Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Boston Red Sox - World Champions 2007

This year's edition of the Red Sox were almost wholly different from self-named "Idiots", a team that reversed the "curse" of Boston baseball in 2004. This year's team was dominant almost all year long, with ace Beckett cruising to 20 wins and slugger Big Papi having another great year. While Schilling, the newcomer star of the 2004 season, and Manny Ramirez, one of the top 3 hitters in the game; did not have stellar regular seasons, both came through in the postseason securing a second title in 4 years. Mike Lowell, the third basemen nobody wanted as part of the Beckett deal with Florida, came in clutch all season and secured an MVP award in the World Series. Whether he returns for the repeat year is up in the air. A mention must be made to the rookie contributions to this year's edition including 2B Dustin Pedroia who played hearts-out baseball all season long, OF Jacoby Ellsbury, whose speed on the diamond and slappy bat are unusual traits on a slug-happy franchise, and the Japanese imports, P Daisuke Matsuzaka and P Hideki Okajima. Both were integral but Okajima's badge of courage was won putting down the vaunted Yankees' lineup early in the season in a nailbiter that showed the baseball world that Boston would not back down. He continued to be clutch all year long. Although Daisuke was impressive at times this season and registered two good pitching performances in his last two postseason games, his trial will begin next season. Great season and I can't wait to do it again next season!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Are you not entertained?

The Patriots once again dismantle, destroy and embarrass another NFL opponent this past Sunday. I got a chance to attend the game and bit, making my decision based on many Foxboro games in the past that were very exciting but not this years' Pats edition. The games are often over by halftime and they haven't won by less than 14 points. This sort of thrashing is akin to Maximus in the provincial gladiator circuit slashing throats and bashing skulls with no difficulty, winning every bout with few moments of real drama and even less fanfare. Disgusted with the carnage but nonetheless elated by it, Maximus goads the crowd, "Are you not entertained?" To which the crowd roars in response, their undefeatable idol so talented, the actual match was not worth a cheer; but in his victory comes their adulation.

Another note about the Patriots victory over the Redskins was the issue of running-up the score. These are not amateur or student athletes. We are dealing with professional athletes that get paid in monopoly money salaries. There really isn't any room for sentiment with final scores. Us laymen like to compare what we see on the field on friday night and saturday afternoons with what happens on sunday but its just not comparable. We are trying to make a lesson of moral relevance with a level of competition that we cannot compare. From the opinion of this weak pushover, however, it still smacks of the ol' runnin' it up. But once you lose the killer instinct on the field, you may not be able to turn it back on. The team is tuned so well right now, only a moron would tell his team to "ease up" on these other sports professionals. They may need leniency for their poor self-esteems. Actually it may teach them some humility, a quality definitely lacking among pro-athletes.

While we're on the topic of running up scores, it’s very convenient for other teams to be begging for mercy after what happened after this season’s week one incident. Spygate anyone? That has been long forgotten after the Patriots wiped the floor with the favored Chargers in a game that has rematch later this year spray painted all over. I can’t remember one team, or player speaking in favor of the Patriots, in effect nobody came to their defense to respect what they had accomplished in years past, instead believing or wishing in a muckraking, substance-light conspiracy theory of cheating. The “cheating” did happen, but the extent to which it was blamed for past victories was way out of proportion. NFL officials, coaches, players, and fans had just let the lion out of the cage, giving feast to the ravished Patriots who always use misplaced quotes and the disrespect card to fuel their fire. Well, the NFL succeeded in giving them fuel for a bonfire. And now those same coaches, players and fans want to pull the reigns in. Well, I say blow ‘em away Bill. No mercy. Do people remember what teams did to the old hapless Patriots? Was there any quarter given? I don’t think so. This is the NFL, not pop-warner.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Boston Tourism Rating Falls

Boston, although officially still recognized as a 6 point (of 12) World City by GaWC , but as a destination we are losing ground to other destinations in North America. Once rated up there with New York and San Francisco as prime vacation destinations, Condé Nast traveler and Travel+ Leisure have both recently relegated Boston to the obscurity of a minor city.

Let’s be fair to admit that Boston’s cultural attractions do not bow to any in America. With world class museums, heritage sights, and universities, Boston will always remain the historical destination. With a Market town patchwork of streets and alleys, Boston is one of the few American cities that is authentically pedestrian. Restaurants abound in all downtown neighborhoods and with the ocean on its doorfront, seafood reigns. Sports in Boston also reign. Fenway Park is the oldest Major league stadium in the nation and is itself a museum. With gorgeous parks, an urban river and the harbor, the city is no doubt a beautiful place.

But the ratings have dropped? That’s no surprise. What would Americans these days see in Boston? Travel and Leisure kowtows to luxurious details, mostly in hotel interiors and fashionable dining experiences, but does not pay any homage to the culturally significant. In their eyes, the hotel equals the experience. For any sensible tourist or sightseer, the only worthwhile time in a hotel is for sleeping. True, in a world always spinning, many tourists seek rest and relaxation above experience, and Boston is not for them. Boston must be met with a pair of walking shoes, a healthy appetite for hearty seafood and thirst for Sam Adams or Harpoon.

