It was my roommate’s birthday last night and to celebrate it a bunch of us went out for fancy pizza at this new joint on Atlantic Ave. I dig their light fixtures, which whether or not they are upcycled or made new are a great idea for reusing an old cheese grater. Might just have to hang an old rusty one in my kitchen.
Cheese grater lanterns at La Pizzetta
The latest adorable pitch for the Garbage Museum (home of the famous “Trash-o-saurus”).
I want this kid’s shirt.
I saw this funky piece this morning on Dinosaurs and Robots.
Michel de Broin
It was made by artist Michel de Broin whose website explains:
Dead Star is made from residual battery at the end of their duty. Left to itself, the sculpture will slowly cool down since there is no longer electronic activity taking place in it. The hundreds of batteries were once used to power appliances before they finish their cycle in a recycle facility. Retrieved from death, they were assembled again in this whole structure.
Heads up NYC: Garbage Dreams is playing at the IFC Center this week.
Director Mai Iskander will appear in person at the 6:30pm shows of GARBAGE DREAMS nightly Wednesday, January 6 – Sunday, January 10.
“It is winter. A third of the city is poor. And unworn clothing is being destroyed nightly.” –NYT
Update: H&M says it will end the madness. Power of the press?
Well, recycling is a good thing, but perhaps the person who decided the time was ripe to leave their 1951 155 millimeter artillery shell at a recycling station in Seattle should have thought another round. Luckily, no one was hurt, and the Army apparently came to save the day.
The trash of war is, as war itself, destructive. The examples are endless, again as war seems to be. Some war trash has direct impact on human security, such as the around 18 million land mines layed down by the British at the battle for El Alamein in 1942, still killing and injuring the Bedouin population living there. But war does not only create weapons trash, it also turns infrastructure and nature into trash, with manifold long-term effects. In short, as if it needed to be stated, war is bad when it happens, and long after.
My friends Joe and Jasmine live a charmed life in San Francisco. I know because I read their blog, Beer at Joe’s where they chronicle their adventures in tasting and pairing and even brewing beer. Today, Jasmine posted her recipe for spent grain beer bread, an innovative way to reuse the grains leftover after Joe attempts a batch of home brew. Sounds delicious. And like it would make a good side to some of the Reused/Recycled dishes featured on Italicious.
The Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (aka WACTAC and featured here before) made this video, asking a “senior registration technician” to pull his top five pieces from the permanent collection that are so obscure they “need to be identified as art” by experts such as himself. Do with that concept what you will in the comments. I am sharing this here because one of the pieces he selects is a sealed cardboard box labeled “trash”.
I have to admit—sheepishly and ducking for cover—that I kind of dig Yoko Ono’s piece as well. Despite breaking up the Beatles, I’ve always had a soft spot for her due to the urban legend that she donated money to my college to ensure ice cream be made available at every meal.
One of the best ways to keep up to speed with happenings in the world of trash is to fan this blog on Facebook. Our streamed feed lets you know when new posts go live and the comments and thumbs up button allow you to tell us what you like and interact with other trashies. Join the conversation.
Last night Victor and I and our friends Oriana and Kimberly met for dinner at Sabay Thai Restaurant in Elmhurst, Queens for some spicy food and to check out Trash-formations, a small exhibit of art made of garbage.
Jefferey Allen Price's contribution to the show
I have to say, after seeing photos of curator N’Cognita‘s past work, the little pieces hanging on the walls felt a bit underwhelming. I was hoping for a dramatic installation, an expectation heightened by the long train ride and bitter cold endured to find the joint in the first place. What I saw reminded me more of the hallways outside the art classrooms in high school. It’s not that some of the work wasn’t excellent. It just didn’t stand out in the setting—a dimly lit little restaurant.
While eating, I did notice a sweet looking fedora from across the room. Before leaving, we all did a loop of the dining room to check out the art up close. It was then that I realized the hat was made of tea bags. Tea bags!
That, combined with the fact that when I asked for extra spicy my food arrived actually spicy made the whole trip worth it (even if we did have to ride the Broadway line local all the way back to Brooklyn). If you find yourself in or around Elmhurst, check out Sabay Thai. We especially recommend the vegetarian duck; and the tea bag fedora by artist Jefferey Allen Price.
Calling all trashionistas: Ecotopia, a Polish website dedicated to fashion made from recycled materials, is hosting a contest to find the next great trashion design.
