changes in these worlds can often enough pan out as dystopic from another point of view. Gandhi once said "Be the change u want to see in the world" and he ain't never lie. What can one person do? Perhaps a better question is what can't one person do? Research how much it would cost to convert to solar energy. It's probably worth it considering all the money u would save cutting out ur energy bill. Couldn't hurt am I right. Convert ur car so it runs on biodiesel. There's so much dookie in the world why haven't we figured out how to fertilize all our crops with it and make energy out of whatever's leftover? But we know how to make hella different bombs and firearms to kill each other? That's crazy. Speaking of which, however, I think that "gun control" as implemented by our obviously racist, classist, pseudo-democratic, hyper-corporatized, terroristic, colonialist, imperialist government would in effect be more concerned with limiting the means of the people to defend themselves from and rise up against their oppressive government than it would be about saving innocent lives. Mass shootings, like the excessive rash of police brutality in our culture, bespeak deep rooted systemic problems with society that go beyond the mere physicality of guns. Moreover, until the cops put down their guns I think it's unfair to ask civilians to do so. And in order to do all that, I feel like the gun factories would have to close and that would require a major cosmic shift in human consciousness much larger than that last super blood moon. Prob have something to do with Mars, the Sun and maybe Pluto if u axe me. Be wary of the presence of insects around u in this season. Refrain from eating anywhere that has flies.

CANCER

We live on display as much as life is displayed to us. Existence is a fashion show, life is a zoovie. Pain is an illusion. Get a tattoo. Fear is a joke. Get "FEAR IS A JOKE" tattooed on ur neck. Take a long drive. Drive til the tank is empty. On the drive listen to nothing but classic KOOL A.D. songs. Like Leo, u should also listen to Sonic Youth, Equipto and Frank Zappa. Also Andre Nickatina. And Romantic Gorilla. Watch Doraemon in Spanish. Run on the beach. Watch the first episode of Pokemon. Watch Winter Soldier (not the Captain America one), watch the documentary on Vietnam vets testifying before congress. Spray paint "kill whitey" on the door of the Hotsy Totsy on San Pablo.

LEO

Deface a symbol of gentrification on the night of the full moon. Listen to Sonic Youth. Like I told Capricorn last month, listen to Equipto. The broad strokes do the heavy lifting, the details happen along the way, pure gesture is free of effort. Apply ur effort to follow-thru in lieu of trying to force gesture. Commit to the accident of the gesture. Some have said that gesture is meaningless. I would say gesture is pure meaning. Embrace mistakes. Change is better than erasure. U can perform subtraction using addition. Apply this theory across the board. Casualize ur mind. Can u perform addition with subtraction? Probably. Try that too. Try some multiplication, that's probably the main thing. Stop at nothing short of total freedom. Pure and total freedom of the self includes and in fact actually requires freedom of all others.

VIRGO

An ideal society has no crime and no police, no money and no poverty, universal leadership without formal government, no laws and no outlaws, no inequality, etc. I'd say short of that, or rather, on the way to that, here's a lil #obamabasedgod based freestyle with some novel ideas that u can think on and take or leave: abolish the death penalty, gardens and solar panels on every roof, trees lining every street, less (or no) money in foreign oil, fracking and coal, and more in solar, wind, biodiesel, more money and research in converting human waste into fuel and fertilizer, more electric cars and water powered engines, free all drug offenders and political prisoners, fuck, maybe even just free everybody, free universal health care and mental health care, more counseling, less prisons, or no prisons, legalize all drugs, prostitution and gambling, outlaw pesticides and/or subsidize or otherwise incentivize organic farming, raise minimum wage and instate maximum wage/salary caps, turn all corporations/businesses/factories into shared equity co-ops, forgive all student loans and make colleges free, forgive all credit debt, abolish rent and fill all foreclosed homes with the homeless, withdraw all troops on foreign soil and send diplomats, food, clothing, teachers and goods, open all borders, turn swords into plowshares and let guns dissolve back into the earth's mineral beds, allow citizens to vote on where their tax dollars go by making voting day and tax day occur on the same day and make that day a national holiday, maybe make it a week long or month long annual event with various public forums and town hall debates, make voting as comprehensive as taxing, or fuck it, ideally there's no voting or taxes because everybody is already working for the betterment of each other anyway right? I don't know man, do whatever I guess. To quote KOOL A.D. "Everybody love everybody." DO YOU FEEL ME?

