BRYCE DRUZIN'S SECRET IS OUT!

We thought volunteer camera operator Bryce Druzin moonlighted with us, but as it turns out he actually moonlights as a stand-up comic! You can catch Bryce Druzin tonight and tomorrow night up in Oakland's Jack London Square. He'll be playing Miss Pearl's Jam House at the Waterfront Hotel. Check out this link to learn more and get tickets. And check out Bryce's myspace page for a video clip of his "act."

Black Flat Restored to Its Former Pristine Glory!

Executive Director Annie Folger posed with Media Center volunteer and general genius Bill Lindemann in honor of our new and improved and repaired black flat. Bill was part of the three man team that undertook and indeed executed a perfect restoration of the flat. The unveiling took place at end of day in time to be used tonight! Unfortunately repair-team member and volunteer par excellence Jim Seawright (producer, Hale I Ho Omana) had to speed off to a concert and Erik Lind (recent Studio Class grad) who toiled alongside Bill and Jim was not available to be photographed. Long story short: this flat was rendered useless due to a rather large and mysterious tear. Patching it just wouldn't do. Full and complete overhaul was required. When I arrived at work today, I thought a construction job had been undertaken. There was an electric saw, tool boxes galore, the obligatory pick-up truck with the gate down, and guys standing around staring into space. At least that's how my home remodel went down! By 5 pm we had a brand new flat and one more reason to thank our wonderful volunteers for making things work around here. These are a great bunch of guys and we thank them for the gift of their time and expertise. Thank you Bill, Jim and Erik!

Chris Pearce Saves Tiltrac, Restores Channels!

The crippling of the high tension tower on Wednesday morning brought down our channels. And I mean really brought them down. When the power was restored a little before six pm two days ago, IT Specialist Chris Pearce returned to the Media Center to get the Tiltrac up and running. Tiltrac is the brain that operates the cablecast system. Anyway, it looks like Wednesday's power surge blasted through our UPS system designed to protect our systems from just such a catastrophe! Chris took the whole system apart and found the source of our woes. The picture of the motherboard features two capacitors. The one on the right looks shiny and the one on the left looks burnt out. See that? Aha! The culprit! Anyway, 48 hours and two motherboards later, on very little sleep, Chris flipped the switch, and the Channels came back on line just before 8 pm last night. The head-scratcher was when the motherboard was replaced twice, why couldn't Tilt-rac find its operating system? Chris eventually frankensteined the operating system onto a new drive and told Tiltrac to look there instead of the old drive. Kind of like putting the old brain into a new body. And like Frankenstein, not pretty, but functional. Chris has got his work cut out for him restoring Tiltrac to its former pristine state. But for now, all is well in Master Control. The sky is blue, the birds are singing and Chris can get some sleep.

East Palo Alto Plane Crash Coverage by Media Center

Yesterday morning, MC employee Lupita Segura and I covered the crash of a small plane into an East Palo Alto neighborhood. The crash occurred in the cul-de-sac of Beech street near the intersection of Pulgas.

The plane was registered to Doug Bourn of Santa Clara, a senior engineer at Tesla. The names of the three victims all believed to be Tesla employees have not publicly released as of this writing.

Lupita and I were impressed with how well emergency services from several different agencies worked together to secure the crash site, evacuate the residents and contain and extinguish the several fires that broke out. There was a general sense of amazement that no one on the ground was injured.

EC Scott Featured in "East Palo Alto Today"

Media Center producer and Blues Diva EC Scott was featured in a piece published in the current issue of East Palo Alto Today. Writer Cedric Thomas interviewed EC and gives us a wonderful sketch of EC's background, career growth and current plans. She grew up only permitted to sing gospel music and was never allowed to sing the "devil's music". However her godfather Slim Slaughter noticed and encouraged her talent from a very early age. She credits him with being her greatest musical influence. Well, that's a big shout out to Slim. Can you imagine where'd we be without Slim? (Don't forget to take time to mentor the young people you're around... you just never know, do you?)

EC has produced dozens of episodes of her award winning blues video show, The Jook Joint, right here at the Media Center. It is the only blues video show out there! It is shown on nearly 250 stations across the country and just finished up an 11 week stint on San Francisco's KOFY Channel 20.

As famous as EC is, she always comes home to the Media Center and we couldn't be more proud of her, what she has accomplished and of course we are very proud of the staff and volunteers that put in the time to make her show a winner. Check out the article: it's online; it's entertaining and features several pictures... one of EC with our very own Karen Adams.

