This kind of stuff used to look appealing.

I used to think that communal living would be pretty great.  I was born in 1960…so even if I was just a kid, somehow I identified with all the hippies and that whole 60’s vibe…even if I was too young to understand or join in.

Now it all looks like a bunch of lazy idiots screwing around in a really dirty house.

I guess that’s what a little (emphasis on the “little” part) maturity will do for you.  It changes your perspective to have a family and embrace some responsibility.

This is a video that I found while looking for videos on homesteading.

I thought, “What’s this?  A video about something called the Montana House posted by somebody in…maybe… Russia?  Weird…I’ve got to check this one out…”

It turns out that these guys are a bunch of hipsters living in a house up in Asheville…close to where I live.

They should do a follow-up video and find out how many of these kids have trust funds.  There’s a lot of really “creative people” living under the umbrella of “Daddy’s Money” up in Asheville.

Now my daughter is going to start school up at UNC-A in the Fall.

The “A” part is for Asheville.

I hope she doesn’t fall in with a bunch of weirdos like these and move to a “commune” when she gets up there.

I don’t think she would.

The thing about this video that I thought about first when I saw that someone from Russia had posted it was that it’s strange how what’s weird and a “waste of life” in our eyes…becomes “important anthropological information” if you’re looking at it from a world away.

These guys may as well be Indians on the Plains.

(There are some pretty graphic butchering scenes in this video….so just a spoiler if you’re squeamish…they process some road kill meat and the shots are graphic.)

I went to Art School…I had VW buses…I grew my hair when it still grew on top…I thought this lifestyle was kind of “cool” at one point.

Now, I think I’m more interested in Warren Buffett than I’m interested in Abbie Hoffman.

It’s a good thing to grow up.

I think these videos look like they were done by Americans….but appreciated by someone in Russia and posted on YouTube.

It looks like the videos might have been produced for/by americarecycled.org

( Digging a little deeper…these videos are produced by two filmmaker brothers riding bikes around America exploring lifestyle alternatives.  So …any thoughts about Russian perspectives, etc. aren’t valid in this case.  Do check out the link above…these brothers are pretty cool even if the house up in Asheville seems to be full of goobs.)

A post-script from later in the morning….

Actually, I war against these impulses all the time.  My deepest and best hidden motivation, like Pinocchio, is to get myself over to Pleasure Island and start growing some donkey ears as quickly as possible….but I’m trying to be a responsible adult… so I rail against the fun hog tribes who survive without any jobs.  Maybe part of me is just jealous, I don’t really know.

I push the part of me that still finds this kind of lifestyle creative and interesting back when I can.  I just want a good life for my family…and that seems to take at least a little money from time to time. I like providing for my family…it’s a pleasure.