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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Lloyd Kahn's History Of the Whole Earth Catalog and The Birth of West Coast Publishing

I've written about Lloyd Kahn and the importance of the Whole Earth Catalog before. This is from his blog. He was there from the beginning. Thanks, Lloyd.

I wrote this article 27 years ago, so to bring the first sentence up to date, “It was 48 years ago…” Egad!

Its purpose was to describe the impact of the Whole Earth Catalog on a number of people, including me, and the birth of west coast publishing in the late ‘60s. I ran across it recently and thought it might be of interest in helping people connect some of the dots—especially younger people, who may have heard of the WEC, but don’t understand its significance.

I
t was 21 years ago, a cold, dark, early December evening when I walked into a semi-vacant storefront in Menlo Park, California. A sign out front said ''Whole Earth Truck Store," but there was no truck, no store, just an army-camouflage VW bus and Stewart and Lois Brand and a ton of books piled around in the back room. I was a dropped-out San Francisco insurance broker turned builder. I was about 10 years older than the inspired and visionary kids who were moving and shaking up America at the time, but I'd got the message and in a few years preceding that evening had latched onto many of the elements that were fueling the cultural, metaphysical and epochal revolution of the times.

I had just built a homestead, then a geodesic dome workshop in Big Sur, was tending a garden, listening to rock & roll, making weekend trips to Haight Ashbury, reading The Owner Built Home, Organic Gardening & Farming Magazine, The Oracle, The East Village Other, The Dome Cookbook, The Green Revolution, getting food by mail from Walnut Acres, listening to Buckminster Fuller and Marshall McLuhan, discovering B.B. King, Ali Akbar Khan, Buddhism, Alice Bailey, astronomy, astrology, prisms and Ashley automatics, learning about ferrocement, wind electricity, solar heating…what a time it was!

Having run a base newspaper in the Air Force, I had a journalistic bent and as all this information began manifesting in the mid-60s and, especially since people were starting to write me for dome building instructions, I thought I'd mimeo up some fact sheets—so I didn’t have to write every person individually.

Stewart saved me the trouble. He had more information, a game plan, the financing, and went on to publish the first Whole Earth Catalog in fall '68. (I still have that crude, funky and by now tattered first edition—one of my treasured books.)

It was an instant hit. Contributing to this were Stewart's pithy haiku-like reviews, and very accurate and complete access information on all the books and items reviewed. I joined forces and went on to edit the Shelter section of three of the catalogs. To go back a bit further while still in this "credit-where-due" mode, The Dome Cookbook by Steve Baer in early 1968 gave me the first flash of insight. By God, I could do a book like this! Funky typewritten text, grainy photos, handwritten afterthoughts in the margin—just do it!

Stewart was also obviously influenced by this 11”x14" staple-bound account of Baer's mathematics and the building of chopped-out car top domes in Colorado and New Mexico. It sold for $1.

At the WEC I learned about typesetting, design, editing, on-the-spot paste-up and dealing with printers. In 1970 I published Domebook One and a year later Domebook 2, both with my friend Bob Easton, and found myself in the publishing business. That's where I still am today—it all began with Stewart, Hal, Annie, Cappy, Fred, and Steamboat and it led a surprising number of us into permanent publishing careers.

That's the personal) and specific of it. The general and significant of it is (was) the birth of nationwide distribution of West Coast books. When the Fall 1969 WEC sold 100,000 copies in four weeks, New York's attention was got. New York meant major distribution muscle. Agent Don Gerrard signed the WEC up with Random House, then under editor-in-chief Jim Silberman's lead, and I followed with Domebook 2, starting my 30-year relationship with Random House as our distributor. Anybody’s Bike Book, Living on the Earth, The Tassajara Bread Book, The Massage BookShelter and others all burst onto the national scene in the late '60s-early '70s.

It was as if CBS had given a dozen homemade West Coast videos prime time. It marked the beginnings of Ten Speed Press, Shambhala Publications, and our own publishing company, among others. Until then, there were no timely, hip, quickly and organically produced West Coast books that were in tune with the times and getting major national distribution—books not conceived, edited or censored in NYC. It was a revolution, one greatly aided and abetted (and overlooked by the press) by what germinated in that Menlo Park storefront in 1967.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Corrugated Steel Retreat in North Carolina

A while back I featured a home that use corrugated steel in its construction. Here's another. Built by American psychology professors Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi, the Zachary House is a modernist riff on rural American architecture: dogtrot-meets-shotgun-shack.

