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Yes folks it's time to get your entries in! This year Lupita Segura will be handling the entries. By submitting through us, your local cable access TV station, you will only pay $40 per entry versus $70 if you submit independently. Lupita is asking that you get your submission to us by 5 pm, Friday March 19. That's a week away!
All the info that you need to know is available on the website of the Alliance for Community Media. Read the booklet on the website which describes what you need to do. Then you can even fill out your application online. Get us your physical copy of the DVD, 1 copy of the application and a check written to the Media Center for $40.00. And you are home free on your way to the Hometowns!
n.b. - That's $40 per entry... so if you enter 3 programs, for example, get us 3 different DVDs, 3 different application forms and one check made out to the Media Center for $120 -- all by Friday March 19!
The Media Center launched its fourth annual Local Heroes Series last Sunday with a screening and a reception to honor this year?s recipients.The Local Hero award singles out those individuals in our community whose passion of service creates such passion in others that others nominate them as a Local Hero.Candidates are then investigated and selected by committee.Narrowing the ?winners? to six was particularly challenging this year due to the high number and excellent qualities of the nominees.So if your hero wasn?t chosen this year, please re-nominate him or her next year!
After an opening reception organized by the super capable Karen Adams and a small staff of MC volunteers (Steve, Wes, Eric L., Camille to name a few), Media Center Chairman of the Board Barbara Noparstak kicked off the festivities.By show of hands, we learned that most of the seventy or so guests were visiting the Media Center for the first time.Barbara shared with the guests the wonderful opportunities for community involvement we afford here.Then Barbara turned the mic over to Louise Pencavel, Media Center staff producer and producer of the Local Heroes series. One of our ?heroes?, Louise described what it means to be a local hero and the room was very hushed.Then the screening began.
One by one a short film highlighting the contribution of each honoree was shown followed by the conferring of the individual award. Each ?local hero? spoke briefly upon receiving his or her award.As one might expected,each hero was quick to deflect praise and instead cite the work of others that inspired them.Away at college, McKay was not able to attend but was represented by his mother and his brother. His mother who read a lovely tribute on his behalf.After the screening, there was some paparazzi time and more socializing.
We honored six people with our award, but it was indeed we who were honored to have in our studios six such exemplary local heroes who are changing our world.
This years recipients were:
CURTIS HAGGINS, Dean of Students at Midpeninsula High, is often the first face a student and a parent see when there is a disciplinary problem at Midpeninsula High.And his is a kind face.He is full of love for those kids.When kids feel that love and caring in their lives, real change becomes possible.In addition to working with many troubled kids, Curtis is a role model and mentor to the larger school population.Immensely popular, yet humble and self-effacing, Curtis lives his values every day of his life among the kids he truly cares about.
LEIF ERICKSON, Executive Director of Youth Community Service, puts kids from different backgrounds together and puts them on service projects like cleaning up the baylands.He believes that giving disparate kids a common goal will unite them in a lasting way.Kids, like adults, often fear and label other people, people that they don?t understand.Leif has found that bringing young people together in service erases artificial borders between them and creates opportunities for understanding, friendship and real dialog of the issues and concerns that all kids have.
CAROL SAAL, responsible for fund-raising for the new Jewish Community Center, spearheaded a campaign to acquire the old Sun Microsystems campus for close to $28 million at a time when not only did the JCC have no money at all, but was for all intents and purposes not operative.Looking for direction, the organization found a super dynamo in the person of fund-raiser and visionary Carol Saal.The new JCC is now open and crowded with people from all walks of faith enjoying a variety of social, athletic, spiritual and artistic activities.
McKAY DAINES, former Gunn High student. created a support network for survivors of teen suicides. McKay started a Facebook group to address the fear, loneliness and sadness affecting our teen community caused by the recent teen suicides and to particularly assist those who had either contemplated or attempted suicides. Thousands of students have joined and have found support, friendship, hope and connection.McKay himself operates a hotline for trouble youths who just need to talk. McKay believes that though some teen suicides are the result of mental illness, others may be the work of a moment, a snap decision in an instant of misery.He has put himself in the front lines of the fight against teen suicide.
