sundance

Antarctic Glacier Thinning Four Times Faster Than 10 Years Ago

The thinning of a gigantic glacier in Antarctica is accelerating, scientists warned today, calling the loss of ice “alarming.” The Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica is losing ice four times as fast as it was a decade ago.

Tilt chair

I’m not sure if this is what Fat Joe was referring to when he rapped “Do the roc-a-way, now lean back, lean back,” but as a guy who chronically tilts back in his chair, Deger Cengiz’s cleverly designed chair is filed under “Want” and “Need.” Maybe I can justify expensing it with the excuse that [...]

Images of destruction: Hiroshima 64 years later

Last week Design Observer republished an online slideshow of photographs, 100 in all, of the destruction left after the bombing of Hiroshima. The gallery originally appeared last November and I missed seeing them then. They’ve resurfaced to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the bombing. The images are haunting. They show the destruction of a city wiped [...]

Breathtaking sand animation by Kseniya Simonova

The winner of Ukraine’s version of “Britain’s Got Talent” is artist Kseniya Simonova who tells stories through sand. The not-to-miss video below recounts the German occupation of Ukraine during WWII. She moves the judges to tears as she subtitles the final scene “you are always near”.

See more of Simonova’s work…

SUNfiltered music video roundup

Here’s this week’s round up of music videos that we found during our peregrination through the streets of the Internet.

1. Benjamin Taylor’s “Wicked Way” music video is a winning formula of 15 models singing his song as they morph into one another. Incidentally, he comes from an impressive musical pedigree being that he is the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon.

Food for thought (and adult fun, too)

We all know that sex can sell anything from clothes to cars to chewing gum–but what about a chewing gum that’s trying to sell sex? Sexlets is being marketed as a gum with a special blend of ingredients that, ahem, helps with male sexual enhancement. Odd as it may seem, it’s not the only confectionary [...]

Sporty in pink

I’ve been known to play sports here and there. Tennis or croquet anyone? But I, like many gay men, shy away from typical bar games found to be popular at our straight friend’s watering holes. You know those games: darts, pool, and foosball. So leave it to the gloriously avant garde Parisian retailer Colette to [...]

Ryan Berkley’s well dressed animals

An annual rite of summer is the media’s breathless coverage of shark attacks at beaches, however the summer of 2009 seems to be lacking in this regard. This may be explained by abnormal weather in some parts keeping beach goers and water enthusiasts away, or the media might be distracted by more pressing things such [...]

Beef on the internet

The New York Times today ran an interesting story on an old topic: beef between rappers in the hip-hop community. The article focuses on Joe Budden, a new school rapper, and Raekwon, a 90s rap relic, famous for being a member of Wu-Tang Clan. Budden has built a following, and a means of attack, via the [...]

WTF: Potbellies on dudes are now officially hot

photo by Vee Dub Oh, it’s so unfair! We women are held to ridiculous American Apparel size-0 standards (yes, mostly self-imposed, but the media practically makes us do it!), while men get to eat what they want, become chubby, and are still considered cute and even sexy (e.g. Seth Rogen, Zach Galifianakis, Tobey Maguire). To [...]

ASIA EXTREME: Economically viable auteurism and the films of Johnnie To

Equally as comfortable with broad slapstick humor as he is with brooding psychological drama or straight-up genre films, Johnnie To is one of the (if not the) hardest working producer/directors in the Hong Kong film industry. A genuine auteurist who also knows how to create a crowd-pleasing hit, To’s career began in television back in the 1970s. Turning to cinema towards the end of the 80s, he spent the next seven years churning out a sizeable number of genre films – everything from comedy, action, suspense, and melodramas both large and small. Most of these films found a fair amount of success at the box office, but none were runaway hits. (The closest was THE HEROIC TRIO, which featured the dream leading-lady trifecta of Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui, and Maggie Cheung.)

In 1996 he partnered with writer/producer/director Wai Ka-fai and formed Milkyway Image, a production company that allowed for the freedom to direct the kind of films that appealed to them. Early titles, such as WHERE A GOOD MAN GOES and A HERO NEVER DIES were decidedly different than typical Hong Kong fare of the time. These were darker stories, with a greater emphasis on character than on action. As liberating as that freedom was, To soon realized he’d have to find a balance in order to remain commercially viable, so he and Wai decided on an alternating pattern – “one film for the audience, one film for us”. (Example – The somewhat abstract and dark, complex crime film FULLTIME KILLER versus the lightweight, audience-friendly RomCom NEEDING YOU.) Yet even within his mainstream films, which strictly adhered to genre convention, To still managed to insert enough signature directorial flourishes to distinguish them from the multitude of titles flooding the market at that time.

Green tech finds (8/13/09)

Can the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid really deliver 230 mpg? Can you power your DVD player with your exercise bike? Answers to these questions and more in this week’s green tech finds…

• Powering up with your bicycle: Exercise bikes aren’t just good for keeping fit; many people are figuring out innovative ways to harness that power and create electricity.
  
  
• A showcase green home in Silicon Valley: Eco-entrepreneur Marc Porat has turned his 1936 English Tudor Revival home into a carbon-neutral showcase of green tech.
  
