sundance

I heart Kevin Smith

Lo here: Em has always been a Howard Stern fan. As a staunch, man-hating feminist, I never got on board. Too many sad strippers willing to be reduced to body parts for love and attention – at least back in the K-Rock days. No, for provocative, foul-mouthed, sex-related audio content, I’ll take Kevin Smith’s Hollywood Babble-On with Ralph Garman any day. They’re by no means above female objectification, but they believe in equal opportunity objectification. Take for example, their regular segment on Liam Neesson’s infamously large endowment (“Liam Neesson’s cock is so big…”). Smith will even admit on air to homoerotic urges without fear or shame (hello, Thor!). They do a show every week loosely arranged around all things entertainment industry-related, so if you’re an US Weekly junkie like Em, you can get your celeb gossip AND your dick jokes all in one place! Plus, Garman is an amazing vocal impersonator: Sean Connery, Adam West, Harrison Ford, etc.

Twin Tower movie cameos

Twin Tower Cameos from Dan Meth on Vimeo.

Just in time for the tenth anniversary this Sunday of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Dan Meth created this impressive mash-up video that pays homage to the fallen twin towers by stitching together scenes from various films from 1969 to 2001 that featured the World Trade Center “prominently in the foreground [and] sometimes lurking in the distance.” The accompanying soundtrack with songs from these decades is also pitch perfect. Watching this made me feel sad for all the human loss and destruction, as well as a sense of nostalgia of my youth that some of these films (HOME ALONE 2! WHEN HARRY MET SALLY!) evoked for me. However, I’m looking forward to and hopeful for One WTC’s completion, which, I anticipate, will serve as a similar anchor of downtown Manhattan and symbol of New York City in all the films yet to be made.

Morbid Medical Antiques at Musée Dupuytren

Maybe I’ve been watching too many re-runs of “Oddities,” but there’s something really great about ogling gross, old medical samples and morbid doctoring equipment – if only for the spine-tingling “eeeew!” that they often illicit. Paris’ Musée Dupuytren is like mecca for connoisseurs of creepy curiosities and antiques. Established in 1835 by “the father of toxicology,” Mathieu Orfila, the collection of weird wax figures and diseased body parts was originally compiled in an unused wing of the old Cordeliers Convent, intended for use by medical students and faculty at the University of Paris. Accumulating most of their pieces between 1836 and 1842, the collection was reported to house over six thousand samples by the end of the 19th century. Tragically, financial strife closed its doors in the 1930s, and the collection sat rotting for thirty years.

Redford speaks out on Obama and sparks political debate

If you haven’t been over to the Politico blog yet today, you might want to head over and check out the brewing debate started by Redford’s comments on Obama’s lackadaisical stance on environmental issues, which originally appeared on the Huffington Post. Politico’s short version of Redford’s longer piece is:

What’s playing this week on Sundance Channel

If you missed the block of films we screened on the Sundance Channel this past weekend, don’t worry – you’ve got the rest of the month to get with the program. In fact, you can start tonight with PVC-1, a festival favorite (it swept up a boat load of awards, including one at Cannes and the Bangkok International Film Festival), shot in real time and based on the true story of a woman who was turned into a human bomb. Then stay tuned for our Hollwouldn’t double-feature: LE DIVORCE and HADEWIJCH.

London pop-up cinema built from junked refrigerators

I can’t say for certain if Olympic fever has hit yet in Great Britain (I haven’t been there recently), but I’m pretty sure that many Londoners were glad to see Fridge Mountain make way for the site of the 2012 games. Fridge Mountain (in Hackney) was exactly what you’re picturing: a 20-ft. pile of discarded refrigerators that supposedly “towered” over the surrounding neighborhood. I’d expect most don’t miss it much, but American student Lindsey Scannapieco, who never saw the “mountain” itself, found the idea of it inspirational.

Q&A with Core77 design winner: Project Aura, bike safety lights

Ben Kaufman’s company, Quirky, is all about finding great ideas from regular people and turning them into real, marketable products, and Core77 is all about covering the best and latest in design and technology. Throughout the Quirky series, we’ll be bringing you stories from designers, inventors and entrepreneurs who’ve either already brought their product from concept to completion or are right in the middle of that process – and all without the help of a company like Ben’s.

Today we bring you the story of Project Aura, winner of the Core77 Design Award for Transportation. Designed by Ethan Frier, Jonathan Ota.

