A place for fellow ne'er do wells to converge in an orgy of laziness
and mindful mindlessness....oh, and watch cool videos
Ahh, the smell of fried fatty foods, the lurching sensation in my belly as I try to walk after surviving a horrendous ride, the blinking gratuitous lights, the tacky ass crap you can buy and the crushing crowds of hundreds of strangers.
Will I ever be able to clean the fair off my soul? Do I want to?
Molly has a fab fair blog post here - her pics are simply marvelous.
Who knew the fair could be so much fun? And who knew that Joan Jett was so BAD ASS after all these years!?! My lungs still hurt from all that hooting and hollering.
We tried SO HARD to get backstage to meet Joan and Mr Hotty Nose but alas, it was all to no avail. Next time Joan Jett, next time you will not escape us!
It's Seven Days, you KNOW the party is gonna kick ass.
Don't be a square, be there.
PS Besides, what a great opportunity to snoop around the hallowed halls of the paper you love to read every week? I recommend a trip to the bathroom - two Hail Marys later, you won't be sorry.
LAST MONDAY [INTERACTIVE] GROUP
TO HOST DIGITAL MEDIA PANEL
For Immediate Release
September 2, 2007
Burlington, VT
On Sunday September 9th at 1:00 p.m., Last Monday [interactive], a consortium of digital media artists and professionals, will host "Digital Tools for Artists," a panel discussion and workshop about many of the free and inexpensive digital tools that are available for artists and small business owners. Topics covered will include blogging, podcasting, video for the web, online social networks and netroots marketing. Specific software applications from Apple and Adobe may also be discussed. The panel, which will be made up of several local digital media experts, is being presented as part of the South End Art Hop and will be held at the Vermont Community Access Media studios at 208 Flynn Avenue.
Last Monday [interactive] was started in 2006 as a monthly get-together of filmmakers, animators, audio engineers, web developers and other artists and professionals who work with digital media in some way. LMi meetings are held on the last Monday of each month (hence the group's name) and are typically casual, low key events where works-in-progress are shown, and tips, tricks and techniques are shared between members.
LMi will also host "Digital Potluck," a day-long digital media conference at Champlain College on Saturday October 27.
For more information about the "Digital Tolls for Artists" panel, see the South End Art Hop web site at seaba.com/2007_Art_Hop_Sunday.
To learn more about Last Monday [interactive] or about Digital Potluck, contact Bill Simmon at billsimmon@gmail.com.
DBC18 September 2005
Stuck in Vermont 39-42
Yes, I know I am beating this to death tonight but since I am still up in compression/uploading hell, I might as well blog about another fun bit of "torture."
After two hours of waiting, the Flash file that I uploaded directly to Brightcove without compression looks GREAT except for the awful interlacing whenever anything moves. The sync is funny too. Argh.
Michael Rosenblum, the Papa of VJing, was hired by the BBC to put their staff through vlogging boot camp. They wanted to break down their preconceived notions of journalism and start fresh.
For 3 weeks, Rosenblum locked them up in a hotel room and put them through single shooters video boot camp. Because I have never worked as a "real" journalist, this sort of intimate, low-fi, off the cuff shooting is all I know.
What I would have given to have been there - oh wait, that is my life these days! Trial by fire! Learn as you go! Fly by the seat of your hot pants and do not pass Go!
He says the new process has made his pieces more honest. They have also allowed him to get more exclusives because he can spend more time with his subjects and can gain their trust. Using a smaller camera is less intrusive than having an entire crew. - Stephan Warley
And more on the ever-changing field of video journalism and Rosenblum's huge role within it:
“When it comes to video, newspapers have moved in 18 months from a position of “we don’t really get it” to “we can’t get enough of it” he says. “It’s a massively exciting time. Everybody’s recognising where the growth statistics are.”
“For print reporters, get aggressive. Learn the technology. Become literate in video,” says Rosenblum. “This is not about becoming filmmakers. This is not about becoming TV reporters. This is about blending video into your reporting.
With our own clients we have found that it works best when we equip print journalists with video cameras and have them use those cameras as a kind of digital notebook, so that they can record interviews and impressions in video. Those impressions and interviews can then be woven into a text, audio and graphical presentation online. It’s a very rich new world.” - Ian Reeves
Travis Fox is one of the seven video journalists working at The Washington Post (do not confuse him with this Travis Fox). This Q&A piece has some good tid bits about the ever-changing field of video journalism such as the Post's use of evergreen stories to stay fresh and NOW.
