sundance

Green tech finds (4/8/10)

Ink-saving fonts, energy-producing homes, and pedal-powered prison television… here are your green tech finds.

• No package? No pick up…: Sounds like a lead-up to dating advice, but it’s actually the concept behind UPS’ new Smart Pickup service for small and medium-sized businesses. Customers use a tracking service so that drivers only stop to pick up packages when there are some… (via SmartPlanet)
  
  
• The font’s the thing…: Want to save printer ink? Change your font.

Picasso the printmaker

Picasso’s “Portrait of a Young Lady (After Cranach the Younger)”

Even Picasso’s admirers have to admit that their beloved painter would be nothing without the masters. I don’t mean only as sources of inspiration but as actual source material. Owing his legacy to his famous interpretations of even more famous original paintings like Manet’s “Luncheon on the Grass” and Velazquez’s “Las Meninas,” Picasso is one of the great cover artists of the 20th century. But what he lacked in original composition he more than made up for with a long and prolific career that included nearly every medium available to him. The medium that the new MoMA exhibit is concerned with, however, is printmaking. “Picasso: Themes and Variations” (a real snoozer of a title, unfortunately) showcases 100 of his etchings, lithographs and linocuts, many of which are based on the work of other artists like Rembrandt and Lucas Cranach the Younger (and the Elder too).

Solar Beat: Solar system music box

Solar Beat is a clever and fun visualization built by Luke Twyman and it is “a simple ambient musicbox, with sounds generated using the orbital frequencies of our solar system.” Enjoy! [Via]

Adam extra long condom ads

At first we were tickled by these quirky ads for India’s Adam Extra Long Condoms by the world’s third largest ad agency Publicis. The illustrations are cool, and they obviously have a sense of humor. But take a look at the details, and things get creepy. Why do all the women look either surprised, or in pain, or, in the case of the pool lady, in the process of saying “Stop!” (note the Heisman hand). In the restaurant one, you’ve got a mouse pretty much date-raping a passed-out cat. In the tree one, an unsuspecting goat is about to get violated by a hopeful dog. And back at the pool, there’s a poor frog checking out his micro-ween. Add to that the extra insecurity this will only heap upon average (and below) guys, and the ads leave you feeling like they’re all part of a bad dream. Silly, yes, and a little bit sinister. (You can check out the larger images at I Believe in Adv — double click them there.)

CHLOE and the problem of tone

It’s been coming up a lot in filmmaking class — what is the importance of tone, how do I get it, how do I keep it, what happens when it goes awry?

CHLOE, in theatres now, is an erotic thriller from brilliant filmmaker Atom Egoyan. (My husband almost wrote his dissertation on Egoyan – so I’ve seen all of his work – and he’s fabulous.) The screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson (SECRETARY, FUR) is someone I know and respect whole-heartedly. She’s a wonderful writer. So why didn’t I walk out of CHLOE glowing? These are some of my favorite artists. Julianne Moore? C’mon, awesome. Liam Nisson? Check. But I didn’t glow. And I’m mad about it and I want to know more about why I didn’t. Glow, that is.

Taiwanese Susan Boyle

Susan Boyle’s amazing voice took the Internet and TV viewers by storm in 2009 proving once again the adage that you can’t judge a book by its cover. In the same vein, Lin Yu Chun, an unassuming contestant on a Taiwanese version of American Idol called Super Star Avenue might be the unlikely Boyle of [...]

Thirty Days NY

Image courtesy of Ben Jones “Thirty Days NY” is like the most amazing pop-up shop you’ve ever been too. Of course I say this without ever having visited as it doesn’t open until tomorrow, but with a line up that boasts some of the most talented artists working today, how can it be anything less [...]

Lazy green landscaping: meadowing

Want to convert your front lawn into a garden or a native plant habitat? You’re likely looking at a lot of work in terms of killing off or digging up sod (we’re assuming you wouldn’t just douse it with herbicide), preparing the soil, and putting in new plants.

Turns out there’s a method that the Lazy Environmentalist would love: meadowing.

