Why I should go into documentary photojournalism:

Sustainable development and green building are going through what could be called a movement. We have seen attention and focus being diverted into an area that was once looked upon as “kooky” or “quirky” by many of those who would popularize it today. I remember my elementary school bus driver Mr. Westervelt, and how my father used to poke fun at him behind his back for having a passive solar house he built himself, and a potter’s shed, and so on and so forth.

They were next door neighbors, and so it used to drive my father, the staunch conservative neat freak, up the wall to see Mr. Westervelt jogging by at age sixty something in his short shorts and tee-shirt and wave and smile, probably knowing the ridicule coming his way. My father, short, chubby, Budweiser, tan, would polish his Corvette or whatever and say “there goes the Sierra Club” or something like that. I guess it speaks to my dad’s character that just saying that he was in the sierra club was insult enough.

Bob lived a natural life out on the lake next door to my father. He kept his property heavily forested and pretty much natural and untouched. His lot was ideal, a peninsula with a beach facing the main channel on Lake Lanier and a nice cove to put a dock on the other side, the peninsula serving as a break wall. My dad, who is a builder, had always been chomping at the bit to get a hold of the Westervelt’s place. It was an eye-sore to him. It was a calamity colliding with his neat and tidy and sterile environment he had created across the cove. Finally one day Bob’s wife fell ill; they were too old to live out there, and they moved into a senior’s community. My dad swooped in.

Immediately he began cutting down trees. He tore down the potter’s shed first thing. In its place he built a very nice stone guest house. It had a full day-light basement with a roll-up steel door. My dad never did anything half-ass, especially when it came to his own place. That’s right; he intended to move next door when this project was done. The lot was that nice. At any rate, the old Westervelt place, the tribute to the sixties and the naturalists and Buddhists and would be practitioners of civil disobedience was all but erased. All that was left was the old house that Bob built himself. The old passive solar home, big grey deck out front with lots of glass and straight lines and that seventies feel, that architectural movement stamped in time whenever you walk into a place and you automatically know within a couple of years when it might have been built.

To take care of the house, my dad arranged for the fire department to come down and do a practice fire. I wish I cold have seen it. I was out at sea. They said it was cool. All my dad’s friends were there, and he had a cooler of gator-aide for the guys on the squad, and another one of Bud for his Buds. Later he threw up a McMansion. It was enough to make you sick really. It had everything expensive and gaudy. Every time I pull up I kind of get sick to my stomach when I see the gas light burning, just burning for no reason, out in front of his huge four car garage where he keeps his four expensive and not very efficient cars. It is a difficult thing for me to stomach…really. But I will have to give him one thing.

When they were getting ready for the controlled burn, they had to go in and inspect all the attic spaces, crawl spaces, anything they could to make sure they knew what was going to happen when they lit the place. They never found anything illegal or unusual. What they found was mold. I don’t know the specific type, but what I do know is that Mrs. Westervelt’s health and mental clarity returned to her after they moved.

The point is, despite Mr. Westervelt’s good intentions to build a house that would be more environmentally friendly and cost effective and so on, he ended up with a sub-standard domicile that grew a toxic mold that ended up taking years of cognizant and healthy life from his dear loved one. Now, in place of his old homestead, is this gaudy monstrosity of a thing with a pool that overlooks a groomed landscape…but, it has Hepa filters, built-in vacuum systems, well designed HVAC and structural ventilation, and many other details not available to the Westervelts back in the day like special mold resistant sheet rock for the bathroom. There is little or no chance, and probably some kind of guarantee, that nobody will ever get sick in the house my dad built.

My dad works for a large production home builder. He has built those McMansions as spec houses on the side for twenty something years also, sometimes whole neighborhoods of them. Like I said, he is a staunch conservative when it comes to politics. He is all about money, and big business. The funny thing is that now I see him possibly embracing some of the liberal principals he once ridiculed in the Westervelt’s next door. Why? They are all saying it, and it is no mystery. Money. He would have a much more difficult time moving a McMansion now than ever before. His last one was a squeaker and the market has gotten worse since. As far as production home building is concerned I don’t think there would be any better option for any of the competing companies than to offer green building options such as solar water heating systems, passive solar heating, photovoltaic panels, and natural lighting options like skylights and solar tubes.

It is an exciting time for those with the good intentions, cause here come the ones with the money; ready to swoop in and make more money. It is the collision of these two powerful forces that is causing a movement. A historical, architectural, technological, philosophical, political, wonderful, difficult movement is happening as we speak. As in any movement, it is important that people who are motivated in that direction be educated to properly and completely document the event.

