front page news?

i must apologize for being a day behind on my reading, but yesterdays sun has me already wishing i hadn't bothered. front page with a photo is a story about some rich guy who had a 33 foot sailboat and "also had a home in groton", who, i guess, also had the brilliance of mind to die on a slow news day. (yeah--groton--that must have been the clincher for the crack sun editorial staff to realize that THIS was something that couldn't possibly be saved until even the second page).

yes, i realize it's unpardonably rude of me to choose an obituary over which to have my little snit fit, but, seriously, this is exhibit A as to why fewer and fewer (i haven't caught on yet, but i'm catching on fast) folks these days choose to purchase their local daily newspaper. exhibit B is the loco-emotive going postal about (with a photo, no less!) the senior senator from the commonwealth, who does EXACTLY what the law entitles him to do, which is to park his boat wherever he damn well pleases, and who, as we all read in the news the other day, has ALREADY agreed to pay his massachusetts sales and use tax on the boat regardless, but who, apparently, cannot escape another braying broadside from the ass's ass who thieves his salary as sure as you're sitting their reading this from said local daily newspaper, who then can't afford the news staff to come up with anything else other than an ass-shining paean to some other rich guy who, apparently, is ok because he parks his boat on the proper side of the sun's dotted line for such things, and i, as usual, digress.

peter, care to tell me if you've ever bought booze, consumer goods or anything else in new hampshire for which you've neglected to pay massachusetts sales and use tax? i realize that the herald track girls would never bother with anything as insignificant as such, but i, for one reader, would LOVE to read all about it.

the other nit i'll pick is that the sun editors failed to properly attribute the charlie baker puff piece to a monitoring device that was NOT an ankle bracelet, but, hey, why let facts get in the way of a good shine job?

it'd be disgusting if it wasn't so funny what clowns certain "newspaper" people prove themselves to be each and every day.

sometimes (most times, probably) the comments are more valuable than the other stuff

cut and pasted verbatim from a comment on a previous post, with thanks to cliff krieger (right-side-of-lowell.blogspot.com) for the worthwhile point, and i quote (which you can guess, because there are capital letters):

Bringing the convicted back into society is hard and is even harder in this economy, where employers can be particularly picky. There is some good news in trying to help folks rehabilitate themselves in terms of legislation past this past week. Boston Globe Columnist Adrian Walker talked about it today.

There is a way to help. As part of the Lowell Plan to End Homelessness in 10 Years there is a subcommittee looking into this issue. If anyone is interested in serving on the subcommittee they can contact the City or they can contact me (crk at theworld.com).

There is also organizations like New England Prison Ministeries trying to help those in jail and those who have been released and are trying to lead a straight life. If you go to the site you will notice that NEPM is out of Lowell. The reason is the leader lives in Lowell. But, money for this kind of outreach is in limited supply.

There is a lot of work out there to be done. Work to help the victims and work to help those who are trying to turn their lives around. Also work to prevent there from being more victims.

unquote.

thanks, cliff, for the points so well made!

farewell to the $8 beer and the $12 cocktail

caffe paradiso went out with a bang (actually a boom-boom from their amply-amplified sound system) last night, and there was dancing in the street. (literally--dozens of well-lit well-wishers doing the macarena and the thriller and the you-name-it right there in the middle of the intersection of palmer and middle streets). most were dancing to celebrate their affection for the establishment and its proprietors, but having the opportunity to reflect on where, exactly, the $12 cocktail fits in downtown lowell, i guess it's fair to say i'm not as broken up about the change as some.

i took my kids there once for canolis and gelatto, and could not believe the check total when i got it. i took some friends there once for beers, and--surprise--could not believe the check total when i got it. color me skinflint, but, seriously, you really had to want to be there to be there. it was a great space, and a great open-air sidewalk cafe, and a great neighbor, (hosting rotary meetings and neighborhood meetings and political meetings and such), it just wasn't, in the end, the right fit for the landlord, and, hence, for us.

my cynical self expects the landlord already has the next tenant in the wings, observing that it's not the kind of economy to be throwing paying tenants out into the street without a fallback plan, so let's all wait to hear what the next move will be. unseemly rumors of chain establishments are the source for my possible nightmares, but i'm hopeful it's less dramatic, and more obvious than that. somebody will have the chance to do great things there on the corner of palmer and middle, and i'm looking forward to seeing what it might be.

of course, if it's an expansion of the medical practice in the building, i'm going to be less excited, as they continue to refuse to see me or anyone else with aetna insurance for that matter, and that sucks. yes, i understand why--aetna sucks--but it's still a bad situation for me in the middle. (the docs won't even take cash--only people insured with insurers they like can get served at their office). like i said, a bad situation.

but this is a half-full kind of day (have you been outside yet??? it's beautiful) so i'm all on about the good stuff, really. there's a benefit for the national wildlife federation gulf clean-up efforts, "i want my life back", upstairs at the old court at 8pm, and, as d-tension is fond to say, it's time to scrub the pelican. so come on out in downtown lowell tonight! ($10 at the door all going straight to the gulf cleanup and restoration, and there's a GREAT line-up of local bands, from peter lavender, to portions of electric donkey, to d-tension himself, all capped off with the spirited anarchy that is thunderpants johnson's hillbilly orchestra, so it's absolutely a bargain). oh! i forgot--linda mccluskey will be there with her paintings, and emily schroer with hers, that you can check out at the same time. don't miss it!

If a tree falls...

caught the charlie baker road show in front of the pollard taking advantage of the photo op to do the "tough on crime" thing. (don't mistake my snarkiness--that judge needs to be asked some very pointed questions about how the taking off a court-mandated monitoring device and cruising the children's section of the public library without supervision does not violate terms of a parole that specifies wearing of said monitoring device, staying away from children, and being supervised).

the thought that occurred to me which transcended the noteworthiness of charlie's foray into "enemy territory" (i.e. the D-dominated city of lowell) was the irony of his recent absence while tens of thousands of registered voters were roaming the streets of the city during folk fest. seriously, i get why pols prefer to play primarily to their ideological constituencies, but there would seem to be little explanation other than rank opportunism (i.e. the photo op presented by the sex offender in the library episode) that would bring him here to play to exactly four reporters, a republican committee chair and two erstwhile candidates for national office (who were eager or could we say desperate to ride charlie's republican-message coattails) while ignoring the largest public folk festival crowd in north america that was here only a few days ago.

but, don't get me wrong. i liked charlie well enough. he's thoughtful, well-spoken, and on the right side of a good issue here. of course, i didn't think so well of one of the coattailers, who was thumping the law-and-order rulebook just a bit too disingenuously for my preference. (while charlie was rightfully referencing past deliberations on fair treatment to all, including those bearing their just punishments as offenders, this not-so-thoughtful public office wannabe was playing the "but they're PUBLIC RECORDS" rant that thoroughly misses the point of what's public, and what's pushed out there via things like google that make historical referencepoints all but worthless, and the whole registry thing SO important to get right, but, of course, i digress).

i did get to ask sam meas directly about his anti-illegal-immigration position, in light of my opinion that we are cutting off our own economic noses to spite our xenophobic faces to be erecting fences and policing borders, and we agreed to disagree on what our first priority should be. (sam says arming the border, and arresting and deporting people everywhere they can be found, while i say finding ways for those who want to be here for all the right reasons to ALL be here for all the right reasons, just like it says on the statue of liberty and in our "all men are created equal" declaration of independence, and keeping effective tabs on them (i.e. ensuring our own security), and collecting all the fairly-owed taxes, but, once again, i digress).

quote of the day, from one of the folks on the crew who has worked for both D and R political campaigns, to my expressed disappointment that party politicians these days seem to spend the majority of their time and resources opposing the other party and it's people regardless of the positions taken, was "you're not wrong".

nope, i'm not.

edited to add: i got the "public office wannabe" part wrong--she's not running for office, despite all indication of being a palm-pressing pol on the trail--she's laurie meyers, of chelmsford, who gives every impression she would be perfectly happy if we were painting door lintels with six-pointed stars. excuse my insensitivity, and please understand i'm a father who puts the safety of his children behind no effort spared, but there's public safety, the public's right to know, and somewhere, SOMEWHERE, there remains the right of every citizen to have their own interests at least considered before the match is set to the pyre beneath their spot on the lynching tree. or maybe laurie can tell me why my daughter and sons are safer once all the offenders are driven from every aspect of responsible society--from their jobs and their homes and their families--and into the street derelict and looking for "something to do".

restaurant (two) week(s) PLUS jen kearney = joy

for $5 you got 5 small plates last evening at lelacheur park, AND tastes of some of sam adams' latest brews, AND several sets from lowell's own jen kearney and the lost onion, and all for the benefit of the merrimack valley food bank. suh, as they say, weeeeeet! AND, once the restauranteurs got antsy towards the end, and preferring to see their great stuff used up and enjoyed rather than wasted, we all got to sample ALL the plates, and it just doesn't get any better than that.

i'm going on record right now that the beer-basted brisket from the parker house in dracut is, for my money and hands down, the best thing going, and the best thing at the park last night that wasn't musical. (want to argue? i think we should have a taste-off! right now!) you could make me waver a little over the beer donuts from the colonial inn in concord, but i'll remind you that the beer donuts (with beer glaze and cinnamon) are dessert food, and, thus, in an entirely different category, so i guess we could also say i'm nominating two winners. there's mention deserved for dharma buns' burger sliders, and mambo grill's whatever those little mexican empenada-like mouth-joys were, and now it's getting hazy, but i was also at each moment enamored with the plates from ricardo's, cobblestones/moonstones, and feng shui, but that's the beauty of a night like last night. all so very, very good.

