A twice-weekly sharing of eco-shwag.

Today’s giveaway is a DVD copy of “How the Earth Was Made.” It’s one of The History Channel’s three most popular specials, released on DVD for Earth Day earlier this year.

Here’s the channel’s description for “How the Earth Was Made”:

From a seething, hellish mass of molten rock to the inviting world that cradles life today, discover the cataclysmic events that set the stage for life. Based on recent findings by renowned scientists and filmed on location across the globe, HOW THE EARTH WAS MADE puts the “Gee!” in geology. Visit sites planet-wide where you can still see evidence of Earth’s birthing process. Meet scientists at the leading edge of discovery. Thrill to the awesome power and unimaginable time-scale of world formation.

I’ll be honest and say I forced myself to watch the first 27 mins, then gave up. That’s not to say the film isn’t interesting. We have scientists excitingly trying to figure out the age of the earth. There are exciting debates over how old the earth is. There are exciting fights pitting science vs. scripture. And there’s an exciting description of “deep time” — aka a very, very, very long time.

I’m just not the kind of person who finds The History Channel terribly exciting. I mean, I AM interested in exactly how old the earth is, and I’m even vaguely curious about the plate tectonic process. I’m just not THAT interested or curious.

I am, however, sorta psyched that the DVD came in 100% post consumer recycled packaging.

Are you a fan of The History Channel? Comment or email by Sunday to get into the drawing, which’ll happen Monday. US addresses only.

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We’ve all read about the Okinawa and Mediterranean diets, usually promoted as weight-loss remedies. But in addition to their slim figures, Okinawans have a very low rate of breast and prostate cancer, while Cretans enjoy a low rate of heart disease. What in the diets prevents these diseases? Could we adopt these diets as our own to live healthier lives?

That’s what Daphne Miller, a doctor in San Francisco, set out to investigate in her book, “The Jungle Effect.” Miller travels to the “cold spots” — places with a low incidence of a certain disease — all over the world to figure out what in that region’s diet serves to protect its residents from common ailments in the U.S.

Got a family history of diabetes? Then read the chapter on Copper Canyon, Mexico. Depression? See what the Icelandic people eat; they’re a happy bunch, despite the fact that their country’s cold and dark for big chunks of the year.

In each chapter devoted to one of six “cold spots,” Miller combines the story of a patient of hers suffering from a common disease with the story of her own foodie travel to the cold spot for that disease. The end of each chapter has instructions — organized into basic, intermediate, and advanced levels — for mimicking the diet of that cold spot. Plus, lots of recipes are included in the back.

Some very clear commonalities emerge in the diets of all six of these cold spots. For example, meat is rarely the main dish in any of these places. Animal products are generally used very sparingly, much like a condiment. And all use primarily unprocessed organic, local ingredients that are grown or raised sustainably. Turns out, a disease-free diet’s also an earth-friendly diet that sounds quite similar to Michael Pollan’s haiku-esque advice: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Adopting any of these diets by the letter, however, will take some serious lifestyle changes for many people. In addition to just eating different food, would-be cold-spot dieters will need to hunt down unfamiliar ingredients — like nopales or horta — as well as cook them according to precise instructions. After all, it’s not just the individual ingredients that make up a cold-spot diet, according to Miller. It’s the food “synergy” — or the combinations of these ingredients — that works the magic.

But you don’t have to change your entire to benefit from reading “The Jungle Effect.” In fact, Miller offers lots of easy-to-implement, practical tips in her sidebars, with titles like “How to choose a slow release corn tortilla,” or “How to buy olive oil.” As both foodies and dietitians know, not all tortillas are made equal.

Herein lies the difference between, say, the burrito I get at a typical restaurant in L.A. and an authentic burrito as made in Copper Canyon, Mexico. The former’s usually humongous, cooked with a lot of lard and oil, stuffed with factory farmed meats and cheeses, then wrapped up in a pizza-sized white flour tortilla. In contrast, Miller discribes the Copper Canyon burrito as “no larger than a big cigar,” stuffed with black beans, red chili sauce, and a little shredded meat and wrapped in a handmade corn tortilla.

Whether or not you decide any of the specific cold spot diets are for you, “The Jungle Effect” will likely inspire you to cook more often, using fresh, in-season, local ingredients. And you’ll likely start paying attention to product ingredient lists, which’ll help you avoid unhealthy fats and colorings and preservatives. It’s no secret at this point that that what passes as food at many grocery stores isn’t really food at all. Kraft even got sued for its “guacamole” which contains just 2% avocado. What’s the other 98%? Partially hydrogenated soybean and coconut oils, corn syrup, whey and food starch. Yummy….

