Spent the whole weekend breaking in these new beds & planting sweetcorn, pumpkins, sunflowers, & some watermelons, though we will also plug in amaranth starts when they’re ready. Excited to share garden progress this summer, we’ve got some fun new stuff that’s ready for the high heat & drought.

There is a brief window of time when our little part of the Robinson river valley is full of millions of little fluffs of eastern cottonwood that just hang in the air. It’s really so beautiful and when it faded we’re in full on firefly season.

I have a recurring dream that I’m flying over sections of eastern Virginia in a helicopter and it’s just miles and miles of old towns and dead forests sticking out of the water.

Just saw this newish upload tonight. This is the shit that put me on a lifetime of picking. Cheers Jack. ❤️‍🔥

Nakba Day: Muhammad Shehada on Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza & Ongoing Palestinian Resilience

Very excited for the online World Peace & Prayer Day, this event organized by Chief Arvol Looking Horse was the first I heard (3 years ago) about AI/fracked gas data centers from a concerned Mohawk elder, saying it was the new infrastructure of colonial oppression. Theyre always ahead of the curve.

Just realized this was the 1 year anniversary of the rain bomb we got that forced us to evacuate. In 6 years of living here we have experienced every type of climate disaster, flash floods, flash droughts, 2 separate wildfire events, and record breaking heat and cold.

Great interview on the unique problem we face in Virginia being the “data center capital of the world…”

Feel good post…I’ve been really enjoying a dedicated meditation practice this last year and a half or so, and so has our cat Bevis! When I hit the cushion she comes over to sit with me. Sometimes I don’t even realize she’s there until I open my eyes. She’s a special girl…😼🙏

Another example showing how quickly an entire county can shift to renewables when not completely under the thumb of the oil/gas industry. The US is 100/ on its way to being a country sized “colonial Williamsburg” of fossil fuel technology.

Also a reminder that the US is the only country on Earth investing in new fossil fuel buildouts at this scale while everyone else moves to renewables. Were kidding ourselves if we think theyll build these gas plants & then pivot to solar/wind etc. The plan is to burn fracked gas as long as they can.

Americans have been primed for climate denial for nearly 40 years of corporate propaganda & obfuscation. This article failing to address how all new fracked gas infrastructure will quicken worst case scenario climate breakdown, a literal hell beyond our imagination, is just really sad to me.

Really grateful for my time yesterday with Nat Turners great X3 grandson Bruce Turner, who was kind enough to share his time for my witness tree film. We get into the history from a descendants perspective as well as the "hanging tree" used to execute Nat for my section on a 1200 y/o cypress nearby.

“Even if you stopped climate change today, New Orleans’s days are still numbered,” he added. “It will be surrounded by open water, and you can’t keep an island situated below sea level afloat. There’s no amount of money that can do that.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

@yungquiabo.bsky.social brought the walk behind tractor over today to help us punch out some new beds for sweetcorn, sorghum, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes. First time using one, man it’s easier than busting it up by hand… 🌽 😂🍠

Glad to finally see this kind of coverage regarding sea level rise in the Chesapeake and Atlantic coast. Surreal also to see a PBS program with a Patreon, but that’s where we are in the US atm.

My favorite Radio Garden station atm is this Black River Jamaica station GT Reggae Radio. Feels like they go to a playlist at night, but so much Dub and Dancehall I’ve never heard everyday. Check out Black River on Radio Garden: radio.garden/visit/black-...

Maybe the most comprehensive book on the evolution of the brutalizing racial capitalism practiced in the US. This Rock Newman interview really gets into it.

It's John Brown's born day. Here's a track we did called "John Brown" for the Stop MVP compilation.

Happy 100 bday to David Attenborough. We dont have any public figure in the US going this hard on climate breakdown/extinction crisis & it’s getting bleaker with media consolidation & new regime. 🌍🔥🎂

Cville friends, my Witness Tree film will be premiered at Yale this fall through an arts/climate initiative, but Im struggling to find a local to speak to the tree who witnessed Unite the Right/1924 dedication of Lee monument. If anyone out there can help I have a small budget to pay or donate $.

Thousands of lightning bugs out tonight, earlier than usual, but really a stunning show out there.

Finally getting into some of these locations I visited late last year. This Barboursville location is a large manor style home that burned on Christmas Day 1884, so to build this track I stuffed my guitar full of leaves from the trees who witnessed that, played my leaf guitar, & then set it on fire.

This last week Ive been working with biodata/guitar samples from a juvenile dogwood tree in the blast zone of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Its been really cool to use samples of the pipeline fighters & sounds from this young tree who will likely die as a result of the construction. Link below.

The last 11 years have been the hottest years ever recorded. Earth’s energy imbalance has reached its highest than at any time in observed history, with heat reaching deeper into the ocean. This is the Global #StateOfClimate 2025. 📰 Press release: https://bit.ly/4ds4r2V #WorldMetDay

Sharing an hour interview I did with DC filmmaker/historian, and former Lorton inmate, Karim Mowatt. Karim's new book on the history of Lorton is incredible, a real peoples history of an increasingly forgotten part of Americas carceral history. Check it out here.

