A Jump Start on Holiday Shopping - Eco & Anti-Corportate Alternatives

Ok, I know I'm incredibly early for most people's taste, but I like to know I'm ready for whenever Channukah decides to show-up this year. Over the years, I've compiled some excellent, eco-friendly sites for lovely holiday presents. I thought I'd use this forum to share some of them for the greater good of gift giving and receiving!

ETSY

Here's a new favorite. They have an incredible array of handmade gifts from crafters all over the world. It's no accident that they're based in Brooklyn. It's fun just to go on their home page and watch their, "Recently Listed Items" pictures change by the second. Really, an immense collection. Here are a few new favorites...

Because of Truth, by AmyGiacomelli

Description: (2) 28 x 44 panels of acrylic on canvas, gallery wrapped, sides painted and ready to hang, ORIGINAL and HUGE, One of a Kind

If you click on the piece name, it will bring you to the listing page and clicking on the artist's name will bring you to her personal store.

That may be out of one's price and size range. So, take a look at this...

Mod Tree On Yellow Pendant, by MadisonCraftStudio

Description: Add a fun splash of color to your day with one of our great pendants. We make them in a wide variety of colors and patterns so be sure to look around to find the perfect one!
Treat yourself or give as a fun, unique gift!! Our pendants are made from beautiful origami and other fun papers which are applied, decoupage style, to 1/8 inch masonite (a pressed wood fiber product). Measures 1.25 x 1.5 inches.

Sleepy Jaya

It's been pretty cold in my apartment the past two days and my landlord is in Jordan. His 23 year old son refuses to turn on the heat, even though his wife and three young children live in the apartment above us. When I've gone to ask them to turn the heat on, I saw his wife and the kids huddled around a portable heater.

I'm very much looking forward to moving into Dan's apartment, where the heat's steaming already. Unfortunately, the renovations having been taking over 7 years. Really. Anyway, long story short, Jaya's little bed required an extra doggy blanket, because, unbelievably my thick furred friend was shivering.

I had to shoot a picture of her cuddled-up and snoozing warm. Then Dan came home and this next shot is an action photo of her looking-up as he opens the door. He was working on his apartment all day.

Baxter Bear & Anna

I met Baxter Bear today while on the way to the Park Slope Food Coop. He was so cute and just patiently sitting outside of Union Market at the end of a blue, dancing turtles leash. He was little with floppy ears and his friendly eyes looked up at me and I just had to say hello. I stopped to pet him and he jumped up on my lap and tried to eat my Ipod earphones. I scratched behind his soft, silky ears and then his mommy emerged with her shopping bag. She properly introduced us and told me his was a super mutt like Jaya and was 6 months old, Jaya's age when I adopted her. I knew right then and there that I needed a new doggy update on my blog. She said her kids would enjoy seeing their puppy online, so here he is! It was great to meet you Anna and Baxter Bear :)

Capoeira in Brooklyn

This past Sunday, I had the honor of watching my talented friend, Rene Collins, exhibit his Capoeira skills with a worldwide troupe.

Capoeira Angola: (pronounced Capo-air-a Ang-o-la): One of many cultural weapons used to break the chains of enslavement in Brazil. Music was played during Capoeira sessions to teach the rhythmic heart of the art and to mask its power. In front of the enslavers it looked like playfulness, acrobatic dancing, and joking around. Eventually the enslavers realized its power and outlawed Capoeira Angola. Death was the penalty paid if you were caught during the slavery years. For almost 400 years Capoeira Angola was taught and practiced in secret. Only in the 1930's did this African martial art become legal to teach and practice. (Thank you http://www.panix.com/~tishotto/capoeira/ for the description.)

Rene's also a fabulous mucisian. See his site for downloadable, original songs. http://www.renecollins.com/lyrics.html

Our Second Anniversary

Last night, for our 2nd Wedding Anniversary, Dan took us out to great sushi at Bond Street.

It was light fare for vegetarians, but the presentation was beautiful and everything tasted delicious. Dan and I shared a Seaweed Salad to start and then shared:

• Sundried Tomato & Avocado Roll with garlic ponzu oil & green tea salt



• Arugula Crispy Potato Roll with carrot ginger dressing



• Special Sushi Yasai Zushi vegetable sushi medley

We were still hungry, as our adorable waitress in the red dress had predicted, so Dan ordered the Ume Soba plum soba in hot vegetable broth and I got the Tempura Vegetable 7 pieces.

We capped off the meal with the Chocolate Meltdown Cake with coffee ice cream & fresh cream and a Plum Wine from Crystal Lake.


BONDST
6 Bond St
New York, NY 10012-2332
Phone: (212) 777-2500
Cross Street: Between Broadway and Lafayette Street
Directions: 6 at Bleecker St; B, D, F & V at Broadway-Lafayette St; R at Prince St
Best of Citysearch: Sushi 2007
Hours: Tue-Sat 6pm-11:30pm, Sun-Mon 6pm-10:30pm,
Lounge Mon-Sat 6pm-2am, Sun 6pm-1am

Erin McKeown!

