Our First Sponsor! (MIH2)

TeamJaded would like to thank television's Conor Knighton who just donated some scrilla to the cause.



Cheers to Conor, our number one.

Two Years Since Katrina

It’s been two years since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast flattening parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and causing the Levees around New Orleans to break completely obliterating the city. And despite what you’ll see on Yahoo! News with all the propaganda about how rad New Orleans is doing these days, the city is not rebuilt. The residents have not returned. And the combined forces of Hurricane Katrina, and the much under reported, and under exaggerated Hurricane Rita, wreaked a havoc on the Gulf Coast that remains today as if the flood waters just subsided. My home state of Louisiana is a mess, and the people of the Gulf Coast who lost their homes, their cities, and their families still need all of our help.

When Katrina blew in from the gulf I was glued to an iMac at Current TV cutting raw feeds for Google Current and pretty much freaking out about what I was watching unfold over the Reuters and Associated Press wires. I was so worried about my friends and family in the area that it was almost impossible for me to be a very productive employee. I felt like I was in the Clockwork Orange being conditioned to hate violence and I did hate the violence brought by the storm and the complete neglect of the federal government. Four days before the administration could scramble itself to help people on the ground there were Cajuns in boats on their way from Lafayette and Lake Charles to rescue people in the water. And that made me proud of my home state and my heritage and of all those fishing trips I took with my Dad and Grandpa in boats just like those when I was a kid.

I couldn’t deal with watching the feeds anymore so I told my boss that I was going back to Louisiana to help in any way that I could. He talked me into taking a camera for Current TV and shooting stories on the ground. I had never shot documentary style television before… Laura Ling who runs the Vanguard Journalism department at Current TV was kind enough to give me an eleventh hour tutorial on how to shoot pods the night that I left for a flight that she financed out of her production budget. So Current TV paid for me to fly back home with the hope that I would come back with something, although I don’t think they believed I would. For my own self I figured that putting another camera on what was going on down there was probably the most meaningful way I could help, especially since I had access to a national cable network.

I never got to New Orleans I spent most of my time at an evacuee camp in Sam Houston State Park just north of my hometown of Lake Charles. There where a few hundred people who had fled Orleans and St Bernard Parishes and they were camped on the banks of a bayou with their backs to a mosquito infested swamp. My friend Dan Robertson, who is now a producer for KPLC NBC in Lake Charles, spent several days there talking to the evacuees… And I was truly inspired. I expected to find a group of people devastated and in shock… and they were, they were, but they were hopeful, caring, and thankful to be alive. Their stories were heartbreaking, and everyday when we left the camp, Dan and I would drive back to Lake Charles in silence unable to fully grasp the magnitude of what was going on. The truly inspiring thing about the Sam Houston Camp was the local community in the Moss Bluff area who had come to the aid of the people in the park. There was no Red Cross and no FEMA. There was no large body helping the people at all. But when the locals found out people were camped at Sam Houston they were on it. Cajuns, Bikers, Church Groups, poor people, wonderful people from miles around mobilized everything they could and came to the aid of those in need. It was truly beautiful. There was live bands, huge cookouts everyday, the smell of gumbo and bbq was so thick that when we walked into the camp our mouths watered. There was a huge blow up bouncing castles for the kids and a large tent set up with electricity to power a television and Playstation… and there was more food and supplies than anybody there could use. The scene made me hopeful for the future of our civilization.

There was an elderly couple that Dan and I befriended that had lost everything in Chalmette. We spent most of our time with them recording their story and I am truly sorry that it never went to air. It was the first news doc I had ever attempted to shoot and I was learning how to do it while we were shooting. But I have the footage and actually plan to finish it soon. Current didn’t finish it because I came back with another piece and for some reason they weren’t willing to use both. I think that they didn’t expect me to come back with anything so they hadn’t allotted any edit time for me. When I came back with two, they scrambled and made a window for one, they chose the other.

