Sharing and Celebrating Points-Of-View: riverfronttimes.com | News & Features | Feature | Sweet and Lo-Fi

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

riverfronttimes.com | News & Features | Feature | Sweet and Lo-Fi | (Article Excerpts)

riverfronttimes.com News & Features Feature Sweet and Lo-Fi 2006-01-11: "Standing near the entrance of the gleaming white Apple Store here at Michigan and Huron, Streeter is accompanied by Richard Hall, a mellow, bearded college professor from Rolla with a desert-dry wit. Having rendezvoused in St. Louis earlier that morning, Hall and Streeter have driven four and a half hours up Interstate 55 to co-headline Meet the Vloggers, the first major regional summit on the burgeoning art of video blogging. Also known as 'vlogging' or 'video podcasting,' the discipline is akin to a standard blog, except with an audiovisual content focus, and is to traditional podcasting (i.e., audio-only webcasts that can be downloaded onto iPods and various other multimedia platforms) as moving pictures are to radio.
'A lot of people say, 'Why not just do a podcast?'' Streeter tells the crowd of 60 or so who fill the tiny amphitheater in the back of the massive Apple-teria. 'I think the face is what does it. It's the theater of the face.'

But for Josh Leo, a college-age co-presenter and fellow vlogger (see joshleo.com), it's about much, much more.

"Think how great it could be if your grandkids could look at a video clip from when you were twenty and say, 'Wow, look at what a weirdo my grandpa was,'" says Leo, before veering wildly idealistic. "If everyone had a video blog, there might be less conflict in the world. Let's say there's a vlogger in Baghdad. He's not filtered through mainstream media. He's coming directly to someone's desk from Baghdad."

"I mainly film rock & roll bands," Streeter demurs. "I cover things in my town that people in my town may not even know about."
Streeter's town is St. Louis, which has flowered into his city of destiny since his move south from Chicago in 2001. This past February Streeter debuted his video blog, lofistl.com, featuring live music videos of high-energy local acts like the Vultures and Casey Reid along with short documentaries about cultural institutions like the South Broadway Athletic Club and Frederick's Music Lounge. " (more)