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1) Saxophone Tommy is back! He had been gone so long, between this, that, and the other. Now he is back, and his sax is back as well — musician & instrument reunited!! I heard him all the way down the block, stopped what I was doing and ran up to the A1A to investigate and sure enough it was him. That unmistakable sound. Ran back to my house to get some thank-you $ to put in his case. When I went back to give him the money and say hi glad you’re back, he was beating himself up and saying how terrible he sounded. I know what that’s like to be an artist and beat oneself up because of not meeting one’s internal standards, what one has done in the past etc. I tried to tell him I understand but your playing is still the best sound anyone might get a chance to hear today.

Because, unlike in some other cities where I have lived, musicians out on the street — beautiful live notes just floating free through the air, winding their way down the streets touching people’s hearts — are next to extinct here. Tommy gave me permission to take this picture and let everyone know he is back. Support and show some love if you see him. He used to play gigs on Main Street and some other places sometimes and maybe that will start happening again.

Though unhoused, Tommy has lived in this neighborhood for years, his notes have been the light of the neighborhood, and we do our best to keep up with him, and we miss him when he is gone.

2) Business card of another local musician. John and his wife are good neighbors who live a few houses down from me. He has a band The Wildcard Band and they play in various places locally. Upcoming gigs include Port Hole and Down the Hatch. He gave me the good news they will probably be playing on Main Street again sometime soon too.

General note: Artists give so much. Society loves to be entertained, but we don’t always reflect that in a tangible way by materially supporting those who provide that beauty/entertainment. We don’t always take time to acknowledge how much it costs, not just in money but in sheer willpower and human energy, to keep on plugging away making art. Every artist who doesn’t give up deserves our deep gratitude and respect for making the world a better place against so many odds.

Many of you in my Facebook community are musicians, visual artists, and other kinds of art-makers yourselves, and this post is a tribute to you too.

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Special note for the Permaculture in Action: Transformative Adventures! group: Supporting creative and occupational freedom for all is one of my main reasons for being in this group. One of my main reasons for living, actually!!

Of course, said creative and occupational freedom needs to include everyone getting their basic needs met for healthcare, stable housing, etc. Permaculture design principles and ethics can be used to help design and retrofit sustainable human settlements for all.

solidarity; support local musicians; support creative occupations; expand sustainable housing options; dismantle the carceral system; permaculture ethic “care of people and all other living things”

In a few posts over the past few months or so, or maybe it was only one post, and a Live or a radio appearance or two — I don’t remember — I have made reference to what I called “jacking-down the economy,” and “embracing the lower rungs.” This is something that people with the wherewithal to do can do to help alleviate the suffering caused by extreme income disparity and the jacked-up economy in general. I consider it related to the Degrowth movement.

I love it when I find professional expert substantiation for one of my amateur theories or musings. In the past couple of days I’ve stumbled on a great book and a great article, linked below. Will add more as I find them.

• The Divide, book by Jason Hickel (author of the Degrowth book Less Is More). He goes into debunking the horrific myths, criminal accounting, “statistical theatre” regarding international aid and development. Lots of Degrowth object-lessons here.

• “Forget ‘developing’ poor countries, it’s time to ‘de-develop’ rich countries“; article by Jason Hickel in The Guardian. “Economist Peter Edward argues that instead of pushing poorer countries to ‘catch up’ with rich ones, we should be thinking of ways to get rich countries to ‘catch down’ to more appropriate levels of development. We should look at societies where people live long and happy lives at relatively low levels of income and consumption not as basket cases that need to be developed towards western models, but as exemplars of efficient living. … The idea of ‘de-developing’ rich countries might prove to be a strong rallying cry in the global south, but it will be tricky to sell to westerners. Tricky, but not impossible. According to recent consumer research, 70% of people in middle- and high-income countries believe overconsumption is putting our planet and society at risk.”

