guestbook
sign it <---> read it

sslog in [poor] translation
(very entertaining)
French
German
Italian
Portugese
Spanish

sean was in
chicago
hong kong
london
los angeles
milan
new york
ottawa
portland, or
san diego
san francisco
seattle
steilacoom
sydney
tokyo
vancouver, bc
victoria, bc

plans
9/3-5...new york
9/18-21...ottawa

seasonal highlights...greendrinks seattle, pink ponies, the sustainable Big Apple, Oh Canada.

sunday, september 21 | Whoa! The event with the Millenium Scholarship Foundation was absolutely incredible. And it started as soon as I stepped on the Air Canada plane...in French (I, of course, had already checked out their environmental page). I was so psyched to hear another language (pretty rare in the States, some Spanish...but even that is becoming rarer). The annoncements in French, the inflight movie in French, the magazine in French. I loved it! If only I could remember more of it.

The Arc Hotel where we stayed was truly beautiful with very zenlike furnishings and full on Feng Shui going on. Aveda in the bathroom naturally. I took a short walk Thursday evening around the neighborhood only to find that we were just blocks from the stunning Parliament Hill and it's many beautiful buildings. Ottawa in general was beautiful. I found out the next day that the meetings were actually IN the Parliament buidings, the West Block to be exact. What a privlege for the students, and certainly for me the foreigner. What amazed me most was that the average citizen could just walk right up and check the buildigs out, very tourist friendly. There was even an ultimate frisby game going on the lawns on Saturday. Can you imagine that on the White House lawn?!

Meeting the other panelists was only outdone by meeting and engaging with the incredible students that are part of the Millenium Scholarships, the student Laureates. I thought I was pretty hot stuff in college, but these young men and women blew me away.

The 'brands and beliefs' panel was absolutely outstanding. I'm sure all the panelists could have just sat back and let the laureates take charge, but it was really a great opportunity to engage with the students. This was my first experience conferencing with simultaneous translation, so that was quite a treat for me as well. Lots of amazing students in the panel, one in particular turned out to be a great resource for SSF. Ben Barry is one of the young Laureates who at 14 started his own alternative modelling agency in order to give fashion a real face and make it more accessible. His models of all sizes, ethnicities, abilities, etc. can now be seen across Canada. Ben actually invited me to a fashion show going on down the street in which his models would be appearing at the local Hudson's Bay Company store The Bay. At last! Models that WE can identify with. Being big into responsible business, my bet is that Ben will be a major changemaker in the rest of his career as well. MANY other incredable students too.

On Saturday evening we were treated to a feast at the stunning Canadian Museum of Civilization along with outstanding performances that included Inuit throat singing.

Among the many panelists I had the honor of meeting Uzma Shakir with the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) [a social activism powerhouse by the way]; Joanna Kerr, Executive Director of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) [now firmly among the top 10 of my 'favorite people in the world' list]; Canadian filmaker, author and naturalist, Richard Bocking; wellknown corporate social resonsibility expert Paul Pellizzari; Pyysicist, facilitator and jazz singer Diana Nalini and illustrator Anita Kunz.

Again, it was such an honor to be among such an incredible and distinguished group of people.

sunday, august 31 | Whoa! Way too long since my last entry. Lots of stuff going on though. One great find...Heinz now has an organic ketchup!. Also just saw a quick tidpit on TV regarding a promotion KIA UK did last year in which they gave car buyers a free mountain bike to encourage alternative commuting. They also promoted walking buses for school children, if only we could get Americans to take it up. Oh, and I love this one. I guess Wash Right has been going in Europe for four years. Boy do we need this in the States. Check it out to 'optimize your washing habits'.

Went to a couple great events last week. The Fashion is Art show was incredible and SSF was very pleased to host an Afterglow post party to thank all the local designers. Also went to a benefit event produced by Minty Magazine, a "rebirth" party for PF Flyers for which Sharpshooter's Shane Hunt (aka DJ Sureshot) did a great job as auctioneer.

Finally, I went to a performance of the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center's (LHPAC) Soul of the Beauty and the Beast. WOW! Absolutely incredible performances by ALL high school and younger. Great acting, outstanding singing, incredible dancing. Who needs American Idol when you have the students at LHPAC. Forget the opera, forget Broadway...the only performance that I now HAVE to see every year is the show put on by the Center. Keep it on your radar.

thursday, august 14 | Well, I was one-upped on 'sustainable styleness' today. On my way to work upon my sporty little Vespa I had to stop for the light on Pine Street in downtown Seattle. Gliding down the street in a designer dress and shoes was a beautiful woman...on a skateboard. YES! She even showed off a bit by weaving back and forth a bit. Talk about sustainable and style! When/if I run into her again I HAVE to find out the full story.