what was your favorite?

and, just so i miss no opportunity to put in a plug: for those of you who didn't get enough of supporting the merrimack valley food bank, don't forget to mark your calendar for sunday, august 29th, for lowell's own "will rock for food" benefit concert with jen kearney, melvern taylor, peter lavender and treat her right, in addition to table-fuls of local artists and authors all coming together for a great evening and a great cause, at brian's ivy hall downtown. be there!

as it should be

as evidenced by the keystone kops response to the original kerfuffle, there is so much ammunition provided to its critics by the present administration as to seem to never require making stuff up in order to get ones point across. however, make stuff up he did, (by editing a video so as to completely turn its essence 180 degrees backwards and destroy the career of an innocent citizen in the process), and andy breitbart will soon know the consequence of being an actual horse's ass, instead of merely appearing to act like one. (or, put another way--recording people posing as pimps getting advice on how to fill out fraudulent loan applications by people paid by the government is journalism--while hacking a video to defame an innocent person in order to take fraudulent shots at ideological opponents is libel for sure, and i, for one, hope he hangs from the yardarm for it).

anybody who dislikes obama this virulently can do a whole lot better than this. but, apparently, some are too stupid to get that. nice to see the results are as it should be.

why community matters

or, as they say in the video: "teddy williams".

the wise guys over at mr mill city dot com pay off in spades and budweiser beer once again: http://mrmillcity.com/2010/07/29/ma-men-solid/

courtesy of youtube via funnyordie.com too, but i heard it there first on mrmillcity.

i love my town.

partisanship shoots its own self in the foot, and we're all losing (again)

raise your hand if you've been reading all about john kerry's little pleasure cruiser, and its registration in the (tax-free) ocean state. now, raise your hand if you've been keeping up with the misadventures of charlie rangel and the congressional ethics commission. that's what i thought.

john forbes kerry heinz is a high-profile partisan currently beset by a lynch mob other partisans who would, apparently, prefer us to focus on some sensationalist sizzle rather than any substance-based steak. the irony of this is that true criminal charlie rangel is enjoying a relatively publicity free ride on his ethics plea bargain while we're being distracted, and that sucks.

i'll make you a deal on JFKH: you can throw your first stone if you've never hopped the NH border to buy beer, wine, liquor, or any other retail item, and neglected to file a payment with the state of massachusetts department of revenue for the sales and use tax you owe. my side of that bargain is that you have to OPEN YOUR EYES and read a little bit about charlie rangel's plethora of corrupt schemes, (i won't link just one--i'll link the google search page for "charles rangel ethics investigation" and let you read 'em all, if you have time between your kerry blurbs), and then explain to me why the boat story is even in the news.

disgusted. with both sides.

will rock for food--update!!!

honest--there isn't a coordinated plan to spam the blog with daily "will rock for food" posts, but the sun today has volunteered a story on the great venue, brian's ivy hall, and it's new management team, and it's too good not to link for those who might be curious.

who knew it used to be a church, but it's clear the moment you walk into the space that the "swooping blue ceilings and ornate white molding" give brian's ivy hall an ambiance that sets it apart. owners kevin, brian, eric and sean are being incredibly helpful and generous with their assistance in setting up and holding the "will rock for food" event, (the new entry sustainable farming project and the merrimack valley food bank are already grateful, and the audience soon will realize how much they are, too), and it's a great space in which to set up and see the great musicians lined up to play the event. (have you memorized them yet? peter lavender, melvern taylor and his fabulous meltones, jen kearney and the lost onion and treat her right). sound will be courtesy of fastlane productions, and stay tuned for news on bar specials and other special treats to make it a party to remember.

still time to put in a word if you'd like to participate in the merchandise area, where local artists and artisans are invited to show off a little bit more of what makes lowell so special. there will also be upcoming announcements on how you can do more to support the new entry sustainable farming project and their world PEAS CSA, as well as the merrimack valley food bank, so be sure, if you haven't already, to put sunday, august 29th on your calendar. it's going to be great!

edited to add the date and time: sunday, august 29th at 4pm till 11. see you there!

yet again, JACKPOT!

careful readers might recall my disaffection for a certain local market who likes to charge exorbitant prices for surly and poor customer service, not to mention tired produce and no decent bread at all. well, my personal perversity being what it is, and as you may recall, i've preferred to switch my world PEAS csa share pickup point from more or less directly across my street there at market street malarkey, to five miles away in dracut so i don't have to put up with it, and most folks would otherwise think i'm just a bit daft... but do you want to know the result?

JACKPOT!

yes, it's all rehashing the already tiresome, but one of my particular addictions (as well as bones of pricing contention with MSM) is shaw farm whole milk by the quart. if you haven't had it, you haven't had milk i would always say, and i'm not necessarily wrong about that, except to say that the world PEAS pickup spot for CSA shares in dracut is directly behind richardson's dairy, and, well, different sources for opiates aren't material if you're a junkie, and richardson's dairy is jackpot all its own when it comes to locally produced FRESH and completely hormone and BS free whole milk.

AND!

richardson's retails their quarts for $1.05 each.

seriously, this is like finding high test gasoline for your honda convertible rocket sled for $2 a gallon. like heading into toad in cambridge for treat her right, jen kearney and the lost onion, or melvern taylor and his fabulous meltones, and finding out that there's NO COVER. (well, ok, not exactly like, since when you go to toad to see treat her right, jen kearney and the lost onion, and melvern taylor, there really IS no cover, but that's not my point).

so for being a wise guy, i now have scored a weekly connection for both the absolute best produce to be had anywhere around here, along with the creamy white magical liquid that makes cheerios sublime, and an oreo cookie gourmet eating, and for just about a third of the price you are asked to pay in downtown lowell.

how awesome is THAT!!!

let me know if you want me to smuggle yours across the river too. you'll be glad you got in on the deal. promise!

will rock for food

you heard it here first (perhaps) yesterday, and things continue to roll forward on the august 29th event--will rock for food!

look down at the prior post to get all the links. coming soon will be a new link to a brand new website dedicated to the event. (remember when i told you that jay moore rocks for his "after dark" site outlining the local music over the folk festival weekend? well, i'm putting my money where my mouth is and you'll be seeing the results very soon).

we're also in touch with loom press and some other artsy crafty types to join the merch area at the event, so if you'd like to be part of things, by all means drop me a line at soccerman1960@yahoo.com. the object is to raise money for the new entry sustainable farming project so that they can make direct donations of fresh produce to the merrimack valley food bank, (or to donate directly to the merrimack valley food bank if you're impatient about it), so any artists hitting the jackpot selling their goodies are encouraged to share, but, above all, this is a COMMUNITY event, and everybody is welcome. (artists are most often their own charities, and we all understand that--the point is to get involved!).

maybe you'll meet some authors and musicians and lowellians there you really like. maybe you'll come just to rock out to the great music. maybe you'll come out because it's my birthday, and, well, it's a party!

but, most of all, i hope you all can come out. it's going to be a great time in beautiful downtown shangri-lowell.

sunday 8/29 at brian's ivy hall--be there!

picture of the future

picture of the future, and you're definitely in it! (apologies to dave champagne for messing with one of his best lyrics ever).

treat her right is coming to lowell, and sunday, august 29th is the date. put it on your calendars now. jen kearney and the lost onion, will be there, too. and melvern taylor and his fabulous meltones. and peter lavender (with arte k and carl j and bob n). it's all starting some time after 4pm, and it'll be going until whenever it's all been done. you can even bring the kids, and you know that's great because there aren't so many all-ages shows around these days, or you canleave them at home and make it all about you for a change. cuz you know, when jim fitting and dave champagne and steve mayone and billy beard get to rocking, the roof always blows off, and the house always comes down. (the streak is intact--i saw them again last night at toad, and they're rebuilding even as we speak).

if you caught jen kearney and melvern taylor at the recent uptown music and art festival on jackson street over folk fest weekend, you know what they're bringing to the party too. and if you haven't heard peter lavender's new stuff, (for an upcoming CD entitled "unreliable", which is going to be HOT), you are in for a quadruple treat.

treat her right
jen kearney and the lost onion
melvern taylor and his fabulous meltones
peter lavender

sunday, august 29th at brian's ivy hall in beautiful downtown shangri-lowell.

doesn't get any better than this, except to add that the new entry sustainable farming project (of the world PEAS CSA which everbody in the lowell area should know more about) is coming together with the merrimack valley food bank to raise awareness and funds for cooperative agriculture and the great way you can support the entire community.

the room holds 450, so make your plans now to get there early and a good spot.

i'll be the guy making all that noise down in front.

more soon!

wow

i had the best seat in the house (standing-room, of course) for peter lavender's set at the worthen last night. woo-HOO! awesome. having carl johnson and arte kenyon backing up peter is like having both tim lincecum and jonny lester on your fantasy baseball lineup--flat out awesome. bob nash on his "melvern kit" makes it like topping it all off with 85-k's-in-45-innings carlos marmol--and though there are plenty pretty good, there's no better lineup in the city. any questions about whether or not i was gandhi in a past life, landing in such an awesome one as i live these days, are completely answered by the generosity of these real musicians to let me stand there and try desperately not to screw the chemistry up. (it's like i always say--if you suck and you play the guitar, everybody says "you suck", but if you suck and you play the ukulele, they say "hey! you play the ukulele!). yes i do, and there was not a happier guy anywhere in the city of lowell last night, and i have witnesses to prove it. it was great.

