VIDEO
vimeo.com/channingkennedy
youtube.com/boringstoreez
youtube.com/catjams

ETC
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and don't forget to hit the 1998 on your way out

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Milagro - "Milagro (Asi es la Vida)" from Channing Kennedy on Vimeo.
Milagro
"Milagro (Asi es la Vida)"
WAAAHOO Productions / milagromusic.com / channingkennedy.com

if playback is slow or choppy, please download the video here: files.getdropbox.com/u/1190328/Milagro_AsiEsLaVida.mp4

SONG CREDITS

Song written by: Carmen Gonzalez, Rocco Bovo, Steven Zhu
Performed by: Carmen Milagro, Rocco Bovo and the MILAGRO Band
Produced by: Marquinho Brasil at MoonDog Studios, Alameda, CA
Engineered by: Marquinho Brasil, Brad Belknap, Jara Queeto and Andrew Leavitt
Mix & mastered by: Jim Reitzel

Lead vocals: Carmen Milagro
Trumpet and Background Vocals: Rich Armstrong
Percussion: Marquinho Brasil
Keys: Jara Queeto
Guitar: Jojo Styles
Bass: Ray Uribes
Drums: Matt Willis
Guest Vocals: Rocco Bovo

Background vocals & international voices:
Rich Armstrong
Marquinho Brasil
Lisa Baty
Kathy Schmidt
Giovanna Queeto
Tamiko Ishidate
"Milagro Kids"

VIDEO CREDITS

filmed on location at Hacienda de Bovo, Pacifica CA
April 4, 2009
location provided by Mike Bovo

Directed and edited by: Channing Kennedy
Assistant Director: Stacia Warren

Cameras:
Dylan Romero
Larry Cheuk

Production Assistants:
Patrick Van Wye
Nader Assemi
Jessica Lansdon

Choreography by A Little Tango alittletango.com
Choreographer: Amy Little
Assistant: Lisa Martin

Our talented lovely and handsome dancers:
Michelle Ito
Caroline Kuntz
Steve Hamilton
Roksana Azarbaijani
Caera Aislingeach
Gina Gutierrez
Patricia Held
Michael Leavell
Rona Siddiqui
Calvin Hamilton
Nicole Roberts
Candice Osako
Hailey Laserna
Katie Kimball

Special Guest:
Donna Sachet donnasachet.com

"Our Heroes" from Colma Fire Department Station #85 (Engine #86)
Mark Goodman
Anthony Fisicaro
Jeremiah Cadigan
Randy Bunther
Gabriel Quintero
Carlos Escalante
Manny Lara

Makeup and Photography: Liliana Aranda of StarstruckPix.com
Carmen Milagro's jewelry by DanaGraft.com

More special party guests:
Miguel Bustos
Alex Rivera
Mary Rose Walls
Kathy Schmidt
Giovanna Queeto
Quest Queeto
Sole Queeto
Dana Graft
Sofia Graft
Vivian Graft
Christopher Bovo
Vito Bovo
Michael Locascio
Carmen O'Keefe
Julia Gales

Shoot Operations:
Darlene Dumpit
Bonnie Tomek
Sally Gaines
Len Gaines
Steven Richards
Denise Richards

Catering by Carroll's Catering carrollsmeats.com

Special thanks to Drew Stephens of RDMStudios.com
and Kurt Kunselman of chameleonmusic.com

A Channing Kennedy Video Production for WAAAHOO Productions.

Here it is (took out the player because it was autoplayin')

I haven't listened to it yet, but I seem to remember talking a lot and in no particular order.

The music video -- actually both music videos -- are scheduled to premiere on June 26th at the Union Room, hooray! 7PM, $20 donation to PB&JAMM at the door. U B THERE

who will be the first to make a joke about me being on a show about women who really rock, I bet James or Emily

A couple of weeks ago, two satire pieces that I wrote for RaceWire got some traction and showed up in a few respectable places around the internet (apparently the internet has respectable places now?). Exciting stuff! Especially since I haven't put much effort into writing since seventh grade or so.

