November 2012
October 2012
The Supreme Master Ching Hai musical! How did we miss this?
Catherine Wagley went to see Loving Silent Tears, the musical based on Supreme Master Ching Hai’s poetry collection, Silent Tears, and reviewed it for LA Weekly. Here is a taste for you:
The whole cast comes onstage. “Let’s take each other’s/Take each other’s hand,” they sing. Audience members had been given star-shaped light up wands to wave, too, though quite a few had stopped working properly by this point in the show.
If you want to enjoy the spectacle, as we desperately do, that is too bad—it was a one-night-only show, and we are all out of luck. Bring back Loving Silent Tears! We want a national tour featuring all the cities with Ching Hai joints!
[photo by Catherine Wagley for LA Weekly]
Whole Foods debuts their own brand of vegan meats!
And we’ve been eating them up and they’re TASTY. Chicken patties, burgers, meatballs, nuggets, THE WORKS.
I believe they’re at all Whole Foods but Whole Foods doesn’t tell us shit so you might want to call a store near you and get the 411 on meatless meatballs and chickenless nuggets and WHAAAT. This stuff is GOOD. $4/package. I think that’s everything
LET’S EAT:
[thanks to wonderful megan and miles for the tip <3 ]
Pig factory farms are really bad for the mostly poor, non-white people who live near them
Some really depressing news from EHP about how pig factory farms are and how they impacting the lives of the people who live near them. SPOILER ALERT: it’s not giving them magic powers or helping them live really long happy lives!
Wired breaks it down:
… in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, which finds an association between air pollution and odor in the near vicinity of swine farms, and hikes in blood pressure in local residents. When you put the pieces together — most hog confinement operations are in poor, non-white areas; cardiovascular disease is endemic in African Americans; North Carolina lies within the worst US area for cardiovascular disease, known as the “Stroke Belt” — you can see that anything that makes blood pressure chronically worse is bad news for public health.
That study, though, is just the latest in a long string of publications that Wing and team, and the community they have been studying, have brought forward over the past decade. During the meeting, Wing gave a comprehensive overview of the major problems with confinement agriculture, setting it within a context of environmental injustice and worsening public health.
Ugh, this shit is so bad for everyone, especially poor, non-white people, the folks who are shit on by society the most are now being literally shit on.
I get it, bacon tastes great, I’m not denying that, but the fact is, there are lots of fatty, salty, smoky foods that taste just as good (or almost as good, if you’re truly a crazy person for bacon) and the price that we pay for this obsession is ruining lives. Just fucking give it up, please, it’s better for your health, and the health of everyone else.
Baby echidna puggle is weird and adorbs.
Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!
Check out this super-weird, super-cute video about a little echidna puggle who was recently rescued at just a few days old. Dudes, I totally want my own echidna puggle now. Wait—maybe I should be one of these for Halloween?!
In Hurricane Sandy's path? Here's what to do if you have pets!
HSUS has a great post with everything to do, check it out.
Things you can do right now:
- Put a collar with visible identification on your pets, including indoor-only pets
- Keep pictures of your pets on hand for identification purposes. Ideally, you should also be in the photo
- Create a pet emergency kit (see below) and refresh the items every few months
- Talk to your neighbors about how they can help your pets if you are not at home when disaster strikes
- Create a list of hotels that allow pets
- Plan on evacuating about 100 miles inland
This emergency supply kit should include:
- Three-or-more-day supply of food in airtight, waterproof container, and drinking water
- Bowls for food and water
- Current photos and physical description of your pets, including details on markings
- Medications, vaccination records and pet first aid supplies
- Comfort items such as a toy and blanket
- Small garbage bags
- For dogs include: leash, harness and a sturdy carrier large enough to use as a sleeping area
- For cats include: litter and litter box and a sturdy carrier large enough for transport
Stay safe, East Coast humans and other animals!!
Paul Shapiro's Animal News You Can Use!
Paul Shapiro is back for his weekly dose of all the animal news that’s fit to print! Take it away, Paul!
You already know that US meat consumption is declining significantly, but did you know about the positive global trends on this front? See what this meat industry site has to say about it. That’s of course not to suggest that all is well by any means, since some countries, like China, continue to eat more and more meat. But is does offer some optimism.
Speaking of optimism, Target is the latest major pork buyer to announce that it will eliminate its purchase of pork from gestation crate systems.
Some cool new animated videos about factory farming came out this week, including one for adults and one for kids. This one is particularly poignant.
I’m sure the overlap between readers of this weekly post and Wu-Tang fans is vast, so I may as well keep you in the loop on the critical news: You can go to bed tonight resting in the knowledge that GZA (who was a CA Prop 2 backer in 2008!) has now convinced Redman and Method Man to go vegetarian…
The Vegansaurus Top 15 vegan celebrities!
LA Weekly just posted their top 10 vegan celebrities, which got me wondering why they should have all the fun. As many of you pointed out, a few of those celebs aren’t even vegan anymore (Alec and Olivia, I’m looking at you.) So … drum roll, please … we at Vegansaurus have put together our own top 10 list, only it contains 15 of our favorite vegan celebs! What do you think? Does this make you love us more? Hate us? Feel nothing? Ha! I bet you can’t stop reading anyway!
In no particular order (I’m very sensitive myself and do not want these beautiful specimens of veganism to feel jilted), I present you with…THE VEGANSAURUS TOP 15 VEGAN CELEBRITIES!
The first two are the winners of a little poll we conducted around the first of year, asking you about your favorite vegan musicians. You guys went totally bonkers for
1. Moby! This guy has been vegan for what feels like forever, which roughly translates to about 18 years. He’s co-owned a vegan cafe and co-written a book, all the while working as a recording artist, hot dang! I went to a BBQ he hosted at SXSW last year, which was pretty fantastic, and maybe one of my favorite meals from 2011. Keep doing you, Moby; keep doing you.
2. Ted Leo! Now, don’t get upset, but I don’t know much about this guy. That doesn’t matter, however, because you, our lovely readers, LOVE this guy. You couldn’t hold back your devotion in our poll! Please, feel free to school me about Ted Leo in the comments, I will not mind. According to this interview, he loves Millennium (holla!). Maybe us S.F.-dwellers will run into him there. Jealous?
And now for our picks:
3. Bill Clinton! Need I say more? The Vegan Fox (formerly Slick Willy, right?) is on Team Vegan, hurrah!
4. Fiona Apple! Angst sounds so sweet mixed with a vegan diet. My Tumblr and Twitter feeds are still filled with people going nuts about her new album, and that dropped like four months ago! Has anyone seen one of her epic onstage meltdowns? I’m not hating—I have epic meltdowns every day of my life, as witnessed by my friends, family, roommates and co-workers.
5. Alicia Silverstone. She videotaped herself feeding her kid like a goddamn bird, which grossed out pretty much everyone who saw it. I still shudder, thinking about it. In other news, she loves Food For Lovers queso, wrote a pretty awesome vegan lifestyle book, and STARRED IN CLUELESS (not to mention those Aerosmith videos).
6. Woody Harrelson. Raw vegans tend to be pretty sexy (hey Sarah E. Brown, I’m winking at YOU), and he especially did not disappoint while kicking undead ass in the movie Zombieland! Looks like he even got his hands on some vegan Twinkies for a scene in said movie. HEY WOODY, I MAKE THOSE FOR A LIVING!
7. Tony Kanal, the bassist for No Doubt! This one’s for me and my girl Tashina, the biggest No Doubt fans you may ever meet. Don’t hate, celebrate! Gwen Stefani was just photographed leaving a vegan restaurant in L.A.; maybe that was Tony’s influence? (Though I hear Gavin’s a longtime vegetarian.)
8. Joaquin Phoenix! He narrated Earthlings! He’s totally crazy (by which I mean a crazy-talented actor)! Isa Chandra Moskowitz has made eggrolls for him!
9. Emily Deschanel! She’s so beautiful and articulate, and her penetrating stare scares the shit out of me! She weathered a vegan pregnancy AND LIVED TO TALK ABOUT IT! Take that, everyone who says it’s not possible! Ha!
10. Scott Jurek, because vegan athletes/authors are superstars! Read all about Rachel’s love for Scott here! To quote the post, “Scott Jurek could basically kick your ass any day of the week, including days where he hasn’t slept the night before, has a broken ankle, and already ran 75 miles.” Dang.
11. Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres! They are so great about making veganism look fun and accessible. There is so much to love about this superstar couple and the work they do for animals. Too bad about the restaurant deal falling through, but yay for vegan dog food!
12. Erykah Badu! She’s every vegan jazz musician’s No. 1 crush, or maybe that’s just my old roommate Jeremy. Remember when she busted onto the scene with “On and On” then sent everyone into a flurry with her video for “Window Seat”? This “Queen of Neo-Soul” is truly an inspiration when it comes to forward thinking politics and raising her vegan family!
13. Alanis Morisette! I had a co-worker at the Chicago Diner who thought the lyrics to You Oughta Know were “… and the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me”. HA! Now you’ll always sing that, instead of the right words, JUST LIKE ME! It’s a curse I bestow on you. Also, Alanis is quite lovely, and wasn’t she great on Weeds? Oh yes, and of course You Can’t Do That on Television!
14. Russell Simmons! Man, do you follow this guy on Twitter? He’s like a guru for people who don’t believe in gurus (me)! And seriously, wasn’t the best part of Kimora Lee Simmons’ show when he came on and moderated the crazy? Our Megan is always covering Russell’s vegan moves here on Vegansaurus, so I’ll just direct you to one of my favorite posts of hers, also featuring Martha Stewart! Keep giving us your vegan recipes, Russell! Keep giving us your wisdom!
15. Thom Yorke! OBVIOUSLY, right?! Most everyone’s favorite band has been Radiohead at some point, hasn’t it? He ate at Café Gratitude once, when I was working in the Central Kitchen of Scandal. Everyone went nuts, as to be expected. I’m never around when the celebs come to the restaurants I work at and it’s not fair, because I just love them so much! Actually, scratch that—M.C. Hammer came into Source recently (and I didn’t recognize him without his signature pants).
Honorable Mention:
Brad Pitt! I was shocked to find out he’s vegan. On second thought, it made sense. He would just quietly be vegan, helping to rebuild New Orleans, raising a family, and avoiding Jennifer Aniston’s rabid fan base of haters.