Simon Curtis’ 8-bit Heart

I have been known to rock a Kanye-like Lego heart brooch and wear black plastic framed glasses. So it is no wonder why I am digging Simon Curtis and his look. He’s a pop singer who is giving away his debut album. Yes, you read that right. His album is free. His visual is great, [...]

PAC MAN: THE MOVIE

PACMAN: THE MOVIE TRAILER from Therefore Productions on Vimeo. It seems like every other day there’s a rumor of some comic book character or hit video game franchise being made into a movie. And when the suits aren’t moving fast enough, some impatient fans go one step further and actually create trailers on their own, [...]

The 10 Most Annoying Types of Customers at the Cineplex

1) The ones that climb over you to go to the bathroom. Eight times!! Wear diapers!

2) The ones that loudly narrate the whole film, either because they’re unable to differentiate it from a TV show or because they’re trying to make sense of the plot by talking themselves through it. When it’s something as simple as THE TOOTH FAIRY, this can get a little annoying.

3) Similarly: People who ask obvious questions all through the film, blaring out their ignorance with every query. “Who’s that?…Why is she looking at him like that?….Where’s he going?…” I’m still emotionally scarred from the time decades ago when my brain-dead companion seriously screeched, “So what IS Sophie’s choice, anyway?”

Weird green building technology: recycling scraps into dog food

What do you do with food scraps? OK, some of them probably go into the trash can or garbage disposal, but you may also compost vegetable and fruit peelings and leftovers. If you’re really die-hard, you may even use a bokashi system, which allows you to compost meat and dairy scraps.

Naked News: Abstinence programs, baby gender selection, and sex rehab

• Turns out Utah Senator Orrin Hatch managed to sneak an amendment into the healthcare bill (one of the only Republican amendments to survive the last-minute wrangling) which provides $50 million annually for five years to states that offer abstinence programs in public schools.
  
  
• Baby gender selection in conservative Egypt causes a stir among traditionalists who see it as an affront to ethics and have lashed out at clinics offering the service.
  
  

99% Conference – making ideas happen

“If you’re reading this, it’s because you feel passionately about making ideas happen. It’s because you understand that the creative process isn’t just “Eureka!” moments, it’s a lot of “how do we solve this?” and “oh shit!” and “what next??” moments. It’s because you recognize that the magic of creative achievement really happens down in the trenches, knee-deep in doing.” It’s 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration: that’s the concept behind the 99% Conference.

Mike Figgis’ 3 minute shorts for Tate museum

In partnership with London’s Tate, director Mike Figgis has made a series of 3 minute short films around the museum’s “This is Sculpture” project which is an “ambitious and challenging look at the rich history of modern and contemporary sculpture, presenting major works of art from the Tate Collection across two floors of the Gallery.” [...]

What’s powering your lawn care service?

Many environmentalists would argue (passionately) that “greening” your lawn means tearing it out, and replacing it with native plants or a vegetable garden. They’re generally right: by and large, lawns are water-hoggin’ monocultures that require relatively hefty amounts of energy to sustain.

If you’re not quite ready to dig up the grass, though, and you pay someone to maintain your lawn for you (or your landlord does), you can take a step towards a greener lawn by hiring a company that doesn’t use traditional gas-powered mowers.

Back from Passover with Joan and Melissa Rivers

Melissa, Sue (in a Charlize Theron inspired homemade outfit), Joan Rivers and me at Seder

So I had to make (yet another) trip back to Cali last week. But the good news is: it was totally disgusting in NYC and LA was sunny and fab! So there, take that, jet lag! And Karl was cool with it because he got to go. He only farted like twice on the plane, but at least he didn’t release the goods — you know, till he got outside. But hey — who am I to judge High Altitude Flatulence?

This time I was out there to shoot a pilot… vaguely along the lines of “speaking truth” — see last week’s blog — although not to Foxxy Brown — pretty much everyone else though. But I still can’t get over Foxxy. Heh. So while I was out there I chilled with my lil’ sis Emily and my big sister Sophie for a night — before heading to (YES THAT’S RIGHT!) Joan Rivers’ house for Passover! O hell yes!!!

