The Legacy Trail – Video Documentary

Music, video and production by Lyle Trush.

This is a video documentary of the Legacy Trail in Sarasota Florida. My goals is to show all the natural beauty and inspire others to visit this amazing place we have to explore more of Florida.

All the footage was taken on Venice Island and is only a small part of this amazing trail. I hope you enjoy and please feel free to leave your comments or email me if you have any suggestions or questions.

If you don’t see the video you may go to this direct link: http://youtu.be/H0zzUrsh77Y

“The Legacy Trail is the regional backbone of a recreational and nature based trail system connecting communities across Sarasota County and stretching into neighboring Charlotte County. The Legacy Trail offers several areas to stop, rest, learn about its history or just enjoy the natural beauty surrounding the trail.”

For more information please visit: http://scgov.net/legacytrail/

– Lyle

Good Eats Sarasota by Sara Brady

Good food is all around us here in Sarasota but for most of the smaller cities it’s not as accessible. I am originally from New York City where there is a plentiful amount of good markets and some world class restaurants. New York Chinatown being one of my favorite places to go for a meal. They bring out a whole lobster that you pick out yourself and you choose the sauce I always get the XO sauce, it has good flavor and it is a bit spicy. Another one of my favorites in Chinatown is the dungenous crab and I love the snow pea leaves in garlic sauce.
Here in Sarasota there are a few excellent restaurants and many good ones. The best is a Northern Italian restaurant called Puccini’s. An old classmate of mine from Ringling owns it with her boyfriend. She’s the manager and he is the one and only chef. It’s nice to be able to sit at your table and watch him cook in his open kitchen. The menu changes often and there are always specials. If you are looking for red sauce this is not the place. They serve a lot of fresh fish and it’s mostly local and they have a homemade sausage that’s out of this world. Sometimes you can even find quail on the menu, truly a delicious little bird. There deserts are fabulous and I don’t have much of a sweet tooth but the homemade pecan pie and the bananas in homemade caramel sauce are to die for. Oh and it’s not too hard on the wallet. Ceviche is another wonderful restaurant everything from the tapas to the paella is exceptional. The flan for desert is a must.
Food is so important to me and personal. I like to feed the ones I care for it gives me a sense of accomplishment and I like to watch others enjoy it. I have been asked why I didn’t go to culinary school and it’s because I don’t want to cook for strangers I want to cook for the people I care about but I can still recommend a place to find a great meal.

Chris Jordan Photos

I absolutely love what he is doing in his photography work. He’s not just making amazing abstract images but has meaning behind them and makes you really think about what you’re seeing. While watching this movie I was completely shocked with all the numbers he was throwing out there. Like the fact that as Americans we go through forty million cups a day for our coffee and hot beverages, that to me is crazy. And another one was that our airlines go through one million cups a day during their flights and do nothing to try and actually recycle them. I don’t know if people really realize how much all this really impacts out environment. I think that’s why I really like his photography; it captures my attention and teaches me at the same time. I also learned a lot more from this video then I ever knew about our country. The fact that America has the largest percentage of arrests in the world and ¼ of Americans are in jail right now in our country. Also I knew that smoking was a huge cause of deaths in our country but I wasn’t aware that 1100 people die a day from it that to me just seems so unreal. If you think about it that number is ridiculous, that’s more people then I see in a day. The part that really had a huge impact on my was the prescription drug over dose ratio, I’ve lost quite a few friends because of that and I never realized that there was that many other over doses a year. 213000 people a year hospitalized because of it. All in all I think the fact that he added the statistics in with his work really helped translate his work into a visual language that you can actually feel impacted by rather then just look at it and view it as another photo.

–Chelsea Dorato

The Wild Corridor (FWC Response)

In this day and age, most people live with the idea that there is no adventure any more. Really – most everything’s been discovered already by some dead explorer or another. But I think what many people forget is that there is still a great big world out there that they themselves haven’t or will ever get to see. The Florida Wildlife Corridor project surprised me in that I had no idea Florida had such varied wildlife and such an interesting terrain. Swamps and mangrove trees are completely foreign to me, and panthers just strolling about in the wilderness is mind-blowing to this suburbanite whose habitat was Costco warehouses and sleepy housing developments. It’s weird to think that a few tens of miles away there are panthers and black bears minding their own business trying to find a place for themselves. In the video, they mentioned in the swamp that they were seeing sights that no one else normally would beyond the airboat tours, and how people would say, “This is better than Disneyworld!” Florida surprises me with the varied flora and fauna that live there as I grew up with a completely different setting up in the North, where nature is pretty tame and the only thing that was dangerous to the wildlife are cars.

In just one state, they go from beaches to Indian reservations and document places that I’ve only really seen in movies. I believe that for any artist it’s important to absorb as much new experiences as you can and from the FWC expedition, undertaking that journey would have been a goldmine for experience. The photographer Carlton Ward Jr. was great at his job, snapping some wonderful stills of nature and the life of the wilderness. Unfortunately, I’m not too much of an outdoorsman and I absolutely hate bugs, but I am interested in seeing how their documentary turns out when it releases.

