Old Coal Plant Smokestack Detonated

Little known to the general public, in order to keep our "mainstream press license", The UpTake needs to release a video of something exploding at least once per year. Here is our entry from St. Paul, MN.

digg story

Embedded using this fine Embed Code Generator for High Quality YouTube Videos.

I'm on the Foxxy Teevee

FOX 9 News interviewed me about The UpTake's involvement in "I Approve This Message." What a fookin' Dork.

Video people - that's all of you - help out this project by making a short video of what you'd want to ask the RNC or DNC. End it with, "I Approve This Message." C'mon it's fun!

Atmosphere on Conan

South Minneapolis will be proud: Atmosphere performs "You" on the Late Show. Killer.

UPDATE: I Just realized who that woman is singing on this awesome tune, and the last few Atmosphere albums: My old friend from Twin Cities Public Television, Mankwe Ndosi. Sweet! We used to work on a project called Learning Park and we on the teevee together once. She's an amazing improvisational vocalist and all-around love energy kind of person.

Here's to 40 more years of Bunny Rule

Max Sparber, raconteur, editor of MNspeak. Eda Cherry has the evidence.

OMG i want to hang with Eric Perkins!

Favorite CD/Album:  Michael Jackson

Best of the Twin Cities: The UpTake

Seriously, this is a dream come true. I've always loved the City Pages Artists of the Year and Best of the Twin Cities issues. A few years back I got to writeup my Artist of the Year (Jehane Noujaim). And now, The UpTake is named  Best Citizen-based Media Outlet. I know we didn't exactly face much stiff competition (or any?) but it's cool they came up for a way to include us. And it really, truly is an "us" thing, as Mike McIntee said in the UpTake email: "Everyone who has contributed video, text, time, comments or just moral support helped us win this. So this is an award, not for an organization as much as it is for a community and a movement."

Mad, Angry Props to my favorite local blog (heck, one of my favorite blogs period), Mediation.

Mostly unrelated: Minnesota Stories, which tragically never earned a Best of TC mention, is now back online. Thanks to everyone who let me know. I guess MNspeak isn't the only site that doesn't pay it's hosting on time.
 

MSPIFF Film Reviews

The Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival is in full-swing. Lori and I have seen 5 films between us, and thought it would be fun to review a couple in video flesh. Behold, watch!

iPod/Quicktime  MP3

Public Enemy: Welcome to the Terrordome ***½
There's a lot of good stuff here, but you know there's trouble when you're re-editing the film in your head after five minutes. Worth seeing if you're a fan for insider looks at Public Enemy and some good interviews with Henry Rollins and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

Traveling with Pets ****½
A gorgeously-shot, immersive essay about a young rural Russian woman (who looks like a young Tilda Swinton) faced with discovering who she is after her unsympathetic husband dies suddenly. Definitely an art-house film, but in the best sense. A few scenes are so striking and magical, it's hard not to feel you're watching something special. It can be a little slow, and some may not have the patience for the pace. I left feeling aglow.

Sextet **½
Disappointing overall, but amusing observations on sex and relationships might make it worth a look. Unfortunately, the structure of a "film within a film" is a distraction and makes the whole thing disjointed. There's also some really unnecessary animation, yet another idea they threw into the mix instead of making the story more compelling and coherent.

You, The Living (Du Levande) *****
My favorite film of the festival. It's full of ugly Swedes, in all their angst and absurdity and despair – and it's funny! The film has a really distinctive, soft painterly look with a palette of pale greens and muted pastels. It turns out that nearly every scene was built and staged in a studio, though this is completely transparent when you're watching. The film is really a series of loosely-connected vignettes, with certain characters recurring along with their dreams. Various members of a Louisiana brass band provide an unlikely and comforting soundtrack. This is a hard film to describe, but don't miss it if it comes back for "Best of Fest."

Clash of Egos ***½
If you've ever hated a Lars von Trier film, Clash of Egos is for you. This Danish film is the perfect palette cleanser in your festival schedule. The crux of the plot is that a blue-collar fellow, Tonny, is furious at the piece of crap art film he and his children have been subjected to. He goes after the director and demands his money back, ending up badly injured on set. Rather than take a money settlement, he ends up co-writing and co-directing the director's new film, turning it into a ridiculous action flick with lots of f-bombs. This satisfying and well-acted plot is diminished by a sappy, boring romantic subplot that ends the film on a predictable note.

What have you seen? We're planning to see Mondo Bondo on Wednesday, followed by the Mid-fest party at Red Stag Supper Club. We're also going to see Lynch, the documentary about David Lynch, and possibly Dean and Me: Road Show of an American Primary to find out how the filmmaker spent $100,000. Finally, we don't plan to miss Encounters at the End of the World, a documentary about Antarctica by Werner Herzog.

