Waiting for Speedway Fowler

...on Mars!

A little dicing, a little spice mix, a couple of hours chilling in the fridge, and we have SALSA, baby!

It's hard not to love this show. Simple moral tales with lots of good-old American violence. Chuck Conners plays the archtypal square-jawed hero. Paul Fix is Micah, the well-meaning but useless sheriff. And Johnny Crawford is McCain's sensitive son, Mark. The tales are all one-dimensional, but never cartoonish. McCain's rifle is incredibly cool. But the best part... the part I never tire of, is that one moment at the end of every episode where the theme song rises to a western crescendo.. then, for just a second, it stops, suspended momentarily in time, before jaunting to its finale. It's my second-favorite all-time musical moment, after the very slight piano flourish that follows the line "I'm no prophet" in Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" "Anticipation". Anyways, Encore's Western Channel is showing "The Rifleman" all day today. Enjoy!

I'm not sure I like the implications of this:


"The S&P 500 sank to its lowest level since October 2004 as all 10 of its industry groups tumbled at least 4.2 percent. Campbell Soup Co. was the only stock in the benchmark index for U.S. equities to advance."

Hard to say, but until today I'd been of the opinion that things were MUCH worse than anyone in power was letting on.

Today was the first time we stepped very publicly to the edge of the abyss.

And it's scary as it is, but there are signs it might be even worse than we suspect.

For instance, last month, U.S. imports from Japan dropped by FIFTY PERCENT.

That is mind-boggling.

There's also (and I can't find the cite or the actual percent, dammit) the alarming number of people who used their stimulus money to buy guns and ammo.

And the number of banks that are crashing in places like Belgium, Holland, Iceland and elsewhere.

I am not a fan of Sarah Palin - other than in that unhealthy watch-the-car-crash kind of way - but I will say this for her: she is the only lawmaker on the national stage who has - either from courage or stupidity - used the word "depression" when discussing the economy.

Then there's this email I read about two weeks ago:

Barack Obama will win this election.
But it doesn't matter.
The United States economy will completely collapse within 32 months of his inauguration.
The days of living like a king on your McDonald's paycheck will be over.
Complete Zimbabwe-style inflation followed by theft, murder, rape, starvation and suicide streaks like you could never have imagined will ensue.
Unplug the Internets, turn off your cable, hang up your car keys.
You're going to die.

At the time I thought it was crazy stuff.
I still do.
But not quite as much.

This is what we've been hearing all day long for the past 6 months. It's construction going on behind those houses across the street. They are re-making Rockwood Field. I am sure it will be great when it is finished, but at this point I'm pretty tired of all the noise every day.

This was AWESOME, but not for the reasons you might think. It was awesome because it reminded me of an old beer commercial from the early 70's where a bunch of guys cruise the city in a cab, looking for a nightclub that's "the" place to be and it turns out to be in a neighborhood you'd never expect around a corner where there are no indications that something awesome might be lurking. As far as I know, the party was only promoted on blog pages and by word of mouth, and while the rain limited the turnout a bit it also eliminated any potential trouble. So as a result, the event felt like a bunch of cool people getting together for an afternoon. It had the perfect vibe. I even brought my dog. I came back later in the evening and things were still humming along nicely. Paulie says there will be a second festival next year. I can only hope it will be as laid-back and cool as this one was.

Occasionally you will read an article online or in the T&G about Worcester's relationship with our sister city across the pond, Worcester, England. My understanding is that it is a connection that has been a little rocky at times, but that we're now trying to show the Brits a little of the attention usually needed to foster such a civic relationship.

What you don't usually read about, or hear about, is New England's other Worcester: Worcester, Vermont. That Worcester occupies an area of 38 square miles and has a population of 902 people. It's about 15 miles north of Montpelier.



I pass though Montpelier a couple of times a year. I think I'll try to make a stop in the other Worcester next Summer.

"That that poor girl put her trust into the... into the hands of two men who took her life. She's in a coma. Her life is gone. She has no home, no family. She's tied to a machine. She has no friends. And the people who should care for her - her doctors... and you and me - have been bought off to look the other way. We've been paid to look the other way. I came here to take your money. I brought snapshots to show you so I could get your money. I can't do it; I can't take it. 'Cause if I take the money I'm lost. I'll just be a... rich ambulance chaser. I can't do it. I can't take it."

Jono Scherr's website. Pretty cool.

http://www.kingsofhighland.com/

I love dogs as much, if not more, than the next person. But this is just stupid.

The old US Steel site off Route 146.

Looks like sewer work or new water lines or something.
Traffic is being detoured up Beacon Street and over Ionic Ave.

