From There to Here

Three t-shirts for you today. No words necessary.

I was sitting around the apartment earlier channel surfing with Chris and Mike when “Joe Buck Live” rolled by on the on-screen guide. Either Chris or Mike — I forget which — urged me to check it out.

I’m glad I did.

Not because Buck had a sit down interview with Bret Favre and talked about playing football again. Or not because Michael Irvin and Chad OchoCinco lended their incredible insights. But because Artie Lang pushed the limits of HBO and made a complete and utter mockery of Joe Buck’s first attempt into the late night circuit.

Let’s make one thing clear: before Artie Lang appeared on the show, “Joe Buck Live” was a complete trainwreck. I’m probably one of the few who really likes Joe Buck for baseball (you remember the guy when he has some of your all-time favorite calls, like in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS — “We’ll see you later tonight!” Awesome), but this show was a complete disaster. He was horrible, from beginning to end. His last little stand-up monologue — something where I can’t remember the title of it so much as the pulsating “I” that was moving around behind his talking head — only got one or two polite chuckles from the crowd. They were exhausted from laughing and gasping from air at Lang’s performance.

And Lang performed. He completely hammed it up for the cameras, and while he’s usually a disgusting slob — I mean that in the most endearing way — he found new depths on Monday night. I disagree with Lang. I think some of his comments are completely unfounded. Some people play a character on TV, but not Lang. For better or worse, this is who he is.

The interview included:

- Making fun of Joe Buck saying he liked TMZ and asking him if his other website, was — I’ll put it nicely — inhaling-rooster.com.
- He looked right at Michael Irvin, telling him he hates the f—ing Cowboys.
- He told an inane rambling story about Buck’s father.
- Talking about rhyming Tony Romo’s name in unflattering ways.
- Making mention to going home and pulling a hamstring while performing a certain act on himself.

I’m sorry to make you read through all the subtlety, but I’m not just writing half the stuff Lang said on the show on my website. I don’t agree with almost any of the points he made — although I do hate the Cowboys — and he went for the cheap laughs at other people’s expense a lot. But he did ensure one thing though: we’re sitting here late on Monday night talking about Artie Lang’s appearance on a talk show that almost no one would hear about if it wasn’t for crass humor.

And Joe Buck — stop being so pious. If it wasn’t for Mr. Lang, I was changing the channel as soon as OchoCinco and Irvin finish their segment. He was the only thing stopping people from completely slamming your horrible hosting of an awful show. At least now, they have something else to talk about.

As I got off the T today after a long day at work, I was accosted.

Not really. But I was stopped not once, but twice, by people pitching the Mountain Dew Energy Drink “Amp.”

I have no idea why this is happening now. Amp has been around forever. In college, I got through finals sophomore year living on nothing but Amp, Cheddar Sun Chips and Metabolife for three straight days. So when I’m offered Amp after a day of work, I’m turning it down.

“No thanks,” I reply to the girl trying to delicately place a can of Amp in my hand. I walk about 10 feet before a different girl asks me if I want to get “Amped up.”

Thanks, but no thanks.

And who’s distributing a caffeine-infused, horrible-tasting, soda-like energy drink at 6 p.m. on a Monday? I can’t possibly think of a worse time to try and give people this. You know when I could have used this? At about 8:30 a.m. today when I was walking like a zombie through South Station after five hours of sleep from a long weekend. But no. So I went to work and had the standard coffee, much like every other commuter — many of whom might have given Amp a shot had it been placed free in their hand during their still-half-asleep state. Who the hell is the marketing genius behind this?

“Yes, we’ll market it when people are coming home from working in Boston all day. That’s a much better idea than going to one of the biggest train stations for commuters in the morning, like Part Street or South Station, and marketing it between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. They’ll want to Amp Up after work!” Judging by the number of commuters walking by and headed home, it’s a strategy they might want to rethink.

I’ve become ridiculously obsessed with Yelp. I don’t know if it’s an opportunity to write more or to write about subjects, but I completely love using it.

I’ve started updating it basically every Sunday night/Monday night with everywhere I’ve gone on the weekend and other places that I’ve been to during the week. I’ve talked about this over on my work site, but if you want to follow my reviews on Yelp, you can check them out here.

We’ll see what happens this weekend. Heading to the Kinsale tonight, so I’m sure there will be a review about it up there later!

At the risk of sounding like a huge videogame dork (who am I kidding about *risk*, it’s happening), something amazing happened today.

Sony just rereleased Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation Network for $10. The game that had been going for $80-$90 on eBay because people wanted to play the game that they grew up playing on the original PlayStation, the first big RPG on the new Sony system and the biggest RPG in the states since Final Fantasy III was on the SNES in October 1994.

