SOPA Blackout Day is in full swing, with Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing, and other Internet giants blacking out entirely and thousands of other sites — including Flavorpill — creatively demonstrating their solidarity. (We hope you agree that censor bars aren’t a great look for us.) There’s also been something of a backlash against the online outpouring of opposition to SOPA and its Senate counterpart PIPA, from the usual suspects in Washington as well as groups like the MPAA, who sent this nasty note about the protests.
But not everyone in the entertainment industry supports SOPA. Stop the Wall, a site that you can also use to make a quick and easy phone call to your senator about the legislation, has posted an open letter to Washington from a group of artists that includes Aziz Ansari, Trent Reznor, The Lonely Island, MGMT, Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, Troma honcho Lloyd Kaufman, and many others. “As creative professionals, we experience copyright infringement on a very personal level,” they write, but they don’t support SOPA because they “have benefited immensely from a free and open Internet.” Read the full letter after the jump, and then, if you haven’t already, get on the phone with your representatives to add your voice to the anti-SOPA chorus.
Whatever your stance on animal rights or the ethics of eating meat, you can’t deny that this is a bold, beautiful, and rather ingenious way of getting a vegetarian message across. This demonstration, put into action by Spanish animal rights group AnimaNaturalis, put a plateful of living human into the busy streets of Barcelona, flanked by clothed accomplices who held up a banner reading “How Much Cruelty Can You Swallow?” While the use of sexy, naked females to sell something, whether product or idea, isn’t the least bit new, we think the presentation in this case is quite striking. See the full photo (which may be slightly NSFW), and watch a video of the demonstration after the jump. Read More »
We obviously love gift guides and giveaways as much as the next blog, but we also try to be conscientiously good and helpful every once in awhile. That’s why we’ve teamed up with the Food Bank for NYC to launch the 12 Days of Giving, a series of “virtual food drives.” Thanks to the Food Bank’s wholesale purchasing power and distribution model, a gift made here doubles or even triples the amount of food your dollar could provide at the grocery store.
Here’s where you come in: To make it interesting, we decided to turn it into a friendly competition, to see which NYC media company could rally its readers, staff, and users to do the most good. Help us take down our friends from Thrillist, BlackBook, Curbed/Eater/Racked, The Observer, Nerve, The L Magazine, VYou, and Gotham Magazine, while feeding some of 1.3 million hungry here in New York City. Donate right herethrough December 24, and then give yourself a pat on the back and go back to enjoying top 10 lists.
All kinds of artists and celebrities have gone public with their support for Occupy Wall Street in the past few months, and yet it still comes as something of a surprise to us that Lou Reed has become a vocal part of the movement — not because it clashes with his politics, but because he’s never exactly been a joiner. We noticed his name on the Occupy Musicians petition that launched recently, and last night he and Laurie Anderson showed up at OWS’s Lincoln Center protest, where Philip Glass also spoke. Using the People’s Mic, Reed expressed his solidarity: “I was born in Brooklyn, and I’ve never been more ashamed than to see the barricades tonight. The police are our army. I want to be friends with them. And I wanna occupy Wall Street. I support it.” Hear the whole speech, courtesy of @Newyorkist, after the jump.
Today is World AIDS Day. In honor of the annual event — and the 30th anniversary of the discovery of the HIV virus — our friends over at GOOD have put together an in-depth look at our decades-long battle with the disease. The good news? Public awareness and rates of treatment have increased, while both AIDS related-deaths and discrimination against people with HIV are currently on the decline. The bad: We’ve still got a long way to go before we win this fight. Visit their website to view a larger version of the infographic, and if you’re in New York, consider checking out tonight’s free screening of Untitled — a collaborative project between artist Jim Hodges and filmmakers Encke King and Carlos Marques da Cruz that looks at the early years of the epidemic — at the IFC Center. (Find information on additional free screenings happening nationwide here.)
Cooper Union is going to reduce St. Mark’s Bookshop’s rent by $2,500 a month for the next year and offer the store some financial counseling. The East Village shop previously requested a $5,000 rent reduction, but Manhattan borough president Scott M. Stringer “tried to split the difference.” The NYC landmark store has been open since 1977, and its financial woes prompted an outpouring of support from lit lovers and the local community. Staff layoffs and salary cuts weren’t enough to help things stay afloat — thanks to the cruddy economy and rise in e-book sales. Petitions for a rent concession attracted the attention of the media, which helped bookshop’s cause, but owners are not hiring back employees at this time as things remain “fragile.” The positive side here is that community efforts such as this really can make a difference, and the iconic shop is safe for now. Still, go buy some books.
There are a lot of stereotypes floating around about the people who support the Occupy Wall Street movement, such as, they’re all a bunch of extreme leftist hippies or angry, unemployed college grads. Using online survey data compiled by business intelligence analyst Harrison Schultz and Professor Hector R. Cordero-Guzman from the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, Fast Company has created an infographic that looks at the age, gender, race, political affiliation, educational background, and income of recent visitors to occupywallst.org — which is the closest thing the self-described leaderless resistance movement has to an official website. Click through to examine their somewhat surprising findings about its virtual supporters.
So far, Occupy Wall Street has been getting all the celebrity visits. (You heard, didn’t you, that Russell Brand and his wife, what’s-her-name, visited Zuccotti Park with Russell Simmons over the weekend?) But did you know that, over a week ago, the guy who inspired The Dude from The Big Lebowski made a trip to Occupy Los Angeles over a week ago? As Slate reports, Jeff Dowd seemed to be enjoying himself there, and had a lot to say about America’s shift from a “production-based” to a “financially based” economy. He also found time to praise the late Steve Jobs, because “what the guy stood for was making things.” (Never mind that many of these things ended up being made in China.) Watch the dude preach for a solid 11 minutes after the jump.
We just came across a video of John Waters describing the moment he knew he was gay over on Boing Boing, and as today just happens to be National Coming Out Day, we thought that we’d share it with you. In the clip, the cult filmmaker also candidly describes his thoughts about the term “coming out,” wonders if gay people sometimes lose their sense of humor by being too politically correct (something he certainly can never be accused of),reveals that people have rarely asked him about his sexuality, and lets us know that gay is not enough — but it’s a good start. If we could all be as comfortable with ourselves as he is, the world would be a better, happier place. Watch John Waters being John Waters past the break.
Amongst the attendees at Occupy Wall Street over the last week or so, there’s been at least one… well, we don’t like to use the word “celebrity”, but if you follow Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo on Twitter, you’ll know he’s been an enthusiastic supporter and documenter of the ongoing protests in Zuccotti Square in New York City. He was there again yesterday as the protest moved to Washington Square, and spent most of the day uploading candid shots of protesters to Instagram. Ranaldo’s a man we admire for many reasons — apart from his enduringly innovative guitar work, he’s a poet, visual artist, and genuinely lovely guy. It turns out he’s also a dab hand with the camera on his smartphone — check out some of his photos from yesterday after the jump.
