Come on down Friday & Saturday, July 16-17th from 12-4pm and take advantage of our Sidewalk Sale deals & have some lemonade. Now, that's Summer in a glass.

Spending some time poolside? Your skin needs extra TLC.

If you're needing products or services, now is the time. Just arrived! A fresh batch of Sircuit Skin. You need some. And why not take a few minutes to relax, repair & rejuvenate with a Skin Spa & Massage treatment? It's a little stay-cation.

Speaking of vacations, please notice:
Melissa will be gone from July 24 - August 5 & Amy will be gone August 5-7. Call us soon (or stop by) to schedule.

All Project Alabama is now 50% off original prices. Organic cotton & bamboo fabrics naturally colored in vegetable dyes. Fashion forward pieces like this one shoulder dress.

25% off rings by J. Fein Design. Sustainable wood bases topped with vintage baubles makes each one unique. Your finger wants one.

Hand blown glass floats from a guy named Zeus. Lovely light catchers at $20 a pop.

The last handmade Jess B. ragdoll looking for a loving home. Little vintage chair included.

Only 2 silk ikat pillows from Sheherazade New York left. 

And there's more...

Feather + stone earrings.

We have a small selection of new earrings from Demimonde. They're light & lovely and won't bring you down in the heat of Summer. Come choose a pair.

Natural beauties.

All the rains of June
and one evening secretly
through the pines the moon

Then there's American haiku. Its development was shaped by Beat poets like Allan Ginsberg, Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac. Kerouac discovered haiku when he began studying Buddhism through his friend and Zen poet, Gary Snyder. Just as he changed the standards of prose, Kerouac reworked the definition of the haiku form. He believed that Western haiku need not be 17 syllables. In his Scattered Poems collection he wrote, "I propose that Western haiku simply say a lot in three short lines in any Western language. Above all, a haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella." In The Dharma Bums, he writes that "A real haiku's got to be as simple as porridge and yet make you see the real thing." Perhaps one of Kerouac's best and most well known:

Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closed anyway

Photo taken with my Hipstamatic app for iPhone. Happy Summer reading...

In celebration of World Oceans Day, People for Puget Sound is running an event called Sea Cinema, a free 2 day film festival screening at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, exploring the state of our oceans and waterways. We watched a couple of them last night, including Tapped. Now, I thought I knew a little about bottled water and the plastic they are contained in, but this documentary really opened my eyes to a number of things... including Nestle, Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola's huge role in this industry. It's brilliant marketing... come into town, siphon the  local water, filter and package it into a disposable plastic bottle and resell it to us! I had no idea that the FDA doesn't have standards regarding the water quality in bottled water. Whereas local municipalities do daily quality tests. According to the National Resources Defense Council, a lot of this local water that is being sold back to consumers is contaminated due to the PET and PETE plastics that the water is bottled in. Independent studies have verified that bacteria as well as chemicals such as toulene and benzene have been found in bottled water. There was some discussion of the oil refineries and the state of health the communities surrounding them are in as well. And then there's the enormous swirl of garbage in the Pacific Gyre, which is an accumulation of all the plastic trash from land – water bottles, bags, toys, cups, and other disposable objects we use and toss daily – that make their way out to sea through rivers, storm drains, and our own carelessness. I encourage you to check out the Tapped film so you can assess the economic, environmental and political impacts of the bottled water industry. Of course, there are many other films and organizations concerned with this issue, including but certainly not limited to Surfider Foundation and the Cousteau Society. Check out the facebook page, Get Off The Bottle for cheeky updates. It's so important to stay informed and get involved! And of course, being mindful of how they are disposed... always recycle! Like most things, we can make a huge difference by reducing the demand for bottled water (and other plastic products) by simply not purchasing them.

An unfortunate meal for this sea turtle. Image via Earth First.

I'm a black man/ My skin is white and I like it/ I's my difference/ I'm a white man/ My blood is black/ I love that/ It's the difference that's pretty.