want to know the best part?

jen kearney was still playing at cobblestones when we were able to get over there after the worthen. she had the side room all to herself, (well, all to herself and an every-seat-taken collection of friends, admirers and just plain FANS), and she was clearly enjoying the warmth of the room to play some things she rarely gets to play. (more aretha, and the beatles "for no one", and, and, and). i arrived with friends who had just fallen in love with peter at the worthen, who needed food to go with all the $3.25 harpoon IPA they were featuring at edgar allan poe's favorite watering hole, and who had to make do with the bar at cobblestones because there were no tables left anywhere in the entire place, let alone in the room with jen. (check out scott plath's menu--mighty good eating). well, my socially-apt better half, who seemingly daily is left to observe that i was raised by wolves, was a bit chagrined that i would insist on taking the very last spot in jen's room and relying on the starving ones to join up with us in a few minutes, but it all was made right when the one of our party who had never seen jen before finally had her moment of enlightenment. "i hear you go on and on about jen on facebook [yes i do] but i had NO IDEA". yes, jen is that good. (jen, you'll be seeing sarah on monday at toad). she was blown away. personally, i think it's that most human beings cannot handle the overload of seeing peter, carl, arte, bob and jen for the very first time all on the same night, but, the possibility still remains that jen alone is capable of tripping all the brain circuit breakers all by herself. it was an amazing musical moment that went on for hours--best music in the city.

which makes it all the more ironic that, for all the energy the folk festival folk put into importing things to which for us to listen, you just can't top what we already have here. (though i'm not complaining for the weekend of new sounds and all the new people who can come down here to experience what the city of lowell is all about).

tonight--jackson street. melvern taylor (where you can once again see bob and his melvern kit) and jen kearney (who also sports carl in her all-hall-of-fame lineup) will be there. you should be there too.

edited to add, because it reminds me, being raised by wolves, you may misunderstand: when i was turning my back to the audience repeatedly during peter's show at the worthen, it was because ARTE K was standing behind me, and BOB NASH was just to the side of him, and it was the only way i could get to watch them play, which is really why i was there, all truth be told. (carl i could just look sideways, and peter was right out there in front, so they i could still pretend i wasn't doing the fanboy thing about, even though, of course, i was).

and, if i didn't say it often enough last night, i'll say it again here: THANKS

too funny

nods to dick howe for the breadcrumbs on this one: a tea party rally, organized by a republican committee chair and featuring a speaker focused on opposing gay rights, has been canceled. fair enough, and, of course, dick is fascinated most by the party politics, but the fun doesn't stop there for me.

i wonder, do other tea partiers see the comedic irony in their protestations that tea parties are not republican fronts focused on a social agenda, and that their excuses never seem to line up with the obvious reality?

but, yes i know, YOUR tea party is different.

which is why i wonder why we never hear that side of it nearly enough.

if you're for small government and individual liberty, you cannot possibly be for the republican party and a revocation of gay rights, among many other things. (not to mention pursuit of proof of citizenship by the local constabulary and, as i said, many other liberty-offensive things).

the first tea party that opposes party politics (i.e. repudiates-with-a-D's their republican party credentials, and their democrat, for that matter--this is an equal opportunity opportunity) and stands up for immigrant, gay, black and every other kind of personal and individual rights, has my attention.

i didn't think so...

carry on.

something many people in massachusetts don't know, but should

in the state of massachusetts, any body of water larger than 10 acres is legally designated as a "great pond", and is, by law, guaranteed for public use, including an obligation to municipal governments to ensure and maintain public access for all. (wikipedia summary here, and my brother the lawyer can confirm it's all as they say).

so it is that i find that the lowell sun article about long pond in tyngsboro/dracut is completely missing the mark in its coverage of a badly-behaved abutter who feels herself entitled to fence off a deeded easement against her neighbors, not to mention potentially violate the massachusetts "great pond" law in the process. yes, it's all fascinating soap opera politics as to who's entitled to do what to whom with which fence, but getting the fence viewer, instead of the town counsel, involved is one giant waste of time.

public access is required by law. if not via the neighborhood easement on the property of the fleur-de-lis club, then somewhere else. and the newspaper, were it doing its job, should be asking the towns of tyngsboro and dracut why it is that citizens have to be squabbling over a private boat ramp area when there has to be a public one by law. by law. did i mention it's by law?

"after dark"

missed dave norton's, :-(, but caught the warren zevon (lawyers guns and money!) end to corey's b's first set at fortunato's last night, (along with his second) and thoroughly enjoyed my own personal "folk festival eve" celebration. i came by a flyer (thanks, jen!) that every lowell music aficionado should come by, which lists the "not a festival act" musical participants in this year's extravaganza at all the great restaurants and clubs downtown. it's an amazing list, from khmer/celtic fusion (celtic angkor at brew'd awakenings) to purely whimsical (de lusional & the ladies boots at cappy's copper kettle after the jackson street celebration breaks on saturday night) to purely awesome (carl johnson is playing at no fewer than five different venues throughout the weekend with copies of his new cd, "attic recordings--volume one"), and it's the ONLY way you're going to be able to see LOWELL music at the folk festival that otherwise bills itself as from lowell.

conspicuously absent from the list of complementary evening venues is dharma buns, who i understand have had their entertainment license summarily suspended by the city, ironically because of a complaint by a neighboring business. (one without any sense of irony, since they continue to feature their own live music during the weekend themselves). good on dharma buns for being the kind of good neighbor not to compound a bad example with a response in kind, and one that continues to come through with the best burgers, fries, onion rings and beverage selection in town. (stop in and tell 'em HI for me, and try 'em out if you haven't already--their food is GREAT!).

where was i? (having a mushroom swiss burger reverie, that's where).

the "local music that is happening throughout the city of lowell during the same weekend as the lowell folk festival" flyers are around, so look for yours. there's also a folk festival after dark website with the same information, (jay knows jen--it's a small town!), which is a great online way to get the same 411. the flyers are by venue, and the web page is by hour, so you can get both dimensions to your friday, saturday and sunday nights this weekend. (i like it by hour, but jen was kind enough to asterisk musical recommendations on the flyer which is the best way of all--melvern, jen kearney, los wunder twins del rap, (contrary to brett favre's example, i have it on good account that this will be dee tension and effect's official and permanent last show together--let's send 'em out with a bang, so get thee to the jackson street stage and the 2nd annual uptown lowell music and art festival on saturday night, yo!), electric donkey, carl johnson (every time he's playing so you will be sure not to miss him, and, hence, have your choice of musical highlights for the weekend), thunderpants johnson's hillbilly orchestra, de lusional and the ladies boots, amy black and the red clay rascals, jen kearney solo, live evil, ken budka, speakermute, the cold pilgrims, hot day at the zoo, reverend jj and the casual sinners, peter lavender (with carl johnson, arte k, bob nash and some guy with a ukulele who is NOT melvern taylor by any stretch of anyone's imagination), audrey can't die, ben hillman, kevin burgess, ed and me, (me being nicole ribaudo, who, if you haven't yet heard her sing, GET THEE TO THE WORTHEN ON SUNDAY!!!), and, finally and again, carl johnson.

it's worth pointing out that the rest of the talent (which is no less talented, it's just that it's impossible for a person to be more than one place at once) includes leo blais, the doctors fox, bella birds, vermont, celtic angkor, (i've seen this trio before--absolutely a must-see), oakes and smith, tropical fire, double shot, whiskey tango, kweejeebo, charlie christos, the farewells, the deliriants, liz longley, air traffic controller, bleu, the rafters, elizabeth lorrey, and trick bag.

i'm right here and right now putting this lineup against anything the festival organizers have got, and telling you that you haven't been to the "lowell folk festival" if you haven't stayed late and treated yourself to the only real LOWELL music you'll find this weekend, which is happening at all the local restaurants, bars, clubs, sandwich shops and coffee shops downtown: major's pub, brew'd awakenings, cappy's copper kettle, caffe paradiso, centro, cobblestones, garcia brogan's, the old court, savanna palace, the blue shamrock, the village smokehouse, the worthen, etc, etc, etc.

see you downtown!!!

not the mama

that short-lived "dinosaurs" tv show had one of the most brilliant social satirical catch-phrases EVAH, and it was the baby dinosaur continually and insistently referring to his father as "not the mama".

well, here in lowell, not to be outdone, we have a collection of well-intended people committing just as ridiculous and continuous and insistent horse's assery, which is to bully via threats of legal action anyone from ever using the term [omitted here so as to avoid any potential visits from the thought police]. you can talk about the folk festival, and you can talk about lowell, but, heaven forfend, you absolutely, POSITIVELY, cannot be caught using the terms together and in vain to describe anything at all that isn't, regardless of the fact that this city is OURS, not theirs, and "folk festival" is such a common term as to be well beyond "kleenex" or "xerox" or any other commercialism in need of protection, or else you get emails from the organizers (no joke, i know MANY people who have received them) insisting that you cease and desist.

horse's assery, i tell you, and you can tell them i told you so. heck, i've told them so, but, you know, of course, i was read the riot act on why it's soooooo important that we never take the name of the sacred event in vain.

