sundance

Solar rights now the law in Louisiana

The current oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico has further cemented Louisiana’s image as an “oil state” in the public mind… and as someone who grew up there, I can attest this isn’t a myth. Yet while arguments continue over the role offshore oil drilling should play in the state’s economy, Louisiana has also moved quietly, but decisively, into the solar age. The state features generous tax incentives for home solar installation, and, in 2009, became one of the first to establish a statewide property-assessed clean energy financing (PACE) program.

THE LOCKSMITH

At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the Barnes brothers’ (Brad and Todd) film HOMEWRECKER (now titled THE LOCKSMITH) took home the top prize in the festival’s inaugural micro-budget showcase, NEXT. Not too shabby. I had the opportunity to see the film and it’s super fun. Plot plot plot rules here – but so does performance, and Anslem Richardson (Mike) and Ana Reeder (Margo) are great as the unlikely team sleuthing down infidelity in Margo’s unstable, crazy Manhattan loft life.

THE KILLER INSIDE ME

After Casey Affleck’s thoughtful portrayal of quiet killer Robert Ford in 2007′s THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES, I expected something of equally silent-yet-deadly proportions in director Michael Winterbottom’s THE KILLER INSIDE ME. Certainly Affleck, who plays West Texas sheriff’s deputy Lou Ford, is both silent and deadly, but the film fails to capture the same subtle psychological changes that make JESSE JAMES such a silent powerhouse.

Naked News: Sodomy in Texas, blessed sex toys, and the ultimate aphrodisiac

• The Texas Republican party endorsed a platform that would make sodomy illegal again. Yep, you read that right: anal and oral would be banned.
  
  
• Hormonally speaking, using Twitter and falling in love feel the same.
  
  

Just Kids

I have a few new obsessions and they’re not your typical gay ones either. I have a new diva I am worshipping these days and she shies away from false lashes and sequined gowns. In fact she’s the anti-diva: grit replacing glimmer, harsh where others are soft. I bought Patti Smith‘s Just Kids on a [...]

Eight Sequels We Never Want To See

It’s been the most sequely, prequely, shmequely summer since the last one, proving that the studios really need to start drawing the line before any more grating spinoffs spin into our psyches and wallets.

Here are the sequels that should be forbidden by law from ever getting the green light into harsh reality.

1) Precious 2 (based on the novel by blah blah blah).Our girl Precious is full of newfound confidence, having become extremely literate, well rounded, and popular. Even her meds are kicking in big time. Zzzz.

2) Shrek 5. Remember Shrek 4, where the title ogre got his wish to basically go back to Shrek 1 so he could—without any contrivance at all—meet all the other characters all over again? Well, this time, he’ll want to go back to Shrek 2!

Ke$ha x Star Trek

The Internet’s current favorite pop culture viral mash-up blends the old with the new: the infectious pop of Ke$ha’s Tik Tok is set to scenes from the classic Star Trek television series. As the creator MissSheenie aptly says, “Working on the Enterprise is pretty much a non-stop party as far as I’m concerned.” In related [...]

Album covers and architecture

Inspired by a TED talk by Talking Heads singer and RISD alumnus David Byrne on the role and relationship between architecture and music, Architizer has an interesting short read on album covers that highlight this connection. It includes one of my favorite albums, Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot cover art which features Bertrand Goldberg’s “corn cob” [...]

CYRUS – Now in theaters

Molly (Marisa Tomei) meets John (John C. Reilly) when she stumbles upon him peeing in the backyard at a party. She’s more amused than shocked, adding that she herself was about to squat in the bushes for a pee, and so their charmingly awkward, middle-aged romance begins. Neither Molly nor John have been in a relationship since their respective divorces; John’s was 7 years ago with ex-wife Jamie (Catherine Keener) and Molly hasn’t seen anyone since her first husband split when she gave birth to their son, Cyrus, who’s now 21 and living at home.

New study says fetuses don’t feel pain before 24 weeks

A report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which was commissioned by the UK’s Department of Health, has found that fetuses don’t feel pain before 24 weeks (and probably not after for some time) for two reasons: 1) the brain is not formed enough to perceive pain, and 2) the fetus is unconscious.

How to raise backyard chickens

It’s been almost two years since Newsweek took note of the “the craze for urban poultry farming,” and the trend doesn’t seem to be abating… more localities are amending livestock laws to allow for raising backyard chickens, and more people are discovering that eggs from chickens living only feet away are far superior to just about anything that comes out of the grocery store.

Thinking about bringing some chicks home to raise? A ton of educational resources have sprung up as this practice becomes more mainstream.

Interactive 17th century painting

John Baldessari’s “In Still Life” project is freaking cool. It’s an interactive online experience that allows you to rearrange 38 different objects in Abraham van Beyeren’s “Banquet Still Life,” a 17th-century Dutch painting. “When someone completes their own still life using In Still Life 2001-2010 it becomes their own artwork,” says artist John Baldessari. “It’s [...]

Steve Martin’s (funny) rider

Leaked on his website, you can now read the fine details of the 3 page rider in Steve Martin’s crazy and wacky contract. Performers will often submit requirements to organizers and promoters that list their needs: most famously Van Halen’s rider for their 1982 world tour was 53 pages long and prohibited brown M&Ms (“WARNING: [...]

A&F Porno

The Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly is returning to the shelves of the struggling fashion label’s shops. Gay men around the world are rejoicing.

