An Array of Utopian Flowers
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Angels and Saints in Mosaic at Sicily’s Monreale Cathedral
Posted on January 13, 2019 | No Comments -
![The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL or Rocketdyne), north of Los Angeles, burned in the November 2018 Woolsey Fire, threatening toxic exposures from contaminated dust, smoke, ash, and soil. In […]](https://www.wilderutopia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/woolsey-fire_sandy-huffaker-36x36.jpg "EcoJustice Radio – Nuclear Waste: The Los Angeles Meltdown & Cover-Up – Ep. 26")
EcoJustice Radio – Nuclear Waste: The Los Angeles Meltdown & Cover-Up – Ep. 26
Posted on December 17, 2018 | 1 Comment -
EcoJustice Radio – Ku Kia’i Mauna: The Mauna Kea Movement to Protect Sacred Sites – Ep 25 Part II
Posted on December 13, 2018 | No Comments -
EcoJustice Radio – Ku Kia’i Mauna: The Mauna Kea Movement to Protect Sacred Sites – Ep 25 Part I
Posted on December 12, 2018 | No Comments -
![Tejon Ranch Centennial Specific Plan (or Centennial) is a massive planned city in a unique, rare, fire-prone wilderness of grasslands and mountains, a residential and commercial development in LA County. […]](https://www.wilderutopia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Centennial-1-Nick-Jensen-36x36.jpg "EcoJustice Radio – Centennial Project: Suburbs Sprawl, Health & Environment Suffers – Ep. 24")
EcoJustice Radio – Centennial Project: Suburbs Sprawl, Health & Environment Suffers – Ep. 24
Posted on November 26, 2018 | No Comments
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Angels and Saints in Mosaic at Sicily’s Monreale Cathedral
Posted on January 13, 2019 | No CommentsThe Cathedral at Monreale, built between 1170 and 1189, in a hilltown above Palermo, Sicily, is a masterpiece of Arab-Norman Byzantine mosaics created by craftspeople from Constantinople.
EcoJustice Radio – Ku Kia’i Mauna: The Mauna Kea Movement to Protect Sacred Sites – Ep 25 Part II
Posted on December 13, 2018 | No CommentsKumu Mikilani provides an update on the status of Mauna Kea and the inspired movement to stop the construction of the 30-meter TMT telescope, anticipated to be the Northern Hemisphere's singular largest telescope sponsored by CalTech, University of California and the countries of India, Japan, and Canada. Twelve telescopes have already blighted what native Hawaiians consider their most sacred mountain and pinnacle of their origination cosmologically.
EcoJustice Radio – Ku Kia’i Mauna: The Mauna Kea Movement to Protect Sacred Sites – Ep 25 Part I
Posted on December 12, 2018 | No CommentsKumu Mikilani Young discusses with Carry Kim from EcoJustice Radio about the proposed, highly controversial 30-meter TMT telescope which would be built atop "ceded" conservation lands on Mauna Kea, considered the most sacred mountain for native Hawaiians or Kanaka Ma'oli. The TMT telescope would be the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere and is being spearheaded by the University of California, the California Institute of Technology as well as: Japan, China, India and Canada.
Defensible Space: My Wildfire-Appropriate Retrofit Journey – Part I
Posted on November 16, 2018 | 1 CommentAs the Western U.S. continues with massive wind-driven, high-intensity wildfires that often turn deadly, Naomi Pitcairn recommends retrofitting homes on the Wildland Urban Interface for fire-resistant resiliency. This is Part I of a three-part series.![Join us for an inspiring interview with Joanna Macy, Eco-philosopher and Buddhist scholar. Listen to her share precious insights from her five decades as an activist, author and visionary teacher […]](https://www.wilderutopia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/joanna-macy-statue-ciis-115x115.jpg "EcoJustice Radio – Joanna Macy and The Great Turning – Episode 10")
EcoJustice Radio – Joanna Macy and The Great Turning – Episode 10
Posted on January 15, 2018 | No CommentsJoin us for an inspiring interview with Joanna Macy, Eco-philosopher and Buddhist scholar. Listen to her share precious insights from her five decades as an activist, author and visionary teacher […]
Dancing Devils of Venezuela Challenge US Consumer Culture
Posted on November 8, 2017 | No CommentsAn exhibition by artist Cristóbal Valecillos in Los Angeles invoked the Dancing Devils of Yare, a 400-year old Venezuelan tradition celebrating life, the triumph of good over evil, and renewal. His provocative interpretation of the diablo masks, hand-sculpted from repurposed waste materials, takes aim at culture and consumption in the US, a plea for overcoming.
