das loft

Powerdown...

Last night there was a screening of The End of Suburbia at the Meeting House in Oakville. I went with my dad, Mee Ming and her son. The screening was organized by Liz Benneian and the Oakville Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights, and discussion afterwards was facilitated by Mike Balkwill. Barry Silverthorn, the film's producer, was there. The place was packed - hundreds showed up. The highest attendance Mike had seen at previous screenings was about 50.

People made some interesting points during the discussion. One was that this movie makes the future look pretty bleak, and while it's the children and young people who probably need to be made aware of the situation the most, one wonders what kind of effect the dark reality portrayed in the film would have on children. It could be psychologically overwhelming for some. They might just think: What's the point of anything? Look how our parents and grandparents have destroyed our future, and there's nothing we can do about it. We might as well live life to the fullest while it's still possible, before permanent war and permanent depression are upon us.

But others were more optimistic. Some felt that this film presents people with a focus in life, a crucial goal: the enormous challenge of "saving civilization." Finally all those people who've never felt they had a purpose or aim - and we know there are many - will have something that they can aspire to. Others noted that we will be connecting a lot more with our neighbours and local communities. Once again meaningful work and a meaningful sense of "place" will return to people, things that have increasingly disappeared over the past century.

Mike described four possible scenarios for the future as proposed by Richard Heinberg in his book, Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World:

1. Star-Trek era. I suppose there's the remote possibility that we'll discover some new utopian energy source before scarce oil has had a major impact. (It's probably not going to be nuclear fusion, if anyone's wondering. There's very little chance that that could be a significant energy source before 2030, at which point we'll already be well into the depression.)
   
2. Uncontrolled collapse. We do nothing to stop our habits of consumption and let the laws of nature and inevitable wars chop us down to size by force. That's a little gruesome for my liking.
   
3. Controlled collapse. Society collectively realizes the scale of the problem and puts measures into place to manage the economic collapse "safely" - I guess so as to minimize death and destruction. I'm not really sure how (I'll have to read Heinberg's book), but it would have to involve the radical transformation of cities and suburbs and a complete overhaul of our lifestyles. This seems like something that would be met with an incredible amount of resistance, and I doubt we have the guts to do it.
   
4. Lifeboat communities. Smart groups of people realize that society isn't going to make the needed large-scale changes in time, so they do whatever they must to survive as independent communities. Unfortunately, I imagine they too will meet a lot of conflict with the rest of the world. Natural resources - water, farmland - are going to become so valuable. Successful communities will not be those which hoard them.
   

Naturally, I don't see this as a challenge to "save civilization," per se. The social organization of "civilization" cannot be saved. Its hierarchical nature is inherently flawed; it simply cannot be sustained on the evolutionary time scale. It's been proven over and over again in the past; our civilization is meeting the very same fate that every single civilization in history has met.

If there are some of us who survive this crisis and the many other environmental and social crises that are due to culminate in the 2030 decade, I think it will be because they evolved beyond this outdated mode of social organization.

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Some nice quotes from my mom that my sister came upon.

More.

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Cute.

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Bear news!

Bear captured after chase in Newmarket

Last updated May 23 2005 12:36 PM EDT
CBC News

TORONTO – A black bear that wandered into a Newmarket neighourhood this weekend was captured, and will be delivered to territory more suitable for bears.

The bear led heavily armed officers — backed up by a police helicopter — on a chase through urban parkland that went on for most of Sunday.

York regional police and Natural Resources ministry workers finally cornered the bear in a tree Sunday afternoon. It was tranquillized, lowered out of the tree, and loaded onto a truck.

Police originally believed they were dealing with a cub. But they said it turned out to be an adult black bear — about two metres tall when standing on its hind legs.

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Photies from the country. Please enjoy.


The moon.


Morning grass.


Scattering of ferns.


Anonymous flowers inhabiting the Path.


Entrance to the Field.


The Field. (There is a high chance that this will belong to my father in the near future.)


View from the Hill on a cloudy day.


Marsh marigolds.


Sugarmaple Woods, also situated on my father's property-to-be.


