Weird feuds and other items

The whole Dianne Williamson-Rosalie Tirella thing
I didn’t find the Dianne Williamson column that started the latest round in this feud very interesting; strange, because so many of the elements would normally appeal to me.

I re-read the column, and when I got to this phrase I found part of the problem:

. . . InCity Times, a small newspaper that purports to speak for blue-collar folks but is actually a vehicle for Ms. Tirella to practice her peculiar brand of yellow, slash-and-burn journalism . . .

This is incorrect. InCity Times is a small newspaper that speaks for blue-collar folks and a vehicle for Ms. Tirella to practice her peculiar brand of yellow, slash-and-burn journalism. And a couple of other things as well.

Williamson’s take is disappointing. Why reduce a fascinating, three-dimensional character to one?

Too often local writers do this, and it drives me crazy. They start with a complex, flavorful, spicy reality, then dilute it way down, punching it up at the last stage with cheap adulterants (in this case, personal rancor).

Also: RT’s offensive response to this article has been posted and removed from several websites, the latest being Worcester Indymedia.
Continue reading “Weird feuds and other items”

508 #52: Episode 52

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Tina Zlody, Jeff Barnard, and Brendan Melican.

[display_podcast]

Tina talks about the upcoming arts festival stART on the Street, Sunday September 21, 2008, 11am – 5pm, Park Avenue, between Highland and Pleasant Streets, Worcester, MA.

We talk about agenda items for Worcester in the coming year. Jeff agrees with Jordan Levy that swapping out our old city councilors would be helpful. Brendan would like to see councilors focus on improving owner-occupancy rates rather than criminalizing hot dogs and marijuana. Mike would like city government to admit that it has a transparency problem, then fix the problem, perhaps beginning by making city meetings available on the web. (Related: Begging states to try to enforce ridiculous assertion that the law is copyrighted.)

Yesterday’s protest at Worcester’s Bank of America got complicated. Our friend Sarah Loy clarifies the situation of the local ACLU. The InCity Times is standing on the verge of getting a website. Comments from Worcesteria, Brendan, and Worcesterite. (Sometime this morning Rosalie began phoning around with legal threats–see the updated Worcesteria post.)

Mike recommends this video of a Bone Zone show.

In the new segment “Bruce Is Incorruptible,” Mike and Bruce Russell review Burrito Taylor’s Major Burritos.

Bruce & a burrito

Theme song: “Angels Soaring Past (I Realize It Now)” by Stale Urine.

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

Thoughts on Catholic education

On Friday, September 20, an event sponsored by the US Army called “The Spirit of America” will be held at the DCU Center.

It is billed as an educational dramatization of American military history and is offered for free especially to students and schools. This is a traveling sound, light, video, and live-action show that includes state-of-the-art special effects and realistic simulated battle scenes in period uniforms. At the end of the show, cards are passed out asking students what they thought of the show and encouraging them to list their email and other contact information. This information is given to military recruiters.

This show came through Worcester several years ago and I joined over 100 Worcester parents who protested outside the arena.

On November 3, 2004, Pope John Paul II said, “No one can consider himself faithful to the great and merciful God who in the name of God dares to kill his brother…. Religion and peace go together: To wage war in the name of religion is a blatant contradiction.” Before he died, Pope John Paul II said that war in Iraq was “unjust, immoral, and illegal.” Pope Benedict XVI has echoed these concerns.

On September 23, five Catholics of this diocese, including myself go on trial in federal court for praying the rosary for an immediate end to the Iraq war.

I hope the Catholic schools will not send children to the pro-military rally “Spirit of America,” but consider sending them to our trial instead. It too is offered for free.

St. Peter’s ministry fair and other items

St. Peter’s ministry fair

People will be tabling about parish ministries after every mass this weekend at St. Peter’s parish in Worcester.

I’ve avoided getting involved in parish ministry in Worcester because I move so much. But I’ve lived in the Greater St. Peter’s Area continuously for the past 11 months, and plan to be here until at least January, so I think it’s time to take the plunge and investigate becoming a lector. (Thanks to TN for a short conversation which convinced me I should get more involved in this way.)

