Fireflies on a green roof - in song

These are normally supposed to be the dog days of summer, but the season seems to barely have arrived! If you're lucky there are a few fireflies around where you are. Maybe one or two on your green roof? I serenade you, luminescent visitors with songs as beautiful as your glow!

The Temptations - Firefly
Gato Barbieri - Fireflies

Lawrence Welk - Firefly Serenade
Leo Kottke - Spanish Entomologist      

Songs about flies

Where would we be without them. The source of plagues and, oddly some cheeses, I'm thankful for their roles as decomposes and pollinators. A tribute to you...

Venus Flytrap and Bug - Stevie Wonder
The Black Fly Song - Wade Hemsworth

Vegetable songs

So you love the piano and you love veggies, what if I told you it was possible to combine the two? 100 years ago Cliff Hess and Fred e. Ahlert released a song about beets and turnips. Scroll down on the far right side to see the score.

Urban farming and music, the next trend?

In the past couple of weeks I've seen two articles about the music industry's link to urban farming.

There's Taja Sevelle, who founded a non-profit back in 2005 called Urban Farming, which is responsible for over 62,000 community gardens across the US.




And let's not forget a newcomer to the scene, Kimbra Lee Johnson best known for the Gotye song below, who recorded her latest album at an urban farm in Los Angeles.

Butterflies on a green roof - in song

Today is the official start of spring! And pretty soon we'll have the return of our winged friends.

Duke Ellington - Black Butterfly

Jethro Tull - Moths
Sarah Vaughan -  Poor Butterfly
Nana Mouskouri- Love Is Like A Butterfly

Valentine's Day songs

A few songs for Valentine's Day!

Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
Michael Jackson - The Way You Make Me Feel
Janet Jackson - That's The Way Love Goes
Stevie Wonder - Knocks Me Off My Feet
Jackie De Shannon - When You Walk in the Room

Season's Greetings - 2013

Christmas Time in the Country - Kenny Neal
Please Come Home for Christmas - James Brown
Zat You, Santa Claus - Louis Armstrong
Christmas is a Joyful Day - The Executor

Using a green roof for biofuels + The changing language of green infrastructure

So I was reading this article about a biomass energy facility in Connecticut that recently installed a green roof. Great idea, it will reduce their winter energy bill and carbon footprint by at least 35%. But then I got to thinking, what if you used green roofs to grow plants like switchgrass for biofuel? Of course, it's not like there's a limit of products to burn for energy...but maybe there's a crop which would yield even more energy? Just spit ballin'...

Here's an early trend watch. This writer believes there's now a tendency to frame green infrastructure projects as "weather proofing", not "sustainability" endeavors. Agree, disagree?

Lastly, I couldn't let tomorrow go by without posting this hit by The Temptations. Enjoy! 

Arbor Day Songs

Arbor Day is upon us again, go out and celebrate your trees. And after you've done that, listen to a few good tunes...

Johann Strauss II - Tales from the Vienna Woods Waltz
Gene McDaniels - Tall Oak Tree
Count Basie - Tree Frog
Joan Baez - The Trees They Do Grow High
Elvis Presley -  Singing Tree

If you'd like more tree themed songs, check out previous years' selection!

April songs

Without further ado (one day is way too long, right?) here are great songs for the month of April!

Count Basie Orchestra - April in Paris
Bambi - April Showers
The Beatles- Octopus's Garden
Deep Purple - April

February songs of the month

It's a few days early, but I figure, sometimes I am a few days late...so this affords us the opportunity to get us in the mood for the shortest month!

February Moment - Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea
Two Days in February - Goo Goo Dolls
Getaway (February) - Jennifer Trynin
February Sea - George Winston

Oregon band films video on Portland green roofs

 A Portland, Oregon based alternative band called Rags + Ribbons made a music video for their song, on various green roofs or ecoroofs, as they call them in Portland. One columnist said "this video should do for ecoroofs what 'Thriller' did for dancing zombies." Hmmm...that's not too much pressure.

A green roof, one year later + music to garden to

Wow, how green roofs can change! The top picture shows a green roof we did last year. 364 days later, we see how it has changed!





-I'm a big fan of KCRW and earlier in the week I discovered Ann Litts 5 songs to garden to. Courtesy of youtube, we can listen to her selections.

1. Darker My Love – June Bloom
2. Frazey Ford – Firecracker
3. The Cure – In Between Days
4. Best Coast – Our Deal
5. Randy Newman – Marie