Knightly Knit, Cookie Pies & Music You Must

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The folks at Sound Fix, a music boutique in Williamsburg, Brooklyn – know more about good music than all of the professors at Juilliard, combined. It could be that they are located in the same spot that almost every good band has their practice spaces, or it could be that they just rule. Sound Fix has just released their top 50 albums of the year, and if you want to be in audio-bliss for the next year, you’ll get some of these albums. From Bon Iver, Crystal Castles, and MGMT – to Girl Talk and Herculues and the Love Affair – you may not have heard of them, but once you do, you’ll wonder where they were all your life.

Two caps, one pup. Photo © Matt Lara

I enjoyed two caps the other day, a soy cappuccino from Gimme! Coffee – probably the best espresso ever,  and a naturally dyed cotton knit cap made by the elusive Filipino designer, Eairth from Kaight. Enzo my lil’ rescued pup (thanks to sugarmutts.org) is sporting his “Have a Heart” anti-fur pin. Believe me, it’s much more effective on him. Especially when we’re walking and I offer him up to the fur-clad :  “would you like to anally electrocute him and add a few extra inches to your coat?“

RECIPE: Cookie Pies!

Easy Cookie Pies! © Discerning Brute 2008

These cookies are perfect for the holidays. Add anything you want to the center! Chocolate, marzipan, jam, pumpkin pie mix, peanut butter, or even leave the sugar out and go for a savory mini pastry with mashed potato, tampenade, or a chunk of marinated seitan in the center!

What you’ll need (makes 2 dozen):
• 2/3 cup non-hydrogenated,vegan margerine or shortening (Earthbalance or Spectrum is great!)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 2 tblsp  sunflower seed butter
• 1/3 cup organic brown sugar
• 2/3 cup unrefined, organic sugar
• 1 tblsp vanilla extract (you can also use almond or coconut)
• 1/4 cup egg replacer (Energie is great!)
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2-3 cups all purpose organic, unbleached flour

Directions:
1. In a mixer, or with a fork, combine chilled margarine/shortening, coconut oil, sugar, vanilla, egg replacer, and sunflower seed butter.
2. Once it is creamy, add the baking powder and vinegar. It should start fizzing a bit.
3. Slowly mix in the flower until it is like play-dough, dry enough so it doesn’t stick to your fingers too much, but moist enough to roll out. Usually it’s 2.5 cups. For chewier cookies, add more flour. For crispier, add less.
4. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick on a floured pastry sheet or wax paper.
5. Using a circular cookie cutter, and a smaller circle (you can even use a bottle cap for the hole) make a solid base, and doughnut shaped top.
6. Place your base on an ungreased cookie sheet, add your filling, then place the top on!
7. bake on 350 for about 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Fresh Friday Finds

1. Conference of Birds

I attended the COB runway show for the Spring 2009 collection and was thrilled to see some organics! Andrew Holden’s ‘excellent bad-boys’ looked as if they were just back to London from a desert excavation or an Egyptian urban-safari. This collection featured gorgeous canvas jackets, Hebrew-inspired scarves, lots of layers, an organic hooded trench coat, vests, and a bright but soft color palate of yellow, bone, black, gray and pale blue. DB contributer Jodi worked on this collection. Most of the spring collection was vegan, but there was some wool and leather, unfortunately.

2. Blog of a Vegan Pirate

SuperVegan has been publishing the blog of Tod Emko who documented his time serving on the Sea Shepherd pirate ship, The Steve Irwin, and their mission to stop illegal Japanese whaling from February and March of 2008. In light of the 2008 IWC Meeting finishing with the usual deadlock, and Sea Shepherd officially announcing its 2008-2009 anti-whaling campaign, Operation Musashi, it seemed a good time to show people what’s going on in the world of whaling.

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3. ‘Top Model’ Judge Protects Seals!

America’s Next Top Model judge and renowned photographer Nigel Barker opens A Sealed Fate? tonight in New York. If you are in NYC, go check out an exhibition about the world’s largest slaughter of marine animals. Tyra, no doubt, would approve—even if she didn’t think of it first.
July 25-27 at 401 Projects, 401 West St., New York, (212) 633-6202, humanesociety.org/protectseals

4. Victoria’s (Dirty Forest Destroying) Secret cleaned up!

LISTEN to CEO Todd Katzenmeyer as he talks about how the Forest Ethics campaign changed the company’s catalog practices. Also pay attention to the insanity of Corporate monsters like VS and the insanity they foster.

5. An Olympic-Sized Fur Trade

China is one of the world’s largest suppliers of fur garments. More than 95 percent of China’s finished fur garments are exported for sale overseas, and many of them go to North America. Cat and dog fur is often deliberately mislabeled as “Asian jackal” or “rabbit” fur. This summer, with the world’s eyes focused on China during the Olympics, PETA is exposing the horrors that take place on Chinese fur farms. This is a historic opportunity to speak out against the global fur trade and influence consumers worldwide.

