Cob: slideshow tour report & thanks

[Robert Bolman]

  Hi Everybody,

Since February 17, I've done 48 slideshows from British Columbia through
Washington,
Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and back through the
S. F. bay
area.  I'm now at Camp Latgawa in southern Oregon awaiting the start of the
Natural
Builders Gathering.

People continue to enthusiastically support my message of environmentally
appropriate
building along with an awareness of the poor distribution of the world's
resources.  The
bottom line is that we're doing our souls a disservice by focusing solely on
environmental
issues and conveniently ignoring the social issues that are standing there
in front of us.
Thus, my hope is that we shall ultimately not only build natural, healthy
housing, but that
we shall also choose to live simpler, less consumptive lifestyles in the
hopes that other people
elsewhere in the world can simply have food, education and healthcare.

The extremely positive feedback that I've gotten from people on this tour
has made me feel
emboldened to take on two other projects.  I want to turn Natural Building &
Social Justice
into a book (a "coffee table book").  Any ideas for sympathetic publishers?
I also want to
create a whole new slideshow that will pick up where Natural Building &
Social Justice
leaves off.  I want to talk about human consciousness, economics and
democracy.  I want to
set it to music and walk a wavy line between education and performance art.
But first, I'm
going to build something.  I'll be discussing my triplex project soon on the
greenbuilding list
serve.

For a full description of Natural Building & Social Justice, please go to
www.efn.org/~robtb

My last tour report was made on March 22 from San Francisco.  Now to give
some idea of
the scope of the tour since then and to give proper thanks to the many
activists that have
worked so hard to have my presentation seen by people in their communities,
I'll follow with
a detailed & chronological list of events, credits and stories from March 22
onward.

Thanks to everyone,

Robert Bolman
Camp Latgawa, Eagle Point, Oregon, April 26, 2000


Thanks to Tom Barrett of Chico for setting up a nice presentation in the
intimate
surroundings of a cohousing community there.  Also, thanks to a very
impressive straw bale
builder (whose name for the life of me I can't remember).  She took the time
to show me
around a beautiful project she had just completed.  Wonderful work!

At risk of sounding ageist, sexist and "hairist", I must say that I was a
little dubious when I
met the organizer of events in Grass Valley and Nevada City to see that she
was a 23 year
old woman with blue hair.  But the girl kicks ass!!!  Samantha Hinrichs set
up two excellent
events in two days that were attended by a total of 150 very enthusiastic
people.  I was taken
by the warmth, and sense of community in the foothills of the gold country.
Thanks very
much to Samantha and J at ck's Internet Cafe in Grass Valley and to Samantha's
Mom and
Dad that put me up in Nevada City.

Thanks toBob Banner of Hopedance Magazine (which I highly recommend) in San
Luis
Obispo, CA.  Bob put on another excellent event in SLO (I was there last
year).  Thanks to
Steve McGrath for having me on his radio show.

Thanks to Wes Roe and Margie Bushman for putting on another event in Santa
Barbara,
CA.  Both times now, they've known how to pack the Community Environmental
Council's
Gildea Resource Center with a big, enthusiastic crowd.  Thanks to Nate &
Kate in Santa
Barbara for putting me up.  It was fun meditating with them.

Thanks to Dave White for setting up two events in Ojai at the Happy Valley
School.   One
event was in the evening for adults.  The following day, I presented to the
students.  I'm
reminded that I need to get into more high schools.  Thanks to Suza Francina
(the Mayor of
Ojai) for putting me up at her house.  Ojai is blessed with the most
wonderful major I can
imagine.  I wish I lived there.

Thanks for Emiko Peterson for organizing an event at The Lyle Center for
Regenerative
Studies at Cal Poly in Pomona, CA.  I got to eat and hang out with the
students and then
sleep on a really nice couch.
While in the area, I went to the Russian Village neighborhood of Claremont
where some
decades ago, a contractor built a bunch of tract houses our of recycled
concrete chunks.
Totally cool!