"Right Flu, Wrong Swine" (04/30/09), about the real links between white tourists and US outbreaks of swine flu, got picked up at Feministing, Wiretap, and the Root.

"5 Hot New (Old) Racial Stereotypes" (04/29/09), a roundup of identity politic memes in Youtube videos, was reposted at Alternet. Alternet is a highly regarded liberal blog hub with, it turns out, totally insane commenters. After I posted this, Julianne said that it would have been better if I had taken the writing out. Thanks Julianne!

And most recently, I contributed a paragraph to our office's review of the new Star Trek movie. The comments illustrate what an uphill battle racial justice is. No, we don't think Kirk should have been black or something. We realize this is a prequel. No, nobody was checking at the door to make sure attendees were true fans before allowing them in to see the movie for money. No, having a Native American commander in the penultimately shitty franchise installment doesn't get you any magic diversity points.

And here are three videos I made for work recently. I like how Youtube shows you what a video is called, what it's rated, and how long it is before you even click on it now. Honestly, I watch fewer videos now, because that's 90% of what I wanted to know in the first place.




I did a few things for work that weren't 100% amazing; the've been excluded from this list.

Post 1: Boring Storeez checkin

so Boring Storeez is not dead -- with God as my witness I will see it carried out to its full execution. It is currently dormant, because I'm in the middle of a huge music video edit and I haven't had time / got out of the habit. I'll get caught up in the next week or so.

I decided that the best way to take care of the comment malaise was to snip the whole thing, and that means that I won't post the new videos here. Like Sarah said, the easiest way to get all the (potential) conversation happening in the same place was to confine it to the source, i.e. the comments on the youtubes themselves. I'm still telling people via the Facebook group in the instances that I come up with a video worth watching, and I also put title cards and discussion questions in the videos themselves for the most recent batch, to prod conversation along. via the Facebook group.

When provoked, I can provide a bunch of high-learnin' reasons why I'm doing this project. But when the chips are down and I'm sick of it, the one constant reason I retain to keep slogging away at it is just to prove to myself that I have the discipline to complete a year-long commitment. And maybe it's better when things seem grim -- if I can stick with a year-long project that nobody, even me, cares about or benefits from, then I can stick with anything. Why don't I do this with something actually beneficial, like exercise? I don't know. I'm cut of nobler cloth, I suppose.

Yes yes it's true I've been terribly slacky on BORING STOREEZ. And today is the 100th day, and I've only 93 storeez posted! Hopefully tonight I'll have my act together and record seven in a go. That always works out well.

I've been thinking about the presentation of the Boring Storeez project lately -- specifically, how to encourage conversation around the storeez, preferably in a centralized place, but at the same time to not totally fucking deluge my friends with updates about storeez that are perhaps a bit boring.

Here are some things I've done recently about BORING STOREEZ:

1. I started a Facebook group/fanpage/whatever for more targeted, intentional spamming, and for easier prodding of friends for opinions on storeez and general thoughts about the mechanics of the anecdote. U JOIN NAO

2. I started marking internet-inappropriate storeez private, which frees me up to tell them with abandon. Send me a friend request because the inappropriate ones are generally the best ones.

3. I've rethought my syndication strategy but haven't really reached any conclusions.

Here is my goal: Get storeez to the people who want them and a few people who don't yet realize they want them. Don't get the same storee to the same person four times; once is enough, with the option to feature a storee. Have everyone comment in the same place, like a real conversation.

Here is what is happening now:
1. I record the storee and post it on Youtube.
2. I then post the Youtube video to this Livejournal, and to Myspace (as a blog post and as a bulletin).
3a. IF I LIKE THE STOREE: The Livejournal post automatically syndicates to the Facebook group, and my personal Facebook account tells people that I uploaded this new Youtube video. I also post it to the Facebook group as a posted item, and I also change the group's status to point people to the Livejournal entry. I might also post/status the storee on my personal Facebook account.
3b. IF I DON'T LIKE THE STOREE: The Livejournal post automatically syndicates to the Facebook group, and my personal Facebook account tells people that I uploaded this new Youtube video. If I really didn't like the storee, I didn't even put it on Livejournal. I gotta make 365 of them and they can't all be gems, nawmean.
4. If I really really like the storee, like if it's an edited piece, I might also upload it to Facebook as a video.

