BBC

If there is a will, there is a way. The story of Mahabir Pun and his quest for the internet.

Having just returned from a four day business trip, and listened to tons of people bitch about first world problems that are really pretty damn meaningless, I was so inspired by the video below. The story is so compelling, proving that if there is a will, there is a way. This is the story of Mahabir Pun and how he brought wireless internet connectivity to his village in Nepal, after six years of hiking once a month for 2 days just to check his emails.

The short film is by Clemens Purner. It is filled with amazing scenery, great cinematography, and such a great story. This was so inspiring after my two hour shuttle ride from Fort Wayne to Indy where the driver expounded the hollow racist virtues of Donald Trump. After sitting in the lounge at my hotel last night listen to people gripe that the free meal they got from the conference they attended wasn’t good enough. After hearing all the dumb ass complaints at the airport this morning.

weareseventeen uses Color and Light, for the BBC India Diwali Indents.

The BBC and WearSeventeen have produced a series of indents for the BBC India for Diwali. The indents are effects heavy, visually stimulating animations coupled to the awesome Zelig Sound composition soundtrack for the set. Each ident is a different take on the interaction of beautiful Indian silks and light, which combine to create a feeling of abstract celebration for the five day festival. All three spots build from dark to light ending in a crescendo of color.

D Day Comes Alive 69 Years Later Thanks to C4 and Digit.

69 years ago yesterday, the end of WWII began with the Normandy Invasion by allied forces. To commemorate the event, BBC Channel 4 launched an immersive online event that chronicled the 24 hour period minute by minute. The result is an impressive blend of vintage news and history, coupled to dynamic technologies that bring the history alive. For a generation of people that are removed from the Second World War, this integrated television/website/social media program brings the history alive with a new vitality.

“D-Day: As it Happens” told the story of The Normandy Invasion through the perspectives of seven people who were there in 1944. Those individuals include a nurse, a paratrooper and a military cameraman, and infantrymen.

To kick off the event BBC 4 ran an hour long show on June 5 which introduced the back stories of each character. The following day there was a follow up program that recapped the events that took place on June 6, 1944. Between the timing of the first program and the follow up, internet users could track progress in real time through a breaking news-style website created by Digit and by following individual Twitter feeds set up for each of the “D-Day 7”.

The website and TV shows used newly found and previously unseen material collected over a 15 year period by D-Day researcher Colin Henderson. Henderson’s radio reports, film, photographs and records allowed Digit to create maps plotting each of the D-Day 7’s locations throughout the day and develop a 24-hour live feed displaying their reactions, that connected to photographs and video footage of the invasion. Over the 24 hour period of time, more than 1,000 updates were posted to the site with the written accounts taken from historical records including diaries and interviews.

“The idea was to take yesterday’s news and tell it through today’s technology. If D-Day happened now, there would be rolling coverage, live feeds and constant Twitter updates. By using the web and social media, we managed to create something that had people engrossed in the characters and their stories,”

Digit creative director Adam Lawrenson.

John Peel’s Record Archive.

When I was in college I wa a radio DJ at a couple of college stations. The hours were good, I could be on air after class, get off before the bars closed and still make it to art school the following day with a minor hangover, and whole lot of musical inspiration to push me forward.

One of the things I looked forward to, were the latest releases from the John Peel sessions that used to arrive at the station. These were live recordings made at the BBC studios, and they usually featured a cutting edge band that was bound to influence musical tastes into the future.

For those of you that don’t know, John peel was a very influential radio DJ that introduced so many new bands to the radio waves it is hard to count them all. He had an amazing ear, hearing things that others dismissed knowing that they would be great. Over the course of his career, he collected more than 26,000 LP’s an almost equal number of 45’s, and CD’s. When he died in 2004 his wife helped to create the “John Peel Centre for Creative Arts. 7 plus years after his death, The Centre has begun digitizing a portion of the 26,000 LP’s and singles which will be made available in the future.

To help showcase his immense library of music, they have created a really nice website that invites you to explore the virtual stacks of albums from the archives, and experience Peel’s diverse and immense musical taste.

Do yourself a favor, go to the site and look around.

John Peel was a hugely respected member of the local, national and international communities and always gave support to worthwhile local initiatives. He was renowned for encouraging new music from unlikely sources and for many people he embodied the “punk” ethos of people just doing it for themselves.

John Peel Centre for Creative Arts.