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Your wedding day is your chance to wholesale pearl really shine. Many brides want to create a look that evokes the glamor of a movie star from the Golden Age of Hollywood, but are unsure about how to pull it all together. For tips on how to be a glamorous bride, read on...
People so rarely dress up these days that it can be a bit daunting to choose a bridal ensemble. When you are used to pearl wholesale wearing jeans and a tshirt, it isn't so easy to step into a completely new role, that of stunning glamor queen. It is totally achievable, though, if you know what to look for.
Of course the place to begin is by shopping for your bridal gown. The most glamorous gowns are body conscious and sexy, but never too revealing or skin-tight. There can be a fine line between siren and sleazy; it is important not to cross it! Imagine what a star on the silver screen would have worn in the 1940s: a dress made from a heavy silk charmeuse that flows over the body without clinging too tightly. Those ladies also knew the secrets of using the right undergarments to create a smooth seamless look.
True glamor is never overdone, so choose a wedding gown that is refined and restrained. Gowns that are overly embellished do not look as sophisticated as those with one or two stand-out features. A gorgeous flowing silk dress needs very little improvement! Some special touches to look for are rows of pearl necklace decorative buttons (either silk or crystal) and subtle trims.
When you are wearing a simple wedding gown, it allows you more room to play with your accessories. For the most flexibility, choose custom bridal jewelry. Bridal jewelry that is custom made just for you will ensure that you get the perfect pieces to finish off your gown. For a dramatic look, wear drop crystal earrings, either in clear, or perhaps pulling in one of your wedding colors. For more demure brides, the classic look of crystals mixed with pearls will be just right.
Your gown and accessories are not the only things that will create your glamorous wedding day look. Hair and makeup will also be very important. Think chic and sophisticated when deciding on a hairstyle. Avoid anything that looks too much like a prom hairstyle, such as a very contrived updo with piles of curls. The most glamorous hair will be sleek and polished. If you want to wear your hair up, styles like low buns or chignons look elegant and stylish. A very glamorous hairstyle to try is that classic Veronica Lake style, with the hair worn down in smooth waves around the face.
Finish off your hairstyle with a crystal piece of hair jewelry. The most sophisticated options include a cluster of hairpins tucked into a bun or a sparkling comb holding back a sweep of long hair. Although beautiful, the pearl earrings princess look if a full tiara is not right for a glamorous wedding ensemble.
The final touch is makeup. There is nothing more glamorous or self-assured looking than a true red lipstick. Have a professional help you pick out the perfect shade for your skin tone. The trick to keeping red lipstick in place is to gently blot first with pressed powder. Then line your lips in a matching lip pencil before applying your fabulous red lipstick for instant drama.
Glamor and drama can be easy to create if you follow those basic steps. You will feel like a movie star gliding down the aisle in your glamorous bridal ensemble. And just wait until your groom sees you!
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Your bridesmaids have stood by you through thick and thin. Put up with your stressed out self without saying a word, ran the errands that you couldn't get to and were just there for you. Think about it. How in the cultured pearl world would you get everything done in time for your wedding without your girls - the bridesmaids!
What better way to thank your bridal party than with a lovely bridesmaid gift. You probably go way back with several of bridesmaids - they may be sisters, best friends or cousins. You have known some of your bridesmaids a long time - maybe a few since childhood.
Your budget will play a role in the amount of money you are able to spend for your gifts. But don't worry. Choosing a personal gift for every bridesmaid in your bridal party shows how much each and every one means to freshwater pearl you. Your budget will decide how much you spend on your bridesmaids gifts but you should plan to spend a little bit more on your Maid/Matron of Honr.
There are so many ways to make your bridesmaids gifts special. Elegant wedding jewelry is a more traditional bridesmaid gift that can be worn over and over after the wedding day. There are so many different options for bridesmaid jewelry. Elegant crystal jewelry is available in an array of colors that match the wedding theme. Victorian inspired jewelry is so romantic and perfect for wearing after the wedding with that little black dress. Rhinestone jewelry sets - flash at a fraction of the cost.
Personalized bridesmaid gifts are also very traditional gifts. So many items may be personalized that one option is to silver pearl necklace choose a different personalized bridesmaid gift for each bridal party member. This allows you to match the gift to the person making it all that more special.
After the wedding, what could be better than "pamper me" gifts such as a day at the spa for your Maid/Matron of Honor, plush embroidered spa robes or slippers, engraved jewelry boxes, or a personalized travel bag. Your girls will certainly appreciate some down time after the event of the decade!
If you have the time, a homemade gift is a great way to thank your bridal party. Great idea if you have the time. A beautiful shawl or wrap that is matched to your color them is a great gift - especially in fall or winter. Photo albums for each bridal party member that starts with photos taken of the special times you've shared up to the wedding. Leave the rest of the album empty and you give the coral necklace gift that keeps on giving. Each photo added to her photo album will remind her of the time she spent with you on your wedding day. When it's all over, take a moment to give each one of your bridesmaids a hug. Everyone loves one. This is the ultimate gift and the one that will let you know that you'll always be there for each other.
