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Thursday, March 17, 2005
Check Out DiggerDawg's New Web Site
The new DiggerDawg website is really, really nice. Check out their schedule too - they've added a bunch of dates including an opening slot for
Nashville recording artist Gary Allan, who's in the middle of a national tour. He's playing at Indian Ranch in Webster, MA this summer.
By the way, they just got a gig playing Blondie's in Fall River next Friday and Saturday. There's a good chance I'll
be there taking photos.
Paul Mochi - Losing Credibility
The city's building inspector, Paul Mochi, was quoted in the Medford Transcript last month with respect to the Governor's Avenue parking lot:
Mochi said people who may have concerns about parking in the garage
should not worry because the garage is in stable condition.
"It is safe to park in," he said. "We're going to keep monitoring
it. If we found anything that concerned us, we would take immediate action."
Last Saturday they found something that concerned them.
A DPW sanding truck sank through the roof of the upper deck. Check out today's Transcript for a very cool picture.
Now to be fair, a sanding truck is extremely heavy, are
shouldn't have been up there in the first place. Nevertheless, would you park there?
So why is it so hard to take our officials seriously? We
look at something like the parking garage, and our own instincts tell us that it doesn't look safe. City Councillors' Robert
Penta and Robert Maiocco have both been vocal about the poor condition of the garage. (A minor digression: whenever someone
says they don't want to say, "I told you so," it means they do want to say it. Penta said it in the Transcript this week.
Can I just tell you, Mr. Penta, that this is not helpful to the problem at hand?)
I mean, are city officials so desparately concerned about
the parking problem in Medford Square that they are willing to ignore common sense and public safety? Actually, I don't think
that's the case.
I think basically they are all screwed, because this is
a terrible time to contemplate the kind of time, money, and effort it will take to fix the garage (which will probably have
to be torn down and rebuilt). So they just want the problem to go away for awhile so they can fix it one their schedule, not
the garage's schedule. But that's just my opinion.
The thing that really sucks about this is that the garage
is only 22 years old. Now there's a story. How did we manage to build a garage that only lasted 22 years?
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
The Urban Forest at the Medford Public Library
This evening I attended a talk at the Medford Public Library entitled, "The Role of the Urban Forest in the Mystic River Watershed." The talk was given by Tom Brady (no, not that
Tom Brady) who is the conservation administrator and tree warden of the town of Brookline, Massachusetts. The talk was put together by the Mystic River Watershed Association (MRWA). In all fairness, I should tell you that I was also the videographer of this event - I am considering putting
the whole thing up as a streaming media file. But of course, I also took pictures too, just a few.
State Representative J. James Marzilli (D-23rd Middlesex District); Thomas Brady, MCA; Janet Kovner, MRWA
Brady talked for about an hour about the role of trees in the urban environment. He spent much
of this time talking about how trees are damaged, and what happens as a result. As a tree warden in Brookline for many years,
he has a long term perspective on these issues, and it was pretty interesting.
Did you know, for example, that it could take seven years for a tree to fully present the symptoms
of an injury to its root system?
This fact highlights a key problem: trees just don't up and die when you abuse them. It takes
years sometimes for the abuse to manifest in the tree's canopy where it's most visible. Brady told us that, "construction
damage causes more injury to our urban forest than all other problems combined." He's not anti-construction, however. He sees
the issue as one of education and give and take. So in his role he works with the construction companies and public works
personnel to educate them as to how to avoid damage.
Here's some additional interesting points:
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Crime rates actually dropped measurably when trees were added to a formerly barren housing development.
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Stormwater runoff can be significantly reduced if the tree canopy is large enough (remember,
towns like Medford have to pay for that runoff).
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A tree has structural roots that we've all seen, but it also has "fibrous roots." These hair-like
roots run from ground level down to about 18 inches deep and are the tree's mechanism for nutrient uptake. Inotherwords, if
you strip the top 18 inches of soil around a tree, it's probably going to die.
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The root system of a tree extends outwards from the trunk up to 2 to 3 times the height of the
trunk.
But the most interesting part of the presentation were the pictures, and the examples. He actually
brought two parts of tree trunks to the meeting for us to look at.
Two Trees: left, beaver damage; right, power line damage
The trunk that was chewed up by a beaver didn't happen in some remote location - it was located
on a highway median in an I-93/I-95 interchange. Those beavers are pretty accustomed to highway traffic, I'd say. The power
line damaged trunk is even more interesting. This damage occured over time when a power line came into contact with the tree
trunk. According to Brady, someone noticed a wiff of smoke, and the authorities were called in. This was not some super special
power line either - it was just like the ones you find on your own street.
At any rate, the event was informative and engaging. The MRWA provided some snacks and refreshment
as well as additional literature about their association. There are a number of upcoming events as the spring kicks in including
the annual Herring Run, clean-up days and more, so stay tuned.
More on The Murder Weapon
Kim Davidson was paying better attention than I when The Murder Weapon mentioned their web site on stage at the Hard
Rock. It's right here.
By the way, guys, if you are googling yourself and reading this, you should send me an email. I'd love to take some photos
at a concert, and I can tell you how to get more visibility on your web site. Rock on.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
As Long As We're Talking About Music...
OK, so I watch American Idol, and I was as surprised as everyone else when I discovered this evening that Mario Vasquez had voluntarily withdrawn from the show just after making the cut to the final twelve. My first reaction is that he's covering something up. Perhaps
he made porn tapes, or has a criminal record, or something like that. But nobody seems to know, even his family. Very strange.
The Drudge Report supposedly ran an article saying that he didn't want to sign an exclusive contract, but I cannot find it.
Kim Davidson Rocks the Hard Rock
Two songs, backed up by DiggerDawg, had Kim in front of the music critics who were liking her style. I even called the Hard Rock ahead of time to find out if I could
shoot the performance. But then, baby Alex got very upset when we tried to pawn him off on the babysitter, and we ended up
being about 20 minutes late. When I saw Joe Scopa of DiggerDawg coming out the front door, I knew we had missed it.
As you may recall, Kim is a Medford resident who is pursuing a country music career, and playing with DiggerDawg as well.
She got into the Xtreme music group showcase at the Hard Rock, where she performed two songs and got to hear feedback directly
from some industry A&R types. It went very well, according to her. They told her to move to Nashville. That's pretty cool.
We stayed for awhile and ate, and watched a few more of the bands. The funnest moment we had was a good hour later, when
The Murder Weapon took the stage. This guy comes out with a jet black and white upright base with a skull mounted on the headstock,
and it just got better from there. They win the award for best on-stage performance trick I've seen in awhile. But I won't
tell you what it is, because it would just ruin it. They are worth checking out.
Amusing story. So these guys are from Maine, right? And a friend of mine decides we should all become Murder Weapon groupies.
So I looked at her and said, "you know, Maine's a pretty big state - they could be from like Fort Kent or something." She
poo-pood me for being a stick in the mud. The Murder Weapon is pretty hard to find online, but they seem to be from the Orono/Bangor
area. For those of you who don't know the area, that's about 250 miles away. Hah, so I have the last laugh.
I'm really proud of Kim. I wish I had been able to make it on time. I did not take any pictures because I thought it
would be crappy to put up shots of other bands when I missed her.
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