Wednesday, September 26, 2007

flashbacks from a dusty city



there is no way i'm going to sit here and write everything i'm wanting to share: too many boxes yet to unpack!!

i will say ~ i was nudged into realizing just how quickly the dust (sadly) washes off.
these photos, only a few weeks out, are such a blast of fresh air, so refreshing and cleansing to my soul.
this morning, to reconnect, i put on that one copper skirt i wore all week (you know, that one), and took my top off, glided around serenely, and wondered how much the neighbors could see ((*damn burner!*)). then a hard knock on the front door kicked me out of my reverie, and sent scurrying around the kitchen for a jacket to sign for UPS ((damn weirdo burner!)).

i advertised for this guy after my first year, and i think he does a great job of capturing so much. the "couples" one especially touched me. so much freedom, and so much feeling!

feel the love:

http://webbery.com/bm07

Friday, September 21, 2007

lucent dossier video


dem's my peeps!
this is a great video, with lovely Dream telling her Lucent Dossier story.
this woman, these people, changed my life forever.
they're still going.

www.current.tv/watch/180761882

Monday, September 10, 2007

locavores


this month is the Locavores Challenge. this, for those of you unfamiliar, is a voluntary (self-inflicted ~ ha! sorry!) commitment for a month to attempt to eat within a 100-mile radius of where you live. it's a great exercise, and quite an eye-opener! eating locally is the best way to get the most delicious, nutritious, freshest food. and is the best for good farmers, and especially our Mama Earth.
it's already part-way through the month, i know, but this is a great thing to be mindful of at any moment. an interactive Locavores network has been set up that is similar to Tribe, with people joining from all over to share and discuss their own schemes and trials in local eating.
here's Jessica Prentice's official schpiel, which i received via email:

From: jessica@wisefoodways.com

Eat Local Challenge 2007: September

September is already upon us!

The last of the bounty of summer is still gracing our tables: luscious tomatoes, sweet corn, delectable green beans, and crisp, crisp apples. What to do with all the excess?

When we look at history, we quickly realize that having 30,000 items to choose from in the average American supermarket is only a relatively recent option. For the rest of human history, eating locally was a matter of practicality -- only the rich could afford imported food. The idea of eating within your foodshed isn't really all that revolutionary. Ask one of your older relatives about canning and pickling produce, about making their own jam and their own butter. These were common everyday practices well into the mid-20th Century.

And now is the season for all that canning and pickling and jamming and jarring. Now is the season to learn how to preserve the summer's bounty for the winter months.

So that's what this year's eat local challenge is all about: PRESERVING.

Check out the Eat Local Challenge blog for some recipes and advice.
www.eatlocalchallenge.com/
Ask your older friends and relatives. Do some experiments in your kitchen... and then SHARE them with us!

That's right, the Locavores website is becoming interactive. There are tons of social networking websites out there... and there are plenty of blogs where people talk about food... but there hasn't really been a way to combine the two... and none of them have been geographically focused. So we came up with the LocavoresBlog.
www.locavoresblog.com/

Here, once you sign up, you can join a group for your geographic area. There you can share information about good local food providers, restaurants, CSA's, and food coops. You can ask other people in your area where the farmers markets are. You can share your favorite pickle recipe. You can organize local foods dinners. You can even upload your photos. You can form a community of people within a foodshed who care about supporting local, sustainable food production.

We're launching this site *today* -- so right now it's pretty bare. It's waiting for YOU to add the content. So let's get started!

You should receive an invitation to join LocavoresBlog.com shortly after this email. Simply respond and sign up. You can make your own page and then join up with a group. You can invite other members if you have friends or family who you think ought to know about Locavores. Enjoy each others' company. Tell us where the good food's at. Feel free to start a new group if you don't feel your area is represented. Surely there will be unforeseen glitches. We'll try to fix them as soon as possible.


Finally, you may have noticed that the local food movement (that's you!) has been getting a lot of press recently. Barbara Kingsolver's newest book, *Animal, Vegetable, Mineral* describes her year of eating locally.
www.kingsolver.com/bookshelf/miracle.asp
She mentions the Locavores several times in the book.

More recently, in a New York Times op-ed piece, the historian James E. McWilliams sought to debunk the idea that choosing locally produced food automatically decreases one's carbon footprint. He warns that efforts to reduce food miles might actually support higher carbon emissions at the source. McWilliam's editorial has been much discussed and debunked in the blogosphere -- most notably by Michael Shuman here:
www.ethicurean.com/2007/08/...-on-lamb/
-- and we couldn't possibly do a better job.

We would just like to point out that focusing on food miles as the most important criteria in judging a food system IS dangerous. One of the lessons of the local food revolution that we are in is that ecological, systems-oriented solutions are often better in the long term than linear solutions. Fewer miles does not necessarily equal better and more socially and environmentally responsible food.