Is the Obama administration putting corporate profits above public health?

One reason I supported President Obama is because he said we must protect clean air, water and lands. But what good is it to say the right thing unless you act on it? Since early August, three administration decisions – on Arctic drilling, the Keystone XL pipeline and the ozone that causes smog – have all favored dirty industry over public health and a clean environment. Like so many others, I’m beginning to wonder just where the man stands.

Hurricane Irene short film

Irene NYC from Buffalo Picture House on Vimeo.

Nothing says a good filmmaking opportunity like a hurricane bearing down on your city, or in this case a Manhattan-bound Hurricane Irene for a couple of filmmakers from Buffalo Picture House, who created this short black and white film during the storm. They were a lot more productive than the rest of us New Yorkers who took the chance to stuff our faces with our “emergency” rations (two pizza pies may or may not have been consumed by yours truly). However, Irene also served to remind us “that perhaps life should not fly by in a New York minute.” This sentiment seems to be echoed in their inspired film with shots of closed and empty subway stations, shuttered storefronts, and deserted streets.

Green (and quirky) pet products

We pet people can be particular about the products we purchase for our furry (or feathered or scaly) friends. We not only want products that work, but that also make our pets happy and comfortable. So, when the team at Quirky works with a concept for a better retractable dog leash tonight, dog owners might want to take a look – and keep an eye out for the Kosoku leash at your favorite pet supply store.

Astrophysicist finds faster way to board planes

Whatever you do, don’t annoy an astrophysicist, because he will devote tremendous time, brainpower and vocabulary to making us all look like idiots. A few years ago, Jason Steffen got all agitated while waiting to take his airplane seat. Had it been a Ron Howard movie, this scene would have had an elaborate CGI montage with floating numbers and complex algorithms flying through the air as Steffen realizes that our current method – boarding in groups, back to front – is really dumb. I mean, hasn’t anyone heard of a Fermi-Dirac Distribution, for chrissakes? (I hadn’t, but apparently it is real and relevant to boarding an airplane).

Naked News: Lovely Rita Meter Maid is a sex worker

• “Sex meter” helps Bonn tax prostitutes. Talk about lovely Rita.
  
  
• Faster progress through puberty is linked to behavioral problems.
  
  

Best of Kickstarter: foldable, electric bike, 9/5/11

We’re starting off the week with a new Kickstarter projects so good we’re not including any others. What am I talking about, you ask? What’s this Best of Kickstarter thing we’ve been blogging about every Monday? 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.

Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport – repurposed

Over the past couple of years, we’ve dug into a number of projects that redeveloped outdated infrastructure into new recreational and green spaces, from Staten Island’s Freshkills Park (a former landfill) to Missouri’s Katy Trail (an old railroad line) to Germany’s Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord (a closed blast furnace works). The Germans clearly have a knack for this whole reclamation thing: two years after shuttering the legendary Tempelhof Airport in Berlin (the site of the 1948-49 Berlin airlift), city officials began discussing ways to reuse the land (which, according to The Local, is nearly as big as Central Park). Their broad plan: a park. Berliners, however, have taken it upon themselves to transform the space for bicyling, rollerblading, cooking out, and urban gardening.

Back to (old) school

It’s back to school time. That means many college students are already on campus and many student newspapers are already in full publishing swing, including the University of Richmond’s “Collegian,” which just last week published a little gem of an opinion piece entitled “A Letter to Women,” in which the author promotes the old she-dresses-like-a-slut-so-she-deserves-it philosophy and condemns women for enjoying sex.

Q&A with Core77 design winner: Euphemia, cradle-to-cradle fashion footwear

Ben Kaufman’s company, Quirky, is all about finding great ideas from regular people and turning them into real, marketable products, and Core77 is all about covering the best and latest in design and technology. Throughout the Quirky series, we’ll be bringing you stories from designers, inventors and entrepreneurs who’ve either already brought their product from concept to completion or are right in the middle of that process – and all without the help of a company like Ben’s.

Today we bring you the story of Euphemia, winner of the Core77 Design Award for Soft Goods/Apparel. Designed by Helen Furber.