[crossposted on BlogHer]

Tags: thejungleeffect, daphnemiller, diet

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If you’re prone to eco-stress inspired heart palpitations, don’t read this book. At least not now. Save it for later. Because Sandor Ellix Katz’ “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements” can be more than a little overwhelming for the newly-initiated would-be socio-environmentally-conscious foodie.

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy this book! “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved” is both informative and inspiring — and comprehensive and absorbing! The main point of the book: Despite what seems like an increasing number of consumer food choices, it’s harder than ever to get healthy, sustainable food — and we need to change that. Writes Katz: “The scandal of our contemporary food system is that not just a few exotic luxuries but virtually everything — including the most basic and mundane staples — is transported such vast distances, traveling thousands of miles from producers to consumers.”

Still, the book’s also not for the faint-hearted. There’s the more obvious out-there stuff, like a “recipe” for — eating dirt! Talk about getting back to nature. If you’re not ready to put the earth into your mouth, literally, then maybe you’d be into foraging for weeds — though that’s no simple task if you’re living in the middle of a city. Or if you’re really ready to take “waste not, want not” to the extreme, read the chapter on eating road kill. And you thought freeganism was adventurous!

What’s really anxiety-inducing about the book, however, is simply that it’s so wide ranging and detailed. You may be ready to read about and denounce genetically-modified, patented seeds that wreak financial and environmental havoc on independent farmers — information that may lead you to support local, independent farmers instead. But the book also delves into the the isolationism and racism that’s present in small farming communities, pointing out that family farms aren’t all automatically happy, idyllic places.

Still, “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved” is helpful in showing the connections between the many current issues that’re often considered independently. covers so much stuff. marijuana. From urban community gardens in New York City to AIDS medication to intentional communities in Tennessee to herbal medicine to marijuana and hemp legislation, “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved” covers it all.

I don’t agree with everything Katz says, but his book certainly made me think more deeply about the environmental and social issues I care about, and consider some of the more radical ideas out there. In the end, “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved” left me with two important and practical desires: Support the yummy local food at the farmers’ market, and work on expanding my own private balcony garden.

[crossposted on BlogHer]

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Save the world by — shopping? Such Bush-esque advice makes many an environmentalist raise a weary eyebrow. But Diane MacEachern’s new book, Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World, turns out not quite to be what the cover seems to advertise. In fact, “Big Green Purse” shows how using one’s spending power might in fact be exercising the power NOT to give in to marketing ploys and sales pitches.

After all, rampant consumerism’s what got us into our current environmental dilemma. Title of the book aside, Diane never loses an opportunity to preach the reduce, reuse, recyle mantra. Of the 7 shopping tips “Big Green Purse” espouses, the first is “Buy less.”

So why the rather misleading title? Perhaps it’s a lure to entice otherwise blithely oblivious shoppers into picking up the book. Once opened, “Big Green Purse” loses no time getting right into the middle of things, kicking off with a doom and gloom chapter that points out all the problems caused by “regular” consumption, depicting a world full of cancerous chemicals marked with the looming fear of potential ecological collapse. Yikes!

The book does gets cheerier from there, emphasizing that individuals — especially women — can make a big difference by spending less, and spending differently. Chapters are divided into different aspects of life, covering everything from healthy food to eco-cleaning to, of course, clothes and purses. For the caffeine lovers, Diane actually dedicated an entire chapter to coffee, tea and cocoa!

“Big Green Purse” actually has much in common with another recently published book, “Healthy Child, Healthy World,” (I reviewed it here) — though the titles make the books sound vastly different. For those who get easily overwhelmed, Big Green Purse might be easier to handle, as Diane’s list-making proclivities — arranging the eco-advice in order of practicality and importance — make it easier for newbies to prioritize their eco-actions.

While taking in the environmental messages, “Big Green Purse” also urges consumers not to get sucked in by the alarming, pseudo-scientific marketing messages, such as those that erroneously encourage people to buy antibiotic soaps or synthetic “age-defying” creams.

Of course, even die-hard anti-consumerists still need to buy stuff. Veggies and undies come to mind, for example (though I suppose some might go so far as to grow or sew their own). And for these necessary purchases, “Big Green Purse” gives some smart, practical advice for making the greenest purchasing decisions depending on your circumstances.

