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[0:00] Worcester’s Becker College has the #4 undergrad video game design program in the country, according to Princeton Review. (And WPI is #7!) We talk with faculty, students, and graduates about the industry and hopes for a boom in Worcester.

[11:30] Which games do people love and admire?

[16:35] The T&G put up an online paywall this week. We think the T&G is important and hope it thrives. The competing CentralMassNews claimed a 20% increase in traffic over the first 2 days. Some website I can’t find reported the T&G had thousands of accounts registered the first day. Brendan thinks the # of article comments is way down. (See also Jeff Barnard’s incisive analysis.)

[18:36] We talk about the technical aspects. Brendan wishes their visitor tracking were stricter so the results of the paywall experiment could be conclusive. Mike likes that their paywall is not so strict as to inconvenience legitimate subscribers with configuration issues.

[21:46] Brendan has been e-mailing some of these problems to the T&G.

[23:26] Mike set up isthereanythinggoodintodaystandg.info as an excuse to see if the 10 free monthly articles are enough to keep someone informed about the civic basics.

The T&G’s Victor Infante has been writing about our reactions to the paywall, and having some discussions in the comments with Brendan. (See LiveJournal: 1, 2, 3.)

[26:15] Becker people get free copies of the T&G.

[27:30] College is starting soon.

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[0:00] The “Worcester World Cup” soccer tournament is coming up this weekend. The Liberian team will win.

[6:30] The City Council is still considering a pit bull crackdown. We still think this is a bad idea.

[11:35] The city should crack down on sharks.

[12:27] The # of registered dogs in the city have declined 15% this year. ???

[14:00] World Cup organizer Laura Suroviak reads the list of represented nations.

Mike apologizes for acting like a jerk.

[15:08] A mayor’s-task-force report this week looked at what Worcester could do to attract business. Brendan talks about taxes.

[20:13] Mike is acting like a jerk.

[20:50] The T&G keeps writing about the Center for Immigration Studies without noting the extent of their anti-immigration line.

[23:56] Mike apologizes for acting like a jerk.

[24:14] The T&G still hasn’t added a paywall to their website. “Empty threats.” Mike’s household finally cancelled their print subscription. They now have a mobile version at mobiletg.com which, on first glance, feels much easier to use than the regular site. (It still, annoyingly, includes lots of non-local stuff above the fold.)

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[0:34] After years of struggle, CORI reform passed in Massachusetts; the governor signed the bill into law today. The ex-prisoners of EPOCA talk about this. (I haven’t found a really good article on this to link to–please let me know if you find something.)

[9:06] PharmaSphere, one-time dream tenant for the South Worcester Industrial Park, will be licensing technology to grow marijuana in Rhode Island (via Bill Randell). Supposedly their SWIP plans are still happening, too.

[10:14] The public hearing on anti-pit bull laws will be August 10. The Worcester Animal Rescue League voices their opposition in this video (which just went online, so I haven’t watched it).

[10:25] More about CORI reform.

[20:38] Jack Stewart wrote in to suggest that people donate blood in the name of recent blood recipient and sometime 508 panelist Jeff Barnard. I am totally doing this.

[21:07] Bunch of art in Elm Park worth checking out.

[21:39] CORI wrap-up.

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[0:31] Dan Dick died this week; his funeral today. Among other things, Dan was a long-time activist who worked on civil rights, ending the Vietnam War, Catholic church reform, and environmentalism. (There’s a video below of Dan talking about Worcester’s water supply. This week in the T&G were a posthumous letter-to-the-editor, an obituary, and a remembrance by Clive McFarlane.)

[2:40] There’s a big hole in the side of the Paris Cinema.

[3:16] The True Value on Park Ave. is having its Final Sale. Are locally-owned businesses in Worcester doing better or worse than elsewhere? Is the Local First movement making a difference? Please pass along your anecdotes.

[7:32] Facebook comments.

[8:45] Brendan praises a Worcester Magazine article on the struggles of local veterans. Mike speculates that working for WoMag is like alien abduction.

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[0:56] The George Street Challenge is coming up.

[2:15] They’re doing The Taming of the Shrew in Green Hill Park the next few weeks.

[3:00] Billy Blue is coming back to Worcester Saturday.

[3:30] Gary Rosen thinks Brendan is running for City Council next year.

[3:46] There was a Tea Party protest Saturday at which an interloper attempted to desecrate the flag.

[5:46] We oppose the City Council’s planned anti-pit bull ordinance, as does the Worcester Animal Rescue League.

[14:33] New York Times operating profit is up, whereas the Globe + T&G’s revenue is down. (To clarify, their circulation revenue is up, but circulation is probably down.)

[15:10] We revisit the long and frustrating history of the South Worcester Industrial Park. Thanks to Nicole for helping produce this segment.

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[0:25] We speculate about Saturday’s Worcester Peace Festival.