"We had for many years been fascinated (New Zealand's) South Island's corrugated-iron buildings such as woolsheds and the teeny old gold-fields church beside the Vulcan Hotel in St Bathans. We also loved the look of modern-built corrugated-iron buildings and took hundreds of photos of "wrinkly tin" structures all over Central Otago. We were oddly obsessed with them, really."

For more on this unique and beautiful retreat home, click HERE.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Minding the Nurture Gap - Why Income Inequality Matters

Excerpted from The Economist...

"Robert Putnam is a former dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In his new book, 'Our Kids', he describes the growing gulf between how the rich and the poor raise their children.

"Upbringing affects opportunity. Educated parents engage in a non-stop Socratic dialogue with their children, helping them to make up their own minds about right and wrong, true and false, wise and foolish. This is exhausting, so it helps to have a reliable spouse with whom to share the burden, not to mention cleaners, nannies and cash for trips to the theatre.

"Working-class parents, who have less spare capacity, are more likely to demand that their kids simply obey them. In the short run this saves time; in the long run it prevents the kids from learning to organise their own lives or think for themselves. Poor parenting is thus a barrier to social mobility, and is becoming more so as the world grows more complex and the rewards for superior cognitive skills increase.

"Mr Putnam’s research team interviewed dozens of families to illustrate his thesis. Some of their stories are heart-rending. Stephanie, a mother whose husband left her, is asked if her own parents were warm. She is 'astonished at our naïveté' 'No, we don’t do all that kissing and hugging,' she says. 'You can’t be mushy in Detroit...You gotta be hard, really hard, because if you soft, people will bully you.' Just as her parents 'beat the hell' out of her, so she 'whups' her own children. She does her best, but her ambitions for them go little further than not skipping school, not becoming alcoholic and not ending up on the streets.

"At every stage, educated families help their kids in ways that less educated ones do not or cannot. Whereas working-class families have friends who tend to know each other (because they live in the same neighbourhood), professional families have much wider circles. If a problem needs solving or a door needs opening, there is often a friend of a friend (a lawyer, a psychiatrist, an executive) who knows how to do it or whom to ask.

"Mr Putnam sees 'no clear path to reviving marriage' among the poor. Instead, he suggests a grab-bag of policies to help poor kids reach their potential, such as raising subsidies for poor families, teaching them better parenting skills, improving nursery care and making after-school baseball clubs free. He urges all 50 states to experiment to find out what works. A problem this complex has no simple solution."

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Snowboarder Mike Basich’s Tiny Home

Found on Lloyd Kahn's Shelter blog...

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Travel Photo of the Week


Himalayan region of Nepal

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Why Are We Civilized? Maybe It's Dogs.

From Science News....

"Ancient humans drove Neandertals to extinction around 40,000 years ago with the help of dogs soon after canines diverged from their wolf ancestors, anthropologist Pat Shipman proposes in her new book, The Invaders."

And...

"Shipman knows that Neandertals have inspired intense scientific debates for more than a century. Her proposed explanation of our evolutionary cousins’ demise won’t put those arguments to rest. But she raises an intriguing hypothesis to keep in mind as researchers learn more about interactions between Neandertals and Stone Age people and about the timing of dog domestication."

Which would also explain why humans and dogs have such a strong social and emotional bond.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Friday, March 20, 2015

"Open Well-Tempered Clavier" Project Complete with Score and Recording Online

I rarely post about music being that that is my profession. I feel that this blog should be about things that excite me other than my own work.

But this is different. One of my favorite classical composers is Johann Sebastian Bach. Of all the early musical geniuses, I have always found his work brilliant and refreshing and always a joy to listen to.

The Open Well Tempered Clavier Project was conceived to bring the scores of Bach's work to blind musicians. Less than 1% of this work has been available in Braille and it was the goal to create software that would convert MuseScore scores to Braille, more than doubling the number of scores available to blind musicians.