Sea of dandylions.


Pear blossoms.

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Does anything strike you as odd about this picture of college students? It looks really eerie to me. Especially that girl with the braids. WHY IS SHE SMILING AT ME??!

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Another movie worth seeing: Flower & Garnet. It's a Canadian drama about a dysfunctional family and an emotionless boy in a small town in BC. I thought it was actually pretty good. The characters quite grew on me and the actors were pretty good. A friend of a friend of Meta's is actually one of the actors (Dov Tiefenbach). Plus, the main actress is really pretty. It's almost worth watching just for that. ;-)

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Meta brought in some blossoms from outside that someone had snipped and discarded. How angelic a scent! It's incomparable to anything else out there, manmade or otherwise. So perfectly sweet and stately, if that word can be used to describe a smell. What a mystery it is that something so appealing to humans could have no obvious evolutionary benefit to the tree. I mean, with respect to luring humans. It probably has the benefit of luring insects to its flowers, for which the reasons are clear, but what's the point of luring humans to them, too? They're just going to try to eat the flowers, or at least chop them off and put them in their houses, or at the very least stick their noses in them and scare away all the insects. I don't see the benefit to the tree in any one of those cases.

This weekend my sister and I will be visiting our dad, aunt and cousins out in Cobourg/Grafton. It should be beautiful there. The forests are filled with fiddleheads. And I'll bet the tarns are teeming with tadpoles. (They're not really tarns, just ponds, but "pond" doesn't start with a "t".) I will bring along my photographing contraption for sure.

The pushups reached a high of 44 the other day, although experts are downplaying it as a freak incident.

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My dad found this great interview with James Howard Kunstler, author of many books, including The Long Emergency, which I mentioned in a previous blog posting (and I'm looking forward to reading). Here's the introduction to the interview (but read the whole thing):

After the oil is gone

Say goodbye to your suburban house, yoke up that horse, and stand by to repel pirates! Author James Howard Kunstler talks about the dire world of his new book, "The Long Emergency."

May 14, 2005 | Suburbs will collapse into slums. Farmhand will be a more viable career choice than public relations executive. And avoiding starvation will replace avoiding boredom as the national pastime.

Those are just a few of the predictions that James Howard Kunstler makes in his new book. "The Long Emergency" paints a dystopic view of the United States in the wake of what Kunstler dubs the "cheap oil fiesta." It's a future the author insists is not apocalyptic. Calling it the end of the world would be too easy.

No, Kunstler believes the human race will survive as we slip down the other side of Hubbert's Oil Peak. But the high standard of living we've built by gorging on cheap oil will not. America, as a political entity, will be history too.

When will the doom begin? It already has. "There have been no significant discoveries of new oil since 2002," Kunstler says. And the Saudis have screwed up their super-giant Ghawar oil field, long a fossil-fuel font for the U.S. "They have damaged it by pumping enormous amounts of salt water into it; in fact, the field itself may be entering depletion," he says.

A former journalist turned novelist turned social critic, Kunstler is best known for his book excoriating the suburbs, "Geography of Nowhere." Now he foresees the end of the entire artifice of American life, from the suburbs to the interstate highway to Wal-Mart and the global supply chain that supports it.

In Kunstler's world, a teenager will be better off learning how to yoke up a horse-drawn buggy than how to change the oil in a car. Woodshop will be more important than computer literacy. Among Kunstler's predictions: The South will devolve into agricultural feudalism and the Pacific Northwest will be beset by a plague of pirates from Asia. Forget about sleek hydrogen-powered cars coming to the rescue. For that matter, quit tilting your hopes toward wind power.

Kunstler displays a kind of macabre wit about the unpleasantness and strife that await us all. Talking to him is like trying to argue with a prophet. His assertions have a neat way of doubling back to anticipate your critiques. If you express doubt about his views, then you may well be among the deluded masses too addicted to your McSUV and McSuburb to accept the reality that lies ahead.

Salon spoke to Kunstler at his home in upstate New York, mindful that in the future such an hour-long, cross-country telephone call, undertaken so casually, could be a remote luxury, a quaint remnant of a bygone era rich in the splendors of oil.

