Commercial Tunes

In June, I mentioned a great singer-songwriter named Ingrid Michaelson. Well she has done it again and this time, she is the voice of the new Old Navy commercial. Such a sweet song called "The Way I Am." I'm totally loving it! Here are the lyrics from her site (www.ingridmichaelson.com) and she has some video links there too. I think she is definitely on her way!

If you were falling, then I would catch you.
You need a light, I'd find a match.
Cuz I love the way you say good morning.
And you take me the way I am.
If you are chilly, here take my sweater.
Your head is aching, I'll make it better.
Cuz I love the way you call me baby.
And you take me the way I am.
I'd buy you Rogaine if you start losing all your hair.
Sew on patches to all you tear.
Cuz I love you more than I could ever promise.
And you take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.

My mom also pointed out another sweet commercial song, this one from JC Penney (sense a theme here...TV and shopping!). The band is Forever Thursday which is really Melanie Hornsnell and producer Elliot Wheeler. There are lyrics and a video link on their myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/foreverthursdaymusic. Although Australian, Melanie has a 1950s style sweetness and bounce to her song.

HP used The Kinks' song "Picture Book" for their campaign for digital photography products back in mid-2004 (Wow...has it been that long?). "Picture Book" is from the Kinks' 1968 album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society. The campaign won "Campaign of the Year" in the February 7, 2005 issue of Adweek magazine.

My dad a field day with the Wiseguys' song "Start the Commotion" from a Mitsubishi ad a while back. Mitsubishi is all about making bands famous...they gave some mainstream notoriety to Groove Armada and their song "I See You Baby" but I have a song of theirs on a Pottery Barn CD that I like better because its more mellow. I'm also a fan of the Dirty Vegas song "As Days Go By" (and you'll find a funny video on utube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKUlY9S_OW0) and the import single offers a cool acoustic version. I'm sad to say that I don't know which car it is for but Mitsubishi also has an that has a great song by Telepopmusik called "Just Breathe." If you are a fan of Kanye West (I'm not) they use his song "Stronger." Art of the mix has a whole list of Mitsubishi advertisement songs at http://www.artofthemix.org/FindAMix/getcontents.asp?strmixid=35408.

I don't even want to go about the Gap ads...they are so cute. Patrick Wilson and Claire Danes doing the "I can do better" theme in the ad for the boyfriend trouser, the Gap ad for khaki's featuring "Jump, Jive and Wail," and of course, the holiday Gap ads using "Sleigh Ride" and (especially the combo with "Cool It Now"). Fantastic.

Finally, the new Ipod Nano commercial features "1234" by Feist, who is Canadian Leslie Feist. On September 28th, you may have caught her on World Cafe, NPR's daily interview and in-studio performance broadcast (http://worldcafe.org) or you can check out her page (http://www.listentofeist.com) and hear "1234" at http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1156010133/bclid756025629/bctid751384420.

Soundtracks

This is the kind of post that could go on forever but I'm going to just take a minute now here to highlight a few favorite motion picture soundtracks, after having just borrowed "The Last Kiss". Zach Braff thinks him a connoisseur of music and this one is good. It's not great, but good.

Here's some of my favs:

“Thirtysomething”
1. Main Title (Extended Version)
2. Begging For Sex, Part 2
3. Michael And Hope's New Baby
4. Another Country (Nancy's Illness)
5. Post Op
6. It Must Be Love - Rickie Lee Jones
7. Nancy And Elliot Take A Train
8. Michael's Dilemma
9. Elyn's Wedding
10. Come Rain Or Come Shine - Ray Charles
11. Life Class (Nancy's Museum Fantasy)
12. Second Look
13. Hot Butter (Miles Comes To Dinner)
14. Melissa And Men
15. The Go Between
16. Gary's Funeral
17. The Water Is Wide - Karla Bonoff
18. Main Title (Air Version)

