WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. Today we're hitting the rewind button on this week's news from the great lady's front pages to the stories on the small screen. And the reporting that went under the radar. It's a hyper local look at the news that was and wasn't. We'll be dropping in on online communities and alternative presses. For a look at the big stories from the small papers where today's neighborhood news becomes tomorrow's mainstream headlines. Well top of the hour venturing from the serious to the sublimely ridiculous with Greg time on tour of the tabloids and a round up of this week's pop culture. Up next on the callee Crossley Show from gumshoe reporting the gossip rags. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Nancy Alliance retail sales are

showing some strength. They were up in September far more than analysts and to support it. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports. The Commerce Department says retail sales increase more than 1 percent from August. Consumers spent more on cars clothing and gas but also spend more on nearly everything but food. The Commerce Department also revised August retail spending up three tenths of a percent from flat. A number of factors have been putting pressure on retailers including high unemployment spikes in food and gas prices as well as poor consumer confidence despite a drop in personal incomes in August. Consumers are apparently still spending and that's a promising sign for economic growth because two thirds of the economy is driven by consumer spending. Yuki Noguchi NPR News Washington. Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry says he has a plan for turning the nation's economy around. It involves expanding energy production on federal lands and curbing regulation.

The plan that I present this morning. Energizing. American jobs and security. Will kick start. The economic growth. Of this country and create 1.2 million jobs. Perry spoke today at a Pittsburgh area steel plant. His speech comes as his momentum appears to be slowing. President Obama is pitching trade with a trip to Detroit the home of the U.S. auto industry. Traveling with him is South Korea's president. The two are touring a GM auto plant and are expected to promote the trade agreement between the countries that was approved by Congress this week. The deal is expected to expand U.S. car exports to South Korea. In downtown Denver authorities are dismantling a tent city that had sprung up in a park as part of the nationwide protest against corporate greed. Kirk Siegler of member station KUNC is there and says it was a tense early morning standoff between protesters and police. Colorado's governor issued an order that the tent city be dismantled because protesters are violating

state law by camping overnight in a state park adjacent to the state capitol building. When some protesters decided to wait it out and risk arrest Dan Thorton holds a sign that reads. Where's the outrage. I have no faith any longer in this two party system that basically just tears each other down as a constant re-election cycle. It doesn't matter about making any real progress it's just a matter of tearing each other down. Things have been mostly peaceful though but police have closed two main arteries in and out of downtown creating headaches for commuters. For NPR News I'm Kirk Siegler in Denver. In New York authorities have postponed the cleanup of a plaza where Occupy Wall Street protesters have been camped out for a month. On Wall Street tech stocks are rallying with strong retail sales in a booming quarter for Google the Dow is up 87 The NASDAQ up 22. The S&P is up 11. This is NPR News. David Petraeus is bringing his battlefield sensibilities to his new job as head of the

CIA. The former general who led the Afghanistan war is ordering his intelligence analysts to give greater weight to the opinions of troops in the fight. Officials say the move is intended to obtain battlefield input earlier in the process of determining the course of the war. CIA reports helped guide the White House and Congress in drafting future policy. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center right government won a vote of confidence in parliament today. But NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports the ruling coalition is divided. And there are growing questions about the scandal plagued prime minister's ability to tackle Italy's mounting financial difficulties. The motion passed by three hundred sixteen votes to three hundred one. There was frantic counting of lawmakers down to the wire with fears of defections within government ranks. The vote was triggered by the government's embarrassing defeat Tuesday on an article of the annual budget review but commentators are not predicting a long life for the government. Internal divisions are deep. Italy is in the eye of the eurozone crisis and the prime minister is embroiled in many

scandals. He faces three trials on corruption tax fraud and paid for sex with a minor. Meanwhile Italians are increasingly angered by austerity measures when news came of the government's survival. Demonstrators outside parliament started launching eggs and shouting anti Berlusconi slogans. Sylvia Poggioli NPR News Rome. Finance ministers and central bank governors are in Paris to discuss ways to pull your about a debt and restart global economic health. Even though the stakes are high leaders are keeping their expectations low for the Group of 20 meeting. I'm Nancy Lyons NPR News in Washington. Support for NPR comes from the Scole foundation supporting social entrepreneurs and their renovations to solve the world's most pressing problems at Ask AOL AOL dot org. Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley. Well we got a lot to talk about today. Occupy Boston still growing some big lawsuits being dismissed in

