Cool Hunting Video Presents: Sunpie Barnes

by Cool Hunting Video

by Michael Tyburski

New Orleans musician Sunpie Barnes divides his time between playing accordion with his band, the Louisiana Sunspots, and New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, where he's a park ranger. In this video, we get a taste of the mix of blues, zydeco, Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Louisiana music that he plays, as well as the natural settings that inspire him.

Matthew McGuinness: Casper Disasters

by CH Contributor

by Ariston Anderson

We first came across Matthew McGuinness' work at Scope Miami last year, when he drove a biodiesel-fueled caravan down to the prosperous art gala. Setting up shop in a trailer, the exhibition was one of the most refreshing parts of the show, featuring intricate collages framed by in materials like recycled soap fats.

He continues in the political tradition with a new exhibit at Greene Contemporary entitled "Casper Disasters'" featuring the same attention to detail with exquisitely printed works. The silkscreens showcase ghostly images of the second Iraq war. An entire wall is camouflaged in pop art colors, along with a noise installation of sounds of war.

"I am transforming reality into a fantasy," he tells Cool Hunting. "I am traversing the Internet for images of car bombs, the duration of the second war in Iraq—images we may be unfamiliar with—and I take digital snapshots of them. Ghost-like forms emerge from the images of physical destruction and emotional disaster, making commentary on the ravages of this particular war." The commentary is a must-see in person, as the images come alive on the canvases.

Our favorite part of the show? The limited-edition tees. Printed in a small edition of 50, the shirts sell for $40 a piece. Shirts are tagged and numbered at the gallery, and followed up with both an iron-on edition patch and a numbered certificate. You can purchase either at the gallery or by calling up to reserve your edition.

Casper Disasters
Through 8 February 2009
Greene Contemporary
9 Clinton Street
New York, NY 10002 map
tel. +1 212 228 8282

Pretty Loaded

by Karen Day

While most of us sit annoyed waiting for heavily coded Flash websites to load—or perhaps abandon them all together—Pretty Loaded has a different take on this pesky little time frame.

Created by the Brooklyn-based digital creative agency Big Spaceship, Pretty Loaded is a curated archive of preloading screens and animations, proving that those few seconds, or minutes, can serve as what they call "short-attention-span-theater."

The digital landscape is constantly changing, and with faster connections the loading time is thankfully shrinking. However, Pretty Loaded views this otherwise useless short time as an opportunity. They highlight creativity in the field by feauturing this dissipating art form and also encourage other creative agencies to add to their infinite loader.

With a decent range of preloading screens, from Office Max to Nike to feature films, the site has loads of content making it a growing piece of internet history.

via Creative Review

Caleb Neelon: Book of Awesome

by Wendy Dembo

Caleb Neelon's "Book of Awesome" is a travel diary for a modern day wandering graffiti journey man. The book takes readers with him on his travels while he paints his colorful work in the streets of places like Kathmandu, Istanbul, Tegucigalpa and São Paulo, as well as into galleries and installation spaces.

In addition to the wonderful photos of his vibrant art, the surroundings and people he meets, Neelon writes little entries that explain what happened, who he met, what he did and how he felt. Featuring street and gallery collaborations with Os Gemeos, Andrew Schoultz, Greg Lamarche and many more working with Caleb, who's also the artist-author of "Graffiti Brasil" and "Street World."

The Book of Awesome is available from Amazon.

Paralda HEPA Air Purifier

by Doug Black

The tragic irony of many air purifiers is that while they remove toxins from your breathing space, they also spew ozone-depleting gases into the atmosphere. Instead of relying on this decidedly non-green electrostatic technology, Alen's new Paralda Air Purifier uses the EPA-recommended HEPA filter, which removes even smaller particles from living rooms while respecting the greater habitat.

The first purifier to get both an Energy Star certification for efficiency and RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) distinction as a green product, the Paralda uses no lead. Instead ionizers and ultraviolet light eliminate bacteria, pollen and mold while the the filter itself collects other particles. The HEPA choice also eliminates the necessity to remove and clean it, an activity that can release allergens back into the air.

The unit itself is attractively designed, if a bit futuristic. The inner core is "bamboo green" with a translucent shell surrounding it. Vertically oriented, it has a small footprint and allows more area for air flow in tight rooms. The Paralda costs $500 at the Alen online store and comes with a lifetime warranty.

Swing Skirt

by CH Contributor

by Ariston Anderson

While waiting for a train, hanging in a park or simply wanting to take a playful break throughout the day, Rachel Griffin's hand-knotted swing skirt is an outfit that becomes an insta-swing anywhere, anytime. All that's needed is something sturdy to anchor the ropes and a love for keeping life interesting.

We were a bit skeptical on how functional this swing could be, but Rachel, a designer working in the Netherlands, assures us, "The skirt ropes are indeed practical to toss anywhere. The two points of attachment—the rope to the skirt, and the skirt to the tree—use variations on a rock-climbing knot called the prusik, which simultaneously allows for adjustable swing height and strength. As such, you can tie it to anything from trees to scaffolding to architectural elements—anything with a horizontal beam strong enough to hold your weight." We're sold. Never again will we be left without a seat on the subway.

Although the piece was made as a one-off, Rachel is considering mass-producing the skirt. Price is upon request, see her site for more info.

Sony Cybershot G3

by Karen Day

Leave it to Sony to steal the show at this year's rather slow CES by being the first to create a digital camera with Wi-Fi and built-in browser, enabling users to upload photos and videos from the camera directly to sites like Picassa and YouTube via any AT&T hotspot. The Cybershot DSC-G3 features a dedicated WLAN button, a high-resolution 3.5-inch LCD screen, a 10-megapixel sensor with a 4x optical zoom Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, 4GB of built-in storage and Intelligent Scene Recognition feature with Face Detection technology. While it's not meant for endless hours of surfing the web, it's great for those who seek immediacy in photo sharing.

via Slippery Brick