BOB HOOVER, long-time youth mentor in East Palo Alto is currently coordinator for Parole Re-Entry Program at Free at Last.Bob Hoover?s life is an inspiration.Brought up in Jim Crow south, he never let the justifiable anger and hurt he experienced, deter him from creating the life he envisioned for himself.Mentored by others at crucial times, Bob determined he?d be a beacon to others.As a result, he has given his life to service of others.His most recent and perhaps in some ways most ambitious vision has been to train parolees adjust to life on the outside and thereby reduce their rate of recidivism.Parolees often lack basic skills like filling out a job application, obtaining credit, getting a bank account.Through his teaching, supporting and mentoring, Bob gives parolees the training and the emotional support they need to stay out of jail and to fulfill the renewed promise of their lives.
GARY RIEKES is creator and director of the Riekes Center in Menlo Park.The Reikes Center is devoted to helping kids reach their full personal potential through physical exercise, physical training and artistic expression.Gary wants to encourage kids in their dreams, even what might considered the ?unrealistic? ones like maybe being an NBA player or a rock star .He believes in teaching kids to ?break down? their dreams into realistic obtainable goals.If you have a certain dream, then what are the skills needed to make it.Gary is going to give you every opportunity to meet those goals and to compare yourself to the most important standards ? the ones you set for yourself.
We are replaying not only the highlight segments but the longer form interviews on Channels 27 and 30 throughout the month of March.Please check our schedules for playback times.
We will honor our winners and screen highlights of their interviews. Many of you submitted nominations; others may want to meet our Local Heroes. Either way, we hope you will be able to attend. Refreshments will be served! To help us with our planning please let us know if you can make it.
This year's winners are:
CURTIS HAGGINS, Dean of Students at Midpeninsula High LEIF ERICKSON, Executive Director of Youth Community Service CAROL SAAL, responsible for fund-raising for the new Jewish Community Center McKAY DAINES, former Gunn High student who created support network for survivors of teen suicides BOB HOOVER, long-time youth mentor in East Palo Alto and currently coordinator for Parole Re-Entry Program at Free at Last GARY RIEKES, creator and director of the Riekes Center in Menlo Park
It is always difficult to choose among the many incredibly gifted and deserving nominations we receive and we are very proud of those who have been selected this year.
We look forward to seeing you!
More information on the recpients are on the Local Heroes page.Published 2010-02-27T19:32:00.000-08:00 by Stan Ng
We thought volunteer camera operator Bryce Druzin moonlighted with us, but as it turns out he actually moonlights as a stand-up comic! You can catch Bryce Druzin tonight and tomorrow night up in Oakland's Jack London Square. He'll be playing Miss Pearl's Jam House at the Waterfront Hotel. Check out this link to learn more and get tickets. And check out Bryce's myspace page for a video clip of his "act."
Executive Director Annie Folger posed with Media Center volunteer and general genius Bill Lindemann in honor of our new and improved and repaired black flat. Bill was part of the three man team that undertook and indeed executed a perfect restoration of the flat. The unveiling took place at end of day in time to be used tonight! Unfortunately repair-team member and volunteer par excellence Jim Seawright (producer, Hale I Ho Omana) had to speed off to a concert and Erik Lind (recent Studio Class grad) who toiled alongside Bill and Jim was not available to be photographed. Long story short: this flat was rendered useless due to a rather large and mysterious tear. Patching it just wouldn't do. Full and complete overhaul was required. When I arrived at work today, I thought a construction job had been undertaken. There was an electric saw, tool boxes galore, the obligatory pick-up truck with the gate down, and guys standing around staring into space. At least that's how my home remodel went down! By 5 pm we had a brand new flat and one more reason to thank our wonderful volunteers for making things work around here. These are a great bunch of guys and we thank them for the gift of their time and expertise. Thank you Bill, Jim and Erik!
The crippling of the high tension tower on Wednesday morning brought down our channels. And I mean really brought them down. When the power was restored a little before six pm two days ago, IT Specialist Chris Pearce returned to the Media Center to get the Tiltrac up and running. Tiltrac is the brain that operates the cablecast system. Anyway, it looks like Wednesday's power surge blasted through our UPS system designed to protect our systems from just such a catastrophe! Chris took the whole system apart and found the source of our woes. The picture of the motherboard features two capacitors. The one on the right looks shiny and the one on the left looks burnt out. See that? Aha! The culprit! Anyway, 48 hours and two motherboards later, on very little sleep, Chris flipped the switch, and the Channels came back on line just before 8 pm last night. The head-scratcher was when the motherboard was replaced twice, why couldn't Tilt-rac find its operating system? Chris eventually frankensteined the operating system onto a new drive and told Tiltrac to look there instead of the old drive. Kind of like putting the old brain into a new body. And like Frankenstein, not pretty, but functional. Chris has got his work cut out for him restoring Tiltrac to its former pristine state. But for now, all is well in Master Control. The sky is blue, the birds are singing and Chris can get some sleep.