PUH-leeeeeze.

i work in marketing. the right approach to this is a "creative commons" type technique, or a copyleft, which specifies the ways in which you can amplify their message by using proper and approved language, graphics and other elements, including clear disclaimers of not being officially associated. but, as john belushi would say, NOOoooo, none of that is possible. you simply can't talk about it, write about it, advertise about it, or do anything else about it, beyond genuflecting to their horse's assery and putting up with music from everywhere else on the planet but here while they gratuitously steal the name of the city of lowell in THEIR stuff, without a single disclaimer or other explanation as to why they think they can, and why the city itself has nothing to do with their event, other than to have to clean up during and after it.

i, for one, am frustrated no end by how stupid all this is. on the one hand, it's my city, and i support it, and i support the events that take place in it. on the other hand, the festival folks can kiss my ass about how ridiculous, selfish and stupid they are about all of this.

i'm actually to the point where i'd LOVE for the organizers to try to do this thing anywhere else. they'd be up shit's creek trying to duplicate the support they get from the city and the local volunteers to pull off something on this scale. they'd have to start smaller again. likely scale back on the number of performers and stages and everything else while they worked to regain their audience. and that'd be just fine with me.

until then, i'm sorely tempted to take a can of spray paint, and spritz over every word "lowell" i see in their signage, so they can't take advantage of someone else's reputation while they selfishly think about nothing but their own.

AND!

i'm happily going to spend all my time and money on the local performers wherever possible, whenever possible, and talk up the evening music with everyone i see so that they understand that this ISN'T a lowell folk festival. (there, i said it). it's a folk festival that takes place in lowell. to hear the REAL lowell music, you have to head out "after dark"--like me.

le tour

lance armstrong, back when he was winning 7 straight tours de france, used to prefer never to take the maillot jaune until almost the end, essentially toying with his vulnerable opponents, whose teammates would have to wear themselves out defending the jersey, until it was a cakewalk for lance to take it for himself and ride to victory in paris. he's absolutely made a career of it.

so i've been thinking a lot about this, as defending champion and ex-lance-teammate alberto contador rides (up until yesterday) quietly in second place in this year's tour, while up-and-comer, and somewhat less-experienced, andy schleck enjoys his possibly-too-early moment in the yellow sun. well, yesterday, andy's chain blew off during one of the steepest climbs of the day, and the resulting repair delay found alberto 8 seconds ahead of him and in new possession of the (possibly premature) yellow prize. i wonder what the two of them are both thinking now...

ironically, lance armstrong himself was in the vanguard group of today's stage leaders who put almost 7 minutes on the peloton, but there, riding wheel to wheel, (with andy in front, as would seem to be the preferred order of things before the final dagger is thrust near the end of the tour), safely ensconced in the middle of the pack which followed, was mssrs schleck and contador.

the margin for alberto is 8 seconds, which is, essentially, nothing in the mountains. sanchez and menchov are gamely hanging about 2 minutes after that, with van den broeck next, and then american levi leipheimer right behind andy's countryman, robert gesink, but it's really not that close. nope--it's alberto and andy, mano a mano, and it's hard to know what the strategy is supposed to be, other than the first one to blink, and break on the hill, is the second one into paris.

for those who enjoy the local rooting angle, levi's american radioshack team is a good half hour ahead of andy's rabobank bunch, so there's an american stamp on this race any way you look at it.

we miss you, tyler!

loco-emotive fact check for today

the horse's ass i prefer to refer to as the "loco-emotive", aka peter lucas over at the lowell sun, whose twice-weekly columns about (seemingly) anything but anything relevant to the city of lowell, costs his publishers untold amounts of cash that could otherwise be used to keep the newspaper solvent, or, even--here's an idea--pay some people to actually include some more lowell-related content, but, as usual, there i go digressing again...

anyway, the subject of today's two-pages worth of irrelevance is a combination bash on barack obama (his favorite for wrapping his fish-wrappings about) and roman polanski. his point, near as i can make out, is that roman's recent non-extradition by a swiss court is a direct result of switzerland as a nation's profound disrespect for barack obama personally, which is, (try to keep up now), a direct result of kim jong il's sinking of a south korean warship, or something like that...

actually, if i read the swiss court ruling and its supporting explanation (thoughtfully provided by the swiss when they realized some excitable americans might need help to understand) as i guess the loco-emotive naturally would never think to do, the reason roman wasn't bundled in chains and put on the next swissair flight to los angeles was that when the swiss, as is a requirement of their law, inquired as to whether roman polanski's prior-served jail time for the crime in question (roman spent time in jail for this, did you know?) was a complete, or was not a complete, satisfaction of all US-based judgments against him.

want to know what really happened? the us court never answered their letter. the swiss basically said, "hey, if you can confirm for us he still has time to serve, we'll send him back to you with a bow on top", and the court in la where he had been convicted said (not obama, and not anybody else) nothing.

so now i have to endure another square foot of absolute nonsense in my local paper, just like i have to do every tuesday and friday, like clockwork.

i don't know if it's kendall wallace or jim campanini or both or neither to whom i need to address the following suggestion, but

can we please get back to some reason here?

ok, this is funny

when you use google to search on the term "refudiate", you get back over 90,000 references. (48,000+ of which share the word "palin", which you can deduce by adding the google search string "-palin" in your query, and subtracting the difference). i would have thought you could simply add the term palin to get the total, but when you do that, the number of google hits actually jumps to 137,000. when you enforce both terms are in the results, by "+refudiate +palin", the number jumps yet again to 175,000. (???). who the hell understands how google does what it does, but, anyway, near the top of the query results for "refudiate", (second after the news bit at the top), is an actual page on merriam-webster.com for the term, (google bots can't find it unless it already exists), that informs the visitor that "the word you entered isn't in the dictionary".

some quick thoughts spring to mind: first, merriam webster must have some sort of idiocy threshold after which they've determined it's more efficient to maintain a web page to receive all the bogus incoming inquiries, than it is to recreate one on the fly each time. second, sarah palin must not have been among those previous visitors, and neither did she bother to look up the meaning of the word "refute" (which IS actually in the dictionary) when she offered it up as a synonym for the nonsense which she had originally intended to convey.

ok, maybe not funny to you, but i'm finding no end to the hilarity this morning.

word of the day

the word of the day today is "refudiate". as of 8am tuesday morning,

fox news has no idea what we're talking about. http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/search?q=refudiate&submit=Search

msnbc, of course, is all over it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/?id=11881780&q=refudiate&search=&p=1&st=1&sm=user

so is the new york times. http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=refudiate&srchst=cse

cbs, too. http://www.cbsnews.com/1770-5_162-0.html?query=refudiate&tag=srch&searchtype=cbsSearch

heck, even the wall street journal will link you to it. http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=refudiate&mod=DNH_S

there's video of her talking to sean hannity using the word in a previous interview, so it's not like she hasn't carried the hallucination that this is a word for some time now. and i fully expect that even fox news is sooner or later going to have to acknowledge that the misstatement exists in the public record, and people are talking about it. the silliest part of all of this? after removing the tweet in which she used it yet again the other day, (what, was she embarrassed? can't stand by her own rhetoric?), she's since put out more tweets claiming, among other things, that, like shakespeare celebrating the living language that is english, making up words is a time-honored tradition among the literate. (she hasn't used the word "haters", yet, but i expect, soon enough, it'll be coming). the bard who springs easiest to mind for me this morning is geo dubya "nucular" bush, but, hey, maybe that's just me. (it's also downright hysterical that in her restatement of her original statement, she inexplicably chose "refute" as the real word she was grasping for, instead of "repudiate", as would be the obvious contextual choice, and it makes the revised statement just as funny as the original).

you know that rant from yesterday, when i point out how silly we all are with our pet prejudices in favor of people who are ideologically like us? well, i just figured it out this morning--my primary ideology seems to be literacy.

mark renshaw should learn to keep his thoughts and his head and his bicycle to himself

mark renshaw rode out to lead teammate mark cavendish to his third stage win last thursday, and found himself summarily ejected from the tour for his bad behavior while doing it. most notable for the cameras was his repeated head-butting of rival team leadout man, julian dean, but most damning from racing experts and the tour committee was his crossing of rival sprinter tyler farrar's line, and effectively closing him off against the barricades while teammate cavendish sprinted to the stage win.

i wrote about this a few days ago, and, first of all, let me say that i'm elated that the race organizers have been so quick to recognize the profound lack of sportsmanship, not to mention the profound surfeit of recklessness and danger, inherent in what renshaw chose to do. i've added an addendum to my earlier post to this effect, but it's renshaw's words that have me more offended today than even last week, and i'm not going to let them slide without shining a light on their dismal and decidedly unprofessional tone.

mark renshaw, after riding a man already riding with a broken wrist towards the barricades rather than honor him with the sporting chance to ride his best, could only say that the man for whom he cheated was "ten times the sprinter", and that the man cheated from testing that hubris was "simply riding around".

really, mark? then why did you cheat? why did you risk safety and sportsmanship and everything you claim is honorable about yourself ("i pride myself on being a very fair, safe and a straight-up sprinter") to do what race officials and everybody else watching the race could tell in an instant was a flagrant violation of race rules. (that's the exact word course director jean-francois pescheux chose--"flagrant", and he went further to add colorful observations like "this is cycling, it's not wrestling" before closing with the observation that "there are rules to respect".

