Capturing time.

“We have these magnificent hearts that pump through all sorrow and all our winters we are alive on the earth. We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded.”

-Natalie Goldberg

Image: Garrett Gill

The post Capturing a Moment appeared first on EcoSalon.

#whatcenturyarewein
We’re Exorcising Abortion Clinics Now
from Jessica Wakeman at The Frisky

#collaborationleadstocreativity
The Social Networks of Emily Dickinson, Paul Gauguin & Charlotte Bronte
from Keith Sawyer at The 99 Percent

#andwethoughttheywerejustpeople
Women: Objects with People-Like Traits
from Jessica Winter at Time

#buylocal
Design, Food and Small Business: An Interview with Brooklyn Slate
from Eleanor at Design Milk

#bizstoneatsxsw
Change is a Triumph of Humanity
from Alyson Shontell at Business Insider

Want more? Catch all our recommended reads in the We Heart This section, updated daily. Want to tip your editors? Send links to tips@ecosalon.com

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Daytime soaps are slowly dying off.

Their characters have survived murder plots, committed adultery, been in car accidents, gotten married and divorced, had illegitimate babies, forged friendships and alliances, lied, schemed, and betrayed those closest to them. Now, after all the drama, soap operas themselves are dying from old age. Slickly packaged primetime, the vast possibilities via internet for streaming movies, and social media are all luring viewers away and making soaps look stodgy, stilted, and slow.

In April, ABC announced that cancellation of two of its staple, long-running soaps, One Life to Live and All My Children. Although daytime soap operas have been declining in popularity for years, this decision is a death knell. The remaining soaps on the air are most likely living on borrowed time.

Serial stories got their start on the radio, before moving to TV where soaps got their name because many of the early advertisers were companies who made soap. Soaps became a staple of daytime programming in the 1950’s while many women were staying at home and kept them company as if the characters were actual friends.

Progressive in Their Time

Soaps broke new ground on many topics, including rape, domestic violence, and abortion. A typical viewer spent an hour following their favorite characters every day, invested in their triumphs and their heartbreaks. Story lines often took months to come to a head or be resolved and some fans felt so strongly about certain characters that they sent care packages to poor characters and accosted villainous actors in real life for their misdeeds on the small screen.

Time Magazine’s Television: Sex and Suffering in the Afternoon, reported that a break in programming for any reason, even when it was to announce the attempted assassination of President Ford, caused network switchboards to light up with calls from angry viewers. After the announcement in April 2011 canceling the two shows, fans have been up in arms – even imploring Oprah to save their beloved shows. She responds, essentially, that soaps have lived a good (financial) life, but they don’t make money and it was time to let them go.

Fans did however, get support from an unexpected, sentimental ally. Hoover vacuums pulled all of their ads from ABC in protest, and set up an email link for fans to air their unhappiness. Their vice president of marketing, Brian Kirkendall, cited the reason as “listening to what their customers wanted,” but admitted that there was another, more sentimental reason. His wife and mother, along with many employees at Hoover, were loyal viewers.

Some characters will never be forgotten. Salon’s Mary Williams lauds soap legend Susan Lucci as “one of television’s first unself-consciously feminist characters.” Onscreen she was a force for forty years, her character went after what she wanted without compunction or apology. Lucci was nominated for an Emmy more than 20 times, winning only once in 1999. Off screen, she was the first major television personality to have a legal abortion in 1973.

Man’s Best Friend

The soap format continued to grow in popularity for the next several decades and picked up legions of male viewers. After the advent of the VCR, even those who worked could tune in. In 1976, Time reported that daytime television was much more profitable than its primetime counterparts. Viewers came from all walks of life. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall took judicial breaks to watch Days of Our Lives, Sammy Davis Jr. guest starred on his favorite show Love to Life, and Texas Governor John Connally and Andy Warhol followed As the World Turns.

New Media, New Women

As new forms of media rose in popularity, soap viewership declined. No new daytime soaps have been created since 1999. By 2004, Ad Week was wondering where all the female viewers had gone. This spelled trouble as most of the male viewers had already moved on to other forms of entertainment. Women are working more today and have more sophisticated interests. Instead of developing a one-sided relationship with soap characters, viewers now have email, webcams, social networks, and online games in which to interact with people who actually talk back.

