Tea Leaf Green Welcomes 'Green' Community to their SF Earth Day Weekend Shows

Tea Leaf Green Welcomes S.F. ‘Green’ Community for Two-Night Fillmore Party Over Earth Day Weekend

And I was lookin’ up
at them tall redwood trees,
like looking up the skirt
of my destiny.
- Tea Leaf Green, “Zoom Zoom”

On Friday and Saturday April 17-18, San Francisco’s Tea Leaf Green returns to the historic Fillmore for what promises to be an epic Earth Day Weekend party for the Bay Area’s ‘Green’ community.

Known for its triumphant brand of psychedelic rock ’n’ roll – which has been likened to its San Francisco forebears – Tea Leaf Green’s music is characterized by the Earth-inspired lyrics and poignant vocals of keyboard player Trevor Garrod, a botanist who grew up on a northern California farm. The tension-release solos and soul-piercing blues guitar of Josh Clark trigger bursts of confetti to explode from the crowd at peak moments, while one of the filthiest rhythm sections in rock ‘n’ roll – bass virtuoso, Reed Mathis, and drummer, Scott “Ice Man” Rager – hold down the deep end.

Playing hometown shows in a city consistently ranked among the ‘greenest’ in the nation, the band is reaching out to the Bay Area’s ‘green’ community, and has invited two environmental non-profits to be a part of the event each night.

“Respecting the Earth is really important to Tea Leaf Green,” says the band’s long-time entertainment coordinator, Todd “Sauce” Wallenbrock, who is known to hike 30+ miles deep into wilderness areas of the American West. “You find out what is important in maintaining this world really quickly. Spend a few days in the back country catching three pound goldens [trout] for dinner, and things make little more sense.”

Wise men are hiding in the mountains
while most of us are working too hard
- Tea Leaf Green, “Kali-Yuga”

Friday night, rising Indy/Newgrass band, Or, the Whale will open the show on the main stage, while guitar maestro, Sean Leahy, plays the poster room before the show and during set break.

Seattle superstars Flowmotion open Saturday night, and Eugene, Oregon’s Freedom Tribe will play its vaunted mystical soundscapes in the poster room.

Click here to purchase tickets to what promises to be a historic pair of Earth Day weekend shows:

* Friday, April 17:
http://tinyurl.com/FillmoreNightONE

* Saturday, April 18:
http://tinyurl.com/FillmoreNightTWO

Tampa Ranked Last in Study of Walkable Cities

Picture a place where you can step out of your home and walk to work, the movies or a restaurant. Just don't picture Tampa. A new survey ranks the city dead last for walkability among 30 major metro areas. The top three: Washington, D.C., Boston and San Francisco. Miami ranked eighth, and Atlanta 14th. It's not the first time Tampa has been rapped for its mean streets. A 2004 survey determined pedestrians in the Tampa Bay area take their lives in their hands more than in any other metro area in the country except Orlando.

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With places like Ybor City, Channelside, and other historic neighborhoods in Tampa, what is keeping the city from bringing the densities needed to harness important walkable places?

Standardization, Modeling, and Tract Housing as it relates to a Sense of Place

After spending the weekend in Orlando, FL (land of Mickey Mouse and other destination Theme Parks) next to Lake Eola and Thornton Park in downtown I grew a greater appreciation for neighborhoods near urban cores. While decrying Orlando's sprawl, tourist attractions, and overall lack of identity (well, other than tourist trap), for years I experienced first hand the success of a city that is dedicated to green spaces, and, as I found this weekend, a sense of place.

The area of Thornton Park was found from an older Washington Post article calling it, in the article's title, "anything but mousy." I read on. What I found, on "paper," was a place with some walkable characterstics; it's restaurants, coffee shops, local hang outs, shopping, and other neighborhood hair dressers, laundromats, and B&B's. I wanted to discover more, and with a semi-planned trip to "meet in the middle"(she in Jacksonville and I in Tampa) with my girlfriend it seemed like a perfect place to meet. I must say that it lived up to the article in the Post.

What didn't live up to it's hype is Sembler's The Grove at Winter Garden Village. While the development is a great exercise in the new outdoor mall it really adds little to the community other than more cars, less connectivity, and a lack a sense of "place." Sembler focuses on big-box anchored developments (Lowe's, Best Buy, Target in this case) with "mixed-use" elements to give it a better cover.

My problem with this project has less to do with the actual project itself, and more to do with the tract housing and sprawl that surrounds it. Orlando is a booming city, no doubt, but what surrounds this attempt at creating a "city center" (city being Winter Garden-just outside of Orlando) where all that surrounds is the same thing regurgitated 3 different ways for at least a mile all the way around. Our lives are being made standard, where each family lives in a suburb with a similar sized and looking home, drives the same type of car, wears the same clothes, and watches the same television night in and night out. Why not put these people in the same neutral colored box and force them to deal with this new open air mall that they can only drive to (there was no connectivity from each pocket neighborhood to "The Grove")?

We need to encourage diversity, creativity, and our differences. We need to create places that inspire people to take part in their community, try new things, think outside of the box, and take ownership for their surroundings.

Taking the High Line

From Jambase.com:

Bowie's Highline Fest
The H&M High Line Festival is a new multi-discipline arts festival that will be curated each year by a different artist. The inaugural edition, curated by David Bowie, will run May 9 to 19, 2007.

The ten-day mash-up of music, film, comedy, visual art and performance will highlight all of David's favorite artists. The best of the best.

The inaugural 10-day festival will take place in venues near the High Line, the elevated rail structure soon to open as a public open space, running through the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea and Clinton/Hell's Kitchen. A portion of each ticket sale will go to benefit Friends of the High Line, the 501(c)3 organization currently working with the City of New York to transform the 1930's rail structure into a park, set to open in 2008.

Please Note: none of the events of the High Line Festival will take place on the High Line itself.
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Great ideas come from an active community that cares about (integrating) the historical aspects, while looking ahead to support it's future.