Fortunately Mike and team has posted a peaceful action list for us all on his website where he offers solutions like, declaring a moratorium on all home evictions or putting your money in a credit union instead of a bank.
Another friend suggested that someone might form a news corporation called CEO Stalker where we all keep a very tight eye on the fat bonuses being paid out and trickle down economics in action.
Despite our choice of tactics what Moore’s movie does, is remind us all that it’s time to don our capes, put on our spandex red underwear with accenting yellow belt and become who we are. It’s time to find our way back to Kansas, to join the rebel alliance and destroy the space star. How fortunate we are to be born in a time when all of us are called upon to be heroes! Our task is large, we must save the earth and it’s inhabitants from destruction by evil forces who will stop at nothing to accumulate increasing wealth and power. If we fail, the human race as we know it will end, and the earth itself may possibly die. If we succeed, we can create a future for our children and all creatures of the earth that is peaceful and joyous. And we simpletons will be celebrated in song and legend over a mug of beer.
The world we dream of can be won. It exists, if we wake up and remember our spark, that flame will lead the way.
I first ran across this video of what people are calling the “Dancing Man” or the “Dancing Guy”on Andy Polaine’s blog and kept coming back to it. There is something addictive about the video at a very basic level but when I ask myself why the video is so addictive I wasn’t entirely sure. Is it because one person can start a giant dance party? Well sort of, but I have been thinking a lot about the power of the small person to transform anything at all. How exactly do we go about effecting the numerous changes needed to sustain ourselves on this planet, bring about social justice and equality across all fronts, economic, gender, religious practice etc… I guess the dancing man became a mini symbol in my head that if you just stick to your own truth and it is a GOOD truth others will come round. Because after a small bit of research I found that the dancing man wasn’t just dancing for one song, he was up and dancing for what appears to be the ENTIRE Sasquatch Music Festival duration as you can watch here and here. The Sasquatch Festival was even inspired by him and embedded the youtube video on their site, (scroll down to June 10th). His dancing inspired thousands of comments, and the video has well over a million views on youtube.DigiLusionist commented, “Fascinating. It’s like watching a spontaneous explosion of hippies, freaks, and fruitcakes bust out into apoplectic movement.” With all of the recent Woodstock exposure I couldn’t help but think this is our Woodstock. In much smaller moments, embedded in the concert venues and festivals now consumed and regulated by large corporations, security and standard operating procedures, our Woodstock won’t be reproduced by a 40th anniversary special but will be made in the millions of small moments like these. It’s via real time social media that we’ll know something fundamental has changed and we can all come out of the closet and start acting on it. Corporations can’t coopt the spirit, and the Dancing Guy (who I read may be named Colin) is just another example of that.
The search for the perfect vegan pair of boots began innocently, I had two rules: 1) No dagger heels so I can actually walk, 2) My boots must be vegan.
The second rule is where everything went wrong. The confounding inability to find attractive vegan shoes is an experience I’ve encountered before, which has in the past caused me to cheat. Yes, I bought mainstream leather based shoes. I don’t feel good about it, not because I morally object to humans wearing leather shoes but because I morally object to the way that we produce our goods that derive especially from animals. This is my little activism, which actually has remarkable results. Check this out:
If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:
● 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;
If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent:
● Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France;
That sure beats a protest in my mind. You can read the full article at Alternet, that lays out how abstaining from meat one day a week can help save the world. (Maybe that’s too much to ask?? Save the world or a Big Mac, reduce CO2 or another steak…hard choices in life).
But this blog is about the very important woes of vegan shoe shopping, not a crusade to rescue our environment. Let me go back to early this year where after a google search I landed on Vegan Chic, a shop with very cute goods, so cute that checked back intermittently to see if their “green corduroy” boots would be restocked (they only had size 5). I even
emailed and to no avail, size 5 is it. So with much gusto, I moved on to About.com and branched out systematically from there. First stop was Vegan Wares the Melbourne, Australia based shop that holds the title as the very place that I bought my first ever vegan shoes — cute yet classic and black (see photo).
