What were they thinking?

Yes, Boston was a mess for periods most of the day today. The "incident" even interrupted my train ride home. We were on the train 5 minutes away from departure time when the announcement came to disembark. "There was a change in schedule for this train. Please return to the station platform."

As we did get off, a squad of transit police with a dog team arrived and proceed to go through the train. Other T personnel were around somewhat ineffectively letting those near them know that when the sweep of the train was complete, the train would be allowed to leave.

I say ineffectively as those near them got the word and it spread second hand down the line. The announcements for other commuter train departures continued uninterrupted. Something was up with our Franklin line train but that was not announced on the main speaker system.

We did leave 20 minutes late after the sweep completed successfully.

Only after I got home did I find out about the rest of the story. The news will continue to cover the latest updates on this marketing stunt that in today's environment, should not have started and seriously took a wrong turn in Boston today.

boston mooninites

Might work late Feb 9th

Heard this afternoon that Jewel will be doing a FREE concert in Boston at South Station on Friday, February 9th.

Gee, I might need to work late or just hang around to catch this one.

Via the Starts & Stops blog.

Don't be alarmed

if the page doesn't fill in immediately. The posting of all the pictures of the 2000 bloggers takes a little time to load. It does not display properly in Internet Explorer but does display very well in Firefox.

I'll keep this dated out a bit to keep the reminder handy.

Feel free to scroll on down and read the current items.


Thanks for coming by to visit!



Technorati Tags: 2000Bloggers, z-list, IE7, Firefox

powered by performancing firefox

Fast Company's Top Jobs for 2007

With my parent hat on, I find and review the outlook provided by Fast Company on the Top Jobs for 2007 with a keen interest. Not that I am looking, but I do have two fine young ladies in college who will be looking soon.

I find it interesting that by my count 7 of the top 10 are design related.

Experience designer, web designer, security systems engineer, urban planners, viral marketers and media promoters, talent agents, and art directors.

(1) Medical researchers, (2) buyers and purchasing agents, and (3) news analysts, reports, and bloggers are the other three in the top ten.

What's that? Bloggers in the top ten. Wowza!

You can read their full listing here. They also have this in a slide show format.

Design certainly is a common item across the seven. I think that communication skills, project management, and internet savvy will also be good skills to have.

What else would you add to the list of skills needed for the future?

Rabbit tracks

rabbit_track2
Originally uploaded by shersteve.

With the little dusting over night, we were able to wake up and find that there are other creatures that live in our neighborhood.

They left their mark as they crossed into the stand of trees.

Review: Trinity Rep - Our Town

Dolores and I joined her sister and husband in Providence Saturday night to catch Our Town at Trinity Rep. Trinity Rep is an excellent theater company, nationally known and in our own backyard. We have been to many performances over the years and have never been disappointed. This performance of the American classic play Our Town is no exception.

In an interview the director, Brian McEleney, reveals how Trinity decided to present Our Town with it's own twist and yet keep true to the play. Brian says:

... the play is pretty perfect the way it is. The content is self-evident: Wilder essentially shows us the least interesting people he can find, and makes us see them as fascinating. They’re just like us. We all have daily lives, birth and death, love and marriage. He redefines history as a story of millennia of people living lives, as opposed to a story of wars and politics and elections.

The real challenge is style. In 1938 it was revolutionary to say that costumes, sets, and props get in the way of us seeing things in a new way. We’ve all had the experience of seeing a play or a scene in a classroom, a studio, at a reading, with nothing but actors -- it’s riveting. It can be so much better than when it’s surrounded by the “trappings” of theater. We get to make that imaginative leap. It’s one of the reasons I was eager to do this play. However, what was revolutionary in 1938, this lack of theatrical convention, , is not revolutionary at all at Trinity Rep, thanks to forty-three years of Adrian Hall and so many of the artists who followed him. Presenting Our Town as it was originally intended here and now, could have the opposite effect with our audience.

