The Discerning Brute: fashion, food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man » adbusters

April 77′s Runes, We Love Fluevog, Revolution & Trousers 5A

joshuakatcher — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:13:18 +0000

April 77, created by our favorite rock-n-roll, vegan, Parisian designer Brice Partouche, is cleverer than everer. Their new collection features runes-style codes that let you download exclusive music tracks! John Fluevog does it again. My favorite leather-free shoes from last season are back in a smart navy, tan, black and red plaid. Knock em' dead with these and a pair of fitted jeans, khakis, or a navy suit. Resin and wood soles, faux-suede interior, cotton uppers and all ethical handsomeness. $189 ADBUSTERS' "The Revolution Issue" is a must-read for anyone who wants to change the world. "It may be hard to imagine a revolution erupting tomorrow, but we need to remember that human history is one of resistance, riot and rebellion. In this issue, Adbusters #91: The Revolution Issue – I, Revolution, we provide a look back at history’s greatest struggles as well work from some of today’s freshest radical thinkers." . . Trousers London offers an adaptation of the classic T5 – 100% Raw Organic Denim with a premium shirting fabric used as lining in a lighter, brighter check, with the piping detail on the side pockets. $294

Ecopsychology, Patrick Pleet & Rotten Eggs

joshuakatcher — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:55:12 +0000

• Patrick Pleet is the menswear line associated with Samantha Pleet. The collection, featuring lots of organic cotton, and flax is locally made in New York city at a wind powered factory using local and organic materials whenever possible. Patrick Pleet was first introduced in 2008, a menswear line co-designed with her husband. In 2009 She received an the Ecco Domani sustainability design award for her work on the premiere collection of Bodkin. While the collection is not vegan (she does use some silk and wool) she is opposed to fur and skins. The Partrick Pleet images below are featuring organic cotton from the spring 2009 & 2010 collections: Photos: Jacqueline Di Milia and David Black • The LA Times covered an investigation conducted by the Humane Society of the United States at the nation's top egg producing facilities. Keep in mind that this is considered standard industry practice, not a few, rare cases of cruelty. Egg-laying chickens are considered the most abused animals on Earth. There are so many amazing alternatives to eggs in baking and cooking, there is really no need to continue supporting businesses that profit from the confinement and torture of so many creatures. The Investigation is below: • The New Issue of ADBUSTERS explores the link between the death of nature and the unraveling of the human psyche. How is the disintegration of our ecological home causing us to move through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance? Can we embark on a program of ecotherapy to heal the planet and ourselves? Find out.

Buy Nothing Day!

joshuakatcher — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:02:09 +0000

Check out my most recent article for VegNews Magazine on Buy Nothing Day! Want to know more about Buy Nothing Day?

10 Spring Essentials

TheDiscerningBrute — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:49:06 +0000

This is the 10 Spring Essentials list you won't find on men.style.com , however, on that website you will find an obnoxious video about the rich, rotund, 'hipster' (what does that even mean anymore?) Gordon Hull, of Surface to Air, running around in limos and eating foie gras stuffed-hamburgers. Dude! Major gross-out! Find out why meat is not so manly HERE. I guess some of us who find ourselves in positions of influence still have no clue how to use it or what re-defining 'cool' is. Gordon, #1 is for you: 1. Burger at Counter This has to be the best burger I've ever had. Hands down. Oh, did I mention it's vegan? It's an irresistable and manly blend of wild mushroom paté, house-made seitan & fresh herbs served with pommes frite. Try it along with the "Married in a Fever" martini, a perfect Johnny Cash-inspired red wine-poached pear nectar and smoked pear infused vodka that'll send you to Valhalla. This East Village spot is great for a date, a gathering, or just a glass of organic wine. 2. A Pair of Shoes In an ideal world we'd all be dumpster-diving and thrifting, but if you must have squeaky-clean new kicks this spring (so you can play the part to get into a position of influence, to then unleash your agenda, right?), score yourself a pair of these NOVACAS 'Dennis Brown' shoes from the Mooshoes store, like I did. They are handmade in Portugal, eco-friendly, animal free, reasonably priced, and slick as all hell. NO VACAS means "No Cows" in Portuguese. One more reason to move to Europe. 3. The Media Empowerment Kit Not just for Teachers — Adbusters’ Media Empowerment Kit will inspire you or your students to break out of the media consumer trance! Comes with a years subscription to Adbusters Magazine, a necessity for any Discerning Brute - now that's smart! Originally designed as a flexible teachers’ aid, the kit features 43 lesson ideas, including personal challenges, group activities, discussion starters and eye-opening readings. Lessons are divided into three areas: Explore Your Mental Environment, Explore Your Physical Environment and Create Your Own Meaning. 4. Bubble Stickers On the topic of creating your own meaning: jiu-jitsu advertising from a one way profit-seeking brain-fuck to an empowering, democratizing experience by participating in the bubble project. Advertisers pollute the mental environment and bombard us with branded messages incessantly. Take back a piece of public space, say something, talk back! 5. Voltaic Generator Bag Imagine what MacGyver would have done for one of these? The Voltaic Generator is the first solar bag powerful enough to charge a laptop. It uses high efficiency solar cells to generate power in the limited space available. It includes a battery pack custom designed to efficiently store and convert the electricity generated. It can also charge cell phones and most other hand held gadgets. Shell, webbing, mesh and lining all made from 100% recycled PET soda bottles! 6.Chino Shorts Don't whine. Chinos are classic, and they are so easy to find at any Salvation Army or your grandpa's closet, there's no need to get a new pair like these smoke-gray Helmut Lang, plaid Etro, mondo John Varvatos, and bismark blue Miu Miu. Cuff 'em, too.