Worcester's leading terroir restaurant.
Check out the fare:



Corn Chowder, made with corn from Tougas Farm and big chunks of potato and bacon.



And the farmhouse brunch slate: locally-made or grown apples and peaches, local cheeses and honey, bread and jam.

What are you going to do with THIS monstrosity?

AT&T's Switching Facility. It's a giant faceless concrete block that completely destroys the human flow along the street, but what are you going to do? Tear the place down?

We got a new TV a few months ago, to replace one that had suddenly stopped working (Costco's original return policy is - or was (it has since changed, but we were grandfathered in) - the greatest thing in all the western world), and, in rearranging the room to accomodate the new set, my teenaged son discovered the old Sega Dreamcast. Now, it's suddenly the coolest item in the house, and I have come home on more than one occasion to find all these kids in the back room playing Virtua Tennis, with the new Nintendo Wii lying silent and forlorn. Kids are strange.

"Greater Portland's Community Writing Center"

Kind of a cool idea. Worcester could use a place like this.

It fires off a blast of cool water spray every four minutes. What kid wouldn't love it?

I haven't watched the Emmys since at least the mid-80's, but I tuned in for a little bit last night. Three things struck me:

1. It wasn't funny. The bit between Ricky Gervais and Steve Carrell was funny and that was it.
2. It looked cheap. I remember the Emmys as being kind of a lavish event. This looked like something you'd see thrown together at the Centrum's convention Hall.
3. OH MY GOD.. WHY WOULD ANYONE PUT ALAN SUES THROUGH THAT?? THE MAN IS 82 YEARS OLD.

So I'm driving off my street the other day and there's this car, at the top of my street, door open, airbag deployed.



NO ONE AROUND.


No idea where the driver was. It was just the car, sitting there in the middle of the day, seemingly crashed and abandoned.

I remember the first time I heard Phil Hendrie. It was on WORC the night before Thanksgiving, 1999. I turned on the radio and heard Phil interviewing a man from the Citizens Auxiliary Police who was describing how he and his pseudo-police force were stopping shoppers coming out of supermarkets and confiscating any Thanksgiving ingredients what weren't 100% natural and additive-free. Then following the interview Phil took calls from outraged listeners incredulous at how this infringement on their freedom was being tolerated. I would later learn that the guest was Jay Santos, of course... and that he wasn't really a guest. He wasn't even a person. He was Hendrie himself. I found out Phil was perhaps the world's most amazing voice artist and that he was doing BOTH sides of the interview with such amazing timing that it took a week of listening to believe it was happening. Hendrie was the most brilliant force of nature I'd ever encountered on the radio. His show was several things at once: the listener would be amazed at his voice skills. The listener would also be amazed at the gullibility of the listening audience. Phil would present ever wilder and more outrageous scenarios, and they would call in with predictable umbrage. There was Steve Bozell, who always was filing some baseless lawsuit over some perceived slight. There was Bobby Dooley, the suburban fascist housewife. There was Ted Bell, owner of Ted's of Beverly Hills Steakhouse and the inventor of the tinfoil-wrapped baked potato who was the world's greatest snob. And there were about a dozen other great characters. And what was brilliant about Phil is that he USED them. He used his wide cast of characters to express a uniquely arch commentary on American mores and values. It was so great, you knew it couldn't last. There were early signs something bad was about to happen. First, Phil turned on the fans' websites that were devoted to the show, using legal threats to shut them down. Then he launched a pay website. Then he fired his best writer, Melissa. And finally he started insulting his listeners on the air. Then his bits started losing their brilliance. Where before they had been weird, extended, multilayered performance pieces, they suddenly became one-dimensional and dull "skits". Then Hendrie got cranky, lost his hip vibe, and eventually quit the business to become an actor. It was strange. He ended the show with barely a goodbye. He simply swore he'd never be back on radio. Then, of course, a year later, he was back. His new show, however, is a shadow of its former self. The voice bits are awful. There's no humor. No callers reacting to something outrageous. No sly commentary on American culture. And Phil has decided to become yet another one of the Little Limbaughs that are crowding the airwaves. He's no longer funny. He's no longer brilliant. No one I know listens to him anymore. It's like he had some sort of breakdown and decided to drive off a cliff. Maybe someday he'll realize what he's lost and make an effort to return to form, but the sad thing is, all his loyal listeners have moved on. And they ain't coming back. It's over, Phil.

This time in the parking lot at work!

Nice!

It's not that I don't appreciate street art...I do. But wouldn't the Green Street Bridge - and by extension, the neighborhood - be infinitely cooler if, instead of another (arguably lame) mural, the city paid to have the original (and dearly loved) Oilzum advertisement replicated on the bridge facing? I mean, what else says "Worcester" as well or with as high a degree of coolness?

