Normally, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Unless your mission is to hype the 10th anniversary of one of the hottest and fastest-growing film fests in the world. Then, it's all about getting the word out.

Just like Sin City where it all goes down, the CineVegas Film Festival is known for pushing our sensory limits. The filmmakers chosen are cinematic daredevils, and their equally dangerous flicks aren’t the kind you’d find on the slate at more conservative fests. Selecting entries is no easy task, but there are some heavy hitters working behind the scenes. With former Sundance Senior Programmer Trevor Groth as Artistic Director and famed actor Dennis Hopper as Chairman of the Creative Advisory Board, you know the festival is in good hands — whether they're rolling film or dice.

To celebrate their 10th anniversary, CineVegas had alum directors create viral videos with the title "Ten Things I Know About Vegas." Short pieces by Cam Archer, James Fotopolous, and Kevin Everson are already up on the CineVegas YouTube site, with more to be added during the run up to festival’s start on June 12th at the Palms Resort and Casino.

To say we’re a fan of sweet kicks would be an understatement, so we felt compelled to heed the call of “Sneaker Lovers Unite!” when we heard about the Sneaker Lover Pop-Up Shop being held at the Laforet store in the Harajuku section of Tokyo from April 21st to May 6th. While we didn’t immediately book a flight to Tokyo to check it out for ourselves we decided we’d do the next best thing and let you, the readers know about the sensational sneaker display. The store is a promotion being held by the KIKSTYO International Web Shop decorated with images of famed Japanese bikini pinup Aki Hoshino in sultry poses with sneakers as photographed by YONE. The shop itself will be selling exclusive collaborations with well known brands such as Champion, New Balance, and G-Shock, along with limited edition T-shirt with one of Yone’s aforementioned images of the bikini clad bombshell. If you find yourself in Tokyo, we recommend wandering over to the Sneaker Lover Pop Up Shop and show your love for your favorite fancy footwear…and if you’re so compelled pick us up a pair of something nice.

When Zoo York asked Mark Owens and Matt Owens to design six decks for their artist series, we knew we’d be in for some of their standard-issue graphical, collage-esque awesomeness. What we got, though, is seemingly more — a modern, quirky ode to New York City, the brand that asked them to participate and the riders themselves, each representing unique areas of interest: Architecture, Literature, Gastronomy, Art, Transit, and Tourism. We likey.

Via AthleticsNYC

Neighborbee Blog. It kind of has the ring of a suburban chain restaurant, but instead of crappy food, this community blog serves up scoops on going out, eating in, and drinking a lot in, and around, downtown Manhattan. They’ve got a sizable crew of experienced bloggers (alums from Gawker, VH1…Whatevs.net) working on giving their fellow city dwellers some good advice, with the ultimate goal of creating an, ahem, hive of social activities. They’re really better at the bee puns than we are, so they’re well worth an RSS subscription if you’re looking to bulk up your reader with some useful information.

If Miami’s own Logan Real can stamp his signature stained-glass mosaic on your wallet, watchband, and even Blackberry case, why can’t he do it to your dog? His new leather dog collar will make your pooch the envy of South Beach. Pretty safe to say, it doesn’t hurt with the bitches either.

The E is for Energy, and the Boost is for….boost. If you’re too old for Flintstone vitamins and too young for Centrum Silver, consider EBOOST, an orange effervescent tablet that contains a full day’s supply of essential vitamins and minerals like B12, C, Zinc, and other too-healthy-to-be pronounceable supplements. Plus, it’s probably better for us than our usual 10-12 sugar free Red Bulls, half a pack of American Spirits, and the Diet Coke chaser that we modestly refer to as “wake-up juice.” Kidding! Kidding. It also comes in single-serve powdered packets, great for emergency stashing.

As a child growing up one would associate the term “dork” as a defamatory slur against one with a quirky, less than popular, sense of taste. Nowadays that quirk has turned into an endearing quality attached to those with unique and admirable affinity towards certain aspects of culture. It’s that endearing quality that has been harnessed by the folks at Dork Magazine, a daily online magazine dedicated to the subjects of art, habitat, and people. The site, founded by James Oyedijo and Taj Reid, offers up it’s one of a kind viewpoint on everything from music to travel to events that anyone who might proudly hail themselves a modern day dork would be glad to partake. The publication “strives to inspire its readers by reporting on the people, places and things that embody an impassioned lifestyle.” It’s not about what the beautiful people are doing…it’s about finding what real people are doing and what inspires those people. If you’re among those who consider yourself a leader or even soldier in the Dork revolution…you should definitely take a look at their site. Maybe you’ll get lucky and be proclaimed dork of the week. Indeed, a new dork dawn has come…maybe it’s time you let your freak flag fly.

Up until a few weeks ago, there were only a few words that I associated with startup companies. One was "balls," another was "brains," another was "heart attack."

There are elements that lead up to those associations, first and foremost being that I was probably in diapers when I was initially exposed to startup culture. My father, an entrepreneur to the core, would be on his gigantic cell phone spitting stress into the mouthpiece; I'd be strapped into a car seat drooling into the mangy mane of a Cabbage Patch Kid– and even then, I swear I was thinking, "F*&$ this, dad, I'm going to be a writer."