“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”
1. Skylark - K. D. Lang
2. Too Marvelous For Words - Joe Williams
3. Autumn Leaves - Paula Cole
4. Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear To Tread) - Rosemary Clooney
5. Dream - Brad Mehldau
6. Days Of Wine And Roses - Cassandra Wilson
7. That Old Black Magic - Kevin Spacey
8. Come Rain Or Come Shine - Alison Eastwood
9. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive - Clint Eastwood
10. This Time The Dream's On Me - Alison Krauss
11. Laura - Kevin Mahogany
12. Midnight Sun - Diana Krall
13. I'm An Old Cowhand (From The Rio Grande) - Joshua Redman
14. I Wanna Be Around - Tony Bennett

“Marie Antoinette”
1. "Hong Kong Garden" - Siouxsie & The Banshees
2. "Aphrodisiac" - Bow Wow Wow
3. "What Ever Happened" - The Strokes
4. "Pulling Our Weight" - The Radio Dept.
5. "Ceremony" - New Order
6. "Natural's Not In It" - Gang Of Four
7. "I Want Candy (Kevin Shields Remix)" - Bow Wow Wow
8. "Kings Of The Wild Frontier" - Adam & The Ants
9. "Concerto in G" * - Antonio Vivaldi / Reitzell
10. "The Melody Of A Fallen Tree" - Windsor For The Derby
11. "I Don't Like It Like This" - The Radio Dept.
12. "Plainsong" - The Cure
Disc: 2
1. "Intro Versailles"* - Reitzell / Beggs
2. "Jynweythek Ylow" - Aphex Twin
3. "Opus 17" - Dustin O'Halloran
4. "Il Secondo Giorno (Instrumental)" - Air
5. "Keen On Boys" - The Radio Dept.
6. "Opus 23" *- Dustin O'Halloran
7. "Les Baricades Misterieuses"* - Francois Couperin / Reitzell
8. "Fools Rush In (Kevin Shields Remix) - Bow Wow Wow
9. "Avril 14th" - Aphex Twin
10. "K. 213" * - Domenico Scarlatti / Reitzell
11. "Tommib Help Buss" - Squarepusher
12. "Tristes Apprets.." - Jean Philippe Rameau /W. Christie
13. "Opus 36" *- Dustin O'Halloran
14. "All Cat's Are Grey" - The Cure

“Grey’s Anatomy” (v.1)
1. The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
2. Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue
3. Maria Taylor - Song Beneath The Song
4. Tegan and Sara - Where Does The Good Go
5. Mike Doughty - Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well
6. Get Set Go - Wait
7. The Eames Era - Could Be Anything
8. Rilo Kiley - Portions For Foxes
9. Joe Purdy - The City
10. Medeski, Martin & Wood - End of the World Party
11. Ben Lee - Catch My Disease (Live Version)
12. The Ditty Bops - There's A Girl
13. The Radio - Whatever Gets You Through Today
14. Inara George - Fools In Love
15. Psapp - Cosy In The Rocket

“200 Cigarettes”
1. Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe
2. In The Flesh - Blondie
3. Just What I Needed - The Cars
4. Save It For Later - Harvey Danger
5. Our Lips Are Sealed - Go-Go's
6. I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow
7. I Don't Care - The Ramones
8. Boogie Wonderland - Girls Against Boys
9. Ladies Night - Kool & The Gang
10. It's Different For Girls - Joe Jackson
11. Nowhere Girl - B-Movie
12. More Than This - Roxy Music
13. Romeo & Juliet - Dire Straits
14. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding - Elvis Costello And The Attractions
15. Blondie Medley: Rapture, Maria, No Exit (The Loud Allstar Rock Remix Featuring Coolio & The Loud AllStars - Havoc And Prodigy Of Mobb Deep, Inspectah Deck & U-God Of Wu-Tang Clan) - Blondie

“Grosse Pointe Blank”
1. Blister In The Sun - Violent Femmes
2. Rudie Can't Fail - Clash
3. Mirror In The Bathroom - English Beat
4. Under Pressure - David Bowie, Queen
5. I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash
6. Live & Let Die - Guns N' Roses
7. We Care A Lot - Faith No More
8. Pressure Drop - Specials
9. Absolute Beginners - Jam
10. Armagideon Time - Clash
11. El Matador - Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
12. Let My Love Open The Door (E. Cola Mix) - Pete Townshend
13. Blister 2000 - Violent Femmes

What to Read Next!

