sundance

What you need to know about the Stupak Amendment

photo by cliff1066™ There’s been a lot of self-congratulatory back-patting around the House’s passing of the Health Reform Bill this past Saturday — but it’s come at a huge price. The Democratic Congress pretty much abandoned women’s reproductive rights by including the last-minute Stupak-Pitts Amendment to appease some religio-conservative members of Congress, including several male [...]

Ian Fisher : American Soldier

The Denver Post has a really powerful photo essay, Ian Fisher : American Soldier, up in honor of Veteran’s  Day. The paper followed Mr. Fisher for 27 months, from the time he enlisted in the U.S. Army until the time he came home. It shows how a soldier is made. The images speak for themselves.

100 things that defined the 2000s

As we quickly approach the final year of the first decade of the 21st century, the blog “You aught to remember” is getting an early start and “counting the 100 trends, fashions, memes, personalities and ideas that shaped the first decade of the 21st Century.” I think I’ll caveat that this cheeky list is more [...]

Los Angeles police badges over the years

The Los Angeles Times Magazine examines fifty different LAPD badges from the past 140 years paired with significant moments from the City of Angels’ less than angelic history. The visual timeline starts with an eight-point badge from 1869 and the Chinese Massacre of 1871 when a mob of 500 murdered 19 Chinese immigrants in Chinatown. [...]

A Sundance Channel Original Documentary : THE GLASS HOUSE

Documentarian Hamid Rahmanian lifts the veil on a segment of Iranian society with inspiring profiles of four independent women coping with poverty, repression and physical brutality. At Tehran’s unique Omid e Mehr rehabilitation center for women, Nazila, an aspiring rap singer; Samira, a 14-year-old with a drug addiction; and Mitra and Sussan, who have endured insults, beatings and rape at home, learn the importance of self-esteem, personal expression and tools to take control of their lives.

I left my heart at the Ace Hotel

The Ace Hotel in Palm Springs is a magical place. Sunny year round and designed in a style that has a mid-century vibe, it’s not too glam and not too pretentious as some of Palm Springs’ swankier hotels. I stayed there this weekend and left my heart.

Phaidon is popping off in SOHO

Literally (and strategically) around the corner from the Taschen store in SOHO is the brand new Phaidon pop up shop, conveniently open now through the holidays. But who cares how calculated the timing and location is when some of the best art books are now a whole lot closer than Picadilly, Phaidon’s only other store. [...]

Tamara Kostianovsky, fabric beef

Born in Jerusalem, raised in Buenos Aires, and now a New Yorker, Tamara Kostianovsky (who also coincidentally married my artist friend from high school, Mark Stafford, previously mentioned here) uses fabric in her series “Actus Reus” to create amazingly anatomically correct slabs of butchered meat. Her sculpture “Persistence of Agony” is currently on display at [...]

It’s Sexual Health Week in Australia

Australia kicked off its first ever Sexual Health Week yesterday (running through the 15th) to promote condoms, STI tests, birth control, etc. (To paraphrase Paul Hogan, now that’s a fight!) As part of the project, a survey was conducted showing that nearly all adult Australians taking part in the study have had unprotected sex, but only [...]

Happiness hat

happiness hat from Lauren McCarthy on Vimeo. Don’t let the cutesy knit warmth of Lauren McCarthy’s “Happiness Hat” fool you. It is actually “a wearable device that detects if you’re smiling and provides pain feedback if you’re not” and is a dream come true for any dictator or tyrant attempting to enforce a smiling spirit [...]

Rihanna’s domestic abuse sells albums — so what?

Some people have been questioning Rihanna’s choice to wait to talk about her domestic abuse right until the release of her new album. But that’s just the way the magazine-TV-PR-celebrity-promotional circle jerk works: celebrities don’t tend to chat to magazine writers or TV presenters just because they feel like it, they do it because they are contractually required to promote something. And magazines, TV shows, et al are more than happy to comply, because celebrity cover stories sell like hotcakes.

Chatting with Ray Anderson, radical industrialist

Ray Anderson’s epiphany about his own role in environmental destruction after reading Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce has taken on mythic status in the fifteen years since. The “spear in the chest moment” he experienced transformed Anderson into a leader in sustainable thought and practice within American industry, and his company, Interface, Inc. (which manufacture modular floor covering primarily for business and institutional customers) is now recognized as a model of transformation. Named a “Hero of the Planet” by Time magazine in 2007, Anderson is constantly sought out for speeches, interviews, and even documentary film appearances (THE CORPORATION, and the new SO RIGHT SO SMART)

In September, Anderson (with Robin White) published his second book, Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Planet — Doing Business by Respecting the Earth. This wide-ranging work not only tells Interface’s story in detail, but also provides a blueprint for how a large, well-established company can literally reinvent itself as both a profitable enterprise and a business that learns to operate in harmony with natural systems.

The word “confessions” in the title is very appropriate: Anderson is very frank about Interface’s successes and setbacks in its climb up “Mt. Sustainability” (a phrase he coined). He also discusses the efforts of other companies, and makes bold, and hopeful, cases for environmental and social responsibility as pillars of successful business strategy in the 21st century. The book is an engaging and thoughtful read for business people, environmental activists, and consumers concerned about the impact of industry on the planet’s future.