I am an engineer. What does that say about me? My politics? Doesn’t matter really. I think my calling is to document. Like I said, I see virtue on both sides of the fence, as well as folly. I honestly feel like the best possible thing I could do to help out would be to bring this to everybody’s attention. How? Documentary photojournalism would be my choice, but then again that choice is personal also, almost as if it chooses you. I got into black and white photography on my own simply because my old job took me to exotic ports all around the world and I wanted to have good photos to show people. I’ve always believed in my own ability to learn new things so I set out to learn it and I did. Writing on the other hand is the natural ability I have been blessed with. It has been my way of coping with world I guess. Whatever it has been, what it has become is a passion.

So what about being an engineer? Well…that’s a fluke really, but I have seen the world because of it, seen it a good couple of times. And I have grown fascinated by my field. I’ve always been a good engineer on the ship, hard working, getting along with the other crew and all that, and paying good attention to detail. I have always been able to get to know a new plant in a short period of time, and the longer I have sailed the easier it has become. I am also a good welder, pipe fitter, and fabricator in general. These skills have spilled over into my personal life, and my own quest to eventually live on a modern day Walden Pond. I am experimenting with soldering photovoltaic cells into arrays. My goals are to be able to purchase the parts to make my own panels, and TIG weld the frames out of aluminum; then add them monthly to an array attached to a grid tie inverter using the proceeds from the North Carolina Solar Power Initiative to fund new panels. The house I live in with my wife and son happens to have an oil furnace with a passive heating system throughout. This only tempts me to fabricate my own passive solar heating system and tie it into the house’s existing system. If I get really ambitious, and a little money in my pocket, I plan to use a combination of aeroponic gardening, solar tube lighting technology, and fiber optics to try and make produce grow in my kitchen. I’ll tell ya, a guy like me with four months vacation after four months work can really come up with some crazy stuff.

Even though I have grown fond of my engineering background, I am still a documentarian, an artist if you will, at heart. Though this seems to be a strange combination, for me it could not only be convenient but in light of the current movement toward sustainable development it could prove to be the perfect combination. My background, including my personal exploits and interests, lend themselves nicely toward my being an effective photojournalist who could specialize in covering the new technology that is coming out all the time and present it in such a way as to not deter or otherwise frighten the consumer who would think these things might be too complicated, or expensive, to consider.

Not only that, but I could also focus on the politics of the situation, the old battles and hard feelings like in the situation I discussed above. My unique perspective goes beyond my knowledge and experience with engineering and technology, but also extends into politics; me being raised by two conservatives who hate each other, divorced, re-married, re-divorced, re-married, people, people, people…and eventually I found myself drawn to the more liberal minded people who seemed to pay closer attention to me, or be more concerned about my feelings. Who knows? Like I said, I have seen virtue and folly on both sides of the fence, and sometimes I don’t necessarily feel a strong connection or affiliation with either. So what does that make me?

Hopefully it makes me a journalist.

Okay, I was talking about that in the beginning post. I have been into the dead for as long as I can remember, and they have influenced my life as much as anything else. I just started posting stuff last week. Please feel free to delete all of that. Please delete it. I was talking all about how I felt like I was posting too much. Anyway, it has to do with the Grateful Dead inasmuch as I have to do with them. Again, please, delete it and accept my deepest and humblest apologies. As far as typing my life story, I'm sorry about that as well. My wife and I moved to a new place a couple of years ago and she got cancer. We haven't really met anyone here yet, and I just felt a little comfortable. Again, please delete it if you are a website admin.

Hozeman,
There are all sorts of topics on this site that aren't directly about the Dead but as Deadheads much of what we do is somehow connected to the Dead. There are places on this site about pets, food, movies, books, tv, the weather which very rarely if ever mention the band. So keep on keepin on.

f the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
William Blake

I just wanted to say thank you so much for all the good vibes and comments and everything. If there is one thing I need to learn it is going to be to take some negativity if I am going to put myself out there a little bit. I've been writing all my life, but to be honest I only started sharing anything with anybody recently. Since I have been posting things on here, and getting feedback from people who would otherwise read the kinds of things I am drawn to, I have changed my direction to better suit what I should be doing instead of keeping it under my hat and saving it for another day when other things get done. The Grateful Dead, the lot and the community surrounding the Dead, and especially the positive spirits of all my brothers and sisters out there have made all the difference in my life. I guess the time has come for me to start trying to give back, and you guys are my jumping off point, my test audience if you will. Thank you for letting me have Africa. I promise not to abuse it. The reason I chose it was that I thought nobody would care. I'm not from there, but so many important things have happened to me while I was there that it is a part of me.

So for now, reedchris, did you ever find out if Mary is pregnant or not? I've got an un-explainable urge to go make me a big ole crabby patty. Thanks you guys, it feels good to be one of you.

Put your good where it will do the most.
-The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test