Perhaps “Big Green Purse” should be renamed “Think before you shop.” Okay — That isn’t exactly catchy, but I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that the title seems so incongruous with the content of the book. Already-environmentalists are likely to be turned away by the seeming rah-rah-shop-now message, while the newly eco-curious might be disappointed (and perhaps scared) by the first doom-and-gloom, stop-shopping-so-much chapters.

Is that a pessimistic view? I hope so. Maybe angry environmentalists will pick up the book and be assuaged by the dark green message, and eco-newbies will be scared into their senses….

[crossposted on BlogHer]

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If you’re new to Sylvia Plath, I would recommend reading her Collected Poems from back (minus the juvenilia tacked on to the end) to front.

Why? Besides Sylvia’s once-hub Ted Hughes’ weird decisions in arranging the poems in this book, Plath’s “greatest hits” — “Lady Lazarus,” “Daddy,” “The Applicant,” etc. — were written in the last two years of her life.

And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.

In fact her early poems are, um, pretty boring — mostly more formal, high-lyric poems (as in a description of some aspect of nature revealing some bigger truth about the world, human feeling, relationships), with many written from the point of view of some third party.

Sure, some of these poems sort of hint at the poems to come. Sylvia seems to favor things in nature that are the color of blood, for example — like poppies and berries. Still, these earlier poems live in contradistinction to the poems for which Sylvia’s become a legend — the ones that have popularized her as a “confessional” poet.

Dying
Is an art, like everything else,
I do it exceptionally well.

In general, Sylvia’s later poems — like “Lady Lazarus,” which talks about her three suicide attempts — seem much more biographical and personal than her earlier poems. Yes, there are a handful of bee-related poems in 1962 — but then her father was a bee specialist, and she wrote “Daddy” that year too:

Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time –

How to related all of this back to shampoo:

Out of the Ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

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A twice-weekly sharing of eco-shwag.

Today’s giveway’s a copy of “MySpace/OurPlanet: Change Is Possible” — a Myspace book about enviro issues targeted towards young teenagers.

Here’s the beginning of my review:

Odd thing about Myspace’s new eco-book, “MySpace/OurPlanet: Change Is Possible”: It kicks off with Myspace president Tom Anderson basically declaring the supremacy of the printed word over the web: “I wouldn’t be doing this unless I thought it was for something so unbelievably important that it had to be in print,” Anderson writes in his foreword.

Read my full review here — and let me know if you want to be in the drawing. Get your name in by Sunday; drawing happens Monday. US addresses only.

Tags: myspace, ourplanet

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Mary Low’s book of poems and collages, “Where the Wolf Sings,” is — at least in its printed book form — defined by its relationship with the surrealist movement. Published by Black Swan Press’ Surrealist Editions, “Where the Wolf Sings” includes a long afterword by contemporary surrealist writer Franklin Rosemont, who quotes surrealist poet Benjamin Peret’s assertion that the poet must be a revolutionist.

Certainly for the first Paris surrealist group — which Low, born way back in 1912 (died early last year), took part in — politics played a big part, with its relationship with the communist party between the world wars, etc. And as a new movement with its own set of new artistic practices and methodologies, surrealism was artistically revolutionary too. Today, however, I’m not quite sure what to make of the connections between poetry, revolution, and surrealism — and the contemporary poets and artists who define themselves as members of the surrealist movement.

Rosemont’s choice to use his afterword to write a fairly detailed biography of Low’s political engagement seems to suggest that the contemporary surrealist movement requires a poet’s direct physical engagement — beyond the written text — with the politics of her time. Low as political activist was certainly revolutionary, with her left-leaning politics and association with Trotskyist and anarchist groups, and her political book “Red Spanish Notebook: the first six months of revolution and the civil war,” co-written with her then-husband Juan Breá.

But one doesn’t need to be a poet to be politically engaged. What makes a revolutionary poet? Does she need to write poems that directly wrestle with political issues? Low done that too. In the third section of “Where the Wolf Sings,” a poem titled “The Tequesta Acrostic” takes the now vanished Indian tribe as its subject; other poems point to a hope for a “global understanding.”

The first two sections of the book, however, don’t directly address political issues. The first section, “The Enchanted Life,” is a collection that can be loosely described as love poems. The second section, “Anguish,” are poems of loss. Here, I have a hard time seeing how the poems are particularly revolutionary, by any definition. The poems don’t seem to use any “traditional” surrealist techniques; the images aren’t particularly disjunctive as in automatic writing, for example. (In contrast, Low’s collages are very much reminiscent of previous surrealist artists like Max Ernst.) And if there are other formal elements that are pushing or expanding surrealist techniques, I’m having difficulty seeing what those are, exactly.

