The Revolution Will Be Televised

MY BLOG HAS MOVED

2006-07-19T01:57:00.000-07:00

2006-07-19T01:09:00.000-07:00

Gabe Meyers Speaks (Part 3)

This is the final part of Bill Carpenter's three part series in which he interviews Gabe Meyer's, the defendent charged with Attempted Lynching of himself in the July 8th G8 protest last year. The very same protest which has led to the contempt charges currently pending agasint me.

If you'd like to write Gabe, his e-mail is styrofoam(at)riseup.net.

This video was originally published on Indybay.

2006-07-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

Gabe Meyers Speaks (Part 2)

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Here is the second part of Bill Carpenter's interview with Gabe Meyers. The original post can be found on .

You can e-mail Gabe at styrofoam(at)riseup.net

2006-07-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

Gabe Meyers Speaks about July 8th, 2005

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Gabriel Meyers is one of three people that were charged at the protest that occured on July 8th, 2005. This interview with Gabe was posted to Indybay earlier today by Bill Carpenter.

2006-07-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

Video of June 15th Press Conference

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Bill Carpenter actually published this on Indybay a while ago, but I just didn't get a chance to blog it myself until now. Now that I am facing civil contempt charges, it seems more important than ever to get this story out as far and wide as possible...

2006-07-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

Grand Jury Update

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Hi Everyone, I recently learned that I will be having to appear in front of Federal court next week on July 20th and that I am now facing civil contempt charges. I'm not sure how everything is going to pan out at this point, but I wanted to share with you an audio transcript that I recorded of what happened when I last appeared in front of court. It's important to note that this is my best attempt at accurately reading the court transcripts and any mistakes I may have made were unintentional; additionally, all emphasis and inflection included in the audio recording is my own and not reflected in the court transcripts.

The Judge that's currently handling the case, and who is referred to as "The Court," is actually Judge Alsup, the very same judge that just threw Barry Bond's trainer in jail...

Wish me luck, guys!

2006-07-08T00:04:00.000-07:00

1 Year Ago...

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It's hard to believe it's been a year since I shot this video; so much has happened since that night both in regards to my life and the incident itself.
In regards to the incident itself, the first repercussions from this footage surfaced when I discovered that various outlets in the mainstream media had been using my footage from this particular protest without my permission; this actually turned out all right: I sent them a bill for the use of my footage, and they mostly all complied.
The next event that transpired has not turned out so fortuitous: a few days after the protest, I received a visit from the FBI along with two SFPD investigators. They asked for the unedited footage and I told them I would not be able to provide them with the footage at that point in time. A few months later, they returned with a subpoena ordering me to appear in front of the Federal Grand Jury and provide the tape. I have documented this situation at length on my blog and created a resource library with everything publicly available in regards to this matter.
And, I suppose it's only fitting that I found out today, 1 year from the very same evening that this all went down, that I will have to appear in front of Federal court on Thursday, July 20th for a hearing on civil contempt charges against me.
Any support you can offer would be greatly appreciated... Thanks.

2006-06-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

Don't Get Left Behind

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As I've mentioned on my blog in the past, I work for an education-based cable television station run out of the Peralta Community Colleges District: peralta.TV.

I recently had a hand in creating this commercial that we've put together in an attempt to increase enrollment on the four campuses our district represents. This isn't a final version, by any means, so please feel free to comment and let me know what you like about it, and what you think can be improved.

Thanks!

2006-05-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

Hunter's Point Power Plant

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After literally decades of community organizing, various community leaders have finally succeeding shutting down the Hunter's Point power plant which has dumped tons of toxins into the predominately black and poor neighborhood of Hunters Point. The pollution is so rampant that over 40% of children that grow up in Hunter's Point suffer from asthma. Shutting down the plant was truly a monumental accomplishment, and not surprisingly, the SF politicos we're out the other day trying to take the credit with a fancy party and a photo-op at the plant. My friend Rob and I tried to get in to cover the event. We couldn't. This is what we were able to get.

2006-05-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

Collaborative Arts Insurgency

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Last Thursday night, after leaving the wrap-up party for Talk Back, I got off BART at 16th and Mission and came across the tail end of CAI's open mic. Here's a little video of what I saw.

2006-05-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

May 1st (Morning)

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This is the first of three, maybe four videos I'll be uploading from yesterday's protest. Unfortunately this file is rather large at 35Mb; I will try to replace it with a smaller file some time tonight or tomorrow morning.

2006-05-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

Independent Journalist Bill Carpenter Assaulted by ANSWER Security

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I just returned from the protest today, I had planned to shoot the entire demonstration, but after several incidents in which the independent press, and the media in general were treated in a represhensible manner, I decided to return home.

While filming the front of the protest at the beginning of the day, I was asked repeatedly for my papers to establish myself as a legitimate media presence. Something ironic, about being asked for my papers at a pro-immigration march if you ask me.

Despite the fact that I had no credentials on my person, after telling several people on several occasions that I work for peralta.TV, I was able to stay in the front of the march.

Once the march began moving, I stumbled upon Bill Carpenter who had staked out a spot inside one of the islands. I joined him, and after a short while, we were approached by several ANSWER organizers and told we needed to move.

As newsgatherers, we are allowed to film anywhere on public space, and even cross police lines in some situations as long as we do not interefere with the business of the police. After explaining this to the ANSWER security we were told again that we would need to move.

Shortly after this point, we were threatened that they would come get the police. Knowing my legal rights, I told them that this was fine and that we'd be happy to straighten this out with the police. At this point 2 organizers with ANSWER were summoned to get the police to deal with us.

About this time, the main guy we were dealing with began repeating, "You're going to jail, You're going to get arrested," in an attempt to intimidate us. After the organizers returned, without the requested police assistance, the organizers returned to demanding that we move in order to protect the public safety.

When we refused to oblige, they began to phsyically force Bill Carpenter onto the sidewalk. They then came up to me implying that if I didn't move they would physically attack me.

Although I didn't capture the assault on Bill, the video attached gives at least some idea of what happened.

The final straw came when I was filming from Civic Center as the march approached and was pushed out of the way by a gentleman demanding "Move Blanco."

I'm used to the police being assholes but when the police' behavior is more professional than the protest organizers it seems more than just a little counter-intuitive.

Technorati Tags: protest SanFrancisco ANSWER immigration mayday

2006-04-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

The Dignity of the Nobodies

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I had an opportunity to see two films at the San Francisco International Film Festival last night. The first film I saw was The Dignity of the Nobodies, a cinema verite documentary by Fernando E. Solonas. The film captures the untold stories of the everyday people in Argentina: a man who was shot in the head during a protest and the man who saved him, a poor priest railing against police mafias and operating a soup kitchen out of his home, and an unfortunate picketeer who was shot and killed while trying to help a fellow comrade who had been shot by the police. The Dignity of the Nobodies is a beautiful film and achieves an intimacy rarely achieved by cinema. It is both a tragedy of the rampant poverty that rages through Argentina and the horror stories of these people's oppression, but it is also a dark fairy-tale of sorts illustrating that everyday people can and do change the world we live in for the better every day. After the film, Fernando Solonas was able to sit down for some Q & A about his wonderful film; an excerpt of this Q & A session is at the bottom of this post. The film airs tonight, Thursday April, 27th at 8:30PM at the Kabuki Theatre; Saturday, April 29th 1:00PM at the PFA and on May 1st at 7:00PM at the Aquarius Theatre in Palo Alto.

Grand Jury Hits the SF Weekly

2006-04-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

Picture 107.png
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Ryan Blitsein's article about me was just published on SF Weekly's website.

To Wolf, the government subpoena of his tape represents a threat to his ability to gather news as an independent reporter. He believes it's yet another reel cast in a Justice Department fishing expedition that will stop at nothing to put his activist compatriots behind bars.

All & all, I think Ryan did a pretty good job with the article, as can be expected there are a few things I'd disagree with and the legal help line for the NLG is 285-1011 (not 205-1011), but all in all pretty good.

I would like to point out one inaccurate fact which I think is very important to note, Ryan writes: "When he realized his July protest video was worth something, he sold an edited version to local TV stations."

I did not sell my footage when I realized my footage was worth something. I sold my footage whn I realized it was being used without my permission. It is true that I sold the rights to Brian Shields beforehand, but I did not do so after finding out there was a "market" for the footage.

SFIFF Pre-Party: Street Fight

2006-04-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

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Last night, Min Jung Kim hosted a San Francisco International Film Festival pre-festival party for the SFIFF Citizen's Press Corps. The event was part of a new initiative called SF360, and as part of a partnership with Ironweed Films, people throughout the city gathered to watch the documentary Street Fight, a film about the 2002 mayoral race in Newark.

Quite a few of us from the SFIFF Citizen's Press Corps were able to attend including our coordinator Kevin Smokler along with Ted Rheingold, Jason Schultz, Steve Rhodes, Nicole Lee and fellow videoblogger Enric.

It was fun; looking forwards to checking out more films at the festival...

2006-04-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

SFIFF Press Kick-Off Q & A (Day 4 of Videoblogging Week2006)

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Yesterday I posted a video from the San Francisco International Film Festival Press Conference kick-off.

Today, for the 4th installment of videoblogging week, I've uploaded the second part of the press conference, the question and answer section. All of the questions asked in the conference have been included although some questions and resposnes have been shortened in the sake of time.

