Tuesday, September 16, 2008

"young hearts should explode from all the lies they've been told"


The Juniper: Summer 2008
Originally uploaded by juniperbug
I finished the summer supplement of The Juniper #10, just like I promised I would. It's mostly pictures - kind of like a picture diary. It just shows what I've been up to this summer. You should get yourself a copy. Just send a stamp or a nice letter or some sort of trade to me:
Dan Murphy
PO Box 3154
Moscow ID 83843
USA

Also, I am back on the air again. A new semester is in full swing, which means a new schedule of radio shows at the student radio station (KUOI 89.3 FM). My show is called The Vegetable Patch, and it airs every Tuesday morning (until the end of this semester) from 6-8:30am pacific time. You can listen online at www.kuoi.org

I gave myself a paper cut today trying to open the envelope that held the brand new issue of Zine World. Consider that a plug for one of the best zine review zines around. (Plus they said that I am friendly and unpretentious. At least somebody thinks so.)

Okay, that's all.

Friday, September 12, 2008

"if i could get anything done, maybe i'd hold still"

I read a lot, but I don't read books much. I read zines. However, recently something came over me, and I decided to read a book. And I even read it in less than a month (the last book I read took me at least a year to finish). It was pretty short though, but who's keeping track?
The book I read is called Biodiesel Power by Lyle Estill. In it, Lyle talks passionately about his experience with the biodiesel movement and community. He began as a backyard brewer and evolved into the founder of a biodiesel co-op (called Piedmont Biofuels) and a prominent voice for the biofuels industry. Certainly biofuels are not without controversy, especially these days with all of the handouts and subsidies offered by our current administration to Big Agriculture and Big Oil for their participation in biofuels (and of course the moral dilema of using farmland to grow fuel instead of food), but Lyle understands sustainability, and his passion for biodiesel is rooted in that. That's what makes his views so intriguing and relevant. I highly recommend this book and will soon be reading Lyle's other book, Small is Possible, which I'm sure will be just as good, if not better.

A quote from the final chapter:
"Biodiesel is great fun. It's empowering. Nothing feels better than tooling down the highway with the knowledge that you are free. Free of Chevron. Free of Mobil. Free of George Bush. Free of the Saudis. Free of the whole sorry lot. I realize full well that hydrogen is the place to be, but I'm stuck on vegetable oil. It's here now. It works. It's renewable. It's sustainable. It smells good. It creates jobs in the United States. And there is no war required to get it."

Bonus quote:
"I find myself unwilling to abide sheer stupidity."

Also, check out Lyle's Energy Blog.