sundance

Earth Week insight: Robert Redford interview in On Earth

While the list of Hollywood environmentalists continues to grow, few have been involved in the movement longer or more consistently than Sundance founder Robert Redford. As such, NRDC’s On Earth chose to publish an interview with Redford late last week in which he reflects on the first Earth Day forty years ago, his own environmental awakenings, and how the movement to protect and conserve our natural resources has developed, changed, and even taken some detours since 1970.

Josh Dorfman speaks about Season 2 of THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST

Josh Dorfman gives advice to professional martial arts athlete Jason Moontasri in Season 2 of THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST

Season 2 of THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST premieres Tuesday, April 20 at 8PM E/P.

Over the next couple of months, I plan to share some thoughts here based on the upcoming season of “The Lazy Environmentalist.” In many ways, Season 2 has enabled me to bring to fruition the goals I’d set seven years ago when I founded Vivavi, a modern design, green products retail company, to rebrand environmentalism as appealing and attractive. To do so you’ve got to have outstanding green solutions. You’ve also got to be able to frame those choices in ways that get environmental skeptics — and the otherwise apathetic or indifferent — excited about them.

To achieve the former you’ve got to know where to look and you’ve got to count on green entrepreneurs to constantly improve their products and services to the point where they pass my green litmus test: would people want them even if the products and services weren’t green. To achieve the latter, I’ve had to do a lot of reflection about what really makes people tick and what gets them excited — or at least somewhat enthusiastic — about embracing new choices. In other words, I’ve had to a lot of thinking about how to present green choices so that people perceive them to be in their own self-interest. It’s not my environmental values that I’m trying to impose on others. Instead, it’s getting them to see that their own self-interest is best served by the best green options available today.

The Rise of Wall Street

Vertical Wall Street: every building from Broadway to Pearl over the course of 5 eras.

Guess how Wall Street got its name? Yeah, that’s right. Before it was a street it was a wall, built to mark the edge of town in colonial times. Over time original row-houses were replaced by banks and then by financial buildings that only got higher and higher. In fact, many of the buildings on Wall Street today are vertical expansions of sites first erected as many as 150 years ago. In an optimistic turn of phrase, The Skyscraper Museum (don’t worry, I’d never heard of it either) will open “The Rise of Wall Street,” an exhibition with a focus on the good ol’ days of American business, namely the 1850s, when architects set their sites as high as their clients’ financial speculations.

Brooklyn Museum’s giant Andy Warhol piñata

The centerpiece for the Brooklyn Museum’s annual ball on April 22 is a ginormous 20-foot tall piñata of pop art pioneer Andy Warhol’s face, which is currently on display in the museum’s Rubin Pavilion. This fantastic concept was created by Jennifer Rubell whose “interactive food journey” installation will be featured during the event. Guests will [...]

Earth Week action: plant a tree

Yep, it’s time of year again… Earth Day is just a few days away. What actions do you have planned to decrease your environmental footprint? The Conservation Fund has an idea: plant a tree. Its Go Zero campaign is working “to acquire land on behalf of national and state parks or wildlife refuges and to [...]

Isabella Rossellini’s new video series, SEDUCE ME (spawn of GREEN PORNO), is ready for your viewing pleasure

Isabella Rossellini gets down and ducky with animal mating rituals in the all-new SEDUCE ME.

We’re thrilled to announce that SEDUCE ME, a new five-part original series directed, written by and starring Isabella Rossellini has launched! For those of you who loved the web sensation GREEN PORNO, Isabella is back with a new set of films that explore the unconventional seduction rituals of creatures ranging from bedbugs to cuttle fish. In describing her new series, Isabella Rossellini says, “After my comical series, GREEN PORNO, on how animals mate, I wanted to showcase a new series about how animals seduce each other with different, varied and incredible strategies…they might give us some new ideas about how to conquer our mates!”

Check out the teaser video, after the jump.

Tampa’s skyline gets modern

The museum at night, lit by a wall of color-changing LEDs. When the Tampa Museum of Art realized its growing collection of classic and contemporary art was outgrowing the museum itself they called in architect Rafael Vinoly, but his $76 million proposal was passed over in favor of the $26 million plan designed by the [...]

