sundance

The hanky code

Just doing my bit around here to prepare you for all the upcoming Gay Pride events throughout the month of June. And there’s no better way to prep for such an event than to really learn the hanky code.

A rare glimpse of Stephen Colbert out of character

Josh Marshall of the great Talking Points Memo just posted this excellent behind-the-scenes video, which was filmed as he accompanied John Kerry to a taping of The Colbert Report in April 2007. As Josh points out, it’s a rare and fascinating thing to see Colbert break character, because he almost never does:

Laika

Laika, a Soviet astro-dog earned the distinction of being the first mammal to go up in space and orbit the earth in 1957. She was also the first casualty of the space program. On a more upbeat note, Laïka is also a spirited and spunky promo video created by Guillaume Blanchet to celebrate the 10 [...]

Street criminals foiled by Google Street View

When two crooks in the Dutch town of Groningen decided to separate a teenager from his bicycle last September, they had the misfortune to do it when a Google Street View car was passing by. The Sydney Morning Herald has a great slide show of the moments before the theft. The images allowed the police [...]

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade

It was an appropriately wet day for Saturday’s Mermaid Parade, but a little rain wasn’t enough to make the bevy of topless mermaids cover up their pasties. It was my first Mermaid Parade, and from the pictures I’ve seen I was under the impression that it would be an endless train of half naked young women, but in fact I’ve never seen more older women wearing less clothing than I did that afternoon. What is it about parades and Halloween that produces this effect on the 50+ club?

Chilean wines going green

The next time you’re at the wine shop trying to figure out which wineries produce vintages that fit your palate and green values, you may want to consider a bottle from Chile: according to wine writer Tim Pawsey, the country “already practices significant sustainable viticulture, and is a leader in biodynamic farming.” Currently, thirty-two wineries in the country use organic production methods, and about 2% of wine-growing land is devoted to organic agriculture.

Bisexuality: Doing it like they do on the Discovery Channel

photo by Paul Mannix

We were tickled pink a few weeks back when we read about the so-called gay penguins who were raising an adopted chick. But “bisexual penguins” would probably have been more accurate; most scientists agree that animals that engage in same-sex activity don’t usually shun heterosexual encounters. Rather, they simply have ingrained gay tendencies that are a part of what make their little animal community work. As sociologist Eric Anderson of the University of Bath in England so succinctly puts it, “Animals don’t do sexual identity. They just do sex.”

Marco Brambilla’s “Civilization”

Marco Brambilla created a video collage installation stitched from over 400 clips for the elevators at the hip Standard Hotel in Manhattan. It takes hotel guests on a journey to heaven (which frankly looks like a pretty awesome place to hang out) and hell (not so awesome). The concept reminds me of 16th century Dutch [...]

Maxim Zhestkov’s CG world

Russian artist Maxim Zhestkov creates amazing minimalist CG worlds where walls and floors fluidly shape shift and change. It’s psychedelia in a black and white universe. modul / zhestkov.com from Zhestkov on Vimeo. [Via]

McSweeney’s FML moments in Greek Mythology

One of the catchphrases of 2009 used to describe an unfortunate situation or event is “FML,” which emerged from the website “FMyLife.com” which publishes user submitted succinct anecdotes that ruined their day. McSweeney’s jumps on the bandwagon with their amusing FML moments in Greek mythology. Icarus Today my father made wings out of feathers and [...]

Gay for dummies: bears

In an effort to educate the straight masses and promote the gay agenda across as many platforms as possible today, we debut a new feature for the month of June, Gay Pride month: Gay for Dummies. This is the 2nd installment.

Light stop motion

Let there be light! An opened case unleashes the proverbial Pandora’s box in this video that blends stop-motion animation with light drawing. Relatedly, check out the Flickr group for other light drawings. Light Stop-Motion from Felipe Vincensi on Vimeo.

New York’s Towering Digital Counter Tracks Rising Greenhouse Gases

NEW YORK, New York, June 19, 2009 (ENS) – Crowds moving past the corner of 33rd Street and 7th Avenue outside Madison Square Garden and Penn Station in New York City can now keep track of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations on a new giant digital billboard. The 70-foot-tall carbon counter keeps a running total of [...]

