“Did you know that Milan is one of the most polluted cities in Italy? Apparently urban sprawl and increased emissions are major causes for slumping air quality in the international fashion capital. So Italian architect Stefano Boeri has formulated an unusual plan to give the city back what it’s lacking: namely, some greenery.
Bosco Verticale is Italian for ‘Vertical Forest.’ The project took inspiration from traditional Italian towers covered in ivy. Boeri has simply multiplied the amount of foliage to a dramatic degree, envisioning residential buildings that resemble tall boxy trees. Each apartment unit has a balcony attached, with a lush garden enveloping the structure. The two towers will provide roots for 900 trees, as well as plenty of shrubbery and other floral vegetation. Their footprint, when flattened, is equal to 10,000 square meters of forest. Bosco Verticale provides a plan to make reforestation possible within the confines of a developed city.…”
(The above is a rendering, but the project is well underway.)
Last week I was driving home around midnight through San Rafael. Checked out 4th Street Tavern, no one there, then into Fairfax, went in through Peri’s swinging wooden doors, . No kidding, just like a western movie. This rockabilly trio, The Continentals, was playing — really good.. Two other people at the bar. One woman in 40s, the other maybe 60. And me, audience of 3.
Years ago, I was in northern Massachusetts on a press check, driving a rental car on a rainy night. I got some fish and chips and saw a bar on a corner that said “Live Music.” $3 cover charge. Maybe 20 people in audience, and an absolute kick-ass little rock ‘n roll band. One guy had a bad complexion — not darling boys like the Beatles, but they were musicians in a groove. Channeling the Stones, raw and pure.
I treasure these unanticipated moments of good music. Little bands. Obscure bars. No stress. Oh yeah, there was that night at a bar in Victoria, the sun hadn’t even gone down…
I just happened to hear him on the radio while driving around yesterday, and by golly, he was hot!. Talking at a high school in Kansas, It was like Destry Rides Again, putting away the umbrella and taking out the 6-guns. This is the guy I voted for. Blast these greedy motherfuckers!
If I’m not mistaken, he was voicing the tenets of the Occupy guys. Can it be Prez got message?
The “…president’s starkest attack on what he described as the ‘breathtaking greed’ that contributed to the economic turmoil still reverberating around the nation. At one point, he noted that the average income of the top 1 percent — adopting the marker that has been the focus of the Occupy movement — has gone up by more than 250 percent, to $1.2 million a year.”
For 30 years we had an electric stoneground flour mill. It finally gave out and I got a steel-ground mill, and is it great. I realize the stoneground is the better way to go, but the new mill is so fast (20 times as fast), it’s a joy to use. We’re grinding most of our own flour for bread etc. We grind organic California short-grain brown rice for cream of rice cereal. Easy to cook, delicious (a little butter, dark sugar, milk), and it’s a meal of whole grains, freshly ground. I also use it to grind whole oats (called groats) into flour to make sourdough pancakes. No wheat. They’re delicious, and thanks to the sourdough, chewy. Fresh ground whole grains. Easy to do. https://www.thewondermill.com/
Deek Diedrickson, the guy who puts the fun into the tiny homes movement, is working on a sequel to his charming book of tiny homes, Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts: And Whatever the Heck Else We Could Squeeze in Here — a funny, inspiring, informative and friendly scrapbook of plans. He plans to draw up 60 cabins, shacks, etc. in the next 60 days (and worries that doing so is a death wish).
Posted on November 28, 2011, Russian River Times by John Hulls & Todd Pickering
“The National Parks Conservation Association’s (NPCA) campaign against the presence of historic Drakes Bay Oyster Company farm (DBOC) in Point Reyes National Seashore has a readily apparent pattern of inflammatory press releases and petitions timed to influence public input. The allegations in these press releases and petitions from NPCA and its coalition show a reckless disregard for the truth, using incendiary language such as, “threats to endangered species”, “repeal of the Wilderness Act”, “causing the deaths of harbor seals”, “wiping out endangered eel grass” and a host of other words and misinformation designed to shock the public into responding to public comment periods for National Park Service actions and to their legislators. These releases are distributed to a wide range of national and local environmental groups who re-release them, creating an echo-chamber of misinformation. None of their charges are true.…”
It’s true. I started out with hot lead. Editor of the Sembach Jet Gazette at Sembach Air Force Base in Germany, 1958-60. a twice-monthly paper, it was printed in Kaiserslautern using linotype machines, hot lead made into slugs, then stacked by hand in trays for the presses. I loved going in for press checks. It was medeival.
Next came the IBM Composer (have I gone through this before? Well, if you insist…) It was a $10,000 “selectric” typewriter with those ball fonts. To go from Roman to Italic, you manually replaced one font with another. It had a 3000-bit memory. It was used by newspapers for maybe 10 years (as well as by the Whole Earth Catalog and our first 20 or so books). Pages assembled (pasted up) by hand for printers.
Then along came the Mac. And cut to…
eBooks. I was listening to some very sharp people discussing the new eWorld, 300% growth for eBooks, looking like another 300% growth this year — whew!
Well, what can a poor boy do? (Except to sing for a rock ‘n roll band…)
I’m listening to all the dire news for physical books, and the rosy future of eBooks, and thinking about the book we just finished, after 2 years’ work. We keep looking at the few advance copies we have here, and it looks SO good. A lot of this due to Paramount Printers. The paper is high quality (and FSC etc.), it’s got a sparkle. The builders come alive.
It’s a journey you hold in your hand, a physical presence, a work of art. It’s a a real …book!
“Did you know that Milan is one of the most polluted cities in Italy? Apparently urban sprawl and increased emissions are major causes for slumping air quality in the international fashion capital. So Italian architect Stefano Boeri has formulated an unusual plan to give the city back what it’s lacking: namely, some greenery.