(At Northstar Rink, Westborough)
Can't edit on the G3, so this is raw video. The best part about this is when the second Zamboni hits the boards and sends the camera flying.

(Along Rte 146)

"Does anyone have any ideas on how to resolve this??"

The station is located on West Boylston Street in Greendale, and follows the opening a short time ago of a Phillips 66 in Connecticut.

I'm noticing some weird sea change in gas stations in this area. Gulf has become a bigger presence. Several Exxon stations have switched to Gulf. And Irving Gas, which you used to only see in Maine and pasts of eastern Canada, has started to show up in places. And now Phillips 66, which, as far as I know, was a brand you used to only see out in the southwest and the mountain states.

I hear you
America snoring
I hear you
America snoring

Did ya see it on TV
Or in your own backyard
Gate's LAPD
And they called The National Guard
Then the tanks came rolling down
Sunset Boulevard
And I hear America snoring

They want ta' legislate the moon
They want ta' legislate the womb
They wanna legislate all the things they hate
They want ta' legislate this tune
And I hear America snoring

I hear you America snoring

Give wind time to blow
The rooster to crow
Plug my ears
But I hear
America
Oh oh oh

See the shoemaker and his shoes
Sliver needle thread and glue
He's closing up the shop
Move it all to Timbuktu
Where the labor force is cheap
And the rivers there run deep
But I hear America snoring
I hear you America snoring
I hear you America snoring

If you drive around Worcester, you will see a lot of old, faded painted advertisements from the last 100 years. I always find these much more interesting than modern ads and street murals. The Green Street Bridge was 10 times cooler when it displayed the Oilzum ad than when it was covered with the Perestroika mural. Anyways, the picture below shows the faded remnants of a Coca-Cola ad on the side of the tenement that houses Kelley Square Pizza.



And this building next to the old shop that housed Tony's Automotive on Chandler Street until very recently showed about 3/4ths of an ad for Pillsbury Flour that must have dated back to the 1920s or 1930s. It was painted over as part of the renovations. A shame, really.

I just stopped by to look for a friend of mine. Didn't find him. The good news is that the bad weather didn't keep the crowds away.

What a bummer. I always liked the Graffiti Face, the spray-painted visage that stared down at passing cars from the rear brick wall of the old David Berwick building at the corner of Madison and Main.

I drove by this morning, and the face had been sandblasted away.

I know they're fixing the building up and turning it into condos, so this was inevitable, but it's kind of a disappointment. I like little bits of guerilla art turning up here and there around the city. It gives the place more character. I always hate to see them get erased.

Police were handcuffing him just as I passed. Bummer for him.

Must be the homecoming game or something...

Pulled up behind this SUV at the corner of Chandler and Park Ave.
A Yankee fan doing some Red Sox hatin' in the middle of Massachusetts?
NOT something you see every day.



This guy either likes the attention, or really LOVES getting into fist fights.

You were born on a windswept morn
Under the summer sky
They moved you past all the kids in your class
You never even asked why

Oh the golden days
Lying awake at night
Hearing the ocean spray
Nobody counting the lives you've cost
No mothers crying for sons they've lost
Nobody watching at all
Just you and the road as it curves and bends
Doing little jobs for your daddy's friends

One day when the world is right
We're going to walk in the bright blue light
When your kingdom's gone
And your friends moved on
We're going to watch you fall
We're going to watch it all
One fine day

Stuck your hand in a desert land
Hoping that liberty shines
Counting the sins of the ones you put in
Sweeping the roads for mines

It's funny how it all works out
You sleep sound at night
Me I have my doubts
I see a people all tired and torn
Moving along like a gathering storm
You see nothing at all
Walking around with your head in the clouds
Praying to God that it all works out

One day when the world is right
We're going to walk in the bright blue light
When your kingdom's gone
And your friends moved on
We're going to watch you fall
We're going to watch it all
One fine day

Nobody waves good-bye
When you sneak away one night
Under the blood red sky
Leaving a town where hope's gone cold
A little more helpless than it was before
Listen close you'll hear
A cry comes back from the burning sand
One more kid in a broken land

One day when the world is right
We're going to walk in the bright blue light
When your kingdom's gone
And your friends moved on
We're going to watch you fall

One day when the world is right
We're going to walk in the broad daylight
When your kingdom's gone
And your friends moved on
We're going to watch you fall
We're going to watch you crawl
One fine day

So I'm going very Old School and temporarily using an old clamshell G3.

It makes you realize how much things have advanced in the past 10 years.

