Worcester's Third Annual Middle East Film Festival is back by popular demand and will be held April 22-25, 2009. Four nights of film at two different venues: Worcester State College and Clark University. All screenings at 7:00 pm.

• April 22: April 22 "Journey to the Sun" (feature) by Yesim Ustaoglu. This movie is part of "Women Cinema from Tangiers to Tehran" touring exhibition organized by ArteEast. Ghosh Auditorium/Worcester State College.
• April 23: "Cairo Station" (feature) by Egyptian Filmmaker Youssef Chahine and "Cairo as Seen by Chahine" (short documentary). Ghosh Auditorium/Worcester State College.
• April 24: "Under the Bombs" (feature) by Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi. Jefferson Hall Rm 218, Clark University.
• April 25: "Slingshot HipHop" (documentary) by Jackie Salloum and "This Palestinian Life" (student documentary). Razzo Hall, Traina Center, Clark University.

All are welcome. Suggested donation: $5.00 Sponsored by: Central Massachusetts Coalition for Middle East Peace. For more information please call 508 753-3588. Past MEFF events.

If you're using Windows, you should be able to click here and watch the Government Channel with Media Player. (Here's the City's page with the live stream.) Looks like the stream is ASF, with WMA2 audio and WMV3 video. The resolution is 320x240, half of standard TV broadcast. The audio is 16bit, 22050 Hz, 16kbps. With VLC, I can watch the stream at this address: http://view.liveindexer.com/ASXGenerator.aspx?mediaSKU=gX0%2bQho2Oh4btw%2fhUV%2fdVw%3d%3d VLC translates this to: mms://worcester.ecstreams.com/WorcesterLive/?MSWMExt=.asf This also works: mms://worcester.ecstreams.com/WorcesterLive/ VLC complains about this URL but gets it to work: http://worcester.ecstreams.com/WorcesterLive/

Downloads

Kevin Ksen notes:

I was able to record stream using the freeware program, Orbit Downloader http://www.orbitdownloader.com and this stream mms://worcester.ecstreams.com/WorcesterLive/?MSWMExt=.asf on Windows XP

Much like Barry Marshall dosing himself with ulcer bacteria to prove they were the cause of stomach ulcers, I've installed Microsoft Silverlight on my computer and agreed to install Microsoft Media Pack. I can now view the City Council archive pages. The doggone pages have no video download link! URLs like this will let you stream, but not download easily: http://worcester.ecstreams.com/WorcesterOD/\City Council\2009\20090106.wmv

The Boston Palestine Film Festival presents 2 nights of special film screenings in Worcester, Tuesday, October 7, and Thursday, October 9. Co-presented with Central Massachusetts Coalition for Middle East Peace and the International Student Center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Enraged by Eyal Eithcowich Tuesday, October 7, 7:00pm Clark University, Jefferson Academic Center Rm. 218 , Worcester, MA (documentary feature, 2006, 58 min, Israel) Exposes a face of the Israeli left that is rarely seen or talked about with an appearance by Anarchist against the Wall Activist Matan Cohen. A group of Jewish-Israeli activists break one of the country's most sacred taboos: they cross into the occupied territories to join the non-violent Palestinian resistance to the occupation. The heroes of "Enraged" pay a heavy price for their actions. At home in Israel they are ostracized by their own society; in Palestine, they endure a similar fate to that of the Palestinians--they are beaten, sprayed with tear-gas, and shot at with rubber-coated bullets. Israeli activist Matan Cohen, featured in the documentary Enraged, will attend the screening of the film at Clark University (Jefferson Academic Center/Rm218), Tuesday, October 7th at 7:00 pm. A member of Anarchists Against the Wall, Matan was shot in the eye by Israeli border police in January 2006 while participating in a protest in the West Bank. He will speak about nonviolent opposition to the Israeli occupation after the showing of the film. The Zoo by Hayden Campbell, and Stranger in my Home by Sahera Dirbas Thursday, October 9, 7:00pm Worcester Polytechnic Institute Higgins Lab/Room 116, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA The Zoo (Documentary Feature , 2005, 50 min, Palestine/New Zealand) : A day in the life of Palestine's one and only zookeeper, Dr. Sami Khader. Like the zoo itself, Qalqiliya, the city where Khader lives and works, is completely fenced off from the rest of the world by Israel's "separation" barrier. Campbell accompanies the voluble and entertaining Dr. Sami on a mission to rescue two baboons. Stranger in my Home (Documentary short, 2007, 37min, Palestine): Stories of eight Palestinian Jerusalemite families who have been turned into refugees.

