My grandmother, Magdalene Law (pictured left), is 90-years-young and has lots of stories. Stories from her childhood growing up in Budapest Hungary, stories about coming to America as a young girl at the beginning of the 20th century, stories as a school teacher, mother, daughter, sister, wife, grandmother, and now great-grandmother.
My grandmother always told me to “appreciate what you have” because so many, have so much less. She is a friend, an inspiration to our family, and a moral compass for everyone who knows her.
I thought it was time to capture some of my grandmother’s stories. So, we recorded this weekend on my laptop at my parents’ house. I used a Digidesign MBox with Pro Tools recording software and a Shure SM7 microphone that I have from my work as a recording engineer and producer at The Longhouse recording studio in Cambridge, MA.
Over the coming weeks, my grandmother and I will work together to create a podcast that tells her story. So, check back soon to listen!
“Digital Media with Youth - New Skills for the 21st Century
Project-based arts, media, and technology programs, with academic support, are encouraged to help young people gain skills that prepare them for college and tomorrow’s workforce. Support for this priority area is provided by Nettrice Gaskins, adjunct faculty and computer arts academic specialist, UMass/Boston and Mass College of Art; board member CTCNet and NAMAC.” - Digital Media with Youth Portal
The Portal also provides information about Media Literacy and Production Curriculum for youth and links to tools and resources for students and youth to create media and tell their stories.
Check out local videoblogger Steve Garfield’s new video for Rocketboom that takes a look inside the Newton, MA New England Cable News studio.
In the video, Steve talks with Steve Safron, Director of Digital Media at NECN about how new media is revolutionizing how citizens participate with, and become, the media.
“The 2006 Telecom Rewrite is upon us. The full Senate Commerce Committee hearings are slated to take place on January 31st at 10:00am. To watch the hearings on a live broadcast, simply visit the Senate Commerce website for a live webstream via Real Audio: video franchise hearing.
Take a look at the lineup of people being given a voice in this important hearing that will shape the future of telecommunications for the next few years. Visit the Senate Commerce website for more information.” - Media Policy Blog
Mr. Ivan Seidenberg
Chief Executive Officer, Verizon Communications
Mr. James D. Ellis
Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel, AT&T
Mr. Tom Rutledge
Chief Operating Officer, Cablevision Systems Corporation
Mr. Brad Evans
Chief Executive Officer, Cavalier Telephone
Ms. Lori Panzino-Tillery
President, National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors
Mr. Anthony T. Riddle
Executive Director, Alliance for Community Media
Mr. Gene Kimmelman
Senior Director OF Public Policy, Consumers Union
Ms. Gigi B. Sohn
President & Co-Founder, Public Knowledge
Visit the new Podcast section on the ACMEBoston website to listen to the first ACMEBoston podcast with Professor Vincent Mosco, Canada Research Chair of Communication and Society at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, on media scholarship and activism.
I spoke with Professor Mosco at The Global Flow of Information Conference at Yale University on April 2, 2005 about the field of critical research in communication and cultural studies and its contribution to media and political activism.
I’m blogging again behind the scenes here as a volunteer community radio producer for “Sounds of Dissent” at WZBC 90.3 FM in Newton, MA.
Right now, “Sounds of Dissent” host John Grebe is interviewing pollster John Zogby about a recent Zogby poll taken that asked Americans what they think about President Bush’s approval of a wiretapping program that monitored the conversations of American citizens without a FISA court approval.
John Zogby told John Grebe that the polling question (although he “didn’t have it in front of him,” at the time he was asked by John) was:
JZ: “If President Bush wiretapped American Citizens suspected of terrorism without obtaining a warrant, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider impeachment?”
John Zogby told “Sounds of Dissent” that the polling results found that “52% [of those polled] agreed that Congress should consider impeachment.” And went on to say that this is “a testimonty about how divided the country is about the President.”
What I thought was most striking about the polling results was “29% of Republicans believe that Congress should consider impeachment.” - John Zogby
JZ: “If you have a President who’s job approval rating is 39% . . . and a majority feels that Congress should consider impeachment, then this is a President who is going to have a tough time in 2006.” Noting that this isn’t going to help the Republican Party in the mid-term elections coming up later this year.
