NEELY STEINBERG

Night of the living geeks

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:30:54 GMT

Romancing the nerds
I’ve never dated a geek. Nor have I ever envisioned myself doing so.

JUST ONE OF THE CROWD: Our correspondent dons complimentary geek specs for a photo-op with James.

I’ve never dated a geek. Nor have I ever envisioned myself doing so. I grew up playing sports; in college, I was a party girl. I know the basics of using a computer, but the only thing C++ means to me is that it’s almost a B-minus. Granted, I do have a couple things in common with geeks — like my affinity for video games and my obsession with Star Wars — but, as Master Yoda might say, a romantic connection that does not necessarily make. Lately, though, I’ve been expanding my horizons, which is how I ended up at Central Square’s Pandemonium Books this past Saturday attending Sweet on Geeks singles night.

Sweet on Geeks (sweetongeeks.com) is the brainchild of Joyce Dales, her husband, and her brother, all self-described geeks, who started the dating Web site geared toward the typically dateless, in 2006.

“We actually came up with the idea when my husband and I were joking that we needed a space just for geeks for my brother to find a wife,” says an ebullient Dales. Her company now also hosts singles nights across the nation.

I showed up prepared to stand out like a sore thumb. I dressed to the nines; my hair perfection; my makeup flawless. If there’s one thing I’ve learned after years of dating, it’s that you can’t (and shouldn’t) deny being your true self. Turns out it’s a dating tenet that geeks embrace as well.

The first person I met was called Hecht. He was a tall, lanky fellow, dressed in full army fatigues, and had recently returned from Iraq. Hecht was exceedingly friendly and candid. He talked a lot about geek life and attempted to “break down some of the lingo” for me. While he was completely proud of his geek status, he did vent his frustration about being labeled. “It’s unfair,” he said, “because you get stigmatized a lot.”

Then there was James, a sweet, gentle guy in a black shirt, black kilt, and Tevas, who is pursuing his Master’s in information technology; Joseph, a portly photographer who described himself as “a different kind of geeky”; the suit-wearing Gregory, a computer consultant who had once repaired Hawk missiles in Korea; and Kat, an affable woman with a Dr. Who symbol tattooed on her arm.

The night’s festivities included speed dating, raffles — prizes included Star Trek action figures, a Yoda stuffed animal, and the like — and lots of board games, such as Agricola, which, I was informed, is the most popular game on boardgamegeeks.com.

Dated advice

NEELY STEINBERG — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:30:14 GMT

Old-school words of wisdom for a better college sex life
To boink a lot or not to boink a lot?

Illustration by Ward Jenkins

If I knew in college what I know now about dating, well, I’d be in exactly the same place I am today, 10 years after graduation — single and still somewhat baffled by men. Seriously, though, I may not be the best person to dole out advice, but I did somehow make it through college and a decade worth of post-college dating experiences, which I believe, in some infinitesimally small way, qualifies me to give guidance to you, my younger brethren. So, here we go . . .

DATING DILEMMA NO. 1 Casual sex in college: to boink a lot or not to boink a lot?
DATING DILEMMA SOLVED The goody two-shoes over at Harvard’s True Love Revolution celibacy club would have you believe that sex before marriage is anathema. Then, of course, there’s Harvard’s Lena Chen (class of ’09), the self-proclaimed nympho, who has chronicled her many sexual exploits across campus in her aptly named blog, “Sex and the Ivy” (sexandtheivy.com).

Yuppie logic aside, I suppose there has to be a happy, healthy medium when it comes to the horizontal tango. But there is a school of thought (which I share) that says too much casual sex in college can be harmful for women. I’m sorry to dabble in double standards here (hey, life’s not always fair, as you will eventually discover, my naïve little friends), but, emotionally speaking (and this may or may not be a compliment), men seem better equipped to handle one-night stands than are the fairer sex. But because our highly sexualized culture, and a powerful collegiate hook-up culture (check out BU Professor Donna Freitas’s recent book Sex and the Soul for more on this), promulgates the notion that the way to a man’s heart is through a great blowjob (okay, well, I’m sure that helps), or the way to true empowerment is through complete sexual liberation, women find themselves engaging in behavior that they often regret the next morning, when the guy’s out the door faster than you can say “fellatio.”

So ladies, if you’re looking for something long-term, try developing another, more substantive connection — intellectual, spiritual, platonic — with the object of your desire first before giving up the goods.

