No more empty talk and no more empty lots.

The 2010 Winter Olympics has escalated the homelessness crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the Greater Vancouver area. Since the Olympic bid, homelessness has nearly tripled in the GVRD, while real estate and condominium development in the Downtown Eastside is outpacing social housing by a rate of 3:1. Meanwhile, a heightened police presence has further criminalized those living in extreme material poverty in the poorest postal code in Canada.

With the eyes of the world on Vancouver, residents of the Downtown Eastside and our supporters will be taking the streets to affirm our call for justice and dignity. We want:
1. Real action to end homelessness now.
2. End condo development and displacement in the Downtown Eastside.
3. End discriminatory ticketing, police harassment, and all forms of criminalization of poverty.

More information available at http://olympictentvillage.wordpress.com.

From subMedia:

As I type this, leaders from the biggest industrialized nations are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss a possible treaty to diminish worldwide carbon emissions. As reported last month, it is already known that no deal will be reached during these talks. Many scientists say time is running out and others say it’s too late. Meanwhile in Canada, the forces of capitalism and industry are moving full force to extract the last bits of oil from the Alberta tar sands. The insanity of this project perfectly exemplifies Premise 10 from Derrick Jensen’s “Endgame”.

The EyeWriter project is an ongoing collaborative research effort to empower people who are suffering from ALS with creative technologies. It is a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus & custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes.

For more on the Eyewriter checkout the EyeWriter Initiative webpage.

For more on Steal Something Day checkout Stimulator.tv.

From Facebook:

Here’s some details on what happened.. this was outside of The Distillery during a hip-hop show in downtown Calgary. Cody the Catch was one of the hip-hop artists at the show, and after his set he was outside smoking and recording a video. That’s when the Calgary Transit Peace Officers showed up and used VERY excessive force on these young men. A simple ticket for smoking on the C-Train platform would have done, but these officers chose to manhandle Cody, then mace and baton him. THEN, the other coward officer chased Cody’s brother down and proceeded to knee TJ in the back while pinning him to the ground after macing him, and narrowly missing him with his baton. The fact that Cody is facing serious charges reflects the fact that there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with our police service, and as citizens of Calgary, this march is only asking the politicians who’s checks we sign, for help.

Coast: Who are you and where are you from?

Michael: I’m Michael Stevenson, a 24 year old animator originally from Redding, CA, now settled a bit farther south in San Francisco.
Coast: What was your first project? And how has your work evolved since?

Michael: I made my very first animated film when I was nine years old. I borrowed my parents’ camcorder and set up shop in our basement. Using a bit of modeling clay I created a wonderful story about three worms, and the only copy of the film was erased in a freak VCR accident immediately after I finished shooting. Luckily I wasn’t deterred and kept animating.

I suppose my work hasn’t fundamentally changed much – I’m still pushing clay around in front of a camera and telling silly stories, I just hope that I have a better eye for it now!

Coast: What was your inspiration for the film?

Michael: When I was a kid I went to San Francisco on a school field trip. We hit Pier 39 for lunch and I was mobbed by the local wildlife. A flock of pigeons flew in and sat patiently, staring, waiting for me to either feed them or abandon my food. Not being from the city I was a bit surprised by the tameness of the animals. The experience stuck with me, and many years later when I returned to San Francisco for school I decided to use it as source material.

Coast: How many images does it consist of?

Michael: There are roughly 800 frames in the film, which isn’t bad for stop motion. I shot at 12 frames per second with a Canon DSLR, then played with the timing a bit in postproduction. I tried to accomplish everything in-camera as though I was shooting on film, but rather than waste time shooting duplicate frames I simply made timing notations and fixed it in After Effects. Very fast motion pretty much has to happen at a full 24 frame a second in order for it to read correctly, and there’s a lot of staring so I extended single frames to become much longer holds.

Coast: Was it done yourself? Did you have help?

Michael: It was a solo project – I did all of the design, sculpting, and animation myself – but I enlisted the help of friends and family for a couple big tasks. There were about 60 pounds of clay that needed to be melted down and mixed to form the two dozen colors used in the film. I gathered everyone together and we attacked the mass of clay with crock pots, heat guns, and mixing sticks. It was pretty fun, a nice break from the usual isolated work.

Coast: What is your ambition for when you are finished with school at San Francisco State University?

Michael: I actually graduated a couple years ago. I got a job with a small animation studio right out of school, but it ended up pushing me in a very technical direction. I have a background in programming, so I was creating workflow automation scripts, building a Maya render pipeline, and so on.

I’ve recently gone freelance, so I’m getting back into the creative side of animation. Paid stop motion work is a rarity these days, but my pie-in-the-sky ambition is to help rekindle an interest in the medium and perhaps generate some viable long-term projects.

Coast: Do you have any other projects on the go?

Michael: I’m knee-deep in production on a small independent videogame that employs hand-crafted models and stop-motion art assets. I wish I could say more, but it’s still very early in development.

Coast: Thanks for the interview Michael, we hope to talk to you again soon!

You can check out the web site for Pigeon Pilfer here.

Pigeon Pilfer is Michael Stevenson’s stop-motion animated student film from San Francisco State University. It was completed in four months with sixty pounds of clay, a digital SLR camera, and one tiny hot room.

Keep it locked for an exclusive interview with Michael Stevenson, coming soon from Coast Media Collective.