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• This Week In GOOD

  Oh, hello. We didn't notice you there. Here's what we've been up to.
  
  On Cinco de Mayo, we talked about food and waste. We also learned about our government's curious new marketing strategy.
  
  Clinton and Obama kept slugging it out, while Indiana and North Carolina voters did their thing on Tuesday. We took the time to ponder the meaning of the phrase "ignorance is bliss."
  
  Contraception got linked to sustainibilty, and a certain video game birthed a fun new form of feudalism.
  
  Take a swing by How I Spent My Stimulus this weekend. It's two times the fun of fiscal responsibility.
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  • Date: May 09 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• This Week In GOOD

  Highlights, and one solemn obituary, from this past week: To complement GOOD 010: The China Issue, Jaime Wolf has been posting on some of the quirks of Chinese culture. This week he covered the lesser known, but intolerably cute, red panda, and the best sources for real news from China. The fate of Nabokov's unpublished last work was decided. Scott Ballum is connecting with the people behind the things he buys with the year-long Consume®econnection Project. Prospect and Foreign Policy collaborated on a list of the world's "top" public intellectuals. The Tuymans Experiment explored how fine art fares when it's taken out of the museum and has to busk on the street. And last but not least, the Rebel Alliance loses a cadet to the Galactic Empire: Nau closes its doors.
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  • Date: May 02 2008
  • Posted by andrewprice

• GOOD Q&A: Kelly Cox

  Kelly Cox is an integrated marketing specialist for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Here, she offers her thoughts on the NRDC, the necessity of sound policy, and what inspires her to go to work each day.
  
  What does a $20 donation do for the NRDC?
  With a $20 GOOD subscription, you’re adding your voice, in a sense, to our 1.2 million members and online activists. When we go to court, we go to court for you. It only increases our power. By joining the NRDC circle, you are helping to increase our strength in Congress to get better laws and policies made for our country.
  
  How did you get involved?
  Personally, I’ve always been an activist. My whole mantra is about just being responsible. So I don’t look at the environmental movement as “you’re either green or you’re out.” It’s more about self-awareness, being responsible, and picking up after yourself.
  
  What is the hardest part of your job?
  Right now it’s difficult from a communications perspective to cut through the green clutter. I always came from the perspective that if we’re not engaging a mass culture, we’ll fail.
  
  Read the complete interview here.
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  • Date: Apr 30 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• Son Of Rambow Screenings

  We participated in the making of a movie called Son of Rambow. We're really proud of it. We think you might enjoy it, too, which is why we're inviting you to our advance screenings. The first screenings are tomorrow, April 29, in New York and Los Angeles. The full schedule is here. Hope you can join us. Here's a review, selected completely at random. The trailer's below.
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  • Date: Apr 28 2008
  • Posted by andrewprice

• This Week In GOOD

  This week was green, crazy, mechanistic, and somewhat dead. We celebrated two vital components of life: the earth and secretaries. Jaime Wolf continued to provide fantastic cultural information about China—which, it turns out, is sometimes quite scary. Nothing new came out of Pennsylvania, but something great found itself in Vancouver. If you're in Los Angeles this weekend, check out this ice-melting re-imagination of Allan Kaprow's "Fluids" at a number of spots all over the city (see pic). Bye for now.
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  • Date: Apr 25 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• This Week In GOOD

  We commenced the week by looking at Obama as muse. Shepard Fairey started the week by suing someone for appropriating his appropriation. When the taxman cameth, we jetted to China to learn about phantom imagery, climate control, and large membership.

  We mourned the death of the father of Chaos Theory (as well as the plight of Los Angeles taco trucks), but we celebrated the work of George Lois. We also learned that climate change is an important issue of the moment, one that we'll begin addressing in 17 years.

  Spring is in the air, folks. Go fall in love.

  
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  • Date: Apr 18 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• 826 Boston Opening Was Grand

  Last Saturday we chipped in at 826 Boston's grand opening. There was leech ballet and giant crab wrestling and an auction led by MC Eugene Mirman of Flight of the Conchords fame. Mirman also joined cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, author Jim Shepard, and writer Josh Bearman for a debate covering such vexing questions as "Bigfoot: friend or foe?" and "Is Bigfoot an alien?" San Francisco-based DJ Ripley contributed the beats. The assembled DJ Ripley Lizardman hatchlings, obviously Loren Coleman, with his book A simulactron
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  • Date: Apr 18 2008
  • Posted by andrewprice

• GOOD Q&A: Jessica Flannery

  The work of our nonprofit partners is a source of continual inspiration for us. This is especially true of Kiva, the trailblazing microfinance organization we profiled back in GOOD 001. Last month, you might remember, Kiva Co-founder and Director of Business Development Jessica Flannery spoke at a GOOD event in New York. Today, we learn a little more about Kiva and just what makes Mrs. Flannery tick.

  What does a $20 donation do for Kiva? Any donation helps us cover our basic operational costs—paying salaries, keeping the lights on, etc. In 2007, for every dollar Kiva received in donations, we raised another $10 online in loans for the poor.

  What microfinance story is particularly close to you? Any woman who takes a loan, perhaps despite cultural poverty or not being seen as valuable outside the home, is heroic in my eyes. But there are countless entrepreneurs who have inspired me. Every story is unique, every story is important.

  You seem to be a preternaturally bold person. Do you ever deal with fear? What are your fears, and how do you combat them? I feel afraid and deeply saddened when I see people who don’t believe that they matter, or that they can cause change in the world. For Kiva and for myself, I try hard not to let fear ever drive my decision-making. It sounds cliché, but I find great peace and clarity when I remind myself of the things I can control and the things I cannot, and then surrender the latter.

  Read more of this interview here. Learn more about Kiva here.

  
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  • Date: Apr 16 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• The GOOD Blog Heads East

  Over the next few weeks we'll be bringing you posts from Jaime Wolf on all things China: new creative projects in the country, the breakneck pace of development, and new cultural phenomena of interest. Without further ado, here's the first post, on Greg Girard's striking photographs of Shanghai.
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  • Date: Apr 15 2008
  • Posted by andrewprice

• This Week In GOOD

  What a week, what a week. Issue 010: The China Issue hit newsstands (w00t), Aidy McStepdown ditched his post, and the Olympic Torch went out—all on Monday!

  Since then, General Petraeus found himself on the hot seat, carbon footprints got mapped, gas got clean, and scientists confessed to operating under the influence. Oh, and there was that Wal-Mart mess.

  If you haven't watched any Mike Wallace Interviews yet, you're missing out. Fare well.

  
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  • Date: Apr 11 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James