Then again, this is the 21st century, and I did graduate way back in 1999, which means my advice is possibly antiquated. I will therefore concede that there are plenty of collegiate women today who absolutely love to get after it, chasing orgasms like a storm-chaser races after tornadoes. If you firmly believe you’re emotionally prepared for fleeting dalliances, and if you’re in the slim minority of females who can actually orgasm consistently despite the status of your paramour, then I say . . . well, get after it!

Chicks who kick

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:46:17 GMT

The other kind of Celtic dance
I’ll admit that cheerleading teams have always irked me.

Collective effort

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:04:01 GMT

So what happens next?
Making money watching Tom Brady? Sign me up!

PUNT? Professor Thomas Malone (standing) coaches CCI student researcher Jason Carver through the first quarter of play.

Making money watching Tom Brady? Sign me up!

That’s what I thought to myself, after seeing a June Craigslist post entitled “MIT will PAY you to watch football.”

“Think you know something about football?” the ad said. “Then come to our lab, watch a game, and see how well you can predict what the teams will do.”

The invitation was issued by MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence (CCI), whose broadest mission is to conduct research on how new communications technologies are changing the way people work together. CCI is the first university-based research center in the United States to focus specifically on the study of collective intelligence, a bafflingly oblique discipline that studies, among other things, how people think and function en masse toward a common result. Understanding those dynamics can help you to predict everything from elections to Wall Street trends.

The theoretical forecast models used by collective-intelligence experts are sometimes called “prediction markets” — a set of algorithms, for example, based on past performance, by which a computer might predict air-travel volume. (In nearly every election when they’ve been used, prediction markets have been more accurate than polls.)

But people sometimes know things algorithms don’t. A computer might have predicted accurate air-passenger stats for September 9, 2001, but would have failed miserably, using the same prediction market, a week later. Meanwhile, any fool with a heartbeat could have easily foreseen a major decrease.

But what’s that have to do with football?

The core research question in CCI’s football experiment seeks to answer how people and computers can join forces so that, collectively, they act more intelligently than any person, group, or computer has ever done before.

Those taking part in the MIT experiment watch a video of a college football game (no Tom, to my dismay), which researchers periodically pause so that subjects can participate in a prediction market to forecast the next play. In addition to people, computer “agents” (developed by wiz-kid Jason Carver as part of his master’s thesis) also participate, basing their predictions on previously transcribed data about identical game conditions (e.g., first down, 10 yards to go, etc.) and simple rules for determining what a football team is likely to do in different situations.

Streetball spectacle

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:28:37 GMT

The other end of the court

STREETBALLER Astro launches for a dunk while PG-13 confirms

This past Saturday, while Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen were practicing their jump shots at the Staples Center in La-La land, in the opposite corner of the country, albeit at a less glamorous venue and without a movie star in sight, PG-13, Astro, 4-D, and a bevy of other renowned streetballers gathered at Durfee High School in Fall River for the second game of the 2008 Celebrity Streetball Remix Tour.

The Durfee High gym is a substantially smaller venue compared with UMass-Amherst’s 10,000-seat Mullins Center, where the Tour held its first event, in December. That show featured such crowd-pleasers as Special FX, recent winner of the Shaq/Slam Dunkman contest, as well as acclaimed streetball player and ESPN darling The Professor. At that gathering, streetballers were pitted against former UMass players; at the June 14 showdown in Fall River, streetballers went head-to-head with each other, playing the first half of the game “for show” and the second half “for real.”

Streetball, a commercial outgrowth of the urban pick-up-hoop scene, is characterized by comedic stunts and acrobatic slam-dunks. Aside from entertainment value, one of the genre’s primary tenets is philanthropic giving, whether it’s donating money to the communities where events are held, or visiting local YMCAs and community centers with messages of hope and positivity. The Durfee High match-up featured former players from the AND1 Mixtape Tour and the Ball4Real Tour — nationally recognized streetball teams (both have been featured on ESPN’s Streetball reality series) that travel from town to town, playing in either exhibition matches or competitively against local talent. Sweetening the court were some current athletes from iKeepItLocal, an elite group of young freelance streetball players who hire themselves out to promoters hosting competitions or tours.

Not that I’m a basketball aficionado or even really qualified to comment on hoop talent, but it should be evident to even the most neophyte fan that the skills these athletes possess are mind-bogglingly impressive, on par perhaps with the masters of on-court chicanery, the Harlem Globetrotters. In fact, the fabled team from 125th Street might want to carve out some spots on its roster for a few of the Remix Tour’s players.