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# About Asian Food and Cooking
[Food-and-Drink:Cooking-Tips] Asian cooking can generally be classified into several categories on the basis of the regional styles of cultured pearl jewlery cooking and the people and culture of those regions. Some of the main categories of Asian food are East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, Central Asian and Middle Eastern.
# The Roles of Tortoises in Feng Shui
[Home-Improvement:Feng-Shui] Feng Shui has proven itself as an essential guide to life to its many believers and practitioners for hundreds of years. Originating from traditional Chinese customs, Feng Shui has brilliantly been adapted into the modern setting, helping millions of families gain good health, fortune, and luck. To date, you can find various Feng Shui products or Feng Shui enhancers that can be purchased to improve the flow of chi in the home.
# Feng Shui Windchimes
[Home-Improvement:Feng-Shui] Feng Shui cures have been around for centuries, and as traditional Chinese beliefs put it, these remedies have also been tried and tested for their effectiveness in pearl necklace wholesale improving many aspects of life. Even more importantly, Feng Shui has served as an essential guide for many modern homes and businesses, through the use of many Feng Shui enhancers. One such item that every home or office should have is what they call the Feng Shui wind chimes.
# Pi Yao - Feng Shui Fortune Attractor
[Home-Improvement:Feng-Shui] Feng Shui can be translated as "the way," and following a rich history for thousands of years, it has been a practice that has guided so many towards the path to good life, good fortune, and good health. Feng Shui originated from China, and in the modern setting, it has done wonders for improving the quality of life of its believers. Many modern homes today still follow the principles of Feng Shui to usher in the good balance of chi, the live giving energy.
# Feng Shui Dragons
[Home-Improvement:Feng-Shui] Dragons happen to be the time-honored and most traditional Chinese element of representation. Feng Shui dragons help people in using their symbolism to encourage balance and equilibrium in their lives and living space. The dragon representations are very common in China and can be found everywhere; these dragons are one of the major symbols belonging to the pearl earrings wholesale landscape and culture of the Chinese.
# Feng Shui Dragon Tortoise
[Home-Improvement:Feng-Shui] Tortoises and dragons have been known to be the two immensely powerful symbolic items of Feng Shui. The dragon alone has several symbolic meanings and it stands for wealth, positive energy, fertility and immortality, to mention a few. The dragon is believed to have a positive influence on humans according to the Chinese mythology.
# How to Use Mandarin Ducks to Feng Shui Your Way to a Better Life
[Home-Improvement:Feng-Shui] For centuries, Feng Shui has served as a guiding light to many, showing the way to pearl strand wholesale success, health, and happiness. There are many aspects of this discipline that come into play in determining the state of a home, workplace, or place of business. Even in the manner people perceive love and relationships, Feng Shui items have provided answers. As they have been used and trusted for many years, so are these beliefs held today.
# Feng Shui Fu Lu Shou
[Home-Improvement:Feng-Shui] The Three Star Gods, Fuk, Luk, and Sau are very famous in Chinese culture. These three represents the gods of longevity, happiness, and rank. Although they are being referred to dancing pearl as god, they are not literally worshiped in the traditional way a religion will worship a God. The Three Star Gods, although they are not worshiped in a conventional sense, are highly regarded and are very much considered auspicious by the Chinese all over the globe.
# Feng Shui Money Frog - The Wealth Enhancer
[Home-Improvement:Feng-Shui] The Feng Shui money frog better known as "Chan Chu" in Chinese is a three legged toad and is one of the most auspicious money-making symbols in Feng Shui. This is a mythical creature which is said to emerge near all those homes that will be receiving good news pertaining to monetary gain and increased wealth on every full moon. The basic purpose of the money frog is to attract abundance and wealth and can be often found near the cash registers, on the manager's desk, receptions and offices in most of the Oriental countries.
# Indian Recipes For Breakfast
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day. And in countries like India, breakfast is another opportunity to showcase their colorful and flavorful cuisine. In India, there are various breakfast meals that are favored by people and are at the same time healthy and delectable. In some regions of India, these dishes are served in other meals besides breakfast. If you want deviations from your usual morning munchies, try out some of the Indian breakfast foods listed below.
# A Body Detox Testimonial
[Health-and-Fitness:Detoxification] The results were realized after the second month. My freckles began to fade and my blood sugar level decreased from 19-70 to 4-80. I started body detox since April 2002 but in July 2002, I stopped injecting insulin. Today, in 2008, after over 6 years, my blood sugar level is still under control.
# Detox Foot Pads - Do They Work?
[Health-and-Fitness:Detoxification] Do you pay attention to television commercials or occasionally watch late night infomercials? If so, you may have heard of detox food pads.