Thanks to Joyce Crosthwaite for setting up an event in a big, fancy office
building in San
Diego.  It was the offices of Sandag, a company that does planning & land
use consulting.  It
was a lunchtime event.  Joyce had warned me that everyone would have to
leave after 1:00.
But, everyone encouraged me to keep talking and they all stayed right there
for my entire 90
minute talk.  There were a couple of suits there.  I worried that I was on
"enemy soil", but
again, total enthusiasm.  If there are those that are offended by what I
say, they certainly
don't make themselves known.

After San Diego, I went up to spend the night at Lios Arkin's house at the
Los Angeles Eco
Village.  (Of course, the word "went" doesn't begin to describe what it's
like to travel
through that traffic at that time of day.  I kept sitting there in stop and
go traffic asking
myself, "Why do people put up with this?")  Lois is a real treasure working
to realize a
beautiful dream in the middle of what many people would consider to be a
nightmare.  God
bless her.

The next day, I headed east for an open house with Nader Kalili in Hesperia,
CA.  As many
of you know, Nader Kalili first became famous for his experimentation with
"ceramic
houses", but has since gone on to take his "earth bag" construction to great
heights.  He even
has NASA interested.  They're going to take velcro bags up to Mars and fill
them with
Martian soil and build soil (can't say earthen) domes which will then be
fired using a
magnifying glass placed in orbit.  Meanwhile, a little closer to earth, he
has the city of
Hesperia building an entire museum complex using earthbag domes with an
entry made out
of various colors of (fired) bricks stacked into an exquisitely beautiful
dome with stripes,
patterns and windows.  Nader is one of those visionaries that you have to
admire for having
taken his vision so far.  My only regret is that amid his vision for
building housing for people
all over the world out of earth filled bags, he didn't seem too interested
in addressing the
issue of the thermal performance of the material.

I then headed to Hemet, CA where Rene & Shauli Rosen-Rager and their son,
Yoni (sp?)
graciously put me up in their house for three days.  They treated me
wonderfully.  We went
on a great hike where we encountered a rattlesnake!!!  They organized a
slideshow event in
Hemet and then we had Pizza afterward.  Thanks to Rene, Shauli & Yoni.

I didn't have anything set up in Phoenix, AZ which worked to my advantage
because I was
able to meet up with Tom Haun, Jessica (?) Haun, David Eisenberg, Tony
Novelli, Steve
Loken and others.  Steve Loken was speaking that night as part of a
sustainable building
speaker's series.  It was fun to watch someone else do a green building
slideshow for a
change.  The following day I got to visit the Waldorf School where Jessica
works.  They
were in the midst of a 4000 sq. foot straw bale classroom addition.  Really,
the high point of
being in Phoenix was seeing Tom & Jessica's swimming pool which they have
transformed
into a natural ecosystem complete with algae, plantlife, various fish, and
waterfalls.  What a
great idea! and think of how many swimming pools could be converted to that,
thus
eliminating the use of God knows how many chemicals.  Thanks to Tom &
Jessica for
putting me up.

Thanks to Tony Novelli and David Eisenberg for setting up a wonderful event
in Tucson,
AZ (TO SAY NOTHING OF THE CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT WORK THAT
THEY'RE DOING TO CHANGE THE BUILDING CODES).  There were about 60
people there including the Godfather of the U.S. strawbale revival, Motts
Murman (sp?)
Tony & David took me and a friend to the best Mexican restaurant in Tucson,
we toured the
historical adobe barrio and we had lots of fun discussing the absurdity of
people spending
$500 per month to cool their homes during the summer months.  Thanks Tony &
David!!!

>From there, it was my great pleasure to head to Elgin, AZ to visit Bill &
Athena Steen.
While Bill & Athena scoff at this suggestion, I can think of no one else
that is doing as much
as they are to improve straw bale construction.  Between their hectic
workshop schedule,
research & experimentation and their work in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, the
Steens are of
tremendous value in the Natural Building movement.  Thanks for cooking a
wonderful
dinner, Bill and for putting us up in your home.

