a blog and a vlog

I've got two websites to recommend to you. One's a blog and one's a vlog. A fellow blogger and Bush hater contacted me to inform me of his super sweet blog, and I think you should know about it as well. It's called Empires Fall, and it's true, they really do...today's empires are tomorrow's ashes.
The other website recommendation is probably one you already know about and have been visiting for months, but I'm a little slow when it comes to this interweb crap and didn't find out about this site until I saw an article about it in the current issue of Rolling Stone. It's a daily video blog called Rocketboom, and it's hilarious. Sometimes political, sometimes comedic, sometimes serious, sometimes goofy, sometimes nerdy, sometimes informational. There is something for everyone depending on which days you choose to view. I tend to like it all, but probably because I think that Amanda Congdon is so darn cute. Anyway, check it out.
So I don't exactly know how to make a links list like I have seen on other people's blogs, otherwise I would make one and include these sites. If anyone reading this could explain it to me in layman's terms, it would be greatly appreciated. Now get off the computer and go do something relevant.

Snow?!

Can you believe it? It's snowing outside. What's the deal? I was going to work in my garden today. There was even a community garden orientation scheduled with the garden coordinator today at 11pm. I have a feeling that it's probably cancelled. Anyway, I may not be doing any gardening this weekend, but I did post a couple pics of my plot on flickr so you can see what it looks like. It's a 10' x 10' plot in the northeast corner of the garden. I can't wait to actually do something with it. I did plant some peas and carrots in there three weeks ago, but they haven't come up yet. Again, what's the deal? Anyway, Happy Easter.

Counting Carbons

Have you ever wondered how much CO2 you are personally responsible for having emitted into the atmosphere? Well now you can find out. Just go to www.carboncounter.org and use one of their CO2 emissions calculators. There is an estimated calculator and an exact calculator. Once you're done with that, you can use your dollars to donate to groups that work to lower CO2 emissions and thus become CO2 neutral. That last part seems a little weird seeing how giant corporations throughout the world are allowed to do a similar thing (buy and sell their rights to pollute). However, you can at least see how much CO2 you are emitting and decide to do things that will lower that amount like riding a bike, using alternative (renewable) sources of energy, or even just turning off some lights. Global Warming is real, and former Vice President Al Gore even just recently wrote a book and made a documentary film about it (both book and film are entitled, An Inconvenient Truth). Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The Future of Food is Slow Food

I just watched the documentary, The Future of Food. It's all about how our food is losing its genetic diversity, thousands of varieties have gone extinct, genetic engineering and agricultural chemicals are taking over and the food supply is being controlled by a handful of corporate brats. It also discusses the erosion of the family farm and the hardships farmers go through when faced with evil agricultural companies like Monsanto. But there is hope: the organic and sustainable agriculture movement is growing and gaining ground and people are fighting back. Several countries including the European Union and Japan will not accept imports of our genetically modified food and farmers and citizens alike are standing up to seed giants. The future of food is a scary thing to think about, but the growing movement against GMO's and the corporate control of food brings hope. Watch this movie. (I rented it from Netflix, so I'm sure you can get your hands on it fairly easily.)
Also, I mentioned in my last post that there were things that I wanted to include in the latest issue of The Juniper but didn't have the space. One of those things was Slow Food. I wrote about buying local and buying seasonal and that's what the Slow Food movement is all about. It's a worldwide organization fighting back against the current fast food phenomenon. Quoting from its website, Slow Food "promotes gastronomic culture, develops taste education, conserves agricultural biodiversity and protects traditional foods at risk of extinction." There are chapters in over 100 countries and lots of ways to get involved. Check out Slow Food USA if you live here in America, or go to the main Slow Food website to find a chapter near you.

The Juniper #6: Out Now!

