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A Brief Glimpse into the Frightening Attitude Towards Gays in Russia.

This unsettling video speaks for itself – it’s simply not safe for homosexuals in Russia.

Gabriel Reilich
By Gabriel ReilichJul 13, 2015
Gabriel Reilich
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Two guys held hands, walked around Moscow and filmed the reactions of those around them. These interactions occur in broad daylight, in Russia’s biggest city – imagine the sort of abuse they would suffer during nighttime, or in more rural areas. It’s frightening to think about.

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Photo credit: Canva

European research proves you’re not wasting your life playing video games

If you’re of a certain generation and a fan of video games, you probably heard flack from parents or teachers or some other authority that playing games for too many hours a day is bad for you. It usually doesn’t come from a bad place, they’re just concerned that spending that large amount of time playing could interfere with your social life and mental health compared to other activities. Well, a new European study is saying that you could play games for hours and hours and it wouldn’t impact any of that. Sort of.

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www.flickr.com

An artist shares how making an effort to understand artwork enables intellectual freedom and self-expression.

For a few years, there’s been a rash of videos on social media declaring, “I hate modern art” or comparing “modern art vs. real art.” But as artist J.J. Ellis shares, there’s a bigger danger posed by this negativity to not just to art (modern art is, of course, real art), but to freedom and self-expression.

In a video last week, Ellis discusses a recent controversy around painter Yves Klein’s 1961 work Blue Monochrome and why the painting still matters over 60 years later. In 1961, Artforumshared, “New York artists virtually boycotted his show of monochrome paintings in “International Klein Blue” (his own patented formula of blue) at Leo Castelli’s gallery. The art press, which did not bother to investigate the wider context of his work, found him easy prey.” But the major lesson here, whether or not one is a fan of Klein’s work, is to understand that there’s more than one way of looking at or considering a work of art without dismissing it completely.

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What's the 'most millennial' song? Semi-charmed strangers have all-star debate

Can you define an entire generation by a single song? Nah, probably not. But it’s still fun to think in sweeping generalizations, and it’s even more fun to debate nostalgic pop-culture topics. Enter: the Internet, where strangers have been regularly trying to determine, based on raw emotion and zero science, "the most millennial song" ever.

It’s an all-star challenge with a semi-charmed foundation, and the good folks at Reddit have been tossing this one back and forth for years. After scouring numerous threads, I can’t definitively conclude which song best represents the millennials, a group that, according to the Pew Research Center, includes everyone born between the ages of 1981 and 1996. But as a music journalist and card-carrying member of this age demographic, I feel equipped to sort through the hundreds of responses, take note of clear patterns, and select some of the most cogent arguments for one tune or another.

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How two teens trolled talent show with weird cover of Vanessa Carlton's 'A Thousand Miles'

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Make Weird Music, a YouTube channel devoted to "shining a light on the world's most creative music," documented the whole tale. (The source makes sense, given that the page is operated by Anthony Garone: a tech ghostwriter, musician, author, and proud father of Gabe, the 17-year-old pianist in question. Gabe's drummer bandmate is best friend Owen Dueck, also 17.) Garone's video actually opens with a home-studio live performance by the duo, and that alone is worth the price of admission: The piece, originally arranged by Brekky Boy's Taylor Davis, opens with a straightforward rendering of the piano melody—before everything goes haywire with dissonance, leading to a heavy jazz-fusion section and other forms of avant-garde chaos, with the original melodies sprinkled in throughout.

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Uber driver who gets passengers to open up about their love lives is revealing his secrets

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commons.wikimedia.org

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People began sending their own letters to the tree, and the post office put a ladder there in 1927, Zeit Onlinereported. Eventually the post office created an official address for the tree, putting it on a designated postman’s route. As of 1993, the tree also has its own postal code, and now it receives between 50 and 60 letters every month, hand delivered by postal workers who climb up a ladder now stationed there.

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