Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Venice Home Wins “Greenest House” in the US Award

Venice Home Wins “Greenest House” in the US Award

A remodeled 1912 Craftsman’s cottage on Brooks Street will be awarded on Thursday for most “Outstanding Single Family Project” at an international green building conference.
The home is 52 percent more efficient than the average California home and collects 8,000 gallons of rainwater with two cisterns. Many materials were recycled from the old structure, like the original 2x4s in the walls that were used to build an open bookshelf and staircase.
The Venice house, located at 539 Brooks St. achieved LEED Platinum, the highest rating in green building. The approximately 2,000-square-foot house features a storm water collection system, a native drought-tolerant garden and solar panels. Isabelle Duvivier is the home’s owner and architect.
Other winners include the Place of the Hidden Waters Community Longhouse, a housing project on the Puyallup Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest that incorporates native designs with sustainable features.
The U.S. Green Building Council, the organization that developed LEED certification, a green-rating system, will bestow the prizes on seven winners at its international conference held in San Francisco this week.

Adorable Baby Panda at San Diego Zoo Finally Has a Name!

Adorable Baby Panda at San Diego Zoo Finally Has a Name!

Adorable Baby Panda at San Diego Zoo Finally Has a Name!

At long last, that fuzzy, ticklish, utterly adorable male baby panda born at the San Diego Zoo has a name!

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Monday, November 12, 2012

Santana’s Supernatural was 1999’s most surprisingly successful album

This album was good times...


Santana’s Supernatural was 1999’s most surprisingly successful album



In We’re No. 1, Steven Hyden examines an album that went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts to get to the heart of what it means to be popular in pop music, and how that concept has changed over the years. In this installment, he covers Santana’s Supernatural, which went to No. 1 on October 30, 1999, where it stayed for three weeks, on January 22, 2000, where it stayed for three weeks, and February 26, 2000, where it stayed for six weeks. 

It’s a given that transience is a major component of popularity in pop music. This is not only perfectly okay, but it’s pretty much how it’s supposed to work. Part of the fun of a hit song is that it’s designed to be enjoyed right now, instantly, so that it might come to define the moment. Whether “Gangnam Style” is ...

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Stanley Kubrick: 5 fond memories

Stanley Kubrick: 5 fond memories

Anthony Breznican shares great stories told at Academy salute to director by Malcolm McDowell, more


Microsoft Is Setting Up Shop Venice Beach

Watch Out, Google: Microsoft Is Setting Up Shop Venice Beach

Watch Out, Google: Microsoft Is Setting Up Shop Venice Beach

Microsoft is setting up offices in Venice Beach, and their new digs will put them pretty close to Google's Venice outpost.

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Great Movie: Mulholland Dr. (2001)

Sure, now's a fine time to look back at how awesome this movie is...


Great Movie: Mulholland Dr. (2001)

It's well known that David Lynch's "Mulholland Dr." was assembled from the remains of a cancelled TV series, with the addition of some additional footage filmed later. That may be taken by some viewers as a way to explain the film's fractured structure and lack of continuity. I think it's a delusion to imagine a "complete" film lurking somewhere in Lynch's mind — a ghostly Director's Cut that exists only in his original intentions. The film is openly dreamlike, and like most dreams it moves uncertainly down a path with many turnings.


The Hunger

DVD: Watch This: The Hunger

The Hunger

Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by a piece of pop culture coming out that week. This week: Twilight: Breaking Dawn—Part 2 has us thinking of vampire alternatives. 
The Hunger (1983) Cinematic vampires did the glam thing long before Twilight’s Edward Cullen came along with his diamond-sparkly skin and tousled hair. In The Hunger, Catherine Deneuve is a vampire and David Bowie is her blood-sucking, century-old consort, and they live a happy predatory life together in a glitzy ’80s paradise of Bauhaus concerts, blown-out hairspray helmets, and hard-edged Robert Palmer aesthetics. Then Bowie starts to age rapidly, and Deneuve admits that his connection to her could only keep him young and beautiful so long. As he panics and looks for a solution, she discards him and replaces him with new lover Susan Sarandon. As Sarandon says in The Hunger’s commentary track, this was back when ...

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'Flying' Sharks and Angry Birds Invade Miami

Heh... me


'Flying' Sharks and Angry Birds Invade Miami

Flying a homemade blender airplane is no different than riding a bicycle, but it's a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes. And the "flying" machines that competed in Red Bull's crazy contest can only loosely be called aircraft.


8-Bit Pixel Art Inspires Geeky Kitchen Gear

8-Bit Pixel Art Inspires Geeky Kitchen Gear

Cameron Oehler learned about woodworking from his cabinet maker father, but also has a deeply ingrained passion for video games and digital culture. Luckily, he found a way to dovetail his two interests and started a company called "1337 Motif" that combines old world craftsmanship with pop culture icons.



Mar Vista Community Council Seeks Input for Welcome Sign

Mar Vista Community Council Seeks Input for Welcome SignLarchmont Village sign

Mar Vista residents are invited to submit design proposals for a monument sign that will welcome visitors to Mar Vista.
A “Welcome to Mar Vista” sign, similar to those in Larchmont Village and Valley Village will be placed somewhere on Venice Boulevard.
The funds for this project come from a $100,000 grant that Councilman Bill Rosendahl secured for streetscape beautification. Part of the funds have already been used for projects such as redesigning two medians on either side of Grand Boulevard and to pressure-wash sidewalks from Beethoven Street to Berryman Avenue on both north and south sides.
Those wishing to give their input on sign design can stop by the Mar Vista Community Council booth at the farmers market in Mar Vista on this Saturday and next, or email info@marvista.org

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