Amazing dance video: Turfing
No, this isn’t a dramatic scene out of a dance movie (one of my guilty favorite story themes): it’s just four “cooler than you’ll ever be” guys on a soggy and rainy street corner doing dance moves that can only qualify as expert level dancing otherwise known as “turfing.” The dancers are “No Noize (red [...]
Read More »Houston: oil, sprawl… and container gardens
Having grown up a couple of hours from Houston, Texas, I have pretty set associations of the city… and they mostly involve the oil and petrochemical industries (and the smell that comes with them), and ugly traffic resulting from massive suburban sprawl. Still, the city has its bright points — Hermann Park, for instance, is a gorgeous hub of green space and cultural institutions — and, now, a partnership between the city government and local non-profits has added another: container gardens around the 25-story Bob Lanier Public Works Building in the city’s downtown.
Read More »New wedding mag for same-sex couples
“Equally Wed” is the new online magazine for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender couples who are tying the knot (legally or not). Launched this past March with their Spring Issue, they plan to publish one issue each season (their Summer Issue is up now). It’s got the typical bridal magazine stuff that just feeds the [...]
Read More »A glimpse of the World Trade Center train station
Santiago Calatrava has been talking about his plans for the World Trade Center Transportation Hub for some a while now, dropping hints about the splendor of the station being akin to “the grandeur and sense of occasion offered by the great room of Grand Central, with its celestial roof and shafts of sunlight.” Although it’ll be at least another 4 years before his scaled-back, over-budget PATH station is completed, a new video rendering from The Wall Street Journal gives us an idea of what a $3.2 billion train station looks like.
Read More »The Saturdays sing “Baby”
British pop girl group The Saturdays gets some viral attention state side with their (great) all acoustic cover of Justin Bieber’s painfully infectious “Baby.” I suppose if I’m going to listen to this song I’d rather watch four gorgeous girls dressed in their Williamsburg finest sing it than Bieber. Bieber: You can’t fight him, you [...]
Read More »Artistic giant soap bubbles
Today’s meditative art piece is brought to you by Sly Lebulleur. Simply titled “Alone with my giant bubbles…” the artist, standing alone surrounded by bare trees, slowly creates giant soap bubbles to the musical accompaniment of French pianist Erik Satie. Somehow the entire performance comes across as “meaningful.”
Read More »Ask Men survey gives us hope, defies beer ad stereotypes…mostly
When we read that AskMen.com had surveyed tens of thousands of guys about everything from sex to suits, we were a little nervous. Would the results indicate that men — at least, the ones who read AskMen.com — exactly like the beer commercials say they are? We are pleased to report that our worst fears were not realized. Well, most of them. 46% of men said they’d dump a girlfriend if she got fat. But we’re going to look on the bright side and focus on the 54% of men who wouldn’t. Some other stats from the sex and dating portion of the survey:
Read More »THE ROOM
Journalist Tom Bissell wasn’t exaggerating in his recent piece for Harper’s Magazine when he called the 2003 movie THE ROOM, “the movie that an alien who has never seen a movie might make after having had movies thoroughly explained to him.” This and other comments (“THE ROOM is as bereft of familiar taxonomy as a bat from Mars”) might sound harsh until you actually see the thing, which enjoys monthly midnight screenings at Village East Cinema in NY. Unlike other movies that fall into the ‘it’s so bad it’s good’ category, THE ROOM is an earnest attempt at high drama, and as such the consistent stream of laughter it elicits from audiences can seem, well, kinda harsh.
Read More »CFL vs. incandescent: can you tell the difference?
I’ve heard just about every excuse out there for not switching from incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs): they cost more; they look funny; they’re a hazard because they contain mercury. It’s pretty easy to rebut these arguments, but another common complaint — the quality of the light — was an issue for quite some time. Not so anymore… and New Zealand’s Electricity Commission now has data to support that claim.
Read More »Never-before-seen photo of J.D. Salinger
There’s nothing phony about this photo. What you’re seeing above is a never-before-seen photo of a 49-year-old J.D. Salinger taken in April 1968. This photograph was recently posted on Newsweek’s website: He was recently divorced, and three years into the seclusion that would span the last 45 years of his life. He has bags under [...]
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