ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN LIFE,
ESPECIALLY NOTHING.

-- MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ

CELEBRATING EARTH DAY

A bagful of  bags & wrappings made from
 non-recyclable plastic.

Today is Earth Day and a fitting way to celebrate is to
commit to doing our small part to save the planet.

For example, we could start by reducing the use of plastic.

Plastic, in every shape & size, is part of our daily lives. The
food we eat and drink is sold in plastic, medicines are
dispensed in plastic bottles,  and even clothing these days is
made with recycled plastic.

The problem is that plastic takes centuries to degrade and it is
choking our landfills.

One way of cutting back on plastic, for example, is to buy
food or juices that are sold in glass containers, rather than plastic.
Once the product is consumed, those glass jars make fine
storage units for leftovers and all sorts of things around the house.

Washing detergents usually are marketed in plastic but some
come in cardboard containers; choose those instead of plastic.

You may not be able to do this with all foods but to the extent
that you can, lower the amount of plastic that you bring into
the home. If more people did that, companies might become alert
to the fact that, environmentally speaking, cardboard and glass
are more friendly than plastic.

Stop buying single-use plastic water bottles. Instead, carry your
own little glass bottle and if you take it to the office, refill it at
the water cooler. It would be grand if supermarkets and restaurants
were to provide a service refilling glass bottles with water for a
small price so if you are out on the street, there would be no need
to buy water sold in plastic bottles.

These of course are small gestures but if they were repeated daily
by millions of people then we would begin to make a dent in
the problem of plastic.

Here are some statistics to consider:

-- About 300 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide each
year.

-- Of the plastic that is thrown away, an estimated 7 million ends
up in the ocean each year.

-- Americans used around 50 billion plastic water bottles a year
yet the U.S. recycling rate for plastic is 23%.

Plastic, plastic everywhere. Isn't it time we cut down on it?

That's the secret,

you follow the words.

Bernard Malamud,

The Tenants 

 ☛ GOOD PRODUCTS: LUIGI VITELLI SPAGHETTI

       This is a tasty, every day brand of pasta that has the virtue
       of being quite inexpensive. If you shop at Pueblo stores in San
       Juan you can find it in the dry pasta section for 99 cents.
     
       Buon appetito!


© 2017 LORRAINE BLASOR ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ✍

There followed that beautiful season…
Summer…
Filled was the air with a dreamy
and magical light;
and the landscape
Lay as if new created
in all the freshness of childhood.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

GOODBYE TO THE WATER BOTTLE


Worldwide sales of plastic water bottles are $60 Billion a year.

That's a lot of money for an essential resource that you can
get for free from any faucet in most, not necessarily all,
countries.

And once that water is consumed, those plastic bottles --
70 billion bottles a year in the U.S. alone - end up in
landfills or perhaps bobbing along bodies of water and
ultimately, the sea.

But there is a movement afoot in the U.S. to get rid of plastic
water bottles and it is called the Unbottle Water Campaign.
And big cities are getting into the act.

On March 4, San Francisco "became the first major city in
the U.S. to ban the sale of plastic water bottles on public
property, building on a nationwide effort to curb waste from
the billion-dollar industry," reported The Examiner.

Sales of bottles holding 21 ounces or less of water will be phased
out over the next four years. Violators risk fines of up to $1,000.

Reacting to the ban, the America Beverage Association called
the action a "misguided attempt by city supervisors to decrease
waste in a city of avid recyclers."

More such "misguided attempts" are needed in the U.S. to break
the habit of the plastic water bottle. With potable water available
nationwide, there is no reason to be buying this product which
in addition to filling up landfills poses a health hazard to people.

The polycarbonate plastic of water bottles is made using an
industrial chemical known as BPA or bisphenol A. Some research
studies have found that BPA can leach into beverages and food
(BPA is also used to coat metal cans) with potentially adverse
effects on the brain, behavior, and the prostate gland of fetuses,
infants and children.

It's time to move away from plastic to glass:  the water bottle is
a good starting point.

newdream.org/unbottlewater

Photography by Denise Blasor

Wake up today, 
and look into the heart of the universe,
at this very moment you are here,
and you are alive.

Martin Suarez

THE ELECTROSHOCK OF VINTAGE

All pictures taken at Electroshock on Loiza Street

San Juan -- Feeling the jolt of the past is as easy and immediate
as entering a vintage/thrift store and on Loiza street, that corridor
of commerce with so much going on these days, there's two of
them right across from the other, each beckoning with unique
delights.

Much of the charm of both Len.t.juela and Electroshock is in the
contrast between the cache on shelves and racks that speaks so
vividly and colorfully of past decades and the modern, edgy
look of these two stores, a contrast that reiterates how well the past
and present can coexist in mutual appreciation.