I can remember sleeping over my friend Tony’s house in ‘94 just playing Final Fantasy III for hours. I think we literally fell asleep playing the game. It was probably the best RPG out at the time, and it was just incredible. Three years later, I was in high school with a different group of friends, but my take on Final Fantasy III hadn’t changed. My cartridge for the SNES was disgusting, but I still played that game all the time. It was just a great game.

Then just the TRAILER for Final Fantasy VII came out and blew everything else on every other system out of the water. It was incredible. The graphics. The cut scenes. The 60-hour-or-so storyline. Then when they released the playable demo in which you go through the first 20 minutes of the game, and I was hooked. I think I bought the game on the release date and my classes definitely suffered that semester as I’d stay up late to do homework — aka play this game.

And with it back out now, I’m definitely planning to log a few hours on it this weekend. It’s heralded as one of the greatest games of all time, and now it’s back. I only hope there’s some young person out there discovering it now for the first time too, because it’s one of the best RPG stories of all time and definitely one that’s timeless.

Before 2001, it was a little difficult to be a Boston sports fan.

Between 1986 and 2001, Boston sports fans exhibited nothing but heartbreak. The Celtics won the 1985-86 NBA Championship, but then the losing began. The Boston Red Sox lost to the Mets in 1986, killing a fan base that had waited so many years. The Bruins had more points than any other NHL team in 1989-90, but they lost in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Oilers. The Patriots made it to Super Bowl XXXI in 1997, but they took a crushing defeat at the hands of Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. And the Celtics dealt with the tragedy of Reggie Lewis and the decline of the team under Rick Pitino.

For the heartbreak and sadness Boston sports fans dealt with those 15 years, they more than made up for it this decade. The New England Patriots won three Super Bowls; the Boston Red Sox won two championships in four years — after winning none in 86 years; the Boston Celtics won their 17th title, and their first in 15 years; and the Boston Bruins — well — they did have the NUMBER ONE SEED in the NHL’s Eastern Conference this year and a great young team — even if they don’t have the hardware to show for it.

And when the Bruins and Celtics both lost heartbreaking Game 7s at home on the same weekend, the North Station area suddenly became deathly quiet. Not a soul ventured into Sully’s Tap or Sports Grill, while Porter’s and DJ’s at the Garden lost their after-game crowds. It would be a long, empty summer on Causeway Street, save the American Idol’s tour.

But I was out last night watching the Orlando Magic defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers, and even though they beat us just two weeks ago (it took them seven games to beat us, but only SIX games to beat the Cavs), I can’t be too upset about the state of Boston sports.

My brother, a die-hard Magic fan, sent me a text message just a little bit after the Magic victory. “Magic!!! Haven’t had a team in a ship since 2000, mets, that’s a decade ago!”

My brother loves the Cowboys, Magic, Mets and doesn’t really care for hockey. But out of the teams he loves, none of them have ever even been to a championship since the Mets in 2000. Meanwhile, Boston has won SIX championships — and I’m not counting the four appearances for the New England Revolution, other deep playoff runs by the Patriots or the National Championship that my college — Bosotn University — just won this year. That’s how good Boston still has it — better than any other city this decade.

If you include USC football, Los Angeles is right up there with championships between two for college football, two for the Lakers, one for the Angels and a couple for their MLS’ team. But add in the three college hockey championships we have (BC 2, BU 1), and it’s tough to really make a case for anyone else for sports city for the decade.

So while it sucks right now, there’s definite positives on the horizon for Boston sports. Tom Brady’s back and he’s more focused than ever, the Red Sox are near the top of their division with a great pitching staff and the Bruins have a healthy young team that should be fun to watch into the next decade. Recent losses aside, I’m happy to be a Boston sports fan — and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

It’s been a long week so far, and I’ve got a huge presentation at The Boston Foundation tomorrow as part of the Nonprofit Congress initiative that the National Council of Nonprofits runs. It’s more or less facilitating the Town Hall event, but it’s still standing up in front of 40 thought leaders in downtown Boston and leading a discussion about the national priorities for the nonprofit sector. So it’s kind of important.

I have time to read up on things thought because the television season is over. But in “is this good?” news, Scrubs is picked up for a ninth season (kind of). I’m excited to see one of my favorite shows, but I’m nervous about how it will be continued. For fans of the show, the finale was pretty much universally praised as a masterpiece — and I’m in agreement on that. A really well-done finale by Bill Lawrence, and now I hope he can continue the magic and it doesn’t mar the series. Friends did it right — change the show and make it a spinoff — i.e. Joey — so it doesn’t affect the original. When people look at Friends years down the road, no one is going to remember Joey. But could Scrubs end up hurting itself? We’ll find out.