ReJoyce!

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:24:19 GMT

Love in Bloom at BC
Trust Boston’s socially conscious Catholic academics to connect the dots between James Joyce’s once-banned 1922 mega-novel Ulysses and (among other things) gay marriage.

JOYCE DOES JOYCE: Arts critic Joyce Kulhawik (right) with Bloomsday actors in period costume and Celtic Sojourn’s Brian O’Donovan (left).

Trust Boston’s socially conscious Catholic academics to connect the dots between James Joyce’s once-banned 1922 mega-novel Ulysses and (among other things) gay marriage. And they’re doing it right on time. June 16 is Bloomsday, the date assigned to Joycean hero Leopold Bloom’s ramble of personal discovery.

In Dublin, the book's setting, the Joyce celebration lasts a full week (or more) and involves retracing the peripatetic salesman's 1904 route, episode by episode, landmark to landmark, with lots of stop-offs for readings, plays, lectures, souvenirs, and Guinness. The Bloomsday tradition, though, is international. On June 16, there will no doubt be people in Ulan Bator shooting off Roman candles in honor of temptress Gerty MacDowell.

Here in Boston, we’ve been celebrating the occasion for years with everything from lecture series to pub crawls. In 2007, the New Center for Arts and Culture (NCAC), an organization dedicated to exploring Jewish life and the interconnectedness of all cultures, partnered with the Office of the Provost at Boston College to address the mixed marriage theme of Ulysses with a program that focused on the relationships between Boston's Jewish and Irish communities. (Leopold Bloom was half Jewish but embraced the pope so he could embrace, and marry, the life-affirming Irish-Catholic lass Marion "Molly" Tweed.) The event was so successful that they're doing it again, this year hosted by recently pastured WBZ-TV arts-and-entertainment critic Joyce Kulhawik.

Dan Neuman, NCAC's president and executive director, sees (James) Joyce's work as a powerful springboard for exploration of important local and universal topics. The theme for 2008 is "Love Across Boundaries," which means basically mixed romantic pairings, but apparently includes same-sex unions. (Don't ask; it makes a kind of sense until you think it through.) The night's lineup will feature readings from Joyce by costumed actors and well-known Boston personalities, including WGBH-FM's Celtic Sojourn host Brian O'Donovan, Robin Young of WBUR-FM's Here and Now, and WCVB-TV's Ted Reinstein (Chronicle). The program will also feature a discussion with three prominent Boston couples whose love extends across various boundaries — one Greek-Irish, one Hindu-Jewish, and a third whose partners are gay.

Marjorie Howes, co-editor of Semicolonial Joyce, will be on hand to speak about the many aspects of love in the novel, particularly the relationship between Leopold and Molly Bloom.

Off the hook-up

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:32:06 GMT

Sex and the single student
It took me several years after college to understand what true relationship intimacy was about.

It took me several years after college to understand what true relationship intimacy was about. I attribute this personal roadblock partly to spending my college years mired in the prevailing unhealthy hook-up scene. Okay, occasionally it was fun in the moment. But for the most part, fleeting dalliances usually left me unfulfilled and unhappy.

Sadly, the pressures and dangers of collegiate hook-up culture have grown exponentially since my salad days. In her recent book Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America’s College Campuses, Donna Freitas, assistant professor of religion at Boston University, describes just how much things have changed over the years, and paints an upsetting and paradoxical picture of today’s sexually liberated campuses.

While a smattering of recent books have explored the subject of hook-up culture, Freitas’s work seemingly is unique in its juxtaposition of religion and spirituality with sexuality and its exploration of how the former two affect (or do not affect) the latter.

For her research, Freitas visited a range of America’s colleges and universities — from public to private, Catholic to evangelical — to find out what students had to say about these deeply personal topics. What she uncovered was at once refreshing and disheartening (and relatable): the majority of students she chatted with (including the men) actually resent the highly sexualized social environments so dominant on campuses today, in which sex, alcohol, and misogynistic theme parties such as “Millionaires and Maids,” or “CEOs and Office Ho’s,” abound. But they also feel powerless to go against this social sphere perpetuated by a powerful peer minority. Freitas found this to be equally true at non-religious schools (public and private) and at Catholic schools, where sex cultures are indistinguishable from what she found on secular campuses.

