"Make the Call" Episode 3 in Spanish!

The Media Center has produced the third edition in a series called Make the Call. However, this episode is a little different: the program has been re-recorded with a voice-over in Spanish. This edition profiles two unresolved homicides in the city of East Palo Alto, and presents the points of view of family and friends of the victims. Hosted by former Santa Clara Superior Court Judge LaDoris Cordell, this production also features interviews with police officers regarding the cases.

If anyone has any information about unsolved homicides, call the anonymous tip line at

1-888-MURDER-0 (1-888-687-3370)

This edition of Make the Call, will be airing on the Media Center’s cable channel 27:

• Saturday, November 28^th at 12 AM and 7 AM
• Sunday, November 29^th at 2 PM
• Thursday, December 3^rd at 7 PM
• Saturday, November 5^th at 12 AM

For a complete list of showtimes see the Media Center's online program schedule.

Wes Rapaport, Media Center Intern
www.midpenmedia.org
650-494-8686

LIVE ELECTION NIGHT COVERAGE FROM CITY HALL

The Media Center and the City of Palo Alto are co-sponsoring an "Election night Special" on Channel 27 from 9:30 - 11 pm, tomorrow, Tuesday, November 3. This program will also be streamed live on the Internet from our website.

Regular Channel 27 programming will be pre-empted during this time, but will resume at 11 pm or when the Live Coverage is complete.

The program will be hosted by outgoing Palo Alto mayor Peter Drekmeier and former Palo Alto mayors Liz Kniss and Gary Fazzino. These election night "anchors" will interview current candidates, report on election results as they come in and provide analysis of the issues influencing this election.

In addition to our live show, we will be providing current election results via live update feed. The live update feed will begin on Channel 30 at 8:30 and run until midnight. Regular Channel 30 programming will be pre-empted during this time. At midnight, the live feed can be viewed on both Channels 26 and 29, our government channels, until 9 am, Wednesday, November 4.

In summary, our election coverage is scheduled as follows:

LIVE FROM CITY HALL - Channel 27
Tuesday, November 3, 9:30 pm - 11pm

LIVE UPDATE FEED OF ELECTION RESULTS
Channel 30, Tuesday, November 3, 8:30 pm - midnight
Channels 29, Wednesday, November 4, 12 am - 9 am

And if you are still weighing candidates and issues, you can view the several candidate forums and other election programming on demand right on our website. Visit our election page for links to this important programming.

See you at the polls!

HALLOWEEN CONCERTS ON TV & LIVE AT ST. MARK'S

Community Producer Ken Allen will be delivering up another installment of his series of Halloween Concerts featuring organist Jim Welch. Every year, Mr. Welch performs "spooky" music from the repertoire at St. Mark's Episcopal Church at 600 Colorado Avenue in Palo Alto on October 31 at 8 pm. The ticket cost is $10. This year, Ken reports that Mr. Welch will be performing Bach's Toccata in D Minor for Organ and Chain Saw. Now are they really going to fire up a chain saw in church? You'll have to either attend tomorrow night's concert or tune in or Tivo Channel 27 next week, Sunday, November 8 at 10:30 am when we will be cablecasting tomorrow night's concert. After all, some of us will be out trick or treating tomorrow night. Additionally, we will be replaying several of Mr. Welch's prior Halloween concerts courtesy of Ken Allen as well. Check this link for upcoming and additional playbacks of the Halloween Concert series throughout November.

We wish to thank Ken Allen for his continued support of the Media Center by bringing us great, local, community-oriented programming!

Jesse Norfleet's Birthday Party

This afternoon, I noticed a late breaking piece on Jesse Norfleet's Facebook Page: Join him and friends at Micha's in San Carlos. So I ran up there with my husband Scott. We walk in and see Jesse's lovely family including 5 adorable grandchildren. I also see many politterati of East Palo Alto. I see my boss and Jesse's old boss, Annie Folger and our office manager and voiceover artist Dave Sorokach. Jesse and his wife Renee have provided the company with an excellent repast of chicken, beans, collards, corn bread, and Spanish rice. And of course there is a giant cake which Jesse blew out in tandem with Caleb, his grandson who was also born on this day, five years ago.

I am grateful to Jesse. If he hadn't left the Media Center two years ago I would not have this great job, I have now. Thank you, Jesse, I owe you so much! And you stuck around and trained me and kept taking my countless calls that all began with "How do I..." I am well aware that there is no way I could ever do all that Jesse did here. And people who haven't been here in a while still walk in with a look of shock and dismay when they see me at Jesse's desk. Jesse is well he just is...

Anyway, during all the festivities, Jesse's band Equanimous Jones played more or less continuously. Band members might have to nip out for some cake or a phone call but they pretty much filled Micha's with great renditions of standards out of the Real book. Jesse kept everyone on lockdown with his solid stick work on the drums. Tommy Myers was a blow away on soprano and tenor sax. Melvin Arterberry Jr. looked really cool and laid back on the Roland, except that his fingers were doing everything from the slow grace to the fast pace, and finally Paul Collins was solid on both electric and stand up bass.

