sundance

New York Sleeps

Photographer Christopher Thomas snapped recognizable views of New York City devoid of its residents. Thomas’s project is different from that of say recently mentioned Matt Logue and his photographs of an empty Los Angeles due to Thomas’ usage of a custom large-format camera and Polaroid film. As the New York Times writes the “patient, unusual [...]

50 Cent featuring Susan Boyle, not Lil’ Kim

Hip-hop stars rush at the chance to collaborate. You pick up a rap album and it seems almost always to be a duet disc with guest vocalists appearing on multiple tracks. Pop stars caught on to this craze too. Trying to gain street cred and a younger audience, performers as diverse as Madonna, Beyonce, and Maroon 5 have enlisted the guest hip-hop performer to appear on their discs. Hell, I even think Wyclef Jean and Kanye West have been on more records for others than on their own songs.

Hot guys + baby animals = genius

Somebody must have done this before. There’s got to be a 1978 calendar buried in someone’s basement  somewhere featuring topless guys in tight pants with lush mustaches and fluffy wittle kittens. But we’ve never seen it. So we’re kind of getting a kick out of Hot Guys and Baby Animals, the new Recess Peanut Butter [...]

Girl Talk, now on vinyl

Don’t have a DJ for your holiday party? No problem, just put on any of Girl Talk’s albums, guaranteed to get even your least coordinated, music-snobbiest friend dancing to Top 40 mash-up . Of course, if you do have a DJ, throw him a copy of “Night Ripper,” out now on vinyl for the very [...]

Grand Canyon Sandbar Restoration Planned With High Water Flows

The Department of the Interior will undertake an experimental initiative to improve the management of Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River as it flows through Grand Canyon National Park, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced Thursday during the Colorado River Water Users Association conference.

Youth Actions Command Attention at Climate Summit

Chanting “Our future, our future,” wearing bright orange t-shirts reading, “How Old Will You Be In 2050?” over 1,000 young people from countries around the world captured the attention of the world leaders, media, nongovernmental organizations, and delegates Thursday at the United Nations climate conference here in Copenhagen.

FULL FRONTAL FASHION highlights

Bread shoes by Remigijus and Egidijus Praspaliauskas Think of this as your FULL FRONTAL FASHION cliff notes. Check out the quirky creation that’s sure to curb your hunger for fashion — available in multiple sizes and grains. Bon appetit! Cator thawed out in Miami for the Art Basel Bash. Vena Cava celebrates their collaboration with [...]

Sesame Street screenings at BAM

Sesame Street celebrated its 40th anniversary last month (with a guest appearance from Michelle Obama, no less) and BAM is screening, this weekend only, some of Jim Henson’s feature length films with his lovable muppets, including ABBY IN WONDERLAND, FOLLOW THAT BIRD, and THE WORLD ACCORDING TO SESAME STREET, a documentary about the show’s international [...]

Nau teams up with The Bamboo Bike Project

As if Nau, the Oregon-based “eco-friendly activewear and outdoor clothing” gurus couldn’t get any cooler, check out the pop-up shop in Soho, which boasts not only a great-looking space (think lots of wood and raw materials) but has been home to a number of impressive events over the last month, featuring activism organizations, designers like [...]

21 years later: Erasure’s The Innocents

The duo of Andy Bell and Vince Clarke have been making techno-pop for decades now. Formed in the mid-80s after Clarke’s successful turns in both Depeche Mode and Yaz, Erasure never quite got the respect they deserved. Which is odd for a band that has scored multi-platinum albums on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lelo’s holiday vibe

One of our favorite toy designers, Lelo, is offering their Elise vibrator in a special poinsettia box for the holiday season. Hey, who says you can’t give a sex toy as a Christmas present? Especially when that toy is tasteful, rechargeable, and made of phthalate-free material? Our only reservation: the pink of the vibe totally [...]

Blind font

Andrew Byrom takes what is super ridiculously annoying about window venetian blinds and turns it into a super ridiculously neat typeface. View more photos of the process here. [Via]

Senators of Three Political Stripes Propose Climate Bill Framework

Three U.S. senators – a Democrat, a Republican, and an Independent – today released their framework for climate change and energy independence legislation in advance of President Barack Obama’s trip to Copenhagen next week to participate in the United Nations climate change conference.

