Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek - Multimedia Feature - NYTimes.com

This is a remarkable piece of reporting, making full use of pictures, video, graphics, and remarkable imagery, woven together in a gripping narrative.

It took six months of work, but the result is remarkable. It shows how storytelling remains the base of any good tale, but how technology, used wisely, can add a lot to the telling.

The best way to read this is on the New York Times website, so that you can get the full benefit.

Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek - Multimedia Feature - NYTimes.com: ""

Saugstad was mummified. She was on her back, her head pointed downhill. Her goggles were off. Her nose ring had been ripped away. She felt the crushing weight of snow on her chest. She could not move her legs. One boot still had a ski attached to it. She could not lift her head because it was locked into the ice.

But she could see the sky. Her face was covered only with loose snow. Her hands, too, stuck out of the snow, one still covered by a pink mitten.
Using her hands like windshield wipers, she tried to flick snow away from her mouth. When she clawed at her chest and neck, the crumbs maddeningly slid back onto her face. She grew claustrophobic.

Breathe easy, she told herself. Do not panic. Help will come. She stared at the low, gray clouds. She had not noticed the noise as she hurtled down the mountain. Now, she was suddenly struck by the silence.

UPDATE - There's a Part Two to this story, about how the story was created.

The Disappearance of Darkness - book release

I had always used film in my photography until the last few years, when, like virtually everyone else in the world, I switched to digital photography. And while I enjoy this brave new world, I often feel nostalgic for the "old" ways.

I have lots of happy memories of heading out on film shoots, carrying a lot of equipment and coming back with a few, carefully chosen exposures. We did a lot of editing before clicking the shutter in those days. I used to do my own darkroom work and the experience of developing the film, viewing the negatives, then making a contact print to see just what I had, was wonderful. I got a lot of pleasure out of the process, even if sometimes the results were less than optimal. But now, the pleasure is more in being able to see the results immediately. And if I don't have the right shot, I can take another right away. I do like that option, but I can't help feeling that some of the creative process has gone away.

While I know that digital has obliterated film, it's still jarring to realize how complete the victory has been. This little trailer, for a bittersweet book about to be released about the end of the film era, struck a chord for me. I'm sure I'm guilty of romanticizing what I used to do, but that's the way it is. While I love my digital Nikon and the amazing camera in my iPhone, I miss those old film cameras, and the hours spent in the darkroom and the joy of discovery. That's just the way it is.

This looks like a good book. I think I might add it to my collection of photo books, which themselves are probably going the same way as the photograph on film.

UPDATE - I've ordered a copy for myself from Amazon. If you want to get your own, visit Robert Burley's website and order it from there.

Disappearance of Darkness Book Preview from Robert Burley on Vimeo.

Obama victory - on the scene report

I'm starting to think that my daughter Jaime is a good luck charm for politicians. They'd be wise to take note of this.

Jaime was in Chicago yesterday night for Obama's victory rally - and it was quite the experience!

This morning, she talked to CBC Regina and described her day to host Sheila Coles.

Link to CBC Regina interview with Jaime

This was Jaime's third time working the ground on election day - once here in BC, once during last year's provincial election in Saskatchewan and now working for Obama in Iowa. And so far she's 100% successful!

So, if you're considering running for office, look her up. She's got an impressive track record as an election worker.

Way to go Jaime.

By the way, I've asked her to send along some photos, so if she does, I'll add them here later.

Jaime is on the Obama campaign trail

A lot of Canadians are interested in the US election results today. But some are more interested than others.

Today, my daughter, Jaime, is in Chicago to help get the vote out for her favourite - US President Barack Obama.

Jaime has volunteered for the Obama campaign after spending the weekend visiting her sister, Kelly, who lives in Edwardsville, Illinois, about four hours west of Chicago.

Today, she's been bussed over to Iowa to help in that battleground state. But the best part, for her, is that she'll be able to go to Obama's victoria rally (she hopes) in Chicago tonight.

This morning, Jaime was a guest on CBC Regina's Morning Edition, hosted by our friend, Sheila Coles.

I grabbed a copy of the interview and I've posted it for anyone who wants to hear.

Link to Jaime's interview.

On Wednesday, Jaime will be back on CBC to talk about the results with Sheila and I hope to get that interview as well.

