Postcards from Gravelly Beach – Global literature pod dispatches

From an olden church and (otherwise vacant) cenotaph at Fort Cochin, Kerala, India, Dave O – acknowledging an extended medical and death related hiatus – discusses the local history of colonization by Portuguese explorers, Dutch traders, then British Raj in the context of the colonization leading to exploitation, conscription and war with no meaning to local populace.

Plus the meaning of reparations and the conflict of peaceful resistance – evidenced my Mahatma Gandhi beach a stone’s throw away – contrasted with continued wars throughout the world, shadowed by disposable tourism, economic and racial caste systems.

Recorded Nov. 11, 2016, Released 11:11 Nov. 11, 2017

Gather Round for Remembrance Day with Vasco’s Bones – Postcard #63  (37:11, .mp3, 192k, 58MB, stereo)

https://archive.org/download/postcard-63-remembrance-vasco/postcard-63-remembrance-vasco.mp3

Also of note:

Vasco da Gama’s bones, black knee-high socks, French generational losses, siege of Leningrad, Churchill’s mishaps, lost human potential of engineers, poets and lovers, MacArthur’s folly, Australia’s vulnerability, the emergence of regions over nation-states, Brexit for British Columbia + Cascadia, Catalonia and Scottish successions, work of raising a child, trappings of hubris, death by disease and guns, aggressive use of intelligence, forethought and diplomacy, and unfiltered view of sacrifice and life.

Cover art photo: By Dave Olson at Fort Cochin, taken by Lomo Sardine can camera with expired B&W film.

Poet Randall Maggs discusses his book “Night Work” about the troubled soul of legendary hockey goalie Terry Sawchuk plus the nuances of story-telling, conversations with goaltenders, Sawchuk’s Ukrainian heritage and convergence of history and hockey with host Dave Thorvald Olson at the Robson Square covered outdoor rink in Vancouver following a poetry reading promoted by publisher Brick Books.

Lace em up for Poetic Stories about Goalies – Postcard #62 (128k mp3, 36:02, 33MB, stereo)

Note: Episode cover art designed by Bread the Producer, photo by Dave O

From Hockey Hall of Fame by Dave

More Mr. Maggs

“On the Vancouver question, that is my birthplace and, though I haven’t lived there in a long while, I still think of it as home. The Canucks are my team. Over the years I have travelled back to the city often to visit my relatives and family. My grandparents lived in South Burnaby off Kingsway pretty much all their adult lives, my grandfather being a millwright and playing an important role in building many of the lumber mills in and around the city. A couple of summers ago my mother and I were having lunch on a terrace on Granville Island and my mother pointed out the remnants of one of my grandfather’s mills. Even after his retirement he’d be called back in to solve a problem that university-trained engineers couldn’t handle. He’d give mill officials fits, scrambling up long ladders long past the age of 80. I attended grade school in South Burnaby, I think Strathmillan School. After her years of following my Air Force father back and forth across the country, my mother went home to live in Surrey and White Rock where she lives at present. My son has been living out there as much as in Newfoundland for most of the past dozen years, having done an MA in Piano Performance with Jane Coop at UBC and working on his PhD in the Arts and Sustainability with John Robinson at UBC.”

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In the last narrative from the Clayquot trip in Summer 2006, the water ban is lifted and Uncle Weed discuses the economic costs caused by the shutdown as well as the tensions about tourist based economy and village lifestyle, considers ingredients for positive development, and tries to resolve some conundrums by evoking Henry David Thoreau while stepping on barnacle encrusted shells on a muddy beach. 

http://https://archive.org/download/ALittleBitBetter...IfNotPerfect/A%20Little%20Bit%20Better%20%25E2%2580%25A6%20if%20not%20Perfect.mp3

Downcast Podload: A Little Bit Better … if not Perfect – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 9/9 (18:25, .mp3) 

Participate Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music Theme: Bex – “Lonesome (Lost) Traveler” Segue: Wm. Lenker – excerpts from “Heaven Holds a Place” Rose Cousins – “One Love” Interludes: William Elliott Whitmore – “Hell or High Water” Chris Sullivan – unknown from “La La Land”

Background This is Part 9 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the tense logging blockades in early 1990s and compares current conditions through lens of deep ecology and sustainable development practices.

