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San Juan Chamula

While shooting in the town square, a tour guide approached and told me I should put the camera away. He said the police would take my camera and throw me in jail. At first, I thought he was just trying to get me to pay to join his tour.

The town enjoys unique autonomous status within Mexico. No outside police or military are allowed in the village. Chamulas have their own police force. – Wikipedia

A few minutes later, I was eating a bowl of chicken soup at a streetside restaurant. The texture of the chicken was unlike any I'd ever eaten. It was more chewy, almost spongy. After a few bites, I realized this chicken leg was previously attached to one of the many running freely nearby. It wasn't the couped-up, hormone-filled, force-fed flavor I was used to. The visceral experience gave me a sudden respect for my surroundings and I didnt take the camera out of the bag again.

View more photos of San Juan Chamula.

Video recorded September 19, 2007

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Cañon del Sumidero & Lagunas de Montebello

Chiapas is beautiful. We visited Sumidero Canyon, las Cascadas el Chiflón, las Lagunas de Montebello, and more.

(on technical note, I've started using iMovie'08 instead of Final Cut Pro for these videos. I still haven't finished editing our summer vacation from 2006 in FCP. I'm hoping the simplicity of iMovie (limited options) continues to speed up the process and get through all this tape…)

Video recorded September 16, 2007

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2:45 a.m. Interview on KPBS

I’ve been working from about 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. the last few nights to keep KPBS.org updated. Our web team, along with the news staff and other volunteers, are taking turns to keep everything up and running 24/7. As I was finishing up early this morning, Doug Myrland (KPBS general manager who was working overnight on-air), asked me a few questions about the Google map to give people a sense of how we’re doing it.

Here’s the conversation:

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(It’s not exactly an award-winning performance by yours truly, but I thought it was worth a posting for posterity’s sake.)

Much has progressed since this recording. Google has joined the effort to streamline updates, and those who have been updating the county maps will now be contributing directly to our Google map. In addition, a site from Governor Schwarzenegger, calfires.com, has embedded the map directly. Local CBS is linking to the map. Wired bloggers Michael Calore and Kevin Poulsen reported on KPBS’ use of Twitter and Google maps.

(Special props to Joe Spurr for pushing the use of Twitter and Google maps.)