There is going to be a meeting tonight

for Public Involvement or something about the Downtown Area. I've got a million idea about what to do downtown but I doubt very much that I'll be able to voice my opinion or that those there will even listen. No one ever listens to me.

Anywho, firstly if we're talking seriously about a vision. We'd have to know the situation. My think is the commuter rail. That meeting I went to all that time ago was about possible locations for a station. Now there was one option for a waterfront station. I never really understood where it was supposed to go. I think it was in this area.


Anyhow, my idea was if it's a little platform sized station, it would be great if it could be New Bedford themed. Like a station in the shape of a whale. Of course that's cheesy but we all really love cheesy stuff deep down. Imagine the train pulls up, people get out onto what looks like a stylish station but they're actually walking into a whale and then as they walk through a normal looking tunnel there could be little placards that talk about the history of New bedford and whaling. Maybe even just a timeline that would lead to the wharf and the last entries in the timeline would be at the end of the tunnel which would also be the mouth of the whale. So everyone would come out onto the working waterfront and then new visitors would turn around and see that they'd just come out of the belly of a whale. Kids would love it. It would be impressive and it would serve as a fun landmark like the big blue bug.

Other idea I had, well firstly, there are too many empty store fronts. That needs to be fixed and there should be more tourist themed stores closer the museum. Elaine's should not be on Purchase Street. Purchase Street should be geared more towards the locals. Not that she doesn't have cosutmes and stuff for normal people but I just mean as THE tee-shirt shop I think stores like that should be closer to the museum. Speaking of the museum what are those empty buildings behind it? Or are they empty? I couldn't really tell. Sometimes downtown New Bedford looks like a party that no one bothered to put decorations up for.

I'm going to put together a slideshow right now to see if that can better illustrate what I'm getting at.

Bullying to death

Reading this story, I could not help feeling like I'm going through the same thing as this kid.

When you live with a situation that you can't correct by yourself and people who should help you, whose job it is to do something about it, keep ignoring you you feel hopeless. It wears you down. You can't get out of it. You don't want to go through it anymore and you can predict with certainty that you will again. When you have no doubt that you're going to suffer with the same stuff tomorrow, you really don't feel like getting to tomorrow.

I'm 35 years old and this is how I've felt for a long time about the way my neighbors are allowed to affect me whenever they feel like it. I've felt that desperate. But this was a kid. How can people not help a kid? I've heard about the increase in bullying. Even at a local school. Last night I went to a neighborhood meeting and they were saying how Keith Middle School ("Junior High" when I went there) is now some den of bullying. I don't understand how people stand by. Do they not believe that people can be driven to suicide or worse? It was ten years since Columbine this past Monday. Oprah pulled her show because it was too much about the shooters. Well guess what? They were bullied. It should have been about them. That anger that very normal anger that comes out of you when you're bullied can either be turned outward the way it was at Columbine or inward the way it was with this 11-year-old boy. I hope all their teachers/administrators rot in hell. I've got a few "law enforcers" they can save a place for.

F'in Zeiterion Theater

Oh now wait, "Performing Arts Center". We must get that right. We wouldn't want to think that it's a lowly theater.

M*therf*ckers had no more seats for the Willie Nelson concert tonight. When I checked over the weekend it said that they might have released seats but they wouldn't know if any would be available until afternoon the day of the show (today, Thursday, the 16th). It's not there anymore so I can't prove it but it was there. So I waited til today and went to the box office window just after noon. I asked if they released any seats and she was all "No and I don't think there is going to be any but there is a waiting list." And that's where I lost my mind. You don't have a waiting list that you've been putting names on for a couple of days when your website said that you wouldn't have any information until Thursday. That basically means don't call until Thursday. Which I didn't. Because I can read. But apparently other people who can't read did call and because the people at the Zeiterion are frightened by a ringing phone, they decided to make a waiting list. So I'm #25 on the waiting list because I followed instructions and didn't contact the box office until Thursday afternoon. Unfair.

Now I never expected to get tickets once I saw that they were sold out. Willie's got a huge entourage. If they were family seats they were holding I don't think he'd have any to spare. However on the rare chance that you may be able to score released seats to such an event you need to be one of the very first people there. And now that I think of it, I've never even heard of a waiting list for a concert. Maybe these people used to work in airline reservations or something.

My problem is that I've actually lived in a real place with real people. I've gone for last minute seats at least a dozen times in my life. I got tix to see the Rolling Stones at Madison Square garden an hour before the show on their Bridges to Babylon tour because of released seats. I know how it works. Or I at least know how it's supposed to work. I failed to get tix to see the Beastie Boys because I went to the box office at the wrong time. This is how it goes. But I've never heard of a fucking waiting list. Especially after the venue says the earliest they'll have information is Thursday afternoon and then at noon on Thursday there is a pre-exisiting waiting list.

Do you see why, hard as I try, it's nearly impossible for me to NOT hate New Bedford with every fiber of my being? This bullshit because no one knows anything. I spend so much time dealing with people at front desks and in kiosks and answering phones who just don't know shit.

I was walking down the street the other day and this old man was yelling at this guy in a parked car. Because this guy was parked in the parking spaces reserved for the elederly residents of the building. The old man was yelling at this 20something for parking there and the kid was saying something to the effect of "I didn't know" but mind you he was yelling right back at this old man. And the old man said "You know why you don't know shit? Because you're from New Bedford. That's why you don't know shit!" Couldn't agree more.

Anyone who wants to see a town full of idiots come to New Bedford, but make sure you spend your money somewhere else. :D

I had just seen Mariza at the Zeiterion. I usually go to the shows Mr. Charbonneau and Mr. Marchand put on in the summer. But no more. That shit theater (excuse me, performing arts center *snort*) isn't getting anymore of my money. If you see me there for some reason, that means I won tickets. Not another dime to them.

Work this one out...

I went out earlier and saw this right up the street from my house. The question is HOW?



How goes it get up there without causing damage to the street or sidewalk or knocking into the hydrant?

Crosswalks are for Cars

Your Own Personal Jesus

This is why I don't (can't?) get along with most people. There is just a lack of thinking that goes on that I can't take. And I believe these non-thinkers are the ones screwing up the world. Whether it's because they think someone else smarter than them has a handle on it or not, I can't abide the idea that they just surrender their brains at the drop of a hat. And therefore leave the world spinning out of control.

Okay so a local artist put up a picture of Jesus on the wall of a local video store. He painted it at home, cut it out and pasted it on the wall. Then people acted like it magically appeared. They acted like it was one of those Jesus in the toast phenomena. They started deciding for themselves what Jesus meant by appearing there on the wall. From day one it was clear it was a painting. If you walk up to it you can see edges where the paper doesn't exactly stick to the wall. But these people want to believe beyond the facts that Jesus put that image of himself on the wall as a message of his displeasure with crime in the area and whatever else they think Jesus thinks. I actually read a anti-gay comment from someone speaking for Jesus. People were reportedly "moved" and "crying". There was a photo in the local paper of a family kneeling in front of it. It's basically a poster so this whole thing actually disturbs me. Makes me not want to look either.

The fact that someone left plastic flowers there as a tribute, I think sums up the whole thing nicely. I like this pic I took better.