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Sometimes all the bits which don’t fit make the tastiest morsels. With this in mind, Uncle Weed dishes up a smorgasbord of leftover spiels, intros, set-ups, and observations from the Clayoquot trip including narrative about camptime beverages, glass pipe cleaning tips, local sticky nuggets, eagles flying amongst the Broken Islands, historic Pacific lighthouse, skateboard contests at Tough City Skatepark, Florencia Beach driftwood hut, foiled visits to municipal office and chamber of commerce, and full version of Bex‘s Lonesome (Lost) Traveler song. 

http://https://archive.org/download/FieldNotesOnBevviesBirdsAndBowls/Field%20Notes%20on%20Bevvies%2C%20Birds%20and%20Bowls.mp3

Downcast Podload: Field Notes on Bevvies, Birds and Bowls – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 8/9 (20:51, .mp3)

Participate Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music Theme: Bex – “Lonesome (Lost) Traveler” Segue: Wm. Lenker – excerpts from “Heaven Holds a Place”

Background This is Part 8 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the tense logging blockades in early 1990s and compares current conditions through lens of deep ecology and sustainable development practices.

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On Remembrance Day in sunny, brisk Vancouver, Ian Bell (fresh from a CBC appearance “On The Coast“) joins Dave to read from Grandpa Mark’s diaries written in the trenches in WW1 as a young Canadian. From the library steps with a flask of scotch, they reflect on the costs and motivations of war, importance of friendship and the ethereal experience of going “over the top” and facing the terror on the other side, plus anecdotes about capturing Germans soldiers and discourse on the importance of personal documentation to pass forward to generations.

Sit awhile for: Vimy Ridge Diaries on Remembrance Day – Postcard #61 (38:00, 32MB, 128k mp3)

Geoff Berner – Excerpts from “Maginot Line” Recorded live at the Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, BC, Feb. 28, 2009 Various artists (including piper Dave Ahl) – Recorded live at UBC Remembrance Day Ceremony, Nov. 11, 2009 Ian Bell reading from Grandpa Mark’s diaries William Markle Pecover – Memory of Vimy Ridge William Markle Pecover – On Being Bombed in Britain Photo via CDN Veterans Affairs asks How Will you Remember? – Download Canadian historical war time photo and video packs, organized by theme and era, then remix and share via social networks.

Ian Bell on CBC’s On The Coast [note: Real Audio files]

Wednesday November 11 – To commemorate Remembrance Day a Vancouver man has posted excerpts from his great-grandfather’s wartime journals on to his blog. Ian Bell told Stephen why it’s important to him to remember. Listen to the interview.(runs 7:04)

{Bonus} 50 years ago the Vietnam war began. When the war ended many Americans moved to BC. Woody Carmack was one of them and he attempted to help ex-soldiers deal with post-traumatic stress disorder and other problems. Listen to the interview.(runs 8:53)

Auto-magically receive Postcard from Gravelly Beach podcast, via: 

Reviews rewarded with actual postal postcards #bribe

Follow along via Twitter @uncleweed & @DaveOstories & UncleWeed Storytime (FB)

Visiting again with friend Kevin, Uncle Weed discusses the negative impact salmon fish farms impart on the local aquaculture. Specifically, Atlantic salmon living in pens attract hazardous sea lice, are unable to spawn, are fed with small fish imported from South America, and are dyed to appear more attractive in the supermarket. Further the politically controversial fish farms add little benefit to the local economy. 

http://https://archive.org/download/RainforestDispatches7Salmon/Rainforest-Dispatches-7-salmon.mp3

Downcast podload: Salmon Swimming Free – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 7/9 – 16:00

Participate Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music Theme: Bex – “Lonesome (Lost) Traveler” Segue: Wm. Lenker – excerpts from “Heaven Holds a Place” Interludes: Grateful Dead – “Throwing Stones” Insert: Bob and Doug McKenzie (recorded from CBC TV) thanks to @JMV

Background This is Part 7 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the tense logging blockades in early 1990s and compares current conditions through lens of deep ecology and sustainable development practices.

