Eyes on Migaloo

by Erik Olsen on

Moby Dick fans might be interested in this post over at
Divester about the
Official Migaloo site. Migaloo, which means “White Fella” in the Aboriginal
Australian language, is a white humpback who was sighted a while
back in Australian waters. Needless to say, he has developed quite a following, with several sites dedicated to the
Migaloo phenomenon.

The effort to study and document Migaloo’s wanderings are being led by the
Pacific Whale Foundation, an organization dedicated to everything
cetacean.

Vote in Current Contest

by Erik Olsen on

Hey folks, just a reminder that the voting
continues over at Current.tv, the new television vehicle that Al Gore has attached his name to. They’ve got a
contest going on for the best citizen videos and have put five finalists online. Yours truly has a piece there called
Varanasi Postcard about a trip to India I took last August. I’d appreciate your vote if you can
spare a moment (I promise this is the last time I’ll ask).

All the pieces are good, I think, and the whole enterprise deserves some attention. The fact is when it comes to TV,
there are still pitifully few real outlets for the average person to tell his/her story. And with the proliferation of
high-quality video cameras like the Sony PD-170 and the Panasonic 24P models (not to mention even cheap standard models
which still can tell a great story in the hands of the right person), amateur journalists and TV producers can really
make an impact. 

If current lives up to its statement of purpose, it could take off and become a new kind of citizen’s TV, truly
democratizing a medium that has largely been in the hands of a few dominant players. Let’s all cross our fingers that
they pull it off. And in the meantime, get over there and vote for whoever you think did the best job.

Pink Floyd to Reunite at Live8

by Erik Olsen on

So ya thought ya might like to go to the
show?

I know I would…man, would I go to this show. In a bleedin’ heartbeat. Pink
Floyd, one of the greatest bands of all-time…in my opinion the SECOND greatest band of all time AFTER the Beatles
(yes, better than the Rolling Stones and Dylan and fricken Coldplay) is going to reunite for the first time in 24 years
at Bob Geldof’s Live8 concert series to benefit Africa. The concert is one of
five taking place around the world on July 2. Other performers will be Madonna (ugh), REM (cool), U2 (cool), Sir Paul
McCartney (ok, but his Superbowl concert thing was so bad), Sir Elton John (yeah, cool), Coldplay (no comment) and
Robbie Williams (whatever).

Truly it is great to see all this attention paid to Africa. It’s about time. It seems like we’re in about a 20 year
cycle anyway, given the last big event of this type was the
We Are the World
thing (now we know what Michael meant by “We are the children”. OK, bad joke. The guy was acquitted after all).

Anyway, amazing stuff. Pink Floyd reuniting. I’m trembling it’s so cool. And I would love to go, but will likely be
stuck here…stuck here to fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way.

Indie Films on Iraq

by Erik Olsen on

No political agenda here, just a heads up on a
series of new films that are coming out of Iraq that tell a story about the people and places that Americans
probably don’t get to see in the mainstream media. Voices of Iraq (site
seems to be down right now) was produced by two former MTV producers who circulated 150 digital video cameras to more
than 2,000 Iraqis and then cut together personal stories. Another, called Dreams of
Sparrows was produced by Baghdad-based producers and shows the daily happenings on Iraqi streets, as well as
footage of an institution for the criminally insane and a home for orphaned boys. I think it is great that indie are
getting work done in Iraq, in a place and time where/when we really need to hear some of the lesser-known tales of life
there.

What Happened to Amelia Earhardt?

by Erik Olsen on

Outside takes yet another look at
the Earhardt mystery and a group of folks who think they’ve solved the puzzle (turns out she became a stripper in a
nightclub in Honolulu…just kidding!). Well, the mystery of Earhardt’s disappearance has dogged amateur and professional
sleuths for decades…not to mention how many segments of “Unsolved Mysteries” TV programming have been dedicated to the
topic of her disappearance.

Well, the folks at Outside don’t offer the solution…but they do serve up some interesting characters including a guy
named Mike Kammerer who has shelled out several millions of dollars of his own cashola to solve the mystery. He has his
own theories which, sadly, don’t include the stripper story, but are interesting in their own right, and you don’t have
to wait for Leonard Nimoy to stage a TV comeback to get your dose of Earhardt theories.