Exploring issues of sustainability in the arts.

~by Scott Pinkmountain

City Walls

Out grabbing a quick burrito one night shortly before I moved away from the Bay Area for parts sparser, I got swallowed into the grinding, smoggy gridlock that throttled the streets of my distinctly not-fancy Oakland neighborhood. I marveled at the density –

cars, trucks, busses, pushcarts – seeing it through my new, exiting eyes. We could power the planet by harnessing our wasted energy, spun wheels. So much determination, so much frothed agenda to clearly signal that we’re all too busy to deal with each other’s needs – every man unapologetically for himself. I poked at my tinny horn as a Planet Crusher almost pancaked a biker. The cyclist swerved, the SUV did not.

I used to bike to my day job, constantly debating whether or not it was worth it. The softened carbon footprint, light cardio workout, and open-air engagement with my environment were pitted against the taxing of my thyroid as I’d dodge to avoid violently negligent drivers. Venomous thoughts poisoned my spirit and soured my pluralistic ideals when people enacted the worst, meanest characteristics of the stereotypical versions of themselves. Not to even mention the pollution, the risk of catching a car door, a bullet, a social disease from one of the used needles littering my path. It was a calculus of value to determine the worth of self-betterment. “It shouldn’t be this way,” I’d catch myself thinking at least once a day. Continue reading →