As stated in an earlier post Sundance Channel this month is all about Bruce Weber, the iconic American filmmaker and photographer. And while we love Weber’s images of perfect naked men, it is his iconic video for “Being Boring” by the British pop duo Pet Shop Boys that many a gay adores. I also happened upon this interesting website dedicated entirely to the song and video.
So it is rather timely that we let you know that the Pet Shop Boys are on tour. Their live show must not be missed and begins its US leg on September 2. The setlist includes “Being Boring”, so Bruce Weber and PSB fans are both in luck.
Every now and then earth gets a little lonely, but on Tuesday this week people in Asia were able to turn around (with protected eyes) and view a total solar eclipse. Huffington Post collected some video recordings of this total solar eclipse, the longest of the twenty-first century. I found this video from Iwo Jima, Japan to be particularly breathtaking.
For this weekly entry, be sure to plug in your headphones or turn up your speakers. Here are five buzzy music videos circulating around the Internet that I found catchy and visually stimulating. Enjoy.
1. Popular mashup artist DJ Earworm’s latest includes Kanye’s “Heartless” and The Police, “Message in a Bottle,” as well as some others.
Hello there. I am Bradford Shellhammer and I am new around these parts.
While my fellow SUNfiltered bloggers have done a bang up job finding unique culture, film and music stories across the globe I intend to shake things up differently around here. I’m here to gay it up. Bedazzle the blog. Bring a disco beat. So in the spirit of Gay Pride Month (which lasts the whole month of June) I give you this YouTube video to set the mood. It is what we homos call a classic. It’s two naked French guys doing interpretive dance to Daft Punk. High art or pornography?
However you answer that question I know one thing: you’ll hit repeat.
Creative teaching, right? Not in Missoula County, Montana, where the school board responded to a parent’s complaint about the video’s “anti-capitalist” message with a decision that use of The Story of Stuff “violated its standards on bias.”
Mashable, the site devoted to coverage of the social-media industry, posted a cool report about SplashCast, a widget that adds revolutionary commenting capabilities to offerings from Hulu and other online video providers. It’s easy to add a comment to the discussion thread on, say, a YouTube page, but SplashCast, or “Social TV,” as they call it, is different.
How do you get a teenager thinking beyond angst, driving, and the Friday night dance? Officials in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, answered that question with “Give them a video camera and production tools.” The county’s “Rev Up Recycling” contest challenged student teams from area high schools to create public service videos on recycling.
The contest organizers announced winners last week; the video above, produced by students at Glen Burnie High School, took home the top honors. You can find other entries, including a rap video, a recycling romance, and a game show parody, at the county’s recycling program site (”Contests”> “TV Commercial Contests”).
In 2005, climate change activist and educator Bill McKibben asked “Where are the books? The poems? The plays? The goddamn operas?” on global warming. His point: the arts can engage us creatively and emotionally in the environmental challenges we face. Kudos to Anne Arundel county officials for attempting to stimulate students’ creativity… maybe these kids will start asking for hybrids, or even bicycles, for their 16th birthdays…
While watching television may not be a major part of your Earth Day plans, we do recommend you take a hour tomorrow to check out The Oprah Winfrey Show. THE GREEN’s Simran Sethi will be on to discuss how incorporating eco-friendly practices into your lifestyle can both help save the planet, and help save you money in these tough economic times. This topic isn’t just practical; it’s also one Simran’s focused on in multiple venues. Check out the interview below with The Green Collar Economy author (and Obama administration “green jobs czar”) Van Jones below for a preview of the ideas that will likely get some play tomorrow.
Of course, you can also check out Simran’s work right here at SundanceChannel.com. Her web series The Good Fight provides an inside look at environmental justice issues. You may find the segments on Greensburg, Kansas’ transformation into a green community particularly relevant, as the second anniversary of the tornado that destroyed the town is just around the corner. For more information on events marking the anniversary, check out Greensburg Greentown.
And don’t forget — if you’re watching TV tonight, don’t miss the premiere of the third season of THE GREEN.
The web team at the Sundance Channel is putting in some long hours getting The Green site ready for its third season (which launches on April 21st). Among the new web features: “H.2O,” a collection of animated shorts from artists around the world, interspersed with clips from the documentary FLOW: FOR THE LOVE OF WATER (which will also air on the 21st).
Billed as “the scariest movie at the Sundance Film Festival” by Wired, FLOW examines the world water crisis, and juxtaposes the diminishing supply of drinking water around the world with the increase in water privatization. With access to clean water shaping up as a major issue for the 21st century, this is a must-see film.
Check out “H.2O” by heading over to The Green and clicking on the button in the header (there’s also a tab directly above the video window). You can also learn more about FLOW by visiting the film’s official site. While on The Green site, check out some of the other new programming slated for this season, including ECO TRIP and CARBON COPS.
Watch a quietly captivating unofficial music video concept for the catchy single, Sabali from Malian duo Amadou & Mariam. Their hotly anticipated album Welcome to Mali was recently released stateside on March 24. You can stream the entire album on their website.
I’ll never look at two empty chairs the same way again!