Meet Mark Twain in this only known video recording

From the video vault of history, here is the only known video recording of great American author Mark Twain aka Samuel Clemens hanging out with his daughters Clara and Jean. It was taken in 1909 at Twain’s estate in Stormfield, Connecticut with another famous American Thomas Edison directing behind the lens. Admittedly nothing too tremendously [...]

A Catholic Church sex scandal round-up

During the Pope’s visit to Malta this past weekend, he visited with abuse victims, paying a lot of lip service to “healing” and “investigations.” Yeah right! He also commended Malta for keeping divorce and abortion illegal. What century is this!? So here’s a roundup of some recent abuse scandal pieces to keep you riled up:

• Last week we mentioned Dr. Lothstein, a psychologist who’s treated more than 300 priests who was interviewed for a New York Times article; more recently he was interviewed by NPR, with more revelations about pedophile priests being reinstated.
  
  
• This 2003 This American Life story, recently re-aired, profiles a priest who was a “fixer”, sent in by the Catholic Church to places rocked by sex scandals, in order to restore order via deception — he eventually flipped and worked for lawyers prosecuting abuse cases! (It’s Act 1, so you won’t have to weed through the entire episode.)

Finally, a realistic use for recycled plastic

If people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, can people who live in plastic houses throw whatever they want? Actually, yes, if the house is made of polli-bricks, which hold seven world records in green construction. The polli-brick is a self-interlocking brick that can be used for a variety of purposes, from lighting design to the walls of actual, livable buildings. Its honeycomb-like structure provides thermal and sound retention and it’s made from plastic recycled with a minimal carbon footprint through a “mature PET bottle recycling and manufacturing process.” It’s being hailed as “the world’s lightest, movable, breathable environmental miracle,” and it looks good too. Still skeptical? Check out the Fashion Pavilion at the Taipei International Expo later this year (or just look at these pictures).

New Yorker covers via iPhone art

Artist Jorge Colombo now has four New Yorker covers under his belt, which may or may not be his preferred method of carrying his iPhone, which also happens to be the tool that he uses to create and paint the art for these covers. As the iPhone and the apps have built quite a active [...]

Tea Party crashers!

If Jason Levin’s plan is successful, the Tea Party just got a bit wilder with some uninvited party crashers at their rallies and protests. Levin, an Oregon technology consultant, is spearheading the “Crash the Tea Party” movement which is encouraging people to join the tea party’s public gatherings where they’ll be indistinguishable except for one [...]

First time Mickey Mouse speaks

Although Mickey Mouse had appeared in eight previous animated shorts, THE KARNIVAL KID, which was first released on July 31, 1929, is the first time the audience got to hear his voice. Mickey plays a smitten hot dog vendor at a carnival where he woos Minnnie, a plot that would be prove itself to be [...]

FULL FRONTAL FASHION highlights

(L–R) Donatella Versace, Diane von Furstenberg, Alexander Wang Think of this as your FULL FRONTAL FASHION cliff notes. Sundance Channel’s series THE DAY BEFORE is back! It will premiere on Wednesday, September 8 at 10pm! Don’t miss this year’s star-studded line up. As far as hairdos go, this is a hair-must-do… Join Lynn Yaeger for a [...]

Johnny Weir on the blue carpet

This week I had the chance to interview Johnny Weir for a second time. That interview will be be featured on Full Frontal Fashion in the near future. During our chat, Johnny talked about his experience working the blue carpet and he melted when he met Adrian Brody. In anticipation of the interview, watch the [...]

It’s National STD Awareness Month

This is just a friendly neighborhood reminder that April is National STD Awareness Month. Yes, if you’re having sex, you’ve still got to worry about those pesky little infections. As many as one in two sexually active young people will contract an STD by age 25. Young women, in particular, disproportionately bear the burden of [...]

Every Painting in the MoMA on 10 April 2010

One of my favorite art bloggers Hyde or Die shared this ambitious YouTube video titled “Every Painting in the MoMA on 10 April 2010,” which incidentally was the same day I too dropped by my favorite museum in New York City, primarily to view their new Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit (one word review: captivating!). Set to [...]

