sundance

Watch typical Brooklyn scenes in super slow-mo

8 Hours in Brooklyn from Next Level Pictures on Vimeo.

Ever wonder what getting tattooed looks like in ultra slow motion? Me neither. But thanks to some clever Brooklyn-based filmmakers, you can now watch it at 2,500 frames-per-second. Next Level Pictures‘ Jonathan Bregel took a Phantom Flex camera (familiar to TV-addicts as the camera that gets all that crazy slow-motion footage of the world’s fastest animals on the National Geographic channel) for a Sunday skateboard ride around Brooklyn. “I was DP-ing a commercial on a Saturday, but we technically had it for two days,” Bregel told me. “Clearly I couldn’t just let it sit there. My buddy, Mike Sutton from Rule Boston Camera, let us take it out the second day and we had some fun.”

The Art of the Menu

The Art of the Menu is a new blog from the people at one of my favorite design websites, Under Consideration. Collecting and highlighting interesting and unique menus from restaurants around the country with a succinct review on the sidebar, it’s like “MenuPages.com” for foodies and design snobs. Now, if restaurants could only fix their obsession with Flash and PDF menus on their horrible websites (hat tip @MichaelSurtees for this observation).

Green tech finds – 8/18/11

Old school shipping, CO2 as a source of fuel and yet another new solar technology for charging your phone: this week’s green tech finds.

Another recycling robot: While not as directly practical as the ZenRobotics Recycler we mentioned in an earlier post, Florida Robotics‘ Dr. R.E. Cycler is designed for educational purposes – essentially, to show kids what happens to the aluminum cans that go into those blue bins. Take a quick look at it above. (via Fast Company and @TaigaCompany)

When public proposals go wrong

Food Court Proposal Gone Wrong – Watch more Funny Videos

As we’ve said here many times, we’re massive FAILblog fans. We think it’s hilarious when people fall down (so long as they don’t get seriously hurt), especially if it happens at a wedding or when they’re trying to act sorta cool. When shit goes wrong and someone happens to capture it on video, the Internet gets a little happier. But there is a sub-genre of shit-going-wrong videos that makes us clench our buttholes, and not in a good way: When a dude gets down on one knee and proposes in public and his girlfriend says no (just Google “proposal gone wrong” if you’re not familiar with the genre).

Artist Amy Twigger Holroyd made an entire BMW engine out of yarn

Amy Twigger Holroyd is nothing if not a knit wit. No, seriously – she’s getting her PhD in knitting, specifically “Enabling Fashion Ownership through Material Intervention in Knitted Garments.” But if her degree doesn’t persuade you of her wits and knits, I’m betting this will: at this summer’s Lichfield Festival, Holroyd used her knitting know-how to create an entire BMW engine with the help of a few crafty kids.

What I’m lusting: the LetterMPress iPad app

If you caught my recent post on letterpress wiz Alan Kitching or the bit on my personal blog about how letterpress, specifically the tactile qualities of rolling bright, glossy ink over weathered, wood type is like porn for me, then you know why the iPad app LetterMPress is nothing less than titillating. Sadly, I don’t own an iPad (donations [...]

Automotive cross-stitch embroidery

Lithuanian artist Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene incorporates delicate, cross-stitched floral patterns into common household objects like plates, lamps and (unexpectedly) car doors, which are particularly impressive. The effect is especially awe-mazing in the close-up photos.

The vertical ecovillage: Vincent Callebaut’s Dragonfly

When you think of the concept of urban agriculture, you likely picture a small, reclaimed plot of land tended by neighbors or a non-profit organization. While this vision of food production in cities has captured the imagination of many urbanites, the ability to scale it is often limited. The notion of vertical farming, however, recognizes (as did the developers of the original skyscrapers) that building upward may offer more potential for inner city farming than land reclamation. Combined with indoor farming methods such as hydroponics, proponents of the vertical farm believe this concept could offer hyperlocal food production in the middle of even the most bustling urban center.

LUDO BITES AMERICA – Ceviche

Watch LUDO BITES AMERICA Tuesdays at 9P

More masterful cooking from our guest blogger Justin, who, along with his wife, Lori, writes the food blog The Gastronomic Duo, a blog dedicated to couples cooking together in the kitchen and enjoying food with one another in their home.

I’m going to be straightforward here. I think ceviche is best served as the rustic and simple dish that it historically is: a poor man’s meal conceived as a way to get rid of fish and reduce waste on its last palatable day via light pickling. I’m also going to say that when done right, it’s a total delight. That’s why this SUNfiltered post is so exciting to me. When I read the recipe, I wanted to transport myself immediately to my Minneapolis kitchen and try it. I thought, “Wow, this is ceviche taken to the next level.” Milk granita, cucumber water and blackberries. I was delighted to give this recipe a shot. Maybe it would change my viewpoint on ceviche forever.

