Archives: features
- "Underground Man" update
Thanks to Mint, I noticed that a few visitors were referred here looking for the text of a New Yorker article writted in February 2004 titled, Underground Man: Can the former C.I.A. agent who saved New York�s subway get the Tube back on track?. I had scanned the text a while back, but my directory security settings on my server were tightened, and the scans were no longer available. So, if you’re looking for the article, it’s is now properly linked in the orginal post. I still wish I had a way of extracting the text via OCR…... - M-Beat Theme
I've been looking for a good menu controller for iTunes, and it's been a difficult search. I tested many apps, including "QuickTunes":http://opensoft.fre3.com/index.php?page=products, "You Control Tunes":http://www.yousoftware.com/itunes/, and "Synergy":http://synergy.wincent.com/. Each has its relative strengths and weaknesses, but I just couldn't get everything I wanted in one package: * Display track info on the menubar * Unobtrusive design, that blends with my OS X theme * Global keyboard shortcuts * Pop-up floater with track info and album art * Solid app, that doesn't crash In the end, I decided to go with The Little App Factory's "M-Beat":http://www.thelittleappfactory.com/application.php?app=M-Beat, which satisfies all of these requirements,... - Values
We lost... and we lost big. There is simply no excuse. "Blue" America just doesn't _get_ "Red" America, and we're "shut out":http://nytimes.com/2004/11/04/politics/campaign/04elect.html?hp of government as a result. The magnitude of this loss cannot be written off or explained away as a fluke. Sure, we can stand 'round the water coolers today, complaining about how "dumb" middle-America is, and where we're all going to seek asylum abroad, (Iceland? New Zealand?) -- but that would just play into the Republicans' hands. John Kerry lost because the Democratic party is no longer a party of "values":http://slate.com/id/2109128/. How else do we explain the working... - End Game
Do you "believe":http://www.zogby.com/?... - Schilling is Shilling for Bush?
It already seems like a dream -- the Red Sox reversed the 86-year curse, by "sweeping the World Series":http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/10/28/on_top_of_the_world/ on Wednesday night, and I haven't posted yet. I gotta say, it's been a great thing for this town, and for its decades of great teams that just couldn't win it all. Schilling, Pedro, DLowe, Ortiz, Manny, Foulke... all heroes. Can't wait to great them at the "parade":http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/10/29/the_party_rolls_on/ tomorrow. But what is up with Schilling, "shilling for Bush":http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=81679 ? Someone needs to tell him that there are two "Evil Empires":http://www.bostondirtdogs.com/2003/Star_Wars_12.28.02.htm -- the Yankees, and the Bushies. This is "Kerry":http://johnkerry.com country, Curt.... - VP Debate: Edwards won, Cheney lied
*UPDATE:* Another funny note, if you go to the URL provided by Cheney in the debate last night, "factcheck.com":http://factcheck.com, it forwards to "George Soros' anti-Bush site":http://www.georgesoros.com/. The Soros site claims not to be behind the re-direct, so some domain-squatter has a sense of humor. As usual, "kos":http://dailykos.com, "atrios":http://atrios.blogspot.com/ and the other Liberal webloggers are fact-checking where the major media outlets will not. Here are some of Cheney's assertions in the debate, and why they're lies: * CHENEY: _"Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you Senator Gone."_ -- "LIE":http://atrios.blogspot.com/2004/10/cheney-liiiiiaaaaarrrr.html * CHENEY: _"You've got one of the worst attendance records in... - Voter Registration Deadline
I just want to remind everyone to register to vote soon, if you'd like a say in the Presidential election on November 2nd. The deadline here in Massachusetts is October 13, so print the "registration form":http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elestu/stuidx.htm out, and mail in in by 10/13, if you live in the Bay state. Also, there are lots of things to choose from on the ballot -- if you want to be informed, I suggest looking over the "Information for Voters 2004":http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepdf/IFV_2004.pdf packet. If you live in another state, or you're looking for more information, check out Jason Kottke's initiative, Voters Information Guide for... - Spider
Look at this Spider outside our window! Presley has the "details":http://presley.suckahs.org/archives/002428.php...... - The G5 iMac
Wow. Looking at the newly-posted info on the "G5 iMac":http://www.apple.com/imac/, I'm again speechless. "Where did the computer go?", indeed. It appears that Apple has done it again... this iMac G5 almost looks slimmer and lighter than Dell laptops! Those things are bricks, and they're supposed to be _portable_. It seems as if Apple and IBM have solved the G5 "heat problem":http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=167. So does that mean that we'll see a G5 _Powerbook_ by Christmas? * Apple "iMac G5":http://www.apple.com/imac/ * Apple "Photo Gallery":http://www.apple.com/imac/gallery/ * "MacWorld coverage":http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/08/31/g5imac/index.php * Showroom "photo":http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/imac-g5s-on-the-showroom-floor-020578.php in action.... - Smart-Target
I peed into a plastic cup this morning for the first time since my job application to "Wilson Farms":http://www.wilsonfarms.com/ convenience store, when I was sixteen years-old. Why, you ask? Well, some friends and I are going to spend the weekend driving a "SmartCar":http://www.smart.com/ around Boston, dressed in "Target":http://target.com logos from head-to-toe. We're supposed to make ourselves _seen_ to all of the returning college kids, reminding them that there is a cheap place to dress up that gray-brick dorm room. I'm 26 years-old, so this is a bit embarassing. But, It's only 2 days, I'll be a couple hundred dollars richer,... - HP All-in-Ones with Airport Express
I neglected to mention in my post about installing the "Airport Express":http://ned.suckahs.org/archives/002317.php with a 3rd-Party router, (a "Netgear WGR614":http://www.netgear.com/products/prod_details.php?prodID=174&view=hm, in my case), that I still couldn't print wirelessly with the device. My "HP PSC-750 All-in-One":http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00035369 isn't "supported":http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107418&sessionID=anonymous|12743518&kbhost=kbase.info.apple.com%3a80%2f... it makes sense that you wouldn't be able to _scan_ wirelessly, but why couldn't I _print_? Well, after a few more hours of searching, I finally found a "solution":http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@145.NDUSaUAvt0f.4@.6897b310/19, courtesy *William Boddie* in the Apple discussions: When queried for a printer, I selected "edit printer list" from the scroll down menu, clicked on "add" under the printer setup utility-> went to IP Printer... - My Electoral Nightmare
I was fooling around with this neat New York Times "interactive Election Guide":http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/2004_ELECTIONGUIDE_GRAPHIC/, and I inputted my predictions for how the states will vote in November. This was my worst-case scenario, with Bush winning both Florida and Ohio... the result? TIED. It'll be the "House of Representatives":http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/80oct/deadlock.htm rather than the "Supreme Court":http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-949.ZPC.html, this time around...... - Airport Express
The "Airport Express":http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/ I ordered last month arrived yesterday. After 2+ hours of fiddling, googling, plugging and unplugging, I've finally got Karen O and the "Yeah Yeah Yeahs":http://www.yeahyeahyeahs.com/ streaming from my "Powerbook's":http://ned.suckahs.org/archives/001758.php iTunes, to my "Onkyo":http://www.onkyousa.com/ receiver and "Cambridge Soundworks":http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com speakers. The problem was to get my "$60 Netgear router":http://netgear.com/products/prod_details.php?prodID=174&view=hm to recognize the AX -- as the documentation makes no promises of connecting to a third-party wireless router, (on a side note, I've never understood the pricing of the original "Airport Extreme":http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/ -- at $200, what advantages could this model possibly offer over any other IEEE 802.11g router?). Expecting it... - Support the Kerry/Edwards ticket
John Kerry made a great choice for his VP running mate -- they will make a great team. If you're a supporter of Kerry/Edwards, they will give you a free "bumper sticker":http://www.johnkerry.com/signup/bumper_KE.php, just for signing up with the campaign. The downside is, they'll email you a couple of times a week, (which some may find "inundating":http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2004/06/john_kerrys_marketing_campaign.php). I think that's a fair trade. UPDATE: Incidentally, I did it, and when I hit submit, a page appeared saying "help us cover the cost of mailing this, won't you?" So I felt guilty, and sent another "$25 contribution":http://ned.suckahs.org/archives/002042.php.... - Chernobyl
