Blog: throw another tofu-burger on the barbie will ya mate. #Geekgirl on behalf of #tcktcktck

Tcktcktck invited me to write a blog on climate change. I knew immediately what I wanted to pen about – animals!

Have you ever tried to get your head around what it actually takes to feed the planet!? It’s something I find difficult to come to terms with.

Even my little shopping village of Northcote, Melbourne, Australia opened a new butcher the other day. Another one! You’d think 4 existing butchers plus all the restaurants in the area would provide enough meat.

I’ve become more educated lately on the nature of food production, and films like Food Inc are a good start to understand the process from pasture to plate.  Although, I still don’t quite understand who is feeding, farming & processing the 60 billion animals we kill each year.

It’s horrific that most of this is inhumane and, to be quite frank, not producing animals that even taste good. I’m not a vegetarian (yet) but I have massively reduced my consumption of meat and although I try and stick to the MOOS principle (Meat Only on Sunday). I have a lot of reverence for what I eat, and I am conscious of what it takes to get my food on the table.

I know most people eat meat for the flavour and texture. And my smart vegie friends know a lot of tricks developed by Asian food producers who provide some meat-tasting alternatives. Unfortunately, most of this is soaked or prepared in soy sauce and as a Coeliac I can’t go there. But, there must be a huge potential in coming up with an alternative to meat, which tastes like meat, but ain’t. As much as the electric or hybrid cars are being driven (excuse the pun) by an industry that has to, perhaps rather than wants to. There’s a huge market in developing electric sheep, too.

As Copenhagen (COP15) rapidly approaches I would think that food production especially animal production would have to be high on the agenda. But, if ordinary folks like me can’t persuade the masses to re-think what they eat, what about politician turned good guy Al Gore, musician Moby or even PETA pet Pamela Anderson?

Australia needs to take part on a moral and uber-logistical stand on this issue. We can no longer farm or export meat in an inhumane fashion. Even if we do get our farming processes to the point it is compassionate, we need to become sustainable: that means all of us need to reduce our consumption of animals! “Throw another tofu burger on the barbie will ya mate”, might have to become our new national saying!

So, consume less & be informed more!

My personal top ten
1) stop live animal exports (join the Humane Chain)
2) make choices that respect animals; don’t eat them – or at least buy free-range, organic etc
3) moderate your meat consumption
4) support organisations that are compassionate re: ‘farming’  like Campaign for a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare (UDAW)
5) support organisations that also protect our marine life like Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd
6) keep having a go at growing your own food and find out what and when to plant
7) read labels when buying food and insist that labels reflect ingredients like palm oil
(de-forestation is destroying the natural habitats of Orangutans)
8)become a volunteer join local organisations that protect animals and wildlife (Wildlife Victoria)
9) keep informed of campaigns and if need be, write or tweet our Australian politicians

10) On Dec 12, 2009 join the world for a global day of Action

With much love & respect, RosieX

My tweet cloud for 2009

Tweet Cloud 2009

Care of: http://tweetcloud.icodeforlove.com/

Help Sea Shepherd raise funds for Waltzing Matilda #Fremantle #Western Australia

Perth Operation Waltzing Matilda Benefit
Fremantle, Western Australia

Wed, 2 Dec, 2009 6:45 PM – 11:45 PM

The evening will be entertaining and provide information on Sea Shepherd’s forthcoming Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign. The MC for the evening will be the Hon. Ian Campbell who is a member of the Sea Shepherd Advisory Board. Special guests include Brad Pettit, the new Mayor of Fremantle, Senator Rachel Siewart, Greens Spokesperson for Whaling, along with current Sea Shepherd crew. There will also be a silent auction and various raffles! Music for the night will be provided by Aiden Varro.