Another Vespa story...one of the joys of owning a Vespa, or any scooter for that matter, is that you are your own radio. When you're on the freeway, you can even sing at the top of your lungs and nobody can really hear you. Yesterday, I was on Highway 99 ssinging Shania Twain's new song Always and Forever at the top of my lungs and didn't really notice that I had actually come to a stop. Whoops. The woman in the care next to me said it sounded great though.

In other news I finally discovered Mother's Peanut Butter Bumpers cereal. Yummie!

friday, july 25 [new york] | My last day in NY was a busy one before my flight at 6:00pm. I started the day with a meeting with Margaret Lydecker, local organizer of Greendrinks. It was a random hookup via the Greendrinks website but it turned out Margaret was way into all kinds of sustainable style issues. Her core work at Robin Reigi is around industrial design materials for architects and interior designers so she showed me all sorts of great new sustainable materials available these days, including a flooring that incorporates recycled bottles from Brooklyn. WAY cool!

Next it was off to a meeting with a company that is far and away the leader in the beauty industry regarding social and environmental responsibility. Then off to lunch at Counter a new vegetarian/organic restaurant and bar in the East Village to have lunch with Caron Atlas, an expert on sustainability, particularly cultural, indicators. Yet another yummie lunch. Finally...zoomed off to the airport...such a NY moment.

thursday, july 24 [new york] | On my way to meet with Mary Gelhar of GEN ART I ran across the Chelsea Whole Foods Market. Wow, what a place AND oasis in the bustling big apple. Afterwords I was off to learn more about the Greyston Foundation in Yonkers, NY. Famous for their Greyston Bakery founded on budhist principles, the bakery also happens to bake the brownies for Ben & Jerry's ice cream. These days the Greyston Foundation has gotten into all sorts of social and environmental projects incuding sustainable real estate development. Karen Tumelty gave an awesome tour of their work around town and it was an awesome experience to see what a smaller town could do once given the right inspiration.

Next I was off to visit Leslie Hoffman, Executive Director of Earthpledge. They too are doing some incredible projects in the big city including rooftop gardening, waste=fuel and education around sustainable farming.

I finished off the long day at a Green Ground Zero meeting that took place at the offices of Pop Sustainability. A really exciting opportunity to get green building in probably what will soon be one of the most visible developent projects in the world. Pop Sustainability is doing some REALLY cool stuff so I'm excited to follow up with them as well.

wednesday, july 23 [new york] | I escaped the very hot and humid afternoon with some apparel industry folks at the Hudson Hotel, one of Ian Schrager's masterpieces with incredible gardens and other earthy touches. I later had dinner with Winifred Armstrong tonight. Win is an ecological economist with Columbia University's SIPA. She had a TON of great environmental and sustainability education contacts and took me on a wonderful walk into Central Park where I met the local egret and duck celebrities.

Finished off with a great dinner at the Organic Grill.

tuesday, july 22 [new york] | Finally made it to one of the rare organic restaurants in NY last night. Herban Kitchen turned out to be quite a nice place. A little on the pricey side but then I AM in NY and it is ORGANIC so I guess I should expect as much. The food (I had the turkey meatloaf) was very tasty so I hope to go back and try a few more items. There's also an AVEDA store nearby.

Started today by watching the Celia Cruz processional. An amazing singer, an amazing life and a quintessential NY moment for me...a major processional and great conversations with the folks next to me. Then made a stop by the Ermenegildo Zegna shop. Absolutely the best clothing you can find for men and they have a surprising environmental background. Then it was off the UN where I got some cool baseball caps that I can - you know me - where backwards for the 'chillin' look. THEN I stimbled upon Dag Hammarskjord Plaza with their beautiful Katherine Hepburn Gardens. OK...this is my favorite place in NY now.

Headed to the Organic Grill in the East Village for Dinner. Tonight it was vegie lasagna - my favorite - and the OG didn't let me down. Had a great organic grean tea rootbeer too. Yummmeeee! Happened to walk past another place I'm going to try on Thursday called Counter. Stay tuned...

sunday, july 20 [new york] | That's right sslog fans, Sean is in NEW YORK CITY making some official SSF visits, as well as scouting on my own to seek out what sort of sustainable style options the Big - green/or not so green - Apple might have in store.

Thursday evening started with a bang as I attended GEN ART event called IGNITE showcasing the winners of Heineken's Heineken Honors..."The Beat of Fashion" initiative to support emerging African American and Hispanic designers. The winners: Alonzo Ramos, Cornell Collins, Dulce de Leche ans Sistahs Harlem New York. With cars, water sculptures, several screenings going on, the fashion instiallation, groovy music and hip New York crowd it was a full-on fashion, film, art and music (live DJ) event. You know how SSF likes these kind of cross-industry events.

