“What approach can we take to move beyond environmental protests and actually begin living sustainably wherever we are located?

“Planet Drum was founded in 1973 to provide an effective grassroots approach to ecology that emphasizes sustainability, community self-determination and regional self-reliance. In association with community activists and ecologists, Planet Drum developed the concept of a bioregion: a distinct area with coherent and interconnected plant and animal communities, and natural systems, often defined by a watershed. A bioregion is a whole “life-place” with unique requirements for human inhabitation so that it will not be disrupted and injured. Through its projects, publications, speakers, and workshops, Planet Drum helps start new bioregional groups and encourages local organizations and individuals to find ways to live within the natural confines of bioregions…”

Courtesy White Rainbow!

“LES BLANK’s original Flower Films founded in 1967

“Featuring 16mm and video on Real Food, Roots Music and People Full of Passion for what they do!”

Always For Pleasure (1978)
An intense insider’s portrait of New Orleans’ street celebrations and unique cultural gumbo: Second-line parades, Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest. Features live music from Professor Longhair, the Wild Tchoupitoulas, the Neville Brothers and more. This glorious, soul-satisfying film is among Blank’s special masterworks. 58 minutes.

Gap-Toothed Women (1987)
A charming valentine to women born with a space between their teeth, ranging from lighthearted whimsy to a deeper look at issues like self-esteem and societal attitudes toward standards of beauty. Interviews were conducted with over one hundred women, including model Lauren Hutton and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. 31 minutes

God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance (1968)

Hippies and flower children dance and create rituals at the historic Los Angeles “Love-In” of Easter Sunday, 1967. This ’60s classic documents a once-in a lifetime phenomenon, preserving all the fashions, energy and idealism of the first “alternative lifestyles.” Psychedelic special effects! 20 minutes.

Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)
A zesty paean of praise to the greater glories of garlic. This lip-smacking foray into the history, consumption, cultivation and culinary/curative powers of the stinking rose features chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, and a flavorful musical soundtrack.
The SF Chronicle called this paean to garlic “a joyous, nose-tweaking, ear-tingling, mouth-watering tribute to a Life Force.” Nothing less than a hymn to the stinking rose of the kitchen, this lovingly photographed documentary is an odyssey of garlic feasts alternated with uniquely individual interviews of garlic afficionados. Not only does the film promote garlic as our first line of defense against all forms of blandness; it also titillates the taste buds with shots of garlic dishes sizzling in their pans. Les Blank shows again that he knows how to have a good time and share it on film – especially if it involves food!
At the end of 2004 ‘Garlic’ was one of 25 films, selected by The Library Of Congress, to be added to the National Film Registry list of now 400 motion pictures, to be preserved in perpetuity. Other films in this group include Ben Hur, Jail House Rock and Duck And Cover. Les’Chulas Fronteras was selected previously for The National Film Registry. (Only two other documentarians, Frederick Wiseman and Albert Maysles, have as many non-fiction films represented in the registry.) 51 minutes.

Streaming clips available at
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/flowervideo.html

The Independent

Presidency falling apart at the seams for Bush and his entourage
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 23 November 2006

His foreign policy is in tatters. He has just suffered a sweeping electoral defeat. And now – from Buenos Aires to Hawaii and Vietnam – even the clockwork-like operation to protect and ferry around George Bush and the rest of America’s first family seems to be coming apart at the seams.

In the first of four incidents in the space of 48 hours this week, the President’s 24-year-old daughter Barbara had her handbag stolen while out in the Argentine capital on Sunday, despite the round-the-clock protection she and her twin sister Jenna are provided by the US Secret Service.

According to La Nacion newspaper, the two were having dinner in San Telmo, a cobblestone district of cafés, old houses and steakhouses, when thieves took the handbag from under their table. Agents in their secret service detail stood at a distance, completely unaware of the incident.

There has been no comment from the White House or a doubtless highly embarrassed Secret Service. Barbara reportedly lost her mobile phone and credit cards, but was not hurt. But Greg Pitts, the acting White House travel director, was less fortunate as the President made his way back to the US from his visit to south-east Asia and the Pacific Rim summit in Vietnam. Mr Pitts was beaten and robbed by unknown assailants outside a nightclub in Waikiki at 2am on Tuesday during a stopover by the presidential party in Hawaii.

