March 4: NW Film Premiere of Bag It!

Are you passionate about the proposed plastic bag ban in Oregon? Then this is the film for you: Bag It!

Here's the scoop from the Bag It Oregon website:

BAG IT!, with humor and through a worldwide lens, tells the compelling story of our use of plastics and, particularly, the single-use plastic check out bag. The Oregon Legislature will soon consider a statewide ban of these bags. Why? Who’s behind it? How will it impact your life? Through this illuminating film and special guests, BAG IT OREGON! will tackle these questions and invite Oregonians to weigh in and decide their own future.

The premiere is March 4 at 7pm with local singer-songwriter Chris Kokesh, Portland Mayor Sam Adams, bill sponsors Mark Hass and Ben Cannon and junk to funk fashion.

WHERE: Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland. 97212

WHEN: March 4-10, nightly @ 7pm (plus 5pm weekend matinees).

Loving 'Life'!

My kids aren't big into G-rated movies. They find them terrifying. Or at least one does. But all of us still feel that yearning for the couch-potato state after a jam-packed weekend of home work, soccer games, piano practice, cleaning the danged gutters, schlepping to the farmer's market, etc.

Enter the natural history series by the Discovery Channel/BBC called Life (we checked out the DVD series from our local library). Narrated by Oprah Winfrey, its 10 episodes have absolutely riveted us. The stories of the plants and animals they feature are truly amazing. Fish who climb up rock walls, with a little help from a waterfall. Insects who inflate their eyeballs like balloons. Humpback whales crooning for mates. Stunning and diverse plants climbing massive trees to find a patch of sun. Birds, butterflies, bees -- you name it. Although -- be warned. It is about life, and the struggle to bring forth the next generations. So be prepared with your 'Birds and the Bees Lecture: 101' While there's no graphic intercourse shown, allusions to sex are frequent and my kids had a multitude of questions on the subject.

The footage of these videos is absolutely amazing. Each episode weaves together a story of geography, habitats, the species that inhabit and thrive there, the food they eat, and the struggle to procreate and survive. It is gorgeous, astounding and inspiring. We never fail to talk for days about the species we learned about in each episode. I can't recommend Life highly enough.

Tapped, the movie

I'm excited about the documentary Tapped, and the trailer has got me all worked up. (The images of the plastic in the ocean make me sick.) I've had a tentative toe on the anti-plastic bus, but this film might just get me fully on board, buckled up and ready to roar. It's produced by the folks who made Who Killed the Electric Car, an excellent, albeit maddening, documentary. I can find no info on when this movie will be released, but it apparently debuted at the Sundance Festival in January. Stay tuned...

(via beauty that moves)

Movie recommendation: The Real Dirt on Farmer John

I can't talk about my life today. I have to talk about some one else's life: Farmer John's.

Have you seen this movie: The Real Dirt on Farmer John? It's wonderful. I've read so many books that examine the lives of American farmers. No question it's so hard it's a wonder any one does it. What's lovely about this movie is it takes this one real farmer, talks about how his family starting farming the land, and all the ups and downs he himself weathered when he took over the farm in his own right. Not surprisingly he tried to quit farming after going into to debt and having to auction off most of his land, livestock, tractors -- just about everything but the kitchen sink. It frankly examines the turmoil and depression he went through at his loss, as well as over the malicious rumors spread about him in his rural Illinois farming community simply because he was more creative than your average farmer and hung out with artists and hippies for a time. At its core is his relationship with his mom -- an inspiring woman, to say the least -- the one person who stood behind and had faith in him. I don't want to be a spoiler, but I will say it ends on a high note. And if you ever are thinking about dropping out of your CSA program, watch this movie before you do. It will make you a believer.

As for my personal life, I spent most of the weekend sucking gallons of water molecule-by-molecule out of our basement carpeting using one of those wet-vacs. The water had seeped into the basement via some unknown crack or crevice after Portland got drenched with 3 inches of rain on New Year's Day. Perhaps I merit the EcoFreak label if this is the only way to get me to shampoo the danged carpet (Surely this is taking gray-water reuse way too far...) While this rated fairly high on the "this sucks" scale, this too shall pass. And there were some good things that came out of it, which I'll post about later. But put into perspective, it ain't nothing in comparison to how hard Farmer John works even on a good day.

Great movie! Check it out. More about the good parts of having our basement get flooded later this week. Stay tuned!

Pixar: What kind of environmental message are you really sending with Wall-E?

