- *Audiophiliac "The Other Steve Guttenberg"
- *Involuntary Slacker
- *LostRemote
- *Media Nation - Dan Kennedy
- *Universalhub
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
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It had to happen. I initially thought that hosting the blog on my own upsidemedia domain would give me greater control over the look and content. I was wrong. The blogging software offered through my host is inflexible and difficult to moderate. It’s good for a beginner because there’s no way to get at the code, but there is the problem.
Also, the blog name, City Of Lynn, is too close to the city’s official url, http://cityoflynn.net .
I will keep this blog up for archival purposes and provide a link back to it from the new one. If someone wants to comment on a post over here, I will check now and then to see if there’s anything new to ‘moderate.’ Unfortunately, it won’t actively notify me.
From here on, this blog continues as http://livinginlynn.blogspot.com/. Living in Lynn has a nice alliteration to it, and besides, that’s what I’m doing.
New features include RSS, imbedded City Council Video, more intelligent links to fellow bloggers and whatever else I think of adding!
If you link to this blog, please update it to the new name and address!
Thanks,
Seth (aka mediaseth)
UPDATE: Something came up at work and I was not able to make it. If anyone has video, I’ll be happy to link to it.
Reported in the Item:
http://itemlive.com/articles/2008/12/14/updates/doc49466bb092650245307467.txt
There is a public hearing tonight at City Hall at 6:30pm. People from http://stopthepikehike.org/ will be there by 5:30pm.
I will videotape the event if I am able to get there on time.
In other news, I am one day late in updating http://lynnhappens.com. I’ll do the updates after tonight’s hearing. It was a busy weekend!
Stacey has started a facebook group: - please note that the link has changed to
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35844419449
The Lynn, MA Bloggers Guild
The MBTA has been doing overnight construction on the platform in Central Square for some time now. Even being right in Central Square, most of the noise has been like a distant drone, and like the sound of the trains themselves, I have been able to sleep through it. It’s sort of like the ocean.
I understand that they do the construction overnight in order to keep the trains running during the day. I agree with that. My neighbors who commute by train are probably glad for it. But…
…sometime around 6am this Saturday morning the peaceful ocean-like construction sound transformed into something like a jack-hammer. and I’ve been up since. It’s echoing off the buildings downtown, probably keeping lots of others awake. It continues as I’m posting.
I’m pretty certain that there’s a local noise violation, here. I’m not so sure that the Lynn Police or City Hall are the places to turn to, though. We’re talking about the MBTA. They either are or think they are above our little laws. But, we shouldn’t just take it!
If you’re in DTL and you’ve had your weekend rest/recovery ruined by the MBTA, please contact Rep’s Robert Fennel and Steven Walsh. They’re good guys and willing to listen. If the MBTA has a way to complain about these things, we should do that to. I’m going to look into that right now.
Something as loud as this jack-hammer-sounding-thing should not be operated when most of us are sleeping!! They should have at least waited until 9am!
See it here:
This blog is about more than posting City Council meeting video. Honest! I just have get it together, because the lack of posts recently is no reflection on a lack of things to post about.
Hyperlocal Theatre
On Halloween my girlfriend and I took a 45 second walk (ok, we didn’t time it) across to Lynn Arts to see the Imaginary Beasts Production, Sorry, Wrong Number! We were out of there maybe 40 minutes later both very excited to have high quality live theatre so close! I don’t know how often their productions at Lynn Arts are, but I hope to see another one soon.
On Tuesday Nov. 4th, DTLna met at Tatiana’s Restaurant to watch the election results come in on the big screen. I’m glad to have shared history with my neighbors and appreciative of Tatiana’s for being so welcoming (and also having great pizza and Spaten on tap).
In other DTLna news, we’re having an Art Salon at Gulu-Gulu Cafe in Central Sq. Here’s the flyer calling for artists:
Erika is doing the booking. You can contact her at artsalon@dtlna.org . If the image is a little small, the event itself is December 6th at 8pm. In the DTLna do-gooder tradition, Please bring canned food/pasta etc for My Brother’s Table. You do not need to be an artist or bring work to attend. Everyone is welcome to this neighborhood mixer. To understand the history of the “Art Salon” check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Salon
There’s a few more projects in the works, including a loft party/blog launch/local arts fundraiser on Saturday, Dec. 13th and a lynnhappens.com sponsored pub crawl through DTL establishments. Stay tuned as details emerge.
