Saying goodbye to the Bay State Banner

The Boston Globe reported today that the Bay State Banner is ceasing publication. As they put it, they are hoping to find investors, so maybe something will happen, but these days that's unlikely.

This is a sad day for Boston. The Banner served an underserved community with grace and dignity. They were a true part of the fabric of the community and will most definitely leave a hole. It's probably safe to say that the Miller family were merely the custodians, the neighborhoods they served were the true owners.

It's also a sad day for me. I wrote some of my favorite articles for the Banner, and learned tons about journalism and Boston, and gained confidence from working with Yawu Miller and Kay Bourne, the editors I worked with at the time.

I remember talking one time to Kay about covering an event. I was concerned that I would be the only white person there and would not be able to interview anyone. First she admonished me for using the term white, "that's a political point of view," she said rather abruptly. Then she reassured me that no one would care: "What they are going to see is your notebook. Once they see you are representing them, they will begin to trust you." And she was right. People saw me not as that crazy white chick infringing on their space, but as the reporter from the Banner. It was a valuable lesson, and one that I never forgot.

Whether I was assigned articles or uncovered the stories myself, they each became a part of me, from the cosmetics entrepreneur who modeled her business plan on Bobbi Brown ("What would Bobbi do?" was her mantra) to the man imprisoned for life for murder seeking to get his sentence commuted.

It was an honor to write for the Banner, and while it doesn't look good, hopefully they will be able to find a way to continue their mission. They will be missed.

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"Chance furnishes me what I need. I am like a man who stumbles along; my foot strikes something. I bend over and it is exactly what I want."
~~James Joyce

Green Chartreuse

So, I was talking to this woman yesterday who was in town visiting from North Carolina. Not that this is integral to the story, but she was.

She was visiting her son and they were at the bar of the Cottonwood Cafe where he worked (or was a regular and/or where he once worked--I didn't catch exactly what) having predrink drinks, as they put it. He knew the bartender, and I just happened to be there having lunch (just lunch, not prelunch lunch) and dropped in and out of the conversation, which veered every which way, from work to napping to sleeping habits to family.

The talk turned to unusual liquors and how long it took the bar to go through this and that. (If you go there, don't order the Harvey's Bristol Cream--that hasn't been touched in years.) She then told this story about her father: She said when she was young, her father would take her out to dinner periodically and would always order green chartreuse after the meal for the two of them. She said it was awful, and she could never drink it, so he would drink her glass as well. (He knew what he was doing when he ordered it for her!)

After he died, she said, he had had a half a bottle left, so she poured it on his grave. What a touching tribute, I thought, until she added, "No one else was ever going to drink it!"

"We become what we think about"

Self-actualization, not a new idea, but it could be a powerful one. On the one hand, the question is could it be that easy. But on the other, maybe the alternative is even more easy, making
it harder to achieve.

Earl Nightingale proposed it in 1956. He was, quite possibly, the founder of the self-help/new age movement. Chakranicity.com is reviving his message. Personally, I'm not sure what to make of it. It is easy to be negative, especially these days. But there is something to be said for being goal oriented, and why not make that goal be one of becoming a better person? The website has a link to his message on "The Strangest Secret," Earl Nightingale's recording--one that millions of people bought, but few achieved.

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"If you are going to yell at me, tell me exactly what you want or you'll get exactly what you asked for."
Neil Young on PBS's American Masters. At this point, he was talking about the album This Notes for You.

This clip is also from the American Masters show. The whole show is recommended!

Journalism without a net

The New York Times ran a background story today on the journalists recently arrested in North Korea. I’m not really sure they can be called journalists, at least not in a very news sense. Who knows what anyone is called or should be called anymore. But just because there is no clear-cut criteria as to what a journalist is or should be, doesn't mean that it's not a valid question.

This is more than just a semantical question, and more than just an isolated story about two women trapped in a North Korean prison. This is an important story about the new face of the journalism industry. I saw what went on behind the scenes when Jill Carroll was abducted in Iraq. The difference between her story and the story of these two women is another type of fallout of the current precarious state of the news industry. All three women were arguably reckless. But even though she was a freelancer, Jill Carroll was lucky enough to have not just the moral support and visibility of a major newspaper (The Christian Science Monitor), but their skill, contacts, and compassion, all of which helped lead to her release. This type of network is not only not available to the two women sent out by a fledgling website to gather edgy video clips, but it's in danger of becoming just a quaint, dusty relic of another time.


As newspapers fold, surprise, the content they once provided is also disappearing. So new outlets are springing up to fill the content void. It’s an exciting time, but I think we would do well not to abandon all the things that make for good journalism. The format is definitely changing, but there's no reason that the basics have to be discarded. Some places, like GlobalPost do seem to be a legitimate sources of news. But other sites are just sending people out with camera phones, but with no training and no resources. (Can you say "exploitation"?) These “new journalists” may be younger and closer in age to the target audience, but that’s hardly a credential!

There goes the neighborhood (tales from the South End)

This store just moved in replacing a shortlived, modern interior design storefront that in turn replaced an upscale kitchen/bath store. (To be fair, it moved from another South End location, but this is a more visible spot.) I am reminded of my friend J who regularly pines for the "good old days" when all you had to worry about was the random shooting or date violence.