“He was knocked down, punched, kicked – his wallet and ID were stolen,” Captain Frank Fujii of Honolulu Police said. Mr Pitts also lost his passport and his mobile phone. Though awake and alert, he was taken to hospital because of possible concussion, a White House spokesman said.

Hours after that incident, three local motorcycle officers in the motorcade taking Mr Bush to a military air base for his return to Washington were involved in a crash which left two of them seriously injured, after their bikes skidded on a rain-drenched road as they were about to enter the base area.

The final entry in this catalogue of mishaps were the unspecified mechanical difficulties encountered by his Air Force One Boeing 747 during the summit trip, as it was scheduled to leave Vietnam to ferry Mr Bush to Indonesia (where he spent six hours in talks at a resort near Jakarta before heading to Hawaii). The problem forced Mr Bush to take a smaller Boeing 757 back-up plane, obliging many in the White House delegation to switch to the accompanying press plane.

Ethan Miller of Comets on Fire

Eleanor Friedberger of Fiery Furnaces

Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio in solo performance

Archie Bronson Outfit

Noel Von Harmonson of Comets on Fire

PHOTOS BY MATT.

From Erik Bluhm:
‘Anyone roaming the streets of Oakland Sunday night might want to pop in at New Yipes where they’ll be showing my short video “Welcome Wizards” (below) alongside “oozing” Steve Brown’s bad vibes 8mm, “High Caledonia.” Stick around for the poetry as well, as E. Tracy Grinnell and Erin Morrill do what they do afterwards. This New Yipes reading will be held at 7 pm on Nov. 19 at 21 Grand located at 416 25th St @ Broadway in Oakland, Calif. “For lack of $4 none will be turned away.”‘

“A huge mural painting of what Gaviotans have already accomplished, and their vision for the future. Note airship in the background.

“Gaviotas is a village of about 200 people in Colombia, South America. For three decades, Gaviotans – peasants, scientists, artists, and former street kids – have struggled to build an oasis of imagination and sustainability in the remote, barren savannas of eastern Colombia, an area ravaged by political terror. They have planted millions of trees, thus regenerating an indigenous rainforest. They farm organically and use wind and solar power. Every family enjoys free housing, community meals, and schooling. There are no weapons, no police, no jail. There is no mayor.
The United Nations named the village a model of sustainable development. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has called Paolo Lugari [founder] the ‘inventor of the world.'”

The London Telegraph

New Age president lives alone in a hut
By Kate Connolly, in Berlin
Last Updated: 2:23am GMT 17/11/2006

The president of Slovenia has given up his palace for a mountain hut and habitually decks himself in leaves to celebrate nature.

Adopting a New Age existence after being diagnosed with cancer, Janez Drnovsek, 56, has moved from the presidential palace in Ljubljana to the village of Zaplana, where he lives alone with his dog on a vegan diet of organic fruit and vegetables, while he bakes his own bread.

He has even been known to “greet the trees” by dressing up in cloaks of leaves.

Mr Drnovsek appealed this week to his fellow countrymen to join him in embracing the simple life in the hope of averting a world catastrophe.

In a new self-help guide, The Essence of the World, a follow up to his best-selling The Thoughts of Life and Awareness, the politician describes the spiritual transformation he has undergone since renouncing the trappings of presidential life.

“Unfortunately we have many people nowadays who are without internal harmony, yet who want to change the world,” Mr Drnovsek said at the book’s launch this week at the Vienna Book Fair.

“But, the fact is, the world is heading towards a catastrophe and self-destruction.”

Slovenians say the once boring divorced banker has changed beyond recognition. A former prime minister, he took Slovenia into the European Union but now complains that the bloc spends more on cows “than half the population of the world gets”.

Mr Drnovsek’s party, Movement for Justice and Prosperity, promotes healthy living for both children and animals. But for some he is a bit too esoteric and liberal.

Last year he discovered a daughter he had unknowingly fathered and proudly presented her in public. In his new book, he says the world could end within 20 years.

COURTESY DAVID COTNER!