This is that story:


My Mom is in the pod and for all intents and purposes this was her pod. She’s a vegetarian and very much into animal rights. She belongs to a group in Lake Charles called La Paw and they rescue animals. People weren’t the only creatures displaced by the storm and there was an incredible amount of Katrina pets in Lake Charles. My mom was even fostering a bouncy little puppy. But she wanted to go to the heart of it all to see if she could help. So we drove two hours east of Lake Charles, but west of New Orleans, to Gonzales, Louisiana and the Lamar Dixon Expo Center which was the cross roads for all the animals coming out of the neighborhoods and the water. The hope was that they could remain there and be reunited with their owners but there were simply too many. The Expo Center was bursting with thousands of dogs, cats, and livestock. There were rescued animals being bused in, brought in on trailers, and even flown in on helicopters. Most of them were dogs. For reasons that I can’t explain, the scene in Gonzales hit me much harder than the camp in Sam Houston. The people in the camp were hopeful and ready to get their lives started again… But the animals were scared, helpless, and headed for very uncertain futures as many of them waited to be trucked towards destinations unknown where they had little to no hope of ever being reunited with the families who took care of them, and in all likelihood would probably be euthanized after miraculously surviving the storm that killed so many and destroyed so much. Thankfully there were organizations helping people reunite with their pets and helping pets find new homes all across the country, but the scene there on the ground was overwhelming. I often refer to it as dog hell. And the one thought that I can’t ever get out of my head after seeing what I saw that day is… where were all those people who belonged to those animals? Like thousands of people from all over the country that had descended on Gonzales, my mom volunteered her time that day and helped walk dogs.

I couldn’t find many people willing to talk on camera, because they were so busy saving animals, so I turned the camera on myself and narrated the scene. I came back to San Francisco, turned in my tapes, and a week later Pet Rescue was on the air and Sam Houston Katrina Camp went into the tape Library. I will never forget my experiences during those two weeks.

I returned to New Orleans over the Christmas holidays with my friends Ben Moore and Dave Mitchael. We went there to see what was left of our cultural capital, our New Orleans. Very few people were back in the city at that time and it was still totally devastated. Here is where the story takes an unexpected twist, and one would really have to understand the character of Ben Moore, his genius, and his ability to see things that others can not, and make light of horrible situations… but when Ben was on his way back to Baton Rouge from San Francisco for the holidays he took a detour through Mississippi and drove through New Orleans with some friends. Instead of being horrified by what he saw he choose to look at in a way that only Ben could and he saw skate spots, D.I.Y. build your obstacle out of junk, skate spots. He decided right then that he would shoot a photo essay about New Orleans skateboarders after Katrina. He wanted me to come with him and write and article about it so that he could pitch it to Thrasher Magazine. Instead of that I decided to check out a Sony Z1 from Current and film the whole experience. However, I only committed one day to the project and on that day we had no guide from the New Orleans skate scene so we bumbled around until we found ourselves in Lakeview and then in the 9th Ward, and the St. Bernard Parish, wreckage, debris, mind numbing devastation. We were shocked to see the holes in peoples roofs where they had to hack their way out or drown, the waterlines near the tops of the few homes still standing, the piles of rubble. We found no skate spots only complete disbelief at the magnitude of the destruction. My heart sank thinking of all the people who belonged to those places and I wondered where they were. I did shoot this silly video of Dave and Ben trying hard to make the best of a bad situation:



That boat was one of several boats beached in the casino parking lot… the only skatable one. But that’s the only thing tangible that I took out of that experience. There was nothing inspiring about that trip to the Big Easy, nothing at all. Only questions in my heart about why months after Katrina, New Orleans still lay in ruins and why from the I-10 I could see parking lots full of FEMA trailers that had nobody living in them.

Ben however shot a series of amazing photos that later (June 2006) supplemented an article in Thrasher about skaters in New Orleans post Katrina.

Long before Thrasher published that story I returned to New Orleans in March to shoot the story I missed, about how street skating had adapted to the destruction of Katrina. I returned with my friends the VC Mafia: Keith Gluck and Angelo Hjelm. With the help of the amazing Todd Taylor who is a New Orleans institution in and of him self, and also with the help of Justin Vial, and Eric from Humidity Skate shop, we produced Skating the Aftermath, the pod that cemented my desire to shoot documentaries:



To reiterate and give credit where credit is due, Ben Moore was responsible for this pod. It was his idea. He inspired me, and later Thrasher Magazine to cover the aftermath, I’m just psyched that Thrasher used his photos.

By the time I went to New Orleans to shoot Aftermath, I thought that I would be use to seeing the shocking destruction, but I wasn’t. I was still shocked and mournful to see such destruction overwhelming the city. However, unlike my trip over Christmas, in March I did find inspiration. We tracked down and shot a story with a large group of college students who had decided to spend their spring break gutting houses. We spent a full day with them on the job and at their camp near Chalmette. The reason that pod was never aired is because when I came back from Louisiana in March Current was only interested in my pods if I cut them myself, but not while I was on the clock. So I spent a weekend cutting Skating the Aftermath, then showed it to Laura Ling who was very excited about it and once again helped me by putting her weight behind it to get it to air. I will be forever thankful to her for that. But nobody was willing to help me out with the rebuilding pod because the company wasn’t that interested in Katrina stories at that point. If I had those tapes, I’d cut that story too. Overall, in March the city was bad, but people were returning and we spent many fun nights in the Quarter and the Marigny drinking with friends who were back in the city and just enjoying the carefree life that endeared New Orleans to the world. …I must confess that I felt a little guilty enjoying myself knowing that so many people’s lives were shattered... But I guess in the words of D-Mitch, we were just trying to bring a little life back into the city… somebody had to.

Two years later many parts of New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast are still in ruins. And we as a nation are not paying attention. New Orleans is not better. It is not fine. We all have a responsibility to our fellow Americans who lost everything there. We must rebuild the city with all of its neighborhoods intact. And we must build the levees strong like a fortress not just to pre-Katrina levels, cause uh, that didn’t work too well last time, did it fellas? We must rebuild what was lost. We cannot let this happen again.

Make it Happen

(For a brief rundown of "Make It Happen"- check out the gray panel to your left)

For those of you who have been paying attention, and even for all y’all who could care less, TeamJaded is about to partake currently on a grand adventure. That’s right, we've dumped our apartments in the beautiful city by the Bay and have taken off across America in our brand new (to us) 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid. We are navigating the open roads of America for at least two months… or until we run out of money.

But before you jump to conclusions, we are not living out some San Franciscan, Jack Kerouac fantasy conceived after too many nights in the Barmuda Triangle. We left San Francisco; not just in search of knowledge and adventure, but in search of stories.

We recognize that the times we live in are filled with negativity and turmoil. Between the Bush Administration, the 2005 Hurricane Season, the War on Terror, rampant corporate greed, the clueless mass media, and... the Bush Administration there aren’t too many reasons to get out of bed every morning.

All of this bums us out, makes us feel helpless, and well yes, jaded. We recognize that our political system has failed us. The fourth estate, the mass media has failed us. And well, even the food we eat has turned on us. (And where are the bees?)

We don’t know what to do. We don’t have all the answers... or even any of them. But we do know one thing; somewhere (and probably even everywhere) in this great country of ours there are people who have not given in to hopelessness and complacency. They have risen above prime time TV, fast food, and Bill O’Reilly. Somewhere in this nation there are people making things happen and we are going to find them.

And when we do, we’re going shove a camera in their face because these people inspire us and we want them to inspire others.

Yes, the people we are looking for are very special. They’ve stood up and achieved amazing things without the help of governments or corporations.

We’re looking for individuals and small groups who have created something important for their community, something that was needed even if nobody knew it. These people that we’re looking for do not need to have a political agenda; they just have to be doing something positive and they must absolutely be DIY.

Are we looking for miracle makers? Self made astronauts? People who can play multiple instruments at the same time? No, not necessarily. “Created something important for their community” could mean helpful to just a few people, necessary for a small scene, or just the best thing ever for the entire nation.

It’s true, our criteria is a little broad, and a bit idealistic, but we need to cast a wide net to catch all the awesome we know is out there… and you can help us. In fact we need your help, because the people we are looking for are a lot of things... but easy to find isn’t one of them.

So if you know somebody, or a group of people who might be the perfect story for us, then please shoot us an email at info[at]jadedmultimedia[dot]com.

If you want a better idea of what we’re talking about, check out the story we shot on Bay Area all girls Hip Hop collective, Sisterz of the Underground.

The Sisterz are a group of women who started throwing hip hop shows in S.F. at the turn of the century and have become a bona fide force for women’s recognition in Hip Hop Culture. And what makes them positive (besides the force for women’s recognition thing) and amazing you ask? Well, they even run a Hip Hop Education program called Def Ed, where they employ the elements of Hip Hop to teach under-privileged inner-city kids and get them psyched about education. Watch the mini doc and (hopefully) be inspired.

Our launch date was September 15th, 2007. Even if you think the world is perfect and you’re not the least bit jaded, we hope you’ll join us. We've got a map of our route, our ever-changing schedule, and our vlogs (behind-the-scenes videos, if you will) up on the blog. We try to keep you updated with blog entries and videos of our progress and adventures along the way. We won’t deliver finished stories until the end, but we’ll definitely hit you up with teasers and updates, so that you all know where we are, how we’re doing, and if we’ve been inspired.

Now that you know the what, when, and why, we need your help to find the people making it happen D.I.Y steez. We also need couches to crash on. (And some more scrilla…)

Help us make it happen. …and America here we come.

TeamJaded

Ode to the Chug House

Here's a little Tuesday 2 Live Crew from the archives...

The Bees Bounce

Karl Rove isn’t the only one getting out of town; it looks like the Earth’s bee population is taking off as well. Up to 60 percent of bees have vanished from the West Coast and 70 percent from the East Coast and Texas. The mass exodus is attributed to a vague syndrome called Colony Collapse Disorder, but I’ll get to that in a minute…

What I think is amazing is that not very much is being made of this mysterious Bee vanishing. You might say to yourself, “what do I care if the bees disappear?” Honey is just bee puke and the thought of a bunch of bulimic bees collectively puking a jar full of thick amber throw up… well that’s just disgusting. Besides who likes getting stung? And an animal that hasn’t evolved past suicide as a defense measure is sort of suspect anyway, right? Plus they’ve been around for millions of years and their society hasn’t progressed one bit. Matriarchal totalitarianism, that’s hardly a meaningful contribution to civilization. And while all those statements are totally valid and understandable, it might surprise you to know that bees don’t just puke honey and sting people. They also pollinate a sizeable portion of the fruits and vegetables we humans eat.

According to Zac Browning the vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation, “Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food.” They pollinate at least $14 billion dollars worth of crops in the U.S. alone, including apples, nuts, pears, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash, tomatoes, sunflowers and cucumbers. Along with citrus fruit, peaches, kiwis, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries and melons. (From here.)

Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then Man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more life.” So no bees equals no food. (And no food equals no us.) So unlike losing Karl Rove, losing the bees is something that we definitely need to be upset about.

What makes matters worse is that nobody is quite sure what’s causing Colony Collapse Disorder, only that the bee’s aren’t coming home to the hive and they haven’t left a forwarding address. Some theories blame pesticides, some blame mites or UFO’s, and others claim that cell phones are disrupting bees navigational systems causing them to spazz out and get lost in the wilderness. (Steve jobs I’m looking at you.) There’s even a theory that claims the missing bees evolved into Namura Jellyfish causing the vast Jelly plague in Japan.













Some scientists doubt that theory.

Whatever the cause, one thing’s for sure. We can add disappearing bees to the long list of possible cause for impending human annihilation. Put it right after global warming, but at least three stops up from the Rapture. (Sorry Bushies.)

Think of the bees the way we should be thinking about the polar ice caps. And I don’t mean as inconvenient barriers to Arctic oil reserves, but as the metaphorical canaries in the coal mine. Without the bees, we’re fucked. What does it say about a society that is so disconnected from its food supply that it barely understands or cares that no pollinating insects equals NO food supply?

But hey why trouble ourselves with it too much? Big Love’s on tonight and that show is awesome. Instead lets take a collective walk through the park, and maybe even stop to smell those beautiful, fragrant flowers… while we still have them.

And speaking of (birds and) bees...

Cheers! Tiki Bar TV & Pimm's Cup

My favorite drink is the Pimm's Cup. The Pimm's Cup is a delicious cocktail consisting of:

1-2 shots Pimm's No. 1 Liqueur
Ginger Ale
Lemonade (or Champagne)
Cucumbers
(with additional and variations on these ingredients)

So if you enjoy reading teamjaded with a refreshing cocktail, I can guarantee you’ll love watching Tiki Bar TV. After only a couple episodes, you’ll realize every problem can be solved with a great cocktail! The production, acting, and writing is superb. And to that, I say “Cheers!” Or if I were in another country I might say:

Belgium: Op Uw Gezonheid!
China: Wen Lie!
Denmark: Skal!
Ethiopia: Letenatchie!
Germany: Prosit!
Indonesia: Selamat!
Israel: L'Chayim!
Italy: Alla Salute!
Japan: Kanpai!
Morocco: Saha Wa Afiab
Poland: Na Zdrowie!
Russia: Jobnyem!
South Africa: Gesonoheid!
Spain & Mexico: Salud!
Sweden: Skal!
Ukraine: Bud'mo! (how has Budweiser not jumped on that one?)

