sundance

Holiday dress advice

December is the month of seemingly an endless parade of holiday parties. For some people deciding what to wear for these events can be a source of stress. If unsure, I recommend as a general policy to err on the side of dressing up as opposed to down or as Oscar Wilde cheekily stated, “You [...]

Green tech finds (12/17/09)

Satellite deforestation tracking, a muscle hybrid, and DIY solar panels… this week’s green tech finds. Vampire-proof your home: Charger maker iGo has launched three new products designed to help you reduce the use of standby power (i.e. vampire power). An 800hp hybrid? That’s what start-up Kepler Motors claims about its concept the Motion (pictured above). [...]

The subtlest lube ad we’ve seen.

Advertisers have quite a few options when creating an ad for personal lubricant–we’ve seen everything ranging from the classily subtle to the innuendo heavy to the just plain weird. This ad, coming out of Chile (click to see it full size), gets a few points for being incredibly subtle–though we have to say, once we [...]

Donny Miller for Vans

If you don’t know Donny Miller, you should. His book, Beautiful People with Beautiful Feelings, is a classic. And the Los Angeles artist continues to make thoughtful work that has great humor. Case in point: his new shoes for Vans, the iconic skate shoe company. Tonight at Fred Segal Donny’s throwing a party. If in [...]

Music video: Small Black’s “Despicable Dogs”

Small Black: Despicable Dogs from Yoonha Park on Vimeo. I’m really digging this new music video for Brooklyn band Small Black’s song “Despicable Dogs” which stars the lead singer Josh Kolenik’s uncle Matt, who looks like he stepped straight out of DOGTOWN AND Z BOYS casting central. The song has a soothing and catchy tune [...]

Erotica author puts the naughty bits back in fairy tales

photo via Foxtongue

Did you know that fairy tales used to be pretty X-rated? But then the Brothers Grimm et al deleted all the dirty parts — the party poopers! — to make them more family-friendly. Not unlike Anne Rice’s late ’80′s Sleeping Beauty trilogy, the new book In Sleeping Beauty’s Bed: Erotic Fairy Tales retells 15 stories with all the missing naughty bits filled in by author Mitzi Szereto’s imagination (and yes, Cinderella is about foot fetishism, natch). Each of the tales is prefaced with an introduction detailing its history and the sexual culture in which it was first written. (Now we just want to know which scholar is going to take it upon him- or herself to dig up the dirty originals…) It’s the perfect holiday gift for someone who’s been naughty and nice this year. Here’s an excerpt from Szereto’s retelling of “The Turnip” tale — we guarantee you’ll never look at this root vegetable in the same way again…

100 things restaurant staffers should never do

In the New York Times blog “You’re the Boss: The Art of Running a Small Business,” Bruce Buschel lists 100 things servers should never do in restaurants (part 1 and part 2). It’s actually astonishing how many times I’ve encountered these rules broken, but my two biggest personal biggest pet peeves at any dining establishment [...]

2010 Sundance Film Festival line-up unveiled

Sundance Institute announced the films that will be in competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in both the U.S. and International dramatic and documentary categories. The festival will run from January 21-31 in Park City, Utah. There are a few changes this year as there will be no opening-night picture and the festival will take select festival films to eight cities during as the fest plays out.

Dust art

British artist Paul Hazelton takes your typical dust bunnies, those fluffy clouds of dust, and shapes them into various sculptures. The dust of everyday life – the unavoidable and necessary by-product of living, engrosses me. Art, also an unavoidable and necessary by-product of living, engrosses me. Art, like dust, is a residue of life and [...]

The Copenhagen Wheel: smart hybrid biking

While most of the news we’ve heard coming out of Copenhagen involves climate negotiations among world leaders, the Danish capital is also hosting business expos, technology demonstrations, and even artistic events during the UN Climate Summit. Yesterday, the team from MIT’s SENSEable City Lab joined in the festivities to unveil the Copenhagen Wheel, a simple enhancement for ordinary bicycles designed to make city cycling a little less taxing, and a little smarter.

Chainsaws make art

This video featuring a scary man wearing a Jason-like hockey mask and jumpsuit is brilliant. Clocking in at just over nine minutes it shows how a chainsaw can create a work of art. Starting with a giant tree and using the chainsaw to sculpt and cut, the man creates a wooden anime sculpture. And as if the [...]

Root for Trees

On a typical day in NYC you walk by as many as 45 different species of trees, but can you name more than one of them? Far from launching another demanding and guilt-ridden campaign for a charity, Jessica Schweifel, founder of Root for Trees, is asking very little of New Yorkers this year. All she wants [...]

Ghost malls

Living in New York City we’re slightly cocooned visually from the negative impact the economy has had specifically on commercial centers such as strip malls, big-box retail shops, and shopping malls, that are typically ubiquitous to many cities and towns. Chicago photographer Brian Ulrich traveled the country over the past couple years documenting these vacant [...]

