On Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. local time, Earth Hour will once again cascade around the globe. Last year, 80 million Americans and 318 U.S. cities officially voted for action with their light switch, joining iconic landmarks from around the world that went dark for Earth Hour.
Tagged BosGuy, Boston Guy, Politics
Tonight I’m off to see my first show of the year, Entertaining Mr. Sloane at the Boston Center for the Arts. The play was written by the English playwright Joe Orton back in 1964. About the show:
The charming, enigmatic Mr. Sloane arrives to rent a room from Kath, a lonely, delusional landlady, in the junkyard house she shares with her declining father. A handsome opportunist, Sloane quickly ingratiates himself, entering into seductions offered by both Kath, and her estranged brother Ed, who soon employs Sloane as his driver. Sloane’s past misdeeds and dueling affections within the family soon collide, leading to a desperate act that proves the limit of his charms, and reveals the ruthless and cunning strategies that Sloane’s ‘victims’ will engage in to preserve their unique arrangement.
Should be interesting and I’m hoping it will prove to distract me from the work which has dominated my attention now for too long. I hope you have a nice weekend filled with pleasant distractions too.
Tagged BosGuy, Boston Guy, Theater
Not sure how new this news is, but I had not heard about a breakthrough in AIDS research which found that a common acne drug first used in the 1970s can keep HIV dormant. I first read about this in Brenton’s popular blog, Aussielicious this morning. And after a bit of searching on Google, I found that this study was actively being discussed back in 2008 at the XVII International AIDS Conference.As Brenton says in his blog, any advancement that can help prevent the spread of or help improve the quality of life of those impacted by this virus is good news. If you’d like to learn more there is a brief (1 minute) video of Dr. Janice Clements explaining what the acne drug minocycline does to the virus here.
Tagged AIDS Action Committee, BosGuy, Boston Guy, Gay
I’ll be the first to admit that my sense of humor is not appreciated by everyone, but this mini-infomercial stopped me dead in my tracks when I heard it last year and it had the same effect when I heard it earlier tonight. Do the makers of “Pro-Caulk” realize what they are saying? Check out the video. I was almost in tears listening to the enthusiastic voice practically shout “You need Pro-Caulk!”
Just in case you think this is a farce, you can visit the official “Caulk” site as I like to refer to it by linking here. No worries unlike many “caulk” sites on the web this is totally safe to view from work. It might even inject some much needed humor into your day.
Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe wrote an interestingly funny article back in November that I forgot to post until today. In his article, Matthew writes, what if the networks and cable channels promoted themselves as they really are? He surmised that their names, slogans, and mission descriptions might look something like this. I’ve chosen a couple of my favorites.NBC = SDTV: Self-Destructive TV
We dig ourselves deeper into the hole!
At SDTV, we don’t fool around when it comes to ruining our network. By placing our future in the hands of personalities such as Howie Mandel, Donald Trump, and Jay Leno, we pretty much guarantee our own failure.
Bravo = GLBTv
For Grace and her favorite Will
Need some fabulous fashion advice? Want a lesson in trendy lingo? We know absolutely everything about clothes, real estate, and hair. Plus, we have Kathy Griffin. Let us be your gay best friend.
Fox News = Fox “News’’
Who cares if it’s true?
In our shop, we believe that too much value is placed on facts. We’d rather just go after anything that moves in that unbalanced, unfair, democratic, liberal, commie kind of way. You know what we mean. If you like screeds, we’ll be there for you.
You can read the full article here.
Posted in People say the funniest things
Tagged BosGuy, Boston Guy, Pop Culture, The Boston Globe
It has been awhile since I’ve posted a quiz, but I saw this on a blog I read called Iced Tea & Sarcasm, and I thought I’d share it as well. I suppose for those who know me and my philosophical leanings, this is not surprising. I’ll be frank and say I’m not exactly sure how ‘scientific’ this is, but I’ve always enjoyed these sort of things and thought I’d share it. It took me less than 5 minutes to complete the questions. Take the online poll if you like by linking here. No shock that my focus on issues pertaining to social justice and human rights seem to not only skew my political ideology but also put me out of sync with most of my fellow Americans. It is frustrating because I always feel like I’m either considered naive or some sort of lunatic.