well, renshaw declined to respect those rules, and there's a consequence for that. but it's his peevish and complete lack of civility to his opponent (and american, tyler farrar) that has me feeling like if i never see mark renshaw race again, i'll be satisfied.

no, mark probably isn't nearly as bad as all this makes him sound. but, seriously, if he'd just learn to keep his thoughts to himself, (as well as his head and his bicycle riding line), i think he'd be all the much better off for it.

until then, mark renshaw, let me just point out that tyler farrar has proven himself to be ten times the rider you are, and then some. (and we'll see how well cavendish does from here on in without cheaters riding in his vanguard).

i'm gonna steal this one, cuz it's too good not to share

this one isn't my discovery, but it's so... so... so see for yourself, that i simply am compelled to steal it from a friend of mine (via the other friend who forwarded it first) and share it with all of you. for those too lazy to link, here's the lead comment from an advertisement for a wine glass that's big enough to hold an entire bottle of wine:

and i quote: "i am [sic] the third trimester of my pregnancy and i have put myself on bed rest. any little convenience that helps with repetitive movement is a blessing, as staying in a relaxed state is critical to the well being of both mommy and baby. so having a large glass that negates the need for repetitive pouring of a wine bottle is one of those tiny little aids that helps add up to a state of relaxation. the only thing that could have improved this would have been the inclusion of a very long straw." and i un-quote. (you can exhale now).

if this isn't blackly comic enough for you, (and i still don't know whether or not i prefer to believe this was posted as a joke for people like me to enjoy), consider that the person who just forwarded this to me, just this morning as a matter of coincidence, just finished telling me about a coworker who gave a friend $500 this past christmas for an abortion because "that's what christmas is". (you know me--i would not make this stuff up, and, unlike the wine glass comment above, this one is actually quite true).

yep, abortions are what christmas is, and the one thing that complicated third-trimester pregnancies need more than anything else is wine by the bottle.

don't you feel better about yourself already? you're welcome.

ideology

human beings are always making value judgments about people and ideas (and all sorts of other things) based on perceived ideological similarities to others, and this, to me at least, creates some of the world's most ridiculous (il)logical consequences. musicians like the dixie chicks can attest to this from all different directions, where they can be, at the one minute, embraced as country music good old girls, and, then, at the next, decided pariah for having the temerity to break consistency with the prevailing politics of their audience, while never once actually changing the sound or lyrics of any of their music at all.

so it is that i have always found it both humorous and disquieting that we as an american electorate seem to prefer to choose our elected representatives not on the basis of their competence, (or even their musicianship, as bill clinton's sax solo can attest), but, rather on the basis of their perceived similarity to our own private personal ideologies. sarah palin, for one relatively recent lightning rod, left the city of wasilla, alaska, deeply in debt, while soon after playing to cheering audiences enamored of her folksy charm and socially-conservative pronouncements without ever once (apparently) questioning to themselves if she would actually be capable of being part of a team responsible for managing the federal budget. likewise, sharron 41-to-angle, proven rogue in all the best sarah palin colloquial sense of that term, is asking that the people of nevada send her as their representative to a deliberative body where compromise and consensus are the necessary interpersonal tools for going along to get along. am i the only one who sees the extreme irony and potential folly in this???

in the rush to dump all the insiders who are destroying this country (and, make no mistake about it, they ARE destroying this country) i am extremely sensitive to the need to elect leaders who will be able to act together to get something done about it. i'm hopeful that "anyone but reid, pelosi, et al." does not mean we're going to be so stupid as to just vote in any gadfly who was prescient enough to sign up for a nomination slot. scott brown, to his credit, ran a thoughtful campaign and seems sensible enough to deserve the trust placed in him as teddy k's replacement. at the very least he's not passing off his decisions as commanded by god or anybody else, least of all his senior partisan party leadership, and that, as i see it, is a GOOD thing.

in my perverse way of looking at the world, i'm far more comfortable with an elected representative who is COMPETENT than i ever would be with someone who merely agrees with me and/or the way i think about something. ron paul, for one personal example, comes down on a different side of the "woman's right to choose" divide than i do, which is actually ok with me, because, most of all, i view that whole contretemps as the supreme court did--as a privacy issue--and i have fair confidence that ron's commitment to the constitution will keep everything as it should be. but that's beside the point--as president, ron paul would, in my opinion, and those of many other people, do a far better job of managing the federal budget than anybody else visible in national politics, and it is his COMPETENCE in this area that deserves fair hearing, and not the coincidence of whether or not he appears with your own personal ideology. but here we always go again, arguing "liberal" and "conservative" until we're blue in the face, and electing ideologues who are incompetent as legislators.

when will this madness end?

i sure hope it's before this country goes bankrupt, or newt gingrich becomes a viable presidential contender, whichever comes first. (for those still enamored with his "contract with america", but simultaneously concerned about what's been happening on wall street and in the gulf of mexico and elsewhere, please go back and read the fine print on that list and consider that gift horses from ideological trojans are the first thing not to be let inside the walls of government, no matter how pretty they look, or you could also consider that the man newt aligned himself most vociferously against was the only one to balance the federal budget in the last 50 years, so there's that too...)

this is how bad it is

harry reid is a horse's ass of a particular ilk of horse's assery that has been polluting our senate and looting our treasury at a pace never before matched in our nation's history. harry's idea of "public service" is to propose a bridge between arizona and nevada that would, coincidentally, increase the value of some 160 acres of his, while calling the whole thing "incredibly good news for nevada". (or maybe he believes he IS nevada...) harry also likes to (illegally, i might point out) re-purpose his campaign cash into christmas gifts for his staff, which is easy to do if you're used to becoming flush with it ($50,000 that i know of) from indian tribes who had just, coincidentally, hired jack abramoff. (he's also the guy, if you remember, who likes obama's "light skin" and absence of "negro dialect", if that refreshes anyone's memory as to his personal politics).

but who do we find aligned against him from the other side of the aisle? someone who, in addition to labeling harry as "a whack job", (it's true, she called the sitting senior senator from nevada one just last month), has been trying her level best to convince the rest of us that her opponent has absolutely nothing on her...

david corn, in last month's mother jones, noted the nevada-ism "41 to angle", coined over the years out of respect for there being 42 nevada state assemblypeople, and one and only one sharron angle. for years she voted against everything EXCEPT the state budget. this is a woman who, despite the crisis in the gulf of mexico, wants to make a point of abolishing the EPA. this is a woman who, despite the proven malfeasance of wall street, wants to privatize social security. about the only thing i can find that she ever consistently wants to spend public money on (besides everything in the nevada state budget) is christian charter schools. (it's no wonder harry's handlers are rumored to have spent some of their own effort helping her win the republican nomination, and his recovery in the polls from 10 or 15 points down to back even is testimony to that choice).

yep, reid's a "whack job", but sharron is the one who, via the voices in her head, (one of whom she interprets as "god calling"), is single-handedly putting horse's ass harry back into office. i'd be more discouraged about it, too, except sanity matters to me, and i happen to prefer representatives who, unlike suicide bombers and serial killers, don't choose their behavior or their voting patterns based on the voice(s) in their heads.

the sad truth is, as long as we have publicly paid-for party primary elections that produce a preponderance of D and R candidates for public office, we're only going to get to choose between the left and right horse's buttock, and, sadly, as they're proving in nevada, that's generally no choice at all.

afghan problems are everywhere

i understand next to nothing about afghani tribal customs (ask anyone) but i've been led to believe that one of the fundamental problems we as occupiers will always have with sorting out the mess there is what we loosely call "corruption". it's why senators wax eloquent against inordinate aid measures, (why pour aid into a country if it's all going to get sluiced off and handed out to cronies before it ever gets where we intended?), and it may very well be why occupying armies are rarely (well, never, actually, if history is any guide) embraced as liberators or partners or anything else than outsiders, whenever they refuse to understand how afghani's view the world, and their rightful place in it.

take our views on "corruption", shall we? we clearly understand what we mean by it, and why it is that we're outraged when cash intended for wider distribution and the benefit of all is, instead, handed off and hoarded within a local chief's family and clan. but, trying to stand for a moment in the shoes of someone who sees the world a little differently, how do you even for a moment maintain good order and the rule of law, if your entire tribal tradition is based on the confidence that leaders of families, clans, and countries, will take care of their own first, before they even begin to think about others? actually, it's ironic that we can't understand this, what with our local brouhaha's about immigrants and foreign aid to ingrates and orphans, but let's not digress too far. suffice to say, leaders are expected to bring home the bacon, (right teddy and bobby byrd et al.?), and ensure it doesn't get wasted on the undeserving, (right, people of AZ?), and, if those leaders won't or can't, then other leaders will be quickly found to replace them. (right incumbent-un-seaters everywhere?)

so, say you're the local afghani chief, (though you'd never consider yourself an afghani chief at all, since you'd be either a pashtun chief, or a tajik, or uzbek first last and always), and your whole cultural, societal, and government infrastructure is built on the tribal tradition of doing for your own before and instead of everybody else. what happens when you as chief flout that tradition and go against everything you've ever learned in your life, and let someone not of your family or tribe get theirs before all of yours have gotten theirs? is it really any different than we have here, save the absence of laws prohibiting murder and worse as means to work this out in case of disagreement?

you can bet you take that pile of cash from the gringos from out of town, and you take care of your own with it. you'd be deposed and replaced in an instant if you didn't. and we're idiots if we can't respect the reality of that, with the blood of our best and brightest on our own hands as they're murdered by the side of the road each and every day we remain in confusion about it.

which, on a lighter or at least less lethal note, brings me back to the war currently being fought in our own country against our own unique brand of pork barrel politics which are exploding our deficit, our trade imbalance and our national debt like never before in history. if we want to attack corruption, i say we start right here at home so that we can (finally) be a better example to elsewhere in the world as to how it's supposed to work. until then, and while we continue to bankrupt our own nation handing out favors and pork right and left, we've got nothing to complain about.

have your cake and dance to it too!

cake is now highly experienced with rain-enhanced outdoor concerts, having already charged through a deluge on monday in columbus, ohio that was so torrential as to short out their electronics, in advance of arriving at boardinghouse park yesterday to the inevitability of a lightning-packed line squall square across their planned performance time. but what do cake do when faced with such weather? they do exactly what all rabid cake fans do when faced with such weather, which is, they stand up, and they go on, and they thoroughly enjoy the show.

frontman john mccrea wasn't, however, above noting the proximity of the lightning strikes (by counting out the seconds between the flash and the thunderclap) but the audience remained so pumped up about the music that they actually roared in approval every time the lightning flashes underscored the electricity and excitement of the show. (it was a GREAT show). i do wonder, as did john, as to why folks seemed to be oblivious about leaning on the steel columns of the lighting towers, but, at least we weren't picking bodies up off the grass who would have been instantly felled by the percussive impact of the charge upon the base of those columns, if not the electricity itself. (note to crowd and to event organizers to keep in mind that folks should stand at least a few feet away from the lightning-rod apparati even if they're not going to want to stop enjoying the music).

in fact, looking back, it was the lightning and the rain and the unquenchable enthusiasm of the fans (not to mention the unstoppable enthusiasm of the band) that makes a show like the one last night. i'm extremely glad to be able to say i was there. (the blanket is still drip-drying in the shower this morning). even the band took home a unique momento of the show, which is a photograph of the signs warning concertgoers that this will be a standing show up front, with dancing, and even some reluctant crouching. (don't know the words to "he's going the distance"?)

yessirree, we sure do here in lowell: "HE'S GOING THE DISTANCE! HE'S GOING FOR SPEED!"

ok, i'll go first...

the tea party = racism rant that the naacp felt compelled to make is attracting all the usual party polemicism--supporters of tea parties swear no, and opponents all nod their head in silent agreement because they've seen the evidence--and even the lowell sun now feels compelled to enter the frantic race for media eyeballs.

want to know what i think? (i know you don't, but you know me, so you know here it comes):

sincere tea partiers don't see race anywhere on their political agenda, so they're naturally offended to stand accused in what is obviously a bald ploy to undercut their political power by underhanded and dishonest means--"playing the race card" as it were, a time-honored american political dirty trick that never seems to fail to leave everybody dirty. the whole thing sucks, and they're rightfully offended.

however, sincere racially-sensitive partisans see race everywhere on the tea party political agenda, because a virulent subset (though tea partiers will argue it's a very small fraction of the whole) of tea party bandwagoneers would like nothing better than to get those pesky (and perhaps potentially liberal-voting, maybe this isn't anything more vicious than partisanship-as-usual) folks "of color" back to mexico, africa, and from everywhere else hence they've sprung.

from the sidelines, i know both are right.

my argument has been, almost from the very beginning of the tea party movement, that the tea partiers have failed to acknowledge the burden they assumed once they decided to take the free national political ride of a nationally politically recognizable brand with a single brand name. they continually try to hide behind the "but we're just a local grassroots organization, and can't be held responsible for the behavior of other local grassroots organizations" excuse, and it's as lame today as it was the very first time it was made. NEWS FLASH: if you prefer to call yourself a "tea party", you are coat-tailing on every other "tea party" around, and you are going to have to pay the price when any of them misbehave, EXACTLY the same way you've preferred to bask in the reflected glow of a "national movement" with your dreams of promoting your small government and whatever else goes along with that message to the proverbial four corners.

want to know one of the places i think even non-racially interested tea parties jumped their shark? when they allowed issues like immigration reform to pollute their original goals (goals which even unenrolled people like me avidly support) of small government and individual liberty. guess what--even the disinterested bystander can see the hypocrisy of wanting "individual liberty" out of one side of ones mouth, while asking for inroads against others' out the other. (no reasonable person can believe that the AZ citizenship law won't lead to mexican americans bearing the brunt of something that will never touch "white america").

the other very devilish issue is the claim by tea partiers that certain signs and over-the-top boorishness were planted there by others seeking to discredit the movement, but i really can't see the validity of the excuse for one simple reason:

plants like that are a purely positive political opportunity. they get your name in the paper, and they get you interviewed so you can bring your message to the masses, along with your explanation of how reprehensible you think such ugliness really is. but if the racially-tinged nonsense was so objectionable to all proper tea partiers, why were there no strident calls by tea party leaders, and rank and file, for it to be driven and distanced from the movement by all other good tea partiers in a very public and forceful way, so that everyone knew how objectionable such bad behavior was to everybody in the movement, and how race-blind the goals of small government and individual liberty really were?

i'll tell you why--because the naacp, wrong as it is to be getting into this mud-slinging match, (because, as you well know, everybody is going to leave this fight filthy dirty), isn't wrong entirely. and that's the real story.

good day for america, as craig ferguson likes to say, but a bad day for american bike racing

america's best hope for a sprint stage win this year (or any of the last 20 for that matter) is tragically and frustratingly done for the tour. riding with a broken wrist for the past 10 days, tyler farrar has finally found himself unable to continue, and he's dropped out of the tour.

sadly, the lasting memory will be of tyler being ridden off his line by mark renshaw in yesterday's sprint finish, and we can all do our best to imagine what might have been.

levi, you are absolutely the man now--USA! USA!

a few thoughts on culture

as some of you may know, i am currently in a state of pique with a certain local grocery store on market street over bad produce, bad deli meats, bad prices, bad service, bad manners and, well, to sum it up, bad business. if you ask them, i'm the jerk for not appreciating having my groceries thrown out overnight and then lied to about it. (seriously, the first explanation given directly to me was that they were given to goodwill, the second was, upon observation that goodwill doesn't deal in groceries, that it was donated to "that place down the street", and now i learn that the story was told to a third party yet a different way, that the groceries were given to a "needy family in town", and pardon me for thinking that the whole thing smells of pathological inability to respect ones customers and community enough to tell the simple truth, but, hey, remember, i'm the asshole here, so let's move on).

anyway, for those who are still with me, it's been some time that i've been acquiring my local groceries and produce from the new asia market over on the corner of market street and dummer street by city hall, not least reasons for which they are fresher, of wider variety, and a fraction of the cost that they are at that infamous market over there on market street. actually, even before the market street market opened up i had been buying my groceries there at new asia, but for the proximity and for the benefit of new people coming into my neighborhood and trying to add to it, i was willing to spread the love (and cash) around that little bit more. my reward? ridiculously expensive and past-date-quality produce, a decidedly limited selection of fruit and bread, which were the two staple items advertised they would carry before they went to beer, wine and lottery tickets as they have now, and blatant disrespect for me as a reasonable human being, that milk that i buy for $1.69 over the river in dracut couldn't possibly be that price, because there and everywhere else on the planet it absolutely sells for $2.69, just like at the market street clip joint, i mean, market, which would never, ever sell things at an unreasonable price. (how long do you want to bet before we see them selling cigarettes there?)

so it is that i marvel at all the dupes traipsing in and out of the MSM dropping fat wads of cash on pedestrian purveyings (you'll get better specialty stuff at tutto bene around the corner, for one equivalency) and the short lines at the register at places like new asia. my only conclusion is that people prefer to shop in culturally familiar surroundings, and there's no amount of abuse, whether by price gouging or rough treatment, that anglos will endure so as not to have to face bottles of stuff with weird chinese and southeast asian characters on them. and that's ridiculous. truth, but ridiculous.

question for the masses: have you been to new asia? if so, did you find yourself bewildered, and so resist diving into the stacks and discovering the amazing treats, bargains and rarities that you'll find there? i can go to new asia with $10, and leave with several bags of awesome stuff. you can go to MSM with $10, and not even be able to escape with six bottles of beer. (seriously, that harpoon that i get for $21 a case up in NH, and $8 a six pack most everywhere in lowell, will cost you a fat square $10 plus deposit if you try to buy it at MSM, but don't try to ask them what they're doing with your extra $2, because they'll cry you a river about how hard and expensive it is to run a small business here in lowell, though they won't quite get to explaining to you how the other people are doing it on $2 less, but, as usual, i digress).

for the advanced course, i'll mention that you haven't lived until you've shopped the battambang market over there on church street, just a stone's throw from gringo staples like cappy's copper kettle. their seafood selection is out of this world fresh and varied and cheap cheap cheap, and the rest of the store is just as amazing. the $40 you'll spend at market basket (which is at least $60 at MSM, if you could find the items, which, based on MSM's incredibly thin selection, you most probably could not) will cost you less than $20 at battambang, and i will guarantee those price relationships right here and right now. (no, they don't carry tropicana orange juice, cuz that's ethic food only you don't realize it, so get over it). only things better and fresher than the stuff you'll get at new asia and at battambang are the things you get from the world peas CSA, and those, i'm proud to tell you, are worth driving over the river to dracut to acquire, rather than give in to the usurous excesses of that little joint across my street.