Then, from one set of valuable Natural Building movers & shakers to another,
I headed to
the Black Range Lodge in Kingston, NM where Catherine Wanek, her husband
Pete Fuste
(sp?), Mark Piepkorn and numerous other staffers publish The Last Straw and
host various
Straw Bale and Natural Building gatherings.  Catherine & Pete put us up for
two days
during which time I got to see a lot of natural building and take some nice
hikes.  Thanks to
everyone at the Black Range Lodge.

Thanks to Regan Murray and Ben Lutes (sp?) of the New Mexico Solar Energy
Association
for setting up events in Albuquerque and Santa FE, NM. While the Albuq.
event was nicely
attended, the Santa Fe event was packed with about 90 very enthusiastic
people.  Good job
you two!  Thanks!  Thanks also to Amy Bunting for putting me up for two days
in her
beautiful solar (Santa Fe style) home.  Before leaving town, I got to see
the Andy
Goldsworthy exhibition at a Santa Fe Art Museum.  Talk about Natural
Building!!!

>From Santa Fe, I went up to Pueblo Colorado, where Paul Hurtado set up an
event at the
University of Southern Colorado.  Thanks Paul and thanks to your Mom & Dad
for putting
me up in the family home.

Next came Boulder, CO where Robyn Lawrence of Natural Home magazine set up
an event.
I had fun hanging out with Robyn and her husband, Matt.  It was fun seeing
Boulder's
downtown pedestrian mall which actually works unlike the utter failure of a
downtown
pedestrian mall in Eugene where I live.

The drive from Boulder to Carbondale is spectacular - especially the drive
through
Glenwood Canyon.  These dramatic, vertical rock faces go up 100 plus feet
defining the
canyon like an enormous room.  There is a human attraction to that feeling
of enclosure.
Thanks to Mike Woelke and Mindy Kittay for putting me up in their home near
Carbondale.
After sharing my presentation with them, we had a nice talk about Waldorf
Schools.
Apparently, there's also a Waldorf School in Carbondale that is building
straw bale
classrooms.

Thanks to Bill Hunt for setting up a presentation in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Bill took me to
the Mormon Temple at the center of the city.  Quite a place!  Driving west
out of Salt Lake
City, I was taken with the Bonniville Salt Flats.  For many miles in all
directions, it's flat as
a pancake, with NOTHING growing and made of salt.  What a bazaar, other
worldly place!

Well, it's sad to say that I had no slideshows set up in Nevada - although I
did make a
contact in Reno for next time.  Las Vegas is on my list, too.  They need me
there.  Reno was
bazaar enough.  One casino advertised a 48 ounce margarita for $3.75.  Oh
boy!

Once back in California, Zach Helmberger with his planning instructor, Diana
Salazar set
up a very nice event as San Jose State University - complete with Pizza!
Thanks Zach &
Diana.

Thanks also to my good friends Graeme Jones and Bea Garth for putting me up
twice in San Jose and keeping my mind very stimulated with their vision of
"spiritual socialism".

Thanks to Mary Beth Brangan and her husband Jim for setting up an event in
Bolinas.  I
never understood that Bolinas has the distinction of having fought for the
right NOT to have
signs on the main road indicating where Bolinas is.  No wonder, it's a real
neat community.
Jim & Mary Beth are doing great work.  They're videographers presently
working on a
documentary on the danger of cellular phone use.

Thanks to Natalie Peck for setting up a very nice event in Petaluma, CA.
Afterwards they
had a party at the studio of photographer Scott Hess (where I also spent the
night).  Scott
lives in what used to be a convent.  It had the curious combination of being
monastic and yet
"artsy".  It was one of the more pleasurable "social events" of the tour.
We talked and
talked.

Finally, thanks to Michael Moore Jr. and other students at Humboldt State
University for
having me present a keynote talk and a slideshow for their Earth Day
festivities.  They put
me up at the historical Hotel Arcata on the downtown main square in Arcata,
California.
That evening, with the final presentation of my two month slideshow tour
behind me, I was
walking along with a great feeling of relief and happiness.  I looked down
and found a $100
bill on the sidewalk.  What a sweet little gesture!  God said, "You've been
doing good work,
Rob.  Now here's a little something for you." (At least that's what I like
to think.)