Permaculture: Principles and Music

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I was having a look around some of my favourite permie haunts and came across a recent interview (20 minutes) done with Permaculturist and Musician Charlie Jones (aka Charlie Mgee) where he talks about his new album 'Permaculture: a rhymer's manual (http://formidablevegetable.bandcamp.com/album/permaculture-a-rhymers-manual-2)' and his impending Glastonbury Festival appearance. It's a goodun so thought I'd share with the class. I was looking for something special for my 1000th post and this fits the bill nicely. Reckon this thread might be a good place for anyone who wants to share any music that relates to Permaculture.

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Permaculture: the musical (http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/03/08/3711436.htm)
By Vanessa Mills 8th March 2013

It's a concept album combining ukulele, humour and permaculture producing what musician Charlie Mgee calls "electroswing ecological edutainment".

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/kimberley/201303/r1084025_12917765.mp3
Download mp3 (http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/kimberley/201303/r1084025_12917765.mp3)

When the Fremantle-based musician sent his permaculture album to David Holmgrem, who developed the ecological design concept with Bill Mollison in the 1970s, Charlie received a response to treasure.

"He gave me the best response ever... He got on the blower and said 'It's great. I listened to the whole thing...and I didn't cringe once.'"

It's the sense of humour that makes Charlie's permaculture preaching palatable. Along with snappy rhythms there's a big band sound with guest musicians Mayuka Juber of Apricot Rail on clarinet, Alex Burkoy of Tinpan Orange on bass ukulele and Broome's Harry Jakamara on banjo.

The album is made up of 12 songs based on the 12 principles of permaculture. As far-fetched as the concept sounds, it seems to be catching on with audiences. Charlie has been invited to play at the Glastonbury Festival in England and he will tour the album through North America as well.

Source (http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/03/08/3711436.htm).

-- Pan

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All the songs on Charlie's album are taken from David Holmgren's 12 Permaculture Principles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture#The_12_permaculture_design_principles) which are represented by this image:

http://permacultureprinciples.com/images/principles_menu.gif


Here's an early version of 'No Such Thing As Waste' which is based on Permaculture Principle #6: Produce no Waste.

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Here's a jam @ the Woodford Folk Festival.
Charlie's song 'Change' is based on Principle 12: Creatively use and respond to Change.

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Educational Music that's fun!

Here's another one from Charlie, it's called 'Limits' and is based on Principle #4: Apply Self-regulation & accept Feedback.

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Charlie's website is 'Permaculture Songs' and can be found at http://permaculturesongs.com
All the songs lyrics and chords are available here (http://permaculturesongs.com/lyrics-chords/).

The album is called 'Permaculture: a Rhymer's Manual'.

http://f0.bcbits.com/z/30/43/3043562093-1.jpg

It's available here (http://formidablevegetable.bandcamp.com/album/permaculture-a-rhymers-manual-2) soon.

I'm not affiliated in any way with this project just love the way he's taken the principles and made them easy for people to remember.

Now that's edutainment!
Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

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A very powerful message which shows how changing the way we think can change the way our, and our children's, future evolves.

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Feel the energy and joy in this song by David Griswold which he wrote just after he'd completed a Permaculture Design Course.

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Lyrics, chords and more information is available here (http://permculture.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/permaculture-song-lyrics/).

-- Pan

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'Bugger The Bankers' by The Austerity Allstars is quite a witty take on the world.
Love the line: 'We're programmed against insurrection'.
How very true.

Truly 'a song for our times (http://theausterityallstars.bandcamp.com/track/bugger-the-bankers)'.

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The 'World Wide Permaculture Network' is a database of Permaculture teachers, practitioners and projects world wide.

It can be accessed here:
http://www.permacultureglobal.com/

An interactive map can be found here:
http://permacultureglobal.com/projects

Have a look, there may be one not far from you...

-- Pan

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'The Rap On Permaculture' is from Quail Springs Permaculture (http://www.quailsprings.org).
Quail Springs Permaculture grew out of a late 90's program for Homeless Youth run by Warren Brush and Cynthia Harvan in Santa Barbara, Southern California.
They've done some wonderful things with this old cattle farm.

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David Holmgren is a co-founder of Permaculture and in this video discusses the reason for his developing Permaculture's Principles and Ethics:

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This is an explanation of the various Principles in Permaculture using excerpts from Dave's book and provided by 'D Acres (http://www.dacres.org/aboutdacres/long-story/longstory.html)' a not-for-profit Permaculture farming and educational group in New Hampshire.

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Permaculture can help bring people together.
People who aren't permaculturists help expand on our understandings and both teach us and learn from us.
The following is a short segment on the Tierra Viva anarchist punk Permaculture collective in Mexico.
They work with people and help others in creating a better urban space while giving purpose to their own and others lives.

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Here's an excellent article that I'm sharing in its entirety as it shows how action not only speaks louder than words but also how inaction and non-interaction is part of the problem. If we don't step out the door and be examples of change we are collaborators and co-conspirators in the gradual destruction of our, and our childrens, world.

As Helen Samuels said in the segment on Tierra Viva I posted above:

There are no bosses in this group, only coordinators.

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Consensus, Community and Addiction (http://permaculturenews.org/2011/08/11/consensus-community-and-addiction/)
by Theron Beaudreau. August 11th 2011.


A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our ability to cultivate the reality we seek is determined by our ability to communicate constructively. Community is the result of a conversation and, by the very nature of this conversation, community is inherently multi-dimensional. We all have different stories to tell and we all see reality through a different set of lenses. The variety of these perspectives is both the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity for the cultivation of CommUnity. In this way, ‘Community’ can be seen as the ‘Communicational Unity’, otherwise known as consensus.

