sundance

The key to viral success: Lose your expensive electronics

how to lose $2400 in 24 seconds from Kurtis Hough on Vimeo.

The spread and adoption of online social networks over the past few years have been accompanied by a rise of instances of vigilant members of those communities virally coming together to help one of their own, in this case recovering stolen goods (typically some form of personal consumer electronics that originates from Cupertino). Earlier this year Josh Kaufman’s Apple MacBook stolen from his Oakland apartment. With the help of a laptop tracking software that he had installed, Josh was able to remotely access his stolen computer and its built-in camera to snap photos of the thief himself. With this information in hand, he opened a Tumblr called This Guy Has My MacBook where he chronicled his attempts to recover his laptop. It received minimal attention until Josh tweeted it at which point it organically blew up where the story and his Tumblr virally spread like wildfire. The ensuing press eventually forced the city police into action and Josh was able to reunite with his MacBook.

Similarly, Massachusetts college student Mark Bao used another tracking app on his stolen MacBook Air which he used to grab and tweet this video of the thief recording himself pop and lock dancing (LOL!).

Now that we’ve found love, what are we gonna do with it?

Ah, the inevitable girl-on-gay-boy crush. Distinguished men, and the trade that love us, recognize this scenario? There’s a party, you’re drinking, you’re best friend—the greatest woman since your mother—is drinking, too. Everyone is having a blast dancing, and tacky jokes keep you laughing. But once you make eye contact everything changes as the hormones responsible for many-a-baby begin to stir in your best girl. You’ve got a crush on your hands, so what are you going to do about it? Coming out of the closet was supposed to have settled all of this. But if you’ve got to deal with it, do it tactfully.

2012 Sundance Film Festival selects DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST and REALITY BITES for ‘From the Collection’ screenings

Park City, UT - Sundance Institute announced today that DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST(1991) and REALITY BITES (1994) have been selected for the From the Collection screenings at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Both titles are part of The Sundance Collection at UCLA (The Collection), a film preservation program designed to archive work that has been supported by a Sundance Institute program. The Festival takes place January 19 through 29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. Ticket information is available at www.sundance.org/tickets.

APPROPRIATE ADULT’s Emily Watson nominated for a Golden Globe

Congratulations to Emma Watson on her Golden Globe nomination for Sundance Channel original movie APPROPRIATE ADULT. Watson’s Janet Leach is up against some pretty heavy hitters in the Best Actress — Miniseries or Movie category. It’s a Brit-heavy competition featuring Kate Winslett, Mildred Pierce; Elizabeth McGovern, Downton Abbey; Romola Garai, The Hour (which stars APPROPRIATE ADULT’s Dominic West); and some American lady named Diane Lane, CINEMA VERITE.

A Happy Holidays from the Internet

Image credit: uglychristmaslights.com

It’s the holiday season, which can only mean one thing–booze. Or family. Or Jesus Christ. I have no idea what the holiday season means, except that it gets colder and I get heavier and I still can’t wrap presents. As a true ‘millennial’ I’ve never been very good at the holidays, because I’m selfish and underemployed, but I am very good at the Internet. Kids these days are so lazy and tech-obsessed! Occupy North Pole! For your viewing pleasure, however, I am here to give you all the pleasures and comforts of the holiday season via the world wide web. Don’t leave your couch this December! Don’t fly home with Crate and Barrel ornaments that will break on the flight! Just sit in front of your computer…just like you do every other day of the year!

Green tech finds: Wildlife goes virtual, Farmville gets real

Assembly lines rolling out the Focus Electric: Think Nissan’s the only game in town for a true electric vehicle? Not anymore: Ford’s started production of its 2012 Focus Electric in Michigan. (via @edbegleyjr)

Ranger Rick comes to the iPhone: Your kids bug you to play games on your smartphone? The National Wildlife Federation has created a way to make sure they’re learning something. The new Ranger Rick mobile apps provide games for kids as young as 2 (yes, 2!) to sharpen their knowledge about wild animals.

On feminism, high school and sex — and what Occupy can teach us about all three

Illustration via ROOKIE MAG

“It’s not easy, in this world, to learn how to navigate our anger and attraction, to learn how to be strong, sexual women and kind, gentle men.” This is a quote from our friend Michelle Chihara’s essay, “Pieces of the Past,” published this week on her blog This Blue Angel. On the surface this essay is a response, a clarification of sorts, to an essay the filmmaker Miranda July — Michelle’s former high school classmate — published on the teen website Rookie, about what she calls her feminist action, twenty years ago. But at its heart Michelle’s essay is about feminism, activism, sympathy, motherhood, adulthood, sex, sexuality… you know, the little things.

Let’s rewind a little: Miranda July’s essay describes how a boy at their high school made an announcement in assembly: “Someone spilled their Coke on my BMW. If this happens again I’m going to be forced to sue for damages. Keep your hands off my car.” In other words, he was a rich asshole — either that or he did a pretty good impression of one.

This week on GWLBWLB: Cops and crushes

A night in jail, a girl-on-gay-boy crush and ripped men in Santa speedos…well, it’s all in a day’s work down in Nashville. This week’s GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS is one part Law and Order and two parts Christmas cheer.

