sundance

Message of Mérida: Saving Wild Places Will Save the Planet

For the first time in decades, the eggs of endangered sea turtles buried on a small strip of Nicaraguan beach will not be collected and sold in local food markets. A program developed by nonprofit Paso Pacífico pays residents up to $2.50 for each turtle hatchling that reaches the surf — almost 10 times what they would have brought from the market.

CRUSHfanzine + ACE Hotel Pop Up

As you may know from an earlier post this week I love the Ace Hotel. While I adore the one in Palm Springs, there is also an Ace here in NYC. Tomorrow another thing I adore, CRUSHfanzine, will be hosting a pop-up shop at the NYC Ace. CRUSHfanzine is a self-published by two guys, Nicolas [...]

Human LCD

Previously mentioned designer-extraordinaire Ji Lee tweeted this YouTube video of energetic South Korean high school students doing an insanely awesome synchronized cheer from the stands that give the illusion of a giant LCD screen. What’s even more impressive is that they don’t even use signs or cards, and instead use their jackets and shirts to [...]

Greenland Ice Cap Melt Accelerating

Satellite observations and a state-of-the art regional atmospheric model have independently confirmed that the Greenland ice sheet is losing mass at an accelerating rate, reports a new study by a team of British, Dutch and American scientists.

Bad Romance, amazing video

I wrote an essay a few weeks back about Lady GaGa’s taking over from Madonna and becoming the numero uno gay pop icon. And any gay with a Facebook account can attest to this with a simple look at their status update bar from this week. The gays are going gaga over Bad Romance, the new [...]

No color added: the new Coca-Cola classic

Aluminum cans – with out without color – are recyclable. But so-called naked cans, like the one above designed by Harc Lee, not only eliminate the air and water pollution involved in the initial printing process, but also save on the energy required to later remove the toxic paint before recycling can even begin. It’s [...]

Schoenberg vs. Brahms: face off at Carnegie Hall

It was a packed house last night at Carnegie Hall, where The Berliner Philharmoniker, in the capable hands of conductor Sir Simon Rattle, staged a tête-à-tête between composers Arnold Schoenberg and his predecessor, Johannes Brahms. Now, anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the great composers might think this an odd pairing. The innovative, progressive Schoenberg and the traditional, arguably academic Brahms, what is Rattle thinking? But Schoenberg was actually a great admirer of the Romantic Brahms, and successfully incorporated his ideas into the German Expressionist movement he’s most closely associated with.

Music Video: Land of Talk

Canadian duo WeWereMonkeys weren’t monkeying around in this music video they directed for Land of Talk’s hauntingly wistful “It’s Okay.” The video’s contemplative concept seems to perfectly capture the song’s pensive pace in a surprising and visually gorgeous style. Excuse me now while I manfully wipe my tears away and blow my nose. WeWereMonkeys: Land [...]

How Consumer Reports tests condoms

Consumer Reports recently tested a whopping 15,000 condoms (bought by one dude!) representing 20 models. Alas, there was no actual-use testing done in the lab on the slab, just the boring scientific stuff: packaging examination, stretching, measuring, filling them with liquid to check for leaks, and inflating them with air to the size of 5-gallon [...]

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Down in One-Third of States

Emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by burning coal, oil and gas, increased by 19 percent in the United States from 1990 to 2007.

Last brownstone standing

When I saw this remarkable LIFE photo of a defiant brownstone apartment building, I stopped cold in my scrolling mouse tracks. The photo, which reminded me of this year’s hit Pixar film UP, should be displayed next to the word “gentrification.” Its caption read “Construction in NYC: land being cleared for 20 story building in [...]

Ogaki, in 4 weights

Hungarian typographer and graphic designer Aron Jansco used to doodle during class. “My schools weren’t too strict,” he says, so he had a lot of time for drawing graffiti and letterforms. Graffiti still remains a big part of his design style, though you wouldn’t know it to look at Ogaki, his very first type face, [...]

Green tech finds (11/12/09)

Recycled bridges, “road trains,” and baby poop power… this week’s green tech finds!

• Electric cars: an answer for climate change… right? According to Britain’s Environmental Transport Association, that may be a flawed assumption if the electric grid remains largely c0al-powered. (via AutoBlog Green)
  
  
• The push-powered snow mover: If you think the available options available for shoveling snow are bad (either shoveling, or snow blowing), check out the Snow Wovel. (via Green Tech Pastures)

Bauhaus at MoMA

A lot of things separate Bauhaus from other art movements. It’s the only one (that I can think of anyhow) that values control, precision and rigor as necessary qualities in both the art and its maker, perhaps because it began as an actual, physical institution. But it’s also one of the few movements that changed so quickly in so short a time. In 1919 the students’ projects were less about function and more about form: paintings by artists (and professors) like Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, textiles woven into patterns reminiscent of Native American blankets and pottery crafted by artisans that did not conform to 90 degree angles. These works served no other purpose than to be hung on a wall or put on a shelf to be looked at.