yup, i'll be on about this for some time. hope you could afford enough groceries to tide you over, which, i'm suggesting, if you haven't already figured it out, would be a far greater probability at great places like new asia than at not-so-great places like the market street market, but it's a free country and you can give your money away to anyone you please.

melvern deep cover update

hi all--just a short one to bring you up to date on the latest melvern taylor (and his fabulous meltones, of course) gobsmacking cover song(s) from last night. (if you have never known an englishman long enough to have heard the expression, look it up--it is EXACTLY what these songs are).

anyway, not only did they close the first set with one, (because, as melvern explained things, it was so much fun to end the last sets that way, that they decided to give the first set one, and if you have never heard of a demand for an encore after the first set at a two set show, well, now you have), but they succeeded in pulling something out of their way-back machines that was so astounding, and so ridiculously fun, that you would have had to be there to see it, because, when i tell you, you're never going to understand it otherwise. melvern taylor and his fabulous meltones, without rehearsing or even knowing they were going to do it before they did it last night, put over a complete lyric-for-lyric-perfect cover of the bee gees' (pre disco--THAT old) first hit, "massachusetts". now, i'm not here to cast uncomfortable questions in anyone's direction, but someone somewhere might be tempted to inquire as to how not one, or two, but ALL of the meltones knew both the words AND the harmonies to this one. i'm also willing to bet that that song has NEVER had such an enthusiastic audience response as it received in toad in cambridge massachusetts last night. (i'm still tearing up from laughing so hard--and, yes, singing along, yes, i admit it--from that one). then there was something i don't believe i've ever heard before in my entire life, (to which, once again, all the guys knew all the words), which was something about fire in the woods, which, if my googling skills are any match, was "settin' the woods on fire", written by ed nelson and fred rose and done by hank williams back even before edsels were in style, though it's never reached its zenith until last night when four guys with a ukulele out in front rockabillied the ever living be-jeezus out of it. so, you tell me--where else can you go to hear stuff like this???

you really, really, REALLY have to get out and catch a MTAHFM show soon to get in on it. (tonight's your next chance, at the press room up in portsmouth after the cake show at boardinghouse park). it's musical fun like you're never going to have a chance to have again, and though you can tell people you heard about it from reading about it here, you have to know that such is NOTHING like living the experience live and in person.

as melvern is fond to say, you should totally go.

it's a marvelous night for a moonstones

caught a quadruple play of sublimity last night at moonstones during their patio party--jen kearney, harpoon, spinney creek oysters and a plethora of chef enx treats--and it was, as they say biblically, GOOD.

you know how i feel about jen, of course, and i'm guessing you can deduce how i feel about harpoon IPA. (if not, i have three dozen clues cooling in my fridge at this very minute to help you out, and there would have been four, but, well, they've been in there over a week!). spinney creek oysters are sourced from all over the atlantic coast, (the spinney creeks themselves, for example, are harvested by diving, and they are the sweetest, plumpest, tastiest treats you've slurped this summer), and they were accompanied not only by the traditional options of horseradish and cocktail (homemade right there at moonstones--awesome stuff) sauces, but also by an ephemeral concoction to which i'll never be able to do justice, since sous chef stephan's description of the ingredients went right out of my head the instant it reached my mouth, which was so deft and delicately PERFECT as a complement to the oysters that i am absolutely declaring it a destination dish and navigating my mealtimes accordingly. (seriously--you have to taste this combination to believe it--i do remember lemongrass, but everything else is a ecstatic blur). owner scott plath's other sleeve ace was shot glasses full of the most unique and wonderful sweet gazpacho you'll find around, and, again, i was told what was in it but it's straight out of my head. GOOOOD.

impress your girlfriend. (a VERY nice decor and ambiance inside, though who could get that far when jen, harpoon, spinney creek and so many enx-isms were free on the patio). indulge yourself. (there's a $46 appetizer on the menu consisting of 4 shrimp, 4 oysters, 2 clams, lump crab and a half lobster that should do most anyone for a last meal or any other meal for that matter, but, don't be scared, the starters are $12-$15, and the entrees are $14 to $26-ish, so, though not everyday eats, not an impossibility if you save up your change for a few weeks). support your local restauranteur. (even if you have to go all the way over the border into chelmsford to do it, though it's not quite all the way to 495 on rte 110, so not that far). i'm a fan.

edited to add: i found the gazpacho description on the "summer specials" menu: chilled cucumber & watermelon soup with lump crab, avocado, fresh dill & fennel. MMMmmmm. still no luck finding the list of ingredients to that oyster additive that still has me reeling this morning, but you can ask them yourselves when you get there. awesome.

one last rant for today

or, possibly, one last mention of why some local businesses are not worth supporting, while others most definitely are.

since coming to lowell, every year i buy a share in the world peas cooperative agriculture / sustainable farming project, and am very happy to do so--not just because it's good for me, the local economy and the earth, but also because the produce is out of this world good--doesn't get any fresher than to be picked locally, and sent right to you.

last year, world peas did us all the solid favor by arranging with c'est downtown here to coordinate the distribution of share boxes every week throughout the summer. can't say enough good things about the experience--friendly neighborhood business, pleasant, convenient experience, coincident convenience of shaw farms milk by the quart... all good.

and then...

this year c'est isn't part of the program, (don't know what's up with the business, but it's missed for sure!), and the world peas distributions are through a certain market on market street, who have succeeded in making this year's distribution an unpleasant and unproductive experience. two weeks in, while i was unable to attend their "four hour window" for box pickup, my share of local fruits and veggies was tossed (the explanation given today was that it was "donated to goodwill") when i was unable to arrive before opening hours the next morning. my bad. (the other explanation was that "produce goes bad overnight, and it wouldn't have been any good anyway", which neither explains why it never seems to go bad that quickly here at my place, or on their own shelves for that matter, but i digress).

so today i show up at 4pm, which is the start of the allotted "four hour window", and i'm told that the delivery is delayed. great. upon explaining my frustration that my last miss of the "four hour window" (which, i'm told, is an important service to the community, because everywhere else they distribute world peas produce there's only a "two hour window", which is bullshit, but i'll let that pass for now) resulted in discarded produce, i was told "i don't like you" and was invited to not do business there. i was also informed that because i had the temerity to complain, they were most assuredly never going to hold my shares beyond the allotted window for any reason just because they could.

well, good news is that i was way ahead of "manager rob" (nods to jonathan coulton and "code monkey") on the "don't do business here anymore" part, but the bad news is that i'm now going to prefer to drive to dracut to pick up my veggies rather than walk across the street and darken the door of my local grocer, even for stuff for which i've already paid. oh, and i'm also going to spend the rest of my efforts dissuading people who may not yet have their mind made up about where to shop downtown from making the same mistake i did trying to get fair and reasonable treatment from a local business, only to find out that it's all about them as the business owner, and not at all about you, the customer.

yes, i know, your experiences there may be different. but mine aren't.

(ask me sometime, and i'll tell you about the rancid deli meat purchased there awhile back, which was refunded, and the wilted produce that sits on their shelves past reasonableness with prices that are still SEVERAL times higher than what you'll pay at the new asia market just a couple blocks back up the street near city hall).

yeah, i'm pissed. anyone else who'd like to get their boxes in dracut, too, just let me know.

one last rave for today

i've been lunching off of the indescribably delicious new england clam chowder of the boston chowda company for several days now, and i just gotta give a shout out to these people. this stuff is AWESOME.

besides being a fit-for-a-king meal in a bowl, it's, as i said earlier, indescribably delicious. did i mention that it's indescribably delicious? and, better still, if you live in lowell and know where they hide themselves in that little industrial park behind the hannaford's on route 38, you know where you can go to get this creamy nectar of the gods in the one gallon bag size that will last a fan for weeks for just a fraction of what you'd have to pay otherwise. ($25 a gallon at their little outlet shop, and that's a BARGAIN for this stuff).

it's $30 a gallon at their stores, which even so is a steal for sure, and $9.25 an imperial pint if money is no object and you want to have it shipped in smaller quantities. (which, i'm here to say, is STILL a bargain for this stuff).

the stuff is stable for freezing, meaning that you can grab a stack of one quart ziplock freezer bags and fill four of them for freezing, and then just take one of 'em out every few days and thaw them in your fridge before ladling out a portion and heating it to serve. if you have a larger family, well, then, by all means, heat more. the advanced course is to duck into hannafords on your way out of the chowda company parking lot to buy one of their large boxes of hannafords oyster crackers and put 'em in a suitably-sized airtight sterilite cereal container (also a local business, i might add, from townsend) and portion 'em out over your bowl-fulls as you need 'em.

it's the greatest thing going. get yours!

the real LOWELL folk festival

the lowell folk festival, the largest free folk festival in north america, is an incredible event, and one of the best things about one of the best small cities in north america. (shangri-lowell, yo!) congrats to the organizers at the national park service and the lowell festival foundation for an amazing event. can't wait!

however, despite the incredible array of talent from all over north america and the world that's going to be here in a week's time, the lowell folk festival really isn't a LOWELL folk festival at all, since it coincidentally excludes local lowell musicians from its many stages and venues while it gives those stages to everyone from everywhere else. and that's too bad, because, if you're out like i am over the course of the rest of the year that the folk festival isn't taking over our town, the quality of music here is right up there with the best anywhere, and it really deserves wider audience.

