So Fresh and So Green

It’s an opportunity for individuals and organizations and people of all walks of life to draw a line in the sand and say no” to more offshore oil drilling. Now is the time to start taking control of our energy future and not leaving it to the oil industry to decide it for us.” ~Rauschkolb, “Hands Across the Sand” organizer

On June 26 people at 742 sites around all over the world including Britain, India, Australia, Croatia, Peru people will join Americans in California, Puerto Rico and D.C. and more at their local beaches at 11 AM in their own time zone. They will form lines in the sand and at 12:00, join hands to protest offshore drilling. (more…)

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Acclaimed Black filmmaker/director Spike Lee has teamed up with Absolute vodka to design their latest limited edition bottle. The bottle depicts a Brooklyn brownstone with the number from Lee’s childhood home in Cobble Hill along with his name.

The vodka is apple and ginger flavored. That and the fancy packaging will cost you about (more…)

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A low response rate could have very serious consequences for our city – for each person who is not counted in the census, the city loses about $3,000 in federal aid every year, money that could be spent on services our communities all want and need.” ~NYC mayor Mayor Bloomberg

Less than 50% of Brooklyn has filled out their census forms and that means the census will be knocking on their doors in May. Seems like the first thought for people has been “it’s gotta be those damn immigrants.” To be fair the surrounding boroughs didn’t fair that much better, only clocking in at (more…)

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Supa Nova Slom has recently released a new book called The Remedy: The Five-Week Power Plan to Detox Your System, Combat the Fat, and Rebuild Your Mind and Body

If the name sounds familiar maybe it’s because this Brooklynite’s mother is the holistic health practitioner Queen Afua and best-selling author of Sacred Woman and Heal Thyself.

Or maybe you’ve heard he is known as Hip Hop’s Medicine Man with appearances on New York’s Hot 97 Star & Buckwild Morning Show. He has worked with Erykah Badu, Chuck D, Hype Williams, Melyssa Ford and Tyson Beckford. (more…)

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Photo Credit: “5th Avenue” by Tracy Collins

The jobless rate in the United States for October has hit 10.2%. For some reason people are only just now deciding to calculate the number of unemployed persons working part time jobs who would rather be working fulltime jobs and those who have given up on looking for work.

Why are they so late? These are the only kind of numbers anyone should be dealing with in the first place because it gives a much more accurate picture of what is going on now.

According to the NY Times:

“In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982.”

Sadly, I wonder if these numbers are coming out now to show some type of incompetence on President Obama’s part. One op ed even called for President Obama to stop blaming Bush and get us out of this mess. Whoever wrote that op ed has a job so how much could I possibly care what they have to say about that.

It’s ironic all of this celebration of NY State with Jay-Z, Alicia Keyes, the Yankees and the complete disconnect between all of that and the people. My adventures in unemployment land have been numerous with my last bout of unemployment in NY State being the most, shall we say exciting. (more…)

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Gigi Bio’s “PRISMS ON BUSHWICK” From the album: “PHOTO JUXTAPOSITIONS” reminds me of my environment, the city I love. The hard angles remind me of the urban landscape while the curve and flow flow recall the dynamic and energy of the city that never sleeps. Gotta love the graffiti too.

As a Black person from New York City I take issue with a lot of green marketing and I guess what I would call “green imagery”. It seems like a lot of “going green” is supposed to be geared towards white folks that live in Seattle. That’s fine and all but it isn’t only their responsibility to get involved and they certainly would not be the only ones to benefit from everyone being more environmentally conscious.

It bothers me that in sifting through images for this blog the majority of the “green images” I saw were of white adults and children in lush fields of green, green grass. You’ve seen those images. Maybe there are a few puffy white clouds in the blue-green afternoon sky. Oh yeah, with lots and lots of sunlight drenching everything. No beginning, no end, no context, just holy awesomeness as God intended! Maybe some strawberry blonde haired little girl is picking daisies and running around, whatever. I’m not going to take issue with the lack of non white persons in this imagery right now, but instead I’d like to discuss the lush, green field.

To buy this single click on Brooklyn-Queens

I grew up in New York City and I have a problem with imagery that leads one to believe lush green fields are worth being more conscious for and saving while implying cities aren’t and the hood isn’t. (more…)

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Untitled (2005), photo on russian baltic birch multi-ply plywood, 72″x48″, corporate headquarters, Vitamin Water.

I got the opportunity to throw some questions out at artist Josh Goldstein about his art, his love of New York City and a major theme in his work, NYC’s local convenience stores- bodegas.

Madam Toussaint: The economy is effecting our corner stores now too. I never thought I’d see the day when even bodegas would be going out of business, not mention the exterior replacements with “impermanent vinyl awnings”. In these times it seems your work is taking on a historical/archival tone. You couldn’t have predicted the economic crisis but how do you feel about the tone of your work possibly changing?

Josh Goldstein: I love bodegas. Especially a classic bodega with all the Dominican candies in the plastic canisters on the front counter, and an endless supply of tropical sodas from the Bronx, and the Yankees game playing on a small TV above the deli counter. But I’ve never really thought of my work in an archival way. It’s true that I’ve focused a lot on bodegas, but mostly it’s their energy that inspires me, not really their particular look from a particular time. It’s that raw energy that I try to use as a starting point to capture the energy and chaos of New York. (more…)

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