Whoa! Dig the light show, dude!

"SkyMark Tower", eh? Does anyone actually call this place anything other than the Scola Tower, or "that big white high-rise place where that murder happened a couple years back"?

I caught the place last night in mid-conversion. The pumps say "Gulf", but the Store still says "Exxon".


This is the second local Exxon to go Gulf, after the location at the corner of Park Ave. and Pleasant Street, on the site of the old Blessed Sacrament School, switched over back in July.

Is this part of some big business deal?

I also hear there's a Phillips 66 gas station - PHILLIPS 66? Isn't that a brand from out west? - opening on the north side of the city.

Like many people in the city, I have an ongoing fascination with the surreal horror show that is the Telegram & Gazette comments section. And since I often use the "controlled distraction" method of dealing with ADD, I had gotten into the habit of keeping the T&G comments page open as I did other work. And I found myself often adding to the comments, sometimes to advance the conversation, sometimes to lob a grenade or two. I became used to dealing with usual cast of characters, including the two or three crazed right-wing whackos whom the folks from the 508 Podcast accurately and amusingly characterized as "hating everything in the world". I posted simply as "Jim" and occasionally as "Earl Camembert" when one or two other Jims turned up, so as to avoid confusion. I made an effort to balance my comments evenly between insightful, informative, cogent points of debate and complete, off-the-wall wiseassery. I sort of had the impression that the folks running the online edition of the T&G were hip enough to see that I was just sort of riffing on things. Trying to keep it interesting. That was until the T&G ran a story on John Silber. I don't even remember what the story was about. Something about education, I think. Anyways... John Silber, right? So I added a comment. It was the only one for that particular story. I simply said "On a related note, Season 1 of "Flipper" comes out on DVD this week." So, okay, it was a bit of a crass comment, but I thought it was edgy and kind of funny. Oh, and it was accurate. The DVD set WAS coming out that week. So an hour goes by and I'd forgotten about the comment, and then all of a sudden - WHAM - they went nuts! My inbox filled with about ten T&G "You have violated the terms of service" form emails. It was like the guy on the other end, in the T&G's web office, just went crazy and kept hitting the "send" button. Now I had fifteen of them. Then about twenty. Then it stopped. But the next day I got another one. And I got another one the day after that. And I found none of my comments were being posted. They were ripped. And they have been ever since. I am banned. Banished. Cast adrift. Just to test them, I started posting again this week under a new email address. No sillyness. Just boring debate points. That lasted one hour before they axed me again. So that's my story and that's my lesson: don't make fun of John Silber or the T&G will revoke your privileges and send you to the woodshed.

So I'm listening to WTAG this morning, and Jim Polito is recounting his experiences being in New York on 9/11. He was just talking off the cuff, but it was pretty engaging stuff.

Jim then mentioned some of the memorials taking place throughout the day.

Jim mentioned that both the Obama and McCain Presidential campaigns had suspended their advertisements for 24 hours, with both camps noting that the day of observance was an inappropriate time to be politicking.

Jim added that he thought this was exactly the right type of thinking for the day.

Then he threw to a commercial break, and the very first spot that played was a campaign ad for this guy:



Mike Moore, Candidate for State Senate.

Now, I understand Moore is involved in a very contentious race against a guy named Doug Belanger, and there have been all sorts of accusations of underhanded politics on both sides, but the race is outside of my district. I have no opinion on either candidate, other than to say:


Nice timing, Mike.

R.I.P. Prof. Robert LeBlanc.

I have ESPN HD for a reason: to see sports in high definition. So why does ESPN2 routinely show games and matches in standard definition? Tonight is a perfect example: USA vs. Trinidad in a 2010 World Cup Qualifier. That's a game that SCREAMS for High Definition. No such luck. Most of the game is a big fuzzy blob on the big screen. That's unacceptable coming from the big sports cable network.

From their website:

Worcester, Massachusetts - Sep 05, 2008 Due to concerns about poor weather forecasted for the Central Massachusetts region this weekend, the Blackstone Canalfest planned for Saturday, September 6th has been postponed.

Organizers are intending to host the event on Saturday, November 1st, combining the traditional Canalfest activities with Halloween "spooky" activities. Additional details about the revamped event will be made available in the next few weeks.

So this past weekend I finally got a chance to try Five Guys, the vaunted burger chain.



The verdict? Recommended, but NOT the best. The burgers are better than average, but not as good as In-and-Out, Fatburger or Wild Willys(though I notice Wild Willy's has dropped just a bit in quality in recent months).

Their fries are excellent, though.



And what clinches the deal is the fact that they have Fanta Birch Beer on tap!