6. Ontario has made the largest conservation commitment in Canadian history, setting aside at least half the Northern Boreal region – 225,000 square kilometres – for permanent protection from development.

7. CBS News Joins FOX in revealing the true role of mainstream media: Lies.

8. Click to feed shelter dogs (for free!)

9. VINYL from Olympia

10. Graphic Tease

Some fresh Organic Prints from Edun & Loomstate:

Fresh Friday Finds

1. Imagine showing up on November 4th to cast your history-making vote for Barack Obama—only to be turned away because you aren’t properly registered. Think it can’t happen to you? Don’t be so sure. There are a bunch of reasons your registration might not be up to date, even if you think it is. Take one minute right now to double-check your registration using our cool web tool, VotePoke. Click here: Check your registration!

2. Russell Simmons talks about his veganism, Obama, and yoga on CNN! Thanks to Dawnwatch for this news-bite.

3. Simple Gunny Banana Bag.

Simple’s Banana bag is made from Jute. Jute is a rain-fed crop with little need for fertilizer or pesticides. Jute fibre is also 100% bio-degradable and recyclable and thus environmentally friendly.

4. Help End the Slaughter of American Horses in Mexico!

5. Loomstate’s Summer Look. Loomstate‘s Summer Man in organic cotton:

If you still haven’t gotten your look together this summer, here’s a pointer: Go with clean, simple short-sleeve button-downs over chinos or cutoff slacks. Leave the socks at home (just put some baking soda in your shoes to ward off the evil smells!). These are easy elements to find thrifting. Fit is everything. Don’t underestimate it. The shoulder seam should fall mid-shoulder, you’ll look sloppy if it’s hanging over onto your lower shoulder. Don’t be afraid to button-up leaving one or two open. It’s not the 70′s, and your man-cleavage should not be the main-attraction.

6. Less than 4000 tigers remain in the wild. Help save them from hunters, medical superstitions, and illegal traders.

7. English Retreads! These vegan bags and accessories are made from 100% recycled tires!

8. Help create a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary!

Please send an e-mail to International Whaling Commission (IWC) member countries asking them to vote for the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary.

9. I am not typically a fan of slogan shirts. However, I have such a passionate hatred for the Hummer and everything it represents, that this organic shirt from Green Label Organics jumped out at me. I wouldn’t necessairy wear it, but I certainly agree with it. Bummer.

10. Ruddy Duck in Hood River, Oregon is an awesome mens eco-botique!

Fresh Friday Finds

1. There is still time to come out and support Farm Sanctuary’s life-saving efforts! Hang out with Russell Simmons, Dennis Kucinich, yours truly, and other animal and eco advocates, celebs, designers, and all the ethically fabulous people at the 2008 Gala, hosted by Heather Mills.

SPECIAL GUESTS:

Emily Deschanel, Christine Ebersole, Lisa Edelstein, Susie Essman, Rory Freedman, Dennis Kucinich, Swoosie Kurtz, Vanessa Marcil, Peter Max, Kevin Nealon, Dan Piraro, Eric Roberts, Ally Sheedy, Russell Simmons, Hal Sparks, Loretta Swit, True and Keisha Whitaker, Persia White, and, many more…to be announced!

Tickets are $400 per person.
To purchase tickets, donate and learn more, or to find out about sponsorship and advertising opportunities and make product donations and auction contributions to support the event, please contact us at 607-583-2225 ext.221 or gala@farmsanctuary.org

2. Lazy Activist? Help Animals Every Time You IM!

3. Joshua’s Vegan Ricotta (for Stuffed Shells, Manicotti, or Lasagna)

What You’ll Need:

• 1 package jumbo shells / manicotti (can be used in Lasagna also)
• 1 large jar/ 2 cans of organic, vegan red sauce or marinara
• 1 block silken tofu
• 1 block “follow your heart” Monterey-Jack vegan cheese
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 2 Tbs Nutritional Yeast
• 1 Tbs Basil
• 1 Tbs Sugar or other sweetner
• 2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Black Pepper
• (add spinach or mushroom to the mixture if desired)

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor, use like ricotta to stuff shells or manicotti, or layer in lasagna.
2. Pour a 1/4 inch layer of red sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Stuff shells/manicotti with the mixture using a teaspoon. Arrange the stuffed pasta on top of the sauce, side by side. Pour remaining sauce over the pasta. the sauce should come up to just about the top of the pasta.

Tip - For a cheesier dish, shred additional vegan cheese to melt over the top while baking, (make sure to cover with foil or pyrex lid so it melts) if desired.

4. If you are a homo in California, you can now legally get married! Read the NYT article. The court’s 4-to-3 decision striking down state laws that had limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman makes California only the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow same-sex marriages.

