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Patrick
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looked suburban, but developed. I still would have rather lived in the "city" if i were going to school down there.. keep in mind that when i say unimpressed i dont necessarily mean bad. just not impressed.
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Firstly the dissing of West Roxbury. People have called it boring several times. Why? Personally I find JP boring and very overrated but wouldn't just throw that out there in a discussion about JP because I've never lived there. Despite having walked and driven around the neighborhood numerous times, my perception of JP is drastically different than that of someone who has lived there. Also I don't really find West Roxbury that suburban. Sure some parts of it are (towards Dedham) but It also shares a border with Roslindale and there are alot of interesting "mini-neighborhoods" and more urban feeling areas in that section. If you looked hard enough I think you could probably find suburban looking areas in almost every Boston neighborhood. You're right though, some do have more than others.
Secondly, Patrick, I'm really not trying to be a jerk but if you don't know the difference between Roxbury and West Roxbury and you got lost in Dorchester on your way to Boston from Brookline/West Roxbury , you may not be too qualified to judge the "urbanness" of these neighborhoods. Drive west on Beacon Street from Kenmore square and without looking at any signs, tell me where you think Boston ends. You'd be driving for a while.
Secondly, Patrick, I'm really not trying to be a jerk but if you don't know the difference between Roxbury and West Roxbury and you got lost in Dorchester on your way to Boston from Brookline/West Roxbury , you may not be too qualified to judge the "urbanness" of these neighborhoods. Drive west on Beacon Street from Kenmore square and without looking at any signs, tell me where you think Boston ends. You'd be driving for a while.
I should also mention that much of my opinion on what is/isn't urban has been partially influenced by living in the southeast for a few years. Take a trip down there. When you come back West Roxbury will look like Brooklyn. :lol:
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Patrick
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bowesst said:
You are quite right, good point. Forgive me for "passing judgment" on these neighborhoods and towns. What I really meant to do was convey my perception of them from my limited experience, hoping that in doing so it would be validated or broken down (it has been broken down). Thanks for the info.
Patrick said:
Brookline is strange because it blends with Boston so well but at the same time it definitely has its own identity. I've always wondered how different Brookline would be had it been annexed by the city. Would it have changed or pretty much stayed the same?
statler
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bowesst said:
I spent the first 22 years of my life living in Westie. Went to school at the Patrick Lyndon, then Holy Name, then CM. The only part of West Roxbury that could be described as urban is Centre St. Somehow The Corrib, The West Roxbury Pub and West (nee Buck Mullian's nee Charlie's) don't make for an overly active nightlife. The rest of Centre rolls up the sidewalk around nine pm (unless you count Roche Bros or CVS). During the daytime it can be quite active, and there are thankfully very few parking lots, but it's very long and stretched out, so always seems kind of dead. (Except during Sidewalk Sales Day -Woo-Hoo!) The only T access is a few commuter rail stops on the Needham Line and a couple of bus routes. The fact is, WR is 90% suburbia. Which is fine but it's probably the most suburban part of Boston. The are very few apartment buildings and mostly single family homes (see the .PDF).
Sorry, unless it's changed drastically in the past 3 years West Roxbury is quite dull.
EDIT: Ok, compared to the Southeast, West Roxbury could appear 'urban' I guess.
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Patrick
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bowesst said:
Is brookline that town which is surrounded on three sides by boston? If so, what are the surrounding areas of boston like (besides west roxbury, which we've already discussed, obviously)? are they drastically different from brookline? I think that would be a good place to start.
statler said:I spent the first 22 years of my life living in Westie. Went to school at the Patrick Lyndon, then Holy Name, then CM. The only part of West Roxbury that could be described as urban is Centre St. Somehow The Corrib, The West Roxbury Pub and West (nee Buck Mullian's nee Charlie's) don't make for an overly active nightlife. The rest of Centre rolls up the sidewalk around nine pm (unless you count Roche Bros or CVS). During the daytime it can be quite active, and there are thankfully very few parking lots, but it's very long and stretched out, so always seems kind of dead. (Except during Sidewalk Sales Day -Woo-Hoo!) The only T access is a few commuter rail stops on the Needham Line and a couple of bus routes. The fact is, WR is 90% suburbia. Which is fine but it's probably the most suburban part of Boston. The are very few apartment buildings and mostly single family homes (see the .PDF).
