I have a great affinity and admiration for small, efficient spaces. I even forked over 2500 yen for a magazine-style book in a fancy architecture shop in Aoyama on the (mostly modernist) wacky buildings scrunched into the tiniest bit of vacant lot in Japan. And there is no place where small and efficient is more fully realized than Japan, where 5 seat restaurants and full apartments half the size of Western one car garages are common.

When Trevor and I sold everything we owned and moved to Japan a few years ago (and then moved back almost immediately because we were unwilling to live double, schizophrenic lives as second-class citizens/rockstars), we vowed to never again live in a space dominated by stuff. We moved into a small but beautiful apartment (and even so, it still has a kitchen the size of our Japanese apartment), and decided to make our fantastic neighborhood our living room.

Well, 5 years, a bookstore job with a hefty discount, my rediscovery of vinyl record collecting, and bazillions of shoes later, our place gets a crammed-in feeling if we aren't constantly mindful. Fortunately, our recent acquisition of a platform bed (yay storage!) has remedied some of those problems.

My point with all of this? I am excited to have discovered Little Diggs: a chronicle of "the Big things that make Small spaces livable — 500 square feet or smaller."

Oi, the living spaces there are just dreamy! And many appeal to my outdoor and slow-living aesthetic: I could drop everything and move right now into the Beach Chalet or the Small Cabin For The Masses. But equally represented is the flipside for you sophisticates: check out this wine cellar.

Although two of the small spaces that immediately appealed to me were in the States, funny how so many of these places are outside the U.S., hmmm? No matter. I've been planning on buying a small house -- with land for building additional small work and play spaces -- forever, and these "little diggs" give me so much inspiration!

Oi, another food post! Haha, can you tell it's getting colder, and my body is telling me to fatten up?

I tried out a place yesterday that I've been hearing a lot about, Amanda's Feel Good Fresh Food in Berkeley.















Great space, non? Clean and bright.

Amanda's serves "fast food" -- burgers, fries, salads, sodas -- with the same aesthetic as some of the big chains. But there's a big difference.

First of all, many combo meals are actually healthy, and come in under 600 calories. She achieves this through a smaller burger all around (yay!), and the burger is grilled and served on a crunchy whole wheat bun, with all the fixins that normally come with a fast food burger -- lettuce, tomato, special sauce. There are also options for organic American cheese, avocado, or olive oil grilled onions, and you can get walnut/mushroom veggie burger or grilled chicken if you're not a beef eater.

I got a cheeseburger, and it was really delicious. It was well cooked and wasn't greasy or suffering from that fast food oil taste, the tomato and lettuce was crisp and fresh, and the bun was so crunchy and light. I was also impressed that the ketchup is organic, and thus high fructose corn syrup free.

I love cheeseburgers, but I often can't finish an "American" sized burger unless I prep my belly all day, and I not only like to eat healthy but I have to watch my cholesterol, so Amanda's is a godsend.

She also bakes her fries, and she offers sweet potato fries as well. Holy smokes, they are good! Her salads are made with organic greens, with goodies like radicchio, grapes, organic peaches, almonds, and jicama, and are served with an organic whole wheat roll.

All of her packaging is done fast-food style, for that fast-food aesthetic to make you feel like you're having something bad for you, but it is all compostable.

But the best thing for me was the homemade sodas -- sweetened with agave nectar and stevia. Not only does this slash the calories in a soda in half and rid you of the high fructose corn syrup factor, but the soda doesn't taste as sweet.

Cola and sweet potato fries:



















I love cola, but never drink it (except the occasional Mexican Coke made with sugar). I was in heaven!

Can't wait to take my 7 year old nephew here when he visits next. Highly recommended when you have a hankering for fast food and don't want to feel guilty about it later, or have it come back to haunt you!

This was a pretty interesting read:

Stanford Biologist Sees Money in Preservation of the Environment

This is a new way of saving nature. Until now, the conservation movement has said people should care about nature for nature's sake - with charity as the driving economic force to preserve land. And that, [Stanford biologist Gretchen] Daily said, has failed. She sees a renaissance in the conservation movement hinging on investment.

[...]No one gets paid for water purification or climate stabilization or protecting biodiversity on a large scale. That's what Daily envisions.