So in the scenario where I really really like the storee, a person will see said storee at / can comment at:
Youtube, if they're friends with me on Facebook or Youtube, and (can comment at YT if) they have a Youtube account
Livejournal, where anyone can comment, but if they don't have an account / log in using something, there's no point in talking to them because they won't be notified that they got a reply -- I'm thinking of DJ Chienloup here
Myspace (blog), if they're friends with me on Myspace
Myspace (bulletin), if they're friends with me on Myspace
Facebook group (syndicated post), if they're a member of the group
Facebook group (intentional post), if they're a member of the group
Facebook group (status), if they're a member of the group
Facebook (syndicated Youtube notification) if we're friends
Facebook (intentional post) if we're friends
Facebook (personal status) if we're friends
Facebook (video) if we're friends or if I tag a friend of theirs
Twitter (oh yeah, I update my personal Facebook status through Twitter)

THIS IS AWFUL. This means that there can be at as many as 12 different conversations going on about a given storee, with no awareness between commenters. The possibilities multiply if someone (okay me) reposts any of these things on Facebook or wherever. And that's not even the real reason why it's awful! The real reason it's awful is that people usually don't comment -- since no one occurrence aggregates enough traffic to get a real conversation going. The fallout is that my close friends, like Emily, will see like 12 fucking notifications from me about some boring storee. Per day, in theory.

Other things to take into consideration:
Nobody cares about Myspace
The videos I've posted directly to Facebook got hella views, but I have a couple of friends not on Facebook who read the LJ (maybe just DJ Chienloup)
I don't really have any unique LJ friends (hi jabberworks), although the conversation on LJ always seems top-notch (I mean on other people's blogs) and non-LJers can still comment.
Not all of my friends has a Youtube account but pretty much all of my friends have a Facebook account, and Youtube conversation seems somehow more fatuous than Facebook conversation.
Some of my top-commenter friends don't like Facebook. (Hi harveyjames)

LJ is the best for conversations -- smart people, accessible to all -- but I don't have a community on LJ. Can I build one, and include my non-LJ friends in the conversation (which would mean wresting them away from Facebook)? How?
Facebook is where my community is, and all the publicity tools, but it's a tangled morass, and a few key players aren't there regularly, and the conversation is limited. Can I raise the bar of conversation? Really? Can I get DJ Chienloup to join, and get James to get on there with any regularity, and become friends with Jabberworks?
Youtube is the most direct route, but youtube = some idiots
fuck Myspace
EFIL4AGNAX

OK time for work, but what do you think?

So remember last weekend when I messaged literally very single one of you to see if you wanted to go to the SF Japantown Cherry Blossom Festival Parade? Well! Jessica showed up! And brought reinforcements! (Keith and Armando) And the rest of you have to settle for watching this instead of getting sunburnt.

There were so many marvelous nerds at this. I wanted to read all of their livejournals simultaneously eternally. I wish we could have stayed for the talent show.
http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKPKExtpahI

This turned out creepier than I originally intended? This is the first storee I've done where I recorded two versions and then edited them together. It's a huge difference I think, almost enough to make me rethink the whole one-take conceit of BORING STOREEZ. or maybe to embrace it more strongly. anyway, two takes, edited together, 1AM and I was in the kitchen and it was hot. happy birthday Leah! http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com http://tr.im/brngstrz

This is a first/only take, and it shows in the rambling, but this was a story I was actually excited to tell and I think that shows.Were I to redo it, I'd mostly just work to get it shorter. http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com

I think I even forgot to mention some of the things that were weird about it. That's how many things were weird. So many that it was hard to remember them all. Do you like my rasta lion drawing.