Our favorite dandy, Sebastian Horsley, died

After both of us were on vacation for a week, pretty much avoiding all news and headlines, we were shocked and saddened to receive an invitation to a funeral this morning for an acquaintance we didn’t even realize had died: UK artist, writer, self-proclaimed dandy and all-around nut, Sebastian Horsley. For a second we thought this might just be another one of his twisted art projects (like being crucified in the Phillipines), especially since the funeral invitation came with the following footnote:

The funeral will be filmed, by attending you give permission for your image to be used for possibly future commercial purposes (i.e. documentary and/or the film planned about Sebastian’s life).

That’s so very Sebastian, the eternally shameless self-promoter. But alas, it appears there are too many news reports for it not to be true.

School fundraising goes green

Though the kids are probably home for the summer at this point, the PTA, band boosters, or other school organization may already be discussing fundraising plans for the coming year. More efforts to get the kids knocking on doors to sell wrapping paper and nasty pizza kits, right?

Fortunately, a number of eco-entrepreneurs have gotten into the fundraising game, and created opportunities for either selling greener products, or leveraging activities like recycling to raise money for school activities and organizations. A few of the companies involved in this niche after the jump.

Polaroid: Instant Joy

With the convenience of digital media it’s only the rare purist or enthusiast who would bother with something as archaic as actual film or the time-consuming process of developing it, but there is one relic that has maintained its popularity since its commercial boom in the 60s: the Polaroid. This has everything to do with the fact that a Polaroid fulfills our need for both nostalgia and instant gratification in an experience that engages the consumer with the product in a way that a regular 35mm camera just doesn’t. From pulling the print from the negative sheet, shaking it and eagerly awaiting the results, the Polaroid became an interactive user experience.

Street advice

Designer and artist Candy Chang took to the streets of New York City with psych 101 questions stenciled on the pavement. She explains: Pedestrians in the city often find themselves walking in deep thought. A routine trip can prompt reflections on everything from future goals to last night’s dinner conversation. As people sacrifice personal time [...]

Johnny Weir looks back at the Olympics: Fortius Altius Maximus

Me with my coaches Galina Zmievskaya and Viktor Petrenko. Photo by Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images.

In the season finale of BE GOOD JOHNNY WEIR, my fans and fans of my show will travel with me to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada. There is a lot of detail shown in the finale, but I thought I’d dish a little dirt about the Olympics, and this has nothing to do with the fact that condoms were officially supplied in the Olympic Village.

Read Johnny’s personal and moving account of the joy and heartbreak he experienced in Vancouver.

Casa Susanna

As I wrote in my previous post today, it is Pride ladies and gentlemen! Gay Pride in NYC means, if you’re lucky enough, getting invited to the Mayor’s house, Gracie Mansion, for a big gay BBQ. Now mind you, Bloomberg does NOT live there. Why would he? He’s so rich he can live somewhere nicer [...]

Bruce Munro’s CD-scape

Artist Bruce Munro created this glimmering cityscape “cd-scape” (HA. HA.) with over 600,000 CDs submitted by the general public to his request for any unwanted discs. Titled “CDSea,” 140 of the artist’s friends and colleagues helped build this installation, a first in a series that will focus on using recycled materials. The catalyst for ‘CDSea’ [...]

Summer fun in the hot city

GaGa shows off to the press. That’s my girl! Photo by Nick Laham / Getty Images.

With it being summer, I thought I’d put together a little cheat sheet about what’s hot in my imagination for this summer, my summer in the city.

LADY GAGA
Let’s face it, the last two years have been years of Gaga, but there is something so personal about her music and her style that inspires me every day. From the mini short clad dancers in her new “Alejandro” music video, to her whimsical display of her middle finger at major sporting events, there’s nothing not to love. Lady Gaga’s adoration for her fans is something that everyone who is blessed enough to have fans should learn from. There isn’t a morning, day or night in these hot months that I am not rocking my “Poker Face.”

FASHION
Summer fashion isn’t always something that I go for, I have disproportionate leg muscles which can make shorts and issue, and my skin is paler than Casper’s, but I love letting some skin show and making my skinny rib statements on every hot, sticky, miserable day. Chanel has some amazing tanks from their summer collection, Garreth Pugh put out an insane pair of leather leggings for those frisky nights out grinding to the “thumpa thumpa” and J Brand has introduced “Jegging” shorts, which are basically denim inspired biker shorts that make my booty look glorious. I may prefer bundling up in fur for winter, but this summer there are a lot of hot things to try.

Pride in 2010

This weekend is Gay Pride in NYC and I am getting the hell out of dodge. Just kidding! I will be back in town for Sunday’s parade and Pier Dance to get my gay on. The boys over at the blog this is fyf asked some bloggers, artists, and queers a simple question: “In 2010, [...]

OHWOW, more like OH NO

Using a 1988 Swatch watch as inspiration for a West Village bookstore seems more than a little random, but that’s where Rafael de Cardenas looked to when he was designing the interior of OHWOW Book Club, a 150 sq. ft. space that “specializes in downtown art offerings.” OHWOW may sell some fancy artist/designer goods, but [...]

Blue Notes jazz album covers come alive

Hi-Fi from bante on Vimeo. Iconic Blue Notes jazz album covers come alive in Hi-Fi, a creative music video promoting the concert season at Bellavista Social Pub in Siena, Italy. Another treat for jazz fans and aficionados can be found at a Japanese website, Vintage Vanguard where one can peruse all the covers for every [...]