Sunday, October 15, 2006

Raw pot-luck, Green Perspective, ARCFest, Planet in Focus, the Bubble and last night's aurora borealis

Last night I went to a raw pot-luck with Marie in Kensington Market. We brought raw pizza – our Earth Bread dough spread out into a circle & dehydrated ..then we had to improvise a bit because our sun-dried tomato hemp pesto we were planning on went missing.. so we used a sunflower seed pate I had mixed up from the day before, then a layer of avocados, mixed up with lemon, garlic, nama shoyu, some spices, olive oil, a layer of alfalfa sprouts & then sunflower sprouts, chopped red pepper and pine nuts.. it was such a hit, gone almost immediately.
There was so much good food, beet raviolis, 2 salads with beet in it, lots of amazing pumpkin pie.. I will see about getting that recipe. Jessica brought amazing decadent desserts also. There were a few sprout salads, a kale salad, raspberry shakes, a spicy Mexican lentil dish, another lentil dish beside it.. I am using my photographic memory skills.. but I know I am missing lots, so many things.. and my favorite.. which I am going to try to copy and get a recipe for, the Thai Broccoli.

I picked up a small magazine from there: Green Perspective, vol 7, October 2006.. and read it last night.

Interesting events coming up:

ARCfest – Art for Real Change Festival, from Oct 23-29.
ARCfest 2006 features over 100 artists in 25 events exploring local social justice issues. Taking place in Queen West, Parkdale, and other venues across Toronto, the festival includes a diverse program of seasoned and emerging artists, panel discussions, speakers, workshops, and artist-community collaborations.
http://www.arcfest.org/2006/home

The 7th annual Planet in Focus Film Festival, from Nov 1-7.
Planet in Focus is Canada’s most acclaimed International Environmental Film and Video festival. Our annual film fest showcases compelling documentaries, animation, dramatic features, shorts, and experimental works that celebrate, question, and establish varied ways of viewing the state of our world.
http://www.planetinfocus.org/

AND your directory for ethical living in Canada – The Bubble: http://thebubble.ca/v1/directory/directory.php
A Canadian online network directory of socially and environmentally sound goods and services, and a source of information about the ethical consumption world.

From an interview with Dr. Leslie Jermyn, editor of the Bubble:

About getting involved in ethical living in the community, 2 main pieces of advice:

1 – Be the change you want to see in the world.

If you want people to carpool, then organize it. If you want your family to eat healthy food, then prepare it. If you want your children to feel a part of the community, then work at getting to know neighbours, get involved in community events, show them how it’s done. If you want people to avoid sweatshop goods in favor of goods produced with dignity (fair-trade, co-operative, union), then give those things as presents and request that they do not give unethical stuff to you. If you want to see recycled stuff take the place of new, then wear second-hand clothes and use second-hand or recycled house-wares, and do it creatively. The easiest way to promote change is to show people how much fun it can be & how easy it is.

2 – Don’t preach, Share.

When you become aware of the significance of our life choices on other living and non-living things it can be frustrating to see people carrying on as usual even when you’ve told them the consequences of their actions. Yelling, begging, preaching is generally not very effective. Sharing a home-made snack and spending time with people doing things ethically – second-hand shopping, visiting farmers markets etc, makes a much bigger impact. Informing that the delicious meal they just ate was all made with local, organic ingredients.. or telling that the reason you look so healthy & happy is because you were cycling, exercising, eating healthy foods, volunteering in the community, shopping fair-trade, etc. Offer to help people find alternatives, provide information etc. This approach guarantees that people make changes from their heart, which will more likely be permanent. ‘Worse case scenario: you share some time with someone you care about and nothing more; best case scenario: you make another convert and double the world’s ethical quotient – neither is such a bad outcome!’

Pic by Kevin McCarthy from www.northpolegallery.com

Photographer's Comment - An unexpected aurora borealis that arrived last night. The photo was taken in North Pole, Alaska just after midnight 14 October 2006. Outdoor temperature a balmy 22F. The display lasted about 2 hours and this is one of 160+ images I captured. Photo is a 3 second exposure at ISO 400 taken in RAW and converted to .tiff for display here - nothing unusual done with the image - was a good capture as is with no blooming. Histogram was very well distributed which is unusual for a might shot. Photography came out looking exactly as the night sky did with no color shifts - and that is how I like them. Used Neat Image to reduce the noise, and, the dots are stars - not dust - for those of you unfamiliar with the Aurora.

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