Hella Solutions blog: "Document. Share. Inspire."

December 12-13 — San Francisco, California to Dakar, Senegal to Johannesburg, South Africa

Susie and I wake up at 3:30 a.m. to get my butt to SFO to sit on planes for 24 hours. This doesn’t have me feeling all that excited. “Do I really want to do this?” keeps running through my head. Yes, of course I do but 24 hours sitting in a cramped seat? Holy crap! The South African story is a crucial narrative in my documentary and I think it’s worth almost any cost to get there…but I still have second thoughts. I must add, Susie, you are the best! Thank you for all of your support and encouragement in getting me to Africa and most definitely, thanks for driving at such an inhuman hour to get me to the airport.

I have a lot of notes of my feelings and thoughts while flying but they seem a bit boring to post here and not so pertinent to my project. But by the time I get to Dakar, Senegal – my second stop on the way to Johannesburg – I note:

Overall I feel like the flight to Jo’burg (Johannesburg) has been fairly tolerable. I’m feeling a bit cramped up and I will definitely be ready to get out of this plane. But I haven’t exhausted my iPod yet and I’ve only used about 65% of my first battery on my laptop. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of tension with the other passengers on the plane and my co-habitant, Andrew, has been chill.

I got some audio of the flight crew announcing the flight destination on both legs of the Africa flights. The first clip from the ATL to Dakar didn’t feel like it was all that great but may be after cleaning up the track a bit it might be usable. The problem is that there is a lot of background sound (buzzes, wooshes, etc). My second recording felt like it was a bit better but the announcer’s voice sounded a little shallow. On the first attempt I actually asked the stewardess to make the announcement for me and she was very accommodating and did. What a difference flying international is! Actually, I’m thinking that it is more than likely the fact that this is the first week that Delta is flying to South Africa and their crew sees it as more of a novelty at this point than a pain in the ass (as it seems on most other flights).

…some time later…

We are over Namibia right now traveling at 501 mph, a distance of 3728 miles and at an altitude of 36996. We’re almost there!

I have so much crap with me it’s almost unbearable. I mean, in order to do environmental sounds on the plane and such I have to have my MD recorder out, a mic, mic chord and headphones. And in such a small space like a plane it almost hurts. Luckily I’ve had this pretty chill guy from Capetown next to me since Atlanta. We’ve talked some and I’ve explained my project and he’s been accommodating but I think it’s going to take me 20 minutes to collect my stuff to get off this plane. It’s been about 24 hours since I left SFO and believe me, I want to get off this plane now!

Oh, there’s the lunch “bell”…Mmmmm Kosher plane food. Ya, I ordered the Kosher meals but I can’t really tell the difference between them and the regular ones. On the Kosher certificate they say things like, “the utensils are guaranteed to be new.” Um, does that mean the others aren’t? All I can say is that I haven’t had any negative reactions to the food and that works for me! We’ll be landing about 25 minutes after lunch. FINALLY!

One last brief breakdown of my project…I’m about to fall over from exhaustion but I’ll try and crank this out…but please forgive me for my brevity (and possible mishaps in typing…)…my flight leaves at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow…

The Question:

How do localized organizations, in the face of globalization and neo-liberalism, move beyond insular and service model structures to effectively integrate regional and global organizing?

Translation:

I am doing an audio documentary on a small, progressive, nonprofit group based in Atlanta, Georgia who has been successful in establishing a sister office in another part of the world (South Africa). This is significant because many serious questions arise when taking one’s activism from a local community to a more global one. It is also very interesting in that in a world where global capital is crossing borders at ever-increasing rates, people are being bound to “their” borders in a comparably similar rate. This increase in financial flows is one characteristic of what many call “globalization.”

My question relates to how progressive, democratic forces counter this progression called economic globalization.

The group I am working with call themselves SisterLove and they are based in Atlanta, Georgia. The group works with women of color – more specifically, African-American and women of African descent – around issues of HIV and AIDS. The HIV/AIDS issue has largely been targeted with white, gay, men in mind and activists have found that the same methods that work in those communities don’t translate directly to other groups of people. It is groups like SisterLove that have stepped up and provided successful models to help some of those who have been neglected in this epidemic. While SisterLove does not fit a traditional model that might fit the “global justice” framework I see that they have some serious lessons to pass on to anyone interested in global justice issues – especially those who are concerned with the effects of neo-liberalism and corporate globalization. From SisterLoves second home base in Mitbank, South Africa, I will be recording their global work over the next couple of weeks.

Stay tuned for more! Peace and good night…constructive comments and discussions are always appreciated (simply use the “Comments” link directly following the post).

