This is not my neighbor's dog.
Last night the neighbor’s dog bit me. It was just a little nip on my calf — a sheep dog’s instinct — and it took me a second to even register what had happened. Once I realized what had happened I approached the mutt (who was now peeing in my front yard) and stared him down. He ignored me, so as he dashed off I growled at him. He promptly turned and charged at me.
Click here if you want to go straight to the free music.
Spesh and I have been running Loöq Records for 12 years (since our distortion-heavy techno-house debut album Tube Drivers in 1998). What started out as a hobby has become an important part of my identity, not to mention an occasional source of significant income. If you’re interested in more background, I’ve written a bit about the history of the label here (Angles of Estrangement post), and the business side of things here (Business Advice for Young Artists post). I’ve also written about why I dropped out of DJ’ing to focus on producing music, running Loöq Records, and other creative pursuits (like writing) here. Today I’m just going to mention what’s going on currently, and give a preview of what we’ve got planned for the rest of this quarter and the first part of 2011.
Solar powered parking lot at Arizona State University.
I dislike the word “sustainable.” One hears the word used in the context of food production (“sustainable agriculture”), product manufacturing (“sustainable industry”) and general economic models (“sustainable economy”). Wind and solar power are considered “sustainable energy sources.”
What’s wrong with sustainable? In some ways my negative reaction to the word is visceral and irrational, but I’ll try to explain my feelings. The word seems to imply stasis, a kind of false ideal of human affairs where population is steady, basic needs are met, and the environment is not further molested or abused. If human beings live sustainably, we live in a way that enables us to keep living. This seems reasonable enough, but it’s uninspiring. What about growth and expansion? Those concepts seem incompatible with sustainability. After all, the planet isn’t getting any bigger.
That helium isn’t coming back.
This criticism on my part isn’t really fair. I essentially agree with most of the ideas behind sustainability. There should be less pollution, less waste, less free use of the commons, less mining, less blasting through irreplaceable resources like fossil fuels (and helium, while we’re at it — did you know once that balloon goes up in the air the helium never comes back? It’s an element — you can’t make the stuff). Collectively, human beings should find a way to continue living without wrecking our home planet.
Instead of the word sustainable, I prefer the word restorative. What our environment and world economy needs is radical healing and transformation. Restorative projects create real wealth (food, energy, goods) while leaving the environment and community in better shape than before production efforts started. The classic example is Joel Salatin’s farm (described in Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma). Using hyper-modern intensive land management techniques, Salatin’s farm produces high quality organic food while creating rich topsoil and adding natural habitat for local fauna (a nearby forest in an important part of the farming system, functioning as a windbreak among other things). Spain’s Veta la Palma fish farm is another example, where resident biologist Miguel Medialdea engineers a system that not only produces 1,200 tons of tasty seafood annually, but also restores natural wetlands and supports a booming population of birds (some of them endangered species).
Minecraft spawn view from reddit's Deltasquad03
Lately I’ve been playing Minecraft, the underground video game hit developed by Markus Persson, a bearded Swede who goes by the alias “Notch.” Persson developed the game in about a week before releasing it to the public, and Minecraft is currently in the midst of a popularity explosion unprecedented in the history of independently developed video games. A day in September saw sales of 25,000 within a single 24 hour period, and total sales have exceeded 300,000. I predict mainstream awareness (say, a New York Times feature) within 30 days.
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