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  Maxwell Street Market

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  This week we remember Chicago’s historic Maxwell Street Market, a bustling place where a person could witness a one-of-a-kind live blues performance while bargaining the price down on a dirt cheap toaster oven or pack of socks. First, a performance by Blind Arvella Gray, a 72-year-old street performer recorded by Jim Morrissette, Linda Williams, and Raul Zaritsky in 1978. (You can also view a longer version at mediaburn.) Next, a short film by Tom Palazzolo and friends shows the eclectic […]

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  Media Burn at Open Video Conference

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  Thanks to the generosity of the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Media Burn will be in New York this week for the exciting Open Video Conference.   Last year, we attended the inaugural version of OVC and presented on a panel that highlighted the different ways audiovisual archives around the world, including Media Burn, are creating opportunities for audiences to participate and engage with archival moving images. OVC is a meeting place […]

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  “Celebrating the Best of Humanity”

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  Submit to the MY HERO Short Film Festival at myhero.com ! Our old friends at My Hero are hosting their 6th annual short film festival.  My Hero is an inspiring and important site that has been online for 15 years, and has since grown into a worldwide phenomenon. Click below to see last year’s festival winner, shot by a 16-year-old orphan of AIDS in Mozambique, called “HOME is where you find it”: To watch more winning submissions from last year, […]

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  Daley’s Chicago

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  Mayor Richard M. Daley’s decision last week not to run for another term marks the end of an era for Chicago, which Daley has run for 21 years. By the time he gets out of office, Daley will be the longest serving mayor Chicago has ever had. To get Daley’s perspective on Chicago before he was mayor, we’ve put together a series of TV commercials from Daley’s campaigns. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkSa9eer-xQ] You can also watch a documentary about Richard J. Daley on […]

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  This Week’s Discoveries

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  Media Burn is proud to announce that we have received a grant from the Illinois Historical Records Advisory Board for an exciting project to make our paper document collection accessible for the first time. These rare documents chronicle the history of portable video and independent TV, featuring pamphlets, newsletters, notes, magazine and newspaper articles, correspondence, and more.  We have several thousand of one-of-a-kind documents and pictures that will be online someday. We’ve found some neat things already (click on any […]

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  Cajun Legend Nathan Abshire, 1975

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  This week, enjoy some of the best of Cajun music in a video by TVTV called “The Good Times Are Killing Me.” TVTV was an ad hoc assemblage of “video freaks” who came together from around the country in 1972 to use the brand new technology of portable videotape to create the first non-network produced video broadcast of the Democratic and Republication National Conventions.  It was an audacious experiment with creating television from an outsider’s perspective and a first step […]

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  Congressman Dan Rostenkowski (1928-2010)

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    This has been a summer full of deaths that have a close connection to Media Burn.  Yesterday, we were saddened to hear about the death of former Congressman Dan Rostenkowski. Dan Rostenkowski was one of the most powerful Congressmen in Washington for 36 years, serving as the Chairman of the influential House Ways and Means Committee. His seat in the 5th district of Illinois continues to be a national and local locus of power, having been filled by Rod […]

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  Hester Street Chronicles

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  Mary Polon recounts a story from her childhood as a Polish-Jewish immigrant in New York, involving two calamitous trips to Coney Island, her mother’s ingenious hiding place for her prized “screws,” and a lifelong feud with their downstairs neighbor. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSz3kvSaer4] Mrs. Polon lived at 88 Hester Street, in New York, which used to be the center of an Ashkenazi Jewish neighborhood, but in recent years the street has become part of Chinatown.  Today, the tenement and the fire escapes that […]