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Posts Tagged ‘@fortpointer’

When a Train Reaches the End of the Line

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 23, 2014| 2 Comments »

Photo: dornob.com
Train car converted to church. Lots more such churches at dornob.

The artist who tweets @FortPointer clued me in to this Boston Magazine today, which asks what should happen to the old Mass Bay subway cars that are being taken out of service.

Steve Annear reports, “The MBTA is gearing up to sign a contract with a Chinese manufacturing company to procure hundreds of Red and Orange Line train cars so they can replace the current fleet of vehicles that have been traveling down the tracks for decades. …

“According to the T, the train cars—they’re replacing 152 Orange Line vehicles and up to 138 Red Line vehicles—will go up for sale, and the highest bidder can do whatever they want with them.

“Like most transit systems, the MBTA typically sells old cars for scrap to the highest bidder. ‘But we also like to preserve a bit of MBTA history by donating a retired car or two to the Sea Shore Trolley Museum in Maine,’ said T spokesman Joe Pesaturo. …

“ ‘Someone buy four of them and open an Orange Line Deli,’ one person suggested on Facebook.

“Another tossed a different idea into the ring: ‘I’d like to put one in my back [yard] for the ultimate ‘man cave.’

“These ideas might sound far-fetched, but stranger things have happened to retired train cars.” Good examples in the photos and also here.

Photo: io9.com
A Soo Line caboose, built in 1090, turned into a vacation home in 1976 in Pennsylvania.

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Fort Point Boogie

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2014| 4 Comments »

When John played saxophone in high school, I got it in my head that I should set a good example about practicing by going back to piano and seeing if I could make more progress than I did as a child.

In the first lesson, the teacher asked me what what I wanted to learn to play, and I said Boogie Woogie. So we did a little bit of that, and I thought I would really learn it. In the next lesson, she said, “You don’t want to learn this, it’s so repetitious.” So I studied what the teacher liked, which was classical. It fizzled out after a few years because I didn’t like to practice any more than John did.

Anyway, I still like Boogie Woogie, and was tickled when the FortPointer tweeted this new Boogie written especially for Fort Point. What happy music! It makes you want to jump right up and — well — boogie.

https://soundcloud.com/tysavias/fort-point-boogie

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8-Year-Olds March to Demand a Library

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2014| 4 Comments »

I have blogged before about Sam and Leslie Davol’s library projects, including the Uni, a portable library (here). They were living in Boston’s Chinatown during the economic downturn and got an idea for a temporary library in one of the empty storefronts. Chinatown has not had a branch of the Boston Public Library since the 1950s.

(Read a couple stories about that at the BostonStreetLab, here, and the Boston Globe, here.)

Now it seems some 8-year-olds in Mattapan have become indignant about no-library injustice and have marched on City Hall.

Wesley Lowery writes in the Globe, “The voices were young, but they rang out in a synchronized and forceful chant as the children made their way through the downtown streets. Gloved hands held painted signs as pink and blue bookbags bounced on their backs.

“ ‘Books, access fairness, we’re marching to raise awareness’” the more than 50 second-graders declared as they marched from the Chinatown gate to City Hall Friday afternoon. …

“The youthful protesters were seeking to raise awareness of a campaign to bring a public library to Chinatown, which is the only Boston neighborhood without a library branch. …

“The protest was planned and carried out by students at the Young Achievers School in Mattapan, which as part of its curriculum has recently spent time learning about libraries. Upon hearing that Chinatown does not have a public library, organizers said, the students decided to stage the protest.

“ ‘They asked: “What can we do to help?” ’ said Kim Situ of the Chinese Progressive Association, which helped to organized the march.” Read more here.

And when the Young Achievers from Mattapan have gotten a library for Chinatown, maybe they could work on one for Fort Point. It’s something @FortPointer has been tweeting about for ages.

Maybe he should have been talking to 8-year-olds.

Photo: Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
Luis Pizarro, 8, was one of the students from the Young Achievers School who marched on City Hall.

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