Americana::: the pink flamingo is now an endangered species?

"The pink flamingo, the ubiquitous plastic bird whose natural habitat is the front lawns of America, is about to become an endangered species. After 49 years, and twenty million sales, the company that produces them is going out of business. The proud bird started its life in Florida and soon migrated across North America. From its lowly status as a garden joke, it became a "combination of all we know--kitsch, history, simplicity and elegance", according to a university professor. The famous bird originated from a picture in National Geographic; and its creator, Donald Featherstone, can still be sighted, sporting a shirt with you-know-whats on it. For all frantic birdwatchers: a note of hope: Wal-Mart sells 250,000 a year, and there may still be some left there." :: VIA

Miss E meets the S-O-V

Pitchfolk Magazine just posted yesterday a free mp3 of Lady Sovereign ft. Missy Elliott - Love Me or Hate Me (Remix) You can check it out
here.

::VIA:: Wooster Collective :: Map of Legal Walls

"Each and every week for the last four years, we receive at least ten or twelve extremely sincere and passionate emails from concerned parents, progressive teachers, and young kids themselves. They all are inspired by the Wooster site and want to reach out to us to ask advice on one simple thing - how they can get involved in street art and graffiti without having to do it illegally and risk arrest.

Our feelings about this is a bit of a complex thing for us, because we've actually come to think that street art has to be done illegally for it to have any true impact. But more on this later.

And yet, we also recognize that not everyone who reads the Wooster site is at a stage in their life that they can or want to risk arrest. Nor do we want to encourage it. So unfortunately, the only advice we're really able to give teachers and parents is - "try to find out if there are some legal walls in your neighborhood"

So we were absolutely thrilled to get an email this week from Jay, who's taken it upon himself to put together the ultimate interactive map which highlights all of the legal walls across the US.

But to do this he needs your help.

Here writes:

"I had been thinking about doing this for public skate parks. When I started searching for them I found out there are so many skate parks EVERYWHERE, it blew my mind. I don't know when exactly it happened, but even suburbia has embraced skate board culture enough to plop a rinky dink skate park on top of some old tennis court or in the back of a mall parking lot. When I started searching for info on legal graf walls, I found nothing initially. After about 3 hours of hardcore digging I have 8 walls listed. Pretty weak. I'd like to know why America has embraced skate board culture and not graf culture, where both are viewed as destructive youth movements by the general population."

Sara and I would love for as many people as possible to contribute to this map as it will become an invaluable resource for many, many people." ::VIA

You can check out the map and contribute by clicking here.

Paint- Sony's latest Bravia spot

"By now we’ve all seen the awe-inspiring Sony Bravia commercial, Bouncy Balls, that sent 250,000 multi-coloured ’superballs’ bouncing down the streets of San Francisco. The beautiful mood was set by guitarist José Gonalez– we’ve come to know and love his debut Album ‘Veneer’, and subsequent mashups. The latest TV ad simply called ‘Paint‘, directed by Jonathan Glazer (Radiohead, Jamiroquai), features massive paint explosions which took 10 days and 250 people to film. Like the Bouncy Balls spot, this commercial is truly inspiring. After the filming it took 5 days and 60 people to clean up every drop of paint– good thing it was a special non-toxic water-based blend which was easy to scrape-up once the water evaporated."

::via

More on The Critical Mass - A Sustainable Dance Club

DIY Eco-Friendly Paint

"The latest issue of Mother Earth News has a great DIY article on making eco-friendly paint from mostly common materials: flour, linseed oil, and nonfat milk. Great idea if those colors in the paint store aren't doing it for you, or the retail eco-friendly paints are beyond your budget."

"October/November issue yesterday. The issue, as usual, is chock-full of good stuff, from easy solar power to composting basics to an excerpt from the book An Inconvenient Truth. The article that really caught my eye, perhaps because of the poor shape of my front porch, was on do-it-yourself eco-friendly paints. We're all aware that standard house paint is full of nasty chemicals that off-gas into our homes, and eco-friendly options (I've used Benjamin Moore's) tend to be fairly pricey. Depending on what you're looking to paint, you may not have to go much further than your kitchen or basement to find materials. According to article author Bill Steen,

"If you'd like to create a warm and inviting living space, consider using homemade, eco-friendly paints. Using natural materials is a great way to bring the outdoors in, and they're easier on your home because they can allow painted surfaces to release moisture naturally. ...

Many DIYers are choosing instead to make their own paint. Creating your own paint is considerably less expensive and can be an extremely satisfying endeavor for anyone whose goal is self-reliance. Mixing your own paint is sometimes the only way to achieve a specific color or effect. In fact, natural paints offer unique finishes very different from those of manufactured products." - Bill Steen

The article contains recipes for paints suitable for just about any job, inside or out. Materials range from flour to linseed oil to nonfat milk. I suppose I found this article kind of cool because I think this is project that falls within my own skill range; if you're a little nervous about making your paints from scratch, Steen also lists a range of companies that sell cleaner, greener alternatives to the standard fare." ::VIA

"Sing Songs Along" Tilly and the Wall Video

Tilly and the Wall music video, featuring hipster zombies monster mashing and cranky civilians getting down!

