If you’re the omnivorous type, check out this article from MSN Health: Grass is Greener - Steak Without the Guilt. I’m all for more ethical, environmentally responsible and healthy alternatives to traditional Western consumption habits, and this is a great article filled with a tonne of information on just how and why.

But let’s face it: For a lot of people, biting into a thick, juicy steak ranks up there with make-up sex and cocktails on the company’s dime as one of those priceless MasterCard moments. So what’s a carnivore with a conscience to do? Instead of focusing on what you’re eating, how about taking a look at what your prime rib had for lunch last week?

Research is showing that beef from grass-fed cattle is leaner, healthier, and less costly to the planet — and may even be safer to eat than the heifers you’re chewing on now.

Truly a recommended read for anyone who doesn’t want to give up meat. I know that not everyone is willing to go vegan, but we all have a responsibility to work toward conserving our planet and making it a better place to live for all of its inhabitants.

P.S. Go vegan.

Hey, I posted some recent paintings.

I came across this reposted text while doing my morning email check and internet surf today: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say About Homosexuality by a Rev. Mel White. The point of this text, written to be a pamphlet, is that most people who say that “the Bible condemns homosexuality” haven’t actually read the verses in question… anyway, it’s pretty informative, and I’d suggest that anyone who’s unsure about their stance on these issues (or who’s simply interested) click along and read it.

So it’s definitely summer now and I’m definitely not going to be online so much. My bag was stolen about a week and a half ago, so I’ve lost my dayplanner and cell phone (I got the important stuff back, like my ID and keys) - which means I’ve got lots of time to do summery things like ride my bike and go to the beach - but I’m not so easy to contact. I’m going to be spending a lot of time over the next two months in the studio I’m now sharing with Amanda and Britt in East Van. Hopefully I’ll produce a huge wealth of work over this period.

Things I want (need?): A new back rim (Velocity Deep V Pink 32h 700c, I think), a set of Major Taylor drop track handlebars, a 24-70mm lens for my Canon 350D, a new sketchbook/recipe book/journal so I can record all of my amazing summer recipes.

I quit my job. This summer I’m going to be pretty broke but also very, very happy.
Here’s a rad smoothie I made the other day to bring to a dog’s birthday party in the park.

Early Summer BC Fruit Smoothie

1 - 2 bananas, peeled and frozen
1/2 - 1 cup local BC fruit, like nectarines, peaches and apricots, cut into chunks and frozen
1/2 cup coconut milk (add water if your coconut milk is more like coconut cream)
    You can use rice/soy/almond milk if you’re worried about fat content.
2 tbsp maple syrup or other liquid sweetener
1 tsp powdered ginger

Blend until creamy. Change the consistency with more milk, more fruit, or seeds/nuts if you like.
This smoothie is refreshing and sweet (but not oversweet). The ginger gives it a nice kick.

This is interesting - “Veganic” farming in New Mexico’s Espanola Valley. Don Bustos, whose family has farmed this land for generations, elected to go organic 15 years ago to protect his children’s health. Now, as the article describes, he’s gone veganic, choosing to use no animal byproducts in the fertilizers and no pesticides whatsoever.

Salmonella and e. Coli are bacteria that live in the intestines of livestock and are present in their waste. Livestock waste, or manure, can be used to fertilize fields, potentially contaminating crops with the disease-causing bacteria.

Crops can also be contaminated by contact with infected animals or their byproducts, including bone meal and blood meal, which are used as fertilizer as well.

Veganic farmers use crop rotations and composted plant matter — or “green manure” — to fertilize their crops.

I think this is fantastic and frankly it suddenly makes me feel really gross about my organic hothouse tomatoes. Blood meal… that is a hugely unappetizing image. Also, I feel like if we’re going to make an effort to support ethical food production - avoiding cruelly factory-farmed meats, dairy, and eggs, or, as in my case, avoiding animal products entirely - it makes sense to go all the way when possible.

“You think you are getting these clean happy vegetables, but more often than not they’re grown in waste from factory farms,” he said. “The animals … were fed non-organic feed laced with hormones and antibiotics. Those products bio-accumulate in the animals and it’s present in their waste as well.”

I’m not sure what the requirements are for organically grown produce. Do the animals whose waste is present in the fertilizer have to be on an organic diet as well? I’m going to look it up, but it’s definitely something to think about.

I hope that I can start purchasing “veganically” grown produce in my area soon. I think it’s absolutely worth the extra cost to purchase food that is produced ethically, that causes the least amount of harm to the earth, animals, the farmers, and the health of the consumer. After all, there is very little that is more intrinsic to our ability to survive than the way we produce and consume that which we live on - food.

How The Grinch Stole Marriage by Mary Ann Horton - a parody of Dr Seuss’ famous How The Grinch Stole Christmas. A really delightful read.

