March 31, 2006

We Media @ Carleton

We live in exciting times. I sometimes take for granted how easily anybody can create and distribute words, sounds, and images across the globe. It's no doubt transforming the way we live and the way we learn. Just ask the We Media students at Carleton College. They're diving head-first into every aspect of personal media and reporting on their experience through blogs, podcasts and videoblogs. Here's a conversation with the visionary man behind the media, Prof. John Schott.

PROJECTS YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT:
Digital Lives | Digital Loves, a series of videos reflecting on digital student life. We Media Podcast explores many facets of personal media. (Rocketboom fans, check out the interview with Andrew Baron.)

This video contains excerpts from Attitudes Toward the iPod by Khanh Nguyen, and "He's Blogging Right Now!" by Tommy Helgen.

PHOTO CREDIT Karina Hill, Schmlog

Got a video to share? Email story@mnstories.com and flex the magic!

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 05:57 AM | Comments (16)

March 30, 2006

Rabbit Esoterica

This is a bit of interview with Australian filmmaker/blogger Matthew Clayfield, conducted in 2003 for my film Blogumentary. (Originally appeared on evilvlog)

Sorry, no Quicktime for this one at the moment.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 12:56 AM | Comments (1)

March 29, 2006

Twins Spring Training

Are you getting spring fever yet? It's getting warmer, tulips are popping up, and the Twins are at spring training for only a few more days.

This video comes to us from frequent Minnesota Stories visitor ATM, who cut this together from photos of the March 10 game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. His original soundtrack was Thin Lizzy's "Boys Are Back in Town" - which rocks, and goes great with this video. But It's best to stay away from copyrighted music without permission, especially an entire recorded song. Just something to note for all you contributors out there.

MUSIC: Critical Mass, "Here Comes the Summer" via Podsafe Music Network

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 01:55 AM | Comments (2)

March 28, 2006

BOXERS Update

Can someone please explain why women aren't allowed to box in the Olympics? Ridiculoso!

This is an update from Joanna Kohler's BOXERS, a documentary about the women boxers at Uppercut Boxing Gym in NE Minneapolis. [trailer]

Rachel Schley, one of the women in BOXERS, is on her way to USA Boxing Nationals in Colorado at the Olympic training facilities. Rachel has won state and regionals. The boxers at Nationals are competing for a spot on the USA Olympic Boxing Team... except the women boxers. There is no women's Olympic team. If she wins and is ranked number one in the nation... she gets a sweat suit. USA Nationals will be held March 5th-11th.

USA Boxing is helping to lodge and give travel stipens to the men competing. They will not financially aid any of the women competing in the National's Tournament.

. . .

Oh, there's a new MookiTV video too.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 12:31 AM | Comments (0)

March 27, 2006

Whitney Grand Opening

Nearly two months ago, we got a chance to peek inside the historic building once known as the Standard Mill and, later, the Whitney Hotel [video]. The space has undergone an exquisite transformation in those two months. Witness the grand opening of the Whitney Landmark Residences.

Okay, it's more complicated than that. I was expecting this followup video to be a fluffy tour of the luxurious model units, perhaps have a little fun with how out of place I am in such grandiosity. When we arrived there were a number of labor union representatives outside the hotel demonstrating against the labor practices of the developers. As you'll see in the video, their beef with the Whitney is that during the demolition phase, the subcontractor allegedly paid non-union workers $6/hour cash and were not working in safe conditions. The developer claims no knowledge of workers paid in cash, says that OSHA was on-site regularly, and that hiring some non-union labor is an economic necessity.

This is a complicated issue, and I don't pretend to have any expertise. It's certainly worth more investigation. I'm curious to know: Are any of the "unskilled" laborers undocumented immigrants? Is this part of the larger underground immigrant economy?

RAW INTERVIEW FOOTAGE:
Alan Kearney, Laborers District Council of MN and ND
Michael Roess, Coldwell Banker Burnet / iMetroProperties

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 02:03 AM | Comments (10)

March 24, 2006

Eternal Birdman

We first met Birdman and his devoted followers in Eternal Life. Here we get a glimpse at the inner workings of the Birdman organization, vaguely reminiscent of John Ashcroft in song and spirit.

Have a great weekend and send in your stories!

CAST: Jonathan as Birdman, Crystal as Pam, Lorika as Celeste, Kelly, Johnny.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 02:09 AM | Comments (5)

March 23, 2006

Bruce Sterling

Join me in a short conversation with Bruce Sterling: science-fiction writer, Wired magazine blogger, environmentalist, and noted critic of technology and culture. All of this, and what do we talk about? Shoes. Don't worry - Bruce can start with shoes and end up in a tagged reality that saves us from the next Hurricane Katrina.

EVENT: Rirkrit Tiravanija and Bruce Sterling, free @ Walker Art Center

RELATED LINKS:
Wikipedia: Spime
Off Center: How to read a shoe.

PHOTO CREDIT: Modern Cafe photo by ericka bailie-byrne [aka surlygrrrl]

Special thanks to Paul Schmelzer for hooking this up. Paul blogs for the Walker's Off Center and his own excellent Eyeteeth.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 04:39 AM | Comments (9)

March 22, 2006

Winter in This Town

Hey, it's spring! So why is this woman bundling up? And where did she get her magic powers? Perhaps the filmmaker, Michael Bischoff, knows the answer. Or perhaps some things are best left a mystery.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 12:58 AM | Comments (4)

March 21, 2006

Collecting Kirby

From Duane in Cold Spring: In this story you'll meet Ken who has collected over 2500 unique Kirby Puckett baseball cards. From mugs to bobble-heads, Ken has most of what has ever been produced representing the baseball career of Hall of Fame Kirby Puckett.

I have to say, I really love Ken's Minnesota accent and his accidental obsession with all things Kirby.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 01:11 AM | Comments (2)

March 20, 2006

Mondo Jugglefest

MONDO Jugglefest: Serving up organized chaos since 1989. See for yourself in this video shot by juggler/unicycler/poet Marty.

MUSIC: William H. Reitz, Dill Pickles Rag (1922)

There's a lot of physics at work when you're juggling and unicycling, and falling on the ground. Local podcaster/astronomer Michael Koppelman has a video podcast explaining how all that stuff works. It's free science, folks!

DISCLAIMER: I work with both Marty and Michael at Clockwork Active Media Systems.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 02:23 AM | Comments (5)

March 17, 2006

Snow Kittens

"Hello friends!" I like to start my videos that way. But in my absence, Lorika picked up a video camera and stole my whole schtick. So here's a tour of our yard and street after the snow storm earlier this week, with some funny footage of our kitten Mook's first encounter with snow. Watch for the extended version of that next week on MookiTV.

Have a great weekend. If you have any videos, or ideas for another collaborative video, email chuck@mnstories.com.

** SORRY THE SITE WAS DOWN YESTERDAY - WE'RE BACK IN BUSINESS! **

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 01:21 AM | Comments (9)

March 16, 2006

Timber

This video comes to us from St. Cloud mediamaker Aaron Cheeley:

Fall of 2005 brought some harsh weather to Minnesota. The entire country, as we all know, suffered greatly from Mother Nature's angry annihilations. The aftermath of a savage windstorm, in northern Minnesota, caused many established trees to perish. During this storm, a 200-year-old tree came crashing down, near Backus, MN, to block the only entrance to a discrete lake residence. This event (and the clean-up to follow) was the inspiration for "TIMBER".

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 02:20 AM | Comments (2)

March 15, 2006

The Strokes + Har Mar

A real rock treat on my last night of SXSW. I bought a scalped ticket for the sold-out Strokes show, and who should hit the stage but our man Har Mar Superstar. Sweet! Actually it wasn't Har Mar, but the real man behind the St.Paul legend - Sean Tillman. His old band Sean Na Na just finished recording a new album, and this was their first gig in three years. I was recording from far away, so prepare for lo-fi shakycam action.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 07:12 AM | Comments (7)

March 14, 2006

Snow Days

Ahh, spring. Just a quickie video with some archival footage and pictures from Flickr taken by my friends. And, a song you might recognize.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 10:25 AM | Comments (5)

March 13, 2006

Man & Machine

This? This is just amazing. Here's what you're about to see:

A new trailer from the forthcoming documentary from Jesse Roesler, Man and Machine. Enter a world of naked robot orchestras, bicycle symphonies, and inimitable musical madness; all born from the beautifully eccentric union of the Logos Duo. See more about the film at www.spectaclepictures.org.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 01:39 AM | Comments (3)

March 10, 2006

VoxPop: Why Do You Live Here?

Our previous VoxPop asked, "Why is Bush so awesome?. Our question this time is less loaded. Simple, but seldom asked: Why do you live here?

This video is especially exciting because it's not just me out there asking the question - it's you, with your cameras. Welcome to statewide collaborative videoblogging. I hope we can do this more often, and create a way for you guys to suggest themes and really participate. Woohoo!

