Country Roads, Take Me Home

The other day I was reading something interesting about Asheville, NC, and so I looked into it a little bit more, and the more I learned, the more I wanted to move there. Where to start? Let's see...

It's got a population of about 100,000, less than a third of Pittsburgh's, but still plenty to have some interesting culture. It's in growing climate zone five, two zones warmer than Pittsburgh (about the same as the Willamette Valley in Oregon, another appealing place). It's more or less surrounded by national forrests.

They have the only tribal belly dance troup that can possibly compete with Zafira for my affections, namely Baraka Mundi. They also have a tribal belly dance convention, Triboriginal, that has won awards.

They have a significant unschooling population. The local mailing list has 125 members, which has to say something.

They have burners. Transformus, the Southeastern US burning man regional is right outside the city.

They have anarchists. They have an infoshop and a local currency. They have a state university, a black college, an arts district, a nineteenth century palace, two decent sized communes, two rivers and a rollerderby team. Sounds pretty civilized...

Maybe best of all, they have $100,000 homes that border directly on wilderness areas, within biking distance of downtown. I was gonna link more links, but I'm pretty much out of time.

Needless to say, I'm a little bit smitten.

news

wow, it has been so long i almost don't feel like a blogger anymore.

1. we have been in oregon, which is lush, beautiful and friendly (at least the parts we were in). we stayed in a couple of very bizarre rental houses (the koi pond in the picture is from one of them), saw some enormous trees, ate lots of fresh fruits, checked out eugene and portland and just hung out.

2. i sort of have a job. i am a contributing writer for a luxury green website that is getting started. it remains to be seen how regular this will be, but it is great work. today i wrote an article about a luxury olive oil that lets you adopt your own tree in their orchard. what is really luxurious, though, is not feeling like i have to finish ten articles per day.

3. we're going to a "hip mamas" meetup at the children's museum this friday. i'm not very hip, but i'm not really the other thing either (whatever other unhip mamas are, i mean, not a mama, which i obviously am). i really need to make some friends with kids, so hopefully this will work out. also, we are hoping that river will love the children's museum, so we can take him there to get out of the house once the weather gets colder.

4. i love my shamanic herbalism correspondence course.

5. i have been reading interesting parenting books like "unconditional parenting". lots to think about...

6. hopefully blogging will resume, maybe more on these subjects later.

time travel #1: art nouveau

I noticed recently when I was building my 100 awesome things post that I could hardly find any images from the Parisian Musee D'orsay online. That is unfortunate, because it was really one of the highlights of my time in Europe, and I wanted to show some of amazing art. So, I went through our photo collection and found a few of my favorites (photos by James). Here we have an entire room carved from wood, a detail of a metal door, and a glass bottle. In Art Nouveau, everything is beautiful.

Wickerman Burning

So, Wickerman, our regional burn, was totally awesome. For starters it is pretty hard to argue with four days of camping in a beautiful natural setting surrounded by woods, swimmable rivers and gorgeous weather.

On top of that, we met lots of nice people, James got to do a fun DJ set, and River and I participated in the drum group for the man burning performance. Oh, and the man itself was really cool, built almost entirely out of natural materials (much unlike the original burning man).

We took a friend with us to watch River for a few hours here and there, so James and I were able to go out and party, and also attend a sweat lodge, which I have really been itching to do for a few years. I don't know what it is about getting really hot and sweaty in a dark, muddy tent, but it does something good for me I think.

Anyway, we all had a great time, and now we are back in Pittsburgh.

100 awesome things

in honor of my 100th post, here are 100 awesome things in semi-random order. some of these things i have mentioned before, some are new; none are perfect, but all inspire within me at least a little bit of wonder. enjoy!