UPDATE: Apparently, Miss Elena "wasn't completely honest":http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/chernobyl_trip... however, I still think it's a fabulous story. In April of 1986, I was eight years old, and I have no recollection of the "Chernobyl disaster":http://www.chernobyl.info/. Yet, it's hard to imagine any single event more devastating than what happened on April 25-26, 1986. Hundreds of thousands died, and many more were forced out of their homes in an instant, never to return. Radiation flooded the air, land, and water around the site, forming a 'dead zone'. "Albany Dan":http://albanydan.suckahs.org pointed out a link on "Fark":http://fark.com to a first-person account of someone who has ventured... - The Reagan we aren't seeing on TV
I suspect much of this country feels, as I do, that Ronald Reagan was not the saint that the radical Right would like us to believe. Still, the media coverage this past week has not only been "gushingly positive":http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20802-2004Jun6.html, but also "all-consuming":http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/22590.htm. While watching that carriage parade around for 4 hours last night, and suffering through Dick Cheney's political eulogy, I kept thinking of the horrible things this guy was responsible for -- and many of them meet my definition of "High Crimes and Misdemeanors":http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0764613.html. * He sent Rumsfeld to "shake hands":http://www.impeach-bush-now.org/Articles/Rumsfeld/shakinghands.htm with Saddam Hussein on an "arms deal":http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,866942,00.html. *... - $25 is all it takes...
I just gave "John Kerry":https://contribute.johnkerry.com/index.html?source_code=00016568 $25. I ended up giving "Howard Dean":http://blogforamerica.com a not-insignificant amount of money, (at least to me), and I feel it was money well spent. I'm going to do so for John Kerry each month. You "should":https://contribute.johnkerry.com/index.html?source_code=00016568, too. Bush is on the "attack":http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/12/politics/campaign/12ADS.html?pagewanted=print&position=.... - Welcome CSS Vault Visitors!
Thanks to Andy for submitting this blog for recognition at "CSS Vault":http://www.cssvault.com. I'm honored to be included among the many inspiring sites. (I hope it doesn't matter that I've more or less had the same layout and design for more than a year now.) But, thank you very much.... - Garage Sale
Presley and I are having an online "Garage Sale":http://garagesale.suckahs.org/. We've "dropped":http://boston.craigslist.org/ele/24937864.html "postings":http://boston.craigslist.org/hsh/24938037.html "on":http://boston.craigslist.org/spo/24938325.html "Craigslist":http://boston.craigslist.org/, and we're going to tell everyone we know, "come buy our unwanted stuff". I've got a Powermac G4, 25" TV, DVD Player, and other goodies for "sale":http://garagesale.suckahs.org/. If you're in the Boston/Cambridge/Eastern New England region, take a "look":http://garagesale.suckahs.org/! Email questions to garagesale@suckahs.org. And, please feel free to make us an offer.... - Underground Man
After reading "Dunstan's humorous post":http://www.1976design.com/blog/archive/2004/02/12/irony/ on British rail, and the silly responses he received from Americans and Germans, I was reminded of an excellent article by William Finnegan in the "New Yorker":http://newyorker.com last week, _Underground Man: Can the former C.I.A. agent who saved New York's subway get the Tube back on track?_ After scouring the _New Yorker_ web site and Google without luck, I decided it was worth scanning and posting the "article":http://ned.suckahs.org/underground_man/. Sorry they're jpgs... I probably won't leave it up very long (file size/bandwidth), unless someone can suggest a way to extract the text of the article. I'm... - On to New Hampshire
*NH Prediction:* Dean will not win -- but, he might become the "Comeback Kid":http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/columns/medialife/4346/index1.html of 2004 with a strong 2nd place finish. Where does Kerry go after NH? Then again, I've been "wrong before":http://ned.suckahs.org/archives/001899.php. On a complete aside, I was up in Concord working for "Al Gore":http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/goremain100399.htm 4 years ago, having hauled several cars-worth of Massachusetts college students in tow. Seeing the weather "forecast":http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/pastweather/USNH0045?when=012704, I don't regret sitting this one out.... - Iowa Predictions
I spend much of my time each day reading newspapers and talking to friends about politics, but rarely do I post on the subject. There are some "excellent sources(daily kos is my daily fix)":http://www.dailykos.com/ that focus on politics and the race for the White house. So, the last thing this country needs is another "blogger for Dean(duh)":http://www.blogforamerica.com/whatisablog.html. However, today is the "Iowa caucus ":http://desmoinesregister.com/news/stories/c4789004/23293430.html-- a "bizarre exercise(don't get me started...)":http://slate.msn.com/id/2094034/ that makes the Electoral College look downright democratic-- so I thought I'd take a few minutes to give my take. First, the headlines seem to point to Dean "dropping off(We'll... - Day 3: On to Key West
