A Texas photographer found a creative way to take an intergenerational family picture.

Amber Rater of Moose Photography created this special image of local mom Nicole Margavitch, along with her mother, grandmother and daughter.

The awesome photo appeared on the popular Facebook page, Love What Matters, where it received over 19,000 likes. 

“This photograph is something I will cherish for the rest of my life,” Nicole stated in the caption. “There are 72 years between the first and the last photo in this sequence, yet the values, beauty and love transcend through generations. This photo captures the pride we have for those who came before us and those who came after us.” 

Several Facebook commenters shared similar photos of their own families.

Though Amber used Photoshop to bring the image to life, you can create a similar photo manually, by printing out photographs as you go along and having each successive family member hold them. 

It takes work, but as the above photos show, the result is pure family joy.

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In a recently resurfaced clip from a 1999 BBC interview with the late Nina Simone, the legendary musician recalled an incident during which she says she attempted to kill a record company executive for robbing her. 

BBC Hard Talk posted a clip from the March 1999 interview to their Twitter page on the 14th anniversary of Simone’s death last Friday. In the video, the outspoken artist told interviewer Tim Sebastian that the exec took her albums without paying her. Simone said she confronted the company when they came to Switzerland. 

She doesn’t go into detail or specify who “they” is.

“I said ‘where’s my money?’” she told Sebastian. “And they said, ‘we’re not going to give you any money.’”

“I said, ‘oh yes, you are.’ I got a gun ― it was a gun, it wasn’t a knife  ― and I followed him to a restaurant and I tried to kill him,” she continued.

But Simone said she missed her target and returned to the U.S. When the interviewer questioned whether Simone indeed pulled the trigger, she clarified with “of (bleep) excuse me, yes I did.”

He then asked if the attempted killing made Simone feel better to which she replied: “Oh yes. Sorry I didn’t get him.”

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Between the late 1800s and early 1900s, artist Edvard Munch created four versions of his magnum opus “The Scream,” which depicts a man enduring extreme psychological anguish while alone on a bridge beneath a raging blood-red sky. One “Scream” artwork broke auction records in 2012 when it sold for nearly $120 million. 

For centuries art historians and enthusiasts have understood the tempestuous weather conditions depicted in the work as a symbolic representation of existential dread, as experienced by one very pale, very bald man. 

But during a talk held Tuesday at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna, the University of Olso’s Dr. Helene Muri posited that perhaps Munch wasn’t painting stomach-churning angst at all, but simply crazy clouds. 

Specifically, Dr. Muri suggested that Munch had witnessed the rare weather phenomenon known as nacreous clouds, mother-of-pearl clouds or “screaming clouds” ― quite appropriately. The unusual condition forms in extremely cold temperatures (minus 80 to 85 degrees Celsius) at very high altitudes (between nine and 12 miles), combined with a bit of humidity.

The resulting clouds, which only manifest at sunset or after dark, appear like thin, wriggling waves in pronounced colors. “You get these very distinct colorings,” Muri explained, “from the combination of scattering, diffraction and internal refraction of the sunlight on these tiny ice crystals.”

The clouds likely adopted their reddish hue thanks to the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, which occurred nine years before Munch painted his first “Scream” in 1893. Yet volcanic fallout remains in the air for years after a massive eruption, and can yield sunsets with palettes resembling fiery explosions. 

This explanation fits with how Munch described the shocking sky in his 1890 journal:

“The sky suddenly became bloodish red. I stopped, leant against the fence, tired to death ― watched over the flaming clouds as blood and sword the city ― the blue-black fjord and the city ― My friends went away ― I stood there shivering from dread ― and I felt this big, infinite scream through nature.”

“We do know that there were mother-of-pearl clouds in the Oslo area in the late 19th century,” Dr. Muri told The Telegraph. Although Muri has lived in the Oslo region for 25 years, she’s only seen the Mother of Pearl clouds once herself. The researcher imagines that if Munch saw the crimson display on a random evening, he would have understandably flipped out. 

“Today the general public has a lot more scientific information but you can imagine back in his day, he’d probably never seen these clouds before,” Dr. Muri told The BBC. “As an artist, they no doubt could have made quite an impression on him.”

Whether or not Munch was actually inspired by a rare meteorological event or some sort of internal panic attack ― or a little bit of both ― we’ll probably never know for sure. But it’s always fun to add another “Scream” hypothesis to the vault, especially one that involves something as weird and terrifying as “screaming clouds.”

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Family matters, and so does Kobe Bryant’s slam poetry.

The former NBA star is used to clutch performances, and he came up with another one on “The Tonight Show” Monday, reciting a slam poem about Steve Urkel from “Family Matters.”

Did he do that?

Uh, yeah, he did. 

For anyone thinking this sounds strange, you’re right. It is strange — strange Kobe hasn’t been doing this every day of his life.

This poetry performance is totally out of the blue. But it’s amazing.

Kobe was known as “The Black Mamba.” He had a killer instinct in the league. We just didn’t expect the transition from NBA to slam poet to be so smooth.

If Kobe keeps doing stuff like this, who knows how far he’ll go?

Considering he also sang some of “How Far I’ll Go” from “Moana” on the show, we’re guessing it’s pretty far.

“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC.

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Madonna made it through the wilderness, and now you’ll get to see her origin story on the big screen. 

Universal Pictures has picked up “Blond Ambition,” based on a buzzy script that appeared on 2016’s Black List, the annual survey that ranks well-liked unproduced Hollywood screenplays. It’s the work of first-time feature writer Elyse Hollander, who sets the story in the early 1980s as Madonna works to get her career off the ground within the misogynistic music industry, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

“Blond Ambition” topped the Black List last year, which is a sign of hope for a subject that’s tricky to pull off given Madonna’s larger-than-life fame. There’s no word on casting yet, but the script presents Madonna, who moved from Detroit to New York in 1978 to pursue dancing and singing, prioritizing her career over young love. During those intervening years, the broke singer lived in an abandoned synagogue and low-rent apartments while working odd jobs, playing in a punk band and performing with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

According to Vulture, the film also focuses on the early days of MTV and Madonna’s romantic relationship with John “Jellybean” Benitez, who produced her 1983 debut album. The script reportedly culminates with Madonna’s groundbreaking “Like a Virgin” performance at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards.

HuffPost reached out to Madonna’s rep to ask if she has any involvement with the movie and whether she’ll allow her music to be used, but we didn’t hear back. Madonna has always wielded control over her image, so it would seem out of character for her to endorse someone else’s take on her life. That said, two producers involved do have ties to the singer. Universal executive Michael De Luca produced “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” for which Madonna recorded the song “Beautiful Stranger,” and Brett Ratner, whose production company is partnering with Universal on the project, directed the “Beautiful Stranger” music video. 

There’s no word on when “Blond Ambition” will begin production or who might direct the movie, which takes its name from Madonna’s celebrated 1990 world tour. 

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The first exhibition featuring the work of exclusively black women artists took place in New York in 1971 ― it was titled “Where We At.”

Artists Vivian E. Browne, Dindga McCannon and Faith Ringgold organized the grassroots show, which featured the work of 14 artists at a Greenwich Village gallery run by artist and dealer Nigel Jackson. The exhibition’s success inspired the participating artists to form a collective, called WWA for short, who together went on to orchestrate other exhibitions, panel discussions, seminars and art workshops for local youth and incarcerated individuals. The cooperative went on to coordinate shows, publications and community events well into the 1980s. 

While the WWA artists adhered to many of the dominant ideologies of second-wave feminism ― equal pay for women, equal representation for women artists, equal respect for women’s work ― they aligned themselves with the black arts movement above the women’s liberation movement, which was led, for the most part, by white middle-class women.

Almost 50 years later, an exhibition devoted to the revolutionary impact of black female artists is now on view at The Brooklyn Museum. Titled “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85” the exhibition picks up six years before WWA and concludes 14 years after, including the work of 40 artists who grappled with the political, social and aesthetic implications of making art as a woman of color.

The show guides viewers through the black women artists who, without artistic antecedent or support from white male-dominated artistic institutions, went on to create work that is avant-garde, fearless, joyful, radical, angry and invigorating ― and often all at once. The exhibition is radically diverse in terms of the techniques and media included, which include performance, film, video art, conceptual art, photography, painting, sculpture and printmaking. The styles too run the gamut, from Barbara Chase-Riboud’s abstract sculpture ― which resembles an inky ballgown as much as an impenetrable shield ― to Emma Amos’ earth-toned painting of a couple slow dancing in their living room. 