But fear not: Freitas’s tome is no fundamentalist diatribe. In fact, she finds that, while the shared identity and common values found on evangelical campuses are indeed keys to a healthy college experience, the purity ideal at such colleges is severe. The Christian fairy tale common to these schools creates deep anxiety, particularly for women, who feel they have somehow failed if they don’t find a mate and get their “ring by spring” (by the time they graduate).

Freitas’s main concern, however, is with schools that don’t advocate any particular sexual-value system. She argues that college administrations need to engage their communities better on questions about sex, religion, and spirituality. “Right now, students rule the sexual aspect of campus; they’re left on their own to deal with that. In my ideal world, colleges would offer a required first-year seminar, not just about relationships, but also on the ethics of being part of a community,” says Freitas. “It’s important to empower students to reflect personally on their own communities and on themselves inside the classroom.”

Probing minds

NEELY STEINBERG — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:20:54 GMT

You, too, can learn to tap into people's unconscious through hypnosis
In the 1999 cult-classic satire Office Space, disgruntled corporate lackey Peter Gibbons visits an occupational hypnotherapist to address burn-out, stress, and his antipathy to TPS reports.

In the 1999 cult-classic satire Office Space, disgruntled corporate lackey Peter Gibbons visits an occupational hypnotherapist to address burn-out, stress, and his antipathy to TPS reports. Midway through hypnosis, the morbidly obese therapist drops dead before he can snap Peter out of it. Stuck in a blissful trance, Peter, armed with his newly chilled-out attitude, proceeds to blow off work and earn a promotion. Plus, he snags the girl of his dreams. Permanent hypnosis must be the perfect solution for irate, sex-deprived corporate minions everywhere, right? Only in the movies.

Sorry to break it to you Gibbons wannabes out there, but long-term trances are patently impossible. (Cue the curses.) In fact, most Hollywood depictions of hypnosis are just plain bunk, claims Ted Benton, a practicing hypnotherapist since 1993 and the founder of Benton’s Hypnosis Clinic in Winchester, Massachusetts.

That’s not to say hypnosis doesn’t have many useful and realistically achievable applications; according to Benton, it has more than 350. Moreover, administering it isn’t limited to full-fledged psychotherapists. Even you — yes you, reader — can learn the techniques and applications of hypnosis through the Winchester Hospital Hypnotherapy Certification Program, one of several American medical facilities offering full certification in hypnotherapy.

Benton began teaching the quarterly certification course eight years ago. The program consists of 125 to 150 hours of independent study and two weekends of instruction. Students have a year to complete their work and can finish at their own rate. Deliverables include a research paper, three book reviews, several hypnosis scripts, and written responses to case studies.

Benton’s instruction focuses on the basics (i.e., the how-tos, technique, etc.), an introduction to Ericksonian hypnosis (psychiatrist Milton Erickson is considered the father of modern-day hypnosis), and then segues into applications for hypnosis — child birthing, medical and dental issues, pain management, habit elimination or modification, age regression, phobia elimination, sports performance, test anxiety, weight loss, and sexual dysfunction.

“It’s a very intensive and extensive two weekends,” says Benton, who stresses that there are no occupational or degree prerequisites for enrolling in his program, though nurses and social workers are awarded 32 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) upon completion.

Benton’s a firm believer in baptism by fire, which is why he begins his first class by hypnotizing his students — sort of like Tasering police-academy cadets to promote empathy. Moreover, Benton wants his students to immediately understand the power of hypnotism. He then teaches three strategies to effect “induction” — in layman’s terms, the ways to put a patient into a deep and effective hypnotic trance. Next he discusses the use of positive affirmations, mini-metaphors, and indirect suggestion — procedures one would use with the patient once they’ve been “induced.” By the end of the first weekend, he has his students hypnotizing each other, engaging in “round robins,” while he supervises their performances and gives feedback.

A liberating experience

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:07:22 GMT

A liberating experience
In 1968, with the hippie Zeitgeist in full swing, a lively bunch of locals began meeting weekly on the Cambridge Commons to dance freeform to the wild drumbeats.

SHOELESS, NOT BRALESS: The author gets down, and simultaneously, funks it up.

In 1968, with the hippie Zeitgeist in full swing, a lively bunch of locals began meeting weekly on the Cambridge Commons to dance freeform to the wild drumbeats. The gatherings eventually became known as Dance Freedom. Decades later, the locals are still dancing every Wednesday night, though drummers have been replaced by DJs and the venue has moved indoors, to Cambridge’s First Congregational Church. This past Wednesday, April 9, marked an important milestone for Dance Freedom, a music-and-dance experience that has attracted thousands over the years. It was the group’s 40th-anniversary extravaganza.

When my sister-in-law, Danna, first told me about these weekly boogie jams, I couldn’t help but chuckle. I envisioned a bunch of hippies with hair down to their asses, bouncing around, trying to relive the glory days of Woodstock and the fabled Summer of Love. Tickled as I was by the concept, it’s not the type of social event at which you’d ever find me.

Eventually, though, my amusement gave way to curiosity, prompting me to suck it up, slap on my finest commune threads, and head on over to the anniversary party for a little rug-cutting session. Though I contemplated going balls to the wall — braless and deodorant-free — my modern-day sensibilities got the better of me: a pair of headlights and stinky armpits was where I drew the line.

When I arrived at the church, I was greeted by an intoxicating aroma of patchouli, BO, and a few other unidentified odors. No matter, because everyone was disarmingly friendly and inviting. Attendees were giving one another long hugs, stroking each other, meditating — acts that, for a newbie such as myself, were deemed both awkward and comforting. Another refreshing aspect of Dance Freedom’s environment was the sartorial autonomy — you can dress like a socialite or a schlep or anywhere in between. The people there just don’t give a shit. There’s no judgment, no pretension.

Before the bulk of patrons showed up, a man approached me. “May I dance with you?” he politely asked. I grabbed hold of his hands and we moved together for several minutes to a New Age tune. “Listen to your heart, feel your soul, let the child within you come out,” he cooed. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, and frankly, I was half-mortified. But wouldn’t you know it: 30 seconds later, we were artfully weaving across the dance floor together. I was free to move my body however I wanted without derision from onlookers. Soon, I threw my initial inhibitions to the wind, and actually started to enjoy myself.

A voice for the voiceless

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:38:53 GMT

The Boston Muslim Film Festival
“Where we come from we have a saying: ‘If you live in hell long enough, you get used to it.’ ” That’s Mohammed Harba talking about his former life in Iraq, under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship.

The Fish Fall in Love

“Where we come from we have a saying: ‘If you live in hell long enough, you get used to it.’ ” That’s Mohammed Harba talking about his former life in Iraq, under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. Harba never thought he’d be a free man, living in a democratic society. He only dreamed of such an existence. When he was chosen to come to America on a Fulbright scholarship, in 2005, that all changed. Since moving to Boston, Harba became the first Iraqi Muslim to study the Holocaust at Hebrew College, and is now considered an expert on modern Arabic cinema (particularly the depiction of female characters), which he currently teaches as part of the first-ever Arabic class at Philips Andover Academy.

Harba’s latest venture is another first, and one that, as an aspiring filmmaker and a former oppressed Iraqi, is near and dear to his heart: curating the Boston Muslim Film Festival. Running April 14 through 30 and co-sponsored by Boston University’s Women’s Studies Program, Americans for Informed Democracy, and the American Islamic Congress, the debut event is focusing on “Think-Different Women,” in which the themes of women’s equality and free expression are expounded.

“We tend to forget women in that part of the world,” says Harba. “As a refugee from Iraq, I know how hard it is to stand up and call for different things, to demand change. This film festival is not about criticism; it’s about hope — that we can someday create a civil-rights movement in the Middle East.”

The festival will spotlight five films, all of which, according to Harba, celebrate independent women on the front lines of reform — women who challenge extremism and social taboos.

One selection, Mrs. President, produced by Boston University Women’s Studies professor Shahla Haeri, profiles six dynamic Iranian women who, in 2001, dared to register as candidates for president in Iran, only to be disqualified by the Guardian Council there. (Haeri will speak following the showing.) Another, Shadya, a coming-of-age portrait, features Shadya Zoabi, a 17-year-old world champion in karate and a Muslim Arab living in the Galilee, a large region in Northern Israel.

“The characters in this festival represent heroes who try to say something different and remind people of the real Middle Eastern Muslim world, a culture and civilization that have nothing to do with segregation and oppressed women,” says Harba, who views the festival as a way to defy stereotypes as well as a vehicle to give a voice to the voiceless. “When you experience living without a voice, you can understand how frustrating and sad it is that nobody is listening to you, and I wanted to make these voices heard.”

J’accuse redux

NEELY STEINBERG — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:46:55 GMT

Settling Dreyfus’s affairs at BU
It all started in October 1894, when an anonymous handwritten letter offering secret French military information was found in the wastebasket of a German military attaché.

