I'm moving to India!

So, in November, I'll be packing up with the husband and shipping out for new adventures in Mumbai, India. Mumbai is the most populated city in the world, and the home of Bollywood. We'll actually be in a northern-Mumbai suburb called Powai Lake after the large man-made lake that it surrounds. I am excited and nervous to see what unique experiences await me there. Mike will be working for his company, and after I am a little settled, I will probably start volunteering with an organization, and try to hunt down a good subject for a documentary.

We're actually leaving LA in mid-October to the UK for a couple weeks of vacation, then straight on to India. We'll live there for around a year, then just start traveling the world for a few years. We want to go nearly everywhere! Stay tuned for the travel blog that I'll post to once we get it up.

Silk Road Cabaret this Saturday!

.:The Phoenix Projekt:.
.presents.

an intimate monthly gathering

.:THE SILK ROAD CABARET:.
fire theatre & hookah lounge

Saturday, June 21st
7:00pm – 10:00pm
show begins at 8:00pm

hosted by
Desert Rose Lounge
5042 Vineland Ave.
North Hollywood, CA

Fire, martial arts, & dance by THE PHOENIX PROJEKT
Unique beverages and tasty treats

all ages (kids welcome!)
$10 cover
www.phoenixprojekt.net

please arrive early to find street parking
.

Top Ten Reasons to Go Veggie During World Vegetarian Week

from Yahoo News:

Gone are the days when vegetarians were served up a plate of iceberg lettuce and a dull-as-dishwater baked potato. With the growing variety of vegetarian faux-meats like bacon and sausages and an ever-expanding variety of vegetarian cookbooks and restaurants, vegetarianism has taken the world by storm.

With World Vegetarian Week beginning today, here, without further ado, are the Top 10 reasons to give vegetarian eating a try, starting now!

1. Helping Animals Also Helps the Global Poor
While there is ample and justified moral indignation about the diversion of 100 million tons of grain for biofuels, more than seven times as much (760 million tons) is fed to farmed animals so that people can eat meat. Is the diversion of crops to our cars a moral issue? Yes, but it's about one-eighth the issue that meat-eating is. Care about global poverty? Try vegetarianism.

2. Eating Meat Supports Cruelty to Animals
The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today's factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything else that is natural and important to them. They won't even get to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.

3. Eating Meat Is Bad for the Environment
A recent United Nations report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow concludes that eating meat is "one of the ... most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." In just one example, eating meat causes almost 40 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, and planes in the world combined. The report concludes that the meat industry "should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."

4. Avoid Bird Flu
The World Health Organization says that if the avian flu virus mutates, it could be caught simply by eating undercooked chicken flesh or eggs, eating food prepared on the same cutting board as infected meat or eggs, or even touching eggshells contaminated with the disease. Other problems with factory farming -- from foot-and-mouth to SARS -- can be avoided with a general shift to a vegetarian diet.

5. If You Wouldn't Eat a Dog, You Shouldn't Eat a Chicken
Several recent studies have shown that chickens are bright animals who are able to solve complex problems, demonstrate self-control, and worry about the future. Chickens are smarter than cats and dogs and even do some things that have not yet been seen in mammals other than primates. Dr. Chris Evans, who studies animal behavior and communication at Macquarie University in Australia, says, "As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list these attributes, without mentioning chickens and people think I'm talking about monkeys."

6. Heart Disease: Our Number One Killer
Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous diseases, including the United States' three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer, and strokes. Drs. Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn -- two doctors with 100 percent success in preventing and reversing heart disease -- have used a vegan diet to accomplish it, as chronicled most recently in Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, which documents his 100 percent success rate for unclogging people's arteries and reversing heart disease.

7. Cancer: Our Number Two Killer
Dr. T. Colin Campbell is one of the world's foremost epidemiological scientists and the director of what The New York Times called "the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease." Dr. Campbell's best-selling book, The China Study, is a must-read for anyone who is concerned about cancer. To summarize it, Dr. Campbell states, "No chemical carcinogen is nearly so important in causing human cancer as animal protein."

8. Fitting Into That Itty-Bitty Bikini
Vegetarianism is also the ultimate weight-loss diet, since vegetarians are one-third as likely to be obese as meat-eaters are, and vegans are about one-tenth as likely to be obese. Of course, there are overweight vegans, just as there are skinny meat-eaters. But on average, vegans are 10 to 20 percent lighter than meat-eaters. A vegetarian diet is the only diet that has passed peer review and taken weight off and kept it off.