Background footage is from Tusks's first Easter Egg hunt. He nearly found it. http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com

This is the story about how I choked on a Cadbury Egg once. Man that sounds real boring... storeez http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com

Another Dolores Park / Easter / Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence / type storee
Do you like how my sleeping mask has my name embroidered on it

About halfway in there is some hot halfnaked guy footage. You can believe this guy is me and turn the sound off, if you want to http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com

Soundedit 16 used to have this noise gate function thatwould not only silence any parts of your audio below a certain level, but would just trim them out altogether. I wonder if I can rig something together that does that for video. That would make these storeez a lot more entertaining (for me, nothing will make them more entertaining for you). Am I wearing pants in this video? http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com

Man, this one didn't turn out well, but I was just trying to knock a bunch out. I wouldn't watch this one if I were you. I would watch a different one. http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com

Ah just another one of those "And then I realized" storeez. Are these really boring or do I just need to eat breakfast? http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com

Pretty much what the title says. The woman seemed to think it was funny too; so funny that I haven't heard from her. http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com

about a wedding I went to that was better than most college thesis performance art installations, plus it had food. SPOilER: I cried. http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com

Guest storeeteller Beth dishes on a a time her personal boundaries were breached in the name of histrionic performance art, against the backdrop of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Easter festivities in Dolores Park. http://channingkennedy.livejournal.com

So my day job is doing video production and web content stuff for ColorLines Magazine. Nearly everything I do manifests on the blog, RaceWire. I enjoy it immensely -- digging into the headlines and finding the hidden race angle, which is present in everything, appeals to my activist side as readily as it does my logic-nerd side. And I'm glad for the opportunity to hone my writing and communication skills. Journalism and media analysis, like storeez, begs conciseness.

With that in mind,

here's a very short piece I did, "How to Criticize a Black President," on media coverage of Obama's disturbingly hypocritical policy on Guantanamo Bay detainees and their rights to due process, as viewed as part of the greater media criticism of Obama's policies to date. I wrote this one initially as only a couple of sentences, then went back and beefed up the links on the advice of my editor. I still feel like the last sentence could better spell out the inherent racism in the more common criticisms of Obama (i.e. that he's Kenyan).

And here is a somewhat muddied jab, called "The Race Angle on Wagoner's Departure from GM," at hypocritical right-wing attitudes toward federal preconditions on financial aid to individuals (for example, mandatory drug tests for welfare recipients) vs. to corporations (for example, asking that Rick Wagoner step down from GM before any more bailout money would be disbursed). The race angle being, why do right-wing pundits and policymakers feel like the fiscal behavior of America's poor people -- most of whom are people of color -- has to be carefully monitored lest they use their assistance Incorrectly, whereas government-imposed preconditions on billions upon billions in bailout money to corporations signals the Death of the Free Market? Why is a company more deserving of dignity than a person? Aren't both of them going to stimulate the economy when they spend their checks?
This one reads, in my opinion, like I didn't think the metaphor out clearly enough before I wrote it, and turns into a fuck-you-richie piece. I think the potential is there, and it's an interesting concept -- hey, can'tblame myself for trying.

And here's a thirty-second video, "We're Sick of Not Being Heard" (with accompanying article, not by me) that I edited out of a half-hour of phone conversations conducted and recorded by NWFCO, to promote their new campaign to get the government to enforce the the Supreme Court rulings requiring hospitals to provide language access services to non-English speakers.



And here's the post.

I think this is a tight video that makes the point well, and I'm pretty proud of it. Those of you who've edited will know how much easier it is to make a three-minute piece than a thirty-second one.

However! Shenanigans! This video resulted in me having the following conversation on Facebook:




I resisted ending with "no, because your dreams are stupid and jingoistic" or "the thing about dreams is that eventually you have to wake up from them, or fall victim to creeping brain death." what are YOUR thoughts on the matter

I don't know Christoph that well, that is to say, I've never talked politics with him before. Facebook's weird like that. It's nice, really; I'm glad to have a dissenting opinion manifest itself without me having to go trolling for it, let alone trolling for it in person.

OK more stories very soon. I got a new shotgun mic for my camera and it sounds like SHIT

jeez is all the formatting in this post going to be totally fucked