The kids are alright: raising LGBT kids in a world without angst

The world was touched by the Boston Globe article about a family’s love for their transgender child as they braved unknown challenges that resulted in small but powerful local change, validating budding medical practices, and proving America’s love of family is alive and well. Young people are becoming more honest about their sexuality and identities earlier in life, almost eradicating the rite of passage known as coming out of the closet. The Internet, along with the media’s portrayal of characters that experience this angst-ridden niche, provides a voice to young people drowning in a pool of isolated depression—so thank you, gay-liberal-Hollywood-mafia agenda. Having parents that are brave enough to accept what they do not understand, or never expected, from their children can have a positive effect on everyone involved. This is not an isolated phenomenon, rather a beautiful example of our emo-world in the 21st Century.

Michael Cera and Shannyn Sossamon return to Sundance with END OF LOVE

One of the best features of the Sundance Film Festival are the actors who made trips there early in their careers…and come back again even when they could be resting on their mainstream, Hollywood laurels. Mark Webber’s END OF LOVE is one of those films that brings some of those festival faves back to Park City. Michael Cera (PAPER HEARTS), Amanda Seyfried (ALPHA DOG), Jason Ritter (THE DRY LAND), and Shannyn Sossamon (WRISTCUTTERS) join Webber on screen for the story of a young father struggling with the death of his son’s mother.

Like hard-hitting journalism? Make sure we see more of it

There are a million places to get your news these days. But when it comes to those really big investigations (you know, the ones that actually change things), we’re dealing with fewer and fewer options. That’s where ProPublica comes in, the independent, non-profit newsroom partners with news outlets to do real, serious investigative journalism. And they need your support.

Sundance Institute announces films for Sundance Film Festival USA on Jan. 26

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today the films from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival that will screen in independent theaters in nine different cities around the country. The screenings are part of Sundance Film Festival USA, a program designed to bring the Festival experience to film-loving audiences nationwide. The 2012 Sundance Film Festival takes place January 19 through 29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

On January 26, the second Thursday of the Sundance Film Festival, nine filmmakers will each travel from Utah to one of the following cities: Ann Arbor, MI; Boston, MA; Brooklyn, NY; Chicago, IL; Houston, TX; Nashville, TN; Orlando, FL; San Francisco, CA; and Tucson, AZ. Their travel is courtesy of Official Airline Sponsor Southwest Airlines. In each city, the filmmaker will introduce and screen their film and participate in a Q&A with the audience. A video featuring highlights from this year’s Sundance Film Festival will precede each screening.

The Sundance Film Festival USA initiative was established in 2010.

You can pry the steering wheel out of Chevy Volt owners cold, dead hands (despite fiery rumors)

Heard about the Chevy Volt fires? Seems like you’re most likely to answer “yes” to that question if a) you’re a true car geek, or b) you get your news from right-leaning media. Conservative commentators have latched onto news about fires in two of the vehicles after test crashes as proof of everything from the immaturity of the battery technology to logical outcome of government investment in the auto industry. In response, General Motors has not only worked closely with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on its preliminary investigation, but also offered Volt owners loaner cars and even buy-backs to address potential concerns.

Haikus everywhere, 5-7-5 all around, you just read one here

Over the past year or so I’ve observed haikus, that “less is more” form of Japanese poetry, making a quiet stealthy encroachment and presence upon online pop culture through a variety of means. Some of these I’ve mentioned around these SUNfiltered parts, which makes me wonder whether we’re witnessing an emergence of haikus and a comeback for the genre of poems in general back into something possibly more mainstream or at the least “meme-stream.” I had written earlier about a reader of the New York Times online edition who has gained some small measure of fame for his comments left in limerick form. The best recent example of the merging of pop culture with poetry occurred when Salman Rushdie tweeted his thoughts on the Kim Kardashian divorce in limerick form. In fact, the latest issue of New York Magazine’s Intelligencer focused on the poets or at least on the tough economic realities of that noble profession (Walt Whitman had a second job as a government clerk). If you’re not convinced of my thesis on the pop emergence of poems, but specifically haikus, I turn your attention to the following exhibits.

ADDICTION INCORPORATED is sssssmokin’

When I was a pale young thing growing up in Brooklyn, cigarettes were extremely alluring. Movie stars glamorously smoked them on the big screen, people elegantly puffed away on them in airplanes, and classy New York restaurants saw chain smoking as the height of sophistication. Taking my cue from all the hype, I once snuck into the cellar as a kid and took two hits off a Parliament I’d gotten my hands on, then filled the room with Wizard to make sure there was no trace left of my incredibly intoxicating indiscretion. All while coughing and choking my guts out.

Jump ahead a whole bunch of decades and it’s lucky I never had an addictive personality because I haven’t touched a cigarette since then, and by now that kind of thing would be considered the devil’s work! It’s unhealthy, uncouth, and all around unpopular.

Gay or straight: Abuse is never OK

Brent’s struggles after getting out of an abusive relationship have been a big theme on this season of GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS. If you, or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, the Anti-Violence Project is here to help. Abuse is never OK, but it happens –- one out of every [...]