In the new millennium of reality TV, slick CSI animations, and big budget television productions, soaps have faded into the background. Primetime shows are shinier, more intense, and move faster, while daytime TV’s colors are fading, its snail’s pace too plodding for a new generation that wants shock, action, drama, and answers immediately. If a story line takes six months to resolve on a soap, that’s the equivalent of five and a half seasons of primetime programming. While many women are out being the breadwinners or focused more on super-educating their children to use every brain cell possible, women are realizing that not only are daytime soaps a major time suck, time is of the essence and TV takes up too much of their own prime time.

Infact, studies have been in place for some time showing the demise of the soap watching housewife. Back in 2006, the New York Times reported that about 75 percent of women 25 to 54 years old were either working or actively seeking a job, (up from around 40 percent in the late 1950’s), and the percentage of single mothers in the work force jumped to more than 75 percent from 63 percent. With the increase in out-of-home work comes the second challenge of keeping another company running smoothly: the home. Fit in an afternoon soap? Not going to happen.

The demise of the soap opera is upon us, (even the name makes us chuckle), and we are a new breed of woman who distributes time in the most efficient way possible. Educated or not, social media savvy or not, the modern day woman wants more if she’s going to sit down and waste time.

image: ellenm1

The post After All The Drama, Soaps Are Dying Of Old Age appeared first on EcoSalon.

While the New Year has provided the typical fashion media’s pause for reflection, coverage for the sustainable fashion movement is enjoying a few more toasts and moments of celebration.

Champagne Lifestyles. Don’t you think the Golden Globes’ red carpet fashion could have used a little more green? And I’m not talking about the emerald dresses sported by Angelina Jolie, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Elizabeth Moss. The best news about Colin Firth’s win for the Kings Speech? The spotlight will be more brightly focused on his dedicated green-living wife, Livia Firth, and her Eco Age store which offers sustainable fashion and domestic solutions.

Congrats! Along with mentoring the newly launched Awamaki Lab Initiative, Study NY designer Tara St. James won the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award for Sustainable Design. Along with seven New York-based designers who will each receive the $25,000 grant towards production of their runway show at February’s New York Fashion Week.

Hitting the big TIME. Discussions about the need for greener fashion are increasingly penetrating the mainstream media. Levi’s Water Less Jeans have garnered a steady stream of discussion-provoking coverage since the advance news of their launch hit the airways culminating in this week’s issue of TIME.

Bottoms up! Three U.K. mass market chains are broadening the reach of ethical fashion. After the well-received upcycled line From Somewhere, the popular supermarket chain Tesco announced the launch of a capsule collection from Goodone, made from factory surplus and off cuts.

Pharrell Williams’s sustainable Fabric company, Bionic Yarn, is teaming up with retailer Topshop to launch a three-piece denim collection with this season’s 70s style detailing. Retailer M&S is also launching a 70s influenced sustainable line, Indigo Green. The 15-piece collection will be made from organic, fair trade and sustainable sourced fabrics.

Image: Matt From London

The post From Niche to Mainstream: A Toast to Sustainable Fashion appeared first on EcoSalon.

I may not have been an early bird since birth, but after years of training myself to jump-start my day, my body naturally wants to get a move on as soon as it’s light outside. In fact, I’m now almost incapable of sleeping past 8 a.m.

Some people may consider that a tragic flaw, but I enjoy getting up early. I like not being rushed as I prepare for work, and I enjoy the morning hour when I’m alone in the office. For some people, waking up early isn’t the easiest lifestyle to sustain, but for those who can stick it out, it offers a bevy of benefits.

More “Me” Time

While my fiancé is hitting the snooze button repeatedly, I’m taking a leisurely shower, tidying up around the house, and catching up on last night’s Daily Show. When you wake up early, without phone calls, emails, or pestering family members, the time is yours to spend as you please, whether you meditate, exercise, read, or simply watch that television show your spouse hates. Many parents of young children find that the early-morning hours provide their only chance to enjoy a cup of coffee or relax alone before the day begins.

Regular Workouts

People’s motivation to exercise is high first thing in the morning. Many report that they are more likely to stick to a morning workout routine than to an afternoon or evening one, since distractions have a way of derailing later plans to get to the gym. Also, although it hasn’t been proven, some exercise physiologists believe that exercising in the morning on an empty stomach forces the body to burn stored fat, instead of other calories.

A study published in the November 2006 issue of the journal SLEEP found that exercising in the morning led to better sleep at night. The researchers theorized that the morning activity helped to properly align the body’s circadian rhythms. Test subjects who postponed exercise until the evening actually had a more difficult time falling asleep.

