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Everything Was Fine

I was in Kenmore Square in 2007 when the Red Sox won the World Series. We sprinted my friends’ cockroach-infested, rat-visited, immune system-shattering house in Allston, down Commonwealth Avenue and into Kenmore Square where the rest of the city celebrated until the Riot Police backed us down Comm. Ave. 

Everything was fine. 

I was roaming the streets when the Celtics won the Championship in 2008. Cars sped, honked, blasted music. There wasn’t one single congregation - maybe down by the Garden - but the entire city was out, alive and celebrating. 

Everything was fine. 

I was in Copley during the Bruins parade after they won the Stanley Cup. It was sunny. Warm. Loud and boisterous. Once again, we were celebrating the teams that have led us from success to failure and back to success again. 

Everything was fine. 

I went to St. Patrick’s Day in South Boston. I party hopped from house to house. I drank with police officers, friends and strangers who became friends. I explored a neighborhood I barely knew and felt safe and at home knowing the muddy water wasn’t that far away. 

Everything was fine. 

In the five years that I lived in Boston, four of which spent in college, I celebrated Marathon Monday every April. I cheered on runners until I could barely talk. I walked the streets, surrounded by the happiest Bostonians that I had ever seen. 

The City of Boston may have had great sports victories to drink to, but every year the entire town goes absolutely nuts to not only commemorate Patriot’s Day in a city bursting with Revolutionary history (I should know, I sold pamphlets for the Freedom Trail as a summer job) but also the Marathon that brings the whole city together.

Regardless of how good or bad the Celtics, Patriots, Bruins or Red Sox are doing, every single Bostonian can count on Marathon Monday as a way to gain relief from the constant overcast skies, the crowded and dysfunctional MBTA and the daily threat of snow as the rest of the country celebrates warm weather. 

For some, Marathon Monday is the turning of Winter into Spring, the dethawing of the city as a culture. After the Marathon, there are infinitely more skirts, shorts and sandals walking around Boston than before. Marathon Monday is to Boston as Easter is to Christianity. 

This may be why many of us consider it to be our second favorite holiday - next to Christmas. 

This is the first - and hopefully last - time anyone has ever violated the sanctimonious holiday that is Marathon Monday. I urge all of you, whoever may be reading this, to donate blood to the victims ASAP. To donate money to the establishments and the families in whichever way possible. To help out, for God’s sake, because when you see any tragedy, there are always more people helping than there are committing these crimes against humanity. 

Even Mr. Rogers knows that. 

Tags: Boston Boston Marathon Marathon Monday Donate Help Tragedy
April 15, 2013
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"The FBI said it was continuing its search both in and beyond the Connecticut and Phildaelphia areas and launching a public awareness campaign that would include a dedicated FBI website, video postings on FBI social media sites (see the top of this post), digital billboards, and a podcast."

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Boston Globe

Two things: 

1.) In the five years that I lived in Boston and the 24 years that I lived in New England, why the Hell did I never learn that the - arguably - greatest art heist in HISTORY took place in one of the most awesome art museums in the North East. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum recently went through a major renovation and is beautiful. In additino, Gardner made sure that when she died her house was turned into an art gallery because she was a big time collector and, in addition, that the entire property was left preserved to its Victorian-era state. That means the piping, the heating, the door knobs, the creaky floor boards, all old as shit. The main walkway, court yard and whatnot - moder and new. Amazingly beautiful gallery. 

2.) A PODCAST?! Are you kidding me?! Another one?! As if there weren’t enough crowding up my iTunes, I can’t help but listen to this podcast because it’s about art, crime, mystery and lord knows how the Hell it’s going to be. 

“Welcome to this week’s episode of the FBI Art Beat with Rich DesLauriers and my buddy Carmen Ortiz, both of us organizing the final probe to catch the bad guys that stole $500 million from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and get those paintings back home. Joining us today will be modern artist, Damien Hirst and calling in from London is another friend of ours, Ricky Gervais. An art collector himself and wildman. You don’t want to miss this one, it’s going to be a great show today. 

