Name Name
titledescript
North Carolina new-folk trio Bowerbirds enlisted Alan Poon to direct the video for "In Our Talons," from their debut album Hymns for a Dark Horse. Poon hits it out of the park with with this stop-motion spectacle done in the style of a nature documentary. Says the director, "We explore 3 magical creatures from 3 different lands, equally beautiful yet doomed by the hand of......read more
Bergen seems like a fascinating place. The picturesque little city on Norway's west coast was an infamous epicentre of the country's black metal scene, which in its 90s heyday stole headlines for spawning a string of church burnings — not to mention a murder or two. At the opposite end of the spectrum stand Kings of Convenience, the whispery Bergen folk-pop duo who sound like Simon and......read more
Regina is an endearing trio from Finland with a knack for crafting exuberant pop that takes us back to simpler days. In the suitably cinematic video for "Unessa" (Finnish for "asleep"), the band spend a lazy grey afternoon in the outdoors, having a picnic, eating wildberries, tossing rocks, and generally looking cute. It's a nice simple clip for a a catchy, guitar-driven tune, which you can......read more
Altaeros is on the way up. The Boston-based renewable energy startup said in a press release that it has successfully tested a prototype of its airborne wind turbine -- a jet engine-shaped, helium-filled balloon with a conventional wind turbine inside. In the prototype test, the device was tethered to a transmission cable and lifted to 350 feet, where, according to the company, it......read more
With June peering around the corner, it's time to get the wardrobe primed for the hot season ahead. And when it comes to footwear, nothing says summer sunshine like espradrilles. These entries from Industry of All Nations bring sustainability to the fore. The unisex Sport Espadrilles feature braided jute soles (stitched in a small Uruguayan town using century-old techniques), while the soft,......read more
Solyndra be damned. The well-publicized failure of the solar energy company is but one black mark on an industry that is actually booming. According to the 2012 edition of Clean Edge's Clean Energy Trends report, things look very bright indeed. At Co.Exist, writer Ariel Schwartz sums up the findings: 2011 was the largest year for global wind power installations ever. Wind power is projected......read more
Here is the trailer for Last Call at the Oasis, the highly anticipated new documentary from Academy Award-winning director Jessica Yu. Inspired by Alex Prud'homme's book The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the 21st Century, the film is a thorough examination ofthe global water crisis, with a focus on industrial and agricultural pollution in America and the drying of the Southwest. Last......read more
A look at the diverse array foreign countries with the most companies listed on the Nasdaq -- Israel, China/Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, South Korea and Singapore -- reveals one common link: none of them have much in the form of natural resources. For these countries, economic success depends on the intelligence and creativity of the people that live there. In a recent New York Times......read more
French designer Mathieu Lehanneur has set a new design standard for home energy monitoring systems. Created for Schneider Electric, Efficient Home debuted at the St-Etienne Design Biennale last week. The quirky collection is conceived as a series of symbols that act like an energy alphabet, complementing each other in various combinations. The objects, which include a temperature sensor,......read more
With a design practice focused on the endless possibilities of found materials reuse, Cologne, Germany-based designer Michael Konstantin Wolke conjures truly inventive new uses for old discarded stuff. His coolest creation may be these wardrobe units, which consist of from bicycle inner tubes wrapped around a metal frame. Super smart. Also check out his recycled cardboard light......read more
