"Food Inc." is good for you

I just saw "Food Inc." the powerful and polished new doc from Participant Films. I think it's Participant's best film to date. What impressed me most was the tone that they set and kept throughout the film in what could have been overly preachy or too emotional or frankly, too gross for people to receive this urgent information.
The film showcases the experience of writers --including Michael Pollan ('The Omnivore's Dilemma') and Eric Schlosser ('Fast Food Nation), activists-- a mom who lost her son to E Coli from tainted beef, and farmers --the most insightful being the philosophizing organic farmer Joel Salatin, all sharing their experiences and musings on the power and corruption of Big Agriculture. Their stories create an provocative, disturbing portrait of the industrialization of what we eat. The segment on Monsanto is especially frightening even when I knew much of the story from Deborah Koons Garcia's "The Future of Food".

Food Inc. is essential viewing as it clearly outs the multinationals who have taken over the production of food. It's ultimately uplifting highlighting visionaries like Stonyfield Farm's Gary Hirshberg who reminds us of our power to vote everyday at the grocery store and restaurant by buying local, organic food. What happened to Big Tobacco must now happen to Food Inc.
Check out the film's action oriented web site here.

LA Fashion Week Marches into new terrain

LA Fashion Week took a big step forward this month now that the beast known as IMG/Smashbox is no longer. Several factions (myself included) have been working for years to bring LA Fashion Week downtown to the heart of LA and where the fashion industry resides. Our own major media outlets have been mildly supportive at best and even still, this was the most interesting Fashion Week in years.

LAFW included Downtown LA Fashion Week, CoLA (closing Fashion Week with the always interesting Brian Lichtenberg) and BOX8 (hosting Gen Art to Kick the Week off), all hosting large scale events with non-conflicting dates. That's a milestone, especially when you consider that these were all independent productions without a mega-corporate sponsor footing the bill for any of the aforementioned. It's unfortunately typical for that fact to blow right by the often cynical major press outlets.

The "Downtown LA Fashion Week" event was the comeback location for Louis Verdad's wonderful collection and the place for Cameron Silver to showcase his storied and stunning collection of vintage couture. Silver's 'Decades' collection is the elite of what LA Glamour is all about and what eco-fashion has to offer when you consider that the gowns showcased were at least 20 years old (and included looks from the 30's and 50's!), immaculately constructed and obviously built to last. DLAFW targeted LA's high art and fashion culture and aimed to continue to broaden the appeal and insights that eco-fashion has to offer via EcoNouveau.

Verdad's artful "Fashion Presentation" was gorgeous and showed brilliantly in the MOCA upstairs space. August Bradley's large scale photography complemented the all black collection perfectly. This was the first-ever presentation of large-format prints from Bradley, including some never before seen prints. A video installation by the acclaimed “Fashion Cinema” film director Robertino Fonseca revealed the broader story and inspiration behind Louis Verdad’s work.

DLAFW's choice of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA as a centerpiece venue of LA Fashion Week symbolizes LA as the art mecca that it has become (let's own it, people!) and how connected it is to the fashion community. The DLAFW event was also a fundraiser for MOCA, which strengthened our community ties downtown, helping a major institution that almost went under last year.

LA Fashion Week is most definitely interesting again for the majority of Angeleno's. Expect October 09 to be even more expansive and compelling.

Blue is the new Green

At the leading edge of the sustainability movement in business is the concept of 'transformational innovation' that reformulates the heavy burden of environmental accountability into a "blue ocean of opportunity". The idea is to make sustainability "irresistible" to people. There's a great article on this method of thinking by Tamara Giltsoff here.

I'm a big fan because it's about whole systems thinking rather than just offsetting your carbon footprint or trying to generate your companies power with solar energy. These ideas are great, but we have a golden opportunity to look at and reshape the way we operate business across the board --and it doesn't have to suck!