September 23, 2008 at 9am, at the Donahue Federal Building in Worcester, there will be a trial for 5 Roman Catholics who were arrested March 19 after entering the federal building, kneeling to one side of the entrance, and praying for an immediate end to the Iraq War, and for forgiveness for the sin of the war. Click here for more information. All are encouraged to attend the trial. You need 2 pieces of ID to enter the building; please avoid bringing a cell phone if you can, as the security guards will take them (and store them for you) and if many people are there this could take a long time.

The Worcester Activist wiki was down for about a month due to a serious technical problem. The problem's solved, and the wiki is back. It's very possible that there are spam pages or defaced pages still on the wiki. If you notice anything, please post a comment here with a link to the messed-up page.

Congratulations to those Worcester activists who've been leading efforts to pressure the CDC into releasing its latest HIV/AIDS statistics. They believed the CDC was staying silent because the stats showed an increase in infections--and they do. CNN:

There are more new cases of Americans infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, than previously believed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday. About 56,000 people became infected with HIV in the past year, which translates to about 40 percent more cases than officials had estimated, said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention. Previous CDC estimates suggested about 40,000 new people were infected each year. But those estimates used "limited data and less precise methods," said the center, which is now using technology capable of determining when someone was infected.

All sorts of Worcesterites are coming together to support Worcester's street vendors, for all sorts of reasons. Some see vendors as a good part of urban life. Others think the City Council should stop hurting small businesses. Others see an attack on street vendors as hurting the poor. The City Council has voted (by the slimmest of margins) to approve new regulations that would put many vendors out of business. You can read them here. We are still working to convince the Council to adopt newer, more reasonable measures. One vendor requested a petition to the Worcester City Council that his customers can sign. If you'd like to add your name to this petition, please e-mail realsolutionsworcester@yahoo.com.

We recognize that Worcester's vendors are an important part of small business and community life in our city. We oppose any measure by our City Council that would restrict the ability of vendors to do business, especially: 1) contraints on times that vendors may operate, 2) laws against vendors operating on Main St., and 3) laws that require vendors to move every 5 minutes.

In-depth Worcester Magazine coverage. Audio podcast about this issue.

Full story at Indymedia. Summary: 1. Beaver Brook 9 Mann St 2. Crompton Park 40 Canton St 3. East Park 200 Shrewsbury St 4. Greenwood Park 20 Forsberg St 5. Holmes Field 221 Plantation St 6. Kendrick Field 7 Brooks St 7. South Worcester 53 Camp St 8. Tacoma Pool 485 Tacoma St 9. University Park 955 Main St

Artist, anti-war activist, Catholic Worker, and long-time Art Museum faculty member Tom Lewis will be honored with a retrospective exhibition of prints, drawings, and pictures. Tom died unexpectedly in April. The exhibit is in the Worcester Art Museum's Higgins Education Wing from June 23-August 8, 2008. There will be a special reception July 10, 5-7:30pm, to coincide with the Catholic Worker National Gathering held in Worcester. More information: Link

Worcester Roots Project Presents . . . TOXIC SOIL BUSTERS LIVE FROM THE GREEN CARPET WHO: Toxic Soil Busters & Mingo + Epinero www.WorcesterRoots.org/TSB http://www.myspace.com/HOPERECORDZ WHAT: EXCLUSIVE tour, film screening, & Live Music! WHERE: Backyard of Stone Soup, 4 King St WHEN: Thursday, June 12, 2008 6-8pm WHAT TO WEAR: SOMETHING GREEN!!