Dark Omen: Climate Chaos Converges with Solar Eclipse Wisdom
Posted on September 13, 2017 | 2 CommentsSince the solar eclipse of 2017, climate and tectonic instability has accelerated across the Earth: Rehearsal for the End Times? Predicted fossil fueled climate disruption and superstorm cataclysm? Sun-Moon alignment that bulged the Earth's crust, precipitating earthquakes? What really is happening here? We survey scientific, religious, and traditional indigenous belief for answers.
EcoJustice Radio – Episode 2 – Mikilani Young on Mauna Kea Telescope
Posted on August 10, 2017 | No CommentsMahalo to Mikilani Young of Defenders of Mauna Kea and LA's Mauna Kea movement to stop the desecration of the mountain most sacred to native Hawaiians and their culture. The movement aims to protect sacred, conservation lands, wildlife and plant habitat, and the water table beneath Mauna Kea, all of which will be gravely impacted if the TMT (Thirty-Meter Telescope) project moves forward.
Aleister Crowley’s Secret Society of Magick and Excess
Posted on July 24, 2017 | 2 CommentsSelf-promoted as the “Great Beast 666" from the Bible's Book of Revelations. Slandered by the British press as the “Wickedest Man in the World.” Yet, theatrical occultist Aleister Crowley pioneered a radical re-imagining of self determination through managing paranormal spiritual entities, shaking up early 20th Century polite society. He founded the libertine religion of Thelema, and through sex rituals and extreme drug abuse emphasized the not-necessarily-wicked ritual practice of Magick.
On Wild Rivers, Hydroelectric Dams, and Whitewater Rafting the American
Posted on May 20, 2017 | 1 CommentPristine beauty, danger, and wild risk make Whitewater River Rafting on the Middle Fork of the American River a must-face-death for paddlers. Despite a healthy Sierra Nevada snowpack, this free-flowing river stretch brings up questions of water sustainability and the zombie Auburn Dam proposal, among others. Why is dam removal an important movement? And what about the folly of plans to build 3,700 new not-so-clean hydroelectric dams across the world?
Field Guide to Adventures in Tropical Botany
Posted on May 16, 2017 | No CommentsField Guides to the Wild intrigue Naomi Pitcairn, sharing her adventures in scientific documentation of the wonders of nature, in this case the botanical wealth of the American Tropics.
Corazón Vaquero: Last of the Californio Cowboys of Baja California
Posted on May 8, 2017 | 1 CommentThe film 'Corazón Vaquero: The Heart of the Cowboy', documents the rural "Californios," raising livestock in the way of their Spanish ancestors in the Southern Baja California mountains. Facing tourism development, road building, and cultural changes, the isolated ranchos still persist with their self-sustaining subsistence-based way of life.
A Marked Beast: Trump’s Son-In-Law’s 666 Fifth Avenue
Posted on March 27, 2017 | 1 CommentFrom a failed attempt to peddle influence to save an upside-down real estate venture, to a spectacularly autocratic design, Zaha Hadid's 666 Fifth Avenue captures the Trumpian moment, in all it's bejeweled phallic grandeur that the Bible's Revelations warned us about.
Volcanoes Loom Over Vibrant Colors of Antigua Guatemala
Posted on February 28, 2017 | 1 CommentSurrounded by volcanoes, coffee plantations, and picturesque villages, the once-ruined former colonial capital, Antigua Guatemala, remains the most charming city in the Republic, a vibrant and somewhat overly commodified mix of Ladino-Spanish, Kaqchikel-Maya, and multinational Gringo cultures coming together.
Nico, Warhol Muse, from the Dark Side of the Street
Posted on November 24, 2016 | 1 CommentAt one time billed as the Moon Goddess and Andy Warhol It-Girl, singer Nico's dark, avant-garde music and deep, hypnotic voice were first heard in the Velvet Underground. She continued to work sporadically as a solo artist after leaving the Velvets, though a longtime heroin addiction and methadone dependency sidetracked her career. Check out the documentary on her life, Nico:Icon.