UPDATE: Instead of Mondo Bondo, which we heard was so-so, we saw Full Metal Village (***). The quaint, imperfect country folk of a rural German town don't seem to mind the presence of Korean documentary filmmaker Sung Hyung Cho in their daily routines. In fact, a great deal of time is spent on languid still shots that let the often funny details of their farm lives unfold. And then... the death metal festival arrives.

There's something deeply satisfying about a herd of cows running to heavy metal. If you're a metal fan you might be disappointed, since most of the time is spent on the village characters. I found it completely charming and well worth my time.

Lynch ****
This is for everyone who loved or hated Inland Empire. I kinda hated it, but somehow I can't get enough of Lynch telling weird stories, closing his eyes and demanding a one-legged 16 year old girl and a beautiful 23 yr old Eurasian, and yelling "fuck!" as often as possible. Glimpses into Lynch's filmmaking process are rare, and it's a little surprising he chose to let us in on his least cohesive, most haphazardly-envisioned film. Watching this documentary is almost enough to make me sit through Inland Empire again, though certainly not sober.

Style Gunn

Click To Play

MSP mag has been hippin' it up on the computers lately. Their Twitter account has come to life, and now they have something called styleparlor.tv. What you see above is a few excerpts from their interview with Project Runway's Tim Gunn - for reals! Watch it to see who he thinks will bring the style to the White House.

A couple weird things: (1) styleparlor.tv is a good name if it's your URL - but it's actually not a URL. That's just kind of strange. At least they didn't call it styleparlor.com. (2) For some reason they haven't made the videos embeddable. They're using Brightcove, so I'm sure it's possible. I'm not sure why they wouldn't want people to share these videos. I emailed my friend over there but haven't heard back yet.

Rock the Red Tail!

Rock the Red Tail is on Saturday. It's a fundraiser for a MN-based documentary about Northwest Airlines, specifically a mechanic who lost his job and goes to Hong Kong to meet his replacement.

There'll be some excellent music: Mike Gunther, Joanna James, Martin Devaney, all kinds of fun. Your tax-deductible donation will help the filmmakers go to China to film the last part of the film. FYI, The airline mechanics in Hong Kong may well lose their NWA gig to China, where labor is even cheaper. And apparently, the repair manuals are in English.

Watch the trailer here and watch for an interview with the filmmakers on The UpTake.

Hans Johnson caught in Kenya violence

Duluth-native and Dance Band drummer Hans Johnson has devoted much of his life to helping the Maasai people of Southern Kenya. Here's a video I made with Hans about the school he helped build there using funds from Music of the Maasai CDs, with a little help from Low's Alan Sparkhawk.

On a recent trip to visit the Maasai village, he got caught in some gunfire. Here's the video.

Hans writes: On my way back from the Maasai Mara I had to duck into a small shop in Narok Town while police and protesters clashed in the street. The following video was taken at the tail end of the shooting. You can hear gun shots and screams and me asking if the walls are stone.

I'll be interviewing Hans for The UpTake next week, and I believe there will be a Star Tribune article shortly. I'm glad he made it home safe and sound to share what's going on there. See also, Rocketboom's two videos from Ruud Elmendorp on the Kenya crisis.

Meet Minneapolis - My Kinda Town

Check out the newly-redesigned Meet Minneapolis, the convention + tourism site for my fair city. The site relaunched today, courtesy of my friends at Ciceron. I had the pleasure of producing several videos representing Minneapolis culture and life, including this piece about fashion designer Katherine Gerdes.

My favorite new song: "Imagine"

You know how annoying it is getting tons of friend requests from completely random bands, most of which suck? Well, maybe it's not such a band thing. Today I got a friend request from Master of Con?usion. He has a geeky Macbook-rainbow photo and he's from Minneapolis, so I checked out his tunes.

I didn't care for his default song, "Whatanassshaker," but then I clicked on "Imagine." Wow. This song put the biggest smile on my face. It's so damn techno-hippy-optimistic, and poppy as hell. I just love the living crap out of this song. Share in my joy, won't you? And somebody put this guy on the radio.

 

Download the MP3

Mark your calendars

We're having a fundraiser for The Uptake at the 331 Club on Saturday, Oct. 20. Please come out and help us support citizen journalism in Minnesota. Why? We're gearing up for the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul and the Democratic National Convention in Colorado. We need cameras and equipment, and we'd like to be able to pay citizen journalists a little something for their important work. Also it's good for the health of our democracy, apple pie and freedom and The Bible, etc.

