Granola Shotgun

[RFS]

This blog provided a ton of value to me, @oldbeyond. Thank you!

[oldbeyond]

This thread got to be about city vs rural/suburban, which is an interesting point of discussion. But that discussion doesn't capture the more interesting aspects of G.S and I don't think it's a fair description of his message, which belongs to the same realm as Permaculture/Emergent Renaissance Ecology/Green Wizardry. Systems thinking, a focus on production, multiple bottom lines, creating buffers, social capital, skills development, a relentless realism and pragmatism. Et cetera. This video is about his Sonoma getaway that he is renting out but plans to retire to and showcases a lot of these processes. I especially enjoy how he works around all the red tape:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8x4CWBMsPg

[oldbeyond]

Here's a video on his Hawaiian property showcasing similar strategies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxGr9uloL9k

[oldbeyond]

New video showing his SF apartment: https://youtu.be/WBqdtmIskGQ

Also the blog is now at granolashotgun.com

[theanimal]

New video with Kirsten Dirksen discussing homeless situation in San Francisco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5XIljwl5hI

[postpastrock]

Looks like Johnny let his blog lapse (the non-wordpress one that he was using until recently). Given that he hinted in his last few posts that he might stop blogging, I'm inclined to think it might be intentional.

I've always enjoyed reading Johnny's blogging since I discovered it some years ago. His self-aware mixture of elegant DIY pragmatism, mild pessimism (but also level-headedness), and fact of the matter photoblogging was always a pleasure engage with. And he seemed to always put his money where his mouth was, figuratively and literally. Learned a lot about urbanism, lifestyle design, and resourcefulness from reading his musings.

Anyways here's a podcast appearance he made about a year ago, with another urbanist-minded person: https://kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/p ... ou-granola

And the most recent archive snapshot before the site went dark: https://web.archive.org/web/20240713121 ... otgun.com/

If anyone knows of other blogs that they would recommend for people who enjoyed Johnny's, would love to hear recommendations.

[Western Red Cedar]

If anyone knows of other blogs that they would recommend for people who enjoyed Johnny's, would love to hear recommendations.

You can check out Ran Prieur's blog that has been heavily plugged on the forum. He takes a much more abstract path than Johnny, but has some content you can dig through related to urbanism, development, and community.

viewtopic.php?t=12408

In terms of YouTube, Kirsten Dirksen offers a visual goldmine that is in line with GS:

https://www.youtube.com/@kirstendirksen

My favorite book I read this year, Jenny Odell's The Art of Doing Nothing, corresponds with some of his writing and ideas. It is a beautiful integration of philosophy, psychology, ecological observations, and reflections on the built and natural environment. A random quote from my notes:

"I grew up thinking that parks were somehow just 'leftover spaces' but I've learned that the story of any park or preserve is absolutely one of 'redemption preserving' itself in a small crack in the continuum of catastrophe.' So many parks had to be actively defended from a never-ending onslaught of private ownership and development, and many contain the names of enterprising individuals who fought to establish them...Obviously parks are only one type of public space that we must prioritize and protect. But they provide a useful example of the link between space, resistance, and the attention economy. If, as I've argued, certain types of thought require certain types of spaces, then any attempt at 'context collection' will have to deal not only with context collapse online, but with preserving public and open space, as well as the meeting places important to threatened cultures and communities."

The book is filled with this kind of stuff. So many of us wander through our counties, cities, or neighborhoods with little or no awareness of what it required to create or preserve the places we love and admire.

It might be worth moving beyond blogs and diving into some of the classics. Jane Jacobs, Kevin Lynch, Aldo Leopold, William H Whyte, Lewis Mumford, Edward Abbey, etc...

[postpastrock]

In terms of YouTube, Kirsten Dirksen offers a visual goldmine that is in line with GS:

Thanks, I read Ran's Drop Out post and a some of his other work awhile ago, found it interesting. Will check out your other suggestions, too, thank you. However, I guess I'm curious about blogs that are perhaps written by people like those who Dirksen's channel would interview but who are somewhat more on GS's level of "normality" rather than Ran's rather more extreme style -- and I mean this observationally not normatively, to be clear.

Regarding Kirsten Dirksen specifically, I adore their family's youtube channel so much. Have followed it consistently for years now and its just far and away one of the best channels on youtube. Its just lovely getting to see how people design their life and environment -- and of course they also have done several videos with or about GS, as mentioned in this thread.

One of my favorite videos of Dirksen's is of a Vietnamese architect & immigrant who builds a beautiful home, but finds lots of pragmatic workarounds to make it more (relatively speaking of course) affordable. The way he talks about the design, the trade offs, neighbors, and the environment really has some resonance with GS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muoa7stRlgk

Frankly, Dirksen's deserves a whole thread on its own.

[Western Red Cedar]

Apple TV put out an interesting series called Home for those interested of architecture, design, sustainability and community. I thought it was really well-done and offers a lot of potential rabbit holes to pursue in terms of specific architects, construction methods, and design ideas. It highlights from around the world.

Strong Towns is probably the most visible in terms of a blog off the top of my head. They've highlighted Granola Shotgun's articles in the past and collaborated with JS, but the audience and message is different than GS:

https://www.strongtowns.org