I was walking around Smithfield, where currently "Smithfield on Ice" is taking place. There's also a small roller coaster and an old style children's merry-go-round parked at the south end of the square. A large Christmas tree has been erected near the north end, and the tree sellers are back again.

While walking around, for some reason I had the memory of the interview with Stan "Tookie" Williams ringing in my ears and brain. It played on my mind a bit. Hearing a man on death row nearing his execution by the US state, yet here were all these people enjoying the winter crispness, a million miles away from it all... anyway, I dont want you to read too much into it. I just thought it would provide an interesting juxtaposition (see, I know big words).

So here's a two minute long video Christmas Card to Tookie on Death Row, composed from and with creative commons/copyleft/open source/freeware material. Tookie's voice is taken from an extended audio interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. You can download this from the Internet Archive:  http://www.archive.org/details/dn2005-1130_vid. The extra added hiss in the background is from the Opsound Open Music Pool. Its from a burst water mains pipe, and was recorded by D. Jean Hester. You can download this (and other 'field recordings' by him) at  http://www.opsound.org/artist/djeanhester/

The video images are mine... chop them up and use them if you want...

Codecs used for the Christmas Card are XviD for the video:
 http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Koepi_XviD.htm
and Lame MP3 for the audio:
 http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Lame_Encoder.htm
And compression all done with the ol' reliable, VirtualDub:
 http://www.virtualdub.org/

For more info on what this is all about, go to:  http://www.savetookie.org/