Midpeninsula Community Media Center

JEAN RAMACCIOTTI WINS AWARD - RECEIVES LETTER FROM OBAMA!

2012-01-20T17:01:00.000-08:00

Jean Ramacciotti

The producer of Spirit Talk has won the prestigious "2012 Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major for Service Award." Jean Ramacciotti received a letter from President Obama, thanking and congratulating her. The award is presented "in recognition and appreciation of your commitment to strengthening our Nation and for making a difference through volunteer service, addressing the most pressing needs in your community and in our country."

Jean was nominated by the Islamic Networks Group (ING) for her interfaith work. Jean has been a regular speaker at the Interfaith Speakers Bureau (IFSB), speaking at schools, colleges, companies and service clubs about promoting understanding and cooperation amongst all religions, particularly Hindu, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism. She is passionate about justice, tolerance and the individuality of faith.

We congratulate you, Jean. What an accomplishment! We are so proud of you and glad you produce your TV show with us!

A recurring theme of Jean's long-running show, Spirit Talk, is finding points of intersection, compassion and empathy among faith communities. To watch Jean's Show, click here for the schedule.

Learn more about what this significant award means. Check out the website

MC Staff Pay Tribute to Mayor Sid Espinosa at Council Meeting

2012-01-04T22:12:00.000-08:00

Last night at the first City Council Meeting of the year, Yiaway Yeh was elected mayor of Palo Alto for 2012. Greg Scharff was elected Vice Mayor. Meeting over? Not by a long shot!

The tradition of thanking the outgoing mayor after the election of a new mayor took an interesting turn as hundreds turned out to fill the City Hall chambers and dozens spoke in praise of Sidney A. Espinosa's unparalleled contributions to civic life during his one year tenure as mayor. Among the "polliterati" speaking during the public comment of the meeting were were Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss, former Palo Alto Mayor Gary Fazzino, California State Assembly Rich Gordon and California State Senator Joe Simitian.

Media Center Executive Director Annie Folger and this writer Programming Manager Becky Sanders had their turn at the podium. They thanked Mayor Espinosa for raising the visibility of the Media Center in the community. By partnering to produce videos for use in his official e-newsletters and social networking outreach and by attending events sponsored by the Media Center, Mayor Sid made our volunteers know how much he appreciated their efforts and was their champion. Annie Folger summed up the comment with naming Sid "the poster child for community media."

The Media Center was hardly the only non-profit, business, civic organization, cause et cetera and so forth to benefit from Sid's amazing embrace of community. It was unanimous: Sid was "everywhere" in 2011. He did everything from cutting ribbons to making speeches to touring constructions sites to digging holes to pulling weeds, to reading to children, to camping out at Quakeville, to biking everywhere -- oh we could go on and on!

But you can watch the entire program! It is available Video on Demand.

Herein we include a few links to just a few select video clips: Councilmember Larry Klein and then Mayor Yeh's summing up and Sid's gracious acknowledgement of the evening's festivities.

Senator Simitian and Abilities United

2011-12-22T15:44:00.000-08:00

State Senator Joe Simitian came to the Media Center studio to tape an interview with Abilities United (formerly CAR), the remarkable agency that champions people with developmental and physical disabilities. It was a fitting way to end the year of community TV production as Simitian spoke about how every member of our community has the potential to improve the quality of life, regardless of their physical or developmental abilities. He noted the many ways that the clients of Abilities United have volunteered for community projects and events and the reasons it's important for every person to give back to the community where they live.The final 2011 episode of "Abilities United Presents: Community Connections" also includes features on a visit to Deer Hollow Farm and the agency's work at the Boys and Girls Club of East Palo Alto. It also profiles two clients - one a writer and the other, an artist. The program will begin to air just after New Year's. The TV schedule can be seen here.

Robotics Explored on "Future Talk"

2011-12-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

One of the fastest growing fields of technology is the field of robotics. A robot is a machine that can act intelligently, either by preprogramming or through remote control, to accomplish specific tasks. Although some robots, such as Honda's Asimo, have a humanoid appearance, most do not. Some of the useful abilities robots can have include the ability to move, to grasp, to lift, to "see", and to receive and send information. Modern robots can perform tasks ranging from vacuuming your floors, to assembling automobiles, to exploring other planets.

In this month's Future Talk, host Martin Wasserman discusses robotics with Chuck Colby, who has worked for more than 50 years as an inventor, and whose work now deals mostly with robots. Chuck has scored numerous technological firsts in his career, including the first home satellite receiver station, the first low cost telephone answering machine and the first low cost TV camera. He created what's believed to be the world's first commercial pocket transistor radio at the age of twelve. Chuck demonstrates several of his robots on the show, including the T-Bot, which allows the user to be in virtually two places at the same time.

We also have videos of two very different kinds of robots. Honda's humanoid Asimo robot is shown pushing a cart, unscrewing a lid from a bottle, pouring a drink, and handing it to a human. The MULE, a driverless military vehicle developed by the U.S. Army, is shown climbing over walls, carrying large quantities of equipment, following the troops wherever they go and figuring out the best route to get there.

Click here to see the TV schedule for Future Talk. Future Talk is one of several dozen local TV series produced at the Midpeninsula Community Media Center, a nonprofit agency that provides a TV studio and video production equipment to the public.

WORLD AIDS DAY SPECIAL - Thursday December 1- Channel 28 - 7 pm

2011-12-01T08:47:00.000-08:00

Producer Johanna Gereke hosts an inspiring television special tonight Thursday December 1 at 7 o'clock to highlight World AIDS Day. The half hour program: The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children in Africa features a discussion about the impact of HIV/AIDS on the lives of children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Studio guests Amber Stime, Founder and Executive Director of African Cradle and Peter Laugharn, Executive Director of the Firelight Foundation each explore different ways their groups help children adjust when their lives have been affected by AIDS. Amber and Peter's work includes not only children, but also their families and in some cases, adoptive parents. Short video clips from the documentary film Whose Children Are They Now? complement an engaging conversation about personal experiences, breaking down stigma and the hope for future generations.

To learn more about Stime's work visit African Cradle, Inc. -- providing adoption service for African orphans. To learn more about Laugharn's work visit Firelight Foundation.

This World AIDS Day special program will be followed by Seeds of Hope: Meeting the Challenges of HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia at 7:30 pm. This five film series was produced and directed by Dorothy Fadiman and explores recent efforts in Ethiopia to battle the stigma and break the silence surrounding HIV/AIDS and find innovative solutions to prevention and education. Dorothy Fadiman has been making documentary films around social justice for 40 years through her Menlo Park-based production company, Concentric Media.

This 3-hour block of programming pre-empts regular programming on Channel 28 and provides an evening of reflection and acknowledgement that although HIV/AIDS is still very much a deadly epidemic, transforming work is being done abroad by people in our own communities -- whether they be non-profit leaders like Stime and Laugharn or investigative filmmakers like Fadiman.

Click here for additional playback times for The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children in Africa.

Click here for additional playback times for Seeds of Hope: Meeting the Challenges of HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia.

The Palo Alto Philharmonic - Tchaikovsky on TV!

2011-11-23T13:14:00.001-08:00

Did you know that Palo Alto has a symphony orchestra? I didn't, and I'm apparently not alone, even though I enjoy classical music. The PA Philharmonic are local, they are dedicated and they want to share their passion for symphonic music with you.

The Palo Alto Philharmonic, under Music Director Thomas Shoebotham, is a full sized (~65 member) community orchestra which performs 4 orchestral concerts a year at a very reasonable price ($20) at the Cubberley Theater. In addition to full orchestral concerts, they perform several smaller concerts at other venues around town. Their upcoming concert schedule can be seen on their website.

The orchestra has been around since 1988 and is a non-profit organization. The musicians are volunteers, and generally have non-musical careers in the community.

The orchestra concert programs begin with an informative pre-concert talk, discussing the pieces to be heard in the program. Their repertoire ranges across all periods of orchestral music, including 20th century music and even original compositions from their Assistant Conductor and award-winning composer-in-residence, Lee Actor.

Volunteers from The Media Center were at the Philharmonic's October 2011 concert in force. Six of us operated six cameras and three high-quality microphones scattered around Cubberley Theater. We've posted to YouTube the Philharmonic's performance of Bernstein's "Overture to Candide" and Liszt's "Totentanz" featuring guest piano soloist Péter Tóth.

The Philharmonic's performance of Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony from that October concert will be shown at the following times, on Channel 27...

Friday, November 25 9pm
Saturday, November 26 10pm
Friday, December 2, 9pm
Saturday, December 3, 10pm

Latest playback times can be found on our online TV schedule.

The Philharmonic's next Orchestral concert is on Saturday, December 10 at Cubberley Theater. Check their website for other concerts.

Health Care 2.0

2011-11-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

submitted by Martin Wasserman:

Modern information technology is having a huge impact on the health industry, enabling patients to have much greater access to information and helping them to be much more active participants in their own health care. It's now possible to get quick information and advice online from your doctor without having to wait for an appointment, and to compare experiences with people who have similar conditions to your own via social networking programs. Also, increased knowledge of genetics is making it possible to tailor medical treatments much more closely to the physiology of the specific patient.

On this month's Future Talk, host Martin Wasserman interviews several people who are directly involved in finding ways to apply modern information resources to improve public health. The in-studio guests are John de Souza, CEO of MedHelp, an online health community with a wide range of services that boasts 12 million unique visitors a month, and Bruce Cohen, CEO of VitaPath Genetics, which does individualized DNA analysis to enable more precisely tailored medical treatments.

Additionally, Future Talk attended the recent Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, where we spoke with several people involved in this rapidly growing field. Karl Ulfers is V.P. of Consumer Solutions at Optum Health, whose products provide better online communications between health care consumers and providers, Brent Poole is CEO of Mindbloom, which seeks to promote mental, physical and spiritual health through a social gaming experience, and Damon Ramsey M.D. is CEO of Healthism, which offers social networking tools aimed at preventive health maintenance.

The message of all of these people seems to be consistent: the more information and access to resources you have, the better you can maintain your own well being. Here are the cable TV Playback times. This episode may not be scheduled just yet.

Election Videos

2011-11-10T13:46:00.000-08:00

How did you make your voting decisions? Did you use any of the videos linked on our Elections Page? If so, how helpful were they relative to other resources you used such as mailers or news articles? We'd love to know.

We were pleased with the number of folks who viewed the videos online. We hit a new high of 463 views for an election video - the San Mateo County Measure H pro and con arguments. In Palo Alto, there were 245 viewers of the Measure D debates and 427 viewers of the Measure E debates. When you factor in those who watched the debates on the cable TV channels - for which we have no measurements - we believe that we reached at least 5% of the voters.

Perhaps, the most impacting video was the one featuring candidates for the East Palo Alto Sanitary District. While it got the lowest number of views compared to the other videos - 106 - that accounts for over 25% of the voters for that race! And that doesn't include those who watched the candidates on cable TV where it played numerous times.

The videos provide a chance for voters to evaluate the presence and communication skills of the candidates in addition to their ideas and policy positions. We're glad that the videos multiply the number of people to see the candidates - well beyond those who actually attended the public forums. We hope to see the number grow with each election. We've already begun to plan for the 25+ races we expect to cover in 2012.

2011-11-08T17:22:00.000-08:00

Here's a tip for all our great TV studio crew volunteers. Find out which producers are scheduling talented chefs to come in and cook a televised feast. Then sign up as a camera person. The crew members for "Frente Unido" ("United Front Presents") were the happy tasters of celebrated Chef Maritza Hurtado' s enchiladas and secret sauces this evening. Chef Hurtado, of Special Touch Catering, was unloading boxes of yummy ingredients as this disappointed writer had to leave the Media Center. I'll be imagining her strawberry dessert concoction while munching my cauliflower this evening. Hurtado recently won an award from the Renaissance Entrepreneurial Center for her community involvement. Do you think more community producers should include a cooking show episode now and then? If so, what kind of cooking would you like to see?

Here is the Frente Unido playback schedule.

GILA RIVER AND MAMA - THE RUTH MIX STORY, on 27 this Saturday at 8 pm

2011-11-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary of War to designate certain areas as military zones. This order paved the way for the unlawful incarceration of Japanese Americans in "relocation" camps. This effectively ruined the lives of more than 120,000 American citizens and cast the dark shadow of racism across our country while our armed forces were ironically fighting fascism abroad. After years of shame and silence around this dark page in our national history, the stories are emerging, often told by the children and grandchildren of the internees. An unusual perspective will be unveiled this Saturday night at 8 pm on Channel 27 -- that of a teenager whose experience as an aide in one of the camps changed her life forever.

The Media Center is proud to cablecast a documentary detailing the personal experience of fifteen year old Ruth Mix who volunteered at the Gila River Japanese Internment Camp's Butte Camp Hospital. During the summer of 1942, she moved into the camp to work full time with her mother who was a teacher there.

Charles Class, an established Media Center producer, served as one of three executive producers for "Gila River and Mama - The Ruth Mix Story." The 49 minute documentary includes historical reenactment and tells the moving story of Ruth and the people she met and befriended during her time living at the camp.

The documentary was produced, written and directed by Claire Mix, the daughter of Ruth and granddaughter of teacher Frida Mix. it wasn't until Claire was an adult that she became aware of her famlly's passionate involvement in the lives of the internees at Gila River. Claire slowly teased the story out of her aging mother, who, along with Claire's grandmother, had risked arrest in order to bring some relief to the suffering of the persecuted citizens at Gila River.

At this time of year when we celebrate the gift our veterans have given the nation, sacrificing their very lives, it is important that we remember Japanese Americans, many of whom wanted to serve their country, but instead were interned under most draconian and inhumane circumstances during World War II.

For additional playback times click here.

To learn more about this project visit the website: http://www.gilariverandmama.com.

Funding for "Gila River And Mama: The Ruth Mix Story" was provided by a grant from the California State Library through the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.

The Media Center thanks Mr. Class for bringing this important story to us. And we reach out and thank the California State Library and the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program for making this production possible.

Executive Producers Hy Shishino and Charlie Class with Shig Murakami
(Murakami was one of Frida Mix's 2nd Grade Students)

'HELP ONE CHILD" SWEEPS ZOOMIES

2011-11-01T06:28:00.000-07:00

Lynne Cudden's video about the South Bay organization HELP ONE CHILD swept the graduate category of the 3rd Bianniual Zoomies held in the Media Center studios last Friday night. Nobody could have been more surprised than the filmmaker herself! She was characteristically soft spoken and humble about receiving all three awards. It was really moving for this writer, to share the stage with Lynne and hear about her motivation to get the word out about this worthy non-profit that supports foster families.

Lynne began the video in class but went out to refine her vision and create a superior "calling card" for Help One Child. Congratulations to Lynne from everyone here at the Media Center. The video is embedded on the "Help One Child" website and greatly enhances their messaging.

"HELP ONE CHILD" was one of six videos chosen as finalist by the judges last Tuesday. Our wonderful panel of judges consisted of Haelin Cho (youth representative), Beth Charlesworth (Zoomer not in Competition) and Sue Purdy Pelosi (MC Board Member).

Additional Finalists in the graduate category were:

"Quest for the Perfect Reverb" by Gary Masching
"California Avenue Redesign" by Roland Vogl
"Fall is For Planting" by Lynn Krug
"Mitchell Park Hard Hat Tour" by Wes Rapaport
"Cupertino Energy Upgrade" by Rick Row

Two environmental videos took top honors at the Zoomies in the Student Category and a third environmental video was named finalist as well. The six class project finalists were:

"What Makes You Smile?", by Allen Rosenberg and Harlan Crowder
"Share a Garden" by Lynn Krug
"Recycling PSA" by Tesha Shalon
"Pet Food Express: Welcome to the Dog Wash" by Caroline Ebinger
"California State Park Closures", by Lindsay Burdette
"Anaerobic Digestion Plant" by Isabel Benatar

The "Recycling PSA" won Overall Excellence and also tied for Community Impact with Lindsay Burdette's video about the closing of the state parks in California. Congratulations to all the finalists and thank you for working on your craft with us! All videos may be watched on the Zoom In Youtube page

.

We thank the set up crew and the donation crew -- without whom the ZOOMIES would not have been so delicious, inviting and comfortable.

Lessa Bouchard
Beth Charlesworth
Doug and Pat Kreiiz
Joyce McClure

and MING'S of Palo Alto for donating a platter of appetizers plus gift certificates.

And thank you to the breakdown crew - pretty much everybody who was there at the end, with a special thank you to Gary Masching and Tommy Tuesday for stacking chairs and stowing props away.

And finally thank you to:

Scott Van Duyne
Stan Ng
and Jeff McGinnis

who did an amazing job making sure that all things technical ran smoothly.

Doug Kreitz has posted 21 pictures from the event. Thank you Doug!

The "snaps" are available for "purchase" at a nominal fee - proceeds benefitting - you guessed it -- Zoom In.

And finally thank you to Mayor Sid Espinosa for his surprise visit, and impromptu speechmaking! Sid was featured in two of the videos - Mitchell Park Hard Hat Tour and California Avenue Redesign.

Help Us Inform Voters!

2011-10-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

The Media Center is committed to a role in every local election - to increase voter awareness and resources. Absentee voters have begun sending in their ballots this week and we made sure to have candidate statements and ballot measure arguments recorded early for those conscientious voters. So far, the videos with the most views are San Mateo County Measure H - a bond measure for the community colleges - with 190 views, followed closely by Palo Alto Measure E that would rezone a portion of Byxbee Park into a compost and renewable energy facility (188 views).

Please help us inform voters about the video debates and candidate statements that can help them make informed choices over the coming days. All the internet links and cable TV playback info is listed on our Election Page at: http://www.midpenmedia.org/elections_Nov_11flag.html. There are candidate statements for the East Palo Alto Sanitary District, the Sequoia Union High School District, the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, and the San Mateo Community College District. Also two debates for each of the two controversial Palo Alto Measures.

You'll hear some champagne corks popping if we find out that over 400 voters utilized these video resources. Thanks for distributing the Election Page link.

Meanwhile, don't forget that the Media Center provides on-demand videos of every government meeting in Palo Alto (indexed by agenda item), as well live coverage of city council meetings in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park. If you're a Palo Alto parent you can be a watchdog of the PAUSD Board meetings that air on Channel 28. We also cover town meetings, the most recent one being held by State Senator Joe Simitian on October 15. You can watch it on the Internet at: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMediaCenter5?blend=3&ob=5#p/u/11/VpVl8ACiyEo.

"Change Makers" - Making A Difference in Your World

2011-10-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

"Change Makers" is a monthly interview style program featuring dynamic and motivational individuals that are doing great work and bringing positive and real change to the world. This month’s program features Soren Gordhamer, whose work these days explores the application of Wisdom in modern life - how to live a modern, engaged, and connected life with awareness, balance, and effectiveness.

Soren Gordhamer works with individuals and groups on living with greater mindfulness and purpose in our technology-rich age. He is founder and host of the Wisdom 2.0 Conference, and the author of Wisdom 2.0: Ancient Secrets for the Creative and Constantly Connected (HarperOne, 2009), one of the first books to explore living with mindfulness and wisdom within the context of our modern technology age.

Soren writes and speaks on the merging of wisdom in modern life. The question before us is not if the external technologies of our age, from cell phones to computers, will continue to advance ... the more pertinent question is "Will the inner technologies of mindfulness and wisdom advance along with them?

While our technology age offers many benefits, for many people life has become increasingly chaotic, hurried, and stressful ... overwhelmed with a continual stream of emails, text messages, and cell phone calls, awareness of the body goes "off-line" and the present moment is lost. We live "disconnectedly connected," where we are connected to technology, but largely disconnected from that place of balance and well-being that resides in each one of us.

The thread between all the inspirational individuals interviewed on this show is their dedication to following their dreams and the willingness to share their stories of failure and triumph with you. We hope you are inspired to follow your dreams and in doing so make a positive change in your life and community.

"Change Makers" host Gopi Kallayli, works for Google and is a twice semi-finalist at the Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking. "Change Makers" is co-produced by Kallayli and Erinne Lambden.

Submitted by Erinne Lambden.

PICTURE BLOG FROM WAVE AWARDS - 6 WAVE WINNERS

2011-10-10T18:41:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night 10/8/2011, Wave awards were bestowed on six Media Center producers at the ceremony held in San Jose. Congratulations to our "sons and daughters" here! The Media Center is very proud of you. And best wishes to the other 15 (that's FIFTEEN) producers that were finalists!

Doug Kreitz for
Beauty on the Bay

Betty Gee & Friend for
Channing House Harmonica Players

Steve Hall with
Sheryl Shaffer's Award for
Veterans Helping Veterans

Annie Folger with
Nancy Brown's Award for
Veterans Helping Veterans Open

Sally Rayn for
Forest Wanderings

Wes Rapaport for
Paly High Football - Teenage Dream

SRI Looks at our Energy Future

2011-10-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest problems facing the world today is how to find enough energy to power our ever expanding industrial economy in a way that's affordable, sustainable and environmentally clean. One of the leaders in clean energy research is SRI International, former known as the Stanford Research Institute, and today one of the top independent research organizations in the world.

This month's Future Talk features two guests from SRI, Barbara Heydorn and Ripudaman Malhotra. Barbara Heydorn is Director of the Center of Excellence in Energy at SRI, where she develops the strategy that links SRI’s research and development capabilities to the needs of the marketplace. She helps put together multidisciplinary teams with people both inside and outside of SRI to tackle complex energy issues.

Ripudaman Malhotra is a research fellow at SRI, which is one of the highest designations given there, and he’s also Associate Director of SRI’s Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory. He studies ways to make more efficient use of conventional fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas, and is the co-author of the recent book, "A Cubic Mile of Oil".

The show also features a video of a new material created at SRI which is able to convert the motion of ocean waves into electricity, and the guests give a good overview of today's energy problems and some of the possible solutions.

To see earlier episodes of Future Talk go here. To see the upcoming TV schedule, go here.

Voter Resources for Upcoming Election

2011-10-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

There are 5 weeks until Election Day, November 8. Signs have popped up all over our Palo Alto neighborhood - especially about Measure E. Overall, it's a relatively quiet election with no other Santa Clara county measures and no elected offices for Palo Alto voters.

In San Mateo County, there are a bunch of low profile races that don't get a lot of media coverage. The campaigns for Menlo Park Fire Protection Board, Sequoia Union High School Board, East Palo Alto Sanitary District Board, San Mateo County Community College Board, and the Measure H bond for community colleges are not likely to feature candidate debates or even many fliers. And yet, it's the local leaders who often have the deepest impact on our lives including rates and fees we pay, student experiences, and even our collective carbon footprint.

The Media Center considers every election important for voters and we create video resources to give voters an up-close look at the candidates. We also invite measure proponents and opponents to record a message. These five minute candidate statements provide the only opportunity that many voters will have to compare the "presence" and priorities of each contender, side-by-side.

Check out our Election Page for the video-on-demand links and the TV channel playback times for each race. Make an informed vote on Election Day or on your absentee ballot that will arrive the week of October 10.
The videos are also linked on the League of Women's excellent voter resource web site, SmartVoter.org.

PA Int'l Film Festival Coverage!

2011-09-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

Academy Award Winning Editor and Sound Designer
Walter Murch

It's Thursday September 29 and we're setting up over here at Talent House at 542 High Street in downtown Palo Alto. "We" is comprised of Stan, Scott and Becky. We have the portable studio, the "tricaster' with us and we will be streaming live many of the guest speakers presenting at the inaugural Palo Alto International Film Festival. Once the panels kick off, you can find us on the PAIFF Ustream website. (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/palo-alto-international-film-festival). Check out the entire festival at www.PAIFF.net. And here is the link to the full description of the panelists. Please note not all speakers will be streaming. If you come down to Talenthouse and peek through the windows, you'll see our amazing volunteers hard at work having fun in support of the great staff and volunteers at PAIFF. In addition to Scott and Stan, you may see Cathy Keys, Ilena Ferrar, Bobby Chastain (of KMVT) and Doug Kreitz. It's great fun teaming with this talented and enthusiastic group of producers -- many of whom are "refugees" from Sundance including Michael Bodie who is doing our directing this weekend.

Friday September 30

2 pm Tim Draper - The Future of Media

3 pm Sunil Rajaraman

4 pm Saad Khan, Sunil Rajarama on "How Much Is Your Deal Worth?"

5:30 pm Jasmina Bojic (yes from UNAFF!), Santhosh Daniel, Alesia Weston on "Global Cinema Tomorrow"

7 pm Encyclopedia Pictura

Saturday October 1

3:15 Paul Debevec , Pioneer in Virtual Cinematography

4:15 Steven Gaydos - "Writing the Road to Nowhere"

5:15 Uwe Bergmann - Photographing Molecular Particles, Steven Gaydos

5:30 Stuart Bowling - Advances in Cinema Image and Surround Sound

6:00 Jim Helman - Hollywood in a Digital World

6:30 Jens Peter Wittenburg - Beyond 3D

Sunday

10:30 am Britt Bensen, Dale Djerassi, John McCream Danae Ringelmann, Michael Murphy on "Digital Filmmaking & Distribution"

12 pm Nickhil Jakatdar - The Future of Mobile and Movies

12:30 pm Brett Crockett - Delivering Cinema Sound to Mobile Devices

3 pm John Gaeta - Interfacing with Media

4 pm Santhosh Daniel, Hannah Eaves, Katie Gillum, Matthew Meschery, Michella Rivera-Gravage, Tanya Marie Vlach on "Ditching the Digital Divide"

5 pm

See you online or see you here!

And a special shout out to Aaron Selverston of Palo Alto Patch for introducing me to Alex Ippolite and Alf Seccombe and putting the whole thing in motion!

Who is YOUR Local Hero? Tell the World!

2011-09-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

This is your chance to honor someone you respect and admire

We are soliciting nominations for our annual Local Heroes Award. If you know a hero, please submit your nomination. Six winners will be featured in interviews that will air on the Media Center channels and put on the Web. You can see last year's honorees on our Local Heroes page.

Who's a Hero?

A person who has contributed "over and above" to the community, overcome a significant hardship or attained an important goal
A person somewhat "unsung" or not usually in the limelight
A person with a compelling story to tell.

Because the winners' interviews will be televised, it's especially important that there's a compelling story to tell. We are hoping to find heroes who are also articulate and engaging!

To nominate a Local Hero,
please send email to...

heroes@midpenmedia.org

...and include:

Your name and contact information
The name and contact information of the person you are nominating
A brief description of why your nominee should be selected

We look forward to hearing from you and to honoring our community heroes!

Future Talk show is "Far Out" with SETI

2011-09-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

by Future Talk host, Marty Wasserman

People have long been fascinated by the question of whether intelligent life exists on other planets. The SETI Institute has been trying to answer this question for the past 25 years, by using arrays of radio telescopes to scan the heavens looking for signals that seem to come from an intelligent source. This work is expensive, and most of the costs are paid for by private donors, including Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and actress Jodie Foster, a long time fan of the SETI Institute who starred in the 1997 film "Contact" based on the SETI Institute's work. Of course in the movie, unlike real life so far, they actually find their extraterrestrial intelligence.

This month's Future Talk features an interview with Seth Shostak, Chief Astronomer of the SETI Institute with a Ph.D. in Astronomy from CalTech, who answers a broad range of questions from host Martin Wasserman about the SETI Institute's work. Questions include: why are we so interested in knowing whether there's intelligent life elsewhere? What scientific advances are speeding up the search? What would we do if we actually found evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence? And does the project have scientific value even if we don't find what we're looking for?

Seth is passionate about his work and gives a very lively and energetic interview. Also included are pictures of the telescope array, and images of the Kepler Mission, a NASA project that has already identified numerous planets that might be capable of sustaining life.

The playback times for this episode can be found here.

Previous episodes can be seen here.

MEDIA CENTER TO CELEBRATE AWARD & VOLUNTEERS

2011-09-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

The Midpeninsula Community Media Center is hosting a party on Sunday, September 25, 2011 from 1-5 pm to celebrate the national award the Center recently received from the Alliance for Community Media (ACM). The Media Center is number one among 3,000 community media and public access facilities nationwide. The Media Center was awarded the prestigious "Overall Excellence in Combined Public, Education and Government Access" at the national ACM conference held in Tucson this past July. The Media Center invites members of the community to celebrate this achievement and to honor the efforts of the volunteers who make it all possible.

The Media Center will be taping the Andre Thierry Zydeco Band who will be performing between 2- 4:30. There will be dance lessons and dancing in the cordoned off parking lot. Additionally, there will be tours and hands-on demonstrations of camera operation, lighting, editing, and animation, some of the production skills one can learn through the Media Center. Plus the reel that the Media Center produced that propelled the Center to "best station in the nation" will be running continuously in the Studio. There will be catered refreshments and drawings for free classes and services.

To top it off Mayor Sid Espinosa will join Media Center Executive Director, Annie Folger, her staff and Board in honoring the cadre of volunteers who are the heart and soul of the Media Center operations with a short but meaningful ceremony. It is the Media Center's volunteer producers and crew members who create the majority of the programming that populates the Media Center's five cable channels that are simultaneously streamed from the Media Center's website.

This event is free and open to the public. The favor of a reply is requested: RSVP to 650-494-8686

Event Details:

Community Open House to Celebrate National Award and the Contributions of Volunteers' Time and Talent and Treasure

Sunday, September 25, 2011

1 pm-5 pm

Midpeninsula Community Media Center

900 San Antonio Road

Palo Alto, CA 94306

www.midpenmedia.org

650-494-8686

Cost=Free

Media Center Launches Video Aggregation Library!

2011-08-24T16:48:00.000-07:00

You'll notice a new feature on the Front Page of our website -- a "widget" featuring three community videos. Not every video is necessarily Media Center produced. But each one is a portal to a brave new world. If you click on one of these videos to watch, you will be carried to our new video library site. Hosted by our friends at "Miro", we are able to aggregate video content from all over the Peninsula and bring it to you. If you want meaningful placed-based content, look no further. You can browse the site and even search for topics and keywords that you are interested in. And you can even submit a video to us to add.

This is a curated site so we are specifically avoiding commercial content like house tours that are made by realtors and promotional videos for local businesses. Turns out there is a heck of a lot of video content out there right here on the Peninsula and not all of it is "great". We're straining out the dross as best we can, but then we don't want to be too severe -- because what's dross to one might be nectar to another. So help us out. Tell us what you like and what you don't. Next time you settle in for an evening of good video watching, consider watching our Miro channel. Please post comments and flag content you think should not have slipped passed us. And suggest ways to improve our presentation as well.

We must first off thank people like Anna Jonas at the Participatory Culture Foundation. They make "open tools for shared culture." Anna supported us through the development of the site. Miro's video aggregation tools are provided to non-profits for free. We also thank Stan Ng for implementing the Miro widget onto our website and to Haelin Cho, one of our high school interns who is curating the site for us.

It looks simple and it is; however, it takes a lot of people to make the Media Center world turn on its axis. We're delighted we can collect and curate our locally produced videos. We hope you enjoy the new video library and we look forward to your feedback.

Buster Calms Frazzled Nerves

2011-08-19T15:29:00.000-07:00

The upcoming edition of "In the Sisterhood" features a guest who did not say a word and actually fell asleep during the taping. "Buster," manages to entertain viewers even while snoring away. He is a very laid back, canine pug who works by day at the Palo Alto dental practice of Lori Doran. Dr. Doran is also a guest on the show. She describes how Buster calms down all of her nervous patients, such as those who have viewed "Marathon Man" where Dustin Hoffman gets an unforgettable drilling.

Buster goes to work by climbing in their laps and whispering some sweet nothings. Dr. Doran is a big fan of Ellen de Generes and is hoping that Generes, a dog-lover, will catch wind of this episode and book the Dental Duo for her TV show.

"The Bay Area Loves Buster" premieres on Channel 30, Sunday, August 28 at 1:00 PM. You can find numerous replays listed (as of 8/28) here. Next up for "In the Sisterhood" producer Beth Wilson, is author Dawn Armstrong, who wrote a story of hope that is going viral among military service men and women.

Media Center Wins Highest Award!

2011-08-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

The Media Center has been given the highest honor for its programming and operations by the Alliance for Community Media (ACM). The "Overall Excellence in Combined Public, Education and Government Access" award was announced at the ACM annual conference last week in Tucson, AZ. The ACM is the advocacy organization for 3,000 community media and public access facilities nationwide.

When we looked back at the work of community producers and our staff over the past year, we knew we had something special. We hadn't entered this overall category since we last won it, eleven years ago.

Some of the highlights from the past year include the inspiring Greenlight Environmental Video Festival, coverage of special events such as the state championship seasons for Paly's football and girls' volleyball teams, the Dalai Lama's visit to East Palo Alto, the Senior Games 2010, and World Music Day in Palo Alto.

There was a burgeoning of citizen jouurnalism pieces coming out of the newly launched field production collaborative - Zoom In. The studio continued to come alive every evening with diverse cultural performances such as classical Indian music and Mexican folklorico dancers, as well as two Blues series. Local issues were highlighted on program series like "Other Voices," produced by the Peace and Justice Center and "Talking With Henrietta," and "Make the Call" from the East Palo Alto Police Dept.

The Media Center also touted its grant funded projects such as "Girls' TV - a part of our after school activities at the San Francisco 49ers Academy, and our violence prevention project with East of Bayshore youth who profiled former gang members who transformed their lives. We had also begun our video and blogging project with the Day Worker Center of Mountain View.

The Media Center strives to be a place where every group in the community can get the training and equipment to lift their voices high. Our channels seek to reflect the fabric of our diverse community, its thorny issues, vibrant arts, and achievements. Every single person who worked on a TV show at the Media Center shares in this recognition and the making of a meaningful community resource.

This is the third time in the Midpeninsula Community Media Center's 21-year history that it has received the national award. Additionally, the Media Center has won the regional award for Western Access Video Excellence (WAVE) in 1994, 1997 and 2000. A reel of our sample programming may be viewed here.

On hand to collect the award in Tucson were Executive Director Annie Folger, Past Executive Director and Producer Elliot Margolies and Programming Manager and Producer Rebecca Sanders.

Also honored at the awards ceremony was Media Center producer, Henrietta Burroughs, for an episode of her talk show "Talking with Henrietta." The episode: "Strengthening the Bonds Between Fathers and Children" won for Best Informational Talk Show by an access producer.

More on Day Worker Center and Media Center Collaboration

2011-07-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

The Media Center's work with the Day Worker Center of Mountain View continues to get some good press. The latest is an article in the Mountain View Voice. Unfortunately, nearly all the comments that the article generated are very negative about undocumented immigrants. There's a saying that "an enemy is someone whose story you have never heard" and perhaps the video about the lives of day workers will change a few minds. Our work is an attempt to build bridges within our diverse community through the sharing of stories and personal expression.

This summer we've been so lucky to have an intern, Julio Navarrete, who is a video whiz and is also bilingual. He has helped out enormously in our work with the Day Worker Center and is now teaching a blog-writing class in Spanish there. He made the following short video at the center as well.

SNEAK PEEK AT THE DOWNTOWN LIBRARY

2011-07-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

Guest Blog courtesy of Joyce McClure.

Today Joyce visited the downtown library as a representative of the Media Center. Accompanying her were two MC interns who rolled camera and will be producing a video. Joyce took some stills for us and handed in this report. Thank you, Joyce! Where would we be without our cadre of volunteers?

Children's Area at the Downtown Library

The newly remodeled Palo Alto Downtown Library offered a sneak preview to members of the press today, giving them a chance to meet the new library director, Monique le Conge, and take a tour of the refreshed facilities.

The public is invited to attend the grand opening on Saturday, July 16, from 9:30 to 6.

Special events at the grand opening will include a ribbon cutting ceremony and storytelling session by Palo Alto mayor Sid Espinosa. The street in front of the main entrance across from City Hall will be closed off, and there will be information booths from local support groups, treats for all, and entertainment including a magician, puppet shows, and the highly anticipated “Cowgirl Karen.”

According to former mayor and current library foundation president, Bern Beecham, the library has been transformed from a dark cramped space, to a more useable facility with better access to the light and outdoor areas, and a more attractive computer area.

Jim Schmidt of the Friends of the Palo Alto pointed out that a public library has occupied nearly this same space in downtown for well over 100 years, including the Carnegie Library where City Hall now stands.

The remodeling project came in on schedule and under budget, owing in part to the downturn in the economy which lowered construction costs from the projected 4.4 million dollars to about 3.3 million dollars.

The Group 4 architects credit the City of Palo Alto for encouraging high participation and input from the community, and the architects feel that the new design reflects the community’s values. The design may qualify for LEED silver certification, for environmental and energy efficiency.

The library includes self-check-out, a small section for the Friends of the Library book sale, a group study room, and a meeting space that can be rented by the community.

The most charming space by far is the new children’s area which was a gift from the Friends of the Palo Alto Library. With magnetic paint in a cheerful lime green, small cozy turquoise chairs, a child-sized computer station, poufs to sit on, and a child-sized stage area, the neighborhood children and their families will greatly enjoy this

improved space.

The library is planning to hold author evenings and family fun nights.

The Palo Alto Garden Club provided flowers, and Whole Foods donated refreshments.

Light Fixture in Meeting Room

Bookshelf Area

Library Director Monique le Conge and Library Foundation President Bern Beecham

Work Stations

Spacious Walkway

Short Video and Article on Day Worker Project

2011-07-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

The Media Center has been working with the Day Worker Center of Mountain View to make a video documentary about the lives of Day Workers. The project is made possible by an "Immigrant Integration" grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

The project also includes a blog site for Day Workers and I (Elliot) have been volunteering as a "Blog Teacher" every week at the DWC.

Here is a short, snappy, video that our summer intern, Julio Navarrete, made about the blog class.
http://youtu.be/AmLHxo53C0Q

Here is an article about the documentary and blog class that was done by a Mercury News summer intern.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mosaic/ci_18374990

MC Producer Henrietta Burroughs Wins Coveted Hometown Award!

2011-07-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

At this year's annual conference of the Alliance for Community Media, MC producer Henrietta Burroughs will receive the coveted Hometown Award for an episode of her program Talking with Henrietta. The episode, Strengthening the Bonds Between Fathers and Children, was taped on August 26 of last year here in the studio. This episode competed with shows from all over the country and took the prize for "Best Informational Talk Show." The award will be officially bestowed Friday, July 29 at the annual Hometown Video Awards & ACM Leadership Awards Dinner, to be held this year in Tucson.

This episode features two experts on fatherhood, Bruce Collins, Chairman of the Fatherhood Collaborative of San Mateo County and Hector Sanchez Flores, Director of Policy and Initiatives for the Latino National Fatherhood and Family Institute. Both guests are fathers themselves and along with Henrietta explore stereotypes about fatherhood in communities of color but most importantly review new statistics that prove that men in these communities are more involved in their families than previously thought. The program addresses the important social supports that are available to train all men to be good fathers, and how to transform families by training sons, and not just daughters, to be family-oriented adults.

This is a heart-warming, stereotype-busting insight into a topic that is often misunderstood and often controversial. The two guests are deeply committed to their own families and in working with young men -- especially ones whom society tends to marginalize - in order to show them what an important role they have to play in their families and larger community. When we feel connected to family and community we become their strong protectors. Not rocket science, but it's a message that itself gets overlooked by the mainstream media in favor of more sensational headlines.

We are grateful to Henrietta for getting this message out and we are proud of Henrietta for bringing such acclaim to our station by producing her award winning show here.

Here is a link to Strengthening the Bonds Between Fathers and Children which may be watched Video on Demand (VOD) from our youtube site.

As well as being available VOD, we will be running this episode in addition to the regularly scheduled episodes of Talking with Henrietta throughout July and August. Here is a link to the program schedule.

Talking with Henrietta is produced biweekly and can be seen on Comcast Channel 27 at 4 pm on Sundays with replays Tuesday and Thursday at 8 pm. Ms. Burroughs is an East Palo Alto-based journalist and is editor of the print and online newspaper - EPA TODAY.

Producers In A Panic Over Final Cut X

2011-06-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Final Cut X was just released. We'd like to tell you that we're bringing you the latest and greatest ASAP-est, however, we might have to sit back and watch the bodies pile up first. Editors ARE NOT happy and MC staff and volunteers who have tried the new version are giving it a thumbs down. So we will not be bringing you FCP Pro X anytime soon.

However, allow me to refer you to this excellent article from the Times last Wednesday about what might be deemed wrong with the latest version and then why Apple might have deigned to release such an inferior product.

And finally here is a viral video of Conan's editors' opinions of FCP Pro X from yesterday's show. The question is why would such smart company like APPLE release such a boneheaded version? Are they going to stop supporting FCP which has over 50% of the pro-editing market? Are they going all in on the IPad and IPhone and hanging the huge pro market out to dry? (Did I just mixed 2 metaphors in 1 sentence??? Must be because I'm in a tizzy over FCP!)

MC Producer Terrance Abdullah Dead at 43

2011-06-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

Terrance Abdullah

The Media Center is saddened and shocked to announce the death of a Studio producer. Terrance Abdullah was 43 when he was killed on the Dumbarton Bridge on Tuesday. His car was stalled and was hit from behind by another car. We grieve along with community of East Palo Alto where his family and many friends live and where he visited often.

A resident of Fremont, Terrance Abdullah was a most interesting fellow. He had survived the backstory that plagues too many of our young males of color - drop out, drugs and incarceration. With a singleness of purpose he overcame all of that. A small business owner, he devoted himself to transforming his life and influencing his community to work for change. Earlier this month he produced his first and only episode of BRIDGING THE CORPORATE GAP. The show addresses the lack of people of color in the Silicon Valley workforce and the patterns that perpetuate this glaring omission -- including not only ongoing racial prejudice and the educational/economic divide, but even the mindset of a child who learns early to self-limit expectations. The guests on this - the only episode that will be produced - are a retired educator from DeAnza and the head of Job Train, two of Terrence's own mentors along his road to self actualization.

I knew Mr. Abdullah (called affectionately Tip - by his friends) only professionally. I can assure you that I never got to call him Tip! In fact, I knew very little of his background until I read the articles about him. What I did know of Terrance: he was the kind of guy that will push whatever and whoever to get the job done, to do what he knows is right. Having a conversation with him was at times like going several rounds with a well matched sparring partner. And to his credit he always seemed to get what he wanted out of me! He was always polite but forceful and dogged. That's the making of a good producer. He was bright, passionate and determined to fulfill his vision. Why he is no longer with us baffles and grieves us here at the Media Center.

Terrance's untimely and completely unnecessary death is a very sad reminder that we are all so fragile here, and a call to rededicate our own lives to doing what really matters to us... like Terrence was doing, up until the very moment he left us.

To learn more about the life and times of Terrance Abdullah, please read Henrietta Bourrough's thoughtful article in her online and print publication EPA Today.

Wes Rapaport Receives Highest Honor Paly Can Bestow

2011-06-08T23:45:00.000-07:00

I had the distinct pleasure of being at the Palo Alto High School Graduation ceremony today. I went there to support Wes Rapaport. Wes -- as anyone who has given the Media Center more than a passing glance over the past six years knows -- has given a great deal of his time in service to the Media Center. Well it turns out, no surprise to us, that he has given a great deal of himself whereever he has gone. And whereever he has gone he has left an indelible and positive mark. Everybody loves this guy.

So before his 400 classmates and the two thousand family and friends of the school community, Palo Alto High School conferred upon Wes the 2011 Viking Award. Now this award is NOT given out every year. It is at the discretion of the faculty and more often than not it is not given out. On average, it is awarded every ten years! The Award was presented by Wes's journalism teacher Mike McNulty, who read a veritable litany of four years of Wes' contributions to Paly staff, administration, students and the greater community. Mr. McNulty reported that the faculty and staff easily came to consensus about honoring Wes with the Viking Award, that the decision was"virtually unanimous".

We at the Media Center are extremely proud of Wes and congratulate him on being so recognized by his high school community... and if you are interested in learning about the award that Wes won last week, read on....

Wes on the big screen at the PTA Council Luncheon

So last Friday, Wes was honored by the Palo Alto PTA Council at its annual Honorary Service Awards Luncheon. These awards go to anyone in the community whose pursuit of service to the community has an enormous impact not only on the school community but on the community as a whole. It is their highest accolade and the vetting for this award must be approved at the highest levels in the district. So Wes was lured to the luncheon thinking he was honoring Mr. McNulty, his mentor at Paly, but the tables were turned when it was he, Wes, who received this top honor from the PTA Council.

Well Wes, I think you can just stop now and relax and enjoy your summer. You have a few months until it's time to transform your college campus. We are sure going to miss you around here... but something tells us you'll be back. No one could give as much as you have to your town and not return to brighten its streets and avenues again!

We're bringing you a Special Menlo Park Planning Commission Meeting Live Tonight: Channel 26 at 7 pm

2011-06-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

Tonight the city of Menlo Park is calling a special meeting of the Planning Commission to present and discuss the El Camino Real/Downtown Specific Plan Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR). They want to bring some changes to downtown. The city seeks to promote growth while maintaining the village like quality. How can they attract all Menlo Park residents to downtown to support local businesses? What kind of businesses should be encouraged to set up shop? Who is not being served by the current set up? How can they change traffic patterns to accommodate and foster growth? Here is a link to the agenda.

The meeting will play on Channel 26 at 7 pm. And of course anytime it's on TV you can watch it right off our website! Click here to visit our streaming page.

And if you can't watch tonight, you can watch this and all past Planning Commission and City Council Meetings for Menlo Park, right here.

For me as Programming Manager at the Media Center, this is what I really like about what we do. The meeting was called with fairly late notice. The City of Menlo Park called us to see a) could we provide them with a camera operator and b) could we could take it live? Because we are local and super flexible we were able to say a resounding YES to both requests.

Where else are you going to get that kind of old fashioned "customer service?" Only at your community television station!

Come see us. We'll help you see yourself, the people you know and your community on TV and on the Web. That's what we do.

CHILDHOOD OBESITY DOCUMENTARY SCREENS SUNDAY

2011-06-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Louise Pencavel, Media Center Staff Producer

Our own Louise Pencavel has produced a first of its kind documentary created expressly for parents of kids struggling with obesity. The one-hour long Parents’ Survival Guide: Childhood Obesity will screen in our studios this Sunday. The documentary addresses prevention and cure of a growing pediatric health problem. Obesity rates in the U.S. have doubled since 1980. Over 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese and this is spreading to our children, affecting their growth, health, and quality of life. In the past 3 decades there has been a 300% increase in the fraction of children who are overweight or obese.

This documentary profiles three families struggling with the problem and features: Daniel Delgado, MD, FAAP East Valley Clinic, San Jose; Thomas Robinson, MD, MPH Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital; Ellyn Satter, MS, RD, LCSW, BCD, nationally acclaimed author and educator on child feeding; Stewart Agras, MD, FRCP(C), Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford School of Medicine - all preeminent authorities on Childhood Obesity.

Sponsors and partners include: The Health Trust, Kaiser Santa Clara, El Camino Hospital, First Five Santa Clara County, Healthy Silicon Valley, Parents' Place, Common Sense Media, The Children’s Health Council and The Midpeninsula Community Media Center.

The program will air on the Media Center's Cable Channel 28 the following times:

Sunday, June 5: 8:30 - 9:30 pm
Monday, June 6: 10 - 11 pm
Wednesday, June 8: 9 - 10 am
Friday, June 10: 7 - 8 pm

More information, and the full program online, is at
ParentsSurvivalGuide.org

"Peninsula Backstage" a new TV series on local theater

2011-05-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

Jaime Tuttle as Virginia Dashiell Hillman as Vagabond in production of "Tavern"

What happens when you combine an improv actor with some background in video production with a Media Center volunteer director who dabbles in theatre? You get Peninsula Backstage, a new TV show at the Media Center that “looks inside local live theatre” in order to promote attendance at plays, musicals, and operas at the many live venues within a short drive of the Media Center.
Despite one crew member’s car breakdown, another crew member’s wild goose chase to try and rescue him, a left hand and a right hand, each of which thought that the other was going to put together the graphics, and a guest who almost fell off her stool during the taping, Peninsula Backstage’s first episode aired in April. Guests Diane Tasca and Troy Johnson discussed The Pear Avenue Theatre’s then upcoming production of Pear Slices 2011. The second episode, taped without pratfalls on May 14, highlighted Foothill College’s theatre conservatory and their upcoming production of The Tavern. The set for the show evokes an (unrealistically messy) backstage, with items from Goodwill and dusty closets and Media Center scenery pieces that haven’t been used since the Nixon administration.
Co-producer and host Nina G. Perry was exposed to live theatre at a young age and has been hooked ever since. Currently she is a member of Spontaneous Combustion, an improvisational theatre group that performs in San Francisco and Palo Alto. Co-producer and Director David Simon participates in musical theatre, being more of a singer than an actor. They met through the video classes at Foothill College.
Each episode of Peninsula Backstage highlights a local theatre production that is about to open, interviewing directors, actors, and others from the show. Episodes include a roll-in capturing a fragment of a rehearsal or other preparation for the production. Guests talk about their production and about general aspects of the theatre business.

This blog was contributed by the director of "Peninsula Backstage", David Simon. You can see the playback schedule for the next episode here.

Media Center Gets a Grant for Greenlight Festival

2011-05-04T16:40:00.000-07:00

Annie Folger and Elliot Margolies pose with San Jose Councilman, Sam Liccardo, for hordes of papparazzi.

The Greenlight Environmental Film Festival is about to get bigger and better than ever before, thanks to a San Jose Community Energy Champions Grant. The Media Center was one of 18 groups in Santa Clara County who received a grant. A total of $335,500 was awarded for projects that promote energy conservation and efficiency including about $20,000 for the Greenlight Festival project. The Media Center will beef up its outreach to students countywide to enter the video festival, offering more technical support as well. After next year's festival in April 2012, the Media Center will create a DVD featuring the winning programs and create a package of contextual handouts along with a discussion guide that will be distributed to 65 teachers for classroom presentations.

Do you know of any Santa Clara county middle school or high school teachers that you think might want the package? Any leads will help us with our outreach.

The Community Energy Champions Grant program was created by the City of San Jose and the Silicon Valley Energy Watch, a partnership between the City of San Jose and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) serving most of Santa Clara County. The grant supports innovative projects that include energy efficiency as an integral component of targeted climate action and environmental education. The projects are being fully funded through PG&E's Innovator Pilots program.

The other funded organizations include: Acterra (also from Palo Alto), Alviso Neighborhood Group, Asian American Center of Santa Clara County, Boys & Girls Club of Silicon Valley, Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, Center for Training and Careers, City of Cupertino, San Jose Community Media Access Corporation (CreaTV), De Anza Community College, Enlighten Culture and Education Foundation, Green Energy Agents, Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley, Sacred Heart Community Service, San Jose State University Research Foundation, SJB Child Development Center, and ZERO1: The Art & Technology Network.

"Stanford Hospital Health Notes" Debuts Tonight - Channel 28 - 8:30 pm

2011-05-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

I had no ideas that therapeutic dogs trawl the halls of the Stanford Hospital. Sometimes, however, seeing a friendly pooch is just what a patient needs to motivate him to get better. I would never have known that, if I hadn't connected into this fascinating new program debuting tonight. Read on!

The Media Center and Stanford Hospital and Clinics are pleased to roll out a new 1/2 hour program covering health topics and news from Stanford Hospital and Clinics. The series debuts tonight and will run each week all month, with a new episode debuting the first Monday of the month. Each half hour program will include a series of short videos which profile faculty physicians, patient stories, special programs and other topics of relevance to the Hospital and to our community.

Watch here for a sample video:

If you can't watch tonight, check out the schedule:

Monday, Channel 28 8:30 pm
Tuesday, Channel 28, 3:30 pm
Friday, Channel 28, 8:30 am
Saturday, Channel 30. 10:30 pm
(AT&T U-verse Channel 99, same dates and time!)

And remember, anytime it's on TV, it's streaming off our website at midpenmedia.org/stream.

ANNA ESHOO LIVE TODAY CHANNEL 27 6:00-7:30 PM

2011-04-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

CONGRESSWOMAN ANNA ESHOO

LEADS A DISCUSSION ON INTERNET PRIVACY

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011, 6-7:30 pm

TO BE BROADCAST LIVE ON TV AND STREAMED LIVE OVER THE INTERNET

Technology Journalist Larry Magid and representatives from Facebook, Inc. will join Congresswoman Anna Eshoo in a candid discussion of Internet privacy, safety and security tools. Larry is a co-director of ConnectSafely.org and has been a crusader for child safety and protection on the Internet. Facebook as the #1 social networking website in the world has an interest in providing its customers with high security but maximum flexibility – which are often seen as incompatible.

The event is free and open to the public and will be held at the Palo Alto City Council Chambers, 250 Hamilton Street. Seating is limited. Must RSVP: 650-323-2984.

This event is being carried LIVE by the Media Center on Comcast Channel 27 and on AT&T U-verse Channel 99 in the cities of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton and Stanford. This event will also be streamed live from the Media Center’s website www.midpenmedia.org/stream.

To find out about replays of this event on the Media Center Channels, contact Becky@midpenmedia.org

ZOOMIE FINALISTS ANNOUNCED!!!!

2011-04-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

The scoring sheets are in! The initial results have been tabulated...

Thank you to our judges:

Sue Purdy Pelosi - Board Member

Joyce McClure - Zoom In Volunteer, not in Competition

Colin Marchon, Youth Advisory Council Representative

When the final tabulations are in, there will be awards in each producer level (Student or Collaborative) for Overall Excellence and Community Impact!

And the finalists are:

Student Projects (in order by title):

Mandakini Valley, Laki Eassey

One Simple Thing, Rob and Robert DeGeus

Restoring Steel Head Trout to Creeks in Los Altos, Joe Eyre

Steam Punk, Krishna Raghunath

Teen Suicide, Wesley Ting

What's Love Got To Do With It?, Kari Martell

Zoom In Video Collaborative Projects (in order by title):

Beauty by the Bay, Doug Kreitz

Forest Wanderings, Sally Rayn

MLK at JCC, Katia and Natasha Fontarensky

MLK Service Day, Shobana Swamy

Teen Stress, Wesley Ting

These videos will be screened and the winners announced at...

the 2nd Biannual ZOOMIES

Screening and Awards

This Friday April 29 7:00

Media Center Studios

All are welcome... Follow this link to RSVP!

GREENLIGHT PHOTOS & AWARDEES

2011-04-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

Wes, Louise, Vaness, Annie, Sid & Peter

I have to say, after last night's screening of the top fifteen films in this year's Greenlight Film Festival, I'm not too keen on the word "winners" -- all 15 films were flat out winners and deserving of being in the finalists circle. What a challenge to be a judge this year! Still, it was a job done with great skill by 9 judges pulled from the Green community, the Media Center staff and volunteers and young filmmakers. Thank you to our fine judges:

Cathy Keys - UNA Film Festival

Catherine Martineau – Canopy

Jim McCarthy - Creek Stewardship Volunteer

Susi Merhar - Acterra

Catalina Morales-Liu - Independent Producer

Arianna Tamaddon - Student

Austin Tamaddon - Student

Kathy Ushiba - Concentric Media

Laura Wolfson – Keller - Student

The finalists and the ultimate awardees were:

Middle School Category:

If Everyone by Gary McSweeny (Palo Alto)

The Consequence and the Solution by Ezer Isai Angeles (Mountain View)

Wanted by Carter Lee, Bryan Young, and Daniel Furgy (Mountain View)

127 Minutes by Charlie and Henry Badger (Palo Alto) - WINNER

Eating Locally by Emily Zhang and Margaret Rosenthal (Palo Alto)

High School Category:

Reversing the Trend by Caroline and Jonathan Armer (Mountain View)

Bay Area Energy Solutions by Grace Chen and Max Martinez (Mountain View)

5 Ways to Keep Earth Beautiful by Sarah Miller, Nathan Bills, and Jake Koval (Palo Alto)

Running Out of Time by Emily Wong (Palo Alto) -WINNER

How Big is Your Footprint by Madeline Dahm (Palo Alto)

Open Category (all others including elementary school and adults):

Patrick Dougherty’s Palo Alto Sculpture by Farrah Plummer (Palo Alto) -WINNER

Where Are The LEED-ers? by Dicky Yan (Mountain View)

On the Rise by John Tupper (San Jose)

Spread Too Thin by David Simon (Los Altos)

Take a Ride on the Wild Side by Jim Skinner (Palo Alto)

And many thanks to our Master and Mistress of Ceremonies: Peter Drekmeier (former Mayor, founder of Acterra) and Louise Pencavel (Media Center Producer). And thank you to Mayor Sid Espinosa for his words of encouragement -- reminding all filmmakers young and old about the transformational power of film! And it was great to see former Mayor Jim Burch and Chairman of the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce Dan Dykwel (and Media Center Board Member) in the audience as well.

Finally, I wasn't on crew last night at Cubberley, but we had the usual fabulous staff coverage spearheaded by Production Manager Karen Adams, Director Doug Smith, Camera Operators: Francisco Del Rosario, Lupita Segura and Jeff McGinnis, Stage Managers Annie Folger (our Executive Director), Brad Sanzenbacher (our Youth Services Coordinator and Greenlight Organizer), and finally last but never least Wes Rapaport, Paly Senior, award winning filmmaker and Media Center Youth Staff.

We hope Midpeninsula-based filmmakers will start planning their entries for next year's Greenlight NOW!


Dan Dykwel from the Chamber and Mayor Sid Espinosa

Tune in and watch all the entries and the finalists on our stations and out website. Here is a link to the TV schedule. Don't forget anytime a program is scheduled to run on our channels it is available to watch right off the streaming page.

Doug Smith

Francisco Del Rosario and Jeff McGinnis

Mayor Sid Espinosa and Media Center Rock Star Producer Wes Rapaport

The Stars Shine for the Greenlight Film Festival!

2011-04-22T12:14:00.001-07:00

Last Night's "Green Carpet" screening of the finalists of the 2011 Greenlight Earth Day Film Festival was a night of laughter and thoughtful conversation about the environment, as students and filmmakers from across the Peninsula joined together to celebrate the Festival's 6th year.

Winning films ranged from documentaries, to artistic pieces, to creative narratives. Each producer had the chance to come on stage for a brief interview about the inspiration for their films.

There were many lessons to be learned at the event. From David Simon's film, "Spread too Thin," the crowd learned that mass transit corridors attract residents who drive less, and thereby reduce traffic. From "Reversing the Trend" by Caroline and Jonathan Armer, the crowd was made aware of the blight of the Burrowing Owl on the Peninsula.

But it was Henry Badger had the best lesson of the night, in response to a question about his Middle School category winning film, "127 Minutes." "The real lesson here, is don't get stuck in recycling dumpsters."

Check out the Badger Brother's Film Here:

Visit www.midpenmedia.org for a playback schedule for all the Greenlight Films!

Guest Blog: Beth Charlesworth: Report from NAB

2011-04-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

Beth Charlesworth is a member of our ZOOM IN Video Production Collaborative and attended the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Trade Show in Las Vegas last week. Here are some of the fascinating things she learned. Thank you, Beth!

Beth told me to cut it down, but I couldn't stop reading it and wouldn't know which super valuable information to trim... so please either read the whole thing or skip to the topic that interests you:

3D Content - it's here to stay!

Democratization of Content Creation - Playing Field is Level but it's Harder and harder to make a living in the business!

Filmmaker Kevin Smith

Canon's Explorers of Light Series on Photographers and Cinematographers

Computing in the Cloud - Rendering Made Faster

Products: Final Cut Pro 10, "Get" from AV3 Software, Video Camera GoPro and a 5" OLED monitor from Sony

Beth Charlesworth

3D Content

The overarching theme this year was 3D: available now in movies, in professional and consumer videography, and coming soon to TV broadcasting. In the kickoff session, filmmaker James Cameron predicted that in 3 years when 3D TV is widely available without need for 3D glasses, there will be such massive consumer demand that content providers including TV broadcasters must be ready to shift to 3D in all programming. When a student asked a panel of cinematographers if he needed to know 3D filmmaking to get a job as a cameraman, the head of the ASC (US cinematographers’ union) replied, “unless you will retire in 2 years, YES.” Products on the convention floors included 3D displays, and 3D cameras ranging from very high-end for filmmaking, to a tiny video GoPro for a few hundred dollars. A Warner Bros. executive said a 3D smartphone will be out this summer and several 3D tablets will be released late this year. Content-creators’ approaches to 3D were wide-ranging. One filmmaker used a side-by-side mounted pair of Canon Powershot point-and-shoots in video mode to create 3D video. The most spectacular and compelling example of 3D content I saw at NAB, was from a 3D version of the Royal Opera House’s production of “Carmen,” which reportedly was released in theaters last month. 3D Carmen was amazing, gorgeous – the audience could not tear eyes away from the giant screen.

Democratization of content creation

This is not a new subject, but was raised again and again in formal sessions and informal conversations, because the economics of media and entertainment are rapidly changing with DSLR filmmaking, production of high-end visual effects by independent contractors, video news coverage streamed directly from a smartphone via the web, etc. No one I heard would predict the end result of these changes. While many products shown on the floors were directed to such independent creators, there was great concern among independents about whether their business models were viable. Video motion effects creators I asked about the state of their markets reported frustration with clients’ purchasing decisions being made solely on price. The same was said by a number of independent producers of corporate and other commercial video I spoke with – that quality counts for little in this recessionary market, that they find corporate buying decisions are solely cost-based. Yet it was also widely remarked, especially by content distributors in panel sessions, that with video now omnipresent, consumers demand high-quality production values to watch video on any venue including Youtube. Executives from established post production houses complained on one hand of having to compete with mom-and-pop garage-based studios, while reporting increased profits by winning contracts and then outsourcing the work to mom-and-pop or offshore contractors. Indie filmmaker Gareth Edwards (“Monsters” released 2010) predicted soon 2 kids in a garage will make a terrific film for $1000 (lots of garage-based creativity discussed at NAB), distribute it via the web while making tons of money, and blow up Hollywood’s business model.

Kevin Smith and “Red State”

Kevin Smith may be the most entertaining human on the planet. Between riffs answering audience questions he presented excerpts from his new film “Red State,” described as his answer to the Westboro Baptist Church. He is marketing the film through personal appearances – “in-person 3D.” “Red State,” he said, is his last film, as he no longer needs “$20 million and 200 people to realize an artistic vision.” On May 9, 2011, he will launch S.I.R., Smodcast Internet Radio, on which he will be a principal entertainer/interviewer.

Live presentations by Canon’s Explorers of Light

On the show floor, Canon offered hourly presentations by noted still photographers and cinematographers, including Russell Carpenter (Oscar for cinematography in “Titanic”), Alex Buono (director of photography for Saturday Night Live), Bruce Dorn (nature and commercial still photographer and videographer), Rodney Charters (director of photography for “24”), and a number of others. My one regret from NAB is that I did not spend at least an entire day in the Canon booth watching and learning from all these experts. I spent more than half of one day there, learning how they use DSLRs for videography and in filmmaking (and stills), how to maximize these cameras’ outstanding performance in low-light settings, how to light for video, what effects various lenses will produce. Excerpts from their recent films and commercial work illustrated how DSLRs are being used in video. A few points out of many:

· Video lighting can be done very inexpensively, with supplies from the hardware store. Make a dolly from a skateboard or bike. See the recently published book “A Shot in the Dark” by J. Holden.

· With digital editing capability, the pace of video has greatly increased. Average length of an edited TV clip = 4 sec.; for 40 minutes of a TV show made by this cinematographer, 1200 different clips were used.

· As little as ½ foot-candle of light has been used to light a video taken by a high-end DSLR, which recorded good video although actors were barely visible to the naked eye in the dark.

· A higher ISO setting is not always noisier than a lower ISO. For Canon DSLRs, use “native” ISO settings in multiples of 160, to create least noise.

· Use 24 frames per second for the most cinematic look in video. Faster fps settings may be perceived as lower quality, more as video than cinema.

· Watch the web for release soon of an option for a Technicolor picture style (color palette) for Canon DSLRs.

· A series of stills can be sped up, for example to show rapidly the transition from dusk to night to dawn. Use the DSLR manufacturer’s intervalometer (about $150) to set intervals for still shots. To control for changes in exposure, bracket stills and/or use a 3^rd-party exposure controller (under $300).

Computing in the Cloud:

· Digital editing capabilities are creating greatly increasedneed for computing power, which will grow even faster with 3D.

· Avatar’s 1^st 9 minutesrequired 3 nonstop weeks to render.

· Recent Dreamworks 3D animated films eachrequired rendering time in the 10s of millions of computer hours. The figurehas about doubled for each animated film created by this studio in the past fewyears, and is expected to continue to grow at at least this pace. The Company has a relationship with HPfor use of HP server farms continuously as production progresses, editing andrendering along the way.

Final Cut Pro 10

Final Cut Pro 10 wasintroduced at the FCP Users’ Group Supermeet Tuesday night. It is a radical improvement (notsimplification) of the software. Examples: inserting clips in the timeline with no disruptions in thetimeline; ability to sync multiple-source audio to video, ability to makeselections of areas within the frame to be adjusted for color, brightness etc.;color-matching of entire palettes between clips (an example was shown of clipsof the same subject filmed at different times of day being matched so that allwere made to conform to the color palette of light in the designated clip). Version 10 will be out inJune for $299, regardless of upgrade or new purchase. Apple rep wouldn’t say whether all of Final Cut Studio willbe upgraded at the same time.

Get from AV3 Software:

"Get" is designed for use with Final Cut Pro in editingspoken audio – interviews, dialogue, etc. Enter a word (or multiple words, a phrase, or combinations of these),and Get will search your audio, identify where it occurs, provide a list ofthose clips in the browser. Getsearches an hour of audio in 1 minute. When one of the identified clips is opened in the viewer, the timelineat the bottom will have color-coded dots on it marking where that word can befound. For example, if I search myaudio for mention of Palo Alto, Mountain View, and/or Menlo Park, Get will giveme a list of all clips in which any of these terms occurs, to move into thebrowser. The list will havecolor-coded dots beside each clip (i.e. blue for Palo Alto, red for MountainView, yellow for Menlo Park) indicating which term appears in which clip. When I open one of the clips in theviewer, the timeline below will have a blue dot wherever Palo Alto ismentioned, a red dot wherever Mountain View is mentioned, a yellow dot whereverMenlo Park is mentioned. Can bedownloaded for $249 at www.getphonetic.com. Peter Ramsay from AV3 said they will give substantial discounts tononprofit organizations who provide proof of nonprofit status.

GoPro: availablenow is the tiny, about 3” square, $299 Hero video camera which takes beautiful1080p video under extreme conditions, as well as time lapse stills. Waterproof to 180 ft. depth. See examples of video at www.gopro.com. Demonstrated at NAB but not yeton website: 3D GoPro video camera, only slightly larger. Viewing video in 3D requires 3D glassesand 3D display. NAB attendees(including me) stood around a large 3D TV display with jaws dropped, watchingsurfers appear to shoot out of the screen at us. Comes with attachments for helmet or on-person wearing ORsurfboard mount OR car mount, as well as various mounts availableseparately. All Hero HD camerasare the same, only mounting accessories differ. Standard-definition Heros also available for lower price.

4. SONY 5” OLED monitor for DSLRs, with peaking: Very sharp, very bright, and with surroundingscreens for outdoor use as well as indoor. Mounts on hot shoe or on rails. Peaking feature shows parts of imagewhich are in focus. Should be veryuseful for DSLRs such as Canon 5D Mark II, where is difficult to focus usingLED display on back of camera. (I ordered one!) At around $400, much less expensive than other monitors forDSLRs.

NAB is enormous, crowded, and exhausting. Take heavily padded walking shoes. There is a reason for the (real)massage therapists giving back massages in chairs lining the central hall.

Heroes Photos and Article From Patch!

2011-04-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's annual Local Heroes Screening and Awards just stood out. You just can't be hard-hearted or cynical when confronted by the selfless behavior and greater vision of these folks. Need to thaw that attitude and get inspired? Make sure you catch the individual videos and the highlights of their stories as we feature the good works of these fine citizens who are our neighbors this week and throughout May in our Local Heroes series. Here's a link to our program schedule where you can watch the Heroes either via Comcast or AT&T at home on TV or streaming on our website. They will also be available VOD soon as well right from our website.

We are delighted that Palo Alto Patch picked up the story. Here's a link to the article written by Philip Spiegel. Thank you Philip!

And finally here are some wonderful pictures from yesterday's festivities. Put this event on the calendar for next year! Don't miss a chance to meet real life heroes and shake their hands.

Ellen Fletcher - Cycling Advocate

John Wu (Mental Health Activist) & Friends

Kate Young of Palo Alto Housing Corporation

Bardi Rosman Koodrin, Pioneer in Pain Management

Local Heroes Producer Louise Pencavel with Robert Freeman

Robert Freeman, Founder of One Dollar for Life

Studio Audience Mobs Heroes

Audience During the Screening

(One of our heroes could not be present and thus is not pictured: Superior Court Judge Eugene Hyman who works with the perpetrators and victims of domestic violence. But his profile is being broadcast this week and throughout May!)

2010 Accomplishments Aplenty

2011-04-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

We decided to enter the national Hometown Video Festival in the "Overall Excellence" category. The award, from the Alliance for Community Media, goes to the media center that exemplified the best practices in the previous year and served their community best. We have to answer three questions in 250 words (each) or less, which is a major challenge!

We think you'll be proud when you read the summary of ways we responded to community needs and concerns in 2010, so we're including it here. Unfortunately, even this skimpy overview is 100 words too long. If you want to try your hand at editing, send us a leaner version.

"In response to five youths taking their own lives within six months, the Media Center collaborated on numerous community initiatives to prioritize teen well-being. We partnered with the PTA Council and the Adolescent Counseling Services to create six programs. We covered all school board meetings and a city-sponsored forum for youth. Every program was heavily promoted and discussed on our blog site and Facebook page. The Media Center initiated the “Sound Lounge” where kids can hang out on the weekend and perform live music, the only such venue in Palo Alto, and we conducted our “Digiquest” Summer Camps.

We partner with the East Palo Alto police department to produce a TV series and web site featuring the families of murder victims that solicits help from the public to solve cases including the murder of a civic leader that shocked the community in 2010.

We launched the Zoom-In Collaborative in 2010, that trained 66 people to produce short-form videos including citizen journalism pieces. Zoom-In grads covered important local stories such as a tragic plane crash and the community response to a “God Hates Fags” rally by a Kansas-based church.

Three grants received in 2010 enabled us to create high-impact media projects. “Alive and Free Stories” was a project with at-risk youth who created video profiles of former gang members and their transformations. The project included a web site featuring the videos and several community presentations. “Day Workers Journal” got underway with video training (in Spanish) and the beginnings of a documentary about the lives of day workers, as well as a worker-written blog site. “Girls TV” was part of an after-school program we launched for at-risk youth that mentored girls in communications technologies.

Two teams from Palo Alto High School won state championships and collaborating with a nearby media center, we “fielded” a production truck and crews to cover key games.

The Media Center produced candidate forums and ballot measure debates for 18 election races in 2010 in partnership with two civic organizations. We also produced 368 government meetings for four municipalities.

All of the aforementioned programs are available on demand."

Local Heroes Presented by the Media Center

2011-03-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

The public is invited to the fifth annual celebration of Local Heroes profiled by the Midpeninsula Community Media Center. A reception and free, public screening of highlights from interviews with the Heroes will take place at the Media Center on Sunday, April 17, 4 – 6 pm.

The complete TV programs about the winners, will air throughout the week (April 17 - 23) on the Media Center’s cable Channel 30.

The Media Center is honoring six heroes from the Midpeninsula who devote their lives bravely and selflessly--but silently--outside the limelight - for the betterment of our communities. The heroes and the TV playback times of the individual profiles are:

Monday, April 18, 8 pm:
ELLEN FLETCHER, Palo Alto’s number one champion of the biking community.

Tuesday, April 19, 8 pm:
DAN WU, a high tech engineer who became a psychiatric nurse and community mental health advocate after helping his wife come to grips with Schizophrenia.

Wednesday, April 20, 8 pm:
KATE YOUNG, Director of Resident Services at Palo Alto Housing Corporation, a non-profit that creates and maintains housing for low- and moderate-income residents.

Thursday, April 21, 8 pm:
BARDI KOODRIN, survivor of countless illnesses who has turned her considerable writing talents to helping others who face similar adversities.

Friday, April 22, 8 pm:
EUGENE M. HYMAN, a Santa Clara County judge who has created an unprecedented program of early intervention with counseling, support and therapy for young people who have acted violently against family members.

Saturday , April 23, 8 pm:
ROBERT FREEMAN, creator of an organization that collects just one dollar from millions of high school students then uses the funds for infrastructure projects in developing countries.

All programs are simultaneously available via our Channel 30 webstream that is accessible on our web site.

Reception information:
Where: The Media Center, 900 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto, 94303
When: 4 PM - 6 PM; April 17
RSVP: Karen at 650-494-8686 ext 18 or kadams@midpenmedia.org
Seating is limited and refreshments will be served so we would appreciate an RSVP before Friday, April 8.

Charlie Class and the Gila River Japanese Internment Camp

2011-03-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

Charlie Class, who produces a bimonthly studio show called "Michael Killen on Creativity" and bicycles in another show, "Square Dance Live" has got a secret passion. He has become passionately involved in the production and the promotion of a new documentary about the Japanese Internment experience.

GILA RIVER and MAMA is a documentary produced and directed by Claire Mix, whose mother Ruth was 15 years old when she volunteered as a nurse's aid at a Japanese Internment Camp. Ruth's mother, Claire's grandmother Frida was a teacher at the school in the compound, and she devoted herself to finding ways to make life more bearable for the Internees. Charlie knows Claire and knew her mother. Using actors, this documentary recreates actual events catalogued by Ruth, who shared her experiences with her daughter when Ruth became terminally ill in 2007. Claire was riveted by her mother's tale and the re-telling of it became her obsession. At the age of 15, Ruth Mix began a career of smuggling in contraband goods like cameras and film into the camp so that the living conditions could be made record of. She also smuggled in items like soap and cloth and other basic items denied the Japanese while imprisoned. She formed lifelong friendships with some of the Internees and her life became inextricably entwined with those friends. When Ruth died, Claire picked up the thread of her mother's story and her friendships. This documentary is the result of three generations of activism on behalf of the injustices of the Japanese Internment Camps. When Charlie learned of the story, well, he couldn't stay away either. Charlie has been instrumental in supporting this project and bringing it to fruition.