That doesn’t mean I don’t like the poems. My favorite is “Tulips Standing In Line”: The exactness of the images, with an attention not seen in a lot of poetry:

a scale of muted bells
rung in a garden closed with walls;
cups for the wine of contemplation
poured upon thorns;

Is that what a revolution is? Perhaps Low’s work is a continuing redefinition of surrealism that tries to bridge the personal and political — though if so, I’m having trouble seeing how this is a specifically revolutionary surrealist act. Once, surrealism was largely defined by its revolutionary methodologies; now, surrealism — assuming one still considers it a living movement — seems to define its work and its members by personal and political association….

Then again, maybe that’s how most movements are defined….

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It’s National Poetry Month, and in celebration, lit mag Fence is copycatting Radiohead to let you pay your own price for a one-year subscription to Fence.

Fence’s latest issue has a story by Rikki Ducornet, the writer / artist my dissertation’s about!

Go here and hit “donate”, and pay what you will via Paypal. Do so before April 30, or you’ll be too late –

Oh Yes

there are worse things than
being alone
but it often takes decades
to realize this
and most often
when you do
it’s too late
and there’s nothing worse
than
too late.

– Charles Bukowski

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Need a girly guide to going green? A new book, Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style, is a chatty, crunch-free book that can put you on your green path. It’s kind of like green LA girl — except a lighter green and in print.

Green Chic’s written by one Christie Matheson, and is sort of blog like in the sense that it has personality. The book’s partly a story of Christie’s own eco-transformation as well as a guide to greening your own. Green Chic covers everything from changing out your bulbs to building a green wardrobe.

In fact, the fashion-related sections are the best parts of the book — which I think has made many reviewers focus on the trendy aspect of Green Chic. SheFindsBrynT on SheFinds.com says “Christie dispels the myth that going green and staying fashion forward can’t go hand in hand.” And Linda L. Richards of January Magazine concludes: “Long story short: follow Matheson’s path, heed her advice and you will decrease your footprint. And, needless to say, you’ll look fabulous doing it.”

But what I like about Green Chic’s fashion section is that it’s not just about buying new organic clothes, but mostly about making the most of what you already have, as well as focusing on quality over quantity, as opposed to the buy-and-toss Forever 21 mentality we women are so often bombarded with today.

Plus, the fashion advice is only a small section of the book. As Victoria E notes on her blog, Green Chic’s quite comprehensive: “Not only is fashion and beauty covered their own chapters, but she also covers: dining, drinking, home, transportation, travel, parties, big and small changes.”

Green Chic’s really aiming for the girly market, with “beauty bonus” pullout boxes that tie together greening efforts with beauty regimes. One box, for example, notes that refraining from overheating or cooling the apt is better not just for the environment, but for your skin.

Why’s the book a lighter shade of green? Well, hardcore greenies might think Christie just doesn’t go far enough. Yes, she’s de-car’d — but the fact that she lives in San Francisco and Boston, both cities with great transit systems, makes you wonder why she had one in the first place and why she makes getting rid of it sound like such an extraordinary feat (though I’m still glad she de-car’d). She recommends green cleaners, but makes the idea of creating your own green cleaners sound like a bizarre hippie activity. She’s aware that the aluminum in many deodorants is bad both for the environment and for one’s personal health — but says she still uses the uneco stuff because she doesn’t like the alternatives.

And in some cases, Green Chic is already outdated. Christie says dimmable CFLs aren’t on the market — but they have been for quite some time already!

Still, Green Chic’s a fun read — and might be a good gift for girly friends who’re eco-curious but not yet eco-committed. Despite the strange decision to kick off the book with a glossary, the book gets more humorous and interesting as one reads on, and makes going green sound fun and chic.

[crossposted on BlogHer]

Tags: greenchic, environment,

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Here’s a poem for Pac-Man lovers: “Notes Taken in Research for a Poem About Ms. Pac-Man” by Elliot Harmon. An excerpt:

I do not know which to prefer,
the beauty of pursuit
or the beauty of denouement,
the last dot in Ms. Pac-Man
or just after.

Apparently, there are Pac-Man haters in the world, as Elliot notes in his little note about his “Notes”: “Workshopping the poem taught me that there are poets who hate video games. I mean, they actually hate hate them; as in, want to eradicate them. I hope that both poetry and video games last as long as possible in the culture war, but I’ll gladly side with the winner when the time comes.”

If you had to pick between Pac-Man and Tetris, which would you pick?

Screenshot from freepacman.org

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