# Body Detox - Helpful Tips
[Health-and-Fitness:Detoxification] Do you want to cleanse or detox your body? If so, please continue reading on for some important and helpful tips on helping your body detox a more pleasant and rewarding experience.
# What is the Best Way to Detox Your Body?
[Health-and-Fitness:Detoxification] Are you planning on detoxing your body? If so, you will discover that there are plenty of options to choose from. There are many ways to detox your body, but which approach is right for you? Which body detox method is best for you? Read on to find out.
# Body Detox - Are You the Right Candidate?
[Health-and-Fitness:Detoxification] Do you want to cleanse or detoxify your body? If you are one of the many Americans who have heard that you may be carrying up to 20 pounds of accumulated waste and toxins in your body, you may be ready to take action. Before you start with a body detox program, it is important to find out if you are the right candidate.
# The Benefits of Body Detox
[Health-and-Fitness:Detoxification] Body detox is a process of removing toxic wastes from our system. Whether we know it or not, over a period of time, a myriad of toxic materials are loaded into our systems. When our system is weakened due to the toxic load, toxins will not be removed properly and they end up deposited in our body. This toxins, if not removed at regular basis, could lead to a host of diseases and diseases.
# Top Ten Chinese Recipes
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Chinese food is a great way to expand your personal recipe book, especially if you love to use simple, fresh ingredients with short cooking time. These top ten dishes are favorites around the world, and are must-haves in your collection of Chinese recipes.
# Rose Quartz - The Love Stone
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Rose quartz is a gorgeous crystal that is light pink to rose red in color, and is one of the crystals that have for centuries been used to help enhance romance luck. Commonly known as the 'Love Stone', Rose Quartz is most favored for its ability in speeding up the process for those seeking a partner, mending cracked relationships and breathing life to your existing romance life. Rose Quartz is also an excellent crystal for someone who has problem loving themselves or receiving love from another because they do not believe that they are worthy of being loved.
# Popular Crystals For Women
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Crystals can play one of the most vital roles in the lives of women once the spiritual journey has begun for them. Crystals are little pieces of the master Universe- little fragments of the stuff that created the sun, the Earth, the animals and of course, us. Crystals have been around far longer than us, and their geological formations have been first to see the blazing heat of the Earth's own star, the Sun.
# Popular Crystals For Men
[Shopping-and-Product-Reviews:Fashion-Style] The power of crystal can never be underestimated. For centuries, crystals have been used in variety of ways, from performing ceremonies for the dead, to the curing of the sick, to the improvement of the living and the health. In every century, in every time period, people learn more and more about the miraculous powers of crystals.
# The Guide to Jasper Crystal
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] The jasper stone is considered by many credible energy therapists, mystics and tarot card readers as primarily a Power-driven stone, which draws its energies from the surroundings, the person wearing it, and of course, the universe. The jasper crystal then channels all these positive energies toward the wearer, creating a sense of freedom and an increased vigor for life.
# The Power of Clear Quartz
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Clear Quartz which is merely composed of silicon dioxide well known of its large, unusual normally faultless, and very often beautiful prismatic crystals. Clear Quartz is often referred to as the "stone of power". It's the most pure form of quartz that lacks any trace of elements of minerals that proves amazing colors to other quartzes.
# The Metaphysical Qualities of Obsidian Crystal
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Like all crystals there are many benefits to those who cherish their healing and comforting qualities. The Obsidian crystal is known as one of the most beautiful and beneficial stones available. There are many benefits from the Obsidian crystal and it holds a variety of Metaphysical qualities.
# The Benefits of Wearing Tiger's Eye Crystal
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] For those who believe there are healing powers, and a source of energy that lie in quartz and other stones the Tiger Eye crystal is a must have. You can purchase the Tiger's Eye crystal in many different forms of jewelry including bracelets, pendants, and necklaces. Whether you choose to purchase them for yourself or to give as a gift it's money well spent.
# 5 Reasons Why to Own an Amethyst Crystal
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Amethyst crystals are among the most beautiful of all natural crystals with a deep purple color that is thought to have special properties that make it a wonderful addition to any jewelry collection. Amethyst is also thought to have healing properties, making it one of the best choices for anyone who wants to feel better, naturally.
# The Healing Properties of Jade
[Health-and-Fitness:Alternative] As a healing crystal, jade has been known to boost sagging spirits. Jade showers the wearer with a steady stream of positive energy that allows for the wearer to slowly heal from past setbacks and failures.
# Citrine - The Crystal of Wealth
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Citrine, like all other natural crystals, is thought to have certain properties that work on a material and spiritual level to help you obtain, and keep, certain traits. Citrine is traditionally linked with wealth, making it one of the best crystal to wear or keep in your purse or wallet when you want to increase your wealth luck.
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When a woman gets engaged, one of the pearl bracelet first things that she does is choose her bridesmaids. Happy times are even better when shared with good friends. There may be times, however, when things just are not going according to plan. Sometimes one of the women you have selected as a bridesmaid isn't working out for one reason or another. When that happens, it may become necessary to fire a bridesmaid.
