On Monday, July 26th, a low budget animal lib film screening at Anthology Film Archives became a fascinatingly larger phenomenon. Animal welfare personalities like Moby and Russell Simmons appeared, tons of disparate vegan groups showed up to table across the entire theater (the star being a rescued beagle from Azopharma's animal testing laboratory who tabled for W.A.R.), and AR legend Andy Stepanian gave a speech in full ski mask gear about compassion in the face of animal testing horrors that made people weep openly. Needless to say, this type of thing doesn't usually happen when a low budget, non-distributed, independent film about animal rights screens in the East Village. So why did it happen this time? In a nutshell, people flocked to the sold-out show because they heard it was excellent enough to warrant such a turnout, and they realized it was way past due for a film like it to be made and seen.

Interestingly, there was never before a professionally-made narrative feature film about the growing world of animal liberation groups. Despite the sheer amount of political attention and defense budget that the Bush administration devoted to animal welfare groups, and despite the impressively unconstitutional nature of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act passed during the Bush era, scifi/horror movies like 12 Monkeys or 28 Days Later were the closest anyone's come to an ALF movie. Enter Bold Native.

AMC's Mad Men has quickly become a cultural phenomenon. Who would have thought a show about 60's era Ad Men could be so compelling? It is engagingly intriguing, poignantly allegorical; full of both mystery and drama: there are few shows like it.

If you have yet to experience it, you should. If you have, then, you're probably excited about this Sunday's (July 25TH at 10pm) Season Four premiere. I know I am. So much so, I created a veritable 60's throwback of a dinner to celebrate it’s premiere.

Something you just might find waiting for you at home after a long day at Sterling Cooper. Albeit this one’s vegan and delicious!

What's for dinner you ask? How about a Seitan Wellington with Brown gravy, Creamed Spinach and Mac and Cheeze!

Recipe and (snazzy) photo after the jump.

New York City’s Anthology Film Archives will play host to both press event and open screening for the new animal-rights-themed film Bold Native. It's a full-length fiction feature that “takes on the issue of modern animal use and exploitation from several angles within the context of a road movie adventure story.”

The screenings will take place on Monday, July 26, 2010 at 7 and 9:15pm at Anthology Film Archives, which is located at 32 Second Avenue in Manhattan. The screenings will be hosted by Russell Simmons.

More details here.

Ever heard of that NBC show, Last Comic Standing? Tonight the top 10 finalists are up for a vote, including Myq Kaplan (pronounced like "Mike Kaplan") a Boston & NYC-based comedian and proud vegan. Myq has been vegan for about 7-8 years and was a vegetarian for 4-5 years before that. In April, he released his first comedy CD Vegan Mind Meld.
Last Comic Standing airs tonight at 9pm EST on channel 4 and after he performs a phone number and weblink will be posted on air to direct folks to vote from 10pm-midnight tonight. He's going to post the toll free number to his Facebook and Twitter pages.

This is a great opportunity to keep him on the air and bring a humorous vegan to the masses.


Myq Kaplan Stand-Up Comedy from Myq Kaplan on Vimeo.

Tonight Animal Planet premieres a documentary about an undercover investigation of the largest puppy-selling retailer in the country, Petland.



Puppy mills are exactly that - factories that churn out puppies for sale and keep female dogs constantly pregnant and in miserable conditions. Watch the show, tell your friends, and sign the HSUS Pledge to stop puppy mills. And if you're looking for a new BFF, please, please adopt that special someone from your local shelter or rescue group.

Click for more air dates on Animal Planet. More about Working Dog Productions, the cool folks behind the camera.

Daiya-serving pizza chain Z Pizza opened in the West Village this week. Gluten-free crust available! Huzzah! Fill out a two-minute survey (really, I tested it out for ya) to get a $5 coupon delivered to your inbox.

Even better: the largest foie gras farm in the U.S., Hudson Valley Foie Gras, will pay $50,000 for violating the federal clean water act after a judge ruled against them in a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States.

Pepperidge Farm is way behind the times, still using eggs from caged hens. Join East Bay Animal Advocates in telling Pepperidge Farm's parent, Campbell Soup Company, that cage-free is the way to go by e-mailing Douglas Conant at douglas_r_conant@campbellsoup.com or calling him at (856) 342-4800, ext. 3752.

