rxdxt

On Vox: GM's best looking car - EVer!

A BEAUTIFUL EV from GM - who i pilloried in my film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" -  Makes me almost want them to survive the economic crisis. When's it avail in the states?

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Originally posted on rxdxt.vox.com

On Vox: A week in Barcelona

It was a crazy crazy week in Barcelona for Global Mobile World Congress.  I need the weekend just to digest the activities of the week.   A couple of highlights:

- I was elected to serve on the Board of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF)

- BBC iPlayer won the GSMA award for best audio/video application (the industry's highest honor!) - congrats team.

In the midst of this

Interesting press clippings in no particular order:

One of my BBC teams - the BBC RAD unit got some great coverage

Nic Newman (one of my collegues) is quoted at a conference in Sydney.

Erik Huggers (my boss) interviewed in Silicon iPlayer perpetually in Beta

Piece in Forbes...

 

Originally posted on rxdxt.vox.com

On Vox: Some press clippings (for my mom)

Hello all,

Been getting lots of Press lately on iPlayer:

The Financial Times

The Telegraph

Profile in Paid Content

MAD

A few more but I'll make you google them.

Best

Originally posted on rxdxt.vox.com

BBC music

There's a funny story I tell sometimes, about being a young man, from southern California, saving my money to buy albums (yes round vinyl disks) from the store imported from this mysterious country, Great Britain, where all the good music of the time, tones on tail, Bauhaus, joy division, siouxie, Cocteau twins... Seemed to be from. These records, almost double the price of the latest by journey or Styx (whom embarrassingly I also was rather find of). But they were amazingly unique, like nothing I'd heard and the fact I had them, Knew about them made me special, unique, and we occasionally convinced young women to join me in listening to them under the false pretenses of studying ... It was a no fail proposition.

Many of these records had something else in common, many if them were sessions by some guy named Peel, who seemed to have his finger on the pulse of this sound, as did a guy named Tony from Manchester.... And they had three letters in black boxes... That's right I thought the BBC was a record label!

Obviously I've learned differently - but the music and the fact that the BBC was part of it stayed with me. So I just have to share with you this amazing musical performance from bbc2. Elbow with the philharmonic and a local choir. Wow. It is totally amazing, you can seethe love on their faces as the orchestra (I remember that feeling from my cello days) sweeps in. First surprise, then glee shows as they feel and hear their music in a way never before. It's still on red button and online, and if you miss it buy it on their website on DVD Truly one of the best performances I've ever seen.

On Vox: Rare LONDON screening of my film Who Killed the Electric Car?!

Democrats abroad are hosting a screening of the documentary this Friday in London (if you are here)...

FILM: 'Who Killed the Electric Car'
This 2007 film investigates the events leading to the quiet destruction of thousands of new, radically efficient electric vehicles. These vehicles were introduced by GM and others the mid-1990s but soon abandoned for .. Through interviews and narrative, the film paints a picture of an industrial culture whose aversion to change and reliance on oil may be deeper then its ability to embrace ready solutions.

From the NY Times - "A murder mystery, a call to arms and an effective inducement to rage, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is the latest and one of the more successful additions to the growing ranks of issue-oriented documentaries."

Date: Friday 6 February
Time: 7:00 pm (Doors Open at 6:30 pm)
Location: London School of Economics, Room D302, Second Floor, Clement House (this is the new room)
Cost: £5 General, £3 Unwaged
Please RSVP to: films@democratsabroad.org.uk

There are a limited number of seats so please con sider your RSVP a commitment to attend; if you need to
cancel, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer the booking to someone else.

For more information on the film including reviews please click on:
 
http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/press
 
Date: Friday 6 February
Time: 7:00 pm (Doors Open at 6:30 pm)
Location: London School of Economics, Room D302, Second Floor, Clement House 
Cost: £5 General, £3 Unwaged
Please RSVP to: films@democratsabroad.org.uk

Please consider your RSVP a commitment to attend; if you need to cancel, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer the booking to someone else.
Schedule:
6.30: Doors Open
7.00: Introduction
7:15:Who Killed the Electric Car (88 minutes)

8:45: Discussion, Q&A with Peter Durante and the Executive Producers of the film

9:30: Building closes

Peter Durante, who will be leading the discussion, has spent over 8 years in the energy industry, currently working as a CO2 trader. In addition, he is a pro-bono advisor on energy and environmental issues to various politicians, NGOs, academics and industry groups. He has a keen interest in the potential (and challenges) around the electrification of transport and its relationship to renewable energy, as well as reducing CO2 and dependence on oil.  The Executive Producers, Tavin and Richard Titus, will be present for the discussion.

Please join us afterwards at the Old Bank of England Pub, 194 Fleet Street

Street map showing the location of LSE within London: Click here

Detailed map showing the Clement House building
(Building D in the lower right hand corner of the map):
http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/findingYourWayAroundLSE.htm

 

Originally posted on rxdxt.vox.com

On Vox: History repeats itself... Again.

In the midst of the giant snow storm here in London - I saw an email from my friend Jason Calcanis, celebrating the win of "We Live in Public", a film by mutual friends, about mutual friend Josh Harris that made me slightly melancholy.   It's a great read, but I've not forwarded it - as that's part of the FOJ terms.  BTW - Congrats to the filmmakers, it sounds as if they've made an AMAZING film and the Jury Award is the biggest honor a documentary can win in the USA.

But that's not what made me melancholy, nor was it the snow - which at almost 10" here in North London literally froze transport and London into the stone- well ok the victorian ages. No, I'm melancholy because it made me think of a film my wife and I, along with my long time friend Jed Weintrob, made many years ago, On_Line, a film that also had it's world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002.   In an odd bit of synchronicity, at around the same time that WLIP was winning the Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary we were in the midst of winding up the affairs of On_line's parent company, after a few years of lackluster sales; and crippled film business economics.

On_line had everything going for it, five sexy stars, including the yummy siren Vanessa Ferlito, whose first film it was.  The film detailed a bunch of people, living their real lives on the Internet, sex lives, love lives and in one case, even death (erily mirrored in recent news).  Yet the film, though loved by many, never saw the critical success we hoped for or expected. Released by a small indie film distributors in theaters accross the US, and distributed by a small DVD distributor - it just never reached critical mass - though it was, for a brief spell the #1 film on STARZ on-demand service Vongo. 

Though I've not seen Josh's film, it sounds great. I lived through much of the events that the film details, and I'm quite excited to see this - though strangely wistful.  Back then the Internet was a strange new world... today, it's just part of our every day world.  Though I'd argue we still haven't really though about what its like to live our lives online, Facebook, twitter, flickr, et all. This weekend we went to visit our friends in Luxembourg. They are in financial services, but live in an amazing house, just at what feels the edge of civilization next to farmlands.  They have Internet, but it's tucked away in the study... when I said - "Why don't you have wifi?" tapping my iphone impatiently, they said, oh why have the Internet invade the rest of the house - that's where we live our life. The internet is in there if we need it we just go. Somehow, in the oddest way, I decided they have a very good point.

While today hotels advertise they have broadband, hi-speed internet, connectivity, though in most modern cities, Not having these is akin to being a 2-star property or lower. I think in the future, we'll pay absurd amounts of money NOT to be connected, to go places off the grid, where an email/vm/cell phone is a useless hunk of toxic metal and plastic. 

I think I'll book my plans now

Originally posted on rxdxt.vox.com