Boston and a new extension of health care clinic in the south and today we're taking a hyper local look at the week's news with Sue O'Connell co publisher of bay windows in the south and news John Rouche editor of the Jamaica Plain has it. And Peter Katz is executive editor of The Boston Phoenix. Welcome back. Thank you for being here. We got to start with Occupy Boston. Peter you guys over the Phoenix have been all over this. And I want to start with Christopher roans piece where he literally went up and down the east coast stopping in at every Occupy site. It seems that there was to visit and found different things but the same things Christopher own has become the definition of well over caffeinated. Thank you. I've been living on is it Paul so I yank up the red ball. Well if I thought he was hyperbole I know he has been doing an incredible job. I sort of hate the cliche 24/7 but he just has traveled up and down the East Coast. By plane train a lot of OBL and he has

visited many since then these sites and what he's found is you know there is there's a common flavor here which is social outrage. People who are just really ticked off that way things are but that's manifest itself a little differently in every city. I mean and it shows some of the chat demonstrate some of the challenges that the whole Occupy movement represents I mean. This is some people may know we've been following this really closely each of these occupy cities are sort of discreet little mini republics in the of themselves and everything is decided by consensus vote. And as a result you get a lot of different messages in Baltimore there was a very you know while it was anti Wall Street there was also an anti police message which you haven't really seen

anywhere else in in New York itself which is sort of the epi center here. You know you have a lot of very articulate people all of whom are so the working a different side of each question behind the sort of younger people who are out there though are a lot of longtime community activists who've joined in in organized labor. I must say has been very quick to lend support not in the way to exploit what the various movements have done but in the way too. Ball star and provide energy. And it's I happened to be down at Dewey Square when the nurses showed up which with them was the first group from organized labor. And geez you know I'm usually pretty cynical about these things and it was

just really heartening to see all these you know face it middle aged nurses men and women all coming off their buses and so the cheering the kids and the kids cheering them on. And it's ticking nationally. There was an NBC Wall Street Journal poll that showed that it's trending in the upper 30s of people who 30 percent of people who approve only 18 percent disapprove and the most people being undecided. I don't know what the future is of this movement but to me it's it comes with a terrific time because it's a flashpoint it's a way for people to say hey I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. Somebody wrote a very interesting piece and asked the question is an outcry or a movement and you know like a couple weeks ago I said I'm not sure it's a movement but now I'm thinking yeah it's a little bit like a movement Yeah you know I mean what's the difference I think. Yeah I find it so hilarious that there's all these complaints about mixed messages and don't really say

the message of who gets to go to the table. Yeah and what's the agenda and to me that's just such a political panic it's like oh my God somebody's going off message or there's hate and then the talking points I want to tell them I went out to Occupy Boston and I saw not only the punks and anarchists and hippies but I saw Ron Paul people I saw anonymous people in there. Guy Fawkes masks I saw this like what's wrong with that protest movements always look on target. In retrospect right you American Revolution looks on target in retrospect. Civil rights movement. So Trent cetera I think. What what's wrong with with expressing some outrage and to me this is not that different though a little less manufactured than a lot of the Tea Party stuff. And I think the left and the right have a lot more to agree on than the center mass equality which is the gay and lesbian transgender bisexual political group in Massachusetts has now endorsed the Occupy Boston effort. The transgender coalition has you know I think Peter's editorial in The Boston Phoenix this week is so right on where there are

so many more of us that's not sort of an us versus them. You know you look at these young people doing this and you don't think Oh those crazy kids you know because I had to go through a short sale. I couldn't get my loan modified You know I know exactly what they're talking about. I don't have the time to go out and do that. You know I am envious that they can make the sacrifice that they're doing in order some of them not going to school some of them taking a semester off. I absolutely applaud them and as the editorial in the Phoenix put this week it really is all of us and you know the number the 99 percent versus the 1 percent is what folks are throwing around but that's a big important 1 percent and it's a very exciting time right now I mean I really feel like the roots of some sort of change are actually starting to get out I mean to your point John that you know you read a great book that was on the behind the scenes of the civil rights movement the fighting at the March on Washington and who is going to get this. We don't talk about that now we talk about what a great effort it was because that's how history works well.