Haven't seen Fowl Play yet? MFA has organized a screening at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center for Thursday, May 13 at 6:30 p.m. The movie will be followed by a Q&A with MFA campaign coordinator Matt Rice, Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary founder Jenny Brown, chicken keeper and blogger Martha Lazar, and Elizabeth Ayer, BK Farmyard’s farm director and consultant and caretaker at Wyckoff Community Garden and Farmers Market. Tickets are $12, or $8 for students and seniors.

VegNews won the best lifestyle mag category for the third consecutive year at the Maggie Awards this week! Yaaaay VegNews!

A mere round-up mention of Mia MacDonald's HuffPo article about the relationships between Goldman Sachs and agribusiness and your tax dollars, "Investment Bankers with Wings: Making a Killing", doesn't do the story justice, so go read. You will be horrified.

And finally: Holy cannoli! Mike Tyson is vegan!

Lea Michele, star of stage, television's Glee and mini-Streisand ingenue please make up your mind - you're confusing me!

Look, I'll admit it. When it comes to my life's personal trajectory, I look to the stars. Not astrology, silly! Celebrities! Their trials, tribulations and triumphs act as my own personal eight ball - the rudder that steers the Rudy-boat on this river called life. When they shine, you can find me emanating success like a thousand glow sticks at a 90's rave. And. Well. When they're having problems. You should see my life. I turn into Eeyore at an Emo concert.

Things are usually pretty black and white; A-to-Z one-two-three kinda easy. That was until little Miss Lea Michele, threw a wrench into the works.

One minute the girl was a vegan, then she's a vegetarian ("Well, I was. I slowly dipped back into cheese.) Then she's back to being a vegan. ("I’m a vegan,” Lea tells OK!. “It makes me feel really good and bright.”) Then she's a macrobiotic vegan who eats fish. (Wait. Did she just say that? ) All the while being a PETA spokesperson.

Lea Michele, please get your life in order. Because, after all and in the end, Veganism only counts when you're a celebrity. And, if you can't get that right you just make things complicated for those of us in the trenches who care about the actual definition and what it means to be vegan.

And, seriously, can Rachel just get with Finn already?

The Supreme Court today struck down a law against selling videos that show animal cruelty, voting 8-1, the AP reported.

"The justices threw out the criminal conviction of Robert Stevens of Pittsville, Va., who was sentenced to three years in prison for videos he made about pit bull fights," an AP reporter writes. "...Stevens ran a business and Web site that sold videos of pit bull fights. He is among a handful of people prosecuted under the animal cruelty law."

According to the AP's report, the assenting justices voted in favor of striking down the law, which was enacted in 1999 to prevent the making and selling of crush videos, to avoid limiting free speech. "[Chief Justice John] Roberts said the law could be read to allow the prosecution of the producers of films about hunting. And he scoffed at the administration's assurances that it would only apply the law to depictions of extreme cruelty."

Does it not violate the spirit of the constitution if free speech comes at the expense of life? And perhaps a ban on videos that glorify the cowardly practice of shooting an unarmed, unassuming creature with an automatic weapon is, in fact, a positive, if unpopular, application of the law.

The single dissenting judge, Justice Samuel Alito, told the AP that the ruling might spur a new wave of crush videos because it has "the practical effect of legalizing the sale of such videos." That is not to mention the sale of dog-, cock-, and bull-fighting videos, all of which promote cruelty as sport.

Roberts implied that this might be an opportunity for lawmakers to draft new legislation that will specifically ban filming and selling crush videos and other depictions of "extreme" cruelty. But who decides what amount of cruelty is acceptable? To me and many readers of this blog, hunting, fishing, and even butchering and some cooking videos constitute irresponsible depiction of extreme, unnecessary cruelty and exploitation. As god-awful annoying as those Got Milk? commercials are insomuch as they bring to mind the miserable lives of dairy cows, I'm willing to concede that those less direct implications of animal cruelty needn't be banned. But why must we recoil at the broader applications of a law that was apparently pointing us toward more aware and rational conclusions?