Green tech finds (12/10/09)

Another week, another group of green tech finds. First, a few more from Finland:

• Jen Boynton at TriplePundit discusses four game-changing technologies you’ve never heard of…
• Ian Thomson at Cleantechies gives his opinion of Tekes, Finland’s government agency for funding R&D and start-ups… I had a different take on this organization at sustainablog.

UP IN THE AIR

Amid the loneliness and isolation of an increasingly digital world, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) seems to be the only one equipped with an suitable personal philosophy. Instead of lamenting the loss of real human connection, he embraces it, maintaining only limited ties with his family and his co-workers. In fact, he doesn’t even seem to have any friends; he is satisfied just being around people. Yet as much as he rejects the emotional baggage any real relationship requires, he is still a victim of his own humanity and his own inherent need for others – to not be alone. In his job, for example, he flies all over the country for most of the year firing employees at downsizing companies. Ironically, the only thing he seems to relish more than the hubbub of constant travel is his ability to connect to people, to let them down easy. Yes, he may be firing them, but he prides himself by doing it with a certain degree of humanity.

Kristin Wiig comes to primetime

Kristin Wiig is Saturday Night Live’s strongest performer. She’s funny and awkward. She does impersonations effortlessly (see Bjork and Kathy Lee). And she takes skits that could be awful (Penelope, Target Lady) and makes them funny as all hell. Just check out her Bjork appearance above. There is something gay about Wiig too. She’s not [...]

Forest Service Aims $40 Million at Bark Beetle Control

The U.S. Forest Service will receive $40 million more to address public safety concerns and forest health needs arising from the millions of acres of dead and dying trees killed by bark beetles in the West, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Colorado Governor Bill Ritter announced Tuesday.

Comedy, Italian style

Still from IL SORPASSO (THE EASY LIFE) (1962) If you’re still recovering from post-THE ROAD depression, head over to MoMA for a week of Dino Risi’s smart, if bitter, comedies. Kicking things off is SCENT OF A WOMAN (1974) – that’s the original, not the 1992 Pacino remake. If Risi can make light of a [...]

George Michael comes clean about being anything but

George Michael is a troubled soul and a talented musician. Unlike many artists in the same boat though, Michael does not hide his demons. He once famously made a song and video lampooning his taste for public sex and his arrest cruising public restrooms (see the video and song “Outside”). And he remains in the [...]

Lonely glasses

Toronto artist Jessica Atkinson’s “Lonely Glasses” are a whimsical set of optics “that function as an anti-lonely device, giving the user the feeling of being surrounded by people when worn.”

[Via]

One more pic after the jump.

Huge Alaska Oil Spill Blamed on Ice Plugs

Ice plugged an inactive pipeline, causing it to burst, officials said Tuesday in an attempt to explain how 46,000 gallons of crude oil spewed onto the tundra near a BP Exploration processing center at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope

Top 10 Most Romantic Holiday Movies

We’re suckers for Christmas. The bright lights, the gingerbread houses, the cheesy music, the British “crackers,” the ability to eat and drink to excess without being considered a glutton or an alcoholic! We especially love that cozy feeling that comes from watching favorite movies with a wintery vibe — not necessarily official Christmas movies, but just ones that honor love and family with some cold weather thrown in. Here’s our top 10. (If you’re wondering why “Love, Actually”, the definition of “romantic holiday movie”, didn’t make the cut, it’s because Lo thinks that sexist movie sucked reindeer balls.)

Billboard’s one-hit wonders of the 2000s

Remember Daniel Powter? How about Lumidee? Or Terror Squad? No. No. No. No worry, I don’t either. But Billboard magazine remembers these musical acts and their chart-topping records. Looking back at the last decade the bible of the music industry has ranked the top 40 one-hit wonders of 2000s. Some are quite good (Macy Gray) [...]

Poop to power comes to China

You may have already heard of various projects that turn farm animal wastes into energy: from Connecticut to South Africa, farmers and energy experts are finding innovative ways of turning this waste material (and often pollutant) into power for cooking, heating, and even electricity generation.

SPECTACLE REPORT:
Elvis Costello’s Must-Hear U2 Tracks

Elvis Costello hosts Bono and The Edge on SPECTACLE. Our esteemed host has a discerning ear. For the second season of Spectacle, we asked him to choose a track or two from his guests’ sizable songbooks. Not “the greatest” or most iconic tunes necessarily, but pieces that have always knocked him out. We’ll update the [...]