Originally posted April 8th, 2012
By Michael Konik
Sometimes our chaotic, unknowable, seemingly random Universe arranges itself with perfect symmetry. In these moments of bracing clarity, authored by a Creator (in whatever guise or nomenclature you prefer) whose sense of irony is matched only by her/his/its sense of wicked humor, our innate foolishness and learned stubbornness are robbed of their pretensions. We see what we have wrought – and then pretend we didn’t, because, despite our professed wish for “change you can believe in,” change is the process we’re most unwilling to endure.
Last week provided several of those The Way It Is moments, with several illuminating events happening almost simultaneously, twinned like opposite sides of a coin, as though the worm-hole theories of modern physicists were getting an earthbound demonstration. Our chief prophet of change you can believe in, President Obama, who seems intent on being as big of a disappointment to as many . . . → Read More: Perverse Priorities
Originally posted March 18th, 2012
By Michael Konik
In 1969, the Cayahoga River, one of Lake Erie’s major tributaries, caught fire. This provided the kind of visual evidence boring old science never could. Folks got hip: Industry, they realized, was using American waterways as a massive free sewage system for their most noxious waste. Americans got serious about pollution in our water for a minute. Then we all got back to business and tried to forget about the future.
Now our present generation of leaders and decision-makers has its own Compelling Visual to consider as they try to sell the easily sold American public on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which a proprietary cocktail of water, sand, and toxic chemicals are blasted into shale fissures deep beneath the Earth’s surface. The blasting breaks apart the rock formations and causes them to give up oil and natural gas deposits. The Academy Award-nominated (and therefore Good and . . . → Read More: What the Frack!?
Originally posted November 20th, 2011
By Michael Konik
Mr. Darwin has some ‘splaining to do.
Our species, which has managed to rise to the top of the food chain, conquer and colonize every region of the planet we care to inhabit, and control the fate of almost every other species unlucky enough to exist contemporaneously with humankind, seems to be partially exempt from the Theory of Evolution.
Sure, our spectacular advances in technology appear to be compelling evidence that we’re making progress, “improving” our existence by applying our superior intelligence to complicated problems that other creatures can’t solve. Want an iPad, Senor Gerbil? You might want to grow some thumbs! Life expectancy is longer – and by many measures healthier and altogether “better” (less violent, less frightening) than, say, 10,000 years ago.
But what kind of species is powerful enough to unilaterally destroy its environment, smart enough to understand the ramifications of its decisions, and . . . → Read More: Evolutionary Doubts
Originally posted July 16th, 2011
By Michael Konik
This weekend Los Angeles is enduring what’s being called “carmageddon.” A 10-mile portion of the 405 Freeway, one of the major North-South arteries serving the Westside of LA County (and beyond), including LAX, is closed for 53 hours while a carpool lane is constructed and half of a bridge is demolished and rebuilt. Various degress of commuter paralysis, business disruption, and lifestyle disintegration have been forecast across every known media platform, as though this town were in the midst of a nuclear meltdown. In a city where the automobile is king, shutting down a freeway is akin to regicide.
For those of us who don’t own a car, however, this weekend’s predicted turmoil isn’t a disaster. It’s an opportunity.
Our hope is that all the folks who have let their machines dictate how they live their life — instead of owning cars, the cars own them — . . . → Read More: Karmageddon
Originally posted July 10th, 2011
By Michael Konik
Here’s how we feed everyone, repair our environment, and provide meaningful work: convert lawns into organic vegetable gardens.
Imagine if all the property owners currently pumping water and fertilzer into their grass carpets used our precious natural resources to grow food — healthy, unprocessed, nutrient-rich vegetables. Imagine if vast swaths of public land currently serving as paved parking lots and grass-covered parks were parceled out to non-stakeholders for community gardens. Imagine if we used our wealth to feed each other.
An entire city block in my Hollywood neighborhood is devoted to such a cause. It’s called Wattles Garden. Hundreds of apartement renters in the area are granted a small plot of arable land to grow what they wish. This being Southern California, where the sun shines year-round, residents harvest thousands of pounds of real food derived directly from the ground, steps away from the Star Tour buses . . . → Read More: A Simple Plan to Save the World
Originally posted June 12th, 2011
By Michael Konik
Our failed War on Drugs has cost us vast treasure, ruined the lives of harmless citizens, and fueled a growing empire of violent crime. To continue with this national folly would be stupid at best and catastophic at worst. It’s time to legalize marijuana, treating it as we do tobacco, alcohol, caffiene, and other widely desired drugs. Doing so will also be good for our environment.