LIBRA

U recently had a disappointment that was a blessing in disguise. Let go of whatever negative emotions u may have harbored whether consciously or unconsciously and move forward with new energy and vigor for the projects at hand. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Like Sagittarius, u should be listening to Brian Eno. Also listen toArt Blakey, Johnny Cash, Augustus Pablo and Selda Bagcan. Give 20 bucks to the next homeless person u see. There are about 5 times as many vacant houses in this country as there are homeless people. There is enough food on earth right now to feed everybody twice but 795 million people (one in nine people) on earth are starving. Think about the collective abstractions of the minds of the rich and powerful (and everybody else for that matter) that must occur to allow these injustices to stand and what can be done to fix this thinking and these issues. Understand also that ultimately we are a tiny speck in an effectively endless universe and that if our collective consciousness was extinguished by like an asteroid or whatever other cosmic harbinger of destruction nobody would really miss us. These nihilistic truths withstanding, it doesn't mean give up, it just means like "rage, rage against the dying of the light," that's from that Matt McConaughey movie Interstellar. It's actually a quote from Dylan Thomas, a prominent white dude of earth. Bob Dylan named himself after dude. U saw that IBM commercial where Bob Dylan is talking to a computer? Prob the best piece of filmmaking I've seen in years, tied with the Steve Jobs movie and Top Five. Write, direct and star in a movie called Three Way Tie about how if u had to pick if u were a better writer, director or actor it would be a three-way tie.

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Frances Bean Cobain Apparently Has A Doll Made With Kurt Cobain's Hair

November 3, 2015, 6:02 am

≫ Next: Good Charlotte is Back to Soundtrack Your Winter Anxiety

≪ Previous: Kool A.D. Forecasts Your November Horoscopes

Screen Shot 2015-11-03 at 2.00.08 PM.png

images via Julien's Auctions

Yesterday, Julien's Auctions put two Kurt Cobain memorabilia items for sale including a 10-inch lock of his hair. However, as originally noted by Jezebel, tucked away in the informational blurb is extremely important information regarding the fact that Frances Bean Cobain apparently has a doll made with other pieces of Kurt's hair -- which is equal parts heart-warming and slightly off-putting.

The backstory is that doll maker/comic artist Dame Darcy acquired the hair when Courtney Love commissioned a doll for Frances Bean, using said locks. And this piece that's currently for sale just happened to be what was a leftover. And to certify the veracity of said origin story, the hair even comes with a (comic book-style) letter of authenticity by Darcy that talks about visualizing herself as a mermaid. K.

And while Jezebel could not find other sources confirming a "Kurt-haired doll online," Love and Darcy have a well-documented relationship, as evidenced by videos of them making (more) dolls together.

[h/t Jezebel]

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Good Charlotte is Back to Soundtrack Your Winter Anxiety

November 3, 2015, 6:05 am

≫ Next: Bad Brains Guitarist Dr. Know Reportedly On Life Support

≪ Previous: Frances Bean Cobain Apparently Has A Doll Made With Kurt Cobain's Hair

Oh, it's Good Char-lit -- Alternative Press reports that the band is getting back together after a four-year hiatus. This is great news for everyone who ever had a phase of listening to "The Anthem" on repeat while using a Sharpie to draw the tattoos they would get if their parents would only stop being old fogies (which means me, you, and everyone we know). The break was Madden-ing, but we're ready to get back to it, with the best poppy emo-adjacent salve for the winter Seasonal Affective Disorder that will probably start to ail you in just a couple of days (you're young and hopeless, we get you). And prepare to tear down the lifestyles of the rich and famous with this video behind the scenes of our cover shoot with the band from the long-ago time of... 2007.