The discrimination women artists of color face is not something of the past. In a climate where it is still difficult for most people to name five women artists, black women continue to be under-represented on museum walls, auction blocks and in history books. Today collectives like Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter and Black Art Incubator rigorously hold the art world accountable for its prejudices and blind spots.

This exhibition honors the black women who laid the groundwork for such contemporary artists, activists and artist-activists, whose influence on contemporary feminism and contemporary art is nothing less than cosmic. 

1. Senga Nengudi (American, b. 1943)

2. Jae Jarrell (American, b. 1935)

3. Dindga McCannon (American, b. 1947)

4. Faith Ringgold (American, b. 1930)

5. Beverly Buchanan (American, 1940–2015)

6. Emma Amos (American, b. 1938)

7.  Barbara Chase-Riboud (American, b. 1939)

8. Maren Hassinger (American, b. 1947)

9. Lorraine O’Grady (American, b. 1934)

10. Howardena Pindell (American, b. 1930)

11. Betye Saar (American, b. 1926)

12. Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953)

13. Lona Foote (American, 1948–1993)

14. Lorna Simpson (American, b. 1960)

“We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85” runs until Sept. 17 at The Brooklyn Museum as part of the institution’s “Year of Yes.”

 

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The king(sman) has returned.

The official trailer for “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” is here, and, what do you know, Colin Firth is back! 

The last time we saw Firth’s character, Harry Hart, Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) was shooting him in the head. There’s even a moment where a disgusted Valentine asks if he is, in fact, dead. 

“That tends to happen when you shoot someone in the head,” replies Gazelle (Sofia Boutella).  

Firth is a Kingsman, though. He’s not going to let that hold him back.

We knew the character’s return was imminent from Firth’s name appearing on the poster for the new movie, and sure enough, one scene in the trailer shows Hart― now donning an eyepatch — much to the surprise of Eggsy (Taron Egerton).

The eyepatch gives Firth a very Nick Fury-like feel, which is Sam Jackson’s character in the Marvel movies. Egerton also previously teased that the first movie was like “Captain America,” and the follow-up is more like “Avengers.” 

What does this all mean? Who knows? But Jackson better come back, too. 

Perhaps the strangest twist in trailer is the ending montage naming all the big actors in the film. There’s Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, Channing Tatum and Jeff Bridges. But then Pedro Pascal, aka Oberyn Martell from “Game of Thrones,” shows up and doesn’t get a name-drop. 

He just appears and is all like, “Here I am!” (Crickets …)

Why did they do that? It’s weird. Is this payback for Oberyn not finishing the Mountain on “Game of Thrones” when he had the chance?

For now, we’re guessing it’s just an awkward edit. Today is not the day our hype dies. 

 

 

 

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Billy Porter likes to think of his new album as “resistance with sass.”

For “Billy Porter Presents: The Soul of Richard Rodgers,” the Tony-winning “Kinky Boots” star puts a fresh, contemporary spin on 12 classics from the Rodgers songbook. He’s called in a few A-list collaborators, too, including India.Arie, Pentatonix and “Hamilton” veterans Renee Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson and Leslie Odom, Jr.

Many of Rodgers’ contributions to musical theater, of course, have gone on to become staples of Americana. Though musicals like “Carousel” and “The Sound of Music” have been performed countless times around the world, Porter feels the political messages at the core of those shows still resonate today.

“Because they’re so popular, because they’ve become so ubiquitous in our culture, because we’ve seen high schools do them, all of the politics have been sucked out of these shows,” Porter, 47, told HuffPost. “These people were pushing the envelope way back then! They were pushing it through art, and having these conversations through their work. It was thrilling!”

For Porter, “Billy Porter Presents: The Soul of Richard Rodgers” fit perfectly into what he described as his “life’s mission,” which is to show “how the past influences the present and, hopefully, the future.”

“Richard Rodgers’s music transcends time, race, ideology – everybody on the planet, even if they think they don’t know a Richard Rodgers song, probably knows one,” he said. “Pop music used to come from the theater, and the charge was lead by Richard Rodgers and his collaborators. They were the Kanye Wests, the Drakes, the Adeles of their day.”

