sundance

Lauper loves Lady

Cyndi Lauper’s all over the place these days. She’s hilarious and batty on The Celebrity Apprentice. And she’s finishing up her new album of Memphis blues songs. And she’s penning essays for Time.Yes, Time. In this smart essay, the onetime freak-flag waving newcomer, passes her crown over to Lady Gaga. As one of Time’s 100 [...]

The Shape of Things

Not many plays deal with art as directly as Neil LaBute’s “The Shape of Things.” Not only does it ask the interminable What is art? but also how far can an artist go before we draw the line? This is the chief question at hand in LaBute’s 2001 play, currently being staged by the up-and-coming Variations Theatre Group. Their rendition draws the line between art and exploitation, but it’s closer to the psychotic than even the original dared to go.

Marc Quinn does Buck Angel

Marc Quinn’s new show is opening in London this weekend. I had previously written about Quinn’s life-sized bronze sculpture of everyone’s favorite male transexual porn star with pecs and a vagina, Buck Angel. But Quinn is also taking on Alannah Starr, who has gone in the opposite direction as Buck. Buck’s vagina is on display [...]

“Have I met the expectations you had for me when I was born?”

Q&A from StoryCorps on Vimeo. Although this is an older item, it’s re-circulating around the blogosphere today with Mother’s Day coming up this weekend. In 2006 as part of StoryCorps (an “oral history project collecting stories around the nation, as friends and family members interview each other in a mobile recording booth”) 12-year-old Joshua Littman, [...]

Picasso and Braque Go To The Movies

Martin Scorcese’s cameos are among the film’s highlights.

Art House Films does a lot of things right. They have a knack for hunting down interesting stories and finding experts to talk about it. Documentaries about the home-grown art collectors HERB & DOROTHY or VISUAL ACOUSTICS, about the seminal architectural photographer Julius Shulman come to mind. PICASSO AND BRAQUE GO TO THE MOVIES is no exception, and they’ve gathered some of today’s most famous artists and art historians to convince us of the point they’re trying to make – the link between the rise of early cinema and the rise of Cubism. A bevy of artists were called to the task, Chuck Close, Julian Schnabel, Robert Whitman, Coosje Van Bruggen, writer Adam Gopnik as well as film historians and experts on early cinema including Martin Scorcese, who co-produced the film along with Robert Greenhut (to list his credits would be to list almost every Woody Allen film.) Don’t let this fool you into thinking the documentary has a high production value. Expect a few transitions a la Power Point.

Werner Herzog reads childhood books and analyzes Waldo

Ryan Iverson has been casting a shadow over the Internet’s collective warm memories of books from our childhood with his droll parodies of Werner Herzog reading “Curious George” and “Madeline.” Most recently, he explicates “Waldo” or rather “Voldo,” as Herzog ponders the dilemma of “a man unstuck from place and time…his only lifeline to his [...]

The 50th anniversary of The Pill

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Pill, and there’s been some interesting coverage of it by the media. Margaret Marsh, one of the first researchers granted access to the personal letters of the Pill’s co-developer, John Rock, discusses his Catholicism, among other Pill tidbits.

FULL FRONTAL FASHION highlights

Sarah Jessica Parker in Halston vintage at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute benefit. Think of this as your FULL FRONTAL FASHION cliff notes. Get an exclusive look at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute benefit with FULL FRONTAL FASHION’S Patrick McMullan, Cator Sparks and Lynn Yaeger. Then find out who was wearing whom at this “Oscars [...]

Harvey Milk Men

I have no problem self-promoting. Most good bloggers are masters at it. Why else would you blog? So it is with no shame I ask you, SUNfiltered readers, for money. Well, sorta.

The New York City AIDS Walk is next week and I just have to tell you how happy I am to be walking with the Harvey Milk Men. The group was put together by Stephen Rivoli who was inspired by Harvey Milk’s call for gays and lesbians to stand up, take ownership of, and make an impact in, their community. This year, the 25th anniversary of AIDS Walk New York, we currently have 92 members and have raised over $62,000. Not too shabby.

Unexpected inventions from unexpected people

Neatorama has a fascinating round up titled “unexpected inventions from unexpected people,” like did you know Henry David Thoreau invented raisin bread and that you can thank Margaret Thatcher for soft serve ice cream? Henry David Thoreau, of all people, invented raisin bread when he tossed a handful into the dough he was baking while [...]

Green tech finds (5/6/10)

Seed-laden packing boxes, energy capture from sewage, and the power of pokeberries (pictured above)… your green tech finds for the week.

• Electricity to gas: German researchers are experimenting with converting excess power from renewable energy sources into methane. This creates a means for storing this energy in a manner that could be used with existing natural gas infrastructure.
  
  
• Pokeberries to power: New solar cell technology under development by Wake Forest University’s Center for Nanotechnology and FiberCell, Inc. makes use of dye from pokeberries to increase the cells’ ability to absorb sunlight. (via Calfinder and Smartplanet)

The Empire Diner to close

I wouldn’t normally write obituaries around here for diners, but the news that NYC’s iconic Empire Diner is shuttering its doors on May 15th has my panties in a bunch. I mean, really? Yet another institution destroyed in NYC’s grand scheme to put bank branch in every single retail storefront in every single city neighborhood [...]

Top 10 songs about bad sex

There are plenty of bad songs about sex — and we’re guessing that they’re in heavy rotation when any cast member of Jersey Shore hooks up. But there are some truly excellent songs about bad sex. Here are a few lyric excerpts from some of our favorites (with thanks to our readers on Facebook and Twitter for help compiling this; although to the reader who nominated “Prostatic Fluid Asphyxiation” by Whitechapel — er, thanks, but no thanks). Let’s see if we can get up to 25, or even 100 — put your other suggestions in the comments section below!

