Blogumentary [chuck olsen]

WALT MINK: PINK MOON

Butler posted a lovely acoustic Walt Mink clip covering Nick Drake. Pretty 16mm.

OF MONTREAL COVERS THE SHINS

Know Your Onion MP3

I can't wait for Of Montreal @ Triple Rock tomorrow night. I wasn't hip to my dear Satanic Panic in the Attic when they last breezed through town, so I didn't go. Now I'll finally get to hear those tunes live, plus the new one, The Sunlandic Twins.

Also? Papa just got paid, son. Joy!

THE NATION ON AL GORE'S CURRENT.TV

Al Gore Gets Down
by Ari Berman

The article is justifiably skeptical of Current's prospects for success. I've been plently skeptical myself, but I'm glad they chose a hopeful quote from me in the article:

The blogosphere, with its open-source proclivities, seemed more receptive. "If they can help create a generation of citizen journalists and indie mediamakers, they have my full-blooded support," blogged Chuck Olsen, an unsuccessful Current applicant and documentary filmmaker.

Re-reading that last part makes me laugh... "Chuck Olsen, an unsuccessful Current applicant and [unsuccessful] documentary filmmaker." Thank you, thankyouverymuch.

CAVEH'S TRIPPY VLOGGISH FILMS

CAVEH ZAHEDI:
It's something I've wanted to make a film about for a long time - coming to terms with your dreams not being realized. How that makes you feel and what you can do about it. And hopefully, how you can grow from it. Rilke once said: "The point of life is to fail at greater and greater things." But we live in such a success-oriented culture that there's almost no room for the lessons of failure.

ALSO FRIGGIN' COOL: Luxomedia's mail art video and her collection of mail art from the 80's.

A VOICEMAIL ABOUT NOTHING

In the spirit of BoingBoing's hilarious series of wrong number voicemails, I offer you this gem from a few years back. Enjoy!

Dude: A Voicemail About Nothing [Quicktime, 375k]

And just for laughs, Mr. Rogers sounds naughty [MP3 via karmagrrrl]

WALT MINK LIVES AGAIN!

I just creamed my pants 500 times:
Walt Mink LIVE, JUNE 17, 2005. Triple Rock Social Club. Minneapolis.
Triple Rock will be the perfect venue. Bring extra pants.

***
ROCK SHOW
::One Night Only::

DETAILS:
Walt Mink
Friday, JUNE 17, 2005
Triple Rock Social Club:: http://www.triplerocksocialclub.com/
629 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis
MAP: MAP!
ADVANCE TICKET SALES: http://triplerock.indietickets.com/ (Tickets will be available online in a few days.)

It's official. We're putting on a rock show and cramming a 4-camera 16mm film shoot into a 400 capacity rock club. More info as it comes.

ANNOUNCING MNSPEAK.COM

Stand up and take notice, Twin Cities! Arf!
Fimoculous Rex and I have a special treat for you today, and every day:

MNspeak.com
Twin Cities, All Day, All Night

It's a blog. It's what's happenin' tonight. It's MN news at-a-glance (MSM and blogs side-by-side? Blasphemy!). It's tomorrow's now delivered today. It's local alt-media, turned on it's head and whipped into tiny delicious pancakes. It's our designer baby, and we're looking for sponsorship.

Okay, I have a confession. It's really Rex's brainchild. He saw something seriously lacking in local digital publishing, and decided to create a simple, shining and elegant destination for people like us in this town. Build it he did, and I'm the little monkey waving on top. Eep! Eep! I also write stuff. The tone is "Gawker Midwest" – snarky but not evil.

Rex and I are available for interviews, massages, and as paid male escorts.

I have to underscore tonight's MNspeak pick: The new Todd Solondz film Palindromes tonight at the Walker. I saw the premiere at SXSW and recorded Solondz's Q&A, which I'd share with you but it's lost to the digital ether. He's just like Woody Allen in person, very skittery and charming and awkwardly charismatic. But more importantly, the film is genius. Not because he used eight actresses to play the main character, but because you barely even notice. I was thoroughly engaged.

CONGRATS TO MATT EHLING

Typically humble. I just had drinks with Matt tonight and he didn't say a peep about this. Congrats to Matt, one of my documentary heroes!