So that was my big question: how can we present the removal of theatrical conventions in a way that will be startling and fresh? The idea I came up with, with the help of our designer Michael McGarty, was to take Wilder to the next step: put the back stage front and center, actually put the dressing rooms on stage as well. We won’t just see the daily life of people in Grover’s Corners but the actual lives of the actors in real time, a two-level upstage, dressing rooms with lighted mirrors and cots and clothes racks and all that stuff. The green room, the back stage with sign-in board and couches and the coffee table for playing cards, and all that stuff that is actually there. The play that Wilder wrote will happen in the downstage area.

This works very nicely. The audience is allowed to take their seats in the theater about 15 minutes before show time. The cast is already present on the second level doing their final preparations; a card game on one side, some stretching on the floor in the middle, some make-up and costume adjustments being made, all as if we weren't there. You can even hear the stage manager warning; "ten minutes to show time", then "five minutes", etc.

During the one intermission, the cast returns upstairs and remains "on stage"; touching up their make up, changing their costume, some played in another card game, and a few hit the cookie jar for some refreshments. While the audience was out and about, some remaining in their seats, to continue to watch the "show".

Talk about audience participation! The setting enabled the text of Our Town wonderfully.

Trinity always uses the aisles to send the cast members in and amongst the audience. We were sitting up on the right side facing the stage and during the second act, Constable Warren stood next to me to deliver his lines (I was sitting at the end of the row) when he was making the rounds of Grover's Corner early one morning.

In the last act, the Stage Manager says:

We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.

Trinity has succeeded in finding a way to present the essence of what Thornton Wilder wanted. If you get a chance to visit Trinity, Our Town is on stage through March 4th.

book quotes coming

You are likely to notice that this during week there will be several quotations from This is Your Brain on Music, The Science of Human Obsession by Daniel Levitin. I just completed reading the book and when going through it found so many sections to mark up that I won't possibly be able to use them all in the forthcoming book review. Hence, I'll sprinkle them in individual postings here, at Tertiary Education and at Passion for Good Customer Experience to use them up. The quotes are simply too good to leave sitting alone in my notebook.

What's cooking? - Chicken & Basil Rice Stir-Fry

Tried another recipe this weekend from the batch mentioned here earlier this month. This was also "okay". Next time I'll make some additional modifications to it. These modifications I'll note at the end of this posting. I'll let you get the full recipe first as it was provided, so you'll be able to make an informed decision.

Chicken & Basil Rice Stir-Fry

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound chicken breast halves, cut in strips
2 large yellow bell peppers, sliced into thin strips
1 large zucchini, sliced into thin strips
1 small sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips
2 1/4 cups of water
1 package Knorr-Lipton Chicken Rice Sides

(1) Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over mediium high heat and cook chicken about 4 minutes. Add peppers, zucchini, onion and cook about 4 minutes or until vegetables are tender and chicken is thoroughly cooked. Stir in basil, remove and set aside.

(2) Add water and Rice Sides to skillet and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 12 minutes or until rice is tender.

(3) To serve, arrange rice on platter and top with chicken mixture. Garnish with fresh basil.

Steve's modifications

I got one piece each of zucchini and summer squash and used one red pepper along with the onion. The color mix was good.

I would use garlic flavored olive oil to saute the onions before adding and cooking the chicken.

I would actually start the rice sides before the meat and vegetable stir fry. The rice sides package says it takes 7 minutes after boiling. The instructions above said 12. Previous experience with Rice-a-Roni said 20-25. It did take about 20 minutes for the rice to be cooked and most of the moisture to be absorbed.

I would also use our regular wok for the stir fry. I did use my old seasoned cast iron and it worked nicely but the wok would be easier.

Cooking in two pans would allow the rice to be started earlier. Then after about 10 minutes start the stir fry and both should be ready about the same time. If you follow the original recipe, you do use only one pan but the meat and veggies are sitting for the rice to cook for 20 minutes and would require re-heating to serve.

Enjoy!

Goodbye MelDivas!

meldivas_godbye1
Originally uploaded by shersteve.

Yes, sad day for Franklin. MelDivas Coffeehouse has closed effective 1/27/07.

Dolores and I found out on our walk this morning. Alas due to the cold wind yesterday we passed up walking and now find out we passed up on our last MelDivas coffee.

I wish them well as the persue their new adventures.

2000 Bloggers

Enjoy clicking through the links and exploring.... yes, I am in there somewhere... kind of like a "Where's Steve?" game if you want to look..