Actor Stephen Lang with brother, ‘I Have A Dream’ Foundation Founder Eugene Lang, attend the 2010 ‘I Have a Dream’ Foundation Spring Gala in NYC — June 2010. (Photo by Mark Von Holden/Getty Images)

This week has been so random — yet kind of fabulous. Last week, I drove out to Rutgers University in the car with Newmark CEO Jeff Gural, Iris Chen and my personal idol, Eugene Lang — who is, amongst other things, the founder of the I Have a Dream Foundation. We were off to the IHAD dinner honoring kids from across the country who are trying, against the odds, to finish high school and go to college.

Mr. Lang, a spry 92-year-old, has spent his life donating the money he’s made to educational causes — and what a life! He graduated from high school at 13, from Swarthmore at 19, started companies, started universities… he is the kind of man who literally has changed the world, in a real and personal way, for thousands of people. And how many of us can say that? At the dinner, Mr. Lang told the story of how he started IHAD, spur of the moment, when he was invited to speak to a graduating class at his old alma mater, PS 121 in East Harlem.

“As I was about to get up to speak, I suddenly felt so silly,” Lang said. “As if everything I was about to say was so trite and empty. So when I got up to the podium, I scraped my pre-written speech and borrowed from Dr. Martin Luther King and said, ‘I have a dream that you all graduate from college and when you’re ready to go, I will pay for it.’ Afterwards, the principal of the school, who I was not impressed with, came up to me and said, almost apologetically, ‘Don’t worry — it won’t cost you that much — 75% of these kids will drop out and only like two or three will even go to college.’ It infuriated me. With those words, he made my speech moot. As if I would make an empty promise. To him my word meant nothing. So the next day I met with the families and kids at the Youth Action Program around the corner and we started I Have A Dream.”

In times like these where we idolize idiots, and make uneducated sports stars, singers and inflatable actresses our “heroes”, Mr. Lang offers a real option. A better option.

Meanwhile, my MTV show, Grits is plowing ahead — I am in the process of finding animators (ack!), voice actors (eek!), and directors (oof!). Like I know anything about all this — heh. Thankfully I have a whole team of peeps helping, but damn, am I on a steep learning curve. And once again, this week is full of meetings. I swear, I may not technically have a full time job, but going on meetings is coming damn near close! Seriously, people love to talk. And talk. And talk. At some point it’s like, “Shit, bitch, let’s get something done! Pull the damn trigger!” But on the bright side: At least they’re taking the meetings!

Karl, on the other hand, is living a life tinged with bitterness. Due to the severe heat, he’s been confined to the house like it’s a snowstorm in February. And I got the grudge poops to prove it.

It’s fairly unreal, but our entire film project titled SMALL, BEAUTIFULLY MOVING PARTS fits into a Chrysler Caravan rented at LAX. We’re making this micro-budget feature, you see, and there’s just enough room for two directors, one DP, one actress and one sound guy. The van happens to be, er, the featured picture car as well. Here we are, on our way to our next location (this photo was snapped after leaving Las Vegas – the only people to drive out of there that morning with absolutely no hangover):

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Fashion producer and musician Yannick Aellen

This multi-talented fashion producer does it all – from mood lighting to soundtracks to the makeup and nail polish on the models themselves – he’s involved in everything seen, heard and felt on the catwalk. Fall in love with the magic of fashion with Yannick Aellen and discover what this inspiring, behind-the-scenes fashion star brings to the most high profile events in the industry.

Beat the heat with Mara Hoffman’s dazzling collection of swimwear that evokes visions of crystals and mystic enchantment.

Cator Sparks goes backstage at Barcelona Fashion Week.

From proper spelling to proper spandex, this anti-Gaga doesn’t care what you think, she’s just having fun.

A follow-up to Perrin’s review of the summer hit film INCEPTION, which blew a lot of people’s minds and had them questioning and wanting to do a deeper dive. As a result, the film has inspired the Internets and produced many memes (one of which is seen above). I’ve compiled some of them here. Warning – there be spoilers ahead!

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“Erupting Into Space” was captured by NASA’s Galileo orbiter in 1997

While we might appreciate the images gathered by NASA’s various satellites and probes for their scientific value, the often grainy, hazy pictures are probably only considered breathtaking or beautiful as well by planetary enthusiasts, but a new series of outer space photographs by artists Michael Benson is turning more than just scientists’ heads. Benson, whose work includes the documentary PREDICTIONS OF FIRE that premiered at our very own Sundance Film Festival in 1995, scoured NASA’s archives for extraordinary images, which he then manipulated so that they appear to the viewer in a museum as an astronaut would see them in outer space.