Though he began recording his album well before President Trump’s surprise victory in November, Porter said the 2016 election had a heavy influence on the final product, which hit retailers April 7. The actor-singer dropped the album’s first single, a plaintive “Edelweiss,” on Inauguration Day, because the “Sound of Music” ballad is “a prayer for a country in crisis.” Similarly, the actor-singer originally had a female vocalist in mind for the “South Pacific” ditty, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair,” but instead, he hit the studio with Todrick Hall to record it as a duet.

“They’ve taken gay men off the census, so we have to stay visible. They want to erase our presence,” Porter said. “We have to be active, and as artists, we get to do that through art. This is when we are needed the most.”

It’s been a particularly busy few months for Porter. In addition to “Billy Porter Presents: The Soul of Richard Rodgers” and a series of concert engagements, the star is at work on two new plays. The first, he said, is called “The Untitled Sex Project” about “the lost generation of gay men who lived through the AIDS crisis who… know how to fight, but don’t know how to live,” and is currently in development at New York’s Public Theater. The second will be a contemporary gospel musical that has the working title “Sanctuary.”  

On a personal note, Porter married his longtime partner, Adam Smith, in New York on Jan. 14, just 16 days after getting engaged. Trump’s rise to power, he said, was the impetus for the couple’s decision to tie the knot so quickly. “I’ve been in this climate before,” he explained. “I lived through the AIDS crisis; I’ve been on the front lines fighting for a lot. I knew what was coming and I didn’t want to do it alone, and we were going to get married anyway, so it was just like, ‘Let’s do this now please!’”

The conflux of politics and Broadway theater has made headlines as of late. In November, the smash musical “Hamilton” faced a conservative backlash after one of its stars, Brandon Victor Dixon, delivered an impassioned speech to Vice President Mike Pence when he attended a performance. 

Porter, who collaborated with Dixon on “Billy Porter Presents: The Soul of Richard Rodgers,” said he isn’t concerned about similar repercussions for getting political. “I call bullsh*t on that,” he said. “It’s been since the beginning of time that artists have been the ones who speak truth to power, and they know it. I stand on the shoulders of the people who came before me, and I will never be silenced.”

Listen to “Billy Porter Presents: The Soul of Richard Rodgers” below. 

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Ella Fitzgerald’s voice was so powerful and sultry that it makes sense why she is often referred to as the First Lady of Song.

But that’s not the only moniker she was given for her earth-shattering voice. In the nearly 80 years she lived, Lady Ella also came to be known as the Queen of Jazz ― a fitting name that reflected her inimitable influence on the genre.

Tuesday marks the 100-year anniversary of Fitzgerald’s birth on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia ― and it’s a perfect moment to reflect on how she overcame adversity and achieved unprecedented success in her career as a black woman at the height of Jim Crow. Fitzgerald first gained recognition in 1934 after singing during amateur night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and went on to win several other singing competitions. Lady Ella impressed crowds so much, she was quickly introduced to influential people in the music industry and attracted admirers everywhere. She soon landed a gig as a singer on tour with the Tiny Bradshaw band, performing in places like Harlem’s renowned Savoy Ballroom, before breaking into her own stardom with hit songs and albums.

Fitzgerald sold nearly 40 million albums, earned 13 Grammy Awards and worked alongside countless great jazz musicians before she died in 1996. In honor of her 100th birthday, let’s look back at moments that capture Lady Ella’s elegance and energy:

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Today Matt Haig, British author of the forthcoming novel How to Stop Time, tweeted feelingly about his anxiety, writing, “Anxiety is a tricky thing. However bad it is now it convinces you things will get worse. It’s like a Jaws soundtrack of the soul.”

He continued to describe his condition, which he says is improving, making clear the distinction between anxiety and worry. Shortly after, spurred by responses he got on Twitter he added, “Forgot that every time you say anything online about anxiety you get folk denying your reality.”

J.K. Rowling shared the thread and added to the conversation, noting that denying the existence of anxiety might indicate that said denier experiences anxiety him- or herself.

“Sadly, it’s often a giveaway,” Rowling tweeted. “’If you’re a liar, maybe the dark, scary place I keep locked up inside me isn’t real, either.’”

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders affect 18 percent of the American population, making it the most common mental illness in the country. Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder ― both mentioned in Haig’s comments on Twitter ― affect 3.1 percent of Americans and 2.7 percent of Americans, respectively.

You can read Haig’s moving thread on the topic below:

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