Sustainable Peoples

Sustainable Peoples
Location: LAX COPA terminal, gate 66
5/31/08
11:55pm PST

Hi everyone, Drake here. This begins the part of the blog entries narrated by yours truly. I promise to do my darndest to keep it interesting, informative and fun to be a part of. I chose those words carefully (as I always try to) because I’d like you all to make use of this wonderful technology we have at our disposal. Because I am, I suppose “blogging”( though the bland ubiquity into which that term has receded makes me shudder), you as the consumer have the opportunity to interact with me, the producer in a way that was simply unavailable a few years ago. I’ll get to the whole producer/consumer language in a minute, but first let me explain how you can participate. You see, this whole this is so much more interesting if you participate through your comments, criticisms and suggestions as we go. This media endeavor will be presented to you more or less live, as things happen and are transcribed, no waiting for weeks or months of post-production here. So, there are a few was to get involved.

After EVERY entry of any kind (video, audio, whathaveyou) there will be a comments box below it. Type your thoughts, feelings, things you wish we’d covered, or directions you’d like to see us take. The Sustainable Peoples crew and I will be reading those comments daily, and we would love to make sure that your questions are answered, your queries addressed. If you leave comments, there’s a good chance you’ll get a note from me in your mailbox thanking you and inviting you to talk with me further about the work. So that’s one, leaving comments, starting conversations. Another great way is for you to subscribe to the feeds coming off of the site so that you get the very latest information from us. Your fingers don’t even have to do the walking any more, as out computers can just have a little conversation and update each other on how everything s going. You can subscribe to our podcast straight from this site, or go to one other the many popular podcast lists to check us out. I have to admit it’s a little weird thinking about my data riding around in pockets, backpacks, briefcases and cars all over the place. Another way to get involved is to join our Facebook group. I know, there are many of you out there that roll your eyes, but we want people to be able to interact with us in any forum in which they feel comfortable. If that means you’d like to stand up and proclaim, “Yes, I’m With Drake.” then who am I to stop you? So, feel free to GetWithDrake on Facebook. Lastly, but possibly most directly, you can send us an e-mail, or more specifically, you can send ME an e-mail. My e-mail is always open to you, dear consumer, and I encourage you to write to edmartinet@withdrake.com.

So I told you I’d get back to the whole “consumer/producer” lingo. I’m gonna be throwing a few unusually placed word out at you throughout the project, and its for one simple reason. I’m full of myself. Well, maybe it doesn’t go quite that far, but it does go far enough for me to feel that there are words out there that best describe what is going on, and by golly, I’m gonna use them. In this case, I’m calling you a consumer. I don’t mean it in the sense that you are sucking in resources left and right, though we all surely are, but more in the sense that it really isn’t accurate to cal you just a listener, reader, viewer or participant. None of those seem to fit because all of you are several or all of those things. You consume the media that we are working to produce. And it doesn’t seem quite right to call us writers, or film makers or, broadcasters either- so, until one of you comes up with a better word for me (which you could do via submitting a comment) I’ll call us on the SP project side the “producers”.

So, enough with the nomenclature already! What are we up to? The trip is off to a screaming success. Departure from home base in southern California happened at around 5pm today, when I boarded a train for LA. After dinner and a ride with my cousin Tony, I was dropped off at the airport and officially embarked. I was a little tense about separating from my equipment at the check in counter, but I suppose I’ll just have to trust my video and audio recording setup, along with all my clothes to the capable hands of Copa airlines baggage handlers. So, worst case scenario, a month from now I’ll be the director of a project with great writing, beautiful still pictures (I’m keeping my SLR camera stuff with me on board) and very, very smelly clothes.

Even though the project hasn’t REALLY begun, I feel like I should lay a little profundity on you, just to keep up the appearance or legitimacy. Lets try this… to get me from my home to SP Santiago de Chile headquarters will have taken; a car, a train, a second car, a tram bus, two Boeing 737s, a second tram bus and an elevator. I can’t give you an exact calculation on the joules of energy used, or pounds of carbon released carting me and my stuff around, but I’m sure its embarrassing. Now, we at SP are endeavoring to be carbon neutral, and are buying carbon credits for every part of this that we can, but we also know that the current carbon “cap-and-trade” system is seriously flawed and offers little practical resolution to our problem, but much more on that in future posts hopefully. Suffice to say, you will never hear a holier than thou argument coming down the mountain at you from us.

Interviews are going to be a big part of this project, but not always in the style that you’d expect. You see, I am a big fan of, when possible, sharing a conversation with someone as opposed to “interviewing”. So watch out, I may be interviewing you and you don’t even know its going on. That being said, I had a very interesting talk with my Cousin Tony this evening (as they always are). Tony is a nerd of the very best sort, in that he has a broad mind, and the ability to articulate himself. Join that with his MS in electrical engineering and he’s a force to be reckoned with. We were discussing this project, and I feel we may have stumbled into some truth along the way. Amidst the discussion of economics, electronics, Pink’s hot dogs and our late uncle, we agreed that it was an acceptable end for humanity to simply pursue existence. We all hope to continue to exist, and make copies of ourselves generation after generation because we seek that continuity, because it is often our first priority and most primal drive. So shouldn’t it be that simple? We should all look down the road and see balance what is good for us now and what will be good for us in a week, a month, a year, a century an epoch? Well I don’t know about you, but there’s lots of days where I don’t think to much farther ahead than the next task. So why are we so short sighted? Why don’t we plan more for out future, and balance our actions today with the well being of the future descendant, who will carry the only piece of us left for the world? Beats me, but I guess that’s what I’m out here in the field to find out. Alright, well, my flight is boarding, and hopefully, in a few short hours I’ll be in beautiful, bustling Santiago de Chile so start the journey. Be on the lookout for the first interview on Monday with an influential Chilean senator who has been a leader of the environmental movement for nearly 20 years.