We posted this photo a bit back via MooShoes Los Angeles’ Instagram account, but loved the shot so much, we wanted it to live here too.

Shoes by our house brand, Novacas; street art in Silver Lake by Mister Uncertain.

It’s been written by me on these pages many a time at this point, but, for years now—since my late high school/early college days, at least—artist Nikki McClure has been producing material to make both Katie + me swoon, be it in her vocal-forward, radically personal music in the early + mid nineties or in her later visual work with traditional paper cuts. We’ve spoken with Nikki before about her work and how much we appreciate it; on the occasion of her first exhibition in Los Angeles since we’ve lived here, we wanted to catch up again and find out how things are going for her, how her work’s changed in the past few years, and what she’ll be showing at the exhibition, which opens this weekend (details at the end of this interview and on Giant Robot’s site).

raven + crow: Alright, so, it’s been a little while since we last spoke. What’s been going on for you in the past four or so years?

Nikki McClure: Four years. I could have been President. But instead, I’ve been making dinner, getting the kid to go to school (today we took a walk and then went to school, late), making new books, books, books, sailed to Alaska, swam off Japan and Santa Cruz, learned to scuba dive, built a house, swam across the inlet, wrote cranky emails, made crankies, and witnessed eagles mating every one of those four years.

Eagle voyeur, eh? No, I’d personally say that beats leader of the free world. Who wants that kind of responsibility? We’ve been enjoying all of the book work you’ve been doing of late too. Our cat, Allister, very much enjoys How to Be a Cat and would like to know if a particular cat inspired the book.

When I bought a house in 1998, with every last dime I had, there was a cat left behind. “That’s Bud. He lives in the garage. Don’t worry, the neighbors feed him.” Well, eventually I fed him and even let him on my lap though he was a stinky tomcat, blind, with a festering wound that would never heal because he had cat AIDS. He was Bud. I needed to make some more dimes after buying the house, so I made a cat calendar to support myself. The calendar became the inspiration for the book. My publisher was happy to just reprint the calendar, but I had changed a bit since 1998, so I added a kitten to the story. I’m happy to hear that your cat enjoys it. People send me pictures of their cats with the book, often in a sunny spot. I’m not so sure if it’s the book or the warmth that the cats are digging.

Both, right? I noticed you’ve started doing a lot with large format prints—both digital + screen—and selling original paper cuts via BuyOlympia too—what inspired those moves?

Someone asked for a big print and BuyOlympia got a big printer and was already making prints for other artists. It seemed a way to make a nicer print than the offset mass produced ones that I sell. Plus, people have been framing the cheap prints and treating them like art, so why not up the ante and provide Art art for the people? The silk-screens are experiments with colors. I made some on wood for my last LA show. I will be making a silkscreen print for the Giant Robot show in LA of a 2016 calendar image. LA is Futureland, so why not? I discovered a cool printer here in Olympia, Justin Crawford. I liked what he was doing with color and ink and paper and images. It’s fun!

Yeah, I just took a look at his D.A.R.E. style shirt—nice. Is it tough for you to let go of those originals though?

Usually. But one of the first originals I sold was to a family with a little girl. My image would hang in their dining room. She would look at it every day for 12 years. It would become her visual memory, burned into her mind (I should laugh evilly here, but it makes me pretty happy and quietly humble). I keep one from every series. Now I let my son decide which one he wants. They will be his someday when I’m gone.

Aw. Well, that’s beautiful. The “Love: 15,000 Years Later” screen prints seemed really awesome—I read you did those for a trip to Japan? Can you talk about that?

I had Justin Crawford print them up. I wasn’t happy with the cover of the 2015 calendar. TOO YELLOW, yet I wouldn’t let myself freak out with colors like I really, really wanted too. I’m pretty strict about my image making rules: one piece of paper, all connected, color to add meaning, one color added. So the rainbow color pallet of sunset didn’t fit into the rules. And when I tried it on computer…it looked weird and computer-y. But I really wanted to give it a go in a manual way. Silkscreening gave me that chance. The colors started out vibrant, then faded over the printing evening, just like the real sky was fading. I like that it shows time through the printing process. It also seemed that Japan would understand.

