Shelter Is More Than A Roof Overhead
I just happened to notice the introduction to our book Shelter, written in 1973. 36 years ago!:
In times past, people built their own homes, grew their own food, made their own clothes. Knowledge of the building crafts and other skills of providing life’s basic needs were generally passed along from father to son, mother to daughter, master to apprentice.
Then with industrialization and the population shift from country to cities, this knowledge was put aside and much it of has now been lost. We have seen an era of unprecedented prosperity in America based upon huge amounts of foreign and domestic resources and fueled by finite resources of stored energy.
And as we have come to realize in recent years, we are running out. Materials are scarce, fuel is in short supply, and prices are escalating. To survive, one is going to have to be either rich or resourceful. Either more dependent upon, or freer from centralized production and controls. The choices are not clear-cut, for these are complex times. But it is obvious that the more we can do for ourselves, the greater will our individual freedom and independence be.
This book is not about going off to live in a cave and growing all one’s own food. It is not based on the idea that everyone can find an acre in the country, or upon a sentimental attachment to the past. It is rather about finding a new and necessary balance in our lives between what can be done by hand and what still must be done by machine.
For in times to come, we will have to find a responsive and sensitive balance between the still-usuable skills and wisdom of the past and sustainable products and inventions of the 20th century.
Of necessity or by choice, there may be a revival of hand work in America, We are certainly capable and these inherent, dormant talents may prove to be some of our most valuable resources in the future.
This book is about simple homes, natural materials, and human resourcefulness. It is about discovery, hard work, the joys of self-sufficiency, and freedom. It is about shelter, which is more than a roof overhead.
In times past, people built their own homes, grew their own food, made their own clothes. Knowledge of the building crafts and other skills of providing life’s basic needs were generally passed along from father to son, mother to daughter, master to apprentice.
Then with industrialization and the population shift from country to cities, this knowledge was put aside and much it of has now been lost. We have seen an era of unprecedented prosperity in America based upon huge amounts of foreign and domestic resources and fueled by finite resources of stored energy.
And as we have come to realize in recent years, we are running out. Materials are scarce, fuel is in short supply, and prices are escalating. To survive, one is going to have to be either rich or resourceful. Either more dependent upon, or freer from centralized production and controls. The choices are not clear-cut, for these are complex times. But it is obvious that the more we can do for ourselves, the greater will our individual freedom and independence be.
This book is not about going off to live in a cave and growing all one’s own food. It is not based on the idea that everyone can find an acre in the country, or upon a sentimental attachment to the past. It is rather about finding a new and necessary balance in our lives between what can be done by hand and what still must be done by machine.
For in times to come, we will have to find a responsive and sensitive balance between the still-usuable skills and wisdom of the past and sustainable products and inventions of the 20th century.
Of necessity or by choice, there may be a revival of hand work in America, We are certainly capable and these inherent, dormant talents may prove to be some of our most valuable resources in the future.
This book is about simple homes, natural materials, and human resourcefulness. It is about discovery, hard work, the joys of self-sufficiency, and freedom. It is about shelter, which is more than a roof overhead.
Success, Failure, Failure, Enthusiasm
“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill
Jones' Big Ass Truck Rental & Storage
This video by Toby Jones of Chicago is so popular, his telephone mailbox is way full. No wonder. He talks like like Chris Rock; as soon as he opens his mouth you start laughing.
Toby's email: tobyrjones@gmail.com
Awesome Mountain Bike Riding in Scotland Filmed April '09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o
Amazing mountain bike artistry. California and British Columbia riders, check out mountain biking in Scotland. The following description of this video is from damncooltopics:
"Filmed over the period of a few months in and around Edinburgh by Dave Sowerby, this video of Inspired Bicycles team rider Danny MacAskill features probably the best collection of street/street trials riding ever seen. There's some huge riding, but also some of the most technically difficult and imaginative lines you will ever see. Without a doubt, this video pushes the envelope of what is perceived as possible on a trials bike."
-Sent us by Jan Janzen
Now's the Time To Renovate a House