5. Good news for forests!

Environmental Investigation Agency Applauds U.S. Congress for Passing World’s First Ban on Import of Illegally Logged Wood. Read the full article here.

“WASHINGTON, May 15 — The United States Congress today passed landmark legislation to address the global illegal logging crisis. The U.S. is the first country in the world to prohibit the import of illegally-harvested wood and wood products.”

6. Organic Skinnies and Chinos from Loomstate:

LOOMSTATE at Barney’s

Total Recall

An historical event has transpired – for the first time ever, undercover footage recorded by a Humane Society investigator has grabbed headlines nationwide. This has resulted in the largest recall of beef in US history – 143 million pounds, and has exposed horrible cruelties that, while commonplace, were shocking and new to anyone who has never seen the underbelly of factory farming. Trying to make sense of them is another story.The coverage that this undercover video-clip received nationwide, and the beef recall itself, were both watersheds. If you haven’t seen the clip, please watch below:

For more of the footage click HERE

Meat-eating has always been associated with manliness in our culture. Traditionally, the predatory nature of hunting required physical strength, stamina, tool-making, and often hours to days of tracking herds. Then there was the kill; the bloody and exhausting act of taking down large animals, cutting them up and bringing them home. Many anthropologists and primatologists argue that meat was a pivotal way to exert social control in the form of currency due to its desirability. While women may have collected most gatherer-hunter protein sources, we should not ignore the fact that men were able to use meat for their own selfish and manipulative political ends. It’s no surprise then, that thousands of years later, most men still identify with this nearly-universal symbol of masculine social and political power, though they rarely grasp why. What does this beef recall and the surrounding events say about us if real men eat meat?

Vegetarianism is often portrayed as weak, emasculating, and undesirable, although more and more men are realizing that a vegetable-based diet is healthier and better for the earth, and that the reality of their bond with meat is now relatively invalid. While meat is rarely necessary for survival in modern times, most advertising geared toward mainstream men still appeals to his hunter roots – to his very primal, instinctual brain. If the disconnect here is not apparent with the merciless cruelty shown in the video above, it might bring clarity to know that this is by no means an isolated incident. This is something that is commonplace from chicken farms to circuses to laboratories. These sweeping abuses of animals showcases a crippling and epidemic -sized inability to empathize, and a desire to play out those primal tendencies to control something so politically defining and powerful.

On farms worldwide, untold cruelties are trespassed. The video shows Hallmark Meat Packing Co. workers administering repeated electric shocks to downed cows — animals that are too sick, weak or otherwise unable to stand on their own. Workers are seen kicking cows, jabbing them near their eyes, ramming them with a forklift and shooting high-intensity water up their noses in an effort to force them to their feet for slaughter.Typically, the media shies away from showing footage of animal cruelty, despite the frequency of incidents like these in many industries, because it is believed that viewers will change the channel. However, if you tuned into your local news almost anywhere in the country in the last few days, it was impossible to miss it as news stations everywhere spent several minutes on this headlining story, shocking viewers – and raising many questions. The president of HMP published this statement on the meat company’s website.

“…Words cannot accurately express how shocked and horrified I was at the depictions contained on the video that was taken by an individual who worked at our facility from October 3 thru November 14, 2007. We have taken swift action regarding the two employees identified on the video and have already implemented aggressive measures to ensure all employees follow our humane handling policies and procedures. We are also cooperating with the USDA investigators on the allegations of inhumane handling treatment which is a serious breech of our company’s policies and training... ” – Steve Mendell, President Westland Meat Co. Hallmark Meat Packing

This statement is an expected cliché and completely fails to elucidate the incident. In an industry where living, feeling, animals are reduced to mere economic units, it is no surprise that profit-seeking businesses end up treating animals in this way. The huge demand for meat results in an immense pressure to raise, exploit, and kill animals in such massive quantities that no dream of the resources required to produce “humane meat” could ever exist to satisfy the grotesque amount of meat consumption that occurs in the US. In addition, this immense demand requires assembly line killing, and any extra care taken or ‘downer’ incidentals means profit-loss. It’s an out-and-out contradiction to claim that any meat-production facility could sustain ‘humane’ policies. Less torturous, maybe, but never humane.

Expect to see many, many more videos like this reaching the mainstream media, now that the barrier has been broken. Organizations like HSUS, PETA, and Farm Sanctuary continually send undercover investigators to work at these facilities and expose horrible cruelties. Now it seems many more investigations, like the Butterball Turkey Investigation showcased in the HBO documentary “I Am An Animal” will reach more viewers.

The Humane Society says the video was shot last year by an undercover investigator . Investigators like these, who wear a hidden camera under their clothes and work at the facilities, risk their safety and deserve our praise.

If you want to get involved, but need some motivation, visit GoVeg.com, and watch ‘Earthlings’ starring the Discerning Brute, Joaquin Phoenix: