Current.tv Finalists

by Erik Olsen on

Al Gore’s new indie TV experiment current.tv has gone live with it’s to five
finalists in a video contest meant to lure in independent young voices. It’s an interesting experiment, and I think
many of us with experience in mainstream media salute the effort and really hope it succeeds. In a best case scenario
world, the channel will offer the opportunity for independent voices to be heard and could end up being a great way for
people to express themselves, as well as to showcase new talents and air stories that otherwise wouldn’t see the light
of day.

It just so happens <sheepish grin> that my piece on
India called Varanasi Postcard made the final 5. The winner gets a development
deal worth a few K to produce other features for them. Not that I am soliciting your vote (hehehe), but I at least urge
you to check out the site and watch the pieces. And you if vote for me…well, that’d be cool,
too.

Ranger Shortage

by Erik Olsen on

My first job out of college (if you don’t count being a ski photographer at Squaw Valley for a winter), was working
for the Department of the Interior in DC. The crappy part of this job was that the DOI is an awful, lumbering
bureaucracy where it is very hard to get things done. The great part was that I often got to travel to the country’s
national parks which are the jewels in our crown, so to speak (the Park Service is part of
Interior). I saw Yellowstone, the Smokies,
Mount Rushmore (I even go to dance a jig on Lincoln’s head, something
very few people get to do), and more. One of the problems even back then was that the NPS staff always felt kind of
neglected. They were poorly paid and in some cases poorly treated.

Well, it seems things haven’t changed that much. According to
this piece in the LA Times, ranger
ranks are shrinking. We’ve added some new parks, but we’ve cut back on our rangers. So when the writer, for example,
head to Yosemite, she finds no one there to explain why Half Dome looks the way it does (it’s magic, lady! The mountain
elves did it with a really big saw!). Anyway, we need to think hard as a nation about how to protect our parks, and how
to make sure that the dedicated people who work for them (and for us) can get properly compensated and treated for
their fine work.

Donate Unused Travel Dollars

by Adrienne Wilson on

I tend to meet a lot of people who seem to have mega dough in the bank to travel, but never the
time.  You know the busy business exec’s who just can’t seem to sneak away from the office?  On
the flip-side I’ve got all the time in the world to see the world, but little cash-flow.  The starving
boho artist type, if you catch my drift.  Well, many times I can be pretty tight-fisted when it comes to
spending money, but today I’m in a giving mood.  So now I’m going to present you with a website that seems to have
the giving spirit as well.

The Fresh Air Fund is an independent not-for-profit agency
that provides free summer vacations for inner-city children residing in some of New York’s toughest
neighborhoods.  The organization has been serving youth since 1877, so it’s no fly-by night operation. You
don’t have to come out of pocket to help a child have a summer to remember, volunteer your time or become a host. 
Being unable to escape a stiff well air-condition office may seem like the pits, but imagine yourself stuck on some of
the worst inner-city streets. 

Sounds like a nice place to place your unused travel dollars if you’ve got any to spare. 

Married…With Altitude

by Erik Olsen on

There are adventuresome places to get married (skydiving, scuba diving, in a
church inside a volcano), and then there is the king of all adventuresome places to get married: the
top of Mount Everest. No word
on whether the best man’s tux was made of Gortex, but the two newlyweds, both Nepalese: Moni Mulepati, 24, and groom
Pem Dorjee, 23, appear very excited, sort of, in the photo. She looks excited, anyway, he looks like he’s either having
doubts or suffering a bit from altitude sickness.

(thanks Carl!)

World in the Balance

by Erik Olsen on

The people that want to shut down or curtail the funding of public television are crazy. Nutso.
Downright stupid. And if this applies to you, feel free to comment and explain yourself, but be ready to be mocked. I
wake up some days and thank the sky for public television. Shows like Nova
and Frontline are pretty much the finest stuff we have on TV
when it comes to using the boob tube as a device to inform.

Case in point: a series out last year on public television called
Life in the Balance. The program examines the effects of
population pressure and rapid industrial growth, and ponders where all this is going? To some awful Malthusian
nightmare where we’ll be eating each other like Soylent Green? Or are humans ingenious enough to figure their way out
of potential doom? These are huge questions worth examination…examination the way only public television can do.

The People Paradox will air on June 14 at 8 pm, and China Revs Up on June 21 at 8 pm.