The process of dealing with the byproducts, the aftermath, of civilized life seems overly complicated. But it could be simple. Because profit-driven production with its proclivity towards pilot science and self-serving, economic models has omitted much of the environmental and salvaging costs, there is a burden upon waste management as we work with the amazing buffering capacities of the earth. On the front end of this myriad process, product designers are hopefully increasingly incorporating ease of recycling into their item's amalgamate. By widening the traditional lens on manufacturing they are able to reuse existing materials cheaper than using new, raw ones. The easier it is to reuse these parts, the more money made. Still, most of our waste goes by default to the landfill. Many larger cities, including Vancouver, are experiencing a crisis with the limits of landfill space and their tolerance, shipping costs, methane and leachates, disenchantment by managers, government and the public who are increasingly seeing themselves are environmentalists. Modern, global waste management companies have made great gains to the issues that we all face. there is also a growing body of research and methods to aid us with the challenge of nearing the Zero Waste challenge. Maybe the sum of all this will be, You just can't serve the Environment and Money too. Recycling must also be given supports just as an Goth-Modern incinerator (Vancouver may make the grand mistake of building more) would. To see recycling programs as a bother and expense is a double standard. As economic analysis have shown, items like paper, glass and aluminum do pay and contribute to administration and collection costs but they can’t cover the total. If incinerators, like dumps, get a disposal fee and as recycling sometimes charges as well, we still can’t expect these Zero Waste components to be self-sustaining prior to being considered a wise choice. Therefore, incineration moneys should equal recycling investment. If the Paris-run company Veolia is allowed to bid and maintain the incinerators then why not give access for world class companies to manage our recycling system. It is a situation where we have to deal with the mess our world mindset disgorges, but as in marriage, grades and medals, there is good, better and best. I suspect this issue will be trivial compared to woes that shall befall us all during out vaporous lifetimes.
Regarding the question, I gave you a couple numbers. As you learn, look for more soon and do the math. Enjoy today.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
With the start of a revolutionary reform that was tantamount to an Earth cycle page flip, the Sixties was what the world desperately needed. Anytime Love come to the fore of any cultural movement, it will be a benchmark for humanity and one that can't easily evanesce. Amazing, cool cats like Steve Jobs and his bud Woz, were well within the regional whirl of hippies, flower power, top-drawer musicians and supergroups and copious amounts of free love. I haven't read their biographies but, that golden era must have formed part of who they are. The empowering of the individual, counter-culturing the American way, freedom for blacks and merit for merit versus pedigree. Style and art over staunch business-veign. The months that filled the years from ''67 to '72 were to send music, art and tech on a trajectory that is still unswerving. With the convergence of the Mac computer with music, magazine layout and graphics etc. it is evident that the strategic directives that Jobs and Co. employed are intertwined with the history of current, modern art. One could mention that there is no serial number required to install any OS on a Mac. Garageband is still the best x easiest app to record music with. This is free software. The generousity and graces of the Sixties are still afloat in our present day. If you listen to Heart's Barracuda or Magic Man you'll have a taste of Seattle draft-dodging imports recording music in Vancouver. If you watch an Apple keynote you also get an earful 'cause those cats are cool.
The only thing worse than moving an academic with their boxes of books is moving a musicphile. I am sure that the atomic mass of milk crates jammed with records trumps that of textbooks. The fact that these illegally "acquired" containers of choice are what acts as the corner stone of alt-sub-Ikea decor and combined with what could become the wall of a bomb shelter as steady co-inforcing marvels of the dairy industry, gives them a place on the love-hate lists of all. At least it is rare that such radioheads own a piano in which case if they opt out pro-movers you can hope that the scrapings of their bank account will go towards their next damage and round of bottle deposits. Once your friend has remade a home, you know that good times await and that those records will be spun again. Vinyl always was cool. It was so intertwined with music that after a century of recordings only the irreverent and ignorant would have little to offer on the topic. I'm not talking yet about cork-sniffer analogue types but rather how the technology of the "wax", it's high-Z tube preamps and lethally charged up power amplifiers and other zeniths of electronics, walked with musicians and listeners through the decades to serve us all and perhaps visa versa. A wall of records, to use the British currency, really added up to a lot of pounds. Though I was rather young to enter the race, I have had the privilege of paging through such a music library while listening to usually unheard tunes that such a host would happily introduce. There didn't seem to be a lot of focus on the record player, if it worked that was what mattered most. Even old needles (stylus) and gear driven turntables would effectively churn out the songs. The talk was on the character of the players and towards the endless observations, findings and opinions of the scene or genre. This was before terms like culture industry and remix were contrived. The considerable monies spent were given in good faith and there was no way around getting the music you liked, aside from the radio or a dance. I can retell parts of this wonderful story with a tone of consonance and verily I say that it is gospel truth because I have saw and heard why it is so. From the wee years to the long beers, I have listened and learned. I have heard from the local's best sages of musicdom, how the record set the tone and laid the way for what is Billboardable today. The record is how the record sounds. Please, stay tuned as more is to follow.
A new car stereo has replaced the old 'dash radio. Lately, one tune that starts the day is Working for the Weekend. LOUDLY. From 0 - 110 dB in .1 of a second. Even now my ears are decompressing. More impressing that those 300 Watts rms is that today my new Cap-jazz student roommate (acronym to follow), randomly mentioned this song, which I thereafter played for him on an old German classical guitar; sort of. As my vocals fragged out and the gut strings sweated out the eight notes, his grin betrayed his amusement. The third point to this story is that a young student (I teach a little guitar) requested to revisit the tune as we had covered it prior. As Loverboy is a Vancouver band I might have a home-court bias to them. Right now, I am into the keyboards especially. They were an amazing band, even if only for three songs. Did I mention the synths?
It's amazing how a guest lecturer can influence you to move to another level. Today, I had the rare exposure to a great photographer, but the man is far more than just that, by the name of Alex Waterhouse-Hayward. The professional photographers I've met are amazing human beings that add credance to the maxim "We are like gods." Which is a biblical truth, in fact. Some of the differences we have however are that: we don't know that; a wretchedly brief existance; we are a grace-forcing mix of saint and sinner; we put economics before art and creativity. That a pretty top heavy paragraph for someone totally sober, ahh... todays notations are out of time however... so I hope you can live with that...