Because of prohibition — throughout a 5,000 year legacy of cannabis use among civilizations around the globe, the first century weed was made illegal was the 20th — what was once natural and open is now furtive and shrouded. Plants that belong outdoors, soaking up the sun and growing like, well, weeds, are now consigned to indoor “grow rooms,” where 1,000-watt lamps irradiate genetically stabilized clones rooted in nitrogen-rich fertilizer. The enromous quantity of energy consumed and waste prodcuts produced makes . . . → Read More: Our Environment: Another Drug War Casualty
For more than three years I’ve enjoyed a vegetarian diet, which has left me feeling altogether better. Better energy, better sleep, better digestion, better physical fitness, better health and wellness.
I grow a good portion of what I eat. The correlation may be circumstantial or fanciful, but farming my food seems to have made me healthier, too.
I’m tilting now toward eating vegan. No animals. No eggs or dairy. Instead, mostly stuff that’s live or sprouted or green.
I haven’t yet decided what I think about bivalves and invertabrates (or fish). But I’m certain that our society’s current model for producing and consuming meat is dangerous and unsustainable. There are several ways to measure how bad eating animals is for our health and for our planet. Cattle consume 80% of all farmland, pastures that could be used to grow food to feed billions. Cattle account for 70% . . . → Read More: Eating Animals
Originally posted January 23rd, 2011
By Michael Konik
Los Angeles is lousy with food trucks at the moment. Thanks to a collision of social- and mass-media fawning, they’ve earned all the valuable trend labels (“hot,” “in,” etc.), transcending their utilitarian function and entering the lofty realm of Culturally Significant Phenomena. No longer do these Winnebago-sized mobile restaurants simply serve workers at construction sites and other dusty places where food and drink can be scarce. Now they’re parked everywhere, including directly in front of brick-and-mortar restaurants.
Let us put aside for the moment disucssion of the quality of food they serve, or the “need” they seem to fill. Instead, let’s examine the consequences of allowing these rolling commisaries to operate on our city streets.
Business owners, who pay taxes, purchase licenses, and endure all the other headaches associated with owning a food business, have complained that food trucks largely avoid the myriad responsibilities of owning a . . . → Read More: The Food Truck Scourge
Originally posted November 14th, 2010
By Michael Konik
Bold prediction: Within a decade, a whole class of societal crusaders will develop and be recognized by the arbiters of culture. They will be called radicals, Luddites, crackpots. They’ll be dismissed and ridiculed. And they’ll be consistently marginalized by those with money and power. But they’ll be right.
Their main focus? Harnessing the astonishing energy and passion Americans seem to have for “protecting” innocent folks, sheilding them from dangerous temptations, such as recreational drugs. homosexual marriage, and filthy pornography — and anything else that seems to controvert “family values.” These new crusaders will apply that same misdirected evenagelical zeal into a movement to really protect Americans from corporate disease merchants.
Soon the crackpots will be calling for the dismantling and reorganization of the automotive industry and the factory food industry, two of the biggest sources of death and disease in our society.
Originally posted September 5th, 2010
By Michael Konik
The idea behind Congestion Pricing is to charge people more to use things — city streets, toll roads, cellphones — during peak times. By raising the cost you reduce demand, freeing up more space. And if demand stays constant you earn higher revenue and then raise the price some more. Such programs are in place in metropolises all over the world, notably London, where entering the central district during business hours requires a surcharge.
One of the benefits of these dynamic pricing models is getting people to drive their cars less. This is prima faciea good thing. Automobiles cause death and injury; automobiles are one of the leading sources of environmental degradation; automobiles are expensive and inefficient. The less we drive them the better. Providing competitive public transportation is one incentive. Employing a kind of 24-hour Congestion Pricing to parking would be another.
The concept is simple: No . . . → Read More: No Free Parking
We're really sorry about our most recent trading loss. People will say we require more oversight, and, in this case, maybe they're right. It shouldn't have happened, and we'll take steps to make sure it doesn't happen for a third time.
The $4,000 or so ($4,882) of your money that we failed to bring back from our annual company trip to Hollywood Park Racetrack and Casino will in... Read More-->
If you’re reading this essay on MichaelKonik.com, you know that this is a reliable place to find “me,” the me who shares his ideas with the world, whether or not any part of the world is interested. This is where I unilaterally invade my privacy, allowing strangers...
North Korea is launching rockets, Syria is slaughtering its citizens, and the Filipino community is organizing a massive get-out-the-vote campaign for a crucial election (not for something boring and unimportant like a public office but a cause that’s got folks passionately engaged: the American Idol finals). So...
Sometimes our chaotic, unknowable, seemingly random Universe arranges itself with perfect symmetry. In these moments of bracing clarity, authored by a Creator (in whatever guise or nomenclature you prefer) whose sense of irony is matched only by her/his/its sense of wicked humor, our innate foolishness and learned...
Poet Robert Pinsky. Pianist Laurence Hobgood. Text, music, and the moment -- what we hear on the new POEMJAZZ recording is two giant artists making something greater than the sum of its parts. While Pinsky recites his lovely words with his unlovely (but weirdly attractive) voice, Hobgood, the longtime arranger and accompanist [...]
