Visual Acoustics

Photographer Julius Shulman passed away this past summer at the age of 98. Shulman's work played a major role in making modernist architecture familiar and aesthetically accessible to mainstream America by capturing the work of nearly every modern and progressive architect since the 1930s( including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry).

Bricker's film, Visual Acoustics narrated by Dustin Hoffman, is both a biography and a survey of Shulman's career.

Official Website

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WINDFARMS AND STARBUCKS

World's largest, 781.5 megawatt wind farm, located in West Texas USA.
Ranchers in west Texas are resorting to leasing their land to energy companies to "break even". To some though, "selling out" causes upset.

Personally, I love the idea that wind farms can revitalize a community and help maintain an old mainstay industry and culture of ranching and cowboys. The wild west is staying wild by accepting something modern.
On the other hand it definitely does change the landscape a bit. Thoughts?

Read more about the "Starbucks Rule" for siting wind farms.

-via Treehugger
Business Week-
"Turns out there's something called the Starbucks Rule when it comes to siting wind farms. He said Suzlon and its rivals plot where Starbucks are in the general area and then make sure their project is at least 30 miles away. Any closer and there'd be too many NIMBYs (not in my backyarders) who'd object to having their views spoiled by a cluster of 265-foot-tall wind towers."


Video credit:Sunday Morning Show

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Dish Sale Fundraiser

Glenbrook Valley Dish Sale Fundraiser
via Houston Mod
The Glenbrook Valley preservation committee is holding a sale of fine china to support its efforts to be designated Texas' first post-World War II historic district. The neighborhood includes numerous architecturally-significant mid-century houses including some detailed in Houston Mod's on-line database.

According to organizers, the sale will include "100's of pieces, prices starting at 50 cents. Great Christmas gifts, traditional pieces to more mod pieces like Russell Wright."

Sale hours are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday. The sale will be held at 8206 Glencrest at the corner of Glencrest and Montglen.

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CRUDE

A documentary on the true price of crude.
"Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet. The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case"...The landmark case takes place in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador, pitting 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers against the U.S. oil giant Chevron. The plaintiffs claim that Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – spent three decades systematically contaminating one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, poisoning the water, air and land. The plaintiffs allege that the pollution has created a “death zone” in an area the size of the Rhode Island, resulting in increased rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and a multiplicity of other health ailments."

Find out where it's showing near you and Stay Updated. Sign Up to receive occasional updates about the movie’s release, special screenings and events, the ongoing legal case against Chevron and more.
Check it out.

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PNC greenwall

PNC UNVEILS LARGEST GREEN WALL IN NORTH AMERICA- PITTSBURGH, PA

"The 2,380 sq. ft., soil-based wall - similar in size to a doubles tennis court - features a variety of regional plants grown into living art on the south-facing wall of One PNC Plaza at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Wood Street in downtown Pittsburgh.

It is estimated that each of the 602 panels, with 24 plants in each 2x2 sq. ft. space, will offset the carbon footprint of one person. The vertical garden, similar to a green roof, will help to cool the 30-story building. Preliminary studies show the south-facing living wall will be 25 percent cooler behind the wall than ambient temperatures. "The wall is a fitting reminder that PNC is the world leader in green building," said PNC Director of Corporate Real Estate Gary Saulson. "City sidewalks are cooler and quieter thanks to shade and sound absorption by green walls and urban planting."

Watch the video below: (or if you if you're viewing this in your email- click on post to view online)
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The Cove

TRAILER: (If you can't see trailer click here)


Taiji, Japan-
"In a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so chilling -- and the consequences are so dangerous to human health -- they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it...

O’Barry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Oceanic Preservation Society to get to the truth of what’s really going on in the cove and why it matters to everyone in the world...The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope."

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Toxic Ocean

These guys traveled to the middle of nowhere to document the seriousness of the plastic pollution that ends up in the ocean. It's not the "island of trash" they expected... but worse. Tiny particulates that are impossible to ever extract completely, that get eaten and re-absorbed ...

"it's the composition of the ocean...we've without realizing it consigned ourselves to eating our own sh*t"

It's completely disheartening.
I've posted links to videos 1 and 3 of this series... they're a little long and the people documenting it can get a bit annoying. Still worth a watch.

Part I:

Part III:

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