CHUCK!!!

yeah, it's getting really bad--this one is from last thursday's paper:

the LRTA is now accepting charlie cards on their buses. this is huge for me. i despise to have to carry change around, so parking meters and buses are my #1 and #2 headaches--i often have reason to want to use both, but rarely possess the coinage to do so. well, downtown lowell parking kiosks let you use credit cards to pay, and now the LRTA has taken the leap into the 21st century by outfitting their rides with charlie card readers.

if you don't have a charlie card from the MBTA, get one. you have to sometimes beg wheedle and cajole them out of the pockets of T employees at the major station platforms, but once you have it, you're home free. (well, home for the price of the subway and/or bus ride from wherever you are). you can load it up at your convenience, and ride around on the balance for as long as it will take you. (and even enjoy the per-ride discount you get on the subway when you use it--it's a wonderful thing). i've taken to dropping $20's into the machines for my charge-ups, and i love it. i always have subway fare anywhere in boston, and now i'm going to be able to hop all over greater lowell on the buses with the same convenience and ease.

can't wait to use it!

best place on earth

even if you can't be out on a friday night, the nightlife of downtown lowell is out for you just the same. here's a snip from wireless mike flynn and jack baldwin's friday night broadcast from the back page featuring frank morey and his band (scott pittman and matt murphy).

do yourself a favor. click the link. sit back. close your eyes. savor. repeat.

best place on earth.

window shopping

i miss dharma buns, but i was never confused about why they had such a hard time trying to make a go of their business, even from just looking in their windows. the ambiance was anything but warm and welcoming, the prices once you got inside were steep, and the general feeling from the poorly-used space was of something always not quite being right. (oh but those fries and burgers and ESPECIALLY the pastrami sandwiches were heaven).

this is all in extreme contrast to the impression one gets driving or walking by on market street looking in the windows at dharma's ostensible reincarnation, wings over lowell. the space is laid out for maximum comfort and efficiency with (almost always filled) booths along all the walls, and the bright lighting and reasonably-priced menu say "come on in and take care of that hunger--you know you want to". and you know you know exactly how to make a success of any visit to the place--just belly up to the counter, order yourself everything you want and more, and then just sit down to enjoy. (it was never quite clear from the dharma layout exactly what was supposed to happen with all those high-top little round tables and somewhat fancy chairs).

it's great to see a business doing well downtown, especially after such a short time, and especially great because you can SEE the business doing well right there through their windows every time you drive by. (try it!)

i'm no restauranteur, but i gotta figure, if the goal isn't churn 'em through and drive 'em out like the fastest of the fast food joints, then it's important that everything looks and is comfortable because that definitely matters. i know it does to me. mike over at the other end of the strip at king star gets it. (comfy sofas even!) wings over gets it. the back page DEFINITELY gets it. (though they've all but given up on their food).

the science of indoor space is a fascinating one. and it makes a difference.

amateur night

there are several amateur nights on the annual calendar, new year's eve not alone among them, and halloween is certainly in the running for the title. but the night before thanksgiving is its own special recipe of drunken disaster, and the mix of old friends and new adventures is as volatile as they come. yes, everyone we know is home for, and they're all going to be out with us forgetting how important it is to be responsible when having ones best good time.

puh-leeze take an old instigator's advice and keep that weather eye out for all sorts of trouble tonight.

one of the best reasons for trading up from a country-living house on a lake to a brick mill condo in the heart of shangri-lowell is exactly for these reasons. driving tonight? not me. not only am i taking myself out of the weaving traffic to reduce the odds of complicating someones evening, i am better and furthermore taking myself out of the weaving traffic to reduce the odds of having my evening complicated by someone less well prepared as i. planning on having a few? plan to put your keys in the bowl by the door and head out on foot, and/or entrust yourself to someone who is not planning on having a few, and is rather planning on not having any at all. it's not because you can't arrive home safely either way, but it's because there's no need to take the chance at all--the chance to wind up on the wrong end of a police roadblock for one thing, but more to the point, the chance of initiating tragedy the night before we all will hope to sit down safe and whole with our best family and friends and celebrate our all being together safe and whole. not all but one who figured themselves bigger than the odds.

