Normally, teens never sit around on sidewalks in the Haight, but today was special so these kids made themselves right at home on Ashbury Street.
The favorite flavor of the thousands of patrons? That would have to be Cake Batter, one of the best ever. And almost definitely salmonella-free.
Check the video of Ben and Jerry’s recent visit to the Bay Area. Why not?
Happy 30th birfday, B&J!
It’s on. Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is having it’s 30th annual Free Cone Day on Tuesday, April 29, 2008.
Founders Ben and Jerry were most recently in the local news for launching an Olympic protest during our recent torch relay. (You hear that Coke? You don’t need to sponsor every Olympiad that comes down the pike.)
Anyway, there’ll be five places in San Francisco for you to get your cone on. Click onward to see the locations for the South, East and North Bays on the jump page or just go here to see all locations in northern North America.
This udder will be equipped to dispense the four newest flavors: Coconut Seven Layer Bar, Imagine Whirled Peace™, ONE Cheesecake Brownie™, Cake Batter:
See you there!
West Bay:
Ben & Jerry’s Argonaut
475 Jeffersont Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
Ben & Jerry’s Jefferson Street
79 Jefferson Street
Rocket Shop
San Francisco, CA 94133
Ben & Jerry’s Fisherman’s Wharf
Pier 41
San Francisco, CA 94133
Ben & Jerry’s Macy’s
Macy’s Department Store
San Francisco, CA 94102
Ben & Jerry’s Haight Ashbury
1480 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
Gavin Newsom, America’s “most stylin’” mayor, has deservedly gotten lots of national attention for leading the charge against the bottled water industry. Take a look here at a scene from last month in San Francisco - he was somewhere inside this scrum of media and tap water fans. He’s got a tiger by the tail with this popular issue, much to the chagrin of industry giants Coca Cola, Pepsi, and Nestle.
But what started this campaign? It was a conversation a while back the mayor had about his possession of some bottles of Fiji Water. Somebody pointed out a few things about the pros and cons (mostly the cons) of shipping drinking water from the South Pacific to San Francisco. The result is that he is an international leader on this issue.
Fair enough. But now it appears that Fiji Water is leading the campaign FOR bottle water. They’re attacking the anti-bottled water movement at an RSS 2.0-enabled website called FijiGreen. (They’ve just boosted the ad budget so you might be hearing more from them soon.)
First of all: FijiGreen!?! WTF? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Having dispensed with that, check out this blog entry written by ”Fiji Green Gal” where she attempts to debunk the “food miles” myth. As you can see, she’s got her hands full when she doggedly replies to commenters.
You’re on your own after that. It’s up to you to make your own decision about how some people in the Republic of the Fiji Islands might benefit from Fiji Water bottling, about how some chefs just seem to love the stuff, about how they have an SVP working on these issues, etc. You might end up with a nuanced view or you might get so interested you’ll take the TreeHugger Survey.
Add it all up and see how all this compares with turning on the faucet when you’re thirsty or bottling your own tap water for those times when you’re on the go.
News of the day:
Chinese torch officials have been warned their paramilitary “flame attendants” will be arrested and hauled away if they touch an Australian during the torch relay.
So that’s clear. There’ll be no manhandling Down Under in the name of “protecting the sacred flame” or whatever job description these Men in Blue have.
But check out this scene on the streets of San Francisco a few weeks back - at least one member of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force (PAP) in a physical altercation with an American citizen, Majora Carter.
Apparently, the handler (a Chinese woman who sits in a car and issues commands via radio) of these so-called “goons“ didn’t get the message they weren’t to assault Americans during the visit to San Francisco. Wonder why.
Desmond Tutu, Richard Gere, and Majora Carter all happy as clams under the watchful eyes of Fake Bono during a pre torch-relay shindig in San Francisco
Anyway, Coke now takes a dim view of the activist they recruited for the torch relay:
A Coca-Cola spokesman, Kelly Brooks, said, “It’s unfortunate that Ms. Carter used an invitation to participate in the torch relay as a platform to make a personal political statement. We firmly believe the Olympics are a force for good that celebrates the best in sports, and we are proud to support the Beijing 2008 Olympics.”
Were the 1936 Olympics “a force for good” also? It seems Coke might have had hand in that fiasco as well. We’ll all just have to ponder that one.
But it turns out that Majora signed a “code of conduct” that prohibited torchbearers from displaying political or religious signs. So what’s Coke’s next move? Extradition to Atlanta, Georgia? Rendition to Beijing? How are they going to make Majora pay for speaking out cause, you know, she signed a piece of paper.
