sundance

Hot child in the city: 25 again, Japan trip, and constant jet-setting

Maybe just one cupcake. A girl’s gotta watch her figure! Photo by Moises De Pena/WireImage.

Johnny’s back! Be sure to follow us on Twitter (@SUNfiltered) for all the latest Johnny news and updates.

Damn, it’s hot. I can’t get over the heat of the summer; maybe it’s global warming, but, in my twisted little mind, summer is when people’s inner sexiness starts to reappear, and that’s why it gets hot. The shirtless-ness, the bikinis, the sky-high stilettos of the drag queens…it’s amazing.

My summer has been insane. The season finale of BE GOOD JOHNNY WEIR was a huge hit, thank you for watching. The episode left a lot of people guessing about what’s next for me, and I suppose all I can say is wait and see, that’s what I’ll be doing too.

The view from extreme cockpits

Wired has a gallery of photos by Dan Winters of the cockpits and the pilot’s view of various extreme vehicles, from the supersonic SR-71 Blackbird spy plane (top speed: 2,193 mph) to the world’s longest cruise ship to a zero emission hydrogen rocket car that goes 199.7 miles per hour. They are all slightly more [...]

Can green fashion save our oceans?

From the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to the Gulf oil spill, you don’t have to look far for evidence of how heavily we pollute our oceans. The effects of this pollution are both environmental and economic: harming ocean life diminishes our capacity to make use of the many resources on which we rely provided by the planet’s ample blue spaces. Just take a look at some of the numbers from NOAA, National Geographic, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute:

Dating advice for the Giving Tree’s abusive relationship

How did we manage to miss this totally awesome quote from Ryan Gosling? In an interview with New York magazine about his upcoming movie BLUE VALENTINE (opening later this year, it’s a portrait of a marriage, co-starring Michelle Williams), he’s asked about his character’s tattoo of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree on his arm, and replies: “That book is so fucked up; that story’s the worst. I mean, at the end the tree is a stump and the old guy just sitting on him — he’s just used him to death, and you’re supposed to want to be the tree? Fuck you. You be the tree. I don’t want to be the tree.” Now we can’t decide which we love more — Silverstein’s book or Gosling’s quote about it.

Rem Koolhaas sweeps the Biennale

The Casa de Musica in Portugal

The Architecture exhibition at this year’s Venice Biennale doesn’t open until late August, but Rem Koolhass has already been announced the winner of the Gold Lion for Lifetime Achievement, the Biennale’s top prize. Koolhaas’ work focuses on “the exchanges between people in space,” said Biennale chairman Paolo Baratta in a reflection on the theme “People Meet in Architecture.” Certainly the structures designed by Koolhass and his partners at OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture) encourage, if not demand attention from their inhabitants. Take the Casa Da Musica in Portugal, one in a series of concert halls designed specifically to “escape the domination of the ‘shoe-box’ concert hall” shape by restructuring the interior layout and including intimate, unexpected spaces for human interaction in contrast to the vastness of the hall itself and the magnitude of the National Orchestra of Porto.

Kwangho Lee’s furniture made out of garden hoses reminds me of ramen

Maybe it’s just because I’m hungry or my weakness for ramen noodles, but dried ramen noodles were the first thing that came to mind when I saw South Korean designer Kwangho Lee‘s “Obsession” line of furniture woven from re-purposed garden hoses and electrical wires. I love ramen, ergo I love these chairs. Speaking of ramen, [...]

Take a walk in San Diego on a Space Invader tour

San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art’s new group exhibit “Viva la Revolucion: A Dialogue With The Urban Landscape” features 20 artists from 8 countries recognized for their street art and “work [that] addresses urban issues.” As part of this show, Space Invader is debuting his film “The Space Invader Walk” (view trailer) which takes advantage [...]