Boston is not a fashionable place, and most of its worthwhile bars are miles away from downtown. Boston is not a place where high-brand nightlife is measured nor should it. It is safe to say that Boston’s people are not the most attractive. Boston is not Vegas and should never pretend to be, nor try to compete. Just the same, Vegas is not Boston. Measuring a city’s cultural value has been degraded in recent years with a culture obsessed with the trivial and indulgent on throw-away experiences. A city with a diverse historical context, steeped in traditions (gradually being washed into the American mainstream), and its automobile-unfriendly nature makes Boston not immediately accessible for most people. It’s a more sumptuous locale, comparing organic food to McDonalds. People looking for the instant gratification of tasty condiments should seek alternate destinations.

Another complaint is from expensive hotel costs and unfriendliness. With a limited area of downtown, it is no doubt Boston’s downtown hotels; in Copley Square, Financial District, or in Cambridgeside, are expensive. But you will find this in every worthwhile city. Take a look at an average Manhattan hotel. New York is not only known for being expensive, but its people are some of the most insulting rude and obnoxious outside of Paris. In my experience, however, the people in Boston who are most revolting to outsiders are usually outsiders themselves, living and working in Boston for the experience. Once they ingratiate themselves with the subway and their immediate neighborhood, they wear these on their sleeves and are automatically angered when they are inconvenienced by tourists’ directions or slowing down to admire the buildings they are living in. These people are snobbish to locals and worse to tourists, and are mostly responsible for local neighborhoods losing their cultural identities. These people must be ignored. (But unfortunately it is the transplants that continually bring money into Boston and keep the city’s economy healthy.)

The numbers of tourists that continually flock to Boston each spring, summer and fall are a testament that Boston still can hang with other hyped tourist traps. Boston sure has some of the worst tourist traps in the country; the Fanueil Hall marketplace is perhaps the worst of all, but it remains one of few. Sure Boston’s nightclub scene suffers, but that will never (hopefully) be the appeal of the nighttime entertainment in Boston where our drinks are served in pubs. I still can’t believe that attractiveness of the cities inhabitants is even rated. Point ceded. Boston is not LA, Vegas or Miami. There are more hot chicks in those cities. Travel + Leisure once again missed the boat. When is that magazine going to float?

http://www.boston.com/travel/boston/articles/2007/10/22/losing_stature/

Monday, October 22, 2007

Halloween Party Cancelled!

Although I am disappointed because my costumes have been unanimously been voted "top chach" three years in a row, the cancellation of the halloween party can be viewed through an alternative lens and may not appear so bad after all. A) The host will not be ostracized by his condo neighbors for staging such an elaborate and riotous affair. B) There is a chance, albeit small, that less alcohol is consumed this coming weekend, which, judging by testaments of productivity, would be a good thing for our employers. C) We will be able to cheer wildly for the Red Sox in World Series game 3 without tripping over our ridiculously silly costumes. D) If there is no suitable replacement event, I will not have the anxiety that accompanies all hyped one-night events, especially costume events (new years, halloween etc), over whether it will live up to its billing or not.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The Mirror

When you are young and adventurous there is always a yearning to leave the safety of your comfortable environment and seek out the challenge of the unknown, a brand new adventure. As many cultures embrace this adventure time, in fact we have an institution that promotes "going away". Just as the aborigines have the walkabout, where a young man leaves his tribe as a rite of passage into adulthood and the Amish have rumspringa, a period where a young man or woman leaves the sect to decide whether the amish ways are right for him or her on an individual basis; Americans use college to this same endeavor. Other primates also employ this type of behavior as a method to maintain gene flow. Baboon males will leave one troop to join another so as to limit incest.

I have never studied abroad and experienced another culture and country intimately, and in the back of my mind I would like to move for a year or so to another place far away to experience how the canooks, kiwis or aussies live and work. It would be a completely educational experience with little or no time devoted to fun and games, but in the end I would be the better for it. It would give me time to make reasonable decisions about what I want to do with the rest of my life and at the same time, extinguish the unsettled travel pilot flame. When it was done I could head back into Americareer with a better feeling in my stomach for settling down with a better grasp on what I want to do with the rest of my life. When I told my dad of my plan he answered, "You still have to look in the mirror every morning."

Is it that I want to get out of the dump I have made for myself here, jump from my grave I have been digging for myself or could it be that I want to gain new experiences without trying to remove myself from this one. Can we yearn to experience new places while not trying to escape the current ones? After all why would you want to leave if all was well? As I attempt to come to terms with these opposing rationales, I see more often than not that both are mutually exclusive; accepting one with truth convicts the other's reasonable plausibility.