As a plant-based diet become more popular (3.4 percent of Americans are vegetarian or vegan, at last count), so do their representations in fiction. Don’t believe us? Here are nine fictional vegans and vegetarians fighting the good fight – whether it’s between the pages of a novel or onscreen.

1. Hazel Lancaster, “The Fault In Our Stars,” by John Green

The protagonist of the young adult novel and critical and commercial success “The Fault in Our Stars” suffers from stage four cancer throughout the story. As she comes face to face with her own mortality, as well as the mortality of those around her, she remains a stalwart vegetarian because, as she says she “wants to minimize the number of deaths (she) is responsible for.”

2. Jonathan Safran Foer, “Everything is Illuminated,” by Jonathan Safran Foer

Author Foer not only named the protagonist of his debut novel after himself; he also made the character Jonathan a vegetarian, something that emerges, rather uncomfortably, when Jonathan is dining in Ukraine and, after succumbing to a battery of questions about his diet, ends up having to order “a potato on a plate.”

3. Temperance Brennan, “Bones”

Temperance Brennan, nicknamed “Bones,” is a forensic anthropologist at the fictional Jeffersonian Institute in Washington D.C. After seeing how pigs are slaughtered over the course of a criminal investigation, Brennan vows to become a vegetarian.

One wonders if her portrayer, Emily Deschanel, had anything to do with this character decision as Deschanel herself has eaten a vegan diet since high school, when she read John Robbins’ “Diet for a New America.”

4. Rachel Berry, “Glee”

Rachel Berry may be another character whose portrayer had something to say about her diet, as both Rachel and Lea Michele are nominally vegan. Fans have noticed some inconsistencies on the show, when Rachel, for example, eats pizza or prepares duck, but Lea Michele has admitted to Shape that she’s an “on-and-off” vegan, too.

5. April Burns, “Pieces of April”

Usually, vegetarianism or veganism in a fictional context is just one part of a character, but in “Pieces of April,” it’s an essential part not only of Katie Holmes’ April but of the plot as a whole: the film tells the story of the vegetarian April’s journey to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the family she has never gotten along with. Her vegetarianism is just one of many things that makes April stand out from the rest of her family.

6. Ian Miller, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”

The highly quotable “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” features John Corbett as Ian Miller, the vegetarian fiancé of Nia Vardalos’ Toula. While his diet poses no problem for Toula, her “big fat Greek” family is horrified, particularly her Aunt Voula, who then, suddenly, seems placated and says, “That’s OK, I make lamb.”

7. Phoebe Buffay, “Friends”

Phoebe has long been one of our favorite TV vegans, from her songs in favor of plant-based living (“The cow in the meadow goes moo/Then the farmer hits him on the head and grinds him up, and that’s how we get hamburgers.”) to the stress of dealing with people who don’t care about her lifestyle, including future husband Mike’s family, who make veal for dinner when she comes to visit.

While Phoebe briefly deviates from her vegan diet while pregnant (but only after Joey becomes a vegetarian, so that she can consume only what he would normally be eating and thus feel like she isn’t contributing too much to the global meat consumption average), Phoebe is generally a stalwart supporter of the plant-based way of life.

8. Mr. Copeland, “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,” by Carson McCullers

Mr. Copeland’s vegetarian character in “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” actually very interestingly makes a concession that many plant-based eaters wouldn’t. When asked if he minds if his collard greens are cooked in meat, he says that while “for purely private reasons” he is a vegetarian, he is not bothered by this.

This reminds us of a lot of times when people have offered to serve us a portion of chicken soup without chicken in it, and it says a lot about Mr. Copeland’s character that he accepts rather than argues.

9. Mr. Spock, “Star Trek”

Apparently, the plant-based way of eating transcends interplanetary borders: Vulcan Mr. Spock was a vegetarian – makes sense, when you know that the Vulcans live with a philosophy of logic and nonviolence. It also makes sense that Spock was rather upset when he realized he had “eaten animal flesh and enjoyed it” in the episode, “All Our Yesterdays.”

Did we miss any of your favorite TV or book vegetarians or vegans? Share them with us on Facebook!

*Disclaimer: Help support EcoSalon! Our site is dedicated to helping people live a conscious lifestyle. We’ve provided some affiliate links above in case you wish to purchase any of these products.