Grateful for UMAW today. I’m regularly discouraged with how conservative people’s attitudes are towards working artist in the US, even coming from other artists at times, but I’ve felt real solidarity through UMAW. Happy May Day. ❤️‍🔥

American history is unspeakably ugly. That's why so many close their eyes to it. "In the mid-1800s, medical department faculty... robbed graves from Richmond’s African Burying Ground. After cutting up the bodies for medical research, they were discarded in a nearby well." www.vpm.org/news/2026-04...

Here’s our spring garden this year. Trying to jumpstart some summer stuff under row cover. We lost a significant amount of plants to the freeze/extreme heat whiplash, but peas look good & the overwintered stuff is really popular with the bees. Potatoes and garlic looking good too.

Ive always been a huge fan of Laurie Spiegel & felt very inspired by her taking the syncopation of mountain banjo styles & putting it to computer music, but Ive never heard her talk about her thoughts on folk music/electronic music & how they're related. "The computer really is a folk instrument..."

One of the most unique locations for my Witness Tree project are the Milam apple trees in Shenandoah Natl Park, a variety from here in Madison county, & some of the only visual reminders that people used to live up on those mountains. Sharing these letters of displaced families read by a descendant.

I spent Earth Day in Virginia’s Data Center Alley visiting one of the poster children for noise from data centers. Smack in the middle of a residential area, with no pathway to quiet. My latest for @heatmap.news explains how little we’re doing to stop one of the worst parts about data centers.

My Earth Day book rec. Still maybe the best overview of where we are headed in the next 10-20 years (maybe less) with Earths accelerating global heating.

❤️‍🔥 “Data Colonialism”: Native Communities Fight AI Data Centers on Indigenous Land”

❤️‍🔥

“The intent here is obvious. It’s to hollow out this agency and hand it to the resource extraction industry and prepare it for, potentially, the eventual transfer of our public lands to states.” Forest Firings: Trump Admin Aims to “Break the Forest Service,” Nearly 200 Million Acres at Stake

Surreal to see the the Potomac being most endangered river in the US. The land I grew up on is a peninsula known as a “neck” thats between these two rivers. Its also among the earliest sustained colonial settlements in N America, 16/17 century. Data centers really feel like the nail in the coffin.

"Top Oil and Gas Companies Made $30M Per Hour in Windfall Profits from Iran War"

I've been doing interviews with formerly incarcerated men from Lorton Prison for my Witness Tree documentary & thought I would share this one with Rhozier T. "Roach" Brown, founder of the Inner Voices drama group, on the joys & hardships of making art while doing time. "Freedom Through The Arts" ❤️‍🔥

Brutal heat & drought here in the Shenandoah Blue Ridge. This is the most extreme spring I have experienced as a gardener. We’ve had to hold off transplanting in fear of plant killing temps. When scientists say the climate crisis is a global food crisis these are the conditions they’re referring to.

Re-posting my "Corporate Cannibalism at the Inception of America" piece again about a 14 year old English girl at Jamestown who was eaten by her neighbors during a "starving time" in 1610. I think if we're honest about our history we can say this is really what we've been about all along.

Spring ephemerals this week along the Staunton River trail in Shenandoah Natl Park. 🌸

I just did an interview with Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Matt Kirwan, who spoke to the situation here in the Chesapeake region, sea level rise, salt water intrusion, & ghost forests. VA/MD is #2, just behind Louisiana, in regions experiencing these drastic changes to US coastlines.

April 3 (the fall of Richmond) and April 9 (Lees surrender at Appomattox) are important emancipation day celebrations for formally enslaved communities in VA. April 9 was recognized as an emancipation holiday from Lynchburg east through King William county. Here is my little blurb for the library.

I posted about the Tulip Poplar at our place who looks down on the Old Blue Ridge Turnpike road, & who has witnessed the full transition from ox & mule teams, to super diesel trucks, the vehicles helping to drive atmospheric warming at a rate comparable to 12 Hiroshima bombs per second. Link below.

In case you missed it: my southern gothic award-winning short film ELSBETH, with music by the inimitable @danielbachman.bsky.social, is available to watch for FREE over on YouTube. Click that link, and don’t forget to leave a like and comment while you’re there! #FilmSky youtu.be/vHRz4pxtuaI?...

Popping on here to say I'm doing good & working diligently at my Witness Tree film/album. I made a post today about the true origins of the famous folk song "Two Soldiers" Garcia/Dylan et all, & how its about where I grew up. Also got some good ghost stories...any help right now goes a long way!

My family has a dinosaur named after us because my dad is a self taught paleontologist and found a new species through local dinosaur tracks. It’s called Tyrannosauripus bachmani.

My goals in life have been whittled down to “I hope I can have a working car again someday”.

AI feels like psychological warfare.