The Third Decade

Inside the Cochituate Standpipe

entrance to the pipe, originally uploaded by derequito.

After years of living in and around Roxbury, I finally had the opportunity to go inside the Cochituate Standpipe (the "fort") at the top of Fort Hill. The visit was lead by Rep. Byron Rushing and Discover Roxbury as they showed a film crew from This Old House around Roxbury.

It was great to see how sound the structure is overall, although there was some loose brick chipping off here and there. Unfortunately, when the park service worked on the building a generation ago, they used plexiglass instead of regular glass for the windows. Over time plexi clouds up and becomes opaque, which meant we had four windows but no view.

Oh well. Maybe a preservationist society will take up the cause and restore the monument to its former self. It would be great to have something as well-preserved and open to the public as the Bunker Hill Monument someday.

Madea Goes to Jail, Black Folks Expected to Lose Their Damn Minds.

I'm all for publicity stunts, but I think Lionsgate Films was about to cross the barriers of good taste.

Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail will be released soon. As part of their marketing for the movie, the film studio issued a press release this morning asking for people to show up and stage a mock protest in favor of Madea's release (note, the rally was cancelled this afternoon due to inclement weather). The "protest" was set to happen at 7:30am tomorrow at the intersection of Beacon and Park Streets, with the Fox morning news expected to pick up the story.

That intersection, however, is also where the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial and the Statehouse are. Think about it. Is that really an appropriate location for this kind of publicity stunt? The soldiers from the Massachusetts 54th Regiment (which are featured in the Shaw Memorial) would be spinning in their graves. I also wouldn't be surprised if anyone who's ever protested for civil, marriage, or other rights in front of the Statehouse might feel that Lionsgate is taking an important and powerful local symbol and reducing it to crass commercialism. Besides that, I would hate to think that Deval Patrick, Gloria Fox, or any of the other Black legislators would show up - purposely or accidentally - to add an air of officialty to the event.

Again, I'm all for publicity stunts. But, Lionsgate, please consider the context a little more next time. Yes, Fox news has a studio at that corner. But they could just as easily walk down to Park Street if the rally were there. Or even City Hall. I'm just sayin'.

Elevated Orange Line vs Silver Line

I came across this video of the old El a few days ago and keep coming back to it. In addition to enjoying the video because of the point of view that no longer exists, it's also interesting to hear about the El accident (starts around 0:50) and to see how much Washington St. in the South End has changed. Older folks often say that it was really run down in the 1970s and 1980s; they weren't kidding! 

Still, despite the wooden platforms in the stations and the clickety-clack of the trains overhead, most people I know speak nostalgically about the El. I tried to find a similar video taken from the Silver Line on Washington Street, but couldn't find anything remotely close. Instead I found one of my neighbors being interviewed by WCVB opposing Phase 3 of the Silver Line. If the Silver Line were removed from Washington St tomorrow, I wonder if anyone would speak nostalgically about it.

You. Must. Be. Kidding.

Shouldn't elected officials - like governors - know the vice president's relationship to Congress? More importantly, shouldn't a candidate for vice president know the vice president's relationship to Congress?

Not only is Palin not qualified to be (vice) president, she's not qualified to teach elementary school civics. Ugh!

Real America

 Get ready for a new round of t-shirts and bumper stickers. The McCain campaign is pushing the whole "real America" theme in an effort to divide and conquer. This map of the results from the 2004 presidential election shows how the country was divided between the candidates by county. 

Now, McCain wants to make the connection that only some of these areas are the "real America," but I'll let you guess which ones those are.

Anyway, The Daily Show had a good analysis of this "new" tactic on last night's show. The clip below shown Jon Stewart at his best.

 

Don't forget to take the quiz to learn whether you're a "real American."

SNL Spanked Palin Again

The motto of the McCain campaign lately seems to be "nothing ventured, nothing gained." What were they thinking by allowing Sarah Palin to appear on SNL before the end of the campaign season?! Even though she didn't say anything embarassing, she was mocked and ridiculed relentlessly. Her presence served as little more than a prop, and not even a necessary one at that. Her performance during the rap on Weekend Update was probably the most damaging. I haven't decided yet whether performing it would've been better than the raising-the-roof gig she did. It was awful! Just awful. Could someone remind me again why there are people still supporting her?

