I want to hire this bio-writer to do one for me:

“ABOUT DICK CANTRELL, FOUNDER OF HARD TAIL FOREVER

Focused and intense, businessman Dick Cantrell exudes a fighter pilot cool that is highly creative and positively charged. The lifeblood of Hard Tail’s evolution from sportswear manufacturer to premium denim guru is rooted in the southern California lifestyle and its easy, relaxed, and casual lineage. He is first and foremost a sportswear pioneer who creates clothing that reflects the natural, sexy and sporty individuality of women today. Upon launching Hard Tail 15 years ago, he transcended the original premium tee-shirt by creating tattoo-inspired designs that provided an edgy twist. He never got lost in anyone’s opinion as to what Hard Tail should be.Cantrell blew the doors off the sportswear industry 15 years ago with the launch of Hard Tail by turning contemporary sportswear into casual, comfortable and chic urban-wear. “

Always made in the U.S.A” is not just a mantra, but a fundamental personal philosophy to Cantrell. His integrity hinges upon keeping the source of his inspiration and construction pure in order to keep standards and quality high.”

from http://www.hardtailforever.com

You can find Hard Tail at stylee yoga boutiques just about everywhere. Check ‘em out.

From Detroit to NYC, Philly to Oakland, citizens are turning their local vacant lot into a (profitable) farmer’s oasis—a sustainable, urban twist on the Food Not Lawns movement.”They found traces of lead, so to ensure their food’s safety, they built raised beds of compost. (Heavy metals are common contaminants in city soil because of vehicle exhaust and remnants of old construction).”

From the good folks behind Baracky

Barack’s comeback from the dark days of Jeremiah Wright & Pennsylvania…goes interstellar! 1.2 million hits on this one on YouTube in first week alone!

“Nationally, only 0.4 percent of commuters use a bicycle.”

Egad. We got a ways to go to get folks enjoying fresh air, free exercise, free parking, and hardly any maintenance costs.

City / Percentage

Portland / 3.5

Minneapolis / 2.4

Seattle / 2.3

Tucson / 2.2

San Francisco / 1.8

Sacramento / 1.8

Washington DC / 1.7

Oakland / 1.5

Honolulu / 1.4

Denver / 1.4

The worst in the US? Kansas, apparently, bringing in the rear with 0.0.

Ya gotta be rich to run for office in a democracy? Nah. Obama and his wife are worth just over a million, total, including their home–by farrrr the poorest folks to run for our highest office in many years—and they just now paid off their college loans. So I guess all of Hillary’s accusations of elitism are based on Obama’s attitude, not bank account.

Once again the Bushies have demonstrated that lack of loyalty and actually doing your job can cost you. Former EPA regional administrator Mary Gade was forced out after daring to take on Dow Chemical in defense of the people of Michigan. The “Protection” part of Environmental Protection Agency must be proof that even the feds have a sense of humor rooted in the ironic. What galls the most is how so much of what is happening simply flies under the radar, worse is the nagging suspicion that after January 20, 2009, not much will change and those responsible for some of the biggest crimes against our fellow humans and even our planet will go unpunished. For more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/green/chi-epa-official-resigns_webmay02,0,4655733.story?page=1

Check this brilliant, darkly illuminating, and somehow pretty fair-handed essay by the NYTimes’ Frank Rich.”…he did say that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins, particularly a scheduled “homosexual parade there on the Monday that Katrina came.”

In a recent Sunday magazine (which prominently featured our brau, Ryan Van Duzer) the New York Times published the zillionth relatively superficial article about how in Boulder, Colorado—elephant’s hometown—everyone bicycles, recycles and drinks lattés. The author referenced one of Boulder’s many epithets: “25 square miles surrounded by reality.”

I beg to differ. Boulder is 25 miles surrounded by largely tasteless sprawl, where once farmland and the Great Plains rolled. Reality is living in harmony with our earth. Reality is, as it’s said, that we human beings need the earth far more than it needs us. Reality is that global warming experts predict all coastal areas will be underwater within 50 years, and we’re busy rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic (a recent popular editorial criticizing the “green trend” said, “I need to commute 70 miles a day, I need to keep my various appliances plugged-in, and C.F.L.s interfere with my cell phone calls!”)