They are the (old skool) Media

Jason DeRusha and Don Shelby, with their big time fancy Emmys. You guys rock.
"How do you know a professional journalist versus a citizen journalist? Neckwear."

Please note: I didn't start the fire

The Uptake is hot hot hot this week, folks. So hot, I finally created a blog category - I know, right?

The latest press is a complete surprise - a nice mention from Mpls.St.Paul magazine.
Thanks to Reveille Mag for the tip. (Can someone tell me how to pronounce that, btw?)

Please note, I did not start The Upake. I know, I plaster my name and face all over it to drill the association into your pretty heads. But it was conceived by one Jason Barnett. You can read all about him and the rest of our team over here.

If you're really looking for a spunky time, join in the MNspeak thread about The Uptake and citizen journalism.
MNspeak, where "much of the posting is insider snark and unreflective." Heh.

Solutions Twin Cities

Solutions Twin Cities: A forum for world changing ideas

Local designers, artists, & activists are on the forefront of a tidal wave of change; yet they have no place to gather, socialize, or share their ideas. Solutions is the space for presenting these new ideas & drawing awareness to existing solutions.

I will be one of twenty "solutionists," talking about why citizen journalism is important.

The Uptake on the TV

Look ma, I'm on the teevee again! It all started, strangely enough, with a whiny Twitter message: I have to say, The Uptake is at the cutting edge of networked citizen journalism. Not many doing this. Hello Big Media - do a story on us!

Big Media, in the form of beloved-by-bloggers reporter Jason DeRusha, heard my pathetic call.
The Uptake team suddenly found ourselves on WCCO bringing citizen journalism to the masses.
Watch it here. I love it. (Here's a silly behind-the-scenes video, too.)

MORE THOUGHTS ON CITIZEN JOURNALISM:

One big advantage of a team of citizen journalists, we hope, is that we'll be covering things not covered by traditional media. We've already published several exclusive stories. Or, in the case of critical mass and other political events, we'll cover certain stories with more breadth and depth.

The Uptake is both networked citizen journalism, and part of a growing movement of "am-pro" journalism, meaning a mix of amateir and professional. We're hoping to fill the gap between random clips of raw video and professionally produced network news.

Original citizen journalism is already huge in the blogging world -- I'm sure you're all familiar with that one guy... Dan Rather. We're bringing it to video. Of course reputation is important. The blogosphere is, to some extent, a reputation economy and an attention economy. I think we have to work harder to earn a reputation than legacy media -- not that they can coast, given declining audience.

You tend to hear about citizen journalism when there's a disaster. Myanmar, tsunamis, school shootings... that's when a regular joe or jane is likely to commit and act of journalism. We're trying to elevate that and find people that want to be proactive - tell us what you think should be covered, and we'll help show you how to go out and cover it, and distribute it.

It's pretty cool. :-)

Critical Mass, Kicking Ass

Quicktime

The Uptake was on the scene of Friday's Critical Mass bike ride in Minneapolis. The ride was a huge success – both in number (The Strib says 600) and the lack of arrests or confrontation. The only confrontation we know of is documented here: "The Mercedes Incident."

This video represents a proud accomplishment for The Uptake.

The Uptake is producing original, increasingly networked citizen journalism video. It's not aggregating other random videos, or one person capturing a random moment. We're working as a team and producing original content. Hardly anyone else is doing this.

We used footage from four cameras here, and we have at least two other folks with their own video. Eventually we'll learn how to be networked for real, whether it's through Twitter, wireless headsets, or other methods we haven't thought of. It's an exciting time to be a citizen journalist, and to be creating original stories like this one.

BONUS VIDEO: Chuck talking about critical mass on Channel 5 news

Rep. Keith Ellison interview

Last Saturday, a bunch of my peeps from The Uptake went to a big peace rally in St. Paul. Here, our new rock star citizen journalist Noah Kunin interviews Rep. Keith Ellison about how relevant peace marches are and whether he stands by his vote to reauthorize funding for the Iraq War. Our team interviewed lots of peace marchers and counterprotesters at the St. Paul capitol and Xcel Energy Center, where the Republican National Convention will be held in 2008. Everyone is gearing up for the RNC, including we citizen journalist-types. These events are good practice.

More good video popping up on The Uptake soon, including a few peace marchers who showed up at Senator Norm Coleman's house (!) and got him to engage with them on his support for the Iraq War.

Camera geek notes: This interview was filmed with the Canon HV20 wide angle lens, which may not be obvious but makes everything look way better. It's also filmed on the Steadicam Merlin, especially noticeable around 1:07 into the interview when I'm smoothly walking by the counterprotesters.