I want to write a series of short stories entitled “Japan Would Understand”. Speaking of Japan…by way of LA, now you’ve got a show coming up at the Asian American punk, arts + culture zine turned gallery + store, Giant Robot here in Los Angeles. Congratulations, first off. How did that come about?

Eric from Giant Robot asked me. Plus, my son has been asking me “When are we going back to LA? You should have a show again at that cool place.” I’ve had a few shows there. I’ve known Giant Robot for many years. (A pause while I remember). Was it the mid-1990’s??? early 90’s?? WE GO WAY BACK. It was through music, then through art that we connected and have maintained contact.

Awesome! Los Angeles scores cool points with America’s youth! What are you planning to show at the exhibition this go ’round?

I’ll show the originals from In, my latest children’s book, reviewed in LA Times last weekend. I’ll also show some of the 2015 calendar paper cuts and then a few other mixed assortments of ideas for my next book. I will also have the new silkscreen print.

That all sounds really fun—we’re excited to see it all in person. And excited to finally meet you in person and have you visit our fine city again!

YES! That is the reason why I’m having the show, to go to LA to that cool store (and eat and swim and see beauty).

We can help you with all of that. Any other plans while you’re here?

Eat, swim, the Getty, maybe the Last Bookstore’s tunnel, get new Vans for the kiddo, hook up with friends who will also be in LA.

Aw, I’d tell you to come to the vegan shoe store we run in Silver Lake, but we don’t carry kids’ stuff. Definitely back you up on the Getty plan and the Last Bookstore. Nice choices.

It’s funny, I feel like places like New York, San Francisco, and around Portland + Olympia usually have fairly strong opinions of LA—they love it or they hate it. Most of my life in New York, I was running off some pretty out-of-date estimations of a city I’ve grown to love. Do you have any thoughts on Los Angeles?

I absolutely love it, for a few days. But after that, I never want to drive again and also want to leave before I see something violent (which I have lingered too long and too late and have seen in LA). LA is beautiful. There are avocado trees! And everything is so shiny and smiling and there is too much to do. I will notice the polluted air. I live in such a clean place. Portland is stinky and too many cars. Seattle is stinky and too many cars. Olympia is just right for me.

You make some pretty good points. Though I’d counter—visit our neighborhood, Beachwood Canyon. I just got back from a 6 mile run in the mountains with our dog. You can see all the way to the ocean and you’re surrounded by nature a short walk away from Hollywood proper. It’s amazing.

This might be a bit of a non-sequiter, but I feel like you’ve become this sort of ambassador to the idea of slowing down and enjoying life in a certain way. Did you reach a point in your life where you realized that had to become a priority? Or have you always had that perspective?

You are the second interview this week to think so…the fact that I have 2 interviews does not mean that I am busy. I’m just in a YES mood and 2 people were curious enough to ask.

Slow Life Ambassador? Hmmm…. It’s always been a priority to me to allow room in my life for spontaneity, to allow room in my life to LIVE. I’ve been lucky to find a way to be supported by so many people (all those calendar-buyers—thank you!). The work I do sometimes is Work work, but I can only physically cut paper for a few hours a day, and I can only think up so many creative thoughts before we have to go out to dinner because I’ve no creative energy left to think up what to make for dinner! There is no homemade pie those nights. I am addicted to gazing out windows or lying down on the sodden Earth and watching birds fly about. I have the only job that allows me to do that as part of my job! Slowing down, I haven’t pushed things along. I’ve let my life happen organically and that can be slow. Sometimes it is fast, things and projects sprout like mushrooms. Picking mushrooms and berries, swimming and hammocking: all these things take time and only happen one season a year. It would be a shame, and not living to let a season slip by without taking time, using time in other ways. I’ve said NO to a lot of things, but never NO to a walk, or swim, or blueberry patch.

