Twitter has the best live feed from FCC Stanford

I only two weeks into my Twitter experience, but I’m starting to drink the Kool Aid. Following these Tweets is giving me the best updates from the Stanford hearing when I can’t be listening live:

• https://twitter.com/simX
• https://twitter.com/jjtoothman
• https://twitter.com/freepress

Thanks to @nsputnik! for the Tweet refs.

Distributor Death Takes Down Another Indie Mag

After publishing 80 issues, the great independent culture and politics magazine Punk Planet has announced its closing. According to a front-page post on PP’s website by Daniel Sinker there are several factors contributing to its demise, “bad distribution deals, disappearing advertisers, and a decreasing audience of subscribers.”

The bankruptcy of major distributors is a problem that’s hit the independent magazine world like a plague, contributing to the closing of such great publications as Clamor and LiP. This is a topic I discussed in depth with Syndicate Product’s Aj Michel on the March 16 edition of the radioshow (thanks to Aj for alerting me to the sad news on PP). And Clamor co-founder Jen Angel has written an excellent analysis and reflection on her experience, entitled “Seven Years of Clamor: Challenges, Successes, and Reflections.”

I’m sad to see Punk Planet go, just like these other great publications. I have to admit that I hadn’t read PP much in the last couple of years. But for many years from its founding up to around 2005 I frequently picked it up both for its excellent music coverage and great reportage on news and politics. Although “punk” was in the name, I really appreciated how PP grew out of the punk zine movement to provide a broader more inclusive survey of the independent music scene, still consistent with the punk ethos without being stifled by the strict aesthetic purity of other punk publications.

While the internet provides a relatively inexpensive platform for publishing all sorts of work, I believe it is no replacement for print. I still love magazines for practical and aesthetic reasons. It’s a very tough time for independent periodicals and I think this state of affairs represents a true threat to democratic communications. The world view of millions of people is still informed by magazines and newspapers. Before the rise of the internet, my adolescent mind was opened and informed by independent magazines I found in the expansive racks in the Barnes and Noble and Tower Records, but had never seen next to Time and Newsweek at the 7-11.

With the bankruptcy of distributors who served small, independent publications, the chance of finding these publications in the big bookstores is dwindling, while other places, like the bankrupt Tower and independent bookstores, are also disappearing.

The independent publications that are hanging on are having to turn to creative devices in order to stay afloat. The Dave Eggers-associated McSweeney’s publishing concern is holding a big discount blow-out sale on it inventory and auctioning off one-of-a-kind items in order to pay the bills. Unfortunately, not all independent publishers have enough hipster-celebrity cred to pull this off.

I wish I had some great answer to this situation, except to buy a subscription to your favorite indie mag. More than mainstream periodicals, the indies rely heavily on subscriptions because that money goes directly to the publisher, while newsstand sales are filtered through many middle-men.

Microcinema Pitfalls

I’ve been a bit more tuned in to microcinema lately as a result of talking more with my old pal Jason Pankoke from Micro-Film magazine and reading his new Champaign local microcinema ‘zine, C-U Confidential. (Listen to Jason’s recent appearance on the radioshow.)

However, my enthusiasm for radically independent film and video is still tempered by technical glitches that detract from the story and action, rather than add to it. One recent film I saw, made in the serial form, was very well put together, except for the sound, which was often difficult to hear and plagued with continuously inconsistent ambient noise. I acknowledge it may bother me more than an average viewer, but even some non-video-geeks I talked to noticed the more egregious examples.

So, I can completely empathize with Film Flap’s Five Things I Hate about Microbudget Movies. In addition to poor sound, I agree with:

One of the most frustrating things I’ve come across is discovering a movie I have no possible way of seeing. It’s wonderful to hear about a film that does great at a festival, but tragic when it isn’t distributed in any form. If it’s only going to be available on the obscure fest circuit, what’s the point? If no DVD is coming, why torture me? Release a version on the internet so those of us not living in city “worthy” of your movie can see it, okay?

Illinois’ Racist Mascot Has One Foot in the Grave

Today the University of Illinois Board of Trustees and Administration announced that it is halting use of “Chief Illiniwek” effective Feb. 21. Ostensibly this is so Illinois can get out of sanctions imposed by the NCAA against schools using racist imagery and mascots.

It’s taken some twenty years of pressure from students, Native American groups and activists to get to this point, which the Illinois BOT and administration has fought tooth-and-nail. It’s a good thing to see that racist symbol retired.

Still, the elimination of the Chief will not single-handedly undo the racial tensions on this campus caused by middle-class white kids flaunting their privilege, as seen with things like the “Tacos and Tequila” party. But being done with this racist mascot sets a new tone from the administration.

The announcement was emailed to the campus less than an hour ago, so the white privilege backlash has not yet been heard from. We do know that the students currently performing as the Chief are filing suit against the university in order to get an injunction against the Chief’s demise. I think they’re tilting at windmills, but will get off on the dust they kick up.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the local and national media, and how the popular right-wing reactionaries do their best to exploit this small blow against institutionalized racism.

Tags: chief illiniwek, racist mascot, ncaa, illinois, university of illinois, uiuc, illini, white privilege, racism

Not dead, maybe sleeping

Has nearly a month gone by since my last post? Wow. I guess it’s time for the customary tardy blogger’s excuse/apology. For me it was the Thanksgiving holiday combined with having a cough (probably whooping) and cold that lasted about 6 weeks. Not a great excuse, I know. But, hey, at least the radioshow didn’t have a lapse.

Speaking of the radioshow, I’m experimenting with having a Flash-based player on the radioshow page to let you listen to the program without having to download it first. Let me know what you think with a comment or email.