After breakfast as "Magrove Mike's (go for the Hangover Helper breakfast)":http://florida.keys.diningguide.net/data/d100365.htm in Islamorada, we started heading west. We stopped briefly at the "Bahia Honda State Park Beach (Best US Beach in 1992)":http://www.bahiahondapark.com/ for some sun and splash. I read, while Presley napped. Arriving in Key West, we missed the "Sunset celebration":http://www.sunsetcelebration.org/ because I needed to find an Internet Cafe -- my boss called me and told me that I had forgotten to submit my timesheet, and if I would like to get paid, I had better do so. So, after the business was taken care of at the Sippin' Cafe,... - Day 2: Key Largo, Snorkeling & Sailing
What a busy day! We got up this morning, determined to go snorkeling. We've learned one thing about Key Largo -- there is utterly nothing worth doing in Key Largo besides snorkeling, diving and outdoor activities. We rented a dual kayak, and paddled around the mangroves in the "Pennekamp State Park (First underwater State Park, or something)":http://www.pennekamppark.com/. And, at 1:30, we took a "38' Catamaran":http://www.pennekamppark.com/sailing.html sailing out to the coral reef, strapped on some fins and masks, and plunged into the 72-degree water to look at fish. Even though 72-degrees sounds like warm water, it's better to wear a wet-suit,... - Day 1, Part I: Boston to Miami Beach
It's freezing! temperature is in the teens, and we're late out the door to "Logan":http://www.mbta.com/traveling_t/schedules_subway_greenline.asp. Since we live closest to the "Green line (also known as slow)":http://www.mbta.com/traveling_t/schedules_subway_greenline.asp, we decide to walk over the Charles to the B-line. But, temperature is in the teens! I'm wearing a light jean jacket with a thick wool turtleneck sweater, a knit hat, but no gloves! Pulling my suitcase around the rotary, and onto the bridge -- it's sooo cold. And it's almost 7am. Our flight leaves at 8:05! Presley hands me one of her gloves (for the suitcase-carrying hand), and we both bury our... - Best of 2003
Well, I'm late with my yearly round-up. I've enjoyed reading what other webloggers have written on 2003, and hopefully I've got something to offer. Here goes: *MUSIC* I won't bore you with my theories of correlation between poor economic prospects and quality rock music -- suffice to say, 2003 was a lousy year to look for work, but it was another excellent year for rock. Without any dominant "ism" (e.g., Alternative, Rap Metal, etc.) defining what was cool, smaller bands were given the chance to experiment. * "Interpol":http://interpolnyc.com, "Turn on the Bright Lights":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006BTCA/suckahs-20/102-9996354-4905743 -- To be fair, I shouldn't include... - twenty-six
I'm now twenty-six years old. And my girlfriend is making me cupcakes to take to work tomorrow (today). Isn't that wonderful?... - World AIDS Day - Dec 1 2003
Today is World AIDS Day, part of a campaign to increase awareness of HIV-related stigma and discrimination. Here are a few resources relating to the AIDS pandemic and World AIDS Day: * World AIDS Day * Overview * BBC page * World Aids Day sets HIV drug goal * India Plans Free AIDS Therapy * Rural Haitians Are Vanguard in AIDS Battle * The CDC page * UN Page... - The limits of Push-button Publishing
A while back, Jason Kottke began tweaking his site layout, merging his "remainder" links into the daily thread of his weblog, and creating a different look for "Featured" posts such as movie and book reviews. When I last redesigned (now more than a year ago), I thought a lot about how to use MT categories, and the importance of drawing a visual distinction between _featured posts_, and shorter daily posts. It was necessary to weigh certain types of posts as more relevant than others. This not-so-creative solution was to use a styled post title & a unique icon-- for music,... - Pantherized
I got Panther (OS X 10.3) this week, and finally found the time to install it on my newish 12-inch Powerbook. No problem, right? Maybe if I weren't such a retard. 11pm. I loaded the disk, and navigated through setup without a problem. Of course, as soon as I finished, I forgot that what I really wanted was to partition my gigantic 80GB drive into a System disk, and a Scratch disk. After Panther was up and running, I went to the disk utility, and when I clicked on "partition", it told me that I couldn't partition the HD because... - Larry got it Right in Mystic River
