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Flavorwire

Photography

Gorgeous Mosaic Portraits Made of Pushpins

By Tyler Coates on

Mosaics always offer a visual treat, and artist Eric Daigh adds a new spin by taking everyday office supplies — multicolored pushpins — to new heights with his collection of portraits. But while the images themselves are colorful and playful, the subjects depicted are not. “My subjects are imprisoned, diluted, marginalized,” Daigh says (via Faith is Torment).  ”Their escape, however, is imminent. Whether a symptom of corporate and social homogenization, or the four base pairs of DNA, we are products of just a small handful of variables. In five colors of plastic, you can be reproduced.” … Read More

Web

What’s On At Flavorwire: Links You Need to See

By Lillian Ruiz on

Imagine for a moment, a world in which Pete Campbell gets eaten by a bear. George Takei continues the best and cheekiest person on the internet. In case you weren’t already aware of the phenomenally insane tackiness of the Eurovision Song Contest, here’s a reminder. Speaking of insane, comedian Matt Clarke… Read More

New York

For Your Calendar: When The World Came To Queens

By Jason Diamond on

To know Queens is to truly love the borough. It isn’t Manhattan, and it doesn’t have the cool tag that Brooklyn has had latched onto it in the last decade, but anybody that has spent a good amount of time in the easternmost of the five boroughs knows about the great buildings, the wide array… Read More

Film

Despite the Hype, the ‘Fast/Furious’ Franchise Is Still Terrible

By Jason Bailey on

The original The Fast and the Furious, back in 2001, was a monumentally stupid summer throwaway in which handsome young Paul Walker and tough guy Vin Diesel did a lot of glaring and a lot of driving and a lot of growling. The plot was a warmed over Point Break retreat that existed solely as a clothesline upon which to hang the film’s many street racing scenes, where any displays of skill or suspense were undercut entirely by the laughable computer-assisted effects. The first sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, found Walker going solo (Diesel and director Rob Cohen had gone off to make the equally dense xXx) under the direction of once-promising hack John Singleton, and the film supplemented the dopiness of the original by amping up the misogyny. After that film, this viewer checked out; these movies were clearly not for me, and they could continue making them for the vroom-obsessed demo without my participation. … Read More

San Francisco

Maggie Mason Shares Her Life List and Encourages You to Make One, Too

By Bonnie Chan on

San Franciscan Maggie Mason is the founder of Mighty Girl, a popular lifestyle blog with hundreds of thousands of readers and a consistent ranking among Babble.com’s top blogs. She’s also a social media whiz and a hearty supporter of setting out to do the things you’ve always wanted to do — hence, the annual weekend retreat that she co-founded three years ago called Camp Mighty.

Every year at Camp Mighty, participants each bring a list of approximately 100 life goals and are given three days of support around making plans to accomplish them. There’s also a lineup of notable speakers to inspire greatness (past speakers have included Ben Silbermann, co-founder of Pinterest; Jennifer Lawson, the powerhouse blogger behind The Bloggess; and SF artist and illustrator Lisa Congdon) and workshops to provide guidance. Oh yeah, and it all happens at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. Sunshine and a swimming pool, anyone?

It goes without saying that Mason has been cultivating her own Mighty Life List and crossing things off, one big or small thing at a time, for years. As a nod to our local entrepreneur and dream-cultivator, we’ve compiled a few of our favorites of Mason’s goals — and some of the stories behind the ones she’s accomplished.

Now go make your life list.  … Read More

Television

Why Lucille Is the Best ‘Arrested Development’ Character

By Alison Herman 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. This piece is the part of a series of contributors’ essays in support of their favorite Bluth. Click here to follow our coverage.

The genius of Arrested Development is that every one of its central characters fills a very specific niche within the Bluth family; they are all, in a very real sense, irreplaceable. But unlike her children, grandchildren, or even her husband, it’s Lucille Bluth who makes the whole show possible. The truth is that Arrested Development simply couldn’t exist without her. … Read More

Music

Who’s Destroying the Music Industry? IRS Documents Reveal RIAA Executives Are Rewarded for Failure

By Tom Hawking on

Next time you hear the Recording Industry Association of America cry poor or make dire proclamations about the death of the music industry, keep this news article in mind. TorrentFreak has obtained copies of the RIAA’s IRS filing for 2011 — the most recent filing that has been released, as far as we… Read More

Books

What to Read to Fill the Void Left by Your Favorite TV Shows This Summer

By Chloe Pantazi on

As one television season comes to its inevitable end, and a number of our favorite shows have either finished for the summer (or for good) we’ve compiled a suggested reading list of books to binge on and fill the void of your favorite shows while we wait impatiently for them to return next season. Readers and television bingers alike, don’t forget to leave your suggestions in the comments. … Read More

Music

Flavorwire’s 50 Records You Need to Own, 1963-2013: A Spotify Playlist

By Tom Hawking on

Earlier this week Flavorwire nominated one album a year for the last five decades, compiling an epic list of 50 records that might constitute the ultimate record collection if you really only did buy one album a year. The post stirred some healthy (and, for the large part, pleasingly good-natured) discussion from readers, and also a couple of requests to put the whole thing together as a Spotify playlist. We’re only too happy to oblige, so after the jump you’ll find a track from every one of the records we chose (except, annoyingly, Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love — we subbed in a different Kate Bush track — and Joanna Newsom, who’s not on Spotify at all). … Read More

Television

Exclusive Supercut: All The ‘Arrested Development’ “Chicken” Dances

By Jason Bailey 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.

It began with a throwaway joke on the first season episode “Staff Infection,” with G.O.B. accusing Buster of being a chicken, and proceeding to imitate… well, not a chicken, but some sort of animal that clucks and claps. It then became one of Arrested Development’s best running jokes, with Lindsay, Lucille, and George Sr. each providing their own variation, none of them all that similar to a chicken. Here’s our supercut of all of them—along with our hope that we’ll see more variations (how’s about one from Buster?) in season four. … Read More