We just joined a great new sustainable community called We Earth Village. Check out our profile and friend up with us.
http://www.weearth.com/hybridroots
Spread the word about this great new community rooted in sustainable principles.
Much Respect,
Hybrid Roots
Posted: August 23rd, 2008 under Green Life.
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BKFK Announces Grand Prize Winner of the National Going Green Challenge
Elizabeth Rintels, 12, of Keswick, VA wins $10,000 Grand Prize for her “Water Watcher” invention
Stamford, CT (Aug. 14, 2008) – By Kids For Kids (BKFK) and The Weather Channel today announced that Elizabeth Rintels, 12, of Keswick, Virginia, won the grand prize in the national Going Green Challenge. Elizabeth won for her “Water Watcher” invention, a smart device designed to monitor and measure water usage.
Realizing just how much water it took to take a shower, Elizabeth began seeking a way to enhance awareness of water usage. After learning that reducing her shower time only by one minute would save approximately 1,000 gallons of water per year, she was driven to find a smarter way of utilizing this valuable resource. As a result, Elizabeth created “The Water Watcher,” a device that can be fastened to any faucet. It signals a red light and sounds a beep every time a half-gallon of water is used.
In addition to her $10,000 cash prize, Elizabeth also will also receive a meaningful “connection to reality.” She will have the opportunity to spend a day “shadowing” one of the eco experts from Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour Action website, http://11thhouraction.com/.
The Going Green Challenge launched in October, 2007 and challenged America’s youth to create new eco-ideas for our changing planet. Thousands of entries poured into the BKFK website, www.bkfk.com. Ed Begley Jr., Hollywood’s greenest actor, was a celebrity judge in the competition.
“I was thrilled when I found out I’d won the BKFK Going Green Challenge!” said Elizabeth Rintels, “At home, we try to use things more than once and recycle at the recycling center. We also try not to waste energy or water. It was this conservation awareness in my home that inspired ‘The Water Watcher.’”
“We are pleased to be connected with the BKFK program because it fits so directly with our goal to help young people become more informed and aware of the climate and environment. We congratulate the winner on her innovative idea of monitoring and measuring water usage,” said Shari Pace, vice president of licensing, The Weather Channel.
Norman Goldstein, Founder and CEO of BKFK, commented: “I would like to congratulate Elizabeth on her thoughtful, eco-friendly creation. It’s very easy to dream away in a hot shower, not caring about ones water usage. ‘The Water Watcher’ elevates consciousness about water consumption, resulting in necessary water conservation.”
About By Kids For Kids Co.
By Kids for Kids® (BKFK®) is a youth marketing and media company partnering with the world’s leading corporations to provide a platform to foster, share, showcase, and commercialize youth innovation and entrepreneurship. Their mission is to inspire, motivate and stimulate the innovative spirit within all young people.
The closely held Stamford, CT-based Corporation has been dedicated to making youth ideas a reality since 2003. Through its website (www.bkfk.com) and its social community (Idea Locker™), online competitions, TV show (Think Big™), Magazine (Possible™), press, and education outreach, the company engages youth in the US and around the world. BKFK® youth-created products are available nationally and serve as a testament to the power of youth innovation and social entrepreneurship.
More information about the company and its successes helping young innovators, is available online at www.bkfk.com
About The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel®, the nation’s leading provider of national, regional and local weather information and programming, is a 24-hour weather network which can be seen in over 96 million U.S. households. Its Web site, weather.com, reaches more than 35 million unique users per month and is consistently ranked #15 among all Web sites by Nielsen//NetRatings. The Weather Channel also operates The Weather Channel HD, Weatherscan® which is an all-local 24/7 cable network, The Weather Channel Radio Network, The Weather Channel Newspaper Services, and is the leading weather information provider for emerging technologies. The Weather Channel is owned by Landmark Communications, Inc., a Norfolk, VA-based, privately held media company.
