Vegan? Hate vegans? you gotta watch this : VEGAN at the end of 2016THE [short] FILM : A Growing Movement Under Attack

2016 A YEAR IN REVIEW w/ ANONYMOUS FOR THE VOICELESS, MICHAEL GREGER M.D., NEAL BARNARD M.D., F.A.C.C. DR. JOHN MCDOUGALL, DR. MICHAEL KLAPER M.D., ALAN GOLDHAMMER D.C., DR CALDWELL ESSELSTYN M.D., T. COLIN CAMPBELL PhD, PCRM, NUTRIONFACTS.ORG, JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, GENE BAUR, UNITED STATE GOVERNMENT, PAMELA ANDERSON, MCDONALDS, ARMANI, VOGUE, PRADA, ANITA KRAJNC, TORONTO PIG SAVE, HUNT SABS, KIP ANDERSON, COWSPIRACY, WHAT THE HEALTH FILM, RUSSEL SIMMONS, THE HAPPY VEGAN BOOK, CNN, ABC, FOX NEWS, SUNRISE, BITE SIZE VEGAN, SAM SCHACHER, QUORN, HELLMANS, BURGER KING, CHIPOTLE, VEGAN RESTAURANT, VEGAN MENU, PLANT PURE NATION, VEGAN EVERYDAY STORIES, FORKS OVER KNIVES, ANIMALS AUSTRALIA, DXE, PETA, EATING YOU ALIVE, ROBERT OSTFELD M.D., JAMES ASPEY, VOICELESS 365, HAPPY COW, VEGANUARY, VEGGIE PRET, PRET A MANGER, WAYNE PACELLE, OPRAH, ELLEN DEGENEROUS, IMPOSSIBLE FOODS, GAY RIGHTS, BEYOND MEAT, VEGSOURCE, SOCIAL JUSTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS, JOSH TETRIC, HAMTON CREEK, SCANDAL, ERIC SCHMIDT, BEYONCE’, GARY YOUROFSKY, DAIRY BOARD, EGG BOARD, CONGRESS, HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, PROF MAARTEN HAJER, PLANT BASED BY NAFSIKA, A&C, FYI NETWORK, HBO, SIMONE REYES, TANA MONGEAU, NEXT TOP MODEL, CARLI BYBEL, ROYAL FAMILY, THE CHIC NATURAL, ALEXANDRA’S GIRLY TALK, PEW DIE PIE, KALEL, RICKY DILLON, MIRANDA SINGS, NATHALIE TRAN, VEGAN SHOPPING HUB, VEGANSHOPPINGHUB.COM, SIA , MORRISSEY, MOBY, JAMES CAMERON, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, LEONARDO DICAPRIO, MATT DAMON, IRON MAN, FORMULA ONE, STARBUCKS, JEROME JARRE, ELLIE GOULDING, JESSICA LANGE, MERRYL STREEP, MILEY CYRUS, WEIGHTLOSS, DOLLY PARTON, ANTI-AGING, GAME OF THRONES, PROFESSOR GREEN, HIP HOP, RAP, FUNK, SOUL, STEVIE WONDER, KAT VON D, VENUS WILLIAMS, CHRIS JENNA, GRIFF WHALEN, DANIEL NEGREANU, MICHELLE RODRIGEZ, ARIANA GRANDE, SERENA WILLIAMS, WILEY, 360, 3REE6IXTY, DJ KHALED, VEVO, TYRANN MATHIEU, HALEY WILLIAMS , GOOD DYE YOUNG, MANIC PANIC, KYLIE JENNA, EVANA LYNCH, HARRY POTTER, NOVAK DJOKOVIC RESTAURANT, CIVIL RIGHTS, ANIMAL RIGHTS, POLICE BRUTALITY, BEFAIRBEVEGAN.COM, MANCHESTER PIG SAVE, KEEGHAN KHUN, CHRIS HEDGES, VIVA!, ED WINTERS, DAMIEN CLARKSON, VEVOLUTION, iANIMAL, SEA SHEPHERD, GREENPEACE, SIERRA CLUB, TRUE NORTH, CANADA GOOSE, THE HERD, BEAR STORY, MORGAN MITCHELL, OLYMICS, RIO, DAVID HAYE, TIM SHIEFF, PATRIK BABOUMIAN, GUINESS BOOK OF RECORDS, WORLD RECORD HOLDER, STONGEST MAN, TOREY WASHINGTON, NATURAL BODYBUILDING, STEROIDS, BARNY DU PLESSIS, NATE DIAZ, CRISSI CARVAHLO, KENDRICK FARRIS, KJ JOSEPH, TESLA, CHRISTINA GRIMME, ANA KASPARIAN, RICHARD OPPENLANDER, COMFORTABLYUNAWARE.COM, VEGAN BROS, THE ONION KNIGHT, CHEF AJ, RICH ROLL, BOB LINDEN, GOVEGANRADIO.COM, KERRY MCCARTHY, MARGARITA RESTREPO.

Special thanks to:

1) Vegan Shopping Hub, who sponsored this film: http://veganshoppinghub.com/?ref=klau...

2) VegSource, who gave me the opportunity to go to LA this October to get a lot of content featured in this video: https://www.youtube.com/user/headveg

3) Robbie Lockie (http://www.laverita.co.uk/), who built plantbasednews.org (check it out - and sign up to the newsletter here: http://www.plantbasednews.org/signup)

4) My special patreon supporters (https://www.patreon.com/plantbasednews)

5) Anonymous for the voiceless, who exported a lot of raw footage for me: http://www.anonymousforthevoiceless.org/

To see the full links of everyone featured in the film, please click on this link (there was not enough room in the comments section): https://www.plantbasednews.org/post/us-government-exposed-in-new-vegan-documentary

************

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School of Life Monday: Why You Can Change The World

Though it looks like the world is set in its ways, it is in fact eminently open to change by those who dare to swim into the stream of history.

One of the Greatest Sub Culture Documentaries Ever Made: STYLE WARS

At the time I saw this on PBS in 1983/4 it was one of the most inspiring things I'd seen.

