AMMONIUM THIOGLYCOLATE. ROB MARIANO. THE FINAL SCENE OF THE SPANISH PRISONER: We share in the shock and grief of the Greater Boston region, as well as our admiration for the resilience of the first responders and others who rushed into the danger zone.
Our best way to move forward here, and perhaps the only appropriate way for this site, is to do as others have done on Twitter: let's talk about the songs, tv shows, movies and other forms of pop culture which help us think fondly of The City on a Hill.
I spent 4 years as part of the famous Wellesley Scream Tunnel just before the halfway point of the Marathon, and then stuck around for three more years before decamping to Brooklyn. Boston will always be my 2nd home, and I can't listen to "Dirty Water" without singing along. ("Shipping Up to Boston" is close 2nd-favorite song about Boston.)
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, "How do you like them apples?"
All about the criminally underwatched Fringe. Looked to be mostly filmed in Canada, but the Boston setting was a big part of the series.
ReplyDeleteDidn't you do a list of Boston music a few weeks ago? I always think of J Geils Band. For tv, Spencer For Hire did the city better than Cheers. I can't think of a movie.
ReplyDeleteFor a book, it's Neal Stephenson's "Zodiac: an Eco-Thriller." Its hero is a semigenius chemist (and grade A asshole) who rides around Boston harbor in a ZODIAC shutting down toxic waste polluters. Fun read and short (for those of you who think NS only does bloat).
Indeed, we did -- two months ago, upon the push to have "Roadrunner" named the State Rock Song of Massachusetts. http://throwingthings.blogspot.com/2013/02/gonna-drive-past-stop-shop-with-radio.html
ReplyDeleteAs a lifelong Sox fan, I leave the obvious aside to cite Next Stop: Wonderland.
ReplyDeleteThe Matt Damon/Ben Affleck Boston oevure, of course: Good Will Hunting and Gone Baby Gone. (Not so much a fan of The Town.)
ReplyDeleteEvery word that has ever come out of Mark Wahlberg's mouth screams Boston. And of course, Cheers. I also think of Amy Poehler's remark to Ben Affleck at the Golden Globe awards when she returned to the stage after he picked up his Best Director award for Argo: “I’m from Boston too…You’re not better than me.”
ReplyDeleteI also can't help but mention what an awful year it's been for Marathon runners... no NYC Marathon, and now this. Terrible.
My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park, by Steve Kluger. Excellent MG/YA book in which Fenway, JFK, and Boston accents are all significant.
ReplyDeleteI know it's not a funny movie, but I laugh every time I think of Wahlberg and Baldwin in "The Departed." "How's ya mutha?"
ReplyDeleteI started a states/cities playlist a while back and discovered the Dropkick Murphys when i was searching for Boston material. I didn't know the U.S. had its own Pogues.
And we have Boston to thank for the origins of Jack Donaghy and Buffy's Faith.
- Are the George Rhodes Kinetic Sculptures still at Logan? Haven't been through that airport in twenty years, but they were my favorite thing.
ReplyDelete- The USS Constitution. I love that it is still -- defiantly -- listed as an active warship in the US Navy.
- Boston Garden (is there now a new Boston Garden?). When I was a senior in high school, I visited Boston University but stayed with my brother's girlfriend at Harvard who lived in Adams Hall with a woman with the last name of Adams whose Great grandfather was Charles Adams, one-time owner of the Bruins and namesake of the Adams division. Those were good tickets.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones have a Bosstone (Ben Carr who doesn't play an instrument or sing and just dances.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite concert videos is the U2 Elevation Tour video from Boston. Oh, look! You can watch it for free. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYOu7N8e9PU
ReplyDeleteAt their respective heights, Ally McBeal and The Practice did Boston proud. Also, Jhumpa Lahiri's invocations of Cambridge/Boston are always lovely.
ReplyDeleteIt's an incredibly funny movie. If Shakespeare had written it, wouldn't it fall under comedies rather than tragedies?
ReplyDeleteThe scene in the Social Network where Larry Summers tears into the Winklevii. Awesome stuff.
ReplyDeleteEveryone dies at the end, there are no twins, and no one gets married. Therefore, I'd say tragedy.
ReplyDeleteDenis Leary excited about Kevin Youkilis' Jewish heritage in the Fenway broadcast booth with Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7mUcKnmReI "Eh?! Where's Mel Gibson now?!!?!" And...everything else listed here. Thanks, friends, for warming my heart.
ReplyDeleteAnd St. Elsewhere did Boston proud too.
ReplyDeleteJ. Geils Band gave me one of my favorite childhood memories since they were one of the first groups I ever saw in concert (a young Irish band called U2 was the opening act). There's also New Edition. I'd also like to give a salute to Steve Grogan, who was my favorite NFL player when I started following football at the age of eight and was still part of the Pats when they finally got to the Super Bowl my senior year in high school. And I always associate Boston with steamed clams, since my grandfather used to always take all of us out for steamers when we visited each summer growing up.
ReplyDeleteMission of Burma, "Academy Fight Song." That is all.
ReplyDeleteAll about the criminally underwatched Fringe. Looked to be mostly filmed in
ReplyDeleteCanada, but the Boston setting was a big part of the series.
Glyn Willmoth