Rockhoppers

Photo by Michael

Choosing movies

Last spring, we spent a couple of days in New York while they were filming bits of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice outside our hotel. Nicolas Cage was really nice about signing autographs and posing for photos with fans while wearing his leather trenchcoat costume on a hot summer evening. We also saw fancy cars on flatbeds with full film rigging, but fortunately missed seeing either of the car accidents that make you wonder why they would film car chase scenes in Manhattan.

Filming in crowded locations apparently works as advertising—I really want to go see the movie, just because I was there while they were filming bits of it. So I was glad to read someone saying that it’s actually fun, because I don’t want one of my two movies a year that I see in a theater to be truly bad.

Someday we’ll remodel our bathroom

Source: freshome.com

When we do remodel our bathroom, it will still be 1/6 the size of this bathroom. And it won’t have a fireplace.

Priorities

The issue of whether the Green Line Extension is built correctly is the most important issue my neighborhood has faced or will face for 50 years. Please send the letter at this link, even if you don’t live near Boston:

http://www.informedreaders.com/greenline/feir.html

Then pass this link along to everyone you know, and ask them to send that letter as well. It only takes a few moments.

Yours,
Michael

Library video of the week

Points to remember for next year’s Readercon

First prize was one John Norman novel. Second prize was [all together now] two John Norman novels. Except it wasn’t. Second prize was an autographed John Norman novel.

Theodora Goss for reading her stories. Mary Robinette Kowal for readings and voice workshops and panels. Lev Grossman for talks. Cecilia Tan for panels and talks. Samuel Delany on a panel when I want to hear someone who sounds like my father.

The Tiptree bake sale is worth supporting, but selection may be limited.

Kaffeeklatsches can be fun if you actually sign up for them.

There are many panels and talks featuring people running a small press or a magazine. War stories are fun, but remember that almost all of these people have day jobs.

Random readings are generally better than random panels.

Papa Razzi on the other side of 95 is a much better real food option than the pub.

There are many paths to Readercon. On Friday, the highway routes are not the right choice.

@FAO FTW

Out for a walk

Photo by Michael

Mute swan

Photo by Michael

Don’t shout FEIR in a crowded auditorium

Comments for the Green Line Extension public meeting this evening, as delivered by Lisa:

I live in Medford Hillside, and I look forward to the day when the Green Line Extension comes to Route 16, so that I can actually walk to the Green Line. I am gravely disappointed that the state is still not planning to extend the Green Line to Route 16 by the end of 2014.

I believe that the decision to use the College Avenue Station as a terminus is a terrible mistake for the project as a whole and for my neighborhood. The Route 16 Station would allow Somerville and Medford residents to take the Green Line to green space and grocery shopping. The Route 16 Station would serve Medford Hillside, West Medford, West Somerville, and East Arlington, including the environmental justice neighborhoods that were used to justify the entire extension, but are ignored by the proposed project. The Route 16 Station would provide thousands of residents with better access to jobs, to education, and to health care. And the Route 16 Station would avoid the negative impacts of having College Avenue as a terminus. The Green Line Extension is supposed to benefit Medford Hillside with access to the Green Line, not burden us with more traffic and more pollution.

College Ave will serve Tufts and South Medford, but it will not serve Medford Hillside. The map of Medford Hillside in Appendix C of the FEIR is wrong. The walk access analysis in that appendix is misleading, deliberately hiding the fact that almost nobody in Medford Hillside lives within half a mile of the College Ave station.

More than 2,500 people signed a petition asking for the Route 16 Station. We filled the Route 16 Station Workshop beyond the room’s capacity. We submitted over 100 letters supporting the Route 16 station in response to the DEIR. We’ve done our part. You’ve said that Route 16 is your preferred alternative. It’s time to start treating it that way.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

And sorry I could not vote for both

Two roads converged in a twisted maze,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one driver, long I stayed
And waited while my neurons frayed;
I doubted if I should ever get home.

The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (acronym not actually BURP or BUMPY) would like to know which intersections in your town need improvement, or at least a little couch time with a traffic therapist. Yes, you can vote an intersection off the island!

Here in Medford, 2 of the 5 worst intersections for crashes are within 1/2 mile of my house, and it’s not because of the way I drive. Seriously, I strongly recommend you select your town and vote, or just vote for my least favorites.

My votes and submitted reasons for Medford intersections:

Worst: High Street/Winthrop Street
Tied for worst: Mystic Valley Parkway/Winthrop Street

I drive through the High Street/Winthrop Street rotary and the Mystic Valley Parkway/Winthrop Street intersection all the time, sometimes 4 or more times a day. Both intersections are horrible, terrifying experiences, with cars stacked up and frustrated drivers who get aggressive and do stupid moves. The MVP/Winthrop intersection causes longer backups, but the High/Winthrop rotary causes more near-crashes and often at higher speeds. Both intersections are sheer hell to cross on foot safely, which is a grave concern given that there are commuter bus stops at the High/Winthrop rotary.

A lot of traffic uses both intersections, and the intersections are very close to each other, so a unified solution would make sense. I wish I could vote for both.

Bonus intersection: Mystic Valley Parkway and Auburn Street

I've seen more crashes at this intersection than any other. I've seen more red lights run at this intersection than any other. The light cycles are unclear, traffic often blocks the intersection, and a stunning number of cars end up using the wrong side of the road on Auburn Street coming from Whole Foods to turn left onto Mystic Valley Parkway.

Hosta leaves

Photo by Michael

I rescued these hosta leaves from a garden cleanup session and gave them a new home. 48 hours later, they still look great!

This variegated hosta was supposed to be a dwarf, and was certainly small when we planted it. The individual leaves are each now the size of my hand.

Roofers and writers

Why won’t the major textbook publishers hire freelancers who live in Massachusetts? WGBH produced an excellent 10-minute segment explaining the problem. A 2004 rewrite of the independent contractor law in Massachusetts said that a company can only classify a worker as an independent contractor if “the service is performed outside the usual course of the business of the employer.” A restaurant can pay an interior designer or a web designer as an independent contractor, but a sous-chef is an employee. This law was written to target the construction industry in particular, in the hopes that more of the folks with serious work-related injuries would actually have worker’s comp coverage.

Over the past few years, textbook publishers have figured out that the law might apply to them as well. (There’s no reason why it wouldn’t, the way that it’s written.) So they’ve largely stopped hiring freelancers in Massachusetts when they need a writer, editor, proofreader, illustrator, photographer, or indexer. The publishers haven’t stopped downsizing and outsourcing—they’ve just stopped using in-state talent or they’ve inserted an employment services firm as an expensive buffer between themselves and their freelancers.

This is very frustrating for people who have honestly been freelancers in the creative industries for a long time. But the ridiculous part is that the Attorney General, Martha Coakley, has been ignoring her responsibility to issue clear guidance to employers about the law. Enforcement is extremely limited in practice but not in theory, so some companies are avoiding hiring any freelancers in Massachusetts while others are ignoring the law entirely. The law is in a section on fair competition, but there’s no level playing field when companies are taking such divergent approaches to complying with the law. We should have a clear discussion about when we want to allow companies to hire freelancers as independent contractors, and the decisions we make should apply to all companies. The WGBH segment is a good first step.

Restart My Day

Screenshot by Lisa

Black-crowned night heron on the Mystic

Photo by Michael

These black-crowned (or black-crested) night herons are more comfortable with proximity to people than the great blue herons, but they don’t like being approached from behind. While we’ve mostly seen them perched just above the water line on a branch or bank, they’re also happy to land on branches 10 feet over the river. We’ve seen up to four of these small herons on the Mystic near the house, but a few days ago they all moved on.