Before kicking anyone out of the pearl pendant wedding party, ask yourself a few questions. Is your friend really behaving badly, or is she reacting to unreasonable demands being made by the bride (which is frequently the underlying issue)? Is this a person that you are hoping to keep as a friend? If she is not a great attendant, but she is a good friend, it may be best to grit your teeth and keep her in the wedding for the sake of your long-term relationship. If the bridesmaid in question is your sister (or future sister-in-law), you can pretty much forget about firing her, no matter how appalling her behavior may be.
Being asked to be in someone's wedding is a very big honor. That means that being fired as a bridesmaid is a huge slap in the face. It is not something to be done lightly, which is a good reason to think very carefully before inviting a friend to be your attendant in the first place. Sensing that a bridesmaid is just not that excited about your wedding is not enough reason to let her go. Instead, have a little (non-accusatory) chat with her. Maybe the reason that she seemed less than enthusiastic about your bachelorette weekend in Vegas is because it is too expensive for her. Or perhaps, she is swamped at work, or having troubles with her boyfriend, and hasn't a lot of energy to devote to your wedding planning, even if she is happy for you. Being a friend is a two-way street; be sure that you are taking the time to freshwater pearl necklace ask about your friend's life, not just expecting her to drop everything to focus on your wedding.
So what are some legitimate reasons for releasing a bridesmaid from service? The most egregious reason would be that she had an affair with the groom (whether it happened recently or in the distant past, either would be cause to fire her at once). A less heinous, but still serious reason, would be if the bride discovered that her friend did not support her choice of husband. If a bridesmaid has made it clear that she disapproves of the match, then it would be inappropriate for her to serve as an honor attendant in the ceremony.
Sometimes, a bridesmaid does not need to be fired as much as let off the hook. If your best friend realizes that she is going to be 8 ? months pregnant by your wedding day, she may not be up to the demands of being a bridesmaid (and she may not even make it to the wedding, if the baby comes early). That type of situation calls for a candid discussion. The bride should let her friend know that although she would love to akoya pearl necklace have her in the wedding, it would be perfectly understandable if the mom-to-be preferred to attend the wedding as a cherished guest instead of a bridesmaid. Then leave the final decision up to your friend.
If you have reached the conclusion that one of your bridesmaids does need to be dismissed, go about it gently. Be the bigger person, whether you are hoping to salvage the friendship or not. Either tell her face to face in private (no public scenes!), or by a handwritten letter if you think that you are not up to a confrontation in person. Do not send her an email, because it is too impersonal and cold. Involving a third party to do the firing for you is also inappropriate. Let her down as gently and graciously as you can; if you have already handed out the bridesmaid gifts, don't demand that she return hers. (Although the fired bridesmaid really should return any type of bridesmaid gifts to the bride, including dresses, jewelry, and any other items given while she was still a member of the bridal party.)
Although firing a bridesmaid is not easy, sometimes it is the only way to maintain your sanity and enjoy your wedding. If an attendant is causing the bride to be stressed and miserable, then dismissing her may be the best option. Hopefully, by choosing her bridesmaids thoughtfully after careful deliberation, a bride can avoid having to take that difficult step.
Let a thousand eco-documentaries bloom
I say this from the bottom of my heart, with deep conviction: "An Inconvenient Truth" changed the world. Did the Davis Guggenheim-Al Gore PowerPoint-based Oscar winner mark a turning point in global climate change, and the beginning of inflatable bouncer a carbon-neutral future? Oh, that. I have no idea about that. But it sure changed the world of movies. As any successful film is likely to do, "Inconvenient Truth" established a template for other eco-catastrophe documentaries to inflatable castles follow, and inspired a legion of well-intentioned emulators, wannabes and copycats.
Across the filmland economy, funding dried up for zombie-stripper flicks and Iraq war docs alike, and this year the eco-doc floodgates opened. Filmgoers in 2009 have been barraged with feel-bad flicks, each of them assuring us that the dire plight of the endangered blue-tailed skink, e.g., is dooming our grandchildren to lives of poisoned, skink-free grimness and slavery, and that it is the Unique Responsibility of inflatable slides Our Generation to Do Something. (Cut to mid-level celebrity, say, Eliza Dushku, without much makeup on: "I always thought that skinks were, like, these pretty lizards who lived in my mom's flower pots. I was like everybody else: I didn't understand the ancient wisdom of a simpler time! When you're on the Hollywood Freeway with a triple latte, you're just not confronting the way skinks are bound with the future of our planet!")