A special screening takes place today at the COLLEGE OF A SAN MATEO ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL in Building 03 at 1 pm.

IT'S HOMETOWN VIDEO AWARDS TIME AGAIN

2011-03-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

Yes folks it's time to get your entries in! Once again, our organizational super wizard Lupita Segura will be handling the entries. By submitting through us, your local cable access TV station, you will only pay $40 per entry versus $70 if you submit independently. Please get your submission to us by 5 pm, Wednesday April 6.

All the info you need is right on the Hometown Awards Website. If you want to submit independently you can do so right on the website. However if you want to submit through us, do one of the following:

1. Submit online but PAY US, don't pay THEM. They will give you an entry # if you submit online whether you pay online or not; OR

2. Submit everything through us.

In any case all producers entering through us:

Fill out the form! Print out the form. Keep a copy for yourself and bring us 2 copies. We will send 1 copy to ACM and we will keep 1 copy for our records.
Give us a check in the amount of $40 (PER ENTRY) made out to The Media Center
Submit your entry on a single DVD. They prefer DVD-R!
Label your DVD with:

Program Title
Category Name and Number
Producer Division
Entry # if you enter online but don't pay; if you don't enter online; ACM will supply you with an entry number

Winners will be announced at the annual ACM Conference, held this year in Tucson, Arizona, July 27-30. Conference info is also available on the website.

We were proud to have one winner from last year's stable of entries from the Media Center with Theatre Factory - Merry Wives of Windsor produced by Patty Page and Patricia Neme.

Day Workers and Media Center Collaboration

2011-03-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

Who are those guys standing around on El Camino waiting for drivers to hire them? Why did they come to the U.S. and what kind of lives are they leading here in the midpeninsula? Those questions and more will be answered in a media project unfolding at the Day Worker Center of Mountain View.

A collaboration between the Media Center and the Day Worker Center was made possible by a grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The day workers have been videotaping interviews with each other to create a piece that will describe themselves to the community-at-large. The Media Center has provided training and editing support. When it is finished - in about a month - there will be a number of presentations at local high schools and colleges, and day workers will be on hand for follow up Q&A. If you are part of a church or community group that might be interested in a presentation, please let us know. In this time when immigration reform is high on the government agenda, it is important that we hear the voices of these job-seeking emigrants from Mexico and Central America.

In addition to the video, the workers are now blogging on a newly created web site. The Spanish blogs will soon be translated into English while other entries are written in English by local folks who volunteer at the center. The center just recently opened on Escuela St. in Mountain View. After years of renting out rooms in various churches, the Day Worker Center now owns its own building. During the day, when workers are not hired for jobs, they attend English classes and sometimes do community service projects.

JOHN TURTURRO Accepts Maverick Award - Caught by Kamla Bhatt

2011-03-02T14:24:00.000-08:00

Kamla Bhatt used to volunteer here at the Media Center. She currently produces a radio show at KZSU Stanford. I ran into her at Opening Night at Cinequest last night. And she got a nice youtube piece of John accepting his award. Run over to her website to watch her youtube piece.

And right here you can watch my youtube video of John arriving at the theater.

I hope to post the 20 minute interview he gave after we watched his film Passione - about the music of Napoli! He is a really down to earth actor and really accessible to the fans. He put up with a lot of pawing and picture taking at the after party. He didn't have himself surrounded by body guard/entourage like some of the Maverick winners of the past. And the fans really responded. People love this guy.

GLOBAL COMMUNITY - Farewell After 60 Years of Service!

2011-02-25T19:04:00.001-08:00

TONIGHT (Friday) on Channel 28 at 7 pm and TOMORROW (Saturday) on Channel 27 at 8 pm, watch the two hour tribute to GLOBAL COMMUNITY. This program was produced here at the Media Center Studios and makes its official debut in tandem with Palo Alto Online's newsy article posted yesterday and the notice in the "Online This Week" column on page 10 of the Palo Alto Weekly print edition today. Global Community shuttered its doors on December 31, 2010 after 60 years as an educational and fundraising non-profit. Global Community gave away tens of millions of dollars to thousands of worthy organizations during its tenure and was steered by many visionaries many of whom were able to attend this special taping... including trustee and former Palo Alto Mayor Jim Burch, Brian Swimme, Duane Elgin, and Richard Rathbun.

Click here for the complete schedule of Global Community broadcasts. And remember whenever a program is playing on our channels, it can be watched anywhere in the world right off our website.

Public Studio Event Tomorrow: Memorial of the Khojaly Massacre

2011-02-18T15:39:00.000-08:00

Khojaly Memorial in the Hague

Why have I never heard of the Khojaly Massacre? Where was I during the two days of February 25 and 26, 1992? I was probably chasing my 2 year old daughter around and expecting my son. My husband was a student but often at home. What would it have been like to engage in my day to day activities and then have an army detail come into Escondido Village where we were living and open fire on all the families that lived there?

Khojaly is a town in Azerbaijan and the Armenian army engaged in ethnic cleansing over a two day period in February 1992, ending the lives of 2000 people.

The Media Center has the very somber privilege of hosting a Memorial to the Khojaly Massacre here tomorrow in our studios: Saturday, February 19, 2011, 7 pm.

This event will include a short documentary about the massacre, two speakers, and a photo exhibit. A reception will follow the presentation. The scheduled speakers are Dr. Hadi Sultan-Qurraie who will talk about Recent Genocides and what can be done to stop future Genocide. And Dr. Zarifa Musayeva will present what Armenian authors are saying about Khojaly.

This event is free and open to the public. This event will be taped and played back on our channels. Click here to link to the playback schedule.

The Khojaly memorial at the Hague depicts a soldier holding up a small child ready to dash the poor child's life to kingdom come. What a horrific contrast to the beautiful statue that stands on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. She holds a beacon of light and invites the world to her protection. When events like this are able to happen in our studios, in some small way, the Media Center honors our universal obligation as citizens of the world to keep the promise of that light alive.

This event is sponsored by the Azerbaijan Cultural Society of California, Northern Azerbaijan Cultural Society of America, the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center and the Consulate of the the Azerbaijan Republic in Los Angeles.

"Vets Helping Vets"

2011-02-17T17:19:00.000-08:00

by Sheryl Shaffer

It is hard to believe that it has been 15 years since the "Veterans Helping Veterans" TV series began at the Media Center. Had no idea how this series was going to change my life. Never expected it to last this long but someone out there is watching.

Since we have been on blip.tv and pegmedia.org many people are watching this series about veterans entitlements all over the U.S.. The mission of the "VHV TV" series is to educate and inform veterans of their entitlements. Also to encourage veterans to volunteer and make a positive difference in their communities.

We have recently received our second grant from the AMVETS California Service Foundation. This grant allows me to get out of the studio and to conduct on-the-street type interviews. It is my intention to take this program concept and turn it into a national program for AMVETS. I travel throughout California doing interviews. We go on location to the Vets Home in Barstow on Feb. 28. Will be in Media Ctr studio next month.

Thank you for encouraging me to do this program Elliot.

Click here to find out when Vets Helping Vets will be played on our channels. All programs can be watched on the Media Center's webstream anytime they are programmed.

(This blog is part of a new series of "guest blogs" submitted by our producers to highlight guests and topics on recent programs produced at the Media Center.)

DEALING WITH GLOBAL WARMING by Henrietta Burroughs, Producer, "Talking With Henrietta"

2011-02-15T12:20:00.000-08:00

Michael Killen, Henrietta Burroughs, Edwin Sheffner, Russell Averhart

Scientists and governments around the world have expressed concerns about the effects of global warming. These concerns have only increased over the years. Scientists and representatives from various countries have held meetings to discuss climate change and to work out agreements to lessen the damaging effects projected climate changes will have on our world.

As an expression of this concern globally, governments adopted the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 to set binding targets for 37 countries to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which have accelerated global warming. In 2006, the California State Legislature signed into law AB 32 the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which set 2020 as a goal for cities to meet preset standards for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Given the worldwide concerns regarding global warming and the federal and state regulations that have gone into effect related to it, the latest edition of Talking with Henrietta discusses climate change and global warming from a local perspective. The show’s host, Henrietta J. Burroughs speaks with three guests on the show: local artist Michael Killen, Edwin Sheffner who is the Deputy Division Chief for the Earth Science Division of the Ames Research Center at NASA and East Palo Alto’s Redevelopment Manager Russell Averhart who is working on a climate action plan for East Palo Alto. During the show discussion, the guests talk about what is being done locally to address some of the issues involving global warming, specific steps one local city is taking and things individuals can do to lessen the effects that climate change will have on future generations. A video excerpt from the show can be seen on YouTube. Additional information about the show is provided on the East Palo Alto Today website.

Click here to find out when this and other episodes of Talking with Henrietta will be played on our channels. All programs can be watched on the Media Center's webstream anytime they are programmed.

(This blog is part of a new series of "guest blogs" submitted by our producers to highlight guests and topics on recent programs produced at the Media Center.)

MC Staff and Board More Than Desk Jockeys!

2011-02-14T12:21:00.000-08:00

Andrew Mellows at his makeshift workshop in the Studio

Board Member Andrew Mellows point out the culprit!

MC Staff tidy up the roof!

The last few weeks, staff and board members have been turning up in odd places doing unexpected things that benefit the infrastructure of the Media Center and make things run more smoothly. The average Media Center producer and patron might not know about the kinds of things that go on behind the scenes to keep this place tip top. Check out these few items...

A few weeks ago several staff members were caught up on the roof, clearing away the detritus from the old parking lot trees that was clogging some of our vents and in general decomposing on top of our solar panels and making a general nuisance. We could have called in some pro roof cleaners, but Annie wanted to get the job done before the new parking lot went in. A strong wind might have carried the debris down to the new pavement and then we'd have little leaf fossils everywhere. Well it didn't happen did it? Thanks to our sneaky MC Staff.

You see our gorgeous new parking lot? Well, Annie pretty much managed that project sans hard hat. JP Paving and Grading did a bang up job, but partly because in this humble writer's opinion, Annie managed them for success. I never saw that stencil with the name "Becky" on it that I directed the JP fellas to get however. I thought they were going to demarcate that new little compact slot right by the studio entrance for me!

And then after the parking lot went in and dried for umpteenth days and hours, you know what happened... tar appeared on the studio floor anyway... so there were Lupita and Annie using that amazing "cleanitall", Goo Gone, on the studio floor. Now it's back to its former pristine self!

And then finally, what about the "blue channel" that went renegade on Studio Camera 3 last week? With that wire broken the feed from Camera 3 was literally "off color" and couldn't be used. A patched together work around could only hold but so long, so it was Board Member Andrew Mellows to the rescue! He identified the culprit before even pulling apart the mass of cables. He knew what to look for and he found it... the little blue wire had come apart and had to be reattached. Andrew set up a workshop in the studio and blithely restored the cable to its fully functional self.

We do spend a lot of time at our desks designing programs, sending emails and writing up action items and position papers, but when push comes to shove around here, staff and board members pull together to do the heavy lifting. I am proud of our hands-on staff and board members; they know when to roll their sleeves up and get busy.

The Bigger Picture: Expanding the Outreach of Grassroots Media By Offering More Platforms

2011-02-10T12:08:00.000-08:00

The Open Technology Initiative develops policy and recommends regulations that support open architectures and open source resources for communications networks. On February 9, OTI released its study: “Full Spectrum Community Media: Expanding Public Access to Communications Infrastructure” and has invited comment from a variety of experts. One of these experts is the Alliance for Community Media’s own Executive Director Sylvia Strobel. ACM advocates for its network of over 3000 Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) stations. Watch the video of Sylvia and other experts at the New Media Foundation's discussion delivered via ustream yesterday. Sylvia appears at about 26 minutes into this 87 minute video. So get your popcorn and your knitting ready and settle in.

