A Storm

Well that was a long storm.

A Storm

Two nights ago this strange storm blew across the city. It was small and gentle and silent with thunderless lightning strikes.

TENORI-ON

Visual control of sound. Very cool.

Slow Home

In response to a comment on my Slow Home post I am answering here.

How does one afford it?

That is the problem isn’t it? A simple appeal to the consumer will yield little result. The current structure of development prevents affordable alternatives to the status quo. Consumers can’t wait for big developers to change and big developers have no motivation to change. A young family needing a house will purchase the house, out of those available, that best fits their needs. However, just because a consumer buys the best product they can doesn’t mean that it’s the best product for them or the one they really want. If all the cars you can afford are Fords and Chevys and you buy a Ford it doesn’t mean that Ford makes the best car for you. We need a Honda or Toyota in house production.

Look at Daybreak where just a few of the principles of New Urbanism are used – small lots, walkable tree lined streets, detached garages placed back from the street – and you see higher property values and extraordinary demand. All of these things would have been negatives to developers just ten years ago. People buying houses ten years ago might have been happy with a Daybreak style neighborhood but developers were telling them they wanted something different and no one was offering real alternatives. Daybreak is a weak example of what is possible. But zoning codes are still stuck in the 60’s, developers are notoriously conservative and contractors are frightened of change. If it worked in the past why change?

Worse yet if you want a modern house using unique materials in a walkable dynamic neighborhood you run into contractors that are scared to vary from long established routines without charging extra and developers who don't think people want modern homes (they also have no idea how to do them right).

To answer the question of how does one afford something like the Slow Home ethic is a complicated endeavor. Right now I am still figuring it all out. One thing however is sure - it involves a lot more than just the consumer.

I hope to revisit this topic again soon.

Once

This is one of the sweetest most refreshing films I've seen in years.

Windrivers

Well I just wanted to post a few more photos of the trip.


Here is a part of the group (from left to right) Kit (Glyn), Cory, Jason, Sheralyn, Allen, Lorin

Evan and Craig

Brian

Windrivers

Here are just a few pictures from my trip to the Windrivers. The highest point I got to was 11790 ft. peak on the continental divide.

Miss Teen

OK, I have to comment on this one. If you haven't seen Miss South Carolina answer a question in the Miss Teen USA pageant than check it out here first. This is the response I loved.

A Response to Adam

I just responded to this post on Being is Somethingness. I thought I would share my response here as well because I feel the experience was significant enough to remember it.

I don't have a good answer. I believe we tend to anthropomorphize the animals we commonly view as pets so it seems much more like murder to kill them.

I was backpacking and fishing last weekend and I caught several fish (which I haven’t done in many years). When I was removing the hook from the mouth of one of the fish I noticed it’s eye looking back and forth from my hand, which was struggling to remove the hook, to my face. For a moment I felt real sorrow for killing the fish. I even felt compelled to audibly apologize to it – though I am sure it didn’t understand what I said. I'm not sure that the fish was at all aware of what was happening but seeing its eye looking at me gave me pause.

I love meat and seafood and that won’t stop but I believe it is very healthy to periodically “look into the eyes” of the animals we kill to eat. It wouldn’t hurt to actually take those lives with our own hands if it was feasible. Then we might more fully understand that meat doesn’t grow pre-packaged on a meat tree and that real animals (some with might even pass for a personality) die to give us sustenance.

As for caged veal – I believe it should be illegal. And so should foie gras.

Grandaddy Basin

Just a few pictures from a weekend in the high Uintah wilderness. This is a special place for me. It is where my first backpacking trip into the high country happened and where I realized that I loved being alone in the wild.

This is a view of Grandaddy Basin from Hades Pass a saddle you climb over to get into the basin from the Grandview trail.


Nate trying out Betsy Lake.





After spending our first night next to a group of inconsiderate, noisy idiots we decided to go cross country and try out our orienteering skills. We did spend an hour wandering around semi lost for an hour after we shot past one of the lakes we were heading to but we eventually found our way to Sonny Lake. That night was cool, breezy, peaceful and quiet.


An unnamed lake north of Mohawk Lake - just after the rain.


A fish?


A view of the canyon on the drive out.

Bocce and BBQ

We have decided to take back the park. So Parktivities was born. It's a grassroots effort to begin using the park and creating an informed, aware and invested community that loves the park. We have bocce and BBQ on Sunday night and today we did Yoga with Dallas at 7:00-8:00 AM - ending at the tolling of the bells of the Greek Orthodox church.

It's a fun way to send a message to the city that we want the park clean and safe. With Salt Lake Mayoral race in full swing I believe will be heard.

Sports

I have never read a statement about youth sports that I so fully agreed with. I liked sports and had a lot of fun playing with friends in the town park growing up - but as soon as it got too serious and stopped being fun I was over it. Card says it well here.

Straws and Design

I saw this exhibit mentioned on a on a website and later in the back of Dwell. Moroso teamed up with Tokujin Yoshioka for their exhibit in Milan, he used 3,000,000 plastic straws to create an ethereal and cloud-like room. I like this little video of the event.

The Spirituality of Harry Potter

I think this debate on beliefnet was very interesting. If you have time check it out. Especially the post by Orson Scott Card titled - What Civilization Does Harry Potter Create?

Washington DC

Here are two pictures from our recent trip to Virginia and Washington that I liked. The first is of Michael and Me at Monticello although you would never know that by the background but I did wear my patriotic tee.


This next picture is of Motherwell and Me. He is one of my most influential Abstract Expressionist painters. I didn't take down the name of this piece but from the looks of it it is from his Elegy to the Spanish Republic series though it doesn't display quite the quintessential forms as some of this series, it's just a little loose. Judging from the scale probably dates from the 1950's. These were painted as a reflection on the brutal and savagely bloody civil war and Franco's subsequent destruction of the Spanish Republic. Personally standing in front of a painting of this scale is impressive. The deep black forms surround your field of vision and seem to envelop you. Unlike Rothco whose canvases were like doorways to a bright and meditative spiritual realm, Motherwell opens you to the overwhelming destruction and pain that far too often falls upon our lives.