The primary purpose of this event is to raise much needed funds for Operation Waltzing Matilda – Sea Shepherd’s 6th Whale Defense Campaign which is being launched from Fremantle on Monday 7th December. This year, Sea Shepherd’s flagship Steve Irwin, will be accompanied to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary by the Ady Gil. The Ady Gil is a futuristic trimaran which recently set the world powerboat record for circumnavigation. Due to its speed capabilities (up to 50 knots) Captain Paul Watson (Sea Shepherd President and Founder) intends to use the Ady Gil to intercept and physically block the harpoon ships from illegally slaughtering whales.

The Japanese whaling fleet will be targeting 935 Piked (Minke) whales and another 50 Fin whales, and has threatened to add Humpback Whales* to their quota as well. Sea Shepherd will once again attempt to block the whaling fleet’s efforts to kill these innocent animals and in doing so negate their illicit profits from the so called lethal research.

* Sources suggest Humpback Whales are not being targeted but all whales are beautiful and deserve defending!

Wed, 2 Dec, 2009 6:45 PM – 11:45 PM
Location: Fremantle Town Hall, William Street, Fremantle, Western Australia
Fees: $20 per person, tickets available at the door
Contact: jeff@seashepherd.org
http://my.seashepherd.org/

Kevin Blechdom featuring Barnwave in #Melbourne with SGK. The mistress of melodic mayhem hits town!!

Kevin Blechdom (real name: Kristin Erickson) was born in Florida in 1978.

Kevin Blechdom’s third solo album, GENTLEMANIA, was released on Sonig Records in April 2009, co-produced by Kevin and Mocky in Berlin. Less schizophrenic and madcap manic as her previous two electronic albums, on GENTLEMANIA we hear Blechdom slow down, take a deep breath, and, with thoughtful control, peel back layers of emotion. Combining a strong background in classical and experimental music with a broad knowledge of songwriting traditions, Kevin travels between and coalesces country jangle, Broadway show tunes, old-school R&B, and many other styles into a cohesive and true musical story. The autobiographical and interpersonal themes revolve around introspection, longing, doubt, hope, and ultimately, human transformation.

Since 2007, and to support her newest release, Blechdom is touring as a duo in a hi-tech country and ragtime band with Christopher Fleeger called BARNWAVE.

full tour schedule at
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128054628907&ref=ts

With support from shitcore sleaze rockers Suzanne Grae and the Katies (featuring the Sportsgirls), triplet one man band mariachi rock n roll band Puta Madre Brothers and what-the-fuck it’s the Purple Duck.

Kevin is one of the most amazing live acts you will ever see. Not to be missed!

Host: Suzanne Grae & the Katies (SGK)
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Time: 8:00pm – 11:55pm
Location: Northcote Social Club, 301 High St, Northcote, Melbourne, Australia

the sound of the acid-stained Down Underground, #Marinetti Soundtrack CD #launch #Melbourne

Albie Thoms’ - Marinetti was the culmination of the synthetic environments that the UBU group had pioneered in Australia; festive public ‘happenings’ that combined the energy and volume of creative rock and jazz with the mesmeric effect of multi-dimensional lightshows. Another kind of culmination: Marinetti records most of the principal collaborators in the UBU film group, like Aggy Read and the Perrys. Uniquely valuable as a document of Australia’s late 1960s counter-culture, the soundtrack provides the best indication of the unrestrained liberty that bands like Tully and the John Sangster Underground band – some of whose members perform on this recording – were famously achieving in their improvisations of the period.