Why is this policy paper significant? The findings report that in order for community media centers like us to survive we need to expand beyond our original role of public access television providers and participate in the full spectrum of local media services, including broadband and other communications infrastructure. People are watching TV on their IPhones, computers, on a variety of platforms, but those entertainment providers are relieved of offering us on those platforms, although they could if they were compelled to. No one's volunteering yet. They are happy to deliver us via traditional (and possibly soon-to-be-obsolete) methods. It’s not a question of our competing, it’s a question of our survival, of grassroots productions being offered on all the platforms, just like the media giants.

So we have people working for us. It's very encouraging to watch our watchdogs discussing these and other important issues. Other open media advocates presenting are: Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation, Steven Waldman of the FCC, Joshua Breitbart of OTI, Brady Doyle of the Prometheus Radio Project, Laurie Cirivello of Grand Rapids Community Media, and Tom Glaisyer, a Knight Media Policy Fellow.

OTHER VOICES: The Revolution in Egypt and the Prospects for Palestine (taped 2/1/2011) By Paul George, Producer, Other Voices

2011-02-08T15:58:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the most critical question to arise from the inspiring events in Egypt is this: What will this upheaval mean for the rest of the region? On this month's edition of Other Voices we try to answer that question as it applies to the most persistent hotspot in the Middle East: the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Egypt is a major partner in the ongoing negotiations among Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the United States. If a significant change in the Egyptian government comes about because of the democratic uprising of its people, what effect might that have on future negotiations?

Our guest is Khalil Barhoum, a linguist and Senior Lecturer at Stanford University, where he is the Coordinator of the Program in Arabic and African Languages and Literatures. Born in Bethlehem, Palestine, Barhoum is a lifelong activist in the Palestinian struggle for human rights. He is a passionate and keen observer of the decades-long conflict that seems to defy resolution.

The discussion also turns to the so-called “Palestine Papers” – official accounts of negotiating sessions that were recently leaked to the Al Jazeera news network. The Papers are stunning in what they reveal about the real behind-the-scenes action inside the negotiating rooms.

As always, the program includes lively and well-informed questions and comments from our in-studio audience members and phone calls from viewers at home.

This particular edition of Other Voices serves as good example of the benefits of broadcasting live – which is exactly what we do every month. Dr. Barhoum was originally invited to discuss the Palestine Papers, which at the time constituted the “big story” coming out of the region. But then the streets of Cairo and Alexandria erupted just days before our air date. We were able to rapidly switch gears to cover what just may prove to be the “big story” of the year. Broadcasting live can be nerve-wracking, but there are times, like now, when it is well worth it.

Other Voices, now in its fifteenth year of production, is produced by Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, our local area's leading grassroots activist organization. We're live at 7:00 PM on the first Tuesday of every month. Come on down to the Media Center and be a part of the studio audience and, on occasion, history.

Click here to find out when this and other episodes of Other Voices will be played on our channels. All programs can be watched on the Media Center's webstream anytime they are programmed.

(Pictured above: Dr. Barhoum & Paul George)

This blog is part of a new series of "guest blogs" submitted by our producers to highlight guests and topics on recent programs produced at the Media Center.

DEVELOPMENTS IN EGYPT - LIVE COVERAGE - SAT AM!

2011-02-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

We regret that you'll be missing our regularly scheduled programming on Saturday morning between 8 am and 10 am on Channel 27, however we feel it is very important to bring you a special 2 hour live program on developments in Egypt. Egypt is in crisis and the mainstream press is not providing robust coverage. That is why we believe it is important to bring you the news as it is happening:

TOMORROW Saturday Feb 5, 2011
8 am - 10 am
Channel 27
Special Programming Courtesy of Democracy Now and Free Speech TV

Also you can watch Live coverage on Al Jazeerah English right off of their website -- a good option if you are unable to tune in tomorrow.

And for the faithful, the popular Indian music and dance programs Swara Lahari and Pushpanjali, will be back next Saturday at 9 am. We appreciate the producers for their kind understanding.

ACM Celebrates Anna Eshoo's Appointment!

2011-02-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

The Media Center joins the rest of the membership of the Alliance for Community Media (representing over 3000 cable access stations in the U.S.) in celebrating the appointment of Representative Anna Eshoo as Ranking Member of the Communications and Technology Subcomittee. FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps had this to say about our Anna (yep, she's our Congresswoman!):

“Having had the opportunity to work with her for numerous years covering the whole gamut of media and telecommunications issues, I know of her singular and heartfelt commitment to the public interest. Citizens and consumers come first for her. She has a very special vision of what an open and dynamic communications sector means to the United States and how important it is to our civic dialogue."

The subcommittee holds legislative jurisdiction over all matters involving telecommunications, including oversight of the FCC, cable, broadcast, voice telephony and the Internet. Our Executive Director Annie Folger has visited with Anna Eshoo here at the Media Center. At the behest of Anna Eshoo, Annie has testified before Congress regarding the threat to locally-produced, grassroots television at the hands of the media giants. At that same hearing, Anna Eshoo read our Mission Statement into the public record, a point of real pride. Need a reminder of our values? Here's a link to the mission statement and vision behind the very hard work of our staff and volunteers. It's more than a job, more than just a volunteer gig, folks, it's a passion for civic engagement which keeps people like Annie and Anna advocating for us.

If you haven't seen Annie and Anna short videos from the PEG access hearing a few years back, I'll post some short excerpts here. We are very excited that Anna received this important appointment, and know that she will speak for us before powerful interests that think they want to be our adversaries. Do you think that once they get to know us, they'll come over to our way of thinking? It's certainly possible with Anna Eshoo driving the dialog as the new Ranking Member of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee.

GLOBAL COMMUNITY! Live at 2:30 this Sunday, Channel 27

2011-01-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

Tune in Sunday, January 30, on Channel 27 at 2:30 pm to watch “Global Community”, a LIVE two-hour event. Based on the fundamental principle that we live in an interdependent, interconnected universe and, therefore “all is one,” the Foundation for Global Community (FGC) has existed in various iterations for close to 60 years, beginning with the Sequoia Seminars led by Dr. Harry Rathbun, a Stanford business and law professor and his wife, Emilia.

The Foundation for a Global Community asks us "to discover, live, and communicate what is needed to achieve a world that functions for the benefit of all life" and advocates the setting aside of "narrow self-interests" and to "act with integrity, consciousness, and a spirit of goodwill." I think you can tell why an organization with both lofty ideals and a concrete plan for executing them is going to leave a void in the hearts of so many in our community.

Recognizing that everything —plants, animals, people and foundations—has a beginning and an end, FGC in 2003 began a process of passing on its resources to other individuals and organizations that meet the Foundation's mission statement of building a sustainable, just, and spiritually fulfilling global community.

The two hour program will celebrate the legacy of wisdom from the past and celebrate the passing on of that inheritance to the new explorers and innovators. Author ( The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos Universe Story) and cosmologist, Brian Swimme will speak on “The Universe and the Golden Thread.” Some call it “a golden thread” that has existed since the beginning of time and is only strengthened and enhanced by the passion and efforts of future generations.

Folllowing Dr. Swimme, author Duane Elgin (The Living Universe, Voluntary Simplicity) will explore “The Living Universe and the Golden Thread.”

The program includes a 20-minute journey through the history of the Foundation. Seven recipients of FGC grants will then talk with Host Richard Rathbun about their project and how the financial support has helped their efforts. Passing away of a legacy? We think not. Passing on the baton? That sounds apropos.

Due to the expected turnout, this live-studio event is by invitation only, but is being broadcast and streamed live. The program will also be available to watch on playback. This program is expected to run throughout the month on February. Once the program has been scheduled for playback (usually within one week of taping), you may visit our program page and type in "Global Community" in the search box. To learn more about the Foundation for a Global Community visit their website.

State of the City Live Tonight Channel 26 7:00

2011-01-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

If you cannot make it over to Cubberley Theater at 4000 Middlefield to see Palo Alto Mayor Sid Espinosa deliver his first State of the City Address, you can watch it LIVE on our channels and on our website.

7 pm, Comcast Channel 26 and on the web.

How are we bringing it live from a place we don't normally go live from, you ask? Well Chris Pearce our IT specialist ran over to Cubberley last week and installed an encoder, opened up a pipeline and stared into a camera and we saw him over at the Media Center! So he's coordinating this with Brian Jones in Master Control and Karen Adams our Production Manager. That's some excellent teamwork over here to make it happen over there.

We're always working it, trying to bring you relevant programming on a variety of platforms!

And of course we'll be replaying it in case you aren't available to watch it live tonight!

You Usually See Her Working in the Studio!

2011-01-21T17:48:00.000-08:00

Shobana Swamy, a very familiar face in the Studio where she crews Swara Lahari, put on an Media Center Volunteer badge and covered two locations on the Martin Luther King Day of Service in Palo Alto last Monday. Watch Shobana's great video on Acterra up at Arastradero and at Lytton Plaza in downtown Palo Alto.

Thank you for heeding the call, Shobana. If our volunteers didn't help us, we couldn't help others get the great messages out there. On the street reporting...it's coming back thanks for our wonderful volunteers!

MARTIN LUTHER KING Day of Service and Special Programming!

2011-01-16T21:47:00.000-08:00

Got time on your hands tomorrow? The city of Palo Alto is sponsoring a service day in honor of Martin Luther King. Youth Community Services, the JCC and Acterra are just a few of the local organizations mobilizing hundreds of people to do good works on Monday. Every activity is inclusive, non-denominational and designed to make your heart feel great.

Here is a link to the City of Palo Alto's page describing this very special day of community service which has caught on nationwide. Many communities are adopting this model, so if you're not in Palo Alto per se, check and see what's happening in your neck of the woods.

And if you want to catch some Media Center programming in honor of Dr. King here's some programming we know you'll enjoy:

TRUMPET OF CONSCIENCE
and
Visions Presents: A Tribute to Marting Luther King

BUS FIRE RIGHT OUTSIDE MEDIA CENTER

2011-01-12T18:45:00.000-08:00

At approximately 5:45 pm, today, Wednesday, January 12, 2011, the bus driver of a Lassen Tour Bus bringing a group of Japanese businessmen from the airport via Highway 101 into Palo Alto noticed flames in his sideview mirror, emanating from the back of the bus. He quickly pulled over, made an announcement to his passengers and quickly evacuated the bus. Within moments the back of the tour bus was engulfed, with flames leaping twenty feet into the air and the rear tires exploding. Fire and police crews arrived and the flames were subdued with chemical retardant by 6:15.

The Media Center's Jeff McGinnis and Stan Ng captured footage of the dramatic conflagration and its aftermath. Jeff and I were able to secure an interview with one of the Japanese businessmen at the restaurant on Charleston Road to which the group retreated to wait for another bus. Watch our interview with Nobuyuki Imai of SoftBank Telecom Corporation of Tokyo. In a nutshell, Mr. Imai said they had just arrived in the US , that the bus driver was very professional and that all remained calm. All really good news.

There were complaints of noxious fumes on San Antonio Road, with major traffic delays and diversions but no injuries have been reported as of this writing.

YOU CAN'T STOP A GOOD THING! WES' VIDEO GOES VIRAL!

2011-01-06T11:03:00.000-08:00

Palo Alto High School's phenomenal season is not over! It's as if their win over Centennial High School to clinch the State Division I title on December 17 was only the beginning. Paly was delivered more icing on their cake yesterday when three of the football stars and our own intern, Paly Senior Wes Rapaport appeared on "7 Live" Yesterday, a daily news magazine with a social networking component broadcasting right here in the Bay Area. Wes created a victory video during the bus ride down to SoCal for the game. He shot and edited together a piece with the football team lip syncing Katie Perry's hit "Teenage Dream". Wes tossed in some game footage plus a couple of clips from the bus ride back with the Trophy. The piece has become a youtube sensation and earned Wes and team members a berth on the popular TV show. Watch the show clip here!

Other good news fallout for Paly over their win: Earl Hansen was named the ESPN RISE Cal-Hi Sports State Coach of the Year for the 2010 high school football season. The team and their incredible coaching staff have been praised in all the local papers and even in the national press. That's pretty cool. The football team will join Paly's Volleyball Team which also won their state Division 1 Title in a hometown heroes parade on University Avenue this Saturday. The Media Center will be covering the parade so be on the look-out for a video piece in case you can't make the parade.

We brought you many of the important games leading up to the win. Click here for the schedule of High School Sports replays that we're continuing to play on Channel 28, our youth and education channel.

And a very special congratulations to Wes for making it happen. Wes, we're all super proud of you at the Media Center and take the greatest pleasure in the work you are doing at Paly's InFocus daily broadcast, plus all the work you do for us: crewing, directing, editing and creating great video content for our channels and now, it seems, for the rest of the planet!