Technorati tags: videobloggingweek2006 SanFrancisco sfiff filmfestival vloggingdangerously

San Francisco International Film Festival Press Kick-Off (Videoblogging Week - Day 3)

2006-04-06T02:51:00.000-07:00

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Ok, so I'm almost three hours late -- but here's my third installment for videoblogging week.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to join the citizen press corps for the San Francisco International Film Festival. This video are a few of the highlights from the conference.

The Q&A from the press conference will be tomorrow's video...

Technorati tags: videobloggingweek2006 SanFrancisco sfiff filmfestival vloggingdangerously

Vlogging Goes Meta: A Visit to a Medical Cannibus Club (Day 2 of Videoblogging Week)

2006-04-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

click here to download

I shot this a while ago, but have been uber busy and just haven't had the opportunity to edit this down. The French cable television station Canal Plus, decided to shoot a documentary for their station on Citizen Journalism.

They flew out to San Francisco to talk to me! Well, and Dan Gillmor and the camera man actually lives in LA; but still! It's French TV and they wanted to talk to me. How cool is that?

Anyhow they wanted to shoot me producing a videoblog, after telling them that my main beat is shooting protests and as luck would have it, there wasn't a protest on that particular day at that particular time in SF, I wasn't sure what to do...

Then I thought about how strange medical marijuana must seem outside of SF and especially in another country, and that was the genesis for this video. Unfortunately I wasn't able to shoot the dispensary or interview anyone at the club... but it was still fun... er... dangerous. Yes, DANGER - is the theme here at Videobloggingweek2006.

Judge Announces Ruling

2006-04-03T23:19:00.000-07:00

On March 31st, Judge James announced her ruling on the March 30th hearing. The Judge "ordered the US Attorney to produce the subject of the investigation in camera by April 5, essentially asking the government to be more specific in the scope of the investigation." --FBI Witch Hunt

Videoblogging Week 2006 (Day 1): What's in an Edit? (Part 1 of 2)

2006-04-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

click here to download

So it's videoblogging week, which means I will be uploading at least one video every day this week starting today, April 3rd and continuing through April 9th. The theme is vlogging dangerously and since this video isn't dangerous per say, I thought I'd treat you all to a double feature.

This sequence of two videos reveals how one can manipulate a single speech into having two very different messages. As part of this experiment, I did not rearrange the order of the excerpts I used, merely the in and out points of the edit.

If you like this video, be sure to check out part 2

Technorati tags: videobloggingweek2006 SanFrancisco protest abortion vloggingdangerously

Videoblogging Week 2006 (Day 1): What's in an Edit? (Part 2 of 2)

2006-04-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

Don't Watch this video until you see part 1.

Don't watch this video until you see Part 1. So it's videoblogging week, which means I will be uploading at least one video every day this week starting today, April 3rd and continuing through April 9th. The theme is vlogging dangerously and since this video isn't dangerous per say, I thought I'd treat you all to a double feature. This sequence of two videos reveals how one can manipulate a single speech into having two very different messages. As part of this experiment, I did not rearrange the order of the excerpts I used, merely the in and out points of the edit. Technorati tags: videobloggingweek2006 SanFrancisco protest abortion vlogdangerously

Press Conference For Hearing to Quash Grand Jury

2006-03-30T15:46:00.000-08:00

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Following our hearing, the Judge stated that she understood the argument's of my attorney as well as the Assistant US Attorney and we are currently awaiting her decision. For more information about this case, please visit joshwolf.net/grandjury/

Latest Grand Jury Update

2006-03-30T01:11:00.000-08:00

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To see all the documents associated with the case please visit http://joshwolf.net/grandjury/

Another Update on the Grand Jury

2006-03-29T16:15:00.000-08:00

Videoblog coming later tonight: Stay tuned... until then, here's our press release. Wish me luck guys!

For Immediate Release
March 30, 2006

Lawyers Group Attempts To Halt Federal Grand Jury
Contact Carlos Villarreal at 415-285-5067 x 10 or Jose Luis Fuentes at 510-839-1200 x 207

The National Lawyers Guild and attorneys with Oakland-based Siegel & Yee have filed a motion to quash a federal grand jury convened earlier this year. A press conference will take place at 9 a.m. on the steps of the San Francisco Federal Building (450 Golden Gate) to be followed by the hearing on the matter at 10 a.m. in Federal District Court. The Grand Jury has attempted to subpoena an independent journalist’s videotape of a Mission District protest that occurred on July 8th of 2005.

The motion, filed in response to the grand jury, states that the subpoena should be quashed because the target, independent journalist and educator Josh Wolf, is a member of the media and because the federal government is abusing its grand jury powers to benefit a local San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) investigation.

Records revealed in the motion to quash show that the SFPD, led by Inspector Lea W. Militello, solicited the help of the FBI, and that FBI Agent Scott A. Merriam agreed that his agency would be “assisting.”

“There are already criminal investigations and prosecutions in state court arising from last summer’s protest and there are no charges pending relating to federal crimes,” said Attorney Jose Luis Fuentes. “The federal government appears to be using the broad powers of a grand jury to gather information for the SFPD in violation of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. This grand jury has nothing to do with legitimate, federal, criminal investigations.”

The July 8th protest was in response to the G-8 Summit held in Scotland that spurred protests across the globe. A handful of activists were arrested and later charged with minor offenses. The protest garnered media attention at the time because a San Francisco Police Officer was injured on the scene, though no one was ever charged with assaulting that Officer.

Information compiled by the Grand Jury Resistance Project (GJRP), a coalition which provides support and education on politically motivated attacks by government, shows that grand juries are currently being used against environmental and animal rights activists, as well as groups that have historically struggled for self-determination, like the Black Panther Party, frequently based on information from years, and in some cases decades, ago. GJRP reports that in the past year, at least 54 individuals have been subpoenaed and/or indicted in Denver, Eugene, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, Tampa, FL, and Trenton, NJ.

“We believe that there is a political agenda at play here and we are concerned first that the FBI is involved, again, in such matters, and second that the San Francisco Police Department may be working with them,” said Carlos Villarreal, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area chapter.

Mr. Wolf and his attorneys will be commenting at the press conference Thursday morning. The motion to quash and other information can be found at http://joshwolf.net/grandjury/ or www.nlgsf.org.

March 20th: San Francisco Anti-War Demonstration

2006-03-23T13:36:00.000-08:00

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On March 20th at 7AM a visual + dramatic takeover of a central downtown intersection agaisnt the continuing U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and US torturing people in Guantanimo, Iraq, Afghanistan and all around the world was held. This video documents this demonstration using music from the Brass Liberation Orchestra and Anti-Flag's song, Emigre to chronicle the event.

What I've been up to for the past couple months

2006-03-15T05:58:00.000-08:00

Update: This press release was timed to coincide with an article in the East Bay Express, whose reporter Kara Platoni, writes about the station:

What does a smart but tiny television station do when it realizes nobody's watching? It reinvents itself by taking on a second life in an entirely different medium.

This month, the Peralta Community Colleges cable station, formerly known as PCTV, is officially redubbing itself "peralta.TV" and launching its new, matching Web site. Rather than fiddling with the cable box or waiting for the show they like to come on at 10 p.m. on a Friday, viewers can simply download shows for free.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:
Josh Wolf
Outreach Director
peralta.TV
900 Fallon St.
Oakland, CA 94607
E-mail: inthecity@sbcglobal.net
Web: http://peralta.tv

The New Evolution at PCTV: peralta.TV
Now Available Throughout the World *

Oakland, CA – March 15, 2006 – For over 20 years, PCTV has delivered unique, informative and educational programming to the East Bay community. Today, that quality programming is now available to anyone with an internet connection; in recognition of this exciting new direction, the Peralta Community College District has launched a new website and adopted the moniker peralta.TV.

The new website for peralta.TV (http://peralta.tv) is built-on the CivicSpace Labs engine and offers a plethora of interactive and dynamic features: a community calendar showcasing the various events happening at the Peralta Colleges and throughout the greater Bay Area, interactive text-based blogs that will allow visitors to help shape and inspire the future of peralta.TV, and the most exciting development, a series of videoblogs that will provide on-demand access of our original programming to anyone in the world.

Peralta.TV is currently offering four unique and exciting original programs with a fifth due to launch next month. Talkback, the award-winning program that dares to discuss the issues affecting the lives of young adults in the bay area is gearing up for the premiere of its third season on April 7th. Windows to the World, peralta.TV’s very own music video program featuring music from around the world is in pre-production for its first full season, and Rites of Passage and Sierra at Large both recently wrapped up their inaugural season and are preparing to top last year’s critical success. Additionally, peralta.TV will be launching a brand new show in April focused on capturing all of the exciting events at each of the four campuses which make up the Peralta Community College District.

Synonymous with vidcasts, vlogs and video Podcasts, each show will offer it’s own videoblog utilizing a cross-platform flash video interface provided by audioblog.com along with two distinct RSS feeds that are both compatible with the video iPod. The first feed will mirror the short-form, small-screen content offered in flash, and the second feed will provide a full-screen higher-quality feed of each complete episode for users who prefer the traditional television experience.

In developing the station as a muti-platform presence available both on cable television and online, peralta.TV hopes to further realize its mission to create and acquire programs that foster critical awareness both within the East Bay Area and beyond. By creating a dialogue with the surrounding community peralta.TV seeks to move beyond the conventional norms presented in mainstream television; to instigate and educate; and to enhance teaching and learning as part of the educational mission of the Peralta Community College District and its four colleges, College of Alameda, Laney and Merritt colleges in Oakland and Berkeley Community College.

