Brooklyn biking

What with Google and Apple’s business friendship on the rocks, there’s no word yet if or when us IPhone people will be able to navigate our bikes through the city jungle from our phones, so in the meanwhile, befriend that one guy who really believes that Google’s phone is better. Or stop and ask another biker.

Can’t believe I missed this rad show in SF.  Inhabitat says it started out at Exit Art.

Terracycle does stuff like take all those empty Capri Suns you’ve been stashing under your mattress to save for that last, unerachable sip, and turn them into backpacks. So rad that the arbiter of all things that should be mainstream, Walmart, has bought in and is selling Terracycle goods. Check it!

Port Authority North Terminal

Eighth Ave at 41st St; 2

Tue–Sun 11am–7pm, free; through May 22

Then came the gogo 80’s and Reagan took them right back off. Solar on the White House thinks Obama’s the right guy to reintroduce solar energy to the White House. What with an organic garden on the Lawn and other green initiatives both in the home and in our country, maybe they’re right.

Check out their energy audit of the White House and get your own at http://www.solaronthewhitehouse.com

Earth Day Gang Signs

I am going to roll up in my hood, where blue bandanas tied on street signs mark territory, and throw those Crips my Earth Day gang sign, just like Adrien Grenier.

Free Planet Earth Episode

BBC is hooking you up with a free HD episode of Planet Earth on ITunes.

Kittens!

Tonight there’s a kitten-themed Frisky-sponsored recycling par-tay from 6 to 9 at 201 Mulberry btwn Spring & Kenmare

RSVP to togetherwecan@ketchum.com (Get it? Can? Cat Food? Aluminum? Recyc.ling?)

I went down in search of some sun and a nap in the grass, only to find the perfectly groomed lawn shut to visitors. Stark clean modern lines in the benches and fences appeal to the eye if you’re looking over the BQE from Columbia St above, and the Manhattan skyline rises neatly out of the water, but to me it felt pretty unwelcoming. A “lawns closed” sign does bode well, in that lawns will hopefully be open, but I ended up heading down to the less polished but more comfortable lawns of the Empire Fulton Ferry Park by DUMBO.

I can’t talk too much trash though since the park is innovating on sustainability in a bunch of cool ways, from incorporating green roofs to reusing salvaged materials from other building sites.

Not Newt Gingrich

Sarah Silverman

Amanda Little

The crowd was all hyped on the free Patron drinks and the Kevin Bacon sitings, and I missed  a lot of Sarah’s demented humor except for the occasional charming shout of “Shut the fuck up,” and the brilliant question: “Why do you hate polar bears? Do you have anything against puppies and kitties as well?”

I did catch this exchange, which came off like a Yes-Men, Onion headline argument, except this guy actually believes it:

Video courtesy of Treehugger’s Brian Merchant.

Still, even with Whole Foods’ 10 cent bag discount, Americans aren’t as well-trained to view these throw-aways as a luxury vs. a right. In the Netherlands, by contrast, you have to BYOB or pay 50 cents for even a plastic bag. The difference between getting a little discount and between having to pay for a bag is the difference between people viewing bringing bags as something that helps out a little and between feeling the burn every time they shop.

Whether  this new bag has any environmental improvements, I can’t find any info on, but it does feel sturdier – I navigated what felt like a quarter ton of pet food home through NY subways in it without that familiar ripping sound if you happen to take a turn too fast.

courtesy of Kathryn Miller, http://kathrynamiller.com

Cultivating guerilla underground gardening through bright colors. Because every kid wants seed bombs.

Truly, though, I love this project, and that it’s happening in LA, thanks to Common Studio and its project GreenAid to spread indigenous plants throughout the former desert and current urban experiment of Los Angeles.