Like every problem worth thinking about, food justice is many-layered and complicated. There is no black and white solution. But there are many incredible thinkers and activists and chefs and gardeners and people like yourselves working on all the grey areas in between. Lots of people are working hard to overcome the brutal paradoxes of local food and class. Lots of people are trying to figure out how we can knit revitalized local and regional food economies into the current global one. And we are all trying to answer Wendell Berry's hard questions: "What will nature permit me to do here without damage to herself or to me? What will nature *help* me to do here?"

Locavores: Eat Here!
www.locavores.com/

Don't forget to sign up for the LocavoresBlog once you receive the invite.
www.locavoresblog.com/

Sage Van Wing, Jessica Prentice, Jen Maiser, DeDe Sampson



* * * * *

For more about the Locavores, please visit our websites:
www.locavores.com/
www.locavoresblog.com/

Sunday, September 09, 2007

capricorn

ah, that Rob! i'm feeling this one, for sure:

Capricorn Horoscope for week of September 6, 2007

I predict that you will soon be drinking your morning wake-up beverage out of a goblet made of gold mined in ancient times. Songbirds will appear near your window to sing you tunes that magically unleash your dormant genetic potentials. Out of nowhere, servants will arrive and offer to wash your feet in jeweled basins once used to baptize the children of queens. Maybe most exciting of all, you will command the power of the wind and lightning. OK, so maybe everything I just predicted will only occur in your dreams. But even if that's the case, it's a sign that you're in a heightened state of receptivity to miracles and wonders -- which suggests that they will soon be swirling around you.

*

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT (from the book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.)
Push hard to get better, become smarter, grow your devotion to the truth, fuel your commitment to beauty, refine your emotional intelligence, hone your dreams, negotiate with your shadow, cure your ignorance, shed your pettiness, heighten your drive to look for the best in people, and soften your heart—even as you always accept yourself for exactly who you are with all of your so-called imperfections.
*

wow! that "sacred advertisement" could be an everyday prayer!
thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.

Friday, September 07, 2007

! we're moving !





it might have sounded as if i'm experiencing growing pains in that previous post, but perhaps that's my overly romantic way of expressing that things are happening very quickly in my life right now! if this past year has plodded by . .. requiring much patience . .. like that long marathon. .. . feeling . . every . .step . . viscerally, this is a sprint (my tortoise self wouldn't really know what that feels like, but i can imagine ;-D ). events and happenings and landmarks are zoooooming by. and i'm up for the task (that's one of the many downloads i received at BM).

and we're moving.
Sealion and i are leaving our incredibly happy situation here in Sac with Mackindaddy and Gyrlene to create our own Big Kid Nest.
in Berkeley!
it's official; after so many false starts and searches and their emotional ups and let-downs, all up and down the west coast, and even some areas "back east", Baja, and who knows where else, we have finally signed a lease and are packing boxes. we're not expecting this to be a forever home, but we sure are darn excited about it for now! we have a sweet sunny space on a pretty street, still walking and biking (and BART!) distance from places that are important ~ and fun and delicious! and Sealion's commute will be just a tad longer (that's what cinched the deal ~ that he could keep his same work situation).

i like Berkeley. and i feel like it likes me back. although "the" 510 here in Sac has been a nurturing, soft and gentle place for a powerfully healing, inward-looking time in my life, i haven't ever felt connected to Sac. and it doesn't seem to sweat the fact that i'm leaving. Sealion doesn't feel like his life will change that much except, perhaps, that he won't want to go somewhere else everytime he has time off.

i love: tooling around Sac on my bike on a lazy Sunday afternoon. i love how laid back it is here. i love the tree-lined streets, and how extremely bike-able it is. i love the rose gardens. just thinking about leaving our well-loved backyard garden makes me melty inside. but the absolute main thing i will miss is our happy home life with our out-of-this-world housemates. i have marveled so many times at how blessed i am to have happened into this living situation with these people. such good people. the best. and the time i will miss most: our family dinners. everyone meeting around a table of delicious, nutritious, locally grown food and the finest conversation sharing learning and laughter. i respect and admire them so much, have learned so much from each of them ~ their unique, different (from mine), and heartfelt perspectives.

so here we go! next week at this time Sealion and i will be Berkeley-ites (for better and worse). on our way back from Black Rock City, we dropped our gear off at the new place instead of bringing it here only to take it there later. this morning we pulled the boxes down out of the attic to begin fuh REAL. worlds different than my seven-box leap into the wild westward unknown a little more than two years ago, i have found a Place, a Home, and Love.

life sure is a Grand and unpredictable adventure.


photos:
Sealion rejoices in front of our new place.
a toast ~ Berkeley-brewed Bison IPA ~ on our back deck, with trees in the background.
Sealion fills the aerobed in the living room.
El Caballero Negro and his dusty load out front.


**i remembered something else i love so much about Sac:
the unadulterated, penetrating Summer Sun ~ that lasts, uninterrupted, pretty much from April to December.
oh, how i worship you!

Thursday, September 06, 2007

reflections













well i'm nowhere near processed through Burning Man 2007, but i thought i'd better at least check in, as i have promised myself.
this year was deep and . . harsh. the themes that come to mind right now are relationships, nighttime, fire. and mirrors.


photos.