GIRLS have issues: Dig deep with Jared and Tenisha

Issues, issues, issues! This Nashville cast sure has a lot of them. It’s always interesting to hear your bestie define your biggest issue. It’s rarely the one you assign to yourself, is it?

My hopes for HBO’s “Girls”

HBO’s teaser trailer for Lena Dunham’s upcoming series Girls proves that everybody on television is having sex.

If that sounds too broad for you, let me put it another way—every girl on television and living in New York City is having sex. It might not be attractive or pretty or without use of the word ‘lube,’ but it’s something that is happening. In fact, it’s probably better television fare if it’s kind of gross. Gritty and unattractive are the new ‘honest’—like Kristen Wiig’s sex scene in BRIDESMAIDS or all the dark jokes in 2 Broke Girls. Sex has returned to its rightful place in the bottom of the gutter, and most female-centric comedies this season aren’t afraid to lay in it. It’s clear that the Sex and The City look-at-all-of-my-pretty-shoes-Lady is dead, only to be replaced by a vintage dress-wearing version who can’t stop rolling her eyes. She’s your new girl of the moment, and she’s certainly prevalent in Girls. She’s poor. She’s in charge of her sexual prowess but barely in charge of everything else, including her flailing limbs. No, I’m kidding, she’s not really in charge of anything because he’s not calling her back.

Naked news: Islamic cleric bans women from touching bananas, et al

• In “I Can’t Believe It’s Not a Joke” news, an Islamic cleric bans women from touching bananas and cucumbers to avoid them having sexual thoughts.
  
  
• Mint.com’s “page not available” page has a kinda funny personal ad.
  
  

Go behind the scenes, and into the art, for Air’s PAINTED LOVE

There probably isn’t any contemporary pop act as intrinsically tied to the cinema and the French electronic duo Air. From their collaboration with Sophia Coppola on THE VIRGIN SUICIDES to their recent reimagining of the 1902 Georges Méliès classic LE VOYAGES DANS LE LUNE , they’ve challenged the constraints of the movie soundtrack. Now they’ve teamed up with Cartier and the NYC-based directors collective Waverly for the short film PAINTED LOVE.

A Republican primary style guide

Art plays an important role in society. It is a cultural mirror, a telling portrayal of some of our more irrational or eccentric tendencies. We appreciate the perspective it provides, but it’s always more entertaining when life imitates art, as was the case with Rick Perry’s latest presidential commercial. Tricky Ricky asserts that openly gay military personnel are the latest abuse of separation of church and state. Meanwhile, he’s dressed as Ennis Del Mar, America’s tragic man crush. Guess Rick went to the loo during the thirty-second guy on guy love scene in Brokeback Mountain. What else could explain his sartorial choice? No matter, the look works for him. Here’s a quick style guide for a few of the other 2012 Republican contenders. Lights, camera, and all that jazz.

Keystone XL and jobs: just more pipe dreams

Photo credit: EcoWatch

This week the GOP leadership, once again, has sided with Big Oil against the will of the American people. They are trying to circumvent President Obama’s decision to further investigate the impacts of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. GOP leadership is instead advocating for granting the permit now, or else they will hold up important legislation meant to benefit real people’s real lives.

They want you to believe it’s about jobs, but that’s not what the facts bear out. Just take a look.

Five other Republican primary ads you should be watching

We all know about Rick Perry’s slaughter on human decency–now the most unliked video on Youtube. I hope every time he talks about gay people in the American Military a gay man gets married to somebody he loves. But Rick Perry’s not the only person running ridiculous ads in the Republican primaries. Sure, they might not be as outwardly as homophobic, but it still terrifies me that these people could become president (well, except Herman Cain–how we miss him). Oh, hell, it scares me that these videos were even made in the first place! Here are five of the best:

And you thought your last date was bad

Sometimes you have to date someone for months before the crazy comes out. And then other times, you receive a 1,600 word email after a disastrous first date that accuses you of leading the person on because you played with your hair, you made a lot of eye contact, and you said “Nice to meet you” at the end of the evening. We’re going to have to rethink our first-date advice now, because we’ve always told people that if you’re not planning on calling someone, then don’t say “I’ll call you” and never call — instead just say, at the end of the date, “It was nice to meet you,” and leave it at that. We figured that was the international standard for, “Have a nice life.” Apparently one investment banker didn’t get the memo.

Of course, this 1,600 word email could be a fake. (Backstory: “Lauren” went to the Philharmonic alone, met “Mike” there, and they went on one date, after which she didn’t return his calls, so he Googled her email address and sent her the below letter.) But we’ve received thousand of emails over the years from people who are sad/mad/heartbroken/crazy about love — and this one reads like real-life crazy to us. Here’s the letter in full — we’ll let you decide:

Top 10 Gay Friends to Have

Hey, it doesn’t matter what ‘type’ of gay guy you have in your life. If you love him because he’s the smartest guy you know, or because he’s the most loyal friend you’ve ever had, or just because he always shows you a good time. He’s the buddy in your life you can count on, no matter what category he fits into.

We’ve got our favorite Top 10 Gay Friends to Have.