1. free schools are run by children.
2. cosmic trigger is a fun, mind-bending book by robert anton wilson.
3. critical mass promotes biketivism.
4. pandora plays free music like the music you like.
5. spirits play beautiful music through forward kwenda.
6. worms eat your garbage (indoor composting).
7. sweat lodges and baths are a worldwide tradition.
8. hempcrete is easy, hard and sustainable.
9. the salivation army sounds totally insane, in a mostly good way.
10. canoe sailers recreate ancient nautical voyages.
11. audrey kawasaki paints women on wood.
12. miracle fruit makes bitter things taste sweet
13. precious metal clay lets you sculpt silver jewelry.
14. send your paper cranes to hiroshima peace park.
15. find something for dinner at tastespotting.
16. love it or hate it, you can't escape burning man.
17. there are lots of ways to wear your baby (i like the tibetan).
18. localvores eat local.
19. rooibos tea is so good (and healthy).
20. poppy tea is surprisingly legal.
21. this is the best basic pen ever.
22. laugh at the daily show and colbert report online.
23. my mother wears combat boots is a decent book about parenting.
24. fermented foods are also healthy and delicious.
25. tom brown teaches survival and healing in the apache tradition.
26. nausicaa is my favorite miyazaki/studio ghibli movie.
27. derrick jensen's language older than words is depressing but beautiful.
28. quetzalcoatl gets my nomination for god of the moment.
29. painting on masonite revolutionized my art (and it's eco-friendly).
30. crows feature in many spiritual traditions, and they're smart too.
31. travel the world with lonely planet.
32. american apparel is fun and sweatshop free (though creepy).
33. may day is one thing anarchists and pagans can agree about.
34. 2012. is the world going to end?
35. natural dyes can be amazingly colorful.
36. peace silk is made without killing the worm (vegan? freegan!).
37. labradorite is an amazing stone. you should look at some in person.
38. vurt is one of my favorite novels. psyberpunk?
39. jacques derrida will make your brain explode (in a good way).
40. hot air balloons -- so steampunk it hurts.
41. lol wasteland is pretty funny if you like lolcats and/or t.s. eliot.
42. ancient rune poems contain the original interpretations of the runes.
43. molecular gastronomy is weird, awesome food.
44. these people are having a zero impact environmental year.
45. nata de coco in the strangest canned dessert ever.
46. visit alex grey at the chapel of sacred mirrors in new york.
47. then eat at my favorite (gourmet, vegan, korean) restaurant, hangawi.
48. or, the musee d'orsay in paris has a stunning art nouveau collection.
49. and the sanctuary, in thailand, is a great place to relax on the beach.
50. sock dreams has more types of socks than you can imagine.
51. zafira and baraka mundi are two fantastic tribal belly dance troupes.
52. wildcrafters forage for wild food plants. learn your herbs first.
53. you can build a harpsichord, or a theremin. (theremin? theremin!)
54. earthships are beautiful, permacultural homes.
55. bicycle powered chocolate. what's next? bicycle powered soap and gyms.
56. interested in fasting? the master cleanse is pretty simple (mmm, lemonade).
57. drums, drums, drums, drums, drums!
58. mushrooms just might save the world.
59. this guy kind of defies description.
60. these smart people have good ideas about making stuff better.
61. birthing from within seems to get a lot of things right.
62. the sivananda companion to yoga is serious but approachable.
63. don't tell me you haven't heard about the planet earth series.
64. waldorf toys are simple and beautiful.
65. these vegan brownies don't suck. no, really.
66. folkwear makes a dizzying array of historical and multicultural patterns.
67. gouache rocks my world.
68. if you're in pittsburgh on a tuesday, you can silkscreen anything for $5!
69. orchids are so beautiful and diverse.
70. the miss rockaway armada intends to raft down the mississippi, awesomely.
71. the rosetta stone makes learning foreign languages really easy and fun.
72. the ruckus society trains activists to do direct action.
73. accupuncture is amazingly successful at treating addiction.
74. spoonfed makes magical resin pendants.
75. i thought the wonderful movie the prestige was somewhat overlooked.
76. food not bombs will feed anyone.
77. hashisheen: the original anarchist agitators?
78. i can't help it, i really like gogol bordello's gypsy punk.
79. this american life is a fun, quirky talk show.
80. dan savage answers bizarre sex questions in his podcast.
81. ana voog's tree octopus may be the coolest hat ever.
82. tom waits invites you to make it rain.
83. nobody knows how banksy does it.
84. make magazine tells you how to do stuff.
85. someone built a hobbit house.
86. 'skineart is sometimes inspiring.
87. the infoshop anarchist faq is decent.
88. howtoons. what a cool idea!
89. i love low tech solutions.
90. i wish (super cheap) megabus would come to pittsburgh.
91. 'tis the season for plant graffiti. try seedballs and moss art.
92. rumi: everyone's favorite sufi.
93. according to some, the lakota nation recently declared independence.
94. kiva borrows from the rich and lends to the poor, interest free.
95. xocolatl, food of the gods.
96. i am a paperbackswap addict.
97. twin oaks is a 30 year old, self-sustaining 100 person commune.
98. you have nearly reached the end of the internet.
99. but james has to make it into this list somewhere.
100. and, umm, river. yep. let's look at that chocolate face again.

hell yes!

not only is there going to be a burning man event called wicker man two hours away from us, but it is going to be at four quarters farm where i have gone for pagan festivals before.

i don't love everything about burning man, but it is pretty awesome in some ways, and i think this one will be better: smaller, closer, greener, less mainstream and more paganish. oh yeah, and not in a miserable desert. yumm.

	"Our Mission Comrades... Simply the most stupendous burn east of Black Rock City. Growing a Burn Culture that is ecologically sustainable and Earth Aware... in this emerging age of limits. Sinking roots in a place that was Made to Burn. An Altar to the Possible."