↧

Bad Brains Guitarist Dr. Know Reportedly On Life Support

November 3, 2015, 7:17 am

≫ Next: Watch the Mesmerizing Trailer for Spike Lee's Chiraq Movie

≪ Previous: Good Charlotte is Back to Soundtrack Your Winter Anxiety

Dr. Know, guitarist for punk legends Bad Brains, is currently on life support in an undisclosed hospital. According to Rolling Stone, the news of Dr. Know, real name Gary Miller, first came to light via a post on music journalist Greg Tate's Facebook on Sunday night. Along with the rest of Bad Brains, Dr. Know has played a smattering of live dates this year, including a Woodstock Session.

As the story broke online, Bad Brains released the following statement via their Facebook.

"The Bad Brains family ask that you please keep Gary (Dr. Know) Miller in your thoughts and prayers. The family respectfully ask that their privacy be honored during this time and very much appreciate all the great energy that is being sent their way.

Positive vibes and PMA!"

fff

↧

Watch the Mesmerizing Trailer for Spike Lee's Chiraq Movie

November 3, 2015, 7:23 am

≫ Next: The Game Pens More Insta-rotica Starring His Giant Dick

≪ Previous: Bad Brains Guitarist Dr. Know Reportedly On Life Support

In theory, Spike Lee's Chi-raq should be a total disaster. It's a movie named after "Chiraq," a term generally used to refer to Chicago's gun violence by people who don't live in Chicago in a way that is often reductive, shrill, and downright offensive. It's based on Lysistrata, a Greek play in which women withhold sex in order to end a war, which is both an interesting basis for a movie and the possible root of hundreds of bad "men are like this!" jokes. And, uh, what was the last Spike Lee joint to which you attach fond memories? (Is it Miracle at St. Anna? Don't lie -- did you really see that movie?)

But based on the first trailer... the movie looks... really good? At the very least, it's visually snappy and fascinating, with the presence of Samuel L. Jackson as an apparent Greek chorus enlivening a cast that also includes Nick Cannon, Sasha Go Hard, and John Cusack. The locations look great, the dialogue is fun, and, best of all, it doesn't appear as overbearing as it could have been given the premise, instead giving off a heightened and absurd vibe that might allow Lee to balance comedy and seriousness. Watch the trailer below. Chi-raq hits theaters December 4.

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The Game Pens More Insta-rotica Starring His Giant Dick

November 3, 2015, 7:44 am

≫ Next: Zola's Story May Not Be Entirely True, But Don't Let That Stop You From Believing Sex Workers

≪ Previous: Watch the Mesmerizing Trailer for Spike Lee's Chiraq Movie

Screen Shot 2015-11-03 at 3.15.56 PM.png

Late last Thursday, rapper The Game, offered up an Insta-feast of his massive member, thinly disguised by his skin-tight briefs.

But more than that, the MC brought the entire Internet on a guided sexual odyssey, in the form of salaciously-worded hashtags.

Fortunately, the web responded exactly how he wanted, and Jayceon Terrell Taylor gifted us with the SECOND installment of his Big Dick Saga last night.

Screen Shot 2015-11-03 at 3.22.17 PM.png

Screen Shot 2015-11-03 at 3.22.17 PM.png

Game begins by telling the reader "I love you and you deserve to...#GetWetOnYourWayHomeFromWork."

Thanks, G.

Some highlights:

#NowPutOnUsherConfessionsAlbumAndLetItPlayThrough (trueeeeeeeee)

#PropThemPillowsSoYoureComfortable (so chivalrous!)

#NowTouchThatPearlTongueAndGoCounterClockwise

#NowReverseTheMotionAndImagineMeLickingYourLegsStartingWithYourAnkle (hmmm...ok)

But nothing compares to the greatest sentence ever written:

#ImBoutToCatchAUberDowntownToThatPussy

Dear God.

He also confirms his dietary restrictions:

"#YouBoutToGetEatOutLikeGroceries

#ButOrganicGroceriesCauseImOnAStrictDiet."