DTLna meets the first Tuesday of every month at rotating downtown locations. Contact me through this blog to get on the list!
The latest City Council videos are up on blip.tv. There was an executive session in the middle and I decided to keep the recording in two parts for easier uploading. The advantage of a flash (SD card) camera is that you can transfer video the same way you would any computer file. On the other hand, every time you hit the pause button it writes that file and starts another, and you have to use video editing software to join the clips together.
I also had to compress the second part a little more to keep it under the 1gb limit. I’m sure most people won’t notice the difference. That’s not why it took longer to post than part 1, though. I was having what I think were ISP related problems causing the upload to abort partway through. until finally it took. Do you think Comcast would care if I called about it?
Part 1
http://blip.tv/file/1360047
Part 2
http://blip.tv/file/1363796
What about School Committee? Contact me if you’re interested. I don’t have the time to do it, myself. It’s also a commitment you have to stick with, but it’s not so bad. Really. If you have your own camera and a way to digitize the video, I can set up a means for you to upload it to me, and I’ll post it through LynnHappens.com
You can find it through http://lynnhappens.com
And let me tell you we struggled for a while with this flyer design. There’s the sort of flyer you do for a DJ’d party with a name that’s a play on “Octoberfest,” then there’s the sort you do for an event in which your City’s Mayor is scheduled to speak! Then there’s the fundraising for Girls, Inc and all the other info.. and this is what you get. It’s your basic hard working event flyer professionally assembled by survivalbydesign.net using the best photos of downtown we had at the moment!
Two videos have been posted to blip.tv. I have decided not to use youtube or google video because of their limitations on file size and length.
Here is the link for the Cable Advisory Committee Meeting of 9-9-08:
…and the City Council!
…and the infamous “39 Stipulations” (pdf)
http://lynnhappens.com/docs/stipulations.pdf
(note: I did not do the “bolding” of some passages. Copy came from the Item web site)
Update: Thursday, 9-11, 9:12pm (The blog’s time is always off)
***Perhaps it’s Comcast’s slow upload speeds or the server at the other end, but it has taken over an hour to upload just 463mb of the Cable Advisory Committee Meeting. According to the uploader, there are SEVEN hours remaining. It’ll be there by morning! If that’s any indication, it’ll take twice as long to upload the City Council Meeting. I can just do the uploads as I sleep or leave my computer running while at work, but I may add even more compression (compromising quality a bit more) to speed up workflow. I am also going to go tapeless. Tapes must be transferred to a computer in real-time. A video camera that takes SD cards or has a hard drive can transfer video like any other computer file.***
This is just a quick note to say that the 9/9 Cable Advisory Sub-Committee and City Council Meetings are on tape. It will take 2-3 days before I have the time to transfer and convert them for viewing. Links will be posted here and on http://lynnhappens.com
Progress was made with a unanimous vote to move forward with a motion of reconsideration by Councilor Cyr with “39 stipulations.” When I have time, I’ll weigh in on them myself. In short (It’s past my bedtime), because of my experience in the field I know that some of them are not enforceable and some would not be reasonable to expect of LynnCam. Concerns, conflicts and issues with the stipulations can still be dealt with along the way. We have crossed an important threshold!
http://media.myfoxboston.com/galleries/08/ziptrips/lynn/index.htm
“Lynn won the
poll with 40% of the vote.
Fox News’ “VB” will
be at Manning Field tomorrow from 6-9am broadcasting Live! ”
Vote for Lynn as
your favorite Zip Trip on line at Fox 25’s website: http://media.myfoxboston.com/ziptrips/2008/vote.htm
EDIT: According to what I read in the Item, the time is 6pm, not 7pm as I originally stated. I will not tape tonight. I’ll save that for City Council.
