I was excited to get to guest post for SF’s own Ecofabulous this week (not to mention to cover a line I was introduced to at the new Two Birds). A portion of the post is as follows:
Palo Alto-via-Paris designer Linda Balti’s first line for Amour Vert (“green love”) caught our eye with its well-cut collection of dresses, shorts and colorful sashes. Believing that elegance and eco-consciousness need not be exclusive, Balti looked to dye fabrics locally in the Bay Area (with vegetable dyes for peace silks and low-impact dyes for jersey apparel).
The price is right, too: the new Airelle wide pants ($109) and Bouquet belted dress ($129) are among the great sub-$150 items that the company is likely to win fans with.
Noe Valley has a new neighbor in the form of Two Birds, a new women’s clothing store from Heidi Says alums Susanna Taylor and Audrey Yang. The yellow and grey shop at Castro and 24th has the duo’s humor (the website, 2birds1store, will launch after doors open Sunday) and great taste; think Three Dots, gold jewelry by local designer Jennifer Tuton, and a new line from Palo Alto eco line Amour Vert. Just make sure to hold off Contigo’s Mexican hot cocoa until after you try on Citizens of Humanity flares in the new nest.
After a recent Ignite SF talk on the health benefits of eating raw, I was excited to get author Rod Rotondi and north Bay publisher New World Library’s “Raw Food for Real People.” And know that I’m skeptical–there’s nothing I like more than a hot mac’n'cheese or a bowl of minestrone (made by Amy’s or hopefully someone I know and can convince to make it).
But the book opened with a welcome that surprised me–who expected a holier than thou, shun-the cow-killers approach: “I have to admit that being a raw-food chef is easy. No, really. It’s like Dumb and Dumber easy…the truth is that if you can cut an apple in half, you are a raw-food chef. And if you can slice or cube that apple, you qualify as a gourmet raw-food chef.”
Rotondi, who started his own organic line in LA, shares recipes for a buckweat breakfast feast (think avocado, sea salt, and nuts) and “bedouin burritos” (complete with homemade tahini and alfalfa). There’s instructions on carrot cake that doesn’t require cooking and coconut macaroon balls that I can attest are delicious after trying them some made by a better baker than myself. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure that “baker” is the right word for someone who makes this crunchy concoction, but then, neither is “cook.”
A nice man let me pass his car on my Vespa the other day only to have me smile back at him with my scrunched-up-as-a-Wonka-esque-blueberry face from inside an oversized motorcycle helmet. Unfortunate to say the least. So it makes me happy to see that Piaggio is finding other uses (and better styles for) head buckets with a new campaign to get people safe and sharing photos of their innovative uses for DOT-approved headgear.
Fans of the brand on Facebook who submit images of how they use their helmets can get their own trading cards made (not to mention a bag of scooter loot). Especially in light of Kenneth Cole’s Twitter gaffe over Egyptian riots, it’s fun to see a brand use social sharing so well.
I try not to post promotional video content with too much frequency, but the latest from the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (“social consciousness through digital culture”) may just have you friending, favoriting and donating. The Tenderloin-based educational and art space can’t be quickly described in terms of reach or single medium, and that’s how I know it’s needed.
Starting tomorrow, it will host Global Game Jam, 48 hours of game dev and experimentation fun. Institute for the Future’s game researcher Jane McGonigal will kick off the weekend, whose schedule promises “WORK!” of the best kind from 12:01 AM to 11:59 PM for the better part of three days.
I hit the road with Federated Media Publishing and our partner Clever Girls this week for the Altitude Design Summit, a meeting of design bloggers in Salt Lake City. Last year left me most inspired, as evidenced, and I’m excited about today’s conversations about strategic content sponsorships and determining which metrics matter most. Some of the FM partners presenting include:
The Valencia Street store The Curiosity Shoppe will be hosting artist Maria Forde’s work starting Friday (and celebrating with a reception starting at 6). The show of world record-themed work is a new addition to her sets of etchings including “musical instruments that i like: because of how they look and sound” and favorite actors. Consider the race to take home the latest work on.
I have 7×7 to thank for the reminder about the Fashion Feud at my beloved Rickshaw Stop. The live fashion design competition should be quite a site for the bar, which usually hosts concerts for plaid-clothed music fans or moustachiod fundraisers. It’s being presented in collaboration with the San Francisco Fashion and Merchants Alliance as similar events are hosted in Seattle and Portland. May a Californian designer hail victor.
While Jane Fonda, Lisa Ling and Margaret Cho may not immediately seem to have much in common, I’m excited to see that they’ve all participated in Miss Representation, an upcoming documentary that will examine how women are portrayed by network television and major media. Actress and SF First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom directed the film, whose trailer was shown at an International Museum of Women event this week to introduce “Reality Bites Back,” Jennifer Pozner’s book about guilty pleasure television and the need to become more critical consumers. You can see the feature-length project in early 2011 (from a public awareness perspective, it can’t come soon enough).
Come Thursday, the West Coast may not be as nice weather-wise (as in, not as may tanktops on Market just before Thanksgiving). But a locally-based online boutique promising “beautiful, eclectic objects from around the world” is set to bring enjoyment courtesy of Heddie Chu, the founder of SF architecture and design firm NC2. Emerald Fish will celebrate its debut (and travel, gifts and “good living” items) with a Vallejo Street party. For a more in-depth look at what will be shared, see the official preview.
