San Francisco
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Ruminations on food, class, and Carlo Petrini
“America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between,” Oscar Wilde once quipped. Fresh, yes, but is it affordable? Photo: Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market Such observations didn’t always endear him to Victorian-era Americans. Wilde’s 1881 lecture tour of the United States, while ultimately viewed as a triumph, occasionally drew […]
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A couple
Here are two lists, for those of you into that kind of thing: First, Sustainlane — which seems to produce a list every few weeks, no? — has a list of the Top Ten Cities for Renewable Energy. That’s the cities that provide citizens with the most green power. They are: 1. Oakland, CA 2. […]
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Watch out for scary chemicals in plastic toys for tots
Umbra offered up a number of clever gift ideas for kids in her latest column, focusing particularly on experiences rather than things. But if you still want to do some thing-giving for those wee ones, you might first want to check out "What's Toxic In Toyland," an article by Margot Roosevelt in Time.
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It kicked ass
The Grist reader party in San Francisco on Friday was a smashing success. Over 300 eco-glitterati packed into the art gallery, and they were resplendent: young, urbane, and utterly destructive to every caricature that's ever attached to the word "environmentalist." A reporter who was there researching a story on Grist, speaking afterwards, was moved to exclaim: "I can't believe how hot everybody was!"
Indeed.
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A report
I'm here in San Francisco at the Green Festival -- billed as the world's largest green expo. The San Fran convention center is packed to the rafters with booths, booths, booths.
It is somewhat verboten to say so these days, but the predominant vibe is still distinctly hippie. (As I wrote that, a small troop of people wandered by playing drums and tooting on flutes.) Dreadlocks abound. Tofu products are ubiquitous. The word "spirit" is deployed with alarming frequency. There's batik and tie-dye and didgeridoo honking and so forth. It's like an enormous Grateful Dead parking lot.
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In San Fran
I'm going to be down in San Francisco tomorrow and Friday, so blogging (from me, anyway) will be light-to-nonexistent.
Hey, have you heard we're having a reader party in San Fran on Friday night? I'm gonna be there, throwin' down, or rockin', or wildin' out, or whatever it is the kids do these days when they drink to excess. I hope some of you regular Gristmill readers are able to make it -- I'd love to put faces with names.
Attendance is looking to be in the multiple hundreds. Should be a blast. If you are going to make it, don't forget to RSVP.
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San Francisco visualizes rising seas
I love living in San Francisco, where not only do we have a City Department of the Environment, but it's teamed up with the Sierra Club on an environmental art/advocacy project that is all at once simple, creative, thought-provoking, cheap, and replicable.
Today, they launched FutureSeaLevel.org to bring the climate crisis home. It's an ingeniously simple idea: Participants tape up public spaces with a line of blue tape that marks the new sea level after unchecked global warming.
In a coastal city like San Francsico, it's a disturbing sight indeed -- the blue line cuts the urban landscape mercilessly, and you can really feel yourself going under. The project launched at Pier 39 -- tourist central here in SF -- so it's getting lots of exposure.
Now if only they'll share the tape so we can try this everywhere else there's a coastline too ...
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Jacobs does Gore
You have to wade through a painful Flash site to see them, and go to San Francisco to buy them, but hipster designer Marc Jacobs has a line of Al Gore t-shirts, tote bags, and trucker hats (click on "special items"). Apparently they're all the rage this season.Are there Gristmill readers in San Francisco? Email me.
(via The Notion)
