Videos from Jersey

Having missed my flight, waited a day for another flight, and then arrived here in Lisbon only to have my luggage misplaced for the rest of the day, there was lots of time to catch up on podcasts and especially new video content.

So while I try to figure out where the leak in my roof is coming from, I wanted to recommend one of my favorite new video podcasts (new to me): tvjersey.com.  Not only does it provide excellent segments about things happening in New Jersey, it does something unique… using photos instead of video, with audio to put those photos into context. In effect, these are news slideshows.

One of the lastest video-slideshows that I enjoyed was about a homeless-assistance center in Hackensack that is being shut down.  The images and the sounds from that center, and the voices of the people who work and go there, I get a real sense of what it means to them and what a dramatic turn of events it is that the city is pushing to close it down.

If you’re remotely curious about a unique audio-visual way to report news and tell a story, watch tvjersey.com, as you may find something about it interesting and educational.

Memories and Photos

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.

Culturally Inept

Whenever I come back to NJ, I expect to see changes. Not so much people, as of course there are always changes there, but I’m speaking more about changes to this place; suburban NJ, the suburbs of New York City and Newark.  I expect to see some new buildings, new construction projects, and generally speaking.. signs of a new era… new ideas… the future. Among those changes for the new era, I keep a close eye out for developments related to energy conservation, pollution, and sustainable living.

As is typical for much of the US, this region is especially a hub for car culture.  You can hardly do anything without an automobile, so while in Amsterdam it seems that everyone rides a bike, in New Jersey it seems that everyone drives a car.

Every year I return and end up, naturally, in a car on a highway.  This year it is no different, but considering the fact that global warming has finally reached the mass audience and seemingly has been accepted as a problem, I expected to see some changes.  Smaller cars perhaps.  More of those hybrids people talk about.  Less people driving or at the very least, less cars with only 1 person in them.  In each of these cases, besides the occasional hybrid, I’ve seen almost none of these things. Just like 7 years ago, back when I still lived here and global warming was a myth, there is nothing but cars  and traffic jams.  If anything they’ve gotten worse, more cars leading to traffic jams all over this state at any given time of day.

As I visit people’s houses and walk the streets, I look for signs of energy conservation.  Solar panels? I guess that was wishful thinking; there are none.  More people turning off lights and turning down the heat? No one seems to mention it or think about it.  Plenty of those little flourenscent bulbs, that is about the extent of the energy saving practices I see adopted.

At any shop you find lots of green labels and references to all-natural, clearly people want to feel better about their choices and actions.  But seeing the amount people here consume; whether its goods or energy, despite everything they know about their impact on the planet… none of it has slowed down. If anything, this state, like much of the world, seems to be marching even more quickly towards environmental holocaust.

My North Jersey, UnderWater

My dear Anna over at the Voice wrote to me about the flooding in New Jersey. I had heard something this morning about flooding in New Jersey, but it hadn’t occurred to me that it was taking place in the area I love deeply… the Passaic River/Paterson, NJ.

I flipped through the pictures of flooded parts around the river, areas that I lived so near to and so often visited. Kept thinking of the subject heading of her email “when did New Jersey become New Orleans?” Then I thought about the Army Corps of Engineers, who not too long ago warned that New York, along with Miami and NEw Orleans, are the areas at the highest risk in the country for damage from extreme weather. I also remembered an article Wayne had in the Village Voice a few weeks ago on how under prepared NYC is. Clearly so is New Jersey, just across the river.

Besides extreme storms, such as the one that caused much of this flooding, over-development (they build houses anywhere and everywhere) and the destruction of the wetlands have already been cited as contributing factors to this disaster.

In so many places in the world, they just ignore all the warning signs and all the knowledge, and keep on destroying natural buffers and barriers… keep selling off land to developers.. anyone who will pay a good price for a plot of land.

How are my North Jerseyan readers faring today?

bm156 Driving to Hoboken and Investigating International Crime

Live from the car driving in New Jersey, this is my first podcast recorded with the Edirol R9. Still learning how to work this expensive thing. Some talk about the investigation of the IRI and republican role in fixing the Mexican presidential vote. More and longer programs when I have more time to myself.. which is rare.

Links:


Yeast Radio

Greg Palast
Democracy Now
Macdocman