More Clayoquot Reading via Amazon A Lousey Time in Clayoquot Sound By Mike Price, Biologist, Raincoast Wild Salmon Project CLAYOQUOT SOUND: WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON? – First Nations Environmental Network Escaping farmed salmon pose risks – David Suzuki Foundation Endangered Salmon- Sea Lice is a Problem – Clayoquot Wilderness resort Farmed Salmon – Facts and Footnotes Friends of Clayoqout Sound – Fish Farming The Five Fundamental Flaws of Sea Cage Fish Farming

The sea cage farming of carnivorous finfish such as salmon, tuna, cod and sablefish is fundamentally flawed in five ways:

Join/Contribute FOCS

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At the headquarters of Friends of Clayoqout Sound advocacy organization, Uncle Weed talks with Kevin Bruce, a concerned citizen newly arrived in Tofino to work as the office coordinator for the FOCS.

With the sound of passing cars and buses, they discuss the economics of logging, stumpage fees, value of wilderness, conundrums of interconnectedness and property lines, the memorandum of understanding, logging on First Nations land and ways to help attain the Friends’ goal of ending all old-growth clearcuts on public lands. 

http://https://archive.org/download/RainforestDispatches6Friends/Rainforest-Dispatches-6-friends.mp3

Find new friends: Friends of the Sound – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 6/9 – 26:24 

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Participate Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music Theme: Bex – “Lonesome (Lost) Traveler” Seque: Wm. Lenker – excerpts from “Heaven Holds a Place” Interludes: D.O.A. – “Only Thing Green” & Rose Cousins “One Love”

Background This is Part 6 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the tense logging blockades in early 1990s and compares current conditions through lens of deep ecology and sustainable development practices. 

More Clayoquot Reading via Amazon Friends of Clayoqout Sound Box 489, 331 Neill St, Tofino BC V0R 2Z0 Tel 250-725-4218, Fax 250-725-2527 Email info (at) focs (dot) ca Join/Contribute FOCS

Maps Interactive Map: Logging Map of Intact Clayoquot Valleys Vancouver Island Old Growth 1860 Vancouver Island Old Growth 2004 Historical Notes from FOCS

1992 Blockade at Clayoquot Arm Bridge of Kennedy Lake, 65 arrested, protesting MacMillan Bloedel’s logging at edge of intact Clayoquot River valley.

1993 International campaign takes off with ad in New York Times and FOCS trip to Europe. FOCS and allied environment groups call for boycott of MacMillan Bloedel and other companies. Largest peaceful civil disobedience in Canadian history is sparked by BC government’s decision to log 74% of Clayoquot Sound’s ancient forest. FOCS opens Peace Camp at “Black Hole”. Daily blockades and arrests begin at Kennedy River Bridge. 856 arrested and 12,000 participate during “Clayoquot Summer 93”.

1996 FOCS and Greenpeace takeover of Rankin Cove logging camp leads to First Nations-brokered truce between MacMillan Bloedel and environmentalists. Negotiations begin regarding protecting large intact (pristine) valleys in Clayoquot Sound from logging.

1997 FOCS begins a fish farm campaign aimed at reforming open net-cage salmon aquaculture in Clayoquot Sound and BC.

1999 FOCS helps to negotiate Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between 4 environment groups and Iisaak Forest Resources, the First Nations/MacMillan Bloedel joint venture logging company that replaced MacBlo. MOU commits Iisaak to protecting large pristine areas in its portion of Clayoquot Sound, while enviro groups agree to help market Iisaak’s wood. FOCS does not sign MOU in order to maintain its independent watchdog position.

What Is Clayoquot Sound?

Clayoquot Sound is a magnificent, biologically rich, mostly wilderness area on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It encompasses 350,000 hectares of land and ocean.

The land portion of Clayoquot Sound is 265,000 hectares (2,650 square kilometers or 1,000 square miles), comprising about 8% of Vancouver Island. It is covered with ancient temperate rainforest, a globally rare forest type. The remaining 85,000 hectares of Clayoquot Sound consist of ocean — narrow inlets of the Pacific Ocean, into which empty rivers and lakes.

