Month: March 2014
The New York Times has the story of Oscar Smith, a seven-year veteran of the NYPD’s scuba diving team who’s filed a discrimination complaint against the department for the racially motivated harassment he says he encountered while working. Smith, who is black, says his initial application to join the dive team was turned down because, according to the […]
In an effort to curb the amount of vandalism that visitors (and its citizens) have inflicted on the more ancient and popular sections of the Great Wall of China, officials have created a designated zone where people can etch and scrawl their names. “As many tourists like to carve words on buildings, we will develop […]
Earlier this year, artist John Michael Boling made an Emoji-based music video for Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Boring Angel” that we loved for the way it built emotional narrative with such a limited palette. This unofficial “Drunk In Love” clip from Austin artist Jesse Hill isn’t exactly that, but it is fun to see the lyrics […]
As if digital rights management technology wasn’t nefarious enough when applied to media, now it’s coming for your coffee. As TechDirt points out, Keurig’s next-generation hardware will be programmed to function only when used in tandem with its own proprietary software coffee, meaning competing brands and environmentally friendly fill-it-yourself pods for their ubiquitous single-serving coffee […]
Remixing a Biggie Smalls song by playing Tetris. Using a joystick to update a website’s design in real time. Playing Mario with a synthesizer. They sound like scenarios from some hacker fantasyland, but Providence-based artist Chris Novello has done them all. Novello works with a homebuilt device called illucia, which allows him to treat programs […]
Co-directors Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky’s beautiful new documentary film Watermark opens in New York on April 4th. Here’s the US trailer. At about 0:30, you will have feelings. You will see sweeping aerial shots of Colorado River’s barren desert delta in 5K ultra high-definition video. You will watch a construction time-lapse at the Xiluodu, the biggest arch dam in the […]
I was excited to see a press release in my inbox this morning announcing a new single from Parquet Courts, the best NYC band going in my book. It seems they’ve gone the Beck route, however, and are releasing new track “Sunbathing Animal” as sheet music and, for now, sheet music only. Things we know […]
The above minute-long spot for MarijuanaDoctors.com began airing yesterday on CNN, Comedy Central, The History Channel, and A&E in New Jersey, making it the first weed commercial to be shown on major U.S. TV networks. In it, a fast-talking faux drug dealer slings high quality raw fish in back alleys before a voice-over asks, “You wouldn’t […]
After a roadblock earlier this week, the march towards turning Williamsburg’s Domino Sugar factory into gleaming, futuristic high-rises will continue as planned. The stall came when Mayor de Blasio asked for more affordable housing units than the developers and Michael Bloomberg, de Blasio’s predecessor, had agreed upon. Under a new compromise, Two Trees, the development company, […]
Dorothy, Bedford-Stuyvesant. (Photo: Bucky Turco/ANIMALNewYork) […]