Now, lets talk about the recent installation at Tate Modern and recap the art work featured in this past week’s episode of our favorite show, Girls…”

Tags: Boston Globe Art Art heist Podcasts FBI Crime
March 19, 2013
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Valentine’s Day

I didn’t learn this today, I learned it a while ago when I was trying to create a great Valentine’s day gift for this girl I was dating while in college. 

But, apparently, St. Valentine was a Roman Catholic priest during a time of extreme conflict in the Roman Empire. Stationed in Rome, Valentine was allowed to be a priest but not much else and then when the emperor at the time - can’t remember who - put an even bigger lockdown Catholicism, Priest Valentine was unable to marry anybody. 

But that didn’t stop him. Valentine married a bunch of young, romantic, Italian and forbidden lovers until the point when the Empire caught wind of his little underground railroad of love and put a stop to it. 

Without double checking myself or even thinking of pulling up Wikipedia - so I’m basically guessing based on untrustworthy, faulty, human memory - is that he was imprisoned on what would end up being February 14th otherwise known as Valentine’s Day. 

In honor of his baddass-ery, lovers now celebrate their love for each other. But, like every religion-inspired holiday, things have gone awry in the past decades. 

Tags: Valentine's Day stories learning
February 14, 2013
Link

http://www.latimes.com/features/image/la-he-heartbreak-20130209,0,7713731.story

So, wait, you mean to say that the body physically reacts to intense emotional reactions? 

Wait, these reactions are remarkably similar to being in Fight or Flight?

So, you’re telling me, that our emotions can take a physical toll on our body over time if they’re too reactionary, too extreme, too much. 

One thing I learned as a former athlete was that excitement and anxiety manifest themselves physically the exact same way. In fact, your body really only reacts on way to everything and that’s Fight or Flight, which is when your body prepares to either fight a giant Sabertooth Tiger outside the La Brea tar pits and where Miracle Mile used to be a jungle or to run away. Either way, your body needs to stop digesting things, get rid of any excess weight (pee, poop, gas), see more and think quicker. Your heart rate rises, your adrenaline shoots up and you basically have a panic attack. But, the major difference between having a panic attack and running away from a Sabertooth Tiger is that a panic attack is about nothing. 

These things usually go away fairly quickly, and often leave you with a weird soupe of chemicals in your brain making you feel a combination of social, happy and needy for human connection. But when they don’t go away and you live your life constantly in Fight or Flight, you tend to develop some issues because humans didn’t evolve to live like that. 

We’re squirrels or antelopes where we’re constantly at risk of being someone’s dinner and, therefore, evolved to NEVER relax and always be fidgety and nervous. 

We have to relax. Calm down. Meditate. Do yoga. Call your mom. Sunbathe, etc.

If this were to be a longer essay, I would totally continue on talking about societal constructs and pressures are causing us to live under more anxiety than ever - especially if you’re a Millennial - and making some mental health issues a major concern. 

But this is Tumblr, and I’ve already gone well over the acceptable word count. 

February 11, 2013
Link

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-exoplanet-next-door-red-dwarf-kepler-20130106,0,1970021.story

Harvard scientists conclude that Earth-like planets could exist 13-light years away, says Los Angeles Times. 

In addition, a lesser news source called io9.com states that these planets may total around 4.5 billion. That’s right, that means there are 4.5 billion alternatives to living on Earth. 

4.5 billion opportunities to start over on a completely desolate planet on the outer corners of the universe, where you can start your own religion, cult, family, podcast, whatever. 

4.5 billion chances to be the most important person in the world because you went to an entirely different one, out there in the Great Unknown. 

4.5 billion planets that could be cleaner, have better air quality, smarter animals and have never been introduced to concepts such as styrofoam, petroleum, smog and cancer. 

4.5 billion planets that might value art over science and math. 

4.5 billion planets where science and math may be considered higher art forms. 

4.5 billion planets where you can be as weird as you want. 

4.5 billion planets where it’s OK to relax because you’re just a spec of a dust in the middle of the cosmos, lucky enough to find a planet whose atmosphere is - coincidentally - the right combination of a number of elements that are needed to produce atoms that are two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. Of all the combination of elements, there are 4.5 billion planets that have just the right ones to be able to support simple life forms. 

Haphazardly landing on one of these is like winning the Universe Lottery. Being born on one of these is like winning the Universe Lottery, times two. Understanding the concept of happiness one of these is like winning the Universe Lottery, times three. Sharing that with people just  like you is like winning the Universe Lottery, times one million. There are 4.5 billion more opportunities to do that. 

Tags: science planets astronomy life new planets aliens los angeles times news learning knowledge
February 07, 2013
Video

A few things I learned just from this trailer - which might say more about the trailer houses that cut up these mini-movies than the actual movies themselves: 

1. Dave Grohl seems like he knows how to direct/surround himself with people who know what they’re doing. Besides Grohl, the credits on this piece are out of the world. Those who find success are often the best at taking what they have around them (in Grohl’s case: money, contacts and knowledge) and turning it into a tangible goal. 

2. A reaction against digital is brewing and bubbling and fermenting in artistic communities. People are missing the chemistry that gets formed between people who see and act and experience things and each other in person. Jerry Seinfeld called it out in the New Yorker piece, Dan Harmon called out in his keynote address at XOXO Festival and Dave Grohl acknowledged it when he recorded his latest, Grammy-winning(?), record in all analog. 

3. It’s about people. It’s about work. It’s about being good at what you do and earning that respect in an honest way. 

Tags: Dave Grohl Sound City Analog Music Rock Pop Culture Digital Serious
January 31, 2013
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"The smart thing to say, I think, is that the way out of this bind is to work your way somehow back to your original motivation — fun. And, if you can find your way back to fun, you will find that the hideously unfortunate double-bind of the late vain period turns out really to have been good luck for you. Because the fun you work back to has been transfigured by the extreme unpleasantness of vanity and fear, an unpleasantness you’re now so anxious to avoid that the fun you rediscover is a way fuller and more large-hearted kind of fun. It has something to do with Work as Play. Or with the discovery that disciplined fun is more than impulsive or hedonistic fun. Or with figuring out that not all paradoxes have to be paralyzing. Under fun’s new administration, writing fiction becomes a way to go deep inside yourself and illuminate precisely the stuff you don’t want to see or let anyone else see, and this stuff usually turns out (paradoxically) to be precisely the stuff all writers and readers everywhere share and respond to, feel. Fiction becomes a weird way to countenance yourself and to tell the truth instead of being a way to escape yourself or present yourself in a way you figure you will be maximally likable. This process is complicated and confusing and scary, and also hard work, but it turns out to be the best fun there is."

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- David Foster Wallace

I can’t remember where, but I remember Wallace also talking about the importance of honoring the truth when you write. You don’t  have to be entirely truthful, you don’t have to boringly truthful, but just honor the vulnerable honesty that’s inherent in great writing and, if you work hard enough at it, do it for long enough, you may also write something great. 

Tags: writing David foster Wallace awesomeness literature
January 30, 2013
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"

How had these people with schizophrenia managed to succeed in their studies and at such high-level jobs? We learned that, in addition to medication and therapy, all the participants had developed techniques to keep their schizophrenia at bay. For some, these techniques were cognitive. An educator with a master’s degree said he had learned to face his hallucinations and ask, “What’s the evidence for that? Or is it just a perception problem?” Another participant said, “I hear derogatory voices all the time. … You just gotta blow them off.”

Part of vigilance about symptoms was “identifying triggers” to “prevent a fuller blown experience of symptoms,” said a participant who works as a coordinator at a nonprofit group. For instance, if being with people in close quarters for too long can set off symptoms, build in some alone time when you travel with friends.

Other techniques that our participants cited included controlling sensory inputs. For some, this meant keeping their living space simple (bare walls, no TV, only quiet music), while for others, it meant distracting music. “I’ll listen to loud music if I don’t want to hear things,” said a participant who is a certified nurse’s assistant. Still others mentioned exercise, a healthy diet, avoiding alcohol and getting enough sleep. A belief in God and prayer also played a role for some.

One of the most frequently mentioned techniques that helped our research participants manage their symptoms was work. “Work has been an important part of who I am,” said an educator in our group. “When you become useful to an organization and feel respected in that organization, there’s a certain value in belonging there.” This person works on the weekends too because of “the distraction factor.” In other words, by engaging in work, the crazy stuff often recedes to the sidelines.