Mall of America on Rocketboom

Check out my "Maul of Amerikka" report on Rocketboom. Hopefully you can't tell I shot and edited this in a very tight timeframe. A lot more could be done, of course, but it's a nice little taste of our consumer empire with a light anti-consumerism message tossed in for good measure.

A good story

Today on Minnesota Stories and Rocketboom, a story about Duluth native Hans Johnson.
He went to Kenya to record the music of the Maasai people, and ended up building a school for them.

This is a story I've been wanting to tell for a long time. I think Starfire first told me about it, and then I met Hans at a couple of Low concerts, and finally interviewed him. There's so much more to this story, and it ended up a bit rushed because apparently Rocketboom's Joanne is stuck in France so they needed a video ASAP. I'm happy with how it turned out though, and Hans says the response (and cd sales) have been really good.

Warm fuzzy.

Mallman Road Trip

On today's Minnesota Stories, a rock-n-roll road trip.
Why doesn't anybody comment on Minnesota Stories? You fuckerz better comment! I mean it!

Megan goes "About Town"

New blog alert: About Town from Mpls.St.Paul Magazine's Megan Wiley.

She's got her finger on the pulse of the music scene. (Is that weird, talking about her fingers?) Megan and I are joining video forces on a mini-project to be revealed soon.

Fearless, Viral, Spiral

Here in the Twin Cities we have a regular event called Fearless Filmmakers. The next event's theme: "The Viral Market".

The invited filmmakers have an interesting variety of backgrounds. Some of them are from agencies or productions companies, the others are indie filmmakers. Ryan Wood surely has the most bona-fide viral hit in the group, with his multi-million-viewed short film Fear of Girls. Fear of Girls 2 is going to premiere at the screening - sweet!

I dearly love my friend Melody Gilbert, but her MySpace page for Urban Exporers has a very small (but I'm sure devoted) audience. Likewise, her Best Buy "webisodes" on YouTube have been viewed around 400-500 times each. The virus has not proved contagious there. I think the most baffling inclusion may be Julie Rappaport, whose Smokin' Yogi Films (or "platform") has produced a project called Abnormally Normal. Regardless of the content or merits of the project, I just don't understand how or why this is "viral."

Putting a video on a web site, creating a MySpace page, or calling something a "webisode" does not make it viral. Not in my book, anyway. What does? I think of viral as simply word-of-mouth at Internet speed. You see something, and think "I've gotta forward this to my friends." Immediate gratification. I don't think it requires any certain type of content, but it tends to be the Q-word: Quirky.

Napoleon Dynamite could be called viral, in a way. Subservient Chicken is probably one of my favorite viral experience.

But hey - I ain't gonna hate on these fine folks. I'm glad this showcase has come together and I plan to be there if I can. I thought this was an entirely curated selection, but apparently anyone could apply for some open slots. So, more power to anyone dipping their feet in these waters. My feet are all soggy and wrinkley, and that makes me cranky and spitty.

Minnesota Stories + mnartists.org

AWESOME ANNOUNCEMENT
mnartists.org teams with Minnesota Stories for a video series on Minnesota artists

I'm so excited to kickoff this series, and to be working with mnartists.org. I know that sounds like press release language, but it's true. Nothing is more rewarding to me than documenting artists in their space, learning the how/why/where behind their art and crafting their story in video form.

The first artist is my longtime friend Jon Nelson, most famous as host of Some Assembly Required and his sound collage alter-ego, Escape Mechanism. What you may not know is he creates beautiful visual mashups of old theater lights and other objects, such as suitcase and shovels. Jon is aprt of a show called "create • destroy • repeat" opening Dec 1 at Rosalux Gallery.

Brr!

In the background: Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack interviewed by Amanda Congdon. Here's Part 1, Part 2 will be even better I think.

Alan Fine: A Shameful, Divisive Republican Tool

I should endeavor to be more like... a buddhist, perhaps. Or more like Keith Ellison, who has remained positive in the face of adversity. I generally try to avoid negativity in my life, especially ugly political negativity. There's so much of it in the world, and my energies are best spent on my work, my creative projects, and my personal life.

But. When this kind of ugliness is in my own backyard - both my physical neighborhood and my virtual neighborhood - I simply can't ignore it. The ugliness I speak of is Alan Fine, the Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in my congressional district.