Fox envisions a day not too long in the future when viewers watch online content on TV sets alongside cable programs without being able to tell the difference.
Fox: I am content with video. Video is where I have made my mark. Video is what I want to do. I am not interested in doing still photography. There are many gifted still photographers out there.
But it's more difficult for single individuals to produce videos from start to finish because traditionally television news has worked in a crew. It is a more unusual for people like me who produce video from start to finish. I'd like to keep exploring that.
This video journalism vision of single authorship throughout the process will get you some really interesting results. And as the technology gets simpler, if more individuals shoot and cut video--like they create writing--you are going to get a lot more interesting styles, and a lot richer body of work as a whole. I am very committed to that process.
And this Q&A has some other gems and here you can see Travis talk about his work. He calls his videos mini-documentaries just like I do! Also, he refers to them as subject driven narratives, unlike TV journalism with voice over. He also uses 100% natural sounds.
I think it goes without saying that this guy has one of the coolest jobs EVER. He travels the world making videos about the people he meets. Wow.
The Washington Post has high res HD vlogs that are just so damn dreamy. HOT DAMN!
Looks like they are shooting with at least two cameras and they are nice cameras too. Also, wireless lavs and occasional on-camera reporter introductions. There is an ad at the head of the vid. According to Wikipedia, they have 6 videographers on staff. Oddly, the vids are not your standard 2 minutes internet length. Like SF Gate, they are a tad long, over 5 minutes in many cases. The editing is tight but relaxed.
My favorite videos so far are Fakefest and Nerds are in the Hoooouse!
And just to make me MAD with jealousy, there is OnBeing, another Washington Post video foray. Dang, they got the hang of this video journalism and then some!
Is there a place keeping track of this new field of journalism? I am not even sure what this sector is called? Podcasting? Vlogging? Journalism? Maybe it needs a new hybrid word like PVJing.
Beats me, either way, I am green with envy since I have spent the weekend trying to upload vids to the internet that do NOT look like ASS. Argh.
My friend Susan is visiting from Oakland with her boyfriend Brian this week. Susan and I have been friends for 20 years (!?) and met at VT's GIA which is basically a summer camp for arty freaks (also attended by my HS pal, Guppy Boy's Zach Ward mind you).
We got to talking about Oakland and how different life is there from here. I got a bit nostalgic, I admit it. I started missing the spectacle, the immense views, the ocean, the speed, the lit-up night sky, the "Ooohs" and the "Ahhhs" and my favorite Italian restaurant Lo Cocos' tiramisu.
My nostalgia turned to mud, however, when I discovered that the Bay Bridge is CLOSED for the weekend for the new freeway construction (coverage here). This means that you have to take a HUGE, traffic-filled detour to get into the city which basically means you are SCREWED.
That is the thing about life in the Bay Area, you are ridiculously dependent on cars, freeways, BARTS and the like. Without transport over the water, you are stuck. Kind of like how I am stuck in Vermont but different.
To make matters worse, I discovered that a MAJOR part of the freeway recently crumpled into nothing - POOF. In April, a section of the MacAurthur Maze collapsed when a tanker truck caught on fire (story and creepy pics here).
I used to take this bit of freeway home EVERY single night. And in an instant it was just...gone?! And it was not even an earthquake that took it out, just a tanker truck? How random? How surprising? How Bay Area.
Even more astonishing, the connector was rebuilt only 26 days after the original accident for the minor fee of $90 million. Ba da bing.
Life in the Bay Area is fluid. You gotta roll with the bridge closings, freeways collapses and other sporadic punches or you will get knocked out.
I could not be any more glad that I am stuck here in VT where life takes a much slower pace and there are no bridges or freeways to fall on top of my head, just packs of carousing college students looking for the next best party.
Really Joan, I think I could overcome my intense fear of commitment if you said "YES." Anytime, day or night. Holler.
Like Madonna and her infectious single "Hung Up" last year, Mika is my summer album of choice. Tasty, bubbly and so damn silky. Yums. We loves it.
Just try to keep yourself from dancing and bopping about once you press play - I dare you.
PS Props to Sweet Nikolaas, my pal in Belgium, who gave me the Mika heads up.
Tonight was the Art Hop media kick off party at Quatorze Bistro which is down by the water. I was also at Quatorze Monday for the first 7 Nights Bite Club event (video above - check out hot HOT 7 Days staffer Don doing the on camera intro - va va vaoom!).
This means I got to eat their jumbo shrimp, spring rolls and bacon quiche two times this week. Who needs to cook?
