Daily Loaf

Routes Music is a documentary film acting as a roving music census, taking in the true musical passions (and disgusts) of the American people. We’re traveling all across the country, stopping along the way to interview local bands, take footage of live performances and chat with anyone and everyone. Learn more about the documentary here; check out all previous entries here.

The first thing we noticed on Austin’s infamous Sixth Street was the preponderance of clubs. Not the live music that Austin is known for, but booming bass beckoning babes in short skirts (and the dudes chasing them). Roads blocked off … police bored and leering … drunk college kids swaying from one sidewalk to another … a street musician, here or there, drowned out by the latest pop hits.

To find some music that wasn’t prerecorded, the Routes Music crew had to drive across town to locally-owned and operated Violins Etc., a full service string shop.

Inside, we were greeted by hundreds of violins – some brand new and ready for sale, others in various states of disrepair – as well as the employees who fixed them.
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Woken up this morning at 7:30 again by my neighbor’s “yard guys” with their gas-powered leaf blowers, mowers and edgers (a.k.a.: power tools for the yard). I cant help but wonder why they have to come out, seemingly once a week, to groom his bright green lawn. How is this sustainable? Not only are they soaking their grass with drinking water and chemical fertilizers, but also using gas powered tools to keep it in check, every week!

Michael Manlowe, owner of Twigs & Leaves Florida Native Nursery & Garden Center has a solution: “dig it up, lose your lawn and plant native, it makes sense.”  Florida native plants require a fraction of the water and no mowing or fertilizers.

Native flowers and berries sustain wild life like butterflies (the nursery is swarming with butterflies), birds, bees – a whole native ecosystem will thrive here with little help from us humans. Left to its own, a Florida native landscape reseeds, provides habitats and becomes a beautiful, self-sustaining ecosystem. Native yards allow for free time and much less yard work, compared to a typical labor-intensive lawn. Read the rest of this entry »

As the inauguration craziness gets into full swing this weekend, here’s some video from Obama’s 137-mile train journey from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.

Here are some shots from the trip, below the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

Lights Up: Editor David Warner and art critic Megan Voeller welcome artist Will Pappenheimer and the City of Tampa’s Robin Nigh (L to R in the photo above) to talk about Lights On Tampa 2009, the illumination celebration that will transform the Convention Center, the St. Pete Times Forum and other downtown sites starting January 10.

Download.