TC's Ministry of Propaganda

More News Karaoke - Sir Ted Kennedy


A paean to the senior Senator upon the news that he's been granted an honorary knighthood. From the 3/9/09 edition of Boston News Net. Written by TC Cheever; performed by Jacey Bokuniewicz. Directed/edited by Ian Brownell.

Inauguration...

I meant to post this back when we did it-- This is from Boston News Net, January 24 2009. Really, I meant to post something more recently than... ack, last November. Anyway, all apologies to Elvis, and the backup vocals you hear are courtesy of Miss Jacey Bokuniewicz of ImprovBoston's Family Show.

Point Counterpoint - Boston News Net, Election night

Matt McLaughlin for the Right, and TC Cheever for the Left giving Boston News Net's Presidential endorsement- shot live on Election Night at ImprovBoston during the Boston News Net Election Night 'Political Party', written by yours truly with polish and a spot-on performance by Matt McLaughlin, and based on a concept from myself and the lovely & talented Steve Hoey.

For those with a song in their hearts

The Tony Awards were held last night. The Tonys were on against the NBA Finals... which was watched by everyone in the United States who wasn't actually in a Broadway show last season. Had ABC had the rights to both, they'd have contracted the Celtics starting lineup to put on lederhosen and sing "I Am Sixteen Going On Seventeen" which, frankly, I'd watch. Then for the banner-raising they could get Parish, McHale, Bird et al. to come out and sing "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof. Hey, a boy can dream.

Dirty Secret of Adulthood #37

Just heard from a friend of mine who spent part of last week getting a ration of b.s. from a friend of hers  about the way she dresses, how she conducts her life, etc. And I had this realization:

No matter what lessons you learn, no matter what goals you achieve, no matter what amazing and wonderful experiences you amass, no matter what lives you change for the better...

there is always going to be somebody out there who will be able to make you instantly feel like you felt at the worst moment of your teenage years.

Boston News Net - new post

I just posted something new to the Boston News Net blog:

http://bostonnewsnet.blogspot.com/2008/05/regarding-senator-kennedy.html

Stalemate

Stalemate
Originally uploaded by chaostheory

Yesterday afternoon, Harvard Square. The woman next to the car is trying to park her car. The woman in the black coat is standing directly behind the aforementioned car, deliberately blocking the car because she was trying to save the spot for somebody. And did this for at least 20 minutes. I blocked her face out so that somebody doesn't spot her on the street and try to smack her over the head with a stale baguette.

Wait, that's what they'd do in Brookline. In Cambridge they'd hold a rally.

Seriously, 20 to 30 minutes of this (conversation is paraphrased)--

Car woman: "I'm trying to park, would you please move?"
Coat woman: "I'm not moving."
Car woman: "Please move, I don't want to hit with my car."
Coat woman: "You wanna hit me? Go ahead and hit me."
(She actually stepped closer to the car when she said that.)

Traffic gets backed up on Church Street. A car finally comes by that is the car for which the woman in the coat is saving the spot, and what happens? Nothing. Because think about it: Second Car woman (the woman driving the car that the Coat woman was trying to save the space for) can't park unless Coat woman moves... but if Coat woman moves, then First Car woman is going to back into the space she's been trying to park in now for about a half-hour. So this goes on for another five minutes, during which Second Car woman actually tries to argue with First Car woman directly.

Let me interject here and state the obvious: Coat woman and Second Car woman are out of their fucking skulls. There is a rule to the road here, and the rule is first come, first served. IN A CAR. You do not have any moral, legal, or ethical right to a parking space unless you get there IN A CAR and park that car in the space first. Having somebody stand in that space and call your cell phone to tell you they're saving you a space is offensive. On the scale of things that are offensive in the Boston area, this is actually more offensive than driving to Southie in January after a snowstorm and moving a barrel so you can park in a space somebody else shoveled-- and act which, mind you, is offensive but actually legal to do.

What broke this stalemate? Random passerby says to First Car woman: "Hey, there's a cop down the street. Want me to get him?"

First Car woman: "Please."

Coat woman: Leaves. Seriously. Just walks away at that point.

Denouement: First Car woman parks. While she's at the central meter (these spaces in Harvard Square have been converted to the "single meter/get a receipt to put on your dashboard" system), Second Car woman comes walking up the street and pointedly says, "Have a good day!"

I hope the First Car woman did. She deserved it after all that.

$1 bus, my ass.

I get a MySpace bulletin that an acquaintance of mine is doing a show in New York City this month. Cost to get into the show? $5. So I think to myself, "Self, money is a little tight. But you do have a lot of vacation time and you could take a half day and go to New York, because there's a bus service that can get you from Boston to New York City for a buck." Allegedly. So I go to their website. I had a vision-- deluded as it may sound-- of getting from Boston to New York and seeing a show all for under a ten-spot. Now, I know the drill, I've read up on this-- there's something like a single $1 fare available on each bus. If you want it, you have to book early to get it. Fares rise from there depending on how soon the bus is departing. I'm only looking at a week or two out, so I'm probably not getting the $1 fare. Fine. The last time I took a Greyhound down to NYC and back, though, it cost me about $30 round trip. So I'm thinking, this new low-cost service should get me to New York and back for at least less than $30 round trip, right?

Wrong. The website quotes me a price of $30 one-way. Round-trip, double that, plus taxes, etc. Here's the real kick in the pants: even though Greyhound has raised their Boston to New York prices, the same trip on Greyhound would cost me $15 less roundtrip than it will on the low-cost bus line that is a division of Greyhound. 

Wellbee says Be Well!

I saw this on another site and had to look at it a few times. It's a promotional poster from the 50's for the oral polio vaccine. Notice that the third selling point is "prevents polio"... Do I really give a damn how it tastes and how fast it works if it, y'know, prevents freakin' polio? Isn't that selling point enough? If a cure for cancer was developed tomorrow, does anyone really believe that it wouldn't be used if it didn't come in grape flavor?

The Order of St. Gino the Contractor

Just posted something over at the Boston News Net blog:

http://bostonnewsnet.blogspot.com/2008/04/order-of-st-gino-contractor.html