Contact: Connie Malko (770) 226-2180, cmalko@weather.com
Note to editors:
Elizabeth Rintels is 12 year old middle schooler from Keswick, VA. Elizabeth is interested in art, clothing design, interior designing and inventing. She also likes to play sports. In the future, Elizabeth might be a designer, inventor or athlete. In addition to winning the grand prize of the BKFK Going Green Challenge, Elizabeth won first place in the BKFK Virginia Challenge, also for the “Water Watcher” and she also took 3rd prize in that same competition for her “Crane purse,” which is a fashionable purse inspired by paper cranes.
Posted: August 18th, 2008 under Green Life.
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We are calling out to all “Reggae” artists from all sub genres to submit your tunesfor our Hybrid Roots/VibeSetter Recordings upcoming reggae inspired CD compilation titled “Roots of the Underground”. I have included below
the link to our project website for a brief overview of the compilation and details on how to submit materials. Please review this information and let us know if you are interested in working with us to help bring
your music to a wider audience with the Roots of the Underground Compilation CD.
http://VibeSetter.com/Compilation
For any questions or further information:
Adam Rubenstein aka: Dubliner
renew@hybridroots.com
J Goger Malo
support@vibesetter.com
Special thanks to Dubliner and Wiked-bass-man
Posted: August 3rd, 2008 under Rooted Creatives.
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Attention reggae artists;
DJ’s, Dub, Dancehall, Roots, Rock, Electronica, etc…. (ALL Reggae Genres Welcome)
We are seeking artist submissions for an upcoming cd compilation. Contact us today with your track submissions and/or a link to the tracks online.
More info upon request.
http://vibesetter. com/Compilation/
Hybrid Roots & Vibesetter Records
Posted: July 13th, 2008 under Green Goods.
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If you’re a regular in these parts you might recall my ongoing mission: Some people fight AIDS, some animal abuse, and my cause is banning plastic beads. (Well, actually, I do what I can for other causes as well, but I guess this one is my “pet.”) Many moons ago I discovered an article in scientific journal Orion about how polyethylene (plastic) beads found in many products wash right down the drain and go on to harm marine life. Then I spoke with Scientifica about the synthetic beads found in their rather awesome, bestselling Raspberry Lactic Scrub, and because they were unaware of the danger these beads pose, they actually agreed to alter the ingredients, making the product even, well, awesomer than before (and restoring my faith in humanity). Now Slate has caught on and published an article on the subject, and they call out Olay’s newest exfoliant and some other offenders.
Hillary Rosner writes:
A smiling model glides, mermaidlike, through a lush underwater garden. Undulating ribbons of something resembling kelp rise from the sea floor, and tiny enchanting pearl-like beads bubble up though the aquamarine water. Polish your troubles away with Olay Body Wash Plus Spa Exfoliating Ribbons, the subject of this commercial, and you too might feel as if you’re floating through a luxurious Atlantis.
The trouble is, the more you exfoliate, the less Edenic that underwater realm becomes for the creatures who live there. That’s because the exfoliating ingredient in Olay’s body wash, and in most similar big-brand products (such as Dove Gentle Exfoliating Foaming Facial Cleanser and Clean & Clear Daily Pore Cleanser), is actually made out of plastic: tiny particles of polyethylene that scrub the dirt from your face and then wash straight down the drain and into watersheds and, eventually, oceans.
Here’s what you can do: Besides writing letters to these companies, you can boycott any and all exfoliants containing synthetic exfoliants. On that note, I have an environmentalist friend who encourages all her friends to lay off all plastics because they’re not even remotely biodegradable and contain loads of possibly cancer-causing chemicals and toxins. I know it sounds rough, but consider that humans went without plastic for centuries and centuries, and hell, everyone survived. The easiest way to start: Refuse to use plastic bags and BYOB to the grocery store. My local Whole Foods actually just banned plastic bags, and I hear some progressive places like Seattle are actually considering a city-wide ban. And don’t forget to lay off the plastic beads!
Article courtesy of productfiend.com
http://productfiend.com/2008/06/the-saga-of-the-plastic-exfoli.php
Posted: June 26th, 2008 under Green Life.
