508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Mark Lund, Cha-Cha Connor, Kevin Ksen, Jeff Barnard, and Brendan Melican.
[display_podcast]
We revisit the story of Karon Shea Model Management. Mark ran their 2008 International Modeling and Talent Association program (see Pulse article) and has mixed feelings about the experience. If you have feedback on this issue, you might want to send it to renegade blogger Marc Reese.
We talk about the Republicans’ bizarre attacks on community organizing with community organizer Kevin Ksen. We mention that Drew Wilson was arrested at the RNC.
Cha-Cha says the Transgender Emergency Fund, first mentioned on 508, is up and running.
We talk about the new Worcester Magazine, Rosalie Tirella’s attacks on Allen Fletcher in the InCity Times, ICT readers defending the late Richard Preston, and boring commenters.
Discussion of the impending T&G layoffs turns into a general discussion of print journalism in Worcester and the various publications serving the city’s subcultures. (WoMag in 2001: “Buyouts and belt-tightening herald an uncertain future for our local–and no longer independent–daily”.)
Next week’s show is #52. We’ll be setting an agenda for the city in the coming year. If you have suggestions or ideas, e-mail pieandcoffee@gmail.com or leave a message at 508-471-3897.
Hey guys. I’ve been listening to the ongoing discussion on 508 about the T&G comment boards and local blogs in general, and I thought I’d share my experience. Like many people in the city, I have an ongoing fascination with the surreal horror show that is the Telegram & Gazette comments section. And since I often use the “controlled distraction” method of dealing with ADD, I had gotten into the habit of keeping the T&G comments page open as I did other work. And I found myself often adding to the comments, sometimes to advance the conversation, sometimes to lob a grenade or two. I became used to dealing with usual cast of characters, including the two or three crazed right-wing whackos whom the folks from the 508 Podcast accurately and amusingly characterized as “hating everything in the world”. I posted simply as “Jim” and occasionally as “Earl Camembert” when one or two other Jims turned up, so as to avoid confusion. I made an effort to balance my comments evenly between insightful, informative, cogent points of debate and complete, off-the-wall wiseassery. I sort of had the impression that the folks running the online edition of the T&G were hip enough to see that I was just sort of riffing on things. Trying to keep it interesting. That was until the T&G ran a story on John Silber. I don’t even remember what the story was about. Something about education, I think. Anyways… John Silber, right? So I added a comment. It was the only one for that particular story. I simply said “On a related note, Season 1 of “Flipper” comes out on DVD this week.” So, okay, it was a bit of a crass comment, but I thought it was edgy and kind of funny. So an hour goes by and I’d forgotten about the comment, and then all of a sudden – WHAM – they went nuts! My inbox filled with about ten T&G “You have violated the terms of service” form emails. It was like the guy on the other end, in the T&G’s web office, just went crazy and kept hitting the “send” button. Now I had fifteen of them. Then about twenty. Then it stopped. But the next day I got another one. And I got another one the day after that. And I found none of my comments were being posted. They were ripped. And they have been ever since. I am banned. Banished. Cast adrift. Just to test them, I started posting again this week under a new email address. No sillyness. Just boring debate points. That lasted one hour before they axed me again. So that’s my story and that’s my lesson: don’t make fun of John Silber or the T&G will revoke your privileges and send you to the woodshed.