My second stop was Ethical Wares, but they don’t have much, then on to Zappos where you can narrow your search by “vegetarian” which gives you about 20 pair of unappealing shoes. I find myself having this weird flash of a very Eco conscious Paris Hilton exclaiming, “Like, Oh my God, why aren’t there any cute vegan boots? I should so start my own unique line.” So, Paris wasn’t quite up to it, but thank goodness Natalie Portman is! If you can shell out $300ish for shoes errr these are definitely cute.
I then find an article championing the break throughs in vegetarian footwear and berate myself for being so picky, then more determined, zip through all of the links in the article (well many until I became frustrated) only to find that it’s mainly cool urban footwear. This is very good, but I want more. I envision a world of organic vegan and vegetarian slow food ma an pa restaurants on every corner, with shoe shops where men that smell like polish fix your shoes that last for a decade before they wear out. I have great dreams that include beautiful vegan boots.
And the fact that I’m actually sitting here and typing this gives me pause. I’ve never thought of myself as someone who could write about fashion nor as someone who would want to, but it feels like so much more. As the world around us is disfigured into a place inhospitable to supporting life, every single choice we make matters more than ever. As we sit in our homes wondering, what can I do — little me, to combat the big BIG problems of the world there are simple steps that glare in front of us that require that we only live by the rule, if the action springs from a place of love then do it, if not don’t.
And so my search for vegan shoes is an action sprung from love, which is in this case a vision of a world where animals aren’t shoved in crowded cages and fed steroids and grain so that I can have 25 pairs of cute leather shoes to match any outfit. Is that so radical?
I searched on Moo Shoes, which also has a great selection of boots of course they didn’t have the ones that I wanted in my size. I then surfed onto Vegetarian Shoes and found the right ones for me!! Hooray! But, I still haven’t bought them because the shop is in the UK and I find that somewhat off that these boots, which are made in Portugal, then shipped to the UK, would then ship to the US. Sigh…the search continues.
w_b_m_ is a reflection on excess in our society, where the subject, the heart and soul, is superseded by the object, which, in this scenario is, superbrand Australian toilet paper — Sorbent.
As the Sorbent product unravels, the viewer is denied the satisfaction of discovering the dynamic personality speaking to us. This calculated intervention intends to direct focus symbolically onto society’s consumption based meaning, where people are subsidiary to profits and products.
“Our Kinship with Earth must be maintained, otherwise we will find ourselves trapped in the center of our own paved-over souls with no way out” – Terry Tempest Williams -
Last night I attended a screening of “Youth on Fire, The power of Youth in the Fight for Environmental Justice,” by young filmmaker David Cruz.The clip above was part of the screening. It was an evening of performance, speeches, song and freestylin. The crowd was amazing, literally on fire. As a media maker it’s proof to me that the power of video is now in the hands of the people. That it is, and will continue to grow as a tool for justice and one that will unite us. As writing changed the world so will the camera. The power to reflect our stories back upon ourselves, to force us to examine our actions as a collective people is great.
The youth who spoke and sang and shared their stories and talents that evening are also evidence that when people come together and persist, there is nothing we can’t do.
“The world is made of stories not atoms”
- M. Rukseyer -
It’s been five and a half years since I’ve had a TV. Despite what that may sound like there has been no absence of “TV” viewing at all, I’m a sucker for good stories and I believe “the world is made of stories not atoms”. Life after TV has been very bright. All media viewing became targeted, purposeful, more diverse, and better quality. The most vital part of life after TV is that I no longer allow giant media conglomerates with political agenda’s to spoon feed me advertising with what they deem to be quality TV in between. I get to choose. That’s why I checked out “Six Feet Under” from the library and watched the entire series over two years on DVD, that’s why I sampled “24” and “Lost”. The rest I can do without.
Together as media consumers we have the power to completely reshape the media landscape.
Here are some places to watch/check out targeted media online for free (feel freed to comment and add your own favorite places):
(Best) Your Public Library
Check out DVD’s at your library! You may be surprised by many library’s have some great classics, foreign films and new films.
Current TV
Viewer created content Youtube
The most popular internet film spot will often have just what you’re looking for but now it’s partnered with MGM and offers selected feature films (poor selection for now but it may improve) Google video Revver.com
Revver pays video makers a small fee for viewers who watch their video. Classic Cinema Online
Great classics for free here! Hulu
A joint venture of NBC and Fox. Joost Atom Films