"

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New York Times

Most people either slam Op-Ed pieces for just being opinions, others like to take them far too literally when they’re just that - opinions. Sometimes, though, they can actually be informative and well-written, like the one above by Elyn Saks who is an incredibly successful person, living with Schizophrenia. 

I live with stress and anxiety issues that I’ve learned, through similar processes described above, to either deal with or even use to my advantage through cognitive behaviors. 

The human brain is a weird thing where it actually knows that it exists. This is like your MacBook knowing that its real and that it’s a MacBook and that Steve Jobs is its dad. So it is, therefore, capable of making itself better. Changing itself and creating stronger synaptic connections. In fact, every ten years through a process called neuroplasticity, your brain gets rid of synaptic connections it does not use to make room for new ones that are more important.

None of us are born perfect. There is no “normal” and we’re all a little crazy in our own way. Being able to control your brain and all its faults is critical to functioning and, even more so, succeeding in this weird world we live in. Furthermore, the piece above goes on describing how those who “suffer” from mental illness are often very creative, which is something that - in my knowledge - there is very little research or evidence analyzing this behavior.

The only instance of this I know of is in standup comedy. Not only is the act of standup very similar to that therapy, but many comedians will often use the realizations and conversations they have in therapy as fodder for material. This hit a fever pitch with “Dr. Katz,” which was an animated show about a therapist whose clients all happen to be very successful comedians. The show animates what the comedians tell the therapist as little sketches and it was hilarious. 

Regardless, treating mental illness is much more than just better living through chemistry. Those who are able to use cognitive behavioral therapy to control their own brain and it’s idiosyncrasies are often able to use the strengths of their minds more effectively than others, I find. 

[Ed. Note: Sorry for the lack of punchlines in this one, here’s a joke: a comedian writing seriously about mental illness *ba-dum-ch!*]

Tags: mental illness cognitive behavioral therapy comedy comedians therapy schizophrenia stress and anxiety new york times
January 27, 2013
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"Having said all that, even though it’s scattered with things i no longer think or believe, it’s got stuff in it that i still really like and am pretty proud of. It was the first show where i realised i could work things out onstage, that i could disagree with myself and that i didn’t need to know what i thought in order to talk about things. I could talk about not knowing what i thought. I could use the contradictions. It was my most polemic and opinionated piece of work up until that point and felt, to me at least, like an exciting development."

—

- Daniel Kitson on his own standup album, Weltanschauung. 

Today I learned that even those who are the best in the world at what they do will have moments where they don’t know what the Hell they’re doing. It’s just that those who are the best in the world will find ways to use their confusion or ill-preparation as a way to still be good. Kiston was able to, essentially, improvise a standup set based on the fact that he was not as prepared as he wanted to be. At  least that’s what it seems to me. 

It reminds of the time I was swimming at a meet called New England Seniors at Harvard. An Olympian named Kate Ziegler was also swimming at the meet. Harvard’s pool had been used 20 years earlier as the pool for the NCAA championships, making all their pool records stupid fast. Despite having the flu, Ziegler managed to put her name on that record board in her two fastest events. 

Find a way to either (a) deal with your current situation and what you have around you or (b) use it to your advantage.

Tags: Daniel Kitson Kate Ziegler Standup comedy comedy funny swimming resourcefullness
January 24, 2013
5 notes
Video

This is a wonderfully informative and smart video, but dear lord do his jokes fail. 

Better jokes he could have used:

- Believing that Kubrick could have faked a moon landing in 1969 is like believing that the majority of NASA’s engineers aren’t virgins. 

- The only fake coming out of NASA are the engineers’ wives’ orgasms.

- If NASA had the ability to fake a moon landing in 1969, wouldn’t we have already made it to Jupiter? You would think that Mars would have happened like in 1972. Hell, being so far ahead of James Cameron, couldn’t NASA have put someone on Pluto by last year? Why stop at the Moon when you can have the whole universe?

Tags: NASA science Moon Landing Hoax Myths Debunking Jokes Humor Comedy Space
January 23, 2013
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