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People are still on here?

inspeyere — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 23:03:50 GMT

Hi guys! Whats new?

Where the Worms Poop Stars

inspeyere — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:15:40 GMT

The other evening Bianca and I were strolling through the vegetable garden at the Growcology Center when we noticed something odd: Our footsteps were glowing. We'd been joking earlier in the week that we don't get the http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html post-Avatar depression because http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3471/3816917216_f99c4d2dd6_o.jpg our garden is as beautiful as http://moviecarpet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/avatar_movie_promo_screenshot.jpg Pandora, but we weren't expecting to get the same http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-2007/2007-Volvo-S80-T6-HPC-by-Heico-Sportiv-for-SEMA-Ground-Effects-1024x768.jpg ground effects. So Bianca and I investigated a bit. We dug around, noticing that much of the time, the ground we disturbed would glow a faint bluish green. I was convinced I'd isolated a single rock that was the source, and maybe the rest was just dust from the same stone, but Bianca kept telling me it was glowing worm poop, or worm love juice. I'd heard of bioluminescence, but never on land. It was always little http://blog.lib.umn.edu/klabu006/architecture/images/Red_tide_bioluminescence_at_midnight.jpg algae in the ocean, or http://scribalterror.blogs.com/scribal_terror/images/2008/03/05/glowworms.jpg glowworms in Borneo. Or that cool http://www.solarnavigator.net/films_movies_actors/cartoons/cartoon_images/finding_nemo_dory_marlin_angler_fish.jpg angler fish. But not something that we could find in our garden... What if the rock was https://reich-chemistry.wikispaces.com/file/view/Radium_Art_1.jpg/31446373/Radium_Art_1.jpg radium? I took it inside, to a dark room, and was convinced it was still glowing. Case closed. Then I posted it, and heard all kinds of interesting theories from friends, from http://apheloria.org/Research/Bioluminescence.html mating millipedes to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboluminescence triboluminescence to escaped, http://www.jstor.org/pss/4010578 mutant bacteria. I was perplexed, so last night I reinvestigated. The glowing rock? Not glowing. The dirt in the garden? Still glowing. I shifted the soil around, and it was spreading again! It was like someone had http://bodypainting.dsetia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/IMG_9838_ds_800.jpg broken open a glowstick! When I squatted down, my phone turned off. Thats weird, it has a keyguard, it shouldn't do that. I brought it out, hoping radioactive dust hadn't just melted my phone. It turned on fine, so I used the light from its screen to see where the biggest clump of glowy stuff was. A SQUISHED EARTHWORM! D'oh! I murdered a magical glowing earthworm. And the biggest glowing part was his butt (or face). I wish I could have apologized to him, I had no idea there was a worm on the surface when I was stomping around. So I looked it up and there's a http://bmbiris.bmb.uga.edu/wampler/biolum/worm/sld001.htm global phenomenon of glowing worms. Case closed! I need to add a peg onto that map for Riverside. Where the worms crap starlight.

Consciousness

inspeyere — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:55:56 GMT

Lately I've participated in alot of conversations about awareness and the limits of human perception. For years now I've been fascinated by the fact that we only process and are conscious of a small fraction of the amount of information in 'the world' around us. Certain things like the visible light spectrum and audible frequency range are at least partially constrained by our sensory organs (and their deficiencies, if one needs glasses or a hearing aid). However, our focus seems to be far more influential in our perception of reality than the physical boundaries that our bodies present. Whether we focus on the feeling of fabric on our skin, the taste of food on our tongue, the pheromones of people, plants, or animals, the sound of mundane and ordinary things around us, or the details that only close visual inspection reveals, we're constantly filtering our existence by our 'attention'. That we live in a particularly visual society is not news to anyone, and our hearing seems to be mostly spent on language and music. Exploring the depths and heights of ALL of our senses seems to me to be a terrific use of one's time, so lately I've been trying to do as Scott Pittman taught me in his Introduction to Permaculture class, and just be quiet and observe. Try it some time. Feel the objects around your room. Smell the plants outside your window. Listen to the sounds of your garden, of your neighborhood. Try to actually TASTE the things you're tossing in your mouth. See if you can notice the little details you may normally be missing...

