SWSBM nostalgia.

From: "Darcey Blue" darcyblue.hotmail.com
To: herb.lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Herb] Intro too! 2? II?
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 12:03:14 -0700

Hi

I have been on the list a few weeks and wanted to introduce myself as well.

i'm in tucson, AZ, and considering pursuing my life long interest in herbal medicine as a possible career. I'm looking into taking/enrolling in an herbology course/school. I've looked at a few schools, in Boulder , CO and SIlver City , NM. Also i'm interested in hearing mre about Michael Moore's class in Bisbee. SInce it is near by to me, it would be more convienent, but being only 5 months i wonder how the course was, how much was learned, absorbed, etc...

i think i remember that one person, on this list has been in that course, isthat true? if so, any info or advice ( from anyone) on the class and or pursuing this as a career move would be GREATLY appreciated.

thanks so much!

darcey blue

From: Henriette Kress hetta.spamcop.net

>Also i'm interested in hearing more about Michael Moore's class in Bisbee.

The SWSBM is one of the best there is. And Michael Moore is quite unique in the depth of his understanding. He's a friggin genius, if you ask me... and he pretty much proves it every time he does one of his longer usenet or mailing list posts.

A few herbalist comments I got, way back when: "What? You're going to the SWSBM? Not fair! Oh well, if I werent so old/poor/distant/busy I'd go, too!" this pretty much across the board, including quite a few such comments from the best herbalists out there, both UKian and USAian -- or those among the best that I knew in 1995 or so.

If you do decide to go the SWSBM route you'd best get a high-quality walkman to record _everything_. Also, for the field trips, you'll need a wind reducing thingy for the microphones on that walkman - similar to the fluffy covers you see on outdoor TV microphones - or your tapes have nothing but wind on them.

You'll end up with 140+ C90 tapes, and it takes about 5 hours per tape to type it all out... if you don't just listen to the lot, one after the other, for a few years. Either way, you'll learn _loads_. You learn quite a lot by judt doing notes in class, but I for one am extremely glad to have those tapes.

From: Dan McDonley dan.awherbals.com

I concur with Henriette. Do be ready to deal with long never-ending rants on just about anything and a very unconventional undisciplined teaching style. However when all is said and done you end up with an amazing breadth of knowledge.

I would actually skip the walkman and buy a Minidisc recorder. It was and is invaluable. You can record 140min+ (up to like 300 on the new ones) on a disc and if your good about setting track marks and making an index as you go along you can instantly find anything he said once your home. Imagine it like making little cd's with all the subjects instantly accessible, (ex Tracks 1: Abies 2: Angelica 3: Reproductive defficiency)

You leave Micheal's school with a LOT to sort through and put in your head, but after 6months to a year of organizing in your brain what you learned, you will be able to jump right in and see clients.. Also the program is very reasonably priced unlike many of the other schools out there. Don't count on being accepted right away either. Make sure you write a nice empassioned plea to get in.. Took me 2 times of applying to get in. Well worth the wait though.

Good luck and welcome...

Dan

From: Henriette Kress hetta.spamcop.net

> Do be ready to deal with long never-ending rants on just about anything and a very unconventional undisciplined teaching style.

Rambling, sure; Michael is easy to derail but equally easy to put back on track -- just say "and about this [topic] then...?" to get either on or off topic.

Did you guys do a class song? One of ours did one (two, actually - I should dig out that tape and listen to t'other one, I've even forgotten what it was about), and we all sang them both, to Michael and Donna, on the last day of the last field trip, just before everybody left to scatter into the four winds:

[homemade fancy tune]
I thought I came here to go to school
but it seems all I do is sit around and play pool
talk to the bartender, watch TV
give me four more quarters and another beer
That pacman's got a hold on me, I gotta play that one more tii-iime
and I'm stuck down in Bisbee and drinking all the time

My girlfriend works at the BBC (Bisbee Brewery Company)
and I ain't got no other place I gotta be
there's a drunk at the bar, talking 'bout the japs
and Leo (a Bisbee local) thinks it's funny to pull down his pants
Pee on the sidewalk, drive home drunk, can't you see I'm doing fii-iine
and I'm stuck down in Bisbee and drinking all the time

Oh yes I'm stuck down in Bisbee and I can't get away
and every time I turn around that crazy guy from town
is talking 'bout the same damn thing
You wouldn't know it to look, but I was doing good
before I crossed that Arizona state lii-iine
And I'm stuck down in Bisbee and drinking all the time

Now Michael Moore's been talking all day long
and when I think he's gonna stop he just keeps going on
"resolve the exudate", "man, my hippy days were great", "Cajeput is tea tree oil"
Well he's said it before, he's gonna say it again,
and if he says that one more tii-iime
Oh I'm stuck down in Bisbee and drinking all the time
Oh yes I'm stuck down in Bisbee and drinking all the time.
[/fancy tune]

Wheee. After the first month, that is, after the class got to know each other, we either had a party every weekend, or, if nobody had a birthday or other reason to organize a party, we did herb things. Like, "anybody want to come to Organ Pipe State park tomorrow? We'll stay two days; it's been raining, we might score a fallen ocotillo; and there's loads of California poppy right now." Or, "anybody want to come to our place to figure out how to make lipsticks and the like? We've been shopping ...".

And - two words - drum circle, every Friday (I think). Two of our girls were extremely good at dancing, so they did. A few others in our class were very good at drumming, so they did. Lovely.

Thing is, you make a whole bunch of real friends, and then you never see'em again. Or, _I_ never see'em again, eh? I'm all the way over here.

Henriette, waxing nostalgic.