Michael Winterbottom’s THE TRIP on the big screen

The new Michael Winterbottom film, starring beloved duo Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden, is at times hilarious and often insightful, if not a little slap-dash. Meaning? Well, it’s been put together quickly and simply with a disarmingly straightforward premise: Two actor frenemies named Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden (basically playing slightly ridiculous versions of themselves) go on the road in Northern England for a promotional food tour. Hilarity ensues. But is that hilarity a product of a series of escalating mishaps otherwise known as plot? No. There is no plot. There is a series of locations, a series of over-the-top gourmet meals featuring the likes of duck fat lollipops, a series of Coogan one-night stands, and a series of very funny conversations.

Weekly movie trailer roundup: FOOTLOOSE vs. FOOTLOOSE

The first thing you’re going to notice about these two trailers for FOOTLOOSE is that only one of them actually uses the song “Footloose,” by Kenny Loggins. You know the song – it’s the one that was written for the movie, was named after it and the lyrics basically spell out the plot. Guess which trailer uses it? The original, that’s right. What, could the sad sack remake not get the rights to the movie’s title track? Or was this a conscious move that someone who’s probably since been fired thought was an ‘edgy’ choice?

Turn your LinkedIn profile into a groovy infographic

My annual resume update is a source of frustration, anxiety and quiet terror. “Should I include all these high school retail jobs?” I ask myself. “What will my potential employers think about Calibri?” “Is using two separate columns cool, or trying too hard?’” But fear no more, weary job seekers: a handy new web app makes the process of designing your resume a simple (and strangely addictive) process. By “syncing up” – for lack of a more technical phrase – with your LinkedIn profile, Visualize.Me converts your professional, educational and skill-specific experience into a super cool infographic. Suddenly, your complicated degree-seeking process is summed up in a handy pink timeline; The brevity of a misguided waitressing stint at Denny’s articulated by a tiny dot in the pie chart of your otherwise respectable professional life.

Museum of Broken Relationships

Croatian artists Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić developed “Museum of Broken Relationships,” a touring exhibition of artifacts from past relationships. It emerged out of their own relationship of four years, after which the break-up inspired this museum, as Vištica explains in an interview with NPR. “When we were deciding to split up, every time people do that it’s connected with something ugly, something awkward, so we didn’t like that way of dealing with our own past, which was once really beautiful. We got this idea, maybe it would be a great idea to have a museum where you could store your emotional heritage.”

Green tech finds, 9/1/11

Lots of building tech this week, from shipping container “farms” to a net-zero rehab to a “living building” in Seattle.

Shipping containers as mini farms?: Is there anything you can’t do with used shipping containers? Atlanta-based PodPonics turns them into small hydroponic “farms” for growing food near the point of sale. (via Triplepundit)

Solar collector by day, light display by night: Move over, Jumbotron! Industrial designer Meidad Marzan‘s Urban Tiles concept combines solar panels and OLED panels that can be installed on the outside of buildings in an array, and which “flip” to shift from solar collector to advertising display, big screen television, or even a massive artistic canvas. (via Inhabitat)

How to dork out at your wedding without losing your cool

These days it seems like there are more “unique” weddings than there are traditional ones — nobody wants to get married like their parents did anymore. And thanks to the Internets, those of us who are less creative can take inspiration from others and steal the best ideas — or just laugh at them in a gently condescending manner. (Like the insta-viral wedding entrance dance routines that you can’t decide whether to love or hate.) But here’s a set of actually unique wedding photos that we just plain love – because they’re funny and dorky yet also artsy and beautiful (and how awesome is it that the bride gets to carry the shovel and deal the fatal blow?). We can just imagine this couple totally dorking out together over their shared zombie obsession. And what’s more romantic than that? Here are some of our favorites (you can see more here).

Q&A with Core77 design winner: Bamboo Load Carrier

Ben Kaufman’s company, Quirky, is all about finding great ideas from regular people and turning them into real, marketable products, and Core77 is all about covering the best and latest in design and technology. Throughout the Quirky series, we’ll be bringing you stories from designers, inventors and entrepreneurs who’ve either already brought their product from concept to completion or are right in the middle of that process – and all without the help of a company like Ben’s.

Today we bring you the story of the Bamboo Load Carrier, winner of the Core77 Design Award for Products/Equipment. Designed by Vikram Dinubhai and Panchal-Nid.

Woody Allen having fun at The Met

I absolutely love this photograph taken of Woody Allen at The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Ruth Orkin in 1963 for so many reasons. How do I love thee? Let me blog the ways.