An Ode to Earth

 Happy Earth Day!

Water for Everyone

Dear readers, please consider making a donation to Charity: Water in honor of yesterday's Earth Day.

Broadway Recycled

Earth Day is today. At Hand Theatre Company's annual Earth Day concert, Broadway Recycled, is this Monday, the 25th of April. It's at 7 PM and 930 PM at Joe's Pub. The concert features songs cut from musicals. Even songs shouldn't go to waste. The show benefits the Broadway Green Alliance and At Hand Theatre Company.

Happy E Day!

Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day the Big Apple way!

• If you're home, Planet Green has been celebrating Earth Month. It debuted Treehugger TV last night. It has also been featuring Verge programming, including the series Future Food on Tuesdays at 10 PM.
• Grand Central Terminal has its annual Earth Fair in Vanderbilt Hall from 19 April to the 24th, and outside the terminal from the 23rd to the 24th of April.
• You can visit Battery Park City for free activities like bird watching, poetry readings and workshops.
• Head to the corner of 8th Avenue and 41st St. (Port Authority) to see the world's largest green pop-up shop, Terracycle's Green Up. You can view products made from chip bags, yogurt containers and other so-called waste materials. The exhibit runs until 1 May.
  
• Gershwin Theatre is the venue for a Town Hall meeting from 230 to 430 PM. Ecoplum will be joining the Broadway Green Alliance.
• There are various concerts and shows, including one in Times Square from 11 AM to 2 PM where Mayor Bloomberg will make an appearance. I'm just not too crazy about shows during Earth Hour or Earth Day. It seems like it defeats the purpose because of the resources used to produce these shows. At least the April 25 Concert for the Planet at the Bowery Ballroom will make a donation to 1% for the Planet.
  
• If you want to volunteer, 24 April is Million Trees NYC Spring Planting Day across the five boroughs. The goal is to plant 20,000 trees in 16 park sites.
  

Things that make you go AWWW

In our world of CGI filmmaking, it is quite refreshing to see a movie like Earth. What better subject than our own beautiful blue planet? This full length film features footage from the award-winning television series Planet Earth.

Directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the film is a visual treat, and I would have loved to have seen it in IMAX. Nice to hear James Earl "Mufasa" Jones narrating. There were plenty of cutesy moments with baby animals, which my fellow kiddie audience members loved. There were plenty of "Awwws", giggling and laughing-out-loud moments. But a warning to parents: there are hunting scenes which could be alarming to younger children. We are spared the full bloody spectacle but we see enough disturbing images. Thankfully, I didn't hear or see any children cry although the theater did get very quiet.

In the promos, they mention that it follows the migration of three families (polar bears, elephants and humpback whales) but it does digress a lot. No complaints though, because the scenes are just so breath-taking and like the TV documentary, I often wondered how they managed to capture many moments in the film. According to IMDB, this was the first film to capture aerials of Mount Everest with the help of Nepalese Army spy planes.

I can't wait to see Oceans on Earth Day 2010.

Green Films

On Earth Day, here's a tip from Ideal Bite on eco-movies available for our viewing pleasure:

• The Cove - part whodunit, part eco-educational movie about a team of activists who set out to save fish and dolphins off the coast of Japan. Opens Jul. 31.
• Battle for Terra - stars like Danny Glover, Luke Wilson, and Evan Rachel Wood lend their voices to this animated adventure movie; plays in 3D in some areas. Opens May 1.
• Earth - the cinematographers behind the Planet Earth series bring you a beautifully shot, feature-length film about three animal families - elephants, polar bears, and humpback whales. Opens Apr. 22.
• Food Inc. – unveils the sometimes dirty politics of the food industry; features experts like Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma) and Eric Schloseer (Fast Food Nation). Now in limited release.
• Fuel - slick docu on new energy sources, featuring interviews with eco-thinkers like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and eco-celebs like Julia Roberts. Now in limited release.
• The Age of Stupid - faux documentary-style drama about a less-than-cheery dude who in the year 2055 looks back over the past few decades of climate change. Premieres in May.

Earth Day 2009

Coming to your movie theaters on 22 April 2009, Earth from Disneynature and the creator of the BBC series Planet Earth, Alastair Fothergill.