sundance

Stop-motion street art

Broken Fingaz -Graffiti Stop Motion from Broken Fingaz on Vimeo. Israeli artists Tant and Unga of the “broken fingaz crew” created this stop-motion animated bit of street art set to some aggressive beats. This video is somewhat reminiscent of Blu’s videos (previously). Also, speaking of street art, if you haven’t seen EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT [...]

Robyn, X3

Robyn will probably never break the US again. She did once, more than a decade ago, when she was packaged as a Scandinavian Britney-wannabe. But then she broke out on her own. Lost her baby fat. Got weirder. And embraced electronic music.

FULL FRONTAL FASHION highlights

Johnny Weir at the Independent Spirit Awards In an exclusive interview with FULL FRONTAL FASHION, Johnny Weir talks about Hollywood fashion, meeting Elton John, and his possible career in fashion. Elizabeth finds love — in African-print lace-ups from a company called Osborn. … Speaking of love — don’t miss this weeks Fashion Love Story with [...]

“No Soul for Sale” at Tate Modern

To celebrate its 10th birthday, Tate Modern is staging a major free arts festivals “No Soul for Sale – A Festival of Independents,” in the Turbine Hall. Because the Hall is part gallery and part covered street, it lends a participatory spirit to its exhibitions and “an anarchic, tongue-in-cheek sensibility.” On that note, curators Cecilia Alemani and Massimiliano Gioni and artist Maurizio Cattelan have invited over 70 independent art spaces and collectives to create unique projects for the three day, global arts festival.

Conan O’Brien is asked to prom

In 2003, then 11th-grader Nikki Simmons sent a letter to her favorite late night host, Conan O’Brien and asked if he’d like to be her prom date. Conan responded to Nikki and hit the right note between humorously self-deprecating and genuine. Letters of Note printed his funny letter that Nikki shared with them. I like [...]

What religions really have to say about sex

Usually when you find “religion” and “sex” in the same sentence (or on the same website), it’s bad news. Either someone’s going to hell or someone’s really pissed off that they’re being shut out or judged or sent to hell. Which is why — no matter your position on sex, religion, or hell, for that matter — the site Religious Institution is a refreshing change. It is a “multifaith organization dedicated to advocating for sexual health, education and justice in faith communities and society.” Yep, that’s faith and sex in the same sentence — and on the same website — and no one got a black eye.

Stagecoach Music Festival: A Great Time in the Bowels of Humanity

My sister and I at The Oakridge Boys

I spent this week in the bowels of humanity. No — literally! I toodled on out to Palm Springs for the Stagecoach country music festival — Coachella‘s redneck sister — with my pal Theano and my little sister Emily. And none too soon.

See, here’s the deal with being single in NYC. You can find your physical type, and you can find your mental type — and never the two shall meet. Trust. I’ve tried. So, being a (physical) lover of very large manly men (and you try finding big manly guys who know how to fix a tire in NYC), I decided why not just wallow in a sea of my physical type and while I’m at it — get to see Merle Haggard, The Oakridge Boys, Sugarland, Brooks & Dunn, Toby Keith, and a whole lot of sweaty cowboys?

Tim Gunn critiques superhero costumes

Fashion guru Tim Gunn sits down with comic book historian Alan Kistler as they review and critique classic superheroes’ various costumes. I appreciate that Tim Gunn gives this topic his trademark sincerity and serious attention. Gunn sounds genuinely fascinated by the history and context of these crime-fighting and world-saving characters, instead of dismissing them as [...]

Green tech finds (4/29/10)

White House solar panels, recycling your Xbox, and the top green cars… your green tech finds for the week.

• Plug-and-play solar… we’re getting there: Start-up Armageddon Energy is scheduled to release its SolarClover system, which can be installed by non-specialists, later this year.
  
  
• Finnish town joins the Concerto: The Concerto Initiative, that is. Lapua, in Western Finland, will participate in this EU-sponsored project to build local energy self-sufficiency and efficiency.
  
  
• Cape Wind a go?: After years of wrangling, the Obama administration has given a green light to the Cape Wind project… but the opposition is already threatening a lawsuit, according to the Huffington Post.

Scissor Sisters’ Invisible Light

A few weeks back I wrote about the Scissor Sisters’ show at Bowery Ballroom here in Manhattan. The super-gay band of misfits have announced their upcoming album and have debuted a track from it, “Invisible Light.” The album Night Work is not out until the end of June, but I am jonesing hard for it [...]

Art of food photography

The concept of photoblogging of food, or rather artfully composed photo documentation of one’s gourmet dishes has been around for awhile. I used to be rather obsessive about doing this. The New York Times recently covered this phenomenon of people sharing online a photographic food diary, and the article featured the photos and blog of [...]

Marital harmony: the three F’s vs the three C’s

We posted an article recently about cohabitation — it contained suggestions on how to avoid the transition from boyfriend-girlfriend to roommates who spoon and fart a lot once you move in. And it set off quite a debate in the comments section about what exactly men vs. women (or is it men and women?) need when it comes to sustaining romance amid piles of bills and laundry. We’re excerpting the debate here to see where the rest of you fall when it comes to the three F’s… or the three C’s. (There has to be at least one guy out there who wants chocolate-chocolate-chocolate…right?)

Documentary as grown up genre – THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA

Isn’t it great when a film surpasses your expectations, and in fact makes you think more about the world, and about filmmaking itself? I went to see the new documentary THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith) and it’s a full blown, knock out blockbuster. Documentary so often suffers from the bastard stepchild image, the geeked out brainiac who won’t shut up about human suffering. Yes, yes, we need those films too – but when I walk out of a doc saying, “WOW! That was a political thriller right up there with ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN,” well, then I’m glad to see the bastard child growing up into a big bad contender – just as engaging, just as nail-biting, just as tear-inducing, as something that tens of millions of dollars made.

