sundance

Green tech finds (6/18/09)

Deutsche Bank’s online carbon counter

Phones, flashlights, and sweet solar-powered rides… all that and more in this week’s green tech finds.

• Funding priorities: Is a national smart grid the best investment right now? Or would local micro-grids fed by renewable power serve us better?
  
  
• More proof that teenagers do know it all: Fourteen-year-old David S. Dixon built “a street-legal quadricycle with a solar-powered electric motor” for a middle school project. (via Gas 2.0)
  
  

USA, Europe Jointly Raise Energy-Efficiency Standards for Office Equipment

BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 17, 2009 (ENS) – The European Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed today to implement new higher energy-efficiency specifications for computers, copiers and printers under the EU-US Energy Star Programme.

Books: American Parent

Sam Apple just came out with his second memoir (after Schlepping Through the Alps) called American Parent. From it, we learned that The Lamaze Method was created by Stalinists and based on false science that was forced upon the Soviet scientific community because the government couldn’t afford pain relief drugs for women in labor. He swears that’s true! Anyway, here’s a sweet (and sick, if you think about it for too long) excerpt about how his love for his newborn was like a romantic crush…

Father as photographer, daughter as muse

When Jack Radcliffe’s daughter Alison was born, he photographed her the way any loving parent would, which is to say a lot. The difference between Jack and most fathers is that his enthusiasm for his subject didn’t wane as she grew older, and what began as family snap shots turned into a much bigger project.

Talk dirty to me–in Japanese.

Is your pillow talk growing stale? Do you long for some new phrases to spice up your conversations between the sheets? Why not add a little Japanese flavor to your carnal acts?

Want to know the lifecycle of your clothes? Track & Trace it

If you watched the second episode of ECO TRIP, you’re already aware of the lifecycle of a cotton t-shirt. But what about other items in your closet? Dutch non-profit Made-By (a project of Fair Trade NGO Solidaridad) has released Track & Trace, a web-based application that allows you to see the complete journey of a garment from a participating brand, complete with Google Maps.

Bike tricks from 1899, filmed by Thomas Edison

At the tail end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Thomas Edison filmed men doing bike tricks that seem surprisingly contemporary today. The description of this film at the Library of Congress reads: “‘Neidert,’ of national fame, does stunts on his wheel that are simply wonderful. Makes his bicycle rear up, [...]

Learning, or not learning, from the road movie

It’s summer … let’s road trip!

Wait – hold that thought – New York City has been non-stop rain this June, and most of us in the Big Apple don’t have cars anyway, so road-tripping is reserved for road movies.

I saw one last night, AWAY WE GO, more accurately a plane/train/road movie from Sam Mendes, that engages some classic tenants of the genre: protagonists searching for something (in this case, a new home town in which to raise a child), wide open American landscapes (Colorado and Arizona, in particular here), and, as expected, personal growth.

I started to wonder – do road movies always include such traditional character arcs? Do the drivers on the road in the road movie simply have to learn about themselves?

David Horvitz’s ideas for 2009

For a year long project, David Horvitz has been publishing imaginative and nifty DIY artsy ideas and suggestions that often make me chuckle.

Destroying Africa, One Helping Hand at a Time

Sundance Channel is proud of one of our alumni!

Former Production Assistant Landon Van Soest left us several years ago when he received a Fulbright Scholarship to Kenya. While on his Fulbright and in the ensuing few years Landon and his filmmaking partner Jeremy Levine followed several people whose lives were gravely changed by two “poverty alleviation” projects funded by the UN and an American philanthropist.

We’re very proud to announce that Landon and Jeremy’s film GOOD FORTUNE is having its New York premiere next week at the prestigious and always politically impactful Human Right Watch International Film Festival.

A time to rage and resist

Yesterday I wrote about the meaning of the rainbow flag to the gay community and its origins. So it seems rather appropriate that today I stumbled upon this fantastic video of Gilbert Baker, the creator of the rainbow pride flag.

Baby daddy drama in TETRO

Francis Ford Coppola’s latest, TETRO, has everything an epic family drama should have: greed, ego, sex and lies that span generations and pit fathers against sons against brothers. It centers around the Tetrocinis, who are a male dominated bunch, constantly duking it out over the women in their lives.

