NYC, my new home.

Beautiful, eerie night in NYC.

I've been thinking about an NYC relocation since I left L.A. in August, and now seems like as good a time as any to give it a try. But when I came up for the weekend two weekends ago, I had every intention of going back to South Carolina for, I don't know, at least the rest of January. I'm lucky to have a handful of very good friends who already live here who were gracious enough to let me crash on their couches at the last minute while I looked for a sublet.

Traveling and staying with friends and being unsettled for the past two weeks has, needless to say, been a little trying on the living mindfully front, but I've done my best. I've managed to keep my Meatless Mondays going — even if I was chowing down on pizza. But I've been eating out a lot, which needs to change. Recycling has been a little harder — still trying to figure out exactly what can and cannot be recycled at my new place. And I haven't yet worked up the courage to suggest composting to my brand-new roomies, which just feels strange not to do now that I've been composting since October — I cringe a little every time I go to throw an apple core into the waste basket.

NYC will undoubtedly pose some serious challenges, but there are a few things I'm really excited about:

1. Public transportation and a city built for walking.
2. The Union Square Greenmarket — which runs four days a week!
3. Roof-top farms. Here's one that I want to check out.
4. Proximity to my favorite place on Earth — only three hours by train or bus to Montauk.

Wish me luck!

The mighty bottle return

59 bottles to return.

In New York, there is a 5 cent deposit on cans and even many plastic bottles. Since I'm packing up to head south for the winter, I had to take all the cans back so I could get the deposit back on them. And since I didn't buy any of these beverages (some came from my beach cleanups, but most from when my parents' friends were visiting), I made a bit of a profit. 

Unfortunately, some of the beach cleanup cans were ineligible for return since they were pretty beat up and the machine couldn't read the bar code. Which is a little annoying, seeing as the machine reads the bar code and then smashes the can after anyway.

At the end of the day: + $2.75 to me! 

Plastic Beach

Apropos art in Share With...

Saturday, I stopped into Share With..., one of my favorite shops in Montauk. Share With... is a small store that boasts sustainable, recycled, handmade, local and eco-friendly products. I snapped the photo above when I was there once earlier in October, but this time I got to ask about this "Plastic Beach" art, made from plastic lighter casings, and I was told that "Plastic Beach" is actually the name of a company that sells jewelry pieces at the store — made from plastic found on the beach, of course.

I've been trying to find out more about this Plastic Beach group via web search with no success. I knew they didn't have a website, but the guy in the shop assured me I'd be able to find out more about them if I did a Google search. But I keep getting results that send me over to the Gorillaz, who have a new album out by the same name, instead. Interesting video — check it.

I've been thinking a lot about what I should be doing with all this plastic I'm collecting from the beach. I recycle what I can, of course, but it seems like a shame to send the bits that can't be recycled into the landfill. It occurred to me during a bike ride a few weeks ago (along a stretch of highway littered with even more plastic stuff) that maybe I could start making something beautiful from it. Art, jewelry, etc. I'm glad to see others, like these Plastic Beach designers, are already doing this. And here is more artful inspiration from a couple who has been doing this sort of thing for years.

Share With... does not have a website either, but here is a nice writeup from the East Hampton Star.

From 'trash' to art

I had a rare moment tonight, in which I got to listen to NPR — a favorite pastime of mine when I used to get stuck in hours of traffic on my way home from work in L.A.

I got to hear Kai Ryssdal's beautiful voice on Marketplace (he looks different in person than I would have imagined), but I also got to hear this interesting story about a documentary about men and women in Brazil who sift through the largest landfill in the world in Rio de Janeiro looking for recyclables, and the work of Brooklyn-based artist Vik Muniz, who photographed and created fine art based on the photographs and using trash from the landfill.

For the men and women in this documentary, this is a way of making a living — they sell the recyclables to wholesalers. For Muniz, his work is ostensibly a way to make a difference in these people's lives. It's inspiring to see something so beautiful coming out of/being inspired by the "pickers'" work.

Listen to the story:

Watch the trailer:

WASTE LAND Official Trailer from Almega Projects on Vimeo.

"Waste Land" opened in New York today. I enjoyed hearing about it. Now, I look forward to (hopefully) seeing it.

www.wastelandmovie.com