Comfort Voices

We all know what "comfort food" is. Most of us probably have "comfort voices" too. As soon as you hear the sound of certain singers, their voice just reaches down to that same comfort zone that feels so much like your favorite room at the Art Museum, or your favorite walking trail. It's not necessarily the voices that fill you with awe like Joni Mitchell or Aaron Neville. For me the voices that always resonate with my internal "feel-right" frequency, include Mark Knoffler, Bonnie Raitt, Eva Cassidy, and Mississippi John Hurt.

Watch Out For Terrorists

No matter where we've grown up we've probably heard and read about "terrorists" that we must defend against. The irony is that whatever group was labeled "terrorist" doesn't see themselves that way and very likely labels their oppponents as terrorists whenever violence is inflicted on their people.

Terrorism is a function of the “enemy” - "the other" – the fear they instill in us regarding violence they might unleash on us.

Reminds me of the play/movie "A Delicate Balance” when the old couple comes to the other couple’s house with their suitcases in tow. They say that the "terror" has come to their house and they had to leave. In their case it was death knocking and their fear of that end.

8-Track Cable TV

(My opening remarks at the recent Alliance for Community Media Western Region Conference in San Jose)
PEGspace.org

I begin with a newspaper quote that will ring familiar to all practitioners of public access media.

“My interest is very intense around my family, my community and my friends. Obviously, traditional journalistic institutions don’t scale down to the level of my kid’s soccer game. And yet, there is a reporting function that still needs to be done. Is that journalism? I don’t know what it is, but I do know that...individuals are …. doing it. “

I SAID THAT – so many times I lost count. But that was a quote from an interview conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle in the Sunday, October 15th edition with Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired Magazine. He’s talking about how the internet is changing our lives. And I got the last line a bit wrong. It was “increasingly, individuals are GOING TO BE doing it.”

What’s wrong with this picture?…… I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it. If, instead ….. if someone could have handed me a time machine in 1984 when I took my first job as a public access manager and if I could have taken my same skills and interests and become a manager at YouTube, I’d be incredibly RICH today…. And my kids wouldn’t have ever said, “oh, my dad works in TV, but he runs the BORING channel. They’d have thought I was ALL GRAVY - THE BOMB!

The other thing is that Chris Anderson doesn’t seem to know that we’ve been presenting this type of “hyperlocal” content since he was writing for his school newspaper. Why doesn’t he know it?

At a regional conference we had in Palo Alto in 1995, the late, great Dirk Koning was our keynote speaker. He said he was surprised to be chosen for that role. He told us that he was the guy who went to the electronics store in the 70’s and said, “8-track? cassette? 8-track? cassette? Hmmmmmmm……..8-TRACK!" And made his purchase.

So today........"Cable TV Channels? Internet?...Hmmmmmmm.............