Also, they are so bright and neat, unlike so many thrift stores
one finds even in New York that are dingy, grimy and messy.
The emphasis here is on neatness and making it easy for
people to appreciate the variety of objects carefully curated
by their owners.

Electroshock's owner Monica Oquendo says it took a while for
San Juan consumers to warm up to vintage. "There was a mysticism
about it," she said. "It's been a learning process."Today she runs two
vintage stores: the one on Loiza street, which she opened earlier this
year, and another one in Rio Piedras, near the University of Puerto Rico.

















The large clothing selection, for  men and women, hangs
neatly from racks that occupy much of the store. There are
dresses, skirts, blouses, tops, t-shirts, jeans, and shirts galore,
plenty to choose from if you have the patience and time to
look around.

Additionally, Oquendo has contemporary and vintage jewelry
on display in a glass case, plus assorted items like records,
luggage, artist comic books, totes and bags. Most things in
the store are under $30.

Styles have certainly taken all kinds of twists and turns in past
decades and one of the delights of looking through racks of old
dresses is to spot those that in addition to recalling a way of
dressing also bring back a moment in history like the chic orange
frock with black lace seen during a recent visit that instantly
flashbacked to the Valentino dress that Jackie Kennedy wore
to marry shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis back in 1968.

Jackie's dress, a tunic ending in a pleated skirt, was beige and
had a high neck but it too featured bands of lace across the bodice
and the long sleeves, much as in the above dress.

The joy of vintage is all about making such finds or in the best of
cases, uncovering surprising aspects of the past one had completely
forgotten or was not even aware of.

Len.t.juela   #1852 Calle Loiza  787.408.7111

Electroshock  #1811 Calle Loiza 787.727.5428

Photography by Denise Blasor

I don't want a future, I want a present.
To me this appears of greater value.
You have a future only when you have no present,
and when you have a present, 
you forget to even think about the future.

Robert Walser

ⓒ  2014 Lorraine Blasor all rights reserved❥

                    LONDON REFLECTION

Photography by
 Jack Bierschenk

                                         
 THERE IS a big wide world out there: all it takes to discover it is simply to hop on a plane and fly across the sea.  If the sea happens to be the Atlantic Ocean,
then London is a perfect place to disembark. This

St. Paul's Cathedral

vast metropolis is a cornucopia of sights, sounds and colors. So many attractions: Hyde Park, Piccadilly Circus, Camden Town, Trafalgar Square, St. Paul's Cathedral, Covent Garden, the Tower of London.

 SO MUCH ART: at the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery, the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate Britain and Tate Modern, a former power station transformed into stunning showcase of contemporary art. Inside, a five story high turbine hall of gigantic proportions (3,400 square meters of floorspace) is the perfect site for larger-than-life installations.

Turbine Hall at Tate Modern

                                         

Inside the Tate Modern

ON SUNNY DAYS, London parks fill up with picnickers and day trippers; after work, quaffing a beer at the local pub, or a stroll along the banks of the Thames is a good way to kick off the evening; theater is a strong lure and so are the many bookstores packed with titles new and old. Sandwiches are the preferred lunch choice and it wouldn't be England without a steaming cuppa at the slightest excuse.

IN LONDON, the past collides with the present to achieve a sometimes discordant yet never boring skyline. Buckingham Palace and  the   Houses of Parliament, overshadowed by Big Ben, embody the grandeur of a nation that took pride in the conceit that "the sun never set on the British empire." Muscling in next to the old, modern buildings and structures show off a jumble of styles. Some hark to the future, like the trio of edgy additions that Londoners have tagged with clever soubriquets: The Eye, a giant Ferris Wheel; The Shard, a glitzy glass pyramid Telegraph reporter Ed West glibly described as "a giant middle finger directed by the super rich at the rest of London"; The Gherkin, a commercial building that looks like a bullet smashed into the ground... or one hell of a funny egg.

Quo Vadis?

AS A WORLD capital, London is an amazing
marketplace of goods and the sight of huge
throngs, locals and tourists from abroad,
rushing along such main thoroughfares of
commerce as Regent and Oxford Streets
makes quite a vivid impression. Wading
through the chaotic crowds that wend in
and out of countless stores on these two
bustling avenues is to witness the stark
reality of human need and its flip side,
human excess. It is the kind of spectacle
that brings into sharp relief the power of
consumerism and the voraciousness of
economies. It makes one ponder the
perennial quandary that has yet to be
answered in any appreciable manner:
how do we reconcile economic growth
with rampant consumerism while minimizing
the inevitable effect of both on the environment?

COMMERCE on such a vast scale as we are seeing these days also implies waste. The seemingly infinite array of goods available in London, and for that matter in most parts of the world, surely reflects abundance but cannot hide the fact that a great many things for sale are, in truth, quite useless and unnecessary. Waste is inbuilt in economic production and the price of such excess can be found in landfills that are quickly running out of space and third world countries fast becoming the preferred dumping ground for the rubbish of industrialized nations.