Stop the presses

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:20:20 GMT

Books they never finished publishing
Overzealous merchandisers who banked on the Patriots juggernaut winning Super Bowl XLII were stuck with celebratory paraphernalia they could no longer sell.

Overzealous merchandisers who banked on the Patriots juggernaut winning Super Bowl XLII were stuck with celebratory paraphernalia they could no longer sell — torturous reminders of a veritable jackpot gone awry. Book publishers, poised to release such titles as the Boston Globe’s 19-0 and Sports Publishing’s 2008 Super Bowl Champions (still listed on amazon.com, but as “currently unavailable”) had no choice but to eat volumes of inopportune inventory.

All this premature ejaculation makes one wonder what other tomes may have suffered similar fates?

THE BIG DIG: ENGINEERING JEWEL
THE PITCH A behind-the-scenes look at one of the country’s largest ever public-works projects. Budgetary matters aside, this mega-undertaking has been touted as an engineering gem.
FATE Recalled July 2006, when a section of the leaky tunnel’s roof collapsed, killing one. Turns out the precious gem was more like cubic zirconium.

LONE RANGERS: REPUBLICANS FOR ABORTION, GAY MARRIAGE, AND STEM-CELL RESEARCH
THE PITCH They are the few, the proud: the socially liberal GOP governors.
FATE Pulled from shelves February 13, 2007, when Mitt Romney, the subject of one of the chapters, decided to run for president, conveniently changing his positions on all of the aforementioned issues. Perhaps he’s not so proud after all.

RED SOX NATION AND THE 87-YEAR CURSE
THE PITCH A look back at the Old Towne Team’s 87-year title drought.
FATE Set to drop October 27, 2004, this project was scotched when the Sox gave all its naysayers a metaphorical crotch grab by pounding the Cardinals for the title, after staging an improbable comeback over the Yankees, thus ending the so-called Curse of the Bambino. Yes, yes Nanette.

AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE: SEVEN YEARS OF CARTOON HILARITY
THE PITCH An “illustrated novel” featuring the wild adventures of the cartoon’s three anthropomorphic fast-food characters.
FATE This one was history by February 1, 2007, after the entire city of Boston entered DEFCON 1 over a bomb scare triggered by battery-powered promotional placards for the popular animated show. Who knew a milkshake could be that scary?

HO HO HO: SANTA CLAUS, DON IMUS, AND OTHER FAMOUS PHILANTHROPISTS
THE PITCH An anthology of biographies of notable public benefactors, with partial proceeds dedicated to inner-city youth basketball teams.
FATE The book was yanked faster than you can say First Amendment when the I-man uttered a scandalous on-air comment regarding members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Following the incident, lumps of coal were seen piling up outside Al Sharpton’s home.

Redstone’s red-carpet revelry

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:15:30 GMT

Comm Ave Walk of Fame
Boston University is rolling out the red carpet again . . . literally.

ON LOCATION: shooting Fratelli Breaks in 18 days.

Boston University is rolling out the red carpet again . . . literally. The school’s Redstone Film Festival, an annual extravaganza mimicking Hollywood award shows (minus the Botoxed faces and saccharine E! correspondents), is set to take place Wednesday, February 13, at 7 pm, in the Tsai Performance Center. Sponsored by Boston native and National Amusements theater-chain mogul Sumner Redstone, the festival is considered the BU Film and Television Department’s signature event, providing a showcase for work by the school’s student filmmakers.

This year’s field of entrants has been narrowed to six finalists. Their selected short films will be screened (and the winners revealed) on the night of the event to an audience of more than 500.

The Redstone victors (chosen by a trio of local film gurus) will win some money and build valuable momentum for placing their films in other festivals, explains Scott Thompson, assistant professor of screenwriting and the festival’s coordinator. “It’s a sort of calling card for our students,” said Thompson, who promises an unforgettable event finale that “will have people talking on Commonwealth Avenue.”

Past Redstone winners (and finalists) — director Gary Fleder (Runaway Jury), producer Richard Gladstein (Finding Neverland, The Cider House Rules), and screenwriter Scott Rosenberg (Beautiful Girls, Con Air) — have gone on to become some of Boston’s most successful filmmakers.

