After using the last drops of a recently discontinued tobacco-based cologne I bought him years ago, Troy recently asked “do you think I can learn to make my own cologne?”

Now, we make A LOT of things from scratch in our house. From brewing gnarly-looking batches of kombucha to saving a month’s worth of veggie scraps to boil down to a rich broth, you’ll often find us in the kitchen testing recipes rather than simply reaching for a bottle or box from the grocery store shelves. This leaves us with a sense of pride and accomplishment but very little free time.

Starting a perfumery, though, was not a journey I was prepared to embark on. Rather than crushing Troy’s dream of having a never-ending supply of manly-scented colognes, I decided to take this mission to the streets and find the real professionals. (‘cause, let’s face it… ladies love to shop. right? right?)

There are many offensive colognes out there. You can practically smell them through the TV when you’re watching Jersey Shore. But D.S. & Durga’s hand-crafted olfactory tonics change everything. Oh yes, I said olfactory tonics, but, sadly, I can’t take credit for that.

The duo behind D.S & Durga has thought of everything when creating their line of fragrances. Beautifully bottled and boxed, these colognes and perfumes do more than combine high quality ingredients. They tell a tale. For instance, their scent Mississippi Medicine is based on the “rituals for the proto-Mississippian death cult of the 1200s” and contains native birch tar, viola & white spruce grounded in incense & cypress root. I can’t attest to the accuracy of the scent, but I’m pretty sure the death cult would be pleased. Another favorite, Burning Barbershop, smells like it sounds – a slightly charred bottle of shaving tonics. It’s a rich, masculine scent, and nothing like you’ve smelled before…  unless you’re in the habit of burning down barbershops, something this blog does not endorse.

And, of course, we wouldn’t sing their praises if they weren’t also compassionate.  Their cruelty-free fragrances are tested on themselves and their friends only.

So, in the end, Troy is happy to have a beautiful bottle of cologne to douse himself with, and I have more time to read the classics or watch Jersey Shore. Win-win indeed!

You can find their line of colognes and perfumes at many of our favorite Brooklyn boutiques, including Bird and In God We Trust but you should visit the beautiful D.S. & Durga site for a complete list of stores.

First things first: After 2 exhausting years of interning for this Web log (re: pitching ideas and making Troy write them, eating at restaurants and asking Troy to take pictures of the food, finding cool things at stores and saying aloud, “Wouldn’t it be cool to feature this on the blog?” and then assuming Troy will take care of it) I have finally earned my keep and have been granted my own column, entitled The Preen. Featuring everything from local jewelry designers to fabulous cruelty-free cosmetics, The Preen will take you on a wild reading adventure. Trust me, you’re going to love it. And you’ll be even prettier because of it. I mean, let’s face it, beauty is like the most important thing ever. We’ve all watched enough nerdy girl makeover movies to know that’s true.

Alright, so let’s get this show on the road.

My first feature for The Preen involves a little back story. It’s a beautiful tale of friendship, a request for seafoam green bridesmaid dresses, ever-lasting love, and, most importantly, a lost social security card. Actually, I’m realizing now that the story is too long for one blog post, so I will skip ahead to the ending: They tied the knot on a beautiful, yet chilly, day in October with all their friends and family in attendance. Not one bridesmaid could find a seafoam green dress. The end.

Now let’s get to the good stuff.

As part of a dear friend’s bridal party, I was recently given the task of finding a gift for the beautiful bride-to-be. I gave it several months of thought and came up with a long list of things I did and did not want. I wanted the gift to be wearable. I wanted it to be a keepsake. I wanted it to commemorate the wedding day. I didn’t want it to be prissy. I wanted to support a local designer. I wanted all the bridesmaids to feel like they were part of the gift. I didn’t want the bride to feel pressured to wear it on the wedding day. To be honest, I was completely overwhelmed by my list.

After visiting In God We Trust’s  Bedford Avenue store, I knew I found my answer. A beautifully hammered, solid brass bracelet, The Boyfriend Cuff can be hand-stamped with up to 8 letters/numbers. With the support of my fellow bridesmaids, I purchased 3 bracelets and asked IGWT to hand-stamp the inside of the cuffs with the wedding date, the bride and groom’s first initials and the first initials of the 6 bridesmaids. The hand-stamping is, well, done by hand, so the letters don’t align perfectly, thus giving it a bit of edginess – a perfect fit for our bride’s style. They can be worn stacked on one wrist or worn one at a time and the result is effortlessly stylish with a hint of nostalgia. And the bride loved them.

Mission accomplished.

PS: It turns out that seafoam green is THE color for Spring 2012. The bride was so ahead of the trend!

Reader, if you, like us, are vegan and live and work in South Brooklyn, you, like us, likely hold a complicated mix of admiration + contempt for North Brooklyn, specifically the areas of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. These days, those neighborhoods are essentially spilling over with vegan cafés, pizza places with vegan slices, vegan doughnut joints, awesome Mexican street food with seitan and Daiya options, and outstanding Sicilian-style restaurants with beautiful interior design and separate, exceptional vegan menus.