Well, okay... he's actually pretty good looking. And as you can see here, can do a number of pull-ups. I bet he's a nice guy in person, just like far-right Republican bloggers John Hinderaker and Michael Brodkorb. The problem? He sold himself to people in my district as a moderate Republican. Heck, the guy rides an electric scooter, is pro-choice, and dabbles in poetry and music. He claims world peace is a priority. But the moment genuine peace candidate Keith Ellison won the primary, Fine ripped off his sheep's skin and the conniving wolf dumped a huge pile of slanderous crap on his new opponent. WTF? What's worse, his talking points are passionately plagiarized from the aforementioned far-right blogs and, probably, the playbook of Karl Rove and Ron Carey.

This new Alan Fine suddenly can't say the name "Keith Ellison" without saying the name "Louis Farrakhan." He actually held a press conference with the express purpose of firing a scripted barrage of lies and half-truths at Ellison, and apparently to scare sympathy votes from people afraid of black people and/or Muslims.

"I'm personally offended that this person is a candidate for U.S. Congress. He is unfit to represent the voters of the Fifth District. ... He is the follower of a known racist, Louis Farrakhan ... a person who believes that the white man is the anti-Christ, a person who believes that Jews are the scourge of the Earth. ... His selection is an embarrassment to our district, our state, our country and our world"

Listen to his words yourself, and read Ellison's noble response, at Polinaut. It's no wonder Fine's media page is frozen in time before unveiling his trojan horse trick.

He continued the vicious attack in 5th District debates. What really set me off was trying to listen to him fire off all the bullets given to him by the Republican party at the start of this MPR debate. Alan Fine is parroting right-wing bloggers attempts to label Ellison a racist or terrorist. Fine is getting in line behind the GOP's ominous election plan of going personal and negative. He accused Ellison of joining a "hate group" interested in "the destruction of our country." This is a stupid strategy that shows Fine is spineless and shameless. It's blowing up in his face, and rightly so. Had he run a moderate, respectable and independent-minded campaign, we would have remembered him as someone to watch - perhaps the new face of the Minnesota Republican party. Plus, he would have won some moderate votes in the 5th district.

Now, we remember Alan Fine as a divisive, hateful figure. A tool of the increasingly desperate and extremist right-wing Republican machine. This machine has nothing to offer and nothing to lose, and it's ripping our country apart.

Me? I'd rather remember the feeling I had at Ellison's victory party. The new face of Minnesota all gathered around, people of all ages and colors and backgrounds, chanting: Love! Love! Love!

For the best coverage of Fine and Ellison, visit AHS, MN Publius and James Clay Fuller.

Ellison radio interview

Keith Ellison interviewed on the Ed Schulz show
[MP3, Keith is on halfway through.]

USA Today: Muslim's win in Minn. seen as step for community

Meanwhile, Power Line and MDE won't let up. Ellison is going to need to survive this trial-by-fire locally to be strong once he's in the national spotlight as the nation's first Muslim congressperson. So far, I don't think he'll have any problem. When I saw the incredible support Keith has at the victory party, I realized that all the internet chatter really pales compared to the real world grassroots movement lifting Keith above the fray.

Ellison is National News

MSNBC: A Muslim for the Hill?
Washington Post: Muslim Candidate Plays Defense

Campaigning Online: It Totally Works

The campaign ad I produced for DFL-endorsed congressional candidate Keith Ellison has done remarkably well. It went live Sunday night on Ellison's site, Minnesota Stories, and New Patriot. Since then it's been linked by 10 over a dozen mostly liberal blogs. Considering lefty blogs aren't generally as single-minded and parroting as right-wing blogs, this is a veritable runaway hit. Hooray!

There's been some good discussion on MN Publius about the effectiveness of the ad. They give it a "B" overall and the general feeling is it could be a little shorter and tighter. I don't disagree, especially if this is destined for television. However, we don't have to be shackled to the conventions of television anymore. Is a slick, fakey 30-second commercial really what we want? This video is more authentic. It's little over 1 minute, inexpensively-produced, rough-around-the-edges, and involves real people. What's more, I put a 5+ minute version up on Minnesota Stories with every single person who answered our question, "How can we make America better?" on-camera. (I didn't include a couple practice questions with familiar faces in the DFL booth.)

This campaign ad is about authenticity and transparency. Whaddya call it... oh yeah, reality.

I sincerely hope it shows Keith for who he is and what he's about, contrary to the right-wing shitstorm being flung at him. He's not an ideal candidate, obviously, but from meeting him and seeing him in action, I know he'll fight for the people "left behind" by the Bush White House.

ELLISON AD BLOG LINKS
MN Publius
Minnesota Monitor, post by Robin (of Power Liberal)
Norwegianity
Across the Great Divide
Truth Surfer
American Hot Sausage
Dave Lee
CHEEK
Super Rookie's World
Democracy For Minnesota
Perfect Duluth Day
Mass Distraction

Campaign Ad Watch
MPR's Polinaut

Let's not forget: YouTube and Google Video

I track blog links using Bloglines, Google Blog Seearch, Technorati and Feedster.