9. Global Peace
Leo Tolstoy claimed that "vegetarianism is the taproot of humanitarianism." His point? For people who wish to sow the seeds of peace, we should be eating as peaceful a diet as possible. Eating meat supports killing animals, for no reason other than humans' acquired taste for animals' flesh. Great humanitarians from Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi to Thich Nhat Hanh have argued that a vegetarian diet is the only diet for people who want to make the world a kinder place.

10. The Joy of Veggies
As the growing range of vegetarian cookbooks and restaurants shows, vegetarian foods rock. People report that when they adopt a vegetarian diet, their range of foods explodes from a center-of-the-plate meat item to a range of grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables that they didn't even know existed.

Sir Paul McCartney sums it all up, "If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty."

So are you ready to give it a try?

Check out VegCooking.com for recipes and meal plans and to take the World Vegetarian Week 7-Day Pledge.

Phoenix Projekt presents: LANTERN FESTIVAL May 10

Come on out for our biggest and dopest event yet!

~The Phoenix Projekt Presents~

LANTERN FESTIVAL

Saturday May 10
9pm til 4am

partial proceeds to benefit Burners Without Borders
www.burnerswithoutborders.org

BreakBeat Buddha (www.myspace.com/breakbeatbuddha)
Oscure (www.myspace.com/oscure)
Jonny Cota (www.skingraftsdesigns.com)
Nick.the.Neck (www.pocketunderground.com)
Kodama Taiko (www.kodamataiko.com)
DJ Psychotropic
DJ MOOP

fire and theatrical performance by
The Phoenix Projekt (www.phoenixprojekt.net)
with special appearance by Volcano Flux
and international spin jam courtesy of Fire Groove

Desert Rose Hookah Lounge
Green Truck Organic Catering
Illuminated Art
Massage Parlour
& more

21 and over
$25 door
$20 presale
cash only bar

fully permitted location
shuttle available from 1st and Central

for more information and presales:
www.phoenixprojekt.net

Phoenix Projekt presents The Silk Road Cabaret- a new monthly event

.:The Phoenix Projekt:.
.presents.

an intimate monthly gathering

.:THE SILK ROAD CABARET:.
fire theatre, bazaar & hookah lounge

Saturday, March 22nd
7:00pm – 10:00pm
show begins at 8:00pm

hosted by
Enchanted Deva’s & Desert Rose Lounge
5050 Vineland Ave.
North Hollywood, CA

Dub, glitch & breaks by DJ PSYCHOTROPIC
Fire, martial arts, & dance by THE PHOENIX PROJEKT
Unique beverages and tasty treats

all ages
$15 cover
www.phoenixprojekt.net

please arrive early to find street parking
...
.

Some thoughts about trash

Remember Chris Jordan's photos at Burning Man/ Check them out!
www.chrisjordan.com/

AND-
From booknoise.net/garbageland/whattodo.html

Is It Hopeless? Heck No!

The problems with garbage are so huge that it is easy to be overwhelmed, but you needn't be. In general, try to think about what kind of trash something will become before you buy it: will it be toxic in a landfill or an incinerator, or will it soon become obsolete? Can the object be repaired, reused, or recycled? Can you rent or borrow it from someone else? When you're done with this product, can you pass it along to someone else instead of shunting it to the curb?

One of the most shocking things I learned while reseaching my book, and the most important thing for all of us to remember, is that for every barrel of waste you send to the landfill, there are 71 barrels' worth of waste generated by the industrial processes that transform raw materials into finished goods. When you avoid buying new goods, you help avoid all that other waste upstream.

Here are 10 practical things you can do to reduce your garbage footprint and help slow the garbage juggernaut:

* Support recycling industries—and lower the demand for virgin materials—by buying goods with recycled content. If no one buys the recycled stuff, we're not closing the loop.
* Avoid disposables and individually wrapped single servings. Buy in bulk, or buy the largest size possible.
* If at all possible, compost your food and yard waste.
* To stop junk mail, visit Ecocycle and heed their advice.