Peralta.TV can be seen on Comcast cable on Channel 27 in Alameda and Berkeley and on Channel 28 in Oakland, Emeryville and Piedmont. In the near future, visitors to the peralta.TV website will also be able to tune into a live-stream which is currently in development with our media-hosting partner Monkeybrains.

Alex Jones Examines Cheney's Story

2006-02-19T11:06:00.000-08:00

Sometimes Alex Jones comes across as being a little out there, but I think his experiments to illustrate that Cheney is lieing about what happened when he shot his friend is telling. Check it out.

Grand Jury Update

2006-02-16T13:16:00.000-08:00

click here to download
>***Update*** My lawyer had actually called me yesterday but the message didn't get delivered to my phone until this afternoon.

Hey everyone, so today was the day that I was supposed to go in to the grand jury... Here's a little video about what happened.

Grand Jury

2006-02-02T19:47:00.000-08:00

My lawyer and I have been granted a two week continuance before we must appear before the grandjury. More information coming soon.

Check it out! I'm on GETV

2006-01-30T13:19:00.000-08:00

click here to download

I recently had the opportunity to be interviewed by the lovely and talented Irina Slutsky of Geek Entertainment Television. During the interview I had a chance to pitch the idea I have for the Rise Up Network. If this seems like a good idea to you and you have any sort of skills or connections to help make this project happen. Please E-mail me, I'm really excited about the idea I have for RUN but I don't really have the means to make it happen. C'mon, you know you wanna help make it happen. You TOO can help change the world...

Taking one for the team is never easy, especially on your birthday but that’s exactly what Josh Wolf did. He tells GETV how to go about getting arrested, an interesting business model that will enable independent online video creators to get paid and some of his favorite videos. Episode links: joshwolf, thisrevolution, riseupnetwork, arrested birthday, police sound system, xolo.tv, hassled in amsterdam

tags:arrested getv irinaslutsky joshwolf riseupnetwork vlog

Federal Grand Jury Regarding July 8th Protest

2006-01-30T00:55:00.000-08:00

UPDATEMy lawyer and I have been granted a two week continuance before we must appear before the grandjury. More information coming soon.

*** www.joshwolf.net is currently down, my website is still accessible through my blogger account. As soon as the domain transfer is complete, I'll be importing this blog into wordpress. ***

On July 8th, I shot a video of a protest in the city of San Francisco. During this protest, a police officer was injured during some sort of assumed altercation. My video which I posted to Indybay ended up being used by all the major news outlets without my permission. After sending them a bill for the unauthorized use of the tape, I agreed to give them a full-quality copy of the edited video I had already posted.

Around this time I got a visit from the FBI, they asked for a copy of the video and after speaking with my lawyer told them that they would need to consider this conversation with him and I was not at this point in time going to provide them with a copy of the tape.

Fast-forward about 6 months: I get another visit from the same FBI agents and I am delivered a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury on February 2nd, this upcoming Thursday.

I'm a little worried about this whole thing, so please wish me luck guys... There should be a couple of videos leading up to and following the experience. So please stay tuned!

This is Scary...

2006-01-30T00:51:00.000-08:00

Renegade sent me this link to a post on Indybay about an FBI informant by the name ofAnnA. Scary shit.

"Anna", the successful FBI infiltrator of at least a dozen anarchist events/movements, left a trail of posts on various IndyMedia outlets. Interestingly, search engines do not turn up any posts by "Anna" outside of IndyMedia. Evidently, the FBI considers IndyMedia to be the communications lifeblood of the anarchist movement.

Let's Make Hash: Morroccan Style

2006-01-08T21:25:00.000-08:00

click here to download

This video tells you how to make hash and was shot and cut by Len and myself, our friend Abdel provided the talent...

Interview with Mark Hertsgaard

2005-12-14T21:35:00.000-08:00

click here to download

I had a chance to help shoot an interview with Mark Hertsgaard for Independent World Television recently. Mark is a correspondent on the environment for The Nation and a political correspondent for Link TVDuring the interview Mark talked at length about climate change and how the media covers the issue of the environment.

Independent World Television is a new non-profit television news station set for its initial launch in 2007. It should be an incredible station when it launches. Check out their site, and please do help them out if you are inclined and can afford to do so. It costs money to free the media from the corporations...

College Not Combat: Relief Not War

2005-12-11T22:15:00.000-08:00

click here to download

On December 6th of this year in the financial district, College not Combat organized a march and rally. Alison Stevens Rodrigues writes in Beyond Chron:

This protest and similar ones across the country coincided with the U.S. Supreme Court’s hearing of arguments for and against the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment in Rumsfeld v. FAIR (Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights). Enacted in 1995 and named after its sponsor Gerald Solomon, a Republican from New York, the Solomon Act is a federal law allowing the Secretary of Defense to deny federal grants to institutions of higher education if they prohibit or prevent military recruitment on campus.

Rene over at Luxomedia put some video together from the event as well...

SFPD Video Scandal

2005-12-08T10:52:00.000-08:00

watch me!
Members of the SFPD recently posted a video to the internet which has generated a large amount of controversy.

From the Chronicle:

About 20 San Francisco police officers will be suspended because of their alleged involvement in what the mayor and police chief describe as videos that mock minorities and treat women as sex objects, the officials said Wednesday night....

An officer at the department's Bayview station, who is among those ordered suspended, produced the videos over the past two years using other officers and acquaintances and intended them as morale boosters, he and his attorney said Wednesday night. The officer denied he had done anything wrong, and his attorney said the suspensions were a politically motivated attack on free speech.

In my opinion this is not an issue of free speech. First off, as Andrew Cohen, one of the officers central to the investigation, had been hired to produce video for the police department, so this video was in all likelihood made possible by the tax payers of San Francisco.

Furthermore, unless the officers can prove that they were off-duty while shooting and producing this video, then this is what they were working on when they could've been actually doing their jobs and that is obviously a major problem.

Letter to the American People (Communique No. 7)

2005-12-07T23:00:00.000-08:00

Watch Me!

About a year ago, while surfing the net, I came across this fascinating propaganda film put together by the media platoon of the Islamic Jihad Army, Communique No. 6, A message from the "Iraq Resistance."

Today, I came across ;Communique Number 7. I think the piece brings up some very good points and does so with a level of authenticity that can only come from the people actually living in Iraq.

Visually, the film focuses on the guerilla tactics being employed by the insurgency. I'm thinking of remixing the video and using the audio from this piece.

Stay tuned...

The Daily Show recently featured a segment that shows how Bill O'reilly has really managed to make a real ass out of himself over this whole War on Christmas thing.

Save Tookie

2005-12-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

tookie
Originally uploaded by Botel Tobago.

I was at a rally to protect the ancient redwoods today, and a few people involved with the Save Tookie campaign suggested that the best person at this point to contact is Maria Shriver. After all, a man's wife tends to have tremendous influential power.

Then I started thinking about Maria Shriver's family and came up with the idea that perhaps we should all e-mail Ted Kennedy and urge him to speak to his extended family about how Tookie should be granted clemency.

According to Issues2000.org:

Moratorium on death penalty; more DNA testing.

Kennedy sponsored a bill limiting capital punishment:

H.R. 1038, S.233:

To place a moratorium on executions by the Federal Government and urge the States to do the same, while a National Commission on the Death Penalty reviews the fairness of the imposition of the death penalty .

S.486 & H.R.912:

To reduce the risk that innocent persons may be executed [by examining DNA evidence more thoroughly].

H. R. 912, 3/7/2001, Innocence Protection Act of 2001 (Delahunt, et. al.)
S.486, 3/7/2001, Innocence Protection Act of 2001 (Leahy, et. al.)
H.R.1038, 3/15/2001, National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001 (Jackson (IL), Rodriguez, Clay, Hoeffel, Jackson-Lee (TX))
S.233, 1/31/2001, National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001 (Feingold, Levin, Wellstone, Corzine)

Source: H.R.912 01-HR1038 on Mar 7, 2001

So I say E-mail Ted Kennedy today.

Current Ethics: Current TV and Current Soul

2005-12-05T15:10:00.000-08:00

Current Ethics: Current TV and Current Soul
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

I recently came across a video on Current TV's RSS feed that struck me as blatant Christian propaganda. In the Current TV message board, I explained why the video should not be considered "news."

Today Anastasia writes on the Current Studio blog:

This week's video feed includes a piece from our vanguard journalism unit on missionaries working "under cover" in China. Insurgent found it "quite disturbing" and that "as a pod produced internally, there are certain ethical issues with a news station producing such biased programming in my opinion." I've asked Laura Ling, who heads up our vanguard unit to respond. I'll update this post as soon as she does. What do you think? Post your reactions here.

I'm curious to hear what you all think about the video, and whether it seems appropriately balanced.

The Busy Signal

2005-12-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

Watch Me!

My friend Ronnie P came over to my house with this little video sequence he had edited in his camera. I thought it was pretty cool so we shortened it up a bit and now I'm uploading it here...

Blink: A Photo-montage

2005-11-20T22:30:00.000-08:00

Watch Me!

My friend Sierra has a show coming out on PCTV called Sierra At Large, I helped shoot some stills of her for her first episode. One day I felt like experimenting with the whole Ken Burns Effect and this is what I came up with...

The Meadow: A Renaissance Battleground

2005-11-15T09:19:00.000-08:00

<

Watch Me!

I edited this movie yesterday with my friend Ben. This sequence was shot about a month ago at the Golden Gate Park Renaissance Faire. The video features the "Diggers Song" as recorded by Chumbawamba.

