Book Review: The Blood of the Earth: An Essay on Magic and Peak Oil

October 31, 2012

Phoebe says that despite her midnight coat and lambent eyes, she has nothing whatsoever to do with magic. Or peak oil. And for the record, she also scorns Halloween. What do magic and peak oil have to do with one another? Quite a lot, actually, if you believe the author, John Michael Greer. And if you read The Blood of the Earth: An Essay on Magic and Peak Oil you’ll probably come to agree with him, because in this book, as in all of his writing,...

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A Mystery Philippine Vegetable

Mr. Homegrown

May 30, 2008

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

9 Comments

...your carrots come from. I harvested for the camera, an unimpressive string bean and two small cucumbers. On a whim, I suggested that we visit the parkway garden that inspired us to plant our own. Just two blocks away, this parkway garden is the handiwork of a retired couple from the Philippines. As luck would have it, the couple pulled up during our interview. Julie (I’m afraid I can’t spell her last name) stepped out of her car and proceeded to g...

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Cooling with Beer . . . Cans

Mr. Homegrown

April 6, 2008

Appropriate Technology, Design, Water and Power

...doing something similar on the hot south side of our house, except with deciduous vines. That way, we’ll let light in during the winter and have a living shade wall during the summer. Perhaps we’ll grow beans and become Los Angeles’ Bean House. The Beer can house is located at 222 Malone Street in Houston, Texas and is lovingly cared for by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art....

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The Blue Bear

Mrs. Homegrown

September 9, 2016

Thoughtstylings

36 Comments

...s and 50/50 blend sheets. I think back on my groovy synthetic clothing, my bean bag, my Biggie comb, my Breyer Horses and my Barbies. It’s all buried somewhere now, part of the immortal treasures of the 2oth century, my own King Tut’s Tomb. My great-grandmother Caroline, on the other hand, was born into a world which did not know polyester or plastic. In fact, rayon and polyester don’t appear on the scene until the 194o’s, so she was over 50 when...

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Saturday Linkages: #quarantinecats

Mr. Homegrown

March 21, 2020

Saturday Linkages

...An overflowing pot of bean recipes Some guidelines for dealing with coronavirus in your home and community The Cloistered Garden Nassim Taleb on BBC4 on why this is not a “black swan” Some magazines I read: The Idler, The Baffler, Jacobin, Mortise and Tenon, Fine Woodworking, Fine Homebuilding ‘Honest Labour’ – the Column that Named the Book The Mystic And The Warrior Slavoj Zizek, Jordan Peterson and the Toilet Paper Candidate...

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