Getting the Hang of Sheet Mulching

inspeyere — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:39:04 GMT

Woke up this morning with an urge to get my hands dirty. I've been working a half dozen compost piles for a couple months now, and a few of them are ready. Every morning for the past week I've been sifting off a wheelbarrow full of compost for my mom and Bianca to spread in the garden or start some new seedlings. I've also been experimenting with different mulching strategies, from chopping and dropping to lasagna mulching. Lasagna (aka sheet) mulching is where you put down layers of organic material to build up the soil. We started 3 spiral gardens in our welcome area with that method, and had good results with our squash, melons, okra, and eggplants. Last Monday a friend of ours that is a landscape designer came by and we uprooted two of the spirals and did our best to chop the plants up with our shovels. We also covered them with goat poop, wood shavings, and some fresh grass and leaves. I can't say I'm too pleased with the results. Alot of the thicker stems haven't really decomposed at all, and are sticking up out of the earth. I think we need to either chop them up more with shears, or send them through the chipper. We also need to water the whole operation pretty thoroughly or it dries out. This morning there wasn't much time to do more than make a batch of compost and spread some more fresh clippings in another sheet mulch bed in our traditional veggie garden. Today was my first opportunity to help teach a class as a Master Composter. It went great! We had over a dozen attendees, and alot of great questions. The material was fun to present, I enjoy discussing best practices and things people have tried. There's really no right way to do it, as long as you're learning, but there are definitely things you can do to get compost faster. As for my garden, I'm gonna have to chop our plants up alot more before we try to mulch them. Bianca and I did a bunch of work in the propagation house today, sterilizing pots and starting veggie seedlings. Its finally cooled down enough for lettuce and other cold weather crops, hopefully there's enough sunlight for them to come up...

Learn to grow beautiful, low maintenance, low water plants!

inspeyere — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:05:29 GMT

Fundamentals of a Waterwise, Mediterranean Landscape with Nan from Nanscapes Date & Time: Saturday, October 3, 2009 more on this date 9:00 AM to 12 PM (plenty of time to still go to Decom) Location: Growcology Learning Garden 3569 Crowell Ave. Riverside, CA 92504 More Info: 562-587-4013 www.growcology.com This class will highlight the essentials of creating a beautiful garden including soil preparation, climate considerations and plant options. Lessons will be offered via a slide presentation as well as a garden/training tour on the beautifully landscaped site. Refreshments will be offered during a break mid-class. Ticket Purchase is $35. Tickets are available at www.growcology.com. There is a maximum capacity so please purchase your tickets soon.

Timidity and Politeness

inspeyere — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:05:58 GMT

Never let a scared person accuse you of being too idealistic or "irresponsible", as if politely burying the planet in garbage isn't.

Workin' in the Garden

inspeyere — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:58:28 GMT

Last night I made a fig and rhubarb compote, almost a mock strawberry flavor. Quite delicious, wouldn't take too much of a stretch to say its sacred. Today we found some volunteer sunberries growing amidst our lamb's quarter forest, the black nightshade fruits are a favorite of the birds around here. As lamb's quarters are dynamic accumulators we'll be mulching on site, our soil will be rich for the living medicine wheel and amaranth border. We also took down the overgrowth on a tangled pepper to make way for a few avocados and the greywater pond.

Check out THIS squash

inspeyere — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:53:43 GMT

And thats not even fully mature yet... Its supposed to be 5 lbs heavier and almost red! It was still delicious though, great pumpkiny soup. The rest of the photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/inspeyere/sets/72157612959276096/

FINALLY!

inspeyere — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 01:51:44 GMT

We're moved in! We just took our last load of stuff to the farm, and are now officially agrarian. We've got a beautiful view of our barn, the solar array, the spiral gardens, and the raised vegetable beds from our living room couch, and a huge weed patch in the backyard that is going to be converted to a greywater demonstration and xeriscape/medicine/herb garden. My joints are sore, I've been moving all my possessions until the early morning the past few nights, but its been worth it, we're here! Who wants to come pick some food?!

Article on Growcology in the Local Paper!

inspeyere — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:18:20 GMT

Check out this spotlight on our new non-profit: http://bit.ly/WY6aA Woohoo! We've also got a new website at www.growcology.com Yay!