As of this decision, there is no protection for animals filmed being brutalized, and no punishment for those who profit off filming the brutalization of animals. Contact your representative to politely and firmly ask for a law that protects animals from starring in "films" depicting their own cruelty.

Below, ABC's report.

The Nebraska Soybean Board's latest commercial wants you to know the truth about meat. Oh, no, that's not right. They want you to eat meat so they can profit, because, as they say in this commercial, 98 percent of domestic soybean sales are purchases from the US meat industry.

The commercial makes no effort to hide the soybean farmers' agenda. After an intro segment, it begins: "From across our heartland, soybean, livestock, and poultry farmers are working together to feed the world."

We get the usual appeals to patriotism ("heartland"), community ("working together"), and an unquestionable common goal ("feed the world"). So, as united Americans, the soybean and meat farmers are going to stamp out hunger. Brilliant!

But let's back up. Why don't they tell us how much soy it takes to feed a cow (whose natural diet consists of grass), and then tell us how many humans you could have fed with that? Also, perhaps they could let us know how feeding an animal an unnatural diet of soy (and corn) affects its immune system and actually costs even more because they have to dose it with antibiotics to keep it healthy? Let's not forget the costs to human health of eating animal meat. And while they're analyzing the true cost of meat production, why not tell us the costs to other species as the soybean farmers mow down animals' natural habitats to make space for more soybeans?

"We need to do a better story of telling the benefits" of meat consumption, they say. I didn't hear about a single benefit of meat consumption in this commercial. I did hear plenty about the industry's "commitment" to human health and animal welfare (What??), but not a single representation of benefits. Show me proof that eating animals is good for my health or their welfare. C'mon, Soybean Board, show me what's really going on behind the curtain -- the animals as they're typically raised and slaughtered -- and try to tell me that this is humane and healthy.

The Soybean Board is clearly looking where the money is, and right now that's in the meat industry. But hey, I love edamame, tofu, and tempeh, just to name a few delicious soy-based foods. Let's remind the Soybean Board of the truth about the costs and "benefits" of meat production and consumption, and let's let 'em know that we're happy to eat soybeans, but not in the form of meat. Write them at info@nebraskasoybeans.org.

What do you call a gathering of vegans? ... A buzzkill. This witty observation sprouts from the genius of Doug Abel, co-founder of the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. "Recently I was joking around with Dan Piraro about the words used for plurals of animals--a gaggle of geese, a cackle of hyenas, a murder of crows--and I came up with a 'buzzkill' of vegans," he explains.

This punchline will be proved all kinds of wrong this Thursday at Comedy for Karma, the all-star stand-up comedy event to benefit the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. The tall "boyish man" Gary Gulman and sidesplittingly self-deprecating Louis C.K. return for their third time, while gritty insomniac Dave Attell makes it for a second round. New this year are two Daily Show celebs, co-creator Lizz Winstead and fake news correspondent Wyatt Cenac. Em-cee will be illustrious funny-man Dan Piraro.

Doug elaborates on his buzzkill coinage:

"I recall a joke from my college days in the late '80s...

Q: How many lesbians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: That's not funny!!!!

"If written today," Doug says, this joke "would certainly be about vegans. We have a reputation for being militant misanthropic schmucks (because we refuse to eat corpses). Actually, the version I heard just a few years ago was, 'That's worse than a vegan birthday party'--probably a reference as much to the dry, carob-based cakes of a decade ago as the dry, carob-based personalities that vegans are supposed to have."

"But the reality is that lots of vegheads have well-formed funnybones despite their Buzzkill Baselines," he adds. "And in fact the phrase "happy vegan" kicks angry vegan's butt by a factor of 15 on Google!"

You too can join the giant buzzkill of vegans to benefit the animals at the Woodstock sanctuary at NYC's Gotham Comedy Club this Thursday, April 1 (no joke). Tickets always sell out, so it's smart to buy in advance. $50 for general admission and $100 for reserved VIP seats.

Check out this hilarious video of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog interviewing Doug Abel about the event, scooping poop at the sanctuary, and humorless vegans.