I jest, but only sort of. The post-Gore wave of eco-docs has produced some fascinating, information-rich and occasionally beautiful filmmaking, but it also threatens to cancel itself out in a cacophonous roar of competing voices. Can you tell "Earth" apart from "Earth Days"? Is "Food Inc." a sequel to "War, Inc."? (And when is "Sex Inc." coming out?) Most of these movies bring life to the phrase "labor of love," resulting from years of dedicated work and sacrifice at starvation wages. Their directors and producers have defied the odds in getting them released at all, and most have gone on to inflatable water games defy conventional release patterns: They hopscotch from one film festival to the next, screen in church basements and community centers, self-distribute on DVD or online.
Some of these movies will never "succeed," according to the film industry's standards, and they vary enormously when it comes to coherence and cinematic quality. Some are genuine outsider projects, some are made by prestigious documentarians and some are corporate attempts to cash in on eco-chic. But they all represent the tip of an extremely large iceberg, and reflect the fact that environmentalism has become a mass-scale, grass-roots-based movement that can't be controlled by politicians, policy wonks or talking heads. In that sense, maybe these movies will change the world -- but only if you know which ones to catch and which ones to skip. Herewith, Salon's exclusive user's guide to the eco-docs of 2009.
"Fuel" Activist-cum-filmmaker Josh Tickell spent 11 years of his life on this film, but as he appears to have had a blast driving around the country in his goofball, biodiesel-powered van, I suppose it's all good. Pushing two hours in length and chaotically structured, "Fuel" is a high-spirited, pseudo-encyclopedic tour of everything that's wrong with America's energy policy and how it all could be made right through a combination of biodiesel, wind and solar power. Maybe his arguments aren't all as convincing as they look at first glance, but Tickell gets full marks for making an eco-doc designed to uplift and inspire -- it's the Viagra of green movies!
After taking his film (and his crunchy-power vehicles, including a new one fueled with algae) to innumerable film festivals -- and getting short-listed for the '08 documentary Oscar -- Tickell finally has a theatrical distribution deal. "Fuel" opens this week in New York, San Francisco and Washington; and Sept. 25 in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, with lots more cities to follow.
Hero: For better or worse this movie is about Tickell himself, and his quixotic, low-rent-Michael Moore quest to tell the world that we've already got all the darned alternative-energy technology we need, and all we lack now is the darned gumption, darn it.
Villain: All the usual suspects. The oil companies, the auto manufacturers, the government and to some extent the lazy-ass, narcotized American consumer. Hey, I'm not arguing the point.
Celebrity quotient: Pretty damn high. Woody Harrelson, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson and Larry David all appear, more or less gratuitously.
Film most likely to be confused with: I've already heard it referred to as "Fuel Inc." Any other movie with a short noun for a title.
Takeaway: I'd heard so many film-industry people moaning about this movie that I was pleasantly surprised. "Fuel" is pure agitprop, but audiences love it, and you come out convinced that our current energy policy is unbelievably dumb (no-brainer, granted) and that we at least ought to try some of Tickell's solutions.
Mainstream-media snark factor (MSMSF): Pretty minor so far; reviews have been decent. But documentary mavens kind of hate it, and with a New York opening this week, Tickell's about to have a can of gaseous, lethargic big-city ennui opened on his ass.
"Crude" Not an eco-doc in the classic sense, Joe Berlinger's fascinating cin¨¦ma-v¨¦rit¨¦ exploration of the $27 billion pollution lawsuit filed against Chevron by indigenous groups in Ecuador shares the same consciousness-raising goals and aims at the same audience. Berlinger's fly-on-the-wall methodology ensures that there's plenty of ambiguity here, and he goes to great lengths to include Chevron's point of view (legalistic and inane as it may be). A meaty process film that captures the intersection of global petro-politics, law, inequality and celebrity, "Crude" is thought-provoking and profoundly unsettling. It most definitely does not leave you thinking that everything will be OK if you make your own diesel fuel out of corn husks scavenged from Dumpsters.
Hero: Up-by-the-bootstraps Ecuadoran lawyer Pablo Fajardo, a one-time oil-field worker turned indigenous-rights crusader. Secondarily and more ambiguously, Steven Donziger, the alternately appealing and offputting New York lawyer who is Fajardo's main advisor.
Villain: I can appreciate that Chevron is in a no-win position here. It inherited the toxic nightmare in Ecuador when it bought Texaco in 2001, and now must battle an enormous potential judgment in a country that has swung sharply toward the anti-American left. Well, cry me a river. And don't their corporate communications people understand that the more they attack Berlinger's film, the more people will want to see it?
Celebrity quotient: London socialite Trudie Styler swans through the poisoned indigenous communities in one awkward sequence. In fairness, Styler and her husband, Sting, have done a great deal to help the afflicted villages, and have put the Chevron case on the international cause-of-the-month calendar.
Film most likely to be confused with: "Fuel"
Takeaway: It's a grim and engaging yarn leavened by flashes of possibility, something like the legal case from Dickens' "Bleak House" transplanted into "Heart of Darkness." Opening-week audiences at New York's IFC Center have been tremendous.
