Flavorwire

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

Caroline Stanley — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:00:53 +0000

Today at Flavorpill, we were blown away by Seth Casteel’s awesome underwater dog photography. We met the oldest thing in the world. We watched Daniel Radcliffe pick up right where Ralph Fiennes left off with the Harry Potter erotic fan fiction. We appreciated Maura Johnston’s handy guide on how not to write about female musicians. We were oddly touched by Chris Gerringer’s illustration of the Hulk and Kermit the Frog bonding over their shared greenness. We wondered how Russell Brand feels about the little smiley face that Katy Perry drew on their divorce papers. We couldn’t believe that it has already been a year since Rebecca Black unleashed her “Friday” virus upon the world. We predicted that Blue Ivy Carter™ champagne will sell like hotcakes. We got 10 tips for writing from advertising big wig and original “Mad Man” David Olgivy. We fell madly in love with the polka dot nails on the Kate Spade presentation. And finally, we decided that Ben Schwartz totally got robbed by Andrew Garfield. Jean-Ralphio was obviously meant to be our next Spider-Man.

Surreal Street-Art Notes Are the Best Things You’ll Read All Day

Judy Berman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:30:14 +0000

Lost pets. Stoop sales. Guitar teachers for hire. Noise complaints from neighbors. And that just about covers the kinds of notes we tend to see posted in public places. But art conspirators Jody Barton and Luke Pommersheim are gleefully disrupting that dull tradition with their own set of notices, printed on plain, white paper and taped up in Copenhagen. Each message makes a surreal request — “While stripping off wallpaper in my new apartment, I found a tiny door. I can only get my head through but it seems to lead to some sort of ‘kasbar’ or Moroccan haberdashers. There is incense and silks. Are you small (and nimble) — less than 150 cm? We’ll share the spoils” — and then directs the reader to show up in a given place at a set time. Click through to see the notes, and let us know what you think will become of anyone who takes Barton and Pommersheim up on their invitaitons in the comments.

Image credit: Jody Barton and Luke Pommersheim [Spotted via Booooooom]

Ayn Rand’s Definition of Love

Judy Berman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:00:27 +0000

Ayn Rand’s interminable novels function best as catalogs of her own boldly individualist philosophy. So it’s no surprise that, in The Fountainhead, the creator of Objectivism offered her thoughts on love: “To say ‘I love you’ one must first know how to say the ‘I.’” (She also published a book called The Romantic Manifesto, but that was a collection of essays about art.) This directive wasn’t enough for one reader, who asked the author for an explanation and received a letter in response. “The meaning of the ‘I’ is an independent, self-sufficient entity that does not exist for the sake of any other person,” Rand wrote. “A person who exists only for the sake of his loved one is not an independent entity, but a spiritual parasite. The love of a parasite is worth nothing.” So, that’s how Ayn Rand feels about love. Not something most of us would think to plaster on a homemade Valentine, but not particularly shocking, either. If you’re interested in hearing more of her thoughts on romance, read the entire missive at Letters of Note.

Dark Hearts: A Witch House Valentine’s Day Mix

Russ Marshalek — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:30:20 +0000

It’s a simple fact: Valentine’s Day can get a little cloying. Even if you’re happily ensconced in a hand-holding, cuddle-snuggling, shrugs ‘n’ sighs sort of relationship, the singing teddy bears and candy can all get to be a bit much. That’s why, inspired by some deliciously moody and truly romantic (though not in the sense you may expect) new records from the likes of Berlin’s o F F Love and Flavorpill’s SXSW 2011 showcase standout Nite Jewel, we’ve crafted a mix of deep, dark love songs to get you in a more devilish Valentine’s mood. Owing more to the day’s roots as Lupercalia, the Ancient Roman fertility holiday, than the greeting card-bait February 14th we know too well, this is a mix of heart-crushing slow burners. Naturally, the playlist even ventures into the more “adult” side of love a few times. Whether you enjoy this music alone or with pleasurable company, a lot of red wine’s suggested.

Dark He▲rts by russmarshalek

Track list:

o F F Love — “Be Around You”
Nite Jewel — “No I Don’t”
Chelsea Wolfe — “Tracks (Tall Bodies)”
oOoOO + Butterclock — “NoWayBack”
Holy Other — “Touch”
Kristin Hersh — “Me & My Charms (Russ’s Completely Honest version)”
Zambri — “From The Starts”
Pictureplane — “Trancegender (Adeptus Remixxx)”
Depeche Mode — “In Your Room”

If you’re in New York and up for more twisted love songs, join your author and Vaura/Religious To Damn’s Joshua Strawn playing a full night of “Dark Hearts” at Veronica People’s Club in Brooklyn on 2/29.

Exploring Multiple Time Dimensions in the Streets of New York City

Caroline Stanley — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:00:01 +0000

Most urban dwellers have pretty set routines — there’s a certain path we take to the train each day, a specific spot where we wait on the subway platform, a coffee cart we stop at where we know the bagels are always good. But have you ever been walking down the sidewalk, and suddenly felt a bit disjointed — like you were a few steps ahead or behind of schedule? A new series by New York City-based photographer John Clang captures this feeling using a montage of images snapped moments apart in the same location.

