MetaFilter posts tagged with boston

After the Boston bombing, recovery...and fund-raising

gottabefunky — Thu, 30 May 2013 10:49:37 -0800

"Two weeks ago, it took a team to lift [Mery] Daniel from bed; now she can walk 100 yards on her own. But she is also fatigued and frustrated, six weeks after a blast at the Boston Marathon tore through her legs...Now she has a new worry: Making up for lost time fund-raising." By the time Daniel came forward in May, many victims had raised at least $50,000, including about a dozen who had collected six figures and a few closing in on $1 million. That is separate from the more than $35 million contributed to the nonprofit One Fund, expected to disburse at least $750,000 to each amputee.

"...your trauma high is always someone else’s trauma."

zarq — Mon, 27 May 2013 05:59:15 -0800

Fire School

“Now I feel like I’ve earned my medal."

roomthreeseventeen — Sun, 26 May 2013 14:18:40 -0800

Yesterday, thousands of runners participated in One Run Boston, an one mile event organized for those who were injured in the Boston bombings, and those who were stopped on the course without a chance to finish. The BAA recently announced that all runners who started the 2013 Boston Marathon, made it past the half marathon point and were stopped on the course will receive automatic entry into the 2014 race without needing to re-qualify.

Black Backpacks and Colored Circles

El Sabor Asiatico — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:41:49 -0800

The Boston Marathon bombings may be fading from the front pages, but the numerous conspiracy theories that sprang up in the wake of the incident continue to rage on, spurred by professional conspiracists such as Alex Jones. Book reviewer and skeptic Anita Dalton (previously), at her new website devoted to skeptical examinations of conspiracy theories and paranormal claims, has kicked off a meticulous and in-depth series of posts comprehensively debunking the Boston Marathon conspiracy theories. (Related: Why rational people buy into conspiracy theories.)

Easy as the breeze...

pxe2000 — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:53:17 -0800

The Boston easy listening station WJIB has developed a cult following among senior citizens, children, and young artsy types. Before local radio legend Bob Bittner revived the call letters and format of the beloved beautiful music station, the 740 frequency had an unusual and eccentric history. Throughout the 1970s, the independently-owned station WCAS held down the 740 frequency. The initials stood for Watertown, Cambridge, Arlington, and Somerville. The station was known for its folk music format (including the weekly live music broadcast from Passim), but the quirky format attracted a loyal (if small) listener base. Though the station shut down at dusk (due to issues unique to AM radio), they made this into a selling point, and even composed songs and wrote sketches to close out their program day. Though the station survived two community fundraising events, they closed their doors in 1981.

The teen who's keeping you safe from TV spoilers, one tweet at a time.

shiu mai baby — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:19:36 -0800

Meet the 17-year-old kid who won a Boston hackathon by creating a killer hack for Twitter, blocking out TV show spoilers. Also, she's a girl, and the only solo entrant.

Do you spit or swallow?

MissySedai — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:20:06 -0800

Bostonians Tyler Balliet and Morgan First love wine. Drinking it, talking about it, introducing other people to it. But wine, unfortunately, is often perceived to have an attitude, a culture of snottiness and pretension that puts people off before they even get close to a wine glass. Why swirl it? What's with that obnoxious sucking sound? What the hell is the deal with spitting it out? What about the confusing vocabulary and snooty descriptors? When did wine become "sassy" or "understated", instead of "delicious"?

At a large wine festival in New York, Tyler Balliet witnessed what he described as “one of the saddest things I ever saw.” A group of young people who—while excited to be at the $85-per-ticket event—were clearly flummoxed about how to appreciate wine. Without knowing what to do, Balliet said one member of the group turned to another and said, “Screw it, let’s just get drunk.” The story, Balliet said, serves as an example of how the wine industry has failed to connect with the younger generation of U.S. wine drinkers.

Frustrated by that disconnect between wine producers and would-be wine consumers, First and Balliet maxed out their credit cards in 2008 to found Second Glass, a company dedicated to making wine more accessible and fun for next-gen wine drinkers. How do they intend to do that? By throwing a series of Wine Riots - expo-style walk-around wine tasting festivals, complete with 20 minute "crash courses", DJs, swag, food...and unlimited tastings of 250 wines from all over the world, presented in a casual, party atmosphere. And to make it easy to keep track of your wine adventuring? They've got a mobile app to help you take notes and tell you where to find your favorites after you've sobered up. The first Wine Riot of 2013 has already passed, but there are more! Next one is this weekend in Chicago, with more scheduled in San Francisco, NYC, DC, Boston, and LA.

Dzhokhar does the robot

Rory Marinich — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:07:55 -0800

Up until last week, "One Direction Infection," a Tumblr blog created and maintained by an eighth grader we'll call Claire, looked like any other 14-year-old's Tumblr. But over the weekend Claire's subject matter took a sharp turn. In place of candid shots of Harry Styles and Zayn Malik, there are now photos of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; instead of inspirational image macros, there are annotated crime scene photos. Gawker's Max Read on where social media fandoms meet conspiracy theories.

Our Fair City

backseatpilot — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 06:41:50 -0800

Portraits of Boston

Boston in lockdown as hunt for marathon bombers unfolds

Rhaomi — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:22:07 -0800

What started as a report of a convenience store robbery near the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last night has sprawled into a chaotic manhunt for the perpetrators of the recent terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon. The deadly pursuit, involving a policeman's murder, a carjacking, a violent chase with thrown explosives, and the death of one suspect, has resulted in Governor Deval Patrick ordering an unprecedented lockdown of the entire Boston metropolitan area as an army of law enforcement searches house by house for the remaining gunman. The Associated Press has identified the duo as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, who remains at large. Both are immigrants from wartorn Chechnya in southwestern Russia. The Guardian liveblog is good for quick updates, and Reddit's updating crowdsourced timeline of events that has often outpaced mainstream media coverage of the situation. You can also get real-time reports straight from the (Java-based) local police scanner.

Explosions at Boston Marathon Finish Line

knile — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:12:38 -0800

"At the finish line of the Boston Marathon, two explosions have left multiple people injured." via ParadisePost. CBS Boston has a live video feed up of the finish line.

Sympathy for the Cabbie

Rustic Etruscan — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:25:55 -0800

Boston taxi cab drivers, often cheated, work in a world where risk and reward are a mismatch. Part Three of Three. Part One: Bribes are a common routine for Boston taxi drivers Part Two: An empire built of ambition and a very hard edge

Boston Police attempting to infiltrate house shows

Greg Nog — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 07:09:55 -0800

“What is the Address for the local music show tonight?"

Thieves Identified In Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist

ericb — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:18:08 -0800

"In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990 – as the city was preoccupied with Saint Patrick's Day celebrations – a pair of thieves disguised themselves as Boston police officers, gained entry to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and stole thirteen works of art."* "The stolen works have a total estimated worth of around $500 million, making the robbery the largest property theft ever"* and "considered the greatest art theft in history."* Today the FBI announced that they have identified the people who stole the masterworks. They also said they had determined where the artworks had traveled in the years after the robbery. The FBI said they did not know where they were now and were appealing to the public for their help in finding them. The Gardner Museum is offering a reward of $5 million for information leading to the recovery of these works.

The sorry state of Boston sports writers

Melismata — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:42:58 -0800

From the most recent Boston Magazine. "The Boston sports media, once considered one of the country’s best and most influential press corps, is stumbling toward irrelevance. The national media not only seems to break more big Boston sports stories than the local press, but also often features more sophisticated analysis, especially when it comes to using advanced statistics. To put it bluntly, “The Lodge”—as Fred Toucher, cohost of the 98.5 The Sports Hub morning radio show, mockingly refers to the city’s clubby, self-important media establishment—is clogged with stale reporters, crotchety columnists, and shameless blowhards. " There's even a whole blog dedicated to hating Dan Shaughnessy, Dan Shaughnessy Watch, aka the CHB.

Rex Trailer, New England legend, rides off into the sunset

bondcliff — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:39:51 -0800

New England legend Rex Trailer, host of Boomtown from 1956 to 1974, has died at 84. New Englanders might remember Rex's commercials for Crimson Travel, which were a staple of afternoons on UHF. Rex was also a pilot and would often make local appearances in one of his helicopters. Rex will be missed.

The Old Corner Bookstore is Now a Chipotle

Rustic Etruscan — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:21:59 -0800

"'Personally, I think it’s slightly sad how easy it was to get,' Jessica says, referring to the building. She brightens. 'But everyone at Chipotle was really excited to get this spot because of the history, the chance to be a part of Boston’s history. This is the oldest retail location in Boston.'" (via)

The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre

Horace Rumpole — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 10:59:29 -0800

"People haven’t been fascinated by this book because the translation is mellifluous or beautiful,” said Michael F. Suarez, a professor of English at the University of Virginia who directs the Rare Book School there. “People haven’t been attracted to this book because the presswork is beautiful. It’s not.” Instead, the Bay Psalm Book is treasured for being the first surviving piece of printing done in the British North American colonies. Only 11 copies, many incomplete, today survive. Remarkably two of those copies belong to the same owner, Boston's Old South Church. This month, the church made the controversial decision to sell one (the first such sale in 65 years), and it could bring as much as $20 million for the church's endowment.