Do it Anyway

inspeyere — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:09:27 GMT

The most beautiful woman I know had me look this quote from Mother Teresa, and I liked it so much I'm sharing it with tribe: People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

RIP Mary Bottenberg

inspeyere — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:00:17 GMT

My Granny passed away last week. Today 81 of her family members poured into church behind her husband Bill Bottenberg to celebrate her life. She was one of the biggest influences in my life, and if the following story is a bit long, forgive me because her impact was bigger than I'll ever be able to say... If you'd like to know about one of the greatest matriarchs of our time, here is the eulogy her oldest son Bill shared with us at her funeral: Mary Millard Butler was born June 21, 1921 to Col. And Mrs. Millard Angle Butler in Norfolk, Va. She had a happy youth with three wonderful sisters, the twins Bernice and Beatrice and Helen. She visited Persia in 1927 with her mother when her father was working to build the Anglo-Iranian Railway. From that time she and all of her family developed a passion for Persian rugs. An important series of events occurred when she became the beloved Aunt of two nieces and two nephews, the dear children of her sister Helen. I think she was so taken with these wonderful children that she resolved to have many of her own. She met William R. Bottenberg, United States Navy, in 1941 through the good graces of a friend and soon was engaged. They married one week after her 21st birthday on June 27, 1942. From that time on, they united to make a growing, happy family. They lived in Patuxent, Maryland; Annapolis, Maryland; Altadena, California; Tyson’s Corner, Virginia; Pine Beach, New Jersey; Lakehurst, New Jersey; and Vienna, Virginia. At last in 1961 they settled in what is now for sure our home town, Redlands, California. Over the period of 23 years the family had grown to 11 children. Ever since, Mary and Bill have made their home at 702 Center Street, the Center of Our Universe. Mary served as a Gray Lady, member of Redlands Assistance League, Redlands Rock Club, Calif. Women for Agriculture and at Sacred Heart Church and School. Her eyes were a bright blue – of a brilliance and purity rarely seen. They twinkled with amusement and wit, looked with soft delight at cute, little babies, fondly at her husband and with piercing intensity while she listened to a child’s unlikely story. There was the occasional baleful glare when a miscreant overstepped the line. They were almost always filled with intelligence, kindness and compassion. Her passions were books, art, puzzles, conversation, cooking, bridge and raising children. She never met a book that she didn’t like – the author – that might well be a different matter. Her bookshelves are strewn with opinions and viewpoints of every sort. Her collection of cookbooks was mammoth. She encouraged reading by everyone she met and made sure that there was something for everyone to read. As an artist she could capture the sublime in a few short strokes. I would say that she was an inspiration to all of the artists that have sprang up since around her – my Dad, Molly, Lucy, the photographical Greers… She took lessons with Dad and encouraged him to paint. Many of her paintings now are sprinkled throughout the family. Conversation was always her forte. She wanted to know what one thought, without first imposing her own viewpoint; well, at least she tried hard not to impose unless she thought it was for the good of one’s immortal soul. She was a wonderful listener; she had the magical ability of being able to talk with anyone. But she also loved clever repartee and jousting back and forth. She loved a clever pun, even bad ones for that matter. Puzzles were always dear to her, not only the Times Crossword, but also the puzzles from books that found their way to after dinner table games. She delighted in the laughter and fun of family and friends playing every sort of game and puzzle. She was a formidable bridge player and was a member of a number of bridge circles everywhere she lived. One of the most amazing accomplishments was her ability to conjure up the tastiest of meals from the simplest of ingredients to feed the masses at the dinner table. Many of us children and spouses have picked up from her a passion for cooking. Certainly she fostered this by liberal distribution of the Joy of Cooking to new brides and grooms as they pushed off to make new family groups. One of the greatest pleasures in the last few years has been my privilege to come back and make a few Sunday dinners for Mom and Dad based on my renditions of her recipes. Believe it or not, I now crave Brussels sprouts, candied yams and black eyed peas. (By the way – these go very well with the liberal addition of jalapeño peppers and little bits of ham) Entertainment of friends was always a passion – dinner parties, soirees, brunches – these were always opportunities to cook and have conversation. Of course, there was the passion for garnets and other lesser minerals. ‘Snapping garnets’, rock-hounding, and adventuring though America on the hunt for gems all were activities shared with her husband Bill. As to raising children, my mother and father were successful on quantity and