life’s everyday adventures in an ecovillage, plus other intentional community, filmmaking, and random musings
About damn time. Really.
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There’s a lot of shit happening out there. The economy is in shambles, and it’s just now really starting to show.
Members of Congress have been threatened with martial law if the $700 billion bailout bill has not been passed. In this video, Representative Brad Sherman reports the threat of martial law if they voted no to the bailout.
Additionally, there are now 3,000 troops stationed in the US to police the streets. Police state, anyone? These soldiers are undoubtedly not on “our” (the public’s) side - they exists to serve higher-ups and the government.
What kind of country has this place become? The US is headed to fascism, says Naomi Wolf. Her analysis is not alarmist. Check out this video below to understand where the country is headed based on very disturbing evidence.
It’s scary. Very scary.
Sometimes, I think I should be keeping up more with current events. I don’t often read the news. I often find it to be mostly rubbish, and I know that I’m not getting what I want to hear from most mainstream sources.
If I ever check the news, it’s usually very briefly, and usually at the BBC’s website. I used to frequent some so-called “green” or progressive websites (or whatever you want to call them), but I’ve mostly stopped browsing them. I do keep up with certain issues, but stuff like the current political race is a chore to follow.
Thankfully, I can get a quick reality check/current events update if I really need it from blogs/sites like Clusterfuck Nation. Otherwise, it’s very tedious to read news from drab mainstream news outlets that provide no serious commentary on what’s going on out there.
This looks like the film I have been thinking about for a couple of years. I’ve been either wanting to somehow make it myself, or see it made, or whatever. Nevertheless, the documentary, What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire, features a theme and issues that are very important to me and I’ve always wanted to see these topics addressed in the form of a feature film.
There are plenty of books, essays, etc. on topics of civilization, climate crisis, peak oil, population overshoot, etc., and how all of these problems are connected and related to bigger issues. However, there are few films or movies that attempt to draw an overarching picture of this web of social issues that we are faced with as a globalized civilization. But What a Way to Go seems to do just that:
“If film and television have a role to play in our society, if they are capable of helping important social change, if they have a part in the transformation of human society, then T.S. Bennett and Sally Erickson have fulfilled that purpose. What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire is the culmination of the “big social issue documentary” genre of Michael Moore’s films, or An Inconvenient Truth, and particularly of the “using ironic 50’s footage” sub-genre, such as The End of Suburbia. It deals with the same issues, but follows them deeper, all the way to the root of the problem in the Agricultural Revolution. Along the way, it hits all the important points: peak oil, mass extinction, climate change, overshoot, and the stories that keep us on the path to self-destruction.”
Sounds great. It’s a very low budget and independent affair, but I hope it gains some attention. Here’s one of two trailers for the film:
‘San Francisco first city to ban plastic bags’
So great.
Oh hey, wait… that kinda reminds me of something…
Seriously, though. Nice news.
Check it out… ¡Sí, Se Puede! is appearing on a compilation DVD organized by Submedia, due out before May 1, 2007:
The Giant Awakens: In 2006, a historic mobilization for immigrant rights swept the USA as millions took the streets. Mainstream news media predictably covered the marches with a mix of surprise, ignorance, and racism, yet grassroots media activists were there to document the voices and the stories behind this mass movement.
¡Gigante: Despierta! is a DVD compilation of compelling short films from all around the country, due to hit the streets in the weeks before Mayday 2007. Shot, edited, and brought together by a network of independent video activists, graphic designers, community organizers, musicians, and immigrant rights activists, it is a collective memory and a tool to inspire action this MayDay 2007, when the Giant will raise its voice again to say: we are one people, without borders. We are here, and we are here to stay!
Buy one!
Escape from Suburbia: Beyond the American Dream (official site)
New trailer here for the follow-up to End of Suburbia.
Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The END of SUBURBIA explored the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet enters the age of Peak Oil.
“An Arctic “doomsday vault” aimed at providing mankind with food in case of a global catastrophe will be designed to sustain the effects of climate change… The top-security repository, carved into the permafrost of a mountain in the remote Svalbard archipelago near the North Pole, will preserve some three million batches of seeds from all known varieties of the planet’s crops…. Construction on the seed bank, also dubbed the “Noah’s Ark of food”, will begin in March.”
This is insane, frightening, and… well, frightening, yes.
Subversive… and in NJ!
“Something mysterious happened in Jersey City this past Monday night… On this grey and windy evening, while most people were at home watching TV, giant neon lights emerged up in the windows of an abandoned factory, spelling out the sentence: ‘It is green thinks nature - even in the dark’.”
Here.
WorldChanging’s book releases tomorrow.
Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century: Make it number one on Amazon.
This will end up on the to-read shelf (among many, many others.)
The Year of Mud: Building a cob house Green Options: Posts by Brian Liloia