Kristen Wiig does Suzanne Somers

Kristen Wiig is the funniest woman on TV. Forget Tina Fey. She is the reason to watch SNL. She’s a brilliant comedic actress. Her characters Penelope, Gilly, the Target Lady, and Judy Grimes are legends in the making. She also does a mean Nancy Pelosi. Another legend, Suzanne Somers, is less known these days for [...]

Naked News: lube, lesbian bishops, and sex tapes

1952 DC comic book panel via Hilobrow

• BPA from plastic products can negatively impact men’s sexual health.
  
  
• Not exactly breaking news, but we can’t believe we missed this a few weeks back: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women will most likely overtake men in the American workforce before the end of the year.

Skateboard pool art

Never Crew, an art collective put their artistic stamp on this pool at Lugano Skatepark located in Lugano, Switzerland. View more behind the scenes photos and video here. [Via]

Environmental education and at-risk kids: 4 programs making a difference

If you’ve read Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods, or looked into the detail of “No Child Left Inside” legislation and initiatives,you know that broad health issues (obesity, diabetes, ADHD, and even depression), and concern over environmental awareness, tend to drive the idea of getting kids outdoors more. For a number of programs around the country, though, the stakes are even higher: environmental education is becoming an integral part of working with kids at risk of falling into lives of crime, addiction, and poverty (which make the above-mentioned health issues a bigger likelihood).

20th anniversary of Berlin Wall fall round up

This week the Internet celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an imposing and deadly barrier separating East and West Germany after World War II. Its removal signaled the symbolic end of the Cold War and the unification of Germany. The New York Times had a visual diagram depicting the security [...]

Jer Ber Jones covers Yaz

As my previous post points out I had an amazing time at Gay Pride in Palm Springs this past weekend. One of the true delights was stumbling upon the self-proclaimed “tranimal” Jer Ber Jones. My pal Diana was shocked I did not know Ms. Jones and told me I must rush out and find her [...]

THE RED SHOES know where they are going

A gorgeous new print of THE RED SHOES (1948) is having a two week run at the Film Forum, thanks to Martin Scorsese’s longtime passion for the film. Written, directed and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the story follows a young ballerina as she struggles to balance her obsession for dancing with her love life, ultimately leading to her downfall. The famous exchange early in the film between the ballerina Victoria Page (played by Moira Shearer) and the ballet company impresario Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) is hard to forget. “Why do you want to dance?” he asks. “Why do you want to live?” she fires back.

The Big Boob Fairy finds out how big is too big.

There are women with small breasts, women with big breasts, women with really big breasts…and then there’s the big boob fairy. Shu Yong’s “Bubble Woman” installation (installed in a public park in Foshan, Guangdong province, China) explores the question of how big we want our breasts to be…and seems to discover that, yes, there is [...]

Music video: Grizzly Bears

Brooklyn band Grizzly Bears’ (previously) latest music video for “Ready, Able” from their third album Veckatimest features some freaky stop-motion claymation. Directed by artist Allison Schulnik, the video’s intentionally raw and unrefined aesthetic reflects Schulnik’s style evident in her art. When asked about her technique, she explained: “I over-indulge. I really just make work and [...]

Are required eco-driving lessons an affront to personal liberty?

Whether you agree with the argument or not, you might understand how global warming legislation might be viewed as a government intrusion into the private sector. Same might be said of the “no child left inside” bill? But mandating “eco-driving” habits be taught to teenagers? While this seems relatively harmless, a bill introduced by Detroit Democrat Bert Johnson into the Michigan legislature has spurred debate over the proper roles of both driver’s education and government.

Anderson & Co.

(Photo from The New Yorker‘s “Wild Wild Wes”)

Expectations are high for Wes Anderson’s Friday release of FANTASTIC MR. FOX. At last night’s Q&A at the 92nd Street Y in Tribeca, neither Anderson nor Jason Schwartzman brought up the critically indecisive response THE DARJEELING LIMITED received two years ago, but why would they with a promising new film due out in mere days? Moderator Dave Karger from Entertainment Weekly Magazine (I heard they tried to get Richard Brody, who recently profiled Anderson for The New Yorker) was certainly comfortable in front of a crowd, but his questions hardly brought up anything Anderson fans didn’t already know, like the charming but much-visited story of how Shwartzman and Anderson met at a RUSHMORE audition.