31 May 2009

Green Buildings, Greenbacks

A Santa Fe architect has a plan that combines investments in green tech and new spending priorities for federal stimulus spending. All he needs now is for someone to give it a shot.


Michael Mechanic writes in Mother Jones:


"Sounds like a fantasy, but Santa Fe-based architect Edward Mazria has done the math, and his "14x" plan,
which he calculates will generate $14 in private spending for every
stimulus buck spent, is creating major buzz in city halls and
statehouses across the country.


"Mazria was in Washington, D.C., last week pitching his plan to
senators, administration officials, and perhaps more importantly, to a
luncheon crowd of about 250 mayors, council members, and county
commissioners at a national climate change summit hosted by the
International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI)."



According to Mazria, the building sector consumes more energy than any other sector of the American economy. In 2002, he founded Architecture 2030 with a mission to turn the sector into "a central part of the solution to the global-warming crisis" by "changing the way buildings and
developments are planned, designed and constructed."

Jay Bennett


Jay Bennett, 1963-2009

Songwriter, guitarist, singer and more Jay Bennett, formerly of Wilco, was found dead last week. A cause of death has not yet been determined.

I'm a fan of both the with-Bennett and post-Bennett Wilco material, but
his loss is a damn shame. I picked up his "The Magnificent Defeat" solo
CD for two bucks at a shop in Berkeley in 2007. I thought it was
mediocre. Then I listened to it again. While still uneven, it sure is
interesting. I just picked up a more recent effort, "Whatever Happened,
I Apologize" for free online.

Come to think of it, that I could (legally) buy one of his albums for
free and another for two bucks tells me why he might have been unable to afford health insurance.

Tall buildings shake
Voices escape singing sad sad songs
Tuned to chords strung down your cheeks
Bitter melodies turning your orbit around
-- "Jesus, Etc.," from Wilco's
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot