Massachusetts: We're Cocky and Feel Better Than You!

Uh oh.

It's okay, Phil. Kate's gone.

I'm on the Boston Brookline border. Good town, thought it'll probably be a bit better when I'm twenty-one.

The PK countdown to shouting that western Mass is where it's at because 'The Human Stain' was filmed there begins...now.

Really? When did that happen? Do I even want to know why?

NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!

Been in the Boston area eight years and love it.

What part Parker?

Somerville when I first moved here, Cambridge now. I'm not too far from those damn, dirty hipsters in their ironic t-shirts and synth music that sit in front of the Harvard T.

The one thing that I remember about Boston was it felt like a really big college town. Now I don't mean that as an insult, there was just this air about the people that made seem like I was a student and everyone else was a teacher, maybe it was my imagination or the neighborhood I was in. Besides the last time I was there was in 2003 at Harvard Square and Roxbury during Sox-Yankees series at Fenway. I remember there was a TV in the window and I think 10 people were huddled up just to watch the game.

That Jesus guy too who plays the salvation games.

That sounds about right.

And the friendliest Spare Change man in the world. And the guy who paints and listens to pan pipes. It goes on and on!

Holla. Cape Cod area.

I like the 3 wheeled bike thing riding guy who goes WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP.
That's because, depending on the area, the vast majority of people you see on the street are involved in academia in some way, as either students, profs, recent grads, etc. I'm in Brighton, in the heart of both BC and BU, and it's wall to wall college peeps. You eventually learn to differentiate them:
-Bright-eyed, full of slightly drunken hope, often seen wheeling a keg on a dolly through Allston or wearing tiny skirts in February: undergrads.
-Slightly frazzled, glares at undergrads like the human stains they are: grad students.
-Extremely nervous, heads down, no eye contact: post-grad, doctoral, etc.
-Ex-hippie, bike-riding, drinking coffee in Brookline: professors

Parker - how often do you cross the Charles?

Near Wareham.

He's actually saying "MOVE MOVE MOVE" really unintelligibly. A friend of mine sat down and talked to the guy once, asked him why he was making that sound, and he said he's just trying to get people out of his way.

My favorite, though, is the guy I call the Ghost Boxer. He usually sits near the corner of Boylston and Arlington. He has a cup out for change, but never bothers asking people for any. Just sits there with some headphones on listening to an old radio or Walkman. But every once in a while he spontaneously starts shadow boxing while still sitting on the curb. He only does it for a few moments at a time. When I worked in that area, catching a glimpse of that usually brightened my day.

Did you know he's actually a delivery man? I thought he was just insane (I mean, he probably still is a little) but he does that for a living. So I've heard...

Pretty much everyday for work. And I have friends in Boston, Brookline and Brighton so I hang out over there often enough too. It's usually a standoff of where we'll end up hanging out, Boston or Cambridge. If there's more Cambridge people, Cambridge wins. If there's more Boston people, Boston wins. I could care less either way. I like drinkin' just fine anywhere.

By the way, I've been meaning to tell you that we tried the Dosa Factory not too long ago. And we have a new favorite Indian spot. It was incredible.

I love the Comm Ave running guy who has all the weights on him and the bulletproof-looking vest.

 

Quiz: After I hit 21 what's the first bar I head to? I've been to a few like Black Rose and Mcgreavy's etc. but what's the one you would recommend?

Just wanted to post up my support for the Bay State in general and Western Massachusetts specifically. Not to brag, but this thread title does a perfect job of summing up my feelings on being a citizen of the Commonwealth

 

To the other MA'ers: You may think Boston is all that, but I feel quite proud to live in the shadow of Mighty Mount Greylock, the tallest peak in the land and the Alp of the Berkshires

 

As a final note, I'd like to restate my support for the Massachusetts Reclamation Project and it's goal of restoring this state's borders as originally established by the Founders. In other words: Maine.. we want our land back! > : 0

 

PS I  do want to take a moment to apologize for the embarrassment and threat to free people everywhere that is "Scott Brown". Our bad on that one, and believe me that a great many of us do feel a crushing burden of shame for  inflicting him on this nation.. alone he wouldn't be so bad, but his election sent the already spineless Dems cowering. The loss of face and honor that was incurred on that day can never be recovered. Like the Whiskey Rebellion and the Witch Trials, his is a name that will live in infamy and forever stain our reputation 

 

 

I feel like there's probably a few dozen different urban legends about the bike guy.  Speaking of which...I haven't seen him in a while. 