Looking for something to read? Check out one of these novels!

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
In her first novel, Sarah Addison Allen has written a tender, bewitching book told with captivating invention, peopled with characters to care about, and filled with the irresistible magic of dreams come true.

The women of the Waverley family -- whether they like it or not -- are heirs to an unusual legacy, one that grows in a fenced plot behind their Queen Anne home on Pendland Street in Bascom, North Carolina. There, an apple tree bearing fruit of magical properties looms over a garden filled with herbs and edible flowers that possess the power to affect in curious ways anyone who eats them.

For nearly a decade, 34-year-old Claire Waverley, at peace with her family inheritance, has lived in the house alone, embracing the spirit of the grandmother who raised her, ruing her mother's unfortunate destiny and seemingly unconcerned about the fate of her rebellious sister, Sydney, who freed herself long ago from their small town's constraints. Using her grandmother's mystical culinary traditions, Claire has built a successful catering business -- and a carefully controlled, utterly predictable life -- upon the family's peculiar gift for making life-altering delicacies: lilac jelly to engender humility, for instance, or rose geranium wine to call up fond memories. Garden Spells reveals what happens when Sydney returns to Bascom with her young daughter, turning Claire's routine existence upside down. With Sydney's homecoming, the magic that the quiet caterer has measured into recipes to shape the thoughts and moods of others begins to influence Claire's own emotions in terrifying and delightful ways.

As the sisters reconnect and learn to support one another, each finds romance where she least expects it, while Sydney's child, Bay, discovers both the safe home she has longed for and her own surprising gifts. With the help of their elderly cousin Evanelle, endowed with her own uncanny skills, the Waverley women redeem the past, embrace the present, and take a joyful leap into the future.

"Garden Spells didn't start out as a magical novel," writes Sarah Addison Allen. "It was supposed to be a simple story about two sisters reconnecting after many years. But then the apple tree started throwing apples and the story took on a life of its own…and my life hasn't been the same since."

Combine two parts Alice Hoffman and one part Rebecca Wells with a splash of Sue Monk Kidd, and you have Garden Spells! A great read for anyone who loves cooking, southern fiction, or just a great love story.--Angel Ramandt, Baltimore, MD

Garden Spells is a magical escape into a world gentled by caring and ancient ways. A sweet story that adds hope to the world. --Patty Rogala, Birmingham, AL

The Love Wife by Gish Jen
This is a generous, funny, explosive novel about the new "half-half" American family. You've got Carnegie Wong, second-generation Chinese American warm heart and funny guy, his WASP wife, Jane, whom his mother calls "Blondie," and their two adopted Asian daughters, and half-half bio son. And here is Mama Wong, Carnegie's no-holds-barred mother, who, eternally opposed to his marriage, has arranged from her grave for a mainland Chinese relation to come look after the kids. Is this woman, as Carnegie claims, a nanny? Or is she, as Blondie fears, something else?

What happens as Carnegie and Blondie try to incorporate the ambiguous new arrival into their already complicated lives is touchingly, brilliantly, intricately told. Powerfully evoking the contemporary American family in all its fragility and strength, Gish Jen has given us her most exuberant and accomplished novel.

This novel has a robust, lived-in quality that makes you miss it when it's over.

Michiko Kakutani - The New York Times
“The Love Wife, is also a big story: a story about families and identity and race and the American Dream, a story about how one generation deals with the expectations and the hopes of an earlier generation, a story about how sons and daughters make choices that define themselves against their parents. It is a story that works a minor-key variation on many of the themes that Ms. Jen has sounded in her earlier fiction, yet a story that also represents her most ambitious and emotionally ample work yet.”

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult refuses to tiptoe around volatile issues. Nineteen Minutes recounts a deadly high school shooting rampage, its causes, and its aftermath.

Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens — until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever.

In flashbacks, we witness the deepening alienation of teen killer Peter Houghton, a helpless victim who sinks steadily into the execution mode of his combat video games. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families. Standing in literal judgment over this teen killer is Alex Cormier, the judge who presides over his trial trying hard to balance her professional duties with her relationship with her daughter.

