Re Scarcity of Recent Posts
Been swamped due to lots of recent publicity
It all seemed to happen at once.
An hour-long video of my talk in September at the Crestone Energy Fair that went live last week. After my talk, a guy in the audience raised his hand and said that our books had saved his life 55 years ago (skip forward to 47:44 on video).
The video of me by Kirsten Dirksen of Fair Companies (previous post).
The opening of an exhibit of my books, plus models from the books, at the Bolinas Museum, curated by Joseph Becker, Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
An 11-minute NPR radio program by radio journalist Jon Kalish titled ”DIY Legend Lloyd Kahn’s work is on display at Bolinas Museum” that aired on December 3rd.
You know, I’m a little uneasy with the self-aggrandizement factor here. I’m also a bit puzzled (as well as pleased) by having my work recognized so widely now. (Yesterday I was visiting my long-time friend, pro bono lawyer Tony Serra, aged 90, and we concluded that at least some of the recognition we’re now getting stems partly from merely staying alive so long.)
I often think of Sally Field’s response to getting an Academy Award in 1985: ”You like me.” She was incredulous, as am I, especially with favorable feedback from people I really admire.
So it’s been a hectic few weeks, with a lot of input and not much output. But I’m gonna start out the new year with a lot more communication, aiming to do at least a couple of Substack posts a week.
I have a ton of stuff to communicate.
(Next week I’m taking my new knee board and fins to San Jose del Cabo for a week (Dec, 10-17) in warm water and to visit with my dear friend Chilon and family, and will be actively posting on Instagram and whenever possible on Substack.)
Stay tuned…
Wow, I could say the same I suppose. I wasn't drafted back then, just stuck in university wondering WTF I was doing there. Read SHELTER and WEC and started seeing and feeling some alternate possibilities for my life. DIY in capital letters, out on the fringes of civilization!
Within a few months I had dropped out, made myself a pack sack and a sleeping bag, stuck my thumb out and ended up on the west coast near Tofino. Joined the littoral tribe of beach bums, my Summer of Love. Soon I was picking up driftwood timbers off the beach to frame a simple box of a cabin on Box Island, accessible at low tide off the point between Long Beach and Schooner Cove. Pacific Rim National Park was created in '71 and all us crazy beach bums had to leave, and after some travels up and down the west coast of Turtle Island, I ended up on Cortes Island, started a family with my gypsy wife Joy and became a professional carpenter, a self-taught architect and boatbuilder.
Soon I could afford to buy a place which ticked all the boxes of self sufficiency but needed a lot of fixing up, adding on kid's rooms etc. Then you came by around 20 years and a dozen houses later, and took photos and laughed a lot, and I had my 15 minutes of fame in BoTPC.
Full circle!
So thanks big time for helping me get my bearings on a good direction in my youth. If I'd stayed in university I'd probably be wearing a suit and tie and feeling all depressed right now about a life wasted.
David Shipway
We like you, and some of us hope to be like you. At least, a little.