Morro Bay Estuary and Its Nine Volcanic Sisters
Posted on October 31, 2016 | 1 CommentMorro Bay, the bounty of sea, dune, bay, and estuary ebb and flow against the sacred Nine Volcanic Sisters, the rocky Morros. Small town charm coexists with protected parkland and one of the few remaining functioning wetland estuaries in overpopulated California, a direct counterpoint to its channelized and endlessly pumped and polluted waterways. The landscape invites migrating birds and tourists, fosters endangered plants and animals, and allows fish populations to thrive.
Is Day of the Dead Culture in SF’s Mission Endangered?
Posted on October 30, 2016 | 1 CommentIn San Francisco, the Mission District has celebrated Day of the Dead every year in since the early 70’s with altars in Garfield Park, serving as a community graveyard for the night and through art, music, other live performances and a walking procession. With the neighborhood in transition from rapid gentrification, will this vibrant culture rite continue? Yes, for now... Photos by Jack Eidt from 2015.
Shipping Containers as Sustainable, Affordable Housing?
Posted on September 27, 2016 | 1 CommentCan re-purposed shipping containers become the next inexpensive, quick to construct, green building solution for affordable housing? Danish "starchitect" Bjarke Ingels, as well as a recent Orange County, California, project, assert yes to all of the above, but there are limitations.
Art of Collective Madness in Salvador Dalí’s ‘Impressions’
Posted on September 27, 2016 | 2 CommentsSalvador Dalí and filmmaker José Montes-Baquer, in honor of underappreciated Surrealist Poet Raymond Roussel, shot a fake documentary of an non-expedition to Mongolia in search of gigantic mythic hallucinogenic mushrooms.
The Devil’s Paradise of Terence McKenna’s ‘True Hallucinations’
Posted on September 20, 2016 | 1 CommentPsychonaut ethnobotanist Terence McKenna captures the journey along a ghostly trail into the Colombian Amazon Forest, the descent of the Rio Putumayo, and his stumbling upon the "starborn magic mushroom," activated by psilocybin. Watch Peter Bergmann's experimental documentary.
Pruitt Igoe Myth: The Death of 20th Century US City
Posted on September 5, 2016 | 3 CommentsDestroyed in a dramatic and highly-publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure among architects, politicians and policy makers. A 2012 documentary unveiled the many witting and unwitting villains, including urban poverty, public policy enforced racial segregation, and urban disinvestment in favor of the White Suburban Dream.
Geo-Fauvism and Anthropocene: Altered Planet, Wild Literature
Posted on June 4, 2016 | 2 CommentsWelcome to the Anthropocene age, where humans have transmogrified the planet, its oceans and atmosphere, caused mass extinctions and wholesale contamination that will remain for millennia. Beyond the politicians and scientists, the way forward remains in the hands of writers, artists, and designers taking inspiration from wild earth in a movement called Geo-Fauvism.
Old Town Auburn, Portrait of a Gold Rush Town
Posted on May 29, 2016 | 2 CommentsOn a recent visit with the Outdoor Writers Association of California to the Sierra Nevada town of Auburn, the dark and light of the gold rush history sparkles its brick-faced brilliance in a stroll through Old Town.
Appropriating the Media Barrage with Negativland
Posted on April 22, 2016 | 1 CommentSound, video, and fury presented on the passing of Richard Lyons, also known as Pastor Dick, co-founder of culture-jamming avant garde music collective Negativland, the third member to die in the last year.
“Embrace of the Serpent” Film: Journey of Healing and Ethnobotany
Posted on April 11, 2016 | 2 CommentsEthnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, one of the most important plant explorers of the 20th century, served as a key inspiration in a recent film called "Embrace of the Serpent." In December 1941, Schultes entered the Amazon to study how indigenous peoples used plants for medicinal, ritual, and practical purposes. After nearly a decade of fieldwork, he made significant discoveries about the sacred hallucinogen ayahuasca. In total, Schultes would collect more than 24,000 species of plants including some 300 species new to Western science.