quality, for sure. In my own view however, the proof is not in actually raising children – almost anybody can do that. I think you have to look at the grandchildren and the greats – there you will find the proof of the pudding. And there I think we will all agree that Granny and Grand Dad really shine. As I look out here today, I see a pretty amazing collection of spouses, grandchildren, grandchildren spouses and great grandchildren. A lot of this is due to the loving and caring approach that our parents took to this difficult and demanding task. My mother at root was a wonderful joining of intellectual strength with compassion for the human condition. I will talk a little about this at the end. She had a knack for finding presents. I remember most two presents she gave me: a piano and an Encyclopedia Britannica 1914 edition. The one was a beat up old Vose piano that I fell in love with and hauled around a quite bit, now it’s moved on to my sister. The other was a treasure of erudite trivia, the sort of thing that she also especially loved. I asked those closest to my mother, her nieces and nephews and her children, to come up with a word or phrase that captured the essence or feeling that best expressed the spirit of Mary Bottenberg to them. To me these short capping phrases were very illuminating. I would like to share them with you, since they, like sparks off a piece of flint, can light the fires of remembrance of this dear person. The first is the sense of quest or adventure that Granny had. She was always ready to follow an unknown road, ready to find out what was behind the mountain, even if she might get lost for a while. Parks, monuments, abandoned garnet mines… That spirit of adventure can be found in every child and grandchild. She showed us the beauty of Southern politeness. She epitomized the balance of form and substance in personal relations: we were taught: “yes, sir, no ma’am”, respect for authority and respect for polite interaction. We all learned at her knee the value of good manners. At the same time she taught us to treat every conversation as a golden opportunity to know the person that you were speaking with, to treat every interaction as an opportunity to learn about the other person. The obligation to be a good dinner partner almost always yielded a new friend. That, and knowing how to use your knife and fork. She was a loving mother. She was particularly tender in her love for babies. She loved to hold them close, cooing, and talking to them. She was all about the babies. The other side of the coin is that once they got going she made sure that they knew what was what, and that being too cute for their own good was not an option that played well in Peoria. She had an uncanny ability to talk over the widest range of important issues with of all of her progeny in ways that appealed to them and got results. Just about everyone here has had the Granny moment. For all the tenderness she had, we appreciated the fiery nature that was kindled over an issue she cared about. She was quick to defend, quick to assert a position, but always fair in evaluation and thoughtfulness. Mother was a rebel. She could not bear injustice. She always questioned authority. I am not quite sure how that worked out with the Southern politeness theme, but it seemed to. I always ascribed it to a Jeffersonian insight that we are endowed with the faculty to think and if we understand something to be wrong we should act on it. Mary Bottenberg was a very generous person and taught us through her charitable works and volunteering that one must have compassion for those around us who are not so fortunate. One brother said to me, “black and white”, and I instantly understood. Mary Bottenberg had a profound moral foundation for right and wrong. She always made clear statements that didn’t yield to moral confusion. “If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you? Of course not.” One of the treasures about her was that she was able to keep decisions about moral issues distinct from matters of taste or opinion. She certainly had many opinions about taste, politics, literature, detective novels, etc. but these were separate from moral issues. To me, in summing up what I learned from my mother, there are two things that stand out in the moral sphere, and consequently are the most important to me. The first is the fact that we were raised in a difficult world to have little or no prejudice, with great respect for all people in all conditions. I think this may have been hard for her – but I certainly honor and respect how she raised us. Her example in how she treated everyone was amazing; she was gracious and kind to everyone. The second is that my mother had a wonderful understanding of human frailty, the tendency to err and sin, and she practiced compassion based on teaching us to resist the tendency to err, to resist the tendency to sin. She was humble by expressing her own frailty, and what impressed me was her desire to be a better person through prayer and action. She believed in the power of prayer to change the human condition. She was a lady of great honor and compassion, who has touched all of our lives. She has left a legacy of generations, relatives and friends and has shown us how to honor and respect life as we honor and love God above. William R. Bottenberg, Jr