How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful: (VIDEO) Noam Chomsky & Glenn Greenwald

The basis for power elite membership is institutional power, namely an influential position within a prominent private or public organization. About the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250013836

One study of power elites in the USA under George W. Bush identified 7,314 institutional positions of power encompassing 5,778 individuals. A later study of US society found that the demographics of this elite group broke down as follows:

Age Corporate leaders average about 60 years of age. The heads of foundations, law, education, and civic organizations average around 62 years of age. Government-sector members about 56.
Gender Women are barely represented among corporate leadership in the institutional elite and women only contribute roughly 20 percent in the political realm. They do appear more among top positions when it comes to cultural affairs, education, and foundations.
Ethnicity White Anglo-Saxons dominate in the power elite, with Protestants representing about 80 percent of the top business leaders and about 73 percent of members of Congress.
Education Nearly all the leaders are college-educated with almost half having advanced degrees. About 54 percent of the big-business leaders and 42 percent of the government elite are graduates of just 12 heavily endowed, prestigious universities.
Social Clubs Most holders of top position in the power elite possess exclusive membership in one or more social clubs. About a third belong to a small number of especially prestigious clubs in major cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, and D.C.[16]

In the 1970s an organized set of policies promoted reduced taxes, especially for the wealthy, and a steady corrosion of the welfare safety net.[17] Starting with legislation in the 1980s, the wealthy banking community successfully lobbied for reduced regulation.[18] The wide range of financial and social capital accessible to the power elite gives their members heavy influence in economic and political decision making, allowing them to move toward attaining desired outcomes. Sociologist Christopher Doob gives a hypothetical alternative stating that these elite individuals would consider themselves the overseers of the national economy, appreciating that it is not only a moral but a practical necessity to focus beyond their group interests. Doing so would hopefully alleviate various destructive conditions affecting large numbers of less affluent citizens.

Mills determined that there is an "inner core" of the power elite involving individuals that are able to move from one seat of institutional power to another. They therefore have a wide range of knowledge and interests in many influential organizations, and are, as Mills describes, "professional go-betweens of economic, political, and military affairs."[19] Relentless expansion of capitalism and the globalizing of economic and military power binds leaders of the power elite into complex relationships with nation states that generate global-scale class divisions. Sociologist, Manuel Castells, writes in The Rise of the Network Society that contemporary globalization does not mean that "everything in the global economy is global."[20] So, a global economy becomes characterized by fundamental social inequalities with respect to "the level of integration, competitive potential and share of the benefits from economic growth."[21] Castells cites a kind of "double movement" where on one hand, "valuable segments of territories and people" become "linked in the global networks of value making and wealth appropriation," while, on the other, "everything and everyone" that is not valued by established networks gets "switched off... and ultimately discarded."[21] The wide-ranging effects of global capitalism ultimately affect everyone on the planet as economies around the world come to depend on the functioning of global financial markets, technologies, trade and labor.

CHIEF ROCKER BUSY BEE on my Instagram + Bonus battle

BUSY BEE one of the real OG's in Hip Hop and originator. I'm guessing this photograph was made in the late 80's. The bootleg early battle tapes with the Chief Rocker Busy Bee 🐝 are probably gonna end up in The Smithsonian Institution one day, just like some seats from this iconic Bronx landmark (the original, renovated, but now gone) YANKEE STADIUM. Busy Bee (David Parker) has been involved with Hip Hop since 1977. This day we made photos around the Bronx and Harlem, had a great time with Busy and Rocky Bucano who had me on this job. We did the album cover for THANK GOD FOR BUSY BEE 🐝 this day as well as a single cover or two, some too controversial to even be released... maybe post in the future if this one gets some proper love. #knowYourRoots #OG #HipHop #Inspiration #Partytime #BattleRapping #DoingItInThePark #DoingItAtTheRollerRink #WildStyle #FuckYouToo #MyRules #oldschool #rap #fun

A photo posted by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Jan 5, 2017 at 1:53pm PST

Jeff Grosso's Love Letters to Skateboarding Episode on SKATE ROCK

from Jeff, Buddy, Rick, Lance and Vans

It took us a few seasons to get this episode going but it’s worth the wait. Clocking in at just under 25 minutes it’s a mini documentary about the relationship between skateboarders and the music they listen to and create. Like Jake Phelps says: “We’re skateboarders, the music exudes from our bodies”.

[Web] Traffic Is Fake, Audience Numbers Are Garbage, And Nobody Knows How Many People See Anything

from Tech Dirt:

from the stabs-in-the-dark dept
by Leigh Beadon

How many living, breathing human beings really read Techdirt? The truth — the most basic, rarely-spoken truth — is that we have no earthly idea. With very few exceptions, no media property big or small, new or old, online or off, can truly tell you how big its audience is. They may have never thought about it that way — after all, we all get as close as we can to what we think is a reasonably accurate estimation, though we have no way of confirming that — but all these numbers are actually good for (maybe) is relative comparisons. What does it really mean when someone says "a million people" saw something? Or ten or a hundred million? I don't know, and neither do you. (Netflix might, but we'll get to that later.)

Where should we start? How about this: internet traffic is half-fake and everyone's known it for years, but there's no incentive to actually acknowledge it. The situation is technically improving: 2015 was hailed (quietly, among people who aren't in charge of selling advertising) as a banner year because humans took back the majority with a stunning 51.5% share of online traffic, so hurray for that I guess. All the analytics suites, the ad networks and the tracking pixels can try as they might to filter the rest out, and there's plenty of advice on the endless Sisyphean task of helping them do so, but considering at least half of all that bot traffic comes from bots that fall into the "malicious" or at least "unauthorized" category, and thus have every incentive to subvert the mostly-voluntary systems that are our first line of defence against bots... Well, good luck. We already know that Alexa rankings are garbage, but what does this say about even the internal numbers that sites use to sell ad space? Could they even be off by a factor of 10? I don't know, and neither do you. Hell, we don't even know how accurate the 51.5% figure is — it could be way off... in either direction.

Okay, so what about TV ratings? Well, there's a reason they've been made fun of on the shows themselves for as long as our culture has been able to handle "meta" jokes without getting a headache. Nielsen ratings in their classic form are built on monitoring such a tiny sample of households that the whole country's viewing profile can probably be swayed because someone forgot to turn off the TV before going on vacation. They sucked before DVRs and digital distribution began transforming the single household television into a quaint anachronism, and now it's just chaos. Nielsen was slow to catch up with DVRs, and now the TV industry juggles scattered measurements including three or seven days of viewing beyond live air, and constantly complains that the ratings are off — specifically, that they're too low. And they might be right, in the sense that they are too low by comparison to the garbage ratings from the pre-digital age that everyone eventually embraced as a standard for relative rankings. How big are these audiences really, in terms of real living breathing human beings? I don't know, and neither do you.

YouTube view counts? Subject to all the same fake internet traffic problems, plus the fact that there's an opaque system for supposedly ignoring too-short incomplete views according to the genre and nature of the video, but good luck finding out how accurate that is. Channel operators know their length-of-view statistics, but you don't see them bandying them about much. Plus, how often have you heard public view counts casually referred to as the number of "people" who watched something, even though (especially when it comes to short-and-cute viral animal hits and their ilk) the bulk of them probably come from obsessive re-watching? Yeah.