Kickstarter made this possible. Share. Enjoy.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

3D Printer for Small Molecules Means Customized Chemistry

A group of chemists, led by medical doctor Martin D. Burke at the University of Illinois, have taken a major step in the direction of creating a machine which can practically build anything, all on the molecular, and eventually atomic levels. They have built a machine that can only be described as a major breakthrough in the field of chemistry, a ‘molecule-making machine’. The machine, which was described in a paper featured in the current issue of Science, could best be described as a 3D printer for chemicals.

The machine works by breaking down very complex molecules into their basic chemical building blocks. The machine then reconnects these building blocks to create new chemical compounds. Using this process, the machine can utilize over 200 different building blocks along with thousands of other molecules to create billions of different organic compounds, many of which make up 14 classes of small molecules and some of which have never before been created by human beings.

Below is a video about the technology. Perhaps Star Trek's replicators will arrive several centuries ahead of schedule.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Travel Photo of the Week


Chelino Bay, Baja, Mexico

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

MARS, A LEGO-Inspired Modular System for Building Artificial Reefs

Found on Laughing Squid.

"In an effort to help address the decline of coral reefs around the world, Australian designer Alex Goad of Reef Design Lab has created MARS (Modular Artificial Reef Structure), a modular system for building artificial reefs. Inspired by the modular building blocks of LEGO, MARS consists of ceramic modules that can be fitted together to form structures of varying sizes and configurations. The open design of the modules allows marine life to take refuge within, while the textured ceramic exterior is an ideal anchoring surface for coral. The MARS system has already been the subject of small scale trials in the coastal waters of Australia as well as in aquariums. Goad hopes to run larger scale trial, with 20 or more MARS modules, in the near future."

Monday, March 16, 2015

Wakati: A Post-Harvest Storage Solution

According to the UN, in the developing world, a massive 45% of fruits and vegetables are wasted before they even reach the local market. Decay sets in within a few days, long before farmers have had a chance to sell it all or eat it themselves. The 3D-printed Watiki is designed to stop this.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Hang Sơn Đoòng, the Largest Cave on Earth

Found on Colossal. You should watch this full-screen.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

An Urban Treehouse That Protect Residents from Air and Noise Pollution

Designed by Luciano Pia, 25 Verde brings plants up off the ground in an attempt to evade Turin’s homogeneous urban scene and integrate life into the facade of the residential building.

The 5-story apartment building in Turin, Italy, holds 150 trees that absorb close to 200,000 liters of carbon dioxide an hour. This natural absorption brings pollution protection to its residents, helping to eliminate harmful gasses caused by cars and harsh sounds from the bustling streets outside.

Why can't we do this in America?

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Travel Photo of the Week


Amsterdam, Netherlands

Monday, March 9, 2015

Sunday, March 8, 2015

The First 10 Minutes of Under the Dome with English Subtitles

Censorship in China is not news, but the fact that the Chinese authorities are attempting is remove this documentary from all outlets is disturbing.

Here is the first ten minutes of Under the Dome, Chai Jing's investigation of China's serious smog problem. My question is: how many people have to die before governments around the world begin to question the means and effects of current methods of economic and technological development?


Also, here is a link to the entire film, also with subtitles.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Thursday, March 5, 2015

White Oak Pastures, the Answer to America's Broken Meat Industry

From the PBS series ‘Food Forward,’ this clip highlights White Oak Pastures, the farm of the Harris Family in Bluffton, Georgia. The farm has lasted through five generations, 150 years and has gone full circle to return to sustainable land stewardship and humane animal stockmanship.

In the video, the farm's owner, Will Harris, answers the question: how has something as fundamental as food gone so fundamentally wrong?

The Art of Handmade Bicycles

Have you ever wanted to make your own custom bicycle? Here's how.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Travel Photo of the Week


Delhi, India

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Jeff Poppen - The Barefoot Farmer

Where'd we go wrong? Have a look. Jeff tells you.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Douglas Trumbull Master Class

Thirty years ago, I was in the photographic special effects business and this man was my inspiration.

Doug Trumbull created the special effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running, Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and so many more. He was also responsible for many theme park's "dark rides" such as Universal's Back to the Future ride.

His work in the field of special effects has been nothing less than ground breaking.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Amazing Origami by Tran Trung Hieu

Words fail, so here's a link to his page for more stunning examples of his work.