Just as I promised, The Juniper #6 is out in time for spring. You can go to my flickr account to see a picture of it if you don't believe me. This issue was a tough one; I had so much that I wanted to say and include, but alas time and space and funding are great restrictions so I had to cut a few things out... but don't worry, it's still worth a few minutes of your time. In this issue: houseplants (improving air quality and removing soil mold), the high cost of cheap food, buying local, seasonal foods, five acres to freedom, all written with much love and affection. So send your stamps my friends. One 39 cent stamp will do as long as you send it directly to: Dan Murphy, PO Box 3154, Moscow ID 83843. Or drop me an email if you lack resources or are particularly lazy: juniperjournal@hotmail.com

Map Yourself On My Mappity Map

Greetings dedicated readers of this tepid blog which is rarely updated and only mildly entertaining. I am pleased to inform you of a brave new step that I have just taken in the wide world of wires and satellite signals otherwise known as the interweb. I have just opened up an account at Frappr! and created a group for Juniperbug Publications. Frappr! of course is just another one of those blog/profile/photo sharing/friend gathering sites, but what is unique about it is that it has a map so you can see where all your friends live. Thus, what I would like all of you readers of my zines (Elephant Mess, The Juniper, et al.) to do is to go to my group page and plot yourself on my map. It's really easy to do, and it will only take a few moments of your time. That way I can see how well I am progressing towards world domination. I love maps and such, so this is definitely the site for me. Plus, you'll get to see where all of the other wonderful readers of my fine zines live and possibly even find a fellow reader in your hometown. Then we can all become a big group of geeky internet friends. Yeah!!!!

go here: www.frappr.com/juniperbugproductions

something new and two reviews

It's about time I tell you about the new issue of Elephant Mess. I finished it a few weeks ago, but I've been on vacation and such so I haven't really gotten the word out. It's the sixteenth installment and it's subtitled, The Bug Issue. All that really means is that the writing revolves in some erratic way around bugs and is accompanied by bug clipart. Bugs getting comfy on your couch and snug beneath your rug. You can order this by sending me a dollar bill or a trade or stamps or something else nice. You can mail your order here: Dan Murphy, PO Box 3154, Moscow ID 83843 ... or paypal money to me here: messyelephant@hotmail.com

now here are a coupla reviews:
Stoked on Spokes: A Community Resource Cycling Guide
A great little zine put out collaboratively by the folks at Pedal Play and The Purple Thistle Centre (both located in Canada). There are a couple of bike history pieces in here; the most interesting of which discusses the use of bikes during wartime. There is info on how to fix a flat, how to stay safe while riding, how to start up a Critical Mass bike ride and a great little fold-out section entitled "A DIY Punk Rock Bike Touring Guide" which will give you all sorts of great advice if you're like me and are planning a future long distance bike ride. Another awesome little piece promotes "celebratory activism." There is no contact info listed in this zine (besides the websites), but I just ordered it from Microcosm Publishing for a buck plus postage and you can surely do the same.

Ker-bloom! #56, Sept.-Oct. 2005
This zine comes with the companion zine, The Blackberry Bloc. That's because this issue of Ker-bloom is all about a bike trip that artnoose went on with her new friend Scott. They rode their bikes from Eugene, OR to San Francisco, CA in 11 and a half days, and due to the abundance of blackberry picking they did during the first part of the trip, they started calling themselves The Blackberry Bloc. Ker-Bloom! gives a brief written overview of the trip all printed in letterpress, which if you're familiar with artnoose's zine you know that that's how every issue is done. The Blackberry Bloc is four times the size of Ker-Bloom! and it contains a day to day recount of the trip, handwritten with a hand drawn map for each day/page. The story is told by pointing out certain places on each map and telling about the adventures/misadventures that took place there. The final page includes lists of the "merit badges" each one of them received for the trip and other lists derived from events that took place on the trip. Each zine costs $2 (or $4 for both). You can order them directly from artnoose by mailing your money to PO Box 3525, Oakland CA 94609. I ordered mine from Whammy! Industries.

Carbusters #25

This is a well-established bicycle advocacy magazine out of the Czech Republic. For their big 25th issue they decided to change their name to a conjunction (it used to be Car Busters and now it's Carbusters), but that's beside the point. This magazine covers bike advocacy happenings around the world and is perfect for anyone excited about bikes and their potential to change the world and save our cities (and our sanity). It's a positive arena created to discuss and promote the creation of carfree (or at least car-lite) cities. It's not out to alienate or attack cardrivers, but simply to educate people about the destructive and unsustainable nature of cars and to suggest ways that people can improve their lives and their cities by embracing alternative and more enlightened forms of transport and by working towards improved and more accessible public transportation. My favorite article in this issue details life on car-free islands around the world. It mainly focuses on The Toronto Islands in Canada, Mackinac Island in Michigan and car-free islands in Croatia. There are also reports on actions that took place across the globe in celebration of World Carfree Day 2005 (Sept. 22) and an article chronicling a Critical Mass bike ride in Budapest that was 30,000 bicyclists strong. This magazine is ad-free and can be purchased for $4 at finer independent bookstores near you or you can contact them here:

Carbusters
Kratka 26
100 00 Prague 10
Czech Republic

editors@carbusters.org
www.carbusters.org

Anchor Archive Zine Distro

This is a zine distro that you should know about if you're at all interested in gardening, sustainable living and DIY projects/ethics. It's run by Sarah Evans in Halifax, NS. Sarah does the zine, Root, among other zines and things, and seems really excited about promoting the independent press in her neck of the woods. It also seems like she's living the life that the zines she distributes are about. So far, I've only ordered a few zines (zines about vermicomposting, geodomes and dandelions), but there are plenty of zines that I'd like to order. The catolog includes zines about greywater, self-defense, herbal medicine, DIY gynecology, knitting, screenprinting, zine making and more. There is even a zine entitled "Knit Your Own Beard." Many of these zines are written by Halifax residents, so Sarah is keeping it local which is awesome.
write to her for a catalog and more info:
Sarah Evans
POB 33129
Halifax NS
B3L 4T6 Canada
anchorarchive@gmail.com

Oh, and by the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Making Stuff and Doing Things

A Collection of DIY Guides to Doing Just About Everything
This is a review that I should have posted up here months ago, but never got around to it. Surely you have heard about this book by now. It was put together by Kyle Bravo who runs Hot Iron Press (which very unfortunately was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina) and put out by Microcosm Publishing. It was several years in the making, and it seemed at times like it was even pretty close to being shelved, so I'm really glad it finally came out. This a 240 page book which just like its subtitle suggests: gives instruction on doing just about anything you can think of all by yourself. Rather than list everything that this book can teach you (which would take up way too much space), I'll just list a few of the chapter headings: self-education, self-publishing and producing, arts & crafts, clothing, outdoor survival, gardening, food & drink, travel, health & body, pet care, transportation, etc. There really is something for everyone in here, plus everything is explained really well and there are lots of pictures and diagrams to help you out. I made my first screenprint with the help of this book, and it turned out great.
While several of the entries were written by Kyle, tons of other people donated stuff to this book as well, and everyone receives credit for their contributions. I was even able to help out by contributing something that was in one of my past zines (even though it wasn't something that I actually wrote).
Normally, I would say order this directly from Kyle, but I'm not sure if he has a permanant address right now due to being misplaced by the hurricane. Either way, you can still order it from Microcosm Publishing, which is definitely worthy of your business. The cost is $10 plus shipping.
Stay in touch for more reviews...

I went and got myself all edumacated.

This semester of school is officially over for me. Wahoo!! Now, I have nearly a month off for Christmas (Ha! I said 'Christmas') break. I'm working on a new issue of Elephant Mess that I hope to have done within the next coupla weeks, plus I want to work on the book I am writing as much as I can....and if I have time, I'll start working on the next issue of The Juniper. I'll definitely get some new reviews posted up here real soon as well. Meanwhile, Elephant Mess and The Juniper are being distro-ed by a brand new distro (it just opened this month) called Sweet Pea Zine Distro coming to you live and direct from the state of Washington, so check it out...and order some zines. Give the girl some business.
Keep checking back cuz there are more posts coming right up.