The topic is a hard one but Picoult does a great job at making the story compelling. You feel for the characters, reliving the heartbreak of high school. You learn about how a small town can barely survive such tragedy and you watch families crumble. You also learn how they can also start over again.

Away by Amy Bloom
Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom’s work–her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart–come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable.

“This beautiful, effulgent book sped me forward word by word, out of the room I was in and into Amy Bloom’s world. This is a wonderful novel, a cosmos that transcends its time period and grabs us without compromise. Lillian’s astonishing journey, driven by a mother’s love, will be with me for a long, long time.”
–Ron Carlson, author of The Speed of Light

A Great Author (and Librarian!) Passes--Salute to Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle Camp Franklin, 88, of Goshen, CT and New York City, died Thursday, September 6th. Born November 29, 1918, in New York City, to Charles Camp and Madeleine Barnett Camp, she was educated in Switzerland and South Carolina, before graduating from Smith College. She was the author of over 60 books, including the award-winning A Wrinkle in Time.
She is survived by her two daughters, Josephine Jones of Goshen, CT and Maria Rooney and her husband John of Mystic, CT; her five grandchildren, and five greatgrandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Hugh Franklin, and her son, Bion Barnett Franklin.

She was a warm, loving and fun mother, grandmother and friend, who will be missed by many. Her influence will live on in her family and many friends, and in her books which have brought countless delight to all who have read them.

There will be a service on Saturday, September 15th, 2pm, at the Church of Christ, Goshen, CT, and a later public memorial service around her birthday, the actual date to be decided, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial gift may be made to Crosswicks Foundation, Ltd, 924 West End Ave, apt 95, New York, New York, 10025. This is just an option, and we encourage you to honor her memory in any way you choose.
Read a banned book!

HISTORY

Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918, and spent her formative years in New York City. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories, poems and journals for herself, which was reflected in her grades (not the best). However, she was not discouraged.
At age 12, she moved to the French Alps with her parents and went to an English boarding school where, thankfully, her passion for writing continued to grow. She flourished during her high school years back in the United States at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, vacationing with her mother in a rambling old beach cottage on a beautiful stretch of Florida Beach.
She went to Smith College and studied English with some wonderful teachers as she read the classics and continued her own creative writing. She graduated with honors and moved into a Greenwich Village apartment in New York. She worked in the theater, where Equity union pay and a flexible schedule afforded her the time to write! She published her first two novels during these years--A Small Rain and Ilsa--before meeting Hugh Franklin, her future husband, when she was an understudy in Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard. They married during The Joyous Season.
She had a baby girl and kept on writing, eventually moving to Connecticut to raise the family away from the city in a small dairy farm village with more cows than people. They bought a dead general store, and brought it to life for 9 years. They moved back to the city with three children, and Hugh revitalized his professional acting career. The family has kept the country house, Crosswicks, and continues to spend summers there.
As the years passed and the children grew, Madeleine continued to write and Hugh to act, and they to enjoy each other and life. Madeleine began her association with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where she has been the librarian and maintained an office for more than thirty years. After Hugh's death in 1986, it was her writing and lecturing that kept her going. She has now lived through the 20th century and into the 21st and has written over 60 books and keeps writing. She enjoys being with her friends, her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren.

