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I know it’s 10 days late, but other deadlines—having to do with my academic or professional lives!—hung over my head until now. So here’s a final review of other select pieces from the 2010 FilmLESS festival for radio arts, in downtown Chicago.

Tupperware, by David Nelson and Nikki Silva, aired in 1981 on All Things Considered. (I hear this piece was the debut of the now-infamous “Kitchen Sisters” duo.) The only thing that hinted this was made in 1981 was a bit of sound quality degradation. Otherwise, it was an avant-garde piece if I’ve ever heard it, about the fanaticism and just plain weirdness in the way this product is sold. I can’t believe something with this kind of production was on All Things Considered. Voices drifted in and out of one another, overlapping. There was no narrator. It bordered on noise at some points, but it was relevant—Tupperware parties are noisy things, apparently.

Si Se Puede, by Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister, aired on Latino USA in 2009. This ran longer than the others, at 22 minutes, but it was worth it. The piece chronicled the fight of 300 workers at Republic Window and Door to obtain what their contracts outlined once the plant closed. Republic had no choice but to deny them things like continued health insurance because Bank of America wouldn’t extend credit to the company.

Continue reading ‘Third Coast FilmLESS Festival Part II’

The Third Coast FilmLESS festival, sponsored largely by Chicago Public radio, just can’t fit into Twitter posts. Been there, tried that.

So here’s my rundown of my favorite segments so far:

1. Lucy and the Bike Girl, by Hillary Frank, aired in 2007 on This American Life. It’s the story of Lucy, who has cystic fibrosis, making her very susceptible to germs. Every day she sees this girl in red pigtails ride a bike by her house, and when she finds a picture of this same girl on an internet message board for CF, she chats her up. They become awesome friends, better than Lucy’s in-person friends. But she doesn’t tell her she lives right down the street, because they might be tempted to meet. …Lucy’s tempted, though, despite the bike girl’s having a type of bacteria that could kill Lucy.

Continue reading ‘Third Coast FilmLESS festival part I’

So I’m in this class called mobile journalism, and we’re doing a lot of cool stuff.

Liveblogging Arianna Huffington was only the beginning—we’ve Skype’d with people in Africa and Japan on the same day about how they use their phones, Skype’d with Kevin Thau, a VP of Twitter about (what else?) the future of Twitter, and now we’re designing the mobile presence of Chicago News Cooperative, the new nonprofit heavy-duty reporting outfit that covers the city for the New York Times.

Also my fridge project is for this class. Orion Magazine, whose photo project was inspiration for mine, has tweeted about me TWICE THREE TIMES. They’re my favorite mag and have been called the most important environmental magazine, so you should know I’m psyched. Feel free to follow my prof, Dan Sinker, on Twitter.

But interestingly enough, today I felt compelled to post because of the textbook for this class—Mobile Design and Development by Brian Fling. An excerpt:

The Estonian government will be putting the concept of media context to the test in their 2011 parliamentary elections, allowing citizens to vote for their leaders using SMS. In this case, the government can tabulate results instantly. But imagine a day when citizens can vote on local or national issues in real time, eschewing having to wait for traditional media to report on the effect of their vote, instead seeing the results in real time, as it happens.

There are already many opting to use the mobile media context in order to be heard. On the immensely popular television show American Idol, more votes were cast using a mobile phone in 2009 (178 million total text message votes) than votes cast in the 2008 presidential election (131 million ballots cast).

If that doesn’t deserve an “OMG,” I don’t know what does.

My idea: direct democracy. I think it’s possible with saturation of mobile.

Continue reading ‘Mobile tech + democracy = awesomeness’

The dining room of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Westcott House, Springfield, Ohio. As was Wright’s custom, he designed the furniture in the house as well as the structure. This table with integrated electric lighting was re-created in the early 2000′s from Wright’s drawings. (Photo by me)

I decided to flip the header today, simply because I got bored with the last one. I don’t think I ever explained what it was—the roof of the abandoned building I lived in last summer.

Here’s the photo essay explaining THAT situation.

I plan to sell the story of the Westcott house to TRIP, the biennial travel publication of Brown Publishing’s southwest division. I’ll show you the spread when it’s printed.

I’m usually pretty self-conscious about my creative writing. Unless it gets published I usually only share it with good friends.

Except with this most recent poem. My friends who have—or are just about to receive—Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing like it. Ergo, here I am, showing you.

Scab Scratching

Like spread-eagle in snow
with too-few clothes
the sting froze
anesthete

Placed the needle precise
small scratch belied
voluminous
slice

Don’t you revisit pain
—sometimes in vein—
for a taste
life?

Ello, love!

Apparently I broke new ground at The Columbia Chronicle, because the paper’s being a tad slow in creating a way for freelancers to get bylines on its website. My iPad commentary was published in print Monday; now it’s Friday and still no web version…

Which is why I’m self-publishing my version—that is, unedited for space constraints—here for you. This one’s 700 words.

My audience? Students at my arts and media college in metro Chicago. Enjoy it after the jump!

P.S. — if you want the version written for an older demographic published in the Wilmington (Ohio) News Journal, see here.

Continue reading ‘iPad commentary’

Once upon a time, I was News Editor for Cedars, the bi-weekly student newspaper of Cedarville University. Times were fun, I learned how to manage people (and how not to manage them). I published a few grating opinions that didn’t receive much response because there wasn’t much participation in the newspaper.

But now I’m at Columbia College Chicago, and Cedars has been re-designed, re-staffed, and is rearing to go once again. I applaud their efforts to resist the anti-media culture that seeps from the school’s hallowed halls. (Or, rather, seeps from the schools trustees and donors, but I won’t get into that now.)

Still… surely they can do a better job than this.

Just now I inquired about whether they have separate websites for on-campus and off-campus viewers. Stooping that low for preemptive damage control is a sad possibility, but not the saddest part of the setup.

That’s just simply the journalism. (Update, 2:15 p.m. CT: Cedars staff confirmed, via a comment on their Facebook page, that only one version of the website exists. Hooray!)

I want to say something. Hmm…

I literally can’t find a way to contact them other than posting a message on their Facebook page, so I’ll have to post my open letter here for the time being. I wish I didn’t have to put it in the open, but them’s the breaks. I’ll take it down if I get a message from them saying they get the point. Here goes nothing, after the break…

Continue reading ‘Open letter to ‘Cedars’’

A prefab modular home with, if I remember right, LEED Platinum certification. (Flickr photo from Heather Lucille. CC.)

Before I left Cedarville University in May ’09, I was one of the founding members—vice president—of the environmental organization on campus. One of the reasons I got that job was a campaign I had put together for greening our school. I was in talks with administration to begin implementing the plan when I transferred to Columbia College Chicago, to pursue a degree at a school more established in journalism.

Anyway, several times since then I’ve referred people back to the archives of this blog to search for this green campaign I created. This post will serve as a single portal for the eight long posts that comprised the details of the campaign.

It took into consideration what was feasible for the college’s budget at the time, as well as what was socially responsible. One thing I stressed for administrators was that once our campus learns how to weatherize buildings, we should go into our community and do it for lots of residents there, many of whom are poor. Why? Free labor from students, minimal expense from the college, savings that make a big difference for families, and massive PR.

We could even serve as a knowledge hub for the community about “green” choices, and as a pilot program for similar universities across the country, I demonstrated. Cedarville is a Christian university, and if we were to nail down the philosophical mandate for environmentalism, other Christian colleges could easily follow suit.

Anyway, here are the links to the blog posts. I called the campaign “CU/Green” — short and to the point, a hint of wordplay, includes a computer character.

Enjoy.

CU/Green on transportation

CU/Green on clothing and consumer goods

CU/Green on building upkeep and construction

CU/Green on water use and landscaping

CU/Green on good air and energy

CU/Green on our refuse

CU/Green on everyday stuff

P.S. — Here’s a link to an article on colleges who have voluntary student-funded offices of sustainability. Here’s a link to the only organization that evaluates colleges’ efforts toward sustainability and transparency, something the group considers essential to continuing sustainability.

The inside of my fridge, shot with my cell phone.

For Mobile Journalism class I’m embarking on a project to photograph my fridge at least 3 times a week. It was inspired by a similar project in Orion Magazine. Find my work at fridge.posterous.com.

Also, a warning: I don’t often update brandonsmith.com, as you know. But I do update my Facebook and Twitter feeds several times a day. If you want to keep closer tabs on me, I suggest you check there. (My Twitter’s overarching theme is the environment, but I also inject thoughts about journalism, food, and communications tech. Naturally, Facebook’s a bit more about my personal life.)