Related on EcoSalon
Vegan and Vegetarian Foodies Aren’t Masking Eating Disorders: For the Last (Probably Not the Last) Time!
More Benefits of Being Vegetarian: You Live Longer and So Does the Environment (Hopefully!)
Vegan, Vegetarian, Paleo… US News Ranks Plant-Based Diets

The post 9 Fictional Proponents of a Plant-Based Diet (Only Fans Will Know #4!) appeared first on EcoSalon.

Column A new study links cooking shows and weight gain. Is the problem us, or what we’re watching?

Cooking at home is the best food choice you can make, right?

If you cook at home you can skip all the processed nasty stuff and focus on the good stuff. The real food. And with all the cookbooks and cooking shows out there, that has to be easy, right? That’s what we would like to think.

A new study published in the journal Appetite took a look at women who watched cooking shows, and how those cooking shows affected their health. The results were a bit disheartening.

“Our main finding is that it seems that if you watch food television and then actually cook the recipes that you see, you’re at risk for having a higher BMI [body mass index],” study author Lizzy Pope told NPR’s food blog The Salt, who asked the question “do TV cooking shows make us fat?” Pope is a researcher in nutrition and food science at the University of Vermont, and with her colleagues surveyed 500 women in their 20s and 30s.

The women were put into two categories. There were the “viewers,” those who watched for fun but didn’t necessarily cook at home, and the “doers,” those who watched and cooked from scratched. The doers were worse off than the viewers. Amongst those women, those who watched cooking shows and frequently cooked from scratch were found to have a higher BMI, about 11 pounds more than the women who just watched.

But given the research done on the link between cooking from scratch and a healthier diet, it raises an important question: if we’re watching all these cooking shows and cooking from them, but that cooking is making us fatter, what is wrong with these shows?

The issue is multi-faceted. To begin with, we have an unhealthy relationship towards nutrition. “Everything in moderation” is not a policy that most of us manage to master. Instead we live in a world of extremes, with overeating and regular indulgence at one end, and waking up at 4am to go to the gym and then do a 10-day juice fast on the other.

The popular cooking shows that most people watch are either Fancy Celebrity Chefs Making Things You Will Never Make At Home or Down Home Cooking That’s Good for Once In Awhile But Probably Isn’t Best As a Regular Eating Routine. Also, there’s Cupcake Wars. Take a look at the list of popular cooking shows and there isn’t much in the top 10, or even 20, that’s focused on balanced, nutritious eating.

Therein lies our problem. These shows simply aren’t teaching us how to eat better. Either they are putting chefs on a pedestal, or showcasing meals that are great for once in awhile, but aren’t part of an everyday balanced diet.

There is no show devoted to real, simple food. Or at least not one that I have found.

Of course, maybe that’s because real food isn’t sexy. The networks probably think it wouldn’t get very many views, but “Super Sloppy Joes” do, and that means ad dollars. Not to mention that it’s lucrative to cook poorly and then get sponsored by a pharmaceutical company that sells diabetes drugs.

If television cooking shows are making us fat, it’s because of the content. It’s not because people are cooking at home, it’s what they are cooking at home. Until we have more television shows focused on smart, healthy, real food – that’s both time efficient, budget-friendly, and yes, fun, all of which are doable – then we can just expect more of the same.

Which is why we should turn off the television and go back to the basics. Real food, made at home. Some butter on occasion, just as Julia would like it.

Related on EcoSalon

Important Lessons from Julia Child

The Truth About Good Fats and Bad Fats

A Subscription to Cooking with Paula Deen Anyone? Foodie Underground

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Alex Lines

The post What’s Wrong with Cooking Shows? Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s a golden age of television, and these are the 7 of the best TV shows to prove it.

I love TV. I also enjoy NPR, macrobiotic teas, and Instragramming the ingredients on natural beauty products. By all accounts, shouldn’t my TV stand now be a planter for my indoor organic herbal garden? Instead, a large flat-screen remains. Except it now streams more TV than the East River floats Doritos bags.

So when people tell me they don’t watch TV, I want to drag them to my herbal-planter-TV-stand and sit them down until they understand. What exactly? That we’re living in the Golden Age of best TV shows. That Tony Soprano is more than just a thug. That Walter White’s ambiguous morality matters. That Carrie Mathison’s cryface really is epic.