The complexities of communicational unity increases with each additional perspective, thus they are the inherent challenges of consensus decision making. At the same time, each new perspective brings new opportunities to make decisions based on a more clear and holistic interpretation of our collective reality.


Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.
— Walt Whitman

In this way, new perspectives add value and build better models for our collective reality. Now let us consider, we are approaching a world population of 7 billion people. Furthermore, many of us are beginning to recognize our interdependence, not only with 6.9 billion other people but with the vast diversity of organisms in our environment as well. Indeed, even our own bodies are made up of more bacteria than human cells. Taken further, what we consider to be our cells are actually a cooperative union of a verity of different bacteria. How then can we hope to make decisions that are considerate of such vast diverse perspectives?

Often we find it difficult to even consider ourselves completely. That pint of ice cream sure tastes good! But, the impacts it has on our body are rarely taken into consideration, that is… until that perspective is illuminated through a visit to our doctor or a shameful moment on the bathroom scale. "Ugh, how did we let ourselves get so out of control?"


Earth provides enough for everyone’s need, but not everyone’s greed.
– Mahatma Gandhi

Ecologically, we find ourselves in a similar state to one who’s "let themselves go". At first it tasted so sweet, how were we to know these indulgences would result in ecological dis-ease? Sure, there have been cells of the body along the way that were warning us to put down the ice cream or, at the very least, to moderate our consumption. But the perspective that our choices were leading toward self-destructive abuse were not illuminated or heeded in time to avert the onset of what now amounts to a compulsive addiction.

Today, with the conditions of our global dis-ease becoming so apparent we can no longer turn a blind eye, our collective challenge is to put down the ice cream and motivate the rest of our body to get off the couch and exercise, before it’s too late.


A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is where we have to make a choice about how we make decisions. Are we going to yield to and continue enabling those parts of us that just want one more bite while other parts of this figurative body are screaming for a return to a more healthy lifestyle? Apparently, there are enough cells left in our crucial nerve centers that crave the continuation of our consumption, irrespective of the result. And, just as with any new exercise routine, the desires of our addiction only become louder as we struggle for remedy.

In time, the parts of us that are addicted to unhealthy behavior can be re-trained to appreciate and even encourage healthy behavior. But that reality may still be some ways off. For now, it’s going to take a serious amount of motivation to convince our addicted cells that it is time to get off the couch and shape up.


We may think there is willpower involved, but more likely… change is due to want-power. Wanting the new addiction more than the old one. Wanting the new me in preference to the person I am now.
– George A. Sheehan

With the behaviors of addiction, we often find ourselves in what can only be described as a pattern circular communication. The conversation spins around, no conclusions are reached, no decisions made, and little action is taken other than to continue to satisfy our craving for that which we are addicted. For the health of our collective body, it’s important that we recognize when these patterns are occurring and cut them short. There is no need to waste any more time trying to convince the addicted part of ourselves what needs to happen. We will be thanking ourselves later. In the meantime, we can expect to throw a violent fit in protest of the initial discomfort of this dramatic redirection of our energies.

As a result, some might conclude that we can never find consensus with the irrational parts of ourselves, however, with this I must disagree. Through constructive communication and the conviction (as well as clear evidence) that what we are doing, however painful, is part of the process of healing, consensus can eventually be restored.


There are no bosses, only coordinators of information.
– Helen Samuels

It starts with small circles of community like Tierra Viva in Mexico City that reach consensus, even on a small scale, and move in a constructive direction, despite the enormity of obstacles and challenges they face. Empowered with the knowledge that they are providing a service that is creating real and tangible benefits for their community, they do not look to leaders to guide their decisions. They merely allow their actions to speak for them, and the proof is in the preverbal pudding (not to be confused with that tasty ice cream — if you can excuse my over use of this analogy).

Tierra Viva is not alone. There are several other examples of the successful application of motivated and informed action followed by inclusive communication. The City Repair Project in Portland, Oregon is perhaps one of the most direct illustrations of how this approach can produce positive outcomes and even result in a consensus with the less than rational parts of our culture.

Community is cultivated through Communicational Unity (i.e. consensus). A consensus typically begins on small scale (just a few pushups to get started). If the outcome of the community’s actions result in clear benefit, and the conversation remains constructive and inclusive, the community has the opportunity to broaden not only the scope of its impact but also its perspective. And, as our perspectives increase, our decisions become more informed. Before we know it, we’ve developed a rigorous workout that is challenging, invigorating and healthful.

We can’t wait for someone else to do this work for us. We have an obligation to get off the couch and take control of our future. Don’t waste time looking for consensus… cultivate it. The new you awaits!

Source (http://permaculturenews.org/2011/08/11/consensus-community-and-addiction/).

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Here's 'The Permie Song' (by Michelle Morgan) which is part of the sound track for the documentary Anima Mundi (http://animamundimovie.com/).

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Here's a couple of likely lads...
Geoff Lawton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoff_Lawton) and Bill Mollison (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mollison) having a quick natter about things Permaculture including how important it is to do and teach.
If we don't get out into the "system" and take it on from within we will be merely observers, watching while the Titanic goes down.
Becoming active at a grass-root level leads to contact with council and when the grass-root group is big enough, we are the council.
From that it's just a matter of slow infiltration until the grass-root group becomes the norm (remember the 10% rule (http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.3931)).

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