2 Bedroom House available for Gardener

inspeyere — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:26:54 GMT

My girlfriend and I are in the process of converting my parents' property in Riverside, CA to a sustainable demonstration garden and workshop space. We already have our own spot, but a 2 bedroom house on the property just opened up that we'd love to fill with someone passionate about gardening. The rent is $1100/month, although long term there is a ton of potential for whoever moves here to make at least that much from the property. Right now there is a half acre of vegetables that we need help watering and harvesting, as well as 2 acres of fruit trees. We'll be building a greenhouse and community garden on site, so if you have experience in this area or just want to get some hands on experience, this is a perfect opportunity. Think of it this way: an internship with a permaculture institute would cost at least a thousand bucks a month, and here you'll get a 2 bedroom house, WAY more hands on experience, and get in on the ground floor of an effort that will have far reaching impact throughout the world. You'll have enough space to plant whatever you want (we'll probably buy it for you, and pay for the water), 2 master gardeners on hand to help you grow and cultivate, and a workshop with tools and everything.

Gardening Tips

inspeyere — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:33:56 GMT

Want to start a garden, but don't really know anything about it? I just wrote a journal at http://growcology.blogspot.com/ with a whole ton of linked resources to Master Gardeners, Freedom Gardeners, Helpful Gardeners, Integrated Pest Management, and more! Check it out!

Growcology

inspeyere — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 07:15:20 GMT

The past few months have been a flurry of activity. Aside from consulting with my former employer and sponsor to do relief work in Asia and the Gulf Coast to help his food distribution company become more sustainable, I've been volunteering with Bianca, Spencer, and Sarah to start a non-profit. We're calling it Growcology, combining our passion for growing with our concern for this planets ecology. I just threw up a few posts at growcology.blogspot.com . I hope you enjoy them, they're the first of many.

Rethinking my Dreams

inspeyere — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:21:04 GMT

Years ago when I was a Business student at USC, I had a dream. I wanted to find a place on an island, or a remote beach, where man had yet to despoil nature. My friends and I vowed to have the first one to make a million dollars buy the spot, then the rest of us would go out and begin to fix it up. Cut into a cliff face over the ocean, it would have a waterfall in the middle of the house, cascading down and irrigating fruit trees and vegetables. We'd grow more food on top of the cliffs, and cut into terraces, and we'd fish for our protein. Looking back, I can see why my mind wandered toward the tropics. I was living in a decrepit old apartment building, covered with almost a hundred years of stucco from students spackling the holes in the wall. I'd stare at my moving picture, an island scene with palm trees and a perfect beach, and imagine living in a place like that. The romance of finding a natural oasis and putting my mark on it was an extension of the manifest destiny that I'd idealized since my youth. Now, I have decided that I want almost exactly the opposite. I've lived in a remote island, I've seen the impact of human settlements on some of the earths most magnificent natural settings. Three times, I've helped people who lived in their own ideas of a coastal paradise tear down what was left of their dreams. The rubble of the boardwalk in Pisco, Peru, had once been a communal gathering place, but after the earthquake was overrun by crackheads and muggers. The bucolic splendor of Koh Phi Phi in Thailand had already been destroyed before the tsunami by rampant tourism, only to be wiped clean by eight separate 30 foot waves. The endless rows of old Southern mansions in Mississippi were blown clean off their stilts by 180 mph winds, leaving only eerily calm oak groves and driftwood. Why would I want to relearn the lessons mother nature taught these people? Each one was an artificial beach. Man-made. The wetlands that had protected those coasts and nurtured their wildlife were removed to fulfill people's fantasies of 'getting away'. But I don't fault the people for their dreams. I shared them for most of my life, and would probably still be seeking my island if I hadn't been exposed to their losses over the past three years. Recently some friends of mine were searching for land to form a sustainable community. We thought we wanted some thing away from civilization where we could grow our own food. The more I thought about it, the less I agreed with their aims. I'm not trying to escape anything anymore. I love cities, I love people around people. My goal isn't to keep pushing the wilderness back further, encroaching on natural habitats and pushing more species to the brink of extinction. Why? There are so many places that have already been developed and abandoned. Every week there are new articles about farmland thats been degraded by destructive chemical industrial farming. Every day more houses are foreclosed upon. We need to reclaim and rejuvenate the places that mankind has already laid claim to and damaged... The current situation is largely the result of the frontier spirit, the homestead act, and the belief that if you could cut out your own little plot you could have it. I'm not going to debate the morality of it, the system played on certain noble and certain greedy aspects of human nature. The natives certainly didn't benefit from it, but it led to where we're at now so there's no use crying over spilled milk. I just think its time for a new homestead act. We need to reclaim the land that we've given up on, from our backyards and lawns and patios and balconies (all of which have the capacity to feed and sustain us) to the farmland that the huge agribusinesses have mined all the topsoil and nutrients from. There are ways to regenerate the soil, to inject life back into it, to live more in harmony with our environment. This seems such a crucial step to take, that I'm not delaying any longer. I'm leaving Southern California this month to go up North, where I'm helping the huge food companies do a better accounting of their energy use and carbon footprint. Eventually, we'll be looking closely at their use of land and water as well. At the same time, I'm going to be looking for land and trying out different food production systems. From tabletop and vertical gardens that can be used in an urban setting, to kitchen composters, biodynamic soil remediation, aquaponics, and vermiculture, I'm going to do it. And I'm going to need help. The place we're building will be dedicated to learning and sharing. Each time we build something, we're going to invite people from the community to help us and learn the process with us. Think Barn Raising for the 21st century. We'll be documenting the whole process, making little Documinis that will show you the ins and outs of a more sustainable lifestyle, and eventually we'll do workshops and retreats. Its time to grow. We're going to grow food. We're going to grow knowledge. We're going to grow community. Will you grow with us?