Excerpt fom article by Julie Scelfo in NY Times, Apr. 23, 2009:
"Across the country, even as many people are being more cautious than ever about spending, some homeowners with a little extra cash on hand are deciding that it’s a good time to renovate. Prices are down for both labor and materials, and contractors are readily available and able to lavish more attention on individual jobs.
Alexander Stoltz, an architect in Brooklyn, says experienced contractors who used to have waiting lists are now willing to take on any job they can find. “We’re getting cold calls from contractors who have been in the business 20, 40 years asking us for leads,” Mr. Stoltz said. “Before, they would take a month to get back to you and would have turned down small jobs. Now, they’ll take anything and start right away…”
From here
Staircase, Hôtel Tassel, Brussels, belgium

Aquarium Building in France

School of Nancy Museum in Nancy, France - Photograph taken in 1982 by Howard J. Partridge.
"Lucien Weissenburger is attributed as the architect of this clever pavilion, which stands in the gardens of the former J. B. E. Corbin estate. Designed around 1904, the structure was originally built with a subterranean level containing grottos for fish; a ground floor featuring windows lined with fish-tanks; and an upper deck sporting a glass canopy. The fish and tanks were removed in later years. In 1999, the building underwent a major restoration, allowing it to house fish once again." -From cupola.com
Gravel and Gold, Cassie McGettigan, Stewart Brand, and 24-Hour Donuts in San Francisco

Not only did Cassie turn me on to a 24-hour donut shop in SF (Bob's Donuts at 1621 Polk) as well as other cool places for food, coffee and wi-fi access (and I'm an SF native!), but her blog turned out to be SO in tune with my sensibilities.

Builders of Pacific Coast Slide Show San Francisco Tonight
I'll be at Get Lost Travel with my roadshow slideshow of our recent book tonight. It's at 1825 Market Street, 7:00 PM. Get Lost is a great travel book, gear, and info store — way beyond Lonely Planet. Their informative website here.
Act Naturally –Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakum, Patty Loveless

A film crew from Stanford is doing a short (6-min.) documentary on shelter and coming out to film me this week. On the occasion of which, Lew sent me the below youtube link of Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakum and Patty Loveless doing "Act Naturally," first performed by Buck in '63, then made famous by Ringo in '65.
Click here
Drawing of Buck Owens by artist Mark Stivers, who has a witty and unusual website Click here (and a book I just ordered: There Is Only Unibrow and Other Cartoons).
Words
•In Friday's NY Times, in a review of State of Play (Russell Crowe et al), critic A. O. Scott referred to Ben Affleck "…wielding a Philadelphia accent as thick and inauthentic as low-fat cream cheese." NYT, 17 April 09
•Dashiell Hammett:
"Smoke Stink. Heat. Noise...." -Red Harvest
"Beginning night had reduced night to a thin smokiness when Spade sat up…." -The Maltese Falson
"A bullet kissed a hole in the door-frame close to my noodle…." Red Harvest
•California license plate the other day: OBVS
•Jonathan Greene just wrote to say that the quote I attributed to Mark Twain ("I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."), was in fact by Blaise Pascal, and research turned up the following:
"Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte."
Translation:" I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter."
Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales, letter 16, 1657:
•Words I dislike: veggie/yummy/goody/munchies/impact (as a verb)/"have a good day"
•Mel has a sign on his studio door saying Don't Tell Me What Kind of Day to Have!
•Just leverageing some content here…
•Dashiell Hammett:
"Smoke Stink. Heat. Noise...." -Red Harvest
"Beginning night had reduced night to a thin smokiness when Spade sat up…." -The Maltese Falson
"A bullet kissed a hole in the door-frame close to my noodle…." Red Harvest
•California license plate the other day: OBVS
•Jonathan Greene just wrote to say that the quote I attributed to Mark Twain ("I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."), was in fact by Blaise Pascal, and research turned up the following:
"Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte."
Translation:" I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter."
Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales, letter 16, 1657:
•Words I dislike: veggie/yummy/goody/munchies/impact (as a verb)/"have a good day"
•Mel has a sign on his studio door saying Don't Tell Me What Kind of Day to Have!
•Just leverageing some content here…
Treehouse by Terunobu Fujimori

Terunobu Fujimori - Wow! What an Architect!