See you at Whole Foods!

↧

Zola's Story May Not Be Entirely True, But Don't Let That Stop You From Believing Sex Workers

November 3, 2015, 8:40 am

≫ Next: Adele Shuts Down Blur's Damon Albarn's Sexist Comments About Her Musicianship

≪ Previous: The Game Pens More Insta-rotica Starring His Giant Dick

Screen Shot 2015-11-03 at 4.40.06 PM.png

Photo via Aziah King's instagram.

In a deep dive into the facts of Zola's infamous Twitter epic, The Washington Post effectively verified most of her story yesterday -- even if the entire thing begins with a note that no one actually got shot or tried to jump from a balcony. And while writer Caitlin Dewey also describes what actually happened to Zola, aka Aziah King -- and the violence that sex workers so often experience in their jobs -- as something perhaps even "crazier" than what transpired in her feed, the main takeaway has, unfortunately, been very different.

Behind Zola's story: No one actually tried to jump off a fourth-floor balcony, and no one ever got shot in the face. https://t.co/LbfuY5t0Cz
-- Suzette Hackney (@suzyscribe) November 2, 2015

@britttanyx3😂😂💀💀 I'm done with all the lies
-- wow wtf (@Monifaa_xo) November 3, 2015

Because while Zola's tale may not be 100% true, the fact that this story's resurfaced in such a way sets a very dangerous precedent -- one that plays into the "women lie/exaggerate about sexual violence" mindset we often have as our default response to accusations of rape and assault.

Even before most of the details were verified, there was already a pretty strong camp of readers who "knew" she was lying.

Ha. So "Zola" IS a liar, eh? Knew that story was too good to be true.
-- ⚡Brandy (@Mc_Screamy) October 30, 2015

So Zola is a liar and used a specific case in the news to make it seem real. She's really a mastermind 😂
-- Preme (@PremeWestend) October 30, 2015

Zola's story is probably mostly lies. Fine. You know what else is a lie? Everything Shonda Rhimes writes.
-- Robert! (@RPinHD) October 29, 2015

And while the initial response to the story was disturbing enough in the sense that the default reaction was to LOL and opine on how much of it was really true, now it's even worse with an entire sector of the Internet latching onto her exaggerations as a means of totally discrediting her entire experience. Their reactions also threaten to cast doubt on the very true stories of thousands of sex workers and victims of sexual assault -- as seen on Twitter and in the comments section of Dewey's article.

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wait...people really thought the zola story was true???
-- Sarah Bellum (@tlw83) November 3, 2015

The Washington Post will not make me feel bad about reading & laughing at the Zola story.
-- MEAGY MEAG (@MeagyMeagOnAir) November 3, 2015

As "Josephine," a co-editor for sex worker blog Tits & Sass, said, "every sex worker I know has a horror story. We get robbed, arrested, beaten, humiliated. The majority of our horror stories blur the line between 'awful' and 'hilarious.' At least, mine do" -- which is why, she speculates, Zola turned to humor (and some accompanying plot twists) to defuse the grim realities of her situation. It doesn't mean she's a liar or made up the parts about her getting kidnapped and trafficked, it just means she got a bit carried away in her tweeted retelling. Which, is a tad questionable, sure, but it doesn't make the meat of her story and the stories of other sex workers any less valid. This woman went through a horrible, traumatizing nightmare, and the fact that the Internet has the gall to even question her when it comes to the way she retells a life-threatening experience is bleak to say the least.

And what does all this very public questioning of Zola's story do to other sex workers and victims of abuse? It tells them that they won't be believed, that our toxic culture of "women lie" is very, very real despite all the heartening stories about speaking up and sharing your experiences. Because ultimately, even if Zola felt like she could deal with it, there are many other women who wouldn't dream of reliving a traumatizing experience only to have it spat back in their face by a vitriolic troll.

Bottom line -- always believe women. The world will be a better and safer place if you do.

[h/t The Washington Post]

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