I had the express pleasure of experiencing this awesome lady with her swinging band last night at the Blender Theater at Gramercy. Her opener (was it Joshua James?) was a bit of a downer, but he made it just that more exciting to see Erin McKeown explode onto the stage. I found Erin personable, funny, with delightfully different arrangements for her recorded music. She also confidently displayed some new material. The band and the crowd all loved her and we gave her a standing ovation. I stood first and didn't stop clapping until she came back on stage for an encore.

Set-List:

Slung lo
Cinematic
White City
James!
Rhode Island Is Famous for You
Melody
Lullaby 3/4
Queen of Quiet
We Are More
My Kingdom
Don't Go
Amplify
Cosmopolitans
You Were Right about Everything
Blackbirds
pretty new sounding song I couldn't id

A Platform Bed, Jaya's Alley & PC Style

A while ago, I had a dream for a platform bed. My living spaces seemed shrink inversely to my wardrobe expanding. I needed storage in new, unutilized locales. My step-father, the ever-talented James P. Iscaro built two the beneath-the-bed shelves the same height as my existing dresser and my full-size mattress perches on top. There is just enough room on the side for Jaya and this is where Jaya chills.

For more information on one of Jim's many talents, go to his Westchester PC Users Workstop:

"The multimedia workshop will be a cooperative effort by the workshop leader, Jim Iscaro, and suggestions by the attendees. The first three workshops will be:

1. Podcasting - Finding them, downloading, and using (listening).


2. Music - Ripping CD’s, listening on computer, burning audio CD’s, and finding music.


3. Music - Ripping vinyl, processing the audio files, removing the pops and hisses, and converting to MP3 format."

Rawhide!

Dan and I took these pictures tonight of Jaya loving her rawhide and me loving Jaya.

Dan hates the sound of Jaya slobbering over her rawhides, especially as she loves to get them all wet and gooey

in order to swallow them whole and then hack hack hack them back-up, only to begin the whole process anew.

My Old Stiff Puppy - Loving Geriatric Dogs

Yes, I miss how adolescent Jaya would set-off running into Sunset Park as soon as I unclipped her leash at the entrance. How she would drag me there and then unleash her pent-up power and fly to the trees taunting squirrils and daring me to catch her.

Now I drag her up and down the block, shaking old chicken bones from her mouth before she swallows them like a hound Hoover, ears back and low immediately after I catch her. It seems we do this catch and release a dozen times a walk now, so much so that I actually avoid the park when I can. As picnic/BBQ season draws to a close, we may be able to return without too much Jaya garbage collection.

However, when Jaya puppy would nearly pull my leash arm from its socket and I'd jog to keep-up, I would fantasize about her growing older and slowly down. I do believe in the joy of every season of age, for canine and human. I just love her too much to tolerate her pain and wince when her arthritic legs buckle when she tries to bound up the stoop steps. Sometimes I feel nostalgic for her energetic era, but then she makes such a delightful nap partner.

Our Cable-Free Netflix Life

Hello Beautiful!

So, as I mentioned briefly in my last post, I did away with my beloved Comedy Central, as it came in a seemingly inexorable package with TNT and USA who play Law & Order on a continuous loop, from which my husband rarely reemerged. I heard a rumor that the FCC, who've historically loved a good Christian lobby and a bad Powell son, were mulling the issue over. I was overjoyed to hear that the new FCC chief, Kevin Martin now endorses what they're calling "A La Carte Laws." See the full article here, "Martin Endorses 'A La Carte' Laws."

The gist is that Martin is pushing for "a la carte" cable pricing, going so far as to suggest that he would support legislation forcing cable operators to offer cable channels individually. However, critics of the plan report that this would ultimately cost consumers more money. Maybe I could just keep my husband on a tighter leash. Really, I'm just kidding, because I think as we've identified the problem and he is prehaps in the Preparation Stage of his Law & Order addiction.

To assist his Action Stage, we joined NetFlix and watch movies instead. However, we started missing tv a little and started renting tv! We went through Six Feet Under, Dead Like Me, Carnivale, Monk and 4400. Then, this weekend, we watched Jesus is Magic and it changed my life. Now, I wouldn't start a new fan club or tell everyone to rush and go see it, because I think this life change was somewhat personal in nature.

I was telling my friend, Michelle Golden-Buck about my love and she fired a little friendly jealous by telling me that she and her husband, Chris were at the 2nd day of filming for this. Though it was years ago, she could still quote the jelly licking joke verbatim. So, the personal part is, well, I think I found a new role model. I really do love that she's Jewish, although I'm not religious, I still identify with my Jewishness and I think this identification and ambivilance are why I find her humor especially appealing. I guess, in some ways, perhaps without all the scatalogical references, I wish I could be her.

To this day, I tell people about how I almost landed an internship at Comedy Central in the 90's when The Daily Show just came on board, un-live and with a more 2-Dimentional host. Alas, I opted to go to France as my 1/2 brother's nanny and don't regret it, but still consider a career change. Don't get me wrong, social work can be hilarious, when it's not devastatingly depressing, but I wonder where I'd be doing the most good - working to make people laugh, or just helping them not cry?