Jan/100
Belts Finally Real Belts
If you didn’t know it you do now: I love these fucking Belts! There I said it and it’s out there in the webiverse so I absolutely cannot take it back even though I have some of that invisible spray stuff. I didn’t know that I loved belts I hardly even thought about them- wait I didn’t think about them. One thing always bothered me though… I could never find a good one. When I became a friend of critters at the tender age of fifteen I started to notice how gross leather was then slowly but surely I noticed how alternatives to leather always fell apart right after buying them. Then I became a vegan after becoming just a little informed on the topic and at the same time mistakenly discovered this material.
On my bike rides out on the Columbia Slough is a factory hidden in the woods that makes conveyor belts. They throw away this material and being the avid dumpster diver that I am I had to check it out. Holy fuck this stuff is the best belt material in the world ever! I’m not a belt maker, I’m a college teacher, er, so I thought. More and more people ask for these belts. The Let Live Conference was entirely devoted to “Finding your activist voice, what do you do…” for the whole year. I felt a responsibility to present these to the world as best I can without stooping to slave labour or nasty environmental practice- sustainability, strong ethics, and damn lets get the “V” word out there more! People are terrified of the “V” word. I don’t know why “Vegan” is so scary for some people but they often react violently to it if you give them half a chance.
I wasn’t able to write in here for a long time cause I had to go in the hospital to have a fist sized tumor taken from my head. Oh “by the way” yeah that has been no fun. I was scheduled to open the store October 15th but they had to do the 12 hour surgeries September 15th. Actually my friends went ahead and opened the store for “us” (I was also voiceless for a long time). The two teams of surgeons did a fabulous job reconstructing my face and leg but now we find out they have to redo my upper jaw so I won’t be close to standard till next fall.
Nov/091
Ass Flaps! Incredible and Amazing!
First just let me say the opening party was a huge success. I don’t write nearly as much as I should, I have a very cute and snuggly rabbit friend who constantly demands my attention. right now I’m rubbing her head with my right hand and typing with my left. I’m right handed so typing this is very slow-going. Tell you what how about I link to a previous writing on the party from the HVB FB page http://facebook.com/HELDVeganBelts
The Ass-Flaps were a great idea that will allow me to get to know my new sewing machine and see how some of the materials work while making a great thing that every body needs. With the Ass-Flap you can travel in style and sit anywhere you like. With our moisture proof technology that we discovered in a very clean dumpster pants stay super dry. The really neat thing about this is that I can start making purses real soon cause I’m getting a great feel for these materials and I think I’m getting better at this sewing thing too!
Ass-Flaps now available in sizes ranging from 8 to 14 inches square.
Also we made a bunch of super amazing hair wrap band things that are supreme recycling and beauty technology combined for awesomeness you can’t find anywhere else, ever!
Deadline for the first zine contributions will be November 29th and the theme for some odd reason is “Fan Clubs” two words and plural how exciting! You need to know the dimensions are a folded sheet of 8.5 X 11 inches regular paper but don’t forget the little quarter inch around the edges for the printer and binding.
Oct/091
Happy Fun Time
Tonight is last Thursday and Alberta street Has a big huge party every last Thursday of the month except when it gets too cold and nasty. To keep with the good fun we’ll be hosting a vegan potluck every Last Thursday! Tonight is a little different because we’ll also be hosting an artist reception for Jeremy Scott Kemp. And on Nov. 6th from 6-9 we have a big Opening Party with lots of neat stuff including the art of Katie Simpson and live performance by Mortal Clay that will have you stomping your feet to no end, and performances by the Radical Cheerleaders for Animal Rights.
Nov 6th 6-9pm 3033 NE Alberta Opening Party
Our Store is located at 3033 NE Alberta Portland, OR 97211 right next to Vita the Vegan vegetarian restaurant and now big news: Dovetail Vegan Bakery will be right next door!!!
Oct/090
For Your Viewing Pleasure
Watch this nice video of Derrick Jensen one of the best writers and thinkers of our time working it out.
Stolen from ENDCIV.COM
After you watch the film and go to your locally owned bookstore and buy one of his amazing books you can stroll on down to HVB at 30th and Alberta right next to Vita “…primarily vegan restaurant…” oh wait, you already read twenty of his books, what do I know? Anyway come in and buy something if you need it or work on that vegan craft project or just hang out with us and talk about interesting things.
Oct/090
Fashion By Flashlight!
Super crazy fun times on Alberta!
4th Annual Fashion by Flashlight: Thursday Oct. 15th 6-9 PM
Boutiques on Alberta St. are having a special evening of trunk shows and sales, with designers in house showing their new and ever-brilliant creations. HVB will be hosting some spectacular something or other no doubt that will have your head spinning and lava pouring out of your face! Oh I can’t wait this is going to be amazing and super. No vodka for us though, we’d rather not have all that.
Oct/090
Cancer in My Head etc.
