Cruising Boston: Fun Edition

Today I got a latte before work at Espresso Royale, I was quite pleased with my table.  Warning:  Table may or may not accurately depict the feats of Neal Armstrong.

In Soviet Boston, beer drinks you.

Sometimes Americans are really really patriotic.

If you wander around through obscure peers, you may find a movie set with Julia Roberts.  This is the edge of Fan Pier near a big empty parking lot.  My best guess after a little research is that it is the movie Duplicity.  Note that Julia Roberts is the small shady figure near the big white slanted rectangle.  They shooed me away so this is the best I got.  I thought I was special until my friends told me they saw Bruce Willis filming a movie on BU campus over the summer.  They said that it must have been a pretty boring Bruce Willis film since there were no explosions.

Thug culture is so prevalent in America, even the wildlife is becoming troublesome.  I had to use my overwhelming power of persuasion to fend this crustacean playa off after he stole my bike.

A Temple in my Room

Reverend Sa has me on this 30 day prayer that has caused me to make a small temple in my room on a daily basis.  Everyday I meditate for 3 minutes, chant Young-Joo, read a prayer written by Reverend Sa about myself, do 40 full bows (It is actually a lot of exercise), chant Il-Won Sang Vow, Heart Sutra, and Chong Jong Joo, and read a chapter of the scripture.  Lets just say, it is pretty effective at making me remember every day that I am trying to implement Won Buddhism to make myself a better person.  I think more about Buddhism when I practice this and it really is a practical tool for me.  My classmates are not exactly on the same page.

The windows across from my window are all females facing all males, which is some sort of haha joke established by the administrators of old and kept as some perverted tradition.  Having done the Warren Towers experience twice now, I can say that this is the second set of freshman I have watched put up signs like this in their windows.  Note that the one girl was smart enough to realize she should invert the letter C but not smart enough to realize that she also needed to invert the phone number.  Going to college, a sure sign of intelligence and wisdom.  Signs I didn't take pictures of but are up right now include "Let's Sex Party" "Free Sex" "Call # for Sex" and another penis picture.  Classy Girls if I do say so myself.  I have debated putting up a sign in my window saying "Reading is Hot" and putting up a picture of glasses, but I haven't simply because I do not want to start receiving solicitations from girls.

In conclusion, Gate Gate Para Gate Parasam Gate Bodhisvaha.

Yahoo, I think I might like you a little more

I am the kind of person who has no faith in the news anymore, because I think they have been given incentives by the big dogs not to dig up and report to the general public the kinds of things I think they should be reporting.  But lately Yahoo has impressed me twice with a few articles on its front page making me think maybe they might care about the public a little bit.

I am astonished that they published this article, and it was only on for about 3 hours but still, its about the terrible terrible budget deficit of the government and the fact that neither Obama or McCain plan to solve the problem (Actually the only person hollering about this was obviously crazy and completely insignificant Ron Paul).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080909/pl_mcclatchy/3040652_1

They actually reported the worsening of the trade deficit (Which will be solved by issuing treasury bonds, probably to be bought by the Chinese)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080911/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy

Cruising Boston Edition 1

These pictures have been accumulated, some times randomly, over a couple of different adventures (Minus the Boston University pictures)

A random picture of Downtown Boston, I will need to get more pictures of this neighborhood.  Go trolley Go!

I absolutely love this park.  I call it the water-slate park and nobody ever knows what the hell I am talking about.  So it is located between the North End and Downtown, and it has this slightly slanted slate that water runs through, and people come and walk in it and have water run over their feet.  It is an extremely simple idea that I REALLY FREAKING LOVE!!!  It also has a breathtaking view of the nearby downtown.  Can you see the water running over it?

This was with Christine while we were on the waterfront part of the North End.  That guy in the white shirt was a hilarious old Italian man playing Bocce.  He would make calls in an Italian accent "Ohhhh, I knew that one was no good as soon as I let it go"  We watched them play for half an hour with a nice ocean breeze, but we could not for the life of us figure out the rules.

So these next pictures are all Boston's Backbay residential neighborhood that is really rich and yet surprisingly prolific.  In Confessions of an Economic hitman, the economist in question lives here.  You will note that it is all pictures of buildings, as I am obsessed with architecture.  Long long rows of parallel streets with townhouses just like these are everywhere, I tried to get images that captured that proliferates the neighborhood, but it was hard, since there are so few exemplary homes, just a general feeling of aesthetic design.

This one particular picture below is actually the beginning of BU's baystate road housing.  I actually do think these residences are exemplary.

There is this one metal used in buildings that is everywhere in Boston, and its entire selling point is that when it rusts, it turns teal.  Behold it in all of its glory.

Trolley in backbay

A standard back bay home

And now to Boston University, this is splash, where I had to work for boardgames club.  I hated this when I was a freshman, and I didn't really enjoy it this year either.

BU is so proud of its gigantic new fitness center (This is not even half of it, it truly is wild, and I don't use it at all because I am not a fan of running in place, I would rather ride my bike because then I can A: explore and B: admire buildings)  It boasts the biggest rock climbing wall in Boston, no substitute for a real mountain, and a lazy river, which I have yet to try out.

This is the best part of the Warren Towers dining hall.  Every morning I eat breakfast and stare out this window, and the view is breathtaking.  The most curious aspect of the vast window seats is that people would rather sit in the room where all the food is rather than carry their tray to the window.  Its their loss I guess.  Note the School of Management(Far Left), Citgo Sign (Red Triangle), Prudential Building (Center Skyscraper, also location of Corporation that Economic Hitman works for), Morse Auditorium(Green Wall with dome), Com Fountain (That stone thing on the lawn), and Commonwealth Avenue, the main artery of Boston.