This is the sound of the acid-stained Down Underground…

Launch of the OST CD & also thee Roundtable label, < http://thee-roundtable.com/ >

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 8:00pm

Melbourne, Australia

More from idiophonics

Forever Michael – 7 minute video touring some of the hundreds of Second Life tributes to Michael Jackson

Forever Michael (Sin City)

Designed around spontaneous memorials that are erected around key sites at the time of celebrity deaths, this installation both pays tribute to and comments in the mass hysteria surrounding Michael Jackson’s untimely passing. First reported on celebrity gossip site TMZ.com, Michael’s death sparked an unprecedented internet frenzy, with Twitter recording over 5000 Jackson Tweets a minute. Over 11 million people watched his memorial live on the web, and tributes, traditionally found on the street were springing up on social networking sites and virtual reality applications such as Second Life.This traditional tribute memorial combines both the physical and virtual with a 7 minute video touring some of the hundreds of Second Life tributes to Michael Jackson. Streaming along the bottom of the screen are the sensationalized headlines which appeared, and continue to appear, on TMZ.com. Ending with paparazzi footage of Michael in the last month of his life, we are both voyeur and sympathiser as we watch a lonely figure being hunted and trapped by a mob of ever-persistent cameramen who feed the frenzy that surrounded him in life, and now in death.

“Michael Jackson kept his most stunning performance for the very end. Always able to command an audience, he knew how to bring whole arenas to fits of exultation with his moves and then silence them to the point of tears with his poetry. He was brilliant, excessive, maudlin, tacky and possibly criminal, but you could never ignore him. So it was fitting that in death, he momentarily silenced the largest arena humanity has ever known, the Internet.” TIME MAGAZINE, JULY 2009

Join us for one of Don’t Look’s final exhibitions!

What: Forever Michael (Sin City)
Who: Georgie Roxby Smith
Where: Don’t Look Gallery, 419 New Canterbury Rd, Dulwich Hill, Sydney, Australia
(a block back from the corner of New Canterbury Rd and Marrickville Rd).
When: Opening — Wednesday 9 December, 6.oopm
(see the exhibition for the next ten days through the front window)
Contact: dontlookgallery@gmail.com, Greg -0401 152 434

Design after Nature a collection of experimental ecosystems #art #Melbourne

::: Design after Nature :::

Oliver Bown, Joel Collins, Alan Dorin, Alice Eldridge, Mark Guglielmetti, Indae Hwang, Troy Innocent, Taras Kowaliw, Jon McCormack, Gordon Monro, Yun Tae Nam, Ben Porter, Mitchell Whitelaw

Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 6:00pm
Location: Guildford Lane Gallery
20-24 Guildford Lane
Melbourne, Australia

Exhibition runs until Sunday 20th December

Design after Nature is a collection of experimental ecosystems created as part of a three-year research project undertaken at the Centre for Electronic Media Art, Monash University. The works were developed as part of an ongoing investigation into a systemic approach to electronic media art.

To my Japanese friends you know I love you. Have a #whale of a good time.

With the historic change of government in Japan, Greenpeace is intensifying its efforts to bring whaling to an end. The new Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has already shown he is more concerned about Japan’s international reputation than his predecessors. Join over 140,000 people and send the new Prime Minister your Origami Whale, asking him to end the corrupt whaling industry once and for all.

Send your Origami Whale

Sea Shepherd is intervening to defend #Whales

On December 7, 2009 the Sea Shepherd’s – Steve Irwin will depart to defend endangered whales in the Antarctic Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

Starting in December, the Japanese whaling fleet will be targeting 935 piked (Minke) whales and another 50 fin whales, and has threatened to add humpbacks to their quota as well. The Sea Shepherd intends to once again negate their illicit profits.

Because of Sea Shepherd interventions, the Japanese whalers have suffered losses for three years. They are making steady progress towards their objective of sinking the entire Japanese whaling fleet – economically.

You can support the Sea Shepherd in a variety of ways! Go to the Sea Shepherd website.

Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki face 10 years in prison for defending #whales, you can do something to help.

Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki are two Japanese activists who have found compelling evidence of corruption within the Japanese whaling program last year. Instead of investigating the whaling industry, Japanese authorities responded by arresting Junichi and Toru. They have been denied their liberty for over 6 months, awaiting trial later this year.

Show solidarity with Junichi and Toru – ask the Japanese Government to free the Tokyo Two and put whaling on trial instead.

SIGN THE PETITION