An open letter to the author of an otherwise good review of _Mystic River_ in Salon: bq. Hello Ms. Zacharek, I did enjoy your review of Mystic River, and am looking forward to seeing it this weekend. I especially enjoyed your observations on conceptions of _neighborhood_, and on the film's sense of _place_. While it's true that Boston's many neighborhoods are more self-contained than most cities', I think it's a leap to assume that this clannishness is _total_. It's equally true to argue that all of Boston is insulated from other parts of the country. There is a distinct common... - Rally Cap
I've been wearing my rally cap since the 5th inning. Wow. Trot wins it in the 11th inning on a home run to the deepest part of Fenway.... - Sales Adjustments in IT
Randomly browsing the web today, I found that the web shop I worked for in downtown Boston during the waning days of the internet boom, Worldmachine, appears to be back in business. It was just about two years ago that they called all of us into the conference room to announce layoffs and that they were shutting the company down. The obvious reason given at the time, was lack of new sales. This I still find interesting, because the excuse all sales professionals seem to offer in this dreadful economy is that the sales cycle is much longer -- sometimes... - Verizon's UI
Since we're in the process of moving, I've spent a lot of time switching utilities to the new apartment. For a few months now, I've been paying our Verizon phone & DSL bill online, because it's easy and I don't need to dig up my checkbook. However, Verizon's online bill management leaves much to be desired... When you log in, the account summary displays the amount you owe, listed under "Payment due" (see screen-shot at left). So, I would periodically log in, note the dollar amount, and after a few clicks, a credit-card payment was submitted. There is a problem... - Buffalo Central Terminal Update
A while back, I posted about a piece of architectural wonderment lying vandalized and dormant in Buffalo -- the old Central Terminal. It's a beautiful Deco train station from the 1920s, plopped into an otherwise unexceptional suburban neighborhood. At the time the station was built, Buffalo was still an industrial and cultural center, with a population over one-half million. It was second only to Chicago for its tangling rail network. However, by the late 1970s, both the city and the station had seen better days. The station was boarded up, and the trains instead stopped at a new, strip-mall like... - Typepad
I've re-upped my subscription to Typepad, mostly because I love the features. The photo album alone is worth the $11.96 a month. Anyhow, one added bonus, is the ability to dole out discounts to deserving folks: bq. As our thanks for taking the time to help beta test TypePad, we're offering you the chance to share the savings of a 20% lifetime discount with twenty of your friends and family members. We really appreciate the community that has formed during testing and we hope that it continues to thrive as the service grows. Let me know if you're interested-- it's... - I've Made the Switch!
This is old news to anyone who speaks with me regularly, but I've finally made the switch -- to a Mac. Yes, I know, apologies go out to my parents and everyone that I berated over the years for foolishly buying Macs - I just couldn't resist any longer. I'm now the proud owner of a G4, with a diminutive 350mhz chip, new 80gb drive, 896mb RAM, OS X 10.2, and all the open source software I care to install. I was relieved to see that all my peripherals were easily installed, and I'm getting better at navigating the OS.... - The Hotel Commonwealth
Kenmore Square, Boston, has always had a reputation for being a little bit seedy-- much the way Times Square used to be. It boasts a major Subway interchange, the best Ballpark in the American League, if not all of baseball, and it used to be home to a diverse group of small businesses and restaurants. When I first moved to Kenmore Square, in 1996, there was a Methadone clinic, a punk-rock venue called the Rathskeller, a late-night restaurant called Deli-haus, a gritty coffee house called Fuel, and a bunch of other businesses housed in the cluster of Browstones on... - Howard Dean in 2004
Albany Dan sent me a feature article on Howard Dean in Salon, and it was an enjoyable read. I like his candor, honesty, and willingness to stand up to Bush, and these luke-warm Dems. Sen. Kerry himself said that he'd like to fashion his campaign along the lines of John McCain, yet his language is peppered with "bend-me-over" Daschle get-along talk like this. Now, I like John Kerry just fine-- and Edwards, Lieberman, and the other Senators running are also fine people. But, to pick a person to lead this party at a time when we're again searching for our... - Public = Avant Garde ??
