An Evolving Exploration into the Head, Heart and Hands of Energy Descent
Transition Culture has moved
I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
Book Review: Sanderson, E.W. (2009) Mannahatta: a Natural History of New York. Abrams, New York. 352pp
This is a truly remarkable book. The films of Woody Allen were sometimes referred to as being as much love poems to New York as they were love stories themselves. ‘Mannahatta’ and the project from which the book emerges, is a work which expresses such a deep love of place that I often found it quite deeply moving. It is an utterly extraordinary and beguiling work which, by looking both backwards and forwards, allows us to understand New York in a place that was previously impossible.
Michael Portillo passed through Totnes yesterday, filming part of his upcoming series of ‘Great British Rail Journeys’, which follows in the footsteps of George Bradshaw, the Victorian travel writer, who visited the town in the late 1800s. Portillo’s trip, which began in Swindon, took him to Dartmouth, then up the River Dart to Totnes, from whence he will head further west, ending up in St. Ives. A taste of Totnes was laid on for him, meeting and interviewing me, initially in Totnes High Street (where the level of interest and fascination was such that another location was quickly chosen), and then in St. Mary’s churchyard. We talked about TTT and the Totnes Pound, and then Michael and the film crew headed off to buy and then spend some Totnes Pounds, and get ferried back to the station by Pete Ryland of the Totnes Rickshaw Company, in one of the town’s biodiesel-powered rickshaws.
There really was nowhere else to be last night. Given the amazing amount of press coverage and the fact that this was the first urban complementary currency specific to an urban neighbourhood, Lambeth Town Hall was the place to be for the launch of the Brixton Pound. I arrived after a day of giving a talk at Google’s London offices, visiting Transition Tooting for a chat and a look around the place (thanks folks), and made it to the Hall for 6.30pm. The event started at about 7.40, having been warmed up by some singing local teenagers and a small steel band. Then, with the hall full to capacity, and hundreds of people crammed in around the walls, the event was underway.
Here is a great short film from the Unleashing of Transition Town Langport on April 4th 2009. As many of you will know, an Unleashing is a big public event which launches the Transition initiatives in question. Langport chose a different route to the big-public-event-with-speakers model that most places have used so far. The film provides a very useful document of day. Thanks to Transition Town Langport for making this, and for making it available, we need more like this. Transition Langport also benefit from having the best graphic designer of any Transition initiative that I have yet seen!
As I mentioned in my write up of the TED Talks, the two most extraordinary presentations I saw there were Itay Talgam (whose talk is not yet posted) and Emmanuel Jal. Emmanuel’s talk was extraordinary, uplifting, sobering and inspirational. By the end there was not a dry eye in the house. It has just been posted by TED, so here it is.
How might our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest march? This site explores the emerging transition model in its many manifestations
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This is a truly remarkable book. The films of Woody Allen were sometimes referred to as being as much love poems to New York as they were love stories themselves. ‘Mannahatta’ and the project from which the book emerges, is a work which expresses such a deep love of place that I often found it quite deeply moving. It is an utterly extraordinary and beguiling work which, by looking both backwards and forwards, allows us to understand New York in a place that was previously impossible.
Here is a great short film from the Unleashing of Transition Town Langport on April 4th 2009. As many of you will know, an Unleashing is a big public event which launches the Transition initiatives in question. Langport chose a different route to the big-public-event-with-speakers model that most places have used so far. The film provides a very useful document of day. Thanks to 