She advocates at the state and even country government level, using software developed that can, for example, "estimate the worth of a forest full of pollinating insects vital to nearby crop production."

Where does it make sense to convert forests to agricultural production? Where should they be left alone?

Financially strapped countries could find the tool crucial, advocates say. A poor nation might be tempted to let a rich corporation develop land because it doesn't know the dollar value of the natural resources that will be destroyed.

"If you put yourself in the shoes of a poor government, it's hard to turn down the cash deal," said Mark Tercek, a former official at investment giant Goldman Sachs who recently left to head the Nature Conservancy. "It's hard to put a value on these services. That's what (Daily) is trying to map out."

--

"We're in the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs," [Daily] said in her Stanford office, which is covered with photos of her husband and two children. "People estimate we'll lose half of the Earth's life forms in our lifetime."

I don't know who "people" are, but that postulation is scary.

On a related note, this reminds me of the fundamental difference of policy that has guided two different nonprofits I've worked for, and how I believe it has been the key to their successes. Both social justice nonprofits, this difference stems from a crucial bit in their mission statements: investing in their grantees and clients, versus a "charity" approach, which I have seen firsthand foster community and allow dignity and personal power in one's life to drive lasting change.

Oh lord, help me remember this in my own life's little interactions!

So, is this guy really homeless? Or just smart?

I've been intrigued by this little slice of urban living ever since I met a guy at Mama Buzz who was playing a beautiful Fender bass on the back patio on a battery-powered headphone amp. We got to talking and I came to find that even though he was fully employed and pulling in a good income, he preferred to live in his van, down by the river (for real!) And he was saving bank.

He showed me his set-up, and it was pretty nice -- though I'd have to reduce my closet by 90 percent and, as a woman, become a trained killer to live that way. Men have it so lucky! Anyway, the key, he said, was the van. White, with tinted windows, it also had a large cross hanging from the rearview and the name of an order of monks written on the side in plain script. Cops, he said, don't want to bother men of god.

I'd be a little worried about the repentants you might attract though. Especially down by the river.

Thumbs up!



















Spent the afternoon working on the thumb's garden for her birthday, and the evening drinking tequila and beer. I love summer.

Speaking of gardens, this was a fascinating read and an inspiration for my own dog and chicken yard someday, though it's still hard for me to get over the oog factor:

Maggot Composting

Have U.S. Drivers Reached The Filling Point of No Return?

It took some time, but Americans are responding to rising energy costs by driving smaller cars and cutting back on miles they log on the road.

The persistence of high energy prices plays a role. It takes time for consumers to make changes that lower energy use. That isn't so much because people first shrug off high energy costs. They can and do react quickly. But the most important factors in energy-consumption changes come only with time -- buying a new refrigerator or a smaller house or trading in a sport-utility vehicle for a smaller car.

"What we're seeing now is prices have been high for a while and consumers have become convinced high prices are here to stay. That's given them time to make changes, such as the car they buy," said economist Christopher Knittel of the University of California, Davis. "That has larger effects than, 'Well, I'm just not going to drive to the mall this week.'"

This is big. We are going into a massive cultural shift that will see Americans not only changing the way they drive, but how they interact with their local community. I daresay this may even convince folks of how spoilt and entitled we've been, as we have clearcut our way through fossil fuels with our massive SUVs and McMansions and the like with nary a glance at what the consequences are for the rest of the human populace. May we finally experience even a small bit of what our ignorance has wrought on the rest of the world, and may we begin to learn from it (and turn it around before Wall-E comes to pass!)

And if you still feel like complaining after that spiel, chin up! Get a grip on yourself about our paltry almost $5 per gallon, and fall on your knees to praise jeebus -- you could be living in Britain!

At $9 Per Gallon, British Driving Habits Change

Many environmentalists have quietly rejoiced that the high cost of fuel is apparently achieving what governments have largely failed to: a reduction in carbon emissions.

But not all subscribe to this logic. Tom Burke, an environmental scientist and former government adviser, says high pump prices "inevitably fall hardest on people who can least bear them, instead of on governments who took wrong decisions."