Really, what I want to do is to introduce them to binge watching.

With the advent of Netflix streaming, Hulu, and multiple seasonal DVD releases of shows, binge watching has inevitably taken up a spot in our cultural lexicon. Sure, some people frown on the act of mass-consuming a TV show all at once. In the most first-world, fin de siècle fashion, Slate recently bemoaned that “we’re ruining TV.” They sniffed that the binge-watching bandwagon destroys the integrity of a single episode, alongside other horrible, unnamed, possibly kitten-murdering deeds.

But I’d argue that binge watching a brilliantly-written or entertaining show is no different from going to the movies. For the movies, factor in travel, popcorn pit stops and the time it takes to glare at the person texting right in front of you, you’re looking at a minimum three hour investment. All the while, you’re (hopefully) not thinking about work, not checking your phone, not worried about the state of all things.

Stay in for an evening and indulge in two or three episodes of any hour-long drama, and it’s the same experience. And best of all, you don’t have to deal with travel, popcorn pit stops and the time it takes to glare at the person texting right in front of you. Are they trying to land a plane with their cell phone light beacons? Who is really to say.

Binge watching has, in fact, become so popular that the more recent television shows are starting to structure their entire seasons around this undertaking. “Arrested Development”, “Orange is the New Black”, and “House of Cards” were all released new seasons this year on Netflix streaming—and “House of Cards” recently received nine Emmy nominations, which Netflix trumpeted as a “win” for all Internet television.

But not every television show out there is worthy of a binge. You need stellar characters, engaging episodic arches, and a general ability to glue an audience to his or her seats. So what to watch?

1. “Breaking Bad”

Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher recently diagnosed with cancer. He turns to producing and selling methamphetamines to provide a financial legacy for his family. Currently airing its fifth and final season, “Breaking Bad” is available online on Amazon Prime. 

2. “Orange is the New Black”

Piper Chapman is a wasp-y New Yorker who once, years ago, transported a suitcase filled with drugs for an ex-girlfriend. Now she’s sent to prison for 15 months in Litchfield, New York. Based on a true story, the show is hailed as a “barrier-breaking” dramedy which incorporates the narratives of black, white, and transgendered women. Produced by Netflix, it’s available through the site.

3. “Game of Thrones”

Winter might be coming, but HBO’s critically-acclaimed “Game of Thrones” shows no signs of cooling. Based on George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novels, the show incorporates multiple story lines roughly set in the kingdoms of Westeros and Essos at the end of a decade-long summer. Sex, violence, and mythical creatures combine to make this a standing hit for the cable network, now three seasons in. You can watch it online at HBO Go.

4. “Downton Abbey”

This Masterpiece Theatre phenom for PBS relays the saga of the post-Edwardian Crawley family and their staff at their Yorkshire country estate. The Titanic sinks, World War I rages, and the Spanish Flu decimates, while romance and tragedy throw around more suds around than a washing machine in this soapy classic. The series is gearing up for its fourth season. You can watch it online at Hulu.com.

5. “Orphan Black”

The BBC scores another hit with this sci-fi Canadian import depicting the lives of several identical women, who all turn out to be clones in (what else?) a deadly illegal cloning conspiracy. The show is centered on Sarah Manning, a tough British con-artist who assumes the life of fellow clone (and cop) Elizabeth Childs after Childs commits suicide. The first season, which recently wrapped, is currently available on DVD from Netflix.

6. “Homeland”

This series for Showtime takes us through the life of Carrie Mathison, a bipolar Central Intelligence Officer on a quest to capture Sergeant Nicolas Brody. Carries believes that Brody is a former prisoner-of-war for al-Qaeda who is now brainwashed and threatening national security. What could go wrong? The series, which is two seasons in, is available on Amazon Prime.

7. “Portlandia”

Why should you watch IFC’s sketch comedy show “Portlandia,” which is also available streaming on Netflix? See above.

Do you binge watch? Follow Katherine on Twitter and tell her what shows she missed. 

photo credit: Alba Soler Photography via photopin cc

For further reading:
5 Happy Endings We’d Like to See for Breaking Bad

The 5 Best Beauty Products for a Downton Abbey Look

The post The 7 Best TV Shows to Binge Watch appeared first on EcoSalon.