So what about Facebook stats? Everything from impressions to simultaneous live video viewers is padded out by the most transient of idly-scrolling-through-the-newsfeed interactions. Twitter followings and tweet stats? Dig into the bowels of any list of followers, or any trending link, and see how much of it is mindless bots. Print readerships? Don't even get me started. Did you know it's common practice for newspapers to calculate their readership by applying a multiplier to their actual circulation, to account for an imaginary surplus of "readers per copy"? Yes, that soggy "local" paper that's been sitting out in the rain on your porch for two days, and that only exists to give them an excuse to deliver flyers to your door, is not only being counted — it's probably being counted five times. So are all the free/cheap copies that big national papers give to hotels. Oh, and when these companies distribute multiple publications in different channels — with newspapers, magazines and paywalled websites all being given away with each other as free cross-subscriptions, in order to pad out all three subscriber numbers — they add them all up and then try to determine the actual number of individual people they are reaching. How? By applying an opaque "deduplication" formula. I once pressed a newspaper's stats person about what this formula could possibly entail, but details were not forthcoming — because I suspect they just knock off 20% and call it a day, despite the fact that the magazine is distributed inside the newspaper whose audience they are supposedly "deduplicating" it from, and half the website subscriptions were free add-ons with print delivery. That's awfully generous when the truth is they don't know, and neither do I, and neither do you.

So who does know how big of an audience they really have? Well, maybe Netflix, Amazon and other digital subscription services. Their paywalls insulate them from the bulk of random bot traffic, and their proprietary ecosystems give them the ability to closely monitor all activity. Netflix, of course, is famously secretive about viewer numbers and insists on the inaccuracy of those who claim to have worked them out. The most common assumption is that they do this to avoid giving content creators too much leverage, and because the data can be seen as a valuable commodity — but I propose another reason: Netflix's likely-more-accurate statistics, if made public, would have zero context in the topsy-turvy world of nonsense TV ratings. They would probably look exceptionally low, giving the legacy bosses who would like nothing more than to downplay the importance of digital distribution (and there are as many of those as there are record execs who can't spell mp3) a chance to project whatever narrative they wanted onto the numbers.

So why does any of this matter? Because advertising is a multibillion dollar industry, and whenever an industry is worth that much, you have to ask: is that because there are billions of dollars of worthwhile transactions happening, or because every bloodsucker in a ten-industry radius wanted in on the action? So, so much of the advertising industry is pure waste. How much exactly is as impossible to determine as the audience sizes themselves. This is hardly a new idea (in fact it's a century-old quote) but it's probably more true now than ever, despite the fact that in theory technology could have delivered us from uncertainty.

Finally, what can be done about this? There's no simple answer, and maybe no answer at all. Here at Techdirt, we've been working to come up with good advertising solutions by focusing almost entirely on what we know our community likes and might be interested in (as in, our real community of people who talk in our comments and we can say, with confidence, exist) and paying less attention to raw numbers — both a luxury and a necessity for a smaller publication, depending on how you look at it. That's not always easy though, as we face an advertising industry ruled by metrics, where there are often ten spreadsheet-wielding interns between us and someone who might actually care about our creativity. In our experiments with more traditional algorithmic display advertising to monetize the raw traffic numbers we do have, we keep running up against what appears to be a universal truth: the bulk of the global internet ad ecosystem runs on trash. Gigantic prestigious online media brands can sell display campaigns straight to the same people who buy Superbowl ads — everyone else receives a hundred pitches a week from new ad networks that claim to deliver great, relevant content but in fact litter your site with ads for fad diets and ambulance-chasers (at best). And this lowest-common-denominator filler appears to be the only reliably successful form of internet advertising! At least, it never goes away when the good stuff does, and the proud quality networks eventually embrace their roles as crap-peddlers. "Good" internet advertising is a rickety ship navigating an endless roiling ocean of spam, clickbait and outright fraud — but it couldn't float at all without it.

I realize I've painted a grim picture, but these are (more or less) the facts. I'm surely wrong in some of my guesses, but like everything discussed here, nobody knows how wrong or in which direction. We'll never even really know how many people read this — we'll just have a vague estimate that can be compared to other posts on Techdirt. But for now that's the reality, so maybe more people should stop worrying about the supposed size of their audience, and focus on making the content they want to make.

thanks Sean Bonner

DJ NU MARK - Killin it!

Here's another episode of Zodiac Tracks. The Cancer one is very special to me. So many great artists born that month. Everyone from ‎RZA of ‎Wu Tang Clan, Sly Johnson, ‎Kool G Rap, ‎Missy Elliot, ‎Chali 2na of ‎Jurassic 5, ‎Mick Fleetwood of ‎Fleetwood Mac and ‎Guru of Gangstar. I remember the first time I heard him with Gangstarr. It really moved me. We lost him way too early.
R.I.P. Guru and Charlie Tuna of KBIG & K-Earth 101. Enjoy!

School of Life Monday: Exercise for Intellectuals

my new years resolution..

All too often nowadays, people who love to exercise their brains forget to exercise their bodies. This wasn’t the way of the Ancient Greeks, who believed that true philosophers always work on their physical and mental selves



HAAA

2017

Buh Bye 2016

-

1DJ Nu-Mark - ZODIAC TRACKS - GEMINI MIX

Seeing that I'm a Gemini, I've decided to debut my Zodiac Tracks Mix featuring Notorious B.I.G., Lady of Rage, Lauryn Hill, Paul McCartney and Pete Rock. These artists have contributed a wealth of music to us, so please share them with your family and friends!

Five Stedicam Milestones On it's 40th anniversary

Bad Brains documentary (full film)

School of Life Monday: In Praise of the Quiet Life

Quiet lives feel nowadays like lives of failure and resignation, but they may be no such thing: true ambition can lie in learning how to minimise stress and divert energy to properly important projects.

Merry Fucking Christmas :-)

Jingle Barack - SNL

SIOUXSIE SIOUX: HIGH PRIESTESS OF PUNK

from Dangerous Minds:

Noam Chomsky explains sports, irrational jingoism, submission to authority, etc.

IF YOU WANT TO SEE HOW DONALD TRUMP WILL DESTROY THE ENVIRONMENT, READ THIS LEGISLATIVE ROADMAP

from The Intercept:
by Sharon Lerner

IF YOU’VE BEEN wondering which environmental protections the incoming administration will target and how exactly they’ll try to undo them, take a look at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s legislative agenda, “Free to Prosper.” Just a few months ago, this radical plan to dismantle environmental safeguards would have been dismissed as the wacky wish list of a conservative fringe group. But with Donald Trump headed to the White House and Myron Ebell, CEI’s director, overseeing the transition of the Environmental Protection Agency, the report, which was released last week, is a chilling preview of the attacks on environmental and health regulations that are likely to come — and a must-read for anyone trying to avert them.

