Friday 14 October 2011

Friday: Laugh At California Day 14/10

Dipping into Californian idiocy has provided a rich seam this week, so how about this for starters from the self-proclaimed world leaders in green ideology.

Eco-friendly festival can't sustain itself

It was the first New World Festival of Eco-Friendly Science and Technology and quite possibly the last.

The event near the beach in Santa Monica, which had been scheduled to run through Sunday, was shut down abruptly Saturday afternoon.

Howard Mauskopf, the festival's organizer, said he needed to shut down because so few people had shown up. "We're in a position where we don't have the financial ability to continue," he said, adding that he would have needed eight to 10 times the crowd that was present to make ends meet. He said he is going to try to reimburse food vendors next week.

"I don't know why people didn't come," he said.
Err, could it perhaps be that most people aren't as enamoured with the idea of winding the clock back to the 1800s as you are, Howie?

Still, those who joined in are one big happy clappy collective. They'll take it on the chin if it leads to a world where more emphasis is placed on the planet, and less on money.

Rose Faranal, a vendor who sold organic pizzas and chili at the event, said customers purchased food tickets from the festival, which they could redeem at her booth and others. She said she was owed hundreds of dollars, but didn't know if or how she'd be reimbursed.

"This is what we got paid with," she said, holding up hundreds of paper slips. "Useless money."

Food vendor Shawn Deleo said he knew something was off when the festival began Friday and there was no hot water for food preparation. He also had a stack of paper tickets, and wondered how he would get paid.

"I kind of had a bad feeling from the start," he said.
Oh.

Clothing and jewelry vendor Kate Tevebaugh of Santa Monica said she didn't think the event was properly marketed — that people didn't show because they didn't know it was happening.
Oh, I dunno. They invested in a very funky graphic.

"This is a disaster," she said. "A complete disaster."
That's California for ya, love.


7 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

:-)

WV: boloque

Anonymous said...

What I find funny are all the commentators making the conclusion that.

Not wanting to go to naff "green" festival = couldn't give a shit about the environment.

Anonymous said...

"Greening" is actually a new verb here in Northern California.

When city of San Francisco rips up streets, removes the an entire lane's width on the curbside and names it a bike path, takes the middle lanes and widen them to make a park down the middle and plants trees and the once 6 lane thoroughfare is reduced to 2 lanes with traffic back-ups and redlights with police cameras on every corner, they call that "greening" and they will put up a proud sign in the middle of the newly reduced thoroughfare calling it the "Greening of {name here} Street".

If supervisors get their way (as they always do), then soon entire major business districts in various neighborhoods will be "greened" such that no traffic will be allowed through what-so-ever and the local business districts turned into a zig-zagging sidewalk and bike path running through newly planted trees and grass, where the cars once were.

They may however retain accomodations for their electric buses on these streets since the wealthy residents who can afford to live there still require transportation for the lower classes who come in from outside the more gentrified areas to do the upper class's cooking, cleaning, nannying, gardening, etc.

So "greening", "green", "greened", as in "you've been greened" - these are all verbs now in common everyday usage in California.

Oh, and it's also synonymous with "no outdoor smoking", which actually was the first "greening" that was done city-wide (because of the "outdoor trash study"), now the rest of the "greening" follows on its heels.

That is how you will know though, when you have been "greened", when these symptoms begin showing up.

Anonymous said...

Funny that it doesn't seem to have occurred to the organisers of this eco-fest that, quite apart from being bored sh*tless by all things "green" these days, the majority of the population have discovered that, just as pubs in the UK are now populated with exactly the sort of people that you don’t want to run into in pubs (hence the reason why even non-smokers are shunning them these days), eco-festivals are likely to be populated with exactly the sort of people that you don’t want to run into at a festival!

I mean, be honest, who in their right minds wants to spend an afternoon surrounded by sandal-wearing, make-your-own-muesli types trying to flog you food that tastes like cardboard, saccharine-loaded “natural” drinks, items that don’t work regardless of what they are supposed to do, and being lectured at by someone with a grey ponytail and a beard full of (wholewheat) crumbs? And I’ll bet, being California and “green,” it was all strictly non-smoking throughout.

And they’re surprised that no-one wanted to come …..??!

nisakiman said...

Gee, I'm sorry I missed that. A green eco-festival sounds right up my street.

Nut cutlet and carrot juice, anyone?

Dick the Prick said...

At what point does the spider sense not kick in when some spotty gimp festival organiser says 'oh no, we'll reimburse the paper tokens you've collected in exchange for err..paper currency'. Dimwits.

Devil's Kitchen said...

I note that their "funky graphic" is actually a colossal rip-off. Whilst I don't immediately recognise all of the elements, I do note that the robot on the bottom left is pinched from Icon Finder.

Presumably, Greenies don't do copyright...?

DK