Open letter to Obama on the Environment and the Economy

inspeyere — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:56:49 GMT

I've been checking out Change.gov since Barack Obama was elected. I sent in an application for a government job, though I don't know if I'd fit in the federal government well. I saw a link on the website today to a video where his staffer read messages about the environment, so I sent them this: Dear President Elect Obama- I passionately believe that you should encourage new business development in environmental solutions. America still has one of the most highly skilled work forces on Earth, and we are also adaptable and mobile. Instead of anchoring ourselves to anachronisms like the 20th century auto industry, we should be focused on the future of American mobility in plug-in hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles. Instead of passing the same topsoil killing pesticide and groundwater polluting chemical fertilizer incentives in the farm bill each year, we should be focusing on closed loop, sustainable agriculture close to or inside population centers. Instead of merely preserving and conserving land, we need to start regenerating degraded ecosystems. Instead of mining our resources and water, we must hold producers accountable for the full life cycle of their products. All of these solutions rely less on infusions of increasingly expensive water and energy resources, and more on citizen's hard work and labor. This is a good thing, as it will create jobs for the hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans looking for direction in tough economic times. It will create the 21st century infrastructure that will allow America to be competitive on the international stage, where we're already losing ground to Germany, Australia, Japan, India, the UK, the Middle East, and China. We can't afford to continue incremental reduction of the destruction our oligopolistic economic model offers. Instead, we need to encourage entrepreneurship and long term solutions to the critical issues our nation faces.

