the SNOB
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Please Sterilize My City
The Globe's story today on the Barfing Crab's latest woes is a disturbing reminder of how close this city is to eradicating every sign of non-committee-approved life. Shockingly, the Crab's kitchen is a biohazard and the beer lines are moldy. In more surprising news, the property's owner and the City are conspiring to burn the place to the ground and pave over the ashes. Or, to use their words:
Long before the city decided to put shore up some rotting old piers and give it its own branding campaign, the Barking Crab *was* the public waterfront. If Hynes wants to turn it into Luxury Loft Condos or offices for hedge funds, that's his right. At least those would be used by actual living, breathing people, as opposed to the committees and "constituencies" composed of statistical samples rather than actual human beings for whom the Harbor Walk seems to be designed.
People today look at City Hall plaza and ask, "who the @#$! let that happen?" The answer is the same people currently suggesting that an apron of fancy granite paving stones is a better direction for the city than a noisy place full of people drinking cheap moldy beer and taking their chances at the raw bar half a mile from anything resembling a residential neighborhood. ¶ 7:58 AM 0 Comments
The Globe's story today on the Barfing Crab's latest woes is a disturbing reminder of how close this city is to eradicating every sign of non-committee-approved life. Shockingly, the Crab's kitchen is a biohazard and the beer lines are moldy. In more surprising news, the property's owner and the City are conspiring to burn the place to the ground and pave over the ashes. Or, to use their words:
A Barking Crab spokesman told The Boston Globe yesterday that co-owner Scott Garvey wasn't aware of developer John B. Hynes III's proposal to relocate the restaurant off the water and into a new building as part of his waterfront project, Seaport Square. Hynes said he spoke to the eatery's other co-owner, Lee Kennedy, about the move.
Hynes said city officials favored relocating the Barking Crab because its site could then be used to extend the HarborWalk along the channel for public use.
Long before the city decided to put shore up some rotting old piers and give it its own branding campaign, the Barking Crab *was* the public waterfront. If Hynes wants to turn it into Luxury Loft Condos or offices for hedge funds, that's his right. At least those would be used by actual living, breathing people, as opposed to the committees and "constituencies" composed of statistical samples rather than actual human beings for whom the Harbor Walk seems to be designed.
People today look at City Hall plaza and ask, "who the @#$! let that happen?" The answer is the same people currently suggesting that an apron of fancy granite paving stones is a better direction for the city than a noisy place full of people drinking cheap moldy beer and taking their chances at the raw bar half a mile from anything resembling a residential neighborhood. ¶ 7:58 AM 0 Comments
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
James Frey is Her Co-Pilot
Oh, SNAP!
For all the talk about how the 'net has dis-empowered the mass media, there's another side which this story shows--the power of the echo. If a story doesn't gain immediate traction in the old broadcast model, it basically ceases to exist. As more gets archived, though, the opportunities to keep it alive, and resuscitate it, grow exponentially as people pass YouTube links around.
I'm also reminded of Lincoln, who in a speech to Congress discussed his own meager military record thus:
Oh, SNAP!
For all the talk about how the 'net has dis-empowered the mass media, there's another side which this story shows--the power of the echo. If a story doesn't gain immediate traction in the old broadcast model, it basically ceases to exist. As more gets archived, though, the opportunities to keep it alive, and resuscitate it, grow exponentially as people pass YouTube links around.
I'm also reminded of Lincoln, who in a speech to Congress discussed his own meager military record thus:
If General Cass went in advance of me in picking huckleberries, I guess I surpassed him charges upon the wild onions. If he saw and live fighting Indians, it was more than I did; but I had a good many bloody struggles with mosquitoes, and although I never fainted from the loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry.¶ 9:48 AM 0 Comments
Monday, March 24, 2008
Oh Ye of Little Faith
A week ago, I wrote in a comment that if you wanted a conspiracy theory about the collapse of Bear Stearns, to look at how the bidding went from $15 to $2 in the closing round when the Fed (allegedly!) let BofA in on the fact that they were bidding against themselves. This way, I reasoned, when BSC eventually sold for $4 or more, it'd be a feel-good comeback story.
A week ago, I wrote in a comment that if you wanted a conspiracy theory about the collapse of Bear Stearns, to look at how the bidding went from $15 to $2 in the closing round when the Fed (allegedly!) let BofA in on the fact that they were bidding against themselves. This way, I reasoned, when BSC eventually sold for $4 or more, it'd be a feel-good comeback story.Anyhoo, today brings the news that BSC will sell for $10, which means my cynicism, for once, significantly undershot the target.
¶ 1:20 PM 0 Comments
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Prostitutinator: Rise of the Nerds
Last night I watched The Center of the World, a fairly forgettable and highly overrated indie release from 2001 which played like a much raunchier and less interesting take on the bright-young-thing-meets-older-man-with-money than Shopgirl. In this case, the older man was an only slightly older, but much richer internet nerd millionaire, and the filmmakers certainly had the opportunity to make some really interesting statements, but ultimately it was like a model airplane kit with no glue.
It had its moments, though. I noticed as the credits rolled one Jason McCabe Calacanis as an "Advisor," which explained some of what they got right. But what reminded me that it was shot eight years ago was the obligatory scene early on where the indie-rock-chick-cum-hooker played by Molly Parker asks her Client #9 what it's like to be away from his computer for so long, as though it were an accordion, or something else you ought to be embarassed to be seen in public with. Needless to say, we know far more today about this sort of thing than we did back then, and got our first pictures of Eliot Spitzer's squeeze "Kristen" from, natch, her MySpace page, while the ever-brilliant copy desk of the NY Post slugged one story "OMG! I just did the governor!"
Say whatever you want about today's kids--no, I mean it, they're really quite dreadful--but don't call them nerds. They'd take it as a compliment. ¶ 8:03 PM 0 Comments
Last night I watched The Center of the World, a fairly forgettable and highly overrated indie release from 2001 which played like a much raunchier and less interesting take on the bright-young-thing-meets-older-man-with-money than Shopgirl. In this case, the older man was an only slightly older, but much richer internet nerd millionaire, and the filmmakers certainly had the opportunity to make some really interesting statements, but ultimately it was like a model airplane kit with no glue.
It had its moments, though. I noticed as the credits rolled one Jason McCabe Calacanis as an "Advisor," which explained some of what they got right. But what reminded me that it was shot eight years ago was the obligatory scene early on where the indie-rock-chick-cum-hooker played by Molly Parker asks her Client #9 what it's like to be away from his computer for so long, as though it were an accordion, or something else you ought to be embarassed to be seen in public with. Needless to say, we know far more today about this sort of thing than we did back then, and got our first pictures of Eliot Spitzer's squeeze "Kristen" from, natch, her MySpace page, while the ever-brilliant copy desk of the NY Post slugged one story "OMG! I just did the governor!"
Say whatever you want about today's kids--no, I mean it, they're really quite dreadful--but don't call them nerds. They'd take it as a compliment. ¶ 8:03 PM 0 Comments
