Sundance Channel

Trend of elaborate marriage proposals. Stop!

Matthew Rodriguez — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:22:03 +0000

Meme Proposal | Tim * Audrey from Crazy Monkey Studio on Vimeo.

One of my closest friends proposed to his girlfriend over the weekend. He did it neatly and simply. There was a time when a guy was ready to propose to his future wife, it was relatively simple for most: a walk somewhere or maybe at the restaurant of their first date, drop to your knee like Tim Tebow and bust out the ring. But nowadays, thanks to the Internet, some of the more creative fellas out there with their elaborate videos are starting to set people's expectations of the proposal, to paraphrase Jimmy McMillan, too damn high!

Vintage missed connections

Matthew Rodriguez — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:01:41 +0000

I've previously mentioned the enjoyment I get from Craigslist's Missed Connections, the forever alone (meme definition here) corner of the Internet. It seems that New Yorkers' desire to seek out the stranger who caught their eye is timeless, as evidenced by these missed connections submitted and published back in an 1872 when our existence was a mere glimmer in the eyes of our great, great grandparents (yup, I just put that image in your heads)...

Museum of Broken Relationships

Matthew Rodriguez — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:58:49 +0000

Croatian artists Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić developed "Museum of Broken Relationship s," 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."

THE ORGASM DIARIES and more love and sex in film

Em and Lo — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:00:34 +0000

We noticed something called THE ORGASM DIARIES is playing on The Sundance Channel this Saturday at midnight. Sounds like a documentary, right? Turns out it's a British indie film from last year about a couple who's private naughty photographs become pornographic art-world hits, which turns their relationship upside down. Knowing that, the title becomes a bit more dubious. But Indiewire said it "captures the essence of young love." It gets a 50-50 rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which sounds a lot less damning when you realize that's only out of 8 reviews. Could be a fine late-night alternative to Skinemax...?

Wedding photos from New York’s first day of legal gay marriage

Em and Lo — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:00:05 +0000

Our photographer friend David Jacobs (he took our deceptively flattering bio pic) was hired by Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization, to document New York's first day of legal gay marriage this past Monday at Manhattan's City Hall. HRC will soon have more on their site, but for now here's a round-up of the day's events by their National Field Director, Marty Rouse. And below is our friend Dave's take on events (he's not gay, but he's married and does rock the occasional pink shirt with flare), followed by more of his cool photos of the happy couples.

Great short film made with smartphone

Matthew Rodriguez — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 22:00:56 +0000

Splitscreen: A Love Story from JW Griffiths on Vimeo. SPLITSCREEN: A LOVE STORY, a short film directed by JW Griffiths, which has gone rapidly viral in the past week, was the winner of the Nokia Shorts competition 2011. As the film’s title suggests, it has a cute romantic story, however I was even more blown [...]

Love letters to VS Naipaul

Em and Lo — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:00:32 +0000

A few weeks ago we apprised you of the ridiculous and offensive comments made by Nobel laureate and jackass VS Naipaul -- basically that all women writers are 'sentimental' and 'unequal to me'. There have been some great reactions to that old-fashioned fart's blatant sexism. The latest is writer Joanne Elizabeth Valin's new blog, Love Letters to VS Naipaul: "On the occasion of his declaration that no woman writer is, has been, or ever could be his equal." She's currently collecting and curating "intelligent letters with intelligent content. Be they spiked with vitriol, awash with sentiment, amused to the point of disbelief, or simply bored with the same old argument, your love letters should both inform and entertain." The first just went up by author Edie Meidav (whose new novel Lola, California we'll be excerpting here in the next few weeks) and more will be added soon. We asked Valin to elaborate on the criteria for submissions that will make the cut:

The Lover’s Dictionary

Em and Lo — Mon, 23 May 2011 17:00:50 +0000

The nameless narrator of David Levithan's novel The Lover's Dictionary narrates his relationship in the form of dictionary definitions of words, from aberrant to zenith. Some definitions are a page long, others just a sentence. Which makes it sound gimmicky and cute and Twitterific, but this book is anything but. It's moving, hilarious, heartbreaking and smart. It's also something of a guessing game, because the definitions leap back and forth across the span of the relationship. This book is a poignant reminder that words can say everything and nothing -- and the same goes for the spaces and the pauses between them. Levithan's is a spare tale and yet it feels universal, especially because the narrator addresses his partner as a nameless, gender-less "you." But enough with all this wordiness, let's just show you what we mean with a few of our favorite entries:

Who will love your pets when you’ve been lifted up to Heaven?