ONE USED to travel to experience the new and marvel at the extraordinary world around us. These days, that feeling of wonder is tempered by an enhanced awareness of the dangers of our profligate ways and a realization of how important it is for human beings to start getting serious about the state of the world and to seriously commit to doing something about it. Consumption is inevitable and even necessary; clearly though, there needs to be a more ecological approach to it, both on the part of people and business (This approach must take into account such aspects as what to produce as well as packaging materials). Everyone is a part of the problem but can also be part of the solution. Are we willing to take on the challenge? Do we care enough? Do we care enough to change our ways? Can we? Will we?

Photo BY DENISE BLASOR
PEOPLE ARE TRANSFIGURED BY LOVE,
THEY'RE ELEVATED, MADE DIFFERENT,
LIFTED OUT OF THEIR ORDINARINESS.
ANATOLE BROYARD
"KAFKA WAS THE RAGE"

A SIMPLE TIP: Plastic container tops make practical and colorful coasters. Or being that it's summer, use tops as drinking glass covers to protect liquids from pesky insects or intrusive dust particles.

Photo by JULIETTE BLASOR

"IT'S IMPORTANT TO TURN OFF OUR COMPUTERS
AND DO THINGS IN THE REAL WORLD."
ANDY BOROWITZ

A BEACON IN THE CLOSET:  If you are looking for vintage, or want to snap up some funky second hand fashions at affordable prices, then head to one of beacon's closet three New York locations: Williamsburg, Park Slope, and Greenwich Village. The West Village store, located at 10 West 13th and Fifth Avenue is quite a showpiece: stop by if only to admire the stunning chandeliers made out of steel and white buttons hovering above the racks of men's and women's clothes neatly sectioned off by colors. This is strictly used clothing but much to the management's credit, the inventory is in good condition. You might even consider bringing in some of your old clothes and opt for either a 35% cash payment, based on the resale value of each item, or 55% in store credit. Open 7 days; beacons closet.com

IN OMNIBUS REQUIEM QUAESIVI
ET NUSQUAM INVENI NISI IN ANGULO
CUM LIBRO
(EVERYWHERE I HAVE SOUGHT PEACE
AND NOT FOUND IT, EXCEPT IN A
CORNER WITH A BOOK)
Thomas à Kempis

© 2012 by Lorraine Blasor All Rights Reserved

Shopping for Vitamins

If you are not familiar with The Vitamin Shoppe, a leading national retailer of vitamins and health supplements with more than 400 stores across the United States, this might be a good week to get acquainted. 

That's because the company has a special offer on e-mail orders this week that cuts down on shipping to 99 cents per purchase. The coupon is good until Saturday, May 14.

 If you order by mail, you are probably familiar with the fact that shipping can balloon the cost of an order considerably with some companies even tacking on an additional fee on orders headed to Puerto Rico, an unfair imposition on buyers living on the island. The flat rate on Vitamin Shoppe orders runs around $5 but if you are in no rush you can also choose a slower track for $2.99. Orders in excess of $99 worth of products pay no shipping charges.

Paying 99 cents per purchase, an occasional promotion, is the next best thing.

Vitamin Shoppe retails its own very reliable and affordable brand of vitamins and supplements while also carrying as many as 400 other national brands. On its website, you can shop either by brand or by health concern. The ample product line includes vitamins and supplements, herbs and homeopathics, foods and energy drinks, products for kids and pets. There is also a section on eco-products and one devoted to natural bath and beauty products. 

The site is easy to navigate although, admittedly, there are occasional glitches using a promotional code. In that case, all you need to do is call the toll-free company line and assistance is quick and forthcoming.

http://www.vitaminshoppe.com

Photograph by Carl P. Blasor

Tell me little white cloud,

where did you come from,

where have you been.

from a Bulgarian folksong

A SIMPLE SWITCHEROO

Just consider. The U.S. alone, each year, produces in excess of 800,000 tons of plastic bottle pollution. So what are you doing about it?

Here's one solution. Just ditch the water bottle in favor of a stainless steel bottle, which you can refill as needed and carry around with the same ease and convenience as a water bottle but with the knowledge you are contributing to improve the environment. Arguably the "eco status symbol" of the moment, stainless steel bottles are available even at your local Walgreens. 

MAKE MY DAY

Not to fear. This has nothing to do with Harry Callahan -aka Clint Eastwood -- in the 1983 film "Sudden Impact (good film, though). Instead, this short video will definitely brighten up you day in a most indelible way. So check it out...

http://ociofx.com/?p=14 

Photograph by CPBlasor

 In nature there is no 'good,' no 'evil.' Only life warring

against life. 

         Joyce Carol Oates      

COPYRIGHT © 2011 Lorraine Blasor All Rights Reserved