I think the only way this could have done better is if we'd made something more controversial or more purely entertaining. I also wonder: Is MySpace in Keith Ellison's future?

How Can We Make America Better?

I went down to the Minnesota State Fair with Keith Ellison's adorable daughter, Amirah, and asked people: "How can we make America better?" Basically, a Minnesota Story-as-campaign ad. Labor Day is the perfect time to unveil this ad, since Keith is the DFL and Labor-endorsed candidate.

Please spread the word! You can embed it in your blog by copying and pasting the code below.

Copy and paste on your blog:

Disclaimer: I was hired by the Ellison campaign to produce this ad.

Check out the "Director's Cut" on mnstories.com with bloopers and responses from everyone who talked to us. It's fun, and totally includes one or more Republicans!

Minneapolis Net Notes

Minneapolis gives Wi-Fi the go-ahead - finally! More from Twin Cities Daily Planet.

This has a potentially huge impact on Minnesota Stories. Imagine live-vlogging from anywhere in the city. Does anyone have ideas on (1) technology requirements of doing this from my MacBook Pro, and (2) content ideas? The sky's the limit. The sky, and Minneapolis city borders.

The Wi-Fi bid went to Minnetonka-based US Internet. The loser was Qwest, who thinks Net Neutrality is "silly."

Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Dayton announced that he would become a co-sponsor of the Net Neutrality amendment. Here's video from Technology Evangelist:

Contact Sen. Norm Coleman and urge him to support the Internet Freedom Preservation Act (S.2917) introduced by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND).

Savetheinternet.com:

Call Sen. Coleman now at 651-645-0323

Say: "I urge Senator Coleman to protect Net Neutrality, which prevents the largest phone and cable companies from controlling the Internet. I urge the Senator to vote NO on Senator Stevens' telecommunications bill (H.R. 5252 / S. 2686) unless real Net Neutrality language is added that prohibits network operators from discriminating against content and creating a tiered Internet."

Here's my email to Sen. Norm Coleman. Be sure to select "Telecommunication Issues" from the dropdown and fill out all fields.

Dear Sen. Norm Coleman,

I'm writing to urge your support of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act (S.2917) introduced by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND).

We already have the ability and opportunity to pay more for faster Internet service. I'm the founder of Minnesota Stories, a video web site featuring stories about Minnesota by Minnesotans. As a service provider, I am able to step up my servers and bandwidth as the site traffic grows. As a user, I'm also able to upgrade from a cable modem to faster DSL as my need to transfer large video files grows beyond that of most consumers. The free market has provided us with this range of options over the same public network.

The Internet has become perhaps the most important force for democracy and media we've ever known. If certain Internet providers offer an exclusive "fast lane," leaving the rest of us in the slow lane, we really are putting democracy in danger. A political candidate or advocacy organization would have an unfair advantage over competitors in the "slow lane." Imagine the equivalent of radio or television - would the candidate with less money sound slow, would their message fade in and out? That's hardly what the founders had in mind.

I look forward to hearing your current position on Net Neutrality.

Sincerely,
Chuck Olsen
mnstories.com

I'm on Almanac Friday

The topic: Local political blogs. The other guests are Michael Brodkorb from the infamous Minnesota Democrats Exposed blog, and U of MN Political Science Professor Larry Jacobs.

If you haven't followed the hubub, this Pioneer Press article is a good place to start.
WARNING FOR DEMOCRATS: BEWARE OF BLOG GOP Web pundit broke story that knocked Entenza from race

Almanac airs locally on TPT-2, Friday night at 7PM. This panel will be at the end of the show, and will be online later. (That used to me my job!)

Donkey Baseball on Rocketboom

Duane Kuss shot a video of Donkey Baseball in the small town of Richmond, Minnesota. He emailed me and said, "Chuck, I think you're gonna like this one." How could I not? I posted it on Minnesota Stories and passed it up the line to Rocketboom (as Duane suggested). Here it is in front of 300,000 people. This all transpired in a matter of hours. Dare I say? It's the magic of the long tail. Of course I haven't read the book yet, so maybe this behavior of interesting things bubbling up to the surface is it's own phenomenon.

Of course, in order for those interesting things to bubble up, it really helps if somebody is proactive. Lord knows I barely have time to see what's out there - I generally rely on people saying "Hey check this out." People may stumble upon interesting links or media completely randomly, but even then it requries the action of posting about it. This analysis of top Digg posters makes me wonder if the "bubbling up" phenomenon is overly influenced by a small group of tastemakers, rather than being truly democratic. That sure doesn't stop me from checking BlogsNow and TechMeme several times a day to see what people are linking to. Aggregators may be "influenced by the influencers" but they do a great job of bubbling up the hot conversations.