I like that. A lot. It’s actually been a subject that’s been on my and my partner’s minds a lot lately—any advice for those of us trying not to buckle under the weight of everything going on in our lives? What do you do when you feel like things are getting out of hand or your spreading yourself thin?

Walk. Take a walk together. Make time to walk because when you are done everything will be better and you’ll do everything so much quicker that it will feel like you made time expand. Have a 3 minute dance party if it’s raining too hard or you have something due in 1 hour and it is freaking you out.

Excellent advice! Except that it never rains in LA…sadly. Speaking of doing too much though, we started up this retrospective online music journal with a partner + friend of ours called Forgotten Favorite, where we sing the praises of some of our favorite 10+ year old songs—you should totally contribute if you ever have any interest. Anyway, it’s had me digging more through my old music, yours included, and I keep meaning to write up a Nikki McClure favorite. I know it’s sometimes weird, but did you have a favorite of your own?

Ha! I’ve been trying to listen to the new Sleater-Kinney album, but my machine is shuffling all their songs from all the years. I am flipping back and forth in time and age. …God, it is so sunny. I might just ditch this interview!

Hah! Wait, beforee you do—I always loved that song you did for the 89.3 KAOS benefit, “EGD (Pop God)”, which I think you did with Tae from Kicking Giant (another one we want to write up). Do you still keep in touch with K Records + KRS crowd at all? Has everyone moved on to…I don’t know, home goods and design firms or is anyone doing music any more?

Yes, no. I picnicked with Lois under the cherry trees at the state Capitol last week. I sometimes see Calvin about. Kicking Giant is going to play in Olympia in May. Tae is a book designer. Rachel Carns makes Magic Kombucha. I made a t-shirt of Bud the cat for the new Sleater-Kinney tour.

OH MAN! Where can I get one of those shirts‽ I NEEED IT! Also, I love that Rachel Carns of Slant 6, The Need, and Kickign Giant now runs a kombucha company.

Back in 2011, we asked you about your apparent (and shared) fascination with crows. Since, we’ve moved to Los Angeles, where, in our area, we have an abundance of ravens, of all things. It’s awesome. But if you had to—had to—pick a favorite wild animal, what would it be? I’m guessing owl…..

The crows are calling “GOD DAMN DOGS!” That’s what they say here …or what I’ve taught them to say (that’s a long story). We feed them scraps of fishes and they are respectfully wild, yet curious about us in a way that is not quite tame. More equal in our animal-ness.

Oh, I still love crows. We do have a raven pair who who of shoof by in flight, two eagles too, and occasionally an owl. My son would vote owl or Bufflehead.

But those are birds…favorite of all animals? My husband, Jay T. and my son, Finn.

Now for the SUNSHINE!!! I might not need LA for sun after all. But I’ll go. I’ll swim in the warm ocean. Favorite swimming spots anyone??? Please share. Also Japanese food??? and ice creams. And another uniquely LA spots??

Ooh—the swimming’s only marginal, but the beach is amazing—visit El Matador State Beach if you can! And Japananese—Tastu near the gallery for ramen + Shojin in Culver CIty and in an awesome Japanese mall downtown for really good vegan sushi and super-nice staff. Then one of our favorite Brooklyn coffee + ice cream joints—Van Leeuwen—copied us and made the move out here. They’re still working on their west coast brick + mortars, but you can catch they’re truck around town. Check them out on Twitter for today’s as-of-yet announced location. They make my favorite vegan ice cream out of coconut + cashew milk. So rich + creamy.

Thanks so much for talking with us again—can’t wait for the show this weekend!

It will be fun. See you there.

15,000 Years Later, Nikki’s exhibition, opens this Saturday, April 4 with a reception 630-10PM at GR2 Gallery—Giant Robot’s gallery—located at 2062 Sawtelle Boulevard. Nikki will also be talking about her process at an Art Talk at the space at 5PM on Sunday, April 5. You can view + purchase much of Nikki’s back catalogue via long-time purveyor of all things Nikki McClure, buyolympia.com.