1. “Do You Remember the First Time” by Pulp

You say you’ve got to go home
‘Cause he’s sitting on his own again this evening
And I know you’re gonna let him bore your pants off again
Oh now it’s half past eight, you’ll be late

You say you’ve never been sure
Though it makes good sense for you to live together
Still you bought a toy that can reach the places he never goes
And now it’s getting late, he’s so straight

Andy Goldsworthy in NY

At Andy Goldsworthy’s first solo exhibition in New York in 1993, he showed what has since become his trademark work: sculptures and installations made on site in natural environments with location-specific materials. Since then he has become the leader, if not the only artist working in this way. His latest show, however, is a bit of a departure. “New York Dirt Water Light” is also about the way people interact with an environment, only this time Goldsworthy has chosen New York City, not the rainforest.

Leslie Buck, designer of iconic cup dies

Leslie Buck, Holocaust survivor and the designer behind the iconic blue coffee cups, which is familiar to all New Yorkers and “Law and Order” fans, passed away recently at the age of 87. I’m sad that I learned of him only after his death. According to his New York Times obituary, after surviving Auschwitz and [...]

The changing face of procedural television, or why is The Good Wife so good?

“The Good Wife” is very, very alluring. Even though I have excellent intentions to spend hours in front of the television – you know, “Glee,” “Hoarders,” “Lost,” “The Lazy Environmentalist,” “Dead Wood” on DVD — somehow I … sigh … just can’t get to it, so the only thing I watch, ever, is “The Good Wife.” Flipping to it doesn’t feel so different than settling in for some good comfy “Law and Order.” But guess what? It’s so much more satisfying! Why, you ask? There have been plenty of lawyer shows on network television, plenty of political thrillers, plenty of who-done-it, how-do-it, do-it, and un-do-it. Why is this one so different?

Solar-powered Mormons

No doubt, you’ve heard stories about the evangelical “creation care” movement, and perhaps even efforts by Jewish and Islamic groups to incorporate environmental practices and teachings into the practice of their faiths. But the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka the Mormons)? Well, they do ride bicycles when knocking on doors…

Turns out the Mormons have been thinking green in terms of their meetinghouses and buildings for quite some time… and a new pilot project involves putting solar panels on churches.

“Stand By Me” covers: Bruce and Bono’s duet and more

From the music time capsule, check out this old YouTube video of Bruce Springsteen joining Bono, who is sans sunglasses and wearing a cast, for a duet of “Stand By Me” at a U2 concert in Philly on September 25, 1987 during The Joshua Tree Tour. As one of the most played songs ever, its [...]

Beyonce channels Bettie Page, Pam Grier, and Lady Gaga

“Why Don’t You Love Me” – Beyoncé from Beyoncé on Vimeo. Beyoncé Knowles’ is one tricky lady. Just when you think she’s achieved superstar status and is headed in the direction on bland mass market appeal she does something crazy. Like star in the god damned freak show “Telephone” video with the one and only [...]

Naked News: Sex ed in Pa, gay marriage in Ca and sex in Brazil

• A bill that would require Pennsylvania’s public schools to provide sex education to students is on its way to the state House of Representatives.
  
  
• The federal trial to determine if California’s same-sex marriage ban violates the U.S. Constitution may wrap up in June after a months-long hiatus.
  
  

THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST: Lazy Makeup Artist and Lazy Exterminator

Josh Dorfman during the filming of “The Lazy Makeup Artist.”

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

Often we forget that as human beings we are still mammals. We too are part of the environment. The environment is not just something that exists “out there” where the trees grow, the snow falls or the rivers run. We are nature as much as a tree or flower is nature. So naturally, how we treat ourselves has implications for the health of the planet.

I realize this is can be a major leap in logic for a lot of people. We’re not used to thinking of ourselves in this way. But just as we are concerned about the rising mercury levels in fish populations around the world, so too would be wise to be very concerned about the rising mercury levels – and levels of other toxins – in our own bodies. It’s both an environmental challenge and clearly a health challenge.

On this week’s show I take on an exterminator and a make-up artist. The issue with the former is spreading poisons around our house. The issue with that latter is spreading poisons all over our face. So while these are very much environmental challenges, the best way from my experience that I’ve found to get people to gravitate toward green choices in these areas is to play up the health implications.

The Beauty of the Rockefeller Drug Laws and Planning My Redneck Roadtrip

Can’t wait to end up in Pigeon Forge — home to Dollywood! Oho — big news on Sullivan this week… the Goonies were busted BIG TIME! Tuesday night the cops swarmed in, blocked off Sullivan and Prince and went to town on the Goonies. The dealers were all up against the wall (very Law & [...]

The Horrible Truth About Celebrity Tweeting

As someone who follows celebrities for a living, I’ve found that they’re fascinating creatures who radiate excitement and sex appeal in everything they do—except tweeting!

I know this because the second I joined Twitter a few months ago, I started “following” any celebrity I could track down there, anxious to eavesdrop on whatever stellar utterances were available to me thanks to this trendy form of techno-networking. But just as quickly, I was bored into submission by the fact that in this context, bold-face luminaries are every bit as trivial and fatuous as you and me!

Neat iPhone music video

Israeli band Izabo incorporates multiple iPhones in their fun music video for their single “On My Way.” It can also be viewed like the next iPhone ad campaign concept. This is also the perfect segue to share an impressive video of a one-girl band using four iPhones to recreate Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.” This YouTube [...]

An Americorps for healthy school lunches

You may be old enough to remember when pizza day was kind of a big deal in the school cafeteria. Now, it seems to be the norm. While kids definitely need more active time outside, many worry that school lunches may be the main culprit in the current childhood obesity epidemic.