I hadn't watched a movie at home for the longest time. I have Comcast cable which has a service called On Demand, with hundreds of films and other programs you can watch at any time. I looked at the menu of free movies. Not very appetizing, really.

I chose a film called "Guinevere", about a young woman who decides to skip going to Harvard and instead runs off with a photographer. Hmm... there's potential here, I thought (AND it's rated R). As soon as the girl and photographer met, I thought holy crap... this is way too cheesy.

I went back to the main menu and looked at films offered by the Sundance Channel. "Garbage Warrior" caught my eye. According to the summary, it was about an architect named Michael Reynolds who builds self-sustaining homes out of... garbage. Well, not exactly. But a lot of the material is garbage, such as used tyres, plastic and glass bottles, as well as aluminum cans.

I loved it. This is a guy who's determined to do things his own way; to build homes cheaply with available materials (natural or artificial), without any need to be hooked up to the power grid or the sewer and water networks. Complete independence. If you have Comcast On Demand, I highly recommend you watch it.

Funny enough, I think I have actually been inside one of Reynolds' creations. Around 1992, when I was a student at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, I visited a dairy ranch a couple of hours outside the city. It belonged to an Iranian family friend. The home on the ranch was very similar to those built by Reynolds. See
www.garbagewarrior.com [1]

Here's a trailer: