VCAM producer Brian Plisko and his partners at Rise Up Vermont traveled to Senegal and Gambia in February to put on the Foreward Home 2008 West African Tour, featuring music by leading Virgin Island Roots artists. They brought with them a camera package from VCAM, and they’re making a documentary about the trip, which will air on VCAM channel 15 upon completion. Brian stopped by the studio today to share some photos from the tour and to thank VCAM for the support, which we were happy to give. Brian writes…

With your camera we were able to document a truly beautiful tour, with the resilient and colorful African culture at the forefront of our consciousness. You have helped us so tremendously bring the beauty and spirit of Africa back to Vermont…

The trip wasn’t all about music, Brian and crew also brought seeds (for farms), solar panels, water pumps and medical supplies for a midwifery called The African Birth Collective.

Here are a few photos…

VCAM, CCTV and RETN are once again collaborating on the Vermont blogging experiment, Exit Voices.

If there was a comments section on your ballot on election day, what would you say? What do you think about the issues, ballot measures and candidates this election? Exit Voices is your forum. On Tuesday March 4th, Exit Voices will host a series of open threads, giving any Vermonter the opportunity to say his or her piece. Some of these comments and video entries will be highlighted on the blog and during CCTV’s live election night coverage on channel 17 and over their live web stream that evening. Stop by Exit Voices and speak you mind. The floor is yours.

Leading up to the 4th, Exit Voices will be aggregating content from all over the Vermont blogosphere and soliciting essays, photos and video posts from Vermonters across the state, discussing Town Meeting Day and the Vermont presidential primary.

Please swing by and lend your voice to the discussion.

Check out this video of Regis Philbin discussing his run-in with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman at a dinner part at Phil Donahue’s Manhattan penthouse. Regis almost suffers an existential crisis on the air as he admits that his show is vapid and pointless compared to the serious work being done by Goodman, which he says airs on “one of those PBS stations,” referring, of course, to PEG access channels. It almost makes you feel bad for the guy… almost.

The Nation posted an article this week about the Al Jazeera satellite news network and its growing popularity around the world.  The article’s author, Ned Lamont (yes, that Ned Lamont), mentions that despite Al Jazeera English’s widespread acceptance overseas, there are precious few TV channels in the US that carry its content…

Al Jazeera’s most recent offspring, Al Jazeera English, is more like PBS on a slow day. Al Jazeera English is available around the world and even on the Israeli cable systems. But it is barely visible in the United States–Buckeye Cable in Ohio and Burlington Public Access in Vermont are the only channels that carry it.

By “Burlington Public Access,” Lamont is referring to VCAM’s sister organization RETN, which runs a 1/2 hour of fresh Al Jazeera English programming every weekday at 6:30 pm.  RETN operates channel 16 on Comcast and Burlington Telecom cable systems in Chittenden County.

On October 31st, the FCC made some decisions concerning media ownership and franchising rules that could adversely affect public, educational and government access centers nationwide. It’s one more push towards a cliff that PEG centers have been inching closer to over the last several years. Basically, the FCC is attempting to remove rules that permit local franchising authorities (in this case, the Vermont Public Service Board) from requiring cable companies to set aside funds for PEG services.

If that sounds confusing at all, Toward Freedom has published an excellent piece on the various threats facing PEG centers that spells it all out in plain English. If you care at all about VCAM, local media, free speech or empowering the citizenry with technology, please take a minute and read the article. Here’s a snip…

Cue unsettling music that foreshadows ominous events: The Telcos, eyeing television as their next mile marker, have “determined that local franchises are just too troublesome for their business model,” according to SaveAccess.org. Instead, the phone companies want a national franchise agreement, which would allow them to enter communities without negotiating with municipalities, thereby gutting any local control over channels and rights-of-way, or public spaces.

“The municipalities have a lot at stake, primarily with rights-of-way,” Eisenmenger said. “When that telephone or cable company comes in and digs up the streets [and put in cable boxes], having the municipalities have control… to make sure those go in appropriate places, that the streets are cleaned up and repaved.”

The Telcos tried first to tip Congress in its favor, but a national franchise bill died in the Senate in 2006, though frighteningly, the House passed the bill. Always a survivor, the phone companies have switched gears, now pursuing state video franchises – comprehensive state-wide agreements negotiated at the state level which usually circumnavigate local governments.

…

In a separate court, the supposed referee, the FCC, is taking sides. In 2006, the agency made its own order to allow for a national video franchise. Several PEG advocacy groups have sued the FCC, including the Alliance for Communications Democracy and the Alliance for Community Media.

SaveAccess.org also reported in September that the agency is expected to “rule that existing cable operators can, under certain circumstances, back out of key provisions in their current franchise contracts with local governments, renegotiate lower municipal fees, and reduce the benefits they currently provide to the public.”

VCAM viewers may be familiar with Penny Dreadful, the hostess of Penny Dreadful’s Shilling Shockers — an access show that comes to us from Massachusetts. Ms. Dreadful got a nod in today’s USA Today in an article about the history and legacy of horror movie show hosts and hostesses. Her name appeared in the article along side such other horror show luminaries as Vampira and Zachary. Congratulations, Penny!

From the article…

With the advent of cable access and YouTube, a new generation of horror hosts is emerging from the genre’s freshly dug graves. Dr. Gangrene in Nashville appears on local TV in a retro horror show that also features his red-haired assistant, Nurse Moan-Eek. In Massachusetts, Penny Dreadful hosts movies ranging from The Brain That Wouldn’t Die to The Seventh Seal on public access stations. She says her character “is definitely in the tradition of the dark mysterious lady you don’t want to mess with — Vampira.”

Check out Penny Dreaful’s Halloween special, The Horror Hosts of New England! The hour and a half special will run three times on Halloween — at 6:30 am, 7:30 pm, and an extra scary 1:00 am late-night airing. Tune in!

Burlington filmmaker Nate Beaman has been shooting a bunch of short films with local filmmakers on his tricked-out Panasonic HVX200. He collaborated with VCAM Production Manager Bill Simmon on a short documentary called Digital Pamphleteer, which recently won the Goldstone Award at the Vermont International Film Festival. He also recently shot three short films for Vermont filmmaker Michael Fisher. These films and Nate’s rig are featured on the Redrock Micro cinema accessories website. Nate is Redrock’s “featured filmmaker.” Nate uses a Redrock-manufactured lens adaptor that allows him to use 35mm prime lenses on his Panasonic HVX200 HD camera. The result is an astoundingly shallow depth of field that accentuates the camera’s already very film-like look. Our congratulations go out to Nate for the recognition.

To see the films Nate shot for Michael Fisher and to read all about his set-up, check out the Redrock profile. Bill’s film, Digital Pamphleteer, will go online in a month or two and we’ll link to it here when it does. Stay tuned.

The AP is reporting that Comcast is actively blocking certain peer-to-peer file sharing connections.

NEW YORK (AP) — Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.

The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users.

If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While these are mainly known as sources of copyright music, software and movies, BitTorrent in particular is emerging as a legitimate tool for quickly disseminating legal content.

The principle of equal treatment of traffic, called “Net Neutrality” by proponents, is not enshrined in law but supported by some regulations. Most of the debate around the issue has centered on tentative plans, now postponed, by large Internet carriers to offer preferential treatment of traffic from certain content providers for a fee.

Comcast’s interference, on the other hand, appears to be an aggressive way of managing its network to keep file-sharing traffic from swallowing too much bandwidth and affecting the Internet speeds of other subscribers.

…

Comcast’s technology kicks in, though not consistently, when one BitTorrent user attempts to share a complete file with another user. Each PC gets a message invisible to the user that looks like it comes from the other computer, telling it to stop communicating. But neither message originated from the other computer — it comes from Comcast. If it were a telephone conversation, it would be like the operator breaking into the conversation, telling each talker in the voice of the other: “Sorry, I have to hang up. Good bye.”

According to The Washington Post, an irate Comcast customer was so incensed by the poor treatment she received, she marched down to the local office and attacked the customer service counter with a hammer…

This was after the company had scheduled installation of its much ballyhooed “Triple Play” service, which combines phone, cable and Internet services, in Shaw’s brick home in nearby Bristow. But Shaw said they failed to show up on the appointed day, Monday, Aug. 13. They came two days later but left with the job half done. On Friday morning, they cut off all service.

This was the company that has had consumer service problems serious enough to prompt the trade magazine Advertising Age to editorialize that Comcast and other cable providers should spend less on advertising and more on customer service. And has spawned a blog called ComcastMustDie.com that’s filled with posts from angry customers.

So on that Friday, Mona Shaw and her husband, Don, went to the local call center office to complain.

Let’s pick it up, mid-action, according to Shaw:

Mona demands to speak to a manager. A customer service representative says someone will be right with them. Directs them to a bench, outside. (Remember, it’s mid-August.) Mona and Don sit.

Tick, tick, tick, goes the clock. Sit, sit, sit, go Mona and Don.

For. Two. Hours.

And then — this is the best part — the customer rep leans out the door and says the manager has left for the day. Thanks for coming!

…

So, after stewing over it all weekend, on the following Monday, she went downstairs, got Don’s claw hammer and said: “C’mon, honey, we’re going to Comcast.”

Did you try to stop her, Mr. Shaw?

“Oh no, no,” he says.

Hammer time: Shaw storms in the company’s office. BAM! She whacks the keyboard of the customer service rep. BAM! Down goes the monitor. BAM! She totals the telephone. People scatter, scream, cops show up and what does she do? POW! A parting shot to the phone!

“They cuffed me right then,” she says.

Her take on Comcast: “What a bunch of sub-moronic imbeciles.”

This year, VCAM & RETN are partnering with the Vermont International Film Festival in the screening of the film Four Eyed Monsters. The film will play on the festival’s opening night — Thursday October 11 at 7:00 pm.  The film’s after-party will be held here at the VCAM studio. Because Four Eyed Monsters screens on the festival’s opening night, the after-party will double as the opening night party of the whole festival!

VCAM and RETN are thrilled to help bring this film to Burlington. It is a wonderful example of user-generated media-making — our stock-in-trade in the PEG access world. It’s an autobiographical film about two young New Yorkers (Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, the film’s co-directors, who play themselves in the film) who meet and decide to avoid all the trite conventions of courtship — like spoken language. The film is peppered with the actual video and still images the couple took of themselves as they met, dated, broke apart, came back together, and made the film itself. It’s incredibly raw and real and intensely voyeuristic in its tone.

Filmmaker Magazine has called Buice and Crumley part of the “mumblecore” indy film movement, which Wikipedia describes as, “an American independent film movement that arose in the mid-2000’s. It is primarily characterized by ultra-low budget production (often employing digital video cameras), focus on personal relationships between twenty-somethings, improvised scripts, and non-professional actors.”

Four Eyed Monsters was released for free under a Creative Commons license for a limited time on YouTube.  It was nominated for two 2007 Independent Spirit Awards and it took home the Special Audience Award at the SXSW film Festival in 2005.

Co-director Susan Buice will attend the screening and (we hope) the after-party here at VCAM.  Both events happen on Thursday evening, October 11.  The film will screen at the Waterfront Theater downtown at 7:00 pm and the party gets underway immediately afterwards here at VCAM.  Hope to see you there!