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For many years now I’ve urged people to grab a video camera (or use their cell phone’s video camera) and just start shooting. You can’t create a video until you start recording video. One obstacle to doing that is deciding what to film. Often we lack faith in our ideas,…
Read More »On the first Wednesday in January in each of the past five years I’ve ventured to the south campus of UMass Lowell to speak with students in a Community Psychology class. The course runs “intersession” (i.e., between the fall and spring semesters) and meets for many hours on many consecutive…
Read More »Baraka was a playwright, poet, critic and political activist. He visited UMass Lowell on October 18, 2013 where he read, riffed, sang, and took questions from the audience in Room 222 of O’Leary Library. Photo and caption by Tony Sampas.
Read More »The recent publication of The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI by Washington Post reporter Betty Medsger brings much needed attention to a little known bit of civil disobedience by some anti-war activists back in 1971 that led to the discovery of systemic illegal surveillance and covert…
Read More »Knowing now that City Manager Lynch resigns effective March 10, 2014 towards the end of this meeting, the rest of this seems a bit anticlimactic but here it is for posterity. Given the debate that immediately proceeded Lynch’s announcement, it’s my sense that none of the councilors were aware of…
Read More »Lowell City Manager Bernie Lynch submits his letter of resignation, effective March 10, 2014 UPDATE: Here’s a video of CM Lynch reading his letter of resignation. Video taken by Jack Mitchell of Lowell Live Feed from balcony of council chamber. [youtube]zFNbvh1_ajc[/youtube] Paul Belley shares his thoughts on his blog, Captain’s…
Read More »I’m transcribing the discussion at tonight’s Lowell City Council meeting and the first hour was taken up by a motion to restore the city’s manger (i.e., nativity scene) to city hall. It was an interesting discussion so I decided to post it separately here. Be sure to read all the…
Read More »[youtube]A0jha147lE4[/youtube] Garment workers in Cambodia who earn pennies to make many of the high cost clothes we all wear here in America recently went on strike for higher wages. Their job action earned a violent response from the government. Several days ago, four protesters were killed in confrontations with the…
Read More »Here’s a great story from Lowell’s past from Mehmed Ali and Beth Brassel: Moody Gardens By Mehmed Ali and Beth Brassel Between 1950 and 1970, Lowell, Mass., saw its status as an industrial dynamo erode. The textile industry shrank to almost nothing and many residents quit on the city, moving…
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