The Matisse you didn’t know, now at MoMA

Though Henri Matisse is one of the most well known artists of all time, widely considered one of the three seminal artists of the 20th century (along with Picasso and Duchamp), the work he produced from 1913-1917 is the least studied and arguably most innovative of his career. 1913 falls several years after his popular fauvist period, a style he would return to later in life, and marks the beginning of an experimental time during which he allowed the mark of the artist or “the means of making” to show in the finished canvas.

Your moment of zen: “Our time is brief”

Our time is brief from Ian Berenger on Vimeo. Your moment of zen today is provided by Ian Berenger and his video “Our time is brief,” which was inspired by a personal loss. Ian explains: I sometimes get so caught up in the drama of everyday life that I forget to sit back and enjoy [...]

10 ways giving up on perfection may save your (sex) life

Recent studies show that the personality trait of perfectionism is linked to poor physical health and an increased risk of death — in particular when it’s what psychologists call “socially prescribed perfectionism,” i.e. where you feel like other people expect you to be perfect (as opposed to “self-oriented perfectionism,” when you impose the high standards on yourself — apparently not quite such a health risk). Then again, is it possible to completely separate what you think others expect of you and what you expect of yourself? Where does one end and the other begin?

Green tech finds (7/15/10)

Fishy iPhone apps, soy car parts, and another solar Air Force base… this week’s green tech finds.

• Sustainable seafood and wine? There’s an app for that… The Blue Ocean Institute and Brancott have launched the free Fishphone iPhone app, which not only provides sustainable seafood information on the go, but also suggest wine pairings.
  
  
• The eco-travel planner: The Rainforest Alliance has beta launched its new sustainable travel guide and planner, SustainableTrip.org. Currently focused on south of the border destinations, the site features tour operators, hotels, restaurants and other amenities that have been certified by reputable NGOs.
  
  

Designer Jeremy Scott goes wild in his latest sneaker design

Jeremy Scott attracts a lot of attention among the fashion and design blogosphere for his sneaker collaborations with Adidas (which I’ve obsessively blogged about in the past), especially his winged pair from a couple years ago. His latest effort is beary wild (also comes in a brown version as well). If you can get your [...]

The Kids Are All Right, So Is The Porn

Perrin recently reviewed THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, a new movie starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as lesbian mothers. It is the longest time I have ever spent with a lesbian couple in my entire life here on this great earth. And was rather enjoyable. Who knew?

Cary Grant at BAM, round 2

Cary Grant attempts to pass as a woman in I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE.

Cray Grant lovers rejoice. There are still two more weeks to catch BAM’s second ode to Hollywood’s most charismatic leading man. I seem to remember last year’s line up featuring more of his better known films, and while this month’s screening schedule certainly hits all the high notes with films like CHARADE, NOTORIOUS, BRINGING UP BABY and AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, it also includes some of his lesser known roles, including some films not available on DVD. Take today’s screening, the off-kilter, family friendly ONCE UPON A TIME, which features Grant as a struggling theatrical producer who discovers a young orphan with a dancing caterpillar. Buyer beware, the dancing caterpillar is the crux of the entire film, and Grant delivers all the passion and drama usually devoted to more plausible plots to one little, wriggling worm he’s convinced will lift people up out of their dreary war-ridden lives.

Sad Panda is spotted by Google Maps Street View car

The Google Maps Street View cameras caught the Sad Panda (one of my favorite New York City characters) walking down Washington Street. Last November the man behind the Panda mask was revealed and the story really is sad.

Here are some other famous moments and personalities captured by Google’s Street View camera:

Skinbook, the Facebook for nudists

According to their homepage, Skinbook is the world’s no.1 nudist social network (with over 9000 members), offering personal profiles, forums, blogs, groups, galleries, videos, event listings, live chat, commenting, and instant messaging. Skinbook organizers, based in Manchester (UK), told Time Magazine that what sets them apart from other nudist groups is their demographic: younger people (35-40 instead of over 55) and more women and couples (instead of single men). They get about 200 sign ups a day but only accept 10% of applicants due, unsurprisingly, to lame or X-rated attempts at sign up. And those who break the rules get booted:

52 architecture VIPs vote on the most important buildings and structures

Vanity Fair sent 52 of the “world’s leading architects, critics, and deans of architecture schools” a two part survey asking them first, their list of “the five most important buildings, bridges, or monuments constructed since 1980,” and second, what they considered to be “the greatest work of architecture thus far in the 21st century.” Among [...]

