Making Change

22 Feb

It seems my blogging power has untold reach. First, on the way home, I saw that the stretch of sidewalk I wrote about earlier today had been cleared. Now I know it wasn’t all my doing; Universal Hub linked to it and drove a lot of traffic to my post. And of course, I didn’t physically do the shoveling. But still, I’d like to think I had at least something to do with it finally being cleared.

And then my girl Haley Scarnato wasn’t voted off American Idol, which means you all must have read my post about her and called in to vote. Good for y’all. I mean, she wasn’t the best singer this week, and she certainly looks a little out of place next to some of the other women, and I actually felt bad for her during that Tears for Fears song they all sang, but hey … that’s not the point.

The point is that in my own warped little world, my demented sense of reality tells me that my two posts made change happen today. Behold! I am the change maker.

Ice, Ice, Go Away

22 Feb

Who is responsible for the ice and slush on the sidewalk of Babcock St. in Brookline not being cleared yet? The storm was more than a week ago, and yet, that long strip of sidewalk along the parking lot by Harvard Ave. is still covered by a mix of snow, ice, slush and just mess. It’s the only extended part of the street that has yet to be cleared, most likely because it’s not in front of an apartment building. And I know there are rules about this sort of thing if you own property. Well, if this is community property that doesn’t fall under the aegis of a landlord, then doesn’t this strip of sidewalk belong to the town of Brookline? And shouldn’t the town have done something about it by now? And if the weather’s been warm the past two days, wouldn’t it make sense to clear the sidewalk now? I’d love to see this get done soon, so I don’t have to walk in the street anymore to avoid slipping. Especially before the weather turns cold again and more snow comes. Thanks.

California … There They Go!

22 Feb

I really and truly wish I was upset about The O.C. ending its run tonight, but I just can’t get too wistful anymore. Actually, I’m happy it’s ending because the show got so bad halfway through season two and never quite recovered, and I feel like I started watching it again this season mostly because it was ending, and in doing so, I’ve missed out on watching supposedly better shows like 30 Rock. (Fortunately, I have a dual-tuner cable box, so I don’t have to miss Grey’s Anatomy.)

I mean, there was a time when I really really really liked this show. I was so excited to go to California just because I knew I’d be going on a tour of O.C. locations. The Chrismukkah episodes were a highlight of the holiday season. There was always great music. And of course, Summer Roberts. Mmmm…Summer Roberts.

But the bloom fell off the rose and I stopped watching for a while. And now that the show is ending, I’m actually happy about it. So, I’ll be watching tonight (after Grey’s, of course), but I won’t miss The O.C. when it’s gone.

Biting My Tongue

19 Feb

I was already sort of embarrassed to be buying the three magazines I did today at Barnes & Noble, but somehow, it made me feel better that I didn’t make a bad situation even worse. To wit:

Exhibit A:
The cashier rings up my copy of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and I notice the price. So I say to her, “Wow, six bucks for that thing?” And she says, “Well, it’s a special issue.” And I almost replied to her, “It’s not as special as it used to be,” and explained why I was saying that, but I figured it was better to just bite my tongue.

Exhibit B:
The cashier rings up my copy of Every Day with Rachael Ray and comments to me, “I didn’t know Rachael Ray had a magazine.” And while my actual response to her was an emasculating, “Yes, she’s had it for more than a year now,” I almost said, referring to the other magazine I was buying, “Yes, and so does that guy from M*A*S*H.”

So yeah, that situation could have been much worse.

G-Men, B-plus-Movie

18 Feb

God bless Billy Ray. The director coaxed a good performance out of Hayden Christensen in Shattered Glass in 2003, and now he’s done the same with Ryan Phillippe in Breach, a film that tells the story of the efforts in 2001 to catch FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who was suspected of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia. The end result of this film is known up-front — not only is this a true story, but the movie begins with a clip from John Ashcroft’s press conference announcing his capture — so it’s more about the way he was captured. Hanssen, who is played brilliantly by Chris Cooper, was a devout, seemingly by-the-book FBI agent, who doesn’t suffer fools. I love that the Boston Herald called this movie The Devil Wears Brooks Brothers because at first it’s like that. But as Hanssen’s clerk, Eric O’Neill (Phillippe), starts to peel away the layers and becomes an instrumental part of the FBI’s attempts to catch Hanssen, the movie becomes more cat and mouse and less, um, catty. Because we know how the story ends up, there aren’t too many surprising twists like you’d find in a conventional spy thriller, and Ray does his best to ratchet up the suspense a few times, but mostly Breach plays like a solid inside-D.C. drama that eschews such conventions. As mentioned, both Cooper and Phillippe are good, but Laura Linney, as O’Neill’s real boss, just doesn’t carry her weight. For some reason, she can’t bark orders like the rest of them and it’s almost laughable. They say good movies don’t get released in mid-February, and while I didn’t enjoy Breach as much as Shattered Glass, I still say it’s still worth seeing. I’m giving it a B+.

Free At Last!

17 Feb

And then, at 4:32 pm, my car rolled out of its parking spot.

I know I shouldn’t make such a big deal about digging my car out — or in this case, de-icing it — especially in light of the fact that we’re due to get another 2-4 inches of snow on Sunday, and because doing so only serves as a jinx and will guarantee I’ll be stuck again come tomorrow morning, but I don’t know … getting my car out of its spot today felt like a major accomplishment.

