Book Launch

I have to give a short talk about baseline data collection and rattan management as part of the book launch in Phnom Penh (see Finally A Book). Fifteen minutes and five slides. Wanted to share two of these before they get translated into Khmer. Lot of information, but the talk is mostly a teaser to promote the book. [NOTE: I go to Vientiane for a week first before heading to Cambodia. Very much looking forward to seeing all my pals in the Greater Mekong].

Finally, It's A Book

My book on the rattans of the Greater Mekong Region is finally out (see Almost A Book). Lot of good stuff here. The book contains: 1) an illustrated field guide to 65 rattan species (by the incomparable palm systematist, Andrew Henderson), 2) inventory and growth data from wild rattan populations in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, 3) a conservation assessment of rattan species, and 4) a relatively simple, participatory protocol for managing wild rattan populations on a sustained-yield basis.  Will be available in English, Khmer, Lao, and Vietnamese.

The book is being printed by the Agricultural Publishing House in Hanoi, and the official book launch is in Phnom Penh on February 13. I leave for Southeast Asia - for fieldwork and to give a talk at the book launch - the day after tomorrow. 

Pete Seeger, R.I.P.

Pete Seeger, folk singer, gentleman, anti-war protester, union acitivist, and environmentalist, died on Monday at the age of 94. The message inscribed on his banjo (shown above), pretty much says it all. This man was a real role model. [NOTE: Photo by Andrew Sullivan, NY Times. The inscription is said to have been inspired by the one painted on Woody Guthrie's guitar: "This machine kills fascists"]. 

Jion Susan Postal

My dear teacher Jion Susan Postal, resident priest and founder of the Empty Hand Zen Center, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She is currently under palliative care in her apartment at the zen center and may soon move to a hospice facility. Here is the official announcement from the EHZC Board about Susan's health. Words fail me at this point.

"A buddha is someone who sees the way things really are. When we see the way things really are, we see that we're all in this together, that we are all interdependent. A great surpassing love arises from that wisdom, and that love leads a buddha to wish that all beings would open to this wisdom and be free of the misery that arises from ignoring the way things are. Buddhas appear in the world because they want us to have buddha's wisdom, so that we will love every single being completely and protect every single being without exception and without limit - just as all the buddhas do."

-Reb Anderson
The Third Turning of the Wheel: Wisdom from the Samdhinirmocana Sutra

Thank you, Susan. Bows and bows of gratitide.

Happy Birthday, Mac

In 1984, I moved to the Peruvian Amazon. And Apple introduced the world to Macintosh. Both events certainly changed my life. This is what 30 years of insanely great looks like.  

Music IX

I have recently discovered and become a big fan of avant cellist Zöe Keating. With just her cello, a foot-controlled Macbook Pro that runs Ableton Live, SooperLooper and MidiPipe, a bank of MIDI pedals, live looping, and various plucks and strums and taps and slides - she produces an entire orchestra of sound. She distributes her own music sans record company, she lives in a redwood forest, she has red dreadlocks. There's a lot to like here. She has produced three recordings, Into the Trees, One Cello x 16: Natoma, and One Cello x 16. All are worth a listen.

[NOTE: Video shows her playing "Escape Artist" at TED in San Francisco]. 

[NOTE: Originally posted July 29, 2011].

[NOTE: She has recently changed her hairstyle and the dreadlocks are gone].  

[NOTE: She is currently playing the closing ceremony at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Go here to hear a "rough draft" of this piece]. 

Music VIII

Still another lovely musical offering from Iceland (see Heima). Ólafur Arnalds is a young composer who blends piano and strings into tasteful loops that evoke classical, pop, ambient- and a lot of other things. I really like his music. The video was made for the song "Haegt, kemur ljósiỗa" from his lovely new album, ...and they have escaped the weight of darkness.

[NOTE: Haegt, kemur ljósiỗ, I'm told, translates as "slowly, comes the light"].

[NOTE: Originally posted July 22, 2011].

Music VII

I am still working on my rattan growth article (see Verification). In between writing sessions, when I am reflecting on group means and Tukey-Kramer Minimum Significant Differences (MSD), I have been very much enjoying the music of Balmorhea, a minimalist instrumental ensemble from Austin, Texas. In particular, their 2010 release, "Constellations" (shown above). One recent review describes the music this way: This is music for the children of the pioneers lying barefoot in a grassy plain with the dome of a moonless sky spread out above them. This is music for a sailor staring out at the black ocean and longing for a foreign port. Indeed. Well worth a listen.

[NOTE: Originally posted on February 13, 2013. I have long since finished and published the rattan growth article. Go here for a copy (ForEcolMgmt306.pdf)].

[NOTE: See Live at the Church of the Incarnation for a nice trailer from a Balmorhea performance in Dallas].

Music VI

I very much enjoy the ethereal, minimalist, almost classical, music produced by the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Ros. The falsetto vocals of Jónsi Birgisson. The bowed guitar (e.g. at 1:46 in video). The waves of sound. This video is a trailer for Heima, a documentary film about Sigur Ros's tour of Iceland in 2006.

[NOTE: I can't help noticing that I have been listening to and posting a lot about Icelandic muscians. Given a total population of only about 320,000 people, Iceland certainly has an impressive density of creative musicians].

[NOTE: Originally posted on February 18, 2011].

Music V

Have recently been enjoying Virthulegu forsetar, a 2004 release from Icelandic composer and producer, Johann Johannsson. The hour long piece is divided into four movements played by an eleven piece brass ensemble, percussion, electronics, organs, and piano. It was originally performed and recorded in Hallgrimskirkja, a large cathedral in Reykjavik, and was honored as “the most memorable musical event of 2003” by Iceland’s foremost newspaper. There is a quiet beauty to this music. Johannson works with a recurring melodic theme, slowing it down and skillfully playing with the spacious interludes to gently transport the listener through profound shifts in mood and atmosphere. Virthulegu forsetar is a gem.