October 2005 | Conscious Business
Diminutive Digs for Modern Life
History tells us that big things, such as wooly mammoths, shoulder pads and (hopefully) supersized McMansions, eventually face extinction. Enter Jay Shafer, whose Sebastopol, California-based Tumbleweed Tiny House Company offers hip, teeny and eco-friendly digs as an alternative to wasteful steroidal palaces.
Tumbleweed’s adorable, made-to-order, pint-sized pads range in size from the 40 square foot Vardo to the 500 square foot B52 Bungalow. Need to spread out? The optional dogtrot connector can string two or three structures together to make a larger home. Shafer’s own itty-bitty abode is a mere 70 square feet and boasts a low environmental impact and zero wasted space. Visit tumbleweedhouses.com for more info. —Jessica Ridenour
Blogs Over Baghdad
Santa Monica-based internet giant Yahoo Media Group, long the purveyor of news headlines recycled from other online sources, caused a virtual stir last month with the launch of a brand new original news series. The program, “Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone,” features video, audio, text dispatches and live chat sessions from journalist Kevin Sites as he blogs his way across the world’s war zones. Sites made headlines himself last fall for his controversial but award-winning footage of a Marine shooting a wounded Iraqi in a Fallouja mosque; for Yahoo, he’ll travel solo—strapped with near 40 pounds of cameras, satellite phones and other high tech—in an effort to gather the human stories behind the headlines.
Yahoo’s foray into original programming is in itself news; the company asserts that “Hot Zone” is only the first in a long line of online shows soon to come (a claim borne out by a recent slew of new Yahoo hires and lease of an immense Santa Monica office building). With its lasso poised to seize a sizeable share of traditional television viewers and advertisers, Yahoo seems determined to lead the reinvention of internet-age media. Will the revolution be televised? Stay tuned to yahoo.com to find out. —ET
A Case for Revolution
“You Say You Want a Revolution?” Well, you know, Steve Case is your man. Case, co-founder of AOL, has created Revolution, a new investment firm that “bet[s] on entrepreneurs that want to change the world.” With a growing list of conscious business acquisitions including Miraval-Life in Balance spa resorts, Flexcar, the innovative car-sharing network WLT reported on last November and Lime (formerly Wisdom), a multimedia network devoted to health, Revolution is seeking to make global consumer brand history. In the meantime, visit revolution.com to watch the evolution unfold. —Jennifer Gay Summers
Sex, Drugs… and Spiritual Cinema?
What do you get when you cross a cult film star and a punk rock producer? Surprisingly, you get an innovative line of new age cinema DVDs. Searching for something beyond sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, producer Greg Ross (The Lunachicks, The Buzzcocks) and indie actor Will Keenan (Tromeo & Juliet) have joined forces to form Realization Studios, an imprint specializing in spiritually enlightening documentaries.
The new line includes the best-selling political documentary Horns and Halos, the Iraqi-made The Dreams of Sparrows and the media-scouring Orwell Rolls in His Grave. Find these films and others at gokartfilms.com. —JR
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