MSMSF: None. Even the members of the entertainment media, who bow to no one in their jadedness, aren't going to side with Chevron against a well-respected documentary filmmaker and a bunch of dirt-poor Amazonian Indians living in a poisonous cancer cluster.
"No Impact Man" New York couple Colin Beavan and Michelle Conlin, both writers, decide almost on impulse to transform their lifestyle such that they have near-zero environmental impact, meaning no TV, no air conditioning, no product packaging, no food grown outside their home region, etc. (Yeah, yeah -- no toilet paper either.) The result was Beavan's fascinating blog and just-published book, along with this highly entertaining documentary by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein, which captures both the problems attendant on worm-composting and lack of refrigeration in the Manhattan summer (more maggots than a Dario Argento movie!) and also the reality-TV-style psychodrama of the Beavan-Conlin marriage. Beavan tends to drive people nuts, while the self-effacing shopaholic Conlin is irresistible.
Hero: Husband and wife both have their followers -- Beavan has become a highly in-demand environmental speaker and fundraiser -- but Conlin is the undisputed movie star. She's the one who buys a $975 pair of boots just before the project starts, and then must walk up and down nine flights of stairs in them. She's the inflatable tent one whose conversion experience is both dramatically and personally effective.
Villain: For perhaps a third of the audience, that's going to be Beavan, who can come off as a cloaked, judgmental persona. The intended villain, of course, is the mixture of apathy, complacency and conventional wisdom that makes most of us feel completely powerless in the face of impending global doom.
Celebrity quotient: Well, much of the problem with "No Impact Man" comes from its resemblance to reality TV, and from the fact that Beavan and Conlin have now reinvented themselves as ambiguous public figures. I like their irascible friend Mayer, who teaches Beavan how to grow vegetables and strives to indoctrinate him with leftover '60s anarchism at the same time.
Film most likely to be confused with: No problem here! Comparisons to "Super Size Me" aside, this movie is instantly identifiable as itself.
Takeaway: This couple's naive struggle to save the planet single-handed will either **** you in or drive you batshit. There's not a lot of middle ground here. But love 'em or hate 'em, it's a damned entertaining spectacle.
MSMSF: Over the moon. The Beavan-Conlin household has been the target of an extended takedown by the New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert, and reviews have tended to dismiss the environmental message and describe the film as if it were a Henry James novel: It "unsparingly exposes the confused power dynamics of a certain kind of modern middle-class marriage," wrote A.O. Scott of the New York Times. That's not entirely off base, but it also speaks to how uncomfortable most lardass journalists are when confronted with anything that might require them to reflect on the world of power and privilege they inhabit and their own ideological preconceptions about it. (Allow me to clarify that I don't mean that Tony Scott is a lardass, specifically -- he looks pretty good on TV!)
"The End of the Line" Traveling from the tuna markets of Tokyo -- where some wholesalers reportedly have tons of that delicious red meat frozen against future shortages -- to the streets of London, the straits of Gibraltar and the coast of Senegal, British director Rupert Murray paints a dire but colorful portrait of the global overfishing crisis. A thoroughly depressing catalog of how completely we have devastated the world's oceans, "The End of the Line" argues that many factors have combined to cause a near-catastrophe: rising populations and widespread poverty in the developing world, coupled with the rising popularity of seafood in the metropolitan West and the explosion of high-tech methods for finding and catching ever more fish. Late in the film, some hope is offered: If we can limit our appetite for seafood, especially the large and delicious ocean fish, most species can still recover.
Hero: Charming, laconic English reporter and author Charles Clover, who delights in tormenting high-end chefs, dysfunctional Euro-bureaucrats and trawler operators who flout the rules.
Villain: Well, the global fishing industry has operated with no rules -- or broken them, where they existed -- for generations. But the real culprits, I am afraid, are you and me. Sushi, anyone?
Celebrity quotient: None, unless you take sides in the intra-professional warfare between fisheries biologists.
Film most likely to be confused with: There are at least four other movies with this title, two of them made in this decade. Also sounds like "At the Edge of the World" and "Encounters at the End of the World." Enough with the bland and generic phrase-titles, people!
Takeaway: The mixture of rage and hope in this one is tough to take, frankly. Fixing the overfishing problem would be relatively easy, compared to, say, global warming. No new technology is required and the solution is well understood. But political will, changes in the global marketplace and adjustment of human appetites would all be required, and I'm not too sanguine about those.
MSMSF: Not much, except for the fact that the film went almost unnoticed. This is an urbane, professional, impressively constructed documentary, although its subject strikes people as a little abstract and unsexy.
