howies®

Green Oil UK Limited is a family run company based in Bromley in Kent. From product ingredients, to the bottle deposit scheme, to the recycled boxes used for wholesale orders, being green is central to all we do.

Green Oil has won awards for performance from the cycling world. Green Oil UK Limited, the company behind Green Oil won a Bromley Environment Award and was recently short listed for innovation in the BikeBiz Awards 2008.

Our cheesy slogan used to be ‘destroy limits, not nature!’. The slogan referred to destroying your limits of skill, stamina and speed, yet without damaging the environment with nasty toxic chain lube. However, this wasn’t inclusive of people who just wanted to ride to the shops.

Our new slogan isn’t calling for a military coup, so don’t worry. The revolution we all need to join, is one of making the world environmentally sustainable. Within this, we need to use bicycles more, and embrace the ‘revolution’ of all those cogs.

If people continue to use toxic chain lube indefinitely, future generations will have more pollution to clear up, aquatic life will suffer and cancer will spread. PFOA, a byproduct of Teflon, the ingredient used in many chain lubricants was classified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a ‘likely human carcinogen’ in 2005.

If companies continue to use deforestation paper, and generally operate for short-term profit at the expense of the environment, the future will not be good for us, or for future generations.

We at Green Oil UK buy back our bottles, use sustainably sourced ingredients, and use recycled paper in the office. Our packaging is easily recyclable. For example, the plastic labels now used are the same type of plastic as the bottle, making recycling more efficient and reducing label contamination in the recycling stream.

End dependence on pollution join the revolution!

Simon Nash the founder of Green Oil, will be joining us on Tuesday 23rd March from 7:15pm onwards to give a talk on the company, how it all began and where it is going. He will also be giving demonstrations and a workshop on how to get the best from all the Green Oil products.

If you would like to come down and have a listen, a free beer or innocent smoothie and maybe get your hands a bit dirty, then email us at carnabyst@howies.co.uk or ring us on 0207 287 2345 and reserve your ticket!

I watched this video last week some time, it’s way too fun to keep to myself.

Tim and Eric, Rogers Of The Month.

http://www.vimeo.com/9351357.

Fun times infinity.

Jeff.

To accompany the current exhibition here at the Carnaby store we have a limited run of Jessie Ford women’s tees on sale.

Get yourself down to the store to check ‘em out…but if you would like to buy one and you don’t have the opportunity to make it down, we can offer a mail order service.  You can call us on 0207 287 2345

For anyone thinking about making a trip into London and visiting us on Carnaby Street over the next couple of weeks, this is well worth a visit…

Launching on Friday 26th February, ‘Carnaby Street: 1960 – 2010’ will celebrate 50 years of fashion and music. 

The central feature of the show is a unique 3D timeline which illustrates key people, events and happenings in the area from being a green field site with a well and a scarecrow 500 years ago, to the iconic characters associated with Carnaby’s music heritage such as The Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols and Jimi Hendrix.

A limited edition book of the same title; ‘Carnaby Street: 1960 – 2010’ will support the exhibition and will feature images from ‘60s photographer Philip Townsend and exclusive interviews with people who have lived and worked in Carnaby including The Who’s Pete Townsend.

The exhibition and book are the work of acclaimed curators and fashion historians Judith Clark and Amy de la Haye, who have curated exhibitions at major international museums including the V&A and Mode Museum in Antwerp.

The exhibition, 38 Carnaby Street, will be open from 26th February until the beginning of April 2010 and is FREE admission.  It will be followed by a series of events throughout 2010 to celebrate Carnaby’s 50th Anniversary including a live music weekend in June and a unique fashion show in September. 
Open 7 days a week
Monday – Saturday: 11am – 6pm
Sunday: 12noon – 6pm

38 Carnaby Street
London, W1

Jessie Ford is a Brighton based illustrator. She illustrated our Geek’s corner in the Carnaby store and has now come back with an exhibition for our Staircase Gallery. If you’re about, drop in and check it out. There will also be a limited run of t-shirts to buy, especially for this exhibition. Runs from 1st – 31st March. See more of her work here – www.jessieford.co.uk

Just found this exhibition by Haroshi in Tokyo, using old skate decks to make some amazing stuff.

It’s a pity it’s so far away, would have loved to see Mario rocking a Thrasher hat in person.

More from the exhibition here >> http://www.harvest-re.com/artwork/index.html

Jeff.

Blueprint’s new video Make Friends With The Colour Blue is premiering on April 4th, and tickets are going on sale tomorrow at Slam City Skates.

They made a little promo featuring their latest pro, Marty Murawski, and plenty of others.

I am way excited.

Jeff.

So tonight we have a Wee Do talk with Tom and Lara who wrote the blog World in Slow Motion, at the Carnaby store.  We still have a few free tickets left, so get in touch if you’d like to come along…should be a really great evening.

On a similar note…

A guy I know (Rowan) and his friend Billy are going to be travelling to Cairo using only overground travel.  The purpose of the trip- Rowan (a.k.a. Dizraeli) is an award winning rapper, who has been given an opportunity to perform Rebel Cell in Egypt.  He is an environmental activist and has vowed to never fly again….hence the trip…oh and his friend Billy is a documentary film maker who is going to accompany him.  They have built a website from which they will broadcast their journey as a daily blog, weekly video diary and finally documentary film.

So I was asked to help them promote it- if you can help to finance their trip in any way (they are having a fundraiser in Dalston, London on Wednesday night), follow their travels and most importantly take inspiration from how they are choosing to explore other coutries.  They really want to illustrate how easy train travel is in the hopes to make a positive impact.

So check out their website http://www.unplaned.com/

In June 2008 Lara and Tom left London to travel around the world without the use of one particular mode of transport: the aeroplane.  

 Over the following ten months they travelled 45,000 miles, visited nineteen countries and amassed a rather nice collection of hats.

 Come and join Lara and Tom as they recount their adventures of attempting to make the full circumnavigation of the globe without once leaving the surface of the Earth.

 (You never know you might even get to try on one of their hats).

 Read more about their trip at www.worldinslowmotion.com

The talk is taking place here at the Carnaby Street shop on the 23rd February at 7:30pm sharp, If you would like to come along then send us an email at carnabyst@howies.co.uk, call us on 0207 287 2345 or come and visit us in person, limited places are available so get in early with your request!

The usual selection of beverages will be available so come down, have a beer (or juice) and enjoy!

On my lunch breaks I really enjoy trawling through the internet to find what random events are going on in London. 

Well today I stumbled across this film festival Birds Eye View- celebrating women filmmakers.  It’s on at the BFI Southbank from the 4th- 12th March. (tickets are on sale through their website)

They have some amazing UK film premieres, that even if you cannot make it to the event are well worth a look.  I particuarly want to watch Amreeka- the story of a mother and son immigrating to the US in a post 9/11 world.  This film was written and directed by Cherien Dabis, Palistinian herself but brought up in the States.  Should be really thought provoking!

Here’s a trailer for the festival itself…