Oh! December!

So it's been over a month since I've posted anything. Even longer than that since I posted a review of anything, although I have several things that I've been meaning to review. I told you that school was going to hog me all to itself and not give you a piece. I can't believe it's already December. It's snowing like a madman out there. I'm serious, it's really coming down. It's been years since I've seen so much snow. I actually kind of like it, but at the same time I'm already ready for it to be spring. I've got big gardening plans and such.
Anyway, I'm not going to keep you for too long. I'll post a new review on here real soon. Seasons Greetings.
Oh, and don't forget: Buy Nothing This Christmas!

The Onion is so funny...

CIA Realizes It's Been Using Black Highlighters All These Years
November 30, 2005 Issue 41•48
LANGLEY, VA—A report released Tuesday by the CIA's Office of the Inspector General revealed that the CIA has mistakenly obscured hundreds of thousands of pages of critical intelligence information with black highlighters.
According to the report, sections of the documents— "almost invariably the most crucial passages"—are marred by an indelible black ink that renders the lines impossible to read, due to a top-secret highlighting policy that began at the agency's inception in 1947.
CIA Director Porter Goss has ordered further internal investigation.
"Why did it go on for this long, and this far?" said Goss in a press conference called shortly after the report's release. "I'm as frustrated as anyone. You can't read a single thing that's been highlighted. Had I been there to advise [former CIA director] Allen Dulles, I would have suggested the traditional yellow color—or pink."
Goss added: "There was probably some really, really important information in these documents."
When asked by a reporter if the black ink was meant to intentionally obscure, Goss countered, "Good God, why?"
Goss lamented the fact that the public will probably never know the particulars of such historic events as the Cold War, the civil-rights movement, or the growth of the international drug trade.
"I'm sure the CIA played major roles in all these things," Goss said. "But now we'll never know for sure."
In addition to clouding the historical record, the use of the black highlighters, also known as "permanent markers," may have encumbered or even prevented critical operations. CIA scholar Matthew Franks was forced to abandon work on a book about the Bay Of Pigs invasion after declassified documents proved nearly impossible to read.
"With all the highlighting in the documents I unearthed in the National Archives, it's really no wonder that the invasion failed," Franks said. "I don't see how the field operatives and commandos were expected to decipher their orders."
The inspector general's report cited in particular the damage black highlighting did to documents concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy, thousands of pages of which "are completely highlighted, from top to bottom margin."
"It is unclear exactly why CIA bureaucrats sometimes chose to emphasize entire documents," the report read. "Perhaps the documents were extremely important in every detail, or the agents, not unlike college freshmen, were overwhelmed by the reading material and got a little carried away."
Also unclear is why black highlighters were chosen in the first place. Some blame it on the closed, elite culture of the CIA itself. A former CIA officer speaking on the condition of anonymity said highlighting documents with black pens was a common and universal practice.
"It seemed counterintuitive, but the higher-ups didn't know what they were doing," the ex-officer said. "I was once ordered to feed documents into a copying machine in order to make backups of some very important top-secret records, but it turned out to be some sort of device that cut the paper to shreds."

Do the Climate Mash!!

I keep getting the most ridiculous comments on this blog from advertisers and the like. It's really annoying. No, I'm not interested in laser hair removal! Some one real please leave a comment so that I know that this is actually being read by someone other than a robot.

Here's a Halloween treat for you: It's not the Monster Mash anymore, it's the Climate Mash!

What do the Germans have to say about The Juniper?

The Juniper #3 and #4 were recently reviewed in a punk rock magazine from Germany called Trust. Here's what they had to say:
"As I'm reading these zines I'm humming an altered version of a Lagwagon tune, 'Hi, it's Dan, seemingly bored again' or else how else could he put out so many zines that still don't really sound the same? He remains hopelessly romantic when it comes to gardening(#3) and biking (#4) as his contribution to improving life (one's own but also life in general) on Earth. Apart from that some recipes (could it be you're a bit obsessed with the idea that people should eat more dandelions, Dan?) can also be found in these zines, but more importantly all articles are delivered by this genuinely optimistic (rarity, especially in zine-land) personality that is Dan Murphy."
Interesting. Not a bad review. And yes, I do want people to eat more dandelions...myself included. Thanks Alva.