• “Can those who do work, learn to respect those who choose not to?” by Jason Sims, in Esquire magazine. “‘What is needed,’ the philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote in In Praise of Idleness in 1935, ‘is a new revolutionary movement, dedicated to the elimination of overwork and the reduction of work to a minimum.’ What he could not have foreseen was that it might take a global pandemic to amplify the rebellion. Many people were forced to stop work, giving them the chance to take stock and assess why they felt so burned out. They worked from home and found they actually liked their family. They thought deeply about what the hell they were doing with their lives. At the end of the 20th century the idea of a 15-hour working week was an inevitability. And yet, trajectory has not only stalled, but tech, corporate culture and an ‘always on’ mindset have extended working hours for many. There was also what came to be called ‘The Great Resignation’. Millions, at least those with the right safety nets, quit work — retiring, trading out, changing their lifestyles to subsist on fewer hours and a lower income — leaving a labour shortfall in many nations, and governments desperate to find ways to tempt people back into employment for the sake of the seemingly never-ending pursuit of economic growth. It is, as Elizabeth Anderson, professor or philosophy at the University of Michigan, puts it, ‘screwed up’. … Russell, however, reckoned that the most meaningful work one could actually choose to do comes from our leisure time—it’s in leisure that humans are the most inventive. Einstein, famously, would spend hours just staring at the ceiling. The decline in paid work might spark a resurgence in artistry, craftsmanship and artisan-making, with the economy founded less in consumption as in creativity, in the sense of ‘flow’ that we all find so enriching.”

• Speaking of Degrowth, more than a few people have pointed out that the Degrowth movement has a public-relations problem because the word is not very attractive to people in consumerist societies. Along these lines, some people might find the term “Wellbeing Economy” more appealing. The Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEALL) website offers a lot of useful information and ideas.

I copy-pasted my recent post “Pay people to plant trees” and emailed it to a few fellow activists in my bioregion.

Got this nice reply from one of the recipients, to the effect that she’d like to see some ordinances regarding “natural” plantings, instead of the current ordinances that not only allow, but often actually require, developers and HOAs to use toxic, violent landscaping practices that devalue trees and native plants.

My response:

Thanks for this!

Ordinances are often cumbersome and difficult to pass. And in some cases nowadays, Tallahassee has actually passed laws prohibiting municipalities from passing any kind of local ordinances around trees and so on. Not that we shouldn’t keep trying!!

Rather than ordinances, it could be that a stronger leverage point is simply interacting with the planning process, talking directly w developers and their attorneys etc.

I have been attending some planning board meetings, redevelopment meetings and so on. There may be some hope there.

Many times these days, developers (and city planners too!) are actually interested in a more eco-friendly approach; they just need informational resources such as plant lists, pattern books etc. that will help them navigate permitting, community acceptance, etc. And the resources are abundant; it’s just that people, even professionals, don’t know about these websites and other resources. Part of my self-appointed job as a freelance sustainability educator is to connect people w these resources.

Another key leverage point is realtors. Realtors have a lot of influence over clients and buyers; they can be educating people about how “curb appeal” is not shaved grass with zero trees.

Another potential leverage point is affordable / workforce / attainable housing. People working in the affordable-housing spaces have some leverage to promote natural landscaping and gentle maintenance practices.

Such practices actually help reduce the overhead cost of housing while also providing shade, heat mitigation, stormwater absorption, beauty, and other value to residents and the surrounding community alike. If some of the trees are fruit trees, an additional benefit is food for the residents.

I am here to support you in any way I can, to connect you with information and other resources.

This blog is largely devoted to calling out structural ills in our society with a purpose of fixing them. Even though there is a solution-oriented intent, I am all well aware that a blog like this can be, come across very cranky and scolding.

And I don’t plan on changing that focus although I am always trying to refine my tone and manner.

By the way I’m testing out talk to type on WordPress and it seems to have habits of deleting whole paragraphs right after I’ve spoken them. Ha ha one has already vanished.

yeah cant do this anymore – i better compose offline in the text app bc the same Paragraph that I have spoken and re-spoken has no vanished three times

So as I was saying, one sweet trend I see in society in the past couple years or maybe more is the trend of wishing people Happy Mother’s Day more widely. In other words even strangers in the street. Happy Mother’s Day if you are a mother etc.

Little things like this may seem insignificant, but an emerging practice or cultural habit of small passing kind words to strangers may make the difference in our crazy times. Like a glue or threads repairing the social fabric, though on a micro scale.

Also, that aside, mothers are just awesome and deserve respect. It’s really good hearing this.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers everywhere. And to our Mother Earth.

In the suburbs, one gets constant noise and air pollution from leaf blowers and other destructive suburban yard appliances. It’s ironic that the suburbs were first developed to get people away from factories, industrial pollution, and noise but now we have all this endless acreage of private green lawn that’s maintained by chemicals and noisy lawn equipment.

(For the original post about the new station grand opening ceremony, go here. And thank you to Maggie Ardito and other transportation activists who really are trying to make transportation conditions better for the non-motoring public. As well as providing opportunities for the recreational cyclists etc. to get out in nature.)

For Daytona Beach residents using public transport: Take the 60 bus to Deland, then either walk a couple miles south on 17/92 (Woodward) or transfer to I believe it’s the 20 bus.