Sorry, unless it's changed drastically in the past 3 years West Roxbury is quite dull.
EDIT: Ok, compared to the Southeast, West Roxbury could appear 'urban' I guess.
I use to live in Roslindale right near Fallon Field. I know its technically not West Roxbury but I liked that area alot. It was sort of right between Roslindale Village and Centre Street in WR. I think Centre Street has alot of potential. Its two biggest problems are that its too wide and in certain sections has too many parking lots (like where the Friendly's used to be). Admittedly, those are major problems but In the past few years some great restaurants and delis have opened up which make the area a little more lively. I don't know when it will be but the next time I'm around there I'll snap a few pictures. I don't know, you don't think parts of Hyde Park are more suburban? Like Readville? I suppose they're about the same.
I live in Coolidge Corner.
Brookline is a town of contrasts. North Brookline (Coolidge Corner/St. Mary's/Wash. Square - next to Allston/BU/Fenway) is quite urban in nature, matching that of Allston Village and even Harvard Square. There are, however, pockets of surburbaness within North Brookline. Generally speaking though anything on Beacon and Harvard Streets are pretty urban (I'm talking density compared to, say, Newton). In addition, North Brookline has three Green Line branches running through or near it (B in Allston/Brighton, C and D in the town).
Patrick, North Brookline is no Midtown Manhattan, if that's why you mean by urban. But it does have a great deal of energy and life and almost twenty-four hour activity. It's a good neighborhood if you are young/hip/whatever or if you are going to school or working. It is also very easy to get to DT Boston or Cambridge (via the 66 crap bus).
South Brookline is completely different. It is completely automobile dependent and is made up of primarily single family detached homes with driveways. The people that live here control the town, that's why the ridiculous parking ban is still in effect (I digress). This part of town looks a lot like the neighborhoods of Newton and West Roxbury.
This section of town is what Patrick saw. It's a scary place for someone who likes density and urbanity.
Brookline is a town of contrasts. North Brookline (Coolidge Corner/St. Mary's/Wash. Square - next to Allston/BU/Fenway) is quite urban in nature, matching that of Allston Village and even Harvard Square. There are, however, pockets of surburbaness within North Brookline. Generally speaking though anything on Beacon and Harvard Streets are pretty urban (I'm talking density compared to, say, Newton). In addition, North Brookline has three Green Line branches running through or near it (B in Allston/Brighton, C and D in the town).
Patrick, North Brookline is no Midtown Manhattan, if that's why you mean by urban. But it does have a great deal of energy and life and almost twenty-four hour activity. It's a good neighborhood if you are young/hip/whatever or if you are going to school or working. It is also very easy to get to DT Boston or Cambridge (via the 66 crap bus).
South Brookline is completely different. It is completely automobile dependent and is made up of primarily single family detached homes with driveways. The people that live here control the town, that's why the ridiculous parking ban is still in effect (I digress). This part of town looks a lot like the neighborhoods of Newton and West Roxbury.
This section of town is what Patrick saw. It's a scary place for someone who likes density and urbanity.
Ron Newman
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Brookline is surrounded on other sides by Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, the Longwood Medical Area, the Fenway, Kenmore Square, Boston University, Allston, Brighton, and the city of Newton. Except for Newton and parts of JP, all of these are quite urban.
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Patrick
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castevens said:
I never knew that when you posted that video it was of two guys from Maine. I was reading the newspaper this morning, however, and noticed the article below.
Maine comedians get sweet TV break
A little fizz has turned into a lot of fame for a couple of Maine comedians.
Fritz Grobe, 37, and Stephen Voltz, 48, are scheduled to appear on David Letterman's late-night TV show tonight to demonstrate what happens when you mix Mentos candies with Diet Coke.
The resulting explosive geyser of soda - imagine the dancing fountain at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas - has earned the two Buckfield residents Internet fame.
Their homemade experiment involves more than 500 Mentos and more than 100 two-liter plastic bottles of Diet Coke. Since they posted a three-minute video in early June, they've had more than 3.5 million hits on their Web site, www.eepybird.com, and received dozens of offers to perform their chemistry live.
Tonight it's Letterman, on Friday morning they'll be on the "Today" show.
They've been written up in the Wall Street Journal and interviewed on National Public Radio, and are entertaining offers from media outlets around the globe.
"We've gotten e-mails from German TV, Polynesian TV, calls from Australia," Grobe said Wednesday from New York, where he was preparing for tonight's TV appearance.
"This has turned into a global phenomenon in a way that was totally unexpected. We expected to tell our friends, who would tell their friends, and then maybe a few weeks later we would start seeing some larger interest. But we never anticipated this."
Around Maine, Grobe and Voltz are known for their regular appearances as part of the "Early Evening Show" at the Oddfellow Theater, a 156-seat theater in Buckfield that's operated by Grobe's friend and performance partner Mike Miclon.
Their Mentos-Diet Coke experiment began on a whim eight months ago.
"Stephen heard from a friend that if you drop Mentos in soda it makes a fountain. We tried it, like so many others have, and said, 'This is really cool,' " Grobe said.
"The next day, we had a show at the Oddfellow Theater, so I brought home 10 bottles of soda and said, 'Let's try to do a fountain. Let's choreograph something.' When we saw what 10 bottles could do, we knew there were so many more possibilities. We were just scratching the surface."
In the video, Grobe and Voltz orchestrate the geysers to resemble a synchronized fireworks show. Some shoot more than 20 feet into the air, and others spin around. The splash area is 30 feet by 60 feet, Grobe said.
Tonight, Grobe and Voltz will attempt to shoot off 120 bottles of soda, a new unofficial record. Grobe said he wasn't sure they would have enough air time to go through all 120 bottles, and their appearance is contingent on the weather. It might rain in New York, and they are scheduled to perform outside so the soda doesn't fill Letterman's studio.
A spokesman for the confectioner Perfetti Van Melle, which produces Mentos, said he is thrilled with the publicity the candy has received.
"We were just really delighted when we saw the video. These guys cook. It's a lot of fun," said Pete Healy, vice president of marketing for the company's U.S. division, based in Kentucky.
A spokesman for Coca-Cola could not be reached.
Grobe said it isn't essential to use a Coke product, although diet soda seems to work better than regular soda.
"And don't forget Moxie," he said of the soft drink with its roots in Maine. "Moxie works very well, as well."
Healy said the experiment is safe to try at home, though he recommends that people do it outdoors. There have been no reports of injuries suffered from mixing Mentos and soda, he said.
"If a kid was going to do it, we would certainly hope their parents would be there," he said.
To date, Grobe and Voltz haven't turned their fame into fortune, though they have made some money because of advertising that has come to their Web site.
At the very best, a hot Internet video might make its creator somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 - good money for sure, Grobe said. "But it's a shot in the dark. It's a rare video that catches on that much."
Their larger goal is to translate other comedy routines they do at the Oddfellow Theater into Web videos.
"Most of all, what we're really trying to do is make eepybird.com a place where people will be able to see what we do in this crazy town of Buckfield.
"If we sell out the 'Early Evening Show,' we've sold 156 tickets. You start splitting that among a cast of five or six, the math is not good. If we start reaching hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, the few pennies we could make on each advertising click start adding up. It could really provide us with a new way to reach an audience and a new way to be able to do what it is we love to do."
Still, Grobe is not counting his pennies quite yet.
"We're just the flavor of the week," he said. "In two or three weeks, it's going to be gone."
unfortuately im moving back later in the day, and work for me starts tomorrow (work being training to become an RA for the Northeastern dorms :roll:
But it is SUCH a beautiful day (at least here in Rhode Island), and I wish I was moving back earlier (eye doctor's appointment in RI at 4pm )
But it is SUCH a beautiful day (at least here in Rhode Island), and I wish I was moving back earlier (eye doctor's appointment in RI at 4pm
)
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Patrick
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A 21 year old man was trapped in a tub full of chocolate yesterday after attempting to unplug the vat or whatever it was by climbing in. http://news.netscape.com/story/2006/08/18/man-trapped-in-chocolate/