And in South Brooklyn, we’ve got V-Spot.

Obviously exaggerating a bit for the sake of emphasis. We’ve got other options in the area—from mostly vegan pan-asian to awesome nearly raw cafés to a wealth of relatively veg-friendly non-veg restaurants. And not to dig too much specifically on V-Spot. But we need more, South Brooklyn. Nay, nay—we DESERVE more.

Turns out, Paris-based hotelier, restauranteur, and, evidently, comic-book-enthusiast  Cyril Aouizerate agrees. Roughly four weeks ago, he cut the ribbon on a brand new vegetarian (vegan, minus some honey) restaurant that we guarantee will blow you away. Maimonide of Brooklyn structures its menu around open-face sandwiches they call MOBs—flatbread made from locally sourced Champlain Valley whole grains, shaped into Brooklyn Bridge style arches (you read that right), and topped with creatively combined vegetables, legumes, and vegetarian spices and sauces.

On our visit last week—after walking into Maimonide’s beautiful Atlantic Avenue spot and being greeted by our the staff, dressed like comic-book-style monks—we were given complimentary baked kale chips and ordered the Iron Man MOB (roasted shiitake mushroom, sauteed kale, horseradish aioli, parsley) and the Belly Charmer (tagine of eggplant, zucchini, and carrot, moroccan spices, pistachio, mint, cilantro), both pictured below on a tray Aouizerate had made to call out and honor the neighborhoods of Brooklyn. And yes, they were both really, really good.

Other interesting-sounding MOBs include the Aphrodisiac (celery root braised and mashed with ras al hanout, asparagus, toasted almond), the Rock MOB (creamy white beans with fennel seed and almond milk, escarole, fresh pear, basil), and the Brave Heart (sun-dried tomato, caper and parsley pesto, rosemary grilled portobello mushroom, lemon). The menu also features some snazzy sounding salads, a really nice, creamy corn soup topped with popcorn (“in memory of the Native Americans who used to grow corn on boerum hill in Brooklyn”), and vegan chicken-style nuggets (they were out of those when we visited though).

The kinda-hard-to-remember, off-kilter name, Maimonide, owes its origins to the medieval philosopher, rabbi, advisor to Egyptian kings, and physician, Moses ben-Maimon—AKA, Maimonide—who, well ahead of his time, evidently advocated a vegetable-based diet. The comic book (yes, comic book) that Aouizerate had produced for the restaurant’s opening not only introduces us to the restaurant itself, but presents us with Maimonide’s updated personification—a pizza delivery guy who, after crashing into a melon stand, becomes a superhero with vegetable-based super powers, donning a tiny turban and some mad kicks. Obviously. New York Magazine’s got a partial scan of the thing if you’d like to see what we’re talking about.

Better yet, stop by and pick one up yourself. The food’s superb, the space is absolutely bizarrely beautiful—a hidden gem among the urban bustle of Atlantic Avenue—and the service is great. Our server—who was seemingly endowed with the super power of uncanny politeness—also mentioned that they’re hoping to soon use the cavernous space for live music and regular DJs soon, as well as bring in wine and beer in February.

Maimonide is located at 525 Atlantic Avenue, b/t 3rd + 4th Avenues, a quick walk from the Atlantic-Pacific subway station and well-worth the trip. They’re currently open seven days a week from noon to midnight. And give us a shout if you hit them up for lunch—we’re a mere two blocks away!

Below: The Iron Man + Belly Charmer on the custom-made Brooklyn serving tray; the Iron Man; yucca fries, kale chips, and corn soup; purdy lighting; detail of the American flag panel art; Homage to Lemon; and samples of Anti Oxidant dessert MOD with single-malt bourbon banana confit, chocolate fig marmalade, and fresh mint.
 

We’d like to wish a very happy birthday to MooShoes, purveyor of shoes un-cruel, houser of cats much-crazed, and—as we’re extremely proud to say—the very first client we started working with after moving from DC to New York. And, we should mention, a company run by two of the nicest, most considerate, giving sisters we’ve ever met.

Am I ass-kissing now? Eh, regardless, we congratulate them on ten fine years in business. Top-shelf, MooShoes! Top-shelf!

They’ll be celebrating tomorrow with vegan fare from Blossom Du Jour and Dun-Well Doughnuts and 15% off all in-store purchases throughout the day. Come one, come all! Details here. And yes, that IS a lovely newsletter….

Did you know you can see all 54 tons of The AIDS Memorial Quilt online? Well, you can. Seems like a good day to take a look. Below, panel numbers 20, 40, 1519, and 5088.

It’s official—after three votes and two official readings of the ordinance, West Hollywood has sealed the deal and banned the sale of animal fur within city limits, making them the first in the nation to do so. The ban won’t go into effect until September of 2013, but we’d just like to take a second to congratulate WeHo—really, people call it that?—and hope that the trend catches on in Cali and across the nation.

