“I think you should write a formal letter of complaint to the Mayor.”

Uh..  ohkay.

I also tend to call the police ALOT; I have the numbers for Brookline, Boston District 14, Downtown Boston, Cambridge and Somerville Police Departments in my phone contacts. No, I’m not calling about the kids on my lawn. I call about double parked cars, people threatening my life, people parked in the bike lane, etc. I asked the gentleman I was speaking to today what the best number to call to get someone  on the scene in a NON emergency (see: person parked in the bike lane) is, and he said,

“Just call 911 and tell them its not an emergency. If you call the police station we’ll have to call them anyway to get to dispatch.”

So… yeah. I guess I’ll be calling 911 a bunch in the near future, and hoping I don’t get yelled at if the offender decides to take the hint and pull out of the bike lane and into the night, leaving me standing there holding the phone, so to speak.

Remember when Kelly Wallace died at the intersection of Cambridge Street and Harvard Ave in May, 2007? Well, that almost happened to me just now, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who has almost gotten creamed at this intersection in the past 3 years. MBTA Bus number 0721 was stopped at the bottom of the hill, letting passengers off, during the green light for Cambridge Street. I was waiting at the light facing the entrance to Harvard Ave. Just after the change, the instant the light turned red for Cambridge and an instant before it turned green for Harvard, I was about to kick off; my left side was facing the bus stop, so I couldn’t even SEE the bus as it jammed on it’s gas and roared through the intersection; THROUGH the red light. The only thing that saved me from being underneath it was probably the extra weight in my panniers and on my body (lunch, breakfast, and three extra layers because it’s 13f out there today!) My slow start brought me only within a nose-brush of the side of Bus 0721. This is not an uncommon sight. Red light running through the Cambridge/Harvard Ave. intersection is the norm, rather than the exception.

Since I do see this every day, and someone has indeed died at this intersection in the last few years, I am anxious to have something done about this. The sooner the better, considering my still hammering heart after my own brush with death.

I will be adding a transcription of my calls to the MBTA and the BPD later on today, as I am in a marketing meeting at the moment.

UPDATE: Ooh, watch as I create an infinite blog loop… don’t get sucked in!

I called the MBTA, left all my information and my complaint. Here is my response:

We appreciate your business and value your feedback.  A customer service
issue was logged on 2010-01-29 at 15:05:13

A tracking number of 02117797 has been assigned to this call.  Please
reference this number on any additional communications you may have
regarding this issue.

The information you provided has been forwarded to the appropriate group.
If additional actions are required, a member from that department will
follow up on your issue.

Should you have additional questions or concerns regarding this issue,
please contact the Customer Support Services at 617-222-3200 or
800-392-6100, Monday through Friday ,6:30 AM to 8:00 PM and Sat/Sun from 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM.

Many thanks to folk at UHub for correcting my Harvard Ave/Street confusion – I work at the end where it’s called “Street”

Many middle fingers to the people who read the repost of my blog and wanted to make this a ‘bikers don’t follow the law’ issue. I was waiting at MY red light. I’m not going to rant about this now because frankly, it’s not worth it. A) you’re wrong, B) you’re a stool sample. End of story.

Just called the City of Boston transportation department, told them about my situation and this ongoing problem. This was their response:

“The city does not have any authority over the MBTA or it’s operations.”

INTERESTING.

I have no idea why this happened… or if it’s supposed to happen…

This is my first attempt at growing my own tobacco, and unfortunately the light table really wasn’t big enough to house as many plants as I wanted or get them as big as they need to be harvested. This means I’m going to have to transplant them to the garden some time in April so they can mature fully. I didn’t expect them to start wanting to have sex first! The flowers are sticky and smell like… tar, kinda. Not that great. But not terrible, either.  I wonder if I’ll get viable seeds out of this. Exciting!

Back when CanCan Revolution was in heavy rotation, our lovely Kitty Fox decided that we should incorporate Karaoke into our acts – we would create a playlist of songs that members of the audience could choose from, and we would act as back up dancers while they butchered these tunes. After CCR stopped performing due to other responsibilities, the idea lost it’s urgency. Last week at the Slutcracker cast party, Sugar Dish and her minions performed a kickass version of  ZZ Top’s ‘Sharp Dressed Man’, and brought it all back to me full force. I still want to get this going, possibly with Kitty and Violet, maybe with a mish-mash of Sluts. I personally wanted us to have a specific act for each song, but if we have a selection of, say, the top 50 most sung Karaoke songs of all time, that’s a shitload of dances to learn! So right now I’m in the process of amassing a list of 15-20 hot songs that are also theatrical, and well known to Friday Night Hams everywhere, so I can create quick and dirty productions to each of them.

The list begins..

1. Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart – One of the best karaoke love songs, this track was also one of the best loved songs of the 80s and was a former #1 Billboard hit. Also, this is hilarious… Literal Eclipse of the Heart
2. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – I Love Rock n Roll
3. Journey – Don’t Stop Believing
   
4. Meatloaf – Paradise by the Dashboard Light
5. The Police- Roxanne
6. Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer
   
7. The B52’s – Rock Lobster
   
8. Sir Mix-a-Lot – Baby Got Back
9. Big and Rich – Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy
10. Madonna – Like a Virgin
11. Styx – Mr. Roboto
12. Cyndi Lauper – She Bop
    
13. The Village People – YMCA
14. Depeche Mode – John The Revelator – I only picked this one because we already have props and a dance for it.. don’t know if they even offer it karaoke style.
15. The Weathergirls – It’s Raining Men

Ok… I think that’s about enough for now. I linked them all mostly as a reference for myself once I start creating choreography for each. The question is;  is it impractical to imagine having different choreography/props for each song, or should we really stick to canned dance moves and basic burlesque style outfit setup? And will people really be satisfied with only 15-20 songs to choose from, even if they are these fuckmazing songs? If we do go with the canned costume and dance scenario, should we include more songs? Will people be bored by that?

I also imagine people being shyer than usual to approach the stage, since it would be more of a spectacle, so I expect one of the dancers to be singing a few of the songs.

The idea of this is very exciting to me… I hope it comes to fruition.

In January, that is. God I hate the cold. It’s not that I don’t find it manageable to ride in – I have only taken the bus once this winter, and that was to the Slutcracker cast party, because I fully expected to be too drunk to ride (which is a feat in itself) and I wasn’t off with my prediction. It’s just that everything is so sloooowed doown and extra complicated. In May you can just throw your shoes on, slap your lock under your belt and GOGOGO to wherever, when ever. In january you have to check your temp wiget, find extra socks, locate your thermal shirt, whine about the fact that your face muffler is still soaked with boogers, Cat-Crap your goggles. etc etc etc… so not necessary. I mean, necessary, but not in any way acceptable. Grumble.

Last night I rode to Coolidge to be a Tip Monster for the production SHOW – a film, burlesque/drag extravaganza and book signing with local photographer and long-time PRC supporter Henry Horenstein. Haven’t gotten around to unpacking my panniers yet, but I have the sneaking suspicion that a tub of silver glitter has exploded in there, because I was leaving a Tinkerbell trail all the way home.

I’ve finally linked all my hot hot cohort’s pages to my blaaargh so when I write about my exploits, you can follow the link and figure out just WTF I’m jibba-jabbin about. And ALSO, so you can check out all these fine performers and see what they’re up to on any given week, because if you haven’t yet you’re missing out, bigtime. So clicky! Go. DO IT.