Best Friends Network

JP and SG at Bark in the Park (Photo credit: Jennifer Hayes) You may or may not recall (depending on how steel trappish your mind is) my gig last month in San Marcos to benefit the San Marcos Animal Shelter. It was "Bark in the Park", there were belly dancers, folk music, and fire breathers. Ok, no fire breathers, but I think there might have been spicy ketchup on the condiment table. And there were dogs everywhere, and it was a grand time. Jennifer Hayes from the Best Friends Network came to do an article about the event, and you can read it on their website (and check out a sweet photo of Susan G. and her dogs/touring companions). Thanks, Jennifer! Best Friends Animal Society runs a sanctuary in Utah that, according to their website, "is home, on any given day, to about 1,500 dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, birds and other animals." Wow. I mean, I let in the occasional stray cricket, but that is hardcore. The neatest thing is that they are a national advocacy group as well...so on top of the fabulous sanctuary, they do awareness events and programs across the country. I know that when I am settled (perhaps in my tiny house) I will be one of those people who collects those homeless souls that happen to wander by. Cats, especially...they can spot a sucker a mile away and it's usually me (or my parents...I inherited the quality from them). In fact I should probably be more wary of typing this...I hear internet use among felines is rising exponentially. Hm. (lolcats. fyi.)

Friday Feature: Tiny House

I first became enamored with tiny houses after reading this San Francisco Gate article. It seems that this is a trend that might be growing a bit, and actually encompasses a lot of issues confronting us socially and politically. Oddly, the trend might be boosted from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the popularity of (probably ill-named) Katrina Cottages, as blogged about over on Consumerist. Sometimes necessity in crisis brings about a shift in thinking. First thought upon seeing the photos of these tiny habitats was..."Yeah I could never do that." Then I got to thinking...I lived through 4.5 years of college in various dorm rooms of differing sizes. My sophomore year, I lived in the smallest room in a collective apartment...the room which my roommates affectionately termed "The Closet." (And here I always wondered why people were trying to hang their coats on my stuff.) I am currently living in a studio apartment, which is more than enough room for me and my collection of things. In fact I've recently taken to mentally paring down my belongings even more. While I do keep quite a bit of memorabilia like photos and mementos of cool things I've done, I absolutely abhor knickknacks and touristy crap that people buy just to prove they've stood on a beach in Hawaii. (Or maybe they didn't, and they just bought it at a thrift store because someone ELSE stood on a beach in Hawaii, bought the thing, flew it back home, and decided that instead of being a marker of ultimate culture and coolness, it was dust magnet. But I digress and maybe I am a curmudgeon). I do realize that choosing a lifestyle such as that of a touring artist means...I will be living in a cramped space for a while. I have also decided that there is really no need to acquire a lot of stuff, like perhaps an armoire or an entertainment center, if I will be spending more time in a vehicle than in a house for a few years. Maybe deep down I hope I'll just adapt to the Life of Less and be able to graduate to a more permanent Tiny House. How cool would that be? They're aesthetically gorgeous, they're cheap ($5 a month for utilities? No way. Yes way. Dude.), and they're still mobile. You basically park your house. If you feel like living in Montana one summer and Santa Fe in the winter, you just pack your house. Brilliant. Who knows where I will be living in 9 months and 9 months after that (maybe on your couch...yes, YOU)...but it's always nice to have several plans in place, eh? In the meantime...check out how Dee does it in this cool little vid: Technorati Tags: tinyhouse, sustainability, consumerist, katrina, living, noimpact, songwriter Powered by ScribeFire.

Impact of a No Impact Life

Colin Beaven is No Impact Man...he's trying out a year of living in New York City without making any negative impact on the environment. That means, according to his site, "no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…" Yeah, I know. It's impressive. He's not going cold turkey on consumption, but he's been whittling away at things one at a time. His apartment no longer has electricity. He stomps his laundry in the bathtub. He has a box of worms that compost things. Colin's got a wife, a 2 year old daughter, and a dog. They're all no impacting, too. While I am definitely looking to simplify my life, get rid of possessions I don't need and not acquire new ones...and while I think being vegan is a really good way of being healthy, respecting the planet, and decreasing your footprint left on the planet (which I am still trying to be hardcore about but I'm not lately and I just need to DO IT already because I've already been basically a vegetarian since the 90 Day experiment except for when I'm weak but we're GETTING THERE OK?, haha)...I could not do what Colin is doing. Well, I guess I could, but I'm not going to. However, Colin posted something that rang true to J and I. We are trying to build a company that covers a multitude of goals: - work for ourselves - create art and put it out into the world - further the careers of other artists we believe in - travel and see the world -- and enjoy and appreciate everything in it - be happy to wake up every day Plus others, but I need to save some for other blogging material, haha. So anyway, sometimes I feel like we sound pretty pie-in-the-sky-optimistically-naive to people. Music and business and happiness and positive impact...well la de dah, right? Guess what, folks? Someone's gotta do it. J and I will. And we'll miss out on some things for it. Like someone paying our benefits for us, and sleep, and going home at 5 PM every night and not working weekends...but we're cool with that because we love this. And we're glad that by reading this blog post, you're along for the ride. Grab a bag of pretzels and settle in. What measures happiness? Colin posted this in his blog not long ago and it rang true to us...so don't worry about our pies and our skies, because I think we'll be just fine. :) "As for the personal or individual level, members of the new branch of the psychological profession who call themselves "positive psychologists" say that we are on a "hedonic treadmill." We earn more to spend more and then have to earn more to spend more and then…We get a quick burst of pleasure from our purchases but no long term increase in happiness. Meanwhile, many are stressed by working all the hours to do jobs they don't believe in with people they don't care for. Increases in the baselines of our happiness, it turns out, don't come from money once you've achieved an income equivalent of something like $40,000. What the positive psychologists say happiness does come from, on the other hand, is strong interpersonal relationships, doing what you are naturally good at, living a life that is in accord with your values, and achieving meaning by connecting to something larger than yourself." - No Impact Man

Tools of the Trade: no more guitars?

I managed this shot with hours of set up. Actually, it was an accident, but we like it. The New York Times just published an article about guitar makers and how it is increasingly difficult for them to find wood to make the instruments so many of us rely on to make our way in the world. (Link: Saving Trees Is Music To Guitar Makers' Ears) Both C.F. Martin and Bob Taylor are interviewed...and since I play a Martin and a Taylor (one day I'll post about how certain enthusiasts would have me beaten for doing so), I am of course proud that these two luthiers are congnizant of the issue and making moves to improve the situation before we're all plunking around on wash tubs with broom handles (not that there's anything wrong with that). Even more interestingly, they've been talking to Greenpeace to try and raise awareness and find solutions. Totally better than just hoarding Brazilian rosewood in the basement until the nuclear winter is over, much like I am doing with Red Velvet Bingles. (Don't come knocking on my door when there's a Bingles shortage and you can't even get them at the Sack 'n Pack!) Here's a podcast my business partner J was part of during his time on a Greenpeace mission in Europe...they did all kinds of cool stuff, including see U2 in Amsterdam. J would tell you he did all kinds of ACTUAL useful, environment-saving stuff, which is great...but he saw frickin' U2 in AMSTERDAM. That is kick butt. Podcast Part One Podcast Part Two