Thursday, July 24, 2008

Depp's star power

The star in this case being our Sun. My adopted actor, Johnny Depp, made the eco-news by deciding to purchase a solar-hydrogen energy system for his house on the island that he purchased a few years back. [LINK ecorazzi] He was inspired to buy a Caribbean island after his friend Marlon Brando bought a Tahitian one. Inventor Mike Strizki created the nation’s first solar-hydrogen house in New Jersey, and expects Depp's costs to run between $250,000-$500,000. More on Strizki here.

Depp calls his piece of land "Fuck Off Island*," and it looks like the sentiment applies not only to the papparazzi who want to snap pictures of his kids, but to the electrical power grid as well. Shine on, Johnny Depp.


*and might refer to just doing pretty much whatever the hell you want to do on your own damn island.

10 comments:

Mariamariacuchita said...

Depp is a wicked actor. Everything he has done from Tim Burton film Edward Scissorhands to the Michael Jackson lookalike of Willy Wonka, is golden. Even his Jack Sparrow character has that funny sideways leaning drunken walk. He becomes the character.

I hear he will play one incarnation of Keith Ledger in a new film next year, can't remember the name.

Blueberry said...

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, where Johnny, Jude Law and Colin Farrell will all fill in for Heath to finish the picture.

It's *possible* that he will be back in Austin to work with Robert Rodriguez for the next Sin City movie scheduled for 2009 release. Just "rumored" right now.
:-)

Ingrid said...

woo..did you say it's possible Johnny Depp will be in town sometime..whenever?? He's such a gracious actor and an actor for the sake of the arts, not the blockbuster hits although he's had a few (also had a few misses)..
My 10yr old is starting to make connections between actors and their work..I'll say, see, this guy was in this movie playing xyz.. 'that' guy acts because he wants to no matter what..(since my son went through a phase of thinking that being famous was the cool thing to be..tsaa)

anyhow, I digress..I'll have to look into this solar-hydrogen powered energy for my permie blog..I've been waay to lax and need to write for that again..
In holland btw..when I was a teen (in the 70s, early 80s), there was a guy who built his house on methane gas from their little, yes you guess it, 'poop' house..he had it connected to everything that needed energy; the stove the lights etc.. so hey, you can keep it simple!! [g]

Ingrid

Ellie said...

RE Solar Hydrogen Power.....Holy cow, I want a man like that! well sort of.....

Mando Mama said...

LOL! I like the idea of a poop house. Poop makes veggies grow!

This story is pretty neat. At the same time it's kind of sad that more regular Americans aren't getting attention for building around sustainable models. A $250K house is pretty much the average price of a new home in some Stepfordy subdivisions in my community. If I thought that could by a green-fueled home I might think it worth the money!

Ingrid said...

mando mama..I think that if I had money to buy land, I'd build something myself, little bit at a time of course. The thing is that houses the price you mention do not necessarily cost that much to make I suspect..kitchens and bathrooms are the expensive part to any house..if you could only build like an earth ship or something (like there are in NM)..although it ain't pretty, you can do some pretty interesting stuff and on a small scale without your excessive useless spaces..I have no doubt it would be as affordable as that $250K house you're talking about..

Ingrid

Blueberry said...

The $250K-$500K is not for the house, it's for the solar-hydrogen system to go on the house! But, of course, this guy can afford it, and besides - I am thinking it would be pretty pricey to provide electricity to an island no matter what, and this way there will be no bills every month. Make the investment and you're off the grid.

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

Yay Johnny!

Mando Mama said...

I always thought one of those partway-underground houses would be kind of cool. Literally! So true Ingrid -- the houses they build up this way for all that money are so cheaply done and inefficient -- tall hard-to-heat empty spaces, 20+ cheap windows and no trees to shade the house, poor ventilation systems with an intake too small to circulate air properly. The Age of the Cookie Cutter! I replaced all five (original) windows in my little home last year and it really makes a dif. New, higher efficiency furnace this year. The guy who gave me the estimate said he'd planned to build a spec home himself until he told them he'd do his own heating system and they said "Nope, you can't even get on the property until we give you the keys." So he nixed the deal.

Blueberry said...

A hobbit-house! (partly underground)
Sounds good to me too. Not sure if they do those in Texas, maybe in some parts. I guess they'd call it a "cave." It would be a heck of a lot cooler.