The MBTA completely screwed commuters on the Red Line because the train I was on had to go out of service, forcing hundreds of commuters on a train to join hundreds of commuters on the platform at Harvard. Then they all tried to pile onto a third train that had hundreds of people on it. Basically, it amounted to total chaos and people being forced to watch two or three trains roll by before being able to get on a single train.

I played it smart. Stay on the train going out of service until you’re the last person off of it. Last person off = first person on the next train. Unfortunately, it was already full of commuters who had gotten on at Alewife, Davis and Porter, leaving very little room for tons of people trying to squeeze on. And the problem just gets magnified as the day goes on because there are now an ungodly amount of people at Harvard all morning.

Basically, the bus was late picking me up, but I finally got to Davis, where I had to wait between 10 and 15 minutes for a Red Line train during morning rush hour — this is basically unheard of. Most mornings, I’m waiting less than five minutes or running right on. So the train goes — extremely slowly — to Porter. And then it stops between Porter and Harvard for about 5 minutes. Then it goes out of service at Harvard. And said chaos above ensues.

I wrote Daniel Grabauskas, the MBTA head, an e-mail about it — never expect to hear anything back knowing the MBTA’s customer service — but I basically told him I know they have a difficult and complex job to do and they often do it quite well. But there are these instances that don’t make any sense, and I wish they’d consider alternatives. For example, if you have to take the train out of service but have to run it down the tracks anyway to get to a turn off (not sure where the closest one is), run it to Park EXPRESS. Why make the people get off if you’re simply running it to a turnoff? I believe there’s a turnoff in the Park-Downtown-South Station area.

This would be much better for a number of reasons:
- Everyone going to Park or further would stay on the train, not causing a backup at the Harvard platform.
- Those waiting at Harvard to go to Park or further could get on.
- Those not going there would get off, joining the others who are getting “local” service.
- You keep nearly the same number of people on the train as people off the train, not creating a huge backup and destroying morning service.

I proposed this, and of course, never heard anything back. They always have a “write to the top” campaign, where they encourage folks to e-mail top managers, but then this happens and you don’t receive a response. Disappointing? Sure. But at least I vented there. And now I’ve vented here. It’s all I can do so I’m ready for Monday’s commute.

Heading to Plymouth tomorrow for a two-day company retreat with the Council’s board of directors. Pretty excited about it, as we’ll be setting the future goals of the Providers’ Council. Kind of nervous about it, as this is the picture featured on the hotel website.

I think a wise man once said, “Don’t judge your hotel by a picture of its indoor pool that has a replica of the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock.” We’ll see.

Today’s been a long day.

Yeah, it was more or less a lazy Sunday. I woke up and basically hung around the house all day. I think I stepped outside to check the mail. With it being Sunday, the mail wasn’t there. Duh.

But I got things done. Cleaned the room. Did some laundry. Did a little reading. Watched the Celtics lose a Game 7 for the first time since 2005. Right now, I’m tired but taking in the Survivor finale.

This morning, however, I was thinking, and I continue to think as I’m watching Survivor now. As one of the contestants, Taj, got voted out, she remarked how she had spent 37 days there and so many things had happened, and she was upset that she lost sight of the prize just two days before the end of the game. And it’s true. Thirty-seven days out on that island, playing that crazy game, must seem like an incredibly long time.

But I think it’s just as long when you’re not on that island. Because, to be honest, I think the real world is even crazier than Survivor. Both have back-stabbing. In both, you need to make difficult decisions. Whether you’re on an island in the South Pacific or an office on Fort Point Channel, you have to make calculated risks that you think are going to pan out and work.

So while Taj and the rest of the castaways spent 39 days on that island in total trying to win $1 million, I’ve spent 1,826 days since my graduation from Boston University. When I was with Jen today, I remarked to her that I had graduated from Boston University five years ago today. I don’t know what made me think of it — maybe it was seeing all the students in their caps and gowns when I was on campus the other day — but it’s been a ridiculous five years.

When I graduated from BU, I had no idea what the future would hold. I was moving back to Connecticut to take a job working at the newspaper that I grew up reading, and I had no idea where I’d be today. But, by the numbers, this is what has happened:

Days spent living in Connecticut: 744
Days spent living in Massachusetts: 1,082
Days spent working as a reporter: 737
Days spent working as a communications professional: 803
Days spent unemployed: 66
Days living in Boston: 92
Days living in Revere: 365
Days living in Somerville: 625

Sure, it’s basically where I’ve lived and where I’ve worked, but it gives a good idea of how I’ve spent my last 1,826 days (thanks February 29, 2008 for messing me up there for a little while).