Porter Square losing Blockbuster; first, though, a clearance sale!

By Marc Levy

Published: July 30, 2009

The remaining stock at the Blockbuster in Porter Square is consolidated Thursday for clearance ahead of an Aug. 9 closing. (Photo: Marc Levy)

The remaining stock at the Blockbuster in Porter Square is consolidated Thursday for clearance ahead of an Aug. 9 closing. (Photo: Marc Levy)  | read this item

The Blockbuster in Porter Square is shutting down, with much of the remaining stock of DVDs selling for $3.49. Its final day in business is to be Aug. 9, company spokesman Randy Hargrove said, but from the looks of it all that will remain by then is 27 copies of “Righteous Kill” and nine of [...]

Toscanini’s is Best of Boston*

By Marc Levy

Published: July 29, 2009

A customer enjoys the cool of Toscanini's in a sweltering Central Square on Wednesday. The ice cream shop has won "Best of Boston." (Photo: Marc Levy)

A customer enjoys the cool of Toscanini's in a sweltering Central Square on Wednesday. The ice cream shop has won "Best of Boston." (Photo: Marc Levy)   | read this item

Toscanini’s employees were just told the venerable Central Square ice cream shop has won Best of Boston from Boston magazine — but Mimi Rancatore, sister of venerable but vacationing Central Square ice cream shop owner Gus Rancatore, noted the news isn’t yet on the magazine’s Web site.
The magazine will release the information in a trickle [...]

Flaws or failings in faxing, headphones and Facebook

By Marc Levy

Published: July 29, 2009

Flaws or failings in faxing, headphones and Facebook  | read this item

Time to ponder some technological mysteries, none very significant. In fact, they’re more like curiosities.
1. It remains impossible — so far as I can tell from official Mac and Windows help sites — to send a document from a computer to a fax machine unless the sender connects an analog phone line. We’re trained these [...]

Find a laundromat that won’t take you to the cleaners

By Marc Levy

Published: July 27, 2009

For many in Porter Square, the Beacon St. Laundromat may be a better choice than the Showcase Coin-Op. (Photos: Marc Levy)

For many in Porter Square, the Beacon St. Laundromat may be a better choice than the Showcase Coin-Op. (Photos: Marc Levy)  | read this item

How much is too much to pay for a load of laundry? It depends on the desperation of the wearer of the clothes, but Porter Square residents might not want to get too desperate.
That might induce them to use the Showcase Coin-Op Laundr-O-Mat in nearby Wilson Square, Somerville, and that would be a big mistake.
The [...]

Herald has not much of a “shocker” on Gates case

By Marc Levy

Published: July 27, 2009

Herald has not much of a "shocker" on Gates case  | read this item

The Boston Herald leads today’s paper with a “Gates case shocker” that the woman who called in the burglary report leading to the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. “claims she never said ‘black’ men were breaking in.”
The story goes on to say:
“This woman is 100 percent clear on what she said,” said [...]

Theater review: Power of “Water Board” undeniable, but execution is problematic

By Marc Levy

Published: July 25, 2009

Stephanie Skier holds a pipe end that will drop if something goes wrong during a July 23, 2009, waterboarding administered by co-actor Nadeem Mazen at the YMCA Theater in Cambridge's Central Square. (Photo: Zahra Syed)

Stephanie Skier holds a pipe end that will drop if something goes wrong during a July 23, 2009, waterboarding administered by co-actor Nadeem Mazen at the YMCA Theater in Cambridge's Central Square. (Photo: Zahra Syed)  | read this item

There are such powerful ideas behind “Water Board: A Play About Torture” that its technical failings seem ultimately unimportant.
That sure isn’t how I felt while watching the show, though, or at least some of it. The July 23 production at the YMCA Theater in Central Square was dragged down by abundant miscues and mistakes that [...]

Comedians offer “Tuck” during Sleepover

By Marc Levy

Published: July 25, 2009

Nate Johnson in a still from "Tuck," a video also starring Chris Coxen and directed by Sasha Goldberg.

Nate Johnson in a still from "Tuck," a video also starring Chris Coxen and directed by Sasha Goldberg.  | read this item

There’s a deliciously weird video called “Tuck” available on YouTube by some of the people behind Cambridge’s weekly free comedy show, the Greater Boston Alternative Comedy Sleepover. (The video was premiered at the most recent Sleepover, held Monday at the Cantab Lounge in Central Square.)
While I’m reluctant to spoil the surprise, I will assure you it’s [...]

How to win People’s Choice from the Cambridge tech community

By Marc Levy

Published: July 23, 2009

A tweet from an audience member asks for quiet at the July 15 meeting of the Web Innovators Group in Cambridge.

A tweet from an audience member asks for quiet at the July 15 meeting of the Web Innovators Group in Cambridge.  | read this item

It was a three-person Internet advertising startup — apocryphally operated out of the founder’s bedroom — that took the audience choice award at the July 15 Web Innovators Group gathering. The 800 or so high-tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists attending at Cambridge’s Royal Sonesta Hotel heard from three start-ups, including an online gathering place for [...]

In play about waterboarding, the actors aren’t acting

By Marc Levy

Published: July 20, 2009

Nadeem Mazen and Stephanie Skier are waterboarded for "Water Board: A Play About Torture," playing Thursday at the YMCA Theater in Central Square.

Nadeem Mazen and Stephanie Skier are waterboarded for "Water Board: A Play About Torture," playing Thursday at the YMCA Theater in Central Square.  | read this item

Watching someone get waterboarded is no reasonable person’s idea of a good time, but it’s an option nonetheless — for purposes more high-minded than having a good time — Thursday at Cambridge’s YMCA Theater.
“Water Board: A Play About Torture” examines the act, used by the administration of President George W. Bush to extract information from [...]

MassHealth suffers attention-to-details deficit disorder

By Marc Levy

Published: July 16, 2009

Welcome to MassHealth? Sometimes it's a welcome for which residents have to fight.  | read this item

I’ve had an amazing time on the phone today with MassHealth, the state agency that provides required health care to the needy. And by amazing, I mean pretty bad.
Lacking a full-time job, my primary income is Connecticut unemployment benefits, and I thought it was kind of enervating but reasonable that the state wanted proof of [...]