Below find two fabulous videos. The first is Tiki Bar TV: episode 25, “Blue Hawaiian (guest staring Diggnation’s own Kevin Rose). The second is an intricate recipe on how to make your own Pimm's Cup. Teamjaded asks you to please watch responsibly.

Meet Bush? No thanks.

The last line of a New York Times article about Jeremy Hernandez, a Minneapolis bridge hero, says:

“When President Bush’s staff contacted him to request a photo opportunity, “He was just, like, ‘Nope,’ ” she said.”

Whether you believe Mr. Hernandez is skirting publicity or making a political stance, it’s a telling statement that Digg users have gotten into an uproar about the post. It’s number one as of this moment, and comments regarding the article make more of a statement on our society than the article subject itself.

1. Mr. Hernandez is worried about publicity. Except how weird is that? Shouldn’t EVERYONE want a photo-op whenever possible? Or wait, maybe he’s making a political statement trying to prove to society that celebrity status isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? Oh crap, maybe it’s just too much work. He didn’t want to waste all his time flying and being escorted to DC, just to shake a mans hand. I mean, he wanted to go fishing.

OR

2. Mr. Hernandez dislikes Bush. By snubbing this photo opportunity he says to our government, “I don’t support you. Take that.” Or wait, maybe he should have taken the photo op, and told off Bush to his face. Oh crap, it’s too late, now he’s on the “against us” list.

If you think he hates Bush or hates Publicity, this Digg post and its surrogate comments amuse.

A sampling:

“Owned. I wouldn't want to be in a picture with that assclown either.”

“The article does not say why he declined, yet everyone assumes his reasons are political.”

“He's already had one brush with disaster - my guess is he doesn't want another one.”

“He should have gotten an "I'm with stupid ->" t-shirt!”

“The summary is taken way out of context. Shame on you Blakovitch for stooping to this level to make this kid look like he hates Bush.”

“He should have taken him up on the opportunity and called him out on some shit when he was there. The article also says that a college offered him a full scholarship so good for him, its good to see good things come to those who do good deeds.”

"Who says gentrification isn't funny?"

Apparently I’m out of touch. I just found “The Burg.” I know what you’re probably thinking… and the Staged Play version of our conversation would go a little something like this:

ACT ONE
Scene 1

You: [confused / concerned] Uh, Abby… I thought you were really into the whole ‘Internet TV’ thing.
Me: [fiddling with hands, pretends not to be ashamed] Uh, yes. Yes I am.
You: But how could you have NOT known about “The Burg.”
Me: [searching for answers] Maybe it’s because I moved away from New York? You know I live in SF now. And, uh, you know it’s all about Williamsburg. Get it? The Burg?! Woo.
You: Well, um, everyone knows about it. It’s been on Internet for over a year. Plus, they’ve been featured everywhere- from the New York Times to Wired.
Me: [looks longingly towards the computer screen, world freezes, proceed with soliloquy] You’ve let me down, Internets. YOU’VE let me down!! How could this have happened!!! [drops to knees] NOOOOO!

END SCENE

Well, technically the Internet didn’t let me down. It was just over a year late updating me on said IPTV program. I’m not even going to write on how good (or bad) the actual show is. Mainly, I want to point out 5 things.

1. High quality TV on the Internet. Bang. It’s happening. Thank you.
2. “Who says Gentrification isn’t funny?” No one. And that’s why this works.
3. Ad Sponsors. Nice work, my friends.
4. It’s Williamsburg in all its beauty: “Trust fund kids pretend to be starving artists, starving artists pretend to be able to live completely off of credit cards, and everybody pretends not to notice."
5. Which perfectly leads into the last point. They should do an episode in the Mission in SF. It could be exactly the same show except fixed-gears could make an appearance. Although maybe The Burg has field-tripped to the Barmuda Triangle*, I haven’t watched them all. Actually, I’ve watched about approximately .08% of the episodes. Don’t tell.

So there you have it. Another IPTV show, doin' it. For you. Enjoy.



*attributed to Lector Mangrave.

Funny. And Sad.

Funny. And Sad.



Funny. And Sad. (Murphy's Law at it's finest)





Funny. And Sad.



David Segal from the Washington Post wrote quite possibly the best article on how 15 seconds of fame has a whole new meaning thanks to online video. He starts:

There was a time, not long ago, when a 10-year-old boy could head to a neighborhood fair, get his face painted like a Halloween zombie and blurt out something utterly inane to a local TV news correspondent and nobody would ever think about it again... more.