However, if things had been going then like they are now, there's a chance that the words that I currently associate with entrepreneurialism might have formed differently – maybe even in the shape of "addictive," "creative," and "thrilling." To a great extent, this can be attributed to the Internet, and to the now increased rate at which new concepts can become tangible products. However, to another smaller, but potentially as powerful extent, this can be attributed to Startup Weekends – i.e., 54 hour-long, high-intensity events dedicated to melding minds and starting companies.

We chatted with Andrew Hyde, Startup Weekend's Boulder-based founder — and brand new community manager for Techstars.org — about the now globally occurring events, but never really found the answer to our main question: When – and how in the hell - did startups become so much fun?

Joshspear.com: Tell us about your history – how is it that you love entrepreneurialism so much?

Andrew Hyde: I remember learning how to count money from my favorite teacher, an elementary school volunteer of 40 years, Nellie Zook. At the end of the lesson she said that when we all started businesses, she would be our first customer, to check on our money counting skills. That stuck with me a bit. (Read More…)

Like Lost fans, quantum mechanics professors, or McCain supporters, we like to exist in a constant state of confusion…all it a perpetual need for puzzling plot lines. In the webisode series Take Me Back, we follow ordinary Canadian citizen Al on a typical day; tailed by a man in a creepy mask, almost dropping a crippled girl down a flight of stairs, coming into possession mysterious pocket watch thing, and then being tasered and thrown into a trunk. Sounds like a full weekend to us. Two out of the ten eps of the series are currently up at Take Me Back and after a big reveal in the second episode, message board theories are flying. The most impressive thing is the production values that creators Joe and Seth are working with — the set design alone leads us to believe this isn’t the first time these Quebecois have held a camera. Plus, watching web videos is never a bad way to spend a day at the office.

We appreciate a company with an ethos. Makin’ It Great is not an ethos. Neither is Built Ford Tough. Help Remedies has a simple one: Help people. Make ethical and environmentally sounds products. Give some money back, oh yeah…have a laugh about it. Right now they can help you by providing toilet kit essentials like space-age bandages and organic aspirin, all packaged in nondescript recycled paper mold. They also have company motto inspired t-shirt, where you can fill in this sentence “Help I…” with a personalized cry for assistance. We find their way of doing things so refreshing that we hope they offer a little more in terms of product selection next time. Come on guys, it’s our turn to help.

What do we mean when we say someone has character? Do we mean they’re smart? That they look distinguished? Or maybe they’re quirky? Sometimes it could be all of those things or in the case of some corporate entities, it could mean that they’ve hired San Francisco-based creative agency, Character to extend and rejuvenate their brand. Founded by Benjamin Pham, Tish Evangelista, and Rishi Shourie in 1999, the agency has since worked high profile clients as Nike, Levi’s, Restoration Hardware, Kohler and Pottery Barn on everything from packaging to brand identity. While they were busy giving other companies the once over, Character figured they should throw themselves a little re-branding shindig. The result? A brand new website that adds just the right amount of character for the folks at Character.

Who likes Dinglepop? I do, I do. What is Dinglepop you ask? The latest and greatest game from our pals, the makers of iminlikewithyou, who are the makers of Blockles, the most addicting game ever (which has been played 763,326 times to date). Basically, on Dinglepop, you use your keyboard or mouse to aim and shoot down little colored dingles, and reap the benefits (yes, it’s a familiar game done right). Go host a game and challenge 6 of your closest pals (or random cute boys or girls floating around the site) to a game. Dinglepop only has 17,827 games played and 943 hours wasted in the first week of launch– seems bound to become a huge success. The site states that playing dinglepop will make you smarter, better looking, and famous– or your money back. (Don’t worry it’s free, fun, and addictive.)

The hands-free Nubrella looks as dorky as a grown man playing with G.I. Joes (note I didn’t say anything about Star Wars and light sabers), but when you’re confronted with pulling winds and fighting to reverse an inside-out umbrella, you’re not going to exactly get the type of attention you want from the opposite sex in that situation either. Designed to not to lose it shape, the nylon patent-pending Nubrella’s been constructed to withstand 50mph winds with its aluminum structure. It flips open and rests on your shoulders like a massive sci-fi helmet, encasing your entire body above your armpits so you can keep the most important parts of your body dry. Now you’ll have two hands left to dedicate to other rain-fighting duties, such as hanging onto the nearest lamp post or manoevering past flying projectiles while on your bike during the start of a hurricane. The product will be featured as a Father’s Day gift in May by gifts retailer Hammacher Schlemmer, but a girlfriend who spends a lot of money and time on her hair would likely appreciate this too.

We kind of have a soft spot for bunnies. From Watership Down to The Velveteen Rabbit, cute cuddly things in distress bum us out. Which is why Dutch artist Sander Plug’s Chocolate Haas is morbidly fascinating. For those that were more fans of Donnie Darko’s Frank (the music actually kind of reminds us of the score) than Peter Cottontail, one hollow chocolate bunny after another gets the Lost Ark treatment, using heat guns, space heaters, and a hot iron. Sadistic? Kind of. But think of how much worse it would be if they were alive.

Just because Apple’s Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS) was created to prevent your precious Macbook Pro hard drive from becoming a $2500 paperweight, doesn’t mean hackers can’t have a little fun with it. In this video demo, a Honda bike is put through its paces using the laptop’s horizontal and vertacle axis receptors. It’s a fun gimmick, and some sweet graphics, but it’s no Wii. Also, we’re pretty sure the Hell’s Angels frown upon mobile computing.