SuperVegan was happy to be a guest at last night's Third Annual Brooklyn Blogfest, which was held at the ginormous Brooklyn Lyceum. We know Brooklyn is full of talent, but it was wonderfully overwhelming to be in a huge room teeming with borough residents representing about a hundred different blogs on everything from neighborhood politics to gardening.

Shout out to our friends at Bed-Stuy Blog, Sustainable Flatbush, Brooklyn Optimist, Walk Around the Blog, Creative Times, Psychosomatic Rants, and Candy Penny.

Huge thanks to Red Mango for keeping our energy (and blood sugar level) high with moist cupcakes and insanely delicious chocolate topped peanut butter rice crispy squares.

May is Bike Month in New York City and while there are dozens of ways to participate in the celebration, the event I am most excited about is The First Annual Doggie Pedal Parade. The event, which is organized by the environmental group Time's Up!, seeks to combine two things the group loves-- bikes and dogs--in an effort to raise awareness about green transportation with animal companions, as well as the benefits of adopting an animal from a shelter.

Bike riding people and their dogs will meet in Union Square Park and ride through the East Village and Greenwich Village, making stops at dog-friendly spots like Animal Haven Adoption Center, Social Tees, and the dog runs at both Tompkins and Washington Square Parks along the way.

This event has something for everyone. Don't have a dog? You can take an adoptable dog on the ride or be part of the "Pooch Patrol" to ensure the safety of the ride. Don't ride a bike? Bring yourself and your canine along to be cheerleaders!

The related Pup Your Ride workshop on Sunday May 11th from 2-6pm is also not to be missed. There, mechanics will help cyclists transform their rides into pooch coaches. (Bring a dog-sized basket!) Crafty folks are also encouraged to drop in and help decorate parade floats. (Time's Up, 73 Morton Street, between Hudson and Greenwich Streets, Manhattan.)

Some things that raise interesting questions have been collecting in my browser tabs bar. I thought I'd share them with you.

• There's a thorough post over at U.S. Food Policy about the scope of meat in rising food costs. It takes into account the rising cost of animal feed (and competition from the biofuels industry) and also the dramatic increases in meat consumption, especially in developing nations.
• A turtle named Myrtle, who was well known in the backyards of her block in Williamsburg was painted pink, presumably by some construction workers. It became quite a local "human interest" story. It seems like Myrtle will be OK, which is great, but I'm sure that most of those sympathizing with her story would have no moral qualms eating turtle soup.
• I've been noticing a similar disconnect in regards to Eight Belles, the racehorse who was driven to her death last week at the Kentucky Derby. The mainstream seems sort of upset about the abuse and effective murder of Eight Belles, but not really enough to realize that horse racing can be just as evil as their favorite bugaboo, dog fighting.
• And finally, Paola Antonelli, a curator at the Museum of Modern Art has "killed" a piece by artists Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr called Victimless Leather. The tiny jacket-shaped object/creature was made of mouse stem cells and was kept alive via a nutrient tube. It (I actually feel OK using an inanimate pronoun here) grew faster than expected and clogged its own life-support system. Says Antonelli:

  [It] started growing, growing, growing until it became too big. And [the artists] were back in Australia, so I had to make the decision to kill it. And you know what? I felt I could not make that decision. I've always been pro-choice and all of a sudden I'm here not sleeping at night about killing a coat...That thing was never alive before it was grown.

  I wonder how Antonelli thinks other "things" become alive?

This week's issue of Time Out New York is all about what makes us horny, and PETA has pretty much made it common knowledge that nothing is sexier than a vegan. So it should come as no surprise that NYC's most ethically fabulous vegan Joshua Katcher was chosen as the top profile in "Flesh Direct"-- a feature in which TONY readers posed nude and art-directed their own photos.

Katcher, who chose to modestly cover his twig-and-berries with a bunch of organic beets purchased at the Union Square farmer's market, said:

The green movement is finally becoming sexy-- and it's because of food. Food is like sex: You interact with it physically, you put it in your body. I'd rather have an amazing meal than mediocre sex.

I can get with that, but what I can't really get with is the photo of the naked vet examining a cat. Weird.

Update: New York Magazine's Grub Street calls the "vegansexual" spread "ridiculous," thus managing to criticize one aspect of vegan culture while simultaneously appropriating the language of our culture for street cred. See, we are a minority!

