A lot has been made recently about politicians embracing social media. Pundits on both the right and left have said Barack Obama is president because he embraced Facebook and Twitter better than any of the other candidates. Over the past couple months Scott Brown’s supporters had a near ubiquitous presence on Twitter, and Brown’s personal page sent out more tweets than Martha Coakley’s.
Which leads to a chicken-and-the-egg question: Do campaigns succeed because their use of social media embraces a younger generation and a more enthusiastic group of voters, or do the candidates themselves attract the crowd, and then their supporters turn to Facebook and Twitter to spread the word?
In Obama’s case, from the beginning his candidacy worked to attract youth and tech-savvy voters, so Facebook and Twitter were natural elements of his campaign strategy. Here in Massachusetts, however, neither Brown nor Coakley cultivated the role of the hip-with-technology candidate, nor did they specifically target younger crowds. ...
Learning is taking place at the Belmont Street Community School, two weeks after vandals viciously destroyed computers, furniture, books and supplies.
But there’s one question that needs answering: Who’s going to pay to repair and replace it all?
Damages to the building were estimated to be around $100,000, a hefty sum to pay for any school.
“It isn’t a great year to have to come up with over $100,000,” says School Committee member Tracy Novick, “but it is something that we on the School Committee are working with the administration on. We’ve also been very grateful to see the community come together ...
In the summer of 2007 there was no city initiative more controversial than “Operation Yellow Box,” a program that allowed hypodermic needle and syringe users to safely and quietly throw out used materials. Proponents argued that providing discreet drop-off points would benefit public health and safety by reducing the number of needles discarded in public spaces. The collection boxes are modeled after large metal mailboxes that a needle can’t penetrate, unlike the city’s plastic yellow garbage bags.
Opponents of the program argued that collecting needles is similar to a pardon for drug use, and questioned whether needle users will actually take advantage of the boxes. Regardless, four boxes were placed around the city in 2008, located at AIDS Project Worcester, Great Brook Valley Health Center, Family Health ...
Hanover Insurance Group matches donations to repair vandalism damage at Belmont Street School. Classy. +4
Lost finally returns after a long hiatus. Just as addictive, just as unfathomable. How many hidden civilizations can one island accommodate? +1
We’re shocked — shocked! — to learn that Guy Glodis is a candidate for state auditor. Long-awaited announcement unshackles sheriff wannabes who have been scratching out the days til Glodis’ departure in their campaign holding cells. +2
Movie fans learn this year’s Oscar nominations, but the increase from five to 10 Best Picture nominees ...
Every classroom in the Belmont Street School is vandalized in psychotic fashion, with damage estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Can we put in a plug for corporal punishment? -7
Worcester woman wins the Miss Tall Boston contest, though at a relatively demure 5-10 she’s hardly of Yao Ming dimensions … which, come to think of it, would look really weird. +2
U.S. Dept. of Labor reports that Massachusetts had fewer jobs at the end of the last decade than it did at the beginning, a ...
I … I don’t know how to say this other than to just say it. It’s over. Certainly there was something there once, long ago, with The Notebook. Everything about you seemed fresh then, and there was even a halfway clever narrative device going, one that was not instantly predictable. You knew I couldn’t resist ...
Dirty blues is a sound that mixes the heavy foot of punk, a light dose of rockabilly and a solid North Mississippi Hill Country foundation, and feels like the modern day evolution of stripped-down barroom blues. The band Ten Foot Polecats has mastered that sound, and brings it to the Gilrein’s stage on Feb. 6.
“We always loved the North Mississippi Hill Country Blues because it was so raw, ...
Tammany Hall is about to get hit with a whole lotta pop as Boston quintet This Blue Heaven gears up to take the stage Friday, Feb. 5. The band will share the spotlight with local favorites The Luxury, Hey Now Morris Fader and Huck.
“The live show is a celebration of everything that music can do to you — inside and out — so you’ll see ...
Three tracks into indie rock quartet OK Go’s Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, it was clear the band is throwing mostly curveballs. During “All Is Not Lost,” powerful acoustic guitar strums and rumbling bass notes drone alongside singer Damian Kulash’s reverberated, distorted vocals deploring the things that “could be as bad as they talked about.” Then, Kulash has a synthesizer-fueled epiphany: &...
These days, hardcore and punk seem watered down and served on a generic platter to the masses via Hot Topic. Record labels are looking to make a buck and few bands seem to be playing it real. Yet I still live and breathe the music, and every once in a while I stumble upon a band that really grabs me. Pitfall is one of them. Hailing from Marlboro, this band exemplifies what hardcore is ...
On Friday, Feb. 5, a group of Worcester musicians will come together at the Lucky Dog for a “Help for Haiti” benefit to raise money to support disaster relief in Haiti, and to the Britney Gengel Fund, established for a Worcester native who went missing in Haiti while volunteering for the Journey for Hope program.
“After the earthquake in Haiti, I knew that a lot of people in ...