The album also touches on environmental issues, such as preservation in his native country. On the track Ekolo d’Amour, Keïta aims to improve awareness of the ecological tragedies from which Africa has suffered for decades, while the world has remained totally indifferent. In San Ka Na, he seeks to waken his fellow citizens' conscience regarding the protection of the river Niger, on whose banks he was born and raised. Coming straight from the heart, the song is a genuine scream of outrage at the idleness of politicians in protecting the waters forming Mali's backbone, today little more than a polluted stream.

Mali has always been a melting pot for various musical styles, mainly because it stands as the last outpost of black Africa. Arabic, French, Spanish and local Malian traditions have influenced the music. Keïta sings in Malinka, Bambara and French, alternating these languages in his search for poetic accuracy. It's not the least of his paradoxes that Salif's noble status - his Keïta lineage - prohibited him using Griot techniques as a singer (and even from pronouncing their words). Despite all that, Keïta never put aside his Mande roots and culture.

A pioneering singer and composer, Keïta made his first appearance in the avant-garde of music thanks to his vocal exploits with the Super Rail Band de Bamako and Les Ambassadeurs in the 1970s, then further in his solo career in the 1980s. Since then his meaningful influence has cropped up in many areas, from western pop and rock to Pink Floyd. Today, Salif Keïta is one of world music's most central and influential artists. The album La Difference won the award for Best World Music 2010 at the Victoire de la Musique.

In addition to music, Keïta works for increased recognition for albinos. "In Africa, being born an albino is dramatic," he says. The lack of an educational system in a country such as Mali, where the population is more than three-quarters illiterate, does much to explain the continued existence of disastrous beliefs concerning albinos. His Malian-American wife, a journalist and activist, Coumba Makalou heads The Salif Keïta Global Foundation, which has been has been working since 2001 to increase large scale awareness of this issue in Mali, and refute obscurantist beliefs that albinos are cursed. The Foundation provides care and assistance to albinos, together with protection against the sun, their worst enemy after indifference.

Musician Salif Keïta. Image via The Washington Center for the Performing Arts.

As a quasi-vegetarian, I've been thinking a lot about this issue. It began earlier this week with a post on Vegan Mainstream about the top 10 products you would be surpised to find on an animal cruelty list, including tattoo ink, razors and pet food. Then came a book highlight in a recent issue of Vegetarian Times, titled Ninety-Five. You can read more about it at No Voice Unheard. It's a collection of stories and photographs by rescuers, caregivers and animal lovers revealing that America's farmed animals can be as distinctive as the dogs and cats with whom many of us share our homes with. The title is based on the number of animals that is spared per person, per year by a vegan diet. That really gives me pause. 95 animals! And then along came the video.

The internet is ablaze with the recent Mercy for Animals video of the Ohio Dairy Farm and the cruelty being inflicted upon the animals by the (third generation) owner, Gary Conklin, and his staff. I haven't watched the video, just reading about the abuse was nauseating. I urge you to sign the petition through Change.org. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated occurrence in our farm systems. Animals are routinely mistreated at dairy farms, pig farms, egg farms, hatcheries and slaughterhouses.

Animal cruelty is simply not an issue that we should ignore, and remove ourselves from complicity. Our purchasing power definitely makes a statement, but sometimes we need to take further steps. Some other ways we can take action: PETA sponsors a website called Caring Consumer that is a great resource for cruelty-free products. If you are interested in learning more about a vegan lifestyle and diet, Alicia Silverstone has a website called The Kind Life. I've posted before about the Meatless Monday and Meat Free Monday movement backed by the McCartneys. Both provide recipes and information for folks interested in trying out vegetarian meals. Even part-time vegetarianism has a host of health and environmental benefits. Of course, no one likes a sermon and I try not to preach!

To end on a high note, here's a link to a video from conservationist Damian Aspinall. In it, Mr. Aspinall searches for Kwibi, a lowland gorilla he hasn't seen for 5 years. Kwibi grew up with Damian at Howletts Wild Animal Park in England. When he was five, he was released into the forests of Gabon, West Africa as part of conservation program to re-introduce gorillas back into the wild. Now Kwibi's 10 years old. Witness the reunion between the ape and the man who raised him. It's heart warming.