Stress at MIT

Rustic Etruscan — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 19:22:21 -0800

The Tech, a newspaper at MIT, has published a report about MIT students' stress. (via) The paper's introduction to this issue. The blog post that prompted the study. The open letter from MIT's president urging students to read said blog post.

Tantric Negotiating

mannequito — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:18:07 -0800

Yesterday was Day 80 of the NHL lockout, with the situation looking pretty grim after a failed intervention by US federal mediators. Then on Monday, WBZ-TV Boston's Steve Burton surprised everyone by leading off his segment with this bombshell. Tuesday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Union Director Don Fehr took the unusual tactic of stepping back to allow owners and players to negotiate directly. With the annual Board of Governors meeting happening Wednesday and a press conference scheduled afterwards, NHL insiders across twitter are expressing cautious optimism that the puck will soon be dropped.

"I'm livin' in America. And in America you're on your own."

the man of twists and turns — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 07:23:51 -0800

Killing Them Softly - Trailer(Youtube) - is based on a 1978 novel by George V. Higgins (Boston's Balzac), set in Boston. The movie was filmed in New Orleans and set in 2008. Written and directed by Andrew Dominik, who previously directed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Starring: Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta(Interviewed by Esquire), Vincent Curatola The film has opened to mixed reviews: Positive:Rolling Stone, Paste, The Guardian, Grantland, Mother Jones, The AV Club, CSMonitor Middling: The Village Voice, Reason , Vanity Fair Negative:Chicago Sun-Times, Slate, NYTimes, New York Observer The Atlantic:

An heir to Hammett and Hemingway and Chandler and Cain, Higgins, who died in 1999, has somehow fallen out of the hard-boiled firmament. Yet the tough, literate, dialogue-driven idiom he helped invent is everywhere in ascendance: David Mamet and Elmore Leonard have cited him as major influences (the latter calls his first book, The Friends of Eddie Coyle [a movie too], "the best crime novel ever written"). Groundbreaking entertainments such as The Sopranos, The Wire, and the collected oeuvre of Quentin Tarantino have all followed closely in the vernacular path beaten by Higgins.

The Criminally Overlooked Novels Of George V. Higgins, full of linguistic loot. The NYTimes has collected reviews of his novels. George V. Higgins’ Eddie Coyle: Even Better than True The NY Times discusses the sound effects, and has and interactive piece with the sounds in one scene. Featured prominently in the trailer is Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around," which is one of his last original songs and has a significant amount of Christian apocalyptic imagery.

Boston's Cocoanut Grove Fire

madamjujujive — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:55:04 -0800

70 years ago today, 492 people perished in a fire at Boston's popular Cocoanut Grove nightclub. The Cocoanut Grove Coalition offers documents, images, videos, and artifacts of the fire and its aftermath. This fascinating 1995 WGBH clip interviews a variety of survivors, offering a window on the era as well as the fire. Other documents of note: The Boston Library's Flickr photo set and the Library's recently released witness statements and final report. Also noteworthy: Buck Jones and the Cocoanut Grove controversy. If you enjoyed the WGBH interview, it was part of an enjoyable historic series called Boston the Way It Was, a 2-volume series of Boston in the 30s and 40s.

The New Recreation Frontier?

the man of twists and turns — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 03:57:55 -0800

Lets Swim To Work! "Centuries of boat traffic, heavy industry, sewage runoff and toxic dumping have ingrained in us the idea that urban waterways are not places for people. Even as cities have rushed to the water’s edge over the past couple of decades, building elaborate waterfront parks and esplanades, few have taken the next logical step: encouraging residents to dive in." Swimmable Berlin, a proposal "to transform part of Berlin's Spree River into a natural swimming pool." Tired of commuting by car? No bike paths or dangerous bike paths? Missing, broken or poorly-run public transit? There are other options... Kayak commute dream is a citizen-investor idea (though the city, Tampa, is America's Hottest Mess) 2 NJ Men Beat The Morning Rush By Kayak, at least one Londoner commutes via kayak, and the Charles River in Boston is a popular waterway.

I'm not dead yet!

Horace Rumpole — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 12:56:18 -0800

In the wake of the venerable Boston Phoenix changing to a glossy magazine format and rebranding itself as simply The Phoenix (as well as the ongoing turmoil at the Village Voice), Salon's Will Doig writes the obituary for the age of the alt-weeklies. The Phoenix responds.

"Pluck Be A Lady": 15 Boston female chefs

hypotheticole — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 08:48:38 -0800

The Improper Bostonian: "In a town rightfully famous for its trailblazing female chefs, where Julia Child helped introduce American families to fresh vegetables and unprocessed foods, and Lydia Shire fine-tuned the buttery possibilities of French cooking, women have hardly disappeared from the dining scene. They can be found in other kitchens. But where and why are subject to debate, depending on whom you ask."