Secondly, we’re hardly “the eco-capital of the world,” as the Times said. If we’re the best the world’s got, god help humanity.Boulder is far, far from living in harmony with itself. We’re a lush green town set in a desert, essentially. When you see a mile-wide plot of grass, such as at North Boulder or Scott Carpenter Parks, it’s ’cause we water the thing night and day. We don’t even have a friggin’ recycle bin outside the North Boulder Rec Center (a LEEDS certified building). We don’t offer recycling by the many trash cans on our historic Pearl St. Mall.But we do a few things right: our Green Points program, also writ up in the recent conventional-paper-printed “Green” NY Times’ Sunday Magazine, is more aggressive than national building-green certification programs. We’re implementing a carbon tax. And now, our nationally-owned local paper reports, we’re (finally, years after Halifax, where my ma lives) implementing a city-wide curbside composting program.Did you know composting at home and at the office can reduce landfill waste by 85%? That’s an awful lot of karma, nullifed. Yay!

If I were mayor of Boulder, I’d double our gas tax—unlike the pandering, B.S. plans floated by Senator McCain, and then Senator Clinton in recent weeks. I’d outlaw the watering of lawns during daylight hours, when up to 90% of water evaporates. My Buddhist barista would make all traffic lights powered by solar, and all city greenspaces would be xeriscaped. We’d start a Zip car and bike program, so folks could transport themselves zero-emissions-style. We’d legalize graywater systems. There’s a lot of common sense stuff we could do, just as my Depression and WWII-era grandparents’ generation did (Victory Gardens=Food Not Lawns).A final note: recently, one of our main supporters and leaders in the green fashion movement went under. Our condolences. We have no idea why it happened—they say because they couldn’t get sufficient additional investment in the current economy—but we agree that, as they say, it’s an idea whose time has come, and we look forward to seeing another Nau emerge in the future.

Finally, finally: I’m expanding the next issue by 16 pages: so if you’ve never advertised in our pages, new advertisers can take a full page for half price, no commitment necessary—if you can get your ad to us by Thursday high noon. ~ Waylon Lewis, editor-in-chief

If econscious market hadn’t been our friends since the beginning, we’d be trying our best to elbow them out of the online green media niche and crush their new eCo Times with our own green blog. But, as it happens, we’ll peacefully co-exist and cooperate, ’cause we believe they believe in their/our mission: to be of benefit. There are plenty of interesting tidbits to be found on the site, from the Top Five Most-Eco Countries, to the effects of formaldehyde on our air supply.

And, if you ever need a break from the text, you can always go (mindfully) shop—with just a click of a button—in econscious’ extensive eco market. We particularly recommend the Ethletics and Fair-Trade sports balls.

Seane Corn’s from Jersey, and she has amazing hair. She’s also a world famous yoga instructor, having represented yoga in an iconic Nike commercial. But what makes Seane one of the coolest yoginis ever is her dedication to yoga’s tough side. On our talk show, “elevision,” she talked about working with the dark emotions that surface during practice—anger, frustration, insecurity, laziness—and about sharing this strength with other women, specifically prostitutes in America and Southeast Asia. My favorite part is when she tells about crawling into a porn-house in a Cambodian slum to lecture men on safe-sex practices.

Wandering home on the way from doing errands, the overcast cold of the spring day is disappointing. But as I turn down an alley, the gray is offset by the thick smell of lilacs, the tender haze of green starting to cover the hedges and the multi-colored fantasia of an abandoned aquarium in the dirt. ~ Corey Kohn

My boyfriend is balding. But that, I can deal with. My problem is the drain—it’s clogged with hair and I can barely take a shower without the tub filling up. The bathroom sink is even worse. At any other time in my life, I would have gone to the local hardware store, picked up a bottle of Drano or Liquid Plumber, and been done with it.

But, as it happens, I work for an eco magazine and I’ve spent the last few days working on our Summer issue’s editor’s letter about the harmful effects—cancer, asthma, a poisoned watershed—of toxic cleaning products. Knowing what I know now, you couldn’t pay me to pour poison into my pipes. Luckily, Bill Capsalis (author of our Summer eco-cleaning spread) and other readers have helped me out with a few tips. Check ‘em out, and if leave your own ideas. I need all the help I can get.

Many dedicated organizations build schools and provide medical care to people in rural parts of the world. But I have faith in the Tibetan Village Project more than any other, mostly because its founder—Tamdin Wangdu—grew up in a rural Tibetan village himself. The organization funds projects throughout the region, and runs “volun-tourism” trips to Tibet that benefit both travelers and local Tibetans.

Watch this video for more on their current projects.

Now that it’s almost Summer, it’s time to break out of your cold-weather solitude, meet the neighbors and get involved in your community. One place to start is the event page at elephantjournal.com. Check back each week for Boulder-local and national events related to sustainability, yoga, buddhadharma, activism, climbing, even sitting out in the sun eating ice cream. Planning something special? Get the word out by posting info, free, on the page.

June 20-22 in Boulder, Colorado, the Gaia Film Fest celebrates documentary, short and feature films that “inspire and educate.” The festival is currently looking for a few good volunteers. Contact them for details—we’ll see you there.

It’s true. Want to turn your office green? Check out this great online eco-responsible office supplies company for everything from paper to eco printer toner to non-nasty chemical purell soap dispensers. http://www.ecogreenoffice.com/catalog/catalog_list/4

One of my new favorite new additions to the Boulder farmers’ market is Windsor Dairy, and their amazing raw milk cheeses. While it’s illegal to buy or sell raw milk in Colorado, it IS legal to have raw milk if it comes from a cow that you own, so several farmers have decided to form cow sharing programs in order to provide raw milk to people who want it. Windsor Dairy is one of those.Raw milk is milk that has not been homogenized or pasteurized at all; it’s fresh from the cow (or goat or sheep) with all of the enzymes, vitamins and other nutrients still intact. (Pasteurization actually kills off most of the protein, Vitamins A, D, C, and K as well as bacteria that is actually good for our bodies.) Raw milk is actually very safe… probably safer than “conventional” milk in a lot of ways (if you happen to be lactose intolerant, lactase producing bacteria are present in raw milk, so you can drink as much as you want without ill effects). Being a parent, food safety is a huge concern for me (it’s got to be safe as well as local and organic or at least all natural), so I did the research before deciding to move toward raw milk. I found the Weston A. Price Foundation and the Campaign for Real Milk. I shared what I learned about raw milk with my kids, and on Saturday after hitting the Market, we headed up to Windsor Dairy for a visit.We arrived at the farm and met up with Liz, our tour guide. Liz was great… and we learned a lot, including some history of the farm and how the owners made the decision to convert from a conventional dairy to an organic one. Even though the cows produce less milk, they seem to be pretty happy cows, so the owners feel the trade was worth it. We saw the calves, and found out that there is an ongoing personal struggle between needing to domesticate the calves and run a dairy farm while trying to keep both mommy and baby cow happy. One of my favorite parts of the day was watching the boys get to know the calves and spend some time petting them.The entire farm is open to inspection, and you can see the entire herd (about 70 cows; only 60-some were actively being milked when we went) roaming around the pasture, seeming pretty relaxed and happy and doing what cows love to do… roam around, eat grass, and make cow pies. The boys even got to meet one of their bulls (Windsor Dairy doesn’t castrate their calves, instead letting them be bulls and get the cows get pregnant the old fashioned way instead of by artificial insemination).I grew up in farm country, and remember what humane farming looked like compared to modern factory farms. Windsor Dairy fits my memories and I was impressed by what I saw and heard. Happy cows getting to be cows, and milk the way it’s supposed to be (local and organic)… what more needs to be said?

In recent blog posts and in our Winter 2008 issue, we alluded to a “Texas-sized island of plastic floating in the Pacific ocean.” Sounds crazy, right? Well, the story was enough to motivate Vice to rent a boat and strike out into the Pacific gyre—the remote location between San Francisco and Hawaii where ocean currents meet—in search of the fabled island. They documented their trip on a blog and in a video series. As Thomas Morton wrote about his trip, “Hope you’re into cancer and sex-reversal!” But seriously, their footage is sobering and definitely worth a look. Hopefully, as more environmental fairytales are proven true, we’ll see more action to clean up our global act!

Hi Bill [Capsalis],I’m turning to you for some expert eco cleaning advice. I’m writing the editor’s letter for this issue of elephant, on the importance of toxic-free cleaning and the mindful life (I think it’ll complement your article nicely). I myself have some pretty nasty clogs in my drains—lots of hair in the the bathtub and bathroom sink—and I tried using vinegar and baking soda and boiling water, but it didn’t make much of a difference. I’m faced with the possibility of having to go out and buy Draino or some other nasty product, but I can’t in good conscience do that while I’m in the process of writing a letter that preaches to our readers how bad those products are. Do you have any suggestions for unclogging my drain the eco way? Your help is much appreciated!Cheers, Heather