Category: Podcasts

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panelists are Brendan Melican and Worcester School Committee candidate Tracy Novick.[display_podcast]

Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed, lo-fi versions for slow connections

Video: Downloads and other formats

This week begins a series introducing Worcester election challengers. We mostly talk about the School Committee and the elections. Other relevant links and notes:

• School starts next week
• Mushroom kits
• First issue of Inside Worcester is out
• Vegetarian renaissance: Veggie Corner opens where Quan Yin was, more dining guides being printed, Worcester Veg Fest slated for mid-April
• Vegetarians have a Lower Cancer Rate than Regular Meat-Eaters
• Yellow ribbons taken from Columbus Park yard
• Chandler cleanup hailed (Contrary to our claim, Paulie not mentioned)

Just the Novick interview:

508 contact info

508 is a show about Worcester. This week, Brendan and Mike mourn that Gary Rosen is not running for re-election.

[display_podcast]

Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed, lo-fi versions for slow connections

Video: Downloads and other formats

Also: the first issue of Blank Canvas in 2 years is out; Derek Ring took photos of some LaRouche people; there’s a Buddha Hut brunch tomorrow; vegans should check out Chris Gould’s food cart at the Dive Bar; The Woo is holding a 12-hour prayer vigil for Main South; the pond weeds are supposedly no big deal; there was a pot bust in Worcester; we talk about a famous acid bust; Mike is thinking of growing mushrooms.

Also: Intermission.

508 contact info

508 is a show about Worcester. This week, Mike and Brendan read the papers and cover some of the basics of Worcester’s upcoming election, scarcely 3 months away.

[display_podcast]

Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed, lo-fi versions for slow connections

Video: Downloads and other formats

Note: Not long after this podcast was recorded, Gary Rosen announced he was not running.

Brendan’s Tracy Novick yard sign was stolen, along with all the other Novick signs on his street.

Notable articles from Thursday’s paper:

• Street survivors
• Cat killed in ‘self-defense’
• Barren Burncoat landscape toured

The InCity Times celebrates their 8th anniversary. The Catholic Radical discusses banking and efforts to unionize local janitors. We mention that this effort may impact cleaning service owner Stephen Buchalter’s campaign. We also review some backstory of Joe O’Brien and Grace Ross, and how Mike Germain won the last election under unique circumstances.

Continue reading “508 #79: Worcester elections 101”

508 is a show about Worcester. This weeks panelists are Brenna Cussen and Brendan Melican. It’s been a rough week in the area. So we explore the public art exhibit in Elm Park, study invasive water plants, note the upcoming Christianity and Anarchism conference, and look forward to another Creative Laundry event.

Audio listeners are offered a classic IKEA item, and will enjoy Jonathan Coulton’s “Ikea“.

[display_podcast]

Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed, lo-fi versions for slow connections

Video: Downloads and other formats

Continue reading “508 #78: Elm Park art”

508 is a show about Worcester. This week, Brendan Melican, Tracy Novick, and Kevin Ksen answer the hard questions. What is the secret plan to save the pools? Should the city ban plastic grocery bags? Does it matter who the mayor is?

[display_podcast]

mp3 link, other formats, feed, lo-fi versions for slow connections

On the subject of bags: giving out canvas bags in Worcester, making a canvas bag, making a bag from other bags.
Continue reading “508 #77: Secret plans”

508 is a show about Worcester. This week, Mike and Brendan talk about dumpster diving in Worcester, and also the New Orleans, Buddha Hut, and Ice Cream fests last weekend.

[display_podcast]

We don’t talk about David Rushford.

Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed

Continue reading “508 #76: Dumpster Diving”

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

[display_podcast]

We mention the July 11 NOLA fest, and the Buddha Hut fundraising buffet for VegWorcester.

We consider the newer, smaller Worcester Magazine and its newer, smaller name: Worcester Mag.

Mike wrote an article for them about shopping locally. He didn’t get to reference the “visionary localism” that interests him so much, for example “The Switch to Local Manufacturing”.

Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed

Video: other formats

Continue reading “508 #75: Wincing and Worcester Mag”

508 is a show about Worcester. This week, we try and fail to bike with Critical Mass.

[display_podcast]

Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed

Video: other formats

Continue reading “508 #74: “Critical Mass””

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

[display_podcast]

Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed

Video: other formats

508 is now arguably the first local program to be an equal citizen of both the internet and TV. You can watch it on Worcester cable channel 13 Tuesdays at 12:30am and 11:30am. Plenty of local programs from traditional media have some internet component, in most cases, unfortunately, on the periphery of what they do, rather than near the core.

We touch on shopping locally, then delve into this year’s school budget. Mike promotes the upcoming Blogger Beer. The restaurant Quan Yin is closing. (You should watch at least a few minutes of Supreme Master TV.)

The Worcester City Council’s CORI vote was apparently delayed by an unreported screw-up by people in the Clerk’s office.

The InCity Times has an angry, personal rant inspired by an unlikely issue.

Brendan had a great time at Worcester’s Pecha Kucha.

Our conversation about urban “open space” takes a turn when Mike brings up the article “US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive.”

Continue reading “508 #73: Pikachu”