Some of my favorite photos from the expedition.:

-Jane Kim

Thinking about No Impact Man

It seems like quite an effort to go no impact would be quite the challenge. No impact is still an exaggeration though, but still an impressive attempt. I think for anyone in suburbia to make an attempt like this would have ended much sooner. He was quite successful at succeeding and keep the rest of his family on track, which is where I thought the projects failure would have most likely come from.

So despite the slight exaggeration about him being truly “no impact” I really enjoyed this movie. They documented a lot of difficulties that most of might not even consider would occur from trying to live a much greener life. The lack of toilet paper seems like it would be really hard for most people, but anyone who has lived in the woods for a long time knows there are always ways around that. The hardest thing I can imagine about living in a city without electricity would be to have no power. Air conditioning and heating have come to feel as though they are essential in day to day life.

I really enjoyed seeing how patient and sympathetic one person can be when trying to get someone to embrace a new lifestyle. I think if we were to get more people to embrace a greener life we all have to behave more like he did. Telling someone they’re doing something the wrong way alienates them and pushes many further from accepting your point of view.

All in all, I feel the film is a success in showing people that you can live a happy life without all of these modern conveniences, but at the same time shows that you might have to give up some of your life. We only saw the perspective of a city dweller, so many people will have very different experiences form this.

-Andrew Jay Wahlin

No Impact Man- Farmers Markets

No Impact Man was a really awesome documentary, and I applaud that family for being able to give up so much! While watching the documentary I could actually relate to some of the scenarios. My family didn’t make them by choice though, but for about 2 years we had no washer or dryer, we had no cable, and because our little cottage was so small and the electricity so bad, if you had two things plugged in and running at once, it’d blow the fuse for the whole (10 x 10 ft cottage) out. Like I said, not under the same circumstances as no Impact Man, but I guess those two years we were being Eco-friendly without even realizing it.

But aside from that, my favorite part of this documentary were the highlight of Farmers Markets!

I absolutely love going to Farmers Markets, and wish I could get over to the one here in Sarasota more often. They are tons of fun. My family and I always went to the one back at home to get vegetables, breads, cheese, really anything that caught our eye! The people are so friendly, and its a good feeling to be able to know and so who’s grown your food. I also noticed people love to walk their dogs to Farmer’s Markets; meeting adorable puppies while buying healthy food is pretty awesome. There’s just such a great sense of community at a Farmers Market.

As of 2011, there were 7175 Farmer’s Markets across the US, and I’m sure the number has grown since. You’ll also have an easier time scouting out organic food at a Farmers Market, then at most grocery stores. You are also supporting your local farmers- which is pretty awesome. Not only that, but Farmers Markets tend to really pump up the economy of your area. They create more jobs on the farms, and provide tons of business to the local downtown areas or wherever the Farmers Markets are being held. And if can’t get any better, well it does. Your shopping trip to the Farmers Market will cost you less money then it does from grocery store. Most people have the incorrect perception that Farmers Markets will cost more money. You have to remember that all the food you get in the store has been packed, shipped across however many states, and is being sold by a vendor (the store). The price on food rises, from all that extra “stuff.” The majority of food at the Farmers Market will cost less. What you get at the Farmer’s Market is fresh food, right next door.

Go check out your local Farmers Market! Don’t know how to find one? Here’s a place to get you started:

http://www.localharvest.org/

-Megan Boyd

http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2011/08/12/7-reasons-to-celebrate-farmers-markets/

http://www.survivingcollegelife.com/2009/04/14/farmers-markets-cheap-fresh-food/

http://www.good.is/post/what-s-more-expensive-farmers-markets-or-grocery-stores/

http://civileats.com/

Realizing the Impact of No Impact Man

By Kevin Herron

Last week in class we watched the documentary of No Impact Man, a very aspiring and informative movie on the daily impact we humans make on our environment in a day, and his discovery on how we can impact it less.

One amazing thing this movie accomplishes very efficiently is raising the awareness of our daily toll on the earth’s environment. I did not consider purchasing food from another state or country, creates so much carbon monoxide in the transportation, even if it is a “go-Green” product it would be damaging the earth before it helped.  Another pollutant that was brought back to my attention was how much waste a single person makes in a day. With all the individually packaged food, and three layers of trash you get in a single Starbucks coffee cup, even if it was all thrown away properly, it still is an overwhelming amount for the Earth. More, most recyclable material is not 100% recyclable but “recycle-down” since it cannot make as good of a product as last time, except for glass.

Something I think the documentary could of expanded on, was sanitation in their home environment. Although the lambskin-baby diaper was a successful experiment, they never showed how they cleaned it, or how they cleaned the counters and their pans, or their toilet paper substitute. While being extreme measures most Americans wouldn’t accept right away, if presented in a very reasonable manner then I think some would begin to accept the change, however some of this was never shown.