My Response to Bill O' Reilly

2005-11-12T02:45:00.000-08:00

Watch Me!

Bill O'Reilly:

If al-Qaida comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."

This video is my response...

Tags: Billoreilly, sf, SanFrancisco, FoxNews, video, NoSpinZone

LA Coverage of Yesterdays protest

2005-11-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

LA Coverage WMV File
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

I was perusing Crooks and Liars today and came across an interesting video of NBC 4's coverage of the World Can't Wait protest.

On the surface, the most interesting aspect of the coverage was the story's lead, Traffic was an absolute mess in Westwood tonight as hundreds of protestors marched through the streets to demonstrate against the Bush administration" Ok, so that might not sound any alarms to you, but think about it... If you parse it, the story isn't about hundreds of protestors, but about traffic being an "absolute mess." But I guess that's LA for you...

Another interesting bit is that the story was titled Bush Protests, and yet, Michael Youn the counter-demonstrater is supered with "Supports US Troops." Which is it NBC, an Anti-bush or an Anti-Troops demonstration? I guess even Mr. Youn doesn't want to be associated as a Bush supporter. Bush Protests is also a very dodgy title for the piece as the meaning is quite ambiguous. It almost sounds like Bush is the one doing the protesting, but, you know what they say: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

I actually met Angie Crouch, the reporter for the story about a year ago during the Reclaim the Commons convergence in San Francisco. While hiking through edge of SOMA, I retreated into a McDonalds, the only restaurant in sight, and while I'm eating my "food," an NBC newsvan pulls in and Angie and her cameraman stop in for their lunch break.

I, of course, seize the opportunity to engage the MSM working professionals about their coverage of the protests and have a nice chat while we... um... dine? A couple days later, after the Mutant Street Party Angie interviewed me about the mass arrests at the protest and asked about the activists participating in jail solidarity.

Interesting to come across her work online, I hadn't realized she had moved up to the #2 Market. I wonder if she misses the bay area? I know I would.

Halloween in the Castro

2005-11-03T16:50:00.000-08:00

Watch the video

Here's a little video from my brief stroll into the Castro on Halloween night. I put together both music clips in this piece pretty quickly using Garageband.

2005-10-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

A Disturbing Bushism

Watch the video

Crooks and Liars recently dished out this particularly fascinating Bushism. First Condi calls Bush her husband, then Bush writes a letter declaring no more public scatalogy with Miers, and now a truly Oedipal malapropism from the president itself. Just what sort of debauchery is going on in the Bush house? Sure, Clinton got a blowjob... but with all these shenanigans Bush really does one up Bill on the kink factor. More Kink, More Kill. Put that bumpersticker on your Hummer, Arnie. TAG: Bushism

Military Recruiters Return to SFSU

2005-10-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

Last year recruiters from the Air Force OTC and the Army Corps of Engineers decided to attend a career fair held on the campus of San Francisco State. Dozens of students turned out to protest the recruiters presence on campus and I had the chance to film the protest which resulted in the school filing disciplinary action against numerous student groups and individual organizers.

Yesterday, the Marines showed up to the career fair, and faced with threats of disciplinary action, the students at SAW came up with an interesting approach to protest the recruiters and ensure that no students would join at the fair.

During the entire duration of the career fair from 11AM-3PM, student activists waited in line to speak with the recruiters. Most students chose to focus their discussions with the recruiters around military policy which discriminates against gays and lesbians and conflicts directly with the school's anti-discrimination policies. Other students focused on the alarming incidence of sexual assault amongst females in the military and still others focused on the death toll in Iraq and attempted to remind the recruiters of the potential consequences of their actions.

Police presence at the career fair was especially heavy, with over a half-dozen officers monitoring the student activists. While the conversations with the recruiters did focus on sensitive issues, both the students and Marines acted in a polite and restrained manner and the cops did not intervene at any point.

Although a few students appeared to actually be interested in signing up for Marines, they were forced to wait in a very long line to talk to the recruiters and were exposed to the issues SAW sought to address while they waited.

In what seems like the administrations ongoing attempts to curtail free speech, students entering the career fair were not only required to show their student identification, they were also required to surrender their ID during their visit to the career fair. When asked about this unconventional policy, a worker at the fair told me it was for "security." After a follow-up question, she told me that there were protestors at the fair and the school needed to know exactly who was at the fair. Not only is this policy intimidating and contributes to a lack of privacy, but also threatens to create a chilling effect on free speech and should not continue.

I shot some video footage with my digital camera, but the sound is terrible. I might edit something together over the weekend, then again, I might not...

TAGS: SFSU, collegenotcombat, sanfrancisco, SF, counterrecruitment, protest

citiZine Mash-Up

2005-10-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

Watch Me!

This mashup video was the intro sequence for another episode of my public access show citiZine that I put together sometime last year. The video is cut to a track by the Church of Euthanasia called, Save The Planet, Kill Yourself. The video features clips from various GNN videos including Eminem's White America, as well as The Simpsons, a Leonardo DiCaprio film about global warming, and some local stuff that myself and others shot for the show.

San Francisco Anti-War March S24

2005-10-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

Watch Me!

I finally got around to editing the footage from the anti-war rally on September 24th. I shot most of the footage, but my friend Holland also managed to get some really great shots from the event that I included as well. The piece utilizes entirely native sound, so hopefully it evokes the feeling of actually be there.

An Open Letter to Al Gore

2005-10-20T00:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Vice-President Gore,

My name is Josh Wolf; in the Current Studio, I post as Insurgent, and I'm the organizer for the San Francisco Current TV Meet-up group. I really enjoyed reading your speech at the We Media conference and was fortunate enough to find the video on Andy Carvin's blog. I couldn't agree more with your perceptions on the state of American democracy, and I too have been feeling like the country has entered an alternate universe for quite some time. Of course, living in San Francisco, we live in an almost alternate-alternate universe. A place where things just seem to make more sense. People in this city seem to think a little bit more, or maybe they just think more like me. Either way, it seems to me that San Francisco lives in a unique ecosystem in which people really are exposed to a more egalitarian plate of information. Between the independent weeklies, and our net-obsession, mainstream media really does take a back-seat. I think FOX news is watched more for entertainment than it is used as a means to actually stay informed.

I agree with everything you stated in your speech, but, at the same time, I'm disheartened by how Current TV isn't living up to the ideologies that you've embraced in your address. Like you, I agree that the marketplace of ideas has closed shop, and, done ethically, Current TV has an opportunity to play a vital role in restoring an egalitarian means for the dissemination of information. Thus far, Current has not really worked towards achieving this goal, and I think this has brought much frustration to many people amongst the community of independent producers; Jeff Jarvis' recent sentiments on Buzz Machine reflect this. In order to become a true success, it's crucial that Current stop looking at the community as potential assets and embrace us as the integral part of this movement we are. In the words of Alice Walker, "We are the people we've been waiting for." It is counter-intuitive to approach the goals you've proposed without solidarity and compassion.

When INdTV decided to abandon the Digital Correspondent position, your company had a moral duty to come clean with the 2,000 applicants that poured so much of their time and energy into becoming part of such a transformative network. Instead, a cryptic e-mail was sent out days before Thanksgiving, and no one at the company has ever publicly stated that Current's model underwent a dramatic change and eliminated the position. Did you owe it to the community to hire the 50 DCs INdTV originally intended? Of course not, but, I do feel that INdTV's response was somewhat deceptive. This incident was the first of several which have left me feeling like Current is in need of maturation before it can begin to truly address its mission.

As you stated in your speech,

The three most important characteristics of this marketplace of ideas were:

1) It was open to every individual, with no barriers to entry, save the necessity of literacy. This access, it is crucial to add, applied not only to the receipt of information but also to the ability to contribute information directly into the flow of ideas that was available to all;

2) The fate of ideas contributed by individuals depended, for the most part, on an emergent Meritocracy of Ideas. Those judged by the market to be good rose to the top, regardless of the wealth or class of the individual responsible for them;

3) The accepted rules of discourse presumed that the participants were all governed by an unspoken duty to search for general agreement. That is what a "Conversation of Democracy" is all about."

1) Current TV is open to an elite group of individuals in that participation mandates the possession of both a fairly-recent computer and video camera. Unless Current TV were to establish a partnership with public access stations across the country, or developed its own brick-and-mortar media centers then only people of a certain economic standard that can afford the equipment, can really contribute to the marketplace. Furthermore, as almost all of the pieces green-lit seem to be from producers with either significant professional or academic experience, to have a piece screened on Current TV one needs a significant level of expertise within the craft which is not to any real extent being facilitated by Current.

2) Within the Current Studio, those judged to be the best by the Studio members are only considered for air, and the actual criterion necessary to achieve entrance into the marketplace is vague at best and quite nebulous. While the ten pods with the most green-lights have mostly been chosen for air, a cursory glance at their stats clearly indicates that they have received a disproportionate exposure, and as one would expect, have more green-lights than other films that have been viewed a fraction of the time. Unless there is an objective and transparent criterion set forth for a video to get on air, and unless that process is directly affected by community input, then Current TV is not working towards democratizing TV so much as playing one on TV. Furthermore, as Current has elected to seek much of their content from outside the Studio community, Current has a duty to provide compensation which, if not equal to the costs associated with this other material, is at least equitable.