Want rippling abs, heaving bodices and more sex and magic than Vegas? Here’s why you should be watching “The White Queen.”

History has been ruined by the modern age of television—and it is glorious. Sure, there’s the occasional serious historical drama with traumatizing small pox vaccinations and naked Benjamin Franklin in the bath. (Hat tip: HBO’s “John Adams.”) These productions massage our brains like an NPR-podcast, making us smarter by proxy of Laura Linney’s historically-accurate brown teeth.

Then there are other dramas that dress history in chiseled abs, heaving bodices, and more scene-chewing than a badger in a woodshop. Ladies and a few gentlemen, meet “The White Queen.”

Starz’s import from across the pond tells the story of Britain’s War of the Roses, but through the eyes of the womenfolk. A period piece set during the 30-year feud between the House of Plantagenet, there’s lots of magnificent hair, explosive acting, and impeccably-lit sex scenes where proper hygiene is never an issue.

We start off following the life of Elizabeth Woodville, a commoner who married King Edward IV in 1464. Elizabeth was a 27-year-old widow of fertile breeding who once sweet-talked the king under a tree while begging for land rights or something non-bosomy. The King, a cable TV-handsome youth who appreciated a good plea for real estate, was bewitched—possibly literally.

Elizabeth and Edward secretly married, everyone freaked, and power struggles abounded for the next two decades.

Over the ten-episode arc, we follow Elizabeth and Edward, but also Anne Neville (Faye Marsay), the daughter of the “Kingmaker” Warwick, as well Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale), who is the mother of the future king, Henry Tudor.

Starz, which just started airing the first episodes, crows that the “The White Queen” is told through these three “different, yet equally relentless women.” But critics haven’t exactly loved the ten-part series, which The New York Times found seriously “not-as” interesting, sharp, compelling, layered or adventurous as HBO’s wildly-successful “Game of Thrones.”

Well, yeah, if you take it seriously. But shall we compare a direwolf to a house cat? We shall not, because we’d miss out on some of the best reasons to watch “The White Queen.”

1. The hair.

Sure, “The White Queen” may not be a cinematic masterpiece to regale the senses. But check out Janet McTeer’s hair. The impeccable McTeer plays Elizabeth’s mother, Jacquetta Woodville, a character who also believes herself to be descended from a river goddess and therefore, magical.

But Jacquetta isn’t the only woman sporting elaborate braids and a bitchy attitude. “The White Queen” is ripe with characters whose lives are ones of “love and lust, seduction and deception, betrayal and murder.” Its Alexis and Krystle all over again, this time in a coronets and combs.

2. The scene chewing.

Sure, “The White Queen” boasts Oscar-nominated names like Janet McTeer and British mainstays like James Frain. McTeer in particular makes you buy what she’s selling, so much so that you feel like you’re watching a completely different production when she steps on screen.

But sans McTeer, it’s acted by lesser-knowns who would be just at home on a CW shoot or sparkling it up as a brooding vampire/wolf/elf. This means you get dialogue like “You will have to wade through blood!” uttered by gorgeous faces that are not only historically-inaccurately washed but probably steam-cleaned and pressed.

The actors are hammy, hilarious, and no one has nightmares after an unexpected red wedding or castration. Everyone wins!

3. The lads.

Beefcake, be thy muse. The White Queen and her co-horts may flash Pilates-sculpted derrieres at will, but their rugged male conspirators are the real draw. It’s like casting hung up a brooding beacon, immediately drawing in every chiseled-jaw Brit with a SAG card.

There’s Anthony Rivers (Ben Lamb), Elizabeth Woodville’s brother, keen in the ways of courtly behavior and political struggles. There’s King Edward IV (Max Irons) a “fierce solider” who follows his heart. Sprinkle in various sculpted Dukes and we have a fantastic medieval Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue.

4. The magic.

Magic. Sex. Seeing. “The White Queen” has it all. Sure, it may be considered (to be read in hushed tones) pagan, but the women of the War of the Roses know how to make life magical when necessary.

Usually, this happens at conveniently-plotted expository moments, like when Elizabeth stares dramatically into a mirror, while a woman covered in blood stares back at her and she thinks it is her own blood.

Or Jacquetta, armed with ominous music, mysteriously knows that the Duchess Cecily, mother of Edward IV, is a common whore who lay with an archer and cuckolded her husband. But how does she know this?

