rabble rouser hall of fame
dan price (joseph, or)
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| Photo: John Brecher, NBC News |
dan left behind stressful corporate life in the early 1990s and now lives on the grand total of $5000 per year, which is made in various ways, such as maintaining cemetery lawns and selling his visions of the world. “i used to work as a photojournalist with regular crazy hours. the problem is, people have their lives so organized they are slaves. basically, the average person spends a ton of their time working for very little money, just to survive. i spend very little time working for enough money to not just survive, but do what i love – draw and travel.”
after his attempt at commercial society with a high-interest mortgage rate, dan now spends his life in oregon living in a “human scale” hobbit hole in the wallowas that he built for for $75. it contains a room, a sauna and a garage for his bike. “i like being able to do what i want to do. i don’t believe in houses or mortgages. who in their right mind would spend their lifetime paying for a building they never get to spend time in because they are always working?” so, dan leases two acres for $100 per year. his genius book radical simplicity describes it all and his discontinued moonlight chronicles are, ironically, now being sold online for twice what price charged. so, buy directly from dan. p.o. box 109, joseph, or.
check more, starting with:
moonlight chronicles.com is chock full of the art he has created, his comic books, films made about him and his unique way of aof life that a lot of people can learn from as a how to for not caving into advertisers demands of the latest greatest junk to wind up cluttering your spare bedroom.
rabble rousers of the month
sherpa of mount everest
(eastern nepal)
the
historically nomadic sherpa of eastern nepal are expert mountaineers who have
been invaluable guides to the summit of mount everest. inexperienced climbers
particularly need help ascending the tallest mountain in the world. according
to the sherpa, hikers have placed unreasonable demands of sherpa. the april 18 avalanche on everest killed
fifty people, mostly sherpa who were assisting in an early morning transport of
gear. since that time, the sherpa have
been on strike, not aiding climbers.
many hikers have resided at basecamp until ultimately going home without
reaching the summit. two important
lessons for westerners to learn…
1. money
can’t buy everything. westerners may be
used to buying their way into or out of any situation, but for the sherpa no
amount of money is worth compromising health and safety.
2. mount
everest is not a vacation to disneyland.
families don’t just hike to the summit for a picnic. the major world peaks, like everest, are for
serious well experienced climbers.
obviously even a well trained climber would need some assistance,
but for the novice that needs a yellow
brick road to the top, maybe the best idea is to be satisfied with a day hike
to mount emily. it’s been 51 years since
jim whitaker became the first american to scale mount everest, and 61 years
since sir edmund hillary became the first person known to have reached the
summit. both of these famous moutain men
also needed sherpa and their skills to survive the treacherous ascent. while those were fantastic achievements to
aspire to, it is not as if every westerner must duplicate the feat. and certainly not as if it should be as
simple as buying a ticket to the top.
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| Jim Whitaker, with Sherpa guide Nawang Gombu in 1963. |
amanda
keon (dowagiac, michigan)
dowagiac
union h.s. junior dominic gant didn’t have enough funds in his school lunch
account (he was about $4 in the red), so his lunch was taken away and thrown
into the trash. his mother, amanda, contacted the schooland was told that they
follow the policy no matter who the student is or how much the student
owes. the school told her that there has
to be some cut off. amanda said there doesn’t have to be sucha policy at all and proceeded to pay off the
outstanding lunch balances for every student at the school. to pay off all 19
students in the red accounts, cost amanda just under $100. then, as per most draconian measures which
come to light, the prinicipal gave a politically correct response, saying that
dominic should have been able to ask permission to charge another day and
should not have been sent home hungry.
i’d like to hear from the next dowagiac student that gets denied but
doesn’t have a mother able to do what amanda did.
album of the month
clarke & the himselfs II (curly cassettes)
another reason why music is meant to be experienced live rather than on recording. of itself, the latest release from clarke howell isn’t the best thing ever recorded, but certainly not bad either. it’s got a little too psychedelic drony feel, but that matches the introspective messages from a soul trying to catch up with the fast world. the music is almost like if daniel johnston and elliot smith had started a jesus and mary chain cover band. whether or not such a prospect sounds appealing, anyone would be mesmerized by the live version of clarke and the himselfs, like he put on at ranchfest over memorial day. as one-man bands have continued to propogate at least since urban junior made it a fad four or five years ago, and probably even since ray davies and the rest of human history, clarke, as himself, pulls off a flawless live act. he plays a kick drum with a snare and a cymbal, while strumming guitar with a drumstick and singing some compelling lyrics. it’s not even some gimmicky type of thing where watching one or two songs is entertaining enough. every song keeps you hanging around for one more. his cassettes only have about 7 or 8 songs, when you want to keep hearing more. here’s a side note for commercial viability. if you’re planning an event with a shoestring budget and having a tough time coming up with anything to interest people, maybe try hiring clarke and the himselfs. since he’s only one guy, i would bet he costs a little less than a full band. plus, when people are bored with your under-planned event, they will be blown away by the mystique hiding behind the songs and the showmanship. people will always remember what a hit your event was.
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