Top Picks: 'Red Horse' CD, style beyond fashion at 'The Sartorialist,' behind bottled-water doc, and more recommendations
Bottle shock
Bottled water may be advertising's greatest coup, getting us to pay in spades for what we can get free of charge. But "Tapped," an eye-opening documentary on the big business of bottled water, exposes the greater dangers: the pileup of unrecycled bottles, the health implications of the plastics, the lack of regulation, and the industry's draining of public aquifers. The award-winning film is now out on DVD.
'We' the community
A new national model for "people helping people" launched on Aug. 3 – the WE Movement, a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of partners, sponsors, the needy, and the endowed. Powered by a system designed by Ramsell Corporation's HELP4U to coordinate mental and physical health-care benefits for the uninsured, it will now include financial services, housing, legal guidance, youth programs, and education. The WE Movement (www.wemovement.org) says it can make a difference when helping one another has become the new norm. The organization's motto is: "Offer What You Can. WE Will Do the Rest."
Paper flap's swan song
Don't throw away those tear-off flaps for Netflix envelopes. With a little guidance from Netflixorigami.com, those bits of trash can become a crab, cube, frog, or even a swan.
Five years after Katrina
National Geographic Channel's "Witness: Katrina," airing Aug. 23 at 9 p.m., is a man-on-the-ground view of the eerie before, the turbulent during, and the disastrous after of the most devastating storm in US history. Less a straight narrative and more a kaleidoscopic home movie that ties together episodes from different reaches of the storm, this two-hour special documents the humility, the joy, the tears, and the horrors the storm induced. This portrait marks the fifth anniversary of Katrina.
Style beyond fashion
If the wafer-thin models and eye-popping price tags have left high fashion off your closet rack, take a look at a blog that has long been a favorite of the cognoscenti, the Sartorialist (http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/). The passion project of former fashion insider-turned-photographer Scott Schuman looks for all the ways the out-of-reach has been adapted to the Everyman on the street. Loaded with photos of practical, real-world fashion, this is a site for sore eyes in these tough economic times.
Fabulous folk
Three of the warmest voices in folk music – those of Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka, and Lucy Kaplansky – come luxuriantly intertwined on their new CD "Red Horse" (Red House Records, $17.98). The three cover one another's songs – the writers stepping into backup roles on their own works. Gorka's "Forget to Breathe" is a standout. Also well-rendered: Neil Young's "I Am a Child" and two other pieces. It's a songwriting showcase.