7. A Smell Whip yourself into shape with Herban Cowboy's line of Organic Grooming potions. Deodorant, cologne, shaving cream, and soap! Original and Dusk scented - Soy ink on recycled packaging, organic & vegan ingredients - and hella' sexy. No patchouli here, you dirty hippies. 8. Vegan Condoms Did you know most condoms contain milk protein? Not so sexy. Talk about a milkshake...yuck. Vegan Glyde condoms to the rescue! They use the sexiness of cocoa powder instead, and work just as well as their milky counterparts. These flavored and colored condoms are free of animal ingredients. I like the black ones! Order a bunch here. 9. A Shelter Pup This is Marky. He needs a dad to hang out with. Look at his floppy ear! My friend Amy runs Sugar Mutts Rescue, it's great if you're in New York City. HSUS has a huge resource on adoption nationally. Adopt a New York City animal in need today from NYCACC, BARC, Sugar Mutts Rescue and ASPCA. 10. A Bike If you haven't gotten a set of wheels, how else do you intend to participate in Critical Mass while showing off your short, vintage chinos and trailing a dusk-scent while charging your voltaic bag that's strapped to your back? Check out Recycle-a-bicycle (3 locations in NYC).

Virtuous Hedonism & The Great Myth

TheDiscerningBrute — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:53:09 +0000

There is a Great Myth perpetuated in our culture: that somehow, hedonism and a lifestyle of self-indulgence are radical protests against mainstream society, and furthermore; pursuing this as a lifestyle (obviously, through shopping) is defiant, brave and COOL. The most clever thing about this myth is that it really has most people fooled. The psychologist and theorist Abraham Maslow's triangle of development of personal maturity places infantile self-gratification as the first stage in human development. Ecologist Dr. Davord W. Orr argues that advertising is aimed at keeping us in that state perpetually, which makes a whole lot of sense.