"Food Inc." This eye-opening agitprop doc about the true costs of cheap, corporate food, a collaboration between director Robert Kenner and writers Eric Schlosser ("Fast Food Nation") and Michael Pollan ("In Defense of Food"), is one of the signal cinematic moments of 2009. Although compared often to "Inconvenient Truth," "Food Inc." represents a much earlier phase of activism. As Pollan said when I interviewed him, the local and organic food movement is about where environmentalism was 40 years ago, just before the first Earth Day. A complex and layered attack on agribusiness and its transformation of America's food economy, Kenner's film both recognizes that corporate food production has had obvious benefits for consumers and argues that in the long run it's unhealthy for everybody. Alternately horrific, humorous and inspiring, "Food Inc." continues to play around the country as an organizing tool for locavores and organic-food mavens.
Hero: Of course Michael Pollan is an eloquent speaker with a huge following, but it's Joel Salatin, a western Virginia farmer and rancher who raises organic livestock, who steals the show with his Will Rogers-flavored folk philosophy.
Villain: Nobody from Smithfield, Perdue, Tyson or Monsanto would comment on camera for the film. Suffice it to say their hard work on behalf of the American consumer is depicted harshly herein.
Celebrity quotient: Near-zero, although in some overeducated quadrants Pollan may qualify.
Film most likely to be confused with: Is it a sequel to "War, Inc." or a companion piece to "Fuel"?
Takeaway: Unabashedly partial but thoroughly nonpartisan, this is terrific muckraking journalism.
MSMSF: Absolutely none. Reviews have been universally glowing.
"At the Edge of the World" This odd, breathtaking high-seas adventure follows the eco-pirates of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (originally a Greenpeace splinter group) as they pursue the Japanese whaling fleet in the ocean off Antarctica. Deliberately controversial, and likely to alienate at least as many viewers as it delights, Dan Stone's doc makes an intriguing companion piece to Louie Psihoyos' vastly more respectable dolphin doc, "The Cove" (see below).
Hero: Very much depends on your perspective, but Alex Cornelissen, the laconic young Dutchman who captains one Sea Shepherd vessel, comes off as a high-integrity action-movie protagonist who steers by his own compass but is no zealot. Vin Diesel could play him in the fictional version -- for that matter, so could Adrien Brody.
Villain: You can debate the semantics, but the Japanese have found a loophole in the international whaling moratorium that permits them to flout the law's spirit, if not its letter, and stock the sushi bars of Tokyo with whale meat.
Celebrity quotient: Nah. Greenpeace renegade Paul Watson, who founded Sea Shepherd, is as close as we get.
Film most likely to be confused with: Werner Herzog's "Encounters at the End of the World." That's a terrible title too (although a terrific movie).
Takeaway: Watson is a divisive figure, seen as an ineffective bombast even by many people within the environmental movement. As to the bigger picture, you're free to debate the morality of Sea Shepherd's tactics, call them terrorists, etc. They're fearless, they believe in what they're doing, they have indeed saved some whales, and it looks like they're having a blast.
"The Cove" This blend of James Bond-style adventure and Jacques Cousteau-style underwater discovery is beautifully photographed, thematically explosive and often surprisingly funny. It's a smashing filmmaking debut from longtime nature photographer Louie Psihoyos, so why has it underperformed at the box office? Could be that scene where we watch hundreds of dolphins slaughtered in a secret Japanese cove, but I'm just guessing. Still, Psihoyos and his collaborator and star, longtime dolphin activist and former "Flipper" trainer Ric O'Barry, have accomplished at least some of their goals -- this year there was no dolphin massacre in Taiji, Japan, and dolphin meat is off the local school-lunch menu. Definitely a contender in this year's docu-Oscar race.
Hero: O'Barry has spent most of his life campaigning to free dolphins from captivity, using legal and extra-legal means. This stems from an electrifying story he tells in the film, about watching one of the "Flipper" stars, in his words, commit suicide as a result of life in captivity.
Villain: As with the whaling issue, it's easy to blame the Japanese. But there wouldn't be a dolphin roundup at Taiji if there weren't an international dolphinarium trade, eager to pay prices as high as $250,000 for the most desirable young-adult dolphins. (It's the rejects who get turned into meat, which is often mislabeled and contains near-toxic levels of mercury and other heavy metals.)
Celebrity quotient: Well, O'Barry might have turned himself into a celebrity in this movie. He's great on talk shows!
Film most likely to be confused with: Actually, none. A title that's simple, that works and that everybody can remember -- what a concept!
Takeaway: A tough sell to audiences, apparently, but a movie you'll never forget and also one that's likely to create widespread enforced changes in the dolphin trade.
MSMSF: Some of the usual comments about how a movie can't possibly change anything. But the response has been glowing overall.
"Earth Days" A fascinating film with a concept that's difficult to summarize, ace documentarian Robert Stone's latest offering feels like a voyage into a Thomas Pynchon-style alternate reality: One-tenth of the American population demonstrated against pollution and environmental destruction; a 36-year-old ex-Jesuit seminarian whose platform included "exploring the universe" was elected governor of California and appointed an astronaut-turned-hippie as his science advisor; a female college student became an overnight celebrity with an anti-childbirth commencement address titled "The Future Is a Cruel Hoax"; a Republican congressman became the leading environmental exponent in Washington; and the president ordered solar panels installed on the White House roof. Of course it all actually happened, during the now-forgotten historical period before and after the first Earth Day, in 1970. In telling the stories of those people and their era, Stone simultaneously laments the road not taken and suggests we can still learn from it.
