As part of coming home to New Jersey for the holidays, I spend lots of time going through old photos. Scanning most of them and putting them up my flickr site.
In these photos I see faces and I see places that are sometimes overwhelming.. times when I was so happy, or unhappy as the case may be. People who meant alot to me, some of whom have disappeared from my life. I also spend time reading old letters. Letters from friends to me when I was living in France. Letters from myself that I never sent. Love letters that almost seem silly or naive all these years later.
It makes me appreciate what an amazing life I’ve lived up to now and all that I’ve done and admittedly, frequently take for granted or forget. That is one reason I blog and I post so much of my life online. I don’t want to forget and I have a hard time remembering all these adventures and all these people.. they seem to spill out of my memory and get lost in boxes and envelopes.
Naturally when I’m done looking at these photos and reading these words, I’ll put them away again, and get back to my life and my work that are so interesting and important to me. In the mean time… here are just a few places and faces that I’ve been remembering.
This is a walking vlog entry that I recorded last week in Washington, DC. No very citizen-reporter-esque point to it, beyond sharing some thoughts and images.
Click To Play
Click here to listen to me as part of the latest episode of Off The Hook which normally airs on WBAI 99.5 in New York (or the internet). I’ve been listening to Off the Hook for more than 10 years, no matter what country I’m in or what is going on, I always have OTH on my mp3 player. Thankfully in the last year I finally met some of the boys from 2600 and last night I went up to the studios in lower manhattan and sat in as one of the many guests. It was a pleasure to see the studio and put a face to so many of those names at the station.
I digress, follow the link, and give it a listen. Its not earth shattering, but I had a fantastic time.
The BBC turns 75 today.
Why is that important?
Because in this world where everything can be privatized and no matter where you go there are commercials in your face trying to convince you to buy something, there is an alternative way to have a news channel. It is called public service, and back in 1922 some smart people in the United Kingdom realized why this would be valuable.
And while I know lots of Brits who will complain about the BBC. I also know that those same Brits don’t want to lose their public service broadcaster. They don’t want their news laced with wall-to-wall advertizing. The BBC remains a model for what mainstream media COULD be like in the world, if certain world leaders and citizens were brave enough and resourceful enough to start their own BBC’s, instead of holding telethons or hoping that some mega-media corporation will be interested in reporting the news.
Happy birthday BBC. You may be mainstream, but you serve the world… and I salute you for it!
Should journalists and activists who seek change in the world inform the public and expect action? Or should they be launching campaigns complete with talking points and strategy? This podcast features a special extended interview with my friend John Aravosis of Americablog.com and it focuses on how you can change a country and at what cost such change can occur.
We Discuss:
- Informing the public versus manipulating the public
- The tactics of US conservatives
- The lack of tactics from US liberals
- Global Warming
- Human Rights in China
- Playing on emotion
- Passing laws versus changing culture
- Holidays and Consumerism
On my way back from Washington DC I was listening to a recent edition of Off the Wall, one of the two radio programs / podcasts that 2600 produces. The program featured an interview with a friend of Emmanuel and 2600 who is currently incarcerated at an Ohio state penitentiary. Besides the alarming story of how he found himself in such a place for 6 months for doing very little besides being at the wrong place at the wrong time and then misreading an order to “not leave the county” as “do not leave the country”, even more eye opening is his experience in prison.
I highly recommend listening to this episode of Off the Wall, Emmanuel does a good job asking questions and bearing with the difficulties of just talking on the phone with someone in prison, and Lurid – the friend – gives a vivid picture of what is a violent and terrible place that isn’t doing much in the way of rehabilitation as the prison system once was supposed to.