"You can't just say it's a good thing that prices go up and people will do more sensible things," he says. "Older people, people already at the bottom of the pile, will find it harder ... to live and anyone who welcomes that has lost their humanity."

BTW, I am one of those folks who has "lost their humanity." I do hate high gas prices for the same fundamental reason everyone else does -- it makes my life less convenient -- but I do secretly rejoice at the same time. And yes, for those of you keeping score at home, it is easy for me to rejoice. I live in an area with ample public transit, I am healthy enough to ride a bike and walk, and I have plenty of shops carrying the necessities within walking distance of my apartment.

But no matter: I still think gas prices being so high is a good thing. And more to the point, I don't think we can be so simplistic as to say welcoming high gas prices equals not caring about the suffering of the people on the bottom of the pile. What a ridiculous idea. To focus on environmentalist glee over something that will actually change the bad behavior of millions of people, rather than focusing on the failures of public policy to address the inevitable shitpickle that was looming and now exists because our insatiable hunger for non-renewable resources is simply rhetoric, and lack of foresight.

This is also what capitalism wrought, baby. Nothing is perfect in our capitalist society. But even so, many folks are anti social programs and anti spending for community benefit until it hits them straight in the gut. I have no patience for people who are Capitalist when they get the long straw and Socialist when they don't get their way. Anyway, you work for policy with what you have been dealt; environmentalists have been doing that very thing in an unresponsive populace for years. And with what we have been dealt, change seems to only come from discomfort.

Any uncomfortable change (read: one that makes us evaluate need vs. want) that is good for the whole of our society and our world will inevitably hit some of the most economically fragile first -- whether it's paying a living wage for goods and services (buh-bye Wal-Mart), or getting in line with Europe and reining in our entitlement around fossil fuels. The key to leaving the least amount of people behind is demanding and working for social programs, and being community-minded.

There are poor, sick, and old people everywhere, and I don't see the preponderance of said populations elsewhere being used as an excuse to not do the right thing for the environment and our future as humans. In addition to the obvious -- exploring and implementing alternative fuels -- demand better public transit, build communities that incorporate necessary businesses within them, and get to know grandma or your neighbor and take them to the store or to work with you.

It takes time to change, but we're on our way.

If you're like me, and you 1) live in the US, where we routinely send banned beef bits to countries who outlaw those bits (nevermind what US consumers are getting in their ground beef), and yet you also 2) love dairy products, then be sure to check out the Dairy Report and Scorecard from the The Cornucopia Institute.

I've been avoiding "organic" behemoth Horizon for a while, but this clinches it (all emphasis mine):

Unlike the majority of all organic dairy farmers in the United States, who concentrate on the health and longevity of their cows, caring for them from birth, the Dean/Horizon Idaho farm sells off all their calves. Later, presumably to save money on organic feed and management, they buy one-year-old conventional animals on the open market. These replacements likely have received conventional milk replacer (made with blood—considered to be a "mad cow" risk), antibiotics, other prohibited pharmaceuticals, and genetically engineered feed. Many practices on a farm of this nature put ethical family-scale organic farmers at a competitive disadvantage.

Very helpful, and eye-opening, as well as a reminder that you don't get quality for nothing.

Happy Earth Day!



















As per usual all the rags have excellent Earth Day publications out about green living and such, with tips on how easy it is to green your life. A very good thing. But I also sometimes fear that the push to "go green" is becoming so ubiquitous -- with so few easily discernable rewards on the consumer's part -- that a lot of folks are liable to exhibit a certain degree of "green-fatigue." I know I certainly feel that way sometimes.

So, on that note, The Omnivore's Dilemma author Michael Pollan asks us, Why Bother?

Bits about things from across the pond...

Wonderful article about my favorite jefe y capitán, Patrick Stewart, in the New York Times (linked via SFGate because those bastards at the NYT make you register).

About his latest role in Macbeth:

So charismatic is Stewart as an actor that he can make the simple act of preparing a ham sandwich one of the scariest things you've ever seen

Proper.

**

You know, San Francisco was hailed as both a commie nanny state and environmental savior for banning plastic bags. Oakland is being taken to court over it. But it seems Ireland had successfully and quietly implemented a more comprehensive ban, in 2002. Spoilt and entitled Americans, take note, and read about some serious results. Another sad realization that the US is no longer a leader in even the most simple of things.