SO!!!

your local restaurant, bar, nightclub, social club and coffee shop owners, (including in no particular order brew'd awakenings, the worthen house, cobblestones, savanna palace, voices rock club, caffe paradiso, blue shamrock, blue taleh, old court, SAC club, dharma buns, brewery exchange, garcia brogans, centro, major's pub, village smokehouse, etc.), in cooperation with local promoters (like dee tension and joe graham), in addition to the intrepid folks who continually decline to take named credit for the summary web site, (despite absolutely deserving hearty appreciation for it), have brought us the next best thing--the compendium that you can usefully regard as the lowell folk festival after dark.

go to the site to see the lineup--it's incredible. from carl johnson's opening set at brew'd awakenings on friday afternoon at 4, to his closing set at the worthen house on sunday evening after 7, (there is not a better bookend for this, and if you've ever seen carl play, you know it), the weekend is JAM PACKED with incredible local lowell musicians who you are able to see, in most cases, all year long. and the best part is, after you see them this coming festival weekend, you'll know why i do what i do every week of the year.

music is the connection between people, and it's the most compelling art form there is. (name another that will literally make people get up and dance). celebrate it. come to the lowell festival. and stay for the lowell folk festival after dark. you are going to be ecstatic that you did.

edited to add: thanks for the web wizardry (and at the risk of outing folks to the LFF folks who always get so squirrely about the LFF brand, even while they're trading off the city name like champs) to jay moore, who gets big props from me for getting all the information put across so clearly and beautifully. (if you need some web-work, jay's your guy!) and thanks to jen burgett for getting the whole project of finding the venues and the bands and listing all the details going and over the top. (if you need some promo work, jen's your gal!)

anyone else i'm missing? all credit is deserved, so get yours!

your daily tour

you didn't think i'd forgotten how acutely you need TDF updates, did you?

today's conference calls have once again been accompanied by the background video (calls are on mute, natch) of today's stage 11 ride from sisteron to bourg les valence, and i couldn't be more pleased. (yesterday was a cluster-you-know-what, so it's nice to be back to usual for a change). my english friends are liking cavendish' showings this year (two stage wins already before today's for a total of three so far) but its the overall average speed today that's blowing my mind. for the miles and miles of flat down towards the finish, these guys AVERAGED almost 40 miles per hour. on bikes. ok, some tailwind, but holy crap--40 miles per hour. as well, i'm calling out mark renshaw right here and right now for his bush-league crap to block tyler farrar from a shot at cavendish at the end, and i won't hesitate to remind my english buddies about it on my next call. yes, the shouldering and head-butting to preserve the line for cavendish is all part of the job, but the guy who is *changing* his line is responsible for how he does it, and australian renshaw cheated to block out american tyler farrar near the finish, and i'm waiting to hear what the race organizers are going to do about it beyond penalizing him to the back of the pack for it. (i.e., the fact that cavendish doesn't get penalized for the bad behavior of his teammate on his behalf is one of those unfortunate realities of bike racing, and it sucks).

as for the overall, andy schleck is holding onto his lead over alberto contador, and it's becoming clear already that it may very well be a 2-man race for the maillot jaune in two weeks. levi leipheimer will, of course, continue to beg to differ, (you all know the top american in the race, don't you?), but the dominance of his american-flagged radio shack team isn't enough to get him to or keep him in shouting distance of the silent but determined leaders.

ok, carry on...

edited to add: mark renshaw was disqualified from continuing in this year's tour. fair enough. that crap should have no place at this level of the sport, and i'm proud to see there are those in a position of authority who agree.

NFW

rob mills' police blog has the story, and i'm absolutely at a loss to understand how a lowell district court judge can decide that a registered sex offender, who is not allowed unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16, can take off a court-mandated monitoring device in the bathroom of a public library in order to cruise the childrens section, and not be in violation of his parole. the convicted pervert was released, and the police can't even show us his booking photo, because the court ruling is that this guy has done nothing wrong.

i'm not generally given to profanity here, except language commonly used by my 13 year old daughter, so i'll paraphrase for her:

"what the FUCK, dad. what the fuck." (you can ask her for her opinion yourself--she'll tell you).

i cannot speak for how it must feel to be a 13 year old girl to learn of such things, but the violation i feel crosses so many levels of my being that i can't even decide where to start. as a father, i'm appalled. as a friend to a man whose deceased nephew was sexually abused, i'm appalled. as a strong advocate for public libraries' place in the education and cultural upbringing of our youth, i'm appalled. as a community member who is continually and consistently impressed with the professionalism and effectiveness of the lowell city police department, in the face of the court system's every effort to thwart it, i'm appalled. as a taxpaying citizen who believes in the rule of law and it's importance to a safe and productive society for all, i'm appalled.

if anyone has suggestions for the most effective public protest against this egregious and inexcusable breach of the public trust, i would like to hear them. letters need to be written to elected representatives. letters need to be written to judges' superiors. letters need to be written to the local paper, and, i would say, other papers like the boston globe and the new york times and whoever else will print them. fox news and msnbc need to be notified. somebody has to shine a light on this inexplicable pile of excrement, (i'm talking about the judge's ruling here in case it isn't clear), and help the rest of us clean it up.

it is not shangri-lowell today.

foods that begin with P

i ventured onto chowhound.com today to see what the foodies were saying about the restaurant i visited last night, and their poutine, and i was dumbfounded to find how many folks were raving about something that i will promise you right here and now was no big thing. seriously--no big thing.

and then i thought about it for a moment...

you know how all pizza, when you get down to even the worst of it, tastes good? you're at the ballpark and you've just tossed $8 for something that comes to you basically bread with tomato slop and congealed vegetable protein masquerading as "cheese", and you still eat all of it because even the worst pizza is good on some basic level? (i won't say the same thing for those "nachos" you get at the park--that's horror food, and you and we all know it).

so i'm thinking, on behalf of all of you who haven't yet tried poutine, that the similarity it bears with pizza is that even the mediocre stuff will motivate a positive response from most people. i mean--what's not to like? salty fried potatoes, covered in gravy, and embedded with cheese. (basically trading in the bread of a pizza crust for potatoes, and the lubrication of some tomato sauce for some gravy). and so it is, if you've never had GOOD poutine, that you might encounter a fairly decent enough version of it and think you've just experienced gustatory equivalent of the second coming. and it wouldn't be your fault.

so here's the thing: GOOD poutine is something you can't even yet imagine. have you had a pizza at santarpio's? imagine you only know what they serve in those papa gino's boxes at fenway. now imagine sitting down at santarpio's for the first time. get it?

there's a place in the south end where they serve something that you'd enjoy, and they call it poutine. fair enough. there's a place in portland where they serve POUTINE, and it's transcendent. it's not even what they serve in the mecca that is drummondville, quebec, canada, but it'll do within a 90 minute drive. (ok, i speed a little when i'm motivated).

until you get to those pearly restaurant gates, know, just like you know there's a heaven and it's good even though you've never been there, that there's poutine that will make you want to cry it's so good, even though you've never tasted it yet. but not (yet that i know of) in boston.

oh well, we can't be best at everything...

poutine

two things on poutine--first, there's a poutine festival in sherbrooke, quebec, canada, on labor day weekend this year, and, as liz lemon would say on 30 rock, I WANT TO GO TO THERE. (there is nothing so cherished as a friend who will discover and then tell you about such things, and be instant game for hopping in the convertible to go). second, there's a restaurant in the south end of boston which you would like to think knows something about the dish, since they put no fewer than FOUR versions of it on their menu, but, sadly, they do not. (and i'm not even canadian, let alone quebequois, and even *I* know that much).

the fries, though possibly hand-made, were commercial quality at best, the gravy tasted little better than what you would get out of a can, and the cheese curd was basically some sort of bland ricotta-style stuff that had neither flavor nor texture nor freshness to recommend it. (no wonder they're compelled to smother it in beef chili as an alternative on their menu). if the fries aren't fat enough for their crisp to be perfected by the soft ecstasy of their center, and if the gravy isn't thin enough not to congeal like river mud instead of flowing to the center of everything, and pungent enough to make your mouth water at every whiff of it, and if the cheese curd isn't fresh enough to literally squeak every time you catch it between your upper and lower teeth, then it's not poutine--it's fries with cheese and gravy.

ok, i really have three things on poutine--in early august, under the auspices of my trip up to maine with my boys for a week in the woods by the ocean, (the best of all possible camping worlds), i'm going to be able to swing around a bit to the north, to the north end of the portland waterfront, and dig into a big dish of REAL poutine, at duckfat restaurant.

yes, duckfat restaurant, where the hand cut, double-blanched and duckfat-fried french fries are succulent spears of salty goodness, and the gravy is a duck-imbued wonderfully reduced and concentrated explosion of flavor everywhere it touches your mouth, and the cheese curd is gen-yoo-wine fresh-from-the-farm awesomeness with sublime texture and flavor that's the perfect complement to the perfect dish.

poutine.

someone in the south end needs to take the same trip.