Eco-Film #10: Rivers and Tides

"You see something you never saw before; that was always there but you were blind to." 

 

Q: What do these photographs have in common?

A: They're all the work of Andy Goldsworthy, a Scottish artist who works in and with nature using only his hands, his teeth, and, very rarely, a pocket knife.


Please join Daegu Green Living for its tenth Eco-Film showing: "Rivers and Tides," a 2003 documentary about Goldsworthy's work and the thought behind it.

From the official website:


"Landscape sculptor Andy Goldsworthy is renowned throughout the world for his work in ice, stone, leaves, wood. His own remarkable still photographs are Goldsworthy's way of talking about his often ephemeral works, of fixing them in time. Now with this deeply moving film, shot in four countries and across four seasons, and the first major film he has allowed to be made, the elusive element of time adheres to his sculpture.

"Director Thomas Riedelsheimer worked with Andy Goldsworthy for over a year to shoot this film. What Riedelsheimer found was a profound sense of breathless discovery and uncertainty in Goldsworthy's work, in contrast to the stability of conventional sculpture. There is risk in everything that Goldsworthy does. He takes his fragile work - and it can be as fragile in stone as in ice or twigs - right to the edge of its collapse, a very beautiful balance and a very dramatic edge within the film. The film captures the essential unpredictability of working with rivers and with tides, feels into a sense of liquidity in stone, travels with Goldsworthy underneath the skin of the earth and reveals colour and energy flowing through all things.


Riedelsheimer's film, like Goldsworthy's sculpture, grows into something beyond the simple making of a object. It touches the heart of what Goldsworthy does and who he is, in much the same way that Goldworthy touches the heart of a place when he works in it and leaves his mark on it.In this film, which is Goldworthy's work as much as Riedelsheimer's, 'you see something you never saw before; that was always there but you were blind to.'"


The film will start at 6:00 on Sunday, September 25th, at Buy the Book* and be followed by a group dinner, for those who are interested, at a restaurant somewhere nearby.  Or, if you prefer, enjoy a healthy and delicious meal, snack, or drink off of Buy the Book's menu.

Entrance is free and open to everyone.  The film doesn't have subtitles, but the language used isn't too confusing, and the Goldsworthy's art is breathtaking, even without extra explanation. 

You can find the Facebook event page by looking up the group Daegu Green Living, or by following this link.  Feel free to invite friends^^

Hope to see you there!

*Downtown Daegu, Rodeo Street, Mr. Pizza Building, 4th Floor. 

New Feature: Green Guide

I've finally spent some time figuring out how google maps works, and have now managed to stick all (well, not yet, but soon) of DGL's restaurant and store reviews onto one map. Zip around and check out the options in your neck of the woods. Share it with your friends!

To visit the static DGL page with embedded map, go to http://noksaeksari.blogspot.com/p/green-guide.html

Or, to head to the map directly, it's at http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211725835272674312925.0004abea0adee14f39770&msa=0&ll=35.882931,128.682861&spn=0.159111,0.441513

The 2011 Organic World Conference comes to Korea!

This blog tends to focus on ways that each of us can, as individuals, make environmentally responsible decisions about what we eat, where we shop, and how we entertain ourselves. Making these sort of small choices based on environmental and ethical concerns can be empowering, opening up new paths and giving us the strength to make more difficult decisions when the time comes. At the same time, though, enlightened consumers on their own won't change the world. The real movers and shakers, the ones who have the power to affect the range of possible consumption choices available to those of us who are looking to do the right thing, are those who produce, distribute, and design. Farmers, engineers, scientists, politicians, and activists. Perhaps, if we're lucky, we manage to make time to read a few articles or books on what these people are up to, and up against. For the most part, though, we're busy with our own daily lives, largely unaware of the great changes happening all around us.

This month, though, we who are here in Korea will have the opportunity to see into this world first-hand (pardon the mixed metaphor). Between Monday, September 26 and Wednesday, October 5, the city of Namyangju (Northwest of Seoul, accessible via the subway) will play host to the 17th Organic World Congress.

The schedule is as follows:

Sept 26th-27th: Pre-conferences on topics like aquaculture, urban agriculture, and tea farming
Sept 28th: Opening Ceremonies
Sept 29th - August 1st: Main conference. Lectures, seminars, and speeches on the theory, practice, politics, economics, and future of organic agriculture.
August 1st: Closing Ceremonies
August 3rd-5th: IFOAM General Assembly

While the above seem like they will mostly interest experts and practitioners, the following look like they could be interesting for just about anybody:

August 2nd: Organic tours. Choose among three different sites in Korea, all associated with different facets of the organic movement.

And, from September 28th through October 2nd: Market Festival and Organic World Fair! All sorts of booths, games, displays, shops, and concerts.

All the official details - including prices and registration info - are available on the official website, http://www.kowc2011.org/eng. No matter what aspect of the organic movement you're interested in, There will be something for you.

If you think you'd like to go, get in touch via facebook or email (noksaeksari at gmaill dot com) and we'll see if we can work out a group trip and shared accommodation at a hotel/motel/friend/couch in the area. Hope to see you there!

The Latest Ggureomi

Is there anything better than getting a text in the middle of class saying that your box of vegetables will be delivered just around lunchtime? Yes: getting a call from the delivery guy five minutes after you get home saying that he's right there with your package. Just in time for lunch!