An endless list of reasons not to write this is trying to stare me down. Need more sleep, too much pain, emotional imbalance, and it goes and goes but oh well. About an hour ago I realized that I lived through it. No really it hit me hard looking into my sweet heroic wife’s eyes crying happily that I could have died as easily as I lived.
Maybe a month ago my biopsy for my congested sinuses came back with all kinds of amazing results. Malignant. I only want to give an update here in case someone heard something like the rumors I’ve heard, I can’t write or talk or walk yet but I have to do some thing. It all happened so fast but in slow motion very much monochromatic with bursts of muted color. Red. So much red. Melinda is so strong and loving and we have each other and nothing else is that big. She carried me all the way up the hill and out of danger. I want to spy on her movement till time is no longer time, her face is the focal point of surrounding good things. Good finds a place to rest in her beautiful face. She saved me from the sea of red now only in my routine nightmares.
I have been home from hospital now two weeks. Two weeks in hospital. ICU HELL. The food they kept putting in my tube was vegan only in that it had no animal milks or parts but it was not vegan the way I’m vegan. Ingredient one: water. Oh well water is good for sure but in “food” i would prefer water to be “juices” that come from FOOD. Lets see… ingredient two: Corn Syrup, yeah that shit I avoid in my real life! At home I don’t need insulin cause I eat very well- vegans really have it good if they are doing it right which is most of us. Every six hours they poke holes in my fingers then come back with a shot of insulin and that pissed me off more than anything in the world. It could easily be avoided if they actually had FOOD the shit in the can they put in my tummy tube has a big Nestle logo. Enough of the rant here is what the operations entailed roughly.
I was out while for twelve hours lots of people I love and who love me waited while two teams worked on me. One team cutting down the length of my lower leg to remove my tibia save a couple inches on each end. Attached to the bone are a sizable muscle and 4×6 inch bit of skin. While this is happening the other team separated my facial skin from my cheeks and upper jaw so they could cut out and remove my cheekbones, upper jaw, and sinus area with the fist sized cancer. I really am not ready for this level of detail. for more or less info veganPDX on fb.
Aug/090
New HELD Store?!
Okay some good things are happening.
We’re looking into opening a store this November maybe earlier. Our favorite places to consider but it depends largely on what we find, availability. It has to be big enough to set up part of the workshop in. I think it would be nifty if we could have a work/hangout/shop/have tea/plan kind of joint. So NE Alberta is the sweet spot where our old place was, we loved that area. The other cool option for us would be SE 12th Vegan Avenue… duh. So if you see something we don’t know about give me jingle-jangle-beep-beep.
I was telling a friend a couple days ago about how we want to have drop boxes to recycle belts and she said it would be cool if we could put a box in her store with an acrylic/plexi-glass clear front so people could see what was going on… cool idea. Anybody have some scraps they want to sell? Who wants a box? We’ll come scoop em up on occasion and go recycle the hell out of them!
Ok have fun. Back to work.
Aug/093
Sewing Thick Natural Rubber
I thought I was going to throw the sewing machine through the window yesterday. All day long fighting with the damn machine. It would go good for like ten stitches and then start getting all messed up, building up giant loops on the bottom. Then when I would finally fix that it would go well for half a second and I’d start feeling victorious and then the bottom wouldn’t grab at all! Ahhhh all day long back and forth good, bad, good, bad. I don’t think I was able to finish a single item but I guess I came further in design. Some of the material is so rad I can’t wait to get this new line going! AHGHH!
Aug/091
Sewing This Week
After catching up on orders… I think, well okay-after catching up on most of the orders I think we can start working with the new (used) sewing machine. I’ve never used an industrial machine but it looks sweet, really sweet. No extra buttons and knobs to fidget with which is good for me cause I get distracted. The motors on these things are so wicked they have to bolt them to the side. The one I got is old but the motor is new and it hasn’t a single scratch or dents and its a lovely blueish periwinkle color.
So what should I make? I’ll start with some easy little zipper pouches but really I have heaps of salvaged material to work with. All colors and types of vinyl, fabric, plastic shipping material, flat inner tubes. I need to make more inner tube wallets people dig those. I’d like to try to make some shoes, thing is, we have to be able to do it quick to keep the prices low. My thinking is that high prices and sustainability/greenery are not in the same group. Not even the same universe, uh oh don’t get me started on greenwashing. These people really piss me off to no end with all the effing hype about how GREEN they are because the jet they use has recycled pop bottle cushions. Give me a break!
Oh I almost forgot; if you haven’t heard we are looking for a store to open around Alberta or SE 12th, something similar to those. and…
The fabulous employee of the month award is not given lightly but this one works so hard and puts up with the most difficult employer in town that she deserves all the accolades that come with such a prestigious award… Courtney Flummoxed Otter Kintz you are the new Employee of the Month!!!
She makes the best Vegans!
Thank you Courtney for all the hard work. HELD would not be nearly as good with out you!