**

Apparently there are New Fears Over Boozy Britain. But come now -- is the UK really so different than any Westernized country? I mean, really, aren't we all the same kind of miserable and medicated?

I dislike doing laundry. In fact, I can see the fruits of my unhappiness as I type, and it isn't a pretty pile. My loathing of laundry isn't because I don't enjoy the work. No, it's the current process -- I hate that I live in an apartment building and don't have a washer and dryer; ergo, I am forced to go to the crackhead laundromat down the street or into the bowels of my building to contend with the neighbor who washes his clothing in Pine-Sol (remarkably, he seems most prolific right before I go to do a load) in this sad and lonely place:
























So, dreaming of the day when I buy a house and a nice little front-loading washer, my laundry hamper stuffed to the brim, I stumble upon something that not only feeds this hunger, but doubles as an affordable camping item expenditure AND is green t'boot.

I think I may be in love with the Wonder Wash portable and hand-powered washing machine. For real, yo. I am so buying this.

I feel so domestic!

Wow, what gives? Second post in a week about the softer side of normally wacky international relations introvert/part-time sociopath, and bane to environmentalists, my beloved Japan. What's up, my Nihon?

Awww, it's gotta be the international community on you for your current archaic and unnecessary whale-hunt, huh? Well, even with suspiciously-timed PR aside, I still gotta give you props.

This refurbished bicycle program for countries in need is so very cool. Japan is a country where you can hop off your bike and leave it unattended for hours with no lock and it's still there when you get back, or leave a $1000 mountain bike in Tokyo with a lock made out of what is akin to a rubber band to a Bay Area bike thief and no one steals it. But so many bikes are abandoned or otherwise discarded every year. I remember visiting with my mom in the mid-nineties and witnessing a garbage truck dump a whole fleet of perfectly good, but illegally parked, bicycles into its gob. I am so glad to hear there's a program to give these bikes another life, and help someone in critical need.

Japanese bicycles are bomb-ass too. I have a 21-speed Bianchi hybrid that often makes me feel like I'm towing a bus, but the ubiquitous Japanese bicycle has no gears, and those little things haul. And it's true what the article says -- the baskets are magical. I have two metal "saddlebags" for carrying groceries and whatnot on my bike, and I can never seem to fit as much as I can into one little front loader on a Japanese bike. I'll bet it carries grandma 5 miles to the nearest clinic no problem, and still has enough room for a bag of goodies from the market and pharmacy to help make her feel better. Proper.

Speaking of baby steps and the Wal a few posts ago...

Some students in plastic-burnin', whale-harpoonin', but charmingly portmanteau-lovin' Nihon have come up with shibukasa.

Taking advantage of a "community currency" system already in place in Shibuya Ward, a group of university students in Tokyo has started a project to reuse discarded plastic umbrellas.

The system behind "shibukasa" — a portmanteau word combining Shibuya and "kasa" (umbrella) — is simple. When one returns a shibukasa — which can be identified by a sky-blue umbrella logo — to a cafe or other store that keeps them, the borrower will receive Earth Day Money, which is accepted at some establishments in the ward.

If you know Japan, you know those ubiquitous little umbrellas for 300 yen that litter the trains and clog the umbrella bins -- and you also know this little thing these students are doing is a good thing indeed. Love the Earth Day money too -- keeps people involved until it becomes second nature. Baby steps, baby steps.

Ex-Sierra Club head Adam Werbach hired to "green" Wal-Mart.

First reaction: WTF? Wal-Mart, that anything but sustainable, community-raping, evil den of buy-more-stuff-to-fill-your-empty-heart?

But then, one stark reality:

I was a typical San Franciscan, very disconnected from Middle America, and, I tell you, now I'm turned off when I hear people use the expression 'fly-over states.' I mean, I love my little Bernal Heights neighborhood, I love having Progressive Grounds Coffee right up the street, and all those things. But the thing that was most educational to me is that this isn't the dream everyone has. Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, it is America out there, and right now what they want is to have parking to do their shopping all in one place, to have strawberries for $2 in February. And if the public demands, a retailer will provide. You say you hate Wal-Mart? Well, the American public has chosen this place; they like Wal-Mart a hell of a lot.

