Have you heard about the Zero Waste Challenge?  It’s Metro Vancouver’s campaign to help move our region towards drastic waste reduction as part of their new solid waste plan. Zero waste – that’s hard to imagine. How can we possibly carry out our active everyday lives without producing any refuse at all?  Just think – the cereal we eat for breakfast comes in a plastic-lined box, the milk a carton, the banana a peel; the printer we use at work gets ink from a disposable cartridge and the staffroom coffee maker leaves a heap of soiled grinds after every pot; our favourite beverages all come in boxes, cans, bottles, or paper cups; our lights burn out and our batteries run dry, and our many beloved appliances won’t last forever.

It’s a panda’s favourite snack. The trademark flora of Southeast Asian forests. An exotic addition to living room décor. And now, the latest innovation in clothing and textiles. That’s right – now you can snuggle under bamboo fibre sheets, tousle freshly-showered hair with bamboo fibre towels, and best of all, wear luxuriously comfortable bamboo fibre clothing that’s good for both you and the environment.

Behind the Chen Lizra’s breathtaking smile is a vibrant background and insatiable passion. Her latest project, a deep roots traveller’s guidebook aptly titled “My Seductive Cuba”, seeks to inspire readers to “live life passionately” – and who wouldn’t find such a notion seductive? The graceful, sumptuous dance clips featured on the book’s website is enough to draw anyone into Lizra’s story. Indeed, I found myself drinking in every word of the excerpts, and by the end I could almost smell the white rum on white sand beaches. Of course, the potency of these sensations may also come from the vivid authenticity of the website itself!

Over the past couple of years, there has been an immense explosion of debate and speculation around 2012 the so-called End of the World. The idea originates in the Mayan Calendar, which marks October 28, 2011 as the end of its Ninth and final cycle. Conspiracists, the superstitious, seers, and people everywhere have linked this date with an astronomical anomaly that will take place on December 21, 2012, and have interpreted the event as impending doom – a good reason to live their last year to the fullest (or at least put on clean underwear).

“My scrambled eggs this morning remind me of things I dare not write.”
Her words shake a cold angst in my chest as I read through Masik’s MySpace blog.  There is something at once so beautiful and eerily haunting about her that seems to stare back at me from the photos and articles detailing her work….

International Poster and Graphic Design Festival | International competition

The year 2012 will be filled with a series of local, regional and international design-related events, including Hong Kong’s first ever Design Fest Asia in December. Other remarkable events include Fashion Visionaries, Toy Museum Show Case and HKDA Global Design Awards 2011 Presentation Ceremony cum Exhibition,” said Dr. Edmund Lee, Executive Director, Hong Kong Design Centre.