To offer a first-time VC contributor $250 for exclusive rights to his video, and then acquire other pods produced by a commercial entity at market rate is exploitation and effectively paints the studio community as second-class producers. The rate doesn't need to be equal, but it either needs to be equitable, or Current needs to pursue a non-exclusive license instead. The way the system works right now, Current's success could potentially threaten the advances that truly independent media is making through the internet right now. Literally thousands of people are putting their media on to the internet every day, and many of these people are doing it for free through sites like ourmedia.org.

And people really are tuning in, videoblogs are being watched by a niche group, but it's a growing segment of the population, and with the release of the video iPod its success is almost guaranteed. One vlog, Rocketboom has over 10,000 visitors daily. What you say is true, "as exciting as the Internet is, it still lacks the single most powerful characteristic of the television medium... it does not support the real-time mass distribution of full-motion video," but there is a growing community, the early adopters, who really do consume most of their video via the internet. You can't possibly argue that these people aren't contributing to the marketplace of ideas in a real and profound way, and yet Current TV forces them to choose whether to independently publish their media or to allow Current to be its sole home.

3) Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what the third tenant embodies, but something tells me that the implication of a wiki within Current TV could further this goal.

I'm very excited about the potential Current TV has to make a difference, and your words at We Media were empowering. It was my initial experiences with INdTV that helped inspire me to help establish the Rise Up Network (RUN), a non-profit organization providing the tools and resources necessary to facilitate the democratization of the media with a focus on video production and online distribution. I'm curious to know whether you feel my concerns have merit, and would appreciate the opportunity to converse with you and to help make Current the network its waiting to become. "We are the people we've been waiting for." Let's make Current a network the community can truly call its own.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Josh Wolf
The Revolution Will Be Televised

Tags: TAGS: wemedia, currenttv, algore

The Bay Area is Talking

2005-10-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

Just dropping a little note that I'll be guestblogging at The Bay Area is Taliking. If you get a chance stop by and say "hi;" The Bay Area is Talking, but the real question is, who's listening?

Frank Chu: Words of Wisdom

2005-10-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

Watch the video

Frak Chu, a well known character in San Francisco who actually has a nightclub on Mission St. named after him, speaks with me for a couple minutes at the September 24th protest against the war.

I've spent a while over the past year interviewing Frank Chu, and the more I listen to him, the more he actually starts to make sound somewhat sensible. And he sticks to talking points better than Ken Mehlman. Say it with me now, "George Bush should be tried for war crimes..."

The Phoenix

2005-10-14T02:13:00.000-07:00

About a year ago I took a Digital Video class at San Francisco State. This video was my final project for the class. The Phoenix is comprised of two of my short films sandwiched adjacent to each other.

The first film is titled Cause for Concern and was shot on a 16mm bolex camera and edited on film. The film stars Pooja Jain and Ben Salisbury and features music by AFI and Jeffries Fan Club

The second film was created as a title sequence for my public access show citiZine a while back and is a video mash-up cut to Rage Against the Machine.

This film is actually quite personal. Both in regards to my departure from majoring in film at school and shooting in 16mm, but both segments in the film represent two very different stages in my life. If you get the opportunity, please do let me know what you think. Thanks!

Mos Def Katrina Klap Video

2005-10-13T00:26:00.000-07:00

Press The Issue recently published a song and a video for the politically charged fundraising song produced by Mos Def to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

A Very Good Idea From the Onion

2005-10-12T21:28:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the Bush Administration should take a cue from the latest issue of the Onion.

"As your president, it is my duty to see this nation through any crisis, no matter how severe. And as your president, I pledge to you that I will find a man capable of doing just that," Bush said. "I will not—I repeat, I will not—let you down."

While many Beltway insiders have named senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and John McCain (R-AZ) as likely candidates, White House sources revealed that Bush may be leaning toward a stalwart loyalist. The list reportedly includes fellow Yale graduates, Midland, TX business associates, and various GOP fundraisers with connections to the Bush family.

"Despite their inexperience in government, they've clearly passed the Bush character test," said a White House staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "I think the president is looking for someone he's comfortable with and can trust, above all else. A [former FEMA director] Michael Brown type, or maybe even Brown himself."

Between The Daily Show's fake news and the Onion, the country is in all likelihood portrayed far more realistic than the mainstream media...

The irony.

Supreme Court Rant

2005-10-12T01:54:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago, I received an e-mail from Free Speech TV asking me if I could contribute something for an upcoming episode of their original program Source Code. The episode focuses on the judicial system and wont be aired for about three weeks. They wanted something immediately, this is what I sent them...

I didn't have much time, and I'm holding a camera in front of my own face still feels quite forced. It's just not my style, but I didn't really have much time to create anything else on the topic of the Supreme Court.

"No more public scatology" -George Bush

2005-10-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

From CNN:

In 1997, Miers sent Bush a belated birthday card featuring a sad-looking dog and the note: "Dear Governor GWB, You are the best Governor ever -- deserving of great respect!" She added, "At least for thirty days -- you are not younger than me."

Bush's birthdate is July 6, 1946; Miers' is August 10, 1945.

Bush wrote back to wish Miers a happy 52nd birthday, telling her that he appreciated her friendship and to "never hold back your sage advice." He ended with a postscript: "No more public scatology."

Huh? According to Dictionary.com scatology can be defined as "An obsession with excrement or excretory functions."

What exactly did Bush and Mier's relationship entail... public scatology? That's so kinky... Is John Gannon part of this somehow seems like he would've wanted in on the action.

On a *slightly* related note, 24 Hours on Craigslistis playing through the 17th of this month at the Red Vic on Haight St.

When C-SPAN Leaves You Speechless...

2005-10-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

You know the country is a mess.

Just stumbled onto this video from Crooks And Liars, I don't believe it happens very often that the House of Representatives chant's "Shame," it almost felt like a mass arrest at an SF protest.

But yeah, check out this video from C-SPAN it's actually quite captivating and rather disturbing when you stop to think about it. Maybe we need the post-election revision of the video for Eminem's Mosh.

as we set our aside our differences and assemble our own army, to disarm this weapon of mass destruction that we call president, for the present. And mosh for the future of our next generation. To speak and be heard. Mr. President. Mr. Senator. Can you guys, hear us?

Go Fuck Yourself Mr. Cheney Music Video

2005-10-06T21:19:00.000-07:00

Dr. Ben Marble made headlines last month when he told Dick Cheney, "Go Fuck Yourself." The incident was captured on national television, and I recently came across Ben's site and found the video Ben's friend shot of Katrina's wreckage that day and the now famous outburst. At the end of the 34:00 minute is a music video that Ben's band, Dr. O put together.

Click on the picture to see the Dr. O video.

Mashups in the Middle

2005-10-03T23:41:00.000-07:00

Mashups In the Middle
I stopped by ourmediatonight and I came across this great mashup compilation video that JD Lasica put together, and one of my videos is in it at as well.

Click on the image above to see the 11-minute video.

Coming Up: An Ad for... me?

2005-10-02T16:06:00.002-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to speak on the Using the Internet to Kick the Man's Ass panel at Webzine 2005.

Rene, who helped organize this year's webzine created the Meet The Zinester's space up in the attic where people could talk about their site and what brought them to webzine. She recently finished posting the clips in segments up on her site. Well, I took my little segment, and dropped some music behind it in an attempt to cover-up the distracting audio and here it is... an ad for me...

Watching this thing, I'm reminded of video dating and involuntarily cringe, but for some reason I'm still posting it...

Oh yeah, and when I say, "we've built a system" it's been built in my mind, but we haven't actually built it in webspace yet. Want to help us bring RUN into existence?"

Los Angeles is Burning

2005-10-01T00:51:00.000-07:00

Photos: LA Times, NowPublic
Lyrics: Bad Religion

This is not a test
of the emergency broadcast system
When Malibu fires and radio towers
Conspire to dance again
And I cannot believe the Media Mecca
They're only trying to peddle Reality
Catch it on Prime time
Story at nine
The whole world is going insane

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is Burning
A placard reads "the end of days"
Jacaranda boughs are bending in the haze
More a question than a curse
How could hell be any worse
The flames are stunning
The cameras running
So take warning!

San Francisco Ski Jump

2005-09-30T00:15:00.000-07:00

Icer Air Video
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Watch Me

On September 29th, 2005 San Francisco hosted the Icer Air Ski and Snowboard jump on Fillmore St.

Might As Well Jump
My friend and fellow vlogger, Rene over at Luxomedia has also created a video of the San Francisco ski jump -- she's got all the landings! Check it out.

I've got some photo's taken by Mark Watson on my camera coming soon too...

As Rene says in her vlog, "Just another day in San Francisco." Hell Yea! Amen Sister! I love this city.

Tags: skijump, ski jump, San Francisco, IceAair

Tell Me What A Police State Looks Like

2005-09-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

Tell Me What A Police State Looks Like
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

This is what a police state looks like!

This Article Brought Me to Tears

2005-09-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

Image via Salon.com
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

I just came across this Salon article on GNN, and before I had finished reading it, tears were collecting in the corners of my eyes as I seethed in anger and frustration, feeling this wave of sadness wash over me.

Throughout most of my life my mother has been an elementary school teacher in a predominately white but quite poor community in the rural community of Phelan California.

Like the segregated schools mentioned in the article, my mother has had to bare enormous pressures under Bush's treacherous No Child Left Behind, and it has been quite frustrating for her.

Sarah Karnasiewicz's article Apartheid America, revolves around an interview with Jonathan Kozol, and his new book The Shame of the Nation : The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America.

