Video of New Orleans Circa 1940

1940 New Orleans in Technicolor.  This was part of a travel documentary series called TravelTalks: The Voice of the Globe.  There's lots of vintage video from the 30s and 40s of other US cities and the rest of the world - just search for traveltalks on YouTube. 

An Alternative to Corporate Media

Freedocumentaries.org offers just that: full length viewing of a variety of documentaries made by independent filmmakers.  They explain it best.

We created Freedocumentaries.org because we wanted to find an easy way to bring thought-provoking, educational, and entertaining documentaries to anyone with a high-speed internet connection. We believe that the mainstream media increasingly practices self-censorship, and that it ignores many opinions and historical events. With the media distorting or ignoring information, it’s often very hard to get an accurate picture of a problem, even while watching the news. Sites like Freedocumentaries.org are a much-needed counterbalance to corporate media: an industry dominated by special interests. Even though every dollar we make via advertising or donations is critical, we do not let any advertisers have any influence over which films we play. We would rather lose that money than lose our independence. And the fact that we won’t shy away from controversial films is one of the things that makes us unique.

A few of my favorites available on the site:

Born Into Brothels

The 11th Hour

Who Killed the Electric Car

SuperSize Me

Change the World with Every Bite

I finally watched Food, Inc. and highly recommend it. The documentary continues the conversation started by The Jungle in 1901 and continued by Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma in recent years. It presents good background of the issues surrounding our food: foodborne illness, corporate bullying, employee safety and protection (or lack thereof), corn subsidies and the resulting pervasiveness in our food, animal welfare, early onset diabetes and obesity, poverty's affect on diet and health, genetic engineering, oligopoly and government lobbying, death of the small farmer, the blurring of industry and regulation, cloning...


Food, Inc. did a great job of reminding me that my dollars are my power. I've made many informed choices about what I choose to eat and not eat, but there's still room to improve for sure. Choose education over ignorance, friends. In the words of the filmmakers, "change the world with every bite!"

Chicago's The Wiener Circle

I came across this clip last week, and it's been haunting me since then. I don't have time now to digest all of the thoughts that have been running through my head, but I know it has really affected me and at some point I'd like to sort all of these thoughts out. I also want to note that the person who posted this to YouTube added the beginning statement "This is what Chi-town is all about" and certainly the This American Life producers don't endorse that view.

Judge for yourself.

This American Life, Season 1: The Wiener Circle

young @ heart

I've always had a fascination with "old people" ( I know, how p.c.) and enjoy learning about how various cultures revere their elders. I was stoked to hear about the new documentary Young @ Heart, which documents a chorus of spunky octogenarians as they learn a mishmash of songs from David Byrne, the Ramones, the BeeGees, Neil Young, Sonic Youth, and more. I got to see them shake it like a polaroid picture while singing OutKast on Ellen today.

One of their most moving performances that I've seen is this video of Coldplay's Fix You. Apparently, the singer was learning the song as part of a duet, but his partner died before they were able to perform together. I challenge you to watch this clip and not weep your eyes out. But in a good way...it's beautiful!

If you want to watch more upbeat, fun stuff, search for them on YouTube. The documentary is already playing in select theaters and hopefully will be more widely released soon.