Below, Nikki’s studio + a work in progress; a storm water hatch cover she designed—”They are on all Olympia streets and my outdoor shower!”;  a new print; bucolic Olympia; a lovely looking pie made by Nikki; and the artist enjoying some walking + gathering in the woods.

I want to believe that the coming reboot of one of my all time favorite shows, The X-Files, is going to be good. I want to believe.

But I am oh-so-rudely reminded of my similar hope at the sad, sad arrival of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Plus the past few public appearances by show star David Duchovny have been a bit…rough, to say the least. He seems to have held it together with his recent appearance on David Letterman though. And who wouldn’t be excited about the return of Mitch Pileggi‽

The good news for Duchovny—he’ll evidently have a folk rock career to fall back on if this new X-Files doesn’t pan out.

The other night, as I was in the process of beating what is, I must say, undisputedly the best video game ever—Super Mario Brothers—our friend and colleague, Paul Singh of the creative collective, Pel, was serendipitously responding to the following email I sent to him a little while ago:

Subject: Kind of Important Question
Message: How hard would it be to make our 404 page at raven + crow a playable version of Super Mario Brothers?

The answer came in the form of Paul writing on my victorious Instagram post—”check your 404″.

Which, before recalling my request to Paul, I took to be some sort of cool guy way to say “check yo self” or something…and, now that I think about it, I’m going to start trying to drop into my vernacular. “Check your 404, man. Sheesh.”

But, obviously, Paul meant he’d—awesomely—done as requested.

So, as of this week, any time you accidentally or purposefully visit a page that doesn’t exist (resulting in a 404 error or Not Found message), you’ll be able to play Super Mario Brothers. What’s more, you can play as Mario or a host of other early NES heroes, including Zelda hero, Link, Metroid, MegaMan, and more.

So get lost on our site, man. And apologies to your employer.

Note that this most likely won’t work on your mobile devices or in out-of-date browsers.

First time beating SMB without warping, by the way. Pretty proud of myself.

Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center is currently running Rock & Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip, an exhibit that features photographs of the hand-painted billboards that dominated the streets of LA for nearly two decades. As they put it:

“…this exhibition brings to life a unique period in the history of rock & roll and the fabled Sunset Strip, whose nightclubs were the birthplace of rock & roll royalty. Photographer Robert Landau traces the billboard phenomenon from the breakthrough promotion for the debut album by the Doors in 1967 to the advent of MTV in the 1980s, which signaled the end of an era.”

Poor MTV. Ever the scapegoat of shifts in pop culture.

The exhibition is up through August 16 and, judging by the examples here, well worth seeing. You can see more shots on the exhibition page.

Skirball is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. near Manhattan Beach and open noon to 5PM Tuesday-Friday, 10AM-5PM on weekends, and closed Mondays.

It’s that time of year again, folks—the time when Katie + I quickly attempt to catch up with the rest of America and put together our collaborative March Madness brackets. As explained in previous years, though, since we know not a thing about college basketball, we determine our brackets based on what we do know—the effectiveness and (more often) lack of awfulness of the team’s logo.

Most collegiate logos have to balance a very fine line, appealing to students and parents of students as a refined, fastidious institution of higher learning worthy of inordinate amounts of cash…while at the same time coming across as badass, slam-dunking, high-fiving, energy-drink-chugging cowboys or bulldogs or wildcats or blue-and-gold rooster-monsters. Which is probably why many colleges have multiple logos for multiple uses/audiences. “What’s that, ma’am? You don’t want your daughter attending a school with an imaginary imp on all of its merchandise? That’s crazy-talk. Give us our $40,000.”