Dave Rabbit off to Iraq

Salon features an article on Vietnam War pirate broadcaster Dave Rabbit who has begun podcasting since he discovered an underground following for recordings of the programs he did in 1971. Now Rabbit is off to Iraq to produce a new podcast, probably from inside a Baghdad hotel filled with journalists.

Although he claims to be apolitical, he tells Salon,

“How many jobs could you make, or people could you feed, with all that money being used to stir up a civil war in Iraq? The only thing we do by staying there is get more American soldiers killed. It’s insanity. I’m really scared about where it’s all headed. Nothing is going to stop the fighting. Just like in Vietnam, you can’t defeat an enemy that doesn’t know the word ‘defeat.’”

I don’t mean to be cynical, but I have to ask the question: if Rabbit is going to be cooped up under armed security in a hotel and broadcasting on the internet, what’s the point of being in Iraq? How is that hotel room different from any other, aside from the sound of distant carbombs? Perhaps it’s an act of solidarity, but frankly not quite the same as being outside the green zone. Wouldn’t it be even more symbolic if he fired up the transmitter there and broadcast directly to the soliders? At least then the location would seem more material.

Radio and Revolution in Oaxaca, Mexico

Although it has fallen out of the US mainstream news, a people’s uprising is still going strong in Oaxaca, Mexico, spurred on by the June 14 attacks by Mexican government forces on the striking teachers’ tent city in Oaxaca City.

One main reasons for the attack was to destroy the teachers’ free radio station Radio Planton, which broadcast in support of their cause. In this, the government failed, because students of a local university turned over the school’s station to the cause of the teachers.

Since the attack and the widely disputed Mexican presidential election, a revolutionary peoples’ assembly has formed, and as many as ten commercial radio stations have been taken over, in part because the Mexican mainstream media all but ignored this popular uprising.

John at DIYmedia summarizes much of the radio action in a post from last Friday. Narco News has provided excellent and unflinching reports from Oaxaca, including this update on the radio situation, including a report of one man murdered by government thugs while guarding a station. And in CounterPunch, George Salzman puts the Oaxaca “revolutionary surge” in the Mexican national context.

radioshow news headline: FCC Broadband Report Not as Rosy as It Looks

From the Aug. 4, 2006 edition of the mediageek radioshow:

Recently the FCC released a report saying that the number of high-speed internet connections in the US increased by 33% in 2005. The total number of high-speed lines at the end of 2005 was 50.2 millions, of which 43 million serve residential users.

For the first time DSL connections increased at a faster rate than cable modems, even though cable internet connections still account for 57.5% of high-speed internet lines, compared to 40.8% for DSL.

While those numbers may look encouraging, the US still lags behind other industrialized nations with regard to internet connectivity. In 2005, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) ranked the US at 16th in the world in broadband penetration.

But even more important is the difference in the quality and speed of service.

The FCC classifies a high-speed internet connection as one that provides at least 200 kilobits per second of data in at least one direction. To put that in perspective, that’s about 4 times the speed of the fastest phone modem connection. It’s fast enough to provide FM-quality streaming audio, but barely fast enough to provide decent real-time video. In fact, if your internet connection only provides 200 kilobits per second, it would take you much more than a half-hour to download a half-hour TV program from the iTunes music store or a similar service.

Compare this to South Korean, where it’s not usual for residential customers to be able to connect to the internet at 100 megabits per second — that’s 500 times the rate which the FCC considers to be high-speed. Even in many places in Europe 24 Megabit connections are commonly available — that’s one quarter the speed available in Korea, but still nearly 100 times faster than the FCC’s minimum.

But France Telecom is aiming even higher, announcing a pilot to bring 2.5 Gigabit connections to six districts in Paris for just 70 euros a month, which includes free installation and free phone service.

Read more »

radioshow news headline: HOUSE DEMS URGE OPENNESS ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP REVIEW

From the Aug. 4, 2006 edition of the mediageek radioshow:

Eighty-four members of the House, all Democrats, save for one Republican, sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin calling on the Commission to conduct its review of media ownership rules in an open fashion. As I reported last week, the Martin plans to hold a half-dozen public hearings on the issue, it still isn’t known if any of the FCC’s research reports or any of the proposed changes will be made available before the hearings, or even before the comment deadline of September 22.

In their Aug. 1 letter, the lawmakers told Martin that the FCC’s announced plans are not enough, and further demanded that, “the FCC must also fully disclose all proposed rule changes and give the American people a fair chance to review and weigh in on any such proposal. Such activity should include, at the very least, another extended comment period with second visits to all of the markets targeted by the current… town hall meetings.”

Read more »

Uploading the Old Minidiscs

I gave the new MZ-RH1 minidisc recorder a spin last night and I have to report that it works as advertised. I tried out three minidiscs recorded about 6 years ago in regular minidisc SP format and they uploaded to my PC and converted to WAV without a hitch.

All these minidiscs were airchecks recorded in mono mode, so they were 144 minutes long, and they took about 20 minutes or so. That’s slower than what USB 2.0 will allow, but I suspect that the limiting factor here is the maximum rotational speed of a minidisc, since the data density of SP minidisc is not nearly as high as later incarnations like MDLP and Hi-MD.

Even at 3x to 6x real-time upload speed, that beats the heck out of the 1x real-time you get by simply playing a minidisc into the PC’s audio input. And the process is also easier, since Sony’s SonicStage automates it for you, and you can continue to multitask pretty risk-free.

So, if the MZ-RH1 turns out to be the last of the minidisc recorders it’s a fitting culmination. That’s especially so because it will allow me to archive all my valuable minidisc recordings onto CD-R and DVD-R (or other formats) just in case a working minidisc recorder can’t be found years from now.

And for those of you interested in a little mediageek-pr0n, I took some pics of the MZ-RH1 when I unpacked it yesterday.