The Castle, a landmark building on campus, what the hell anyone does there, I have no clue.  I think the Nobel Laureates hang out there though when they meet with the kids who have full scholarships, but I am not sure.  Either way, it is gorgeous with and without the Ivy.

A closeup

The next pictures are all in Central Square and vicinity in Cambridge.  I freaking love this house with the weirdo art people.  There is a good chance of drug influence on that fence.

The church in Central Square, awesome churches are all over Boston and I have always appreciated the love that went into the architecture of old churches.  If only that bustop weren't in the way.

An American Mural, a tribute to diversity.  I couldn't even get the whole thing, it was very wide.  The wild diversity of America is something that helps us stand out among many other parts of the world I think.

This building houses my favorite coffee shop in Boston, 1369 and it is fortunate that Central Square is only a 20 minute walk from BU, heck from end to end of BU it is a 30 minute walk!

A close-up of my beloved cafe.  My two other cafe's are Diesel in Davis Square (Which is always fun because it is full of really distinctive and artistic lesbians and has that reputation) and Napoli Pastry in the North End (I have to admit, I am partial to the cafe since the owners are from Naples, and one of the few European roots I can claim is that two of my great grandparents were from rural town above Naples, the other is my two great grandparents from Galway Ireland)

AHHHHH!  There are so many more pictures I need to take.  Particularly of buildings.

The Feast of Saint Anthony

On August 31st I decided to go on one of my usual city exploring adventures, and I had set the North End as the focus of the semester's explorations.  The idea was that I would find a nice backstreet cafe and read.  So I headed down on my bike and when I got there I thought to myself "Wow, north end is crowded as hell on Sunday"  I soon realized I had run into the Feast of Saint Anthony.  The italians had all sallied from there trendy (and I think subsidized like New York) housing to celebrate their Roman Catholic Heritage (A tradition I have abandoned, partially forgetting my Mongiello and Napoli roots.)  This particularly interested me because my great grandparents, who migrated from a small rural town outside of Naples, are from the town where my Won Buddhist Temple is in Boston, a neighborhood that housed poorer Italian immigrants.  I can say, it was quite funny to hear an italian man call out in a strong accent "EY! Gepetto!"  Really?  People in this neighborhood are still named Gepetto?  I'm impressed.  I wonder if they know about Pinochio, they probably do since the theme makes it sound like some traditional italian story rather than an italian themed disney creation. Now on with the story.

So this street made me realize that it wasn't just crowded, it was a festival, note the things hanging above the street

After wandering through the streets until I reached the Old North Church, I found this cafe and decided it was time for my daily latte.

After getting my drink, all of the lower cafe was full, but there was this little tiny loft (I can't think of a better way to describe it) with four tables and one little window.  I sat down to enjoy my latte, when suddenly the horn of a tuba floated down the window, I rushed out of the cafe to take a picture of a little band (Of what I originally thought was police, but they were actually just uniformed italians) playing italian brass music but I didn't quite get why they were there because there was no parade.  After taking several pictures and listening I went back into the cafe to my seat.  (Note the brick building in the picture, that is the Old North Church were Paul Revere signaled the arrival of the British)

No sooner did I sit down then a blob of money floated by the window "WTF was that?"  again I ran out fumbling my (new) camera, which I did not need to do because the money tree thing was not moving very quickly.  In fact they were putting it down every 10 feet and people were attaching money to it (Or at least to these rotating sticky paper rolls that were being wrapped around it).  I soon realized it was not a tree at all, but a statue of saint, and with my genius powers of deduction, I will venture that it was none other than Saint Anthony, with the Money, in the North End.  I win clue.

I felt so fortunate to have seen the band and the saint go by, because I honestly had no clue to look for them.  They came to me.  I finally returned to my latte in my nook of the coffee shop, when 3 italians came up, one of which was clearly the owner, to get the bathroom fixed.  They paid no attention to me, perhaps not noticing that anyone was even in this little nook when I tuned into some things I probably shouldn't have heard, but perhaps were harmless.  I picked up "Some black kid" blah blah blah "stabbed in the back 9 times" blah blah blah "You did the right thing"  My entire face turned red and hot, these people were about 2 feet from my nook but I don't think they knew I was there, I scrambled to pack up my stuff and leave.  Because of them I took no pictures in the coffee shop.

Later on the bike ride back I thought about what I had heard and it could have been multiple things.  Perhaps the black kid was stabbed in the back, perhaps he did the stabbing, perhaps the right thing was telling the cops (which I didn't hear but I like to hope) or perhaps the right thing was the stabbing itself.  Either way, somebody, somewhere, got stabbed in the back 9 times, and they either went to the hospital or are dead, perhaps both.  Sicily to this day is still held hostage by the mafia, the local government cannot get a hold over tyrants who have weaved a web over the island.  We always think, "oh, Italian organized crime is an old steryotype" but russian organized crime isnt, neither is chinese, jewish, probably even nativist (I'm pretty sure that would be the KKK) whatever I heard, I didn't like it.  And when they watched me leave was probably the most awkward and uncomfortable moment in my life recently.  But I WONT be going back to that particular cafe and I WILL be thinking more about what the state of the world's organized crime orders really is.  (And the stabbing doesn't even have to be organized crime, perhaps it was some sort of racist fight between some local blacks and italians I have no I-frickin-dea)