5. The sexy sex.

Want more skin and moans? Then be sure to stay on the revolutionary side of the Atlantic, because the Starz version has a lot more bang for your buck.

As Kind Edward (Max Irons) himself told the Metro via The Daily Beast, “You get a lot more arse in the Starz version—the cameras kept rolling after the BBC stopped the scene.”

(See also: “tastefully shot but historically dubious soft-core porn.”)

“The White Queen” airs Saturdays at 9pm on Starz. You can watch the first episode free online.

Photos courtesy of Starz.

For further reading:
Women on Film: Daenerys Targaryen Shows Us Strength

Best Braid Hairstyles for Grown-Up Girls

Follow Katherine on Twitter @KathieButler 

The post 5 Sexy Reasons to Watch ‘The White Queen’ appeared first on EcoSalon.

“Breaking Bad” is the best-written show currently residing on our small screens. Don’t agree? Then let us pour a glass of Schraderbrau and talk episodes. Or rather, let’s skip right to the end, which is likely to be as epic and well-crafted as the first four-and-a-half seasons of the best-written show currently residing on our small screens.

There are just eight more episodes for meth-makers Walter, Jesse and company before we learn the inevitable and guaranteed happy ending our characters all so richly deserve. Which is, of course, as likely as Badger and Skinny Pete joining Mensa.

So how will it all really end?

We have at least one clue. We know Walter fled out of state to “live free or die.” (Thank you, New Hampshire license plates, for your eloquent foreshadowing.) But we can dare to dream that our favorite New Mexicans will all ride off into the sunset alive and happy—or at least, alive?

Probably not. So let’s pretend for a hot meth-minute that creator Vince Gilligan’s brain was briefly high-jacked by Disney and that a peaceful end was possible.

After all, everyone deserves a happy ending on “Breaking Bad.” Just ask Mike Ehrmantraut. Gus Fring. Gale Boetticher. The Salamanca family. Ted Beneke. Jane Margolis. The people of Flight 515. One brave southwestern turtle…

1. Walter White: Dead Man Walking
We know things may not end well for drug kingpin Walter, mostly because the New Hampshire license plate makes it so. On the domestic front, his wife is praying for his cancer to return. Business-wise, he has the life expectancy of a fruit fly. Odds are heavily on the “die” part of “live free or die.”

Instead, Walter escapes Hank and his toilet-reading sleuthing to flee to Atlanta. He arrives just as a zombie outbreak takes down civilization.

Naturally, Walt becomes the leader of a new world order. It’s a world where long, boring, drawn-out conversations about morality are forbidden, replaced instead by more smashy-smash of zombie skulls.

You will remember his name—and it is Governor Heisenberg.

2. Skyler Gets Sweet Revenge (And a New Name)
Poor Skyler. Yes, she’s complicit on a thousand different levels and wow, does she have a taste for boys who like to cook. (Walter, meth. Ted, books.)

But one thing Walter White’s wife does really well is tragic, misguided morality. She starts out trying to do the right thing. But before you know it, she’s flashing cleavage at an IRS agent and embarking on a career as a car wash owner-slash-embezzler of millions.

(Maybe her confusion stems from the fact that she has the name of an Arizona State sorority girl instead of a middle-aged woman. Seriously, Vince Gilligan, her name should be Sandra or Pam. Not Skyler. Now be sure to consult me next time, thanks.)

So here’s what we’d like to see for Sandra Pam at the end of “Breaking Bad.” Fed up, she takes Walter out with a turtle bomb. With baby Holly and Walt Jr. in tow, she buys a Caribbean island with her giant cube of cash and happily lives out her days. Turns out, the money—it was enough.

3. Jesse Finds Love
When we last saw partner-in-crime Jesse Pinkman, Walt had just left $5 million at his house, probably hoping to soothe feelings over the tragic death of an innocent child or the yet-to-be-discovered murder of Jesse’s mentor, Mike. Take your pick!

Sure, Jesse has blood on his own hands, but he always plays with an ambiguity that lets you understand his motives. Even if it takes him a while to learn his lesson, which is always dissolve a body in hydrofluoric acid in a plastic barrel and never, ever in the bathtub.

So rather than meeting his end over a barrel, Jesse could find romance. He is busted by Hank and sent to prison for life. Once there, he falls in love with the prison hair stylist, a pre-transition transsexual inmate named Sophia.

Jesse and Sophia live happily ever after, because orange is the new black and black is not the color of Jesse’s heart. Not really.

4. Hank Schrader, Poet Performance Artist
Our favorite DEA agent and brother-in-law Hank Schrader has had a helluva time of it. He’s been harassed, mocked, and discouraged for his relentless search for his white whale, Heisenberg.

Meanwhile, the meth king himself has been drinking his home-brews all along in Hank’s very own backyard. Hank has endured the temporarily loss of his legs in a shoot-out and more exploding turtle parts than is really necessary.

So what Hank really needs is a break. We already know that he achieved clarity about Walter’s identity while sitting on the toilet. But what we learn is that this life-altering moment also came with a deep sense of purpose about his own life.

So Hank decides, after reading “Leaves of Grass,” to give up his pursuit of Walter/Heisenberg. Instead, he becomes a celebrated poet. He spends his time on street corners, happy and fulfilled, shouting “Song of Myself” against the roar of the Albuquerque crowds. Breaking Bad? More like breaking mad poetry beats, yo.

5. Marie Brings Purple Love to the People
Hank’s wife and Skyler’s sister Marie seems to be finally getting her life together. She wore a yellow shirt in the mid-season finale, which means she’s either finally throwing off the purple shackles of her intense neurosis or Breaking Bad costume designer Kathleen Detoro has been replaced by Big Bird.

But when Walt is revealed as a drug kingpin and Skyler as his money man, Marie flees back to the safety of her lavender preferences.

But this time, she doesn’t mess around. Marie opens a Purple Palace Emporium of decorative spoons and baby tiaras. It becomes wildly successful overseas, and Marie builds her own storage cube of cash.

She divorces Hank, leaves New Mexico, and marries a buff Swedish masseur name Olaf who enjoys a shirtless life in, naturally, a purple sarong.

Photos courtesy of AMC

For further reading:

The Top 12 Tear-Jerker Movies

Women in Film: The Best Way to Make Your Point

‘Orange Is the New Black’—And I’m Addicted: That Happened …

The post 5 Happy Endings We’d Like to See for ‘Breaking Bad’ appeared first on EcoSalon.

Cake Boss is a suspenseful, action-packed series, all about cake. Cake! White or dark filled, spongy or dense, gooey, nicely decorated cake. Will it make it to the city fete on time despite the impossible last minute change orders? Will the nitwit nephew Anthony drop the platter and be made to pay a heavy price? Sorry. It’s just cake.

Still, we care enough about the drama to make dirty ice and fondant household words. Humans who once cheered for Betty Crocker are throwing sophisticated cake designing parties with the works, competing for best decorations while impersonating dough boy icon, Buddy Valastro, who provides the sweet inspiration. He’s the boss! Yep, superman now wear a chef’s coat and a pompadour and wields a rolling pin. I guess Marie Antoinette was onto something. The people won’t have as much fun with bread.

And so, the phenomenon has taken the boutique cake concept a step further to transmogrify the tiered and frosted celebratory dessert into interactive iced sculpture. After all, it starts with an artist’s sketch, just like real art, and ends with a cavity and a pound or two.

But no matter how you slice it, the short-lived presentation (a band of Italian men trotting into a 50th anniversary with a giant cake shaped like an accordion) is followed by mounds of waste (big sob), not to mention what goes into the super size daily batter: vats of eggs, pounds of butter and countless bags of sugar.

The adorable host, who boasts that winning combo of artistic genius and serious addiction to chocolate, convinces us there is a great demand for the extravagant custom cakes he builds best. But we all know as reality shows go, there is an ultra fine line between reality and half-baked plots hatched by producers. Rod Serling called this middle place the Twilight Zone. Heidi Klum calls it Project Runway.

On Cake Boss, we’re led to believe customers demanded a colossal Roman Coliseum, a kitschy and slimy aquarium, a vast USA train town and an upscale botanical garden. When delivered, the truly masterful creations had recipients dizzy headed with delight, drooling like mad Pit Bulls over a delicious Pug puppy.