Em and Lo — Thu, 19 May 2011 17:00:05 +0000

As we’re sure you know, the Rapture is this Saturday, May 21st, 2011. You know, the day when good Christians like you (we’re assuming) who’ve accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior will be physically lifted up to Heaven. All your atheist, Muslim, Jewish and pagan friends will be left behind to fend for [...]

7 personality types to avoid when you’re dating

Em and Lo — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:00:58 +0000

In a world of Facebook "likes" and online dating questionnaires that seem to narrow down the soul-mate search to a simple (and yet oh so witty!) checklist of wants and needs, it's easy to focus on the superficial ways in which we do or don't connect with each other. And granted, that stuff can make or break a first date, and can be indicative of a long-term connection. We both love darts! He's got a flat butt too! Another unabashed Miley Cyrus fan?! Still, superficial connections have a tendency to mask bedsheet-sized red flags. Like, oh, say, the fact that your date is a raging narcissist. So we turned to Gordon Livingston, M.D., author of the book How to Love: Choosing Well at Every Stage of Life, and asked him to weigh on the, well, weightier issues. Specifically, seven personality types that you should avoid in your search for Mr./Ms. Right. Even if said Mr./Ms. performs the best damn air guitar solo you've ever seen. 1. The Self-Absorbed Hysteric These so-called “histrionic” people often describe themselves as “passionate and emotional.” Their primary drive is to be the center of attention. Their self-absorption and superficiality make it hard for them to engage in the give and take of healthy relationships. Danger signals that one is in the presence of a self-absorbed “hysteric” include shallowness and a more or less constant need to be the focus of attention. It is just very hard for them to get beyond their own needs to consider their obligations to others, even their own children.

12 months of neon love

Matthew Rodriguez — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:44:56 +0000

12 Months of Neon Love is an ongoing art installation that started on Valentine’s Day this year by Victoria Lucas and Richard William Wheater. The artists explain: A sequence of twelve quotes will be presented over twelve months in large red neon text. Visible from the railway, the work will be erected on the roof [...]

I Love You But…

Em and Lo — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:23:53 +0000

Girlfriend & boyfriend Alex Holder and Ross Neil are both artists and creatives in advertising. Last year, they launched their online picture book about relationships, LoveYouBut.com. It focuses on "the moment in a relationship when you realise you don't love someone completely, because there is one little thing that keeps bothering you. When it bothers you so much it actually makes you cringe, you know it's time to say 'I love you but...'" There are 59 portraits (drawn by Neil) of people who are the targets of various "I love you but" lines, like "I love you but you can't say I love you back" or "I love you but you put ketchup on everything." On her calling card site, Holder says LoveYouBut.com has been read all over the world and is inexplicably big in Brazil. We wanted to know more, so we asked:

Supermoon this Saturday

Em and Lo — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:00:56 +0000

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore! So brace yourself for love this Saturday night (March 19th) when, according to Space.com, “the moon will swing around Earth more closely than it has in the past 18 years, lighting up the night sky from just 221,567 miles (356,577 kilometers) away.” [...]

Love is binary, and other parenting myths

Em and Lo — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:00:42 +0000

If you’re a faithful reader of SUNfiltered, then you know we love us a good Ted Talk. So we were thrilled to discover that the two of us were in one! Well, just a fleeting picture of us, but we’ll take what we can get. Our old boss, Nerve.com-founder Rufus Griscom, went on to found [...]

