Kidchella: Baby North West's 1st birthday party

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's daughter North West turned one year old on June 15th, but had her big, blow-out

birthday party this past weekend! On June 21st, Kimye threw their daughter's bash with a "Kidchella" theme, and it was too cute for words.

Little North was dressed to the nines in a perfectly "boho" outfit that put everyone in our Coachella style roundup to shame. Her family members clearly had a lot of fun, but how could you not, when there's a sweet ferris wheel and mini stage for performers? Kendall and Kylie serenaded their niece as the headliners of Kidchella, dancing and lip-syncing to some of our favorite songs.

Click through the gallery above to see snapshots of little North's first birthday party (courtesy of the Kardashian family's Instagram accounts!) and watch the clip below to see Kendall and Kylie rockin' out. The video's caption from Kendall Jenner's Instagram read: "we have way too much fun at children's party's. KIDCHELLA 2014 killed it." Looks like a blast!

License to boogie: Japan moves to ease dancing ban

 

By Sophie Knight
(Reuters) - Japan's government is considering relaxing a law that forbids late-night dancing in public establishments, according to a draft proposal reviewed by Reuters, potentially ending police raids that have shuttered nightclubs across the country.
Dancing at public venues is technically illegal in Japan and is only permitted until midnight in clubs with a special license, a vestige of a law on "businesses affecting public morals", which was passed in 1948 to stamp out prostitution linked to dance halls but over the years was all but forgotten.
The police renewed enforcement of the law four years ago, however, with a crackdown on bars and clubs after a student was killed in a brawl in Osaka, Japan's second-largest metropolitan area, and worries mounted about the country's youth culture against a backdrop of celebrity drug scandals.
Raids invoking the law spread to Tokyo and other cities, with police breaking up parties from techno clubs to salsa bars and arresting dozens on suspicion of gang connections or tax violations, while closing venues known for noise complaints.
Now, a public backlash against the law has spurred debate in parliament and led the government to ease up as part of a broader deregulation drive by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who wants to stimulate the economy and prepare for an increase in tourism ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
"I think politicians and authorities are feeling pressure as they don't want Japan to be seen as a boring place by foreign tourists," said Takahiro Saito, a Tokyo-based lawyer who spearheaded a movement against the law called "Let's Dance". The group submitted a petition of 150,000 signatures to the Diet in May 2013.
The petition prompted a group of nonpartisan lawmakers to urge reassessment of the law and in April the Osaka District Court exonerated a club owner charged for violating the dance ban, setting a legal precedent.
This week the prime minister will submit for government approval a deregulation plan, seen by Reuters, which proposes removing the clause in the law that limits dancing to clubs with a special license and bans all dancing after midnight or 1 a.m.
The government will have until the end of March next year to make a decision on how or whether to change the legislation after talking to related parties, the proposal says.
Because the law was often used as a pretext to act against or investigate separate problems such as rowdy clubgoers, illegal drugs or suspected gangster involvement, changing the law may not end police intrusions into clubland.
"If they cut the part referring to dance out of the law then at the very least they won't stop people dancing any more. But the police may strengthen their efforts to target problems such as noise and other nuisances to the neighborhood," said Saito.
"For conservative parliament members, there is still a strong image of clubs being a place where young people cause trouble".

 http://www.aol.com/article/2014/06/23/license-to-boogie-japan-moves-to-ease-dancing-ban/20917940/?ncid=webmail30

The Posing Dead: Funeral Homes Arrange Deceased In Elaborate Scenes

The body of boxer Christopher Rivera is propped up on a staged boxing ring during his wake in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

A New Orleans funeral home is at the forefront of a macabre trend in which families have their deceased loved ones propped up and arranged in elaborate, diorama-like scenes, but not everyone is taking their unusual practices sitting (or lying) down.

According to the New York Times, the phone at the Charbonnet-Labat Funeral Home has been ringing off the hook ever since its June 12 viewing for Miriam Burbank, whose body was posed sitting at a kitchen table, smoking a menthol cigarette and reaching for a can of Busch beer.

It was the second service of its kind conducted by funeral director Louis Charbonnet, whose 132-year-old mortuary, known around town for "its ability to put the 'fun' in funeral," has also hosted mariachi bands and even parades. The first viewing, for a brass band leader in 2012, found the deceased standing with his hands curled over his walking cane, wearing a jauntily tilted derby.

But as with any trend, not everyone approves of what Charbonnet has said is only his attempt to honor his clients' wishes (he also said that he's received approval for his services from a local priest). His "haters," as he described them, have called out his viewings as potentially sacrilegious, an opinion shared by Charbonnet's wife.

Still, as he's quick to point out, Charbonnet is far from the first mortician to offer services of this kind. Similar viewings, known as "muerto parao" ("dead man standing"), have been popular in Puerto Rico since 2008: murder victims posed ridings motorcycles, elderly women sitting in rocking chairs, even a man dressed as Che Guevara, cigar and all.

> What it's like to be an undertaker

"It's been a real boom in Puerto Rico," Elsie Rodríguez, vice president of the Marín Funeral Home in San Juan, told the Times. "People have requested every type of funeral that could possibly come to mind. We have only done six so far, because the people who have requested the funerals have not died yet."

Rodríguez says that the idea came from Angel Luis Pantojas, whose viewing, which had him tethered and standing in his family's living room, was the first of its kind at Marín. Ever since attending his father's funeral at age six, Rodríguez said, Pantojas had told relatives that he wanted to be viewed on his feet.

"This is not a fun or funny event; the family is going through a lot of pain," Rodríguez continued. With these kinds of arrangements, "the family literally suffers less, because they see their loved one in a way that would have made them happy - they see them in a way in which they still look alive."

Attributing critics of her practices to "professional jealousy," Rodríguez still has her limits, refusing suggestions she finds distasteful - she will never pose someone in a swimsuit, for instance.

While "dead man standing" hasn't yet reached the same level of popularity in the United States, Charbonnet's funeral home in New Orleans isn't the only place taking notes. Earlier this year, a dead biker in Mechanicsburg, Ohio was buried atop his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, while another New Orleans funeral for a local socialite found her sitting on a bench, greeting guests of her own service.

"What my mother said to me some years ago was, 'I want to be at my own funeral having a glass of Champagne in one hand and a cigarette in the other,'" said the deceased woman's daughter. She got her wish.