Top 11 Things I Loved About Portugal Besides Being Robbed by a Gypsy
Okay. You guys all told me to be careful and that Portugal was filled with pickpockets but I didn’t heed your warnings. Why? The people all seem so nice and no one has ever tried to rob me before! Except for that one time at gunpoint, but all they got was my homephone (without the charging dock suckers!).
Anyhow, color me wrong for not listening to you. In a open and airy plaza of all places, I see a guy in shades look like he’s trying to touch my sister so I grab his hand to stop him. The surprise? He’s already holding her green wallet (the one that was in her zipped bag) in his hand!!! All I can do is squeeze superhard and yell at the top of my lungs.
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likeminded people, food and bands on a boat for free!
in honor of the 400th anniversary of good old henry hudson finding that big flowy thingie that separates us from the armpit of america, ecoventions is hosting a green business cruise on the queen of hearts!
i’ve always been a bit wary about these “green drinks” type events, but this one seems like it will be a merry time - and it’s free! my hope is that it will attract folks who are not already in the green scene because a lot of similar events tend to involve the same people over and over and while it’s always important to brainstorm together, it’s also seems kind of fruitless to constantly preach to the converted.
details…
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another reason why queens is better than brooklyn: studio square beer garden in astoria
did you know that queens used to have roughly 300 beer gardens? how did that crazy robust selection get pared down to a measly 1?!!!
historians blame both prohibition and people being afraid to patronize places that celebrated german culture. luckily for us (largely due to the movie “beerfest”, we’re over that period of temporary insanity and ready to rock with a second beer garden opening in astoria this thursday! studio square is about 30,000 sq. feet and seats about 1,000 people. i wondered how the space, having such a large footprint, would be offsetting some of the enormous waste that it is sure to be creating and gave them a call. the friendly guy who answered the phone wasn’t sure, but he referred me to the owners, so i’ll be reporting as soon as i hear back.
while it’s not clear whether astoria’s existing beer garden, bohemian beer hall, is threatened by the new addition or not (if anything, they might be somewhat relieved at a second spot to clear up congestion? - okay, probably not), i’m hoping that if studio square does have more sustainable practices, us beerhugging nyc treehuggers can show it some love, carrot mob style.
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green hot chili peppers: d&a rocks it out with the newest eco fashion kids on the block
so many new favorites this week - people and things.
our happy and bright space
fun eco-art butterflies at the entrance of the show
view from the green room and recycled eco-art by aurora robson
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cinco reasons why cinco de mayo is the best holiday ever
1. you don’t have to buy nada. no commercialism whatsoever - except for maybe sombreros.
2. your parents don’t care if you come over or not. in fact, they prefer that you stay away today.
3. tacos!!! the world’s second greatest cuisine!
4. 50 cent tacos and shots at elizabeth from 5-7pm.
5. mexicans are extra cool today. and unlike st. patty’s day, they aren’t going to make you feel bad for not being mexican.
6. mustaches.
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PROJECT EARTH DAY Fashion Show Pics!
see more pics and read the full story here.
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| designer melissa kirgan, inhabitat.com editor in chief, Jill Fehrenbacher, designer meiling chen, designer xing-zhen chung-hilyard and friend |
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| the crowd waits anxiously for the show to start |
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| xing-zhen chung-hilyard and melissa kirgan |
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| abigail doan and yuka yoneda |
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that gall-darned swine flu is giving swyyne a bad name! solve it by making me give up bacon
in addition to making people even more paranoid about kissing pigs (don’t they have it hard enough already?!!!), the swine influenza is really giving swyyne a bad name. or, as some of my closest friends pointed out, i gave swyyne a bad name when, fueled by my narcissistic tendencies, I created a word that when typed into google search, returns “did you mean sweyne?” as the first line. no, i did not mean sweyne. i didn’t even know what that was until i clicked on it out of curiosity, thereby convincing google that a person actually did mean sweyne. curse you google!
anyhow, a couple (true) friends and my marketing mentor jim hopkinson of The Hopkinson Report have pointed out that perhaps this unfortunate event is a blessing in disguise. after all, whether it be for health reasons or to pine for the mcrib like this guy, swine hasn’t been on most people’s minds since the last luau they attended. so i’m turning this frown upside down with a challenge that i hope most of you cannot refuse:
if this post receives 300 comments by next week, i will quit eating bacon. that’s right, off the pork, cold turkey. to clarify, i’ll still be able to eat cold turkey, just not cold bacon. heck, to make it even more interesting, i’ll cease all of my pork-eating forever or at least until i am older and need collagen to keep my face up. the one exception to this will be visits to the yuen household because if i can’t eat pork there, i’ll just be eating water.
is this a blatant marketing ploy? probably. but i really hope everyone thinks of it more as a way to promote a cleaner, less wasteful lifestyle. i don’t know, i just keep thinking about those pigs walking upright at the end of animal farm…with no pants on. i think about that a lot actually. it’s not healthy. here’s the segue - wait for it, wait for it…
and neither is living this unhealthy, throwaway lifestyle that we’ve all become used to.
so come to the site, comment, and look around a bit for tips on how you can clean up your act a bit. help me make living a lifestyle where we’re more conscious about where our stuff comes from and goes to when we throw it an epidemic.
and i’ll stop eating this:
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and this:
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| yes, that is a snout. |
but i probably won’t stop doing this:
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PROJECT EARTH DAY FASHION SHOW AND AFTERPARTY!
you guys know that i rarely use caps, but if any event is worthy of textual yelling, it’s this year’s project earth day runway show!
produced by eco-fashion jill of all trades bahar shahpar, the theme of this year’s event is “through the looking glass: an exploration of scale and proportion.” don’t miss it!
