It’s not that I wish I were a crow.  I kind of wish I were panther or dolphin or something other people think is magnificent and regal.  But I’m a crow.  So these are my wings.  For flying.  Bringing me creatively closer to my spirit animal:

graphic design by Stephen Newell

graphic design by Stephen Newell

]]> http://www.tonyakay.com/journal/wings-for-flying-photo-shoot/feed/ 0 http://www.tonyakay.com/journal/star-squad-film-stars-video-game-reunion-cast/ http://www.tonyakay.com/journal/star-squad-film-stars-video-game-reunion-cast/#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:39:46 +0000 Tonya Kay http://www.tonyakay.com/?p=7247 Your favorite Video Game Reunion actors are at it again!  Star Squad, a Hunger Games fan film, announced cast and pre-production today.  Brendan Bradley (VGR’s Mega Man) directs and acts and Woody Tondorf (VGR’s Link) co-writes and acts.  You’ll also see Courtney Merritt (Lil’ P), PJ Marino (Luigi) and myself (Princess Peach) acting in the just-announced Star Squad film.

Rather than recreating existing Hunger Games scenes, Star Squad is an entirely original story about the trial of Katniss Everdeen and the rebirth of Panem after the rebellion.  Read Star Squad concept spoilers and production attack at our website.  The first character poster was released today: Tonya Kay as CRESSIDA.

I’ve got sass, but my passenger seat is insecure. Its making demands for new upholstery as if that will fill the hole. Some chrome would be nice too.

I’m fulfilled, but my skin aches. Starts asking to stay home from school. My skin stays in bed all day.

Don’t you worry about me. I’m fanfuckingtastic. I am thankful to be breathing, working, creating, so healthy. It’s my bed you should pay a visit to if you want to take care. Its my ride you should be seen in should you wish to reassure. Its my body that is crying, “Please take care of me.”

But myself, I’m all good with everything.

Bless the well-intentioned consumer. The biodegradable soap, the hemp backpack, the energy-efficient light bulbs—and all of the other “guilt-free” end products of conscientious consumption—are becoming far more popular and make us feel much better about ourselves. But in the final analysis, how much better, really, are these purchases for the environment?

The economic collapse has devastated my household, my community and my industry. Perhaps, however, this is just what we need. As I send ‘hang in there’ balloons and sympathy cards like everyone else, wishing the economy a speedy recovery, somewhere deep—in a secret, sadistic place—I hope it’s not over yet.

Your neighbors have replaced their light bulbs, but have they shut off their lights?  Your family’s traded in its SUV for a hybrid, but has it busted out the bicycles? The most economical choice is almost always the most environmental choice to make as well. Is our obsession with even well-intentioned consumption keeping us poor and environmentally destructive?

If we stopped all manufacturing right now and liberated what we’ve buried in landfills, what’s in each other’s closets and what is currently lining store shelves, there would be enough for everybody for a good long time—without another sweatshop hiring or smokestack puff.

While there is a lot of thought about what happens to our possessions after consumption (those not reused or recycled end up in landfills), if we want to make real change, we need to consider everything that happens before we consume as well. The manufacture and transport of new items, even 100% recycled items, is a far greater environmental threat than the items we don’t reuse or recycle.

We don’t just need better products, we need less of them. “Reduce” is first in the maxim “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” for a reason. Why do we immediately skip to the second or third item in the list? If we don’t purchase it, we won’t have to consider what to do with it after we are done.

There is only one thing better than being a green consumer and that is being a non-consumer. As a non-consumer, I can still purchase things, barter for things and gift things. I just take myself out of the manufacture/consumption cycle by purchasing exclusively reused and making sure my unwanteds get remade, gifted or resold.

No new item will have to be manufactured or transported to replace my purchases. No reusable or recycled item will wind up in a landfill. And, as a bonus, I escape paying sales tax, which saves me 10.25% here in California. What’s more economical than that?  I’m all for a better economy, but let this economic crash not mend until we learn how to value what we have now.

Stalking pedestrians in parking lots all the way to their parking spaces. Adding a quarter-hour extra time for finding a meter. Amassing tickets for crowding residential driveways… All to avoid walking two blocks in the city. Why?

Instead, I’m walking in L.A. I’m walking in L.A.! As the Missing Persons sing the outlaw irony of “Nobody walks in L.A.” But I figure that I’m fit and young and my legs are powerful and pain-free. I don’t avoid walking. Someday it may hurt and I may use a cane. But that’s not today and every step reminds me of how grateful and efficient I am.

In fact, I’m so powerful that I am a full-on alternative-energy source. Thirty of us race through spinning class at the gym, and with the right converter, we could all be charging our iPods, or powering the cooling fans, or feeding the building’s light grid. Human power is the most renewable, sustainable, common-sense source of electricity available. With a massive personal-application energy-converter market waiting to be claimed by some green entrepreneur, solar power and human power are my bets on the future.

Some green product innovators are already tackling this niche and my home is turning into a human-powered urban utopia. I have a Z Star hand-crank juicer, with two powerful magnets that marry crushers for wheatgrass, apples, melon, greens and cucumbers (I’d keep the carrots out of this one). Or my Vortex hand-crank blender that clamps onto a countertop or rear bumper, so when you finish whipping up a blueberry/banana/apricot-stone kernel smoothie, you can throw down in the concert-stadium parking lot. Tailgating and eco-innovation: it’s just common sense.

So long as one has a bicep, one can power a hand-crank kitchen appliance. But what if one desires complete liquefying or a long-extraction kava/coconut-water cocktail? Perhaps the bicep is not enough… but a three-speed bike and hefty legs are! The Fender Blender is a blender that attaches to and is removable from a bicycle. It works when the bike is stationary on stands and even while you are in motion.

Imagine blending your favorite fruit drinks while riding to the yoga studio. No child in the park will choose cotton candy over this fun. People will take photos. You will generate free electricity. And your bicep and hamstrings will look and feel like you are a human power source. So you can continue to be grateful when walking two blocks from your parking space. Heck, you may even start leaving the car at home!

Raw vegan muscle and moxie pin up shoot:

Thank you to the talented Stephen Newell, graphic designer on all finals!

Please support me by voting for me in the Best of Raw Awards 2011 in the “Sexiest Raw Woman” and “Favorite Raw Female Athlete” categories.  Thank you.

That is why women love burlesque.

Especially me.