Oh wait, I forgot that Deland Sunrail station is not downtown. Rather, it’s near the Amtrak.

So You’ll actually need to walk 7 miles from the supermarket at Amelia & 92 that is the endpoint of the 60 bus route. (I have done that.) Or transfer to the 20 bus, ride it to downtown and then from downtown it’s a couple or 3-mile walk to the station. (Have done that too.)

Be careful, walk on the left side of the road so you can see the traffic coming, there’s no sidewalks in a lot of places.

I’ve walked to this Amtrak station many times, so I know whereof I speak. Maybe they will put some sidewalks etc in. Now that the Sunrail station is there.

Added later:

I do still support the opening of the station. I might not have made the same location choice; would have wanted it to be easy walking distance of downtown (and for that matter I would have kept Amtrak downtown too, way back when it was. But alas I don’t have a time machine).

What I would do at this point would be to add bus service running to the Amtrak; I don’t understand why they’re hasn’t always been one. And now that we also have sun rail in the same vicinity, that just brings even more justification to have a bus route going to those train stations.

And sidewalks as I mentioned before for pedestrians and cyclists and wheelchair users and other non-motorists to be able to get to the stations safely.

Added even more later:

I just looked more closely at the map and found out the sun rail station is absolutely nowhere effing near the Amtrak! More human insanity, inspired by the availability of massive amounts of petroleum. Well in Permaculture design we always have to work with where we’re at, so there you have it. Keep in mind, location is everything and we in the USA have massively flubbed that basic design principle of Mother Nature by locating things far from each other that should be near each other.

By the way, once while traveling overseas I walked five or 10 miles from a port to a train station. I have a feeling somehow that USA car-culture design patterns influenced this. Our destructive ways have spread far and wide across the planet.

All of this said, I still support the Sunrail as I do the Amtrak. And we will find ways to retrofit basic needs.

Degrowth conference coming up; live streaming will be available. The following info is copy-pasted from a post by Chris Andrews in the Degrowth – join the revolution group:

In a few days the Beyond Growth Conference is happening in Brussels.

This three days major event is a cross-party initiative of 20 members of the European Parliament, which will take place in the European Parliament in Brussels.

This overview of the conference is my synthesis of the description on the conference website:

“The conference is a gathering of high-level speakers from multiple backgrounds aiming to discuss and co-create policies for sustainable prosperity in Europe, creating a path towards a European sustainable economy. The conference intends to put into practice a post-growth future-fit EU, which includes social well-being, and viable economic development that respects of planetary boundaries.”

The conference may well prove to be a feel-good talk-fest along the lines of the “Conference of the Parties” (COP) conferences that have been going on for decades with little effect. However, to me, just the fact that this conference is happening is amazing, because growth is being questioned by the mainstream, specifically the European Union.

The conference comprises seven major presentations (plenaries) and twenty focus-group session. Topics that caught my attention include:

· Limits to Growth: where do we stand and where do we go from here?

· Which prosperous future? Confronting narratives of growth

· Changing the goal: from GDP growth to social prosperity

· Addressing the limits of resource consumption: towards a resilient economy

· Building an energy sector compatible with ecological limits

· A financial system fit for a postgrowth economy

· What does a credible EU-wide, social and economic framework to achieve a just transition look like?

There are over 150 presenters at the conference; names that caught my attention include:

· Jason Hickel, economic anthropologist

· Tim Jackson, ecological economist

· Giorgos Kallis, ecological economist

· Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission

· Kate Raworth, ecological economist

· Vandana Shiva, Physicist

· Joseph E. Stiglitz, economist.

All of the plenary sessions will be available live on YouTube and on the conference website. All the focus panel sessions will be livestreamed on the conference website. There’s a link to the YouTube channel in the comments below.

As far as I can tell you must be registered to watch the streamed presentations on the conference website, but I’m not certain about that. I’ll put a link for registration, which is free, in the comments.

The first session starts on 15 May at 9.00am Central European Time (CET), which makes it a convenient 5pm Australian Eastern Standard time (AEST). The sessions will run until 6.30pm CET, which is 2.30 am AEST, which is not so convenient. Fortunately, the conference website says that all of the sessions will be recorded and available to replay, but I have no details on that.

This could be very interesting to anyone who is interested in degrowth, or even survival!

Here is the link:

https://www.beyond-growth-2023.eu/about-beyond-growth/?fbclid=IwAR1z4IgJS2lr7rVYNffZwZJMnl_3VzTFiaLyFf7hPCvDoEsacfKNBcR-GBw

#degrowth #conference