If I had to point to the single event (non-terroristic, non-family-related) that most significantly affected my current world view, it would be the day I stood at Border's Books and offhandedly grabbed James Howard Kunstler's The Geography of Nowhere from a shelf and consumed the first three-or-so chapters without moving an inch from where I stood. My eyes were opened for the first time to the fact that our built environment does not have to be so crapulent.
Kunstler now has a podcast called "The Kunstlercast" that I'll regularly post here. You can also subscribe to his podcast via iTunes (see his site for easy "subscribe" click-thru).
Take a few minutes to listen, and you'll probably want to order the book ASAP. Read the book, and you'll surely start showing up at Plan Commission and Common Council meetings.
From the site:
When James Howard Kunstler wrote The Geography of Nowhere, it was to give people "the vocabulary to understand what's wrong with the places they ought to know best." In this installment we run down a few choice Kunstlerisms, like "parking lagoons" , "nature Band-Aides" and "patriotic totems." Kunstler also tells us why the depressing topic of suburban sprawl is also really funny.
(Info about program and theme music at KunstlerCast.com)
Direct Download (7 MB):
KunstlerCast_08.mp3
(Via KunstlerCast.)
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