Though it may seem obvious that we as Americans and/or inhabitants of an Americanized world are aware of our growing predisposition to consumerism, Annie Leonard's 'Story of Stuff' is an important and informatively concise 20-minute crash course in conscience consumerism. As someone who has certainly justified unnecessary purchases to compensate for a bad day, I highly recommend viewing this. Leonard initiates an insightful reminder of the environmental and socio-economic backlash to our culture's impulsive and destructive consumerism. While she provides the basics, it's up to us to offset this unhealthy self-indulgence and shift our focus to global awareness and sustainability.


Here are some helpful info-sites I enjoy in my quest for knowledge and conscience consumption:

The Better World Shopper: this $10 book breaks down the impact of companies and exposes the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the scenes.

Orion Magazine: The Gospel of Consumption by Jeffery Kaplan

Insider Guide to Austin: Organic Food, Special Groceries and Sustainable Living

Lauren Bush's FEED 100 bags available at Whole Foods: each purchase of a $29.99 FEED 100 reusable shopping bag will help provide 100 nutritious meals to children in Rwanda.

Toms Shoes: for each pair you purchase, a child in need will also receive a pair.

Goods For Good: helps get excess goods from the United States to children in need.

Saturday was a true test of stamina. We steadily and consistently drank for a good thirteen hour run. Kate, Margaret and I started things off at a barbecue on the Endymion parade route. The barbecue was at a stunning house designed by Byron Mouton. I commented on the clean, rustic design, comparing it to something from the pages of Dwell, to find out that Mouton has in fact been featured in the magazine on three occasions. I definitely appreciate smart, minimalistic design. I actually got to meet Mouton after learning this background info, and thought that was a real treat.

The location of the house was conveniently positioned at the beginning of the parade route, which allowed us to casually enjoy ourselves without prematurely surrendering to the insanity of the crowds. It was a really relaxing scene and great weather. After Kate left us to go to work, I mingled and actually learned a lot about the logistics of Mardi Gras, which made me feel less bad about our freeloading.

I'd never taken the time to think about the traditional and socio-economical aspects of it all. Basically Mardi Gras is a series of parades and each one is thrown by a different carnival organization. The particular parade we went to yesterday was Endymion. It's the largest parade of them all, making it one of the most coveted organizations. Because of it's ranking, it is very expensive to join, I believe I was told it costs somewhere in the realm of $2,500 annually. I had never even considered the people on the floats, let alone think that they were paying to be on the floats. AND on top of that, they personally spend hundreds to thousands on the loot they toss. THEN get this, as they were setting up and unloading their floats, putting the beads and loot in easy to reach places, they carelessly threw the bags from which they came onto the ground because state prisoners will later clean the streets. Talk about a socio-economic break down. Interesting, huh? I think so.


As we walked around the floats before the parade actually started moving, it was a very family friendly atmosphere. This is primarily because it was still day time and not downtown. However, one group of guys did request that we flash them to initiate a newbie on their float. No dice, buddy. We told them to work on their approach strategy.