CITY PAGES BEST OF THE TWIN CITIES
BEST FILM: Security and the Constitution

Well-known as the hardest-working filmmaker in the cities, documentarian extraordinaire Matt Ehling (Urban Warrior) has, since 9/11, been crafting the sort of PBS-worthy docs that PBS doesn't dare to broadcast anymore. His latest is, you could say, a noble effort to inform us of what we might at this point be too terrified to want to study on our own. Interviewing a cavalcade of government, university, and interest-group heavyweights (including former CIA director Stansfield Turner and local FBI heroine Colleen Rowley), Ehling delves deep into the controversies surrounding the Patriot Act and the introduction of military elements into the realm of domestic policing. Yet for all the unease that these topics bring to any inquisitive American, Ehling's thesis seems to be that the Bush years actually don't represent the first time in U.S. history that constitutional rights have been suspended--that in each preceding case (e.g., WWII-era Japanese internment camps), public reaction and the strength of our government's foundation have won out. Whether that comforting message will be galvanizing or placating is up to us. How's that for democracy?

VLOGGING ACROSS BORDERS

Zadi [aka karmagrrrl] had a beautiful epiphany after getting art in the mail from Erik, a Dutch vlogger. What if we all linked to vloggers we knew in other countries? "We're not just watching videos anymore - we're becoming global citizens," she says. Building bridges of cultural understanding - it's an old idea in a new medium, perhaps the best possible medium to make it real.

I've lifted this wholesale from Zadi. Click away. Explore new worlds and new people, here and abroad. Keep an eye out for new vlog action down under.

Build bridges. Swim in other pools. Make friends, not war.

{steal this badge, or create your own, and make your own "band of vloggers" list}

Mission: Make at least one friend in each country and help break down barriers.

Australia
Richard BF
Vlog 3.0

Brazil
feito.a.mouse

Canada
Chris Koehn

France
Dawa Et Patoune En Videoblog!

Germany
Joel Carner's Joel Art
NielsBlog

India
CSF vlog

Italy
Deirdre Straughan
Rossella's Video Blog

Japan
Video Link

New Zealand
real kiwi video

UK
The 05 Project
Working for My Dad
29 Fragile Days
UnQuack
Life Through an Artificial Lens
Lee Wilkins

USA
Adam Quirk's Bullemhead.com
Amanda UnBoomed
Amy Carpenter's Welcome to Amyville
Annie at Annieisms, is it?
Bob Dunn
Chris Weagel's Human Dog Laboratory
Dylan Verdi's Because I Can
Erik Rice
Jay Dedman's Momentshowing
Johnny Goldstein
Josh Leo
Josh Wolf
Lauren Verdi
Le Garage
Lesley James's Phatalspin
Lisa Harper
Luxomedia
Mica Scalin's Hello?
Michael Verdi
Phil Hamilton
PJK.net
Poor but Happy
RocketBoom
Ryanne Hodson
Sarah Boyle
Sarah Weagel @ Human Dog
Scratchvideo
Shannon Noble
Steve Garfield
The Treasure Hunters
The Product
theVoiz.com

Netherlands
Erik Nelson's Bottom Union
Hypernarrative
Gabe & Gabe

New Zealand
InspiredFusion
Video Blog from New Zealand

Norway
Kristina Rapacki's Nordark
Raymond M Kristiansen's dltq.vlog
Jon Hoem Video Blog

Mexico
Mexico Movies

Singapore
MediaCasting

I'M FEATURED ON OURMEDIA.ORG

Better than being on TV: Ourmedia.org

Thanks to JD Lasica, one of my favorite thinkers and explorers of the evolving new mediascape, my video "Welcome to the Future" (backstory) is featured on the Ourmedia.org home page.

OMG! I just got this note from JD:

On 4/23/05, Lawrence Lessig wrote: very cool, jd.

I can die happy now. Prof. Lessig may have seen my previous copyright video, wherein Starbucks tried to kick me out while interviewing Anil Dash, after initially agreeing to let me film. This happened exactly two years ago. They threatened to call the police while I was hiding in the bathroom, but a Sopranos actress tawked them out of it. Video here [Quicktime, 5 MB]