Okay, so Werbach would also make a great politician. But it is true: people love Wal-Mart. And no amount of maintaining that they are a hellmouth of evil is going to change that. Hell, even if they had children sacrifice goats to some archaic god at noon in the food court and had terrorists publicly molest the elderly and infirm in the pharmacy y'all just know most people would put their blinders on and continue to buy the Wal's cheap-ass Chinese crap and then complain about lead poisoning and the export of American jobs. That's how we humans work.

So, as much as it pains me to say it, I think Werbach is doing more good than harm by partnering with the devil.

The "greening" of America's biggest retailer -- even if it is selective and I suspect merely to help their bottom line -- cannot be denied as a very good thing. Analyzing and implementing where they can cut down on fuel and electricity would make huge dents in carbon emissions around the globe and possibly cause a ripple effect among their suppliers and distributors. Marketing organic produce in 4,000 megastores increases the demand for this type of farming. And bringing the concept of global warming to the "red states," as it were, is a tasty proposition. With a glass-half-full mentality you could almost say they would be creating demand for things (in this case, good things) people never thought they needed before. And lookee there -- isn't that the Wal-Mart way? Everyone's happy.

This still doesn't mean I advocate shopping at Wal-Mart. Though I can understand the sentiment this might promote, it in no way means if you can't beat 'em join 'em. There are certainly still glaring problems with Wal-Mart, the biggie being their tendency to make money off poverty. This starts with stores that are more often than not opened in economically depressed areas with employees who make the lowest possible wages and are denied affordable healthcare (and are therefore often subsidized by taxpayers), and ends with catering to a customer base largely populated by the poor, the elderly, and the chronically un-or-under employed.

The in-between in this poverty clusterfuck? Exploiting sweatshop and child-labor to fill their stores with low-quality crap. This leads to the other big bad no-no of supporting Wal-Mart -- the horrifying cause and effect of its supply chain. From the loss of domestic jobs to the sweatshops that are a direct result of supply and then demand of toasters or sweatpants or what have you for $4.99, the suffering that exists because of corporate and consumer greed is appalling.

I'm not trying to invalidate all the criticism Wal-Mart gets, but in this crisis we collectively face, being negative is not a winning strategy. The whole system is broken, and we've all got a moral charge to fix it.

We're all hypocrites somehow when it comes to sustainability and the like, so I acknowledge the importance of baby steps, especially with the Big Bad. I remain a Negative Nellie about Wal-Mart's actual motivation and investment in becoming more "green," but I'm on board with seeing what happens.

Random bits I've been mulling over the last couple of days, for your perusal...

Square America: a gallery of vintage snapshots and vernacular photography -- particularly rocking my socks are "The Party" and "Catch of the Day."

This is a brilliant treasure trove of the cultural landscape of the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries. This is also why I love poring through old boxes of photographs at the second-hand shop, and why I lament the fact that I don't have a handy little pocket dimension in a dusty box on my shelf where I can store all the things I love but don't have room for in my studio apartment, and thus do not collect.

***

Aw, hell no, Facebook. I knew you were more evil than MySpace. Y'all can track my online surfing, sure, but publicize my ebay addiction to two-headed donkey porn to all 3,000 of my "friends?!" Is there no sanctity left in the internets?

I guess I'll just have to buy my Talking Head Vibrator at the local toy shop then. This is a vibe that you can load up with mp3 voice tracks -- with names like "French Boy," "Tony Gets Tough," and "Bergen the German Mountain Man" -- and then play while you do your thing. It also has a record function. Creeptastic.

***

The Folgers intern who came up with this hopefully got a cubicle near the windows for it.

***

Real vs fake: which tree is greener?

Suck the life out of my childhood memories vs. be a responsible consumer: which direction will my mind go after I read this article?

NP: Ministry vs. Lady Sovereign, 'Love Me or Hate Me Every Day'

Excellent article in this week's San Francisco Bay Guardian about scavenging the streets of the Bay for freebies and the like. Loved reading about Swap SF, and I am really excited to attend the next one. Books and clothes...what else do I need?

