supereco: Oct 20, 2008

20 October 2008

vimeo climate change video contest

Brighter Planet and 1Sky put together a video contest to inspire the next president to take action on climate change. Climate Matters winners will be announced tomorrow, October 21st.

Here's one of the finalist videos. Go to Vimeo for more.

Climate Matters from Brighter Planet on Vimeo.

The top videos will be delivered to Washington just before the November elections to ensure that our next president and next Congress receives the message loud and clear: America is ready for bold leadership on climate change!

[Vimeo]

upcoming program explores adaptive reuse

The Municipal Art Society of New York City (MASNYC) presents...

A Second (and Green) Career for Industrial Buildings

New York City was once the nation’s power house for manufacturing, and many of the buildings and factories that fueled that industry remain. Preserving these buildings and using them to foster green-collar industries or adapting them to new housing, cultural, and retail uses is the most sustainable action New York could take.

This program will explore two approaches to preserving industrial buildings: keeping them for manufacturing uses (which also means retaining good-paying jobs) or adapting these buildings to new uses.

Panelists include Andrew Kimball, president & chief operating officer of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, home to traditional maritime uses and new green jobs, Robert Powers, preservation consultant on the tax-certified rehabilitation of the Austin-Nichols Warehouse, Norma Barbacci of the World Monuments Fund, with news of imaginative projects from Latin America, and Lisa Kersavage, MAS director of advocacy and policy. Moderated by Mary Habstritt, president of the Society for Industrial Archaeology.

Recycling New York’s Industrial Past: Inspiration From Home and Abroad
Wednesday, October 22, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. Reception to follow.
$15, $12 MAS members/students. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075.

For details of upcoming MAS programs, visit www.mas.org/programs, and for a downloadable version of our fall program calendar in PDF form, click here.

appetizing arts

Also at the Red Hook Harvest Festival were Elizabeth Johnson and Ludie Minaya of Conscious Cravers.

At the Harvest, Elizabeth and Ludie were selling some adorable and provocative t-shirts, with messages focused on healthy eating and farm practices.

What is Conscious Cravers all about?

[Conscious Cravers] are performance art food educators who use interactive skits, role plays and visuals to empower people to be conscious about their cravings and gain the skills they need to take responsibility for their health. We travel throughout the New York tri-state area (and beyond) with knives, cutting boards and portable burners in tow bringing the message of sound food for a sound mind and a sound body to anyone who is willing to listen to us.

Check out their workshop offerings.

The Appetizing Arts Exhibit

Be sure to catch this "exploration of food as fuel for artistic expression" on display at The Rising Arts Gallery in Brooklyn. The exhibit will feature photography, painting, and mixed media works by artists who use food as inspiration. Full details below:

Appetizing Arts

The Rising Arts Gallery
35 Claver Place #1
(btwn Fulton and Jefferson)
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Opening reception
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
6-9pm

On view until December 12th, 2008.

Read more about Appetizing Arts here.

red hook harvest

This past Saturday my friend Anne and I hopped on our bikes (after the helpful guys at Bicycle Station put Anne's bike chain back on) and headed down to the Red Hook Harvest Festival hosted by Added Value and Herban Solutions at Red Hook Community Farm.

Truer words were never written

We arrived just in time to get a tutorial from Classie Parker on canning for the leaner months. She showed us how to "put some love into" pickled onions and dilly beans and we sampled some of her delicious canned peaches. Spectators were able to participate by canning their own veggies.

Classie's puttin' her love into it

Classie shows them how to can-can

There were all kinds of activities for kids: pumpkin picking and a carving contest, bite the apple on the string, and Halloween costume making from fabric scraps. Families had the opportunity to pet the farm's chickens (whom, I'd like to add, were extraordinarily handsome).

Pickin' pumpkins at the pumpkin patch

Here chickie-chickies

That's one handsome chicken!

Swaying and bobbing for apples

Local restaurants including Applewood, The Good Fork, iCi, and Rice were serving up delicious soups and savories. I was happy to see that Rice sends their compost to the farm in these buckets.

Rice's compost buckets

Companies like Tri-State Biodiesel, orgs like Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (we rode on part of the new bike path on the way to the fest), and nonprofits like Heifer International were on hand to answer questions and provide information to the public.

Local musicians provided entertainment, local students offered up African dance lessons, and the local farm stand was set up to sell fresh produce and meats.

Some of the entertainment

It was a beautiful, sunny day that brought together an urban community in an agrarian way.

Learn more about canning farm fresh food