More about the Abbot Kinney Festival and some of the new merchandise and offline exclusives we’ll have!

In addition to favorites like our dragonfly haiku tops (above), we will have some great new items, like our signature kitty-&-crossbones in pink, on t-shirts or aprons. A portion of the proceeds from the pink kitties will benefit the American Breast Cancer Foundation in recognition of Ovarian and Breast Cancer Awareness months (September-October, respectively.) The American Breast Cancer Foundation, a holder of the humane charity seal of approval, provides screening and support to under-served communities.

The pink line items are very limited so get there early to grab one!

At the Rotem Gear booth you also find:

* New pastel (blue or pink) plaid kitty-and-crossbones baby tees.

* New “Green” designer-style eco-logo screened on super-soft fashion tees — very limited run.

* Our “Got latkes?” apron gift sets and hamsa amulets (remember, Chanuka is really early this year!)

* And so many more old favorites and new peeks.

Technorati Tags: abbot kinney festival, venice, rotem gear, rotemgear, kitty and crossbones, BCA, breast cancer awareness, chanuka gifts, hanukkah gifts, haiku t-shirts, japanese t-shirts, jewish t-shirts, treehugger t-shirts, environmental t-shirts

This Sunday, Sept. 30 is the huge street fair that is all about Venice, California — the 27th Abbot Kinney Festival. Come on by for the Venice experience and visit us at Booth #AK221 (near cross street Mariposa.)

Running through the heart of Venice, Abbot Kinney Blvd will be closed to traffic from Main St. to Venice Blvd to accommodate 2 stages of live music, dancers and performance artists, a children’s court, 3 food areas, a Spirit Garden, Green Living Pavilion and over 300 vendors featuring original, handcrafted goods.

Festival hours: 10 am-6 pm
We’re glad to report also that for the first time, the festival will be using solar generators to serve the festival’s energy needs, corn starch BioBags for vendors, and recycle bins will be placed throughout the event.

Check the festival website for parking and shuttle information.

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Japan’s aesthetic sense permeates its society in unexpected ways and places. Here is a jewel we must share — rice paddy art. Props to Pink Tentacle!

Below, rice paddies inspired by Hokusai and Sharaku. The effect is achieved by planting two different types of rice plants.

Technorati Tags: rice, rice paddies, japanese art, japan, tsugaru roman, kodaimai, aomori

Our friend designer JGoode blogged today about connections, and it reminded us that we neglected to post about a recent networking adventure we had.

It’s called Lunch 2.0. It’s a real-life version of virtual social networking, a geek gathering-happening According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, Lunch 2.0 started in Silicon Valley (where else?) when a fired Google employee snuck into the Google cafeteria to score a free lunch and to meet friends. Soon people started sneaking into the cafeterias of other companies for free lunch, geek mind-meld and the novelty of having got in. They posted the lunch schedule on a blog, and things started snowballing.

Lunch 2.0, often compared to a progressive cocktail party, is now a somewhat more organized event in that companies are now involved voluntarily — they provide the free lunch and use the opportunity to recruit some of the brightest brains in hi-tech who are there to connect with others in an open, informal venue. Lunch 2.0 events have been held at Adobe, Hitachi, MicroSoft, Yahoo, AOL, Zazzle and others.

So the first ever Lunch 2.0 Los Angeles area event took place at the Santa Monica headquarters of social shopping website ThisNext (where, incidentally, you’ll see some swell Rotem Gear shirts.) We were there, with friends we’ve made online. And this, this is where the connections come in. The event was about connections and is named for the interactive, inter-connected web protocols that characterize the web these days. The business of most of the people there was internet-based –thats all connections. ThisNext is about connecting people with unique products.

And our friends — artist MaryO and graphic designer-gamester EileenD (both below) — we met them online a few years ago in a discussion group. Ultimately it’s the human connections that are the most important.

Below, left: Andrew Warner of Lunch 2.0 and Gordon Gould of ThisNext greet visitors Photos taken with a Palm Treo 775p.

Technorati Tags: connections, networking, social networks, tuesdays topic, Lunch2.0, ThisNext,

Our Jewish t-shirts, geek girl gear and the UnEarthing Kindness Initiative have been featured recently on different blogs. Just yesterday we got a Google alert that the geeky-girly “That IT Girl” was showing our “Everybody Loves a Geek Girl” design and just how more fitting a blog could it be on?

We’re really enjoying the Chosen Things blog that featured both our Sephardilicious t-shirts and our “Got honey?” Rosh Ha’shana cards. Chosen Things manages to find truly “choice” Judaica — items that are unique whether they are classy or kitsch, from elegant mezuzot to Roy Lichtenstein-style Jewish wedding contracts.

In August Rotem Gear was also in the ZeVin Creations blog — our first feature of our Gotta Love That Jewfro HairDo and Mmm Tofu! designs. And while we are talking about Rosh Ha’shana cards, I must mention ZeVin’s own hand-crafted cards for all occasions and heritages, lovingly made from fabric, paper, beads, and ribbons, making most of them one of a kind.

(Below: a hand-made Rosh Ha’shana card by ZeVin)

Technorati Tags: rosh hashana, rotem gear, chosen things, zevin cards, zevin creations, everybody loves a geek girl, tofu t-shirts, geek girl t-shirts, hand-made cards