Reality

inspeyere — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:29:30 GMT

The cool breeze wafted through the towering agave flowers, backlit from the bay down below. I noticed that there were no streetlights on the road I'd just parked on, and I was in as close to complete darkness as you can get in Orange County. I'd just finished an evening of television watching and video-game playing at my best friends' place. They've got a new split screen function so that my buddy Jack can blow up oil rigs in Venezuela playing Mercenaries while Chaz was able to indulge in Warren Sapp "Dancing with the Stars". For a few moments I missed watching television. My lifestyle hasn't afforded me many opportunities to catch up on pop culture the past few years. In many ways I've been living in a proverbial cave. I looked down to the cliffs below. Waves crashed and seals barked. A couple giggled as they leaned against a railing over the sea. They blocked the path to the non-proverbial, literal caves below. I decided to just practice on the grassy overlook park. Two rattan staves whirled around me. I experimented with different rhythms and poly-rhythms, alternating the staves arcing upward, downward, same time, split time, cradled against my body and held at arms length. I practiced kicks and turns, twirling like a dervish as I held both sticks off-center as though they were 6 foot long swords. I parried and thrusted, jabbing and slashing and rolling around. Crap, I got my work pants dirty. I took off my shirt and switched to a single staff. The beautifully adorned ceremonial rattan that my girlfriend Bianca labored over for 9 hours while I pounded cement stakes on the playa plopped into the spongy, wet grass. My life story is engraved on its yard and a half, condors, eagles, pumas and serpents; tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, key medicine, plant medicine, and the flower of life. Its one of the most beautiful, well thought-out gifts I've ever received. I plan on outfitting it with a couple reinforced holes where I'll be attaching different elements, from light to fire, sponges to flutes, bubbles to prisms to sand-bags and bells. Some nights I amuse myself with a grand plan of fashioning dozens of these tools from various rare woods, gifting them to the best performers on earth and hoping that each discovers their own elements, their own styles of moving. For now, this plan lies in my (distant?) future. I grasp the Chinese combat rattan my friend Sha-he bought for me. No markings, no veneer, nothing except the rubbed off memory of the skull and crossbones that was burnt into each end before it was shipped from China. This staff is for breaking bones. Crushing ribs, tearing skin. It flexes as far as I can bend it, and bounces 15 feet in the air if I angle it perpendicular to the ground. Much of the enamel of the staff was destroyed in the 7 months it lay in the sun while I explored South America. It languished while I played with twisted vines, metal fence posts, beefy eucalyptuses, precision fire tools and improvised rags on a pole. I was able to restore it somewhat after my lengthy journey. Now it spins like it never has before. I toss it into the air, hardly able to see it on a moonless night. I roll it from one hand across my back to the other, around my neck, feeling it out, noticing the imperfections in the staff. I could soak it and bend it straight, but I learn more from it when its crooked. I balance it on my right wrist, then toss it to the back of my left one. The shadows obscure its mid point, and I lose my sense of center. One end flies around and grazes my cheek. Woah, that could have broken my nose. I close both eyes, and begin to practice my contact tosses 'blindfolded'. I try to speed the rotation up as much as possible, and soon am striking the stick 2 or 3 times a second. A bird flies out of a bush. Startled, I leave my state of concentration and almost bonk myself on the head again. I decide enough time has passed, stretch out briefly, and salute the park. Grateful for another learning opportunity, mind full of new possibilities. I don't have to practice in the dark on a cliff over the ocean. I could be doing it in a back alleyway, or a garden, or on top of a mountain, or on the beach, or in an empty street, or a church parking lot, or an ancient castle, or my parents' house, or above a hot-tub full of friends. Or I could just go to those places and not spin a stick. I'm trying to get better at that.

Crazy Times We Live In...

inspeyere — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:56:01 GMT

So I was getting some waffles yesterday and looked at the front page of the OC Register. The headlines read "Stock Market Stabilizing", "Fed keeps interest rate stable", and a whole bunch of very even keeled articles. No need for alarm, everything is ok in the world, the paper seemed to be saying... I turned to the second to last page, and saw something that blew me away. Oil prices fell 10% yesterday. A barrel is now under a hundred bucks. Thats huge! The most essential commodity on earth, at least for our current economic system, fell 10% in a day and a half. Thats bigger than the stock market fell in the great depression. The impact of that will be huge! Right under that there was an article on the Fed bailing out Lehman Brothers. Apparently they DID give them 85 Billion dollars. BILLION. They're also looking to borrow a few dozen billion from the treasury. All of that is huge news. This isn't some esoteric, conspiracy theory crap. These things impact everyday people. First Bank of America buys Merril Lynch and becomes bigger than the Federal Reserve, then the Federal Reserve buys the largest insurer on earth. This shit is koo-koo bananas! I don't want to seem like an alarmist, in fact, I feel pretty fantastic right now. I don't have a ton of assets, I'm not sitting on a pile of dollars I've saved up, and I never counted on social security or my 401k for my older years. But if I was relying on a CalPers retirement fund, or had been paying into a mortgage backed security for years, or had a life insurance policy, or had a large bank account in US dollars, I'd be shitting a brick right now. And to top it off, there are disasters all across the Carribean and Gulf Coast. Cuba and Galveston both had extensive wind and flood damage. Haiti, which was already the armpit of the whole region, got hit by 3 hurricanes in a month. Top it off with Russia and Iran acting all crazy, and you've got a pretty interesting global climate. What does it all mean? I dunno, but its pretty fascinating. I'm thinking I may get back into relief work, but my current job is pretty great...