After clearing all the snow off my car, crushing the ice and packed snow around my tires, and rocking the car back and forth by shifting into Drive and Reverse over and over, I still hadn’t gotten very far. A neighbor came over and volunteered to put the car in reverse for me while I pushed, and that didn’t do much. Nor did it help when two other neighbors came over to help me push. And we all kept looking to see why I couldn’t move, but there was seemingly no good reason because all the wheels were clear and the mound of snow behind my car was low enough. It had to be something else.

And then, all of a sudden, without any help, after people had gone their own separate ways, my car just, uh, moved. Backwards. All the way over the ice and snow and onto the black pavement. And I could finally see what was holding it in place all that time. And the answer, plain and simple, seemed to be ice. But not just any ice — this must have been super powered ice from another world, whose grip on my car knew no limits. It was determined to not let me go to the Atrium, or Best Buy, or any of the other places I had to go today.

And yet, I can say that my patience paid off and I was able to go to those places and more (despite the late start to my day, mainly because I was waiting for the air and ground to warm up above freezing). Now we’ll see what happens in the morning when I go to move my car again. Still, today I feel a great deal of accomplishment.

Winter: 1, Martin: 0

15 Feb

To be honest, it wasn’t really a fair fight.

Even though I didn’t have anywhere to go, I decided to be smart for a change and go defrost my car tonight before the iced-up snow got any thicker. And at first I thought I was actually going to do a good job; the heat was up way high, circulating all over the car, I was able to push and release huge chunks of snow and lift them up with my hands, then foist them on the pavement and watch as they broke into multiple pieces, and everything was going well. A few times I actually stood there and laughed. “Winter won’t beat me this time. Look how I can lift the heavy snow off my car. This almost too easy.”

And yes, I spoke too soon, because not five minutes after I started, my ice scraper, my Extender Ice Scraper, which had served me well in the past, broke. In half. The brush and scraper came right off and I was left with that and a pole. So I tried to run the pole over the snow and create blocks that I could remove, but alas, this snow was too firmly attached to my windshield and I didn’t want to risk breaking the glass.

Eventually I got enough off so I could see clear across my windshield, and I thought now it would be time for me to at least try to get out of my parking spot. Well, if I moved two inches, that was a lot. And when I started to smell the foul smell of rubber burning, I knew it was time to give up and go inside.

So, winter, you may have beaten me this time … but it’s a long season and I’m not giving up yet. I’ll be back, with a better, stronger scraper and a better plan, and oh yes, I will beat you. Be ready.

[Full disclosure: that picture is not from this week. It’s from after a storm a couple years ago.]

This Doesn’t Rock

15 Feb

I don’t know whose brilliant idea it was to include aging, wrinkly musicians with the models in this year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, but I’ll just say it like it is: seeing Steven Tyler rocking out with a model (in this case, Bar Refaeli) is just not a turnon. Other not-so-exciting singers in the portfolio: Gnarls Barkley, Panic at the Disco, and Jimmy Buffett. Clearly, it was fun for them — not so much for us. I remember the days when it was just the models in the swimsuit issue. When Kathy Ireland and Elle MacPherson would smile out at me and all the cold of winter would suddenly disappear. Those were the good ole days. This Steven Tyler and Cee-Lo crap just ain’t hot. Not that it’s going to stop me from buying the issue, mind you (that Beyoncé cover alone is worth the price), but I wanted to bitch about it anyway.

Vote for Haley

14 Feb

Well, my favorite American Idol contestant, Haley Scarnato, has made it to the top 24. Last week I told you she was one to watch, and now I’m getting a little confident in my prediction. I mean, she’s already got a fan site and a blog (sort of), and a Google search produces all kinds of results. Clearly I’m not the only one who sees her potential. So next Wednesday night, when the top 12 women perform, do your part and vote for Haley. Woo hoo! (And if you need reminding of how good — and good looking — she is, here’s her initial audition clip again.)

Live-Blogging the Weather?

14 Feb

Some people live-blog award shows and others live-blog Super Bowl commercials. But how come no one live-blogs the weather, especially on a day like today? I mean, it may not be all that interesting by comparison (9:38 — It’s snowing really hard; 10:22 — Now it’s starting to turn to rain; 3:40 — The wind has really picked up) but wouldn’t it be infinitely more practical and useful? I mean, forget those weatherpeople on TV, stuck inside their comfortable studios with their computers, telling us how much rain has accumulated or what the forecast is. And forget the reporters all across the region telling us that, yup, it’s snowing out here in Worcester (or up in Marblehead, or out in Framingham, or wherever the reporters are stationed). What I want to know when I go out to lunch or home at the end of the day is, what is it really like out there? Are the winds really as bad as they sound? Is the rain coming down hard, or is it just misty? And how have the conditions changed over the course of the day?

I think it’d actually be fun to have a regular Joe (or Jane) post a dispatch from his or her experience of being outside every so often (like, say, every hour) saying what the conditions were like. For example, when I went out to lunch earlier today, it really wasn’t so bad walking down Summer Street toward Downtown Crossing. But as soon as I turned the corner on Chauncy St. onto Franklin, that’s when the wind and rain became a bit of a problem. That’s valuable information. If I had documented that here, in a running commentary that I updated often, maybe I could have provided a service. Not that such a thing would have to be so exact so you knew exactly where the person went. But at least you’d know what the weather was like downtown.

I know Mike Wankum, from channel 5, has a blog and I’m sure there are other weatherpeople who do, too, but I want someone down on the ground, one of the “real” people out there, to give me an actual weather report, not a forecast. I think that’d be a good read.

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