I’m a longtime fan of your books (and more recently, your blog) and wanted to let you know about my current project, as you are partly to thank. Largely because of discovering Shelter in the early 90s, I’ve had a deep interest in traditional woodworking. Combined with with Eric Sloane and Roy Underhill, my appreciation for the older, time-tested styles has been maturing all this time. We moved out to Coastal Oregon a couple years ago, and I’ve been delighted to find some examples (few and far between as they are) of “Sheltery” structures, and have tried my hand at making some small ones (chicken coops and the like). I dream of building a small off-grid cabin on our house and spend hours late at night tinkering with the design… it started as a cluster of drydocked VW Vanagon campers, but as my woodworking skills improved, I am thinking more and more Gypsy Vardo. But I digress!
I wanted to let you know about a project I have going on, which I hope you will enjoy. I want to preface it by saying that I am NOT seeking backing or contributions (I have met my goal) so with that out of the way, let me tell you a little about it.
Author and photographer Andy Couturier will discuss his new book profiling people living simple, sustainable, extraordinary lives in rural Japan, A Different Kind of Luxury: Japanese Lessons in Simple Living and Inner Abundance. This book lets readers feel the flavor and texture of the lives of farmers, artists, philosophers, and craftspeople who’ve chosen lives of reduced consumption and increased satisfaction. Andy will read from his book and show slides from these artists’ ways of life.
Thursday, September 8 – 7:00pm, Point Reyes Presbyterian Church, Pt. Reyes Station, Calif.
Posted by Mark Frauenfelder on BoingBoing this morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JxfgId3XTs
“To announce the grand opening of Westfield Stratford City, which will soon be “the largest urban shopping centre in Europe”, Westfield created this fun short film, 100 YEARS / STYLE / EAST LONDON. The film, directed by Jake Lunt with The Viral Factory, amazingly gives the run-down of 100 years of East London fashion, dance and music in just 100 seconds.”
This morning I got an email from straw bale experts Bill and Athena Steen, who are in Denmark and Finland doing clay plaster workshops. “Friland (Denmark) is a big story, a mortgage free community with lots of experimental and alternative building happening. Too much to write about, but a visit to their website will tell more: https://www.dr.dk/dr2/friland.…”
Plaster carving by Athena and workshop participants
David brought up the subject of these guys and Lew dug up this rough but potent old video on this Austin band in the ’60s:
(Backup is a lot like “G-L_O_R_I_A Gloria…”)
It’s had over 800,000 views. If you watch this full-screen it’s like a liquid black and white movie — pretty striking. Actually like a B&w light show…
More music du jour: Lucinda Williams and Dan Penn doing “Dedicated to the One I Love,” and Stevie Winwood doing “Thirty Second Lover” on a kick-ass album, just out: Dedicated – Steve Cropper – Salute to the 5 Royales
I’d never seen Jobs in action. Wow! Go to the link below and scroll down to 3rd video, which is of him and Gates. At the end, when asked by the moderator about the conflicts between the two of them, Jobs said: “I think of most things in life as either a Bob Dylan or Beatles song. There’s one line in a Beatles song that goes, ‘You and I have memories longer than the road that lies ahead…'” You could hear this collective gasp from the audience.
Left to right in front: jade seal; piece of abalone found on trail to beach Mendocino county, very old, worn down; little blue shell found in Indian shell mound nearby; abalone; native California snail shell; in back, piece of worm-eaten bark from British Columbia.
“Keep your eyes open to spot the Gardner fire lookout as you approach East Peak. Its native stone at first glance blends with the rock of the peak. Use of local materials was a major feature of the ‘park rustic’ style of many CCC projects. You will have an excellent view of the tower from the parking lot at the base of the peak. The park Visitor Center and a wheelchair-accessible picnic area are also located by East Peak.
The 1920th built this tower between 1935 and 1936. It is still an active Marin County Fire Department lookout. As you view the sturdy stone, wood and steel tower perched on the peak, imagine hauling all the materials up either by cable or by hand. That is how the veterans of the 1920th did it. They also built a water system, including the rock pressure pump house that you can see below the peak, and ran electricity and phone lines. According to Marin County Fire Department history, ‘. . . equipped with electricity, hot and cold running water, and telephone, this lookout was acclaimed ‘The Deluxe Lookout Station of California.'”
Hello-
