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ONLINE HOOK JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER 2024

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38 HOOK MAGAZINE | 2024 Following the dire plas5c warnings come 5ps on what we can do in all areas of our life: in our household, electronics, clothing, on the go, and more. There's even a sec5on on how to throw waste-free par5es. There is so much in this book that everyone is bound to find something they can do, changes they can make, that will help our world become that much more sustainable. It is a clarion call to ac5on and a going green support group all in one. Reading Johansen's book, you realize we are not in this alone. Our species is using up the resources of our one and only world. If we want any chance at a green future, we need changes on a macro level, and Johansen has a few words to say on this subject as well. Sustainable Badass is a serious book loaded with actual, minute details that the reader can use to lessen his or her impact on our world. There is something for everyone, and for those who can follow her lead, it is a guide to a far more sustainable world. In 1976, the book Mud, Space & Spirit was published which took a truly fascina5ng look at the numer- ous hand-made adobe homes sprout- ing up in the American Southwest at that 5me and the eclec5c people be- hind the movement who were living in these homes. It contained dozens upon dozens of images of the struc- tures and people, and provoca5ve in- terviews with the denizens of adobe culture, giving unique insights into what made these people 5ck, what drew them to this mecca of mud, and where they saw the future of adobe. A%er a few years on the market, the book went out of print and was lost to one and all. Then Echo Point Books and Media came a-calling. Echo Point began life in 2002 selling damaged books. In 2011 it added the task of republishing out-of-print books to its repertoire, giving lost treasures new life. Mud, Space & Spirit is one of those lost treasures, and we are richer for their effort. Mud, Space & Spirit opens a door onto what is now a historical period that has in many ways come and gone. It was a 5me of aspira5onal dreamers who molded their dreams into reality and then moved into them. A whimsical, ar5s5c 5me when these simple mud houses were given grand names such as Dragon House, The Gro6o, and Unicorn House. The dreamers themselves came from all walks of life. There were ar5sts, of course, but also civil engineers, architects, and rock mu- Mud, Space & Spirit opens a door onto what is now a historical period that has in many ways come and gone. It was a time of aspirational dreamers who molded their dreams into reality and then moved into them. A whimsical, artistic time when these simple mud houses were given grand names such as Dragon House, The Grotto, and Unicorn House. The dreamers themselves came from all walks of life. There were artists, of course, but also civil engineers, architects, and rock musicians. The sepia-toned images de- pict these people in their elements; painting, laughing, and lounging around their livable works of art. They seem genuinely happy and enviably at peace with their lives. sans. The sepia-toned images depict these people in their ele- ments; pain5ng, laughing, and lounging around their livable works of art. They seem gen- uinely happy and enviably at peace with their lives. The glory of adobe is its mal- leability. Gone is the need for exact corners and non-stop rec- tangles. Instead, the rooms glide into one another with endless curves that are far more pleasing to the eye and spirit. Rigidity is a thing of the past in these buildings, and reading the stories of those in residence, you come to see that it is most definitely by design. The rooms in an adobe home flow together in an esthe5cally- pleasing way. You can stand in one of these rooms and just breathe in the joy permea5ng the walls. Mud, Space & Spirit is almost 50 years old, but it speaks to a universal truth that remains even today - man's desire to shape his environment to his liking. In modern, urban areas, that desire may be a massive glass and steel edifice hundreds of feet high, but in the simpler world of the Southwest five decades ago, it was a more nat- ural desire to use nature's sim- plest tools to create a fantasy world straight out of their imagina5ons.

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