[: neon :] NewEnglandOnlineNetwork

WFAN's Mike & The Mad Dog were the Gold Standard: New England sports talk can't even come close

As much as I love living in Boston, sports talk radio (and television) in this great city, well, it all pretty much really sucks, with few exceptions. Planet Mikey is unquestionably the best this city has to offer, although his peers on New York's WFAN don't slam The Red Sox by degree or frequency the way he and fellow Boston sports talk radio and television hosts slam the Yankees almost daily. Very tacky.

Anyway, as a long-time listener of WFAN and Mike & Dawg - - - and thank God for the Internet so I don't have to only listen to WEEI for my sports talk fix - - Mike & Dawg will be a team no more as Chris Russo, a.k.a., Dawg, signed-off after 19 years last Thursday and rumors are that he may be joining Sirius.

Since 1989, WFAN has been and remains the Gold Standard of sports talk radio and Mike & Chris were the ones responsible for proving the genre could be successful on other stations around the country. Dawg's voice could sometimes really grate on me . . . especially if I had them on for their entire afternoon slot. And as a very publicly-devoted S.F. Giants fan, Russo also truly hated, despised, reviled the Yankees - even as a native New Yorker, forever irking a ton of Yankee fans/listeners.

Since the duo has been #1 in its time period for 19 years, book after book after book, and despite Dawg's critics, their show nevertheless generated an unprecedented fan passion, we learned a ton of stuff and, in a phrase, it was simply great radio.

Then ask yourselves whether any Boston Program Director would have the same guts and smarts to hire an ardent anti-Red Sox on-air host? BTW, as an equally ardent N.Y. Mets fan with no horse in the AL East race, I'm available for the pure sport of it. ;-)

So starting in September, Mike will be re-formatting the show and it will still be simulcast on the Yankees YES Television Network, but as annoying as Dawg could be, I'm sure gonna miss the chemistry they had - - - and the fun we had as devoted listeners.

posted by Head Geek

Greedy Real Estate Agents, Predatory Lenders & McDonald's Cooking Oil as Fuel Alternative

EDITORIAL

Two bits of news caught our attention this morning.

The first story says the McDonald's units in The Philippines (Makati outlets) will be donating used cooking oil to help co-power Manila's Police Cars:

With oil prices at crippling highs, the project would convert cars in the Makati financial district to run on a mix of 40 percent diesel and 60 percent cooking oil, its police chief Senior Superintendent Gilbert Cruz said.

With approximately 141 McDonald's within just 30 miles of our location near Boston, one can only imagine how much power they could provide for city and state vehicles. And when you add Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island McDonald franchise locations, include other fast food/hamburger outlets who cook with the same oil, the question then becomes, why aren't we doing that here?

Nevertheless, kudos to Makati and to McDonald's Corporate for their smarts and for helping our environment.

* * * * * * * * *

GET RESTITUTION FROM THE LENDERS & REAL ESTATE COMMISSIONS . . .
NOT THE TAXPAYERS

The second story is about home prices in May dropping by the largest percentage in the history of the index that covers these patterns, from a year ago.

Boston, in particular, was listed along with Tampa, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, Dallas and Atlanta, because they all showed a smaller annual decline.

Certainly not the best news.

Now, since we've never been fans of the false market conditions too many otherwise greedy real estate agents have been perpetrating on the public since at least 1986, nor the too many foolish buyers who never do their own neighborhood homework and blindly believed too many greedy real estate agents, we do feel for those buyers who were intentionally (allegedly) misled by their particular greedy real estate agents and/or by the alleged predatory lending practices of too many mortgage loan originators, an industry that is currently the target of Federal and State probes nationwide for too many allegedly illicit practices.

(That was possibly the longest running paragraph ever).

But those homeowners now in a financial bind certainly do not all deserve a bailout from the coffers of the U.S. Government, a.k.a., we the taxpayers. That could and should come from lender restitution (as an alternative to prosecution) and also include the related commissions of the greedy real estate agents as well.

Fat chance either will ever happen, but the fact that those of us who did not get caught up in the hype and easy-profit hysteria - - - while still having to endure the bragging rights from those who did - we're pretty darn pissed-off that our tax money will be bailing them out. Salt on the wound, or something like that.

From a less personal, more serious and economic pov, however painful these times are or may become for some homeowners, in the long run, realistic, stabilized pricing is what our local economies need for sustained growth. Home ownership is a business, repeat, a business, just like any other, not a guaranteed right for every American - - - nor an irresponsible, commoditized profit center for every greedy real estate agent or mortgage broker.

Bailing out America's homeowners will only reward those lenders who made the mistakes in the first place, and allow the greedy real estate agents to keep their undeserved commissions.

That's merely our opinion.

What's yours.

we invite you to email us your comments

Two words for Starbucks: DON'T CLOSE!

It will certainly be an interesting process to watch as it unfolds - - - possibly culminating this week but definitely within the month, and from both a community and a corporate pov (point-of-view) - - - how Starbucks will react when it faces a different kind of customer revolt.

From Sunday's Wall Street Journal online:

In towns as small as Bloomfield, N.M., and metropolises as large as New York, customers and city officials are starting to write letters, place phone calls, circulate petitions and otherwise plead with the coffee company to change its mind.

An excellent read as it provides a heretofore ignored element , i.e., how Starbucks has become an almost essential asset to the communities they're in, unlike all of the negative press and bashing by local merchants they've (unfairly?) received over the years.

Anyway, here in New England, Massachusetts is getting hit the hardest with seven (7) Starbucks closures (Source: Starbucks and Associated Content)

1. Dartmouth Mall, Dartmouth, Massachusetts
2. Emerald Square Mall, 999 South Washington Street, North Attleboro, Massachusetts
3. Shrewsbury Street Marketplace, 222 Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, Massachusetts
4. Newton Centre, 70 Union Street, Newton, Massachusetts
5. Sharon, Five Post Office Square, Sharon, Massachusetts
6. Stoughton, 425 Washington Street, Stoughton, Massachusetts
7. Middlesex Turnpike Burlington,  47 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington, Massachusetts

Five (5) are slated to close n Connecticut:

1. Prospect Hill, 137 Prospect Hill Road, East Windsor, Connecticut
2. King's Highway, 1201 King's Highway, Fairfield, Connecticut
3. Wethersfield Avenue, 692 Wethersfield Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut
4. Evergreen Walk, 301 Evergreen Way, South Windsor, Connecticut
5. Windsor Locks, 209 Ella Grasso Turnpike, Windsor Locks, Connecticut

In Maine, both closings are in Bangor:

1. Bangor Mall, 663 Stillwater Avenue
2. Bangor Broadway at 652 Broadway

New Hampshire only loses one:

1. Rochester Shoppes, 160 Washington Street in Rochester, New Hampshire

Vermont has three stores and apparently all three will remain open and none in Rhode Island were mentioned.

Here are other posts we've done in defense of Starbucks (and against Dunkin Donuts) and we invite you to also email us your comments.

Maine teens injured after falling asleep on train tressel speak to the media

REVIEW

We were discussing this story in the office a couple of days ago, about two Maine teenagers who went sunbathing on a train tressel and, tired from the night before, fell asleep, only to awaken with parts of their limbs missing, having been run over by a train they didn't hear coming.

The Wednesday event was shocking enough in and of itself, but the two teens met with reporters and the video below is the news clip from Channel 5 in Boston.

SIDEBAR: Without seeing the specific location, it's difficult to understand how you wouldn't be able hear the train coming. And if you're actually laying across or astride the tracks, we're guessing here, but wouldn't you feel some sort of increasing intensity of a vibration?

Sounds of Boston - Vol. I, No. 1

One of the most enjoyable responsibilities of working on [: neon :] is deciding what and when to shoot the video. As we're still in beta, we've certainly made our share of mistakes, thankfully most of them transparent to you. But that's why they call it a beta.

Anyway, one major mistake we've had to deal with was actually internal and involved not understanding the critical importance of video library archiving and retrieval, i.e., what to do with all of the video we've been shooting, how do we archive and label them - and most importantly, how do we know what each clip has in the clip without having to replay each clip in its entirety, in time-wasting real-time?

We faced that problem this afternoon, when we couldn't find the clip we needed to upload to one of our four video streaming hosts, only to discover that it was sitting not in our Macs, but as a Windows Media File on one of our PCs that we hardly use anymore.

Anyway, we came across a number of unpublished short clips we took one day in and around Boston, and realized we could create a Sounds of Boston theme with them, as a compilation of where we went over a twelve hour period in early May.

So we've embedded the Viddler version of our stream since they encourage everyone to post comments directly to the video, which we have indeed done. So look for the little dots along the progress bar and run your mouse over them to see what we've written - and we'll tell you what you're looking at.

So here's 2 minutes, 56 seconds of some great sounds and sights in this beeyouuteefull city we call home, Boston, Mass.

Portland, Maine: a must-see part of New England

As a new member of the YouTube community, we've begun searching it for relevant videos about life in New England to feature here on [:neon:] - that is, until we have a large enough staff to send there to regularly produce original content of our own.

In the meantime, we've come across this video featuring Portland, Maine, greatly enhanced by the soothing narrative of Mr. Charles Osgood.

Looking for this kind of creativity from New Englanders

Talk about creativity . . .

We've been setting up some vLog accounts (a.k.a., Video Blogging) with select video hosting services, e.g., Viddler, YouTube and just today, with Vimeo. Anyway, while waiting for some of our uploads to be coded on Vimeo, we checked out some of their featured plays and came across this very cool production from an FM radio station in Scotland, where they turned a day in the office - from DJ to the staff - into a full-blown music video.

Loved the concept, loved the humor, loved the creativity.

So come on, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire, show us your good stuff. We're looking for this kind of creativity, intelligence and fun to feature right here on [: neon :]. iwatchneonATgmail.com

 

 

Nature's Call: CBS Sunday Morning, eat your hearts out

One of the nicest things about living in New England is the beauty of its landscape - exquisite shorelines and less crowded residential communities inland - something many of us are unaccustomed to having lived in more populated areas.

And although there may not be any 24-hour Diners and very few all-night Supermarkets, what we heard earlier this afternoon in the air of these woods, what we were able to smell in that same air - and then what we saw (in this video below) just before heading back - well, the only word that comes to mind is, nice.

Few things in life beat those childhood memories of playing in woods like this, especially that wonderful smell of the soil just after a fresh rain. Really nice . . . peaceful nice.

I guess when push comes to shove, I really do love living in New England.