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My thesis so far is that the town of Arlington, Massachusetts, would be better off not receiving a government grant and leave Massachusetts Avenue alone rather than refurbish it.
So far, pretty much every single person in the town that I have found does not support the project, which is astounding. The police hate it, every citizen hates it, the fire department hates it, local businesses hate it, the DPW hates it. The only people that seem to like the idea is Arlington board of selectmen, who only want to go foreward with the project because it means that the state will pay for it. This will be a key topic of the essay.
Another piece of info that I have recently gathered is that up until the mid 80’s, mass ave was two lanes with a median in the middle (the same way they want to make it). As of now it is 4 lanes with no median, which, at the time of its reconstruction, was supposed to be safer. Now, they say that it will be safer for only two lanes, yet emergency services are complaining that it will take too long to travel down the avenue in case of an emergency.
I will then move to the topic of environmental consciousness. The town says that the new bike lane they wish to implement will support use of bikes and eco-friendliness, except for the fact that the town already has a 2-lane BIKE ONLY mini-highway, called the bike path, that is traversed every day by thousands. Also, due to the harsh winters, it is hardly believed that there will be much bike riding.
All in all it seems that there is a lot of controversy regarding this, and my essay will hopefully contain a lot of debate on the topic.
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Pittsburgh is a city that, not unlike any other city in America, has its own cultural flair, especially considering its backgrounds as the steel capital of the western hemisphere. The pickings are good when it comes to things to do… as long as its before 6:00 Pm….
6 PM!! As far as I’m concerned, its absolutely ridiculous for nearly every commercial establishment in a downtown metropolis to close its doors at 6! Not only is it inconvenient, it makes for one sucky time living in the dorms, seeing as how most of the places to eat are closed by the time your classes are over. What if I want to get a poster? My Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday classes all end at 4:30 pm, where the poster store closes at 5! Sandwich? Don’t count on it! Fun? Well, all the fun has been thrown out the damn window, thank you very much. Bus? I can’t afford to be paying 5-10 dollars a day just to take a stupid bus to Oakland. It seems the only place open in downtown past 6 is Primanti’s, and that gets really boring really quick (and really expensive).
Not even Domino’s is open past 8! Back home they were open till 3 in the morning for delivery, and 24 hours for pick up! Its hard to believe that this is “America’s most livable city”. I’m pretty sure we all need food to live.
Also, what the hell is the deal with parking? There should be some type of school parking permit at least. Without a car, I have no job. Without a job, I have no money. Without any money, it wouldn’t matter what time things close because I wouldn’t be able to buy anything even if they were open. This should be retiled “America’s most boring city”.
I miss seafood too! Where the hell can I get some Jerked Seabass around here?
Music is pointless. I don’t understand why people get so caught up with it. Music should be something to make people dance, that’s it. I especially hate classical music, and pretty much anything before 1990 is really annoying to listen to. I’ll admit, there are a few artists I like, Missy Elliott, and Little Wayne are probably my favorites. They’ll get any party going!
I was walking through Pittsburgh last Sunday, and one of the stores was closed at noon! Why? The people who owned it were going to church! Of all the pointless things to do, going to church? That’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard. Beliefs are what holds you back from partying, I always say, and nothing ever holds me back. I came to college for one thing and one thing only, to party! I go to one of the frat houses in Oakland at least once a night, and then I might go to Mount Washington and see what’s up there. The only thing that sucks about Mount Washington is that stupid trolley thing that you need to take to get up there. Who the hell cares if it’s a hundred and eleventy million years old, the damn thing is slow as hell! I honestly don’t give a damn about its stupid history; they should tear it down and put an escalator or something in its place. It would be faster and all the ignorant people who wanted to look at “the view” (whatever the hell that means) can still see it. Not that there’s much of a view anyway. All I ever see is nothing but tall buildings.
I finally figured out that the school was an old gas building today. I don’t understand why, I thought it was always just the school. Why in the world would the school move into an old building from the 1800’s? Tear the damn thing down and build something bigger, it probably would cost less. Then we might not have to wait 3 hours to take the elevator. Sometimes I don’t even go to class because of that. I might as well just sleep anyway, since the damn elevator takes so long! All I want to do is go to the goddamn second floor, why the hell do I have to wait 45 minutes for the elevator? I’m not wasting any time that I wouldn’t have anyway.
