Mother Jones on Organic Farming

Over the past few years, I’ve become a lot more conscious of what I eat. It may have started when Brooke and I took up running a few years ago. Or maybe it was after reading Fast Food Nation, or seeing Super Size Me and Mondovino and Jamie’s School Dinners. Or maybe it’s because I work in the “food industry” now (sure, wine is a food!), and I see the different ways producers approach their work. Nevertheless, I try to pay more attention now, and when I can, I choose local and organic over the alternatives. I’ve been intrigued by the Slow Food movement for some time now as well.

All that as prelude to this: here’s a really good article in the latest issue of Mother Jones magazine, about an organic farmer in Virginia who refused to FedEx the writer one of his chickens. The article is actually an excerpt from author Michael Pollan’s new book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which looks fascinating.

God Laughs and Plays

Author David James Duncan has a new book out, entitled God Laughs and Plays. He calls it “a collection of what I call “churchless sermons” united by my belief that the way of life preached and embodied by Jesus in the Gospels is meant to be an example to Christians.” I’ve read his collection of short stories, River Teeth, and heard him read at a conference about ten years ago, and this new book intrigues me. The title is based on a beautiful quote from mystic Meister Eckhart:

Be as sure of it as you are that God lives: at the least good deed done here in this world, the least bit of good will, the least good desire, God laughs and plays.

Powells has a very interesting interview with him on their site.

Hot Docs 2006

Hot Docs 2006

The Hot Docs 2006 Poster (photography by Rannie Turingan)

I think this is my third year attending the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival. I like it because in comparison to the huge Toronto International Film Festival, it’s cheap, accessible, ego-free and consciousness-expanding. So once again, I’m off to see a bunch of real-life true stories (beware the following links: they’re to popup pages that have no navigation back to the Hot Docs site):

The festival takes place from April 28-May 7, and right in the middle of that is the huge wine tasting that I help organize every year. I am a crazy person.

You might notice that I’ve picked a couple of sports documentaries, two about soccer and one about running. In addition to those, in anticipation of the upcoming FIFA World Cup, the Goethe Institut is screening a series of films whose subject is soccer (football). In Toronto, they’re screening on Mondays during April and May, and I’m going to try to make it to a few of those as well. Good times.

P.S. I feel compelled to note that fellow GTABloggers Brett Lamb and Rannie Turingan are involved in Hot Docs as well. Brett seems to be in charge of all the print advertising, and this year, he recruited Rannie to take some great photos of directors that ended up on the poster. Excellent work, guys!

SXSW 2006: Blog Bubble Bursts

I’ve been back from SXSW Interactive for more than two weeks and yet I still haven’t posted my thoughts. The reason? Well, I wrote something that was very negative and I’ve been sitting on it. I’m going to post it now, unchanged, but I will add that my malaise seems to have been shared by a number of people. And it appears to be affecting a number of conferences, not just SXSW. I heard a lot of complaints that ETech wasn’t so great this year, for instance. And tech conferences seem to be sprouting up all over the place like weeds. All part of the new “Web 2.0” bubble, I suppose.

But before I post my depressing screed, I will say that I managed to have a pretty good time nonetheless. It’s just too bad that I only get to see some of these amazing people just once a year. For evidence of my merrymaking, check out my photos on Flickr. I’ve posted my photos from 2001 and 2002 on there as well. Ah, nostalgia!

Read on if you dare…
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