February 2008

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel includes Bruce Russell and Brendan Melican.

Brendan talks about the impending layoffs at Worcester’s daily paper, the Telegram & Gazette. City census forms are out; for people who haven’t changed their address there will soon be a web-based form on the city’s website. You can save a stamp by dropping your form off in the yellow mailbox in front of the library.

Bruce talks about the bus.

Brendan continues his critique of the coverage of a local college promo video.

Mike praises the Toxic Soil Busters, part of the Worcester Roots Project that can help you with toxins in your yard.

Mike talks to Kevin Ksen about a project to stop unwanted T&G sales circulars from accumulating on the city’s sidewalks.

mp3 link, other formats, feed, low-fi versions

If you’d like to leave a recorded message to be played on the show, call 508.471.3897.

To get an e-mail each week alerting you of the new episode of 508, join the e-mail list:

We won’t share this list with others.

Panorama
Here is a panorama Tom Lechner put together of one spot on Oregon’s Eagle Creek Trail. Here’s a version at his site that makes the coolness clearer. Tom makes these spherical panoramas by taking photos using a polyhedral jig, as pictured:

Fish
“Put another way, fish are better at math than your three month old kid.”

Related: Niniane eats at a vegan joint and likes it.

Triathlon for leukemia and lymphoma research
Julia is doing a triathlon to raise money for charity. If you’d like to sponsor someone who let me play accordion at her wedding, this is your chance.

Read the rest of this entry »

Verse 11: “The woman said to [Jesus],
‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.
Where do you get that living water?’” (John 4:11, NRSV)

God, sometimes we take it for granted when we turn on a tap,
forgetting that, for most people in the world, water is hard to come by.
We thank you for the aqueducts and reservoirs that supply our water,
and we remember the jars on women’s heads in faraway lands.
Give us patience and wisdom when we run short of water.
Read the rest of this entry »

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Jesse Pack, Cha-Cha Connor, and Brendan Melican.

City Councilor Kate Toomey sent Mike birthday greetings on Facebook!

Jesse is starting a “support fund” for area transsexuals facing homelessness and other difficulties. The homelessness rate among transsexuals is very high.

Cha-Cha talks about her performance in the US premiere of “A Journey to Kreisau,” a dramatic presentation about Nazi resister Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, written by Worcester theater icon Marc P. Smith. She connects the performance to both immigration issues and Worcester’s “Canal District.”

Brendan mentions a police harassment settlement involving “disturbingly graphic photographs showing severe facial swelling and bruising.”

Dan Kelley calls in complaining about Mike’s use of the word “complicit.” (Anthony Hmura complains, at greater length, here.)

Brendan comments on this photo of Bruce:

Mike criticizes Worcester Magazine for publishing Kate Toomey’s Facebook updates; he defends them against the InCity Times‘ claim that they got this story “wrong.”

Jesse talks about a press event he held with Cha-Cha to ask the CDC to release some HIV stats.

Mike briefly dropped by the Worcester Local First kickoff event. Mike mentions a Boston Globe article about how the number of 25-34 year-old residents of Massachusetts is in decline.

The New York Times reported on a former Worcester resident living in a box on the Lower East Side.

mp3 link, other formats, feed, low-fi versions

For the first fortnight of February, I visited my friend Dann Dempsey in the great City of Monrovia, California; and the following places of worship:

• First Congregational Church, Long Beach
• Saint Basil’s Catholic Church, Los Angeles
• Central Christian Church of the East Valley
• Historic First Presbyterian Church of Phoenix
• the chapel at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport
• La Placita Church at the Mission of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels
• Pasadena Presbyterian Church
• the chapel at London Heathrow airport

I took Communion and participated in the imposition of ashes at First Congregational; Communion and witnessed a baptism at CCCEV; participated in an elder/deacon ordination at Historic First; caught the last of the Mass at La Placita. Read the rest of this entry »

From an interview reprinted in The Sun, April 1993

Luke Janusz: If Christ lived today instead of 2,000 years ago, how do you think he would be regarded by the political establishment?

Fr. Daniel Berrigan: “If Christ lived today?” I thought he was living today.

JPII: The real deal
Scroll halfway down for the full comic.

Last night was the US premiere of “A Journey to Kreisau,” a dramatic presentation about Nazi resister Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, written by Worcester theater icon Marc P. Smith.

There are 2 more local shows, Feb 19 & 20, 8pm, at the Hibernian Center/Fiddler’s Green (19 Temple St).

I am amazed I’d not heard much about von Moltke before, given that his estate was a center of anti-Nazi activity. In my circle, if you bring up resistance to the Nazis, you are going to hear about the White Rose, Bonhoffer, and of course Jagerstatter, but not von Moltke.

I’m a bit humbled by my ignorance, but mostly eager to read more about him, and excited to realize that there are still so many great men and women of history for me to discover.

Today we had six people praying and fasting for an end to the Iraq War. At the cathedral, we had more positive comments than ever.

Outside the federal building, an old guy was stopped at a red light with a dog in his lap. The way the dog was leaning out the window, he looked like he was driving. “He can’t read your sign!” the old man pointed out with a smile.

Another man stopped by and said, “We can pray all we want and fast all we want, people are making so much money from it it’s never gonna end.”

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panelists are Brendan Melican and Bruce Russell.

The train schedule has changed; there will soon be a Worcester Green-Rainbow Party City Committee; the “connections exceeded” error on the City’s website is caused by turning off cookies in your browser; Brendan responds to Clive McFarlane’s column about strip club zoning; Mike invites you to add to How To Attend A City Council Meeting; Anthony Hmura has an amazing blog post about running into Cha-Cha at an ATM; Mike contrasts hunger strikes with Gandhian fasts; Mike connects his thoughts on the Telegram & Gazette with Bruce Sterling’s thoughts on broadcast TV.

Brendan: “Little cities like Worcester that are so homogenous, and so closeted, in its activities, that we are able to do things that are essentially illegal just a hair below the surface and nobody minds–this is the stripper factory. This is where all the broken souls come from. So for all the politicians that really think they’re on some sort of moral crusade, look at your peers . . . .”

Vaguely related: Vegan strip club perpetuates objectifying mindset

mp3 link, other formats, feed, low-fi versions

We had 5 people with us this rainy day, fasting and praying for an end to the Iraq War.

Outside the Federal Building, a guy asked, “You’re doing this outside the federal court?” Ken said, “Yes.”

“They can’t move Jesus,” the guy said, gesturing to our sign and the building. “They can’t move Jesus!”