Understand the Democratic vote through dance

Are you having difficulty understanding why Barack Obama is soaring and Hillary Clinton is drowning in Democratic Party primaries and caucuses all of sudden? Do you love to watch politicians dance or talk about the importance of dance education? Well, boy, do I have a post for you.

See, I have summed up the recent dynamic in the Democratic Party through something we all understand… dancing.

Online searches for Barack and Hillary dancing come up with two distinctly different interpretations ensue. Seriously, watch, you’ll get it.

We're AFSCME

A friend showed me an absolute gem on YouTube. In the 1970s, a narrator apparently recorded an alternate voice over for a public service announcement about AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

My son was riding this Chinese bus

Good find on Philadelphia Weekly’s Will Do blog.

Chris Matthews, a Philly kid and MSNBC talking head, tried to talk about the Chinatown bus, and how his son took it to get home and vote. ‘Cept he kept calling it the Chinese bus, not that getting it right and calling it the Chinatown bus woulda helped most of the country know what the hell he was talking about.

So, yeah, though Matthews totally goes to bat for Philly on the reg, it’s fairly amusing.

Political ad of the century?

The embattled, corrupt, figurehead of the contemporary South Philadelphia Democratic machine, Vince Fumo, is running his reelection campaign for state senator, amid questions of his having to sell his Fairmount mansion – built more than ten years ago – to pay legal fees in defense of the usual sort of allegations of malfeasance. But, boy does he have an advertisement for you.

Worst Super Tuesday Youtube videos

If a momentous day approaches, in today’s world that always means there are plenty of hilarious nonsense that people with lots of time on their hands post on Youtube. This can only mean one responsible, mature thing can be done. Display, vote and choose the worst video posted!!

Here are my three favorites, in a scale of ‘good-God-I-want-those-precious-moments-of-my-life-back.”

“CitizenTube” entered a Youtube contest and knew the best way to get anyone interested in politics is techno music. Thank you, “CitizenTube,” thank you.

I want to make fun of “LILVOKA” but this video has already been viewed more than 80,000 times! Are 80,000 bloggers posting him in their own blogs for its own sheer innocent ridiculousness!? Who is “LILVOKA” talking to!?

You couldn’t have a contest like this without a Ron Paul Revolutionary. This cat’s beard is good, the art is great but seriously, doesn’t this video look like something before you drink the Kool Aid?

Junior Year Abroad: an online-only NBC pilot travel podcast

UPDATE Feb. 12, 2011: All my NBCU JYA writing, video and photo work has been transferred to subdomain japan.christopherwink.com.

I sent in a two minute video to NBC’s Manhattan headquarters in June 2006. It was an altogether last minute decision. I saw the promotion of the pilot season of an NBC show called ‘Junior Year Abroad’ in an email that came from the communications department of Temple University. I decided there wasn’t anything to be lost.

Not a month later I heard back. After a brief interview and legal semantics, I was offered a spot on the show. I was driven to New York City for an introduction and training, given several hundred dollars worth of equipment and had my semester studying in Japan essentially paid for by a corporation. During my five month stay, I filmed 10 hours video, took more than 1,300 photographs and wrote nearly 60,000 words on my experience in Asia. It offered me a world of knowledge, the only cost being a more passionate desire to see and explore more while I was abroad.

Ten, in all, young college students from across the country, traveling to different parts of the world were selected, as seen above, the only time we met.

The NBC crew used my footage to produce five show-specific pieces, which you can see below, in addition to another seven podcasted videos while I was living in Tokyo, which you can see here.

Continue reading Junior Year Abroad: an online-only NBC pilot travel podcast

Studying Abroad in Ghana, West Africa Summer 2005

Study Abroad in Ghana | July 06 to August 16, 2005

In summer 2005, I studied at the University of Ghana in West Africa. It was, unsurprisingly, a startling experience. I was moved enough to film and write and photograph. Here is a small collection of it all.

Read the first email I sent to family and friends in the first few days of my West African summer here.

Lift Every Voice preview

“Lift Every Voice” is an hour-long film that chronicles that summer 2005, during which I studied at the University of Ghana in West Africa. This is a 30-second preview of it.

Continue reading Studying Abroad in Ghana, West Africa Summer 2005