Where’s My Biodegradable Shoe?!

April 17th, 2009

“Where’s my flying car?  Where’s my fucking jetpack?  Where’s my alien dancing girls?”  -From Doktor Sleepless, an ongoing masterpiece by Warren Ellis.

WE NEED NEW IDEAS

WE NEED NEW IDEAS (THERE ARE NONE)

For well over a year, I have been wearing worn-out shabby shoes.  I have been wearing these unwearables because I have been searching for shoes that are biodegradable, recyclable, or both (that is, they can be dismantled into their component parts, some being composted and others recycled).  With the possible exception of “Simple,” which is nearly impossible to find in Vancouver (and I will not buy something online that I haven’t tried on first) such shoes do not exist.

Now that my feet (and legs, and body) have started to complain loudly about the rotten scraps of fabric, rubber, and plastic that I wear on them, I am going to buy new shoes.  Dirty ones.  Non-biodegradable ones.  Because that’s all there is.

The world is built in a very stupid way.  Obviously I’m speaking in terms beyond shoes alone: nearly every product we can buy is still based on that nonsensical cradle-to-grave model.  Why the hell aren’t there more closed loops, already?  The book “Cradle to Cradle” explored that idea in 2001, and the concept of the closed loop has been around since long before then.

And yet, we still have the same old crap squelching through the same old rotting system, only to be left stinking in a landfill, never to biodegrade.  When will manufacturers account for the disposal of their products?  Amongst individuals, if a person makes a mess, they are expected to clean it up.  Why is it different for the companies that make the garbage we eventually have to throw away?  (Note: there is no “away,” there is only a country-sized maelstrom of plastic swirling in the Pacific Ocean.) Why can’t I return my worn out goods to the people who made them to dispose of?

I want to write more, but I’m literally inarticulate with rage.  We’re sitting here at the twilight of an era; night is coming.  Whether that night dawns on a green world or a scorched one will depend in no small part on what we finally decide to do with our waste.  This is bigger than shoes, of course, but wouldn’t it be nicely poetic if we began by moving forward, shod with sustainability itself?

Posted in Environment, Expectations, Photo, Street Art | 1 Comment »

Skater Eyes

April 11th, 2009
Playground

Playground

Two weeks ago, I bought a skateboard.  Before that purchase, I spent a grand total of about 5 minutes of my life on skateboards, spread over four or five separate occasions and probably about 10 years.  On all but one occasion I bailed horribly and hilariously.  The last time I tried was in Uganda, at the skate park my friend Brian helped to build.  It’s the only skate park in Uganda, and the only skate park in Africa outside of South Africa.  After my ridiculous fall, one of the local kids patted me on the back and said “Now you are Buganda!“  Tribal initiation by concrete.

But that’s not what this post is about.  Still, I recommend checking out the above links, because they’ve got a lot of rad photos of African kids really shredding.  They’re totally ‘core.  The last link is a video that Brian put together.

No, this post is about the “Skater Eyes” that I’m starting to develop.  I’ve always been quite aware of the “caps” that are put on the edges of curbs, benches, or handrails (basically they’re little knobs that stick out, preventing a skater from sliding along said edge with their board), but I’ve been less aware of generally skatable surfaces.  All this is changing, now.  The image I’ve attached was taken a couple years ago in Richmond, it’s the empty parking lot of the Lansdowne Centre.  I took the photo because I was disgusted at the magnitude of emptiness.  Parking lots kill communities and green spaces, while encouraging the use of cars (which also kill communities and greenspaces, among other things).  That particular parking lot takes at least five minutes to traverse.

While I still hold the belief that the last thing the world needs is more parking lots, I’m starting to suffer some cognitive dissonance - because such a giant parking lot would be a lot of fun to skate around on.  Since I am still not yet skilled enough to do anything more than push myself around in large circles, big flat surfaces like the Lansdowne parking lot are attractive, now.  My neighbourhood, which I love so much, is terrible for skating.  The roads are old, bumpy, and occasionally potholey.  The same goes for the sidewalks.  It’s got lots of hills.  It’s largely residential, though there plenty of grocery stores, restaurants, and shops just a couple blocks away.  The only parking lots are at schools, and are small, cracked, and often occupied (except on weekends).  In other words: you can’t skate here!  There’s nowhere to go!

Having a skateboard almost makes me wish that I lived in a residential neighbourhood in the suburbs.  Smooth roads, driveways, very little traffic, and giant parking lots.  The very things that I have grown to hate are suddenly appealing.  It must be true what they say: Skateboards really do corrupt the youth.  Maybe I’ll take up smoking, next.

Posted in Environment, Life, Photo, Vancouver | 1 Comment »

Everyone Must See “The Planet”

March 8th, 2009
Decaying Neighbourhood

Decaying Neighbourhood

I’m going to break with my format of non-curatorial blog posting because I really think this film is essential viewing.  I can’t stress enough how important it is.  It’s called “The Planet“, it was directed by Michael Stenberg, Johan Söderberg and Linus Torell.  It’s a documentary about the myriad ways that we are destroying the Earth.  I saw it at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2007.

It threw me into a deep depression that lasted for about three days before I snapped out of it (I’m making it sound fantastic, aren’t I?), and spurred me to stop “talking the talk” and actually act.  After watching The Planet, I resolved to heavily reduce my intake of meat (to one meal-with-meat a week at most), and to stop flying as much as possible.  That winter I took a bus to Toronto.  (For what it’s worth, there is little discussion about the environmental impacts of meat production in the film, and there aren’t many specifics about air travel - I knew all that beforehand.)  The film takes a “big picture” view of things, so it covers a lot of bases - but can’t get into a great deal of detail.  I knew some of what it covers already, but seeing it so artfully compiled into one place was a real shocker.  There’s even a brilliant section about the human response to all this impending disaster: denial.

I’ve been looking for this film since I saw it.  The reason why I’m posting about this now is because I just discovered that someone has put the film up on Youtube.  It’s in 9 parts, and is just over 80 minutes long.  For convenience, I’ll embed all the parts here, with all but the first part beyond the jump.  It’s good.  Please watch it, and show your friends.


(more…)

Posted in Environment, Film, Photo | No Comments »