Yesterday morning, MC employee Lupita Segura and I covered the crash of a small plane into an East Palo Alto neighborhood. The crash occurred in the cul-de-sac of Beech street near the intersection of Pulgas.
The plane was registered to Doug Bourn of Santa Clara, a senior engineer at Tesla. The names of the three victims all believed to be Tesla employees have not publicly released as of this writing.
Lupita and I were impressed with how well emergency services from several different agencies worked together to secure the crash site, evacuate the residents and contain and extinguish the several fires that broke out. There was a general sense of amazement that no one on the ground was injured.
Media Center producer and Blues Diva EC Scott was featured in a piece published in the current issue of East Palo Alto Today. Writer Cedric Thomas interviewed EC and gives us a wonderful sketch of EC's background, career growth and current plans. She grew up only permitted to sing gospel music and was never allowed to sing the "devil's music". However her godfather Slim Slaughter noticed and encouraged her talent from a very early age. She credits him with being her greatest musical influence. Well, that's a big shout out to Slim. Can you imagine where'd we be without Slim? (Don't forget to take time to mentor the young people you're around... you just never know, do you?)
EC has produced dozens of episodes of her award winning blues video show, The Jook Joint, right here at the Media Center. It is the only blues video show out there! It is shown on nearly 250 stations across the country and just finished up an 11 week stint on San Francisco's KOFY Channel 20.
As famous as EC is, she always comes home to the Media Center and we couldn't be more proud of her, what she has accomplished and of course we are very proud of the staff and volunteers that put in the time to make her show a winner. Check out the article: it's online; it's entertaining and features several pictures... one of EC with our very own Karen Adams.
Here's an opportunity to hear an expert on copyright and fair use - and an activist for copyright policy change. On February 25 the Media Center will be a viewing site for a live webcast from Harvard Law School with Professor Lawrence Lessig.
The webcast will include Lessig's presentation followed by a panel discussion. Panelists to include: Chris Coleman, Jonny 5, Laleh Mehran and Derigan Silver. Following the panel, the Media Center staff will be on hand to field specific copyright and fair use questions.
Lessig's talk will explore copyright in the digital age and the importance of the fair use doctrine for free expression on the Internet.
This event is free. Thursday, February 25th, 3:00-5:00pm. At the Media Center 900 San Antonio Rd. in Palo Alto, CA 94303. Please RSVP to Dave@midpenmedia.org.
Panelist Bios:
Chris Coleman is a digital artist and educator who uses numerous technological tools to share ideas. He has been teaching Processing for three years to Undergraduate and Graduate students and presented his research on the topic of "Interfacing GOOD Information" at the FlashBelt conference in Minneapolis. The research dealt with inviting people to experience information about the good being done in the world (like work on sustainable energy solutions) both visually and spatially. His work has been showcased in museums, galleries and festivals in nearly 20 countries, and one of his software tools (maxuino) has been downloaded 4000 times by people in 58 countries. He is currently Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in DU?s Digital Media Studies Program.
Jonny 5 Jonny 5 is a writer, educator, and former high-school counselor, better known as the lead-MC and founding member of the Flobots. Currently signed to a multi-record deal with Universal Republic, the Flobots' third album, Survival Story, will be released in March, 2010. While the songs and videos released by Universal have tight copyright restrictions, Jamie has also participated in a number of alternative projects, including his current "Rhyme of the Day" effort to share a new rap/verse every single day of 2010 on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/flobot5
Laleh Mehran is the progeny of Iranian scientists, with a complex relationship to religion, science and politics. Her work is of necessity as veiled as it is explicit, as personal as it is political and as critical as it is tolerant. Laleh received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Electronic Time-Based Media. Her work has been shown individually and as part of art collectives at the Next 5 Minutes 4 Tactical Media Festival in Amsterdam, Holland; the European Media Arts Festival in Osnabruck, Germany; Ponte Futura in Cortona Itlay; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, MA; the Carnegie Museum of Art; The Georgia Museum of Art; and The Andy Warhol Museum. Currently, she is an Associate Professor and Graduate Director of the Electronic Media Arts & Design program at the University of Denver.