Beyond laying out specific paths to destruction, CEI’s legislative roadmap helps explain the group’s twisted logic for attacking environmental laws in the first place, something that may be lost on the vast majority of Americans, who want clean air and water, accept the reality of climate change, and are not steeped in anti-governmental legal theory.

As CEI sees it, efforts to address the effects of pollution from fossil fuels on our climate are really a “war on affordable energy.” Bizarrely, the report uses a decline in global death rates due to extreme weather since the 1920s to justify the continued burning of oil and coal and its claim that carbon-based fuels “increase life expectancy.” While fossil fuels have unquestionably kept many people warm over the past century, alternative energy sources can also provide plenty of heat — and have the additional appeal of reducing the likelihood of extreme weather events.

Most disingenuously, CEI presents its efforts to do away with climate protections as stemming from a concern for the poor, since “energy costs already impose real burdens on low-income households.” In truth, the poor are disproportionately affected by climate change. And, of course, huge energy and chemical companies are the ones who stand to benefit most from the assault on climate and other environmental protections suggested in the report. Not coincidentally, many of these same powerful interests, including Exxon, Dow, Texaco, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Koch Brothers have funded CEI.

Trump has already made it pretty clear that he would like to undo the Paris Climate Agreement. CEI lays out a plan for doing so by reclassifying the agreement as a treaty requiring ratification in the Senate, which would almost certainly fail to receive the necessary two thirds vote.

CEI also calls for overturning the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which includes carbon dioxide and other pollution standards for power plants. If Congress can’t dismantle the actual Clean Power Plan rule, which the report describes as “an unlawful power grab that will increase consumer electricity prices,” the think tank suggests a plan B, defunding the EPA’s implementation of it.

Budgets may be the most direct way to paralyze environmental progress, and CEI proposes slashing a number of them. “Free to Prosper” also calls on Congress to cut off the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, an intergovernmental group that gathers and shares information on strategies for addressing greenhouse gas emissions and preparations for the impacts of climate change.

Although some environmental advocates have offered assurances that dismantling environmental laws will be difficult and time consuming, the CEI report suggests specific strategies the Trump administration might pursue, such as amending the Clean Air Act so that the EPA no longer has the ability to affect climate policy; altering the Clean Water Act so that the EPA has no power to regulate wetlands; and reforming the Endangered Species Act so that it’s harder to add threatened animals.

Generally speaking, whatever natural resource you might think of, CEI believes it doesn’t need protection. So the Waters of the U.S. Rule, which limits pollution in lakes and rivers, should be overturned; the federal government should transfer ownership of land to the states or private citizens, or at the very least make it available for “resource production”; fuel standards for cars should be allowed to expire; and Congress should push back against the Fish and Wildlife Service, which, according to CEI, is engaged in “a vast new endangered species power grab.”

If Congress follows the “Freedom to Prosper” blueprint, it will also roll back restrictions on toxic chemicals. The group suggests eliminating funding for what it calls “activist research,” which includes the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences study of the endocrine disruptor BPA, and for “Safer Choice,” through which EPA helps companies eliminate toxic chemicals from their products. Another CEI target is IRIS, the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System, which identifies hazardous environmental chemicals, such as formaldehyde, styrene, and TCE. IRIS has proven particularly troublesome to industry because it targets widely used chemicals and, as the report notes, drives clean air and drinking water regulations.

Most people want government to keep them safe from such dangers. But CEI seems to have no compunction about eliminating efforts designed to protect health, even when they’re aimed at babies, such as the government’s efforts to restrict dangerous chemicals called phthalates from kids’ products. Although the Consumer Products Safety Commission has been working on such a ban for years, the report recommends conducting oversight hearings that would slow the process further. It’s worth noting that Exxon Mobil, which has funded CEI — and whose CEO is now poised to become Trump’s secretary of state — manufactures phthalates and opposes the ban.

That conflict of interest is just one of many. “This is standard CEI — hysteria, nonsense, and dishonesty to promote the most extreme pro-chemical manufacturer agenda,” said Daniel Rosenberg, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “These people are not relevant players, they’re at the margins,” he added. “Or at least they used to be.”

fuuuuuck

School of Life Monday: How To Cope With Snobbery

The existence of snobbery explains why we work so hard and are so worried about our reputations. We are all terrified of humiliation and disrespect.

Beastie Boys Late Night Infomercial circa 1998

from Dangerous Minds:

Ad-Rock as John, the over enthusiastic audience member at a juice extractor demonstration.

I was up late one San Fernando valley evening in 1998, channel surfing through cable television when I happened upon a very bizarre infomercial advertising a product called “Sure Shine.” It caught my attention and I immediately stopped flipping: the commercial boasted that this multi-use product could wash your hair, polish your car, clean your kitchen counter, AND be used in the bedroom, as a spermicide. The number to call on the screen was 1-888-711-BSTE. This had to be some kind of hoax! It wasn’t exactly a hoax, rather, an ingenious marketing tactic used to promote the Beastie Boys highly anticipated Hello Nasty album on the hip hop groups’ own record label Grand Royal. 

Calling the 1-888 number that flashed on the screen throughout the half-hour parody led viewers to where they could pre-order Hello Nasty and have it delivered to their doorstep on July 14, the ad also included the URL for Grand Royal’s newly launched website. The low-budget infomercial was directed by none other than Tamra Davis, wife of Beastie Boy Mike D, whose impressive credits include music videos for N.W.A., Sonic Youth, as well as major Hollywood studio films like CB4 and Billy Madison. It ran for several weeks on cable stations in Northern New Jersey, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Manhattan, N.Y., Cleveland, Portland, Philadelphia, Houston, and Washington, D.C.


A disclaimer scrolled over the fake products that read “If you order NOW, you will not receive any car care products, but you can order the record, CD, or cassette of the new Beastie Boys album ‘Hello Nasty’”

This incredibly amusing advertising concept starred the Beastie Boys themselves: Mike D (a.k.a. Mike Diamond), MCA (a.k.a. Adam Yauch) Ad-Rock (a.k.a. Adam Horovitz), who, in the name of sketch comedy, slapped on fake wigs, phony moustaches, ponytails, and took on various roles to sell fake get-rich-quick scams, psychic hotlines, and even a food processor that played beats from Hello Nasty. The Beasties comedy chops hold up strong, with a parody style well ahead of its time pre-dating Adult Swim, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, and so many others who a decade later would become popular parodying public-access television with bizarre faux-infomercials in a very similar fashion.