Meantime, I’m done with the twenty questions. The edible train cars forged from something labeled cereal treats and human figures carved out of modeling chocolate don’t look like a food group to me. Seriously, would you swallow a giant sugar diamond Buddy carved for a man who proposed at Carlo’s Bakery via a custom cake? Didn’t his girlfriend think something was fishy in Hoboken when the bright camera lights hit her?

Alright, so we can agree much of the hit show is staged, and we can also admit the awesome cakes are not sustainable museum pieces (freezing the top of the wedding cake for a year doesn’t count).

I suppose you could argue Buddy’s job is to sell cakes and his customers must decide whether to donate leftovers to the needy – people who still appreciate Betty Crocker but won’t turn up their noses at a slab of red velvet cake, molded into a six-foot hero sub sandwich.

The good news from a desperate recession standpoint is the made-in-America cake biz is thriving (Buddy is getting set for a new book tour) while keeping a sizable kitchen crew of kin out of the unemployment lines. Hey, that’s what famiglia does!

The bad news is the white powdery substance being peddled by the Boss is considered the most harmful legal drug for the body. Just keep it under wraps, kids. If the other bosses in the hood find out, they may want to take over Carlo’s Bakery, and viewers who have witnessed Buddy’s  four older sisters in action, know it could get hella ugly. I’m not ready for the spin-off show, Cake Boss Wars. Are yooze?

Images: Derek Purdy

The post In Review: Cake Boss appeared first on EcoSalon.

Just because your guilty pleasure is watching “The Bachelorette,” that doesn’t mean you must have your television sitting center stage in your living room the other six days of the week. Check out these five clever ways to disguise or outright hide your TV when it’s not in use.

Stashing the boob tube in the fireplace is a common approach when you want to make the TV disappear into the decor. Interior designer Kelly Giesen took the idea a step further and installed a faux fireplace around the television with the express purpose of using it to hide the box. A mirrored fireplace grate rests in front of the TV when not in use for an elegant look that ties together the whole room.

If you’ve got paneled walls, see if there’s any dead space behind it – say, underneath a staircase, for instance. If so, consider burrowing into the wall and creating a platform for television storage. Put the missing wood panels on hinges or sliders so they’ll stash out of the way for easy TV viewing.

If you’ve got room for an extra piece of furniture, have a look at these elegant media centers by Reversica. They’re specifically designed to look like cabinets and bookshelves, with a little James Bond magic behind the shelving. When you’re ready to watch TV, just spin the bookcase around 180 degrees to expose the set, then hide it again when you’re done.

Finally, two-way mirrors are good for something besides watching criminals be interrogated in jail. Several companies now manufacture special mirrors meant to be permanently mounted in front of TV screens that disappear once the set is turned on. This is a perfect look for televisions mounted over a fireplace shelving unit, or other wall space where a large mirror is a natural fit.

Show your appreciation of art by covering your TV with a painting when it’s not in use. For about seven grand, you can get your favorite still life imprinted on a screen that rolls up and down in front of the television – kind of like a window shade.

Image: Terren in Virginia

The post 5 Clever Ways to Hide Your Television appeared first on EcoSalon.

Green Acres was the place for me in the sixties, light years ahead of its time as a green comedy. A savvy businessman is fed up with the rat race of the concrete jungle, flees Park Place and whisks his dilettante wife to Hooterville to grow their own food, befriend local yokels like con man Mr. Haney and Arnold the pig and live a simpler, yet more abundant life. It was a hoot. Who in the Camelot era wanted to live with such sacrifices?

Years later, the earnest eco revolution has spawned a new brand of humor (it’s just that hip!) as we parody the seemingly all-consuming agenda, as in the Audi Green Police ad shown during the Super Bowl. It lampooned the campaign for reusable bags, keeping water consumption down and using low energy appliances. I thought it was poignant because we have gone to extremes at times with the monitoring of consumption. It takes extremes to save the planet, and if humor works, make em laugh!

In addition to the Audi ad, eco humor has seeped into various sitcom story lines and entertainment specials. Among my faves: Saturday Night Live’s Chewable Pampers (all great taste and no waste in eco-friendly containers); and F*ck The Earth Day with old coot Jack English: In the spoof ad for celebrating the day after Earth Day in April, he tells us to ignore the hippie alarmists and do what makes us feels good – like leaving the lights on, driving a hummer and pouring oil on a duck.

