sundance

Naked News: Sex jokes at the office can cause depression, slacking

• Sex chat at the water cooler can lead to depression and low productivity, study finds.
• A Florida boy is pulled from class for wearing high heels.

A Q&A with Will Forte – Part 2

To celebrate the launch of DreamStates, last week I got on a call with Will Forte while he drove to Mt. Rushmore. We discussed puffins, SNL, and of course, his dreams. Part One was yesterday. Part Two is below.

You’re not on SNL anymore?

I left SNL in the summer and moved back to Los Angeles.

But you were just on this past weekend with Elton John?

Just for that sketch. That was so exciting to have Tom Hanks play my brother. He is so fun to be around.

Are you working on new movies?

I just got done with a movie Tim and Eric. It is called Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. I was in Palm Springs wearing a moustache. I love wearing a mustache.

This is art: color-coded grocery shopping

I love Marco Ugolini’s photo series “Per Color” (in collaboration with Pedro Motto) that highlights color-coded grocery shopping at a local supermarket in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The artist explains: I see the supermarket space as a space of manipulation. The attempt, in this action, is to subvert this structure of power…None of the products have [...]

Hoosier reusers: Indiana University’s Hoosier-to-Hoosier reuse intiative

Ever been around a college or university campus when students are moving out of the dorms and campus apartments? Overflowing dumpsters were no doubt a part of the scene. Not only do those dumpsters represent a huge waste of material, but probably also significant costs for schools.

Indiana University in Bloomington decided last year to make the end-of-the-semester trash bonanza a part of its sustainability initiatives, and launched its Hoosier-to-Hoosier reuse program. The idea: give students a place to drop off the second-hand furniture, small appliances, and other items, sort them, and then sell them… some back to students themselves. Proceeds go to the local United Way and Habitat for Humanity.

Whatever you do, don’t call bin Laden hot

It’s difficult (not to mention crass) to try to tie lust and Osama bin Laden together, but in honor of last night’s historic news we’re gonna do it. A few years ago NPR’s “This American Life” started off an episode about speaking one’s mind in a tough room with this painful yet kind of hilarious [...]

Jazzy Mario Brothers

Jazz pianist Scott Bradlee and saxophonist Ben Golder-Novick, the duo behind “Eight Bits of Jam” scored an acoustic jazzy soundtrack for this 11 minute speed run (a video game and Internet subgenre in its own right) of Super Mario Brothers 3 that gives it an olde ragtime saloon vibe. Relatedly, the other bit The Internet [...]

Will Forte: Orgies and Dreams

Will Forte is an actor, comedian and writer best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for starring in the SNL spin-off film, MACGRUBER. Will is now starring in the new film A GOOD OLD FASHIONED ORGY, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and he’s also a featured artist in our new animated video series DreamStates. You can also check out Will in his recurring roles on 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Parks and Recreation and Conan. He’s everywhere!

DreamStates takes a look into our dreams through the eyes of creative innovators from the worlds of film and music. In Will’s episode of DreamStates, he is being relentlessly chased by a giant Icelandic puffin. For those of you not in the know – puffins “kind of look a little like a penguin crossed with a toucan…..but they have a dark side to them…….and they can be a little snippy”. This snippy, giant puffin chases Will from the big city to the ski slopes of Squaw Valley and never backs off until they finally meet up face to face. What does all this mean? We don’t know – but it’s fun to watch.

Dreaming with Option-G

Our friends at creative agency Option-G created our latest animated web series, DreamStates — LIVE NOW!

In the series, innovators from the worlds of music and film recall some of their most bizarre dream stories. The dreams are then brought to life by talented and unique animators. Sundance Channel also worked with Option-G in the past on the award-winning eco-themed animated series Yung Yeti. We love all things Option-G, whether it’s animation, illustration, original art work, prints, t-shirts or posters — they do it all. Click here to check out the Option-G website and see for yourself.

A Q&A with Will Forte – Part 1

To celebrate the launch of DreamStates, last week I got on a call with Will Forte while he drove to Mt. Rushmore. We discussed puffins, SNL, and of course, his dreams. Part One is today. Part Two will post tomorrow.

Hi Will.

Hi! I apologize in advance as I am 7 miles from Mt. Rushmore. I’d pull off but I think the park is closing soon! So this is the best time to interview me. I am so energized about getting to Mt. Rushmore. It’s taken me 40 years to get to this part of the country so I just had to get to see Mt. Rushmore.

I was just in Iceland last week and your DreamStates episode is all about puffins. So it’s appropriate we’re talking. I assume Iceland is where you came in contact with puffins?

Yes. Yes that is where. I went to a festival there and it was a weekend long event that was amazing. During this festival whole families stay up the entire night and there were puffins all over the island I was on. So we saw these puffins everywhere and then at night all around the tents people would be snacking on puffins! And I was a little sad as they seem like these cute birds. But then I heard they had a nasty side.

So you didn’t come in contact with their nasty side? It was all second hand information?

Yes, it was all second hand.

Have you seen the YouTube video of Gordon Ramsey catching puffins and snapping their necks?

No, puffins!?

Yes, if you Google “eating puffins” you’ll find this video of Ramsey catching puffins in nets and then snapping their necks!

No wonder they have this bad attitude. They’ve gotta have this attitude to survive.

Step inside the latest in sustainable home design

Architect Michelle Kaufmann, whose brilliant work I’ve lauded before, recently updated “Smart Home: Green + Wired,” her exhibition at the Museum of Science of Industry in Chicago (MSI). The exhibit features mkSolaire, a three-story loft-style house suitable for urban environments. It meets Kaufmann’s criteria for modular housing, an idea she developed when she and her husband were searching for their own green home. Using off-site, modular technology, Kaufmann is able to simplify the construction process and make sustainable, affordable and well-designed houses accessible to more people.