Movie theater trailer marriage proposals

Em and Lo — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:00:33 +0000

The 21st century's answer to the skywriting marriage proposal is turning out to be the movie theater trailer proposal, with production values and costs ever increasing. In 2008, there was the simple surprise by the nerdy boyfriend, followed by the more complicated yet similarly unwatchable airplane disaster trailer that same year, and the open love letter with the ear-shattering Kenny-G soundtrack in 2009 (here's the in-theater reaction).

Love & sex in YA lit: THE COMPLICATED

Em and Lo — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:00:17 +0000

Our friends, Em & Nora (who we like to call “Em & No”), recently launched a site for grown-ups about young adult literature called LoveYALit.com*, since (according to the New York Times) more and more people 18-and-over are enjoying books originally intended for the 18-and-under set. Of course, books about teens, the most hormonal among us, often deal with issues of first romantic relationships and sexual awakenings -- and reading them as adults can emotionally transport us back to our own teenage years, when those things were really new and exciting, dramatic and traumatic. So we asked Em & Nora to give us a sampling of the good, the bad and the complicated of YA love and sex. We published the good and the bad earlier, here's the complicated:

Love & sex in YA lit: THE GOOD

Em and Lo — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:00:11 +0000

Our friends, Em & Nora (who we like to call “Em & No”), recently launched a site for grown-ups about young adult literature called LoveYALit.com*, since (according to the New York Times) more and more people 18-and-over are enjoying books originally intended for the 18-and-under set. Of course, books about teens, the most hormonal among us, often deal with issues of first romantic relationships and sexual awakenings -- and reading them as adults can emotionally transport us back to our own teenage years, when those things were really new and exciting, dramatic and traumatic. So we asked Em & Nora to give us a sampling of the good, the bad and the complicated of YA love and sex. First, the good (then tune in over the next two Thursdays for the bad and the complicated): THE GOOD: Proponents of abstinence-only education may not approve, but there are several literary examples of young adults having empowering, exciting, safe sex as well as healthy, loving relationships with their bodies and their partners.

Forever... by Judy Blume (1975) -- The Blume classic of a girl who discovers her sexuality and -- get this -- finds it pleasurable! Afterwards, there are no disturbing or negative consequences; she’s not punished in any way. She simply comes to the mature realization that high school relationships aren’t forever. Amazingly (and unfortunately), there is nothing else like this in YA lit.

New Banksy

Matthew Rodriguez — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:34:01 +0000

A slightly saccharine piece by Banksy. View two other brand spankin’ new works by him over at Wooster Collective. Relatedly, last week I came across an interview he gave the Sun and was struck by this quote: “But maybe all art is about just trying to live on for a bit. I mean, they say [...]

The power of teenage love

Em and Lo — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:00:05 +0000

We both went to high school in New Jersey (just a few towns away from each other, it turns out). During those late 80s days, Lo fell in love and had sex within a loving, committed, romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Em remained a virgin and sometimes ate her lunch in the bathroom. We both ended up excelling in high school, engaging in many extra-curricular activities, and going to well-respected universities.

Baltimore Love Project

Matthew Rodriguez — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:50:45 +0000

Baltimore artist Michael Owen created the above design of four silhouette hands spelling out “love.” It has since been painted on 20 different walls all through Baltimore as the “Baltimore Love Project.” The artist explains: This project is not intended to change the world. However, we know that these murals have the power to inspire [...]

Top 10 summer love movies

Em and Lo — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:00:52 +0000

1. Body Heat 2. Adventureland Eight more after the jump!

Geekiest marriage proposal ever

Em and Lo — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:00:28 +0000

Warning: only hardcore nerds — or those with a soft spot for hardcore nerds — will find this YouTube footage touching. It goes on for a while, you can’t quite see what’s going on, and there’s no climactic applause and shouts of congratulations at the end. But with a little background info, it becomes more [...]

