Midpen Media Center is a community access media production facility, serving the communities of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton and Stanford. We operate PEG(Public, Educational and Government) channels 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 and 75.
If you see a guy in the equipment room and he doesn't have red hair, it might be Devon Dykwel. He recently completed the ZOOM IN workshop and guess what? Devon's an equipment enthusiast. So he is now assisting Jeff McGinnis in the Equipment Room. We are pleased to be able to roll out Monday-Friday service! Hours are still 5-7 pm, but the set up is different:
Equipment Returns - 5-6 pm
Equipment Check-Out - 6-7 pm
Equipment rental duration will be for one day and Friday rentals will carry over through the weekend.
SONY TRV900 - Weekday $10, Friday-Monday $15
PANASONIC AG-HMC40 Hi Def - Weekday $15, Friday-Monday $20
Come by and check out our new HD cameras! And meet Devon!
Got questions: Call 494-8686 ext. 13 or email jeff@midpenmedia.org.
Kenny Neal won the 2009 Blue Music Awards Song of the Year for "Let Life Flow," the title cut on his upcoming CD. Kenny was also named the Monterey Bay Blues Musician of the Year. These awards are the culmination and the continuation of a life devoted to the Blues. Here at the Media Center we are having a mini-Kenny Neal Festival. We kicked this celebration off with a screening of the documentary "American Blues Man" on Saturday July 24 here in the studio. The documentary features interviews with Kenny with video footage and photographs from Kenny's fascinating life on and off the stage. The documentary was produced by Kenny and his wife Josi, and was shot with the assistance of many devoted Media Center volunteers including sound engineer Eric Baker. It was edited by Media Center diehard "TD Daniell" and Karen Adams served as Production Manager. A screening was also held in Berkeley in August.
By special arrangement we are able to bring you American Blues Man. In addition to running American Blues Man, the Media Center is also featuring Kenny on the most recent episode of "American Songwriter". And of course, the Media Center continues to carry Kenny's own show, the award winning "Neal's Place" produced right here. Click here for a complete listing of all the shows featuring Kenny Neal.
An ironic twist to all this, is that if you've got the Blues yourself, you might want to watch "American Blues Man" to lift your spirits. Kenny has weathered life's vicissitudes with grace and hope and charity. His story is an inspiration. We are proud that the Media Center is able to showcase the life and music of this internationally respected and beloved blue artist.
On Tuesday, August 24, 2010, the Media Center kicks off the Fall season of Live School Broadcasts with the debut of KNOL News from Oak Knoll in Menlo Park. KNOL is the daily school announcement and news broadcast that the students produce to keep the school staff and students abreast of important events. KNOL of Oak Knoll is scheduled to run on CHANNEL 27 from 8:15 am-8:25 am Monday through Friday, except for holidays, of course. (And this time may change, so always check our schedule pages for the latest info.) The broadcast news programs of other schools including Hillview, Encinal, JLS, Jordan, Gunn, PALY, et al will be coming into your living room soon on either Channel 27 or Channel 28. You can check our schedules pages by searching for YBC or enter the individual name of the school you want to follow. Congratulations to Oak Knoll School for going live the first day of school.
(YBC is brought to you over the I-NET by hardworking teachers and kids, and by Media Center staff: IT Specialist Chris Pearce and Master Control Technician Brian Jones.)
Tonight, the Media Center is sending the kids off to school with an open mic night before school starts on Tuesday. We have headliner band Hero's Last Mission playing after a bunch of our local kids perform a variety of acts.
An exciting thing about tonight is that we will be attempting (all tests have succeeded thus far) to stream it live over our FACEBOOK page and that's both of them. We have a friend page (Palo Altomediacenter) and a Fan page (Media Center). When you hit either page click on the "ustream" tab near the top and you should be able to see it going down. It doesn't start until 7:30 pm but if you tune in sooner you may be able to see us setting up! Wow, how fun is that!
Anyway, if you can't make it down to this free event be sure to tune in via our Facebook page.
MAKE THE CALL was featured in today's New York Times. Make the Call is a co-production of the Media Center and the East Palo Alto Police department. Former judge Ladoris Cordell interviews families whose lives have been shattered by the murder of a loved one. Make the Call is aimed at combatting the gang rule against snitching and urges citizens to take control of their community by being the witness that solves the crime. In our most recent episode, activist and social worker David Lewis made a guest appearance. The tragic irony is that David himself was murdered in June. His contribution to our community was incalculable. Here's a link to the article online. And you can watch Make the Call and see community hero David Lewis at these times.
If you care about Net Neutrality which basically means that no one entity, company, government or organization should be able to partition or control the Internet, you may be interested in catching up with the activism that took place on Google's campus last Friday, August 13th.
Members of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Color of Change, MoveOn.org, CREDO Action and Free Press rallied in front of Google's World Headquarters and delivered 300,000 letters to Google in favor of net neutrality. The Google Staffer who accepted delivery of the letters said that Google is committed to open internet. But Google is profit driven and needs to satisfy their shareholders, so there is an inherent conflict of interest here.
Our own Alliance for Community Media is working hard in a related area. The Cable Access Preservation (CAP) Act which was introduced last year by Wisconsin congresswoman Tammy Baldwin will have a huge impact on the future of Access. The CAP Act will allow Public, Education and Government (PEG) access fees to be used for any PEG-related purpose, will end operators' discriminatory treated of PEG channels, direct the FCC to study the effects of individual state's frachising legislation on PEG access and also defines all video services delivered to the home over wire as "cable" regardless of the transmission protocol used. The passing of the CAP Act is very important to us here at the Media Center and at the thousands of Access stations across the country and to the millions of people served by Access stations.
The preservation of access is very similar to the preservation of an open internet. The John Maher lyric says it all: "When they own the information they can bend it all they want." We need to make sure that local access television, the internet, and other public information forums stay accessible to the people for whose benefit they were created and NOT auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Learn more about Net Neutratility. Start with reading Yobie Benjamin's piece in the San Francisco Chronicle about the Verizon-Google proposals on Net Neutrality. Learn more about the CAP Act. And watch the youtube video about Friday's action at Google.