Director Tamra Davis spoke with me about how using a Home Shopping Network style approach to sell Hello Nasty came about: “Ian Rodgers (Grand Royal’s president of new media) was working with the Beasties on how to direct sell and market using the internet. This was all super new and I definitely remember us all thinking about how crazy it would be if you were at home watching TV in the middle of the night and this came on. We thought it would be hilarious.” This wasn’t Ian Rodgers’ first innovative approach to marketing in new media. After he wowed the Beastie Boys by giving a demonstration of the internet in 1994 (they hadn’t heard of it yet!) he created an (unreleased) CD-ROM entitled Don’t Mosh in the Ramen Shop, and in 1998 became one of the very first people to use MP3 technology to upload live recordings to the net while on the road with the group during the Hello Nasty tour.

The late-night infomercial was incredibly effective, with phone lines lighting up and pre-orders filing in whenever and wherever it aired. A Grand Royal telephone operator explained that a few viewers called in just to ask if the ad was real or not. “Some people have been like ‘Are you just going to go out and charge up my credit card?’ And I’ve just been telling them, ‘No, this is legit.’” Greg Pond, a cable programming coordinator at TCI San Francisco said, “This isn’t the first time that our cable systems local-access channels have been used to promote a well-known group of musicians. We aired half-hour spots for Tricky and Pulp, but those were just videos and information about the artists. They were nothing like the infomercial the Beastie Boys produced.”

Beastie Boys fans will be thrilled to see Ad-Rock as John, the over enthusiastic audience member in a juice extractor demonstration. Mike D as exercise guru Jack Freeweather in the “8 Minute Workout” that promises amazing results. “Whatever you’ve been doing in the past, you’ve been doing it wrong. Let Jack make it right.” Mike D returns later as thick-accented “Miklious Toukas” of CEO GR International. In my favorite segment, MCA plays a get-rich-quick character named Bill Swenson, a.k.a. “The Money Man.” A perfectly straight-faced MCA wearing thick, dark-rimmed glasses and a pink sweater around his neck expresses: “Money makes you feel good, money is so underestimated in our society, money is the thing that everyone needs to feel great and be who they are.” Tamra explains there was never a script for the infomercial, “We had all the ideas of the characters and what would happen but it was all improvised as far as what they said or what the guests would say. Some things they did were such inside jokes that if only five of us got it, it was worth it.”


MCA as Bill Swenson, a.k.a. “The Money Man.”


Mike D as thick-accented “Mikilous Toukas” of CEO GR International.

Extras casting helped fill out the traditional studio audience when they taped the ad in New York City, as well as friends, family, fellow Grand Royal labelmates, and even some real people like the Beasties stylist Tara Chaney and Tamra and Mike D’s doorman Joe. E.Z. Mike (a.k.a. Michael Simpson) from the Dust Brothers can be seen in the crowd applauding next to none other than record producer and studio engineer legend Mario Caldato Jr. Any Beastie Boys fan knows him as Mario C. by his frequent shout-outs in lyrics such as “That’s a record ‘cause of Mario” on the song “Root Down” and “Mario C likes to keep it clean!” on “Intergalactic.” Matthew Horovitz (Ad-Rock’s brother) plays Kenny Star of “Hollywood Psychics,” and Ad-Rock’s best friend from elementary school, working actress Nadia Dajani, plays Peg of “The Juice Ladies.” Actor Russell Steinberg (son-in-law of Diane von Fürstenberg) and DJ Frankie Inglese appear as Mike Lathers and Graham Noodledish of “Fantastic Finds,” showing off a miracle cleaning product that can only be applied using a compact disc.


(left to right) Mario C., Ad-Rock, and E.Z. Mike as studio audience members.


Mike Lathers (Russell Steinberg) and Graham Noodledish (DJ Frankie Inglese) of “Fantastic Finds.”

The brilliant Hello Nasty infomercial was unfortunately left out of the Beastie Boys Criterion Edition Video Anthology, however, it can be seen in its entirety on YouTube in three parts. In 2009 Tamra wrote a cookbook titled Make Me Something Good to Eat and also hosted a cooking show called the Tamra Davis Cooking Show, inspired by cooking meals at home for their two children, Skyler and Davis. She recently directed an episode of BBC America’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency starring Elijah Wood as well as Netflix’s upcoming original comedy series Santa Clarita Diet starring Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant.

Bobby Piercy never before seen photograph from 1977 on my Instagram

BOBBY PIERCY the Legend, slaloming at a park in SanDiego late 1977 or early 1978, with his dog Sonny... according to best research among friends both Bobby and Sonny have long since passed (RIP). BP was a professional snow skier who brought his parallel stance and hip shaking to the cones with a vengeance. His natural abilities were pretty incredible, he even skated vertical and Surfed more than he skated or Snow skied. As a teen ager he'd fly me down to San Diego for the weekend to make photos down there, i was too young to drive so the cab to LAX would cost around 20 bucks and my plane ticket was usually less than TEN dollars, just incredible when you think about it (one or two of my ticket receipts is in the collage in the MY RULES book). Bobby would give me $100 at the end of the weekend to pay for the cabs, airplanes, film and developing. The only time i ever tried surfing was with Bobby, Jay Adams and Warren Bolster (all legends all gone). Ask anyone who knew him and you'll hear great stories, he was well loved by all, not to mention a true player with the ladies. Jus' sayin'. #STYLE #PointLoma #SanDiego #Player #PlayBoy #Racer #slalom #PARTY #ArrowSkateboards #unpublished #YouveNeverSeenThisOneBefore #Traknology #skateboarding #surfer #skier #TurnerSummerSki #BadAss #Pimp please feel free to chime in and let me know where in san diego this is, and have a good weekend ✌🏽p.s. electors use your brains and follow the advice of the founding fathers, vote your conscious. #Dump

A photo posted by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Dec 16, 2016 at 1:39pm PST

HR - 'Finding Joseph I' - The Documentary

Tonight I went to a screening of the film "Finding Joseph I" It was much better than I expected, also much more emotional for me to see, and especially to see Joseph answer some questions after the screening. The same guy that i remember with so much charisma and character became a shell of himself and even less over the years, now seems to be in some form of control over his diagnosed schizophrenia, just slightly, it's heavy duty.

