<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" href="/rss/rss.css" ?> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="/rss/rss.xsl" ?> <rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Common Ground</title> <link>http://commongroundmag.com</link> <language>en-us</language> <item> <title>Green Party</title> <author>Jolia Sidona Allen</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[This summer, eco-minded music-lovers, musicians and organizers are doing everything in their power to push for a truly green festival experience &mdash; right down to the dirty details like recycled toilet paper in the porta-potties. ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/greenparty0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Permanent Pernambuco</title> <author></author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[The art of making wooden bows for stringed instruments has changed little since the 18th century, when French bow-maker Fran&ccedil;ois-Xavier Tourte discovered that a special Brazilian tree produced the finest quality wood for the task. Pernambuco wood grows only in the Atlantic rainforest region of Brazil; its unique combination of density and flexibility makes it ideal for coaxing out a violin or cello&rsquo;s richest sounds. Even now, when carbon fiber bows are in wide production, top musicians still attest to the Pernambuco bow&rsquo;s superior quality.  ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/oor_bamboo0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Green Is The New Neurotic</title> <author>E.b. Boyd</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[I admit it. I&rsquo;ve stood at the supermarket fish counter, struggling to remember which fish are sustainably grown and which ones are not. I obsess over the deli containers tumbling out of my kitchen cabinet, worrying about their plastic toxins and inevitable resting place &mdash; landfill or recycled? I feel guilty every time I buy bottled water, kick myself if I arrive at the grocery store without my canvas bags, and feel like I&rsquo;m personally murdering future generations whenever the furnace churns. My heart pounds every time ice breaks off Antarctica. I&rsquo;ve fantasized about slapping stickers that say &ldquo;I have a small weenie&rdquo; on the backs of Hummers. And at the odd cocktail party, I&rsquo;ve been known to blurt out something cheerful like, &ldquo;So, global warming, huh. I mean, shouldn&rsquo;t we be <i>doing</i> something about it?&rdquo; ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/ecoanxiety0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Ain't No Reason Not to Love Brett Dennen</title> <author>Jessica Ridenour</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[Brett Dennen first wooed us with his soulful, folky pop sound and thoughtful lyrics, but it was his commitment to social change that made us fall head over heels. The 28-year-old musician, who&rsquo;s now back in the studio working on the follow-up to his breakout hit record So Much More and gearing up for an early summer tour, recently chatted with us about doing his part to make the world a better place.  ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/oor_dennen0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>We Don't Stop</title> <author>Gregory Dicum</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[If the contemporary struggle for a better world has a soundtrack, it surely features the music of Michael Franti. To Franti, music and activism are one and the same &mdash; his albums, the last three of which have sold over 100,000 copies combined, are truth-telling manifestos you can dance to. While touring constantly, he tirelessly promotes peace, sustainability and human rights. His annual Power to the Peaceful festival raises money for different causes each year &mdash; from Mumia Abul Jamal&rsquo;s legal case to bringing American troops home from Iraq. Last year, 60,000 people attended in San Francisco and 4,000 in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil. He has been named an Ambassador of Peace by the World Health Organization, and performs benefit concerts for Iraq Veterans Against the War, grassroots workers in New Orleans, as well as free concerts in prisons. In his personal life he is a vegan and yogi, and if you find yourself behind his hybrid or his biodiesel tour bus, follow him: he&rsquo;ll pay your bridge toll. Last month we visited Franti in his San Francisco studio as he was putting the finishing touches on his new release, &ldquo;All Rebel Rockers,&rdquo; due out in September. ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/conversations0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Eco-Movies in Your Mailbox</title> <author></author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[Start your eco-makeover from the comfort of your couch with Earth Cinema Circle &mdash; a lineup of movies to appeal to your inner activist delivered right to your mailbox. For $17.95 plus shipping, you&rsquo;ll receive a DVD with four to five feature-length and short films on topics ranging from green living and alternative design to eco-friendly adventure travel, food production and conservation, every other month.   ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/oor_ecomovies0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>What Counts?</title> <author>Compiled Jenny Rough</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[<b>1.4 Million</b> Americans who suffer from hoarding or clutter. ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/oor_whatcounts0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Worth Repeating</title> <author></author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[<i>&ldquo;The Sierra Club has become little more than another corporate front group.&rdquo; </i> ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/oor_worthrepeating0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Don't just get mad, Get active</title> <author></author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[By the time May rolls around, the countdown to beach season has begun. Wax this, tan that, and try on last year&rsquo;s swimsuit under the soft glow of your new dimmable CFL bulbs. Sure, you look fabulous, but what about the beaches? Over-fishing, rising temperatures, and skin rash-causing bacteria? Eek! The real question this May is: How to do we get our ocean beach-ready? ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/dontjustgetmad0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Rock The Bike</title> <author>Alastair Bland</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[Pop stars and big cars have long retained a powerful hold on the hearts of impressionable music fans. Each glitzy, each sexy, each high maintenance and each photogenic, they&rsquo;ve shared the spotlight for decades, on tour and on MTV. But a fresh undercurrent of musical culture is reinventing what&rsquo;s cool &mdash; and taking gasoline out of the equation. Around the country, musicians are embracing pedal-power, biking from show to show, city to city, even nation to nation. The movement arrives as a reaction to the trends of global hip-hop and mass-produced rock, worlds in which stars may preach socio-political and environmental righteousness yet indulge in glamorous, grossly extravagant limo lifestyles.  ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/greenscene0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Last Night a DJ Saved My Life</title> <author>Elizabeth Barker</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[Whether your personal philosophy on music&rsquo;s momentousness meshes best with Friedrich Nietzsche (&ldquo;Without music, life would be an error&rdquo;) or Mick Jagger (&ldquo;It&rsquo;s only rock and roll, but I like it&rdquo;), it&rsquo;s nearly impossible to deny the power of a perfect song. And while your most cherished music memories may have more to do with slow dances and other romantic initiations, equally essential are the songs that inspire art and action. ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/tunein0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>The Future of Psychedelics</title> <author>Daniel Pinchbeck</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[The 2008 World Psychedelic Forum was an almost shockingly respectable affair. Held in Basel, Switzerland, in a spacious convention center next to the five-star Swiss&ocirc;tel Basel, the event drew 1,500 visitors for a two-day symposium on the past and present state of psychedelic thought and research. Despite flashes of eccentricity and DayGlo, you could have easily thought you were at a conference for alternative medicine or some abstruse but uncontroversial hobby. I felt honored to be one of the speakers, part of a high-profile group which included the Czech LSD researcher and theorist Stanislav Grof; Ralph Metzner, a well-known author and teacher and one of Leary&rsquo;s original partners at Harvard; botanists Dennis McKenna, Christian Raetsch and Kat Harrison; MAPS director Rick Doblin; anthropologist and author Jeremy Narby; visionary artists Alex and Allyson Grey; and many more.  ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/pinchbeck0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>My Three Days off Corn</title> <author>Katherine Pryor</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[With 81.6 billion acres of the stuff blanketing the heartland, corn is America&rsquo;s largest crop. When you think of corn, you think of benign, happy imagery: backyard barbecues, sun-weathered farmers in dusty overalls, green fields gently swaying in a summer breeze. ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/healthyliving0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Make Over Your Mind</title> <author></author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[Meditation can change your brain for the better, according to recent research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Looking at brain scans of 16 Tibetan monks and 16 volunteers with no previous meditation training, scientists discovered that certain emotion-related brain regions were dramatically altered in those who practiced compassion meditation. Those regions included the insula (an area engaged in detecting bodily responses to emotion) and the temporal parietal junction (a region regarded as important in processing empathy). ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/bodytalk0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>OPEN Restaurant</title> <author>Jeanne Storck</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[ On a recent spring evening in a restaurant south of Market, a crew of cooks moves busily about the kitchen turning out the night&rsquo;s menu, while diners immerse themselves in wine and conversation. It might look like your typical restaurant but it&rsquo;s not. This is OPEN, a temporary dining installation staged for one night only at New Langton Arts by Chez Panisse chefs and artists Jerome Waag and Sam White. ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/tastebuds0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Green Up Your Act</title> <author>Eric Larson</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[The rock star fantasy is as common as dirt. Who, in youth, did not grip a number two pencil or detachable showerhead in her fist, and who has not more recently ascended the stage at the local karaoke joint imagining scores of adoring fans at his feet?  ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/artandsoul0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Reviews</title> <author></author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[<span class="h3">MUSIC</span> ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/reviews0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Connection</title> <author>Lydie Raschka</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[The Time Warner technician, while installing high-speed Internet service in our home, told me I am the last person in the city to have dial-up.<i> The last</i>, he said, with certainty. But I am not the last. Plenty of people still function without one or more modern technological conveniences. ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/lue0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Last Words</title> <author></author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[<i>Music is what feelings sound like.</i>   ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/lastwords0805.html</link> </item>  <item> <title>Born To Rock</title> <author>Eliza Thomas</author> <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[I am second-generation wanna-be rock star. Chains of failed musical projects, endless strings of open mic nights and discarded piles of lyric-scribbled notebooks are something of a tradition in my family, as is the intermittent pining for the life that could have been. My boyfriend likes to joke that my family gatherings always seem to devolve into a sing along (&ldquo;gathering&rdquo; being a term used loosely, as even a quick car trip to the market is fair game). And I still have high hopes for the Golenternek Family Reunion Band&hellip; if we could get together to practice more than once a year, I swear we&rsquo;d have made it by now. ]]></description> <link>http://commongroundmag.com/2008/05/fromtheed0805.html</link> </item>   </channel> </rss>