A lot of people smash pumpkins for cheap thrills. Some people make a serious sport out of it, construct catapults and cannons, then compete with one another for height and distance...
But some people smash pumpkins to save the planet!
That's right. I went to the Linden-Bushwick Community Garden in Brooklyn a few days ago to spend an afternoon destroying pumpkins. After we made the pumpkins go splat, we put them in the garden's compost bin along with food waste collected from neighbors and local businesses.
In a few weeks, the waste will be fertile soil to plant vegetables in. Next year, the Bushwick Farmers Market will be selling vegetables grown in our pumpkin compost.
These pumpkin guts look nasty, but they're going to turn into fresh produce soon enough!
Every vegetable that gets grown locally keeps a delivery truck off the road, and every plant grown in composted soil saves a few pounds of food waste that would have gotten buried in a dump forever.
I wasn't kidding when I said we were saving the world! Check the video, and I bet you'll want to start composting too. I really haven't had so much fun in months.
You might have just read James' post about Critical Mass Halloween, an event that happens all over the country, and maybe the world. I attended the Miami one, which was the biggest group ride I've been on in the entire year that I've been here! The streets of Miami have never seen anything so huge, and it was definitely the highlight of my Halloween.
There was a great article the next day in the Miami Herald about our "Strength in Numbers." It explained Critical Mass for those people in their cars who were wondering "what the hell is going on" which is great in helping to raise awareness!! The article also talks about how the Miami Police Chief is an avid cyclists, so he is not about to go after the riders. YAY!
There were over 200 people!
Many social issues were addressed through costumes; gay rights, animal rights..
Insurance,
personally, I like to go for the more *classic* costumes
More classics, Wednesday & Lydia
Take back the streets!! Si se puede!
Insert wicked witch on a bike music here:
Biking makes everyone so HAPPY!
I stand corrected, 199 cyclists, and 1 rollerblader!
This is Rydel, from Miami Bike Scene, that organizes the monthly rides! Check out Rydel's awesome VIDEO of this event
Halloween is mostly about getting spooked, eating candy, dressing up ridiculous, and cutting loose. But last night, cyclists and cycling advocates in cities around the country got together for a spooky yet serious Halloween tradition-- the annual Halloween Critical Mass ride!
Critical Mass is a popular group bike ride that happens around the world, in which cyclists band together and create a 'critical mass' of people-powered traffic that is large enough to lay claim on big city streets that are usually strictly car territory. Last night, riders around the world put on costumes in a an action that proved activism and a good time don't have to be mutually exclusive.
I wasn't able to make the ride in New York because of a lingering bike-related injury, but thanks to the miracle of the internet, and the documentation of countless costumed crusaders, we can take a look at the action as it went down in a number of different cities last night. Image from NYC by Irene Roxanne on Flickr.
You'd think that the fun-factor created by a costumed crew of cyclists would draw a groundswell of support from pedestrians, partiers, and motorists alike-- but according to Bike Blog NYC, an angry charter bus driver ran over somebody's bike during the ride!
So much for bringing outsiders in with good spirits and sweet costumes.
If nothing else, the story of last night's ride should highlight the importance of diplomacy and an alert attitude whether you're at a demonstration or trick or treating in your neighborhood. Some people just aren't amused at the sight of others having a good time (or changing the world!). It's best to simply avoid confrontation and stay safe.
So when you're out tonight celebrating Halloween, stay smart! Don't go out alone, make sure that you can see and hear well out of your costume, and don't be afraid to steer clear of fishy candy or heated situations. Happy haunting!
Autumn is my favorite season. I like being able to get some exercise without turning into a drippy mess, I like watching the leaves change color, and I really like all of the seasonal produce that hits its peak in the Northeast during this time of the year-- squash, pumpkins, potatoes, cauliflower, potatoes... I need to stop before I get too hungry.
Still, for all the naturalistic charm of the autumn season, it's a time when lots of people put their healthier habits on hold to go trick or treating, eat a ton of candy, stay inside watching zombie movies, and generally get a jump start on being physically and politically dormant all winter. But it doesn't have to be that way!
Halloween, and autumn in general, can be an opportunity to get into hunter-gatherer mode, getting involved in all manner of scavenger hunts, whether it's for that house giving away king-size candy bars or the perfect pumpkins and apples.
Tuning in to the natural cycles of food production by going to an orchard or a pumpkin patch for your fall treats will support local agriculture, helping to lower the demand for food products that are packed up and shipped all over the place in a wasteful, fuel and paper intensive marketing process.
Here's a directory of spots to go pick produce in the NY/NJ metro area-- our area is full of fertile farm land, even though lots of people think that it's a post-industrial war zone.
Even if you don't make it out to see your local farmer, you can still use Halloween as an opportunity to help other people. For more than 50 years, UNICEF (the United Nations International Children's Fund) has been setting kids up with trick or treating materials that aren't meant to collect candy, but small donations on the behalf of children around the world.
Check out their website for some more information, because it's not too late! We've got a week left before Halloween, and there are lots of opportunities to rack up on candy and donations on the horizon.
Ever since I moved past the princess/ballerina dress-up days of my
youth, I have convinced myself that makeup is the root of all evil. I
told myself that empowered women never wore makeup. That makeup was a
tool used by the Mass Media to make women look like one type of beauty.
The voice in my head that told me that was the same one that told me
that I was too interested in clothes and boys to be a feminist.
The voice in my head began to lose ground during my teen years, when an
enticing tube of lipgloss could solicit my attention, I could spend a
day at the mall shopping for clothes, or an hour fretting about the boy
I liked. However, the conflicting views of society still battled in my
mind. Clothes, boys, and makeup were what the popular girls were
interested in, but feminists like I considered myself were too
concerned with destroying gender boundaries to indulge in activities
that expressed those very boundaries.
The last straw came yesterday, when I was figuring out how to apply
makeup for my Halloween costume, a sixties mod girl. Though the thick
eye makeup wasn't something I would want to wear in everyday life, I
had lots of fun trying to apply the eyeliner just right. I regressed
back to my dress-up days and started thinking about what I could do
with the eyeliner for regular school days. That's when I stopped. Until
then, I had never worn more than lipgloss to school. Would wearing
proper makeup somehow set back the progress of women and remove me from
the ranks of feminists?
As sexism becomes a household term with the presidential elections, the
roles of present-day feminists are changing. Women can hold a good job
and run for vice president, but there are no countries on Earth where
women are paid the same as men, and a woman's right to choice remains
in jeopardy in the US. "Empowerment" for women is hard to describe now,
and the goals of feminists are not as clear-set, as women from all
walks of life claim this title. Sarah Palin, who is anti-choice and
approved a policy to charge Wassilla women for their own rape kits,
considers herself a feminist, as does my own mother, who has worn
makeup once in her life and is staunchly pro-choice. So what's a young
teen feminist to think?
Teenagerdom is a time to explore yourself, as almost everyone can tell
you, and I have decided that expressing myself--through clothes, and
yes, even some makeup--in a way is feminist. It's a change for me to
show the world that I am a young women who is uniquely herself and who
doesn't care about what others think. What feminists need to fight in
this day and age is the culture that tells us that we must only dress a
certain way and that we must use makeup to cover up our
"imperfections." That attitude is not empowered, and it's not feminist.
