Mark Laxer's Blog: The Monkey Bible

Hi, my third book is now out, it's a nonfiction 32-page graphic novel called Rama Trauma Trump: I Left the Cult and Now Look What Happened. The book is free as a pdf digital download, find at at: www.ramatraumatrump.com Please check it out, tell me what you think.

Here's a pic of our "new" boat, Yosina, that will sail around Sumbawa and
Lombok, Indonesia, teaching about marine conservation. Yosina is
a name from a story a group of Indonesian children wrote with me,
ten years ago, on a long pier by Manakwari, about a brave little sea horse...

Yosina will be a hub for the vEcotourism and sign-the-coral initiatives,
from The Monkey Bible.

http://www.chimp-n-sea.org/?p=366

Statistics: Posted by marklaxer — Thu May 09, 2013 9:28 pm — Replies 0 — Views 41

Back in beloved Vermont, regaining strength, reading Tolstoy,
preparing first public release of virtual ecotourism tour (vEco 1.0),
dreaming of next steps for vEco and The Monkey Bible. I'm
thinking of some kind of bicycle setup where I tour by pedal power,
and, also by powered by pedaling, have a system with which I can
share with the public, as I go, live interactive vEcotours from
remote spots around the world. Would a vEcomobile be ready by
this summer? Hmmm....

Statistics: Posted by marklaxer — Sun May 05, 2013 9:06 pm — Replies 0 — Views 1

In Adelaide, Austraila, recovering from bout with Dengue Fever.
Picked that up in Indonesia where I was working to implement a
few ideas from The Monkey Bible (vEcotourism and sign-the-coral).
One takes a few hits in the line of duty...not dead yet......though
platelet count not pretty....

Statistics: Posted by marklaxer — Mon Apr 15, 2013 4:04 am — Replies 0 — Views 11

and in the end Divorce, which has been stalking you all along, swamps the trip and the shared dreams and the 13-years of trying so hard, out on so dear and fragile and desparate a limb. but even in the deep pain and exhaustion and frustration and anger is the recognition that new compatible love and life will someday spring. i've got 2 great kids. and a good heart and a song and a smile and a few stories to share. not dead yet.

Statistics: Posted by marklaxer — Mon Mar 18, 2013 3:37 am — Replies 0 — Views 38

dear friends, the boat project is a GO, we're getting a sail for the 51' (fishing) boat, it's like Pete Seeger's Clearwater Sloop, but rather than cleaning up the Hudson River, we're gonna clean up the south China Sea....meanwhile, we have new idea for using GPS on cellphones to track fish and fishermen behavior, to gently enforce conservation no-fish zones...so we're traveling on a highway of new hopes and creativity....heads in the clouds, feet on the ground...getting set up to go village to village teaching about sustainable fishing practices + sign-the-coral and vEcotourism (ideas from the monkey bible). somehow, with all this going on, it doesn't worry us that back home in Vermont our pipes are frozen........! miss you all. thinking of you. may the wind be at your back..

Statistics: Posted by marklaxer — Tue Mar 12, 2013 1:08 am — Replies 0 — Views 25

Monkey Bible project on the move. I'm in Lombok, Indonesia, about to head east to Sumbawa to buy a boat to be used for marine conservation...part of the project will involve our Sign the Coral and vEcotourism initiatives--both ideas from The Monkey Bible. Turns out there are blue whales out here, where our boat will be sailing. How cool is that?

Statistics: Posted by marklaxer — Thu Mar 07, 2013 3:41 am — Replies 0 — Views 9

is physical phenomon "lies from the pit of hell?" so says US lawmaker from Georgia.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/1 ... ?hpt=hp_t3

Statistics: Posted by marklaxer — Thu Oct 11, 2012 12:03 pm — Replies 0 — Views 1

Here's a book review I wrote while kayaking in the Yukon, of Scott Wallace's must-read The Unconquered:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Unconquered-S ... L4AHS1Q7CB

I've been trying for two decades to craft a story worthy of Peter Matthiessen's endorsement; kudos to Scott Wallace for writing The Unconquered in which he achieves the mastery as well as the endorsement. Wallace's story is gripping, harrowing, entertaining, educational, fascinating, tough.

The Unconquered follows an improbable collection of men as they journey deep into the Amazon. Their mission is to observe indigenous groups, some of whom have had little or no contact with so-called modern civilization. Their mission, too, is to enforce Brazilian law so that the tribes--and the wildlife and habitat which surround and nurture them--are left alone. The heroic efforts seemed like a shot in the dark, in part because the project seemed grossly under-funded, because the mission was a staggeringly difficult one, because the physical environment was treacherous, and because the team at times seemed like the gang who couldn't shoot straight. Wallace brilliantly captures the quixotic flavor and frustrations of the effort.

I have a few frustrations with the book itself. It's not meant to be a picture book but one can't help but wish it had included more of Wallace's photos (he's not just a talented writer--check out his website). One wishes, too, that there was more about Wallace and his family, and the effect of the trip on the family, in the narrative. That thread mostly got dropped somewhere along the journey. And one wishes Wallace had taken us, by way of his journalistic savvy, more into the mindset of the charismatic expedition leader, Sydney Possuelo. We learn about Possuelo's philosophy, and we study him on a superficial level, but we don't take advantage of Wallace's skills as a journalist to get to the man behind the mask.

But these are minor issues and I've been telling people: read this book. I'm writing this review on a flight south from the Yukon where I spent eight days kayaking on the Teslin and Yukon Rivers with my wife and two young children. We shared the river with grizzlies, wolves, mosquitoes, black flies. It's a world away from the Amazon but paddling in a remote spot under challenging conditions took me back to a worthy mythological journey and I found myself thinking about Scott Wallace's The Unconquered.

Statistics: Posted by marklaxer — Sat Sep 01, 2012 11:39 pm — Replies 0 — Views 3

vEcotourism is an idea born in the book, The Monkey Bible.

here's a big update, and great news, for the project:
http://www.vecotourism.org/news/ian-red ... mbassador/

and here's a spherical panorama from the vEco labs...
http://www.vecotourism.org/panos/ladder/

stay tuned...more cool stuff coming...

-mark

Statistics: Posted by marklaxer — Sun Sep 02, 2012 12:16 am — Replies 0 — Views 1