Entries tagged 'video'
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
Why I’m Voting Republican
Despite all I have said here on this blog about the great Senator from Illinois, I found this video on YouTube today that perfectly captures why I’m voting Republican this November.
Just kidding. 
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
Students Want Better Teachers, More Funding
As part of my work with YouthNoise, I direct a program called Right To Learn, which works to engage young people in education reform in the state of California.
After hearing from more than 750 young people throughout the state of California, Right To Learn today announced the release of a report summarizing what youth had to say. “Our Schools. Our Stories.” clearly outlines the reasons young people identified that California’s education system so desperately needs to be fixed.
At the top of the list? Students were most concerned about quality of teaching in their schools and the harmful effects of inadequate funding.
They also spoke about schools that don’t care, threats to your safety, unhealthy conditions, inadequate information about graduation and college entrance requirements and poor access to books, computers, college advice and preparation.
In addition to the printed report, we created a video that captures some of the most compelling stories. Take a look at it below:
This report is only the first step. Right To Learn will continue this spring by organizing students statewide to work hold Day of Action rallies on their school campuses this spring.
• Email This PostWednesday, December 12th, 2007
The Story of (My) Stuff
I received a forwarded e-mail the other day from a good friend of mine a few days ago telling me to check out this great new video called the Story of Stuff. In the video, Annie Leonard does a tremendous job of outlining the problems that come from (developed society’s) desire for consumption.
I watched the video, which was tremendously creative and well-illustrated, even if some of it’s insinuations were a bit leftist even for my liberal soul. What was even more impressive, however, was how the video has crept back into my mind repeatedly over the past week.
On Saturday night, my roommates and I had a holiday party. Before I had seen the video, we thought about renting glassware, plates and other needed items, but chose to head to the party store and buy plastic instead, because it was cheaper and we didn’t have to return anything.
Today, post Story of Stuff, I discovered a tear in my favorite pair of jeans and spent 15 minutes debating with Sunny over getting an iron-on patch to repair the tear. She advocated for a new pair of jeans, which I could completely understand–iron on patches, even on the inside, aren’t quite stylish for the up and coming hipster. We eventually settled on her sewing the hole in the jeans back together–a zero waste (and fantastic girlfriend) solution.
In thinking back about the incident, however, I realized that most people I know would have trudged down to Gap or Old Navy and grabbed a new pair. $40 later, the hole is gone and you get a nice new pair of jeans to boot. Thirty years ago, such a thing would have been laughed at; everyone would have put the jeans on the sewing machine and continued wearing them.
I’m curious to see how The Story of Stuff continues to affect my decision-making. Already, I’m resolved to have either rented glassware and china, or at least biodegradable plasticware, at our next party. I also hope that Leonard’s story continues beyond it’s 15 minutes of fame and earns a consistent place in what we teach future generations.
If you haven’t seen the story of stuff yet, view or download it (or pick up a DVD) and take a look. It’s well worth the investment.
• Email This PostWednesday, November 28th, 2007
Hulu’s Unsullied Offering Keeps YouTube in the Game
I received my private beta test invitation for Hulu today, NBC’s and FOX/News Corp’s answer to YouTube. Despite it’s silly name, the site is serious business: the two media giants bet big in thinking pulling their popular content from YouTube and setting up the site to actively compete with the online video king.
While I’ve only given marginal respect to most of the useless user-generated content uploaded to YouTube in the past (see “Otters holding hands” as a perfect example), in exploring Hulu, I found myself missing the mix of professional, semi-professional and decidedly amateur content, tossed together in a very easy to use interface.
While Hulu does provide a nice spectrum of “real” content–from recent episodes of Heroes to favorite short clips of the Simpsons–the site feel very much like a hospital: very antiseptic and pretty to a fault.
The one thing that I think could really damage YouTube’s market share and give Hulu a big edge, archives of entire shows’ runs beginning from Season 1/Episode 1 to the present, is glaringly absent. The studios likely wary of cannibalizing DVD sales, are missing an opportunity to draw new viewers to a show with this decision. (I won’t get hooked on Heroes without watching the first season, I guarantee you.)
Much to Hulu’s disappointment, for me, at least, there’s something homely about the democratic, take-all-comers approach of YouTube that will keep drawing me back, even if I start to watch commercial TV on their site. In a similar fashion, I will continue to turn to Fora.tv for highly intellectual public-interest programming–stuff that’s unlikely to appear on YouTube or Hulu anytime soon.
As Hulu moves from private beta to public launch this spring, it’ll be interesting to see whether it is successful in becoming an online video juggernaut or whether it is just one of many players in the arena. The deciding factor may end up being the average Joe’s appetite for otters.
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