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Monday, May 19, 2008

Gotham and the Green Machine

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( yeah, Chicago isn't Gotham - But it's where they film the new Batman movies)
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This week end my Mother and I attended the 2008 Green Festival in Chicago.

( http://www.greenfestivals.org/content/view/230/200/ )

Now I would like to point out right away that YES – I do see and understand a certain level of inherent hypocrisy in Driving 750 miles round trip to go to a Green Festival. I know – not very Carbon Foot Print friendly. I get it, please DO NOT post back with some lecture, I know I know I know. But on the good side of things – we stayed in the outer suburbs and took the METRA in to town. So there.

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That being said, We had a great time. There was an amazing amount of vendors and attendees. We didn’t even need to eat lunch on Saturday because of the wonderful - and down right overwhelming amount of food vendors there to show off their amazing selection of vegan, vegetarian, organic, and sustainable foodstuffs. Everything from Free Trade Coffee, to Vegan Bakery and Sweetshops. All I can say is YUM!

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We are planning on renovating the family home, and figure that if we are going to need to take out a bank loan to do it, we might as well try to do it as “green” as possible. So this weekend was justified as “Research and Development”.
There was an impressive turn out of businesses selling their services in this field. Unfortunately – they are all in the Chicago area, and the presence of general manufacturers or renovation assistance groups could be at best described as wanting.
I was hoping to find a group or some such that specialized in getting general info out to the public on green renovation, perhaps with a directory of businesses within each state that offered green services – no such luck.

One thing that I thought was a bit odd, funny even – was the amount of businesses selling sustainable redecorating materials and goods. See, call me crazy, but I would think the green thing to do – would be to NOT get new cabinets, but to settle for your old ones, and just resurface them. I can understand if you are building your own home – PLEASE by all means build as green as you can, But if you are trashing old stuff for new “Sustainable” green stuff – you are officially a retard- congratulations you haven’t helped the world at all.

There were a lot of great presenters there as well, one of whom I was lucky enough to take in was Greg Palast. ( http://www.gregpalast.com/ ) You may be familiar with the work he has done with the UK newspaper the Guardian on vote manipulation during the last two presidential election cycles. He is working on looking into ways certain groups may be looking to discredit the votes of certain citizens this election cycle as well. I picked up the new DVD he has on it (any one who wants to barrow it is free to). Here is a pic of me getting the DVD signed.

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In other news;

All last month we had a film Crew up here in the Sticks of Wisconsin filming the new movie “Public Enemies” ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1152836/ ).
It was very exciting, and VERY good for our regional economy. I personally thank every member of the film crew that went shopping in out little town.
And because things like this DO NOT happen here all the time, I hung out by the film set a couple of nights just to watch the un-excitement. They were shooting at an old Lodge called Little Bohemia, which is set pretty far back in the woods, but it was cool just to see the extras in costume, the trucks and trailers, and the REALLY big boom light rig they had out by the road.

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And I got to meet Christian Bale.

That was pretty fucking cool, I mean he’s BATMAN!!!.

Here he is signing my copy of “The Prestige”.

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I promised I would have some sketches up here soon. I WILL get some up, but it has been crazy busy, so forgive me.

And here are some shots of my super cute puppy Goldie;

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4 comments:

Iris said...

That's awesome that you got to meet Christian Bale! He's such a great actor. You make me wonder though...do you just randomly carry around DVD's to be signed since you also had one for the photographer guy? And how do you know which ones to carry at what time? Do you have the world's largest backpack chock full of signables? ;) lol

Your dog is absolutely adorable! What breed is she?

BTW, if you're wondering...I found your blog through a comment you left for Rob Sheridan over on his blog. I'm a HUGE NIN fan but usually not so much for Rob. Just kind of happened across his site the other day. Anyhow, I'll probably be checking back here from time to time. Catch ya later!

:D
Iris

Erin Kubinek said...

LOL, I didn't even realize that it came off that way with the DVD signing bit!

No, no huge back pack, just weird luck I guess.

I have more adventures coming this summer that have that "weird Luck" streak in them already, so, we'll see who else I run into, with out with out DVD at the ready to sign.

And Goldie is a rescue dog, so I really don't know.
Maybe Shitzu / Bijon ?? Who knows.

Iris said...

Oh rescue dogs are the best. It's almost like they "know" they've been rescued and seem to love you that much more. I have two dogs and one of them is a Pound Puppy. She's the sweetest thing ever. I think she might be a Beagle mix of some sort. The other one is a Jack Russel / Rat Terrier mix so she's HIGHLY energetic. Love them both to pieces.

I'm intrigued. What other things you planning on doing this summer? Are you going to any music festivals? Lollapalooza is going to ROCK this year. I can't wait! Maybe I should carry around my "Beside You in Time" DVD on the off chance that I'll meet Trent or Rob there at like a taco stand or something. Then I'll have pictures to compare with yours. ;)

Erin Kubinek said...

I am going to a special invite only pre screening of Hellboy II in July, and I am Hoping I get to meet Del Toro, but who knows ( I still get to see the film before its official release so I am excited anyways ).

I am going to Warp Tour in Milwaukee, and MAYBE if I can get it all to work I will go to Lallapalooza as well (that will be an insane weekend if I do).

And then I THINK I might be going to DragonCon in Atlanta - but I really don't know if I will be able to pull that much off this summer (its sorta pricey).
And that, is a geek-fest to the level that is really beyond proper description - 30-40,000 people and 8/10 are in costume (but not me). It is like huffing laughing gas for a weekend, because there is SO much mad shit you can't stop giggling!

Check out the site;

www.dragoncon.org

I have weird luck, I run into people ALOT, so who knows what will happen.

And good luck will you plans for summer, Rob is easy to spot in a crowd. Just look for the well dressed, skinny, pale fella with a NICE camera, and redbull in hand when NIN is on stage - chances are it is Rob.
At concerts a good rule of thumb is to look for the people who seem really preoccupied with everything BUT what is going on on stage and are not wearing "Security" t-shirts. And usually they are better dressed than the average concert goer, and are not as sweaty.

I love going to festival show were I see people who I can tell are in a band or with a band - based on the details above + the reactions of the people around, but I have NO idea who they are. There is something funny about it, cause they are just people, but the way people react is SO strange to watch when you are on the outside of that.