The article breaks down exactly what it means for the government to initiate a program like No Child Left Behind, and if Kozol's assessment is correct then it's high time that all of us wake up to what's really going on, that we all get off our asses and become part of the solution, and that we bring about real and tangible changes before it's too late.

What’s happened in many of these inner-city schools is that kids are no longer perceived as children but rather as economic units – like pint-size deficits or assets for the American economy. No one asks whether they are good or they are happy. The only question is will they be useful to our corporations in a global marketplace. It is not like this in the suburbs. There, children are still valued because they are children and childhood is still regarded not merely as a prelude to utilitarian adulthood but as a perishable piece of life itself. In the inner-city schools, even though most of the teachers I know would like to do the same, there is tremendous pressure on the principals to view these children as products, with “value-added” skills that they pump into them. And if you view children as products, it makes sense to have a lot of product testing.

My Video Archive!

2005-09-21T02:28:00.000-07:00

Video archive by Mefeedia

Hail to the Thief

2005-09-21T02:07:00.000-07:00

Wake The Fuck Up!
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Hail to the Thief a videoblog post by Michael Verdi

This video kicks ass and cuts through the crap. Michael Verdi has produced quite a few amazingly powerful videos for his vlog. Check this one out as soon as you can!

Internet Rights and Current TV

2005-09-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

MosdefandGore
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

I just made this post. In the Current TV Studio, and decided to cross-post it here as well...

As all of us producers should know, by uploading your video to the Current TV Studio, you are providing Current with the exclusive rights to exhibit your video work online for a 3 month period. In other words, you are contractually bound not to upload your video anywhere else, be it, the Amazon Tribeca Film Festival, You Tube, or even putting the video up on your own blog or personal website. I personally feel that this requirement is neither fair nor necessary, but that is not the focus of this post.

What does seem to be of significance is the fact that quite a few producers have either neglected or elected to violate this portion of the submission terms. For those in violation of this requirement, what liability are they opening themselves up to?

By my assessment, it seems that the absolute worst-case scenario would be that Current could elect to air your piece as a VC2 contribution and withhold your fee of $250.

This worst-case scenario seems unlikely to happen as it opens Current up to a fairly significant legal battle over $250 which is, well, stupid. That said, the next worse situation would be for Current to elect not to air your piece, or even to take it out of the screening room. We don't know about the former, but I have no reason to think Current has begun to do the latter.

So why is it that Current doesn't want us to host our own video on our own personal websites? According to the Submission terms FAQ:

We realize this part of the deal might seem burdensome. But here's the logic: We're going to present your video in our online Screening Room so people can vote and comment on it, with the notion that if it's popular or interesting, it might be something we'd like to pay for and broadcast on air.

If anybody else can swoop in and scoop up the good stuff, we're just providing a public service to other TV networks. Which would be nice, but, you know, no thanks.

Ok, so check out that last paragraph... you can't put your video on your own website because [other TV networks] can swoop in and scoop up the good stuff. Essentially Current is stating that you can't put your video up on your own website because other TV stations are swarming like vultures, trolling the internet looking for low-res internet video that they'd like to steal and air without the producer's permission. Asserting that other stations would not recognize the producer's Creative Commons or Copyright license, that other stations wouldn't ask for permission, and furthomore that other stations wouldn't ask for the non-compressed video.

It seems a bit forward for Current to align themselves against other commercial media television stations and to describe them as thieves; the idea would seem ludicrous had it not actually happened to me during this past summer with some footage I shot of an anarchist demonstration in San Francisco in which a cop was injured. (For more information on that story, please see this entry from my blog.)

But really now, what is your reasoning at Current for the exclusive internet rights? Is it really the vultures, the other television stations that wouldn't hesitate to illegally swoop in and scoop up all the good stuff?

Please tell us...

George Bush Doesn't Like Black People...

2005-09-11T01:25:00.000-07:00

All right, so you guy's have probably all heard already but just in case you haven't -- you have to take a listen to this track by the "Legendary KO".

Laura's Very Own Bushism

2005-09-11T01:06:00.000-07:00

Picture 39
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

All right, so we all know that George Bush makes so many blunders when he speaks that we've coined the term Bushism to describe his inability to grasp the English language. Well, now his wife has gone and added a whole new chapter to the Bushism catalog as she describes hurricane Careena.

From Crooks and liars: Click on the picture to hear Laura Bush's very own malapropism.

Bill Maher on Katrina Relief Effort

2005-09-06T01:41:00.000-07:00

Bill Maher on Katrina Relief Effort
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Finally some humor to relieve the horrendously depressing news about the horrific disaster that was Katrina. via onegoodmove...

Click on the image to see the video...

What the Hell is Going On?

2005-09-05T00:18:00.000-07:00

Aaron Brousard on the situation in New Orleans
via onegoodmove.

I found this on onegoodmove, in an interview on Meet The Press, Aaron Brousard, the President of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana describes how tragic and how tragically unnecessary the situation in New Orleans is.

We had Wal-mart deliver three trucks of water. Trailer trucks of water. Fema turned them back, said we didn't need them. This was a week go. We had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a coast guard vessel docked in my parish. The coast guard said come get the fuel right way. When we got there with our trucks, they got a word, FEMA says don't give you the fuel. Yesterday, yesterday, fema comes in and cuts all our emergency communications lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in. he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards said no one is getting near these lines.

What the fuck is going on! I never once in my life thought I'd say this but why wouldn't FEMA allow WalMart to help out the people of New Orleans? It had seemed as if perhaps the US Government was simply inept, but more and more it appears that the lack of response by the federal government could not have simply been accidental. I'm so angry right now, you have no idea.

More on New Orleans...

2005-09-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

From Jordan Flaherty's Notes From Inside New Orleans:

If anyone wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee camps.

In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway, thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in mud and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus would come through, it would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the barricades, and people would rush for the bus, with no information given about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be told where the bus was taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas, Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for Arkansas (for example), even people with family and a place to stay in Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed through Baton Rouge.

You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could not come within 17 miles of the camp.

Wake Up and Smell the Genocide

2005-09-03T04:16:00.001-07:00

bottle
Originally uploaded by Improbable Roach.

From SF Indymedia:

We have Amtrak here that could have carried everybody out of town. There were enough school buses that could have evacuated 20,000 people easily, but they just let them be flooded. My son watched 40 buses go underwater - they just wouldn't move them, afraid they'd be stolen.

The New Orleans tragedy could have easily prevented, it is the poorest in New Orleans, many of whom are black, that are still there suffering, most everyone with a moderate income got the hell out. The United States response to Hurricane Katrina has been deplorable as the hurricane approached and their response after the storm is even more abysmal. This leads me to conclude one of two things.

1) The United States is completely inept at actually responding to a disaster, which is possible.

2) The Federal Government made a conscious decision not to provide enough resources to get everyone out of the city, and deliberately delayed on the recovery effort.

Either way, the Bush Administration has once again demonstrated what a miserable failure the president is.

From GNN:

Commentators noted the victims of the hurricane were overwhelmingly African Americans, too poor to flee the region as the hurricane loomed unlike some of their white neighbors.

New Orleans ranks fifth in the United States in terms of African American population and 67 percent of the city’s residents are black.

“In one of the poorest states in the country, where black people earn half as much as white people, this has taken on a racial dimension,” said a report in Britain’s Guardian daily.

MUNI Fare Strike Starts Today

2005-09-01T03:11:00.000-07:00

Social Strike
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

From the Social Strike website:

It's on! From September 1 onward, MUNI riders and drivers are engaging in a social strike. Riders won't pay, and drivers won't collect, until ALL fare hikes, service cuts, and layoffs are reversed.
This will last, and it will grow as long as it lasts, until our demands are met: the fare is reduced back to $1.25, all service cuts are reversed, and drivers who were laid off are rehired.
A quick guide to the fare strike can be found here. Please explore our website to get more information and to learn how to get involved in spreading the strike.

Analysis of Current TV's Submission Policy (PART 1)

2005-08-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

Current TV Submission Policy
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Part 1 of 2
If you click on the picture, you can read the Submission Terms that govern all content uploaded to the Current Studio.

Throughout this entry, I will be referencing this document as I attempt to break down all the legalease, and explain anything that I feel is of importance. It's important to note that I am not a lawyer and any and all analysis made by me regarding any legal documents should be regarded as that of a layperson; as such, these opinions should not be relied upon as legal fact and I take no responsibility for any interpretive mistakes made in my commentary. In some cases, I have used bold text to add emphasis.

I hereby grant to Current the exclusive, royalty-free perpetual right to exhibit, display and otherwise distribute my Submission via Current's web site for a period of thre (3) months.

I've written about Current's policy regarding internet rights in a previous entry.

I further grant to Current an option to acquire the exclusive right to broadcast, exhibit or otherwise distribute my Submission in all media throughout the world in perpetuity.

Anyone thinking about uploading to Current should already be well aware of this, but in case you're not. It's important that you realize that once you've uploaded a piece to Current, they have the chance to snap up all your rights to the piece itself forever in return for compensation according to the Current pay scale. You'll get $250 for the first piece they choose to option.

I forever waive an relinquish all so-called "moral rights (droit moral)" now or hereafter recognized

I'm not 100% sure what this means, but it sure sounds scary. In a previous post, I wrote about how the corporate media is using my footage to advance a news story which I find biased, "moral rights" may simply make the fact that I'd have no recourse under such a situation explicit.