Tomatillo Salsa

For the review/recommendation this week, I thought I would post an awesome recipe for Tomatillo Salsa. I had never eaten tomatillos before, so I wanted to try them. I found a recipe on gourmetsleuth.com for Salsa de Tomatillo con Aquacate (for those who don't know, aguacate means avacado). This recipe is really good, and it also felt great to make my own salsa and not just go buy some bottled salsa from a store. I'm serious, you should try this recipe...it's really easy. Zarela is the original source of the recipe, so go there.

Mailing List Is Lost & Elephant Mess Is Contraband

Okay so, I worked really hard on developing a Juniperbug Productions mailing list so that I would have a comprehensive list of all the people who have written to me in the past year or so, and so that these people would automatically receive copies of the Juniper whenever new issues are done, and I saved all of this info on a disc and not a computer because I don't own a computer, and now that I have a new issue of The Juniper out I went to upload my mailing list to print it off so that I could send a copy to each one of the nearly 200 people/distros/stores on the list, and wouldn't you know it - the disc had caught a virus and my mailing list is gone forever. (That was a long sentence.) Luckily I have an old list that I printed off a coupla months ago, plus I have most of the other addresses written down or stowed away some place else, but still I'm sure I'm probably missing a few and plus all the hardwork that went into putting that mailing list together is wasted. That sucks. I hate computers. Anyway, my point is that if you don't receive a copy of The Juniper #5 within the next three months (because it's going to take me at least that long to get around to sending them all out) and you think you were on the mailing list (because you definitely were if you've written to me within the past 6 months or so) then send me an email or something and let me know that I have forgotten about you, because I probably didn't really forget about you - I just lost your address.
In other news....I received a copy of Elephant Mess #15 in the mail yesterday stamped "return to sender." The awesome part is that it was also stamped "CONTRABAND." I had sent it to a female prisoner in Goochland, VA. I guess the inspectors there opened it up and decided that it was restricted material and was not allowed to enter the prison or be delivered to its intended recipient so they taped it back up, stamped it contraband and sent it back to me. Of all the things that could be considered contraband, I never figured that Elephant Mess had that grand potential. The Juniper maybe, but even that's pretty mild in content. Anyway, I was just trying to be nice and give an inmate who had written to me something to read, but I was thwarted by a higher power. Skunked again!

J5! (no, not Jurassic 5)

The Juniper issue #5 is done much sooner than you thought it would be. It's got stuff about greywater, living the slow life, bike power, science manipulated again, instructions on how to make seed bombs, a simple container garden plan and a recipe for pesto. As usual, it's available to all for a stamp. All you gotta do is send your 37cent stamp to this address:
Dan Murphy
PO Box 3154
Moscow ID 83843

any questions? email me:
juniperjournal@hotmail.com

p.s. Contrary to the review I recieved in Zine World recently, I do give my readers credit. I'm just not the best writer, that's all. I know ya'll are much smarter than me!