On a related note, from last week’s bulletin:

* Special Notice: The Diocese of Worcester has mandated that every person who is involved in any kind of parish ministry – whether volunteer or paid – must complete a C.O.R.I. form and must participate in a Child Abuse Awareness training program.

I hate filling out government forms as much as anybody, and I have more than enough opportunities to serve the Lord in my daily life that don’t involve paperwork. I can understand a policy like this, but boy it’s annoying.
Continue reading “St. Peter’s ministry fair and other items”

508 #51: Models

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Mark Lund, Cha-Cha Connor, Kevin Ksen, Jeff Barnard, and Brendan Melican.

[display_podcast]

We revisit the story of Karon Shea Model Management. Mark ran their 2008 International Modeling and Talent Association program (see Pulse article) and has mixed feelings about the experience. If you have feedback on this issue, you might want to send it to renegade blogger Marc Reese.

We talk about the Republicans’ bizarre attacks on community organizing with community organizer Kevin Ksen. We mention that Drew Wilson was arrested at the RNC.

Cha-Cha says the Transgender Emergency Fund, first mentioned on 508, is up and running.

We talk about the new Worcester Magazine, Rosalie Tirella’s attacks on Allen Fletcher in the InCity Times, ICT readers defending the late Richard Preston, and boring commenters.

Discussion of the impending T&G layoffs turns into a general discussion of print journalism in Worcester and the various publications serving the city’s subcultures. (WoMag in 2001: “Buyouts and belt-tightening herald an uncertain future for our local–and no longer independent–daily”.)

Next week’s show is #52. We’ll be setting an agenda for the city in the coming year. If you have suggestions or ideas, e-mail pieandcoffee@gmail.com or leave a message at 508-471-3897.

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

Worcester activist arrested at RNC protests

Just got word that a Worcester activist was arrested at the RNC protests. No idea at this point if I should be posting the person’s name, but people are trying to raise bail for this young person, so if you want to kick in a few bucks e-mail us at pieandcoffee@gmail.com and we can give you the details.

Drew

Update: The activist in question is my soul brother Drew Wilson. I’m told he, like so many others, is charged with felony conspiracy to riot. Here’s an interview with him from last year. You may recall that he and Allison Vasallo were, despite their best efforts, arrested earlier this year for hanging a banner from an overpass. In Massachusetts, that’s no longer tolerated.

Drew
Drew wears silly glasses at HBML.

Notes on the new Worcester Magazine

The first Worcester Magazine under new management is out today.

Here’s a running list of my notes, mostly for my own future reference.

Excerpts from the masthead. Folks from the previous incarnation in bold:

Publisher: Gareth Charter
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Keogh
News Editor: Scott Zoback
Arts & Entertainment Editor: Doreen Manning
Photographer: Steven King
Contributing Writers: Douglass Chapel, Janice Harvey, Ina Irving (this is a pseudonym), Matthew Quinn (also a pseudonym)
Editorial Interns: Nick Vorres

Bylines:
Scott Zoback: 6
Jim Keogh: 3, co-author of weekly picks page
Doreen Manning: 1, co-author of weekly picks page
Steven King: cover photo, “People on the Street” etc.
Doug Chapel: 1
David Wildman: 1
Nick Vorres: 1
Ina Irving: 1

“One on One” is Allen Fletcher (looking sad in what I guess is an old photo) interviewed by Zoback. The only missing feature I notice is Charlene Arsenault’s “Cookie” column on local bands and the like.

“Ina Irving” and “Matthew Quinn” are the pseudonymous restaurant reviewers. If they keep the pseudonym, does that mean it’s the same person? Why is there pseudonyms on the masthead anyway?

They still have the unsigned editorial. Who thinks this is a good idea in 2008?

Anyhow, with Scott writing so much (the contributions from others are either autobiographical or light) it’s not much different from previous issues.

36 staffers to be cut at Telegram & Gazette

From the paper itself, this afternoon:

Publisher Bruce Gaultney notified the staff of planned cuts and other changes in an e-mail to employees this afternoon.

