NAACP moves to make Neverland a state park

See the NAACP moves to make Neverland a state park

As home to pop legend Michael Jackson, Neverland Ranch housed a working locomotive, a Ferris wheel and other amusement park rides, a 10,000-volume library and a zoo.

But could the opulent Santa Barbara County estate become home to California's newest state park?

A resolution is in the works to order state parks officials to study converting the roughly 2,600-acre property into a state park. The state NAACP is backing the idea, and a lawmaker has signaled he is on board to carry the legislation.

"I think Michael's history is world history and I think it would become the No. 1 attraction for the state parks if we could pull it off," said state NAACP President Alice Huffman, who also serves on the state Parks Commission.

Huffman said in addition to celebrating Jackson's contributions to music and pop culture, Neverland would join Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park as state parks honoring African Americans. Those factors, she said, would make Neverland a "great, great addition to the state parks system."

Assemblyman Mike Davis, who chairs of the Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media, said while details of the resolution still need to be worked out, he thought the idea made "great sense" when it was first proposed to him at a recent reception.

"If they want to do it, I think it would be a great venture for the Parks Department of the state given the worldwide success (of Michael Jackson) and the fact that the state is lucky to have this property in our state," the Los Angeles Democrat said.



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Macdonald, Scott make 'a time capsule' on film for YouTube

We know the Macdonald, Scott make 'a time capsule' on film for YouTube

Circle July 24 on your calendar. That's when YouTube and a pair of renowned filmmakers plan to change the way the world sees itself.
Citizens from around the globe are invited to participate in what is being called the first user-generated feature-length documentary by providing footage shot during the same 24 hours on that day. Titled Life in a Day, the experiment is being sponsored by the online clip site and involves directors Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) and Ridley Scott (Robin Hood, Gladiator), who will executive-produce.

The end result, with entries selected by Macdonald and a team of editors, will premiere at next year's Sundance Film Festival and will be available free on YouTube. The submission deadline is July 31, and a video gallery is scheduled to be posted in August.

"YouTube wanted to do something to mark its fifth anniversary and decided on a film," says Macdonald, whose non-fiction work includes the 2003 mountain-climbing adventure Touching the Void. "I came up with an idea that appealed to me as a student of documentaries, one that would only be possible with the new technology on the Web."

Why July 24? "Because it is symbolic and practical," he says. The date "stands for 24/7, or 7/24." As for timing, "it's after the World Cup, an enormous affair in many countries, but before the August holidays. And it's a Saturday, when people might have more time."

Macdonald would rather not have thousands of videos of cute animal tricks, popular fare on YouTube, though he would not discount them out of hand. His hope: "that people capture everyday life, from the banal to the important. It could be a journey to work, brushing their teeth, bathing children at night — something of significance to those who are filming."

He estimates that about 10,000 submissions will end up being uploaded, including those shot on several hundred cameras sent out to areas in South America, Africa and Asia that lack Internet access. "We want to lose the digital divide."

The final film will run about 70 or 80 minutes. "We don't want to make it a collage," says Macdonald, who will focus on 20 to 30 "star performers" with a few seconds culled from a couple hundred more. "We want it to cohere and be meaningful."

Ultimately, the goal is to deliver "something relevant about what it is to be alive on July 24, a kind of a time capsule." If all goes well, it could become a recurring event.

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