Two Gallants - Attacked, Tasered, Arrested ... At Their Own Show!

"An indie rock show descended into chaos Friday night in Houston, Texas, when a police officer investigating a noise complaint at the club Walter's on Washington allegedly attacked the band Two Gallants and its fans. According to various sources, Adam Stephens, singer/guitarist for the Saddle Creek two-piece, was shot with officer G.M. Rodriguez's Taser gun, as were the band's tour manager and two audience members--one, a 14-year-old boy. Two Gallants drummer Tyson Vogel and vocalist/guitarist Andrew Kerwin of opening band Trainwreck Riders were arrested.

Accounts vary as to the exact sequence of events. The Houston Chronicle reports Houston Police Department Sgt. Nate McDuell as saying that Rodriguez "approached management about the noise complaint, filed by a neighbor, and the volume was turned down-- but that as the officer was leaving, the volume went back up." The officer then took the stage and confronted Stephens. Stephens "then used a sexual obscenity and shoved the officer with his shoulder," according to McDuell.

Stephens told the Chronicle "that is 'absolutely' not what happened. Stephens said he was sideways and singing on the stage just before he turned around and saw the officer, who then shined a flashlight at him and said, 'Stop.'

"Stephens, who denied shoving the officer, said he responded, 'Why?' He said the officer moved closer to him and yelled, 'Stop!' Stephens said he again asked why and that the officer then grabbed him by the neck and forced him to the floor."

(above photo was taken by an audience member and is of the officer tackling both Tyson and Adam at the same time)

Since when does a single officer take it upon himself to stop a show? This is absolutely incredible and I can't think of anything else to say at this point. Tyson and Adam are friends from San Francisco, so I just hope that they're alright after this disgusting incident." ::VIA

DIY pipe organ

David Pescovitz: When Matthias Wandel took an introductory music class in college, he was inspired to learn piano. He couldn't afford to buy a Casio keyboard to practice on, so instead he built his own pipe organ from scratch. He started by building two wooden pipes in his dad's workshop and mounted those on a vacuum cleaner motor as the pump. He had to insulate the motor in a foam-paced box to make the noise tolerable. Eventually, the vacuum motor burned out and he replaced it with a much more durable precision blower from a surplus auto part shop. From Wandel's build notes:

After the vacuum cleaner motor died, I was very lucky to find a 1/12'th Hp motor and precision blower at Princes Auto (A surplus store), for a grand total of $20. I used a scroundged O-ring as a belt, and adapted the paper feed pulley from an old teletype by sanding an indentation into it for the O-ring to run in. The pulley on the blower also needed modifications, so I removed the shaft and cut a groove for the O-ring into it on a metal lathe in the student machine shop at the University.

This combination I placed in the box I had built of 2" planks. The combination was so quiet that its noise became a total non-issue. At about the same time the real vacuum cleaner we were using in the house died, and I was able to reuse the bearings from that motor to fix our actual vacuum cleaner. ::VIA
/VIA boing boing

The Sustainable Dance Club

"The idea of green clubbing may seem like an oxymoron, but on October 14, environmental NGO Enviu and architectural firm Döll will host an event at Rotterdam's Off_Corso to present their concept (titled "The Critical Mass") of an environmentally responsible dance club. Among the features envisioned for the green club are energy-generating dance floors (see the video), toilets flushed with rainwater, walls that change color in response to temperature fluctuations, and a rooftop garden where clubbers can enjoy an organic beer with friends. Organisers, Enviu and Döll, believe the idea can not only lessen the environmental impact of an activity that's traditionally pretty unsustainable, but also build awareness among the young and hip." ::VIA

Get Down at ::The Critical Mass



Presentation of the Sustainable Dance Club in Rotterdam (NL). For more information, visit www.sustainablerotterdam.com

The Evolution Of Beauty

"The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty (bus-ads with pictures of beautiful, but heavy, or old, or off-average models) has posted a video called Evolution. It depicts an attractive -- but blemished and drab -- model being prepped for a bill-board, from the makeup to the photoshop. It's a very effective short film."

Here's a Quicktime of the video.




Reginald Pike's Tim Piper & Yael Staav take us from model to billboard in under 60 seconds in this impressive new spot from Dove.

Credits:

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto
Co-CCOs: Nancy Vonk & Janet Kestin
Production Company: Reginald Pike
Co-Directors: Tim Piper, Yael Staav
Music: Vapor Music, Toronto

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