Hero: This movie's awash with 'em, from Whole Earth impresario Stewart Brand to one-time Interior Secretary Stewart Udall to longtime GOP congressman Pete McCloskey to "hippie astronaut" Rusty Schweickart to Stephanie Mills, the aforementioned anti-breeding coed. (Who was actually a student of my mom's!)
Villain: Once again, friends, that would be all of us. We don't really have someone else to blame for allowing the historical moment, pregnant with exciting changes, to slip away amid the Reagan revolution and the flow of cheap Saudi oil.
Celebrity quotient: It's loaded -- if you're a longtime Sierra Club member who's followed the history of American environmentalism closely. Otherwise, there's Jerry Brown and Jimmy Carter.
Film most likely to be confused with: "Earth," an assemblage of pretty nature footage released by Disney at almost the same time. "Earth Days" was never such a great title, but that unhappy coincidence killed any chance this picture had at the box office.
Takeaway: Kind of a downer, and isn't it always like that with American history? Sometimes I feel like the entire story of this country goes from periods of overweening arrogance to a series of heartbreaking missed opportunities, and then back again.
MSMSF: Kind of a problem. Reviews were OK, but you can't expect people who write about movies to think about historical issues, or to understand social and political questions in anything beyond the most canned, received-wisdom terms.
Lobbyists still run Washington
Sept. 17, 2009 | At the end of this summer of discontent, of coral jewelry death panels and unplugging poor Grandma, of Birthers and astroturfers and rifle-toting picketers, the halcyon early days of the akoya pearl strand Obama administration feel increasingly like hazy, gilt-edged memories. The president's sprawling legislative agenda -- a healthcare overhaul, financial regulation reform, slashing wasteful military spending, and climate change legislation legislation -- is slowly grinding its way through the halls of Congress. Barack Obama's sheen, his administration's unflagging confidence, and all the bipartisan, post-racial aspirations have been replaced by the hard realities of Washington politicking. And with the media's lens more tightly focused than ever on Washington's every move and utterance 24/7, anything said a few months back feels like a lifetime ago.
One particular statement from distant April, however, bears revisiting. The president's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, then grasped not only the magnitude of what was being undertaken, but the raft of entrenched interests lining up in opposition. As he told the New York Times:
We're not taking on a fight; we're taking on a multiple-front fight because we've taken on a series of entrenched interests across the waterfront -- from education to health care, and the defense industry, and the freshwater pearl beads lobbying industry as a whole ¡ There will be a scorecard at the end of which ones we won and which ones we didn't, but every one of those policy challenges have been initiated by us.
Never short on chutzpah, Emanuel made it clear: it was Us vs. Them in a "multiple-front fight." A "scorecard at the end" would determine winners and losers. As a candidate on the campaign trail, Obama himself regularly decried the undue influence of moneyed interests and lobbyists. Announcing his candidacy on Feb. 10, 2007, for instance, he declared it "time to turn the page" on the "cynics, and the lobbyists, and the special interests who've turned our government into a game only they can afford to play." And on Jan. 21, 2009, the very day he came into office, Obama issued one of his first executive orders aiming to limit the influence of lobbyists in the new administration. He planned to "close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely, and lets them use their time in public service as a way to promote their own interests over the interests of the American people when they leave."
The new White House stood confident in those early months that it could take on "K Street" -- a street in the capital notorious for the density of its lobbying firms as well as Washington shorthand for their growing ranks. Tallied up today, however, the administration's seven-month scorecard tells a different story. Just as sweeping as the administration's packed domestic agenda has been the sheer force with which the lobbying industry and its clients have fought back, blocking, maligning or undermining its progress. In a Washington version of Newton's third law, the president's actions and those of his allies in freshwater pearl necklace Congress have elicited an equal and opposite reaction from opponents -- inside the Beltway and beyond it.
Spending eye-popping sums of money, deploying armies of lobbyists, dispatching grass-roots foot soldiers as agents of disruption, the special interests have fought fiercely to derail the White House reform agenda. It's now apparent that Obama and his advisors, including Rahm Emanuel, underestimated their strength. Even if Congress were to move in all four areas targeted for reform, the concessions already made, the softening of prospective regulations and restrictions, would likely signal a series of coral jewelry genuine victories for those special interests.
What does it mean when an intelligent, ambitious and well-liked president, who broke through one of the nation's most glaring racial barriers and enjoys majorities in both houses of Congress, can't overcome the deeply rooted interests that now seem thoroughly embedded in the American political system? A look at the unprecedented opposition to Obama's plans reveals why Rahm Emanuel might want to pocket that scorecard.
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