A pre-Kinsey Victorian sex survey

photo of Clelia Mosher from the Stanford University Archives

The March/April edition of Stanford Magazine has a fascinating article on Dr. Clelia Mosher, a Victorian-Era scientist, researcher and Stanford professor who conducted the first known sex surveys of women, decades before Kinsey (who’s considered the pioneer of sex research). Even though the sample size is small and represents mostly white, middle-class, educated women, it still goes far in revealing that Victorian repression was an ideology that was pushed on women rather than a reflection of actual views or practices of the time. Below are some highlights from the piece, but the whole thing is worth a read if you’ve got the time.

Mary Pickford: Her Second Hundred Years in Film

By this time a century ago Mary Pickford entered the second year of her career with 100 pictures already under her belt. In the 10 years that followed she made over 100 more and co-founded United Artists along with D.W. Griffiths, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. She was granted full authority over any production she [...]

Short film: PLAY

Without giving away too much, David Kaplan and Eric Zimmerman’s splashy PLAY envisions a society in which a gaming singularity is achieved where technology has advanced to permit portable yet fully immersive virtual realities in which the line between “video games” and reality is blurred to the point of nonrecognition. Things quickly spiral into a [...]

Men are from Mars, blah, blah, blah…

Oh, isn’t it fun to talk about how men are from Mars and women are from Venus? It’s like we’re practically two different species! And once almighty “Science” comes down from on high and explains these differences as natural, well then you better suit up because the inter-galactic, inter-species war of the sexes is going to be fought for a loooong time. And so it is with neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine’s new book “The Male Brian: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think,” her follow-up to her 2006 “The Female Brain.” It’s already on it’s way to best seller status (it’s number #150 on Amazon) — for this is the stuff talk shows are made of! Why, men are practically born to cheat!

Single Ladies, a Motown tribute

This fun video that remixes Beyonce’s hit “Single Ladies” and syncs it with past videos of Motown singers is the perfect example of what would happen if a rip in the very fabric of time occurred and the years of 2008-09 merged with the 1960s. This remix in of itself as well as its rapidly [...]

Tupperware and the art of simple design

Clockwise from top left, the Dip ‘N Serve (1950s), Crisp It (1983), Keep Tabs (2009) and the Wonderlier Bowl (1946). Photos from Saveur.com

It’s hard to believe that people still throw them, but every 2.5 seconds someone, somewhere is having a Tupperware party. Tupperware is one of the few (and maybe only) products from the 1940s that is still just as relevant today as it was then. Perhaps some of the color schemes have changed and maybe production of the Dip ‘N Serve Tray has come to a halt, but the initial concept and design haven’t changed much since Earl Tupper founded the company in New Hampshire in 1939.

Interview with Cynthia Wade, director of LIVING THE LEGACY: THE UNTOLD STORY OF MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL

Oscar-winning documentary director Cynthia Wade.

On May 17th, Sundance Channel will screen LIVING LEGACY: THE UNTOLD STORY OF MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL which follows three young students as they separate from their parents and enroll in Milton Hershey School, a residential school in Pennsylvania. The film follows the children during their first school year – a turbulent, dramatic and eye-opening experience for the students and their families. Director Cynthia Wade speaks with Sundance Channel about her experience working on this film.

SUNDANCE CHANNEL: What first drew you to the story of Milton Hershey School?

Wade: I’d recently finished FREEHELD, a 38 minute film (which won the Academy Award for Best Short Documentary in 2008 and 15 other film festival awards). I was directing another short documentary in Cambodia (BORN SWEET, which won Honorable Mention at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival). With those two short films as my latest endeavors, I was eager to move back into long-form documentary and direct another feature-length film.

It’s a completely different experience directing a feature-length film, as it demands so much more material, time, patience, and energy — think “marriage” as opposed to “long term relationship.” I was ready for another “film marriage.” When I was approached by the Milton Hershey School as a director for this project, I jumped at the chance. It was exciting to think about staying with a project on a long-term basis, following characters over an extended period of time.

Pres. Obama’s edits to HCR speech

The political and news blogosphere was recently ablaze over this amazing photo (view larger size here) snapped by White House official photographer Pete Souza and posted on the White House Flickr site. Back when the outlook on the passage of a health care reform bill seemed bleak, President Obama went on the offensive to persuade [...]