 

And yeah, Parker, I just ask because it seems like friends around here find crossing the river a giant pain in the ass for some reason.  I try my best to drag them over.

 

Awesome, glad you liked the Dosa Factory!  Still the best Indian I've had... need to hit that up sometime soon.

Depends on what you're looking for.  Classy or working-class?  Irish?  Touristy?  Cambridge-Communisty?
 

 

 Well, I don't necessarily have a preference, but I'd rather stray from the more touristy and high-class places. Something maybe a little less known. Maybe somewhere over by the North End and the Garden. I hear there's some decent places around there, or maybe a Harvard Bar where there's equations and shit on the wall.

If you're looking in Harvard Square, I vote for Charlie's.  Go upstairs though.  Best jukebox in town (seriously, check it out).  The food is mostly just okay (the lobster rolls are great) and it's just a step up from a dive.  Drinks are fairly priced and they have a good selection of beer on tap and in bottles (swill and up).  The bathroom looks like it's from one of the SAW movies, and there aren't equations on the walls, but there's probably shit. 

 

My favorite bar is a little in between Harvard and Central.  The Cellar.  It's awesome, two great bartenders, Quentin (older guy, super friendly) and Ed (younger guy in thick black glasses).  Cash only though, but it's worth it.  The bar menu is great too, and fairly priced given how good it is. 

 

I don't go to Garden area that much, but for downtown Boston I like Stoddard's (although it's a little more upscale) and Bukowski's (probably more your speed, but beer only).  For dives, I like TC's Lounge (the biggest dive in Boston) and my friends and I drink at the Dugout a lot (mostly because it's always fucking empty). 

 

lol Parker I'm in the Dugout fairly often, too (mainly because the BU College of Communications building is right next door and all film school people are fucking alcoholics apparently).  Place is always super deserted.

 

I hear really good things about Deep Ellum in Brighton, but that's probably way out of your way, K Man.  I don't really know any Garden/North End area bars...

woah woah woah woah woah.

 

You're in BU College of Communication?

 

I'm in BU College of Communication. What?

Small freaking world!  My wife Rachel is an MFA student in Film Production there.  But I'm there all the time too. 

She works in the writing center in the basement if you've ever used their services. 

 

What program are you in?

I'm doing a Mass Com Advertising degree right now. That's pretty cool that she's down there, I go down there sometimes to visit one of my favorite professors, Katherine Burak (I don't know if you know her, she's awesome though). Very small world indeed.

I've never heard of Burak.  They sequester all the film students in the basement like some retarded cousin you have chained up. 

 

When you hit 21 you should also check out the BU Pub (aka the Castle).  It's across the street from COM.  It closes at 12 which is lame, but it's in a castle and has a pretty good atmosphere.  You need a BU ID to get in.  The patio is nice (when it's warm out obv).  Also the food is shit, don't order any.

I actually worked at the BU Pub as a bar back a few nights last year, it's a great place.

Living in Salem (as I have for most of my life) and working in Boston.  I don't get out in the city too much, but my favorite bar is Cornwall's in Kenmore Square.  It's mostly an after-work crowd, but if you're a regular and you're a nice person, the waitstaff treat you like family. 

I used to live in Beverly.  Well, and pretty much every other town in the North Shore.  Is Front Street Cafe still open?

Are all your journalists retarded?

 

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/01/06/the_end_of_cultural_elitism/

Don't blame us, man, he ain't ours.

Front Street Cafe is still there, Ryan C.B.

We do have Ty Burr, though.  He's pretty retarded. 

I don't read the Boston papers all that regularly, so didn't realize he'd moved from Entertainment Weekly.