We interrupt our regularly scheduled light-hearted programming because my brain is about to explode, spewing bits of outrage and righteousness all over my ergonomic keyboard (which from past experience is NOT easily cleaned up with vinegar and baking soda).

My husband took our kids to see Pixar's new animated film Wall-E over the the weekend, and they loved it as they have loved all of Pixar's films. The movie is about how Earth has become uninhabitable due to overconsumption and unrecycled waste. Wall-E is a robot whose job it is to compact all of this waste and stack it into giant towers. Conservation, said my husband, was a huge message throughout the movie. Wow! I thought. What a great message for kids! What a great movie! Go Pixar!

Then I saw what my kids brought home from the theater.

As my husband handed over the movie tickets, the ticket-taker thrust two plastic Wall-E Watches into the kids' hands. The watches are made from a solid band of rubbery plastic embedded with a tiny digital display. The instructions state: "Batteries not replaceable." The instructions also claim that you can set the time and date by pressing buttons buried under the plastic, but we haven't been able to do so yet.

So, basically, Pixar gave us some landfill waste manufactured in China. The batteries can't be changed, the watches don't work properly and they can't be recycled. See any irony here?

From one side of their mouths comes this timely message of conservation. From the other comes corporate greed and the business-as-usual practice of manufacturing crap that no one needs. Why do they think we need this junk? Are they afraid they won't make enough money on their movie? Seriously?

The Wall-E merchandise is out in full force -- everything from toys to videos to home decor. And cheap plastic watches destined for the landfill. This mom is sick of the excess. I'm sick of the waste. Pixar: can't you do better than this? Oh, sorry. I forgot. You're owned by Disney.

Have you seen it?

"The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream,"  will be playing this Sunday, April 20th at the Bagdad Theater at 5 pm.  It is free and open to all ages!  We borrowed this movie from the library a few months back and it is very eye-opening.  It is a documentary film talking about peak oil, resource depletion, and how it affects our lifestyles.  It takes you back in time and explains how we got to where we are today and the realization of us not being able to sustain our current way of life. 

If you check it out or have already seen it, let us know what you think!

See 'King Corn' tomorrow in Portland; on PBS April 15

King Corn is one of those little documentaries that has become a must-see for anyone who is concerned about the environment or the US industrial food chain (shudder). One of the co-producers and co-stars of the film, Curt Ellis, is an alum of the Catlin Gabel School here in Portland. Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 2 at 7pm, Curt will present a free screening of his film at Catlin's Cabell Center Theater. The screening is open to the public.

And for those of you who aren't lucky enough to live in Portland (bwa-ha-ha) King Corn will be playing on PBS through the Independent Lens series on April 15 at 10pm. Check your local listings.

YouTube Holiday Greeting Card

Well, you asked for it. So here is our family's YouTube holiday greeting card. Prepare to laugh or else be very disturbed by our family's rendition of that holiday classic, The Night Before Christmas...

Happy holidays to all the EnviroMoms and EnviroDads! We feel very blessed to have you read and comment with us here!

Anyone seen King Corn yet?

Bill is just as excited as I am to see the new film, King Corn, but he wonders if he should bring his son. Have you seen it yet? Is it tween-friendly?

Hi, I noticed the film KING CORN was playing in your town -- it is playing in our town next week and my wife and I were wanting to see it, but also would like our 10 year old son to see it too. Were there any uncomfortable scenes re: language or that sort of thing?

I also read that it is being funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, so that gave me hope that it might be appropriate for all - of course the subject matter that all our food contains corn and byproduct is offensive enough!

Download free movies from Multnomah County Library

So this is pretty cool. Hope sent us an email, and I saw a flier about it the last time I visited our local branch of the library. Multnomah County Library lets you download feature-length movies for free. Wait'll Cheap-o-Dad hears about this! It will sure save resources: no more driving to video stores, Netflix mailing back and forth, or even burning movies onto DVD media. Has anyone tried this? If you can meet the technical requirements, and have a Multnomah County library card, and you download the required software, it looks like you've reached the promised land of free video-on-demand:

• A broadband Internet connection
• A web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox
• Microsoft Windows 2000 with SP4 or Windows XP with SP2
• FlashPlayer 9 and Windows Media Player 10 with the most recent security update
• 1 gigabyte of available hard-drive space
• 1 GHz processor or greater (supports simultaneous record/playback features)

We're a committed Mac household, which is doesn't say anything about. I'll look into it and let you know what I learn.