Gazelle Emami

Yeasayer's vaguely chillwave new track "Henrietta" takes the best from the genre, abandoning its more anemic qualities. The band tipped us off to the new song on Twitter, if you can call this tipping us off. According to We All Want Someone, the band sent CDs...

The New York City Ballet had its share of people who appeared to be Very Important at its spring gala Thursday night, but only two attendees prompted double takes -- Natalie Portman, who chaired the event, and a radiantly pregnant Drew Barrymore, drawing gazes as she floated unassumingly...

The 2012 Tony Award nominations were announced this morning by Kristin Chenoweth and Jim Parsons, with the musicals leading the pack. "Once" -- adapted from the popular indie film -- came out on top with 11 nominations, The Gershwins' "Porgy and Bess" and "Nice Work If You Can...

It hasn't been a quiet month for Courtney Love, and the next will bring its own share of noise. The singer/songwriter-turned-artist opens her first-ever exhibit at the Fred Torres Collaborations gallery in New York on May 3. Here, she shares with us...

Record Store Day is our favorite unofficial holiday on HuffPost Culture because it, a.) gives us new music from across the spectrum all on one, glorious day, and b.) turns commercialism into a community-driven gesture. Nice, isn't? Last year, the day raised sales for record stores...

Tim Hetherington was killed one year ago today by mortar shells in Misurata, Libya, while photographing the Libyan civil war. The photographer and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker was known for his combat images that turned their focus to the human, making the usual trivialities of life and...

Introverts, rejoice! A new app is pioneering a form of communication that doesn't require you to speak at all. The MotionPhone app, just released for the iPhone and re-released on the iPad, allows people to use their fingers to animate a series of abstract shapes set to music, and ultimately,...

"The Great Gatsby" is one of the most read books in the country, but it also may be one of the most misunderstood. A glance at its back cover makes it easy to see why: "romance," "glitter" and "Jazz Age" -- words that serve as stand-ins for real meaning --...

Dirty Projectors have been around since 2002, but only rose to more mainstream ground with 2009's "Stillness Is the Move," a song so popular it was recently covered by Solange Knowles (hey, it's all in the family). As a result, you may only associate the words 'dirty' and...

If you only had a few minutes before you lost your hearing, what three songs would you listen to? British director Lindsey Dryden poses this question on her website, asking visitors for their "Panic Lists" -- answers have ranged from listening to "my son play jazz on any...

Sporting plaid pants and a snug long-sleeved shirt, Alan Cumming serenaded a sea of stars Wednesday night for the Lunchbox Fund's cocktail-attire (looking at you, Cumming!) auction benefiting hungry South African students. Salman Rushdie, Philip Glass and a fresh-faced Courtney Love looked on as Cumming seamlessly...

Mexican band Bam Bam are old hands at SXSW, but they're just starting to get their bearings. Last playing in 2008 and 2009, lead singer Mou Ortiz said they're less "naive" and "more relaxed" this time around, and planned on taking some more time away from loud music to see...

AUSTIN, Texas -- A rail-thin, expressive Fiona Apple took the stage at SXSW Wednesday evening for NPR's showcase at Stubb's Barbecue, in one of the festival's most highly anticipated concerts. Apple, who hasn't released an album since 2005's Extraordinary Machine, played three new songs and eight old ones, in a...

Led by Jasmina Tesanovic is a Serbian/USA author feminist and filmmaker, Simona Lodi, founder and art director of the Share Festival, Share Prize and Action Sharing, and guest Bruce Sterling, sci-fi author, futurist and visionary.

Tech art is returning as a cultural capital of Italy, and Europe...

The line wound all round the 4th floor of the Austin Cnvention Center for sci-fi author/"transglobal futurist"/"American original" (according to his introducer) Bruce Sterling at SXSW Tuesday evening. Sterling, who's given the closing speech at the Interactive portion of the festival for years now, delivered several notable one-liners, and, more...

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. first broke onto the scene at SXSW in 2011, where they did about eight shows -- the festival serving as a sort of mini, trial tour for those on the cusp of being discovered. This year, the band is eyeing half as many shows, which they...

Inspired by one professor's infectious enthusiasm for Emily Dickinson, Obsessed is a new HuffPost Culture series exploring the idiosyncratic, all-consuming passions of public figures and unknowns alike. Through a mix of blogs and interviews, these pieces will highlight the elusiveness of whatever it is you just can't live...

Dustin Lance Black's Prop. 8 play has been slowly picking up stars as it makes its way across the U.S., and the latest announcement is one of its biggest -- Brad Pitt will be joining the cast of the West Coast premiere of "8," starring alongside

Fundraising website Kickstarter is on track to beat the National Endowment for the Arts in funding, Talking Points Memo reports.

In an exclusive interview with TPM, one of the web startup's co-founders, Yancey Strickler, said the company expects to distribute $150 million to its users' projects by the...

Mark Ronson is the latest in a growing line of musicians to wander over to the high culture side of the playing field. The DJ/producer, known for his work with Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Ghostface Killah, is collaborating with Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow (who, by the way, did...