Brad Pitt and parenting in the movies, part 2

I recently posted on THE TREE OF LIFE, the Terrence Malick lush-fest that has been blowing minds – like explosions in space – since its recent release. I wrote about the film and parenting, a subject that comes up infrequently if you Google the two terms together. After a few conversations with friends, I’d like to follow up. And yes, full disclosure, I’m a parent of two boys (7 and 2), and a filmmaker too (SMALL, BEAUTIFULLY MOVING PARTS), so both are equally relevant. (Did I just equate my love for my children to my love for movies? The parent police should be at my door momentarily.)

Hilarious Tumblr: Dads on vacation

Dads on Vacation is a hilarious Tumblr devoted to real life examples of the Hollywood archetype of the “Vacation Dad” (as embodied by Chevy Chase in films such as the National Lampoon’s VACATION series). While we may all cringe with embarrassment at seeing our parents hold silly poses next to statues, we get a laugh looking at other people’s dads wearing their brightest Hawaiian florals (and sometimes too-short shorts that scream “I’m not working right now!”) act foolishly and behave like children. And as someone who already enjoys mimicking sculptures and jumping photos, these dads are an inspiration for the future dad in me a hundred years from now. The one dad that refuses to partake in theses shenanigans is High Expectation Asian Father.

Ray Anderson on film

Last week, sustainable business pioneer (and a personal hero of mine) Ray Anderson lost his battle with cancer. Founder and longtime CEO of Interface, Ray was a pioneer from the outset. A commercial flooring company, Interface brought the carpet square to the United States. At age sixty, after nearly two decades of success, Ray could’ve retired to a house on the golf course and lived out his golden years in luxury. Instead, after reading Paul Hawken’s “The Ecology of Commerce,” this established businessman had an epiphany (or, as he liked to call it, a “spear in the chest” moment): he had found success and made his fortune by plundering the Earth’s resources. Ray committed himself and his company to big, hairy, audacious goals concerning their environmental impact, and made amazing strides in an industry that’s traditionally been very resource and energy intensive.

My favorite Emily Watson – looking back at her most memorable roles

Emily Watson is one of those rare, highly versatile actresses that plays such a wide variety of roles – from a private eye to a housemaid to a dead bride and everything in between – that she literally defies typecasting. Two of her most memorable recent roles include Tammy, the assistant to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Caden Cotard in SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (2008) and Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker in the critically acclaimed ORANGES AND SUNSHINE (2010). I, along with everyone here at Sundance, am eagerly awaiting her next big role alongside Dominic West (The Wire) in APPROPRIATE ADULT, the upcoming Sundance Channel Original Mini-Series, airing this Fall.

Masturbation study provides material for the lovers AND the haters

A recent study published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine looked at the masturbation habits of American teenagers (age 14 – 17), and the results are likely to please both the self-lovers and those who think that adolescent boys and girls should be forced to sleep in mittens to keep themselves pure.

Ludo Bites – lost and found in translation

Careful, there’s foie gras in those cupcakes!

Watch LUDO BITES AMERICA every Tuesday at 9P

More savory wit from our featured food blogger Diana Hossfeld, who writes the food blog Diana Takes a Bite.

The first time I ate foie gras was two years ago at Ludo Bites in Los Angeles. I hated it. The muddy-colored lobe had been chopped into thumb-sized chunks and surreptitiously slipped into a miso soup with rhubarb, hibiscus and beets. I didn’t understand it – I didn’t want to understand it. I just wanted it to go away. And I wanted to replace it with things I was used to ingesting in my miso soup – tofu, seaweed, shiitake mushrooms – not foie gras.

Brit Marling is stunning in ANOTHER EARTH

It’s kind of puzzling to me that ANOTHER EARTH is billed as a science fiction/fantasy/drama. The story of Rhoda (Brit Marling), a young woman who kills a man’s wife and child in a car accident and then tries to atone for her mistake, is more like a quietly played drama set against a backdrop of space travel to a second, identical planet Earth. Still, it’s that backdrop as well as the film’s deftly handled inclusion of the complicated physics and math involved in the exciting multiuniverse theory that made it a shoe-in for the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance earlier this year. And all science aside, the muted way the film portrays the moral dilemma Rhoda is faced with made it an only all too worthy winner of the festival’s Special Jury Prize as well.

Alternative music video for “Otis”

OTIS video from j lowe on Vimeo.