For me, their last song Yesterday by the Beatles was just amazing. The best I'd ever heard Yesterday in a jazz format. It's such a great tune anyway, but Tommy just poured it on with that soprano and the band matched him so well and were so tight, well... it was a strange surprise... to go to Jesse's birthday party and be given so beautiful a present to take home.

Happy Birthday Jesse, and many happy returns of the day from your friends at the Media Center!

We're Celebrating Our Award Winning Producers

Media Center producers took home six WAVE awards at the 2009 ACM Western Regional Conference held in Reno, Nevada this past weekend. That's two more awards than we ran off with last year! The Western Access Video Excellence (WAVE) Awards are conferred by the Western Region of the Alliance for Community Media in recognition of local achievement in community-based video programming. WAVES are our regional Emmies.

Our winning shows in the Community Producers division by category are:

The Stephanie Herman Show: Dancing Behind the Scenes (Performing Arts), produced by Stephanie Herman (pictured).

The Theatre Factory: Velocity Circus (Informational-Culture), produced by Patricia Neme (pictured) and Patty Page (pictured).

Abilities United Presents: Community Connections, Episode 4 (Programming by/for Differently Abled), produced by Andrea Throndson.

Suicide PSA (Public Service Announcement) produced by Edoardo De Armas.

The Jook Joint: Episode #16, Featuring Etta James (Music Programming), produced by E.C. Scott and Gregg Mitchell.

Our winning show in the Professional Producers division by category is:

Media Center Studio Session: Fua Dia Congo (Performing Arts), produced by Karen Adams, Muisi-Kongo Malonga and Dan Beaulieu.

You can watch the winning programs on demand right from our website. Here is the link to the page that Stan has popped up there for us!

Or you can set your Tivos for Channel 27 at midnight every Saturday night through November when we will be running the winning programs back to back. For additional playback times, check the website.

The Media Center congratulates these six winners as well as the twelve other Media Center finalists who competed for top honors in the 2009 WAVE award contest.

UNAFF - Hottest Show In Town

Saturday night, I dropped by the Aquarius Theater in Palo Alto to witness the kick off of the 12th annual United Nations Association Film Festival (October 17-25, 2009). Yugoslav-born Jasmina Bojic is a founder and Executive Director of UNAFF. A humanities lecturer at Stanford, Bojic combined her passion for film with her passion for human rights when she founded UNAFF. The Media Center is a proud sponsor of UNAFF and each year Bojic and colleague Cathy Keys (pictured) produce a 1/2 hour TV show here, inside peek at the coming films. We run this spot in advance of the festival as well as during it. To see upcoming air times for the UNAFF spot, click here.

Cathy Keys, in addition to working for UNAFF, is one of our dedicated volunteers here at the Media Center. Cathy Keys is an excellent camera operator and in fact is a regular crew-person on the show I produce here at the Media Center American Songwriter. American Songwriter alumni David Luning (pictured), for which Cathy ran camera, provided the music outside the Aquarius for an hour or so while festival goers were lining up. You can see David's show at these times. Or you can catch him on blip TV.

About a block away at Junoon, another Media Center alum was performing. Jesse Norfleet (pictured), former Media Center Production Director and active director here provided the music for the opening reception for UNAFF. He played the drums as part of a trio entertaining festival goers with standards out of the jazz repertoire.

The Film Festival runs for the rest of this week on screens at Stanford and in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and in San Francisco.

Mad About Trees? Watch Our Coverage of the California Avenue Streetscape Meeting!

The Media Center covered the California Avenue Streetscape Public Meeting that was held last Thursday, October 8, 2009 at Escondido School. The meeting was ostensibly promoted as a presentation and discussion of the new plan for California Avenue -- whose 60+ mature oak trees were unceremoniously lopped off by the City in early September to the shock of business owners, residents and community leaders. Angry citizens disrupted the meeting. After about an hour of some shouting, demands and barbed comments on the part of the outraged citizenry, the meeting moderator was able to get the meeting back on course. We are cablecasting the resulting 2 hour and 2o minute program starting today, October 15:

Watch the program on at these dates and times:

Friday 10/16, 5 am, Channel 29; and 4 pm Channel 26

Saturday 10/17, 6 pm Channel 26

Sunday, 10/18, 4 pm, Channel 26

Monday, 10/19, 12 pm, Channel 26

Tuesday, 10/20, 2 pm, Channel 26; and 4 pm Channel 29

Wednesday, 10/21, 4 pm, Channel 29

Thursday, 10/22, 8 am, Channel 26

Friday, 10/23, 8 pm, Channel 29