I got word this morning that the Sign Ordinance Committee is meeting. My first thought was that I’d video tape this rather than wait for the next City Council Meeting. On the other hand, I’d like to see if I can speak at this meeting. It is not easy to do that from behind a camera. Yet, I do not even know if they will allow the public to speak. They should. If you know if they would, please let me know. I’ll plan accordingly. I’ll videotape if I can’t speak. Either way, I’ll report back here with something.
If you live in DTL or visit it, you should go to this.
The following paragraph is an excerpt:
“Except when a meeting is held in executive session, any person in attendance may record the
meeting with a tape recorder or any other method of sonic reproduction, so long as no active
interference with the conduct of the meeting arises as a result of the recording. The Law also allows
any person attending an open meeting of a municipal or district governmental body to videotape the
meeting from one or more fixed locations as determined by the governmental body, so long as there
is no active interference with the meeting. G.L. c. 39, §23B, ¶8.”
There is no way setting up a camera on a tripod will cause any kind of interference. In that large Council Chamber, I can set it far enough back. The Council, apparently, can tell me whether it’s ok to set up on the left, right, middle or behind a large obstruction if they wish, but they can not prevent me from recording audio and video.
I’m not trying to cause trouble. I’m trying to exercise my rights.
I also want to be clear that I’m doing this alone. I’m not doing this in partnership with or in conjunction with my involvement in any other organization. However, I am letting people know that anyone can do this.
Why? Why now? Read the following in the Item:
http://itemlive.com/articles/2008/08/20/news/news05.txt
We know that Gulu-Gulu in Lynn is looking for a buyer. Now, this news from Corey on his blog:
http://downtownlynn.blogspot.com/2008/08/downtown-bistro-to-close.html
I’ll admit to only going to the Bistro a few times. A part of the reason is the expense, but most of it has to do with being a vegetarian. Yes, they have that one item on the menu and it’s great. But, that’s the problem. One item. I’m still very sad to see it go because it is a quality place.
Now let’s pretend for a moment that everything is fine at City Hall and with the EDIC. Let’s pretend that they care about more than just the Gateway and Waterfront plans (which are nice, btw) and that they still care about the heart of Downtown Lynn as a business center beyond just their laser-like focus on the Athanas’ property. (Why don’t they get on Mayo’s case about their neglected, empty properties???) I think even in that scenerio, we need to advocate for ourselves as a community a little bit better.
We need an independent, private, informal, non-incorporated neighborhood association in DTL. (I say non-incorporated, because things get a little tricky when 501c3’s begin to advocate.) Our lack of political associations will be our asset. We can show up to Council Meetings together. Party together. Appeal to entrepenours to set up shop here. I think we can do this as a parallel and complimentary effort to EDIC and the Chamber of Commerce. What about it? Can residents themselves become salespeople for their neighborhood? At this point, what do we have to lose?
I’m disgusted. This guy collects really cool signs and stores some in one of the best maintained buildings downtown, Prime Manufacturing. He wants to light some during Third Thursday, but according to the Item, is threatened not to by the city!?!?
This is where the city gets it wrong when it comes to bringing Downtown Lynn around. It needs to focus on encouraging the talent and the people who are there, like David Waller, to make it cool again. It needs to attract artists and people who collect vintage signs… etc. You get the idea.
This is the article: http://itemlive.com/articles/2008/08/06/news/news01.txt
This is the Lynn Happens where you can more freely and instantly talk about it:
http://lynnhappens.com
Names. Web sites. Addresses. Phone numbers, maybe.
I’d like to know every spot in or very near to Lynn that hosts live music, DJ’s, theatre, performances of various kinds, art exhibits, etc.
I have done and will continue to do some of that research, myself. But, I don’t want to miss anyone. Please send me your venue information!
The list will be compiled on http://lynnhappens.com.
In related news, the forums have been receiving visitors, but they’re not signing up and posting. I can only guess it’s because they don’t see much going on there to add to. Some people have to be among the first participants! Get to it. 
In the meantime, flyers have been ordered. I’m thinking about bumper stickers, but don’t want people sticking them on public property and whatnot. We’ll see.