ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

November 4th 2008

Boston Vegetarian Food Festival A Success With Author Karen Dawn And More

Filed under: art, events, events: boston, food & drink — parrish @ 12:45 pm

As Ecorazzi previously reported, this year we chose to spend our precious World Vegan Day sampling delicious veggie food and hanging out with a few well-known veggies at the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival . It was our first time at the festival and I’ll tell you this: we most certainly WEREN’T disappointed.

A highlight of the day was a talk by celebrated author and friend of Ecorazzi, Karen Dawn, who discussed her book Thanking The Monkey and signed autographs in the lobby after – if you don’t have a copy make sure you pick one up! We also said hello to Josh Hooten, founder of Herbivore Clothing Clothing, who will be featured in our upcoming segment Ecorazzi Home Movie: Parrish Goes To Portland.

If you’re a regular reader, you might remember that earlier this month I attended Farm Sanctuary’s Party for the Pigs and met one my all time favorite “actorvists”, Persia White. I was so impressed by Persia’s supreme awesomeness that I gave her my coveted vegan pin that I often sport at these kinds of events. While I was more than happy to share my bling, my threads have been looking a bit bare lately. Luckily for me, Snooty Jewelry owner Jeanine Taylor – a talented vegan jewelry designer – was at the festival and hooked me up with a brand new recycled VEGAN pin that is sure to impress all!

If you missed the festival this year, NO WORRIES! The Boston Vegetarian Society holds the food fest each year and you only have to wait another 363 for the next one (sigh). To find out more about what’s going on up in MASS, visit the Boston Vegetarian Society’s website! Happy eating!

October 27th 2008

Ecorazzi Celebrates World Vegan Day At Boston Vegetarian Food Festival

Filed under: events, events: boston — parrish @ 2:22 pm

Earlier this month Ecorazzi went apples and bananas celebrating World Vegetarian Day – the meat-free holiday that kicks off Vegetarian Awareness Month. Well October is coming to an end and World Vegan Day (Nov. 1) is just around the corner! And how will WE celebrate the vegan holiday this year? One clue: pahk the cah in Havad Yahd (see also: park the car in Harvard Yard).

Yep, you’ve got it right! This year Ecorazzi will celebrate the vegtastic holiday at the 13th Annual Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. Besides tasty treats, the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival will also welcome some great speakers – including friend of Ecorazzi and Thanking The Monkey author, Karen Dawn!

With free admission, parking and food sampling, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t see ALL of you in Boston this Saturday! So find a carpool, take a bus or hop on the train and get down to the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center this Saturday, November 1, 2008 from 10 AM – 6 PM for the best World Vegan Day celebration ever!!!

For more information, visit BostonVeg.org/FoodFest!

October 7th 2008

The Green Picture: Morgan Spurlock Thanks The Monkey At Animal Sanctuary

Filed under: animals, books, events — parrish @ 7:23 pm

Morgan Spurlock, of Super Size Me fame, is pictured here speaking at a Thanking The Monkey book signing party this past weekend at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. Last month, Ecorazzi spotlighted Thanking The Monkey’s author, Karen Dawn, and most recently chatted it up with Peter Singer at Dawn’s Birthday/World Vegetarian Day party in NYC! Don’t forget to check out Karen’s site along with 11 other favorites on the first edition of Ecorazzi’s Veg Blog Round-Up: News From Around Web!

October 6th 2008

Ecorazzi Celebrates Vegetarian Awareness Month With Famous Author Peter Singer

Filed under: animals, books, ecorazzi exclusive, interviews — parrish @ 1:55 pm

On October 1st, we here at Ecorazzi celebrated World Vegetarian Day – an annual herbivore holiday that officially kicks off Vegetarian Awareness Month. And because we believe in always partying like rock stars, to continue our celebration throughout the month, Ecorazzi will be chatting with some of the world’s most influential vegetarian actors, musicians and writers in a new Vegetarian Awareness Month celebrity interview series. Today we kick off our new feature with words by renowned author Peter Singer.

Peter Singer is a legend in the animal rights world. In 1975, Singer published Animal Liberation – a book widely considered to be the textbook for the animal rights movement. I recently had the chance to chat with the author at Karen Dawn’s Thanking The Moneky book signing/World Vegetarian Party (a full post on that will be coming shortly).

I feel like I’m interviewing a hero. I mean you published Animal Liberation in 1975 and essentially revolutionized the way people think about animals in regards to ethics. How did you get started in this field?

It was a combination of things. I was studying philosophy and I was interested in ethics and interested in ethics in a way that makes a difference to the world. And I happened to meet somebody who was a vegetarian and he was a vegetarian because of his concern about animals — which was pretty unusual then. I mean you had people who were vegetarian because they thought it was good for their health or if they believed in reincarnation, but he just straightforwardly thought that what we do to animals to turn them into meat isn’t right. And I never really thought about that. There wasn’t much discussed at the time. So I put it together with the ethics I was doing and tried to see how you would justify treating animals the way we do, and eventually I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t justify it. And that was a bit of a shock because I was eating meat all my life up to that point. But I thought having realized that, I needed to not only make the change myself, but to get other people to see this. It was obvious this was a major issue that nobody was seeing – we were just blind to it. So that’s why I wrote the book.

Continue reading Ecorazzi’s interview with Peter Singer here…

October 2nd 2008

It’s Official, ELLEN DEGENERES HAS FINALLY GONE VEGAN!

