Jan 12: Sustainability Salon & Sing: YERT!



Get ready to roll!  On Saturday January 12th, we'll ride 'round the country with YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip.  Pittsburgh's own Mark Dixon -- environmentalist, filmmaker, and all-around fun guy -- will be here to share this amazing award-winning, ground-covering docu-comedy at the 12th Sustainability Salon.  And the weather is cooperating (no ice on the streets), too.  So here's a reminder, as well as confirming our featured film and speaker!  Thanks to all those who have RSVP'd already, and if you think you might come but haven't emailed, it would be great if you can send word.

Hey -- along with being the 12th in our Sustainability Salon series, I just discovered in the Blogspot statistics that this event is the 800th MarensList posting.  Information, bringing people together...


Called to action by a planet in peril, Mark and a couple of friends spend a year roving across all fifty states in search of solutions to environmental worries.  They explore the good, the bad, and the weird and find many of the extraordinary innovators and courageous citizens who are tackling humanity's greatest environmental crises. As the YERT team layers outlandish eco-challenges onto their year-long quest, an unexpected turn of events throws the project for a loop in this award-winning docu-comedy. Featuring Bill McKibben, Wes Jackson, Will Allen, Janine Benyus, Joel Salatin, David Orr, and music by Ben Sollee, Mark Geary and more.


The film is enlightening and engaging, goofy and hopeful, thought-provoking and occasionally serious.  It'll be even more fun when we watch it together and have the opportunity to talk about the discoveries Mark, Julie, and Ben made along the way as they traveled the nation in a hybrid car (along with all the trash they generated along the way…  hint: don't buy takeout!).

So that we have plenty of time for discussion, Mark will be bringing a special one-hour cut of the film;  the full 113-minute version will also be available on DVD.  



3-10 p.m. at Maren's house in Squirrel Hill.  (Please don't arrive before 3pm; we plan on introducing Mark and his marvelous movie beginning around 4pm.)  Please email me to RSVP (important for yesses and maybes, please do so each time -- it helps greatly in several ways.  Among other things, attendance varies from 25 to 75, and it helps to have a handle on numbers in advance;  also, weather and such can be unpredictable and it's good to know who to contact if there's a change) -- and I'll send directions and/or a trail map if you need 'em.  Be sure to include "salon" in the Subject line, as I receive a ridiculous amount of email every day.  Bring food or drink to share if you can, along with musical instruments if you play.  Check back on MarensList (where you can find information on all sorts of environmental and social justice events), for updates.  

Note that I'll be sending out directions and such, and any late-breaking info, to all the RSVP'd folks on Saturday morning;  there are lots of email addresses to transcribe and it's been a really long day/week!  One of these days I'll streamline this process a bit (assistance would be welcome), but for now it takes a while to to dot all my i's and cross all my t's.  Speaking of which, the photo of Julie, Mark, and Ben is by Gregg Dixon (others are by yours truly).

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And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, don't forget the evening sing -- we typically run the gamut from Irish fiddle tunes to protest songs to the Beatles, and a fun time is had by all.  Bring instruments if you play, and/or pick up one of ours.  Conversations will continue through the evening as well. 

Quite a few people have asked me what sorts of food to bring -- and my answer, as always, is whatever inspires you;  I believe in the "luck" part of potlucks.  Tasty noshings for the afternoon, hearty main dishes or scrumptious salads and sides for dinner, baked goods from biscuits and breads to brownies or baklava -- and/or beverages of any kind.  The more the merrier!  Local fare is always particularly welcome, whether homegrown or boughten.  Dishes containing meat are fine, though if it isn't really obvious please make a note of it.  

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