This year, rather than write out our Cliff’s Notes on the reasoning behind our decisions (or lack thereof), we’re instead presenting to you what is likely a wildly boring video of Katie + me deciding the brackets on the spot, based on branding effectiveness, text-image balance, color scheme, potential placement + predicted impressions, and cuteness of cat involved in logo, obviously.

More worth the time and also related, John Oliver‘s recent rant on March Madness and the economics behind the NCAA and college sports, also below.

Click through to a larger image of our full brackets to the right.

Go, Rams!

It’s always great when you’re granted the opportunity to sing the praises of your talented friends. When we first met Chris Locke, he told us all about the novel he was working on. He told us that it followed the story of a compassionate raccoon named Persimmon who brings together a troop of adventurous animals to seek out and rescue suffering animals in the world.

Over a year later, that novel—Persimmon Takes On Humanity—is a reality. On Saturday, Chris will be holding his west coast launch party for the book at MooShoes Los Angeles, so we thought now would be a great time to talk with Chris about what it’s like to quit your full-time gig to risk it all on your passion project and what inspired the story of Persimmon.

raven + crow: Alright, so, first thing’s first—what inspires someone to leave a career in the entertainment industry to write a novel? That’s gotta be a harrowing decision to make.

Christopher Locke: It was the single most thrilling and nerve-racking decision of my career. I had been working in the television industry for over a decade, and although some of the jobs had been fun at times, I felt creatively stifled. Since I was a kid, my dream was to write something that made it to the big screen or got published, and despite years of hard work, that dream hadn’t come to fruition yet.

That all changed when I came up with the idea for Persimmon Takes On Humanity (the first book in The Enlightenment Adventures). I finally felt I had something worth taking a big risk over. So, with the loving support of my wife, I quit my job and spent the next two years writing this novel. The end result is an exciting adventure with a lot of heart that I hope will inspire many people to make more compassionate choices toward animals.

And now you have a book—congratulations! There’s that general wisdom that goes something along the lines of, if non-human animals simply had a voice and spoke in a language we could more easily understand, none of us would eat meat. Do you think this book or the idea behind it is a kind of extension to that belief?

For anyone who currently eats animals, when they read this novel they’re going to find themselves rooting for Persimmon and her team to save the animals along their journey who are being grossly mistreated by humans (in places like factory farms, fur farms, and circuses). Some of these animals are the very ones that the readers currently eat, and it’s in that moment that I hope readers will have an epiphany that if they’re rooting for the characters in the book, why not advocate for all the real animals out there who are suffering?

Watership Down is, to this day, one of my favorite pieces of literature ever. Do you have any animal-centric books or movies that inspired you to follow the format that Persimmon follows?

Watership Down is one of my favorite novels as well! I also love Charlotte’s Web and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Interestingly, I read those when I was much younger before I was vegan, so they don’t have a direct correlation to why I wrote Persimmon Takes On Humanity. It was actually after I read Fast Food Nation in 2004 that I was inspired to go vegan and then immediately I wanted to write something of my own that might inspire other people to be kinder to animals.

It took almost a decade of writing various animal rights-themed stories before I hit on the idea that the best way to inspire people to care about other animals was to tell the story from the animals’ perspective. Then, not only would readers see what it’s really like living in a world overrun by humans but they’d feel what it’s like.

Totally. Though I feel like, a lot of times, animal rights-centric books are often read by people already in the know, so to speak. Do you have any concerns of Persimmon preaching to the choir, as they say?

I think people who are currently animal advocates and those who are not will greatly enjoy the novel for different reasons. Animal advocates will find it riveting and inspiring to join Persimmon and her team as they travel from location to location attempting to free different animals from the horrific conditions in which they’ve been enslaved.

But one of the main points of writing the book was to expose everyone to the ways in which humans wrongly exploit other animals, so I intentionally chose to start the book with the main characters (Persimmon, her brother Scraps and their opossum friend Derpoke) not as activists yet. That way readers could relate to them better. It’s only after Persimmon and her friends come across humans abusing these other animals that they rise to the occasion and courageously decide to save the animals. And who doesn’t love an epic tale where heroic characters fight against insurmountable odds? It’s a classic David and Goliath story.

