Leaving for Spain - and Poem.

In less then 24 hours I will be up and away to Spain on a fantastical journey through time and space. This poem stood out to me today because it spoke to me of anicca, as well as why I have focused so much time and energy on music. My being has been tempered like wood to create sound in specific ways and I choose to direct my energy to allow for my own body to help with evolution and the impermanence, allowing for sacred rhythm to exist forever, and in nothing at the same time. The devout to sound is consciousness of the unwritten, the rest note, hinged between two worlds, that precedes change and allows it.

The Door - By Jane Hirshfield

A note waterfalls steadily
through us,
just below hearing.

Or this early light
streaming through dusty glass:
what enters, enters like that,
unstoppable gift.

And yet there is also the other,
the breath-space held between any call
and its answer -

In the querying
first scuff of footstep,
the wood owls' repeating,
the two-counting heart:

A little sabbath,
minnow whose brightness silvers past time.

The rest-note,
unwritten,
hinged between worlds,
that precedes change and allows it.

Pleasant Revolution Europe - Justin Ancheta JOINS for Spain/France

Justin Ancheta is joining the pleasant revolution for Spain & France. Here's some information on what it's all about. To donate please email justinancheta7@gmail.com to support the efforts. Much love

The Pleasant Revolution Bicycle Music Festival Tour: Europe 2010

More than a bike tour or music festival, this is a new movement for an evolving culture of transportation cycling, renewable power, and greener music/community events. The bicycle music festival (BMF) merges a 1200 Watt pedal-powered P/A system, zero use of cars and trucks, and an eclectic crew of world class musicians and volunteers. The entire experience is all human powered by setting up our bikes on stage, connecting them to generators, and having audience members pedal to power the system.
Our tour will pass through the UK, Holland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, France, Spain, Portugal, and and everywhere in between. We are on a mission to lighten up the view of a sustainable lifestyle – from one of sacrifice and restriction to one of abundant health, happiness, and a deeper sense of connectedness: thus, it is the Pleasant Revolution.
The Idea
Our way of life threatens our way of life. “Bigger, faster, more” has run its course, leaving a mountain of environmental and social woes and a void of meaning. Into that void rides the Pleasant Revolution, a transformational way of working and living that restores environmental and cultural vitality and returns deep meaning to ordinary human experience.
These days, everyone is talking about global warming, about how bad things are going to get if we don’t change; and yet hardly anyone straight talks about what the necessary changes are, preferring vague generalities or cutesy “simple things you can do.”
In our explorations of bicycle lifestyle we’ve stumbled upon what we think will be a truth of the coming age: Yes we must change, in some areas drastically so—we must consume less, drive less, throw away less, hate less, fear less. And yet, while superficially this may look like sacrifice, the pursuit of these changes can actually lead to a life that’s more local, rich, humane, fulfilling and happy.
The Pleasant Revolution is a set of evolving ideas, a loose set of principles designed to help answer the question, “What next? How do I live fully and restore the planet in the process?”
Some principles of the Pleasant Revolution:

• slow is beautiful, local is profound
• sustainable living is richer
• we can free ourselves from the culture of fear that drives our consumerism and apathy
• fundamental change is necessary and possible
• to change the world, we must change our own consciousness and lifestyle
• humanity now, perhaps more than in any previous time, has an opportunity to create a new, saner, more loving world
• the bicycle liberates

The California/Mexico/Guatemala Tour – 2007
A 5000 mile musical road show, by bicycle.
On Halloween 2007, The Ginger Ninjas, and guest SHAKE YOUR PEACE!, launched the epic “Pleasant Revolution Bicycle Music Tour” from N. San Juan, California, heading 5000 miles down to the southern end of Mexico. There are no sag-wagons nor buses hauling our gear. Everything, including the 1000 Watt human-powered PA System, is hauled entirely on bicycle. The tour comes in the wake of the excitement at the first ever Bicycle Music Festival, Aug. 11, 2007, which announced the emerging bicycle-music movement to the world like a piano dropped from a 24th floor window announces itself to a San Francisco sidewalk: with life-altering momentum, filled with melodies, and destroying the oft-trod roads of old.
Music and bicycles—universal symbols of humility, openness and connection, elements of our common humanity, and paragons of low-tech sustainability—become vehicles for seeing the world at human speed.
From the Sierra Nevada through the suburban wastelands and urban decay of southern California, over the world’s busiest border crossing, across the wilderness and austere beauty of Baja, into the heart of megapolitan Mexico City, and down to the land of mystic pyramids, the team will play shows, record music with local musicians, and advocate for a leapfrog-style transition to sustainable transportation.

The team comes with the message that bikes are an essential and beautiful part of a sustainable transportation system and that Mexico still has the opportunity to skip US-style development and our suburbanized cult of the car.
Current Tour – Europe June-October 2010
A 5000 mile musical road show, by bicycle.

House in Mission for $589,000...

So how many people would have to go in to have $500 mortgage on a house like this? about 8 people. How many bedrooms (21st and York) - fixer upper? - not sure - but thinking at least 3 - plus a huge garage. If it can be a 7 bedroom home - then it would be worth it to fix up into something. Here is the number if anyone wants or has the cash/balls to make this one happen : 2676 21st Street, San Francisco 94110 - #831-212-0408 (Steve B). This is for home ownership which would be huge. As for leases: 510-658-5200 (Mission District HUGE) on Valencia between 18th and 19th street.


Anyone in on this?

Ecotopia ideas ---

I wanted to open a forum for people to post comments on concerns and ideas for revolution of a new sustainable culture that can arise from anywhere, hopefully multiple pockets from all over the world. I live in San Francisco and I hope that Both SF and Auburn (my home town), can both take part in this revolution of the people gaining their power back to be cultural dreamers instead of consumers of bullshit. I am not a pessimist these days. I truly believe that the future holds more promise then our past, for we have come from so many ugly ways of business and life practices, we have so much room to grow. Here are some ideas that Gabe has shared with me that should be expanded upon:

Pockets of 150 people (or less) communities that work to be self sufficient and any outside product is produced from conscious efforts to make the world a better place. SF Land Trust is an idea that creates money for the public (communities) to buy blocks of land and create low income housing. With the low income housing, efforts to improve health through basic ideas of consuming Quality Food, and educating everyone on what is quality and how to find health through our daily life practices. Education, Health Care, and direction of communities should all be discussed in the following months. So far through "non-profit" status, health care is a possibility at a cheap price if an entire community goes under the umbrella of the non-profit (which is what the community would be). Education can also be worked out with the public system by creating a 'home-schooling' that incorporates all the children of the community so that there is good interaction for learning between all.

I'm writing this real fast just to start the process - I pray that people add in comments, and ask questions, and start making not only myself, but everyone interested and ready to make a different lifestyle in the coming year. Now is the time and I'm pumped! Vamos!