Last Thursday Jay Z and Kanye released the highly anticipated music video for the single “Otis” from their new collaborative album Watch the Throne (listen to the stream of the full album here). The video featuring the requisite models and a custom Maybach predictably mirrors the two rappers’ lifestyle of, to quote Thorstein Veblen (and my high school economics teacher would be so proud of me for remembering this), “conspicuous consumption.”

As a guilty pleasure it’s enjoyable, but I’m much more partial to the above alternative music video created by Justin Lowe, that stars two of my favorite childhood characters from the THE ADVENTURES OF MILO AND OTIS (nostalgic high five to those of you old enough to remember this awesome movie). But even if you’re not familiar with it, The Internet should still love this alt music video because it has one thing that The Internet apparently can’t get enough of: Cats.

Farmers markets: a potential engine for local economic growth?

Now that the debt ceiling debate/debacle has ended (for the time being), Washington pols are talking jobs. Republicans think keeping taxes low is the answer; President Obama and the Democrats want to invest in infrastructure and green technology. According to a late July report from the Union for Concerned Scientists, both parties might want to think about another angle: supporting farmers markets.

Sex surrogacy: when a spade isn’t a spade

Last week we discussed the (negligible) difference between a sugar daddy and a john. As Winston Churchill unfortunately didn’t say, it’s simply a matter of price. But this week we’d like to talk about sex surrogates who often – and unfairly, we think – get classified as prostitutes. A recent report by ABC News notes that sex surrogacy emerged in the seventies, went into hiding in the more conservative eighties (oh, there was that HIV thing, too), and is now starting to get a bit more respect, with surrogates working directly with therapists – and charging a professional rate (They’re trained and credentialed by the International Professional Surrogates Association.).

Weekly Kickstarter Picks, 8/15/11

We’re starting off the week with our second batch of donation-worthy Kickstarter projects. What’s this all about, you ask? Well, it seems like everyone is pitching their idea to Kickstarter. We think that’s great, but with great power comes great responsibility, and while the 23-person Kickstarter team does their best to filter out the winning projects from the thousands and thousands of proposals they receive, there are still literally tens of thousands of new projects that launch each week. That’s a lot of ways to spend your hard-earned five bucks. Too many ways, actually. How can one person sort through it all? Relax, we’ll do it all for you, starting right now with this week’s Kickstarter Picks.

What can you do in 15 minutes?

Michael Cirino, co-founder of the culinary events company A Razor, A Shiny Knife (think pop-up restaurant on a NYC subway car), whips up a batch of homemade ice cream with fresh ingredients and a dash of chemistry while fearless Streb acrobat Fabio Tavares teaches you how to defy gravity: all in 15 minutes.

Watch the mad scientist and the daring thrill seeker at work below!

Not Bollywood: Satyajit Ray’s THE MUSIC ROOM

Director Satyajit Ray separated himself from mainstream Indian cinema with PATHER PANCHALI, which premiered at Cannes (at midnight, during a party for Akira Kurosawa) in 1956. Still, several influential critics made it to the screening and championed the film’s originality and vision. It was completely unlike other Indian films in that there was no melodramatic [...]

Dieter Rams on good design at Soho Phaidon

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about Dieter Rams and it won’t be the last. His Ten Commandments of Good Design have been the guiding light for designers since the mid 1950s. But his ideas apply to non-designers as well. His call for innovation, honesty, attention to detail and aesthetics as well as an awareness of and responsibility to the environment are ideals to live by, not just design by. His design ethos is sexy, his designs, clearly, are sexy too, and Rams is pretty bangin’ himself – the close-cropped blonde (now white) ‘do, black turtlenecks and little tortoise shell glasses has had this German girl in something of a tizzy for years.

Ezra Shaw’s unique perspective on divers

This photo series, published in The Wall Street Journal and snapped by Getty Images photographer Ezra Shaw at the 14th FINA World Championships, would be smack in the middle of a Venn diagram charting fans of sports, photography, and “LOLs.” Shaw pointed his lens at the these graceful divers and presented viewers with a slightly different perspective on the sport with a hilarious (unintentional at least from the athletes’ perspective) result. Of course we admire their talents and poise as they slip into the water, like (bad analogy alert) a knife through butter, but I dare you to look at these photographs of them underwater and not laugh.

Friday movie trailer roundup

We Need to Talk About Kevin Bande-annonce by toutlecine

It’s pretty much the weekend, one of three remaining August weekends before we hit Labor Day and move into Fall, I might add, so it’s time to start wrapping up our summer movie to-see lists and look ahead at what’s coming next. Out of the latest batch of recently released trailers I noticed a trend towards parenting movies, and while these three films all involve adults raising children, they couldn’t be less alike.