sundance

Naked News: Sex-positive Streep, gay floral arrangements & safer sex toys

scene from new movie “It’s Complicated”

• Meryl Streep, our new hero, on sex scenes between older people: “”The whole idea that you have to look a certain way and be a certain age to earn love is ridiculous. We love what we love. It doesn’t matter what shape it is. It’s thrilling to see real people on screen.”
  
  
• Canadians are one step ahead of us in the health department again: sex stores are game with regulating the adult toy industry to keep out harmful chemicals found in the plastics used in some toys.
  
  

Shopping last minute? Check out companies’ climate scores before buying

With Christmas just a few days away, you may be rushing out to buy those last-minute gifts for friends and loved ones. If you’re concerned about the climate impact of the companies from which you buy, Climate Counts’ third annual ratings of corporations’ efforts to fight global warming will take one stresser out of the equation.

Dating tips for single ladies

Enjoy these scanned images of an anachronistic dating guide from 1938 instructing women on how to behave in order to get a man to put a ring on it. It includes gems such as: Don’t drink too much, as a man expects you to keep your dignity all evening. Drinking may make some girls seem [...]

Catching up with the “Crude” court case

When it premiered in January 2009 at the Sundance Film Festival, Joe Berlinger’s documentary CRUDE opened many filmgoers’ eyes to the plight of 30,000 people from five indigenous tribes in Ecuador. These residents of what had been a beautiful, biodiverse rain forest were suffering the effects of what has become known as the “Amazon Chernobyl,” in which, they and others contend, 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste had been dumped in their rivers and on their land. The water they drank, bathed and played in had been poisoned, and their children, siblings and parents were sick and dying in alarming numbers.

Sketchy Santas

On one end of the spectrum or pole you have a warm and kindhearted Kris Kringle. And then there are Sketchy Santas. Check out the website for a collection of user submitted photographs of creepy Santas freaking out kids.

Sundance films get SAG, Golden Globe nods

In the days between the announcements of the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations this week and the handing out of the awards themselves next month, much time will be spent parsing who’s gotten a nod, who’s been overlooked, what it says about the state of cinema today and what it portends for [...]

World’s smallest snowman

This adorable snowman is only a wee 10 µm across or for comparison only 1/5th the width of a human hair and was created by brainiacs at National Physical Laboratory. For more background information watch this behind-the-scenes YouTube video that explains that “a nanomanipulation system was used to assemble the parts ‘by hand’ and platinum [...]

A Sundance Channel premiere: Rufus Wainwright’s PRIMA DONNA

During the last 12 years, Rufus Wainwright has established himself as one of music’s most mercurial talents, fearlessly challenging convention and famed for soaring melodies and haunting lyrics. While preparing his most ambitious project, a full-fledged opera entitled PRIMA DONNA, Wainwright and his famous family — father Loudon Wainwright III, mother Kate McGarrigle and sister [...]

How to pay for making biodiesel: sell soap

Like many schools, the University of Florida has developed a number of programs and efforts to produce and promote renewable energy. Mechanical and aerospace engineering major Eric Layton saw an opportunity to learn in a proposed biodiesel plant, and threw himself into the project whole-heartedly: according to the Gainesville Sun, “He helped build and maintain the plant and served as the coordinator for more than 50 volunteers who learned about plant management and operations.” He even received an award for his efforts.

And then, last Spring, the funding ran out.

Gaga and Lauper go Glam

Michael Musto has used this space to talk about how the in-crowd is tiring of Lady Gaga. And I have basically told Madonna to give it up now that Gaga has arrived on the scene. And yes, we, like all good gays, will continue to sing her praises. As will MAC. This spring Gaga joins [...]

Sundance competition films: juicy, mopey, risky, arty?

The 2010 Sundance Film Festival won’t kick off for a few weeks, but the press is already dusting off its snow boots and readying for action. (“Should the Bagger rent a car in Sundance, or are the shuttles where all the good gossip is?” wonders The New York Times’ Melena Ryzik, the new Carpetbagger blogger and a festival first-timer. One reader suggests a Norwegian kicksled.)

Unexpected Christmas Movies

What Christmas movie involves a New York cop, a dozen buff, blonde German terrorists and enough colorful catchphrases to last you till the new year? I’m talking, of course, about DIE HARD (1988).

10 worst things to say at your partner’s family holiday dinner

photo by Average Jane Forget charades, let’s debate the Stupak Amendment! So what made you guys decide not to circumcise your son? No Brussels sprouts for me, thanks — we’re planning on anal tonight and I don’t want to be gassy. Hoo-boy, anyone got a box of matches I could borrow for the bathroom? I [...]