I read a little piece in the Times today concerning the two finalists chosen by the LMDC for the World Trade Center, and I have a few reactions. Let us read some of what Mr. Muschamp writes:"[Daniel Libeskind's design] is an emotionally manipulative exercise in visual codes.Alright. Does any ordinary user of the World Trade Center -- worker, tourist, subway rider, etc. -- have any idea just what Mr. Muschamp is talking about? Why has architecture become this jargony realm of intellectual nonsense? I don't know. The death and destruction of WWI caused a huge shift in Western values, specifically... - Monday Afternoon
My latest installment in my forthcoming book, How to Make the Most of Unemployment: or Failing That, At Least Get By, focuses on Monday afternoons and what to do about them. For instance, when a monday afternoon falls on, or near the first of the month, take a few minutes to slip into your neighborhood bank branch (mine is a Fleet) and cash some childhood savings bonds. Not only will this activity inject you with some much needed cash, to say, pay your landlord, but more importantly it will entertain you to witness the hoops the Teller must jump through... - Zakim Bridge
I was futzing around in Photoshop the other day, in-between working on some freelance gigs... (it's coming matt!)... and I created this little vectorized version of the new Charles river bridge in Boston. I think it's fabulous that the city named it for Lenny Zakim, a civil rights activist and community leader-- especially given that he passed-away in 1999. I certainly understand why government buildings and other projects are named for WWII heroes and long-dead (some corrupt) politicians, but I'm encouraged by this choice... It's a modern, personal and meaningful choice. Personally, I'm kind of ambivalent about all of this... - The Power of Little Hand-Written Notes
Al Franken, in his most recent book, Oh The Things I Know..., extols the value Personal Handwritten Notes, as a means of networking. He calls attention to the fact that President Bush (the Elder) made it a routine in his life from the time he left Yale to write thousands of these notes to friends and supporters. And he became Director of the CIA, Ambassador to the UN, Vice President, and President. Let's leave aside the notion that he might have actually performed any of these duties satisfactorily, and consider Mr. Franken's point: It is so easy to send Email... - IDEA! Boston 'T' Blog
Today I was sitting at the 1369 coffeehouse in Central Sq., as I do most days of the week, reading the papers and generally absorbing the happenings... some guy in a shirt-and-tie fretting over Excel spreadsheets at his laptop on my right. Another guy on my left, copiously practicing Chinese-looking script for words like "cow", "apartment" and "love". Ahead of me was a man in his mid-40s sitting with his young son, who was playing Gameboy and occasionally chatting with some of the people who work there. One of these girls was taking a break with a coffee, bagel and... - The Vacuum
...I'd like to say that I don't believe that Democrats should be looking for any kind of silver lining out of this. - Basketcase City
Here is an interesting item in the Buffalo News... it seems former mayor James D. "Jimmy" Griffin is starting a "grass-roots" campaign to recall his successor, Mayor Masiello. Just as Buffalo is starting to do the right things it needs to do to get out of financial chaos, past specters responsible for the mess the city finds itself in are in are resurfacing to reassert their influence. There is no money in the city coffers, and NY State is occupied with rebuilding NY City... yet Griffin finds it necessary to stir up populist anger at the mayor's insistence that a... - <sports>
I really am tempted to write a Slate-like cranky criticism of the new Buffalo Bills uniforms, but I will try to say some nice things: The dark blue is great. I like the stripes with the gray on the helmet. (Here comes the cranky part) So, if you're going to make an "update" with the new darker blue, why would you keep the lighter royal blue? Wouldn't it be nice to put the numbers in red, or gray? or the new dark blue? Doesn't that light blue look just as dated now as it did last year? Why do... - <3 Logotype
I've always professed a fondness for the logotype of WBFO, even if the University at Buffalo station only broadcasts NPR news for a few hours on the day. I remember seeing it on bumper stickers in the car parking lots-- i swear they were only to be found on older european junkers, like a mustard-yellow Volvo 240 diesel, or a white 1979 BMW 320. Anyway, their web site spiffed-up the old logotype with some very lovely color. Kudos. Boston University's WBUR has a good logotype too. SO-- maybe i'm on to something here... NPR stations are non-commercial, yet their... - Convert, don't Build
