August 30, 2014

Houses made from bricks made of mushrooms.

"The mushroom brick is 'grown' by mixing together chopped-up corn husks with mycelium."

Wake me up when you actually grow a house. Right now the mushroom house is in the courtyard of an art gallery in NYC. So I think I'll just get very small and curl up for a long rest on my cushiony toadstool:

DSC03738

Here's a reading from R. Gordon Wasson, "The Hallucinogenic Fungi Of Mexico/An Inquiry Into The Origins of The Religious Idea Among Primitive Peoples" (1961):

Two psychiatrists who have taken the mushroom and known the experience in its full dimensions have been criticised in professional circles as being no longer "objective." Thus it comes about that we are all divided into two classes: those who have taken the mushroom and are disqualified by our subjective experience, and those who have not taken the mushroom and are disqualified by their total ignorance of the subject! As for me, a simple layman, I am profoundly grateful to my Indian friends for having initiated me into the tremendous Mystery of the mushroom. In describing what happens, I shall be using familiar phrases that may seem to give you some idea of the bemushroomed state....

I shall take you now to the monolingual villages in the uplands of southern Mexico.... The men are appallingly given to the abuse of alcohol, but in their minds the mushrooms are utterly different, not in degree, but in kind. Of alcohol they speak with the same jocular vulgarity that we do. But about mushrooms they prefer not to speak at all, at least when they are in company and especially when strangers, white strangers, are present. If you are wise, you will talk about something, anything, else....

18 comments:

Fernandinande said...

The local Navajo shaman (and welder) will do the peyote thing for white people if they've lived in the area long enough. But don't tell nobody.

chickelit said...

...and you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is high on spore
Go ask Beta
When he's six feet four

Sam vfm #111 said...

These people are nutcases.
You can't get more natural than wood. Even concrete is completely natural.

Hagar said...

I am not sure I would wish my house to be biodegradeable.

traditionalguy said...

Atheists and pagans all agree that a high on drugs IS the experience of god, and therefore a man made molecular. event in brain cells.

Christians that experience the anointing of the Holy Spirit know that the mushroom high is a grade B imitation. Ask Bob Dylan.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone recommend a good Sci-Fi flick for a kid around 10 years old?

She wants to watch and I've got to come up with something here.

traditionalguy said...

Try Forbidden Planet. It is the Freudian plot with all the monsters you will ever see out of the subconscious plus a beautiful girl and a romance with opposition from Daddy and the debut of Robbie the robot in an Oscar role.

Anonymous said...

Thanks tradguy, we'll give it a shot.

traditionalguy said...

After a night in Athens, Georgia the Clemson Tigers need mushrooms or something stronger. It was tied at halftime, but Richt's Dogs won the second half 24 to 0.

Wisconsin is playing LSU right now and lead LSU by 7.

Now we return you to regular programming.

Anonymous said...

RE: "Go ask Beta
When he's six feet four"

I am six feet four, but I am now two feet in the tar pits. Two feet: a measurement of length or where the ten toes are.

Some get black clouds, I get tar pits. I miss the manic when it fades: the voices get comparably louder. The cat has left the bag, man.

tim maguire said...

From the sub-head: "...depends on fossil fuels, creating a big carbon footprint. As pressure mounts to make construction "greener"...

Since carbon dioxide is plant food, objectively speaking, a big carbon footprint IS greener.

George M. Spencer said...

Coven queen Grace Slick in a mini-skirted nun's habit and go-go boots clearly enjoying herself beyond the normal at 4:00.

All on American Bandstand. Complete with upside-down visuals and phallic Lava Lamp overlays.

A hopeless Dick Clark says, "Older people worry. They see the way you dress. They hear your music. They don't understand it. Do parents have anything to worry about?"

"I think so," replies Paul Kantner.

Levi Starks said...

Where's the hallucinogen tag?
I think it could be a recurring theme.

wildswan said...

I wonder if the "process" that takes five days to make mushroom bricks uses carbon - it would be an absolutely unique biological process if it didn't. It doesn't use fossil fuels but that isn't the same as not using carbon.

PS. What happened to the little piggie who built his house of mushrooms which were biodegradable? Unfortunately the Big Bad Wolf came during a rainstorm when the house was biodegrading. Fortunately BBW huffed and puffed and drew the mushrooms in and floated away to a sky of diamonds. Unfortunately so did the little piggie. And there we leave them to their natures.

Rusty said...

Hagar said...
I am not sure I would wish my house to be biodegradeable.

Ultimately. Everything is biodegradable.


"I am six feet four, but I am now two feet in the tar pits. Two feet: a measurement of length or where the ten toes are."

Yeah. Well. I'm stuck in Tustin.

richard mcenroe said...

I wonder if they'll tell prospective homebuyers with mushroom allergies what they're moving into...

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

That's a really cool picture. So much detail.

Do you mind if I ask what device/camera/phone you used to capture it? Tx.

Ann Althouse said...

@Rhythm

Thanks.

Click on the picture and it goes to the Flickr page where you can find out what kind of camera. I actually don't remember. Don't think it was anything fancy.