* Bring dead cell phones and rechargeable batteries to an office supply store that accepts drop-offs. To find a store near you, go to www.earth911.org and type in your zip code.
* Donate working computers to nonprofits (try www.cristina.org); to find a responsible e-waste recycler (one that pledges not to landfill, burn or export hazardous components), visit www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html. If there isn't a responsible recycler nearby, you could ship your equipment to an approved e-cycler. If that's too expensive (it ain't cheap), hang onto your equipment until a local recycler signs BAN's pledge. Then contact your equipment's manufacturer and ask the company to take responsibility for its products at end-of-life. For more on this topic, visit computertakeback.com.
* In your workplace or school, launch an environmental purchasing program for cleaning products, paper, computers, paint, and renewable energy. See www.newdream.org/procure/pro...inciples.pdf for inspiration and guidance.
* If your landfill is publicly owned, urge your city council to ban yard waste and recyclables from the dump.
* Urge local and federal governments to support producer take-backs. Here's the deal: if producers had to take financial responsibility for their products' end of life, they'd have an incentive to design goods that are more durable, that are easily recycled, that contain fewer hazardous materials, and come wrapped in reusable packaging. Manufacturers will continue to externalize the social and environmental costs of the goods they're pumping out until government and consumers force them to take responsibility for their waste (as in Europe, where manufacturers are required to recycle computers, cars, and packaging).
* Don't lose heart. Consumers wield enormous power. We have persuaded food corporations to add organics to their product lines; pushed sales of recycled paper at Office Depot up 65 percent over the last three years; convinced some publishers (but not mine, yet) to print books on recycled paper; and persuaded Dell to take back and responsibly recycle its used computers and Apple its iPods. Individuals can make a difference by pressuring lawmakers to adopt and support sustainable initiatives. Add your voice to this growing community by joining New American Dream.

Next time you cut your hair...

My sister Michelle just cut her hair off and donated it to a place called Locks of Love that hand-makes free wigs for underprivileged kids with cancer. So if that hair gets long again and you're sick of it… don't leave it on the salon floor! Tell your long-haired friends about this. I wonder if mine will ever be long enough or healthy enough to donate… experience says no.

www.locksoflove.org

Jenn

The Phoenix Projekt presents Year of the Rat

Hey everyone,

My fire troupe, The Phoenix Projekt, is throwing a Chinese New Year gathering with a complete fire show and a body-quaking DJ. I've even invented a few new drinks for the occasion.


.:The Phoenix Projekt:.
.presents.

an intimate gathering
to celebrate the

.:YEAR OF THE RAT:.

Saturday, February 9th
7:30p-10:30p

Enchanted Deva's
5050 Vineland Ave.
North Hollywood, CA

Dub, glitch & breaks by DJ Psychotropic
Fire, martial arts & dance by The Phoenix Projekt
Unique beverages concocted for your New Year's pleasure

$10 cover

www.phoenixprojekt.net

Pollworkers need in LA County

I heard on the radio that they still need 300 more pollworkers for the Feb. 5 primary election. If you need some extra cash or feel as strongly about our voting rights as I do, please sign up! I just applied because I'm curious to see how it works, and because I feel strongly about democracy, and I'm sick of idiots always running the polling places. Anyway, it's 6am-9pm, long hours, but you're helping your country!

POLLWORKER PAY
Clerks receive $105.00 stpend.
- This includes training class bonus -

Inspectors receive up to $175.00 stipend.
- This includes training bonus & pick-up of election supplies -

If you're interested…

www.lavote.net/VOTER/POLL...Default.cfm

lavote.net/SECURED/POLL...R/Default.cfm

Help CA farm animals receive more humane treatment!

www.humanecalifornia.org

Did you know that on many California farms, pigs during pregnancy are confined in metal cages called gestation crates and are unable even to turn around for months on end? Young calves are also kept purposely confined in veal crates so small they are barely able to move for nearly their entire lives. And egg-laying hens are often kept in tiny battery cages, unable even to spread their wings.

Californians for Humane Farms—sponsored by The Humane Society of the United States, Farm Sanctuary and other animal protection groups, family farmers, veterinarians and public health professionals—has launched a groundbreaking ballot initiative campaign to place the California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act on the November 2008 ballot.

We need to collect enough signatures to get this on the ballot! Once it is on the ballot, we need to spread the word, so it will pass.

Due to animal welfare concerns, the entire European Union has already banned veal crates and is phasing out gestation crates and barren battery cages. By getting the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act on the November 2008 ballot, and winning the majority of the public's votes, 20 million animals each year will be relieved of the most excruciating suffering known to factory farmed animals -- veal crates, battery cages, and gestation crates. These are the most cruel and inhumane forms of extreme confinement, and they will be banned when this law is passed (although producers are given a 6 year phase-out period). Gestation crates for pigs have already been banned in Florida, Arizona, and Oregon. Arizona has banned veal crates as well. Once these barbaric practices are banned in California, the banning of battery cages in particular, this will set a national precedent which is bound to lead to even greater victories for the animals.

If you are interested in helping to gather signatures, or helping in other ways, please sign up at: www.humanecalifornia.org/

You can also learn more about the bill, and see photos of the types of cages this bill would ban. Please spread the word!