Carter Blanchard, a BU alumnus and now an LA-based screenwriter, placed second at the festival in 1988. His entry, Frigid & Impotent, became one of his career bona fides: after developing the screenplay into a feature-length version, he sold it to New Line. While the film had several A-listers attached — Drew Barrymore, Alec Baldwin, and Will Ferrell — it never found wings, but Blanchard still credits the project as helping to launch his career.

“I met a lot of great, extremely talented, and successful people because of this script,” said Blanchard. “[The Redstone festival] gave me more confidence in myself as a storyteller and helped give me the courage to move to LA and give it a shot.”

Fratelli Breaks, a student film by ’07 BU grad Alex Scigliano (who’s currently working in film and TV in New York), tells the story of two brothers who play each other for $10,000 in nine-ball billiards on the anniversary of their father’s murder. For Scigliano, directing and producing the project was at once an arduous and rewarding experience. “We shot [the film] with a four-man crew, including me and my brother, who also acted in it, and filmed for 18 days, in Allston, East Boston, the North End, Winthrop, Logan Airport, and Weehawken and Hoboken, New Jersey, with two 24-hour straight shoots,” he recalls. “I lost 20 pounds, almost failed out of school, and lost my job as a bartender at the Armani Cafe on Newbury Street. It was the most fun I’ve ever had.”

Judging Chris Matthews

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:42:39 GMT

Julian Houston on race in Boston
Anyone meeting Julian Houston for the first time might feel intimidated.

HOUSTON cites the decline of state-sponsored racism.

Anyone meeting Julian Houston for the first time might feel intimidated. Résumé aside, at 6-3, the former associate justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court is a towering presence. His eyes bulge forth, confidently, boldly, like a bullfrog’s, and won’t do much to put you at ease. But when you meet him, his eyes and his stature soften to reveal a kind and gentle man. Now retired from the bench, Houston spends his time writing fiction at his home in Brookline, but it is his real-life back story that is the stuff of novels. While attending Boston University in 1962, Houston became an integral part of the local civil-rights movement. At the end of his freshman year, he then took a leave of absence to work for the civil-rights cause in Harlem, organizing rent strikes and tutoring programs.

In 2005, Houston published his first and only novel, the critically acclaimed New Boy, just out in paperback. The story, set in the late 1950s, follows a young African-American Virginian, Rob Garrett, as he crosses the racial divide to attend an all-white boarding school in Connecticut. It’s a case of art imitating life: Houston attended the Hotchkiss School, in Lakeville, under similar circumstances. (There’s a sequel in the works about how Rob decides to withdraw from Yale after his freshman year to work for civil rights in Alabama — sound familiar?) I had the good fortune of catching up with Houston a few days before his January 16 Beacon Hill book reading (sponsored by the National Park Service), to pick his brain about racism in America today.

Asked about Chris Matthews’s recent remarks anathematizing Boston as an exceedingly — though disguisedly — racist city (“It may not be ‘I think I’m better than you,’ but it might be ‘I don’t want to live next door to you.’ ”), Houston censured the leftie pundit.

“[His comments] were another attempt by a representative of the media to stir up a controversy with stale information. What does he base this opinion on? Events that took place 30 years ago? The fact of the matter is that Boston has undergone enormous changes since the time that such a charge would have stuck.” (Matthews, it should be noted, lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland — you do the geographical math.)

So, is Boston a racist city?

Hope amid setbacks

NEELY STEINBERG — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:55:27 GMT

Migrant workers' rights
On December 8, Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out another Massachusetts immigration raid.

Tru opportunity

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:25:22 GMT

Will the real reality show please stand up?
With scripted television in limbo thanks to the Writers Guild of America strike, network bosses have been relying on reality programming to soften the blow.

FRESH IDEAS Ryan Cauley (left) gambles on bookies; Nick Farago (right) hopes to dine underground in Seattle.

With scripted television in limbo thanks to the Writers Guild of America strike, network bosses have been relying on reality programming to soften the blow. But let’s face it: there are only so many phony B-list-celebrity dating romps and artificial elimination contests a person can stand before developing a nasty case of acid reflux. Agita aside, the timing couldn’t be better for Turner Broadcasting System to launch its new network: truTV (formerly CourtTV). Making its debut on January 1, truTV will target viewers who want first-person access to exciting, high-stakes, real-life stories. Its tagline, “Not Reality. Actuality,” is part of a TBS effort to re-brand “reality TV,” which nowadays has become something of a red herring. While several promising series are already in place for the network’s upcoming launch, truTV development executives wanted to broaden their search for programming ideas beyond the usual industry players. That hunt took truTV to academe.