Case in point is the brilliant work that IBM is doing with their “Smarter Planet” campaign. IBM has identified its need to focus on global systems and infrastructure innovation to support sustainable transformation because they have connected it with their core brand identity of being "the leading infrastructure and systems innovator." They realize that they can take on some of the biggest problems in the world because they have a core competency of knowledge, deep research and experience spanning multiple industries.

This is a great example of utilizing and understanding a companies "brand essence" and thus more readily adapting to global market shifts (and why it's so important to be crystal clear on your brand competency and stay with it) to be poised to innovate in turbulent times.

Now is the time to strategically shape and define your role in a sustainable world and align it with the core of your brand. There is enormous potential for smart innovators in this brave new "blue" world.

Reef Madness

Do yourself a favor and go see the "Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef" exhibit curated by Margaret and Christine Wertheim at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica. It's one of those rare exhibits that is powerful, accessible, fun and at the same time relevant social commentary. The exhibit curated by the sisters was conceived to heighten awareness of the environmental crisis threatening the Great Barrier Reef, located off the coast of northeastern Australia. The world’s biggest structure made by living organisms, the Great Barrier Reef covers an area of 133,000 square miles and can be seen from outer space. Climate change is taking a severe toll on the reef, and is affecting available habitat of much of the sea life there.

The surprising inspiration for the concept is the Hyperbolic forms that appear throughout the natural world — in kelp, anemones and coral reefs, for example. Though mathematicians had long believed this space impossible, nature has been working with hyperbolic space for hundreds of millions of years. In 1997, Dr. Daina Taimina (a Cornell professor) realized how to make models of this geometry using crochet, a discovery that blew the minds of the mathematical world.

The Wertheims consider the Crochet Reef produced by the efforts of hundreds of contributors to be mostly complete and have shifted their attention to the "Toxic Reef". Initiated in response to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of plastic debris located in the north Pacific that’s twice the size of Texas and 30 meters deep, the Toxic Reef is made of yarn and plastic trash.

According to the sisters "The Woolen Reef is done because we simply can’t handle anymore, but the Plastic Reef is still growing. We’ve been working on it for two years and it probably needs another year of development. Far fewer people have been interested in working with plastics, but there’s certainly an abundance of raw material. We’re using plastic shopping bags, cassette tape and a monumental amount of videotape. I’ve been making out of videotapes giant kelps that are amazing. Many people hate the plastic reef. It’s much less popular than the Woolen Reef."

Crochet Reef is on view at Track 16 Gallery from January 10 through February 21. On Saturday, January 17, 2-4 p.m., the Wertheims host a workshop on crocheting plastic bags, followed by a lecture, 4-6 p.m., on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by Captain Charles Moore. Reception at 6-9 p.m. Track 16, Bergamot Station C-1, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 264-4678.

Trudell Poetry Reading

John Trudell will be in Santa Monica tomorrow (Saturday, November 8)
at 6pm to do a poetry reading. The theme is "Intelligence As An Alternative Energy Source". If you haven't seen JT speak or are just
looking for a great ride tomorrow night, you can't go wrong. Always amusing, always insightful and guaranteed to provoke.
Pico Youth and Family Center 715 Pico Blvd. Santa Monica, 90405

The JAMES gang

What a joy seeing the criminally underrated band "JAMES" at the sold out El Rey Theater last night. The band recently reunited in what they are calling a 'second coming' rather thank comeback and it really felt that way last night. There new album 'Hey Ma' is getting some good write-ups (I was shocked to see it reviewed in Entertainment Weekly with a 'B' grade no-less!) and this was the 2nd show on their tour.

JAMES has ostensibly been around since the 80's and was another band touched by the genius of Tony Wilson (who pushed for them to open for New Order back in the day)and has had albums produced by Brian Eno. They're best known in the States for their single "Laid" which was their closing song of the night that included literally half of the audience joining the band (trumpet and violin included) onstage for a good old fashioned sing-along.