Finally, I believe the movie could of done a better job on showing us more efficient ways to save electricity. It was obvious that living a life with 0% electricity is practically impossible, and even if homeowners didn’t use their electricity, the city would.  Their refrigerator hypothesis of the “pot in a pot” was a failure, but where were the other attempts? The candle replacement seemed to be a fire hazard and a failure too at illuminating the house at night. So, I believe No Impact Man and family, should spent an additional three months investigating how to use the most minimal amount of electricity possible, while still living a comfortable life style.

Disposable Culture

The documentary film No Impact Man is about Colin Beavan and his family’s yearlong experiment to reduce the amount of trash and fossil fuels they use. The objective of the movie is to prove that each and every one of us has an impact on the planets environment. They do this by no longer using plastic, switch to organic, use bicycles for transportation and turn off the power to there apartment. Colin Beavan states a few interesting points during the movie like “On average our food travels 15,000 miles before it gets to our home and meat eating is the number one cause of green house do to transportation admissions.”

http://ahistoryofnewyork.com/no_impact_man.jpg

One of Colin Beavan main concerns and reason for the experiment is to prove to him self and the world we accelerating the global warming process my over using our recourses and damaging the planet. His message and concerns are extremely important but yet most of us ignore it “A new study by NASA scientists finds that the world’s temperature is reaching a level that has not been seen in thousands of years.” http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20060925/

No Impact Man has gained a lot of media attention and made Colin Beavan a man that has made I’m impact on many people. “Beavan was named one of MSN’s Ten Most Influential Men of 2007 and was named an Eco-Illuminator in Elle Magazine’s 2008 Green Awards. His blog NoImpactMan.com was named one of the world’s top 15 environmental websites by Time Magazine. He was named a 2008 Eco-Star by New York City’s Lower East Side Ecology Center.” http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/about-colin-beavan.html

Another way Colin Beavan tried to reduce waist and the use of fossil fuels is by purchasing his food form local farmers markets. But he also said we should keep in mind buying organic food at the local store is not always a good thing. Real organic farms have pore treatment of animals for example if a cow gets sick they cant use medicines like antibiotics so the animals die. Organic foods are also not as safe as we may think. “Organic farmers use sulphur as a weak pesticide. But sulphur contains lead, a known danger. What is not known is how much of the lead is transferred to the food we eat.”

http://www.monsanto.co.uk/news/99/july99/300799_edinburgh.html

By Lyle Trush

Impact Man.

No Impact Man was inspiring. I have always been interested in the environment but I have always questioned what good it would actually do if only one person tried to leave little impact. This movie was the realization that it’s not necessarily about the little impact on the environment it’s more about the impact it has on other people who see you doing it. Maybe you will meet someone someday that truly understands your motivation and maybe you can change their life. The video was a starting point. Little things like, no trash, farmer’s market, etc. can all make a difference to this world. I would like to try to cut back on consuming it seems much more logical to keep things simple. Life is hectic even without materialistic worries. I have never been one to approve of extravagant spending but every now again it makes sense that you don’t need that one extra shirt or a pair of shoes. You need the necessities to live and a supportive group of friends and family. My ideal world would be little consumerism but that chances of that happening are impossible in my eyes. This country is so far developed and people are beyond spoiled. If they could see places that don’t have the things America has maybe they would think twice. Maybe they wouldn’t. It’s unfortunate that we are so blinded by product that we forget what is most important in life. The fact that this family had to turn off their electricity for six months just to remember what was important is kind of sad. I can only imagine what would happen if this country lost electricity. In some ways I wish they did but the repercussions would be unbearable. The ignorant would crawl out of the woodwork and wreck havoc on those trying to better the environment for the future generations to come.

-Kassie O’Brien

Impacting Positively

The film, No Impact Man, had me thinking throughout the whole movie, “Would I be able to do that?” Almost every time, the answer was no. I came into watching the film with the preconceived notion that there wasn’t any way to survive the way Colin and his family did through their one year experiment. However, the more of it I watched, the more my thoughts changed to things such as, “Man, I want to ride my bike,” or “I want to go to the Farmer’s Market.” These are some things that are done by us, students of Ringling, for fun and leisure. Would it be much of a change to just incorporate it more into our every day lives?

However, there are some aspects of the film that I could not even fathom life without. For example: electricity. I have grown up in a world so dependent on electricity that I will literally refuse to eat if the area is not properly lit. Romantic, dimly lit restaurants? Screw that, I want to see every detail of what I’m eating because I’m the pickiest eater on the planet and I have to constantly make sure I’m not eating anything I don’t like the appearance of.

A good point was raised in the movie when the newspapers ran the article about the family’s experiment and titled it, “The Year Without Toilet Paper.” It reflected upon how society was thinking negatively about Colin’s actions to preserve the environment in an extreme way. But I think society is mainly just scared of having to give everything up like he and his family does. And that isn’t even necessarily the truth. We can choose what we want to change about ourselves and our lifestyles and still be conscientious about how that affects the world around us. If everyone makes even just a small change, the positive impact will be massive.

Written by Alyxandra Llano

Photos by: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/garden/22impact.html?_r=1

http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/09/26/no-impact-man-hits-the-mainstream/