If you’re a regular Ecorazzi reader than certainty you must be familiar with Joshua Katcher’s TheDiscerningBrute.com and Chloé Jo Berman’s GirlieGirlArmy.com — two of our very, very favorite fellow eco-blogs. And if you know anything about sustainable fashion than I’m sure you’ve drooled over Elizabeth Olsen’s olsenHaus collection — a green, vegan shoe line that proves you never have to sacrifice ethics for fashion. 

Well, on Tuesday, May 5th (AKA TOMORROW), Joshua, Chloe, Elizabeth and ME will be holding a panel discussion about ALL things green at the Northface store in NYC!

From fashion to food, we’ll be dishing about how you can green up your lifestyle and be a planet-loving, green-living, ecotastic rockstar! 

So get out your Blackberry and schedule this event in for tomorrow at 8pm. And make sure you say hello. I love to meet all of our awesome readers!

Click HERE to get directions. See you there!!

We’re big Nigel Barker fans around here! From his humanitarianism work around the world to his steadfast dedication to end the seal hunt in Canada, Nigel proudly raises his voice for those who lack a voice of their own.

Barker recently shared his thoughts on the situation in Haiti, the seal hunt in Canada and going green in an exclusive interview with our pal Joshua Katcher on TheDiscerningBrute.com.

In the piece, Nigel said: 

“Look, instead of hunting these animals and treating them like worthless skins and killing them in such a brutal manner where you skin them alive 45 percent of the time — instead how about putting them on your flag? How about celebrating these animals? How about being proud of it, using it as a sign of patriotism and sort of cherishing your wildlife as oppose to mindlessly and senselessly killing it? ”

Can I get an amen? 

If you have a few minutes, MAKE SURE you head on over to TheDiscerningBrute.com and check out the whole interview. 

Incidentally, Nigel and I will both be speaking at this year’s Go Green Expo in New York City. On April 18th, Nigel will be presenting his documentary, A Sealed Fate, and on the 19th I’ll be speaking on a panel about Green Leadership. To get your tickets for the event, visit GoGreenExpo.com! See you there!!

Now showing on TheDiscerningBrute.com and GirlieGirlArmy.com is a video featuring Chloé Jo Berman and Joshua Katcher chatting with vegan shoe designer Elizabeth Olsen about olsen Haus — her fancy line of vegan footwear!

We featured an exclusive interview with the shoe designer to the stars late last year and give you our word that she’s super neat!

In the video, Chloé points out:

“Here’s the thing: women are so squeamish in general about blood and guts and war, and yet we’re wearing the skins of another being on our person. It’s so incongruous! And so when we look at lines like olsen Haus and we see our options: stylish, beautiful, elegant, just matches everything, but also are fashion forward — there’s no question as to making the switch.”

Incongruous? Good word, Chloé! 

So check out the olsen Haus brand and we see why we can’t stop talking about these badass vegan shoes!

I hate going to the doctor! Luckily, I’m a pretty healthy dude (see also: vegan superhero) and have only been twice in the last 4 years. But still, the thought of sitting on a cold examining table and being not listened to for 3-5 minutes makes me shiver with frustration. Why oh why, I ask, can’t all doctors be like the rockstars at Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine?????!!!!!

You see, last night I had the chance to attend a benefit for PCRM at Peter and Mary Max’s lovely midtown studio and left actually wishing that I hung out with M.D’s more! 

The event was absolutely lovely with Morgan Spurlock, Moby, Dan Piraro, Dreama Walker and many more well-known figures in attendance. Of course we also hung out with some of our favorite regular do-gooders like Chloé Jo Berman, Joshua Katcher, Kris Carr and Victoria Moran. 

And how could we not spend some time with Dr. Neal Barnard – the founder of PCRM who recently sat down with Ecorazzi for an exclusive interview?

While munching on delicious chow from Bonobo’s, 4-Course Vegan and Candle 79, the PCRM crew spoke about their continued progress and optimistic outlook for the future. Does it really get any better than that?

If you don’t know all about PCRM’s important work, get thee to their website and learn how this special group of dedicated professionals is helping to change the world.

“Any designer in the fashion industry who does not want to watch the PETA video and see exactly what happens to animals and how they’re treated and how the product that they use comes to the marketplace I believe is egregiously irresponsible,” Gunn said. 

Now Tim is chatting with our pal Joshua Katcher from TheDiscerningBrute.com about understanding the brutalities involved in the fur industry. Tim tells Josh: 

“You can look rich in a myriad of ways without wearing fur — it’s not at all necessary. With so many great fur alternatives, you can even fool yourself into thinking that your wearing fur. I’m not an advocate of those furs though.”

We just frigin love that somebody as instrumental as Tim Gunn is speaking out against the cruel stuff! Check out the entire video below!!

via: thediscerningbrute.com

Vegan style so-and-so Joshua Katcher recently took to the streets of New York posing as a television host to give a few fur-wearers a hard time. Katcher definitely heard some “interesting” excuses for toting the cruel stuff, including some insane justifications like:

“…beavers are not extinct, which is one of the reasons that the designers make those furs.” 

“I’d like to think that they were just run over in the street…” 

“I just assume it grows its hair back and it’s all OK at the end of the situation…” 

“We’re from Michigan, so we need our furs.” - 

Yikes! Take a look at the video below and let us know what YOU think about all this fur-wearing craziness!

via: thediscerningbrute.com

In case you missed it, yesterday Ecorazzi reported on the truly ignorant behavior displayed by the hosts of Fox and Friends while covering a piece on KFC.

In the last 24 hours I’ve received a slew of emails from people in the community who were disgusted by FOX’s blatant stupidy and who were doing their part to protest the show. One of my favorite emails came from Joshua Katcher who runs TheDiscerningBrute.com and who Ecorazzi featured just a few weeks ago in our exclusive interview series. Josh is a passionate advocate for animals and wrote a letter that I thought you all might enjoy. And so now, for your reading pleasure, an open letter to the KFC-loving gang at Fox and Friends.

“Hello Fox and Friends:

I am writing to express the shock and disgust I felt as I watched the smug ignorance spill from the mouths of your journalistic criminals when they addressed “eco-kids” and PETA’s KFC campaign. Why is it that the most ignorant of people are typically the most bombastic and sneering?

Greg Gutfeld’s comment about humanity being more important than the environment, alone is possibly the most dangerous and idiotic idea of all. Anyone with any understanding of ecology knows that without intact ecosystems and biodiversity, humanity can not even exist. That’s like saying the tree is more important than the dirt it’s growing in, or the fish are more important than the water they live in. Get it? Greg Gutfeld is truly ignorant, and I am glad he does not have kids that he can “punish”, as he says, for caring about the well-being of the planet upon which they depend for survival.

Additionally, when there are tons of famous animal rights advocates from Natalie Portman, Alicia Silverstone, and Woody Harrelson, to Charleze Theron, Daryl Hannah, and Joaquin Phoenix – saying “they are lonely people” is simply an attempt to smear the image of the animal advocacy movement. The fact that Prop 2 passed shows there is large-scale concern for the way chickens are treated. The fact that the “Skinny Bitch” collection continues to be best-sellers is evidence that people care about not eating crap like KFC and not condoning the cruelty that your program attempts to rationalize.

When Greg says “The weird thing about making fried chicken; chickens die in the process”, he really reveals the void where his brain should be. The simple truth is, torturing birds is not necessary. There a re plenty of cruelty-free alternatives. If we can choose a more compassionate option, why shouldn’t we? Is compassion wrong or bad? Factory Farms, like the ones KFC uses, hurt people’s health, contribute to land, water, and air pollution more than most car-makers, and put animals though incredible trauma. Watching these heartless morons chuckle as they shoved greasy chicken limbs into their mouths made me nauseous and embarrassed for them.

At the end of the day, this program was nothing but a commercial for KFC. Please have someone on your program that can articulate environmentalism and animal advocacy, because your supposed journalists have failed miserably.

Happy Holidays!”
–
Joshua Katcher
The Discerning Brute
“Fashion, Food and Etiquette for the Ethically Handsome Man”
www.thediscerningbrute.com/
**Named ‘Ethical Style Icon, 2008′ by VegNews Magazine**

Farm Sanctuary is kind of like that gift that keeps on giving. I mean seriously, how can you not leave these guys?! As the nations leading animal rescue organization, Farm Sanctuary strives to see a world where the violence that animal agriculture inflicts upon people, animals and the environment has ended, and where instead we exercise values of compassion.

Last night Ecorazzi had the honor of attending the organizations Winter Wonderland for the Animals event and catching up with a few of our favorite Hollywood do-gooders. The evening was held at the beautiful Art Directors Club in midtown Manhattan and was jam packed with New York’s most compassionate crowd. 

Upon arrival we made our way to the press area and said hello to Corey and Susie Feldman, Jennifer Coolidge, Daniella Sea and many more. Of course the evening wouldn’t be complete without a little face time with Alison Becker, Loretta Swit, Chloe Jo Berman, Victoria Moran, Karen Dawn and Joshua Katcher. We also spotted Ally Sheedy, Tatum O’Neal, Peter and Mary Max and Princess Superstar! 

After all that celebrity chatting we were STARVING and so we headed on over to the beautiful array of all vegan nosh, provided by some of New York’s hottest restaurants. Truthfully, everything we tasted was out of this world, but a few of our personal favorites were Dr. Cow’s all raw vegan cheese (order this right now, it will change your life), Candle 79’s Seitan Chimichurri and Lula’s Peanut-Butter Fudge Ice Cream! A-FRIGIN-MAZING!!!

The evening closed with a lively auction to help raise money for all of Farm Sancutary’s important work and a speech by co-founder, Gene Baur! Oh and we have some GREAT news!! Staring next Monday, Ecorazzi will be bringing you six full days of Farm Sanctuary Exclusive interviews with the parties hottest stars! That’s what I’m talking about! So make sure you check back next week to see why Hollywood can’t get enough of this wonderful organization, and visit FarmSanctuary.org to find out how YOU can get involved!

photo credit: Andrew Ford

Last night Ecorazzi attended a screening of Barker’s new documentary, A Sealed Fate –  a film detailing the brutal seal hunt in Canada. Nigel is a spokesperson for the Humane Society of the United States and has worked tirelessly with their dedicated team to help end this magnificently cruel trade.

Many people are unaware that each year close to 250,000 baby seals are slaughtered in Canada before eating their first solid meal or taking their first swim, simply so that someone might wear their fur. Barker’s documentary helps expose the brutality of this industry and shows how a small group of passionate citizens are helping to make a big difference. 

At the event we saw some of our favorite do-gooders, including the discerning brute Joshua Katcher, our friends from Farm Sanctuary, the Super Vegan crew, vegan designer to the stars Elizabeth Olsen, the Go Green Expo workaholics, and plenty of friends from the HSUS. We also chatted it up with Nigel,  met Kelly Overton from Save the Chimps and shared some mints with America’s Next Top Model judge Paulina Porizkova. 

The time to act is now, friends! The next seal hunt begins in March and the HSUS thinks they might be able to stop the hunt entirely before it even begins.  So if you do one thing today, please, please, please visit ProtectSeals.org and learn how you can contact Canada’s government, support a ban on seal products in the European Union, or simply make the pledge to boycott Canadian seafood until our neighbors up north take responsible action and outlaw this ruthless hunt! 

photo credit: Melissa Rosenberg 

Wearing my proud NO FUR pin, I navigated through the crowd of beautiful people and munched on some delicious vegan hors d’oeuvers while listening to the DJ talents of super-model extraordinaire, Agyness Deyn. Dear Agyness, will you marry me?

Because gawking is creepy, I took a break from staring at Ms. Deyn and chatted it up with New York City’s very own discerning brute, Joshua Katcher and vegan shoe designer to the stars – Elizabeth Olsen. Olsen is the next big thing in vegan shoes and you’re gonna be hearing a lot more about her on Ecorazzi very soon.

Chatting all things vegan can make a boy thirsty, so I headed to the bar where I ran into the talented crew from SuperVegan.com and promised, promised, promised to attend one of their Vegan Drinks events before the year was over! We also gave love to some of our friends from the Farm Sanctuary and dished about their SUPER EXCITING winter event coming up in just a few weeks (more on that later today). Before the evening was over we made sure to say hello to America’s Next Top Activist, Nigel Barker, who’s screening of A Sealed Fate we’ll be attending next week! You guys have to check that out! Finally, I made a quick call to Chloe Jo, the General of Girlie Girl Army ,and gossiped about the whole Maggie Gyllenhaal fur controversy. Oh, jeez!

I’m don’t mean to be cheesy here (because we all know cheese ain’t vegan), but I gotta a little vaclempt being around so many compassionate people who had all come together for something truly important – a commitment to fur-free fashion.

If you still think fur is cool, check out the HSUS’s fur-free website and learn why wearing fur is never, ever, ever, ever, ever okay! Happy winter, everyone!