As part of a two-stop college-pitch contest, network brass ventured to Boston University and Rutgers University this past week in an attempt to harness the creative power of youth. Participants had 15 minutes to wow decision-makers with their reality-show concepts. The contest winner will receive a development fee and the opportunity to work with truTV honchos to create a pilot or series. “College kids, especially those interested in careers in media, are very tapped in to new trends and ideas in popular culture,” said Lauren Gellert, Court TV/truTV’s vice-president of alternative programming. “Sometimes, the best ideas come from people who don’t have the experience of actually making shows, but just have the thoughts on what they would like to see on the air.”

When Garland Waller — an assistant professor of television at BU’s College of Communication, and a former special-projects producer at WBZ-TV — heard of truTV’s road-trip plans, she thought it was the “perfect, real-life opportunity” for students in her production course, and instantly made it part of the class’s final project.

Solco Schuit, a senior in Waller’s class, pitched a show called Band of Brawlers, which would document Friends Stand United (FSU), a controversial nationwide gang originally formed in Boston in the late ’80s and early ’90s as a violent response to neo-Nazis who had established a dominant presence at hardcore and punk-rock concerts. “They’re certainly no angels, and the stakes are always high for FSU guys. We’d follow their lives and gang activities, see where they’re from, go to the concerts and into the courtrooms, see how gang life has changed,” said Schuit, whose idea truTV lauded but ultimately passed on for being “too gritty.” Other ideas from BU students included Ryan Cauley’s Book It — a behind-the-scenes look at Las Vegas bookmakers — and Nick Farago’s Speak-Easy Supper, a show about the underground-restaurant scene in Seattle.

A stand against silence

NEELY STEINBERG — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:07:41 GMT

The patriots’ offensive line
Their hearts were warmed by passion, despite the cold temperatures.

CAN’T ASK, CAN’T TELL: Denied a spot in the American Legion’s Veteran’s Day Parade, members of the local Veterans for Peace showed up anyway, and were arrested for their silent protest against censorship.

Their hearts were warmed by passion, despite the cold temperatures. Armed with signs, upside-down flags of distress, and anti-war fliers, the Smedley D. Butler Brigade, Chapter 9 of Veterans For Peace (VFP), refused to be censored — their request to participate in this past Sunday’s annual Veterans Day parade was denied by the American Legion, which coordinates the event each year. But official exclusion did little to deter the group from marching at the end of the parade, behind the street sweepers, and carrying out its objectives: promoting peace, speaking out against the war in Iraq, and supporting the troops by calling for their immediate return home.

“We want to put our message out to the crowd along the route, and make it clear that we will not be silenced by the American Legion,” said Nate Goldshlag, an Army veteran and one of the Brigade organizers who led the rally of about 40 disgruntled vets down Tremont Street to City Hall Plaza. (Goldshlag is no stranger to activism: in 1969, he and fellow Vietnam War opponents participated in the infamous student takeover of Harvard’s University Hall, an incident that garnered national attention and got him expelled.)

Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner, a strong supporter of VFP, also weighed in on the Legion’s decision, calling it “an insult to vets everywhere.” The Legion, however, asserts the parade is a non-political event, a claim hotly contested by Goldshlag and Turner, who argue that in previous years the parade’s speakers have been “pro-war.”

For the most part, the crowd along the parade route was supportive of VFP. But Jeff Monico of Saugus, a Marine and Iraq War veteran, was angered by the anti-war group’s display of upside-down flags. “It’s disrespectful at this event to be holding the flags like that,” he said. A young boy next to him agreed. “You’re not holding the flag the right way,” shouted the youth. “If I were a cop, I'd put you in jail.” His words were all too prophetic.

As people trickled into the plaza, a single line of VFP members began to form in front of the podium. Faces stoic and mouths stuffed with handkerchiefs, the demonstrators now silently protested with signs draped across their bodies that read: AMERICAN LEGION SILENCES MESSAGES OF PEACE FROM VETERANS. The American Legion band played on as people anxiously waited to see what would happen next. Slowly, one by one, the veterans were handcuffed and arrested by the Boston Police, the rat-a-tat-tat of the drums ringing in their ears as they were led off into the distance.

Out on the street

NEELY STEINBERG — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:02:35 GMT

Finding fault with foreclosures
This was City Life’s second attempt to put a human face on the ordeal of home foreclosures, and it may have paid off.