Filed under: animals, events, film-tv, food & drink, television — parrish @ 10:13 am

Ya’ll, I come bearing such news for you this morning! So last night, in celebration of World Vegetarian Day, I spent the evening drinking Drunken Monkey’s and hanging out with some of the coolest kids around at Karen Dawn’s birthday/ book-signing party (stay tuned for a full post about that later today, including great pictures and an exclusive interview with world renowned author Peter Singer).

Anyway, Chloe Jo (Ecorazzi’s new bff) and I were chatting, and she told me that last week at the Proposition 2 benefit in LA, Ellen DeGeneres officially came out as a full-fledged vegan. You guys, I FREAKED OUT! First, because veganism is like the most amazing thing ever and having heavy hitters on our team is so important. And second, because HOW IN THE WOLRD DID I NOT KNOW THAT???!!!!!

Some of you might remember that even before Ellen’s vegan wedding, Ecorazzi predicted that Ellen was mere moments away from taking the veg pledge, and now it looks like she’s finally gone and done it. So what inspired this balls to the wall move? None other than a super awesome book called Skinny Bitch by another one of Ecorazzi’s bff’s, Rory Freedman. If you ask me, Skinny Bitch has totally revolutionized the vegan movement and we all owe Rory a great big standing ovation! Go buy this book right now!

Now I know there’s some drama because Ellen is the new face of Procter & Gamble’ CoverGirl– a horrific company that still tests heavily on animals – but this may not actually be such a bad thing. Just think, if Ellen has the selling power to make the company big bucks, perhaps she might also have the clout to finally convince P&G to ditch their medieval methods of animal abuse and join the ranks of progressive companies who test their products in a more responsible manor. She’s definitely contributed to major political reform before!

So Dear Ellen, on behalf of all the vegans and vegetarians out there, WELCOME TO THE CLUB! I look forward to covering all of the many wonderful things I know you’ll do for the movement. You rock my frigin socks, lady!

July 31st 2008

Heather Mills To Make Appearance At The Animal Rights 2008 National Conference

Filed under: animals, events, events: DC, green and famous — parrish @ 12:24 pm

Go get your calender…I’ll wait. OK, got it? Great, now turn to August 14th-18th. What does it say? If you have scribbled down anything OTHER than “Attend Animal Rights 2008 National Conference in Washington D.C” erase it immediately and write in your new plans! 

In just two weeks the world’s largest and oldest animal rights conference will be held in our nations capitol, and trust me you don’t want to miss it! Like every year, the conference line-up boasts a slew of incredible speakers, including author Karen Dawn (who Ecorazzi will spotlight later this month) Saurabh Dalal from the International Vegetarian Union, Mike Hudak from the Sierra Club (our charity of the month) and that famous face you no doubtably feel strongly about one way or the other…Heather Mills. (For the record I’m on Team Heather.)

The conference will feature 90 speakers from 60 animal protection groups in 9 countries, presentations on whale wars and effects of global warming, celebrity & activist awards and about a bazillion other really exciting activities. Also…did I mention I’d be there! 

That’s right! On August 16th and 17th I’ll be bringing you the latest in green gossip from Washington D.C as I peruse the show with my fancy, schmancy press pass. So get a group of your coolest friends together and carpool on over to the Hilton Mark Center sometime between August 14th-18th to join in on all the fun! To learn more or purchase tickets visit arconference.org. See ya at the show! 

May 20th 2008

Farm Sanctuary Gala Brings Out Heather Mills, Melissa Rivers

Filed under: animals, ecorazzi exclusive, events, events: nyc, food & drink, green and famous, honors — michael @ 9:27 am

I enjoy a lot of things: really good margaritas, paid vacation time, that noise bubble wrap makes when it’s popped, but none of those compare to how much I love the annual Farm Sanctuary Gala. In case you’re late to the party, Farm Sanctuary was started in 1986 with the rescue of Hilda, a “downer” cow left for dead in a stockpile. Today they are considered to be the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization and work tirelessly to expose and stop cruel practices in the food animal industry. After over 20 successful years they now have 2 fully running sanctuaries in New York and California that are home to hundreds of animals, tons of staff and plenty of curious visitors.

Each year the organization holds a ritzy, celebrity-packed gala to help raise money for their many noble causes. Two yeas ago, before my Ecorazzi days, I volunteered at the event and was truly inspired by a room full of like-minded people all coming together to celebrate those that are so rarely even thought about. This year I got to attend with a full access, fancy-pancy press pass and pick the brains of those very famous VIP’s I once so fondly cooed over.

I arrived at 4:30, signed in and was told I had “full-access” to the event. Score! After getting my photographer Andrew Ford set up on the red carpet I headed inside for some investigative work (and perhaps a little appetizer munching). The space was pure elegance with beautifully decorated tables, a silent auction area and, of course, the second floor VIP loft. I started slowly and perused some of the items on the silent auction tables. There were signed photographs, paintings, jewelry and plenty of eager volunteers to help answer any questions I might have.

Next I headed upstairs to the VIP lounge where I had the chance to speak with Melissa Rivers (a regular Ecorazzi reader), Emily Deschanel, Rory Freedman, Dennis Kucinich, Swoosie Kurtz, Kevin Nealon, Victoria Moran, Ally Sheedy, Loretta Swit, Russell Simmons and Farm Sanctuary president and co-founder Gene Baur. The celebs were kind, well-spoken and all agreed on one thing: Farm Sanctuary is pretty damn incredible. FYI — throughout the week Ecorazzi will feature The Farm Sanctuary Gala Interviews, a series of exclusive one on ones with the many celebrity guests in attendance.

Click here to continue reading about the night and see our collection of exclusive photos!