Media Center hosts Webcast Viewing on Copyright 2/25

Here's an opportunity to hear an expert on copyright and fair use - and an activist for copyright policy change. On February 25 the Media Center will be a viewing site for a live webcast from Harvard Law School with Professor Lawrence Lessig.

The webcast will include Lessig's presentation followed by a panel discussion. Panelists to include: Chris Coleman, Jonny 5, Laleh Mehran and Derigan Silver. Following the panel, the Media Center staff will be on hand to field specific copyright and fair use questions.

Lessig's talk will explore copyright in the digital age and the importance of the fair use doctrine for free expression on the Internet.

This event is free. Thursday, February 25th, 3:00-5:00pm.
At the Media Center
900 San Antonio Rd. in Palo Alto, CA 94303.
Please RSVP to Dave@midpenmedia.org.

Panelist Bios:

Chris Coleman is a digital artist and educator who uses numerous technological tools to share ideas. He has been teaching Processing for three years to Undergraduate and Graduate students and presented his research on the topic of "Interfacing GOOD Information" at the FlashBelt conference in Minneapolis. The research dealt with inviting people to experience information about the good being done in the world (like work on sustainable energy solutions) both visually and spatially. His work has been showcased in museums, galleries and festivals in nearly 20 countries, and one of his software tools (maxuino) has been downloaded 4000 times by people in 58 countries. He is currently Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in DU’s Digital Media Studies Program.

Jonny 5 Jonny 5 is a writer, educator, and former high-school counselor, better known as the lead-MC and founding member of the Flobots. Currently signed to a multi-record deal with Universal Republic, the Flobots' third album, Survival Story, will be released in March, 2010. While the songs and videos released by Universal have tight copyright restrictions, Jamie has also participated in a number of alternative projects, including his current "Rhyme of the Day" effort to share a new rap/verse every single day of 2010 on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/flobot5

Laleh Mehran is the progeny of Iranian scientists, with a complex relationship to religion, science and politics. Her work is of necessity as veiled as it is explicit, as personal as it is political and as critical as it is tolerant. Laleh received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Electronic Time-Based Media. Her work has been shown individually and as part of art collectives at the Next 5 Minutes 4 Tactical Media Festival in Amsterdam, Holland; the European Media Arts Festival in Osnabruck, Germany; Ponte Futura in Cortona Itlay; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, MA; the Carnegie Museum of Art; The Georgia Museum of Art; and The Andy Warhol Museum. Currently, she is an Associate Professor and Graduate Director of the Electronic Media Arts & Design program at the University of Denver.

Derigan Silver is an assistant professor in the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies at the University of Denver. He teaches courses on First Amendment law, media law, and Internet law and regulation. He is the author of several book chapters and journal articles, and his new book, National Security in the Courts: The Requirements of Transparency vs. the Need for Secrecy, will be coming out later this year.

Media Center Turns 20! Vision Accomplished and Still Going Strong!

Media Center Turns Twenty from Midpeninsula Media Center on Vimeo.

On February 5, 1990, the Midpeninsula Public Access Corporation (MPAC) opened its doors to the public in a tiny suite of offices on Park Boulevard in Palo Alto. MPAC had one full time employee, director Elliot Margolies. Annie Niehaus (now Folger) was a contractor who came on board full time as Associate Director on June 17 of that same year. A Board member by the name of Andrew Mellows oversaw the construction of a very rough studio and helped stock it with mostly used or donated equipment.

This past Friday, February 5, 2010, MPAC now the Midpeninsula Community Media Center turned 20. An impromptu party was held in the conference area in mid-afternoon. Andrew (still on the Board), Annie now our Executive Director and Elliot now a staff consultant were there as well as current staff members. Doug Devore, a former production manager who joined MPAC over 18 years ago, dropped by with little Penelope Devore.

A lot of changes have hit the Cable Access industry over the years. We even had to send Annie to Washington to testify before Congress on behalf of PEG preservation! To be able to have a 20 year birthday party when many access stations have had to shutter their doors is a reminder of how fortunate our community has been in the dedicated, constant and selfless leadership of people like Annie, Elliot and Andrew. They make the party possible! Thank you Annie, Elliot, Andrew and to all the board members, volunteers, employees and fans who over the years who got us to 20!