Clayoquot Sound occupies a straight-line distance along the coast of 90 kilometers, between Barkley and Nootka Sounds. It reaches a maximum of 35 kilometres inland, up to the crest of snow-capped mountains. These mountains are part of the central spine of Vancouver Island and form the headwaters of the rivers that drain Clayoquot Sound.

The “Sound” portion of the region’s name indicates an indented section of coastline, with numerous inlets and islands. “Clayoquot” — pronounced Klak-wot — comes from Tla-o-qui-aht, the name of one of the First Nations tribes who live here.

There are 5 communities in Clayoquot Sound: the town of Tofino and 4 First Nations reserves inhabited by Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations tribes. The total population of these 5 communities is about 3,000 (in 2005).

Two well-known parks lie in Clayoquot Sound: the Long Beach Unit of Pacific Rim National Park, and the southern portion of Strathcona Provincial Park. These and other parks protect one-third of Clayoquot’s land area and less than one-quarter of its productive ancient forest.

Industrial activities such as logging and fish farming have occurred and continue to occur across the landscape and ocean waters of Clayoquot Sound, but most of the Sound is still wilderness — intact forest and wild ocean. The spectacular scenery attracts about one million tourists to Clayoquot each year.

Clayoquot Sound—A Summer of Protest by Luke Moore

Over the past summer, the Kennedy River Bridge entrance to logging operations on Clayoquot Sound became the site of one of the largest civil disobedience campaigns in Canadian history.

The protest followed the B.C. government’s decision on April 13 to allow MacMillan Bloedel to proceed with a harvesting plan that will see the eventual cutting of another 51 percent of the area’s old-growth forest. The B.C. government, perhaps coincidentally, is the largest single shareholder in MacBlo. Twenty-three percent of the forest has already been harvested.

Although industry refers to logging as “general integrated management,” and there is a lot of rhetoric about improved forestry practices, large scale forest management remains environmentally unsound. If there is any improvement, it is that the future clearcuts will be smaller. Since the government decision, a brand-new 125 hectare clearcut graces the side of a mountain visible from the Kennedy River Bridge.

The forest around Clayoquot Sound is one of the largest remaining stands of old-growth forest in North America. This is an irreplaceable cradle of rainforest biodiversity, and it can only be saved if the government will reverse its decision.

Peace camp established

To press for that reversal, a peace camp was set up by the Friends of Clayoquot Sound (FOCS), a Tofino-based environmental group which has fought for the protection of the forests for fourteen years. The camp served as a base for protesters, who blockaded the Kennedy River Bridge until the camp was closed down Oct. 4.

More Clayoquot Sound—A Summer of Protest

Blockades and Civil Disobedience (1993 – 1995), Whole Systems Engagement by Ann Svendsen & Myriam Laberge from Collective Wisdom Initiative

In the summer of 1993, the battle in Clayoquot Sound escalated. Environmental groups organized a Clayoquot Sound Peace Camp, which attracted protesters from throughout North America and Europe. At least 9,000 people participated in demonstrations against clear-cut logging. More than 800 people were arrested in the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history when protesters massed to block logging roads and climbed trees to protect them from cutting. Suddenly, Clayoquot Sound was in the headlines around the world.

In October 1993, the government responded by initiating the Scientific Panel for Sustainable Forest Practices in Clayoquot Sound, an independent panel of First Nations and scientific experts. The Panel’s mandate was to develop world-class standards for sustainable forest management by combining traditional and scientific knowledge. Two years later, the Panel’s report recommended that clear cutting be replaced by variable retention forestry, an approach that would leave some trees standing in each area to protect the health of the forest ecosystem.

At the same time that the panel was developing its recommendations, the provincial government was engaged in negotiations with the First Nations to resolve their land claims. A joint resource management process was established with the First Nations of Clayoquot. Even as these initiatives were moving forward, however, environmentalists were escalating their campaigns against clear-cut logging in the rest of the province.

Clayoquot Sound: Not Out Of The Woods Yet! By Valerie Langer Common Ground

The ten year anniversary of the largest civil disobedience in Canadian history is approaching. During the summer of 1993 over 850 people were arrested and 12,000 people demonstrated in opposition to logging in the ancient forests of Clayoquot Sound.

