Shooting People: Shooting From The Hip

Lester Bangs loses a cassette

Ingrid — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:11:21 +0000

I’m not just posting other people’s letters because I’m too lazy to write my own stuff. Honest. These letters are just so damn great!

Mick Jagger writes to Andy Warhol

Ingrid — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:30:37 +0000

Blog Action Day on Climate Change

Ingrid — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:08:33 +0000

There is something called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean, an island of rubbish roughly the size of Texas. This is the stuff that keeps me awake at night and turns me into a self-righteous pain in the ass during the day. I’ve started to pay more attention to the crap I throw away and it’s a lot. I feel like I live fairly lightly but I’m also a New Yorker. I like my coffee to go and I buy a lot of shit that is produced so cheaply the actual costs are disguised and there is usually too much packaging involved to boot. I recently bought a copy of the The Urban Homestead but living in a rented apartment with absolutely no outdoor space makes keeping chickens a little problematic.

Despite the lack of chickens I believe that the choices we make as individuals are hugely important and make a real difference so I am going to continue on my path of occasional hypocrisy, frequent sanctimony and absolute joy (swapping the subway for a bicycle!)

But we also need to come together to find solutions as communities which is why initiatives like Blog Action Day (which is today – hence this post!) and 350.0rg’s International Day of Climate Action are such a good idea. And we need to pressure our governments to make the really big policy changes. I’m heartily behind Gandhi’s “be the change you want to see in the world” but I’m pragmatic enough to realise that all my recycling and urban homesteading won’t amount to a hill of beans if governments don’t take action too. That’s why I’ve added my name to the Tck Tck Tck campaign.

I’m really not interested in yet more arguments about the scientific proof for global warming. Texas-sized islands of trash in the Pacific are SCARY and WRONG. We are not living sustainably on this planet and it’s going to bite us on the bum sooner or later. I’d rather err on the side of change and take action now.

Yours piously (but I stand by it),
Ingrid

UPDATE: You can also sign your name to the 10:10 campaign to cut emissions by 10% in 2010.

Obvious Child – a sweet short film (that happens to feature an abortion)

Ingrid — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:18:48 +0000

I really like this short. It’s so refreshing to see a film where an abortion is only as big of a deal as it needs to be and is dealt with head on, unlike in Juno and Knocked Up (I know I’m not the first person to reference these two films but it would be remiss not to since there were both so popular and both so much about NOT getting an abortion). Obvious Child is a little (ok a lot) hipster-tastic and that boy is just too damn nice but director Gillian Robespierre and the writers are my new heros. There’s something joyful about it, in it’s lack of judgment and acknowledgment of reality (strange that this should feel so surprising really). The film is posted below or you can click through to Vimeo to watch it BIGGER.

Obvious Child from Gillian Robespierre on Vimeo.

The Real and the Imaginary

Ingrid — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:29:46 +0000

Saturday in Brooklyn.

On Your Dick Van Dyke!

Ingrid — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:58:16 +0000

Dick Van Dyke = Bike!

I was so inspired by the bicycle culture in Copenhagen when I was there in July that I have been riding everywhere since I got back to New York. It doesn’t feel quite as safe here and it is definitely extra scary without health insurance (I’d like a public option please Mr Obama!) but it has truly changed my life. I’ve explored more of the city this Summer than ever before and my daily commute to work is no longer a chore but a fun bike ride. We’ll see how that changes in the Winter but right now I’m loving my ride over the Williamsburg Bridge every day.

It’s so great that NYC is making such strides to improve bike routes. I’ve really noticed the change and apparently more people are cycling here now. I just wish the lanes were wide enough, and on every street, so that you could cycle around safely with your kids or bags on a beautiful Christiania bike. Anyway, I’m relishing the improvements and loving the annual Summer Streets.

Thanks Transportation Alternatives for all the great work you do to make the streets nicer and the city better!

The great Christiania bike:

The Pedersen bike:

The Sögreni Classic (I am obsessed by Sögreni – such beautiful design):

Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story

Ingrid — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:00:13 +0000

Below is the trailer for Michael Moore’s new film Capitalism: A Love Story, coming to theaters October 2nd. I am curious to see this but agree with people who say that it seems somewhat dated and that perhaps now would be a much better time for Sicko instead. Was Sicko released too early and Capitalism too late?

NASA wrote back!

Ingrid — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:49:35 +0000

A few months back we wrote to NASA telling them what films our members thought should be on the International Space Station. We suggested they swapped Man on Fire for Man on Wire; that they replaced Harold and Kumar with Harold and Maude. And here’s the thing: they wrote back to tell us what they thought! Scroll down to read Mr James Mullighan’s original letter to them, it’s quite funny.

NASA_response_letter

How capitalism killed narrative and how to grow new ones

Ingrid — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:54:59 +0000

Great keynote from Douglas Rushkoff at DIY Days, held in Philadelphia on August 1st. You can watch a few other videos from the day on diydays.com. I also recommend watching Esther Robinson’s talk for some good, passionate advice on surviving as an artist.

More Wild Things

Ingrid — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:35:00 +0000

Another trailer for Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are.

Cannot. Wait.