2010 Whitney Biennial list

To announce the artists selected for the upcoming Whitney Biennial, curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari read the 55 names in this video produced by Pierce Jackson. Running from February 25 – May 30, the biennial, called simply “2010,” will feature work by artists that “reflect diverse responses to the anxiety and optimism of the [...]

Artifacts of the Aughts

In New York Magazine’s recent “Aughts” issue which examines the highlights and lowlights of the past ten years, the magazine also catalogs “everyday stuff” that were “rendered obsolete in the Aughts.” Among others this list of extinct or endangered objects includes the answering machine, cassette tape, and thankfully, the lickable stamp.

The Backlash Against Lady Gaga Has Begun!

People are turning against Lady Gaga! As someone who sings about the pitfalls of fame, the omnipresent chanteuse should have known that as a result of her own stardom, cynics would be scrunching their foreheads and declaring her unworthy of it.

The bigger she gets, the more people dredge up the nerve to declare her Lady Caca.

Environment & religion: Middle Eastern bloggers cross faith lines

Despite its rich history and culture, when Westerners think of the Middle East, two things likely come to mind: oil production and religious conflict. A small group of bloggers and journalists from the region, and from Islamic, Jewish, and Christian faith backgrounds, are out to address those perceptions, as well as the real issues behind them, by gathering in Jordan on December 20-21. Responding specifically to the United Nations’ call for more reporting on environmental issues in the region, the bloggers will discuss a range of topics, including “…activism, design, urban health, religion, and clean technologies.

Jacques Tati, new 35mm at MoMA

Some things never get old. I’ve seen MR. HULOT’S HOLIDAY at least 2 dozen times and I still laugh out loud during the tennis racket scene. The same goes for PLAYTIME, the first of six newly struck and lovingly restored 35mm prints of Jacques Tati’s films, now being screened at MoMA. PLAYTIME was a phenomenal flop when it was first released in 1967, but Tati’s radical use of sound, color and meticulously choreographed, city street chaos make it my personal favorite. By 1967, Tati had been playing the beloved Mr. Hulot for 14 years and he was ready to try something new, but audiences weren’t yet ready to let go. In fact, Tati wasn’t going to include Hulot in PLAYTIME at all, but without him he couldn’t secure much-needed funding for the film, money that Tati quickly blew on his outrageously costly set design.

Shatner verses Palin

I’ve documented here a few instances where comic genius William Shatner has read Sarah Palin’s words aloud as beat poetry, poking fun at her stupidity. Well he’s at it again.  But this times she’s hit back. On Conan O’Brien’s show the other night Shatner read ridiculous passages from Palin’s Going Rogue. And then he had [...]

Naked News: Casual sex, Lady Gaga, and life imitating porn

photo by AFlickion New research shows that young adults who have casual sex are no more likely than those in committed relationships to experience psychological problems. Well, thank goodness for that then. Lady Gaga tells Barbara Walters that she’s bisexual and has had sex with women — but has only fallen in love with men. [...]

Best protest signs of 2009

BuzzFeed compiles a gallery of the best signs this year displayed at various protests. And yup, the Corduroy Pants sign that Bradford posted about made the cut.

SPECTACLE REPORT: ELVIS COSTELLO WITH…
Sheryl Crow on Guitar Pull

Sheryl Crow on SPECTACLE: ELVIS COSTELLO WITH… The four artists who join Elvis Costello this week for SPECTACLE’s second annual “guitar pull” are all extraordinary singers and exceptional songwriters. But with all due respect to Neko Case, Ron Sexsmith, and Jesse Winchester, only one of them has been able to strike the balance that Elvis [...]

SPECTACLE REPORT:
Elvis Costello’s Must-Hear “Guitar Pull” Tracks

From left, Jesse Winchester, Neko Case, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow and Ron Sexsmith on SPECTACLE’S “Guitar Pull.” RON SEXSMITH I’ve known Ron since just after the release of his first record. He’s probably gotten tired of reading my name in a paragraph with his simply because I’m among those who think it extraordinary that at [...]

Climate Quilt panels on display in Copenhagen

As world leaders gather in Copenhagen this week to negotiate continued international action on climate change, they’ll have one good example of the kinds of pledges they’ll need to make: the Climate Quilt. A project of Habitat Heroes and The Green Schools Alliance, the Climate Quilt Campaign asks school kids from around the world to make “pledge patches” (from recycled materials, of course) that display individual promises “to preserve the future of the planet.” While the finished quilt won’t be available until Earth Day, 2010, panels from kids in New Jersey and Australia have made their way to COP15.

BROTHERS

BROTHERS, Jim Sheridan’s remake of the 2004 Swedish film, pits Sam (Tobey Maguire), the overachieving war hero against his brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), a shiftless ex-con. Driven to these extremes by their angry, alcoholic father (Sam Shepard), the two appear to have never really gotten along, and now with Sam’s wife Grace (Natalie Portman) thrown into the mix, they have something else to fight over.