Hi there! I'm Jason Turgeon, the newest addition to the Green Base blog team. I'm excited about the opportunity to write about music and the environment, but I figured I'd start out with an introduction first. So here's me in a nutshell:

I'm a former boat captain, a blogger, an advocate of free culture, a textbook revolutionary, a graduate of Northeastern University, a geologist, a boyfriend, a festival-goer, a geek, a hiker, a biker, a Bostonian, an employee of the EPA, a music lover, and a big huge Red Sox fan (even after last night's debacle). And one more thing. I'm a not-so-closeted low-down dirty treehugger. And in case you've been lost out in the rapidly-expanding desert, our little home planet's in trouble. Big trouble. And now is the time to act.

So here's the scoop. We've screwed up the planet to the point where environmentalism must now pervade everything we do, including the ways we make and listen to music. This is bigger than politics, bigger than terrorism, bigger than the Red Sox, bigger than George Bush or Vladimir Putin or the Buddhist monks in Burma or being a vegetarian or wind farms or even nuclear war. It's even bigger than Phish breaking up. In other words, freakin' enormous.

So with with the catastrophic changes that we might face, with the world literally falling apart around us and things about to get a hell of a lot worse, it can be easy to throw up our hands and bury ourselves in the music and just try to forget about it. After all, with a problem this big, there's nothing we can do, right? Um, no. Plenty of people are out there doing great things, and many of them are right here in the music scene. And while musicians aren't scientists or politicians or corporate CEOs, they can still have a tremendous positive impact. They can educate their fans, they can try out new things and share their experiences, they often have greater access to politicians than the man-on-the-street, and they can serve as role models.

My goal at this blog is not to dwell on all the negatives around us. We already know that things are in bad shape. I'm here to provide a little positive feedback and have a little fun. I'll discuss the things that musicians and the music industry as a whole are doing, and slap some wrists where it's necessary. I'll profile environmentally-minded musicians, make notes on trends in the industry, maybe even do a couple of interviews, and generally work to keep you updated on this stuff and let you know how you--as music fans--can go out and have a great time at shows without trashing the place. Stay tuned!

By the way, this weekend the Echo Project, one of the coolest fusions of music and environmentalism we've seen in a very long time, wraps up. I did a preview of this over on my other blog at melodytrip.com. Check it out if you're interested.

But enough of this envirotalk. Here's some girltalk to lift your spirits (I was at this show, it freakin' rocked!)

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