They played several tracks on their new album including the title track that features some pretty strong imagery about falling towers and "dust in the air" and includes the chorus 'Hey ma, the boy's in body bags,' and is more shocking for the jaunty way in which it is delivered. Frontman Tim Booth declared 'even our protest songs are uplifting.' That's what I've always loved about this group. Their raw, observational lyrics are always optimistic and honest, often a rare combination.

The press has never been able to categorize JAMES which is part of why they haven't reached the kind of popularity that seems like a no-brainer. The internet has once again given the ability to people to find out about this great band. I was kind of surprised that the show was sold out given most times when I mention them I get the standard 'who'? I was even more surprised and encouraged to see a well-rounded crowd of young hipsters, ex-pat brits, and old-guard music freaks like myself on hand. It was one of the more enthusiastic crowds I've witnessed in LA in quite awhile.

If you haven't heard them, definitely give 'em a try if you like genre-busting bands. They're writing songs now and promise another album to come as the second coming continues.

I am a Radiohead

Radiohead wrapped up their North American Tour this past week. I've seen them 6 times and just realized that it was over 10 years ago that they had me at 'Meeting in the Aisle' (an obscure B side) on a dreary NYC night at Radio City Music Hall. They've been sacred to me ever since and I don't use that term lightly either. They've been with me through relationship and life struggles and were my soundtrack to navigate through 9/11 where I had a front row seat. 'Life in A Glass House' repeatedly danced through my brain with the deeply relevant message 'Once again, we are hungry for a lynching/That's a strange mistake to make/You should turn the other cheek/Living in a glass house.'
I felt compelled to travel great distances to see them including a trip to Dublin in October 2000 to see them in Kildare, Ireland on Thom Yorke's birthday which was quite a treat. I recall it as being a big internet astonishment moment where I realized that I could press a bunch of buttons on a keyboard and walk up to this little booth I'd traveled so far to get to and they had a ticket waiting for me. Radiohead was in the midst of a five-week tour with custom designed big-top tent and state of the art sound, lights, laser and big screens. No corporate branding or logos to be found either at these generous and fan focused series of shows. As I looked around the hyper-enthusiastic European crowd during 'Exit Music' I realized the shamanic abilities of this truly special band. Thom Yorke had literally cast a spell over the thousands of us who were completely still and seemingly out-of-body.

Sing us a song,
a song to keep us warm,
there's such a chill, such a chill.

And you can laugh a spineless laugh,
we hope your rules and wisdom choke you.

And now we are one
in everlasting peace.

R'head has played 'Exit Music' in all 6 shows that I've seen (I have to mention seeing them in Florence, the home of the Rennaissance and the eery Dantes Inferno thread the show had!) Ten years later 'Exit Music' still had that same mesmerizing effect at the Inaugural SF Outsidelands Festival where Radiohead was the first band EVER to play at night at Golden Gate Park. Quite an honor and a perfect druidic night with the fog rolling above us. Thom and the gang performed another magical sermon replete with poetic dissonance of the horrors and joys of life framed by a dazzling light and video accompaniment.

It was an epic show and this Tour was clearly a meaningful one for the band and fans. 'In Rainbows' released digitally in a groundbreaking 'pay what you want' format, beautifully ties all of their previous work together. It's sound and lyrics seem particularly timely delivered with a sense of urgency and guided by a steady, mature hand. Hearing all of the songs on the new album live was glorious including one of my favorite moments of the show where the power went out on the band and forced the crowd into a sing-along during "All I Need"--

You are all I need
You are all I need

I'm in the middle of your picture
Lying in the reeds

Rumor has it that Radiohead is going to cut back on their touring due to their environmental concerns about their sizeable footprint. Yorke has become a big spokesman for the Big Ask which is pushing for greater legislation by the EU to combat emissions that cause climate change.

I'm grateful to have seen them on this tour in such a magical surrounding and no matter what they do from here, their influence and inspiration will carry great value for many, many years to come.