Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker appeared on last night's Chelsea Lately to tout the benefits of his latest fad diet: freshly squeezed raw puppy juice.

Barker, a former vegetarian poster boy, ate meat for the first time in 16 years to speed the healing of a broken arm. He then gave up his vegetarian diet entirely after he was injured in a plane crash. Barker explained that his latest diet was inspired by the advice of his Los Angeles physician.

Puppy juice first made the news last month when former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin touted its age-defying powers on Oprah. According to Travis Barker, "Puppy juice is great for the skin. It gives my tattoos an awesome sheen, and it's totally worth the incontinence. Plus I haven't had a single herpes flare-up since I began using it."

Asked for his opinion, New York Times food expert Mark Bittman pointed out the environmental benefits of eating an overpopulated species, but added, "Puppies are cute. Why can't he just eat veal like everyone else?"

"It's cruel and barbaric to kill an innocent young puppy just for its miraculous healing powers," added celebrity chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz. "I'd only juice a puppy if I found one already dead, like on the street or something."

However, vegan expert Kathy Freston explained, "He only juices puppies that would be euthanized anyway. And if his doctors say it's necessary, well, who are we to judge?"

We haven't mentioned him in two years, but former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker's name still drives a tremendous amount of search engine traffic to SuperVegan. Obviously there are better sources for stories about him, but his fans are super dedicated. All we ever did is give him shit for considering eating meat to mend a broken arm that he didn't realize was broken for three weeks and maybe also had a tumor (yeah).

Well, now he's officially not vegetarian (though Vegetarian Star still thinks he is; vegetarians don't eat meat--look it up!). He survived a horrible plane crash recently (based on our traffic stats, the news must have come out on September 20th), and is eating meat for the first time in 25 years to help recover from third-degree burns. Maybe it is his only hope of recovering, but I hope that's not really true. Sounds like he was eating just as poorly as two years ago:

"Because I was a vegetarian, for my first three surgeries, it was hard to get any of my grafts to take to my real skin. I have such low levels of protein. I need protein from food rather than just protein supplements. I changed my diet. I would do anything I possibly could if they said like, 'There's a possibility you might heal faster if you do eat meat or just change your eating habits.' So I did. I don't regret it at all, I feel so much better."

Protein supplements? Really? You can't find vegetarian sources of protein? Anyway, I hope he recovers OK and can satisfactorily re-tattoo his skin. I also hope he goes vegetarian again, and maybe finds a way to eat healthier. I also hope this post gets lots and lots of traffic for SuperVegan.

Rational Animal's third annual Rock & Rescue benefit concert is tonight at the Highline Ballroom.

Brooklyn Vegan points out that you can buy half-price tickets if you enter the code "rational" at Ticketweb.

Hosts include Adrock from the Beastie Boys and Gina Gershon. Performers include Debbie Harry, Lissy Trullie, Jesse Malin, Goonsquad, Bloody Social, Dead Four Living, Earl Greyhound, and Adam Green. Moby and J.D. Samson from Le Tigre will be DJing.

This and other NYC events are on our calendar.

Brooklyn Food Not Bombs serves free food at the northwest corner of Von King/Tompkins Park on (most) Saturday afternoons at 3pm. They use the kitchen at 123 Community Space. This Friday they're hosting a benefit for 123.

The star of the event is Brownbird Rudy Relic, the world's first and only Straight-Edge Vegan Chicano Blues musician (and SuperVegan's newest blogger!). Also performing will be John Houx and Orb Mellon. Non-musical attractions include vegan food and drink, a "free store" (maybe that's people giving away stuff they don't want?), and a dumpster diving competition (which I hope involves hitting actual neighborhood dumpsters, not a refrigerator box full of foam). Suggested donation of $5 plus some food for FNB to cook up--a dry, uncooked, vegan staple such as pasta or beans.



Friday, October 3
8pm to midnight
at 123 Community Space
123 Tompkins Avenue, Brooklyn, NY [map]

• Rynn Berry, author of the Vegan Guide to New York City is answering questions for the New York Times about being vegan in New York City this week. (Ryyn is very important to SuperVegan. If it weren't for his chronic failure to put his book online, we probably wouldn't have bothered making this site.)
  
  Read the big readers' discussion thread, and Rynn's first set of answers. They're still accepting questions through Friday morning. If anyone can get Rynn to mention SuperVegan in one of his answers, we'll give you a prize.


• Mustafa Farouk, a scientist at New Zealand's AgResearch (which seems to be some kind unholy alliance between the government and industrial agriculture) has invented "meat spaghetti." Says AgResearch, "It tastes like meat and it can look like meat but we can actually change the composition of the product quite a lot so we can mask the meaty flavour." According to the uncredited article on Television New Zealand's site, "Kids love spaghetti but for many parents it's hard to get them to eat meat - so the meaty, protein saturated, pasta version could be an innovative way of providing youngsters with vital nutrients and iron." Journalism at its finest!