Nothing screams cross country road trip like an animal rights conference organized by the kick-ass vegan businesses and non-profits Food Fight Grocery, Herbivore, No Compromise, and Vegans for Animal Advocacy. So I'm ready to hop on the Greyhound bus ride of my life to make it out to the Let Live Northwest Animal Rights Conference, which is taking place June 27th to June 29th on the Portland State University campus.

Billed as a grassroots conference, Let Live aims to create an "open, respectful, and friendly environment that will provide an opportunity for attendees to learn skills and strategies to become better advocates for the animals, no matter ones experience level in activism." The cost of attendance is a suggested donation of $10 (or more, if you can swing it).

Visit (and RSS) the website for information on registering or becoming a sponsor, and to watch the speaker schedule grow. Oh yeah, book your train, plane, or bus tickets early too!

Folks who missed Farm Sanctuary's inspiring founder Gene Baur during his first NYC book tour stop can catch up with him on the eve of the Farm Sanctuary 2008 Gala, Friday, May 16th, at Community Bookstore of Park Slope. Baur will read from and sign copies of his critically acclaimed book, Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food.

Friday, May 16th. 7:30pm. Free. Community Bookstore, 143 Seventh Avenue (between Carroll and Garfield), Brooklyn!

Psst! Hey! Yeah, you. Don't tell anyone, but I spied two baskets full of matt & nat wallets at the Century 21 department store's Manhattan location. There were an assortment of faux leather designs in funky shapes, colors, and sizes. Prices ranged from $16.96 for smaller wallets to $27.96 for larger checkbook sized wallets, a sweet deal when compared to the standard retail price of $50 to $75.

Hurry to the store soon if you wanna score one (or three) of these stylish wallets, lest other thrifty New Yorkers and fashion forward tourists beat you to the bargain. You'll find the matt & nat goods in a freestanding case of bins containing women's leather wallets on the ground floor.

You may be familiar with Boston-based Bexx as the creator of the awesome online restaurant guide, VeganBoston, but did you know she also makes books?

In addition to an assortment of adorable journals, sketchbooks, and albums, Bexx has created two outstanding miniature books, How I Get My Protein and How I Get My Calcium. Each illustrated, handsewn book contains a short list of vegan nutrient sources, the amount of nutrient per serving, and percentage of daily value. Also included is information on how much protein or calcium the average person needs each day and a list of resources on vegan nutrition. Bexx recommends: "The next time someone asks you 'How do you get your protein?', suppress the urge to strangle them by handing them this cute little book!"

Books By Bexx are sold on Etsy, Little Paper Planes, and Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe. Books by Bexx is also a member of Vegan Etsy, an etsy team made up of vegans that maintain completely vegan shops.

Through the magic of Myspace, I sent Bexx a few questions about her bookmaking business. She was kind enough to respond.

Neighborhood blog BushwickBK alerts us that a vegetarian cafe centering around a completely vegan pastry bar is set to open on Bogart Street just a few doors away from Brooklyn's Natural grocery store and coffee shop/ DVD rental spot The Archive.

The cafe, called CakeWalk, will offer Red Mango's vegan baked goods and an entirely meatless menu of sandwiches, salads, coffee, breakfast, and booze. Though there's no word on how milky and eggy the menu will be, I can only hope that a place hip enough to have an all vegan pastry bar will know hummus and oatmeal won't cut it for hungry Brooklyn vegans.

Speaking of Red Mango, the Brooklyn based bakery will be appeasing many a sweet tooth at the Third Annual Brooklyn Blogfest, held this Thursday (May 8th), 8pm, at the Brooklyn Lyceum. (Some of us SuperVegans will be there too!)

For about as long as we've existed, readers have bugged us to create an events calendar. Well, we did it! The new SuperVegan New York City Events Calendar uses Google Calendar, so it's easy to add any events to your own personal calendar, or even just subscribe to the whole thing via the XML feed or iCal feed.

The first event on it starts in just a few hours: The V-Spot is celebrating their 2nd birthday tonight! Lots of other exciting stuff is coming up in the month of May so go check it out.

If you'd like an event listed on our calendar, e-mail tips@supervegan.com. Please make sure to include location, start and end times, contact information, and any other relevant details. Give us some lead time, as we may not be able to add everything instantly. This calendar is curated, and we only list events we consider worthy, so there's a chance we won't be able to list your event. Events must be directly related to veganism or animal rights, and in the New York City area (though we might make an exception for big events like conferences that people would travel for.) Got it? Good.