Got back at 3 AM Thursday morning, having left Elko 15 hours earlier. Not straight-thru driving, by any means (I dawdle), but a long day nevertheless. A great trip, rich in adventure and new territory. Once again, I have the problem of too much “content.” I could do a small book on each trip, but each time I return home, I get immersed in the details of running a publishing house, and having to work on a more standard sized book.
For example, I could do some really nice small books on travels to SE Asia, to Scotland, and this latest cruise through California’s two sister states.
My blog is bit of a hodgepodge these days, what with doing Instagram (because of its immediacy and ease), and other time constraints. If you haven’t figured it out, all the posts with the captions written up as headlines are automatic posts from Instagram to the blog. Not elegant, but it’s the best I can do right now.
You can view my Instagram posts at www.instagram.com/lloyd.kahn. This way you can see the videos, which don’t get transferred to the blog.
I’ll put up some photos (I shot about 450, between the iPhone (6S Plus) and Olympus OM-D) from the trip on the next post.
I was looking through one of my many filing cabinets (which contain old school file folders containing papers and photos) the other day and discovered about 15 folders on a book I started to write in the late ’70s. It was going to be called Home Work* and was about my building experiences, starting with my first building (studio with a “living roof” in 1962), then building homes over the next 17-18 years. I took them out of the filing cabinet and put them in this box:
Back then, I felt that I could offer guidance to novice builders, based on the fact that I started building from scratch. No carpentry training or previous construction experience.
I’d made a lot of mistakes that I could warn first-time builders about, and I had ideas for simple homes based on practicality and economy– and ones that felt good.
I wanted to encourage people to use their own hands to build their own homes. I’d done it, and never had a bank mortgage or paid rent.
The project got interrupted by my publishing Stretching by Bob Anderson in 1980 and then 20 years of publishing fitness books. Karma, I guess.
As I’ve said before, this is the 21st century online Whole Earth Catalog. Same M.O.: People like us writing reviews of cool stuff for other people like us. It’s embarrassing how many things I’ve obtained after reading about them here. These aren’t frivolous purchases; all the stuff is useful to me, stuff I’d never have known about otherwise.
I must point out I have a massive conflict of interest here. I’ve written a lot of CT reviews, and these guys are good friends.
That said, I periodically want to turn people onto this rich source of ad-free advice. It’s just madly useful. Take a look: https://kk.org/cooltools
Write a review and they’ll send you an email of new tools weekly.
I did an exhibit of driftwood shacks on NorCal beaches last month at the Bolinas Museum. 26 photos from years of beachcombing. My friend Hans Frey shot this photo on opening day. I’m going to do a print-on-demand book on the subject as soon as I get the time. I have a lot of “content” that may work in this format. What I need these days is a clone.
2. Doing the “social media” thing. A lot of effort in these early stages, what with coordinating Instagram, Twitter, et al. Still some rough edges to smooth out. I’m not sure if this will pay off, but we’ll give it a try in the next year.
Got back at 3 AM Thursday morning, having left Elko 15 hours earlier. Not straight-thru driving, by any means (I dawdle), but a long day nevertheless. A great trip, rich in adventure and new territory. Once again, I have the problem of too much “content.” I could do a small book on each trip, but each time I return home, I get immersed in the details of running a publishing house, and having to work on a more standard sized book.