CITIZEN VLOGGERS: Minneapolis (Chuck), Duluth (Starfire), Mall of America (Alexis/Girl Friday), Cold Spring (Duan Kuss/DigElogROCORI), Maplewood (Deborah Vajda and her Korean adopted son, Gus)

THANK YOU for picking up a camera and not being afraid to ask questions. This is powerful mojo, and these are baby steps.

IN OTHER NEWS, I will be at South By Southwest festival in Austin, TX through next week. Get your video fix at SXSW Vlog and elsewhere.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 02:17 AM | Comments (10)

March 09, 2006

Hook

Hook is the story of a Michael "The Hook" Deutsch, a hip blues pianist with one very unlikely handicap. You can probably guess - but I won't give it away here. Has anyone seen him play down at the Malt Shop? This great story by Jesse Roesler is playing on Current.TV - cool! Watch for more amazing stuff from Jesse in the near future...

ALSO: Check out a short piece from Chuck on today's Rocketboom about the upcoming Geek Prom.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 01:42 AM | Comments (1)

March 08, 2006

Gordon Parks

This is a sad week, isn't it? Gordon Parks has deep roots in St. Paul. My great respect for him stems from working on Twin Cities Public Television's Literature & Life documentary, produced by Daniel Bergen. Watching this interview footage, learning how he overcame his obstacles and was empowered by his camera - who could not be moved? The notion that a camera is a weapon is powerful and irrisistable. I like to believe his spirit provides fuel for the videoblogging movement:

"You don't need the gun, the knife, to do it. You can do it with your pen or your computer, you can do it with a paint brush and so forth. You can be heard, and heard a lot longer and a lot stronger, if you use the right weapons. And those are the weapons that I have chosen."

This bit of interview details how he came to photograph Ella Watson for his famous photograph, American Gothic.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 02:59 AM | Comments (3)

March 07, 2006

Kirby Puckett in '91

I've never been into sports, but growing up in Minnesota imprints you with an almost genetic love of Kirby Puckett and the Minnesota Twins. My Homer Hankies are still in my mom's basement, along with some newspapers and maybe a Wheaties box. Minneapolis erupted with glee after the Twins won the 1987 and 1991 World Series. The proof is in this video, culled from live coverage of the 1991 mayhem and preserved on glorious VHS. A jovial interview with Kirby from KSTP's Joe Schmidt reveals a mind-boggling surprise -- Kirby Puckett was in M.C. Hammer's "Too Legit to Quit" music video?!

MORE LINKS: MNspeak, Strib, Bat Girl, Shot in the Dark

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 04:55 AM | Comments (5)

March 06, 2006

I Told You Not to Tell Anyone

Did you watch the Oscars? Brokeback Mountain got the shaft in my opinion. I should say I'm highly qualified to speak on the subject of moving picture arts, what you might call "film." I offer you Exhibit A. Though it was made in only 24 hours, you could spend a lifetime peeling away it's multitudinous psychological layers and paridoxes, like... like... some sort of paridoxical onion.

(only joking. just too tired and tipsy to edit anything new and cohesive.)

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 01:45 AM | Comments (10)

March 03, 2006

Melody Gilbert

Melody Gilbert is a documentary rock star. A force of nature. And yet, many of us know her first as a teacher. From her days teaching documentary at the University of Minnesota to MN Docuclub and her infamous IFP Documentary bootcamps, many dozens of camera-weilding truth-seekers have been inspired by Melody's words and deeds.

This video follows her critically acclaimed film A Life Without Pain from it's premiere at the SXSW Film Festival last year, to it's Sundance Channel premiere a few days ago.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 03:28 AM | Comments (5)

March 02, 2006

Oh, Itasca!

This is an edited version of the 10-minute video, The Cradle of the Father of Waters from 1938. Apparently, there used to be pagaents featuring Indians and fur traders prancing about together, symbolicallly marrying and killing each other. Ahh, the good ol' days. The video also features strapping young men building log cabins - always a favorite.

This video originates from The National Archives.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 02:34 AM | Comments (4)

March 01, 2006

Electric Arc

Do you like to see rock shows and drink beer? Of course you do. Okay, now imagine this. Instead of rock music, you have "in-your-face, live-action storytelling" that has something to do with — oh, I dunno — Three's Company. And actually, there's music after all. Sweet, reverb-drenched nostlagia-pop that makes you yearn for slo-mo hard bodies running down California beaches.

That's how it went down at Electric Arc, a collaboration between The Lit 6 Project and Creative Electric Studios. There are plenty more experiments up their sleeve this spring, so check it out. Meanwhile, enjoy past installments of their radio show/podcast with a beer in the comfort of your very own living room.

Posted by Minnesota Stories at 03:28 AM | Comments (2)