Our Candidates, Ourselves

I'm a little bored with local issues these days, but national politics has been an endless source of entertainment and drama. Below are four videos which caught my eye recently.

First up is Donna Brazile. She's got a great mind, but is perhaps one of the most underexposed people in politics.

Second, Fox News spends time talking about an un-retouched photo of Sarah Palin in Newsweek. Guess they didn't hear what Donna Brazile had to say. Still, I'm curious to hear what women think about the issue and the photo.

Third, McCain's rage. I've heard allegations of his temper, but this is the first time I've seen any kind of documentary/documentation about it.

Fourth, Ohio makes me sad. As The Daily Show has pointed out recently, the American public has had 2 years to scrutinize and question Barack Obama. Some people, however, have missed out. I wonder how.

   

(via Towleroad)

That was decent.

As much as I was looking forward to huge gaffes and terrible rambling last night, the VP candidates did well. Like much of the rest of the country, I was impressed with Sarah Palin's skill at answering questions and sounding like she understood the topics. On the other hand, I did notice her rambling when asked about climate change and man's effects (see video). My eyes just glazed over while listening to her not make sense.

I was also put off by her early declaration that she would only speak about what she wanted to speak about rather than answering the moderators questions. That's not debating. That's lecturing and posturing. Of course Biden did the same at times, but at least he addressed the moderators questions and made an attempt to debate Palin by addressing her statements specifically rather than talking about points chosen before the debate.

Unfortunately, we don't have other debates between these two to look forward to. I think it would be interesting to see how they would handle a few more exchanges. But, at least we have round 2 between Obama and McCain to enjoy on Tuesday.

Oh, Sarah...

With only hours until the vice presidential debate, let's take a look back at some of the recent memorable moments from Sarah Palin's interviews with Katie Couric...and end with a laugh via Tina Fey. I dunno about you, but I could use a laugh knowing that millions of people still support Sarah Palin for the second highest political office in the country.

Impressions of the RNC

(My first attempt at live blogging...)

10:30pm: Where are all the people of color?

10:35pm: Why do the delegates keep chanting U.S.A.? This isn't the Olympics. There aren't any international competitors for the Presidency.

10:36pm: McCain is boring to look at. I'm really not interested in watching him for 4 years.

10:42pm: "Education is the civil rights issue of this century." Good line. But school vouchers means taking money away from struggling schools rather than fixing them. Not to mention, students may have to travel further to attend school and class sizes may increase at the better schools.

10:45pm: McCain wants to drill more off-shore oil plants, increase the number of nuclear plants, and burn "clean coal." Yikes! There goes the environment. And, what about conservation and increasing efficiency? I guess economics is more important than a big picture assessment that balances economics and the environment.

10:48pm: Oh, I saw 2 Black people! A man and a woman.

10:50pm: McCain is still boring to watch. HDTV does nothing for him either. I'd be fine if he were strictly a "radio president."

10:51pm: I'm so tired of hearing about his Vietnam imprisonment. Is that going to be his intro to every speech if he's elected?

10:52pm: "We have to catch up to history." Um...isn't McCain living history? I still can't believe he was an active serviceman during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962!

10:55pm: Here we go with the Gulf of Tonkin...

10:58pm: Ugh. he keeps going on and on about being a prisoner of war decades ago. I don't know how many times I've heard the story of how he didn't want to be released early from the Vietnamese POW camp because his early release could have been used as political tool. Yet here we are in 2008 listening to McCain use his imprisonment as a political tool. Can we get some new speeches, please?

11:02pm: McCain is for smaller government. Yet he just urged people unhappy with how the government is currently run to join its ranks to make it better. Hmm...

11:04pm: Well, McCain's speech is over. I don't get a sense of his vision other than he's against what Obama is for. I was hoping he'd outline his plan for leadership a little better or in depth, but I guess I'll have to catch that in one of the debates.