One of the fun parts of working as part of a freelance journalist collective in a city filled with creative minds, sometimes you get invited to something interesting and unexpected.? Sometimes its just the opposite.
Today some of my ambitious colleagues asked if I wanted to sit in and give my 2 cents at a meeting regarding the future of television programming (on Dutch public TV specifically).? What started as a meeting of 4 warped into a meeting of 8, with various people coming from TV, radio, documentary and backgrounds of all kinds.? Everyone got a chance to say their piece regarding what they think the future of television should be, what their media consumption habits are, and what kind of programs they would like to see.
I sat there completely conflicted. My blanket answer, Continue reading “Future of Television, Ahem”
Hugh Timmerman has been gathering facts based on his own memory of living under occupation in world war II Holland. The events that took place before his eyes and in his family home would forever be burned into his memory and remain something he wanted to better understand. More than 65 years later his research and his travels have helped him piece together the story of the allied plane that crashed on his property, as well as the stories of all the soldiers that died on his family farm.
This month Hugh returned to the Netherlands from his home in Canada, to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary. Together we sat down to do this podcast, part 1 of 2, on what he remembers from his childhood during the war, his experience as an immigrant in Canada, and how he went about putting together this book.
His Book: Bombers in the Night Sky
The music of Utah Phillips used throughout this program. (Trooper’s Lament and Enola Gay)
So what you know ’bout the pirates terrorize the ocean,
To never know a simple day without a big commotion,
It can’t be healthy just to live with a such steep emotion,
And when I try and sleep, I see coffins closing.
This is the chorus of the song I’m listening to as I read the news from around the world. The lyrics of the great Somali hip-hop artist who immigrated to Canada and is dedicated to performing songs about his hometown, Mogadishu, and the reality he grew up in and the experience of immigrating with his mother, to Canada, leaving behind a country falling into an ever more violent abyss.? I’m listening to K’Naan sing these lines:Continue reading “Without a Big Commotion”
A conversation with Mary Joyce of digiactiv
Its sunday and I’ve been throwing myself all over a frisbee field all day, so rather than doing deep research or extensive writing, I bring you a recommendation from my listening over the last few days.
Michael Pollan is an author that many of you recommended to me during the time I was focused on the soy industry, and over the last few months he has certainly made the rounds on the radio.? For the last few months I myself have been skipping around his book, the Omnivore’s Dilemna, going back and forth between chapters.
Pollan was a guest on Democracy Now last thursday and he gets into alot of important issues. Among them, genetically modified crops, high-fructose corn syrup, farm subsidies, swine flu, and the FDA.? Interestingly he points out that for the first time in a very long time, the FDA (food and drug regulator of the US government) is actually investigating food companies and enforcing rules on nutrition and production.
He also gets into a recent study on genetically modified food and production statistics that warrants a post and perhaps a video unto itself.? For now I simply recommend, if you’re concerned about what you and your children eat, and also concerned about how food producers are behaving, listen, read or watch this segment.
In a recent post you might remember me pointing to the words of The Wire creator and former Baltimore journalist David Simon as he was interviewed on Bill Moyer’s program.? You might also remember that I’m a huge, let’s be honest, FAN, of Simon as I find the Wire to be one imperfect and completely accurate mirror of how our society and our world functions.
So it might come as a surprise and certainly ironic when I tell you I hated David Simon’s testimony before US Congress during the recent session on the state of the media industry. Hmm, saying I hated it is kind of silly, the basic fact is that based on Simon’s words before congress, I don’t agree and would argue some of his statements/facts.
I actually plan to develop my response further, possibly putting it out as a video entry, but for now I wanted to begin to break-down what problem I have with Simon’s words and to properly lay out my own responses.Continue reading “Testimony on the State of the Media”