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Maui Film Festival at Wailea and the Maui Arts & Cultural Center
By JON WOODHOUSE, Contributing Writer
Big Island reggae artist Jack Miller invited some musician friends to join him on the opening track of the soundtrack of the new documentary “Dreadlock Rock,” which receives its world premiere tonight at the Maui Film Festival.
The anthemic song “Love, Peace & Unity,” features help from Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals fame, Cat Coore and Bunny Rugs of Third World, Jamaican rhythm kings Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, Big Youth, and legendary guitarist Earl Chinna Smith, who worked with reggae greats from Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff to Black Uhuru and Gregory Isaacs.
It’s an astounding ensemble, and a tribute to Miller’s stature in the Jamaican reggae community.
Many of those artists appear in Miller’s new documentary, a personal homage to the power of roots reggae to move audiences around the globe. Profiling his early immersion in reggae music in the mid-1970s to the present day, the film provides a unique perspective on the history of Jamaica’s profound gift to the world.
“It’s an autobiographical story about the journey I’ve had having these relationships with some amazing musicians,” Miller explains. “It all started in 1975 when we formed the Roots Band, the first surf reggae band in Southern California. We started seeing the different Jamaican acts coming through like Toots and the Maytals and Jimmy Cliff, and of course Bob Marley. I ended up going to Kingston (Jamaica) and meeting Sly and Robbie and the Revolutionaries. The film is about this journey and it comes full circle to the present. I went down about two years ago to finish the soundtrack for the film and I hooked up with a lot of the same musicians from the early days like Sly and Robbie, Big Youth, and Cat Coore and Bunny Rugs from Third World. It was like a homecoming.”
Featuring interviews (subtitled for the non-Rasta-patois literate) with a number of leading reggae artists including Peter Tosh, Sly and Robbie and Aston “Familyman” Barrett of the Wailers, it includes a clip of Bob Marley describing reggae’s evolution from ska through rock steady.
“In terms of getting archival footage, the seed started back when a musician named Chili Charles had a video company in Los Angeles and had a show called “L.A. Reggae with Roger Steffens,” Miller continues. “They were going out videoing all the reggae bands that came through Los Angles, and they heard about these white guys playing reggae and shot us live one night. Shortly afterwards, we put together the Reggae All Stars. We went to Sunsplash and he shot that.”
As a young white musician raised in Kansas, Miller surprisingly recalls he had little difficulty entering Jamaica’s insular studio world.
“The scene was pretty much in its infancy in terms of the U.S.,” he notes. “England had a lot more exposure through the Jamaican immigrant population. In many parts of the U.S., it (reggae) was almost completely unknown in the mid-’70s. So the musicians were quite open to me, and very few people were willing to go into the ghettos of Kingston and look these guys up. I had studied the music and knew who these people were and they could see this guy gets it. They dug it because it was different from what they had been doing in the studio, they enjoyed that I mixed up rock and soul and R&B with it.”
Some rhythm tracks from these early Kingston sessions are mixed with songs on the exceptional soundtrack CD, which features such other legends as the Mighty Diamonds, Peter Tosh bassist Fully Fullwood, Bob Marley and the Wailers guitarist Junior Marvin, and Willie Nelson dueting with Maui’s Marty Dread on the powerful “Take No Part.”
In conclusion, Miller hopes his film will “pull people into the story and then they will look deeper. It’s like what ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ did for Cuban music. A lot of young people in Hawaii love reggae, but they don’t know a lot about the founding fathers of the music, they don’t know how it evolved. We want to get people on the train and let them go on this journey and hope that it will spark some deeper interest in the music.”
http://mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/504834.htm
l
Posted: June 19th, 2008 under Rooted Creatives.
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This Friday is Irie Friday at the Roxy. R u Interested.
Rebelution+Mexican Food+Cab+Friends=Irie Friday
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theroxyblog/2439500228/
May, 9 2008 at The Roxy w/SOJA (All Ages)
9009 W Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, California 90069
Cost : TBA
www.myspace.com/rebelutionmusic
Posted: May 5th, 2008 under Green Goods.
