Sirius is where it’s at.
I ended up with two Sirius satellite radios in my possession for Christmas, I had bought one for the lady who always seems to show up in my bed and my parents managed to show off a little hipness in their old age by purchasing one for me. Life is complete. If you don’t yet have access to satellite, I feel obligated to tell you just how amazing Sirius programming really is; wicked amazing for my Worcester brethren. Now I’m more than comfortable admitting my decision to go with Sirius over XM was Stern, but after looking over the channel list I can see me calling Charter Cable by the end of the week to cut back on the crap they seem content pumping into my house (that’s assuming they don’t call first looking for the money I owe them for the last two months). Most of what I ‘watch’ on cable these days is CNN, CSPAN, FOX News and a little bit of local programming just to keep in touch with where Julie Tremmel has manged to cart her camera off to today. But with the exception of the local programming, Sirius has me covered. TV has for the most part become background noise while I’m in the house finding other ways to avoid finishing my kitchen, and I like it that way. Theres a strange potential for satellite radio providers to really muscle in on the cable providers for just that reason. The introduction of terrestrial radio into the American home had an odd effect on the family unit, drawing them closer together. Television on the other hand seems to have had the exact opposite effect. You could be in a room with 30 people and with the exception of that one jerk who has to ask stupid questions about everything that happens on the tube in real time, you can’t interact with others much with two pretty important senses being at the mercy of the magic picture box. Radio is so different, having CNN on Sirius, an actual conversation can take place without feeling that you’re missing anything. I don’t need to SEE Anderson Cooper or Lou Dobbs and Congress doesn’t get any more exciting if I’m looking at them. Never mind the spectacular music and comedy programming, they’re better heard than watched with the obvious exceptions of Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas and Gallagher. My point is that I can see myself getting more done and spending more time with my family by peeling my eyes away from the television and still being able to avoid the sense of anxiety I’m subject to if there is even a remote possibility of missing real time coverage of a panda being born, penguin being stolen or yet another middle class white woman going missing. I never had a real radio experience from a social perspective; outside of the car TV has been king since I’ve wandered the earth. I’m not so naive to thing that American Idol is going to go out of business, I don’t think the average American would be able to handle that cut in sensory input. And the technology wont be well understood by the average consumer until it’s installed in their car for them as a standard feature, which is underway but hasn’t reached any sort of meaningful saturation point. But once the hardware becomes more accessible I can see the potential for a sort of retro-revolution in American media. If content is going to be King, then it needs to come the way I want it. Between Sirius and Netflix I feel just a little bit more in control without feeling I’m missing out on something. But enough about my moment of media Zen. Tissue time with Heidi Cortez is about to start.
12 Schekles a month well spent from where i sit.
Things are getting interesting for our Mayor
Last night Mayor Murray kicked off his bid for Lt Governor at Mechanics Hall. At the same time Gov. Mitt Romney announced he will not be seeking reelection, presumably to focus on a presidential bid. This almost assures that current Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey will seek the Republican nomination for Governor, making Mayor Murray’s race an open field.
It’s going to be an interesting year to say the least
That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more!
This whole Shrewsbury St ‘early to bed, early to rise’ debacle has my brain hurting. The hills are alive with the sound of bitching and its really starting to get obnoxious. Here’s the deal folks; the Shrewsbury St neighborhood association is simply trying to force the cities hand in coming up with a reasonable solution to parking in their neck of the woods. An excellent goal, unfortunately in this case it’s an excellent goal being horribly executed by all parties involved. Residents of Shrewsbury St should be pissed by the parking in the area, its miserable. But solutions are out there; like mine which I will now condense down to something so small and palatable that nobody can argue with its amazing shiny genius.
City sponsored valet for everyone.