How to make your love life green and sustainable

Em and Lo — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:00:18 +0000

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day coming up tomorrow, April 22nd, we had a chat with Stefanie Iris Weiss about her new book Eco Sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make Your Love Life Sustainable. How does going green improve your sex life? If your sex life has gone stale, greening it up instantly relights the spark. Green is healthy, and being healthy automatically grants you a superior sex life. You'll have more stamina, a heightened libido, a slim, sexy body. What could be better? How can you make dating more green? When prepping for a date, use paraben-free products made from USDA-certified organic ingredients, or even better, go DIY and make your own. When it comes to the traditional dinner date, choose restaurants that serve locally grown, organic, sustainable and fair-trade food. Try a vegan or vegetarian restaurant or a homemade feast of raw or vegan food to seduce your lover. And when you're on your way to meet your date, opt for public transportation, bike, or walk to your rendezvous point. Leave the car at home -- you can find a new version of the back seat if you get that far.

Top 10 Romantic Movies

Perrin Drumm — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:51:54 +0000

Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in ROMANCING THE STONE.

When I started asking around about what people's favorite romantic movies were there was a lot of overlapping, but not one person mentioned any - not a single one - from my personal top 10 list, so I felt obliged to share them here (in no particular order) and see if there were any takers. 1. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989) What's more lovable than Meg Ryan in her adorable late 80s/early 90s phase? The answer is Meg Ryan side by side in an unexpected romantic duo with Billy Crystal. Who can forget her orgasmic experience at Katz's Deli? This movie proves that sleeping with your friend doesn't necessarily mean the end of your relationship. 2. BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961) Holly Golightly may not have found love in the Truman Capote original, but in the hands of screenwriter George Axelrod (THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES, to name a few) she not only finds love but looks fabulous doing it.

The Puma Hardchorus

Em and Lo — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:00:50 +0000

“They want to be in your arms. You want to be in the stands. What do you do when Valentine’s Day falls on game day?” That’s the tagline for Puma’s genius ad campaign, The Puma Hardchorus, which allows hardcore soccer fans to dedicate and send a video of Savage Garden’s 1997 song “Truly Madly Deeply” [...]

Famous New York valentines

Matthew Rodriguez — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:44:41 +0000

The New York Times collected some valentines written by or to famous New Yorkers. They are quite touching and eloquent, especially the poem that E.B. White wrote to his wife, Katharine Sergeant White. A former New Yorker editor, “in a penciled notation, Katharine recognized it as a rondeau, a French lyrical poem with an unusual [...]

Sundance Film Festival’s Top 10 Lessons in Young Love

Em and Lo — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:00:12 +0000

Last week we covered the best love lessons that people could learn from Sundance Festival movies. But kids are people, too -- people with raging hormones and tendencies toward the melodramatic and a whole hell of a lot of ignorance thanks to abstinence-only education. So this week we're looking at the best movies for romantic advice for the after-school-special set:

Adventureland: Sex in a car is never as private as you think it is. Neither is sex with a married man.
American Teen: When you're in the cool clique in high school, life is totally like a chick flick. Even when you're not cool, life is still sometimes like a chick flick. But in real life, the jock is always going to dump the rebel punk filmmaker for the ditzy cheerleader. Bring on college!

Sundance Film Festival’s Top 10 Lessons in Love

Em and Lo — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:00:01 +0000

The movies are a great place to learn about life, including your love life. Let the characters in these ten Sundance Festival films make the big dating and mating mistakes so you don't have to:

Once: Sometimes the best love affairs are the ones you never have (i.e. the fantasy is often better than the reality).
The Tao of Steve: In order to be successful with women, be desireless, be excellent, be gone.

Music Video: Land of Talk

Matthew Rodriguez — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:47:24 +0000

Canadian duo WeWereMonkeys weren’t monkeying around in this music video they directed for Land of Talk’s hauntingly wistful “It’s Okay.” The video’s contemplative concept seems to perfectly capture the song’s pensive pace in a surprising and visually gorgeous style. Excuse me now while I manfully wipe my tears away and blow my nose. WeWereMonkeys: Land [...]