New Fire Spinning Video!

inspeyere — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:46:33 GMT

Shoghi decides to heckle me while I spin some contact bo staff for Turo's birthday, and I indulge him with some improvised tap dancing. Spencer walks over from the Red Light District headquarters and joins in the hecklefest, even though he's a punkass buster. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVDTWdRj3IU

So who is going to step up and save Tribe.net?

inspeyere — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:25:35 GMT

Mark Pincus? Andrew L? Shatter? Google? Or are we all just gonna jump ship to myspace, facebook and twitter? Is tribe really in danger of falling and not getting up with the next server overload? If Darren really gone? Are there no sys-admins for the project? Are hackers attacking the servers? If so, someone needs to step up. This tool is too valuable to our community, too many people have invested their time and money into it for it to just collapse. For all the talk of manifestation and the principles and how magical and creative and productive our community (drink!) is, are we seriously gonna let a personality conflict, a hardware failure, or gross mis-management sink one of the most vital tools we have for coordinating and expressing ourselves? Or are we so full of it that we'll all just stand by watch while pointing fingers while the thing falls apart, jumping ship to a more censorial, big business social network? I don't want to get melodramatic, but it just seems pathetic that nobody can do anything about this. I hope Shatter has things together, from his blog people.tribe.net/the-shatt...fd26403b6d it sounds like things are stabilized but still precarious.... then again, his most recent post was just all of his non-tribe contact info and a *sigh*... I just wish we could get some actual confirmed information from Mark P or Andrew T. It was down so long I don't think this is just another 'playa rumor'...

Back from Burning Man

inspeyere — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:21:14 GMT

Check out my pictures, I'm going to wait until tribe is more stable to write my journal... http://www.flickr.com/photos/inspeyere/sets/72157607201419588/ Enjoy!

Wanna Fight? Tuesday from 6 to 8 PM at 7:30 and Dart

inspeyere — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:32:15 GMT

I'm teaching a class on martial arts and fire spinning this week, and hope to get a chance to kick your butt a little bit. Come over to the Black Rock Combat Club, where we'll do a little Capoeira break dancing, swing our elbows like Muay Thai, practice Kung Fu animals, and roll around a bit Jiu Jitsu style. I'll also be leading a stretch that is tailored for fire spinning, and will actually teach you new moves regardless of what tool you use. Come on out! For the rest of the week, I'm camped at 3:40 and A, Burners Without Borders, right on the edge of Entheon Village. BWB has a nice fire out front, hope to see you there. I'll also be at the Shiva Vista stage quite a bit, I helped the Controlled Burn kids from Reno put it together.

Playa Evening

inspeyere — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:35:27 GMT

Just spent the last hour talking with and heckling Larry Harvey. Apparently Black Rock Solar is right next to First Camp, I thought we were gonna be with Burners Without Borders... Fuck that, I moved my camp over to BWB. We're right next to Entheon and Jub Jub, got the ghetto almost a block away. I like the location. Went to the hot springs tonight. Traygo, trego, whatever its called, I smell like it now. A nice pungent sulfur to go with the dessicating playa thats already found its way into every crevice on my body. The hot springs were splendid, my boy Vaughn and I rolled out with some mohawk replicants and playa pixie fairy kitty fuckers, or whatever their names were. Its hard, all white people with mullets and tattoos look the same. I spent a good part of the night sketching my friends onto a paper cup with a sharpie. I'm getting quite good at it, I think next year I'll come to Burning Man as an artist. Maybe BRAF can sponsor me to do a public display...

Playa Acclimation

inspeyere — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:02:54 GMT

Started driving up yesterday at 3, but didn't make it all the way to the playa until sunrise. Took a nap above Topaz Lake by the reflection of the moon through the clouds. I infiltrated the Paiute reservation by the early morning light. By the time I arrived in Gerlach, the sun started streaming brilliantly over a mountain. Columns of dust blasted wooden huts and domes, while surly gate crew members turned me away. "But I'm gonna miss the morning meeting..." I protested. "Sorry, can't let you in without your bar code." Replied Canadian Bacon matter of factly. "Bar codes? Wow, the desert anarchists are really staying true to their roots. When do we move to RFID chips under the skin, or are you just gonna tattoo the barcode across my forehead." I retorted. She laughed uncertainly, but still wouldn't let me in. After getting a quick bite to eat at Bruno's (with a good 8 coffees), I filled out my 35 pages of paperwork (initialed for 15 of them) and then sifted through some more red tape. They're really taking this American Dream thing seriously! They still didn't have my ticket or my bar code. I ended up sneaking in, wandering the playa looking for my supervisor for most the morning. I guess he went to Reno, but I missed the morning meeting so I didn't know that.... Black Rock Desert is gorgeous today. Magnificent cumulous clouds slide their way across the heaven, shading the tired and dusty workers as they build a city from the ground up. A week ago there wasn't a person living on the playa. Next week there will be tens of thousands. See you in a week!