Terunobu Fujimori+Yoshio Uchida (Shusakusha)
photo: MASUDA Akihisa
"The architecture of Terunobu Fujimori - houses with real dandelions or leeks planted on the roof, a tea room like a bird house perched on tall tree trunks with the bark still attached - is extremely original. It combines new concepts quite different from those of conventional architecture with a sense of nostalgia that evokes memories of a distant past.... " -from operacity,jp
-recommended by Marcia Miner
Beamer Bike Late Night San Francisco

GIMME SHELTER Newsletter - Spring 2009 -Pura Vida

I send out a newsletter to about 600 people every month or so, covering our publishing activities, and my travels. The latest is a bit on my recent trip to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and islands in Panama + other stuff. Click here.
Playing With 10-Year-Olds in Oakland


After shooting a bunch of photos I went into a nearby schoolyard to ride my skateboard. There were a few kids with skateboards, but they'd never seen anything like my Loaded bamboo longboard, or my Big Kahuna pavement paddle. It didn't take much encouragement for them to get rolling on the longboard. They were a little tentative at first, but soon got into it. I got another board out of the truck and soon they were whizzing around the yard. I showed them how to carve, and they picked it up fast. Pretty soon kids from the block were trickling into the yards, waiting to try it out. They were having fun and so was I.

Old Houses in Oakland
Friday night I went with my friend Sherman to see the Cajun band Beausoleil at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. I had an hour or so to kill in Oakland before going to Sherm's, so I drove around in the Bella Vista neighborhood shooting photos of some of. Oakland's great old houses:




Old Shipping containers tuned into eco-friendly cabin

From ecofriend.org
Sent us by Marcia Miner
Swanton Berry Farm — Certified Organic Strawberries 15 Minutes North of Santa Cruz

Barbecued Rattlesnake

Earthroamer

"An EarthRoamer XV-LT provides an 85 gallon water supply, a 90 gallon fuel supply (range approximately 1000 miles) and plenty of storage space for food and gear. Four wheel drive, a turbo-diesel engine, high output lighting, front and rear winches and off-road tires with military bead-lock wheels will ensure that you get to your destination. Once you arrive safely, 510 watts of solar power and a 510 amp-hour battery bank will provide power for all necessary systems. Sleeping facilities, a galley and bathroom with toilet and shower provide for the necessities of life." http://www.earthroamer.com/
Hip is Irish
My friend Alan Wherry, writer, musician, publisher, and world explorer, wrote today:
"…did you know that all those new york words like, hip, cool, dude, and dig, are 100% pure Irish? i didn't."
"…did you know that all those new york words like, hip, cool, dude, and dig, are 100% pure Irish? i didn't."
Bill and Athena Steen 2009 Update

"As part of the San Jose (Calif.) Mariachi festival we did a small workshop showing how to build an oven, but didn't have time to finish. We also redid the earth floor on the inside of an historic old adobe on the same site. This September we're set up to do an interior clay plastering workshop on the same building.
Canelo Project? Geez, in reality it's Athena and I doing what we like. Trying to keep building simple, hand-done to the extent that is practical and sensible, inexpensive and of course, making it look really good. Along the way we enjoy meeting people from all walks of life, try to learn from them and in return offer whatever we have to give. And of course, enjoying food and drink together is an essential part of that process. It's been great having our kids grow up as part of that same way of life. And lastly, when there is time, we love writing about it, photographing and sharing with others all that we've learned. Seems like much of what he do has been centered around the border and Mexico although we have a two month tour of Europe this summer."
Here is the Steen's website.
LK Slide Show Bookshop Santa Cruz Tomorrow (Tuesday) Night
I'm doing a slide show and talk at Bookshop Santa Cruz tomorrow — Tuesday, April 7,at 7:30 p.m. (1520 Pacific Avenue). I was a Santa Cruz beach lifeguard in 1955. When I went to Stanford (entry requirement much lower back then !), I spent more time in Santa Cruz than in Palo Alto. My last class was at noon Thursday and I'd head for the beach, coming back Sunday night. Although it's changed a lot, it's still a great town. I love the drive down the coast (taking surfboard) and Bookshop Santa Cruz is one of the Great Bookstores.
Details from Bookshop Santa Cruz
Details from Bookshop Santa Cruz
Two Old Guys With Cameras in Panama City


I looked at this guy and he looked at me. Both, with cameras around our necks, same age group, on the paseo in Panama City. About 3 weeks ago. He shot a Polaroid of me (right) ($3) while I took the photo of him. We kept running into each other on subsequent days.
Interview: Lloyd Kahn: In Praise of the Hand-Built Home
Here's an interview of me done last Sunday by Martrha Danly, editor of Green By Design.
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