Video Test

I can't seem to upload audio or video files with blogger so I need to try something else. This is my first attempt at uploading video through blip.tv to digImashaghen. The downside is that I have to upload my content to a blip.tv blog in order to get it on my blog, but now I am just concerned with the end, not the means. I hope it works! Does anyone know of a service that can upload content to your blog without needing to store it on their site as well? Ah, the joys of frugality in the blogging world. Maybe I should just buck up the cash for a typepad account....

Watch the video

Folksonomy

Folksonomy is a collaborative classification management scheme created by people who shirk centralized schemes and freely chose their own 'tags' to categorize their content.

Hi-Wire

Last night I joined some industry colleagues at a greet and learn event at HI-Wire , a high definition post-production studio in Minneapolis. We got to tour Hi Wire and their Design, Animation, VFX sister company Gasket and were also shown some demos of what they do! It was fun to see all of their high end toys and capabilities.

The event was sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of Women in Film and Television ( WIFT ).

Artistic Panic

I recently saw the first episode of a serial podcast in progress called four eyed monsters . The following excerpt resonated with me because I sometimes under-produce out of fear of falling short of people’s expectations.

“Nothing is coming out of me because I’m not willing to be intimate with anybody. By not willing to be intimate with anybody, I’m not willing to be open and share and like if I’m not willing to do that, no wonder I can’t make any kind of artistic statement that anybody is willing to listen to.”

About Baghdad

I just watched About Baghdad , an independent film by Sinan Antoon (exiled Iraqi writer) that did amazingly well at expressing the diverse opinions and reactions of the Iraqi people. There are three main points that stuck with me after the screening.

1. Iraqis want an Iraqi president that suffered in Iraq with everyone else, not an Iraqi president that has spent the past several years abroad.

2. There is an extreme dichotomy between those Iraqis who love the U.S. and see Americans as liberators and those who hate the U.S. and see Americans as oppressors.

3. Most Iraqis in the film, whether they supported the American presence in Iraq or not, felt that anything is better than Saddam. Death is better, deals with the devil are better, anyone helping them is better. However, they will not tolerate occupation from any power for long. In retrospect, these were very prophetic statements. The film was shot in 2003, shortly after the fall of Saddam. People were happy with that, but now there are no basic services, there is chaos, and there are rebellions.

Arts for Martin

The annual Arts for Martin show at the ARTech high school in Northfield, MN is a platform for presenting visual and performance art around the question, “What do the teachings of Dr. King mean for us today?”

Imashaghen (the free)

Tuaregs, referred to as Blue Men of the Desert, are diverse groups of nomadic Berbers from the Saharan regions of North-West Africa. They are fiercely independent and have long resisted conquest, enabling them to continue to live a largely independent lifestyle. I see the spirit of Tuaregs in bloggers, individuals who resist the concept of media as a corporate possession and transparently divulge their perspective and visions of the world in an attempt to plunder complacency from the minds of sedentary, passive consumers of information. The content of this blog will be presented as such, nomadic in nature and migrating from topic to topic as a factor of the ever-changing context of my mind. The first few weeks of post will focus on We Media, studies of the personal media revolution.

Tuareg boy and camel

This boy leads a camel through the Sahara desert on the outskirts of Timbuktu. They are on their way to a Tuareg camp for an evening of fireside drumming, singing, and dancing.