We applaud anyone who actively opposes supporting an industry that confines animals to a lifetime of cruelty in cramped, wire cages that ends in being suffocated, electrocuted, gassed, or poisoned and then skinned for the vanity of small-minded people, often-times while still alive.  Find out more about the fur industry here, sign a pledge to go fur-free, and, if you’re in New York and hoping we’ll soon follow suit, you can reach out to Fur-Free NYC and even attend a No Fur Friday rally this week up at Macy’s.

Remember back in the good ‘ole days when United Colors of Benetton put out ads that were controversially awesome, in a tongue-in-cheek, kinda pretentious way? Seems like those days are back, Reader. Check out their new UNHATE ad campaign, featuring world political leaders full-on making out. From Benetton:

What does UNHATE mean? UN-hate. Stop hating, if you were hating. Unhate is a message that invites us to consider that hate and love are not as far away from each other as we think. Actually, the two opposing sentiments are often in a delicate and unstable balance. Our campaign promotes a shift in the balance: don’t hate, Unhate.

See? Pretentiously awesome. Find out more about their foundation’s work here.

Today’s Journal is brought to you first by Occupy Design, a project created by San Francisco-based designer, Jake Levitas.

As they state, Occupy Design creates “freely available visual tools around a common graphic language to unite the 99%. The project places an emphasis on producing infographics and icons to improve the communication of the movement’s messages and the data surrounding them across the world.” We love it when design gets active.

Plus check that logo, man. Tight.

Levitas and company also provide an Occupy Design Toolkit for designers who want to get involved.  Now if only we knew some designers.

Wait.

In concert with that theme, below is this week’s New Yorker cover, “Fighting Back,” by cartoonist Barry Blitt.

Ha. Classic Blitt.

Okay, we know, reader, we know—how is it possible to have any sort of socially aware, ethically conscious blog and not be posting something relevant to the Occupy movement, which— though it first may have seemed like another loud, confused, disorganized political version of Lollapalooza—now looks to be something a good bit more significant than I think any of us thought it would be.

True, hard to ignore, but we want to talk about something else really quickly, before the warm weather’s gone for aught eleven. All summer, we’ve been noticing these signs popping up on the chain link fencing of the many, many vacant lots of Brooklyn.

Maybe you’ve seen them yourselves, with a map of Brooklyn printed onto newsprint and the words “THERE ARE 596 ACRES OF VACANT PUBLIC LAND IN BROOKLYN” scrawled across the artwork.

The posters—designed by the talented Gowanus-based artist, Julia Samuels—act as both an awakening and a call to action. When you live in New York, you take for granted the fact that there are hundreds of vacant lots that we all walk or bike or drive by every day. Most of us don’t give them a second thought.

Think of the posters as a portal to that second thought.

Think of them also as an entry point to the activism of the organization behind the posters, 596 Acres, a “public education project aimed at making communities aware of the land resources around them.”

As 596 puts it—”With the goal of a food sovereign New York City in mind, 596 Acres is helping neighbors form connections to the vacant lots in their lives—from the smallest (throwing a seedbomb) to the largest (hosting a public meeting with the head of a City Agency that owns a vacant lot that was promised to the community as a park). Thanks to the Center for the Study of Brooklyn, we have learned that many of these lots are actually publicly owned and are developing a platform for negotiating interim and long term community uses for this warehoused public space. 596 acres is how much vacant public land existed in Brooklyn alone as of April 2010. If even a small portion of that was committed to neighborhood food production, we would have an abundance of fresh seasonal vegetables to eat! And think of all the grassy parks we could have! And composting sites! And whatever else Brooklynites and their neighbors know they need.”making communities aware of the land resources around them.”

Some of you may know that I used to work for a NYC public land organization, so this is an issue I’m both familiar with and excited to get behind. I also know it’s a long and storied battle in NYC and one that not new to the city or its long-time residents. But it’s heartening to see this issue spark up again with a whole new demographic of activists. Web-savy ones too—the group’s homepage features an interactive map that shows vacant lots, lots being organized around, and community gardens. It also provides pop-up street views of the areas, location details, and gives users easy-to-use organizing tools specific to lots near them.

I know. Where was this article at the beginning of the summer, when we can enjoy things like gardens and parks. Think of it this way—if you use the coming dreadful, rainy, snowy, death’s-grip months of winter to organize around a space, maybe you can have it ready for renovation by spring! And all that work will take your mind off how very, very shitty winter is in New York.

Picture above taken at the lot a block southwest of our studio…which we just signed up to organize around. Awesome basil, here we come!

As you can see from the photo below, the lot’s also been tagged by another public space group, Insert _______ Here, an interactive climate art project for re-imagining communities. I mean, youths are great and all, but basil, man. Basil.

We’ll work it out come summer. Now everyone back to protesting.

Eight years today. Love you, Katie.
♥ Troy