February 2008

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

 

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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.

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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.

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

 

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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.

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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 »