Time Runs Out But Climate Talks Continue, Draft Deal Tabled

Just before 01.00 on Saturday morning, a number of heads of state and government agreed on a draft climate agreement at the UN conference in Copenhagen. The draft includes agreement on the target of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius and on money for climate financing.

A Copenhagen Climate Accord, Not Nothing, But Not Enough

After a marathon all night session at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, talks aimed at reaching a deal to limit greenhouse gases warming the planet ended with what UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon called an “essential beginning” that contains progress on all key fronts.

California Approves New Wind Power Transmission Lines, Solar Roofs

California energy regulators have approved Southern California Edison’s request to construct a 173 mile long electricity transmission line to bring wind power generated in the Tehachapi Wind Resource Area in Kern County to Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.

FULL FRONTAL FASHION highlights

Mademoiselle Agnès Think of this as your FULL FRONTAL FASHION cliff notes. Watch Loïc Prigent’s, HABILLÉES POUR L’ÉTÉ 2010 (DRESSED UP FOR SUMMER 2010) covering the Spring 2010 collections in New York and Paris with Mademoiselle Agnès. Meet the innovative, up-and-coming designers who are potential successors to today’s fashion icons. Get behind the scenes access [...]

Minimum wage machine

Ever feel like you’re just spinning your wheels at work? Well Blake Fall-Conroy’s “Minimum Wage Machine” found at MAKE is quite literally a mechanical interpretation of unfulfilling labor. The artist explains: The minimum wage machine pays the user minimum wage in real-time in pennies– the smallest unit of currency in the US. Being in NY, [...]

ABBA gets some respect

The bands Rolling Stone review and write about are predominantly men, except for the obligatory cover stories on pop starlets showing their tits. Rock radio almost entirely turns its back on female singers. And the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame typically inducts only men. Rock and Roll is a sexist world. And gays love [...]

Art is in the “eye” of the beholder

Artist Williard Wigan has made a long successful career and name for himself by creating arthritis-inducing micro-sculptures that are tiny enough to fit inside the eye of a needle. How does he do it? His art is constructed of fibers from his shirt or from a carpet, he says. He chisels with chips of diamonds. [...]

U.S. Supports $100 Billion Climate Fund for Poor Nations

The United States made a move to save the contentious UN climate talks in Copenhagen from failure today. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the United States is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries.

From the Nothing’s-Sacred Department: Shocker gloves

There’s the enjoi knit version (above), which POW claims is an infringement on their style copyright for the finger colors of pink and brown (they have a freaking copyright on that?). But then there’s the Shocker Glove Company too, which a guy from POW told us uses a different “shocker” reference (i.e. not sexual), but [...]

A SERIOUS MAN of a certain age

Last week I happened to see the Coen brothers’ A SERIOUS MAN and the new TNT show “Men of a Certain Age” on the very same night. The two couldn’t be more different in execution: in the Coens’ film, a flat-out signature style-fest, a rock-solid universe where nary a prop is askew, every single frame feeling conceived, composed, rehearsed, like clockwork, like buttah. “Men of a Certain Age” aims for a loose, realist, doc style in both camera technique and performance, and off-the-cuff dialogue and swish pans make it feel less like traditional TV coverage. Lurking not far beneath the surface, however, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the two in terms of theme — two properties on the entertainment market at one moment in the zeitgeist, dealing with middle-aged men in crisis.

But not just any kind of crisis … this ain’t no AMERICAN BEAUTY carpe diem woulda-coulda-shoulda crap. In the Coens’ piece, more so than in “Men” but still present in both, is a desire to engage with serious existential questions of being.

SPECTACLE REPORT: ELVIS COSTELLO WITH…
Southern Knights: Levon Helm and Allen Toussaint

The legendary Levon Helm at the drums on SPECTACLE. On this week’s SPECTACLE, Elvis Costello assembles a band of musical legends. At its heart are two artists who act as living links to the traditions of the American South – drummer Levon Helm and pianist Allen Toussaint. Arkansas-born Helm, best known as one of the [...]

Biden Announces $5 Billion Tax Credit for Clean Energy Manufacturing

At a Middle Class Task Force meeting today which focused on manufacturing, Vice President Joe Biden announced the administration’s support for up to $5 billion in additional funding for a successful Recovery Act program that will accelerate job growth in Clean Energy Manufacturing.