This week, the goodies included:

Organic mini-, ultra-crisp "Vitamin Peppers" from Cheongju. Awesome for dipping in ssamjang or humus. Also good in curry and jjigae. Particularly if you still have dwoenjang left from previous months.


Two packs of stew Tofu made from Korean beans.
(For those who receive the normal, non-vegan Ggureomi, one of the tofus was replaced by a carton of ten antibiotic-free natural eggs from Bo-eun.


A bag o' organic lettuce from Jecheon.


Organic green onions from Goesan. Make your own Pajeon pancakes or kimchi.


A cute pesticide-free mini-kabocha squash frmo Jeju. Slice thin and dip in batter to make pancakes; cube it and cook it along with your rice; or even stuff and bake it.


A bag of mini 5-grain ricecake snacks, made from organic rice. MSG-free.


And, the show-stealer: pesticide-free peaches from Sangju.

All of it delivered straight to your door, or your school, or wherever you'd like.

Interested in receiving shipments of healthy, clean, safe produce once or more a month? Email us at noksaeksari at gmail dot com for more details.

Some Simple Reasons

Sometimes, Koreans overdo it with the brief-and-cutesy pith/pathos stuff. But here's one little cartoony doohickey that's that's right on spot, brought to my attention by someone in the Daegu Vegetarian Club:

The part up top is a quotation:

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. ~Albert Einstein"

The next part says:

"If you plant one hectare of potatoes, you can feed twenty-one people for a year. If you graze cows or lambs, you get enough to feed one or two people for a year."

Followed by:

"Growing a kilogram of beans requires two thousand liters of water. Growing a kilogram of rice requires one thousand nine hundred liters of water. A kilogram of chicken meat requires three thousand five hundred liters of water. A kilogram of beef requires one hundred thousand kilos of water!"

And, finally:

"Nonetheless, the consumption of meat is steadily increasing in developed countries. It's good to go vegetarian, but it's also important just to reduce the amount of meat you eat.

"Every time you choose not to eat meat, one fewer tree in Brazil is chopped down. Every time you choose not to eat meat, space is freed up for harvesting crops in a poor, underfed country.

"Wouldn't it be more meaningful if, rather than one person taking a hundred steps, ten thousand people each took one?"


Short, sweet, mostly accurate, and entirely reasonable. Well done!

Chorok Maeul, Sangin

To complete the fourth and final installment in our Chorok Maeul series, DGL made the long and arduous (if you're on a bicycle) journey all the way out to Sangin, in order to scope out

Chorok Maeul, Sangin

(Unfortunately, it was just about closing time when I visited, so I didn't get a good shot of the front of the building. There should be one coming soon...)

Like the other Chorok Maeul shops scattered around the country, the Sangin branch specializes in bringing consumers healthy and safe stuff to eat. Organic rice, grains and beans, seasonal prdouce, antibiotic-free meat, preservative-free snacks and sauces.

The interior is bigger than some of the other ones, leaving plent of space for $200 mushroom displays. Koreans take their organic medicinal fungi seriously...

A closer look at all the produce

In case your school didn't provide you with a rice cooker.



Vegetarian Ramen!



Lots of great teas

Chorok Maeul, Sangin is located just around the corner from one of Noksaek Sari's favorite restaurants, the absolutely fantastic 월배채식솔내. If you're coming from Downtown, get off the subway at Sangin and come out of exit 2. Walk straight until Sangwon-ro, the only big intersection between Sangin and Weolbae, and then turn right. Go straight, past the entrance to the Happy Tree apartment complex (I wonder how many trees were razed to make space for it...). Chorok Maeul will be our your right in just a minute or two. Map here. They're open 9:30AM-9:30PM Monday to Friday and 10AM-8PM on Weekends and public holidays.

Their official website, here, has a complete list of inventory and prices.

Chorok Maeul, Songhyeon

Daegu Green Living has expanded its territory once again, this time wandering all the way out to Songyeon, the West Kansas of Daegu. We proudly present:

Chorok Maeul, Songhyeon

The Songhyeon branch is the third Chorok Maeul in Daegu and by far the largest. Like the others, it sells produce, grains, beans, sauces, spices, meats snacks, drinks, supplements, cosmetics, household items, all of which are local, organic, pesticide-free, antibiotic-free, free range, or eco-friendly in some other way.

Other noteworthy items include:

Frozen pizza made (mostly) with Korean flour; Hypoallergenic bedding, comforters, and toys.



Organic black bean and soy milks, including powdered mixes. And plenty of wine!




Peanut butter (the price tag there is for something else, sorry...)



Baby food, organic butter

The owner here is among the friendliest I've ever met - she asked me to convey that she apologizes for not speaking English and said that she would work harder to serve foreign customers, if only she could figure out what they wanted. So, if you want to know thy the beans on the top shelf (Korean) cost less than the ones in the middle (oragnic), or what the heck you're supposed to do with pine needle powder, or how you can go about getting this or that- give it a shot!

Directions from downtown: follow the red subway line out to Seongdangmot (Seobu Bus Station) and then continue following it until about halfway to Songhyeon. Turn right onto Haksan-ro and walk down the hill until you get to a medium-sized intersection with a flashing orange stoplight suspended over the middle. Turn right there, and then look for the store on your right, opposite the Green Mansion apartments. Here's a map. They're open from 10AM to 9PM; check out their website here for more info about products and prices.