Continued here... (sorry, you'll have to click past the nasty ads, but it's worth it)

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This is a really beautiful film: The Colour Of Paradise. It's an Iranian film about a blind boy. The scenery and shots are quite breathtaking. It's also neat to get a sense of life in the Iranian countryside. (Oakville folk: you can get the film from the library.)

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Another dream. This time it was about an ex-biology teacher at OT, Mr. Liscombe. Heh. Clearly it was because I saw Evan's excellent caricature of him when I met Mee Ming and Gord Ofield yesterday. But I wonder why my subconscious chose to dream of Mr. Liscombe? He was never my teacher.

Anyway, I was sitting in class, and he was giving some lecture. I was trying to draw him. I started with his hair. Then I went to his eyebrow. Yes, eyebrow. For some reason I decided he had only one eyebrow, right in the middle of his forehead. My subconscious must have forgotten that most people have two eyes, not just one.

He was lecturing about "work." About how much work different cultures have to do to survive. Not sure how he defined work. But he illustrated how much work a typical "traditional" culture exerts to survive by drawing something like this:

Culture A: • • • • • • • • • • •

And below it he illustrated how much work our culture has to exert to survive:

Culture B: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

and basically filled up the rest of the board with dots.

Some of the students had their eyes glazed over. "So what's your point?" one of them asked. "My point is..." he replied, paused, and then asked "Who's your favourite author?" The students drew blank faces. Then after a while, one sheepishly suggested, "Daniel Quinn?"

"DANIEL QUINN!" Mr. Liscombe repeated and threw the chalk down triumphantly.

Oh man... trust me guys, Daniel Quinn isn't my favourite author. Please disregard this silly dream. Woo-Jun, you especially. I'm not like that anymore. ;)

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It's only May 10th and already it's the 9th smog alert day of 2005. Last year there were 14 smog days in total. I think 2001 has the record with 20 smog days for the whole year. I think we're well on our way at surpassing that number this year.

From the Toronto Public Health website:

General questions

1. What is smog?

Smog is a mixture of pollutants in the air affecting our health throughout the year. It comes from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gas, diesel and coal.

2. Where does smog come from?

Cars and trucks are the biggest source of air pollutants in Toronto. Industries such as coal-fired electric stations in Ontario and Midwestern United States are also a large source of air pollutants.

3. How does smog harm our health?

Smog can worsen heart problems, asthma, bronchitis and other lung problems. Smog reduces lung function in healthy people. It also irritates eyes, nose and throat.

4. Who are most affected by smog?

Smog affects everyone. Young children, pregnant women, the elderly, asthmatics, people with heart problems, smokers and people who work or exercise outdoors are at higher risk.

Smog not only aggravates existing lung problems; it actually causes asthma in children. That's a clear-as-day example of our modern, polluting lifestyles being the cause of a major illness, further straining our overtaxed health care system. Most political parties - in fact most people in general, I'll bet - believe that the logical way to lower the burden on our health care system is to put more money into it. The Green Party is the only policital party I've seen that has even suggested the "radical" idea of identifying and combatting the root causes of our illnesses rather than tackling the issue at a reactionary level. From their platform:

The Green Party believes that our heath care system is breaking down - not because we are spending too little, but because our lack of foresight is costing too much. Canada's current economic, environmental and social policies are creating illnesses faster than our health care system can treat them. The Green Party sees the big picture - Canadians want better health, not just more health care.

What could be more logical than that?

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Here are some amazing waterfalls near Palenque, Mexico from the journal of Danika, a friend I made in BC last summer. She's living in Valles, Mexico, where she's teaching English to little bra--er, little children.



Valles is the second-hottest city in the world. On Saturday, it reportedly reached 50 degrees celsius there.

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What a day. This morning Elyse, her friend Sara and I took a taxi to Mississauga to meet Mee Ming for dim sum. (Some silly rascal drove off with the car Elyse was planning to drive, so we had no choice.) 'Twas a lot of fun. It had actually been Meta's idea, but unfortunately she was too sick to come. But what a filling brunch. Very delicious. Mee Ming very kindly drove us home.

