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Mother Earth, Music and Consciousness

This E-Note is a stretch.  If it’s too much to bear then at least check out the Milwaukee music festival listing at the end of the Note which was created by a past client of Homebuyer Associates.

I recently returned from the Telluride Mountain Film Festival with an added day of hiking the Mesa Verde National Park. The film fest inspired me, the hiking intrigued me and the BP spill and daily reminder of how we treat the earth angered me.  All made me reflect on how we live on our planet.  Since we live in houses on our planet – and I again admit this month’s E-Note is a stretch – let me share some observations.  I’ll not proselytize. I will share.

The highlight of hiking the Mesa Verde was the 800-year-old housing ruins.  I marvel at the ingenuity of man (and woman).   The link below shows a village which was constructed under a canyon wall and housed maybe 25 families. Note the brick and mortar construction evident of today’s brick and mortar construction – except this one remains somewhat intact after 800 years.  The openings that appear to be windows are actually doors.  The average height of the Pueblo male was 5’-4”.

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Cliff_Dwelling.html

The heating and ventilation systems for these homes relied on the natural flow of air with stone deflection systems on the interior to limit the chance of fire and smoke damage.  The “kitchen stove” was an open pit in the middle of the living area.

Eight hundred plus years later I’m treated to the film “I Am” by Tom Shadyac  the director of “Ace Ventura”, “Liar-Liar” and “The Nutty Professor.”  I had a chance to meet and talk to the director who, after a bike accident, suffered post-concussion syndrome.

During his long recovery he had a good deal of time to think wherein he asked himself, “What is wrong with the world and how can it be fixed?”  To find the answer he interviewed a number of intellectuals and scientists.  The result, the documentary “I Am” is a fascinating study of the fulfillment of wants and needs.

In the end the director sells his 17,000-square-foot mansion, his private plane and Mercedes Benz and moves to a very nice trailer park in Los Angeles and bikes to work as often as not.  His site link is:  http://www.iamthemovie.net/

An interview with the director is noted below.

http://www.telluridewatch.com/view/full_story/7721991/article-Tom-Almighty–Shadyac’s-Doc-Debuts-at-Mountainfilm-instance=news_special_coverage_right_column

The “I Am” site is not up and running yet but Mr. Shadyac said he would be making the movie available to the public soon.  If the movie interests you, you may want to bookmark the site.

I saw no sign of plastic at the Pueblo sites.  Good thing because had the Pueblos used plastic it’s possible we wouldn’t be here today – we would have run out of room for garbage.  “Bag It”, a film from a Telluride, Colorado director traces the life of plastic bags and bottles.  It leaves one wondering….   The site below has a trailer for viewing but again, the movie is not yet available for release.  Each film premiered at Mountain film fest so we’re a bit ahead of the curve.

http://www.bagitmovie.com/

If you have time you may want to watch the Penn and Teller clip, “The Truth About Bottled Water” from last year’s Mountain film fest.   If you are short on time just watch minutes 4 through 8 and you’ll get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc

Finally, the link below is a list of music and site locations for tunes this summer in Milwaukee.  The list and link was created by a former client of Homebuyer Associates, Lois Wesener.  Lois gave me her permission to share this link and use her name.  Thanks Lois.

www.freemusicmilwaukee.com

So there you have it.  The oil may flow till late August (“drill baby drill”); the Pueblo housing, only 800 years old, may be going to ruin; our wants may be confused with needs by “Madmen”; and we continue to waste oil in the production and shipping of plastic water bottles while plastic bags float and fly. (The top ten countries that the U.S. imports from: 1. Canada, 2. Mexico, 3. Saudi Arabia, 4. Venezuela, 5. Nigeria, 6. Angola, 7. Iraq, 8. Algeria, 9. United Kingdom, 10. Brazil – Source U.S. Department of Energy.)

Think about it for awhile and then go listen to some music.  Consciousness may be raised in a number of ways and music and film are but two.

Thanks for reading.

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Homebuyer Associates
1835 N. Riverwalk Way
Milwaukee, WI 53212
Phone: 414-254-4129
info@homebuyerassociates.com