Trapped in the closet

An amazing photo gallery of Sergio Santos, an out-of-work architect’s $150 per month apartment, which was previously a small 77 square-foot electrical room that he resourcefully converted and decorated on a shoe-string budget of $64. Someone, hire this man! [Via]

Oz Noy Trio Feat – Backstage at Iridium Jazz Club (Part 1)

Oz Noy on guitar, Dave Weckl on drums and Will Lee on bass at Iridium Jazz Club

BETWEEN SETS WITH OZ NOY, DAVE WECKL AND WILL LEE

Iridium Jazz Club, just north of Times Square in New York City, plays host to some of jazz’s most established legends as well as the hottest newcomers. Recently, Iridium hosted the fantastic trio of headliners performing as the Oz Noy Trio Feat. Noy is one of the most respected young guitarists on the world jazz scene and was joined by drumming legend, Dave Weckl and bass virtuoso, Will Lee for an unforgettable (and totally packed) gig at Iridium. Sundancechannel.com was lucky enough to catch up will all three musicians between sets.

Reclaimed industrial facilities: Germany’s Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park

If HIGH LINE STORIES has you searching out other innovative reclamation projects, you’re not limited to railroad easements, parking spaces, or even the United States. The closing of the Thyssen blast furnace works in Duisburg Meiderich, Germany, in 1985 led to some creative thinking on the part of the Duisburg City Council and other local leaders.

Somewhere over the rainbow

Rainbow flags are flying high this month, not only on this blog, but also in cities across the world. Gwendolyn Horton over at Design Notes, my former home, explains the origin and design of the striped symbol of freedom.

ABC Yo-yo

“Kinetic fonts,” including the sounds, was created with just yo-yos. This is quite an astonishing video. ABC YO-YO (full version) from abcyoyo on Vimeo.

Things that go bump in the night

Photographer Joshua Hoffine latest series is his vivid interpretation of childhood fears. Such “classics” include the monster under the bed, the monster in the basement, and the not-so happy scary clown in the vein of Pennywise that I’m sure resulted in many night terrors everywhere. With a pinch of Gottfried Helnwein‘s morbidity, there is an aspect of Hoffine’s work that dances a fine line between cartoony camp, psychological anxiety, and childhood nostalgia.

Naked news (06-16-09)

photo by slushpup

• New study shows that two-thirds of men and 40% of women masturbate. Women: shame on you for not breaking the 50% barrier. (Here’s inspiration if you need it.) Men: shame on you for lying.
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Simply expensive: Pharrell makes art now

Collaborations can be great and we’re certainly seeing more and more unexpected film/art/fashion/music combinations now. But Pharrell and Takashi Murakami working together is like pop on top of pop…with a side order of pop! And that’s exactly what “The Simple Things,” their contribution to Switzerland’s Art Basel, is.

Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker Detained in Iran

The New York Times and the film blog Hot Splice are reporting that director James Longley was briefly detained along with his translator in the aftermath of the Iranian elections. Longley was the winner of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival Best Director, Documentary for his film IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS. He has been working in Iran on a new documentary when the riots broke out this weekend. His translator, who is Iranian, was beaten by the Iranian security forces and also briefly detained before Longley could get him released.

Check out links to the Longley’s impassioned reporting of the incident after the jump.

Big, gay and sprinkled

If lucky enough to spend your days sunning yourself on the Christopher Street piers you may hear the familiar jingle of an ice cream truck in the not too far distance. Only this one’s probably playing Judy Garland.

Solar hot water, biogas raise living standards in Cairo’s “Garbage City”

“Trash into treasure” may be a mantra for some eco-minded artists, but for people who dwell in slums around the world, it’s a method for survival. Philanthropist and UCLA Ph.D. student T.H. Culhane believes that the mindset of reuse that exists in one such slum, Cairo’s Garbage City, could be the means to raising the standard of living for its 20,000 residents.

Evolution of Crayola crayons

A fascinating photo gallery of Crayola crayon packaging throughout the years. Crayola first started selling crayons in 1903 with eight colors. My favorite thing about them when I was younger was crayon kits that came with the built-in crayon sharpener. That thing just made sharpening fun! [Via]

Banksy’s new exhibit

I announced here a couple days ago about the opening of anonymously renowned street artist Banksy’s latest show, which also happens to be his largest exhibition yet, “Banksy Versus Bristol Museum” at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery in Bristol, England.