PAN’S LABYRINTH – On Sundance Channel April 18

PAN’S LABYRINTH, Guillermo del Toro’s award-winning, critically acclaimed 2006 film has been praised across the board ever since its debut. Besides “brilliant” and “imaginative,” it’s been called a “fairytale for grownups,” a qualification del Toro gladly accepts, though he is quick to point out the differences between his fairytale and the other, more common kind. “There are two kinds of fairytales,” he says. “The morality tales, which are like little pamphlets for children on good behavior, and then there are those that are a little more anarchic and intangible.”

Green tech finds (4/15/10)

Your pre-Earth Week green tech finds…

• Wind farms and weather: Wind power’s one tool in our arsenal against climate change, but large-scale wind installations can end up creating their own “micro-climates” with unique weather effects. (via Greenopolis)
  
  
• Greener summer road construction: Doesn’t mean you’ll get around it any faster, but the Missouri Department of Transportation is using warm-mix asphalt for road work (which requires less heat, and thus creates lower carbon emissions) while looking into materials consisting almost entirely of recycled glass.

Keith Haring and Obey

Modern Art fans may want to walk this year’s AIDS Walk in NYC. Shepard Fairey, famous for his iconic Obama poster and Andre the Giant/Obey street art/clothing label is donating a free shirt to anyone who walks with the Keith Haring Foundation’s team. The shirt features an image of Haring, a victim of AIDS, taken [...]

BREAKING UPWARDS

BREAKING UPWARDS may not be a perfect movie, but it’s a good start for Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones who wrote, directed and starred in the low-budget rom-com based on their own relationship. To keep the film to its $15,000 budget Daryl also edited and the cast worked virtually for free (or in some cases for the SAG $100/day minimum) and supplied their own wardrobe, hair and makeup.

Books: The Husbands and Wives Club

Before we started reading The Husbands and Wives Club: A Year in the Life of a Couples Therapy Group by Laurie Abraham (based on this NYT mag cover story), we had a number of preconceived notions. (1) Okay, so other people’s therapy might be interesting when Gabriel Byrne plays the therapist on HBO, but real-life couples and real-therapy therapy? It’s a miserable thing to say about other people’s marital troubles, but they can be so boring. (2) Group couples therapy? Isn’t that a little ’70s? (3) Wouldn’t you want to throw yourself off a bridge after a year of being embedded in five couples’ marital misery? Would you ever be able to have happy thoughts about the institution of marriage again?

Kiersten Essenpreis Twitter drawings and more

Similar to Draw My Tweet that Brad wrote about here, Twaggies is site where a group of artists post visual interpretations of people’s tweets. I particularly enjoy the artistic efforts of talented and fellow Brooklynite Kiersten Essenpreis‘ drawings as seen above. She’s gained attention from bloggers in the past for her whimsical and humorous illustrations. [...]

YOUSSOU N’DOUR – Everyone is bringing love

Chai Vasarhelyi’s documentary YOUSSOU N’DOUR: I BRING WHAT I LOVE was released on DVD recently, and the film opens widely today in France. I had a chance to sit down and screen this hit doc on the Senegalese mega-star, although admittedly I was longing for a big theatre with big speakers, in order to revel in the singular sound of Youssou’s voice.

Of course I’m a dumb American and all I can do since I saw the film is sing Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” over and over and over in my head, thinking of Youssou’s great back up riff. (If you’re over 30, it’ll come to you – you know, right after one of the many “the light and heat’s” – Youssou comes in strong – and I’m transported instantly to my small liberal arts college self, blasting it out my dorm room window.) Vasarhelyi’s film is rich, rich, rich – and as is usually the case, also has problems. But who doesn’t these days, really?

On New Orleans and Keeping my Drunk Monkey in Check

Photo by Patrick Semansky/Getty Images What is it about New Orleans that just makes you wanna act like a 25 year old crazed monkey? So I go down to NOLA with my pal G and his wife M last week, because, well, why not? And I haven’t been there since that one time in college [...]