The image industries (fashion, media and entertainment) are overflowing with cliché calls-to-action (advertisements) that ask us to rebel, to revolt, to be free, not to compromise self, to Just Do It © - as if this were a novel ideal to take up as a cause when in fact, this characteristic is the main driving force of our consumer-capitalist culture. It sells products. It keeps the cycle going. It justifies almost anything in the pursuit of selfish pleasure, which in turn, makes those in power really, really wealthy and gives them a huge reason to keep us stupid and scared. Smart, no? The surface-level commitment to modern Do-Good-Ness rarely extends beyond what we can actually see first-hand.One possible explanation as to why the pursuit of knowledge is stereotyped as unsexy in our culture is because the more we know, the less pleasure we can derive from traditional consumer-capitalist activities with an unethical base that benefits those in power. AKA: shopping and consuming starts to mean something completely different when a holistic comprehension of objects and activities is pursued. It turns traditional economics on its head, and it is not 'good for the economy' because we might decide not to purchase something based on the story of how it came to be. This conflicts with the story-telling and economic interests of those is power, so it is best that they continually reinforce a pseudo-rebellion against an ostensible culture of do-gooders. Things start to become less 'cool' when we realize that 'cool' is a grand plan, cleverly designed by a few monolithic entities who reap the benefits of having us run in circles to achieve some false dream of personal revolution through solipsistic hedonism. The truth is that falling in line by responding to traditional fear-based and cool-chasing advertising can rarely be a revolutionary act. It's the furthest thing from it, because it simply reinforces the status-quo and in turn, the Great Myth. My main question for advertisers who use revolutionary terminology to sell images that sell products is this: What are you telling us to revolt against? So, is it possible to be a virtuous hedonist? I believe that hedonism does not have to equate to solipsism. When we are aware of the consequences of our personal actions, our ability to be pleasured by those pursuits changes dramatically. Even pleasure itself changes dramatically. For example, I used to love the taste of cheeseburgers from Burger King. It was just yummy, and that was all that mattered - simple as that. Soon, I came across information about how those cheeseburgers are made, and it changed my ability to receive pleasure from eating them. Instead of being able to enjoy the piece of meat and cheese that came from somewhere out there, it became an avoidance and denial of the knowledge that the ground up flesh and cultured cow-udder secretions required the torturous confinement, exploitation and eventual messy death of a cow, the clear-cutting of rain forests for cattle grazing, human labor abuses, the displacement of indigenous peoples and the general ecological devastation. Does it still taste good? Maybe. But the net-gain of sensual pleasure is outweighed by the discomfort, or loss of pleasure associated with the transcendence of infantile self-gratification. The first maneuver to stepping outside this cycle is to recognize other entities (people, pigeons, and petunias) as subjects of perception. In other words, advanced empathy. An acknowledgment that others can sense, and are affected by our actions - and whose will-to-live is valid, is more rebellious than any fashion advertisement. This may sound simple, but when applied to our lives we'll see it poses a real challenge to nearly all of our current typical activities. I will argue that an evolved form of hedonism might be rooted in the pleasure one can potentially receive from activities (and the support of those activities) that pleasures all subjects of perception. The reason this might be difficult to envision is because there is little mainstream discourse surrounding it. What is a Discerning Brute to do? Educate yourself and evolve to a different state of pleasure-reception. Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, and Animal Liberation by Peter Singer are a good place to start. The Adbusters Media Foundation, and writers such as Naomi Klein, Derrick Jensen, and David Abram are also invaluable thinkers on this and related topics.

TheDiscerningBrute — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:22:20 +0000

Adbusters is not just a great magazine. (If you don't read it, you certainly should.)

Taking the momentum from anti-globalization activists of the mid-late nineties and crafting it into a refined movement of 'culture-jamming', the Adbusters community focuses on questioning corporate control of...well, everything. Who determines the status-quo? Who has permission to challenge and change it? Adbusters has grown into a Media Foundation:

"We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century."

Famous for making spoof-ads which file grievances with a plethora of coporate scum-bag-ness, Kalle Lasn and the folks at Adbusters Media Foundation are also the brains behind a shoe that aims to 'unswoosh' Nike. What's the beef with Nike? Sweatshops, for one. Add environmental recklessness and the power of a true corporate colossus, and it looks like a real monster. Find out more on why a Discerning Brute should never be caught in Nikes HERE. Can the David that is Adbusters take on a Goliath? Time will tell... The classic Blackspot Sneaker and v2.0: The Unswoosher are both designed by John Fluevog, known for his cutting edge innovativeness and flair. The shoes comply with vegan standards, and are being monitored by Robin Webb of Vegetarian Shoes in the UK.

"...the Blackspot, from it's red toe-tip and hand-drawn anti-logo to its renegade billboards and TV ads, is designed to do only one thing: kick megacorporate ass. We're going to cut into Nike's market share, unswoosh that tired old swoosh and give birth to a new kind of cool in the sneaker industry." - Adbusters

What I love about these shoes is not just things like recycled tire parts (which makes so much sense to use for shoes - designers, pay attention) but the integrating of social, political, environmental, and animal advocacy into a product. Consilience! This is a paradigm shift within the capitalistic model - and a testament to to our generation that says :'cool' is not one-dimensional. 'Cool' is comprehensive and multi-dimensional, and should meet our need to take responsibility for things aside from aesthetics or how much money one can make at any cost.