there has been tragedy in my extended family this year (the nashoba student who died from a skateboarding accident just days before his grief-stricken father drowned in a commercial fishing accident is one of mine, yes) and perhaps in yours too. think about it. we are all very, very lucky to have the people we have in our lives, and to have had the people in our lives who we may remember tomorrow are absent. let's do our part the keep the gathering as large as possible, and as joyful as possible, or at least as joyful as having to spend a day in close quarters with your entire family can be made to be.

and if you are thinking, "gee, wouldn't it be a good idea to get a head start on the festivities with all of my besties tonight", then do as i do, and hoof it down to the back page (instead of drive) where stephe clements is running a special edition of the traditional wednesday open mic, with all the best people, musicians and otherwise, in downtown lowell. except of course for those who are planning to be rocking to reverend jj and the casual sinners at the smokehouse, which, bonus for me, is on the way both to AND from the back page, meaning i'll probably get myself a little merriment in there, too. the cab drivers of lowell have to make a living too, so tip them well for keeping you safe if that's your option. i may just be joyfully inebriated (though never publicly intoxicated!) enough to toss them a tip through the window myself just for being out there for us all. (thanks, guys! you rock!)

happy thanksgiving everyone!

know thyself

human ego-centrism being what it is, we all seem inclined to think ourselves extremely smart and capable when things are going well for us. for example, i have to laugh every time i hear some stock-picking "expert" bragging on all the money they've made in the various runs-up to the various bubbles bursting (pick whichever bubble you want, we've had many) in attempt to convince me that they are somehow "smart" based on that track record. even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile, and when you put a blind squirrel directly on top of a pile of them, the odds can't help but improve even further. and if you made money in real estate towards the end of last century, congratulations--you are officially of mediocre savvy, too. EVERYBODY made money on their real estate towards the end of last century. even the idiots. (with whom one should never argue, i know, lest bystanders have trouble telling the difference...) ESPECIALLY the idiots. (who are all now whining about the unfairness of being underwater). anyway...

so it is last night that my aging and decrepit soccer team enjoyed a good result against an even older and more decrepit squad, and the talk around the bar (the greatest thing ever invented--tap beer just steps from a soccer field) was of all our successes passing, shooting and scoring. it recalled to me the week prior, when a younger and decidedly fit side put a beating on us and made all our passes, shots and lack of scoring look positively pitiful. the tempting conclusion (and consensus last night of course) was that we played better this week. the truth is far more likely that we are the same players we've always been, but our circumstances have more to do with our "success" or "failure" than we ever did or do.

so it is that we enter these "tough times" and fall apart in our attempts to "rein in" the deficit. the truth is we've been fools and profligate spendthrifts for decades, and our chickens are only now coming home to roost because we're out of rope with which not to hang ourselves. reaganomics? the absolute worst thing that's ever happened to us--and we're living the proof.

resources in our system do not "trickle down". they concentrate as a matter of capitalist gravity, and are wasted and, if left unchecked by an actual fair playing field, squandered in an embarrassment of riches among the few at the privileged top, and the results for the rest are dire indeed. ironically, resources in our system absolutely do trickle up, however, and opposition by the rich to living wage and basic human services for the majority of the population is the worst sort of self-defeating idiocy our politics have ever invented.

our military-industrial complex is a problem--no fair competition. our current healthcare "system" is a problem--no fair competition. our current educational "system" is a problem--no fair competition. our current banking and financial infrastructure is our largest problem--no fair competition, and all the money to buy the pols to ensure that there will never be.

if the answer isn't at the polls, i don't know where it is. we need to elect people, like elizabeth warren, (and all you conservative knee-jerk anti-democrats need to think about this), who will stand against status quo and insist on fair and enforced regulation that maintains the proper fair playing field and healthy competition. it's not evil to tax--we survive as a nation on the military, social and political benefits of those taxes--and it's not evil to support business either.

the answer is in the middle. if you're not there, you, as tricky dick used to like to say, are part of the problem.

radio silence

thanks to all who have checked in to wonder (celebrate?) that i haven't been posting much these last few weeks. call it the occupational hazard of having an occupation, but i'm happy to say i'm fine and still enjoying some moderate amount of local day and nightlife even though i'm not enjoying the time to bore you all about it after.

some of my nightlife has been to attend downtown neighborhood association meetings and take in the presentations and discussions about our quality-of-life issues here, most notably related to crime but extending to other important topics like (my favorite) waste disposal and recycling.

most disturbing this week was to learn that disturbances outside of certain downtown establishments, most notably brian's ivy hall, have resulted in police officers being spat upon and doused with pepper spray by drunken and unruly crowd-members while effecting arrests. this is not to say that all such crowd members were over-served in one particular establishment, (though by proximity one could conclude the probability is highest), but the regional news of this past weekend of an attempted assault on civilian and once-celtic rajon rondo inside brian's ivy hall doesn't contradict a conclusion that there are some problems there. i will first pause to say that i very much like the proprietors of BIH, and have been treated always with respect and generosity by them both in their club and at the various downtown neighborhood meetings they have attended. i've also felt inclined to take their side against various ill-prepared complaints by neighbors who failed to use the proper channels to have their concerns about noise addressed. (i'm happy to say once proper channels were utilized, noise was mitigated, and that one aspect of the club's existence is not under contention at this time, at least of which i know). but this past incident, on top of the abuse of police officers, has me feeling less generous of spirit in return.

word is that rajon was an arrogant asshole in the club, and i have no one's word to the contrary. but two things are extremely troubling, and only one is the breach of peace that occurred in the club as a result of that alleged arrogant asshole behavior. the other is the publicity sought by the club to exploit the incident, bragging on how out of control things get there, and how many people are packed in having that (violent) good time. i happen to know the fire capacity of the club is 450, so when i see the owner bragging on having 700 people in the club on the night of the fracas, i'm tempted to wonder if something is not as it should be. even if the owner was exaggerating and no code violations occurred, it's still disappointing that it's chosen to publicize lowell's incivility by such a prominent public advertisement. the lawlessness by which police officers are put into highly volatile and dangerous situations is exacerbated by public perceptions of lawlessness. the club owners should know better. the club owners should behave better. at some point we are at risk of having a tragedy down here, and i, for one, am not interested to be any part of it. unfortunately, the police do not have the discretion to run from such trouble, and we all owe them a huge debt of gratitude that they're willing to risk their lives and limbs in this way. lets all respect that by building the impression that lawlessness will not stand down here, rather than the opposite.

it's important.

which is a convenient segue to one of the presentations last night at the neighborhood meeting talking about the "broken windows" theory of policing, and how to generate a campaign to erect signs and enforce statutes on everything from littering to parking away from the curb or in front of hydrants, handicapped signs and crosswalks, to (this one's gonna hurt me) jaywalking and ABSOLUTELY assaults on police officers. this anarchy cannot be allowed to stand. people are being assaulted, robbed and beaten down here. now it's extending to policemen just trying to keep everything enjoyable for everyone else.

time to stand up and be counted.

the shawsheen redemption

you know it's been a busy week of work if it's saturday and i'm only now getting through last sunday's paper...

so this past sunday's front page of the paper of record (oh where have you gone, mr mill city boys...) has a recap of the contretemps between the tewksbury public schools and the shawsheen valley technical high school over recruiting practices and "fairness" in competing for student registrations.

this is rich.

years ago, before there were vocational educational institutions, public schools crammed every behavioral and other problem that they had into their "shop" program, and they were only too happy to ship the whole sorry mess down the street when the vokes opened up to take them rather than do what it was that they were intended to do, which would be to educate ALL the kids, not just the ones they like best. my personal experience with this was going on 35 years ago when i was told, when trying to sign up for an auto shop class because i had bought a cheap (i.e. unreliable) car in order to get myself too and from the work i needed to help my family afford groceries as well as myself to afford to go to college, and i thought it might be a good idea to learn how to take care of it as much as possible by myself. oh, silly me. "my" guidance counselor, who was really the school's guidance counselor, was only in the business of keeping the "college preparatory" class (yes, that's a double entendre) separate and apart from the "shop" class so that never the twain should meet, and flat-out told me that those programs were not for me. i know first-hand from those on the other side who yearned to get themselves to college only to be shut behind that iron-working curtain and refused spots in preferred academic classes because they were deemed unfit to be there that i was not the only one screwed in this process.

anyway, the arrogance of the public schools now to complain that the vokes are taking "their" kids is making me see that color of red i remember from all those years ago all over again.

is this about the kids and their education, or isn't it???

if it's about keeping money and bodies in fading public educational institutions then you can count me out. there's a reason these kids want to go to shawsheen, and it's an extremely informed and intelligent one. the shame of restricting others' right to information upon which to make an informed decision is galling. don't like it? create a worthwhile program in your own school, and let the kids know about it so they can choose. but sit down and shut up if you can't, don't and won't.

my middle son matriculated to the nashoba valley technical high school. he was an ill fit to the traditional "liberal arts" education in the first place that would have been offered to him in his home town public high school, but more than that, he had and has an aptitude and an interest in what nashoba has to offer him. his chosen program is "robotics", by which is meant a combination of materials science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer chip design and software engineering. it's an amazing combination to me, and i regret never having had the chance when i was younger to have chosen something like it. i could not be more proud.

my parents? the one employed in the public schools for decades and the other employed at a private university? they were almost speechless when they heard that he had chosen nashoba. you could read it in their faces. frightened that he would "lose out" at a chance to go to a better college. taking a road that was ill-advised. it took me all of a nanosecond to rip them a new one for their arrogance, presumptuousness, and ill-information.

the oldest? the one with the public school sheepskin and the liberal arts program at his chosen institution of higher learning? i lose sleep nights wondering how he's going to find a job. the second one? the one getting exposed to seemingly every hot employment sector that there is, and gaining an education that will qualify him for the top engineering and robotics programs in the country? i'm bursting with both pride and envy and giddy at his wide open horizons.

so, back to the public schools... for practical questions for starters, do they teach kids how to balance checkbooks? understand compound interest and mortgage and other financing? do home, auto and other repair such as those of us living in the real world have to contend each and every day? (i didn't think so). for even more practical questions for follow-up, do they provide kids with access to programs that are in demand by employers? are they aware of the ways the world is changing, and adapting to meet the challenges with their students? do they even have the first clue?

the fallback excuse i always hear is that education is best as a well-rounded pursuit. humanities. arts and letters. mathematics and other liberal arts staples. know what? while my college-bound high school classmates read and did not understand melville, i augmented my education with an "english skills" class that was the one "shop" curriculum item out of which the guidance department could not shut me. i took a typing class that was intended for secretarial types. (the "shop class" women weren't considered suitable for auto repair, so they were shunted into clerical pursuits). i now can spell, write and type on a computer, and hold down a very nice job in the computer industry utilizing engineering and other skills i had to pick up on my own and absolutely not in high school. AND i read melville, as is currently my second son in his academic rotation which he receives every other week, along with the higher math required by his chosen field, at which, quite predictably, he's doing far better now that it's applied than he ever did when it was purely abstract and theoretical.

both tewksbury taxpayers and their student progeny are getting screwed by the public school administration in two ways. first of all, they're not getting the top quality public education they are intending to pay for. second of all, they are at risk to having these same questionably-competent educators create barriers for students that would keep them from the best and most suitable educational options available to them.

grow a clue. build a competitive curriculum. and make it about the KIDS, and their choices, and not your sorry situation of a public school system that has failed to be proactive and give a competitive and useful education that would compel students to want to be there.

double bingo

had my first sandwich at king star--this is not your ordinary bargain lunch counter. the italian sausages were butcher-made and accompanied by peppers and onions carmelized to sweet perfection, (not some limp steamed motion to be gone through--these garnishes were good like you dream it good), served on a fresh roll (with mustard, cuz that's the way i roll) for six bucks even. the coke was a buck twenty-five.

you can't beat it.

i'm given to understand that the burgers are hand-made fresh every day 8-oz monsters, and i'll give you the review on those next friday when my daughter and i go for the gold. this one's a keeper.

what's in a name

"armistice day" survives in france and belgium where most of the worst occurred, but since the end of the second big one it's "veterans day" for us and "remembrance" day for our commonwealth brethren in arms. it's a remarkable thing that we live free given the history of the world, and it's to our veterans that we owe the largest portion of the debt.

upon the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, this time in the eleventh year of our century, we can all take the traditional two minutes of silence to think about all we have, and those who risked (and so often lost) all they had to provide it for us.

to you, dad

where its at

stephe clements does the back page again tonight with evan goodrow and mike payette, and over at ole the goodtime string band has the thursday night stage. it's nice to be able to walk to several great performances all in the same evening. and, of course, consider a bite at king star before heading back home.

bingo

dharma buns left a void in my local market street dining habits when they closed up their burger shop some while ago, but good fortune smiles on those who are patient, and now, not only do we have the estimable wings over lowell (right there in the old dharma buns space) slinging high-quality wings at reasonable prices, but now we have the new-management king star cafe sandwiched (heheheh) between the athenian corner and the dubliner flipping high-quality burgers at more-than-reasonable prices down at the other end of the boulevard.

but wait! there's more!

new owner mike difonzo is not only opening from 6am to 2pm for breakfast (muffins, bagels, toast, bacon egg and cheese sandwiches, eggs any way you like 'em, pancakes, french toast and build-your-own omelets) and lunch (soup, chowder, chili, salads, sandwiches including the classic BLT, meatball subs, grilled ham and/or cheese, PB&J, pizza by the slice, etc.) but also coming back to the store thursday, friday and saturday nights after 11pm to satisfy the late-night hungries experienced by all the happy downtown lowell music fans who are frequenting all the venues in the area until 2am and beyond with both burgers and breakfast as desired.

bingo!

i'm given to understand that further renovations are pending, but even already mike has the space opened up, bright, clean and comfortable for your dining and lingering pleasure (complete with free wifi) making it not just a good-eats-at-good-prices dining destination, but a perfectly serviceable coffee shop throughout the morning and early afternoon hours for just hanging out and checking your fantasy hockey stats inside and out of the rain. everything to like.

say hi to mike, and stay awhile. i plan to.

people power

OWS and TP have the headlines, but it's the revolutionaries who quietly exercise their franchise at the voting booth who hold all the ultimate strings to power. yeah, we're as a crowd often unduly influenced by "spin" and other media doctoring, (did the pizza man or didn't he? you know the answers fall along party lines), but if more people take the time to educate themselves and take action based on their conclusions, fewer miscreants will be able to corrupt the process and our nation, and more honest and earnest public servants (as opposed to private-interest-mongers) will find their way into places from which at least some small part of their good can be done.

today i'm standing with the founders and their ideals and filling in the dark circles as best i can. a lot of incumbents won't have my vote. that's just me. if you like the way things are going, it's up to you to get out there and push for it to continue. in the end, it's not what i want, or what you want, but that we both trust that the best decisions are made via the sum total of the wisdom of us all.

and, when it's all over, we really need to pull together to get things moving in a better direction. things aren't so good for a lot of us, and need to be better.

vote!

private power

also not gaining nearly enough press this week, over and above the selfish and unseemly whining of suburbanites trying to make do without their TV, are the differences between communities having chosen private municipal power companies vs signing on with the big providers. guess what--private municipal power companies invest in maintenance around their power lines (tree trimming, etc.) and have fewer outages than big-company customers. in addition, their crews are faster on the job when outages do occur, and faster in returning power to their customers. oh, and one more thing? their power is CHEAPER.

banks, power companies, government... i can think of a long list of things that are better, faster and cheaper when they're smaller. it's amazing how slow we are as a species to learn.

urban urbanity

country-dwellers are whining a blue streak this week about their power outages, and we downtown city-dwellers are rarely asked our opinion, or appreciated for what among more than a few of us it is: living in single family homes wastes resources, destroys the environment, and deserves very little sympathy this week. sorry, but it's true.

my home is far more energy-efficient than any single family home could possibly be, surrounded as it is on all sides by other living spaces. on top of that, my home is served by underground utilities which are for less expensive to maintain, and far less prone to outages due to weather or other causes. (yes, my heat and my hot water are both on, tyvm). my home is, despite all this green-ness, not served by city recycling services that my tax dollars subsidize to provide to other residents living in the brown (white) fields locations of town, though that's a rant i've been on many times before and i'm sure you're tired to hear it again.

if you enjoy treelined, usually-powered streets, and curbside recycling and all sorts of other things that my tax and utility bill dollars pay to subsidize for your good fortune, spare me your tales of woe on these occasions where the true cost of all that bears to be paid. you soak the folks in the cities, and then expect us to feel the outrage--and i'm not buying it.

toughen up. when i lived in the "country", i spent the money on a gas generator (placed outside and well-ventilated, tyvm) and didn't complain when life's inconveniences happened. you should stop whining (it's unseemly) and count all the money you've been stealing from the rest of us all during the rest of the year instead. if you don't like it, buy a generator and start paying your own way.