Pretty Hot / Ghost Mice split CD

Punk is better when it's simple and lo-fi. It's better in basements and tiny clubs. And it's better when it has something new to say, something genuine and heartfelt. I was tired of today's punk, so I stopped listening to it for awhile. I was just about to say that there is no good "new punk" out there, but then I got the urge to check out the new bands on Plan-It-X Records, remembering how much I loved listening to Operation: Cliff Clavin, Disarm, The Sissies and This Bike Is A Bike Bomb. I ordered a few CDs like Ghost Mice, Defiance, OH, Carrie Nations and Rosa, and as soon as I put them on I was in love with punk rock again. This is the real stuff. The music that changed my life so incredibly back when I was a clueless high schooler. So, now I'm listening to punk again, and to those who are feeling really jaded and disillusioned by Warped Tour/MTV punk, don't give up on punk completely. There is still some good stuff out there; you've just got to know where to look.
The Pretty Hot/Ghost Mice split CD is a good place to start. These songs (six from each band) are awesome. Both bands are from Bloomington, IN. Pretty Hot is rocking pop punk with a good mix of humor and seriousness. On the first track, Carlisle, they sing, "I don't ever want to grow up, but that doesn't mean I want to stop growing," which to me basically defines the spirit of this band: having fun & being youthful, but also being smart and questioning things and not being complacent and apathetic. Motionless makes a good point about crutches and things we lean on just to get us by: "without a person to hold them" they're "motionless." "Our legs will get stronger." Slingshot brings up some good questions about effective activism and blatant revenge and how sometimes the line between the two gets blurred.
Ghost Mice is Chris & Hannah from all sorts of past Plan-It-X bands. They are an acoustic folk-punk band, and one of the best. Apparently most of the shows they play are sans electricity, which is definitely punk rock. They say that these are some of their best songs, and I'd have to agree. The Good Life is probably my favorite in which they sing about how much better life would be as a bumble bee or a mountain goat: "I would never have to hear another telephone." In Letter Home, Chris thanks his parents for being supportive and helpful even though they don't completely agree with his lifestyle choices. They also include a cover of Fifteen's classic punk song, Petroleum Distillation, which is definitely worth hearing. This CD is $5 postage paid and was put out by Anti-Creative Records. You can write to them at: PO Box 1528, Upland CA 91785.
On another note, I recently found out that a guy I know has started a reforestation project down in Venezuala called Ciudad Teca. He is growing teak trees to help out the local economy and repair the damaged rainforested areas. I don't know a whole lot about it (teak trees are new to me), but you can check out the website to learn more. And if you have some extra cash, you can support the cause by making a donation.

12 Volt Terrain

I should write these reviews when the zine is fresh on my mind, but honestly there is too much amazing stuff in this zine that it wouldn't matter if I had read it a hundred times, I still couldn't do it justice in a few short paragraphs. 12 Volt Terrain was (is?) a self-sustainable living project in Tegue, Netherlands. Edward wrote this zine to explain to readers what the project was all about and also share some things he learned through his involvement and pass along some info about living sustainably. The idea of the project was to live completely self-sustained on squatted land, disconnected from "the main supply network for water, electricity, sewer and gas." Obviously, there were times when compromises had to be made, but for the most part they did pretty well with the use of solar power, human-powered transportation, well water, wood stoves, compost toilets, greywater techniques, etc. The biggest problem that arose was the friction that proceeded to exist between the residents which apparently led to Edward leaving. Here's what Edward had to say about that, "Quite a lot of the time our group is stalled by inertia and laziness. No one does the dishes. Somebody martyrs themselves doing them and thinks they can take the rest of the day off. One guy chops wood one day and complains the next day when no one else does. We find it hard to work together. Everyone always has a valid excuse. Everyone is always too busy. I get paralyzed. I have too many things to do, so I retire to my sofa and my cats sit on my head. All of these problems are what seem to happen if you live in a group."
Included in this zine is a discussion on sustainability and it's different meanings to different people along with an overview of the four step energy preservation cycle: refuse, reuse, reclaim, recycle. Edward also includes an outline he wrote for a meeting that was held in order to address some of their domestic dilemmas. I can't emphasize how informative this little zine really is. Not only did it teach me more about sustainability and inspire me to continue advancing toward a more sustainable life, but it also got me thinking about certain issues that might arise in an ecovillage setting that I had never really thought about before. People just can't seem to get along, and even in the most ideal settings there will still be social and domestic problems. That's why it's so important that we work on changing ourselves as well as the world around us. They go hand in hand.

I'm not sure about the cost of this zine, but you can contact Edward here:

Matlingeweg 101
3044 EV
Rotterdam
Netherlands

bintang@seznam.cz