Sin-thetic Gear

[Guest guest]

A friend asked me to forward this to the list... honest! ;-)

 

Tammy

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Perform a death-defying act.... Go Vegan!

Join the vegan r/evolution! http://www.generationv.org

FREE Veg Kit http://www.goveg.com/vegkit/index.html

 

 

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 9:26 AM

Tammy

Would you please send this to the list anonymously

 

http://www.veganerotica.com/

" VeganErotica.com specializes in sexy 'sin-thetic ' bondage gear that

takes the ' cow ' out of 'cower ' . The cyber sex shop is just one of

a growing number of companies that have tapped into increasing consumer

demand for top-quality merchandise without taking the skin off a cow ' s

back. "

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Sure Blankman's and other's concerns about the social and

environmental costs of PVC are well founded, as a new film titled

" Blue Vinyl " documents (see description below). True, unlike

leather, the production of this material is not dependent on the

slaughter of animals. However, it does introduce of numerous

toxic sythentic chemicals into our water, soil, and air. These

compounds bioaccumulate in the food chain -- which includes

wildlife, " food " animals, and people. For the sake of our

environment and its human and animal inhabitants, perhaps we

should be advocating for the widespread use of more

sustainable alternatives to " techno-fix " solutions like PVC -- and

for a just, rational, and humane social/economic system that

would support that goal.

 

Rich

 

=================================

****** About Blue Vinyl ******

A New Documentary, Blue Vinyl, makes environmentalism

personal,

humorous

 

Provided courtesy of Workingfilms.com

 

" PVC/vinyl is as natural as anything in one's own body "

- the PVC Industry

 

 

A movie that involves serious considerations about our health,

and

specially those of minority communities, where PVC plants and

toxic

waste incinerators are located.

 

 

-------------------

It's difficult to make the environment " sexy, " for instance, and

drier, more didactic material only goes so far even with those

already

in agreement with general themes of environmental protection

and

restoration.

 

 

Enter Blue Vinyl, a stunning new documentary film by

co-directors and

producers, Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold. A modern day

answer to

Rachel Carson's groundbreaking 1962 book about DDT, Silent

Spring,

Blue Vinyl is a refreshingly original, candid, and eye-opening film

that is as much an illuminating journey into the toxic world of vinyl

as it is a humorous romp through the familial and personal

dynamics of

Helfand and her family.

 

 

After earning the 2002 Sundance Festival's " Excellence in

Cinematography Award, " Blue Vinyl has already gone onto win a

number

of awards, including First Prize Award for Best Documentary at

the

acclaimed 2002 Bermuda International Film Festival. On May

5th, the

film had its premiere showing on HBO.

 

 

Blue Vinyl's vivid, fast-paced tempo and its clever documentary

approach revolves around Helfand's desire to understand the

potential

dangers of the blue vinyl siding which her parents have chosen

to

replace the rotting wood framing their house.

 

 

The siding, as it turns out, is made of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC.

 

 

A versatile resin, PVC is used in thousands of different ways and

shapes, from piping and vinyl siding to carpet fibers and

shampoo

bottles. (Every three seconds, as Helfand's father calculates,

another

house is built or reinforced with vinyl siding.) But from an

environmental health perspective, as Helfand soon finds out,

PVC is

also the " poison plastic, " posing major toxic hazards to the

workers

who handle it, the people who live around PVC-manufacturing

plants,

and even the consumers who purchase it. Byproducts of PVC, as

Helfand

begins to research the topic, include dioxin and hydrochloric

acid.

 

 

Helfand sets out for Louisiana, where roughly one-third of the

nation's

PVC is produced. Traveling around Lake Charles, Helfand

begins

interviewing residents living around the PVC plants who are

suffering

from all manner of ailments, including cancer. Mostly poor or

working-class, and often African American, these residents are

confronted with the airborne pollutants that appear to be

contaminating their environment, and poisoning their bayous

and

groundwater to the extent that entire neighborhoods are no

longer

livable.

 

 

But the vinyl industry remains adamant that no danger is posed

to the

communities surrounding these plants and, in several Michael

Moore-style moments, they try to convince Helfand that the

sodium

chloride that goes into making PVC/vinyl is as natural as

anything in

one's own body. " Sodium chloride, " says one industry

representative in

a chipper voice. " If you didn't have it, you wouldn't be here. " The

vinyl industry has, in fact, been on an aggressive PR campaign

to

allay lingering concerns about the toxicity of vinyl since a series

of

large-scale accidents in the 1970s and 80s, including the

deaths of

four workers at one vinyl plant in Kentucky, and an incident in Las

Vegas where many people died at the MGM Grand from inhaling

the fumes

released from burning PVC.

 

 

With a piece of her parent's blue vinyl siding in hand everywhere

she

goes, Helfand travels across the country—and later to Italy—to

gain an

even deeper scientific understanding of the " life cycle " of PVC.

 

 

 

 

 

, " Chandna, Alka " <alka.chandna@s...> wrote:

> Dear Tammy & other Friends ~

>

> Thanks, Tammy, for sending this along. *VERY* interesting,

indeed! I was just flipping through the list of upcoming local

festivals and noticed that the Folsom Street Fair (a veritable orgy

of leather) is happening on September 29, 2002, on Folsom

Street between 7th and 12th Streets. How interesting

> would it be to have a pleather booth, complete with stuff from

Sin-thetic Gear (*great* name!) and our tv/vcr setup with images

on how leather is produced. In keeping with the demonstrative

spirit of the Folsom Street Fair, we could do some street theater

involving the live skinning of a cow. Leslie

> Craine, the woman who designed the battery cage displays

and does http://www.animalrightsstuff.com, designed a body suit

that looks like muscle and flesh (a body with the skin removed).

The street theater involves having a person dressed in a cow

costume, wearing the body suit underneath. A

> " butcher " enacts live skinning of the cow while the cow is still

conscious. We could write a script that conveys the fact that the

Humane Slaughter Act is being violated all the time in this

country. Wouldn't that be powerful?

>

> If anyone wants to get involved with this, we have over two

months to plan this really well. Could be really fun, and it would

be a really great wake-up call to the " alternative " community that

should be embracing compassion rather than cruelty. Given that

SF is such a hotbed (har har) of hedonism,

> a large presence of our troops at the Folsom Street Fair could

really ruffle some feathers (mixing animal-unfriendly metaphors).

>

> Cheers,

> Alka

[Guest guest]

Addendum to my earlier post:

 

The film, " Blue Vinyl, " will screen Tuesday, July 30 at the SF Jewish Film

Festival (see below).

 

Rich

 

Tuesday July 30, 11:00 a.m.

PLASTIC PROBLEMS

 

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival presents " Blue Vinyl, " a comic film

about that links unlikely stories and characters across continents, race,

and class to uncover the impact of vinyl manufacturing and disposal on the

atmosphere, the food chain, and humans. Directed by activist Judith Helfand

and Daniel Gold. Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., San Francisco. $7.50. For

more information call 415/621-0556.