Glen E. Friedman is undoubtedly one of the most important photographers of our generation. In 1976, at the age of fourteen, Glen scored a gig at Skateboarder magazine as their youngest staff member after taking some pictures of friends skating an empty pool in the area known as Dogtown (made famous by the 2002 film of the same title). In the early eighties, he started taking pictures of the punk shows he frequented and ended up documenting some of the most important and inspirational moments in the eighties punk music scene.
He shot the likes of Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedys, the Adolescents, the Germs, Bad Brains, and Minor Threat (I hear Seeing Red playing on my iTunes as I write this). In the mid-eighties, Glen found himself working at the newly formed Def Jam Records with Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons (both vegans as well, yay!). He started promoting and photographing the most influential hip-hop acts of the past three decades: RUN D.M.C., Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys, KRS-1, and Ice-T to name a few. Henry Rollins summed it up when he said; “Glen E. Friedman has been capturing outbursts of energy for almost two decades.” He is uber rad! Oh, and he eats at Native Foods Café!
Biz Stone is the co-founder and creative director of Twitter. What? You’ve never heard of Twitter?!? Where have you been? With their slogan, “What’s happening,” Twitter essentially delivers a public instant messenger to satisfy the general population’s fix on needing to know everything that is going on, but within a 10 second attention span. Pure genius. Oh, and they put a 140 character limit (WITH SPACES!) on the insta-messages, or Tweets if you will. Biz is cool. Heck, his name is even cooler. He blogs, he tweets, and he is at the forefront of social media. And his wife loves Native Foods Café!
We dig Biz.
Carl Lewis is one of the most successful Track and Field Olympians ever. He has won 9 Olympic Gold medals and 8 World Championship Gold medals. Lewis excelled at the 100m and 200m sprints as well as the long jump. He dominated these events throughout most of the early eighties. He was also drafted into both the NBA and NFL but never played a game in either. In 1991, when Lewis turned 30, he ran “the best race of his life,” setting the world record in the 100m sprint and defeating the top two sprinters in the world. He attributed this to his new vegan diet.
Lewis also had a penchant for showing off his eccentric style, and we love people who are not afraid to express their individuality (see Prince below!).
Rich Roll is seriously one of the most inspirational people in the world! At the age of forty, he reassessed his life. He was fifty pounds overweight, lacking energy, and looking for something to set his sights on, a goal of some sort. He experimented with a vegan diet and felt a surge of energy. He eventually considered the idea of training for an Ironman, but realized that most of these races sell-out a year in advance. Then he came across the Ultraman, a three-day, double Ironman distance triathlon (that is a 6.2 mile swim, 260 mile bike ride, and 52.4 mile run in three days! Yowsers!). He signed himself up. Today, he is considered one of the “25 Fittest Guys in the World” by Men’s Fitness magazine.
Earlier this year, he completed the EPIC 5 Challenge, which is five Ironman-distance triathlons on five Hawaiian Islands in less than a week. He attests his physical success to mental preparation and plant-based nutrition. Holy cannoli! Rich, you rock!
Cesar Chavez is everywhere, especially if you live in Los Angeles! Who exactly was Caesar Chavez? Well, he was kind of like the Martin Luther King Jr. of Hispanic Farm laborers. Chavez was a self-taught farm laborer who founded the United Farm Workers (UFW), which paved the way for many improvements in the lives of union laborers, especially Latinos. His protests gained national support due to their non-violent, well-organized nature. Channeling Gandhi, he would often fast for days on end to protest a particular issue. During the 1980s, he fasted for 36 days to protest the use of pesticides on grapes, which led to a 15% drop in profits. He also took an unusual stance in the immigration debate, calling for a restriction on immigration. He felt that The US workers were being shafted while the immigrants were exploited and mistreated. Chavez also had a cool slogan, “Si, se puede,” or “Yes, it can be done.” PMA baby! I am sure his peaceful approach to incendiary issues was fueled by his plant-based vegan diet.
Go Caesar!!!
Prince! This guy is the epitome of individuality. He creates pop and R&B hits by the dozen (for himself and others) as well as winning 7 Grammy awards, a Gold Globe, and an Academy Award. He has changed his name from Prince (which is his birth name), to an unpronounceable symbol, to The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, to just The Artist. The BBC ranked Prince as one of the top eight guitarists of the past 30 years and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility. He is a Jehovah’s Witness and has been known to go door-to-door in order to spread the word. In July of 2010, with the release of his last album, Prince eschewed the Internet refusing to make his album available on any of the digital downloading websites as well as deleting his own website. He is quoted in The Daily Mirror as saying, “All computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and they are not good for you.” Whew!
Dave Chapelle forever immortalized the incredibly unique nature of Prince on the Chapelle show (one of the best episodes ever!). The comedic reenactment involves Charlie Murphy, Eddie’s little brother, recounting a late night evening that ends up with Prince and his crew demolishing Murphy and co. at a game of hoops and then serving them vegan pancakes. Pure awesomeness, just like Prince himself.
And last but not least, Mr. Remy Patrick Mackay Lynch. Remy was born on January 20, 2009, so he is 19 months old. He has been vegan since birth!!! He is super strong, fast, agile, and taller than every single one of his friends his age, and even older ones. Remy is super smart and very compassionate. He loves playing the drums and basketball. He doesn’t really care for swings or garbanzo bean skins (I mean, can you blame him?). Remy loves it when his mom Briana (a retired Native Foods tribe member) and dad Joe (a super rad horror movie director) take him to Native Foods Café. He loves all beans, avocado, and Daiya cheese, so of course he loves the Brontosaurus burrito at Native Foods Cafe! He also loves the sweet potato fries, and he loves to DIP. He's all about dipping things, so he loves to dip stuff in the Ranch dressing at Native Foods Café; and if he runs out of things to dip he just dips his fingers and starts licking them. He loves guacamole, hummus, broccoli, mac-n-cheese, quinoa, tempeh, seitan, tofu, coconut milk ice cream and yogurt, and salty snacks.
Oh Remy, you’re the best!
My great grandson James is Vegetarian part Vegan. He loves hommus. He knew his Aunt was serving Hummus and when he walked in that's all he had to say. Tommus his old word. He corrected himself and said I mean Hummus. Aren't they just adorable.
I am not Vegan or Vegetarian. But I know it's healthy so most of the time I order vegetarian or vegan food. Feel so much better.
Love your food and your classes.
Sandy
Posted by: Sandra Wade | 09/01/2010 at 07:47 PM
the Dogtown film you referenced above was from 2002 not 1997, may want to correct that! but thanks again for the kind words, and please delete this post after you read it, thank you
Posted by: G | 09/03/2010 at 10:23 PM