I was talking with a vegan cookbook author recently and he was telling me how much work it was to put his book together. But then, when it was done, he had this awesome realization that, oh my god, he had a book now. He was a published author. Have you had a moment like that?

I spent a lifetime dreaming about being a published author and it took two years to create this particular book. The first year when I was writing the story itself was the most joyful creative experience I’ve ever had, but the second year when I was going through the overwhelming (and expensive) publishing process almost crushed me to pieces. So when I held the very first print copy of Persimmon Takes On Humanity in my hands it was life-changing. My wife actually got worried about me, because I got really silent and sat down on the bed, looking as if I was about to cry. She asked, concerned, “Are you okay? Is there something wrong with the book?” I answered quietly, “No, it’s perfect. This is just one of the greatest days of my life.” I was so overcome with emotion I didn’t know how to react.

That’s awesome. Where does the name Persimmon come from? How’d you come up with it?

As a writer, I keep a running list of potential characters names. A few years ago my mother-in-law came over with a bag of persimmons for my wife and I. I had never heard of this fruit before and I thought, “Persimmon is a beautiful word. It would make a fantastic character name one day.” So when I wrote the book, I looked at the list and it seemed like the perfect name for this sweet-natured and compassionate raccoon.

Why a raccoon?

Originally, I was going to have Persimmon and Scraps be squirrels, but my wife suggested that raccoons might be a better fit. So I did some research on raccoons and I was amazed by how perfect their skills are for the rescue missions. They’re intelligent, nocturnal (so they can go out at night without being detected), mischievous, expert climbers and they have dexterous paws (which come in handy when opening doors and latches to cages). Great call by my wife. Of course, I still made some other team members squirrels, because they’re crafty critters too… and they’re really cute.

Our dog’s certainly fascinated by them. Are there any animals or other characters in the book that are inspired by real life at all?

None of the characters are exact replicas of anyone I know, but in order to connect to the characters I did take some personality traits from people in my life. For example, my wife is smart, she’s not afraid to stand up to anyone, she’s a natural leader, and she has dedicated her life to protecting other animals, so I used those traits when constructing Persimmon.

For the fur farm section, I tell the harrowing tale of two brother minks struggling to survive the horrors of a fur farm. In order to keep the story from getting too bleak, I gave the brothers a jocular relationship, which is based on the humor-filled bond between my brother and I. Let me tell you, I cried a few times while writing that section, because those poor minks go through a hell of an ordeal and yet they always try to keep their spirits up.

I know that part of the process to writing a novel is sending out advance copies to people in an attempt to get feedback that you can both work off of and put out there publicly to promote the book. Did you get back any especially humbling responses?

I made a wish list of people whom I admire that I would love to have read the book, and I was so honored by how many said yes and then gave truly glowing responses. You can see the list here. These people are so accomplished in their fields and for them to take the time to read my book and give me such flattering blurbs, I was humbled and will be forever grateful.

And Persimmon’s the first of a three-book trilogy, correct?

Yes, Persimmon Takes On Humanity is the first book of The Enlightenment Adventures trilogy.

What made you want to do a trilogy instead of a one-off?

I had originally planned to write one book, but as I was writing, the story kept getting richer and more grand in scope, so when I was at about page 100 and I still had so much more story to tell, my wife suggested breaking it up into separate books (a recurring theme here is how instrumental my wife was during my process of writing this book!). The thought hadn’t even occurred to me, but it was such a great idea, because then I could tell the entire saga of Persimmon and her brave team without feeling like I was hindered by the constraints of keeping it short enough to fit into only one book.

Have you started putting the second one together yet then?

I have the whole plot for Book Two mapped out. I am very excited about the story and ready to dive into writing it very soon. For anyone who enjoyed Book One, they’re going to absolutely love Book Two.

Any tips for those aspiring to write? Did you do the whole write-every-day thing, for instance?