In 5 or 10 or 20 years, with plenty of visible same-sex married couples, the world won’t see us as strange or scary, we’re just the married couple down the street that happens to be gay. Eventually, the legal recognization of our marriages will follow.

If we allow ourselves to voluntarily sit in the back of the bus, we’ll never make any progress. Rosa Parks had to sit in the front of the bus to make a difference. We must as well.

It’s been big news that the ban on same-sex marriage was overturned in California recently. I know that I wasn’t the only one moved nearly to tears by the marriage of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, who have been together for fifty-five years. I have to admit, though, that this little Grinch poem was just as touching. Aww. I’m a big sap.

On Friday I tried Bikram Yoga for the first time. Intense, difficult, but I feel like a hundred dollars after my post-class shower… definitely amazing. Unfortunately I think I’ve been pushing it a bit too hard because my muscles were so sore yesterday after my second class (they’d been sore before that, too) that I had trouble walking around the Vancouver Art Gallery yesterday. I managed it, though, because it was an exhibition that was right up my alley…

Krazy! The Delirious World Of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art is the first exhibition of its kind, a groundbreaking project that offers unique and dynamic insight into the world of comics,animated cartoons, anime, manga, graphic novels, computer/video games and visual art. Spanning a century of artmaking, the works in this exhibition reveal an extraordinary history of production, one that is poised to redefine the scope of visual culture in the 21st century.

Seriously amazing. If you have a chance to see this at any point I highly recommend it. It took a friend and I two trips to the Art Gallery to see the entire thing; it’s, apparently, the largest exhibit ever shown at the VAG. Every part of it was mindblowing.

Speaking of art, I really need to get some pictures of my recent paintings up. I’ve shot the photos… I just have to upload and post them. I’m really excited about them. I keep talking about them but haven’t yet posted anything. I guess that makes me a big tease.

This makes me so fucking angry - a teacher in Salt Lake City, Utah, has been placed on paid administrative leave for answering questions from her students about sex. The questions were not dealt with in the core curriculum; they were about subjects like homosexual sex, oral sex and masturbation.

“Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, opened a bill file this week and said he will introduce legislation in January that would enforce criminal penalties on teachers who deviate from state law governing sex education…”

Students at the school posted signs in support of their teacher that read, the article says, “We were the ones asking her questions.” The school’s principal, Michael Sirois, removed the signs “…because he does not want the matter to become divisive while it is still under investigation.”

I think it’s absolutely criminal that anyone would consider punishing a teacher for answering any questions their students ask, especially about something as important as sex. We’re a sexually repressed culture and it’s rare enough for children to feel okay asking questions like this, so for the teacher to be punished for giving informative answers absolutely blows me away.

Misinformation and lack of information about sex are, in my opinion, huge contributors so some of our society’s largest problems, like sex crime, as well as mal-formed identity and the shame and guilt common in our largely Christian culture.

If children are given a fair chance at an informative, honest sexual education as they’re developing personal and sexual identity, I think that they have a way better chance of growing up with healthy attitudes toward sex and toward themselves. It is not fair for anyone to be afraid of sex, or ashamed of who they are, the things they think and feel or do in private. We are all born with a healthy interest in our own bodies and how they work, and it is only this social conditioning that makes us ashamed of ourselves and unable to interact openly with others. Avoiding giving children information about masturbation will not stop them from doing it, and keeping them in the dark about homosexuality will not keep them ’straight’.

It’s impossible to expect adolescents to practice safe sex when they don’t understand sex - and I don’t know why these parents haven’t figured out that withholding information about sex will not promote abstinence.

I wonder if there’s anything I can do about this?

“Ingroup bias tends to be stronger among minority camps, such as cyclists, who see themselves as Rosa Parks–style civil rights activists fighting to reclaim their share of the street.” Well, okay, that’s true. Actually, this whole article was pretty true. Philip Preville’s piece, All the Rage, from Toronto Life’s website, uses Toronto’s road rage problems as a background to discuss cyclist/motorist animosity and the anonymity we hide behind when we rage at one another. It’s a great article. Read the whole thing.

In Mal news, I’m going to be accepting new freelance projects this summer, so if you want me to make you a website, send me an email - malloreigh at gmail dot com. Rates are negotiable based on your needs and budget.

I just got an email back from my local MP, Libby Davies, about Bill C-51. This bill proposes to regulate and illegalize consumer use of natural health remedies - the issue is currently a hot debate in Canada’s Parliament, and it’s nice to see so many of my neighbours getting riled up about it. Of course, Vancouver East residents are particularly fond of their natural health remedies.