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Our Gift to you. Download your free Hybrid Roots Desktop wallpaper in black or green
Black
http://hybridroots.com/hybridroots_blackwallpaper.jpg.zip
Green
http://hybridroots.com/hybridroots_wallpaper.jpg.zip
Posted: April 21st, 2008 under Green Life.
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Come Join The Closet & Hybrid Roots at Booth 104 at The South Coast Earth Day Festival. Learn about ways to recycle your clothing and earn some extra cash from The Closet and shop Hemp Fashions and learn about our Green Design Studio Services.
South Coast Earth Day Festival 2008
Sunday, April 20
10 am - 5:30 pm
Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Gardens
“Reduce Your Eco-Footprint” is the 2008 Earth Day theme!
Get ahead of the pack–calculate your eco-footprint before the festival at www.myfootprint.org
Pledge to make a difference through CEC’s personal action campaign at www.getenergized.org
Watch the Earth Day Festival commercial and the ‘Ride Free on MTD’ commercial
View the SB Independent insert HERE to learn more about the highlights for Earth Day 2008!
Interested Exhibitors 2008
NEW! The 2008 exhibitor list and a booth location map are now posted! For more information click HERE
Interested Sponsors 2008
Sponsorship of the South Coast Earth Day Festival is a fantastic opportunity for community businesses and corporate partners to get involved. Sponsors receive the benefit of free booth registration at Earth Day, plus a discount on booth equipment packages, as well as inclusion in all our promotional materials. Learn more HERE
Interested Volunteers 2008
Learn more about fun volunteering opportunities at the Earth Day Festival HERE
NEW! Volunteers needed for eco-footprint booth, learn more HERE
Wine Tasting Event 2008
New this year, a beer and wine tasting event in the beautiful Sunken Gardens co-sponsored by Elements Restaurant and Bar. For information about attending click HERE, for information about participating as a winery or brewery click HERE
2007 Information/Photos
• Promotional photos for the 2007 Earth Day Festival are available at our Press Room page.
• Click here to view our 2007 Earth Day Festival press announcement (pdf), complete with festival highlights.
• Visit our 2007 Earth Day Festival highlights page for information about last year’s exciting line-up of events, performers, and features.
Join the E-mail List
Sign-up for CEC’s e-newsletter to receive emails about the 2008 South Coast Earth Day festival and other special events.
History of Earth Day
The story goes that Earth Day was conceived by Senator Gaylord Nelson after a trip he took to Santa Barbara right after that horrific oil spill off our coast in 1969. He was so outraged by what he saw that he went back to Washington and passed a bill designating April 22 as a national day to celebrate the earth. It was in the wake of this same tragedy that Community Environmental Council was born and began working on ways to clean up our natural resources. It is due to these events that Santa Barbara is considered the birthplace of the environmental movement. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970. CEC organized a celebration again in 1990 and has done so every year since. Click here for more detail on the history.
Location
The festival is located in the heart of Santa Barbara at the Sunken Gardens of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, 1100 Anacapa Street. Click here for a map to the festival.
Special Note
Dogs are not allowed in the Sunken Gardens during large public events. Please leave your canine friend at home. Earth Day is a smoke-free event and cigarettes are not allowed at the County Park.
Thank you.
Posted: April 14th, 2008 under Green Life.
Comments: none
Thanks to everyone for coming out to the Green Living Expo this weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center. We appreciate all of the support for our Green Goods and our Design Studio. Please keep checking out our Hybrid Roots websites as we are constantly adding new features and products. Its a great time to “Green” your wardrobe for Spring with sustainable products. We will be celebrating earth day in Santa Barbara on Sunday, 4|20. Location information about Earth Day Santa Barbara and our booth to follow. We will be with our friends from “The Closet” A clothing resale boutique in downtown Santa Barbara. 1213 State St # L Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 963-8083
Posted: April 14th, 2008 under Green Life, Green Goods.
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