I felt so inspired writing this novel that I couldn’t stop writing it. I was up all day and night jotting down ideas and typing away.

In terms of advice for other writers, my best tip is to write down every idea you have the moment it comes to you. I carry a pen and paper with me everywhere I go, so that I don’t forget any ideas. And the best part is that I never have to worry about that dreaded blank page. I’ve already written most of the story by the time I actually sit down at my computer.

One other important bit of advice, when publishing a book, don’t try to do it all yourself. When it came to creating the book cover, I made sure to hire talented people who knew what they were doing. The beautiful front cover design was by a brilliant artist named L.A. Watson, and the gorgeous spine and back cover design was done by none other than the masterful team at raven + crow studio. I get compliments on the cover all the time and I have you all to thank for that!

Aw, shucks. Happy to help. Your book bio identifies you as a sit-down comedian, among other things—is that a thing for real? That sounds nice; a lot less work than all that standing other comedians do.

Standing is highly overrated. Life can be so absurd and depressing at times that I’ve always enjoyed making a witty remark to lighten the mood. This started at a young age, so since I wasn’t a professional comedian, my mom referred to me as a “sit-down comedian.”

I know Persimmon Takes On Humanity tackles a heavy subject and there are certainly some devastating emotional moments, but I tried to make the story thrilling, entertaining, and even sprinkle in some lighter humorous moments to keep it from getting too dark.

And any plans to promote the book outside of Los Angeles as of yet?

Yes, definitely. I’m planning my book tour right now, so people can check here for upcoming events. This spring, I’ll be visiting other West Coast cities and then in the summer I’ll be traveling to the East Coast to veg-friendly places like New York City. I’ll also be at the Animal Rights Conference in late July, so people should stop by my exhibit table to say hello.

Well thanks so much for talking with us and best of luck promoting the book.

If you’re in southern California this weekend, come by MooShoes Los Angeles, 3116 Sunset, from 6-9PM for a reading from the book, some drinks + vegan bites, and to meet Chris in person. You can RSVP on the launch party’s Facebook page.

“The 17th day of March yeerly is St. Patrick’s, an immovable feast, when ye Irish of all stations and condicions were crosses in their hats, some of pins, some of green ribbon, and the vulgar superstitiously wear Shamroges, 3-leaved grass, which they likewise eat (they say) to cause a sweet breath.”

1681, Thomas Dinely, Journal.

It’s not every day you get to see a logo you created so many years back painted as a gigantic mural on a wall.

Er. I guess it would be if we worked at Farm Sanctuary‘s new Los Angeles office in the Arts District. But, you know.

Congrats on the new digs, friends. PS—anyone going by for a meeting, the raw vegan restaurant next door—The Springs—is pretty awesome. Consider the seaweed-kale Caesar highly recommended.

In a small Chilean town not far from the country’s capital of Santiago, locals make and keep fat little pigs named Chanchitos as good luck charms. Though the origin’s a bit murky, the story we originally heard was that Chanchito was a pig who, along with his friends, was being raised for slaughter. Chanchito lost one of his legs through some sort of accident along the way, making him undesirable when the farmer brought him to market. While the rest of the ill-fated, four-legged pigs were killed, Chanchito was spared and brought home by the farmer where he was welcome by the family. There, that three-legged pig grew old in his happy new life, becoming a symbol of luck in the process and showing us that even things that outwardly seem like bad omens or disadvantages or misfortunes can turn out to be great boons in the grand scheme of things.

We picked up this particular Chanchito a while back on our way through Richmond, Virginia at a store called Ten Thousand Villages. Ten Thousand Villages is one of world’s largest fair trade organizations, working directly with artisans in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East to create a fair wage system from which to sell handmade wares and building long term buying relationships in places where skilled artisan partners lack opportunities for stable income.

Long live Chanchito the three-legged pig and all of our animal friends.

Below, Allister saying ‘sup to Chanchito.