He's not that bad, really. Glib and slick in the usual mode of newspaper reviewers, but looking through his recent reviews I find him calling out John K's "Boo Boo Goes Wild" in his takedown of Yogi Bear. He gets, as the kids say, "mad props" from me for that.

 

You want a dumb-ass Boston critic, look to James Verniere.

I'm biased.  I've met him personally.  He was a gigantic asshole.

Wesley Morris was cool, though.

Ty Burr taught a short film class that my wife was in last semester and she got to know him fairly well both in and out of class.  She says he's a really great guy and a good prof.  What was your bad experience?  :(

To put myself through grad school, I worked at the Loews movie theater downtown.  We had screenings for critics all the time and he was just terribly, frequently unpleasant.  Also, incredibly ignorant about how movie theaters worked.  Whenever we had a problem with a screening, he would pontificate to his other critics about how we were the theater who "fired" their union projectionists.  Not only was that not true, half the time there was an issue it was because of our union guy. 

I'm sure in a classroom environment he's capable of being pleasant.  I wish I had the pleasure of meeting him like that.  Unfortunately, my interactions with him were limited to him being incredibly condescending, rude and arrogant.  Plus, I genuinely think he's a poor critic.  Even when we like the same movies, I question his reasoning and writing

That sucks.  I've actually been to several advance and critic screenings at the Boston Common Loews and it's pretty much always been a clusterfuck.  Even when you have a press pass they hassle you about getting a seat.  It seemed very disorganized.  But whatever, there's no excuse for being rude or condescending.  I've actually noticed a condescending attitude among established Boston critics at screenings a lot... I always chalk it up to them having being miserable people who live alone and drink a lot. 

 

Didn't MA cut all their union projectionists due to film board shenanigans or something?

I don't know if it's changed since AMC took over, but the thing about the screenings is that the theater doesn't actually run them.  The studios/publicist companies do.  There's usually a huge lack of communication between them and the theater.  Hence your clusterfuck.

 

Yeah, I think MA cut their union projectionists.  We extended ours with a special contract for a while and then that ran out we hired him as a projectionist manager.  He was lazy and terrible. He fucked up a special preview print of Shawn of the Dead so bad that I had to personally had to apologize to Edgar Wright, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg (one of the worst days of my life).   I never understood why the company bent over backwards for him. 

Yep, it was pretty obvious that the organization was coming from a lack of communication between the theater and the studio running the screening.  Throw in the fact that at that theater you get your ticket torn at the bottom of the escalators, by a guy who has no idea about the preview screening... yeah.

 

At least you got to meet Wright, Pegg & Frost!  I guess. 

It was really cool at first!  They were very nice (and very drunk).  Really excited about the movie.  They had a packed house and they were thrilled about that (it was a good couple of months before the movie had even been released).  Even after I told them that the print got fucked up and we had to shut it down and fix it, they were very nice, but it was just so embarrassing.  Frost was the nicest of the three, he actually apologized to me at the end of it all, which was crazy!  Wright was pissed but I can tell he was just frustrated and it didn't seem directed at me.  Ugh.  I hate thinking about that shit.  That place blows.

That's still pretty cool.  I'm sure they knew that you didn't have any real control over the problems.  lol @ Frost apologizing to you.

 

I met Zach Braff in that main hallway once as he was going into a Q&A for The Last Kiss.  My wife complimented him on Scrubs (which we both liked a lot) and I cracked jokes about him making out with Natalie Portman in Garden State.  I don't know if that makes me cool or an idiot, but whatever, he laughed.  

Boston here. Originally from NC, but I moved up here to go to school.

 

Funny enough, you guys are bitching about the AMC Loews downtown, which is where I used to work. I was a projectionist for a few months down there, until some serious bullshit forced me and a few other co-workers out of the goddamn place (i.e, let's not train any of the projectionists on how to do anything relating to the digital projectors because we don't want to give 'em the extra hours). And yeah, the mismanagement of press/promo screenings helps kill that place's efficiency pretty quick. I remember having to break down prints while the fucking studio rep sat and played with her phone two feet away from me.

 

It's kind of weird how your time there parallels mine, Parker. Met Edgar Wright there when he was doing the Scott Pilgrim tour.

Sorry... Double post.