The Mysteries of Spring Cleaning and Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather: their offerings and their vision

Hello everyone

Though it is raining here, it is spring officially.

I did some spring cleaning today, and cleared out everything from my closet, only putting back in my drawers the stuff I liked.

It made me think how much shopping is trial and error. There were so many things I had bought and loved in the store, only to now think, what was I thinking? There were also some things that I was not in love with at the store, that grew to be the staples of my wardrobe. There were also some things I used to love, and no longer liked anymore…like this awesome green hoodie shirt. It’s so comfortable, it’s cool, but I no longer enjoy the color. Why not?

SO many mysteries. hehe.

NOW

I would like to share with you a round up of some cool new shoes I have been seeing in my go to stores for vegan shoes. All the spring stuff is in. And you might not be aware of it. That is where this trusty blog comes in, and I hope I can be of service.

Let’s begin.

1. A while back I wrote a post about the company based in Paris, Good Guys, their motto being good guys don’t wear leather. I said it reminded me of Wes Anderson’s upcoming flick. Well, they still do, and now they are out and for sale.

I award pink first prize, i.e I like the pink ones the best.

Followed by the blue.

Followed by the dark blue in vegan suede.

This company has it going on. They have a cool tumblr, a good facebook presence going, and they know what look they are going for–surfer vibes, Endless Summer, Beach Boys…check out their really cool tumblr for their inspirations…I love when you can see the vision of a company…the branding, the lifestyle they are trying to inspire in you with their products.

Here are a select few pics from their tumblr that I love (you know I love excess pics) so you can see what the good guys are all about:

Ok the formatting on this post is now messed up so I will make this one just about the good guys and begin anew in an upcoming post! cool tumblr, right? So many more cool pics abound there.

As always, feel free to comment below!

xoxo

Steve Jobs: Powerful Ally of Animals

Did you guys know that Steve Jobs was a vegetarian?

My mom sent me to this tribute to him on PETA’s website that is actually quite touching.It’s great to have animal lovers in powerful places.

Read and learn:

The late Steve Jobs may have been known for his signature black turtleneck, but it is for his green diet that he probably will be most fondly remembered by people who care about animals. The Apple cofounder, who died yesterday, was a vegetarian and a longtime health advocate who reportedly once handed out containers of carrot juice at Halloween.

We remember Jobs for so many innovative ideas, including Apple’s iPhoto facial recognition software, which recognizes the faces of cats in addition to those of humans, reflecting the importance of companion animals in our homes and hearts. PETA also recently recognized Jobs for what he didn’t do: He refused to sell a gruesome app on Apple’s app store called iSealClub—which involved, as the name suggests, bashing cartoon seals over the head with clubs.

Let’s also not forget that Jobs’ Pixar film studio created heartwarming and thought-provoking movies about unlikely animal heroes, such as A Bug’s Life and Finding Nemo, and he ended Disney’s 10-year agreement with McDonald’s to promote its films with movie-themed toys in Happy Meals after the entertainment giant merged with Pixar. As the vegetarian sharks in Finding Nemo said, “Fish are friends, not food.” Finding Nemo’s fish-friendly theme earned Pixar an award  from PETA, as did Jobs’ other accomplishments that helped change animals’ lives for the better. And if his movies or his lifestyle inspired even one person to become a vegetarian, he no doubt saved hundreds of animals’ lives, and for that we thank him.

KONY 2012 and Animal Rights

Hello everyone,

Today is my Birthday! Happy Birthday to moi.

Anyway, I had an idea I wanted to share on this blog.

Has everyone heard about the KONY2012 video? It’s gone viral, but you blink and you can miss these things.

If you haven’t watched it yet, allow me to explain.

The other day on FB I noticed a lot of people mentioning this KONY thing and being like please watch this excruciatingly long video. I was like…hmm no. I didn’t even know what it was about.

But that night I was texting with my sister, a social media guru, and she was like “what do you think of the whole KONY thing?”

I was like, “wha?! et tu, Brute??”

jk, but then I was like, I should watch this. If she is interested in it, it must be some cool controversial thing.

I began the video.

I was immediately drawn in. 30 minutes later I had been holding back tears and so inspired and awed at this simple little video.

You can watch it here.

Basically a guy, who seemed like just a regular old youtuber with a phone camera, went on a trip to Uganda and what he saw shocked him. Thousands of children all packed together sleeping on the floor, hiding from the LRA, led by Josef Kony. The LRA is his army made up of children Kony has abducted, forcing the kids to kill their parents, giving the boys machine guns, making the girls sex slaves and forcing them to fight for him. Does it get more evil than that? Kony is considered the #1 war criminal in the world according to some famous org (I forgot what).

The guy filming talks to this Ugandan boy Jacob who escaped Kony but is sleeping in one of these camps for people hiding form Kony. Jacob talks about how his brother was killed in front of him, and how he has no desire to live anymore. It’s hard to imagine since Jacob is so charismatic and immediately likeable. There is a scene in the vid where the guy who made the vid promises Jacob right then and there…he will do everything in his power to STOP Kony: “Do you understand me, Jacob?!” just like a dramatic scene in a movie. And just like in a movie, he made good on his promise and founded Invisible Children, an organization working to stop KONY and help the children Kony abducted. I can’t believe he caught such powerful moments of video. It’s amazing viewing.

The video is told in an extremely engaging you tube-y way, going back and forth between footage of this guy’s young son, Uganda, Jacob coming to america and speaking on behalf of these Ugandan children. It’s really an amazing video.

Anyway…at the end of the video…he says, we have a plan. We will contact these top twitter celebs like Jay Z, Angelina Jolie, Taylor Swift, etc…and these top policy makers…and swamp them with retweets and calls about KONY. Essentially making Kony famous, so that the gov will take some action to stop him. They are also going to have a night where they plaster every city in America with posters…so that when the world wakes up, everyone will know KONY’s name.

Basically, it’s a really good plan. And you can’t believe one guy thought of it all. And through the power of twitter and youtube and young kids on youtube could really use the internet to truly do what everyone is saying the internet will do…make the world a global community and become a way to combine forces…and for the people, the youtubers, the twitter lovers, to truly change the world.

I feel like this one video showed us it’s possible.

Today there was a ton of backlash to the video…everyone is saying the situation is far more complicated than this video makes it out to be. Major controversy!!

lol

My take is, the video was a great idea. He is doing something at least. He made people aware of a hugely important issue. Who cares if people say it’s too hard and won’t work. People always try to take you down a few notches when you come up with a good idea.

I thought the video was great…and I believe it PROVES what you can do with twitter, facebook and youtube, and that a personal honest story from a youtuber is so much more powerful than some expensive corporate ad thought up by an ad team.

Anyone see where this is going?

I think a video like this needs to be made for animals.

Any ideas?

PETA needs to make videos like this. Regular people too.

Have you heard of Ghosts in the Machine? It is going to be a documentary film featuring JoAnne McArthur, an amazing and truly gifted photographer of animals I wrote about here. I liked the Ghosts on facebook and they are great to have on the newsfeed! I can’t wait for their film, but I think we need youtube vids now…with viral potential.

Tell me, did you watch the KONY2012 video. Did you think it was stupid? Or did you change your facebook picture to KONY2012? Do you have any ideas on how we could use social media and videos for animal rights? I can’t wait for Ghosts in the Machine to put out something like this. For the ghosts!!