Salmon Swimming Free – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 7/9

Visiting again with friend Kevin, Uncle Weed discusses the negative impact salmon fish farms impart on the local aquaculture. Specifically, Atlantic salmon living in pens attract hazardous sea lice, are unable to spawn, are fed with small fish imported from South America, and are dyed to appear more attractive in the supermarket. Further the politically controversial fish farms add little benefit to the local economy.

Downcast podload: Salmon Swimming Free – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 7/9 – 16:00

Participate
Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music
Theme: Bex – “Lonesome (Lost) Traveler”
Segue: Wm. Lenker – excerpts from “Heaven Holds a Place”
Interludes: Grateful Dead – “Throwing Stones”
Insert: Bob and Doug McKenzie (recorded from CBC TV) thanks to @JMV

Background
This is Part 7 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the tense logging blockades in early 1990s and compares current conditions through lens of deep ecology and sustainable development practices.

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Gear
I use Koss Sterophones, M-Audio MicroTrack II, M-Audio Solo audio interface, Griffin iMic and Sony Microphone – in case you were wondering.

Visit
Uncleweed.net for more writings, podcasts, paintings and photos & Follow along via Twitter @uncleweed and/or @choogleon

Friends of the Sound – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 6/9

At the headquarters of Friends of Clayoqout Sound advocacy organization, Uncle Weed talks with Kevin Bruce, a concerned citizen newly arrived in Tofino to work as the office coordinator for the FOCS.

With the sound of passing cars and buses, they discuss the economics of logging, stumpage fees, value of wilderness, conundrums of interconnectedness and property lines, the memorandum of understanding, logging on First Nations land and ways to help attain the Friends’ goal of ending all old-growth clearcuts on public lands.

Downcast podload: Friends of the Sound – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 6/9 – 26:24

Participate
Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music
Theme: Bex – “Lonesome (Lost) Traveler”
Seque: Wm. Lenker – excerpts from “Heaven Holds a Place”
Interludes: D.O.A. – “Only Thing Green” & Rose Cousins “One Love”

Background
This is Part 6 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the tense logging blockades in early 1990s and compares current conditions through lens of deep ecology and sustainable development practices.

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via RSS feed – iTunes – Email

Conservation and Clearcuts – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 5/9

After a few days of frustration and confusion, Uncle Weed sits down on the trail and digs into a variety of essays from Beloved of the Sky by Gary Snyder, Howie Wolk, and Michael Frome plus riffs on painter Emily Carr, love/hate with the commercialized Wild Pacific trail, shore pines, lighthouses, volcanic outcroppings, leaning trees, branches covered in lichen, and sub-division developments.

Topics include the US Forest Service’s traditional commitment to conservation and subsequent effects of policy after cozying up to industry, a plea for less waste and sustainable forestry, public expectations and costs of lost wilderness, and ponderings about whether recreation and wildlife matter.

Downcast podload: Conservation and Clearcuts – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 5/9 – 25:24

Reading
“Beloved of the Sky – Essays and Photographs on Clearcutting” – Edited by John Ellison, Broken Moon Press

* Howie Wolk “The Great Myth of Clearcut Forestry”

* Michael Frome “Losing Balance: Just how Multiple is Our Multiple Use?”

* Gary Snyder “Ancient Forests of the Far West”

Purchase “Beloved of the Sky” via Amazon

Participate
Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music
Theme: Bex – Lonesome (Lost) Traveler
Seque: Wm. Lenker – excerpts from Heaven Holds a Place
Interlude: William Elliott Whitmore – Lifetime Underground

Background
This is Part 5 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the tense logging blockades in early 1990s and compares current conditions through lens of deep ecology and sustainable development practices.

Subscribe
via RSS feed – iTunes – Email

Spieling from Whiskey Dock – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 4/9

While watching fishing boats ply the inlet, Uncle Weed checks in from Ucluelet to describe the cultural and municipal differences between neighboring villages of Tofino and Ucluelet after a thwarted drive towards Kennedy Lake bridge – the scene of the blockades – and examines Ucluelet’s ballyhooed reaction to Tofino’s shortage through the eyes of locals at the hardware store.

With Tofino out of water, the news media have arrived and the tourists are kicked out, so from Whiskey Dock, UW riffs about RV rentals, housing developments, mountains ringed with roads and clearcuts, park fees, logging trucks warnings, jurisdictional confusion about UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and park concessionaires, plus a tip on a head shop in town.

Downcast podload: Spieling from Whiskey Dock – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 4/9 – 19:28

Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music

Theme: Bex – Lonesome (Lost) Traveler
Seque: Wm. Lenker – excerpts from Heaven Holds a Place
Interlude: William Elliott Whitmore – Mutiny (on this ship)

This is Part 4 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed

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Tofino Dries up – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 3/9

After recalling beach camp-outs, rainy days and salmon feasts, Uncle Weed finds out commercial water usage is banned in Tofino and closing down for the tourist operations for the busy weekend ~ thusly he sets out on the trail from Half Moon Bay to Wickaninnish Bay to discover what’s up.

Includes riffs and spiels about local geography, traveler accommodations like zimmers, campgrounds, resorts, park concessionaires, permits, beach access, war memorial plaques, low impact tourism, priorities, RVs, parking tickets, municipal investment, float planes, coffee shops, boat docks and surf breaks, roaming bears, and shipwrecks in Florencia Bay.