  

On this day: the Northeast Blackout of 2003

Photo by James Estrin On this day in 2003 beginning at approximately 4:15 in the afternoon, the greater Northeast region of the United States and Ontario, Canada experienced an epic blackout. I was in New York City living and working in Midtown at the time and the Blackout of 2003 will always remain one of [...]

Erections still just a bit too hard

photo via Filament magazine

The brand new Filament magazine in the U.K. calls bullshit on the so-called common knowledge that women don’t like to look. The real problem, they figure, is that women have just never had anything decent to look at. According to their “Female Gaze” mission statement: “From research we’ve learnt that what most women find erotic does not at all match what is typically thought of as an erotic image of a man designed for women. For example, on average, women prefer: men who are not muscle-bound; men with more feminine face shapes; men with attractive faces; images that show the subject’s character and the environment he is in.” Oh yeah, and sometimes women like to see erections, too. And there’s the, er, rub.

Terry Gilliam’s THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS

Terry Gilliam next fantastical foray comes in the form of THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS starring Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell, and Christopher Plummer as the titular character. Doctor Parnassus, the leader of a traveling theater troupe that offers audience members a chance to go beyond reality through a magical mirror in [...]

Documentary vs. fiction … and how to use an inverted tool

I went to see Marshall Curry’s new documentary, RACING DREAMS, last week. It’s an engaging, intimate film that follows three adolescent kids through one year of Extreme Go-Kart Racing competitions – a sort of warm-up little league to the big time of NASCAR. Annabeth Barnes of Hiddenite, North Carolina, pictured below with her dad, is one of the film’s charming stars. In one pivotal year, we witness her move away from childhood and toward the precipice of adulthood, a subtle and moving transformation.

The two other protagonists, Josh and Brandon, have significant dramatic arcs as well. As I was watching, I couldn’t help but think about the old reliable adage about doc versus fiction storytelling: while fiction film must strive for an organic, complicated reality that allows the audience to ‘buy’ the authenticity of the imagined world, the documentary must strive for an heightened, almost simplified sense of the purely dramatic. Archetypes embraced!

Quintron and Miss Pussycat

Named after the engineering company Robert Rolston’s father worked for, Quintron began as a solo percussion act, but while touring his first album he met master puppeteer Miss Pussycat at her venue Passycat Caverns in New Orleans. They joined forces and toured the southwest, stopping in Las Vegas to get married before heading back to New Orleans to open The Spellcaster Lodge in their basement in the Ninth Ward.

Farmers’ marketing and markets

Living in both San Francisco and New York the past decade has allowed me to take advantage of some fantastic farmers’ markets. So it came as a surprise for me to learn that only 1% of the total food produced in the U.S. comes from farmers’ markets. (Perrin seemed just as confounded in her post about the New Amsterdam Market.) Why aren’t more people enjoying these bounties?

Building efficiency upgrades: the best-kept secret in Washington?

Solar panels are certainly sexier than insulation, and new LEED-certified buildings look better on the front page than aging houses. Are aesthetics the main reason that newer technologies and practices get all the attention, while retrofits and efficiency upgrades are relegated to the sidelines of most conversations about a clean energy future?

Street Rothko

Life imitates art: Street graffiti and tags and subsequent efforts to paint over them inadvertantly results in an effect that mimics or resonates with Mark Rothko’s iconic “multiform” aesthetic. View the entire photo set here.

Michelle Obama isn’t the only “first gardener” out there…

When Michelle Obama announced plans for a White House kitchen garden, local foodies, gardeners, and health advocates rejoiced: what better way to promote the value of home-grown food than get the first family involved. It turns out that the Obamas aren’t the only executive family growing vegetables on the grounds of the official residence: a number of governors and their spouses have taken up the cause of not just planting vegetables, but also implementing more sustainable landscaping practices at governors’ mansions and even state capitols.

Never being boring – Pet Shop Boys on tour

As stated in an earlier post Sundance Channel this month is all about Bruce Weber, the iconic American filmmaker and photographer. And while we love Weber’s images of perfect naked men, it is his iconic video for “Being Boring” by the British pop duo Pet Shop Boys that many a gay adores. I also happened [...]

Naked News (08-11-09)

photo by dougwoods Wondering what’s the 2009 equivalent of “the dog ate my homework”? It’s “the cat downloaded my child porn.” Seriously. In the you’ve-got-to-be-f&#*ing-kidding-us department: South Korea paints parking spaces pink to designate them for women in heels. Kathy Griffin continues to endear herself to us by bringing Levi Johnston as her date for [...]

Tribute to a leading man

Not long after Archibald Leach’s mother was placed in a mental institution by his father and told only that she had gone away on a long holiday, young Archie ran away and joined the circus at age sixteen. Fourteen years later, at age 28, he changed his name to Cary Grant and landed his first [...]

Global warming and art: what a difference five years makes…

Five years ago, activist, writer and professor Bill McKibben published an essay at Grist calling for artists to step up and address one of the most pressing issues facing humanity: climate change (The Day After Tomorrow and State of Fear just weren’t doing it for him). We don’t know if artists responded directly to McKibben’s call; we do know that we’ve seen much more creative work on global warming since then. Visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers have all engaged the subject, creating some compelling, thoughtful work.

Last week, Grist commemorated McKibben’s essay by launching a series on artistic creation that addresses climate change.