MN Stories offers hope, salvation

Check out today's Star Tribune:
Minnesota's blogosphere is intensely personal

Especially check out the last bit, from our bloggy friend Honey Bunny:

Blogging to lift spirits

It was a blog that brought the Honey Bunny to Minnesota. Jeanne Griffin started blogging in 2002, when she lived in Boston. She ran across Minnesota Stories, a popular local blog.

"That was one of the reasons I wanted to move to Minneapolis -- I just thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen," said Griffin, who blogs as Honey Bunny. "Then, once I started writing about how I was going to be moving to Minnesota, a lot of people who were complete strangers started saying how happy they were that I was moving and offering to meet us."

Griffin's favorite blogging topic is her cat, Lola, but her posts range from cooking to movies to her fledgling jewelry business.

"If I'm depressed or not feeling good, writing helps me," she said. "Even if nobody reads it, just writing helps me feel better."

Yay! Thanks for the shoutout HB. Cookin' with Honey Bunny makes me hungry for tasty treats.

Homegrown Film

Check out this great interview on mnartists.org: SWEET LAND writer and director Ali Selim, MPR's Euan Kerr, and CHASING WINDMILLS creators Cristina Cordova and Juan Antonio del Rosario talk abut the future of motion pictures, wherever they may be.

Good news! Minnesota Stories is collaborating with mnartists.org to create a series of videos profiling local artists. The videos will appear on both MNstories and mnartists.org, and will also comprise a DVD that will be playing at the Minnesota State Fair and beyond. Very exciting stuff. Making videos about artists is probably one of my favorite things in the world. Isaac's 40 is the first video in the series, and a personal favorite.

Bartel Cartel

Matt Bartel: Plotting world domination, one click at a time.

In Tuesday's Star Tribune: Bartel 2.0 talks to Matt Bartel (and Alexis!) about our little virtual watering hole, MNspeak.

Matt and I had a beer at Whitey's a few weeks ago to talk about the advertising consortium he's planning for MNspeak, MNstories, and TC Daily Planet. The article ends with nearly the exact same words he said to me: "I'm kind of hoping that this will put me through grad school." Me too, hermano. Or at least pay for my camera habit.

After the article, there's a list of what I assume to be Matt's favorite blogs around town. I was happily surprised to see this at the top:

Best local storyteller/vlog: Minnesota Stories, a daily video log by Chuck Olsen. Sometimes it's really interesting, sometimes just a goofy short thing he recorded at 2 a.m.

HEY MN GARDENERS

Lorika is garden blogging - know of any other MN blogs talking about gardening? Other than the intrepid Green Girl, of course.

POLITICS REQUIRES DRINKING

Jon Tevlin wrote about some other geeks in the Sunday paper: With these social groups, the beer flows left and right. I've had beers with folks in both political camps. I think it's the only hope for our country, really. Just get everyone drunk. (Okay, that would be trouble.)

I've been meaning to do a Minnesota Story on the Drinking Liberally cats. The best quote is naturally from my lefty blog-brother from Norwegianity: "Me?" said Mark Gisleson of Drinking Liberally. "I'm mostly here for the beer."

DIABLO ON LETTERMAN

Yeah, so I happened to turn my video camera on in my living room... you know, documenting what goes on there... and I happened to catch some TV in the background. You know. So you might see our beloved snarkstress Diablo Cody on David Letterman in egregious less-than-VHS quality. Right here in this documentary video of my living room. *cough*

KIRBY PUCKETT IN 1991

Here's Kirby Puckett video from after the 1991 World Series. With a liitle M.C. Hammer thrown in.

CHASING WINDMILLS IN PRINT

Four Minute Fellini
It’s 10:00 a.m. Have you seen your favorite vlog yet?

Most vlogs that I’ve seen are modeled either on public broadcasting news, network variety shows, or raw home video. Besides Chasing Windmills, very few—in fact, none that I am aware of—are fictional, produced serials. But as more young filmmakers realize that they can simply take the keys of production and the keys of publishing into their own hands, the creative class may yet break free of New York, Hollywood, and even Sundance. Punk rock had the local bar, where you might see a trashy quartet called the Clash, say, or R.E.M., before they got big. As vlogging becomes more common, we may get to see the next generation’s Coppola or Fellini or Wes Anderson while their short, self-produced flicks are still playing on the local podcast.