And so I got back home and went on a walk. After delivering stollen to Mee Ming's family and to Elyse at her new job, I walked to downtown Oakville. What a gorgeous day. A bit cool, but sunny as heaven. I passed the quaint house on Lakeshore that has the big blossom tree and took pictures of the little yard:



I continued towards downtown Oakville because I had to buy some red wine for Meta (she doesn't have any valid photo ID at present). The streets were filled with people. Mostly middle-aged couples with very young children. Very alike in many ways. I sometimes wonder how they are all able to distinguish one another. But then I wonder the same about the houses in Glen Abbey, and the residents seem to manage all right. Hrm. Curious folk. :)

On my way back home, I dropped by Recordings again (Elyse's work) to see if they had any interesting CDs. It turns out they did. I really liked the music that was playing as I was browsing: a band called Built to Spill. So I got one of their CDs. Some quality of the vocals reminds me of the vocals of Metric. I'm not sure what it is yet. Anyway, I like the band.

Later in the evening Meta and I walked to the Green Bean and had some delicious coffees. It was a lovely evening. There were children playing in the town square, and one small boy was particularly cute. He seemed to like birds very much. The sun shone low and golden for quite a while.

Now I'm back home and I distinctively feel a cold or something coming on! Elyse was sneezing a lot today; she thinks she caught it from Meta. She may be right. In any case, I immediately had some echinacea and a raw garlic sandwich. Now, I know I've mentioned this before, but garlic sandwiches are really something else. To ingest one inflicts the most pain on your mouth you are likely to experience there for years - assuming you use good garlic. But the pain lasts only an agonizing 15 seconds or so (for each bite, of course), and it seems the tongue becomes more numb to it with every bite.

In my experience, the combination of raw garlic sandwichs and echnicea has been extremely effective at preventing the development of colds and flus. For me, the short bursts of pain incurred by the garlic are well worth its benefits. In fact, I actually enjoy the pain. It's quite exhilirating.

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Last night Elyse and I made clotted cream shortbread and two enormous marzipan stollen. Deliziös!! We think the shortbread needed more clotted cream to make it like that moist and ridiculously good scottish shortbread that Mee Ming brought home from Scotland. Might try again today.

I also made some garlic soup yesterday. Garlic, onion, potato, and squash. Also quite deliziös.

It's so beautiful outside. I need to get out of here. I should ride my bike. Up north, to the undeveloped lands. It would be cool to find a healthy plot that's been rezoned for development and rescue some native plants from it. I'll line my knapsack with a big plastic bag and bring my trusty trowel.

My basil and pea plants are sprouting nicely indoors, even with such limited sunlight. The parsley is just barely starting to sprout now. It really took them forever to start. I think it helped to refrigerate them overnight, stratifying them. Some seeds won't sprout until they've undergone a cold period, though the seed packages don't mention that.

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Some of my father's photos. All are copyleft Ricardo Hombré.


Blue moon in BC last September.


That Oakville house just south of Lakeshore Rd. that's always jam-packed with crocuses in the spring. I never realized it was so lush and beautiful like this in late summer! Mee Ming, this is what I'm talking about. :)


Meta fretting about at Gina's Mexican Cafe in Nanaimo last year.


Meta and me at Gina's. Wow, I forgot what I looked like with long hair. I think it's time again to do that. :)

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lightrod


beyond a shadow of a doubt


early springthings


Oakville's sharky treasure


stairway to heaven

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Okay. Elyse's Pilgrim film for real now. I actually tested it on a fresh installation of Windows XP SP2, running Windows Media Player 9 for the first time. The player actually led to me to the page to download the DivX codec automatically. I installed DivX from there, and the video played flawlessly in Windows Media Player.

Here is the fixed DivX video of Elyse's Pilgrim montage.

As always, please comment if you still have problems.

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Okay, I realize that the videos of Elyse's film don't play for pretty much anyone who's tried, even using the DivX Player, so I'm going to re-encode them ASAP. Please be patient. :)

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