I agree not to issue any publicity on behalf of Current, but I am free to make casual and non-derogatory public statements regarding Current.

I'm not entirely sure what it means to make publicity on behalf of Current, but I'm guessing that my conversations with the media regarding Current TV would qualify although to the best of my knowledge it isn't possible to simply click away one's first ammendment rights. In regards to "casual and non-derogatory public statements," I'm uncertain what the legal definition for casual or non-derogatory is, or whether such a legal definition even exists.

I will have no right of approval or consultation with respect to Current's use of the Submission.

I totally understand relinquishing my rights of approval, but why must Current include consultation. Even if there's nothing the creator can do about it, he or she should at least have the opportunity to talk to Current about an issue regarding the use of their submission. In Current's fairness, I'm certain they would take the time to talk about such issues, but it troubles me that it was put into the terms.

Police Raid Music Festival in Utah

2005-08-23T12:51:00.000-07:00

Police Raid Music Festival in Utah
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

From Metafilter:

Pump up the volume:
Utah, 8/20/2005. A small fully permitted outdoor Drum and Bass gathering called "Versus 2" was the scene of a surreal amount of excessive force and tactics of cultural intimidation. Approximately 60 armored, helmeted and camouflaged Utah County Sheriffs officers armed with Police dogs, Tasers, MP5 submachine guns, rifles, batons and tear gas stormed the DJ booth and the dance floor. Still and video camera operators were singled out for abuse, police violence and confiscation of image recording devices. At least one video clip has made it to the net, helping spread the news globally within the Electronic Dance Music community within 24 hours. (Video Links: please use the torrents here or randomly choose one server here (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ) to help spread out the bandwidth costs.)

Flashback to 6/31/2005 in the Czech Republic. Flashback to 70 years ago.

More coverage: Daily Kos - Utah Indymedia - Drug Policy Alliance - Democracy Now (Audio) - more.

Fuck the Corporate Media

2005-08-18T00:02:00.000-07:00

Fuck the Corporate Media
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

On July 8th, I filmed a protest in San Francisco. During the demonstration, an officer was injured.

Obviously the injury of the police officer sparked a media sandstorm; however, the newsmedia had elected not to cover the protest so they had no footage of the event.

Brian Shields of The Bay Area is Talking was compiling all the photos and reports as they came in from the protest and I contacted him about my footage shortly before posting it to Indybay and my vlog.

In an attempt to steer KRON's story towards a more balanced outlook of the event, I elected to sell a selected portion of my footage documenting the police's oppresive actions to the station.

Now that KRON had the footage, what would the rest of the stations do as the story became a major ratings grab? They did what everyone else did, they went to Indybay and watched my video of the events, only they also decided to put excerpts from my video on television without asking my permission, providing any sort of attribution or offering compensation.

Upon hearing this, I spoke to a few friends and one of them suggested that I simply send them a bill. So that's what I did, I wrote a letter to each of the stations announcing my frustration with them using my footage and demanding fulfillment of my invoice for a sum significantly higher than the going stringer rate.

It worked, and almost all of them agreed to honor my invoice in exchange for the full quality footage already available on my website. I agreed, and have already recieved payment from most of the stations.

But that's all backstory... well, tonight, CBS 5 aired a story about a report released by the police chief in regards to July 8th, and my footage was used quite liberally.

Due to the ongoing criminal investigation, I can't really comment on the events of the night (yikes, I sound like Scott McClellan), I have an appointment with my lawyer tomorrow morning, and I'll be sure to share what I can as soon as I discuss the matter with him.

But suffice it to say that the news report on CBS 5 was not accurate and neglected some very important elements of the story which are quite clear after watching this video which the CBS story relied on heavily. Judge for yourself, and please let me know what you think.

I'll try to deliver a more direct response to the CBS story once, I speak with my legal counsel.

Goodbye Working Retail

2005-08-16T00:04:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Work
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

I recently quit my job working retail. Friday night was my last night and afterwords my coworkers decided to throw a little goodbye bash. I'll miss my friends there, but I definitely will not miss the job.

Meet My Doppleganger

2005-08-14T23:10:00.000-07:00

This is Not Me
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

So last night I mentioned that Josh Wolf was running for Congress in Ohio. Well, I did a google image search and I think I found a picture of Josh. It get's weirder.

Josh Wolf, center, 23, a delegate from Athens, Ohio, dances to Wyclef Jean's song, "If I was President," during the Democratic National Convention at the FleetCenter in Boston, Wednesday, July 28, 2004.

All right, so he's 24, maybe even 25 by now and I just turned 23, but this still seems pretty fucking surreal. Good luck Josh! Diebold be damned let's put a Wolf in congress.

College Not Combat (repost)

2005-08-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

College Not Combat
Originally uploaded by blackcatmedia.

Hey Guys, Vanessa Hua's article about videoblogging came out this morning in the SF Chronicle. She's got some really great things to say about all of us bay area vloggers, myself included. Thanks Vanessa.

After filming a protest against military recruiters at San Francisco State University's career fair in March, Josh Wolf immediately put the footage online. Shouting "Racist, sexist, anti-gay -- U.S.A. military go away," protesters surrounded the recruiters, who sat with stoic faces. Eventually, they left as students cheered.

"By watching, you should be able to see for yourself, and decide if it was a First Amendment issue or if students should be punished," said Wolf, 23, a psychology major.

On March 9th, recruiters from both the Army Corps of Engineers and the Air Force Officer Training School came to San Francisco State University to attend a career fair held on campus.

Students from several groups on campus worked together to organize a rally against the military's presence on campus. The school's chapter of the College Republicans held a protest against the protesters. These counter-demonstrators played a much larger role in the original edit of this piece, but the general public seemed to think they were confused members of the anti-recruitment protestors so I had to cut them out.

College Not Combat features music by emcee Lynx: Indoctrination and Truth is the Power.

I'm Not Running for Congress

2005-08-14T03:28:00.000-07:00

I'm Not Running for Congress
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Just to clear up any confusion straight away, I'm not running for congress in Ohio. Joshua S. Wolf, which happens to be my name as well, is running for the seat in Ohio's 18th Congressional District. For more on his campaign please visit Josh's website.

Current Criteria

2005-08-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

Current Criteria
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

This is from an ongoing dialogue from the metaCurrent group in the Current TV Studio:

It all goes back to the marketplace of ideas.

Current is trying to slowly break down the old media paradigm through a process of gradual reform. The very same strategy which I feel plagues the Democratic party as a whole. While small advances can be made through these reform strategies, the goal wil never be realized. A media revolution is necessary.

The personal media revolution is going on as we speak, and Current has the opportunity to be on the forefront of this tidal shift as the rules about who controls the media rapidly change.

Instead Current has decided to go in a different direction as they set out to become the television homepage for the 18-34 year old set. While this is a worthwhile pursuit, and I'm sure a vast catalogue of entertaining content will result through this endevour, Current TV will not democratize television by simply allowing viewers to weigh-in with their opinion. Unless the green-light voting process allows studio members to have a direct impact on the Current's programming than it is market research and not an act of empowerment.

The launch party for Current TV on April 4th was coined Take Back Your TV. Let's do that...

Technorati tag: Current TV

BSP - Seeking green lights for Current TV.

2005-08-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

My Current profile
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Check out my videos on Current TV, vote for Me if you like what you see.

By the way, BSP is short for blatent self promotion; let's see if it works... :-P

Technorati tag: Current TV

Stargaze

2005-08-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

Picture 26
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

This is a little video I put together for my digital cinema class last year. The assignment was to make a video using only still photographs. I used some photos from the Stargaze reunion from a few months prior, and spliced some audio from the reunion itself as a sort of backdrop.

I got a B+

On the 49Media podcast...

2005-08-07T23:56:00.000-07:00

49Media
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

I was interviewed by Chris Ritke of 49Media over the past weekend. For the Podcast Chris asked me both about Current TV as well as the Rise Up! NetwrokGive it a listen!

I'm in TIME!

2005-08-05T01:43:00.000-07:00

I'm in TIME!
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Laura Locke recently interviewed me about Current for TIME. I picked up a copy recently and find the article to be quite balanced and reveals how Al Gore's station's success is pending on carriage through Rupert Murdoch's Direct TV. Well done Laura!

And although Current promised to hire hundreds of digital correspondents, contributors must now sign on as free-lancers, who get neither salary nor benefits. In frustration with Current's tight controls, Josh Wolf, 23, a filmmaker and volunteer organizer for Current's San Francisco "meet-up group," at which digital artists view and critique one another's videos, launched his own alternative to Current. Called the Rise Up Network, the collective of video makers is creating a website on which anyone can feature his or her own videos. "A lot of people feel disaffected," he says.

Technorati tag: Current TV

Rise Up! Network in TIME

2005-08-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm in the latest issue of TIME magazine and managed to get a plug out for RUN. And if you get a chance, check out my picture on Pg. 34.

I'm off to Kinko's to scan the article...

Live Blogging at BlogHer

2005-07-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

it's ON
Originally uploaded by image415.

It's 9:45AM on a Saturday morning and I'm up and at the BlogHer Con... On the ride up I spoke to Chris about the idea of live-blogging a video conference.

Why would anyone feel the need to live-blog a blogging conference? Because I can...

Stay tuned for more updates throughout the day, or not.

Technorati tag: BlogHer

Death of Democracy...