Today I finally, after waiting like three months having seen an article on them in the May Vogue (or was it April?), found the store Some Odd Rubies, a Ludlow St. boutique that gives new life to vintage clothing through a bit of 'artistic licence'. Call it vintage, recycled fashion, whatever you like - SSF loves it. One of our favorite mottos is "reduce, reuse, recyled, RESEW" and these guys are all over it. Summer Phoenix and Odessa Whitmore have their hands in things as two of the three partners, but it's obvious the place stands firmly on its own as it was a buzz on an otherwise quiet Sunday afternoon. Ruby, the third partner in the trio, was awesome (especially given that I had pretty much completely lost my voice from partying the night before) and seemed really into SSF. With folks like Some Odd Rubies and Tara Subkoff leading the way, hopefully recycled fashion will continue to take off.

wednesday, july 9 | So excited...Rebecca (the other SSF founder) and I attended the first Seattle greendrinks last night. Great discussions, great people. Find one (or start one) in your city. It's a great way to meet new folks and find out what kind of great things are going on out there.

In other news, ran across Ralph Lauren's Pink Pony Fund today. The Fund aims to "reduce disparities in cancer care by raising awareness as well as enhancing prevention, screening and treatment in medically under-served communities." Pretty cool and it addresses both social and environmental components to cancer, particularly breast cancer. Now we just need Polo to get into organic cotton.

thursday, july 3 | Snaps for Legally Blond 2. In fact, my Snap Cup runneth over in praise for the movie. I laughed (a lot...couldn't stop for about 5 minutes after one scene), I cried (several times) and totally dug the many causes...animal testing, gay rights, empowering women, system reform. Awesome!

Our LB2 Afterglow was fabulous as well. Three Elle look alikes, Aveda mesages and gift bags, raspberry cosmos as the featured 'cocktail with a cause'. Stay tuned...I'll post a page on the event soon. Finally, thanks to everyone for continuing to send the links and other resources to add to the online source books. Keep them coming.

thursday, june 26 | Had lunch today at the Globe Cafe, the outstanding vegan restaurant near our office. Being a major busquits and gravy fan I had to try their vegan version out. WHOA! That is some tasty stuff! I have to say that it ranks well within the top five and actually is neck and neck with another vegan B&G by the sadly long gone Black Cat Cafe in the U District. Now mind you, I'm not a vegan or even a vegetarian (though I do have some pretty strong values around the meat that I do choose to eat), so let that tell how REALLY good the Globes B&G is.

In other news...went out to practice my hoop with my swank bball I got at Value Village. I still suck, but I'm having a good time. Also pickeup up the latest copy of Natural Home Magazine. Full of all kinds of good info so I'll hopefully have some time to update the online source books in the near future.

Finally, getting geared up for our first BIG Afterglow here in Seattle. We've had several small ones, but this one - in association with MGM's Legally Blond 2: Red White and Blond - is going to be a fun one. As you may know, the whole plot revolves around animal testing and animal rights issues. We'll be featuring a 'very pink cosmopolitan' as our 'double-cause cocktail' (one drink, two causes) and expect to have lots of doggies around too. Our two causes we're raising awareness for are: responsible pet ownership with PAWS and environmental links to breast cancer with information from the Breast Cancer Fund.

tuesday, june 24 | While researching Canosmose, a French architectural product that will replace wood in building structures, I discoverd the French word for "hemp"..."chanvre". Sean has to keep his French up to date you know :-)

monday, june 23 | Lots of green gossip from Danny Seo's greenbuzz column in July/August edition of Organic Style. Per the King of conscious style: Christina Aquilera is big into organic milk and fruits; Ricky Paull Goldin even buys organic goodies for his three animal-rescue dogs; Lyndsy Fonseca must have veggie burgers on her menus; Peter Reckell's hot tub is solar powered after much ado; Danny's latest LA Fashion Week Fur Free Party included Daryl Hannah, Jennie Garth, Fred Savage, Danny Masterson, Ashley Scott, Rick Yune and Puff Daddy's girl group Dream...in true Danny style, cocktails in corn-derived plastic cups by NatureWorks PLA included organic juice from Whole Foods Market, Pier 1 wooden chairs approved by the Forest Stewardship Council were available to lounge in. For more info and details I highly recommend you pick up the latest issue, the whole issue is chock full of great stuff. My 'turned tab" test (how many page corners I turn for later reading) resulted in a whopping 11 tabs for this issue...like the GEICO commercial says "impressive, green one".

sunday, june 22 | It was time once again for the Freemont Fair and Solstice Parade. I have to say, it really is one of the best parades around. Awesome floats, incredible bands and yes...nude bicyclists (when/if the police don't catch them too early). No surprise, ran into lots of great hemp folks and Boma Cho, a really cool musician and artist. Got myself a jambay drum, finally and picked up an "S" ring from Spoonman himself.