While Bill C-51 is hardly the USA Patriot Act, it does contain some pretty scary stuff that infringes on our rights as private citizens. The Stop C-51 website lists some of the entries in the bill that are of particular interest, including information pertaining to the seizure of private property without a warrant and at the cost of the property holder. Check it out…

Here’s what her letter said, if you’re interested.

Dear Malloreigh,

Thanks for your message expressing your opposition to Bill C-51, An Act to Amend the Food and Drugs Act.

This bill contains a lot of proposed changes. Some of there are necessary and have been long needed. Others are more troublesome.

I am particularly concerned that this bill opens the door for direct-to-consumer advertising from pharmacological and other companies, which is currently banned in Canada. I do not feel this bill allows for strong enough pre-market testing of pharmaceuticals and do not feel it creates a transparent system of drug safety and testing.

One of the biggest issues I have heard from people in Vancouver East are the proposed changes to the way natural health products may be addressed. I favour an approach that will balance the right of Canadians to choose health products for themselves, with the need for oversight and regulation, to ensure the safety of consumers. As it is, I think the bill needs to be changed, in terms of what type of oversight it will mandate for natural health products.

My colleague, MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis, is the NDP Health Critic. She, and all of us, will be watching the progress of this bill very carefully, and will be representing the NDP on the committee that will study the
bill. She will be bringing all these concerns, and more, forward to the committee and will get this bill changed. I am including a link to the debate in Parliament about this bill, here:

Bill C-51 in Parliament

Thanks again for writing - letters like yours help me keep the pressure on here in Ottawa.

Sincerely,

Libby Davies, MP
Vancouver East

In case you were wondering, I whole-heartedly support Barack Obama’s campaign for the United States Presidency in 2008. I even purchased an Obama Spoke Card. (Proceeds from the $1 spoke cards do not go to Obama’s campaign, but instead to the production of spoke cards which are then distributed to bike co-ops and cycling groups to promote the cause for change.)

I strongly believe that if Obama becomes President, a lot of the wrongs that have been committed over the last however-long in North America can be reversed or at least patched up. I am super excited to see how things work out.

By the way: I’m not American, so I’m not going to be covering any of this in my blog. Sorry, guys, but I’m not informed enough. If you’re American, though, you really should be. Voter apathy is tragic. You have at least a little bit of power to affect change, and it won’t just make a difference within your borders. There’s an unjust war going on and it needs to end, amid a number of other international issues.

I love my city existence. My life in Vancouver is so absolutely stellar; I can’t imagine too many ways it could possibly improve. I’m surrounded by great friends who are wells of talent and inspiration. I live in a rickety old house on a hill and I can see the sun rise over the lower mainland any day I choose to, from my front porch. I have a beautiful roommate who is also one of my best friends. I could go on, but I won’t! I am really happy these days.

Something new and exciting that I’m a part of is The Good Life Community Bike Shop project. It’s a collectively-run bicycle shop in my hometown of Calgary, Alberta, opening June 2008 in Eau Claire Market. If you’re in Calgary you should definitely ride by and check it out. I’m doing some work on the website.

Speaking of websites, I’ve got a bunch of projects on the go right now. My lovely friend Steph has been gracious enough to lend me her Macbook, so I even have a functional computer to work on. (My iBook is pretty close to computer-death.) Once I’ve got some of those cranked out I’ll post them here.

I have recently updated the way Vegan Mania’s front page and bakery operate. If you like yummy vegan food and live in the lower mainland area, please do go give a look. She’s also got a formidable vegan recipe index that puts mine to ten kinds of shame. I’ve used her recipes before and they’re all definite crowd-pleasers.

I think I’m going to participate in the upcoming “Alt Slam” - it’s a poetry slam next month with an erotica theme. Wish me luck… it’s something I’ve never done before. I think I can do it. I don’t get shy - I get shameless.

This weekend I’m going to Sasquatch Music Festival to see some really amazing acts. I’m particularly stoked for MIA, Flight of the Conchords and Tegan and Sara. Mostly I’m in it for the road trip down there. It’s my only excuse to eat Super Nibs.

So within the last week, thousands upon thousands of human beings have perished in several isolated freak natural disasters. The cyclone that hit Myanmar on May 2nd has claimed more than 20,000 lives. A tornado tearing through the midwestern United States over the weekend killed twenty-one - and just today, an earthquake in Sichuan, China - 7.8 on the Richter scale - has killed almost 10,000 people. They’re not even finished counting the bodies.

And they say Hollywood movies are overblown fiction.

Vancouver’s shitty tabloid newspapers have been devoting their front pages to the theft of a spider monkey and the death of its defensive mate. I also read today that 34 stingrays mysteriously died within a span of only hours at the Calgary Zoo over the weekend.

Does the term “portents of the apocalypse” mean anything to anyone else?