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Okay, we know that the oil spill is BP’s problem, but that doesn’t entirely explain why so few people are eager to help out with the relief effort. It may not be the sexiest of world disasters, but a disaster it is. So here’s one way to help out: 20% of all proceeds from Oil Spill Condoms will be donated to help rebuild the Gulf Coast, via the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund. Oil Spill Condoms’ goal is to raise $50,000. And yes, in case you were wondering, the condoms are black. And lubricated. (The site is rife with cringe-worthy puns on everything from spilling to drilling. Let’s just leave it at that.) You can actually use the condoms, too, unlike so many novelty condoms: These ones are the FDA-approved Lifestyles Tuxedo brand.

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Something Left, Something Taken- Full Version from Tiny Inventions on Vimeo.

Max Porter, a regular reader of our SUNfiltered blog and one half of the talented married duo behind Tiny Inventions (a Brooklyn-based animation firm), wrote in to share a funny independent short film he created with his wife Ru Kuwahata. SOMETHING LEFT, SOMETHING TAKEN is about a couple on vacation in San Francisco who become convinced they are stuck with a man they believed to be the [cue scary music] Zodiac Killer!

Max and Ru utilized a diverse range of techniques from stop-motion to puppetry to digital animation, while incorporating different materials such as Jell-O and cardboard props. After you view the behind the scenes, you’ll understand why this impressive project took 2.5 years.

Peter Garfield’s “Mobile Homes” series stopped me cold in my Interneting steps. The artist’s non-photoshopped images casually freeze a moment in time where a disintegrating single family home floats in the air over nondescript suburban neighborhood. It’s unclear whether the houses are in a state of falling or flying like a nightmarish version of Pixar’s UP where in Garfield’s world curmudgeonly Carl Fredricksen and Russell don’t make it to Paradise Falls. This ambiguity adds to the mystery where as Alexander Uhr put it, there’s “something too normal about these photographs of very extraordinary occurrences.” It’s only when viewing the behind the scenes process and the curtain is pulled back that the enigma is revealed.

[Via]

Lots of vehicle news this week… from greener AC to electric vehicles for rent. Here are your green tech finds.

• A new model for solar cells — blowfly eyes: A team of researchers at Penn State thinks blowfly corneas could provide a viable model for solar cells (via Discovery News)
  
  
• Climate-friendly air conditioning for your car: GM plans to roll out a new air conditioning refrigerant in 2013 which performs 99.7% better in terms of greenhouse gas impact than current HFCs. (via Green Tech Pastures)
  
  

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Lee Friedlander’s “Mount Rushmore”

For those too impatient to wait the 8 hours for exposure required by Joseph Niepce’s camera obscura, 1839 was a pretty exciting time. It was the year Louis Dageurre perfected his daguerreotype, which didn’t fade and needed less than 30 minutes for exposure. It’s also the starting point of MoMA’s upcoming exhibition “The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to today.” Don’t overlook that tiny preposition of. When the daguerreotype popularized photography, one of its very first subjects were sculptures. It satisfied a dual purpose. One, as sculptures were less mobile (if not entirely immobile) than paintings, sculptors needed their work photographed so it could reach a wider audience. Second, sculptures made ideal subjects. 30 minutes may be a lot less than 8 hours, but it’s still a pretty long time to ask a person to pose without moving.

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Lelo’s Etherea Silk Cuffs

One of our favorite toy creators, Lelo, just launched a line of sensual accessories for glamorous bondage experimentation, i.e. cosmopolitan kink, tantalizing teasing, filthy rich restraint, etc. The high-quality materials (which come in cherry red, deep purple, or black) and even higher price tags will make your dabbling in BDSM seem less, um, unseemly. But if you’re gonna get tied up and be forced to moan like a dying cow, might as well do it in style.

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Skateboarding goes high brow in this art installation by Jonathan Rockford titled “Kickflip to the Darkside” featuring a crocheted skateboard. He will be exhibiting as part of a group show “The Rise of Rad” at the Torrence Art Museum that highlights the varied implications and meanings around skateboarding.

This exhibition’s focus is on contemporary art that can trace its roots to this sub-culture-gone-mainstream, exploring urban architecture, resistance, and the core values of the skate phenomenon through the matrix of urban theory and politics. It utilizes theoretical, historical, sociological and contemporary art facets to explore how a Californian children’s toy went through technological advances that led to a revolution throughout youth culture and, in turn, spread to the world and impacted culture from the street to the museum.

Relatedly, this faux-documentary about the sport of “tarp surfing” received a lot of eye balls recently: these boarders do an impressive mimicry of surfing while riding skateboards or longboards as someone pulls a blue tarp along. I really want to try this…and expect a video soon of me falling on my ass with the sound of an approaching ambulance.