book

In praise of hemp – as textile, as paper, as food source

August 7, 2012

In praise of hemp – as textile, as paper, as food source

Seeing the above graphic on Facebook recently (source wasn’t credited) reignited my longstanding frustration over our global failure to switch (back) to hemp as a major source for textiles, paper and food.

…read more

Letter from Dorothy Field to Stephen Harper

June 8, 2012

Letter from Dorothy Field to Stephen Harper

Letter from my friend Dorothy to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the question of his profoundly anti-democratic omnibus “budget bill” C-38. The bill’s major intent, among many nefarious minor intents, is to obliterate environmental groups and their opposition to the Alberta tar sands and its pipelines.

…read more

Fire/Fire – Vancouver art exhibition addressing, among other things, development by fire

June 2, 2012

Fire/Fire – Vancouver art exhibition addressing, among other things, development by fire

These photos are from a long Japanese ukiyo-e scroll dating from the 1890s. The art work is on loan to Vancouver’s Centre A Gallery as part of a collaborative installation by Vancouver artists Marina Roy and Abbas Akhavan, titled Fire/Fire.

…read more

Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience

May 18, 2012

Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience

“If sleep is the apogee of physical relaxation, boredom is the apogee of mental relaxation. Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.

…read more

Categories: book, textiles, Uncategorised

“I’ve been told that the tallest building in hell has an awesome view of the emerald city”

May 14, 2012

“I’ve been told that the tallest building in hell has an awesome view of the emerald city”

Heard those lyrics over the car radio last week. I did not know that the Emerald City was close enough to hell that you could actually see it from there, but that whole geography sounds a lot like Vancouver.

…read more

Vancouver Ltd. by Don Gutstein

May 7, 2012

Vancouver Ltd. by Don Gutstein

What follows is the Preface of Don Gutstein’s 1975 book Vancouver Ltd., a thorough—and, as it turns out, prescient—analysis of the way in which Vancouver fell into the hands of real estate developers and realtors.

…read more

Vivienne Westwood: The whole 20th C was a mistake

May 5, 2012

Vivienne Westwood: The whole 20th C was a mistake

Via The Guardian:  “A status symbol is a book… that’s status.” “Punk was just an excuse for people to run around…it was just a fashion that became a marketing opportunity.” “The whole 20th C was a mistake… throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” “Study art and you become a freedom fighter.”

More from Westwood here.

…read more

Handmade Houses: A Century of Earth-Friendly Home Design

April 22, 2012

Handmade Houses: A Century of Earth-Friendly Home Design

I have been looking forward to the publication of Richard Olsen’s book Handmade Houses: A Century of Earth-Friendly Home Design, and it has now been released by Rizzoli.

…read more

1 2 3 4 5