Alan and I have been doing a lot of shopping lately; we've been registering for our wedding. Oy. Anyway, in addition to the obligatory Bed Bath and Beyond and Crate and Barrel paraphernalia (how have I gone this long without an asparagus plate?!), we also decided to register at Guitar Center. We apparently pioneered this concept, as we ended up walking around with the manager's "personal clipboard" (it had a piece of tape with his name on it across the top, no joke) and a few sheets of yellow legal paper. Old school, yo. GC was wicked cool about it.
At one point we were looking at guitar straps, which ranged from a classic punk seatbelt strap to a gender-bending metal-band fake pink fur contraption, which no respectable guitarist should be without. I got pretty excited when Alan came across a strap made almost entirely from hemp (hurray for sustainability!). Now here was something I could buy into- even our guitars could rock the eco-vibe. Unfortunately, I changed my vegetarian mind seeing that the rest of the strap was made of leather, but hey, it's a start.
There are some cool gadgets available for the environmentally-conscious pop star, even those who aren't quite ready for the bio-diesel tour bus and on-site-all-organic-strictly-vegan personal chef. First of all, buying used equipment (fine, vintage, pre-owned...whatever) is both economical and eco-friendly. You can go all-out with one of the world's first mass-produced, eco-friendly guitars, made by RKS, which use only two pounds of wood per axe (as opposed to the normal six or eight). Stereo Sinai uses Wheatware guitar picks, which are the epitome of "one small step." You can always try the carbon-neutral route by planting a tree or two for every gig played out of town; the Jewish National Fund has a carbon calculator you can check out for exact equations.
It's worth looking into. The decisions we make set the standard for the market, and affect the world around us. Personally, I am doing my part to make sure the asparagus plate never gets taken off the shelves.
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