“Working on this series, I explore how time moves in this seemingly static urban space,” he explains. “The people become the moving energy flowing through this space, marking the changes, forming the time.” There’s also a Sliding Doors-element at work: “We may have a ‘life’ that exists similarly on a different path, one minute before or after the one we’re living now. We merely just exist in this current dimension, and sometimes when time paths collide, we have déjà vu experience.” Travel around town (and the space-time continuum) in a slideshow of select images from Clang’s series after the jump.

Time (Times Square). Image credit: John Clang. [Spotted via iGNANT]

15 Sublime Pink Buildings

Claire Cottrell — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:30:30 +0000

With a certain day right around the corner, our hearts are aflutter with all things sugary and sweet. So, when we stumbled across this unidentified candy-coated building, we couldn’t help but wonder what other delights might be out there.

More commonly associated with Pepto Bismol, Papermate erasers, and bubblegum, the color pink isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when we think of divine architecture, but the psychological properties of the hue actually make it an obvious choice for the built environment. Prison holding cells are painted pink to reduce erratic behavior. Sports teams paint the opposing teams’ locker room pink to keep the players passive and make them less energetic. Pastries taste better when they come out of pink boxes. With that, it’s only fitting that the soothing, romantic color has been used on buildings to jaw-dropping effect that we think is nothing short of poetic.

Here’s our survey of the the world’s greatest built confections. Let us know in the comments what you think of adding a little more pink to our world.

Image credits: Villa Hermina on the outskirts of Cernín, Prague by hsh architects via designboom

Trailer Park: Of Spies and Spider-Men

Jason Bailey — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:00:11 +0000

Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. We’ve got eight new trailers for your Friday viewing enjoyment; check ‘em all out after the jump.

Osombie

It’s only February, but it’s already been a very good year for utterly insane exploitation movie trailers. First we had FDR: American Badass!, with the New Deal president hunting down the Nazi werewolves that gave him polio; then came the space Nazi epic Iron Sky. And now we have Osombie, in which an undead Osama Bin Laden comes out of the sea to lead a zombie apocalypse in Afghanistan. Tasteful, eh? But that’s not the problem (neither of the earlier trailers were exactly models of tact and restraint). The problem is, once the premise is explained, there are not actual laughs in this teaser; most of it plays as some kind of straight-up action thriller. Maybe they’re just exhibiting their poker face, or the joke of the film is that the action clichés are trotted out in service of a ridiculous story. But whatever the case, we were a lot more interested in this movie before we saw any of it.

The Famous Artworks Matchmaking Game

Marina Galperina — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:30:34 +0000

Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and some of us here at Flavorpill are feeling silly. Or, you know, nauseated and glum. Sigh. So, what are we going to do? We’re going to play the Famous Artworks Matchmaking Game! Yay! Remember when you were kid and you’d smack your Barbie and Gumby together and pretend they were a couple? It’s like that. We’re pairing up the classic, contemporary, and pop culture works of art — and their subjects — that we think should go on a date and have a nice time together. Feel free to rain on our silly love parade in the comments section. We realize that it could be quite cathartic this time of year.

Ah, Leonardo da Vinci’s mysterious Mona Lisa and her famously confounding facial expression. Clearly, a gal like this would torture any normal beau into madness. Is it a half smile or a half frown? Huh?!!… Let her meet her match in Rene Magritte’s surrealistic gent from Not To Be Reproduced. Now that’s a poker face! Let’s pluck them out of their respective centuries and let them intrigue one another.

Watch Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Adorable ACLU Cartoon

Caroline Stanley — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:00:25 +0000

The relationship between law enforcement and those looking to document the Occupy Movement has been strained at best, and we’ve all heard horror stories about photographers getting roughed up and pepper-sprayed, having their cameras seized, and even being arrested for shooting footage that certain people don’t want the world to see. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the Gregory Brothers, and the ACLU want you to know your constitutional rights as a photographer this election season, and they’ve made a short film on the topic that features an animated Benjamin Franklin as your guide. Let’s all take a look, shall we?

[via ANIMAL]

10 Wonderful Love Stories Told in Unconventional Ways

Emily Temple — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:31:09 +0000

Valentine’s Day is approaching, and if you’re like us, you’re feeling a little bogged down by all the red hearts and pink balloons — not to mention the swooning romantic novels popping up everywhere. If you’re feeling like a love story on this most ruddy of holidays, but looking for something a little different, we’ve got you covered. Click through for our list of our favorite unconventional love stories — told through diagrams, musical notation or some other interesting format — and let us know if we’ve left off your favorite in the comments.

Schematics: a Love Story, Julian Hibbard

A love story told in geometric diagrams paired with simple, searching lines of prose and all printed on black cardboard, this book probes at how elemental and enormous love can feel, as well as how minute and specific. As David LaRocca writes in the afterword, “Schematics operates simultaneously on two distinctive registers: the deeply personal (a love story between the narrator and the objects of his affection, desire, and confusion) and the profoundly anonymous (a love story within matter — subject to gravity, magnetism, genetics, mechanics, electricity, and the space-time continuum.”