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Flavorwire

Books

20 Highbrow Books to Read on the Beach This Summer

By Emily Temple on
For even the most seasoned of book nerds, a trip to the beach can raise some difficult questions. After all, you don't... Read More

Photography

Minimalist Bauhaus-Style Food Photography

By Alison Nastasi on

No one did severe geometry, line, and form like the Bauhaus artists and architects. Co.Design introduced us to food stylist photographer Nicola Walsh, of studio Nicky&Max. She moved to Berlin and felt inspired to create her Bauhaus-style food photo series after a visit to the Bauhaus museum in the German capital. Bauhaus artist and professor László Moholy-Nagy was particularly inspiring to the artist. She married her love of beautifully plated food with the angular designs of the 20th-century collective. The economic, bold arrangements work surprisingly well with food — even unruly cocoa powder and eggs. See more beautiful Bauhaus-style food photos in our gallery. … Read More

Architecture

15 Beautiful Off-Grid Homes We’d Like to Live In

By Alison Nastasi on

The idea of eschewing electricity, running water, and the white picket fence is a terrifying prospect for the average American. Based on the number of modern off-grid homes in remote locations that rely on the sun and wind for energy, others clearly disagree. Earlier this week, we were charmed by an efficient, beautiful home located in the middle of a cornfield. We feature it past the break, along with other sustainable houses far from the rat race. These stunning, alternative abodes make a strong argument for unplugging and creating a green oasis away from it all. … Read More

Pop Culture

35 Things You Didn’t Know About Jim Henson

By Alison Nastasi on

It feels great to see the Muppets in movies again. The Muppets, the first theatrical release in 12 years for Jim Henson’s beloved characters, was a huge success. Next year, the Muppets return with Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais, Tom Hiddleston, and friends for The Muppets…Again!. The spirit of Henson’s extraordinary creations is alive and well. The famed puppeteer’s family just donated nearly 400 puppets, costumes, and other props to the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. The institution plans on opening a gallery devoted to Henson, who passed away in 1990, set to open in the winter of 2014-2015. We wanted to share our excitement over the news, so we created a list of fascinating facts and tidbits about Henson that reveal more about the man behind the Muppets — a kind, gentle, creative genius who brought his beautiful vision to life. … Read More

Television

This Week’s Top 5 TV Moments

By Marcus Hunter on

To keep you abreast of all that’s been happening on television–and there is so, so much–we’ve compiled five of the best moments featured this past week. This week emotions ran high, what with the literal high Jon Hamm and co. took on this week’s Mad Men, the emotional high we experienced on the Season Finale of ABC’s Scandal, as well as Kanye West’s polemic “New Slave” performance on SNL. … Read More

Film

15 Great Female Film Critics You Ought to Be Reading

By Jason Bailey on

So come to find out, there’s not just a shortage of women acting in movies and making them; we’re also seeing fewer and fewer women writing about them. A new study conducted by San Diego State professor Martha Lauzen of Rotten Tomatoes’ “Top Critics” found women were writing a mere 18% of reviews — down from a still-ugly 30% six years ago. It’s not a new issue, but disturbing nonetheless: yet another area of the film business in which female talent is going severely underused, a self-closing loop where more often than not, men make movies for men that men review. But there are a few voices in the wilderness — a handful of female critics for outlets big and small whose words are worth seeking out and savoring. (Note: these recommendations are limited to those who primarily focus on criticism, as opposed to news and blogging and so on.) … Read More

Music

The 10 Best Songs We Heard This Week: Boards of Canada, Talking Heads

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means everyone at Flavorwire central is getting pretty excited at the prospect of three whole days off, and also that it’s time to round up the best songs we’ve heard this week. This week there’s actual new music from Boards of Canada, a long-buried Talking Heads/Arthur Russell collaboration, new songs from Susanna (of Magical Orchestra renown), Cold Cave and Melvins, along with Scout Niblett deconstructing TLC, a whole mixtape from Inga Copeland, and plenty more. All this goodness is streaming now, and it all awaits you after the jump. Click through to listen! … Read More

Film

So Bad It’s Good: Vintage ’70s Cheese in ‘Avenging Disco Godfather’

By Jason Bailey on

Bad movies are not a simple matter. There are nearly as many categories of terrible movies are there are for great ones: there are films that are insultingly stupid (Batman & Robin), unintentionally funny (The Room), unintentionally, painfully unfunny (White Chicks), so bad they’re depressing (Transformers), and so on. But the most rewarding terrible movies are those we know as So Bad They’re Good — entertaining in their sheer incompetence, best braved in numbers, where the ham-fisted dramatics and tin-eared dialogue become fodder for years of random quotes and inside jokes. And in this spirit, Flavorwire brings you the latest installment in our monthly So Bad It’s Good feature: the anti-drug Blaxpoitation epic with cinema’s greatest title, Avenging Disco Godfather. … Read More

Television

The Extraordinary Liberace Deserves Better Than Textbook Gay Biopic ‘Behind the Candelabra’

By Tyler Coates on

“Too much of a good thing is wonderful,” announces Michael Douglas as Liberace as the entertainer, recently deceased, is lifted from a Las Vegas stage, surrounded by feathers, rhinestones, and shimmering lights. It’d be a believable line if Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, which premieres on HBO this Sunday, were actually any good. Unfortunately, the director’s self-described final film is a standard run-of-the-mill TV biopic: schlocky, formulaic, and cheap. The tackiness could be seen as fitting for a film about Liberace, but the performer would much rather go for diamonds than plastic and glass. … Read More

Television

The Most Hilariously Bizarre ‘Arrested Development’ Merch on Etsy

By Tom Hawking on

Arrested Development fans are busy counting down the hours until Season 4 premieres this Sunday at midnight on Netflix, and here at Flavorwire, we’re no different. So, we’re passing the time by declaring this Arrested Development Week, all leading up to a Recap-a-thon on Sunday, when our own Jason Bailey will review the whole season, episode by episode. Click here to follow our coverage.

Look, Flavorwire aren’t the only ones who are getting excited about the return of Arrested Development — to the surprise of absolutely no one, the good folk of Etsy have also been going batshit in the run-up to the premiere of Season Four on Netflix this Sunday. We’ve always been fascinated with the stuff that people make and sell to celebrate their cultural obsessions, so here’s a selection of the most weird and wonderful Arrested Development fan-made merch to be had. … Read More

Film

The Sad, Desperate Cruelty of ‘The Hangover Part III’

By Jason Bailey on

The best thing that can be said about The Hangover Part III is that it isn’t the beat-for-beat, scene-for-scene duplication of the original film that we got in The Hangover Part II, a film less sequel than mirthless remake. Not that co-writer/director Todd Phillips will admit to that film’s miserable artistic failure: “I think it’s human nature that any time people want to try something for a second time, people go to a negative,” he told Empire recently. “I think in five or ten years time, people will come to realize how brilliant Hangover II is… My feeling is that it’s the better movie of the two.” (Surely irrelevant side note: Mr. Phillips has a screenplay credit on the second film, but not the first.) But in that same interview, he explained how much darker the franchise was going this time around. “People die in this movie,” he bragged. “Nobody’s died in them before.” Wow, so edgy. … Read More