• Bibliography: Publication Date
  18 Washington Square South: A Comedy in One Act, 1944
  The Small Rain, 1945
  Ilsa, 1946
  And Both Were Young, 1949
  Camilla Dickinson, 1951
  A Winter's Love, 1957
  Meet the Austins, 1960
  A Wrinkle in Time, 1962
  The Moon By Night, 1963
  The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas, 1964
  The Arm of the Starfish, 1965
  Camilla, 1965
  The Love Letters, 1966
  A Journey With Jonah (a play), 1967
  The Young Unicorns, 1968
  Dance in the Desert, 1969
  Lines Scribbled on an Envelope and Other Poems, 1969
  The Other Side of the Sun, 1971
  A Circle of Quiet, 1972
  A Wind in the Door, 1973
  Everyday Prayers, 1974
  Prayers for Sunday, 1974
  The Risk of Birth, 1974
  The Summer of the Great Grandmother, 1974
  Dragons in the Waters, 1976
  The Irrational Season, 1977
  A Swiftly Tilting Planet, 1978
  The Weather of the Heart, 1978
  Ladder of Angels, 1979
  The Anti-Muffins, 1980
  A Ring of Endless Light, 1980
  Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, 1980
  A Severed Wasp, 1982
  The Sphinx at Dawn, 1982
  And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings, 1983
  A House Like a Lotus, 1984
  Trailing Clouds of Glory: Spiritual Values in Children's Literature, 1985 (with Avery Brooke)
  Many Waters, 1986
  A Stone for a Pillow: Journeys with Jacob, 1986
  A Cry Like a Bell, 1987
  Two-Part Invention, 1988
  An Acceptable Time, 1989
  Sold Into Egypt: Joseph's Journey into Human Being, 1989
  The Glorious Impossible, 1990
  Certain Women, 1992
  The Rock That is Higher, 1993
  Anytime Prayers, 1994
  Troubling a Star, 1994
  Glimpses of Grace, 1996 (with Carole Chase)
  A Live Coal in the Sea, 1996
  Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols, 1996
  Wintersong, 1996 (with Luci Shaw)
  Bright Evening Star, 1997
  Friends for the Journey, 1997 (with Luci Shaw)
  Mothers and Daughters, 1997 (with Maria Rooney)
  Miracle on 10th Street, 1998
  A Full House, 1999
  Mothers and Sons, 1999 (with Maria Rooney)
  Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends, 1999 (with Luci Shaw)
  The Other Dog, 2001
  Madeleine L'Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life, 2001 (with Carole Chase)
  The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle, 2005

No more racism!

A friend alerted me to the incident in Jena, Louisiana. Please take a minute to familiarize yourself with the situation at: http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml.
It is a sad day in our country when we are faced with such racism living alive and well. The signs say it all "No Justice, No Peace."

Visit http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/
You'll see...

Justice for the Jena 6
The lives of six young black men are being ruined by Jim Crow justice in Jena, Louisiana.
The District Attorney has refused to protect the rights of Jena's Black population and has turned the police and courts into instruments of intimidation and oppression. We can help turn things around by making it a political liability for the authorities of Jena to continue the racist status quo, and by forcing the Governor of Louisiana to intervene.
Today is only the first step. Please join us.

You can sign the online petition or cut and paste the information below.



Dear friend,
I just learned about a case of segregation-era oppression happeningtoday in Jena, Louisiana. I signed onto ColorOfChange.org's campaignfor justice in Jena, and wanted to invite you to do the same. http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936

Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students satbeneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from thetree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," moreBlack students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demandedthat the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your bestfriend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a strokeof my pen." A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DAdid nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyardfight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attemptedmurder and conspiracy to commit murder. It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges,lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in"their place." But it's happening today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the story has gotten minimal press.Together, we can make sure their story is told and that the Governorof Louisiana intervenes and provides justice for the Jena 6. It startsnow. Please join me: http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936

The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set thestage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over thenext couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building ofJena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the sameweekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party.The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by ayoung white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ranaway. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students were later arrested for the theft of the gun. That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporterof the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who wasbeaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several blackstudents "nigger." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched andkicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital, but wasreleased and was well enough to go to a social event that evening. Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17),Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and anunidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and chargedwith second-degree attempted murder. The first trial ended last month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, wasconvicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravatedbattery (both felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his public defender called no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal'sparents were ordered not to speak to the media and the courtprohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where thejudge could see them. Mychal is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jailfor 22 years. Theo Shaw's trial is next. He will finally make bailthis week.The Jena Six are lucky to have parents and loved ones who are fightingtooth and nail to free them. They have been threatened but they arestanding strong. We know that if the families have to go it alone,their sons will be a long time coming home. But if we act now, we canmake a difference. Join me in demanding that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco getinvolved to make sure that justice is served for Mychal Bell, and that DA Reed Walters drop the charges against the 5 boys who have not yet gone to trial.http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936
Thanks.

The Loss of a Great Dame

The world has lost a true leader and a real inspiration to both young women and friends to the environment.