I spoke with Anderson on the phone on Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

So much of Interface’s success in “climbing Mt. Sustainability” seems based in really common-sense approaches to design, manufacturing, and distribution. We Americans generally regard ourselves as practical, efficient, etc., yet we encounter such strong resistance on numerous fronts to these kinds of changes… they really seem to scare some people. In your experience, what’s the best way to approach this resistance to new ideas?

It requires a considerable amount of patience, and also persistence. I know in bringing our people along, it was one mind at a time. It’s not something you could dictate, and everyone accepted immediately. Or, it’s not something you can dictate and everybody ever accepted, for that matter. It’s one mind at a time.

Happy birthday, Carl Sagan!

YouTube user “MelodySheep” gained attention recently for their brilliant auto-tune remixing entitled “A Glorious Dawn” of pioneering astronomer Carl Sagan lecturing, with an appearance by Stephen Hawking, on the magnificance of the universe in a manner that is both soothing and educational. There’s a new remix “We Are All Connected” that features yet more auto-tuned [...]

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS

The United States was never going to develop a force of psychic spies until they heard the Russians were, or at least that’s the jump in logic we must accept in order to believe THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS. Enter Jeff Bridges, perfectly cast as Bill Django, equal parts military intelligence, paranormal researcher and daisy-wielding hippie. Django, armed only with several hemp necklaces and a long ponytail, is the commanding officer of The Earth Army, a select group of US soldiers whose specialties include yoga, remote viewing and the ability to stare a goat to death.

Music video: The Roots, “How I Got Over”

Legendary hip hop group The Roots remind us that they’re still a force to be reckoned with despite their mainstream-friendly daily duties backing up Jimmy Fallon as his house band. From their upcoming album of the same name, “How I Got Over” blends a socio-political message about brotherhood and lending a helping hand where “someone [...]

Deadly font

Designer Jelte van Abbema was a winner at the Dutch Design Awards and the accompanying €10,000 Rado Prize in part due to his piece “Symbiosis,” a font created with e.coli bacteria. One could say this could be a nasty computer virus! Van Abbema created the font by stamping bacteria into paper, and then placing the [...]

FULL FRONTAL FASHION highlights

Think of this as your FULL FRONTAL FASHION cliff notes. Image from Cattelan’s collaboration with Pierpaolo Ferrari for W’s Art Issue We hit the streets and snapped some photos of New York’s most fashionably forward. Fabien Constant learned the Japanese word for “fox” — Kitsuné. Read about this Parisian boutique. Indochine celebrated its 25th anniversary [...]

Christopher Walken performs Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”

I looked up “deadpan” in the dictionary recently found this video of Christopher Walken reciting the lyrics of Lady Gaga’s hit anthem “Poker Face” in the manner that only he (and countless imitators) can. Even Kanye wouldn’t dispute the man’s genius.

Tweeting twat

William Shatner is once again poking fun at another fame-seeking Alaskan. If you remember, several months back, the veteran actor and musician lampooned Sarah Palin by reading her tweets to a beat poetry rhythm. He’s turned his attention towards Levi Johnston, onetime Palin family member. Something tells me this is the least of Levi’s worries. [...]

Halloween 2009 costume round up

As the post-Halloween haze lifts, lets take a moment to reflect back on some of the more imaginative, creative, and/or topical costumes from around the country that reverberated around the Internet and blogosphere this week. My favorite this year fell on the surreal artsy side of things. Artist Eric Testroete built a “papercraft self-portrait,” which reminds me of those easter egg modes in video games that turns all the characters heads into “big heads.” More after the jump.

Mutant documentary: Intervention

The other night, not unlike Monday nights a-many in the past, I found myself glued to the television, sucked in by a vortex commonly known as Intervention, the television series. Have you watched it? It’s a show about addiction. Beware, you’re liable to become addicted. (And I don’t feel very good about my problem, either, and I think I need help. Where’s my TV show for that?) Watching, I couldn’t help but think about a few colleagues I know in the NY documentary community who’ve begun to direct Intervention. Is this, could this be, is it anything near … documentary?

Well, documentary is a slippery term, as you know, already. Many filmmakers prefer “non fiction film.” Or just plain and simple, “movies.” The Intervention folk wouldn’t dare – they call their thing … a television series. A reality television series.

Obama Promises Tribal Leaders Help With Environmental Issues

Representatives of 400 federally recognized tribal nations from across the United States gathered at the Department of the Interior today at the invitation of President Barack Obama for a conference the President called a “unique and historic event, the largest and most widely attended gathering of tribal leaders in our history.”

Truth or Dare for grownups… really lazy grownups

There’s a reason why Truth or Dare is mostly played by high school kids — because they’re the only ones who are willing to spend hours coming up with creative truths or dares to get their peers more naked, either figuratively or literally. After a hard day at work — or, worse, after a hard day of trolling the help wanted ads in the middle of a recession — who can be bothered to be that creative? Especially when the sex is a sure thing.

James Hopkins

There is not a single piece in UK artist James Hopkins’ portfolio of often amusing sculptures that I did not like. It was really tough to highlight a single one because they all seemed so blogworthy, but the Internet, especially the design community seems to love anything skull related, so check out this piece titled [...]

Chesapeake Bay Gets Clean Water Funding; $1.5B More for Stormwater Proposed

To pay for better clean water accountability and regulatory enforcement in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, Congress has authorized new funding to reduce pollution in local rivers and streams flowing into the bay. Legislation passed by the House and Senate contains a record $50 million for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Bay cleanup efforts, with $19 million in new funding for regulatory enforcement and accountability.