The current workforce of about 600 will be reduced by 36, Mr. Gaultney said. Employees in news, advertising and certain other departments will be offered severance packages. If the buyout offer doesn’t reach its goal, the company will have an involuntary severance program, or layoffs.

[…]

The Telegram & Gazette has had previous rounds of buyouts, including two earlier this year.

Previously:

We should expect the next T&G circulation figures in October or November.

The fading of the T&G is bad news all around. Local blogging has been on the rise in the past year, but still nobody’s emerged to pick up the slack from the T&G.

Update: Buck Paxton suggests some layoff targets.

Cross-posted at Worcesterite.

Different kinds of non-resistance

From the first chapter of Christian Non-Resistance by Adin Ballou (1846).

What is Christian Non-Resistance? It is that original peculiar kind of non-resistance, which was enjoined and exemplified by Jesus Christ, according to the Scriptures of the New Testament. Are there other kinds of non-resistance? Yes.

  1. Philosophical non-resistance of various hue, which sets at nought divine revelation, disregards the authority of Jesus Christ as a divine teacher, excludes all strictly religious considerations, and deduces its conclusions from the light of nature, the supposed fitness of things and the expediency of consequences.
  2. Sentimental non-resistance, also of various hue; which is held to be the spontaneous dictate of man’s higher sentiments in the advanced stages of their development, transcending all special divine revelations, positive instructions, ratiocination and considerations of expediency.
  3. Necessitous non-resistance, commonly expressed in the phrase “passive obedience and non-resistance,” imperiously preached by despots to their subjects, as their indispensable duty and highest virtue; also recommended by worldly prudence to the victims of oppression when unable to offer successful resistance to their injurers.

With this last mentioned kind Christian Non-Resistance has nothing in common. With philosophical and sentimental non-resistance it holds much in common; being, in fact the divine original of which they are human adulterations, and embracing all the good of both without the evils of either. This treatise is an illustration and defense of Christian Non-Violence, properly so designated.

508 #50: Worcester Magazine

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel includes former Worcester Magazine News Editor Noah Schaffer, Jeff Barnard, and Brendan Melican.

[display_podcast]

Worcester Magazine has been sold. We discuss why Allen Fletcher sold it and what this will mean for the future of the magazine. Key documents: memo from new publisher Gareth Charter, Jeff Barnard’s overview of WM history, Fletcher’s farewell editorial, and Mike’s old analysis of WM. Outgoing editor Noah Bombard probably bcc’ed half of Worcester with his farewell letter, but since nobody else has taken the time to post it you’ll find it here, below the fold.

So what is Worcester Magazine’s role?

Jeff Barnard: Filling in the backstory.

Noah Schaffer: Today you’ve got podcasts, like the one we’re on now. You’ve got blogs. So it’s not just a matter of providing another voice. Because, you know, if someone wants to get a viewpoint out there, they have plenty of channels these days. But what’s really hard to do, unless you’re a full-time reporter, is to find the stories that aren’t being told in the blogs, or on talk radio, or in the daily paper, and to really fill them in in a rich, detailed way.

We discuss “Brendan Melican, celebrity blogger” and his appearances on the Dianne Williamson radio show and as the last interviewee in One On One.

Brendan Melican on WCRN

Also mentioned: Dianne Williamson’s FCC violations, Konnie Lukes and Brendan talking about ICANN.

City Councilor Gary Rosen is back teaching school; City Councilor Rick Rushton is gonzo blogging from the DNC. People have marched on behalf of DCU janitors. (Old article by Mike on day labor in Worcester, which mentions cleaning up at the DCU.)

The Research Bureau is standing on the verge of having a blog. Joe the Dispatcher Guy is blogging a lot: “I have been thinking of doing just a summary of the entire day versus every hour or every 2 hours.”

We discuss the prolific, boring commenters who hang out at Brendan’s blog, and also traffic.

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

To leave a voice 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:

Email:

We won’t share this list with others.

Continue reading “508 #50: Worcester Magazine”