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Art

Nostalgic Drawings of Strangers’ Mixtapes

By Alison Nastasi on

The heyday of mixtape trading has passed, but Portland artist Kate Bingaman-Burt has revived the vintage format in her drawings that we spotted on Beautiful/Decay. Several of the referenced cassettes were found at thrift shops for mere cents, which is a little depressing considering that most people slaved over their conceptual compilations to create a deeply personal selection of songs. (At least they did if they were us.) Other tapes were sent to the artist at her request. The notebook-style drawings capture every detail that tapeheads miss about the format — including the miniature spools that threatened to snap and unwind from overplaying. Feel all the nostalgic feelings in our gallery. … Read More

Film

The Most Controversial Moments at the Cannes Film Festival

By Alison Nastasi on

France’s Cannes Film Festival has seen its share of controversies since it started in 1946. Blame the Riviera sun or the filmmaking iconoclasts that gather on the red carpet each year, but various high jinks and bizarre publicity stunts have often dominated the festivities. Bold action isn’t always required to shake things up, however. Often times it’s just the movies themselves that cause a scene with audiences and the Cannes jury. With the current 66th annual festival underway, we wanted to take a look at ten of Cannes most controversial moments. … Read More

Pop Culture

Joy Division-Inspired Street Art Around the World

By Alison Nastasi on

Thirty-three years ago today we lost one of England’s finest, Ian Curtis. Despite Joy Division’s short career and the singer’s tragically fleeting life, the influence of the post-punk pioneers is unmistakable. Curtis may have immortalized himself in the most devastating way possible, but fans across the world have done so through various tributes — like the street art we’ve gathered for your perusal. Fragments of the band’s album art and Curtis’ own somber image add a ghostly, poetic resonance to the urban milieux — and while we’re rather exhausted with the bazillion Unknown Pleasures copycats, we’ll gladly make an exception for these black-and-white sound waves on this day. … Read More

New York

For Your Calendar: Cocktails, Pork, and Philip Glass

By Jason Diamond on

You know that summertime is closing in when you can’t keep track of all the things New York has to offer over a weekend. Thankfully that’s what we’re here for, and this weekend is full of so many great things, we had to boil it down to three that you really can’t miss. … Read More

Television

This Week’s Top 5 TV Moments

By Sarah Fonder on

There are scores of TV shows out there, with dozens of new episodes each week, not to mention everything you can find on Hulu Plus, Netflix streaming, and HBO Go. How’s a viewer to keep up? To help you sort through all that television has to offer, we’re compiling the five best moments on TV each week. Season finales made this a particularly rich week for TV, and this round sees the end of The Office, the long-awaited reveal of the mother on How I Met Your Mother, and a New Girl cameo from Taylor Swift. … Read More

New York

Flavorwire’s Throwing a Party in New York With Blondes, Shams, and Teengirl Fantasy

By Tom Hawking on

We’re having a party! If you’re in NYC on Tuesday night, head along to The DL on Delancey St for #AFK, which is hosted by Silent Drape Runners and co-presented by Internet Week and our friends at Ad Hoc. The lineup is pretty ace — there’ll be DJ sets from… Read More

Music

The 10 Best Songs We Heard This Week: The National, Solange

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means we’re preparing for the inaugural Flavorwire staff trivia contest (really), and also that we are, as ever, rounding up the best songs we’ve heard this week. This week we adored new tracks from Liars, Julianna Barwick, and Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, marveled at the fact that Giorgio Moroder is soundtracking a Google Chrome racing game, enjoyed atmospheric goodness from oOoOO and When Saints Go Machine, got all morose with another new track from The National, and plenty more. All this goodness is streaming now, and it all awaits you after the jump. … Read More

Television

The 10 Best Sitcom Finales in TV History

By Jason Bailey on

Last night, NBC brought down the curtain on The Office in rather a lovely fashion, with a series finale that was warm, nostalgic, and plenty funny. Bringing a long-running sitcom to a close is a tricky bit of business (how ya doin’, Roseanne), but The Office joins a handful of shows that have done it very, very well. Here are some other examples. … Read More

Music

The 10 Most Gloriously Ridiculous Eurovision Entries of Our Time

By Tom Hawking on

Tomorrow is the final of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, that quintessentially European event wherein a curious selection of pop stars, comedians, and oddballs from around the continent compete to submit the most absurd pop song of the year for the glory of King/Queen/Secular President and country. The contest is generally surreal, hilarious, and as camp as a tent city, and this year isn’t any different. In honor of the perennially amusing event — and because you could surely use some silliness to help you through Friday afternoon — here are some of the most gloriously ridiculous Eurovision entrants of our time. … Read More

Books

Flavorwire Exclusive: Norman Lock on His Favorite Short Story

By Emily Temple on

The short story can be a magical thing. It’s a breath, a moment, a captured mood — or an entire teeming world packed into a few pages. Maybe, if it’s really great, it’s both. The only trouble with short stories is that not enough people read them. So, in a series to celebrate Short Story Month (and help you add to your reading list), Flavorwire is asking some contemporary masters of the form to talk about the short stories they love. In this installment, virtuosic fabulist Norman Lock, whose newest collection Love Among the Particles hit shelves this month, tells us about his literary love of the moment. … Read More