[1:30] The Transgender Emergency Fund is raising money with a calendar.

[5:55] Brian Goslow walks by.

[6:00] Disclosure: Brendan’s working on Steve Grossman’s state treasurer campaign.

[6:35] The Brazilian cop who murdered Brendan’s friend Joe Martin was himself shot to death.

[8:10] A city girl had her leg cut off while hopping a train. Chris gives guarded advice to Worcester hoboes. (On a lighter note, you may enjoy John Hodgman’s recitation of hobo nicknames.)

[12:28] We claim that Chris will tell the first-hand story of Mike’s bike being seized by Canadian police during the G-20 conference, but he doesn’t get to that part.

[22:55] We talk about Pharmasphere. Here’s a a reasonably skeptical and detailed WoMag article (from 2009?)

[29:05] Brendan and Chris talk about the anarchist approach to economic development.

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[0:00] We investigate the “moss animals” living in a Worcester pond. These invertebrates are also known as Bryozoa or Ectoprocta. This species is Pectinatella magnifica.

[8:28] According to the cover of Worcester Magazine, the same guy is running for the Republican nomination for US Rep 5 times.

[13:30] We talk with Stephanie and Jen about how they’re confronting the Bad Economy. This week’s quote is from the movie Up in the Air:

Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it’s *because* they sat there that they were able to do it.

We mention the strange case of Grafton’s Scott Nicholson, 24, profiled in the NYT because he’s looking for work:

Over the last five months, only one job materialized. After several interviews, the Hanover Insurance Group in nearby Worcester offered to hire him as an associate claims adjuster, at $40,000 a year. But even before the formal offer, Mr. Nicholson had decided not to take the job.

Rather than waste early years in dead-end work, he reasoned, he would hold out for a corporate position that would draw on his college training and put him, as he sees it, on the bottom rungs of a career ladder.

If you know someone who’s made a job/career/life change in the past 3 years, they might be a good guest for this series. Please contact pieandcoffee@gmail.com.

[28:40] The Greater Worcester Land Trust has an open AmeriCorps position.

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This week we begin a series about how people in Worcester are confronting the Bad Economy. If you know someone with a story to share, contact us at pieandcoffee@gmail.com.

[0:10] We take a look at what drug stuff is on the ground this week.

[2:00] Mike reads a passage from Linchpin by Seth Godin:

The death of the factory means that the entire system we have built our lives around is now upside down. This is either a huge opportunity or a giant threat.

[2:36] Ian talks about his unexpected career as a carpenter/engineer/balloonist.

[21:36] Mike loaned his bike to someone who attended the G-20 summit protests in Toronto and the police hauled it off.

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[0:00] Mike was out of town this week.

[0:48] We attempt to say something interesting and informed about public sector pension liabilities, using the ongoing Mark Rojas fiasco as the hook.

[10:58] Mike, Rick Rushton, and hundreds of others ran the first Worcester Half-Marathon. (Councilor Rushton beat Mike by 5 minutes; such is life.)

[14:45] Worcester Magazine has revamped their website, now running on Broadcast Interactive Media. We favor Wordpress.

[18:36] No T&G paywall yet.

[19:00] Mike doesn’t like Inside Worcester. Thanks for asking.

[20:02] Mike explains what he knows about “We the People.”

[24:10] We talk a little about the Gulf Oil Spill and local seafood consumption, referencing this WoMag piece.

[26:12] Yeah there are PCBs, asbestos, etc. in the old Crompton Park Pool materials.

[27:39] Mike liked Jeff Barnard’s post Nothing Left to Complain About?

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[1:08] Worcester police officer Mark Rojas’s personnel records and poetry were finally released to the T&G.

[3:03] Gabe has looked at the population densities of various cities and their metro areas to figure out 1) why he’s not excited about Austin 2) why Worcester has had such trouble developing its dense urban core.

[15:27] We flip through Worcester Magazine (new look for the website!) and the InCity Times.

[17:35] A cop car gets towed.

[17:48] Mike finds the T&G and WoMag calendars too general to be helpful.

[19:10] City Park Grille: “Why???? WHY!?!?!?!?!?”

[20:17] Gabe to new WoMag editor Danny Cross: “Who is your target demographic?”

[21:19] Ailing Worcester blogger Jeff Barnard was profiled in Dianne Williamson’s column this week.

[22:40] Brendan notices a missing security camera.

[23:50] Cha-Cha’s band is playing the Hotel Vernon Saturday night.

[24:24] Somebody is hammering something.

[25:19] Mike speaks to “general negativity on the internet.” Everyone becomes unaccountably positive.

[27:26] Mike is going to see the opera. (Update: He loved it. You too can see Worcester Opera Works’ production of Die Fledermaus Saturday or Sunday.)

Screw you, Worcester. I’m gonna have a great summer.