Tagged BosGuy, Boston Guy, Politics
An ABC pilot show called Boston’s Finest is shooting scenes outside of my neighborhood cafe, The South End Buttery. The catering trucks currently line Washington Street and the corner of Shawmut Ave and Union Park are blocked off. The inside of the Buttery has been turned into a sort of holding pen for many of the extras and some of the wardrobe. While I was ordering my lunch I did happen to see New England native,Treat Williams, walk by, which was sort of cool. I was told that the filming for the pilot concludes today so I will be able to get my lunch and afternoon coffee without competing for space with all the extras who were essentially just sitting still and taking up space.Tagged Art and Film, BosGuy, Boston Guy, Pop Culture
If you can get smarter by surrounding yourself with really intelligent people, then my IQ jumped a few points today. Yesterday evening a few well respected doctors flew into Boston to attend a meeting my team hosted today to talk about a new and interesting area in medicine referred to as Personalized Medicine. If people have heard the term before, they are most likely inclined to think of medical/testing products that can be purchased at a pharmacy (i.e. pregnancy tests). But P.M. is so much more. A popular definition is medicine that incorporates genetic profiles for the prevention, detection, and treatment of disease by taking into account a person’s unique genetic profile.
These ‘thought leaders’ shared stories about what they are seeing and their insights were extremely interesting. While some of the stories sounded a bit like something more suited for a science fiction movie the reality is that this is more real than fiction. How our government and governments around the world react (either encouraging more development through investment or discouraging it by creating impediments) is yet to be seen. The Human Genome project which started in 1990 and mapped the genetic make-up of humans has helped unlock significant opportunities for defining new treatments (medical, nutritional and behavioral) for keeping a person healthier longer. This international public/private scientific research project is what I mean by governments ‘encouraging more development’.
Imagine being able to customize preventitive strategies so women with a genetic predisposition to develop breast cancer can have mamograms more frequently than the general public so they can increase their chance of an early detection? Imagine an individual likely to suffer from Diabetes Type II being ‘prescribed’ work out sessions with a trainer and sessions with a nutritionist to avoid this chronic disease, which now afflicts an estimated 20 million Americans? These are just some of the opportunities that exist as advances in personalized medicine are realized – pretty cool.
Lim’ricks are the naughtiest prose
Dirty rhymes we love to compose
Men from Nantucket
Shouting, “Go $uck it!”
Are fun to write I suppose
If you have a Limerick you’d like to share, I’d enjoy hearing it. Feel free to e-mail me or leave it in the comments section. Oh yeah, and Happy St. Patrick’s day – it’s practically a holy day of obligation here in Boston.
Tagged BosGuy, Boston Guy, Poetry
This evening I was perusing one of my favorite blogs WGB (Mom you wouldn’t like it) and there was a post about this being his 4th day working out and dieting; no doubt to get into shape before the warmer weather gets here. It made me realize the last time I referenced my work outs was in late January in my Resolutions Revisited post.
I’m quite pleased to say that I’ve been fairly disciplined going to the gym and meeting with my trainer, Stu, twice a week. Tonight I lifted 85lb dumb bells (the heaviest I’ve done to date) for single arm rows. Since I had no idea what this back exercise was prior to working out with Stu, I’ve included a photograph..I’ve not been quite as good about going to the gym when I don’t have a standing apppointment with Stu, but I’m working on getting better and plan to try and get in a cardio work out 1-2 days a week. I’ll keep you posted. If you’re also struggling to make time for your work out let me know – misery enjoys company.
Tagged BosGuy, Boston Guy, Fitness
Saturday night I had an early dinner at Coppa Enoteca, Ken Oringer’s newest restaurant which opened earlier this year in the space formerly occupied by The Dish. The space has been completely remodelled, but it remains a tiny place seating no more than 30-40 people. When dining al fresco is an option, I would guess that they will be able to increase seating by 50%.The menu is filled with small plates intended to be shared. My favorites included the handmade pasta dishes and white pizza, but everything we ate was delicious. The space is tiny and in cold weather everyone gets chilled each time the door opened. Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette need to figure out a fix for that, because I won’t go there again in bad weather and next winter this place will no longer be a novelty.
However, despite the rain and chill, the place was hopping so you need to arrive early to snag a table. Since the menu is Italian tapas, you end up having a leisurely dinner and it is easy to lose track of time (we did). But after 2+ hours of eating the bill was a reasonable $55.00 per person (drinks and tip included). I’ll definitely be back when it is better weather.
Details:
Coppa
253 Shawmut Avenue, Boston MA
617-391-0902
http://www.coppaboston.com/
Tagged BosGuy, Boston Guy, Dining, Restaurant Review, South End
Isn’t it funny the power music can have? When I was driving today this song came on the radio and it made me think of a good friend who recently broke up with a guy she had been dating. You can read her dating chronicles on her blog, My quest to find a husband. Although I’ve no doubt she’s heard this song countless times, I’m going to suggest that she listen to this song by Michael Buble for therapy.
BosGuy 