2005-07-30T01:32:00.000-07:00

CAFTA Voting Irregularities
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Everyone knows that CAFTA barely passed, but Indybay has the scoop from Democracy Now

When official voting had ended in the House at 11:17 pm, as the fifteen minute voting period had expired, legislators had actually voted to defeat CAFTA 180 (one hundred eighty) -175 (one hundred seventy five). But in an unusual move the final House vote was held open for an extra forty seven minutes, giving Republican leaders time to furiously round up holdouts in their own party until they had secured just enough to ensure approval.

* Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader:
"The Republicans turned the floor of the House of the Representatives into a "Let's Make a Deal" set that was reminiscent of what happened at the time of the medicare prescription drug legislation that evening and again this time they kept the vote open a long time. But many of the overtures that were made to members was made before even going to the floor. So this is about again an abuse of power, an unethical way of passing legislation and depending on what members decide to do, may require further attention."

Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Charles Taylor of North Carolina said he voted against the bill, but that a problem with the electronic voting system failed to record the vote.

That last sentence is the really disturbing part. If true, that seems like some damning circumstancial evidence that electronic voting fraud did in fact transpire during at least one recent general election.

At the same time, during the hour representative Taylor had to cast his vote, he couldn't find someone to call about the fact that his vote hadn't been recorded?

How does this voting on Capitol Hill thing work? You can persuade your friends to change their vote while the polls are open?

Anyone?

This Man is President?

2005-07-27T23:15:00.000-07:00

The Finger
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Whatever happened to a president being stately? Check out this video from one good move and see the president at his most irreverent.

Who is this guy? I mean it's one thing for me to say "Fuck corporate media," but it's a whole different story when you're the president of the United States of America.

2 Years in Iraq and We're Still in the Streets...

2005-07-27T22:59:00.000-07:00

March 19th 2005
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

To commemerate the second anniversary of the Iraq war, San Francisco came out into the streets to express it's discontent with the present political system. Here's my first-hand take of the events.

This video is a little long at just under 15 minutes, but I didn't want to cut anymore out. I'll be making a full-screen H.264 version of this video available tomorrow.

Anyone going to BlogHer from SF or the Eastbay?

2005-07-27T17:31:00.000-07:00

BlogHer
Originally uploaded by a t r i u m.

Update: Chris Ritke of 49 Media has graciously offered to give me a ride to BlogHer. Thanks Chris.

Hey everyone, so I've discovered that I can get to BlogHer by way of public transportation. But it's going to take a while. A long while...

So, I was wondering if there's anyone out there reading my blog from either SF or the Eastbay that'd be down to give me a ride. I know it's a longshot, but I figured I'd give it a shot. If you might be able to help me out, drop me an E-mail. Thanks!

Technorati tag: BlogHer

The 07-07-05 Conspiracy Begins

2005-07-27T01:54:00.000-07:00

Picture 20
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Citizens for Legitimate Government Have noticed something suspicious going on with the surveillance shot being distributed as a photo of the four alleged London bombers. It appears that one of the figures may have been photoshopped in...

Doug Alder is reaching out to his readers to see if anyone can confirm or deny the possible validity of the photograph.

Add Water. If Any Substance Remains. Dilute Again.

2005-07-26T01:46:00.000-07:00

Trungpa Rinpoche
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Chogyam Trungpa writes in his book, The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation

We had a film workshop in Colorado in which we discussed whether it was important to entertain people or make a good film. And what I said was that perhaps the audience might be bored with what we have to present, but we must raise the intelligence, the standards of the audience, up to the level of what we are presenting, rather than trying to constantly match their expectations, their desire for entertainment. Once you begin to try to satisfy the audience's desire for entertainment, you constantly bend down and bend down and bend down, until the whole thing becomes absurd. If a film-maker presents his own ideas with dignity, his work might be ill-received in the beginning but possibly well-received once people begin to catch up to it. The film might raise the audience's level of sophistication.

A number of articles about Current TV have recently been published, and it seems likely to me that Al Gore's endeavor has fallen prey to the very situation Trungpa Rinpoche describes above.

According to an article from Reuters, Gore "think[s] the reality of the network will speak for itself. It's not intended to be partisan in any way, not ideological in any way."

What exactly does this mean?

Not partisan in any way
Does this mean that any issues that are partisan in nature will be ignored?

Not ideological in any way
Does this mean that any videos "concerned with or suggestive of ideas" will not belong on Current?

Obviously, I'm over-reacting here -- but does that not seem like a very weak explanation for the channel? Read directly Gore essentially states that the channel is not about issues that are under debate nor anything having to do with suggesting any ideas. WTF?!?!

Just what kind of programming will be on Current TV? Well, I can't say for sure but Doug Elfman of the Chicago Sun-Times writes in an article that demonstrates Elfman's mastery of the fine-art of functional illiteracy:

Critics were given DVDs featuring stuff that will be shown on Current. Those segments look pretty good. There's a playful documentary-type thing that shows "jumpers" strapping on parachutes and diving off of cliffs and bridges. It's well-shot. It was created by an ordinary citizen who submitted it to Current.

There's also a snippet titled "HOOKING UP." In it, a young woman says, "I kind of regret now sleeping with Doug, especially now that he wants to end it. But I feel like since he's the one that wants to end this, it shouldn't stop me from hooking up with his friend now."

It seems a sure bet that conservative propagandists in the media will rip into Gore for helping to turn young, everyday citizens into titillating gatekeepers of the all-important news. I hope somebody asks these commentators which journalism schools they went to. Gore, by the way, started out as a newspaperman.

Current isn't all hotties and extreme athletes. Staffers and amateurs are putting together long segments on war victims who walk around on one leg, and suicidal people in Japan. When was the last time you turned on Fox News and saw a mini-documentary about Iranian kids who listen to loud music and get wasted at underground house parties?

Unfortunately, the organizers of the Current meetup groups were not provided a copy of the sneak-peak DVD so I must rely on Elfman's description.

Additionally, Current's advertising model was unveiled in a MediaWeek article on July 19th.

Another difference that this new network will bring to television is how advertising is sold. Advertisers are being signed up for 15-month periods during which they will sponsor a particular pod within each hour's telecast. They will get to air a message following the pod that they are sponsoring. The messages can vary in length. And once per hour, an advertiser will get to run a three-minute ad message. About 12 pod sponsorships will run an hour, according to Anne Kallin Zehren, Current's president of sales and marketing.

So each pod will be sponsored by a particular advertiser.

Who decides what pod goes with which ad? The advertisers?

Will the pods be auctioned off to the highest bidder?

What about pods that no advertiser would want to be associated with?

What about the advertisers no pods want to be associated with?

That video you've spent the last six months refining might just end up appearing on Current and sponsored by Valtrex. Just think, that's six months of your energy. Six months of your heart and soul exposed on national television to help hawk herpes medication.

Technorati tag: Current TV

Link fixed...

2005-07-23T23:35:00.000-07:00

So the link for the video I mentioned in my last post was dead for a while... as a result, it didn't get picked up by some feed readers. Hopefully this doesn't result in a repeat download for you...

20 Dollar Dinners (Episode 1) Limited Time Only

2005-07-23T02:10:00.000-07:00

20 Dollar Dinners (Episode 1)
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

It's been a while since I've posted a video, there's a few things I've been working on. One of them is this piece that I've beem working on with Toan Lam for Current TV.

So why you might ask is this video only available for a limited time? Well, under Current's new submission terms, I can't not have a video on both Current and my blog. So once the piece gets submitted it will have to disappear from my blog for the next three months.

The 20 Dollar project was started by David Bobrow; the project is an experiment in viral media.

Spend 20 dollars of your hard-earned cash, pursuing that theme. What is key is that there are no right or wrong answers here. You are simply - or elaborately - telling a story of how twenty dollars gets spent. Find irony. Find humanity. Find something that will make the story interesting to you, and interesting to people you respect.

From that initial idea, Toan and I conceived the idea for 20 Dollar Dinners, and we've since shot and edited the first episode. Please let us know what you think, and any suggestions you might have for us so that we can fine-tune this piece before we send it off to Current.

Technorati tag: Current TV

Sometimes you only need a sentence...

2005-07-21T03:10:00.000-07:00

From the article in the Chicago Sun-Times on Current TV.

Anyway, Gore is a major player, and there's a whole capitalistic infrastructure backing Current.

Capitalistic infrastructure? When you put it that way it just sounds creepy, ya know?

Anarchist Action Call-Out for Financial Help for Legal Aid

2005-07-16T01:50:00.000-07:00

All Empires Must Fall
Originally uploaded by Insurgent.

Just found this in my inbox:

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!!!

Dear Community,

The collective in support of July 8 anti-G8 protestors in San Francisco seeks funds for bail and legal defense of those arrested. Our immediate goal is to raise $5000 to post bail for the individual still in custody after one week. We want him back with us in the community! Let’s show our solidarity and pitch in what we can! Every little bit helps from $5 to $500! Once he’s out, funds will go towards the legal defense of others being targeted as part of this investigation. Please make checks payable to: Midnight Special Law Collective with “Anti-G8 Protest” written in the memo line. Send checks to: National Lawyers Guild, 558 Capp Street, San Francisco, CA 94110.

Please Note: This collective is distinct from any individual's legal defense team or the organizers of the action!

Thanks everyone for your support and solidarity!

~The Collective

How American Are You?

2005-07-14T03:47:00.000-07:00

Haven't done one of these since my Live Journal days...

You Are 21% American

You're as American as Key Lime Tofu Pie
Otherwise known as un-American!
You belong in Cairo or Paris...
Get out fast - before you end up in Gitmo!

How American Are You?