Public Access Cable TV ends October 2006

Two boys are not interested in the Synchronized Briefcase Marching Team at the Doodah Parade in Pasadena, California. For more photo goodness, Visit my flickr photostream.

Public Access TV will cease to exist in October 2006. Back in the 1960s, cable-television companies were given local monopolies (only one cable-TV service per town); in return for that privilege, they were obliged to provide at least one channel on which any citizen could place programming. Now the United States Congress has been persuaded (read: bribed by cable-industry lobbyists) to rescind this obligation ... while leaving the monopolies intact.

Not many people ever watched Public Access TV -- if you believe that 100,000 or 300,00 souls in a town is not many. The quality was poor, and the programs, amateurish. But they were authentic, people's programs, reflecting the concerns of citizens, not the concerns of advertisers or of politicians.

I shall miss it.

Comments

A picture of happiness

Happy , originally uploaded by piecesofme2005 . For more photo goodness, Visit my flickr photostream . A beautiful, relaxed photo , nicely configured in black-and-white, by PiecesOfMe2005 . On Flickr

What does "Hosing the Doris" mean?

The expression, "to hose the Doris" is paparazzi argot for "keeping the button pressed and taking as many frames as possible — in the shortest time — of a female celebrity." [ The Online Photographer ]

Levantine film festivals

Someone has stepped away from his table at a café in the Marais neighborhood of the Fourth Ward (Quatrième Arrondissement) on the Right Bank of Paris. Photographed with Leica M6 and a Summilux 1:1.4/35 ASPH lens. For more photo goodness, Visit my flickr photostream . I spent the day researching film festivals in the Levant -- the Near East. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) sponsors annual film and a photo competitions . In Giza, Egypt — home of the Pyramids — is the annual Ismailia International Film Festival — since its Web site is in Arabic (the English pages are all marked "Under Construction"), I have written a letter to its organizers, requesting information. The big, "prestige" festival is in the UAE — the Dubai International Festival . It takes place in December. The deadline for entries is in September. I want to send a reporter to cover it, so I am looking around for an English and Arabic-speaking journalist who is familiar with filmmaking, or filmmaker who ...

Sun in Splendor

Search This Blog