Culture Grab Bag

Like all sentient communicators hoping to stay current, I’m venturing into video.  And like millions of other video newbies, I started with the dummy-proof Flip. (At Amy Stewart’s suggestion – here she is showing off her Flip.)  From camera to YouTube in under 15 minutes! (All displayed on my very own channel.)  No editing software to install or worry about being incompatible with the camera.  No worries, period.  Unless you care about the sound quality.

Yep, that’s the big drawback about Flips.  Not a problem if you’re up close in a quiet room but otherwise, a big problem.

And after 4+ years of gardenblogging I’m really ready to try something new, like good enough videos to just maybe attract sponsors.  Kinda like those companies who sponsor public TV, only cheaper.  Think “This video was brought to you by Eco-Friendly Company X”.  More on that later, hopefully after I’ve actually have a sponsor.

The search for a better camcorder
For a technically challenged shopper, choosing a camcorder is surprisingly daunting.  HD sounds good, but do I need it?  And there are so many choices in video-saving media – internal memory, memory chips, or tape – that it was impossible for me to decide.  Then there’s the decision about editing software – gotta be compatible – and accessories.  So no simple review of the reviews would do the job.  I even asked some professional videographer friends of mine and frankly, got no help.  (Their preferences have nothing to do with my own needs, and they all want me to switch to a Mac – not gonna happen!)   So after gobs of reading online, I decided what I needed was good, old-fashioned sales help.

Enter B&H Electronics, a mostly mail-order electronics company in operation since the ’70s.  I remember shopping at their Manhattan store not long after they opened.  One long phone call with a camcorder specialist resulted in my purchase of this Canon product for about $700, plus more for accessories like tripod, lavelier mike, case, adapters and extra batteries.  (It adds up.)

The search for compatibility
Soon after it all arrived I discovered that the camera was not, in fact, compatible with Windows Moviemaker, which I’d told the “specialist” I wanted to use – because it’s free and reportedly, easy.  A long discussion with the specialist’s boss later, I ordered Adobe Premier Elements, an editing program “guaranteed” to work with my Canon.  Which it does, except that the Canon didn’t work with my computer. Yes, even the boss of the camcorder specialist didn’t ask what speed my processor is, and sold me a camera that, upon being connected with my computer, promptly and repeatedly caused it to CRASH.  And it wasn’t just me causing it to crash – it was my hired computer expert trying to get the camcorder to talk to the computer and watching it crash time after time.  (That’s what technologically anxious shoppers do – spend more money just to confirm that something doesn’t work and it’s not our fault.)

An honest salesman is hard to find
So back to the “expert” at B&H, who naturally, I suppose, offered up a slew of reasons for this failure that had nothing to do with his sales advice.  The fault is Adobe!  So following his orders, I spent the better part of 45 minutes on the phone with a very nice gentleman somewhere in India, who determined without a doubt that the problem was with the camera.  (We had some time to kill waiting for uploads and what-not, during which we chatted genially about his prime minister, in town that night to be feted at the White House at the now-famously gate-crashed state dinner.)

Onward to the support staff at Canon, surprisingly located not far from me in Virginia.  Their patient staffer diagnosed the problem in, oh, about 2 minutes – by simply asking me to read off my computer’s processing speed.

Back to B&H and the now shamey-faced (one hopes) sales manager who’d screwed up royally, who still denied any error but did at least facilitate a full refund (despite my shoddy repacking).

The cheaper, simpler alternative
So where to turn for sales advice when the big kahuna of mail-order companies had failed me so miserably?  Canon!  My experience with their support service had been so positive, I decided to call back and ask what camera they’d recommend, and their advice ended up saving me over $700!  (They don’t sell anything directly, and their support staff doesn’t work on commission.)  They suggested and I now have in my possession the Canon ZR960 miniDV camcorder for only $250.  It records on old-fashioned tape and is compatible with everything – computers, editing software, the works.

Now to get trained
Have I mentioned that I’m mechanically and technologically challenged?  And that’s not changing, so I’ve set out to get help figuring out how to make and edit videos.  First, a smart teenager who’s been making videos for 6 years will be showing me the works.  Then the real fun begins – I’ve enrolled in a Documentary Video Production course!  Not cheap, but it looks like some serious fun.  First, the teacher has over a dozen PBS documentaries to her credit, and runs this center for documentary film about a mile from my house.  She’ll be sending us out to make videos in groups of three to document our little downtown.  We’re meeting 6 Saturday mornings starting in late January, the exact time when this obsessed gardener needs a lifeline to sanity.  Reports coming soon!

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I’m going off-topic for the happiest 5 minutes I’ve ever watched on screen.  This awesome wedding partay earned a rave in today’s Washington Post.  Turn up your speakers full blast and click Play.  (The embedded version has been disabled, but you can watch it here.)

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Totally off-topic, enjoy watching Uncle Jay explain the news below.  It’s the best year-end round-up evah!  I thank my friend Joell for sending it my way.

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That’s Craig Newmark speaking and he ought to know because he’s the brains and the soul behind his amazing lists.  And hearing him say that to Charlie Rose last week evoked some of my fondest memories from the good old days (the late ’60s and ’70s, if you have to ask). He said he’s often asked when he’s going to start making the really big bucks and his response is always: “Once you’re living well and maybe providing for your future, what’s the point in more money?”  So he’ll never go public and submit this culture-changing community service to the demands of Wall Street.  And the guiding principle in the creation and management of Craigslists is to treat people how he’d want to be treated himself.  I’m in love with this man.