Gotta run…
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(Added Saturday January 21, 2006 at 4:35 PM EST) You can listen to “Sounds of Dissent” live every Saturday from 11 AM to 1 PM on 90.3 FM in Newton, MA and online at www.wzbc.org.
Ethan Zuckerman, co-founder of Global Voices has a terrific summary of Dan’s talk on his blog, which you can also listen to live here. One of the great things about working at the Berkman Center is being able to get in on these great conversations with leading thinkers like Dan, Ethan, and many others, while using my background in audio production to engineer (webcast) and record these events for all the world to listen.
While listening to Dan’s talk today on Citizen Media, I couldn’t stop thinking about the legislative threats to Public, Educational, and Government (PEG) access channels going on in Congress right now. The idea of Citizen Media seems intimately connecting with the concept of Community Media Access Centers like BNN, LTC, CCTV, and the thousands of other PEG access channels and centers around the country. Community Media is Citizen Media–both online and offline.
If we loose PEG access channels and Community Media Centers like CCTV (that offer some amazing media education and production courses, as well) then where will people go in their communities to create their Citizen Media? Will moving to a future online without cable access to community voices really be the same? PEG channels offer some of the few opportunities left in our communities to reach a wide audience.
I later asked Dan if he considered reaching out to Community Media Centers in his development of a Center for Citizen Media? He admitted that he didn’t know enough about them, but was very interested in the fact that Community Media Centers with PEG access (like CCTV and others) provide opportunities for members to take media education and production courses, allowing people to make their voices heard in their communities through local television.
If we are facing a future without community access to television than Citizen Media ought to look to local models like Community Media Centers and PEG access channels–right now–as offline models for a new participatory online culture. Conversations are happening in our local communities on PEG access. It’s time to give community media access the respect it deserves, so we don’t look back years from now saying, “Wow, maybe we should have done more…”
(Thanks to Isaac Meister for the photo taken of Dan Gillmor at the Berkman Center)
“Variations on Ordinary Things” is a piece I composed in May 2005 for my final project at Emerson College during my Audio for New Media course with Professor Maurice Methot.
Variations utilizes new media tools (digital still camera, Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools, and DVD Pro software) and concepts learned in the course to create a piece that challenges our beliefs about the sole uses of ordinary things. In this case, I used kitchen tools, including:
The soundtrack of Variations was made entirely from striking the above objects together in different combinations and recording these resulting sounds. I then cut, copied, pasted, transformed, and arranged these recorded sounds to express an aural interpretation of the images placed within this particular linear sequence. This process resulted in both stark and extremely dense accompaniments.
Variations challenged my own conception of ordinary things, like kitchen tools. The process reminded me that there is profound beauty in ordinary things, however simple or utilitarian they may be, that often get overlooked in our busy lives.
This is the first post on my new website/blog thingy that you’re currently looking at. I will be working on this site over the coming days to try to make it look somewhat presentable, so check back soon for updates.
“I used to have a good humor truck. If I still had it, I would probably ride it. It looks like fun.” - me
Obviously it was a toss up to decide which of these two photos (top image and this one on the left) would win the honor of being the banner image on this site. I hope I made the right decision, but I suppose only time will tell.
Thanks to my dad for taking these pictures, a long time ago.
My grandmother, Magdalene Law (pictured left), is 90-years-young and has lots of stories. Stories from her childhood growing up in Budapest Hungary, stories about coming to America as a young girl at the beginning of the 20th century, stories as a school teacher, mother, daughter, sister, wife, grandmother, and now great-grandmother.
Check out local videoblogger Steve Garfield’s new video for 
“The 2006 Telecom Rewrite is upon us. The full Senate Commerce Committee hearings are slated to take place on January 31st at 10:00am. To watch the hearings on a live broadcast, simply visit the Senate Commerce website for a live webstream via Real Audio: 
I’m blogging again behind the scenes here as a volunteer community radio producer for “Sounds of Dissent” at 
Variations utilizes new media tools (digital still camera, Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools, and DVD Pro software) and concepts learned in the course to create a piece that challenges our beliefs about the sole uses of ordinary things. In this case, I used kitchen tools, including:
