| Entrepreneurs riding a wave of green
Owners, friends and surfers Gina Williamson and Melissa Scheuerman created BT Wax out of their shared interest in keeping the ocean free of harmful chemicals - such as paraffin wax, artificial dyes and petrochemicals - typically found in surf waxes. "It's an environmental issue, about keeping the South Bay clean ... and about contributing to surfing in a green way," Williamson said. She and Scheuerman founded their Hermosa Beach-based company, The Seakeepers, which produces BT Wax, in January. The company's name, The Seakeepers, plays off beekeeper and the need to watch over and protect the ocean, Williamson said. BT stands for barrels and tubes, surfing vernacular for shapes of waves. The Seakeepers is a side venture for the pair. Williamson is the creative director at a film production company that creates movie trailers, and Scheuerman is a freelance handbag designer.
Lou finds the rhythm of life
Lou Reed has just taken off the wooden beads he wears around his neck and is suggesting good ways to start meditating. For the past couple of years (he can’t remember how many exactly) these beads have become as important a part of his sartorial armour as his trademark shades and torn shirts. It’s a surreal moment. Meditation is the last thing you might associate with the so-called Godfather of Punk, who made his name in the early Seventies with songs such as Perfect Day and Walk on the Wild Side. As a founder of the Velvet Underground, one of the most decadent, drug-fuelled and influential bands of the Sixties, he built a career writing songs about heroin and sadomasochism and transvestism. Perhaps Reed, 65, really is a changed man. Years ago he swapped drugs and alcohol for water and cappuccino, although cigarettes proved a tougher nut to crack.
SATURDAY STARTERS: Some points you can raise to get a conversation ...
Potentially defective tires. A million pounds of suspect seafood. Toothpaste with anti-freeze. Children's toys coated with leaded paint. Medications that contained no medicine. All of a sudden, a lot of cheap stuff from China isn't looking like such a bargain. Given the rash of recent reports of inferior, dangerous products, the "Made in China" label looks more like a warning. The Chinese economy, growing at a rate of 10% per year, depends heavily on exports. If Chinese goods become merchandise non grata, the world's most populous country will soon be in an economic crisis. In a Zogby poll this week, 82% of Americans said they had grown concerned about buying goods from China, and nearly two-thirds said they would be likely to participate in an organized boycott of Chinese products.
Japanese artist performs world premiere of Napa composer’s work
One of the categories is, "Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition."I flashed on that as I listened to Sunday afternoon’s performance at Pacific Union College showcasing the world premiere of Napa bassist-composer Robert Wright’s "Concerto for Piano and Strings."That was reinforced as I walked up the aisle after the performance and a well-known Angwin musician said, "I’d come back to hear that again."It was part concert, part cultural exchange and part educational endeavor with Japanese pianist Hiroki Miyagi making her second Napa Valley sojourn to perform Wright’s work, which was fertilized in 1999 and not hatched until this week. When Wright heard Miyagi play with the North Bay Philharmonic nearly a decade ago, he vowed to compose a piece for her. In the ensuing years, they have remained in contact, mutually refined the piece and put together the funding and logistics for the concert that they hope to repeat in Napa’s sister city of Iwanuma, Japan.Miyagi’s 2007 Napa experience began Friday night with a solo-chamber music concert at Napa’s First United Methodist Church, long known as a venue for fine music thanks to Chamber Music Napa Valley, which has since moved to the Opera House.That well-established audience would have been well advised to check out Miyagi’s and Wright’s efforts that evening.
• Herbal Remedies And Drug Addiction: Can Herbs Help?
Drug abuse refers to the availing of a drug for purposes which the drugs are not intended to, or using a drug in excessive quantities. Drug addiction is a state of physical and psychological dependence on a drug. The physical addiction is often characterized by the presence of tolerance, such as needing more and more of the drug to achieve the same effect, and withdrawal symptoms that disappear when further medication is taken.
Almost all sorts of different drugs can be abused, including illegal drugs, such as heroin or cannabis, prescription medicines such as tranquilizers or painkillers and other medications that can be availed off the supermarket shelf, such as cough syrups or herbal concoctions. This depends on the nature of the drug being abused, the person taking the drug and the circumstances under which it is taken.
Living with pain, not with suffering
As long as we have bodies, we will have physical pain. Buddhism promises no escape from that. What we can change is how we experience pain. Bhikkhu Bodhi offers a technique to lessen mental suffering of pain, look at its true nature and learn its valuable lessons. Bhikkhu Bodhi SUFFERING: When I write about living with pain, I don't have to use my imagination. Since 1976 I have been afflicted with chronic head pain that has grown worse over the decades. This condition has thrown a granite boulder across the tracks of my meditation practice. Pain often wipes a day and night off my calendar, and sometimes more at a stretch. The condition has cost me a total of several years of productive activity. Because intense head pain makes reading difficult, it has at times even threatened my vocation as a scholar and translator of Buddhist texts.
The needles have it
A growing acceptance of alternative medicine has helped Acupuncture Healthcare Associates of Michigan double in size. Now serving 100 patients a week, the 7-year-old business has renovated and expanded its office, owner Julie Silver said. "What I believe is that acupuncture can move people forward in their healing," she said. .
Lampard’s priceless quality
Neil Warnock has always claimed that he does not demand that his players go out to break legs. It is just something he shouts. And this week he said that the verb "hate", which clutters his autobiography, is another meaningless expression. "Dislike is more accurate," he says. "I think ‘hate’ is just a Yorkshire thing." No it isn’t. To tar a county with using it as a form of casual punctuation is as self-serving as arguing that to wish serious injury upon a member of the opposition is acceptable banter. Meanwhile, The Independent gave Warnock the task of previewing the new season: in the Championship. Ouch, that has got to hurt. French whine clearly made from sour grapes Arsène Wenger, complains that his team are placed at a disadvantage by this week’s Champions League qualifiers.
Attaining intimate luxury
When interior designer Barbara Vanderkolk Gardner and her husband, Thomas Gardner, settle in a pair of white club chairs in their bedroom to sip their morning coffee, they look down into the peaceful shade garden where they were married four years ago. Working with Pennington architect Robert Bennett, they recently completed an extensive remodeling of their 1980s home in Princeton Township. Barbara Vanderkolk Gardner supervised the renovations as well as redesigning and appointing the interiors. "Our goal in the master bedroom was to take advantage of the tree house feeling and the very private back yard," she says. "One of the challenges we had was how to make a very high-ceilinged bedroom feel cozy and make it work for both daytime and nighttime. "For the daytime tree house view, I tried to maximize the window treatments with soft, non-distracting colors.
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