Amazonian Indians End Protest After Peru’s Congress Repeals Decrees

LIMA, Peru, June 19, 2009 (ENS) – A 10-week protest by Peru’s Amazonian indigenous groups against legislation that facilitates development in their region ended yesterday after the Peruvian Congress repealed two legislative decrees. Leaders of the Peruvian Rainforest Inter-Ethnic Development Association, AIDESEP, called upon thousands of indigenous protesters to lift blockades of two highways and return to their villages.

SUNfiltered music videos

Here’s your weekly music video round up hyped around the Internet.

1. If I may say so, this entry is starting off strong. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at this first video, “You Came Out” from UK group We Have Band. Directed by David Wilson this was created from 4,816 still images!

Care Bears on Fire Video from Orange Dot on Vimeo.

HIGH LINE STORIES: Realizing a dream…

Joshua David (L) and Robert Hammond (R) with High Line supporter, Ethan Hawke

Sundancechannel.com recently caught up with the very busy co-founders of Friends of the High Line, Robert Hammond and Joshua David, whose vision is captured in the Sundance Channel Original Series HIGH LINE STORIES.

The beautiful High Line is now open (see New York Times Architecture Review) and in Part 3 of our conversation (click here if you missed Part 1 and Part 2) Robert and Josh detail the mission of the Friends of the High Line going forward.

5 US towns seeking energy independence with renewable resources

You may have gotten your fill of the phrase “energy independence” with last year’s election: both parties and presidential candidates touted the idea repeatedly. It’s a compelling concept… it’s also contentious. For some, energy independence means harvesting solar, wind, and geothermal power; for others, it’s the motivation behind “Drill, baby, drill!” Either way, it’s a challenging goal at the national level.

Senators Move Clean Water Fight Out of Committee

WASHINGTON, DC, June 18, 2009 (ENS) – The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works approved six water-related bills today, including the controversial Clean Water Restoration Act, S. 787.

Study: The car doesn’t maketh the man

photo by Qole_Pejorian In news that will probably be surprising only to the male readers of this site, a recent study found that expensive cars don’t really impress the ladies. Researchers in Australia measured changes in the brain responses of women toward a range of men in different cars. Turns out a man having a [...]

A 24″ touch-screen iPhone?

In honor of today’s launch of the iPhone 3G S… this video, which purports to show a demo of a hacked Mac running the iPhone operating system using a giant touch screen, is a hoax, but it’s still fun to watch: The Unofficial Apple Weblog writes, “How’d they do it? It’s most likely just a [...]

Morey McLaren, “We Got Time”

“Using both praxinoscopes and the technique of matching up the frame rate of the spinning record to that of the camera” without any digital assistance David Wilson at Blink created and directed this animated promo video for Morey McLaren, “We Got Time.” It’s just way too unique to bury in my weekly SUNfiltered music video round ups.

Trailer: Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White in IT MIGHT GET LOUD

Scheduled for release on August 14, IT MIGHT GET LOUD chronicles a showdown among three generations of guitar heroes: Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White. As a onetime guitar-hero-worshipping adolescent, I can’t wait to see this.

Fallen Princesses

It seems that childhood is a spring of inspiration for many recently. Right on the heels of our post regarding Hoffine’s horror series about childhood fears, we’d like to invite you to check out Dina Goldstein‘s series entitled Fallen Princesses, depicting fairy tale characters in modern day scenarios. Goldstein isn’t the first to destroy the idyllic scenarios of fairy tales as propagated by the likes of Disney. Stephen Sondheim’s INTO THE WOODS addresses the consequences that traditional fairy tales conveniently ignore and covers multiple themes: growing up, parents and children, accepting responsibility, morality, and, finally, wish fulfillment and its consequences.

Yoram Wolberger’s life sized figurines

San Francisco based Israeli artist Yoram Wolberger provides a different perspective on childhood and nostalgia with his series of life sized fiberglass sculptures of instantly recognizable plastic toy figurines, such as cowboys, Indians, and green soldiers.

THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST : Lazy Family

THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST, hosted by Josh Dorfman, screens Tuesdays at 9PM on Sundance Channel.

I’m really excited for this first episode. I think that viewers will hopefully find this show to feel different than many other environmental shows that they’ve watched before. One of the primary reasons is that in this show we don’t engage in “green show and tell” by which I mean simply presenting eco-friendly options for the camera without anyone being able to evaluate them. Instead, I set out to see how well many of the most cutting-edge environmental alternatives perform under real life conditions based on the feedback and opinions of our “heroes” who are trying out my suggestions in each episode.