Ecotopia
Contestants are asked to:
Create a new cloth, accessory or jewellery, which can be manufactured from items, things, materials which are not needed any more, redundant or broken and should be thrown away as thrash. Please, try not to buy new things – try to use only what you have available at hand. Strive to maintain simplicity in your project, but do not forget about the resourcefulness, comfort and materials which are available for your use.
Finalists and an ultimate winner will receive prizes and be featured in an online publication, “Trash Book”. Entries are due by February 1. For a complete list of rules, click here (and scroll down for English). Via the ETSY Trashion Team blog.
Photographer Jordan Manley‘s usual subjects are the practitioners and stunning natural backdrops of mountain biking sports and skiing. But he also happens to be the son of an environmental engineer. Manley recently sent us a link to this rad photo essay, “A look back at…garbage,” documenting the dirty work he has been roped into doing for his dad over the years, mainly a recent gig “auditing garbage” or sorting trash to see what could be salvaged, reused, recycled or converted into energy.
Photo credit: Jordan Manley
Describing the task, Manley says:
Despite the messy nature of the job, it was an interesting type of surveillance into people’s lives, you can tell a lot about a household from what they throw away. It took us to some interesting places as well.
I was born in New York City—to an American mother and Iranian father—on January 15th, 1979, the same day the Shah fled Iran and what, in a more just world, might have been Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 50th birthday.
Growing up amidst the nostalgia of Iranian exiles and American progressives, I was taught from the earliest age that my birthday held special significance and that celebrating this significance required something deeper than a cupcake. Consequently, the days leading up to it each year are accompanied by a tingling sense of urgency, as though something important is about to happen.
This year, watching protests in the streets of Iran via online video and getting updates from family members via phone and email, that sense is stronger than ever. And though I love writing and thinking about trash, lately it has felt strange to be doing so while so much is happening in that far away land so many people I love call home.
I know the struggles are related—environmental justice is linked to civil rights—but the linkages can at times appear tangential.
So, rather than abandon garblogging during this tense time, I thought today I’d occupy my pre-birthday anxiety by listing out the connections between trash and the slow march toward a democratic Iran. Thanks for bearing with me. I am aware that today’s post is a bit navalgazey.
These are connections I have stumbled upon solely because of everydaytrash.com, reason 1001 it’s lovely to have a trash blog.
Connection #1: Burning trash makes a dramatic political statement.
Getty Images
Connection #2: Iranian sanitation workers were at the forefront of post-election protests (a fact pointed out to me by trash-minded artist Douglas Brodoff).
Connection #3: Iranian-Americans have an affinity for trash. Through the blog I have discovered the trash-related work of artist Kuros Zahedi, filmmaker Ramin Bahrani, and food justice activist Andy Sarjahani. [Note, I think Bahrani is actually Iranian-Canadian, but since Robert Ebert named him the next great American director today, I think it’s fair to lump him.]
Kuros and his piece "Finding Away," photo by Lele Barnett
Connection #4: As a nomadic people prone to political upheaval and averse to waste, Persians make things meant to last forever, never to be thrown away.
Persian carpet
Here’s hoping 2010 brings success to both the green movement to protect the environment and the green movement for political evolution in Iran. Happy New Year, trashies.
xoxo
Leila
China Daily and China Radio International both report today that Beijing will soon be void of space for trash from the 20 million people living in the Capital of the world’s most populous country. With an annual trash growth rate of 8%, landfills (i.e. Beijing’s main method of taking care of trash) are about to overflow, and disposal plants are already overworked.
As Beijing doesn’t have much space for new landfill, nor much time to establish new landfills, city officials have stated that they are considering incineration, a method highly unpopular among the public, who fear more pollution in an already terribly polluted city. (Illustrative pic can be found here, the real nerds should check out this twitter feed.)
The local government is trying to argue that incineration isn’t necessary a big polluter. Clearly, there are advantages of emissions from incineration facilities over toxic gas generated by landfills, but then again, science is always an argument. (A good account of the debate can be found in this wiki post.) What is of course more disheartening is that the Beijing government, similar to governments everywhere, seem to care less about figuring out how people in Beijing could generate less trash to begin with. 8% growth per year is no joke.
If you are not already a regular reader, Art for Housewives should be part of your daily diet of nifty blog intake. Last night I discovered these lovely recycled paper shoes via A for H (nice to look at, though a bit steep in price given the materials…perhaps I’ll try to weave my own).
Paper shoes by Colin Lin
You may recall the same source led me to these hot fused plastic boots. It’s been an interesting year for upcycled footwear.
everydaytrash 