The magnificent forests and the strength of the non-violent protests captured the imagination of the public and the media. Canadians, Americans and Europeans flocked to the Peacecamp, and every morning before dawn they caravanned down a dusty logging road to the demonstration site. When logging trucks arrived at the Kennedy River Bridge, the international media turned on their camera lights and brought the stand off to TV sets and radios all around the world.

Friends of Clayoquot Sound (FOCS) was there to facilitate people bringing their consciousness into action. A few years of action experience had trained us how to leverage that presence into the international forum. After the mass trials of the 850 arrestees Common Ground published an “Honour Roll” of those courageous souls who put their liberty on the line for the ancient forests of Clayoquot Sound.

Today art pieces featuring the protests hang on the walls of the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the BC Museum designates ‘Clayoquot ’93’ as one of the most significant events in BC’s history. Clayoquot was a fire in the belly, a symbol of our rage against environmental destruction and a cathartic outlet to do something about it.

Aldo de Moor of Tilburg, The Netherlands posted a collection of snapshots The Summer of ’93 – The Struggle for Clayoquot Sound from August 1993 on WIkicommons

University of Victoria’s “A Political Space” Clayoquot Project

After a few days of frustration and confusion, Uncle Weed sits down on the trail and digs into a variety of essays from Beloved of the Sky by Gary Snyder, Howie Wolk, and Michael Frome plus riffs on painter Emily Carr, love/hate with the commercialized Wild Pacific trail, shore pines, lighthouses, volcanic outcroppings, leaning trees, branches covered in lichen, and sub-division developments.

Topics include the US Forest Service’s traditional commitment to conservation and subsequent effects of policy after cozying up to industry, a plea for less waste and sustainable forestry, public expectations and costs of lost wilderness, and ponderings about whether recreation and wildlife matter. 

http://https://archive.org/download/RainforestDispatches5Clearcuts/Rainforest-Dispatches-5-clearcuts.mp3

Downcast podload: Conservation and Clearcuts – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 5/9 – 25:24

  Reading “Beloved of the Sky – Essays and Photographs on Clearcutting” – Edited by John Ellison, Broken Moon Press * Howie Wolk “The Great Myth of Clearcut Forestry” * Michael Frome “Losing Balance: Just how Multiple is Our Multiple Use?” * Gary Snyder “Ancient Forests of the Far West” Purchase “Beloved of the Sky” via Amazon

Participate Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music Theme: Bex – Lonesome (Lost) Traveler Seque: Wm. Lenker – excerpts from Heaven Holds a Place Interlude: William Elliott Whitmore – Lifetime Underground

Background This is Part 5 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the tense logging blockades in early 1990s and compares current conditions through lens of deep ecology and sustainable development practices.

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While watching fishing boats ply the inlet, Uncle Weed checks in from Ucluelet to describe the cultural and municipal differences between neighboring villages of Tofino and Ucluelet after a thwarted drive towards Kennedy Lake bridge – the scene of the blockades – and examines Ucluelet’s ballyhooed reaction to Tofino’s shortage through the eyes of locals at the hardware store.

With Tofino out of water, the news media have arrived and the tourists are kicked out, so from Whiskey Dock, UW riffs about RV rentals, housing developments, mountains ringed with roads and clearcuts, park fees, logging trucks warnings, jurisdictional confusion about UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and park concessionaires, plus a tip on a head shop in town. 

http://https://archive.org/download/RainforestDispatches4WhiskeyDock/Rainforest-Dispatches-4-whiskey-dock.mp3

Downcast podload: Spieling from Whiskey Dock – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 4/9 – 19:28

Your input on this topic is invited – particularly if you participated in the protests or traveled to this area. Consider leaving a comment and/or recording an audio missive of your own to use in a future episode. Let me know where you stashed your blockade memories or other rainforest thoughts by emailing: choogleon (at) uncleweed (dot) net or via Twitter @choogleon and/or @uncleweed, etc.

Music Theme: Bex – Lonesome (Lost) Traveler Seque: Wm. Lenker – excerpts from Heaven Holds a Place Interlude: William Elliott Whitmore – Mutiny (on this ship) This is Part 4 of 9 (or more) in the Rainforest Dispatches series on Choogle On with Uncle Weed

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