Anyone following the Adelphia bid to build a huge skyscraper on the Buffalo waterfront, has to laugh at the company's determination to get it done. The company is having Enron-like financial woes, yet still wants to build this tower in a city that has commercial vacancy rates that rival occupancy rates. I'm not saying the Adelphia project is a mistake, however I think people aren't focusing properly on how to foster the 24-hour downtown a vibrant city needs. First, I think, you need to lure people who work in the city to also live in the city. Cities have certain... - Trains are better than Cars
Central Station, Buffalo, NY, circa 1930. Presley's sister Kelly was in town this past weekend, and she left yesterday on the Amtrak train from Back Bay Station, which got me thinking about train stations and trains in general. Everyone in these New Urbanist books that I read can't fathom how America ended up wedded to the automobile, while the Europeans remain contented with trains. I think it's a simple answer: after the war, we just could. It was the thing to do, and we had the resources. But, isn't there something wonderful about trains? And more importantly, big city train... - Art is Art?
Flipping to the Op-Ed page of the Boston Globe today, I was suprised and encouraged to see that they printed a column criticizing a recent exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York. This kind of exhibit, which featured works that use Holocaust themes (and nazi symbols) in a postmodernist context of irony and kitsch, seems so tired and done-before, and contributes little to the tradition of Art and cultural offerings in this country. And if the Globe isn't a sufficiently Liberal source, (it's probably the most Liberal major newspaper of record, thankfully), The Village Voice offered a negative review... - Boston as a Blueprint
The new Planning news feed at the right of this page is already reaping interesting rewards-- among the interesting links, an article that discusses Boston and it's neighborhoods. Mayor Menino has made neighborhood-based commercial development a priority over the past decade or so, and it's just the kind of thing that makes economic sense. In awarding grants to individual small business owners, (most of which is federal money anyway), for little improvements such as new store facades, Boston has cultivated a neighborhood approach to development. Occasionally, big "urban-renewal" projects, such as the new Ritz-Carlton monstrosity in Chinatown, do get built,... - What Buffalo Was, and What it Should Be
If you've talked with me in the last few months, you know that I've taken an interest in Urban Planning, and more specifically those characteristics that make a good neighborhood and city. I don't know why this subject has peaked my interest, considering I used to be in awe of places like Epcot and I grew up not far from strip-malls. But, I am deeply concerned about that place where I grew up, because the city of Buffalo is rotting at it's core, while the endless development of pharmacy mini-malls, parking lots, and cul-de-sacs pushes farther out into the... - When Emo Hits Hawaii, You Know it's Everywhere
I don't know if I quite get emo kids, but I try. It's kinda fascinating how much the word 'emo' has penetrated into our cultural dialogue, yet so many people can't agree on what 'emo' actually stands for. I mean, by some accounts, straight emo music is dead. What happens when someone decides to label Weezer, a very successful melodic rock band, emo? Or when very good bands, try desperately to attach themselves to the emerging bandwagon? And yet, it affects culture -- in music and style. It's hard to ignore the reality that the Gap last fall looked more... - Christmas Eve Always used to Be Fun
When I was a kid, it was almost more exciting that Christmas day-- we'd go to the grandparents house, and there'd be literally hundreds of packages everywhere. you couldn't walk across the room. If by chance there were outsiders in attendance, they'd be shocked that a family of 6 could wrap so much... and each year we'd up the number. I remember getting a my first trip to NYC in 1995... a sabres jersey (#89 mogilny) in 1989. there was a cabbage patch kid in 1984. It was always a picture perfect commercialized Christmas. anyway, yada yada yada... basically I'm...
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