A great article by The Rake's editor, Hans Eisenbeis. I've been raving about Chasing Windmills to every reporter I've talked to in the last few months, hoping someone will get that this is a BIG DEAL. Especially for the film community, which is just ripe for a bottom-up revolution. Congrats Juan y Cristina!

See also: Four Eyed Monsters vlog and CM's behind-the-scenes blog.

REX IS IN MY BRAIN

Rex's "farewell interview" is in City Pages. Rex is smart about the internets. Thanks for the MNstories shoutout. Hopefully watch for some Rexxy video action before he leaves for Seattle.

LEADERSHIP TWIN CITIES

I'm giving my "blog and pony show" on the local blog/podcast/videoblog scene at the Star Tribune for Leadership Twin Cities - Politics/Media Day. Wish me luck.

MY PICS ON WCCO

Check it out. My pictures of the magical ice pillars made it onto WCCO weather. Neato!

I'M BACK!

I mean, my email is back: waltmink [at] mac.com. Damn you, Apple!

Today I'm lecturing and showing Blogumentary excerpts to Jeremy Igger's class at the University of Minnesota: Is Journalism Dead? Objectivity, Bias, and the Future of the News. You may know Jeremy as the Strib's food critic, but he's written books on journalism ethics and is deeply immersed in the world of civic journalism.

Jeremy helped launch the best new web site in town since MNspeak.com. I'm talking about Twin Cities Daily Planet. They're looking for contributors. Ali-kazam! You are now a citizen journalist and commentator - pay a visit and be a participant in local media. I'm hoping to establish some sort of relationship between Minnesota Stories and Daily Planet. And the Walker. And MPR. And TPT. And... anybody with a camera.

SPACEWAITRESS IS BACK

... and she's dodging invisible rays, an apt title for her sweet-ass new blog. Apt, not only because it's the title of a really pretty Guided By Voices song sung by Tobin Sprout, but because Crystal has dodged a few invisible rays of her own since she last blogged, and is all the stronger for it.

Calling all aggregators, feeds, bookmarks and curious spiders:
http://www.paulinekilar.com/weblog/

Hoorah!

DigElogROCORI: HYPERLOCAL MEDIA

Frequent Minnesota Stories contributor Duane Kuss has just launched a new hyperlocal online media project. "DigElogROCORI local stories (Rockville, Cold Spring & Richmond, MN) will be covered using three distinct internet media forms ... Blog, Podcast and Vlog." Duane and I have met a few times for deep conversation about online media, and his new brainchild will really be an exploration of those ideas. I hope other communities, and cable access stations, are inspired by Duane's project. It's better than cable access in many ways: It's short and sweet, and you can watch/listen/read on your own terms. As Duane says, "Have it your way."

LOOP DAY!

I'm a blog monster today. (Fred Schneider: Blog mon-sta!)

Twin Cities, get ready for The Loop on MPR tonight. Get the shindiggity on the hip-hoppity We Media action in my sweet-ass Minnesota Stories behind-the-scenes video.

SPEEDBOAT BOOKS SALE

Locals: My man Paul D. said he's having a big sale this Saturday - rare books, vinyl, videos.
He's got some sweeeeetass goods. Details below!

Speedboat Books is having a one-day warehouse sale!

Saturday July 23rd from 10pm-4pm!

Come to our top secret previously undisclosed location for fabulous deals!
Thousands of rare, out of print, and just damn cool books in one location!

A wide variety of subjects, including ART, VINTAGE, PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY,
MYSTERY, CLASSIC FICTION, MODERN FICTION, MUSIC, PULPS, MINNESOTA HISTORY,
MILITARY HISTORY AND MUCH MORE!
Also- Rare LP’s and videos as well. All at amazing low prices-

Don't miss out!

2402 University Avenue, St. Paul (Third Floor) (651) 641-0538
(Raymond be the cross street)

One Day Ware House Sale!

Speedboat Books is having a one-day warehouse sale!

Saturday July 23rd from 10pm-4pm!

Come to our top secret previously undisclosed location for fabulous deals!
Thousands of rare, out of print, and just damn cool books in one location!

A wide variety of subjects, including ART, VINTAGE, PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY,
MYSTERY, CLASSIC FICTION, MODERN FICTION, MUSIC, PULPS, MINNESOTA HISTORY,
MILITARY HISTORY AND MUCH MORE!
Also- Rare LP’s and videos as well. All at amazing low prices-

Don't miss out!

2402 University Avenue, St. Paul (Third Floor) (651) 641-0538

THE HOLD STEADY ON CONAN

Hey, I ummm... found this link to our hometown heroes The Hold Steady on Conan