Is Bowling Finally Not Uncool?

“Let’s go bowling,” a friend actually blurted at a get-together recently as the entire room fell into a stunned hush. We didn’t go bowling, as it turned out, but still, the realization that such a cornball thing could even be an option suggested that bowling might finally be slithering back into a spot on the collective radar, as the cognoscenti cringe.

Fannie & Freddie trying to kill the green collar economy?

Property-assessed clean energy (PACE) financing has caught on quickly around the country: from Berkeley to Baton Rouge, localities and states have recognized the environmental and economic benefits of creating financing opportunities for renewable energy and efficiency upgrades for home and business owners.

Last week, government-backed mortgage lending agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac threw a giant monkey wrench into the growth of PACE by “refusing to accept loans on buildings in the program.”

You’re A Homo

Sherry Vine’s humor is cheap and crass. The drag queen, who actually has a remarkable set of pipes, is the Weird Al of the drag world. She rewrites pop songs with raunchy, sometimes very raunchy, lyrics. Since Madonna’s taking a breather, Sherry has one artist to parody: Lady Gaga. In the above video, “You’re A [...]

CRUDE director “blown away” by outpouring of support

The shooting crew of Crude in the Ecuadorean Amazon with director Joe Berlinger (R).

Oral arguments begin today in the appeal of the Joe Berlinger/Chevron case, in which the oil behemoth is suing the filmmaker for all 600 hours of footage shot for his 2009 documentary CRUDE, about the company’s legal battle with a group of Ecuadorians who accuse it of contaminating their land and water. On the eve of the big hearing, in which Berlinger is seeking to have overturned an order that he hand over the footage, two more prominent entities stepped forward to express their support for the filmmaker, further proving that the David in this David-and-Goliath legal struggle represents the interests and sympathies of many and is not exactly fighting the giant alone.

Joe’s film CRUDE had its TV premiere on Sundance Channel and Joe continues to produce and direct the Sundance Channel Original Series ICONOCLASTS with his filmmaking partner Bruce Sinofsky.

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

It’s funny how movies get lumped together. Just before seeing Lisa Cholodenko’s new film THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, I overhead a friend recommending it to his skeptical mother by saying “No, really it’s good. It’s not another GREENBERG.” Meaning, I suppose, that like GREENBERG it stars the ponderous middle-aged bourgeoisie in a film that is essentially composed of a series of conversations. Unlike GREENBERG, however, the conversations in THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT actually seem to accomplish something. And as an added bonus we aren’t stuck for a whole film with one small, angry man but with an entire nuclear family, off-balance though they may be.

How do I love summer? Let me count the ways…

Magnetic North (Derek Kan, Theresa Vu, and Taiyo Na) recently released this new music video for “Summertime” featuring Conchita Campos and directed by Davidian Shaw. The song is a tasty dose of pop music goodness that counts down all the things that are great about summer. This song is the perfect aural drink for hot summer days.

Naked News: Mass skinny dipping, boy pageants, and the science of a broken heart

• Vancouver residents set out to break the World Record in mass skinny-dipping while simultaneously promoting body acceptance, bless their Canadian souls.
  
  
• Normally we’re all for equal opportunity objectification, but little boys in beauty pageants? That’s just as messed up as the little girl variety.
  
  

50 cuban cigar band designs

LA Times Magazine has a photo gallery highlighting the colorful designs of 50 Havana cigar bands, along with a video explanation of the history of these bands. As Freud once said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” but some cigars have a more ostentatious look than others. Semi-relatedly, among the crazy ideas the CIA [...]