I have three good friends who all live in this building, a few blocks up the street from my place. A year ago it was in pretty rough shape, likely abandoned and condemned. This time lapse below, covering the gutting and development of the building, is pretty great. Especially since my friends get to have a professional video of their homes being built. It seems like every fifth lot in the neighborhood is undergoing something similar.
I’ve been learning a bit about data visualization tools lately, and last night I decided to go digging through Massachusetts government websites to see if there was any interesting data I could plot. I didn’t expect to spend my night learning about the history of rainfall in the state, but the Massachusetts precipitation database turned about to be a great resource. Below is what I came up with in half an hour or so. On the map, each color represents a water basin — essentially where the water for the town or city comes from. The size of the circle represents the total rainfall in the area in a given year. You can toggle between years on the right. In
Last weekend I went to see Shovels & Rope at the Sinclair in Cambridge. A few things to quickly note. 1. I can’t really describe Shovels & Rope well, but if you haven’t heard of them, check them out. A recent NYT article actually gets it pretty close: “They like to say they are “making as much noise as they can” with two old guitars, a kick drum, snare, harmonica, tambourine and occasional keyboard. I dare to match them with the couple that set the standard for country duets, Johnny Cash and June Carter. Both couples share Southern roots and that music-from-the-back porch country sound.” They were great live too, although they didn’t quite meet my (very high) expectations. 2.
Or at least it was last Tuesday. As I previously mentioned in this post, I’ve been excited for Foodie’s to open a grocery store in Southie — around the corner from my apartment — for some time. As much as I love my neighborhood, we don’t really have any options for groceries, short of going to Stop & Shop on the east side or into the city. And there’s nowhere to get prepared food either. There’s been talk of the store opening going as far back as 2010, but starting this past spring, we began to see real progress, as contractors started renovating the long-vacant Chocolate and Nuts Factory on Broadway. I’d heard lots of rumors that they were very
Last weekend I was fortunate to have the opportunity to fly a plane for the first time. My girlfriend Laura purchased a lesson for my birthday, which turned out to be an amazing gift. It’s something I’ve loosely thought about trying for some time, but I probably wouldn’t have pulled the trigger without a push. It always seemed like an expensive and difficult thing to do. Having now been through the experience, that’s certainly not the case. The lesson was purchased through a school at Minute Man airfield on Living Social. The deal included an hour of on-the-ground instruction, followed by an hour of flying. Leading up to it, I was fairly certain that the hour of instruction would be
There’s lots going on:
They were awesome at the House of Blues last night. Here’s a clip:
Building Tetris:
Unfortunately, I’ll be in NYC on Thursday. But if you’re in or around Cambridge, I can’t think of a logical reason to miss this. Here’s a video of the Piano Drop from 2009: And here’s the first ever, from 1972:
There’s been a lot of debate about whether or not the stimulus plan worked. At the time it was passed, many argued that it wouldn’t be fast enough, that the projects would take so long to get underway that it wouldn’t be able to accomplish its purpose. And now, according to many economists, it definitely helped create jobs. But here we are, three years later. Our financial system didn’t self destruct, but economy is still growing at a pretty pathetic pace (although there have been some encouraging signs over the past two months). So, knowing we can’t change the past anyways, maybe its not so bad that some of the effects of the stimulus plan have yet to hit the economy. I’ve lived