Songs about System Dynamics?

["John W. Rodat"]

Dear Colleagues:

I swear Im not making this up ...

A few weeks ago, I was half listening to the radio. Someone was interviewing
a person whose name I think was Alan Atkinson, or something similar. The
interviewee was describing a record he had done recently which was a
collection of songs. When they played a song about stocks and flows which
had a chorus that went "loop, loop, loop" in the background, I started
paying attention. The records theme was System Dynamics.

One song was "Extinction Blues." Another had either a theme or title
"Sustainability."

Since that day, Ive been searching for the record, but with no success.
Since I only heard part of the interview, Im not sure of my information. I
believe the record name is "Bleeding Cassandra" and the production company
Rain City Records.

Have any of you heard of this? Does anyone know where to get it?

Like I said, Im not making this up. I wish I was creative enough to have
done so.

John W. Rodat
President, Signalhealth
jwr@signalhealth.com
(518) 439-5743

[Norman_Marshall@mckinsey.com]

[Hosts Note: There were a number of replies onthis and they are consolidated here ]

Look at http://iisd1.iisd.ca/didigest/alan/
From: Norman_Marshall@mckinsey.com


I dont know where the tunes come in, but there is a recent book, Believing
Cassandra : An Optimist Looks at a Pessimists World,
by Alan Atkisson, that must be at least related to what you heard.

Check out this link at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... sr=2-1/104
-0088691-4058052
From: Rand Anderson <Randerson@Macgregorgroup.com>


John,
Youre not going crazy. Heres what I found on the web doing a quick search on the "Extinction Blues" title:

"Whole Lotta Shoppin Goin On "features Alan AtKisson, Senior Fellow -Redefining Progress and Co-founder of Sustainable Seattle, along with seven musical messages about sustainable development including "Extinction Blues" and "The Parachuting Cats."
To get your copy, write to:
Rain City Records
Suite 166
198 Tremont Street
Boston MA 02116

Your check for $12 per compact disc includes $2 for shipping and handling.

For more info., the site was: http://www.njfuture.org/HTMLSrc/CDsWithAttitude.html
Interestingly enough, Alan appears to be hear in Seattle, where I live.

Whats next, SD Poetry?

Best Regards,
N. G. (Skip) Short
From: "Short, Nathaniel G" <Nathaniel.Short@PSS.Boeing.com>


Its OK, John...your not losing it! Alan AtKisson wrote a book,
"Believing
Cassandra:An Optimist Looks at a Pessimists World " and is also a
songwriter and lecturer on sustainability, as well as one of the
architects of "Sustainable Seattle." His book includes a section on
systems thinking and modeling and he has affiliated with Dana Meadows (I
think) and might have been at Dartmouth at one time. Check Amazon.com for
his stuff, I know they have the book...not too sure about the music.

From: "William J. Costello" <costello@panther.middlebury.edu>


The song is called "The Systems Zoo," and it is indeed inspired by system
dynamics. (Everyone should sing it at the next annual meeting -- to which you
should invite the songwriter, Alan AtKisson. He has another good system song
called "Parachuting Cats.)

The album is called "Believing Cassandra," after an equally wonderful book by
the same name and author. Available from Chelsea Green Publishing Co. in White
River Junction VT.

I heartily recommend both.

Dana Meadows
From: Donella.H.Meadows@Dartmouth.EDU (Donella H. Meadows)

Information confirmed. The guys name is Alan AtKisson (no typo here!). The
album is "Believing Cassandra", including titles such as "Extinction Blues",
"Sustainability", (I liked this one best!) "(Beware of) Exponential Growth",
etc. He also has other albums, and a book a book called "Believing
Cassandra".

>From "New Dream" site:
[Alan AtKisson is] "President of AtKisson + Associates, Inc. (consultants on
applied sustainability); former Program Director and Executive Director and
currently Senior Fellow with Redefining Progress; songwriter and recording
artist with Rain City Records; co-founder and "Ambassador at Large" for
Sustainable Seattle; and considered a leading proponent of the
sustainability indicators movement worldwide."

Check out these sites:
http://www.atkisson.com/
http://www.healthforum.com/thfnet/thf_atkisson.HTM
http://www.chelseagreen.com/Cassandra/index.html
http://www.newdream.org/audio/gdpsong.html
http://www.newdream.org/audio/
A song from Alan, The GDP Song : http://www.newdream.org/audio/gdpsong.ram
Heres another one, "Whole Lotta Shoppin":
http://www.newdream.org/audio/lottashoppin.ram

Regards. Vedat G. Diker
From: "Vedat G. Diker" <vd7606@csc.albany.edu>

Heres the link.

http://iisd.ca/didigest/alan/

Be well...

Fabian Szulanski
From: fabiansz@consultant.com

I found the following web address that seems to fit:
http://www.newdream.org/bulletin/AtKisson.html
There is a link to a record produced by Rain City Records which includes
"Extinction Blues" but not "Sustainability" and the records name is not
"Bleeding Cassandra". However Mr. AtKisson mentions the important influence of
System Dynamics on his consulting work.
From: Joel Rahn <rjrahn@videotron.ca>

Go to:
http://iisd.ca/didigest/alan/
The artist is Alan Atkisson and the title of the cd seems to be
"Whole lotta shoppin goin on". recorded at Rain City Records.
For people who are consultants...in my search, I also found a really
interesting cd about being a consultant. Go to:
http://stores.yahoo.com/theconsultants/index.html
Have fun

- Amy Kao
From: "Amy " <smile@WPI.EDU>