• If you're one of those vegans who likes heavy metal music, the blog Possessed by Seitan is for you.


• Want a video tour and kitchen tips from famous vegan Moby? Epicurious has your hookup. His kitchen looks refreshingly lived-in and well-used. I bet you can make better pancakes than him. I wonder how much Moby likes heavy metal.

Come out to the County of Kings next Friday and help raise some dough for Brooklyn Food Not Bombs. The group, which has been serving healthy vegan meals to the homeless and hungry since earlier this year, sets up shop in Fort Greene Park on Saturdays at 3pm. (Click here for the history of the Food Not Bombs movement.)

Besides getting a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, you’ll get to enjoy tunes by Joe Crow Ryan, Raygun and Brandon Barnett + The Invisible Public Library. And there’ll be raffles for prizes from Food Fight! Vegan Grocery, Herbivore Clothing and the V-Spot.

When: Friday, July 18. Doors open at 7; show starts at 8. $5 suggested donation

Where: Vox Pop, 1022 Cortelyou Road (Q train to Cortelyou), Brooklyn

Be sure to check out BFNB online, and join the listserv by e-mailing brooklynfnb@gmail.com or brooklynfnb-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

And don't forget to peruse our events calendar for more cool things to do in NYC.

June 21st is the first day of summer, and it's a superstereotypical Saturday of the season in that there are just too many great things happening. Green Foods Festival, Green Spirits Festival, Cupcakefest…I need a clone!

In Harlem, the 2008 Green Foods Festival celebrates healthy eating and lifestyle with a kid-friendly community event. There will be raw food demos, yoga and other fitness demos, and vendors selling veg food. The impressive line up of speakers includes Lillian Butler, owner of Raw Soul; the legendary Queen Afua, a holistic health consultant who specializes in women's issues; and Dr. Aris LaTham, who founded Sunfired Foods in 1979 and is considered to be the Father of Gourmet ethical raw foods cuisine in America. The festival was organized in response to a 2007 city Health Department report that showed corner stores in some Harlem neighborhoods are seven times less likely to sell green vegetables and have higher rates of obesity and diabetes than those on the Upper East Side, so local health nonprofits will be on hand along with neighboring food coops, CSA's and local farmers to provide information and accessibility to organic produce. Check out NY1's recent feature on the festival. (12-6pm. Marus Garvey Park, 124th & 5th Avenue, Free. Wellness Pavillion, National Black Theater, 125th & 5th Avenue, $5.)

What happens when a broiler-chick-to-be escapes his fate and witnesses what could have been? He grows up to be a pimp and returns to “MFC” headquarters to exact his revenge on a Colonel Sanders look-alike, of course!

Well, that’s what happens according to Moby, anyway. When he released the “Disco Lies” video on Feb. 14, he wrote, “Nothing says ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ like the ‘Disco Lies’ video, involving pimp chickens, cowboy bodyguards, strippers, and the head of an international chicken franchise being chased through the streets of Mexico City.”



Uh, yeah, right. I guess that’s better than naming a dairy cow after your girlfriend.

Anyway, the song is really catchy, in a mellow, dancey way, and it’s off the album Last Night, due out April 1. You can download a free sampler here.

By the way, if you’re in L.A., Moby’s band The Little Death is playing at El Cid (4212 Sunset Blvd.) on Friday (doors open at 9; LD goes on at 10:45). Then on Saturday he’s DJing at the Heat Festival at UC Riverside.

Last night's Farm Sanctuary Halloween Bash seemed a big success. (At least, I assume so, based on the huge line of costumed vegans waiting to get in when I arrived.)

The food from Red Bamboo was gone by the time I got in (about 8:40pm) but all was forgiven when they gave me a $10 voucher for their restaurant. Instead I gorged myself on cakes and cupcakes from Vegan Treats, Sweet Avenue, and from our very own Olivia Lane (whose zombie cupcakes were both terrifying and delicious).

Best of all I got to meet Joan Jett, who gave an impassioned speech in favor of vegetarianism. It was a bit of preaching to the crowd, but I hope any non-veg folks in the audience gave it some thought.

So Taco Bell recently ran this contest for "up and coming" bands to receive $500 of free Taco Bell food while on the road (that translates to about $175 worth of food you might actually want to eat). One of the winners was the (arguably already up-and-came) vegan indierocker Ted Leo. Pitchfork jumped all over the story, but it turns out that Ted never even entered the contest. Some prankster or overzealous fan did it on his behalf.

Despite the fact that some vegans around here are totally fine with Taco Bell, Ted Leo is not: "I have no desire to be attached to the Pepsi corporation, which also runs KFC, etc."

What, this is a nonstory? Oh well, you read it anyway.