Take all our larger existing municipal lots, start building them up like we did with the garage on Worcester Center Boulevard and offer valet service starting at 5pm on Shrewsbury St, Green St, Water St and the North end of Main St. You’ll feel pretty slick tossing the keys of your ‘93 Corolla to some 19yo college student, your car disappears and the streets stay clear. Still with me? Good. Because this is where it gets great. Since your car is being handled by the same valet service regardless of where you stop, it doesn’t matter where it goes, which means it doesn’t matter where you go. See where this is headed? So you stop off on Shrewsbury St for dinner on a Friday night, hand off your car to the valet and hit your destination. At around 10:30pm Gary Vecchio kicks down the door of the restaurant with a broom in his hands demanding that you get off his lawn. So you break for the door and decide you don’t care what Peter Luke’s says, you’re not going to bed yet. So you hop a cab that just happens to be idling like it was waiting for you and head down to Green St. After a few drinks at the Dive Bar you walk down to the Lucky Dog to take in some local sounds. Once you get caught staring at the bartenders enormous breasts, you decide its time to find somewhere to polish off the night so you hop another cab, strangely this one also seemed to know you were coming, and you shoot off to Irish Times for last call. As 1:30 rolls around the big Cro-Magnon looking guy at the door approaches and you figure you’re luck has run out. But instead of picking you up and throwing you at the new court house, he asks you if he can get your valet. But wait, you gave up your keys on Shrewsbury St. “Fear not citizen” the Neanderthal says, “in Worcester it doesn’t matter where you begin or end your night, we just love the fact you patronize our businesses. So we’ll bring your car to you, right here on North Main. Its not brain surgery to figure out citizen, and imagine what those water burning cretins in Providence will think!”
Ok so now that the underlying problem is solved lets look at one of the more foolish byproducts of not just dealing with this issue in the first place. This gem turned up in the editorial section of today’s T&G:
In the Shrewsbury Street neighborhood, residents in recent months have complained about noise and other problems when some restaurants finish their day job — serving food — and essentially turn into nightclubs. In the past, similar problems have arisen in other parts of the city.
In dealing with neighborhood issues, it can be hard to draw the line fairly for all parties — businesses and customers, on the one hand, and residents trying for safe roads and a good night’s sleep on the other. But when a line is drawn, businesses must hold up their end of the bargain.
The problem with this line of thought is it ignores the systems already in place to curb excessive noise and drunkenness. We have a very proactive set of noise ordinances in the city and if the neighborhood has legitimate concerns regarding volume then we need to act upon that. Whether its straight pipes on a motorcycle or 50 cent blaring from a Celica it can all be controlled via existing city ordinance and has no bearing on the sale of pasta, which as we know is a pretty quiet food. And on a similar note if there is an issue with drunkards running wild on the Shrew then we need to get Jamie Binenda down there and let him do his thing. I’m sure he would be happy to straighten things out on that front and it will impact exactly zero of the legitimate libation sales in Worcester.
We don’t need new laws, new rules or even exceptions to the rules to make the Big Woo an even greater city. Just a level playing field, top notch service from both the city and its business’ and a whole lot of support from our residents to keep the momentum building.
getting all polytechnic
I just returned from a forum at Worcester Polytechnic Institute on of all things, lock picking. I’ve had a weird fascination with lock picking since i first discovered the MIT guide to picking locks on the interweb back in the mid ninety’s. But tonight was something different, although there was a show and tell of sorts with actual locks being picked, much of the might was an open discussion between the 100 or so people there about physical security and what it represents in a civilized society. As well as some input from a member of the school administration as to why they were originally reluctant to allow the presentation to go on. Pretty cool night. And here I thought the ideals of the old 2600 community were long lost. Ted the Tool would be proud
Who says nothing cool happens in the Big Woo.
Jacob Berendes T-Shirts back in stock
Jacob Berendes has his ‘Worcester - Paris of the 80’s’ and ‘Turtle Boy’ shirts back in stock for the very fair price of $12 American Dollars. He was kind enough to drop mine off at my house in person. When has Jeff Bezos offered that kind of service?
The Curtain Society - Every Corner of the Room
I don’t think the Curtain Society has released an album during my lifetime. So for all you last minute Christmas shoppers this could be the Halley’s Comet of gift giving.
