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The Soul of California

Let them share.....That's the goal. Let the leading thinkers, writers, academics, artists and activists talk about their work and the influence of California on that work. In these podcasts, I hope to bring out the myth and the ethos that is not only a leading administrative entity in the United States, but also the world. No commercials, just content. Feed your soul. Keep listening.
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Now displaying: November, 2015
Nov 20, 2015

For this first episode of two, Rob DiPerna of the Environmental Protection Information Centre (EPIC) provides an introduction and thorough overview of logging issues in Humboldt County, particularly the Headwaters Project, which saw the Houston-based investor Maxxam hostilely acquire long-established local company Pacific Lumber in 1985. Maxxam’s takeover involved the raiding of Pacific Lumber’s pension fund and the accelerated destruction of the some of the oldest trees on the planet - 10 metres in diameter, 30 meters in circumference and over 2,000 years old.  

In this 27-minute podcast, DiPerna walks us through the politics around the industry, the technological advances, sustainability issues of clear-cutting the redwoods (and replanting them), the protest movement and its methods, which included cat and mouse tactics and tree-sits (one of which lasted for two years), and closes with discussing the rift in the community over the issue.   

A bit of vocabulary, which may help… 

HCP - Habitat Conservation Plan   

THP - Timber Harvest Plan 

BLM - Bureau of Land Management (federal level government agency)

CAL FIRE - California Department of Forestry and First Protection (state level government agency)

Nov 9, 2015

Harry Partch - who created musical instruments from scrap and completely dismantled the 12-tone system that Western music is based on - was not your average mid-twentieth century composer wandering around the Golden State. 

To discuss Partch’s influence, impact and his own instruments, we are pleased to have as the SoC’s guest Thomas Oesterdiekhoff, the Director of the Musik Ensemble in Cologne, Germany, whose company produced Partch’s Delusion of the Fury in Cologne and at New York’s Lincoln Centre for two sold-out performances. 

In this 15-minute interview, Oesterdiekhoff sheds light on Partch’s atypical upbringing, and his obsession with tone that led to creating his own tonal system. Creating an entire array of instruments using hubcaps, bottles and shell casings, Partch penned a number of brilliantly chaotic noise ensembles that push the boundaries of music that has been termed “unclassifiable”. Oesterdiekhoff describes how he and his team meticulously rebuilt a new set of instruments and how a trained musician threw out all of his/her knowledge to relearn Partch’s system. With 52 players and instruments on stage, half of which are moving around, no conductor, and a cast dressed up as hobos, Delusion of the Fury is one rare blend of music and theatre and demonstrates the genius that welds them together in ways unimaginable. 

www.musikfabrik.eu

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