Body Shop founder Anita Roddick dies

Anita Roddick, founder of beauty retailer The Body Shop and one of Britain's best known businesswomen, has died at the age of 64 after suffering a major brain haemorrhage.Roddick founded The Body Shop in Brighton in 1976, selling toiletries made from natural ingredients, and her brand became a byword for socially and environmentally responsible business.
The daughter of Italian immigrants, Roddick saw her business mushroom into an empire of more than 2,000 stores serving more than 77 million customers in 51 different markets. She sold her stake in The Body Shop to France's L'Oreal last year.
"Anita Roddick was admitted to St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, close to her home, yesterday evening when she collapsed after complaining of a sudden headache," her family said.
"Mrs Roddick was admitted to the hospital's Intensive Care Unit and her husband Gordon and two daughters, Sam and Justine, were with her when she died," it said.
A multi-millionaire, Roddick campaigned against human rights abuses and was an environmental activist.
The mission statement of The Body Shop was: "To dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change."
Roddick said it was her mother's frugality during World War Two that inspired her to campaign for environmental issues and question retail conventions.
"We reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could. The foundation of The Body Shop's environmental activism was born out of ideas like these," she wrote on her Web site.
"The Body Shop is not, and nor was ever, a one-woman-show - it's a global operation with thousands of people working towards common goals and sharing common values," she said.
Roddick revealed earlier this year that she was suffering from liver damage after contracting the Hepatitis C virus more than 35 years ago and soon began campaigning for support for sufferers of the potentially deadly disease.
She developed Hepatitis C from infected blood given to her during the birth of her youngest daughter, Sam, in 1971.

from: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4197926a10.html

Body Shop founder Anita Roddick dies
By D'ARCY DORAN, Associated Press Writer
Anita Roddick, founder of the international Body Shop cosmetics chain, died Monday night after suffering a major brain hemorrhage, her family said. She was 64.
Roddick, who died at a hospital in Chichester, had revealed in February that she contracted hepatitis C through a blood transfusion while giving birth to a daughter in 1971. She made the announcement after being named head of the British charity Hepatitis C Trust.
The business woman was lauded as the "Queen of Green" for trailblazing business practices that sought to be environmentally friendly and won her renown in her native England and around the world.
"Businesses have the power to do good," she wrote on the Web site of the company, which was bought last year by the French company L'Oreal Group.
Roddick opened her first Body Shop outlet in 1976 in Brighton, southern England, before fair trade and eco-friendly businesses were fashionable.
She said her business ethics were inspired in part by women's beauty rituals that she discovered while traveling in developing countries and lessons from closer to home that her mother passed on from life during the hard years of World War II.
"Why waste a container when you can refill it? And why buy more of something than you can use? We behaved as she did in the Second World War, we reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could," Roddick wrote.
The Body Shop opposed product testing on animals and tried to encourage development by purchasing materials from small communities in the Third World. It also invested in a wind farm in Wales as part of its campaign to support renewable energy, and it set up its own human rights award.
The company has grown into a global phenomenon with nearly 2,000 stores in 50 countries and remains independently run despite being owned by L'Oreal Group.
In recognition of Roddick's contribution to business and charity, Queen Elizabeth II made her a dame, the female equivalent of a knight, in 2003.
Greenpeace executive director John Sauven called Roddick an "incredible woman" who would be "sorely missed."
"She was so ahead of her time when it came to issues of how business could be done in different ways, not just profit motivated but taking into account environmental issues," Sauven said.
"When you look at it today, and how every company claims to be green, she was living this decades ago," he added.
Roddick, the daughter of Italian immigrants, said she opened her Brighton store with only modest hopes.
"I started the Body Shop simply to create a livelihood for myself and my two daughters while my husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas," she wrote. "I had no training or experience ... ."
Roddick and her husband stepped down as co-chairmen of the company in 2002, but she continued to contribute as a consultant.
She joked that the Body Shop's trademark green color scheme came by accident because it was the only color that could cover the mold on the walls of her first shop.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070910/ap_on_re_eu/obit_roddick

National Library Card Sign Up Month

Don't miss your chance to take advantage of National Library Card Sign Up Month!
All month long libraries will have lots of great programs to highlight the advantages of being a library card member.
Be sure to check out your local library!