We Blew It!

That.. is what I call 4 and a half billion years of evolution in practise baby. Don’t knock it.

Six Degrees to a Global Nation

I’m prejudiced against racists!

MTV what have you done to me?

What does a belief in the earth offer humanity?

When we talk about belief we talk about valuing the earth in our everyday lives the way we value our family, friends and community.

At the moment, we live in a State of Separation. Our lives are lived separate from the reality of the earths systems, both physically and philosophically.

One could even argue that many global philosophies have evolved to such a point that the earths systems are considered primitive rather than grand, and that the painful reality of our daily lives necessitates the continued wearing away and outright destruction of the real world around us.

Out side of avoiding a global natural system collapse (one that becomes ever more real as we drive ourselves forward into the new millennium), what can the individual, the human community and humanity as a whole gain from (re)-fostering a real and practical value in the earth and in our place among its grand systems?

As I argued in the previous post, believing in the earth is about accepting, understanding and respecting the reality of the world around us and our place among it.

Every element that will ever be was created long ago at the dawn of the universe, and since that time, elements interacting have evolved systems - at first chemical, then physical and, over time, living.

The elements that are within you are the same that have formed the stars and the planets, the oceans and the mountains, the reptiles and the mammals, since the dawn of time. These elements are constantly passed between systems, to be used in different ways for different purposes.

In that sense, you are the universe, or more immediately, you are the earth. Valuing your place as part of it is thus basic real world stuff. It is not based on stories, or historical institutions or hierarchies. Not only is it scientific fact, It is physical, it is uniquely human and it is spiritual.

As a practical human belief system then, what does it serve?

If you’re going on a trip you’re gonna need some supplies if you know what I mean

The Written One Interview

Forgot to direct you lovely people to an interview I did with Tuuli - the right on dude from EnviroAmerica.

The interview was for Environmental News Online, and has been divided into 2 parts because, as we all know, I do tend to write far too much for a single blog post (it’s all a learning curve).

Part One. Part Two.

The most significant film of the new millennium?

Bit of a brash statement there I know, but stick with me on this one. I do not say things like this lightly. I’m a film lover, a filmmaker and I’ve studied and read plenty on the subject of film and its place in history.

I also despise (but can’t stop myself from reading) the latest polls published in the latest rag on the top whatever number of films of all time. Most of the time you feel these polls are designed merely to spark up Big Brother style cat-fight controversy. Boogie Nights and Moulin Rouge better than Schindler’s List? - p-leeeyazzz!

I am not talking here about the best or most popular film of the new millennium, but as the title suggests, the most significant. Significant films are the ones that changed things. The ones that led the way. The ones that marked a watershed between what came before and what followed.

So while the Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory may not beat even the latest Will Ferrell comedy for sheer entertainment value, it is no doubt one of the most significant films of all time. I don’t know anyone who has seen The Jazz Singer, but I can’t think of anyone who would deny its significance. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is unlikely to appear in the cabinets of your friends and loved ones, but those cabinets are no doubt filled with titles that owe a lot to its existence.

As with the latter, it is often hard to point out the beginnings of a certain style of filmmaking, one that eventually enters the collective consciousness. But the line can always be traced back to a movie such as this that ‘started it all’.

It didn’t invent itself out of thin air. It too had its own influences. But it used the new tools available to create something new and exciting; something that would itself greatly influence artists going forward.

And so it is with Zeitgeist: The Movie. However it does not just create a new genre or display new tools. It is far more interesting than that.

FRONT:

Pollution…

BACK:

Its just fuckin’ bad manners really isn’t it?