Much more to come.

Why isn't poverty an issue in America?

I didn't watch the American Presidential Debate the other night. But I did see the coverage and I was struck by how shallow most of the commentary seemed.

The first debate was about domestic issues but I didn't hear anything about poverty. It may have been raised, but it didn't grab the attention of the commentators or those writing about the debate.

It struck me as strange that a topic for which the President was so passionate about in his first presidential campaign - the plight of inner city children living in poverty - was not on his agenda any longer. But why not? Are the problems that were so prominent four years ago all better now? I doubt that.

This morning, I remembered seeing an article a few weeks ago about Chicago's inner city neighbourhoods - specifically two that Obama worked in as a community organizer. I had noted the article then, but sent it off to Instapaper without reading it and hadn't gotten back to it. So I went and looked it up.

The article is What Does Obama Really Believe In? from The New York Times Magazine.

It shares the tale of a youth worker who lives in the same area as Obama once worked in, and who is trying to help the children in his neighbourhood escape the poverty cycle they're trapped in. It's not a happy tale. Along the way, we learn a lot about the nature of extreme urban poverty and about how American thinking about helping the poor has evolved since LBJ's famous War on Poverty in the 1960s.

It's a fascinating, well-written piece, well worth the time it takes to read through. I still don't know why poverty is never mentioned these days on the campaign trail. But at least I know there are some very good people who are still dedicated to finding a way to alleviate it. There are no easy answers, which is probably why we don't hear more about it. Sound bites and extreme poverty don't go well together.

Link to What Does Obama Really Believe In?

Les Miserable looks Les Fabulous!

This is a movie that I am going to have to see. The trailer is superb!

A Conservative History of the United States : The New Yorker

A hilarious - if somewhat disturbing - look at how American conservatives view their own history. Perhaps they haven't heard about the Internet or Wikipedia…or perhaps they'll create their own once they get control.

A Conservative History of the United States : The New Yorker

Why Philip Roth needs a secondary source

I love Wikipedia. I use it every day, often many times a day. And when I have some time to kill, I often search it for interesting stories.

It is perhaps the best example of what some would call the "true" web - or the kind of web that was envisioned by those who created it. It's open source for information.

Last week, there was an interesting story in the Guardian about Phillip Roth's frustration with Wikipedia because the editors wouldn't make a change to an article about him on the site that he felt was wrong. Simply put, they said that Phillip Roth wasn't credible enough to make changes to an article about Phillip Roth.

So he wrote a letter, which was published in the New Yorker about the correction. And lo and behold, that letter was accepted by Wikipedia as credible proof of his identity and the change was allowed.

That incident is being used by some as an example of why Wikipedia is not a credible source. But in his own Guardian article, Cory Doctorow puts the issue into perspective and tells us why Roth needs a secondary source.

Great stuff.

Link: Why Philip Roth needs a secondary source

Jason Alexander calls it in the Aurora aftermath

I'm late to this particular item, but in the wake of the horrific shootings in Aurora, Colorado, Jason Alexander has written an exceptional, common-sense essay in response to those who say that there can be no compromise on gun control.

As others have said, this is the best thing I've read since the shootings.

Jason Alexander:

(Via Daring Fireball)

Will Your Children Inherit Your E-Books?

This is a wonderful essay, written by Amanda Katz, commentator for NPR Books and the deputy editor of the Boston Globe Ideas section. While I don't usually quote from the end of a piece, her concluding paragraph is wonderful and I can't resist putting it up here, for those of you who might not read that far into her piece. But you really should read the whole thing.

But what do we lose as we bid farewell to what may turn out to have been a brief period in which common people owned physical books? I think of my own already excessive book collection, with its books that I have loved and worked on (as an editor and translator) and received as presents. Though I hope someone in the generation after mine will love living with them too, it doesn't really matter to me: I won't be there to see it.

But when I think of sorting through the boxes of my grandmother's books — even the ones we couldn't keep, or didn't want — and what we found there, I am grateful not to have been handed her Amazon password instead. Among all the gifts of the electronic age, one of the most paradoxical might be to illuminate something we are beginning to trade away: the particular history, visible and invisible, that can be passed down through the vessel of an old book, inscribed by the hands and the minds of readers who are gone.

Will Your Children Inherit Your E-Books?: ""