The world wonders.
Government-sponsored? Propaganda? Read on and then you make the call. As has been reported, coming Saturday, April 12, to San Francisco is “‘Beijing, Are You Ready,’ a newly-released series by Oakland’s D3 Production, Inc that’s officially approved by the Beijing Organizing Committee.”
Right now, not many people in San Francisco have seen this production yet, but some are already wondering if it’s going to be just more Olympic propaganda.
As a clue, consider a similar production from D3 Productions from a few years back called Tibet Diary, where some Americans specifically chosen for not knowing much about Tibet are taken there and videotaped.
Take a look at looking at this video starting at 5:24 for about three minutes.
Wow. Those clips are called the money shots. Of course, the opinions expressed might very well be genuine. But after looking at the connections between party run media in China and the people behind Tibet Diary, you could be forgiven for thinking that this video is an example of government-supported propaganda.
Will Beijing, Are You Ready be a similar kind of production? See for yourself at the Main Public Library at 2:00 PM.
Coming Saturday, April 12, is “Beijing, Are You Ready,” a newly-released series by Oakland’s D3 Production, Inc.
Officially approved by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic games, this special series features Chinese athletes in training, the construction of the bird’s nest (Beijing national stadium) and much more behind the scenes with rare access to key people and places. Viewers also will experience the variety of ways that China’s capital city is preparing to host the 2008 Olympic games – the first ever Olympics held on Chinese soil. Film producer Duffy Wang and others will be available for discussion. Cosponsored by the Chinese Center.
Well, if it’s “officially approved by the Beijing Organizing Committee”, it must be good, right?
Let’s get some early reviews, how about from national state television, a sub-ministry of People’s Republic of China’s central government within the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and as such it does not have any editorial independence from the PRC government.
“Beijing is counting down to the 2008 Olympic Games!”
“And the people of Beijing are busy preparing for this international sports event with great enthusiasm!”
Meanwhile, back on the planet Earth, the authorities in Beijing are “absolutely wetting their pants” over the possibility of protests at torch events around the world. And those corporate sponsors of the torch relay are getting a little nervous, it seems:
“What started off as a small number of organizations threatening to create some disruption has escalated significantly,” said Dan Parr, the head of Asia-Pacific for brandRapport, a marketing consulting agency. “This must be taking some of the gloss off for some of these sponsors.”
Now let’s hear from Steven Spielberg:
“I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue with business as usual. At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies, but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in
Darfur .”
Mmm. It’s almost like there’s a chance that the Olympics can backfire on a host nation.
Beijing, are you ready?
Jim Dolan will be one of the scores of people to carry the Olympic torch on the streets of San Francisco.
Check out his Coca Cola red shirt complete with trademark Spencerian script. (His Samsung pennant and IBM/Lenovo baseball cap must have gotten lost in the mail.)
Do you think some people will try to “disrupt” his run by holding up signs and placards that mention Darfur, Tibet, and Burma? Maybe, but he looks like he’ll be able to handle it.
Way for News/NYDailyNews
Part of this crowd, a large crowd actually, at the San Francisco Ferry Building yesterday was there to get their very own free stainless steel vacuum flask to carry around tap water as an alternative to buying water in plastic bottles.
These were handed out for free:
Doesn’t everyone heart S.F.? How about the tap water you get in S.F. and some sourrounding areas? It comes from the Yosemite area, takes a rest around here, and then comes into your kitchen. It’s the best tap water in the world. So what’s wrong with drinking it instead of Dasani or Aquafina or whatever?
In 2007, Mayor Newsom famously worked on getting municipal workers off of the plastic water bottle. That move generated a little blowback but it also attracted some national interest.
In 2008, attention turns to restaurants routinely offering bottled water to patrons. It didn’t used to be this way, but nowadays it’s the first choice you have to make at some joints and some diners might feel that they’re being a bit cheap if they don’t spring for the spring water. What the Mayor is doing is using a little moral suasion to affect public behavior for the greater good. It’s not really “greenwashing,” actually. What it is is a perfectly appropriate use of the bully pulpit, as it doesn’t force anybody to do anything and it doesn’t cost the taxpayers any substantial amount of money.
Of course the bottled water industry thinks yesterday’s effort smacks of totalitarianism.
Stainless steel bottles are available while supplies last at SFPUC Customer Service at 1155 Market Street near Civic Center. Take a pledge to stop buying plastic bottles of water and you can get a nice metal bottle as well. Just drop on by. Who knows, you might get lucky.
