So this year I see much of what we share (besides immense amounts of FOOD from our farm and conversation with others) is media. Radio shows, YouTubes, talk shows, movies, books, magazine articles, music and yes, even twitter. So which ones seemed worthy of sharing now, at this pinacle of clarity when we’re cold during the day and actually have time to focus? A few local highlights always make the short list. And, it goes without saying, we are greatly enjoying sharing our budding Oasis Community Farm, new house nearly done, many many friends coming for eggs (and most getting them most of the time, though we DO run out!) It’s gorgeous here and we’re blessed with our friends and the nest we’ll eventually fully share.

So media: Definitely I pick Wendell Berry’s talk on City Arts and Lectures, NPR, as my fav single interview (though it’s easier to access another interview with him on KQED’s Forum archive). He’s kind, brilliant, talks like a poet and gives unending insights into living well on the land.

For most urgent message, I pick Bill Moyers interview w. Naomi Klein . Climate Crisis is exactly that, she says. The big oil companies are sitting on 5 times the oil reserves necessary to bring us to catastrophe without any more fracking whatsoever! I personally intend to get some college students turned on to 350.org and its activities – divesting education funds from mega oil, much as we did to block Apartheid in South Africa so Nelson Mandela could go to jail for his cause and eventually win. Students will likely have to go to jail to block these terribly powerful corporations from literally burning and pillaging their future planet, as Bill McKibben says, Eaarth, a new planet, more wrecked than what we were born to due to pollution, much from oil.

On a happy note, loved discovering quirky films this year through Netflix, found for us based on our interests: The Names of Love (lovely, wild Algerian who “cures” Nazis by making love to them), something w. Keith Carradine and Shelly Duval I can’t find because Netflix is down. Well, and OK, we engaged w. TV series, notably, Breaking Bad, and watched the whole of Boston Legal series with enthusiasm. A bit of Thirty Rock, SNL and always Stephen Colbert!

For local events, I thought the 1st Birthday of Occupy Petaluma was quite spirited, with its charming Absolutely Free Market (found two absolutely free Xmas presents!) fine books, good shoes(!), even a working TV, a fanciful delicious OP Birthday cake, Larry Potts on guitar with his great LOCAL songs, Kombucha, the healthy fermented mushroom drink offered in gallons by Wayne’s son, Day, who now runs Dance Underground at our old haunts beneath Thai Issan, and best, some great Occupy friends, including Shepherd Bliss, John Bertucci, Tim Nonn, who participated in Occupy all year long, helping people who’ve been foreclosed on, among other good deeds.

Would be remiss if I didn’t mention hope for our budding Petaluma Grange, now meeting at the Seed Bank, this grange’s illustrious, if mysterious, past, and potential future as the home of all things friendly, delicious and farm oriented. Looking into the history of this Grange, we find ourselves wondering: was it the Jewish Chicken Ranchers who started all this here, this grange which was once the largest in California? I’ll skim a copy of Comrades and Chicken Farmers and keep asking questions.

And then more media:

YouTube: Love watching and listening to Madelaine Peyroux (anything of hers), Carole King and James Taylor at the Troubadour (and found the CD in Dorothy’s Room for sale in the library) and just singing along with many of the great songsters. I’ve now sung a few Carole King songs for Open Mic 2nd Sunday at Petaluma’s Methodist Church adjoining the Post Office.

Hope to see you at our Farm and around town – and so glad we’re all still here (Mayan Calendar) but what ever happened to the God coming down from another world I heard of on Cable TV in San Diego?