An Easier Commute

In some cities, the difference between a breezy, quick commute and total gridlock can be as little as fifteen minutes. Getting up early to beat traffic makes commuting not only more relaxing and peaceful, but also safer. Stressed driving, either because of traffic conditions or because the driver is running late, can lead to aggressive behavior, speeding, and poor decision making, increasing the chance of accidents. For those who rely on public transportation to get to work, getting up early can mean the difference between grabbing a seat on a nearly empty train or bus and cramming in next to strangers, holding on to the strap for dear life.

The Benefit of Breakfast

When you sleep in and hurry out the door, breakfast is often one of the first parts of the morning routine to go, and many people who sleep in very late end up skipping breakfast altogether and waiting until lunchtime to eat. Yet countless studies have demonstrated the positive effects of eating a healthy breakfast: people who do so tend to feel fuller, make better food choices throughout the day, and be a healthier weight than non-breakfast eaters. Waking up early gives us the benefit of time and energy to put together a healthy breakfast, instead of grabbing fast food or forgoing the meal entirely.

Family Matters

When you have time in the morning to tidy up the house, start prepping for dinner, or do errands, you can use the extra evening hours to relax and have fun with your partner, your kids, or your friends. Most people would probably rather spend their evenings enjoying a movie or eating a leisurely family dinner than doing housework. Getting your chores done at the beginning of the day makes those activities more possible.

High Productivity

In 2007, Yahoo! Finance surveyed twenty CEOs and high-powered executives at companies like Pepsi, Motorola, Avaya, and Xerox. One thing that all of them had in common was that they were all awake before 6 a.m. They used that time to get ahead on email, exercise, read the paper, or take care of family chores. All of the survey respondents said that getting up early was absolutely essential to their productivity.

A Brainpower Boost

There’s also some evidence that our brains are at their peak performance in the morning hours. In a study conducted at the University of North Texas, college students who reported getting up early had higher GPAs than students who slept in regularly.

Less Stress

When you get up early, you set a relaxed and comfortable pace for the whole day. Between getting yourself ready for work, getting your kids ready for school, commuting to work, and doing all the other things that have to happen before 9 a.m., things can get pretty stressful. Reducing stress has a big effect on health, since stress can result in headaches, stomachaches, hair loss, high blood pressure, and anxiety and can exacerbate other chronic ailments. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that stress-related conditions cost American businesses about $300 million every year. When you build extra time into your morning routine, you don’t feel like you’re rushing everywhere.

The biggest benefit of being a morning person is that the world operates on your schedule. Night owls may love sleeping till noon, but it’s a fact that most of life happens during the daytime, and if you’re not awake and ready, opportunity can pass you by. Waking up early isn’t the easiest thing to do, and even those of us who enjoy being early birds occasionally have days when we’re tempted to hit the snooze button (again). But it’s nice to know that once we’re out of bed, the world is ours for a few brief, shining moments “¦ at least, until everyone else wakes up.

Article by Allison Ford for DivineCaroline. First published March 2010.

Related DivineCaroline posts:

• Nine Ways to Wake Up Earlier
• The Truth Behind Night Owls and Morning People
• Sleep tight: Creating the Perfect Bed

Image by: Joe Marinaro

The post Morning Magic: 8 Reasons Why the Early Bird Gets the Worm appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s hard to imagine in our highly-scheduled age, but there once was a time without ticking clocks and calendars. Rather, we counted the passing of days via simple observation – watching the Sun and the Moon.

Instead, our wacky Gregorian calendar marks time such that we rely on mnemonic devices (30 days hath September…). On the other hand, marking time by the moon is undeniable. Either it’s new or full, waxing or waning. We only have to look up at night to see it.

And each moon has its own season, depending on where you live. Place-dependent and based on personal observation, renaming the Moons is a fantastic way to forge a deeper connection with the particularities of nature in the place that you live.

Call it natural time. And make it playful.

I happen to live in a fairly lush canyon in northern Arizona, so here are my Moons.

January: Icy Moon
February: Flooding Creek Moon
March: Cherry Blossom Moon
April: Iris Moon
May: Planting Moon
June: Scorching Moon
July: Monsoon Moon
August: Blackberry Moon
September: Harvest Moon
October: Moon of the Colored Maples
November: The Moon of Woolly Sweaters
December: Long-Nights Moon

Tell us where you live and how you name your Moons!

Image: Envios

The post Set Your Calendar to the Moon appeared first on EcoSalon.