Derigan Silver is an assistant professor in the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies at the University of Denver. He teaches courses on First Amendment law, media law, and Internet law and regulation. He is the author of several book chapters and journal articles, and his new book, National Security in the Courts: The Requirements of Transparency vs. the Need for Secrecy, will be coming out later this year.
Published 2010-02-10T14:25:00.000-08:00 by Community Media 2.0
On February 5, 1990, the Midpeninsula Public Access Corporation (MPAC) opened its doors to the public in a tiny suite of offices on Park Boulevard in Palo Alto. MPAC had one full time employee, director Elliot Margolies. Annie Niehaus (now Folger) was a contractor who came on board full time as Associate Director on June 17 of that same year. A Board member by the name of Andrew Mellows oversaw the construction of a very rough studio and helped stock it with mostly used or donated equipment.
This past Friday, February 5, 2010, MPAC now the Midpeninsula Community Media Center turned 20. An impromptu party was held in the conference area in mid-afternoon. Andrew (still on the Board), Annie now our Executive Director and Elliot now a staff consultant were there as well as current staff members. Doug Devore, a former production manager who joined MPAC over 18 years ago, dropped by with little Penelope Devore.
A lot of changes have hit the Cable Access industry over the years. We even had to send Annie to Washington to testify before Congress on behalf of PEG preservation! To be able to have a 20 year birthday party when many access stations have had to shutter their doors is a reminder of how fortunate our community has been in the dedicated, constant and selfless leadership of people like Annie, Elliot and Andrew. They make the party possible! Thank you Annie, Elliot, Andrew and to all the board members, volunteers, employees and fans who over the years who got us to 20!
MC volunteer Scott Van Duyne grabbed the camera and I jotted down notes to capture the rally at Gunn High School this morning on behalf of tolerance and diversity. It became known that some agitators from a church in Kansas would be picketing out front of the school to voice their opinion that a godless gay-tolerant community is what is behind the recent suicides. The assertion is by definition ridiculous and should not be dignified by anybody even showing up -- that's one approach and it has its merits. However, 400 people felt it was important to show up, be counted and drown out the fringe message. The following video, I hope, will share the strong sense of community that was engendered this morning on the campus of Gunn High School.
Last night Media Center volunteers produced the second PRACTICE SHOW where volunteers have a chance to practice the jobs they want to try in a safe setting that not only forgives mistakes but encourages them as the valuable learning tool that mistakes are. Remember the entrepreneurial adage? Fail often fail fast. Well that's what you can do on the Practice Show. And you can have a good time, too. Last night's guest set the stage for a good time. Chiquita, my dog, was camera shy at first and insisted on facing the back wall most of the time. However, a succession of practice show hosts soon put her at her ease and she relaxed and gave the cameracrew something to work with.
Last night's focus was honing directorial skills. We ran a series of eight 2 minutes show where the goal was for the practice director to get all the tapes rolling, the graphics up and down, the cameras ready, the mikes up and the talent cued all in the right order -- Stan, Bill, Leena and Hannah took turns making it happen. I wanted to stay out on the floor and work on my camera skills. I was much better this time as I learned how to work the contrast, brightness, and peaking settings on my monitor to get me the best picture to work with to practice the art of focusing. I spent a lot of time out of focus and trying to get back in focus as fast as I could. Also working on camera out on the floor were Fred, Hannah and Anis. There was also ample time for people to try their hand at audio, so Fred, Anis, Bill and Hannah got in some time on the audio board, setting the levels and bringing the mics up and down.
You can watch the eight minisodes of the Chiquita Practice Show starting Thursday, January 28 at 7 pm on Channel 30.
If you want to crew for the practice show, keep an eye on the Yahoo Groups for an announcement of upcoming shows or send Scott an email at Scott.vanduyne@gmail.com.
An interesting outcome of this show was that Anis in a moment of weakness volunteered to draw up an electrical grid of how the control room is wired. When audio maven Eric crawls behind the console, what is he doing? Anis is planning to help us find out.
Published 2010-01-21T11:24:00.000-08:00 by Becky
900 San Antonio Rd. • Palo Alto,
CA 94303-4917 • 650-494-8686 • info@midpenmedia.org