I can highly recommend the film, except there were more than a few people who didn't need to be in the film for their observations and knucklehead opinions, but it was a journey and if you have seen HR back in the late 70's or early 80's as I had, and then witnessed the deterioration or absolute unpredictability from the late 80's onward, this gives you the deeper window of sorts you were hoping for. Some really interesting family history in the early part of the film as well. (I never knew he and Earl rode skateboards in the 60's!)



go here for more info: http://hrdocumentary.com

from the website:

HR "Finding Joseph I" is a feature documentary currently in production, chronicling the eccentric life and struggles of punk rock reggae singer, Paul "HR" Hudson, a.k.a. Joseph I. The charismatic frontman's energetic and explosive live performances helped pioneer hardcore punk rock with the Bad Brains, one of the most influential bands to rise out of the 1980's. HR's heavy devotion to the Rastafarian faith guided him in a spiritual direction leaving the band several times to explore his love for reggae music as the solo artist, HR Human Rights. Over the years, the Bad Brains have reunited several times only to struggle with the unpredictable singer. HR's increasingly strange and abnormal behavior has left many convinced that he his suffering from psychological troubles while others believe he is still living out his journey as one of the greatest frontmen in rock and roll history!

This documentary will feature interviews with musicians and peers HR has worked with and influenced as they share their stories and first hand experiences. Most importantly we will hear from HR himself about his life, philosophies, and career while seeing him continue to write, record, and perform, spreading his passionate message of universal peace and love.

great DEVO interview circa 1981

from Dangerous Minds

The entire interview, uncut, is amazing red meat for serious DEVOtees—it’s over 40 minutes of the band discussing their motivations, the devolution idea, newly-nascent Reaganism, the concept behind the New Traditionalists LP, public responses to their work and their image, rock ’n’ roll culture, all the obsessions shared between DEVO and its fans to which the band gave voice. It’s worth it for the Jerry Casale quote “Art bands are in love with their own poopoo” alone.

Here's my favorite photos of Alva I made on FILM Last month, back from the lab today...

TONY ALVA a few weeks ago i made some photographs with T.A. over at Pier 62, i finished the roll of film down in the Union Square subway station over the weekend (see my blog) and just got it back from the lab this morning. Couldn't wait to share it here with y'all. 35mm FILM with a 17mm lens - no tricks, no reflectors, no flashes, no crop. yes composition, yes style, yes character, yes available light, yes natural flare, yes art, yes fun! … how grown men work together who have been working together for 40+ years... #punks #OldAsFuckAndStillKickingAss #Skateboarding #Life #Brothers #Growth #planet #environment #inspiration #integrity #FuckYouHeroes #MyRules #19762016 #vertical #coping

A photo posted by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Dec 13, 2016 at 9:51am PST

Crime of the Big Leagues great 10 minute doc.

A mini-doc about the late Lester Rodney, the unsung hero that helped desegregate Major League Baseball.

Crime of the Big Leagues from Tomorrow Media on Vimeo.

School of Life Monday: Literature - George Orwell

George Orwell is the most famous English language writer of the 20th century, the author of Animal Farm and 1984. What was he trying to tell us and what is his genius?



MY FAVORITE,

GEF

Jay Adams and Jimmy Plumer on the Instagram

JIMMY PLUMER edging at Oxnard's "Endless Wave" skatepark with JAY ADAMS pointing out Jimmy's edge status to Jim Muir (just cropped out by the scan but sitting right in front of Jimmy on the coping) and me. Plumer was a bad ass skater, Florida transplant, 2nd Generation Z-Boy. He tore shit up, aggressive as fuck on the coping, i believe he did a lot of stuntman work in Hollywood back then too. This photograph has never been published before, but if i ever get to do a DogTown book update, it'll be in there. #skateboarding #DogTown #ZFlex #poolskating #BadAss #Gator #oxnard #kryptos #JayAdams #Radical #JimmyPlumer #inspiration

A photo posted by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Dec 7, 2016 at 1:19pm PST

Black Flag 1982 on my Instagram

BLACK FLAG circa 1982, Henry Rollins on vocals, Greg Ginn in the background and Chuck Dukowski flailing around on stage in the foreground, looks like he's maybe even about to fall on me. This looks like one of those shows in Santa Barbara, BLACK FLAG peak era with Dez on second guitar. This is a rare color image of the band, becuase we really didn't have any publications that printed in full color back then that were interested in PUNK ROCK, i had Action Now that would give us occasional color coverage with punk photos, but even when it came time to the full feature on BLACK FLAG in the very last issue of SkateBoarder's ACTION NOW, we only got B&W pages. Black Flag was my favorite band, particularly during this time. Shows were exciting and thrilling like you could barely imagine, the unpredictability of the crowd and often the local authorities, not to mention the bands intensity on any particular night, you just had no idea of what was gonna go down, but it was a catharsis, an emotional and physical release i wish everyone could have the chance to experience at a show, particularly in an independent space. this photo originally appeared in my book FUCK YOU TOO, and although this one is not in MY RULES the book, there are a lot of incredible BLACK FLAG images that are, some classics and some never seen before. Essays of inspiration from 22 different subjects, including Dukowski and Rollins. Truly incredible. Get this huge monster of a book now if you haven't already 👊🏽 #inspiration #Radical #BlackFlag #HenryRollins #integrity #MyRules #SprayPaint #RiseAbove #Damaged #PoliceStory #GetTheNewBook #Punk #HardcorePunk #Politics #change

A photo posted by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Dec 9, 2016 at 10:08am PST

Post Election Subway Therapy (video)

I went to the Union Square subway station late thursday evening to finish a roll of film I started, making photos with Tony Alva last month. I wanted to finish the roll by making pictures of the mosaic of "post-it" notes on some of the walls expressing peoples frustration and other things regarding the 2016 Presidential election.

Afterwords I borrowed a friends iPhone and made this clip and some still images too.

SUBWAY THERAPY from Burning Flags Press on Vimeo.

these words below from: www.subwaytherapy.com

Channeling the Fire

Right now, people are overflowing with fire. That fire can do amazing things, but we need to make sure we are directing it so it can have the best effect. Sometimes we are burning so hot we end up burning our friends, our family, and bridges we will need to work together as a world community in the future. Don't talk at each other. Talk with each other.

Follow the project on Instagram and Facebook @subwaytherapy!

When people are overflowing with emotion, help channel their energy into something good.

Subway Therapy is about making people smile, laugh, and feel less stress. I believe people grow and learn through dynamic conversation.

For the last several years I imagined going outside with a table and chairs to talk to people. I don't know why, but it was always something I wanted to do. What got me thinking in this specific direction was the concept of absolution. How do people feel better when they feel bad? There are so many people walking around with extra emotional weight. I am very lucky to have family and friends that help me process events that happen in my life, but what if someone doesn't have a family to turn to or friends to support them? What if they don't have a community to be a part of, or access to therapy? This is a complicated problem with no clear solution.