Downcast podload: Tofino Dries up – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 3/9 19:44 – 17:27

Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music

Theme: Bex – Lonesome (Lost) Traveler
Seque: Wm. Lenker – excerpts from Heaven Holds a Place
Interlude: William Elliott Whitmore – Let the Rain Come in

This is Part 3 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed

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Meditations from the Blockades – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 2/9

Out on a trail, Uncle Weed shares a few lessons learned bearing witness to the blockade lines including thoughts about non-violence and pacifism, importance of respecting others, and the common desire for trees which the ecologists and workers unwittingly share. Plus discourse on ways to replace economic gains from industrial logging with value-added finished products and alternative sources of pulp and fiber including hemp.

Downcast podload: Meditations from the Blockades – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 2/9 – 17:27

Participate
Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music
Theme: Bex – Lonesome (Lost) Traveler
Seque: Wm. Lenker – Heaven Holds a Place
Interlude: Geoff Berner – Light Enough to Travel

Background
This is Part 2 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the tense logging blockades in early 1990s and compares current conditions through lens of deep ecology and sustainable development practices.

Subscribe
via RSS feed – iTunes – Email

Musings from Clayoquot Sound – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 1/9

Arriving at a campground between the towns of Tofino and Ucluelet, Uncle Weed sets out to explore the west coast’s unique environment and offer discourse on natural resource-based and tourism-based economies starting with recollections from the noted logging protests in the early 1990s with comments about blockade logistics from early morning pick-up trucks rides to posting bail to jangling guitars.

Downcast podload: Musings from Clayoquot Sound – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 1/9 – 17:04

Note: Audio updated from original version (removed dead air at end of clip)

Music

Theme: Bex – Lonesome Traveler
Interlude: William Whitmore Elliott – Sometimes our dreams float like anchors
Seque: Wm. Lenker – Guitar ramble

Subscribe

Via RSS feed - iTunes - Email

Participate

Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Background

This is Part 1 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the tense logging blockades in early 1990s and compares current conditions through lens of deep ecology and sustainable development practices.

Observations about Ecology and Economy – Rainforest Dispatches, Introduction

Introducing a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the tense logging blockades in early 1990s and compares current conditions through lens of deep ecology and sustainable development practices.

Throughout this 9 part series, he wanders the region and examines the tension between fishing, logging and tourism industries then adds ideas on promoting the economy while protecting the environment along with spiels on clearcuts, salmon, camping espresso, user fees and flak jackets.

Downcast podload:
Observations and Soliloquies about Ecology and Economy – Rainforest Dispatches, an introduction – 6:55

Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music
Theme: Bex – Lonesome (Lost) Traveler
Seque: Wm. Lenker – Heaven Holds a Place
Interlude: Geoff Berner – Light Enough to Travel

This is Part 0 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed

Subscribe:
via RSS feed - iTunes - Email

Finding Faith in the Folk at SXSW – Choogle on #63

In a couple joint sessions on the balcony at SXSW, Uncle Weed recaps seeing (and meeting) folk-hero Billy Bragg at Cedar Street Courtyard documentary film about Dr. Hunter S. Thompson called Gonzo, plus seeing Athens rockers The Whigs at Stubbs, New Zealand experiential phenom Liam Finn at the Alehouse, and Canadian legends Blue Rodeo and friends (including Tom Cochran) at the Smokehouse – before fading from party exhaustion and happiness. Plus expresses concerns about expensive water, cigarette marketing, “unofficial” festivals and extreme douche bags.

Perhaps you’ll consider Finding Faith in the Folk at SXSW – Choogle on #63 (.mp3, 31:43, 26MB)

Photo by tangentman – Arted up by Uncle Weed

Dedication:

The lonesome death of Rachel Corrie by Billy Bragg – download (MP3): The Lonesome Death of Rachel Corrie from the Guardian UK)

Music by:

Joey DeVilla AKA The Accordion Guy, Austin Convention Center
Billy Bragg from Cedar Street Courtyard, Austin, TX

Subscribe to the Choogle on feed or Chillaxin feed or via iTunes
Visit Uncleweed.net for more writings, podcasts, paintings and photos

More Podcast Goodness:

Postcards from Gravelly Beach – Literature Podcast – Feed – iTunes – Blog

Out n’ About with Uncle Weed- Travelin’ man vidcast – Show – Feed – iTunes

Ephemeral Feasthouse – Miscellanea & Notes – Blog – Feed – Podcast

Austin is Hazy, Austin is Weird – Choogle on #62

At SxSW Music in Austin, Texas – Uncle Weed recaps the previous day’s activities and thoughts while enjoying a joint on the porch of the “Hillary Clinton Suite” at the Omni Hotel. Bands include the Jacob Jefferies Band, Sons and Daughters (Glasgow), Henry and Invisibles, Lemonheads, Tiger! Tiger! and more.

Meanwhile at SXSW … Austin is Hazy, Austin is Weird – Choogle on #62 (.mp3, 13:53, 11MB)

Subscribe to the Choogle on feed or Chillaxin feed or via iTunes
Visit Uncleweed.net for more writings, podcasts, paintings and photos

More Podcast Goodness:

Postcards from Gravelly Beach – Literature Podcast – Feed – iTunes – Blog

Out n’ About with Uncle Weed- Travelin’ man vidcast – Show – Feed – iTunes

Ephemeral Feasthouse – Miscellanea & Notes – Blog – Feed – Podcast