The funny thing about living in a small town is that you start to recognize everyone. You might not know their name right off the bat but you know that you used to take a dance class together or she dated that guy you used to date or maybe it is the guy who taught you the difference between hot water and hot air heat. Or you used to work together or you still do work together or she was your director in a community theater show or they are your new neighbors.
This is why I moved back to VT. I got tired of going to art openings and seeing seas of unfamiliar faces. I lovermont. See you at the Art Hop.
And here are the UVM videos to show-n-tell:
Andy Jordan at the Wall Street Journal is making super duper cool videos! He is my new media vlogging hero superstar! And these steampunk technical doodads are pretty damn cool too...
And also of interest, Craig Stoltz's UsabilityTube Review of Jordan's videos with some biting commentary on vlogs like Stuck in VT as well - ouch:
But the Tech Diary videos illustrate one of the perils of doing “multi”media journalism when you have just one device around your neck. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you have a video camera, everything looks like “a cool visual story.” As the tapes inevitably show, looks can be deceiving.
As journalists begin to enter the next stage of multimedia maturity, a good question emerges: How do you get the right tool in the hands of the right journalist at the right time for the right story?
When I think of the fair, I always think of an upset stomach. That is because I usually gorge myself on fried foods and fair rides and by the end of the day I am sticky, shaken, belly achin', coated in a layer of dust and grease, adorned with cow poop on my shoe and a new skull ring on my finger. These are just a few of the reasons why, I LOVE THE FAIR!
This year was no different only I added some vlogging and minor whiplash to the fun (thanks Tornado - see above!). Additionally, there is my yearly favorite photo op, the contest for Best Cock.
Molly cast her vote for the handsome cock featured below - such lovely three-tone plumage.
My vote is for the fellow below, our own Rusty Dewees, AKA The Logger who, in case you did not know, has published a book AND sells onesies and thongs as well.
Rusty said he would be happy to enter the Best Cock contest and the Poultry Experts, who assured me that they are not foul-mouthed but using the correct terminology, welcomed Rusty to come on down and enter the contest. I have no doubt that he could give those cocks a run for their cockadoodledoos.
In other news, the first day of the Champlain Valley Fair was a smashing, only slightly soaking, success and you can get a whiff of fair folly this week on Stuck in Vermont and find out WHO is the Supreme Grand Champion Cow - and no, it is NOT me!
The good news is, there are brand new copper pipes running all over my new house. And the 1100 pound asbestos-filled steam boiler has been replaced with a 99% energy efficient boiler. And the ancient oil tank and the 60 lbs of oil festering inside it are gone, baby gone.
The bad news is the "junk tree" is my backyard is making a hideous screeching noise and my mother thinks it is about to fall over. Does it plan on hitting my house on its suicide mission?
The good news is I managed to overcome my hatred of cleaning long enough to scrub out the oven and tub. And one bath later, I can safely say that I love my over-sized tub.
The bad news is that the tomato plants didn't survive the summer but the parsley is flourishing.
On the up side, I am in love with my new drill. I wish I could use it all day long and drill screws all over the house. It feels so satisfying to adhere things permanently to the wall.
Down side being that I will be house-poor for the next 30 years of my life - no new shoes for a long, long time. Thank god for my big, big tub and old-fashioned radiators which will keep me warm through the lean years.
It was mighty fitting that I spent my morning in Bennington diving into the 18th century (see vlog) and my evening at a Burlington High School 50 year reunion at the Elk's Club.
As Tom Whitney, editor of "The Book of Years" pointed out, when you think of history in 50 year increments, it is not too long ago that the state of Vermont was being formed and the American Revolution was being fought.
We think of history as so ancient and dusty but we are living it every day, documenting it in our own way, telling our stories to anyone who will listen. History is a living, breathing, ever-changing entity, impossible to nail down and examine too closely.
To that end, I made FIVE videos documenting the 50 year reunion which accompany a story Cathy Resmer is writing for Seven Days that comes out tomorrow.
Below is the main video and if you feel like bathing in some history, you can watch the rest here:
PS Can you tell which 69 yr old deer hunter I have a crush on?
There is nothing as yummy as the scent of this flower. It reminds me of sunshine, dirt and summer.
Want to hear MORE about the Battle of Bennington? Listen to the Major General (why do I always have an urge to sing that?) HIMSELF tell you all the minuscule historical details!
Note to self, DO NOT give someone your card BEFORE you do an interview because then you have to look at your card the entire interview! Sort of kills the 18th century vibe...