Nine months ago, I sat with a book people could write their secrets in, and I had a little sign that said Secret Keeper. More often than not, people would just talk to me instead of writing something down. It got pretty common to hear, "I feel so much better! This is great... like therapy." I heard it enough that it stuck and six months ago, Subway Therapy was born. Lately, the project has evolved and I have been using sticky notes to give people an opportunity to transform their stress into something beautiful.

Keep in mind, I am not a licensed therapist. I am not a therapist of any kind. I have no obligation to keep what I hear confidential. I cannot provide professional advice, but I like to listen and when asked I give personal advice from my experience.

I look forward to our conversation,

Matthew "Levee" Chavez

(VIDEO CLIP - GEF)

Throw Back Thursday Old School Hio Hop Funkmaster Wizard Wiz "Can't You Take A Hint" (Bellevue Patient)

DOPE.







thanks, John Z for the Bellevue photo

Pussy Riot on my Instagram

Nadya and Masha @nadyariot and @all_mary of PUSSY RIOT the day we first met in the spring of 2014. We made this photograph and i stopped the presses on the MY RULES book and added this photo at the last possible moment, removing another image. These two are incredibly inspiring young women kicking ass for what they believe in. After many phone calls, e-mails, and connections worn out, I finally had an opportunity to get a short time with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina. It's very rare, if ever, i do so much to get a chance to work with anyone these days. But I had to do something with these two! The goal was to get one last shot for the MY RULES book. I wasn't able to get the balaclava image i was hoping for, but got a couple of good ones (probably even better since I could actually see their faces), and had a nice time talking with them about film photography, vegetarianism, and what happened to them at the Olympics. These are some bad ass women as far as i'm concerned, and i was honored to work with them, even if only for a few minutes. I gave them a copy my book "FUCK YOU TOO" as well as a few other souvenirs an old punk like me had around the apartment that i thought they might appreciate. They were gracious. We got to shoot about half a roll of film (I let my son finish the roll on our way to school the next day) and a couple of snaps with my digital point and shoot as well. This one is made on film, i posted one of the digital images a while back. The MY RULES book is the first i didn't self publish, took a bit of teeth pulling to get a new page in the book and one removed, but worked out great in the end. Really rounded out the last few pages perfectly, and let y'all know when inspired i will still make some great photos. ☮ #MashaAlyokhina #NadyaTolokonnikova #PussyRiot #BadAss #ArtCollective #activists #inspiration #punk #Russia #lifeontheline #standingUpForWhatYouBelive #justice #fightingthegovernment #correct #MyRules #GetTheNewBook #artistsforpositivesocialchange thx @andystepanian @karen2scott

A photo posted by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Dec 2, 2016 at 5:05pm PST

Keith Morris circa 1982 on my instagram today

KEITH MORRIS circa 1982 during a Circle Jerks album photo shoot. This photograph as well as the one of the whole group sitting on top of all these garbage bags that ended up on the back cover of the album "Golden Shower of Hits" ... the garbage bags were outside the back of the Circle Jerks management company of the time, same office we were hanging out at on the weekend when we broke the Gold Records out of their frames and put them into the bathroom urinal for the front cover photograph. Keith has just released his biography MY DAMAGE, it's sitting on top of my stack of books to read as i type this. Arguably one of the greatest punk singers ever. And you'll be hard pressed to meet a nicer more down to earth guy. #punk #rawk #leadSinger #BlackFlag #CircleJerks #Flag #OFF #inspiration #integrity #worldUpMyAss #RedTape #NervousBreakdown #survivor #WildInTheStreets #GroupSex #GoldenShowerOfHits #MyRules Keith also wrote a piece for the MY RULES book

A photo posted by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Dec 5, 2016 at 9:23pm PST

School of Life Monday: Philosophical Meditation

At the School of Life, we’ve pioneered a new form of Meditation we call Philosophical Meditation, designed to help with anxiety, sadness and a lack of direction.

This is the most dangerous time for our planet by Stephen Hawking

from The Guardian:

We can’t go on ignoring inequality, because we have the means to destroy our world but not to escape it

As a theoretical physicist based in Cambridge, I have lived my life in an extraordinarily privileged bubble. Cambridge is an unusual town, centred around one of the world’s great universities. Within that town, the scientific community that I became part of in my 20s is even more rarefied.

And within that scientific community, the small group of international theoretical physicists with whom I have spent my working life might sometimes be tempted to regard themselves as the pinnacle. In addition to this, with the celebrity that has come with my books, and the isolation imposed by my illness, I feel as though my ivory tower is getting taller.

So the recent apparent rejection of the elites in both America and Britain is surely aimed at me, as much as anyone. Whatever we might think about the decision by the British electorate to reject membership of the European Union and by the American public to embrace Donald Trump as their next president, there is no doubt in the minds of commentators that this was a cry of anger by people who felt they had been abandoned by their leaders.

It was, everyone seems to agree, the moment when the forgotten spoke, finding their voices to reject the advice and guidance of experts and the elite everywhere.

I am no exception to this rule. I warned before the Brexit vote that it would damage scientific research in Britain, that a vote to leave would be a step backward, and the electorate – or at least a sufficiently significant proportion of it – took no more notice of me than any of the other political leaders, trade unionists, artists, scientists, businessmen and celebrities who all gave the same unheeded advice to the rest of the country.

What matters now, far more than the choices made by these two electorates, is how the elites react. Should we, in turn, reject these votes as outpourings of crude populism that fail to take account of the facts, and attempt to circumvent or circumscribe the choices that they represent? I would argue that this would be a terrible mistake.

The concerns underlying these votes about the economic consequences of globalisation and accelerating technological change are absolutely understandable. The automation of factories has already decimated jobs in traditional manufacturing, and the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend this job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining.

This in turn will accelerate the already widening economic inequality around the world. The internet and the platforms that it makes possible allow very small groups of individuals to make enormous profits while employing very few people. This is inevitable, it is progress, but it is also socially destructive.

We need to put this alongside the financial crash, which brought home to people that a very few individuals working in the financial sector can accrue huge rewards and that the rest of us underwrite that success and pick up the bill when their greed leads us astray. So taken together we are living in a world of widening, not diminishing, financial inequality, in which many people can see not just their standard of living, but their ability to earn a living at all, disappearing. It is no wonder then that they are searching for a new deal, which Trump and Brexit might have appeared to represent.

It is also the case that another unintended consequence of the global spread of the internet and social media is that the stark nature of these inequalities is far more apparent than it has been in the past. For me, the ability to use technology to communicate has been a liberating and positive experience. Without it, I would not have been able to continue working these many years past.

But it also means that the lives of the richest people in the most prosperous parts of the world are agonisingly visible to anyone, however poor, who has access to a phone. And since there are now more people with a telephone than access to clean water in sub-Saharan Africa, this will shortly mean nearly everyone on our increasingly crowded planet will not be able to escape the inequality.

The consequences of this are plain to see: the rural poor flock to cities, to shanty towns, driven by hope. And then often, finding that the Instagram nirvana is not available there, they seek it overseas, joining the ever greater numbers of economic migrants in search of a better life. These migrants in turn place new demands on the infrastructures and economies of the countries in which they arrive, undermining tolerance and further fuelling political populism.

For me, the really concerning aspect of this is that now, more than at any time in our history, our species needs to work together. We face awesome environmental challenges: climate change, food production, overpopulation, the decimation of other species, epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans.

Together, they are a reminder that we are at the most dangerous moment in the development of humanity. We now have the technology to destroy the planet on which we live, but have not yet developed the ability to escape it. Perhaps in a few hundred years, we will have established human colonies amid the stars, but right now we only have one planet, and we need to work together to protect it.

To do that, we need to break down, not build up, barriers within and between nations. If we are to stand a chance of doing that, the world’s leaders need to acknowledge that they have failed and are failing the many. With resources increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, we are going to have to learn to share far more than at present.

With not only jobs but entire industries disappearing, we must help people to retrain for a new world and support them financially while they do so. If communities and economies cannot cope with current levels of migration, we must do more to encourage global development, as that is the only way that the migratory millions will be persuaded to seek their future at home.

We can do this, I am an enormous optimist for my species; but it will require the elites, from London to Harvard, from Cambridge to Hollywood, to learn the lessons of the past year. To learn above all a measure of humility.

• The writer launched www.unlimited.world earlier this year

SAVING BANKSY the movie trailer

Saving Banksy - Official Trailer #2 (Documentary)
The documentary feature film "Saving Banksy" is the true story of one misguided art collector’s attempt to save a Banksy from destruction and the auction block. The documentary was directed by Colin Day with narration by Paul Polycarpou, and interviews with the top street and graffiti artists from across the globe, including Ben Eine, Risk, Revok, Niels Mueman, Blek Le Rat, Anthony Lister, Doze Green, Hera and Glen E Friedman. "Saving Banksy - It's not art unless you can sell it for lots of money".
SavingBanksy.com
Release Date: TBA

Happy Birthday Colin !

Vegans are right to be furious about beef fat in the new £5 notes

from The Guardian:
So the new fivers contain tallow. How very emblematic of the grand deception the meat and dairy industry relies on for its continued existence

To anyone who has taken an unflinching look at the slaughterhouse industry, the Bank of England’s belated admission that the new £5 notes contain beef tallow will seem strangely symbolic. Few industries are as secretive as the one that murders 22m animals each day in the UK alone, and the driving force for that shiftiness is a lust for profit. So the way the Bank of England tried to sneak out money containing animal products seems a fitting metaphor for the entire filthy racket.

The unnecessary presence of tallow in banknotes is problematic for many vegetarians and members of several faith groups, including Hindus, for whom the cow is a sacred mother. But for vegans it is a further slap in the face.

Veganism, as defined by the Vegan Society, is a bid “to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose”. It is about more than what we put on our plates: it is a meticulous, daily endeavour for compassion towards animals in all aspects of our lives. That’s why it is crushing to know that the Bank of England has misled us into carrying around animal fat in our (leather-free) wallets and purses.

As I’ve trodden the path from vegetarianism towards veganism, I’ve often felt overwhelmed. Knocking halloumi on the head was hard enough, but then I realised that my foot cream includes lamb product, my vitamin capsules are made of gelatine, and even some cleaning products are un-vegan. It seems obscene, then, that after making thoughtful choices in shops and restaurants, the very cash I pay with will nullify the whole project.

And for a growing number of people, this issue is problematic. Veganism is soaring. According to a survey earlier this year, 542,000 Brits – almost 1% of the population – are vegans, up from 150,000 in 2006. The health benefits of a plant-based diet are increasingly recognised, and so are the environmental and welfare costs of consuming animal products.

Some still see us as extremists, but a growing number recognise there is nothing more extreme than what animal agriculture is doing to the planet and its non-human residents.

Supermarkets stock own-brand vegan products, and restaurants increasingly offer meat-product-free dining options. Over the summer Pret a Manger trialled a temporary pop-up in central London selling only vegan and vegetarian food, and it’s been such a hit it has stayed open. We are weeks away from Veganuary, when a UK-based charity encourages people to try veganism for the first month of the year.

The question is whether as a society we grasp the tallow controversy as an opportunity to keep this momentum going, or whether we let it encourage the misconception that vegans are a bit weird and self-righteous.

In response to news about the fiver, Twitter has been doing a great trade in baffled tweets, with vegans dismissed as “morons”, “whiners’ and “fannies”. Some have, hilariously, pointed out that one is not actually supposed to eat bank notes, while other jokers have offered to take the notes off the hands of anyone upset by this bombshell.

We should welcome the humour and the attention it brings to this issue as an opportunity to educate people about veganism. Because, just as we didn’t know we were handling banknotes containing cow products, most meat-eaters know little of the horrors of the industry they are funding: the chicken slaughterhouses where workers rip the heads off live birds; the abattoirs where cows are alive as their heads are skinned and their legs sawn off; the factory-farm workers who systematically attack crate-bound pigs with lead pipes. It is from this world that tallow emerges.

When people find out the facts, it can change everything. A recent study found that 88% of Britons didn’t realise that most pigs are killed at just six months of age, even though their natural lifespan is 15 years. Two-thirds were unaware that on egg farms killing all male chicks at a day or two old is standard practice. Many were unaware that little piglets routinely have their tails amputated and teeth removed without anaesthesia. After becoming aware of this reality, one in six said that they would give up meat and dairy entirely.

Our best reaction to the five-pound tallow revelation will be to see it as a springboard for discussion on the grand deception that the meat industry pulls on us all.

Gotta have some fun too...

Last game of the year for me, unofficial post season, in the rain, the Saturday after the election... I wasn't going to go, then at the last minute I did, there were barely enough folks to play, but we got a game together and I gotta say this felt SO DAMN GOOD! (especially after such a dreadful week) Not too often I get two homers in one game...

Raw Footage by JOSÉ TAPIA

-GEF

FUCK YEAH! Gotta have some fun too! from Burning Flags Press on Vimeo.

Watch on a big screen as you got,click HD and turn up the volume, this was FUN.

(sound track from THE SONICS and Jay-Z)