Oh yeah: food. While I don't generally dumpster-dive for food items, I do actively investigate and take full advantage of my local stores that will give away items that are expired but still good. Mmmmm, free whole milk ricotta. And I do advocate sharing the wealth if you have it. At work, we are blessed to partner with so many great organizations like Full Belly Farm that give us full boxes of quality organic produce for our clients. Also, when we have events we're always sure to drop off the inevitable extra food at the park. People are always so grateful.

But y'all know household items are my big thing; in fact, most of my house is furnished with things found on the street. Sustainable, inexpensive, and fun, it is. Hey, and it isn't as filthy as you might think -- there is a lot of wealth in the Bay, and people will put really nice stuff out on the sidewalk rather than put themselves out to haul it to the thrift store or sell it on Craigslist. As my red 1950s formica table, Coach leather satchel, and solid oak bookshelf, and the Guardian's profiled scavenger's 50 inch color TV will attest, there's gold on the sidewalks of the Bay Area.

However, there are pitfalls to watch out for. I never pick up anything that is upholstered, unless it comes from the free area downstairs (inside) in my building. My friend Megan picked up some sweet abandoned upholstered antique chairs on the sidewalk by her place in the Mission, and a flea infestation commenced. Ugh. But undaunted, she rid herself of the problem and instead took my clean and flea-free couch off my hands when I moved to Japan.

And y'all knew labeling this as a "movement" was going to happen sooner of later, and I was both amused and appalled at the both blanket and inaccurate term used in the article, "Freeganism." Actually, seeing myself type that word, I think I'm more appalled. Sure, I do this partly for political and environmental reasons, but I'm still taking advantage of someone else's consumerism. I don't feel self-congratulatory or anything, because I also really enjoy scavenging (and I love myself some non-vegan eating!).

I guess I don't really mind the attempts at pigeon-holing this as a movement -- I welcome it if it gets more folks diving into doing this, even though it makes things harder for me to score the excellent goods. It's a win-win for the consumer and the planet.

Earth Day is Sunday, and the San Francisco Chronicle, like many papers, is running a green section demonstrating ways to reduce your carbon footprint.

What I really like about the spread this year is that they are chronicling some really easy ways for regular folks to reduce their fossil fuel consumption around the house. Saving energy doesn’t have to be difficult, but so often the more urban papers tend to focus on things that are really unreasonable for the majority of America, so naturally some folks just freeze up and change nothing. Approaching greening your life on a scale is a really a nice reminder for people who are already pretty green, and a gentle way to ease people who aren't so green into changes around their home. Big changes, especially related to lifestyle, usually don’t happen overnight.

So, check out your carbon footprint with this test. If you’re unhappy with your score, the Chron also aggregated a bunch of web resources with information about greener living, for everything from gardening to eating out.

A big one from the list that I highly recommend is getting a free gas and electrical audit, as well as a water audit, from your respective utility companies for your home and office. I just did this for my office, and not only do you get a really good idea about how much energy gets wasted in your space and how easy it is to stop it, but they give you free stuff like shower and faucet aerators. I installed them, and guess what? Now we are saving gallons a minute, AND they provide better “spray velocity” than what we were using before! People actually wash their dishes more now instead of leaving them in the sink for some other schlub, because it is easier to clean them. No joke. Everyone loves the aerators at my work. Total score.

Ah, and closely associated with reduction, I read a pretty good article today about the built environment and obesity.

[Former Director of California's Department of Public Health Richard] Jackson says the attempt to create safety and convenience has spawned its own set of problems: "Now we have obesity, diabetes, cancer and joint problems, instead of dysentery. We're richer than before, but things don't feel right. We work harder, we drive farther, we're fatter, we're more depressed. Our lifestyle is making us more unhealthy, and a lot of that is based on our built environment."

Yes, it's true, comfort kills. Amen. But there's a big aspect of the built environment that people seem to forget about, because it intersects with our own willpower. Check this nastiness, yo. Gluttony combined with the prevalence of non-foods as breakfast-lunch-dinner is still the root of our problem. But, as I said, baby steps. Recognizing the built environment, and the gah! of sprawl is a good start.

NP: Rock Plaza Central, 'SexyBack'