And here’s what was all news to me – he’s really political, in the best nonpartisan way.  (By that I mean I didn’t hear him bashing Bush or other Republicans, easy targets though they are.)  No, bashing doesn’t do it for him.  He says the Craigslist communities have taught him that people are basically good and trustworthy and moderate, so he’s working with a group called OneVoice to empower the moderates in Palestine and Isreal.  After all, only 1 or 2 percent of the public are fanatics; they just make a lot more noise than anyone else.  Or in the words of Jon Stewart, we hear more from extremists because moderates have stuff to do.

Other projects he actively supports, presumably with money as well as by promoting them publicly, are:

• The Sunlight Foundation, which was formed to “use the revolutionary power of the Internet and new information technology to enable citizens to learn more about what Congress and their elected representatives are doing…Sunlight’s work is committed to helping citizens, journalists and bloggers be their own best watchdogs, both by improving access to existing information and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and websites to enable all of us to pool our intelligence in new, and yet to be imagined, ways.”  Like the popular new slogan says, “Blogs are little First Amendment machines.”

• “New Assignment is a non-profit site that tries to spark innovation in journalism by showing that open collaboration over the Internet among reporters, editors and large groups of users can produce high-quality work that serves the public interest, holds up under scrutiny, and builds trust.  A second aim is to figure out how to fund this work through a combination of online donations, micro-payments, traditional fundraising, syndication rights, sponsorships, advertising and any other method that does not compromise the site’s independence or reputation.”

He cites other examples of the new, more pro-active media: Meet-up, Media Bistro, Daylife.  They’re part of what he calls the “Sohoblogplex.”  It all sounds terribly interesting and I’ll be surfing their innards as soon as I get the chance.

Now here’s the really sticky wicket about all this.  Craigslists themselves are replacing local newspapers as the go-to publisher of classified ads and are clearly hurting these already-beleaguered institutions.  Asked about this, he doesn’t deny the charge but asserts that the near-monopolization (my word) of the media is a bigger problem, coupled with the influence of Wall Street on these now-public companies.  Okay, that’s true but it doesn’t tell us how he feels about hurting newspapers.  I wonder if the answer is that the Sunlight Foundation and New Assignment show his vision for 21st Century journalism, as defined by its essential duties of oversight and public enlightenment.

It’s all pretty revolutionary, again in the best sense.  This career programmer for IBM and a Wall Street firm just wanted to create a community service, like any of us would start a Yahoo group for our neighborhood or for local gardeners. But he had the vision and skills to create something new that’s sweeping the world and helping millions get their needs met.  Call it the Revenge of the Do-Good Nerd.

USED CRAIGSLISTS?
I’m curious about how readers have used this amazing service, so please tell me your stories.  I’ll start:

• It’s how I found the terrific Kansas City design firm that created the GardenRant logo and header.  House of Tears Design responded to a notice I posted on the Seattle List, as did about 20 others.  The others were mostly super-commercial firms in India but at least one other outstanding candidate responded – a design group in Costa Rica.
• Just recently I went List-posting to find help with my new website.  The pitch:  “Barter Garden Coaching for Website Coaching.“  The most promising respondent lives 5 minutes away (in this metro area of 3 million people) and was SO on the ball I ended up hiring him for 10 or 15 hours of his time to help me – big-time.  Well, barter was already just about my favorite thing in the whole world, but this experience clenched it.

Update: this terrific story about gardening on the via using Craigslists, via Pam Penick in Austin.

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Speaking of celebrities, architect Frank Gehry is as famous as architects can be.  Long known by his signature work, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, he’s still wowing the critics and public alike.  Witness L.A.’s Disney Concert Hall, completed in 2003.

Washington, sometimes described as the city that hires the world’s best architects to do their worst work, recently lost its chance at a stunning Gehry building – an addition to the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  The funding suddenly went away and we can only imagine the frustration of artists whose works are so difficult to realize.  Gardeners pretty much have it easy on that score.

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Now I wasn’t born yesterday and I like to think I’m reasonably cool around celebrities.  And by D.C. standards I totally AM cool – able to not-stare at the likes of Teddy Kennedy, John McCain, even Hillary and Barack!  But damn, on my short visit to family in Los Angeles the first thing we do is go out for brunch and there’s David Schwimmer in front of us in line for a table.  That’s right, Ross from “Friends” ($1 million per episode) has to wait in line with the rest of us.

Subsequent walks around town and meals at other trendy restaurants yielded no sightings, despite my very best rubber-necking.  But when a family connection landed us in the second row of the “Tonight Show,” close enough to garner a handshake with Jay Leno himself, my ear-to-ear grinning was a dead giveaway: Out-of-towner right here!  Honestly, he was 6 feet in front of us giving his monoloque, looking just inches over our heads at the camera.  More silly grinning.  And I’m not even a particular fan of his – well, until now* – or of his guest, Bill Maher.  But to observe the whole production up-close, especially the during-commercial goings-on, was just fascinating.  My only complaint – and you bloggers out there will identify with this – photos weren’t allowed, except for the lucky, ballsy few who asked to have Polaroids taken with Jay himself.  Sorry!

Coming up next – outasight architecture, and even some garden photos.  (Yes, I’ve read online complaints lately about gardenbloggers going off-topic but it’s winter, for chrissake – cut us some slack!)

*No, he didn’t win me over with just the handshake.  It was seeing his preshow outfit (every night) of jeans and a workshirt, and hearing from people who work with him that he’s a good guy.

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I get pretty excited on the subject of Venus, especially Peter O’Toole’s mind-blowing performance.  And there’s lots more in this amazing movie from the writer of My Beautiful Launderette and a bunch of indie filmmakers doing terrific work across the pond.  I reviewed it for Ronni Bennett over on Time Goes By and here’s the link.

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