My initial idea for my investigative paper was to interview a place in Pittsburgh, seeing how I attend school here, and live here. I was thinking of something along the lines of a restaurant that nobody knows about, maybe taking a walk through the south side and picking a random hole-in-the-wall establishment to uncover. I wouldn’t have wanted to do anything in downtown or the strip, seeing how all those places are pretty well known, especially in the strip, where every restaurant gets tons of publicity. However, being true to my roots, I decided against Pittsburgh altogether. I had the idea: who says this paper has to be about something good? Maybe instead of writing about a diamond in the rough, we could write about a shiny-looking lump of coal in the sewer. This is when I had the idea of writing about entertainment cinemas, Fresh Pond. Walking along the bridge from the alewife train station, entertainment cinemas is the first thing your eyes see, a hulking mass of concrete isolated in a sea of asphalt, the railroad tracks running alongside. At first glance, it looks like an okay establishment, if not one that went out of style in 1987. However, my experiences there have taught me otherwise. Watching a movie there, you are almost guaranteed a 1 in 3 shot of your film stopping mid-screening. Once the film stopped while the projector was on, and soon melted. To make a long story short, this place is a hunk of garbage. What’s better, I know someone from my school who works there. He’s told me about his experiences there, but I never really paid much thought to it. Now however, I know I can get me to take me behind the scenes to uncover what really goes on here. From what I have gathered from him, it involves general managers with drug problems, employees that drink on the roof, and ceilings that leak rusty water into the popcorn machines. I can imagine it will be quite a bit more interesting than interviewing some random place in the south side.
Stretching the Current, to join the Now. The middle sibling more proud than its brothers, yet shier than them both. Built of bulk, not twine, with skin of wrinkled mustard, hair of frazzled sapphire. He smiles upon the queen, greeting her at the station, guiding her subject’s steps from the smithies, gallantly treading the path of which its walls collapse. Born at the colloquial quartet of the ides of march, his seed sewn from the steel valley. The second oldest sibling, viewed from the confluence, he hides behind the bastions. Head suspended high, but feet set in stone.
These are from the North American International Auto Exhibition in Detroit, Michigan that was held this past two weeks.
Pittsburgh certainly has one of the most distinctive personalities of all the cities I have been to, yet it was not until I attended college here that I have realized this. My personal view of Pittsburgh has always been that of an industrial city, with little commercial significance. This, however, is certainly not the case. Although Pittsburgh’s history does seem to have many roots oriented in industry, namely steel, there is few to none of that left in any aspect other than the culture. What I have found, however, is a commercially and socially developed city that is on par with any other large city in America. Of course Pittsburgh has a large portion of its cultural roots connected to sports as well, and who could blame them? They are home to world class football and hockey in the forms of the Steelers and Penguins (Baseball may not be Pittsburgh’s strong suit, but at least they try). However, even the sporting aspect of the city now seems a little overdramatized. Sure, there is a passion for the city’s teams, but not to the point where they would kill you if you wear a brown’s jersey downtown (although most people would probably be thinking it).
Pittsburgh’s size itself is impressive, as well. I never expected the city to have as many tall buildings as it does, but mostly pictured smokestacks and whistles going off everywhere. There does seem to be a fairly significant railway network, which I also expected. The city is also geographically different from what I pictured. Having only been to eastern PA prior, I imagined Pittsburgh would be similar, with rolling hills and plains, but the geography seems to be almost mountainous, and looks quite a bit like Germany.
All in all, Pittsburgh is physically different from what I expected, but going beyond that, it has far deeper a culture than I anticipated. I pictured a city of smokestacks and conveyor belts, but instead found a sophisticated city, well rooted in its history, and proud of what it is.
The frustration is almost palpable whenever I sit down to write lyrics. Musically, I find myself to have a broad understanding of composition and variation. One of my favorite examples of excellent variation in music would be the album Quadrophenia by The Who. The capabilities of three simple melodies are seemingly endless, as demonstrated by their repetition of such melodic reoccurrences through their massive album, yet somehow bringing in a different mood each time. The other aspect that I am captivated by, however, is Pete Townshend’s poetic lyricism, which is almost unparalleled in my opinion. But there is where I find my roadblock: the lyrics. With such a love for music as I have, it is almost shameful to not be able to write lyrics in almost any form. Well, sure I can “write lyrics”, but somehow they always end up sounding like they were born of some whiny little punk with a ubiquitous woe-is-me temperament, which I wholeheartedly detest. Perhaps it is that I hold too high a standard for myself? I know I am no Jim Morrison, but I almost feel obligated to accompany my music with meaningful lyrics. Perhaps it’s my lack of experience of the world, I know I am young. Perhaps still it’s my subject matter? A musician’s goal is to tell a story, and I have no problem with telling stories. In fact, I have always been one of the better story tellers in my class. However, there seems to be some profound difference between writing a fiction story and telling stories through lyrics. When reviewing my lyrics, I get a sense of emptiness from them, as if I failed to convey any emotion, to the point where they just end up sounding cheesy and cliché. A very good friend of mine, who is a music producer, once told me: “No matter how hard you try, no matter how verbally capable you find yourself, nobody will ever feel the same emotions in your songs as you do.” This I understand, but isn’t it a problem if I myself fail to find emotion in what I write? For now I suppose I will keep my songs devoid of lyrics, and hopefully they will come to my some day through my experiences.