Top 10 reasons why the First Marriage totally rocks our world

Em and Lo — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:00:22 +0000

photo by cliff1066

The cover story in this weekend's New York Times Magazine is about the First Marriage. It's both inspiring and a little chastening -- let's see you be President or First Lady and still rock hot monogamy like that. And also a little terrifying -- how would we ever recover from an Obama divorce? We'd lose faith in the very institution of marriage! So please, Mr. and Mrs. Obama, hang in there, for us. Here are top 10 reasons why we think they will:

Dear Old Love…

Em and Lo — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:00:33 +0000

“Dear Old Love” is a Tumblr blog (celebrating its one-year anniversary) which collects short, anonymous notes to romantic interests both past and present, requited and unrequited. Reading them will crack you up/break your heart/make you wonder if they’re from your own S.O.s or exes: Tuned In — I hope you took acid this past weekend [...]

The love of Tan Hong Ming

Sundance Channel — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:12:44 +0000

Remember when being in love was simple? By internet standards, this video is prehistoric but too good and too cute not to share. Directed by acclaimed Malaysian director/writer/producer Yasmin Ahmad whose work is well-known for its humor, heart and love that crosses cultural barriers, this ad for Malaysian oil company Petronas was filmed for Malaysia’s [...]

Love and sex with robots: a vision from the 1920s

Lux Alptraum — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:13:51 +0000

David Levy’s Love and Sex with Robots may have hit the shelves just a few years ago, but the idea of love and sex with robots is hardly a new one. Even as far back as the 1920′s, people were envisioning a future in which robots–or “automatic men”–would be available to tend to the needs [...]

Books: American Parent

Em and Lo — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:00:28 +0000

Sam Apple just came out with his second memoir (after Schlepping Through the Alps) called American Parent. From it, we learned that The Lamaze Method was created by Stalinists and based on false science that was forced upon the Soviet scientific community because the government couldn't afford pain relief drugs for women in labor. He swears that's true! Anyway, here's a sweet (and sick, if you think about it for too long) excerpt about how his love for his newborn was like a romantic crush...

Talk dirty to me–in Japanese.

Lux Alptraum — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:43:52 +0000

Is your pillow talk growing stale? Do you long for some new phrases to spice up your conversations between the sheets? Why not add a little Japanese flavor to your carnal acts?

GARY, a short animated film

Matthew Rodriguez — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:43:59 +0000

An animated French short by by Clément Soulmagnon, Yann Benedi, Sébastien Eballard & Quentin Chaillet with a kind of wonderful and magical story. Gary from Gary on Vimeo.

How f’ing romantic

Em and Lo — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:00:57 +0000

comic by Dani Lurie This is what the internet is for: How Fucking Romantic is a brand new, wicked cool blog that’s illustrating the Magnetic Fields album “69 Love Songs,” one by one: We are a loose collection of mostly London-based comic-artists, illustrators and writers, who have grown up listening to the Magnetic Fields and [...]

Patrick Hughes, SIGNS

Matthew Rodriguez — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:32:42 +0000

A short film by Patrick Hughes for the Schweppes Short Film Festival, SIGNS falls a tad on the saccharine side, but it still left me smiling–reassuring me that yes, a love match can be found even when stuck in the rote, routine of life within the isolating habitat of a corporate cubicle. Another takeaway: always [...]

Cassidy Loves Moby: Online Mini-series

Sundance Channel — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:00:00 +0000

CASSIDY LOVES MOBY is a series of four short films starring Moby and a curvy plastic Barbie-type doll that falls in love with him at the Sundance Film Festival. The films were shot on location at Sundance ’08, where Moby appeared and performed with his band “The Little Death.”

Green Invigorates Your Lifestyle

Sundance Channel — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Making your daily habits more sustainable can require a lot of effort. It is important to get help whenever and wherever you can, because most people are willing to make the effort if they can find the right guidance. Lets assume somebody is interested in having a green wedding. That person could use potted plants [...]