Hitting Snooze

First day back at work after the long weekend and I'm feeling particularly groggy. Can't explain why, either. I seemed to get enough sleep, but perhaps I needed a little extra, what with the action packed weekend and all. Maybe it's because today is gray and overcast, or maybe it's just the music I'm listening to at the moment.. but I'm having trouble getting moving.. and we're well into the afternoon. I look at the calendar, however, and am reminded that this is only a four day week. Praise be.

Anyhoo...... a couple things. Remember the blood stained MBTA station I had the misfortune of writing about over the weekend? At the time I had no idea what had actually happened there, other than an obvious crime scene. Well - I'm sorry to report that all that blood everywhere was due to a stabbing that had occurred across the street. Apparently the victim, an 18 year old kid, ran into the station before collapsing. Could definitely have been worse however.. he's still alive - in stable condition actually - and expected to recover.

You guys remember Christopher Lydon? Had an unsuccessful run for governor way back when (many critics accused him of doing it as a publicity stunt - I didn't think so, but hey) and was formerly the host of the NPR radio program The Connection before he and his producer got into a nasty little public spat with the general manager of WBUR over program ownership and salary. Anyway, he either left the show or got the boot (I honestly forget which, but I think he left) and in the ensuing years was only heard from in small doses (if you didn't know where to look.) Well - he's back on the radio again, and he's peddling a pretty interesting concept. Open Source is both a blog and a radio program, the content of the latter being based almost exclusively on the comments and ideas posted on the former. Am I not making sense? Argh... fine. Click here. He can tell you about it himself. He's been plugging this "web as new media" concept for years (cynics would probably suggest it was because he had no other outlet in which to work) and this time he's focusing on bloggers and podcasters. I've purposely stayed away from the whole "bloggers redefining journalism" discussion that is seemingly everywhere now - largely because I don't consider this blog to be journalism (he says only one paragraph after he's linked to a Boston Herald article), nor do I have an informed enough opinion to speak on it without sounding foolish. Mr. Lydon, however, is held back by none of these restrictions and his new show, if I may say so, looks damn interesting. I definitely plan on giving it a listen soon. Say what you will about the man, but he's always good for thoughtful discussion.

Lastly, have you ever reached into your pocket to find a $10 or $20 you didn't know was there? One of the bestest feelings in the world, right? Right. Well - that didn't happen. But something almost as good (or actually - just as good. Yeah, just as good) did. Over the weekend, I "rediscovered" a tune I hadn't heard in years. I use the quotes because although I've always loved the song, I never knew its name or the artist performing it.... until this weekend. Thank you Sirius Satellite Radio. For your listening pleasure... I give you Lowdown by Boz Scaggs.

[**Update 07/02/05: Sorry folks, had to remove the MP3's from this post. My general rule of thumb is to keep them up for a week at maximum, so it was beyond time for this guy to go bye-bye. Sorry**]