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economic stimulus swapp!
if you’re bummin’ it like me, these clothing swaps are an awesome way to get a new wardrobe without breaking the bank.
today at 6:30!
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: (
there was a veritable bevy of clutches, satchels and totes at bagtrends.com’s green arm candy party last night (pics to come), and my lady friends and i were particularly enamored with these yummy vegan clutches by NOAH (no animals harmed).
now i love animals as much as the next girl (just ask my pet squirrel Pee-chan, god rest his soul), but recently finding out that “vegan leather” most often means “plastic” was a bit offputting. i was surprised and happy when we asked the sales rep at the table about the plastic overlays on NOAH bags and he replied “well, it is recycled.”
that was all i needed to hear! both lillian and i had been on non-shopping binges, but these cruelty-free, recycled gems were too cute and guilt free to pass up (plus they were only $50)!
or so we thought…
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the really really free market - today!
in case you didn’t get it the first time, it’s free, really. everything!
note: all the information in the pic is old, so please see deets below.
Date: Sunday, March 15th
Time: 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Hudson Guild Fulton Center (119 9th Ave bet. 17th & 17th St)
Cost: Free
“Really Really Free Market is about as close to karma based sustainability as possible. Several times throughout the year, people get together to share food, music, clothing, services, etc. with one another in a commerce free environment. Bring whatever you’d like to share, or just come down for a day of dancing, hanging out, eating, workshops and general anti-corporate antics.”
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calling all green businesses in new york: win 30 Gs worth of goodies for your startup!
30 Gs people!!! swyyne would totally enter if it were a bit more organized than me sitting in bed balancing my laptop and a container of hummus on my stomach.
but that’s neither here nor there.
what you need to know:
the deadline for the application is march 22nd, so change out of your pjs and get crackin’.
for more deets: http://greenbusinesscompetition.com.
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what is green technology? attendees of the greener gadgets conference give their 2 cents
What is Green Technology from Jennie Bourne on Vimeo.
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sustainable STYle: 2fer at the NOW progressive fashion showcase
i spent so much time ogling, trying on and rubbing my face on 2fer’s floaty alice in wonderland-inspired collection for spring at the now showcase during fashion week that i really owe them a post.
at first, i was a suspect about the line because it isn’t made of sustainable or organic materials in the traditional sense. luckily, jinruei fan, one half of the 2fer design duo, enlightened me by explaining that although they don’t source special eco-materials like some other brands do, they do produce locally and use a stocked fabrics program, which allows them to purchase textiles that will otherwise be discarded either because they are from the previous season and are in low demand or because they have been damaged. buying these materials saves them from the dump and avoids having to use brand new fabrics, which take time, money and energy to produce.
smart! the takeaway here is that there are so many ways to produce an end product that is better for the environment. it’s not just about slapping together all the eco-stuff that you can find and making something out of it - it’s about thinking outside the box. remember: the best green features are invisible.
my favorite 2fer looks for spring:
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can you guess which alice in wonderland characters inspired these?
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saul griffith’s prediction for the future: heirloom products
this year’s greener gadgets conference touched on so many amazing and timely ideas about how human beings need to change the way they think about buying and discarding not only consumer electronics, but every object in our lives. the keynote address was given by inventor, technology renaissance man and stand up comedian (not really, but he should look into it!) dr. saul griffith who called himself and everyone in the audience a planetfucker! strong words, but no one was denying it.
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dr. griffith presented way too many issues to contain in one post, so i’ll be writing them up in digestible little mini-posts beginning with what i thought was dr. griffith’s most powerful idea of all - his wish for us to throw away our notion that things can be discarded, because they really can’t, and adopt a culture of “heirloom products” that we keep with us for our whole lives and pass onto future generations.
he announced to the delight of the audience that he would be a father in seven weeks, and hoped to give his son with two things, a rolex watch and a mont blanc pen.
while he apologized for mentioning the name brands considering the current state of our economy, the point he really wanted to get across was that hopefully, his son will keep and cherish those two items so much that he will not feel the need to buy more watches and more pens throughout his life (okay, he may need a few more pens). i wondered if and how the consumer electronics industry, which has profited immensely from perceived obsolescence and the desire for constant upgrades would swallow this pill. wasn’t that like announcing at a dental convention that people would no longer get cavities? to my relief, no one threw produce, and many industry execs actually embraced the idea. how they could actually wrap their products around, and perhaps even profit from it still remains to be seen.
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why is this a site?
swyyne has always been an experiment for me. with all of the other super eco sites out there, i've been feeling like i want to contribute something just a bit different. so for now, here are my random musings.
look for stuff
feed yourself