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In celebration of the near 100 degree temperatures we had here in the Bay last week, I’d like to plug a great Summertime album. PigeonJohn and the Summertime Pool Party is full of the kind of happy rap that you grew up with as a kid. Pigeon John was born in Nebraska but came up performing in LA’s Good Life Café. He has remained an indie act but gets a lot of local exposure, such as this performance on Morning Becomes Eclectic. There aren’t many rappers that seem down to earth enough that I’d actually want to hang out with them, but Pigeon John is that sort of fella. Even his wife (pictured on the cd) seems cool. She runs a non-profit that helps women extricate themselves from the sex industry. I’ve had “Money Back Guarantee” in my head for a few days now… check him performing it at FOX ROX:

The Green Rapper crew rolled mobb deep to a screening of Seasons, a mountain biking film by The Collective. Now, we’re not ones to drink a lot of Mountain Dew and cross our arms in an X-formation while yelling “EXTREME!”, but we did very much enjoy this beautifully shot film. The film follows elite riders through the back country of their home turf and into the competitive mountain biking circuit, telling their stories chronologically from Winter to Fall. In the end, it is the amazing speeds, stunts and cinematography that make this film worth checking out. Also the soundtrack was awesome and has inspired me to check out the music of Latch Key Kid. Here’s a teaser from Youtube:

Yesterday, our old college pal RJ White tried an experiment. RJ is the Editor and Chief of The City Desk, a fictional satire site that tells fake news stories about a fake city. Yesterday’s story declared that “former” candidate Ron Paul had been disinvited to visit a local fake university (to speak about the gold standard). Within hours, a deluge of hate mail had filled his comment box from Ron Paul supporters (because Ron Paul is still running). Later, the story was picked up by a few other sites like Wonkette and the requisite snarkiness poured in to castigate the Paul fans for their excitement/gullibility. Obviously this isn’t some world changing event, but it did have a sort of magical Orson Welsian hoax quality about it. As a result, I’m sure that someone, somewhere actually believes that Ron Paul did drop out and maybe this will somehow cause him to really quit his candidacy. It could also be that I just read The Tipping Point and my imagination is running wild.

It got me thinking about how new media can be coerced by the environmental movement in a non-satirical, hoaxy way. What if rumors were floated like “George W. Bush will retroactively sign the Kyoto Treaty” or “Al Gore will cancel all future speaking engagements due to air travel’s C02 emmissions”. Could these rumors convert into the truth somehow? The presidential campaigns have shown that even lies about a candidate begin to stick - just due to the fact that the candidates are constantly having to refute them.

Propagating such hoaxes would be a tight ethical tightrope to walk. There is already plenty of criticism of Al Gore - those who call him an opportunist, especially since he recently became involved with a venture capital firm investing in clean energy. Perhaps Al Gore invented global warming just like he invented the internet, just so he could make a lot of money? Or perhaps he is just looking to the private sector to solve problems our federal government has refused to acknowledge in any serious way?

Ultimately, I stand on the side of science and reason and believe that environmental issues are worth considering every day, maybe even in the form of rumors - if that makes people pay attention.

So did you hear that Woodsy the Owl, Smokey the Bear, and Ranger Rick were arrested in China while protesting the Three Gorges Dam Project!?!?