I was a little late in getting my immunization shots but at last AND at least I did (Thursday of last week…almost a week before I set down…which should give me a few antibodies, eh?). It wasn’t procrastination either. Honestly, I think I was being a bit naïve and wasn’t really thinking about contracting diseases as I was getting my equipment and mind ready for the trip. But wow, if you haven’t read the travel immunization content on the CDC site you are lucky! Sheesh. It really doesn’t get you too psyched up for travel – as the world appears to be one large disease from their perspective. I reckon that’s their job, though. “Be cautious but don’t be afraid”…I think they need to push that message out front a little more. See for your self (http://www.cdc.gov/travel/destinat.htm).

Above is my final equipment check. The Sony ECM-MS957 has been the mic I’ve used most in my audio work and will be my central one for this trip. I find it to be the most flexible and is great for interviews as well as collecting ambient sound. I will also be carrying with me:

1. Sennheiser with a K6 power supply and 12v phantom power pack. I haven’t used this one a lot but Ira Glass, of This American Life, seems to tought “shotgun” mics as good all around interview mics. I just think it’s a bit difficult to get a good sound if you don’t have a lot of experience using this type of mic for interview settings. There’s a nice discussion of “shotgun” mics over at this site: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/review_shotgun_mics.html.

2. A lavaliere (I forget the brand at the moment). I generally use these for my more formal sit down in an office interviews. You just have to make sure you explain the basic dynamics of the mic to the interviewee so that they don’t go fiddling with their shirt during the interview or talking off to one shoulder.

3. I’ll be using a Crown PZM30D Boundary Microphone for the first time. This is the flat rectangular item in the picture (to the right side). I think these are generally better for capturing really solid sound but I’m going to use it in the background as I do individual work with a different mic. I’ll leave this one hooked up to a second MD recorder in various locations. I probably won’t use this a lot but I’m curious about it’s application in audio documentary.

4. I’ve borrowed a second Minidisc recorder, a Sony MZ-B100 (an earlier incarnation of my MZ-M100). This is decent little recorder and I’ll have this mainly as a back-up. The biggest difference between the two models is that the MZ-M100 is what they call a Hi-MD recorder. That is, it can recorder in totally uncompressed linear PCM mode (a much higher quality level than your average MD recorder).

That’s my gear! Feel free to use the “comments” link below to ask any questions or leave your comments.

This morning, when updating my rental cue on GreenCine.com, I noticed that they are having a nice sale on documentary DVDs. They seem to be offering 4 price categories under $8.00, under $12.00, under $15.00, and under $17.00. Not a bad selection either…if you haven’t heard of GreenCine (pronounced Green “Scene”) they are an indie version of NetFlix who specialize in independent, arthouse, documentary, alternative and anime films. Plus they have all the regular stuff you’d likely want to rent/buy. They have only one distribution hub in San Francisco, so if you are in another state it may take a little longer for rental movies to get to you. But if you live in Northern Cal. and rent movies online then you have no excuse not to use them! I’ve been with them for about 5 years and I love’em!

http://www.greencine.com/static/docs_under8.jsp

http://www.greencine.com/static/docs_under12.jsp

http://www.greencine.com/static/docs_under15.jsp

http://www.greencine.com/static/docs_under17.jsp

This is an interesting article I got emailed to me today. I’m not surprised in the least and not sure if it is “good” news as in they are getting caught for this but then the whole anti-immigrant movement is not good news. It does show that this movement really doesn’t have the widespread support that their money (read publicity) purports. It also shows an inherent flaw in the movement and that is, it’s lead by people who are largely trying to manipulate the facts to fit their skewed (racist) vision of what the world should look like.

Check the article here:

Immigration group may not be what they seem

By Michele R. Marcucci, STAFF WRITER

http://www.orovillemr.com/news/bayarea/ci_4777376

(photo credit: Laura A. Oda)

…another related story: http://www.azstarnet.com/news/157353

Here is another sample of one of my first live concert recordings I did earlier this year. I used one of my inexpensive eBay purchased mics (the Y-Stereo) for this recording of the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s presentation of “Godfellas.” Great show, funny cut from the gig, okay recording. It was tough to record because 1) I had forgotten to bring headphones so I couldn’t hear the sound as it was recording and 2) the show was outside. On top of that the SFMT’s sound system would wash in-and-out at times and get overdriven when they yelled (this was fine for the show but the subsequent recording suffers a bit…but then, it gives it that true bootleg sound). Further, I was seated about 150 yards from the speakers and crowd noise creeps in a bit. So remember ‘kiddies’, always bring your headphones and getting good placement is key! Anyway, give it a listen. It’s a really funny piece and only a 5 meg. download.

http://rapidshare.de/files/35420584/SFMT06_MC_Constantine.zip