And then, there is the new breed of stand-up comics, finding unlimited material in the green lane.

Take Bob Hirschfeld, a self-described business satirist-turned eco satirist, who offers his Funny Green Business presentations at corporate conferences held by Forbes, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Cox Communication, Honda, and IBM to name a few.

Bob makes audiences laugh at the inconsistencies woven into the eco agenda pointing to well-intended solutions aimed at lowering our footprints. “I was at a bookstore where I got the book, 100 ways to Save the Planet,” he recalls. “Number one was buy less paper! So I returned the book.” He also takes harmless stabs at LED bulbs (how many dollars does it take to screw in a lightbulb?); the complexities of sorting plastics for recycling and the embarrassment of low-flow potties not really doing the job of flushing waste in just one flush – especially at dinner parties where your hosts question why you’re taking so long. You can watch his spiel here:

Convention Connection in Malibu, CA which books Bob and other acts, says it gets many requests for green speakers for events, and stand-up brand humor is an added bonus. “Any speaker or entertainer tries to look at the trends, and green is certainly in,” observes booking agent, Kiela Hine. “Humor for all times has tried to make light of things that are difficult and that is a good thing.”

Brings to mind the song Smile, Charlie Chaplin’s theme music for his last silent picture, Modern Times about a tramp struggling to live in modern industrialized society. The song asks, what’s the use of crying? If you light up your face with gladness, you will see the sun come shining through. If Chaplin only knew to what extent we have screwed the divine paradise we have been gifted. I can laugh about it here and there, Charlie. But it is hard to hide the sadness and just smile.

Images: Sitcoms Online, Edna Purviance

The post Eco Humor: The Lighter Side of Green appeared first on EcoSalon.

This week Green TV showed us two kinds of eco-disasters. An HBO drama tackled the environmental devastation in New Orleans and Planet Green exposed crimes against tigers.

“Treme” Shows Perseverance in the Face of Nature’s Fury

HBO’s New Orleans drama Treme may not seem like a straightforward choice for “I Want My Green TV.” But with everything that’s been going on in the Gulf with the BP Oil Spill, it’s hard not to think about the hardships the fine citizens of the Big Easy have endured over the last few years.

After all, the spill is not the first man made disaster to happen in New Orleans in 2005. Yes, Mother Nature sent Katrina but she didn’t build the insufficient levees. And there certainly are government agencies that could have chipped in then (and now) to help rebuild faster, more efficiently, and much more in tune with ongoing local environmental concerns – Brad Pitt and his Make it Right housing development aside.

Treme takes place in the aftermath of Katrina, and this week’s episode, “All on a Mardi Gras Day,” celebrated Fat Tuesday – almost six months to the day of the devastating hurricane. The show rode a lot of emotional ups and downs as characters embraced the spirit of the day while reconciling the recent devastation of their homes and families.

Every week, the series shows the delicate balance between the ugly truth of a city ravaged by environmental fury and the beauty of the healing power of human perseverance. As John Goodman’s character pointed out to his daughter, “It’s good to get out and see the destruction. It’s good. Get off the isle of denial every once in a while and be reminded how much of this city is still wrecked.”

Planet Green Doc Exposes Illegal Tiger Trade

This past weekend, Planet Green premiered the award-winning documentary, Dangerous Trade. In the hour-long film, a team of eco-crime investigators from the Environmental Investigation Agency (a sort modern day Green “Mod Squad”) investigate the seedy underworld of illegal tiger trades in China.

What they find is infuriating, horribly sad, and highly profitable. And there lies the reason why it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. According to the doc, China is the largest consumer of tiger products for skins, taxidermy, and medicine. And apparently the military turns a blind eye to the issue for their own profit and political reasons.

Ironically, this is the Chinese Year of the Tiger and with three subspecies already extinct and only an estimated 3,100 of the glorious animals left in the world – yes, we said the world – ending the illegal tiger trade is more important than ever. This fall there will even be a Global Tiger Summit in Russia (who knew?!) to commit to taking action toward saving the tiger.

We’re guessing somewhere that Tony is screaming, “that’s grrrrrrreat!”

Tune in next time to see what’s cropping up on green TV.

Image: Tryburn

The post I Want My Green TV: From Louisiana Disasters to the Tiger Trade appeared first on EcoSalon.