National Building Competition challenges competitors to “work off the waste”

What’s the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States? Vehicles and energy production receive a lot of attention, but the building sector is actually the biggest contributor to climate change… and 17% of total US emissions come from commercial buildings.

To highlight those facts, and promote building efficiency, the Department of Energy and EPA’s ENERGY STAR program launched the National Building Competition yesterday, which pits fourteen commercial buildings against each other in “a coast-to-coast contest … to save energy and fight climate change.”

Carl Jung’s “Red Book”

The Red Book puts other artists notebooks to shame. Compiled over the period of time when Carl Jung was developing some of his most important ideas, including the Archetype, the Collective Unconscious, the Complex and synchronicity, the Red Book is a fitting visual companion. Part sketch book, part illuminated manuscript, Jung’s journal pairs carefully rendered (and nearly unreadable) calligraphy with colorful graphic drawings – the result of years spent studying world religions and spiritual traditions.

Shepard Fairey at Deitch Projects

Shepard Fairey, the artist who made Obama and Andre the Giant graphic art poster boys is showing a new collection of work at Deitch Projects, which will be closing its doors for good. May Day, an exhibition of new work by Fairey, will be the famed gallery’s final project. Coinciding with the show Fairey will [...]

Neill Blomkamp’s TED talk

Neill Blomkamp, director of DISTRICT 9, gave an interesting talk at TED where he articulately provides a lucid overview on the possibility of extraterrestrial life that had my inner geek utterly swooning. Sparked by an interviewer’s question about whether he believed the aliens in his film accurately represented what he believed aliens looked like, he responded absolutely not. He explains that the film was an allegory for identity and racism, and not about science fiction. However, he is fascinated by the search for extraterrestrials and the science behind it. His talk reminds me of my own late night peregrinations on Wikipedia where one page can lead me down the geek rabbit hole, such as the rare earth hypothesis versus the principle of mediocrity theory, Type 1 and Type 2 civilizations (Earthlings are a type 0), Dyson spheres, the technological singularity, and why we haven’t seen evidence of other civilizations. Watch the talk and prepare for your mind to be blown.

Puzzle collage

Kent Rogowski’s “Love=Love” is a series of perfectly aligned landscape collages formed using puzzle pieces from over 40 store-bought puzzles. The artist explains: “Although puzzle pieces are unique and can only fit into one place within a puzzle they are interchangeable within a brand.” View more at the artist website.

Boobquake roundup

If you haven’t heard of it by now, here’s the ten-second scoop: Iranian cleric blames the world’s earthquakes on women’s immodesty so Jen McCreight, a self-proclaimed “liberal, geeky, nerdy, scientific, perverted, atheist feminist trapped in Indiana” at Purdue, organizes Boobquake, a day (yesterday, April 26th, 2010) for women to wear their most immodest outfit (that they would would wear on any other given day or a night out) to scientifically (sorta) study if the cleric’s claim holds any water. Well, the media went bat-shit crazy for this, so here’s a round-up:

Princeton Review publishes green college guide

Got a student at home trying to make the big choice of a college to attend? Are schools’ commitments to sustainability a part of his/her criteria for choosing one?

If so, your budding collegian isn’t alone: according to the Princeton Review’s 2009 College Hopes & Worries Survey (which solicited information from college applicants and their parents), “66 percent of respondents said they would value having information about a college’s commitment to the environment. Moreover, of that cohort, 24 percent said such information would ‘very much’ impact their decision to apply to or attend the school.”

But where do you find this information?

Peaches Christ’s All About Evil

Peaches Christ is drag royalty in San Francisco. Joshua Grannell, the mastermind behind Peaches, hosted the long running Midnight Mass movie series at Bridge Theatre and performed all over in painted face, often times splattered with blood. May 1st has the macabre-loving Grannell debuting his new film ALL ABOUT EVIL, a camp horror film starring [...]

TED: How to make a splash in social media

Watch this 5 minute TED talk by Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, a link aggregate social website from which a-many memes and items have virally emerged. Ohanian’s 5 minute speech titled “How to make a splash in social media” provides an interesting blueprint on how people can leverage the power of social media and online [...]

Works & Process: Icarus at the Edge of Time

Einstein had the math that explained the movement of black holes, but even the inimitable physicist couldn’t tell you what it all meant or answer questions like how black holes are so powerful they even pull in light. So what is a black hole, and what’s on the other side of it? That’s the subject of the new play, “Icarus on the Edge of Time” opening at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on June 2nd to mark the opening of the third annual World Science Festival.

Mark Pernice’s photo distortion mask

Inspired by Apple’s popular Photobooth program and its popular photo filters, Brooklyn designer and artist Mark Pernice took this distorted self-portrait using the same software. He then created this mask of it. What’s fun on a computer screen is absolutely creepy and uncomfortable in real life (“IRL”).

First ob/gyn to sell sex toys to patients

The two of us were just discussing the other day how some ob/gyns totally get that reproduction has something to do with sex and some just don’t. Ask one about Kegels, and she’ll happily stick in a gloved hand to see if you should be doing more of them; ask another, and she’ll look at you as if you’ve just asked about the mating habits of emperor penguins. Which is why it’s kinda cool to hear about Dr. Andrew Scheinfeld, the first American ob/gyn to sell sex toys out of his practice. (He’s based in Manhattan, not Peoria, natch.) The bad news: they’re not covered by insurance…at least not yet.