And we're so sorry. Which is what what really strikes me is that the younger people in their in their 20s logically. I find it very heartening I mean these are the kids that are inheriting you know they could well be a lost generation of lost economic opportunity. And I say more power to them that they are you know that they've woken up that they're doing things. And if you know you however this turns out it doesn't really matter because whatever happens something will build on top of this. It's a dynamic movement. I think it's a reason for hope and there's been a very few Americans who have been working very hard for at least 20 years to take away the rights of the rest of us. And I mean all of us that the working in the banking industry the way that they fund political candidates and I think that as Peter said folks are just waking up now in this

generation. I used to joke at cocktail parties that I wasn't worried about Social Security because I figured the baby boomers would figure it out. You know they get there and there wouldn't be any and they figured out that I'm right on the edge. You know I'm an 1061 baby so I would. And now I realize well they're not going to figure it out. And you know there's been some talk about blaming the baby boomers I read an article this week about how it's all their fault. You know they were sitting watching TV buying things having a good time not paying attention and now we have no money. And what happened and I think that's too glib but I think we all need to work together now to figure out how we get out of this mess. The Wall Street Journal had a poll this morning talking about looking at income dropping across the United States this is been one of the issues as you to your point John there are many. And nobody says it has. People have to coalesce around one. But one of the central ones that has been articulated I think at every stop is about this income gap as you've mentioned the 99 versus the 1. So here is the latest statistics that came

out this morning from The Wall Street Journal and it's really quite grim. So I would imagine that means more folks go to the streets if you will. What do you think John. You know who knows I mean I don't know what motivates each and every person but because I mean to me this is you know too late and involves too few pitchforks for my taste I mean I've. Been unemployed for a long stretches and stuff and it's you know I'm amazed at how much Americans put up with. If you look at all the riots and strikes and stuff that happened in Europe you know we tell you it takes a while to get riled up. I think I will say I think what strikes me you know if there is anything that's sort of on message or consistent across the country with these protests is how they're taking the high road and they're very polite they're going to clean up that park in New York but they are staying in to show that they can do it and stuff like that and to me that's that's one of the real interesting distinctions that makes it much harder to fight against If you contrast it with say the Battle of Seattle in 1999 the

huge protests against the World Trade Organization and so forth very similar themes very different tactics there they were throwing chairs through Starbucks windows and stuff. And this is much more we're just going to form a little community out here it's to me it's like the bonus army march in the 1930s when the veterans were trying to get their money from Washington set up a shanty town in from the White House. It's more like that. We're just going to live here and we're going to show what a community really is like. I was at a doctor's appointment the day of the Bank of America market and my doctor is a native of Mexico and they're marching down the street and he's looking out the window and his assistant says what's going on there and he said The Americans have finally woken up. OK I was I was at the Bank of America protest and I went just in the sense that this stuff is going to start bubbling up and it was interesting. I mean I was talking to some of the policeman before the crowd got there and

they were all very sympathetic to the machos and I even talked to a couple of people who were on the cover. Private security for Bank of America you know we're just here doing the job you know we have the watch things and I think they were taking pictures of the leaders but they were all sympathy you know to the crowd and there is a candidate for Boston City Council was in the Phoenix yesterday we were seeing everyone. And we've been asking all the city council candidates what they think of this and they're all support it but one of the people said something he said that he's been surprised that at all of the elderly housing units he's gone to he said there's a really big widespread support among the older people for this and he said even Gold Star mothers mothers who have lost kids in Vietnam were very supportive about this. Well I would just have to say you know it's not just the sailing it is one of those good buses that they provide for the elderly on

voting call here and send them right down there and then to Foxwoods. Well I want to fly Fox where I would just you know since we were having a discussion about this topic yesterday with my my team and I and I just want to put on the table that everybody that's out there. You can't see all the support because somebody is paying for those tents. Yeah. Russell Simmons did come out you know and say he clean up New York. But there's a lot of folks providing food and other kinds of stuff of support because they want to but they don't necessarily want to get recognition for it so it'll be interesting to see as more and more people come to the fore. Just how widespread this support is. So there you have it. Occupy New England for by Christopher Ronan the Boston Phoenix an Occupy Boston discussion by all the folks around this table. We have much more to talk about on the other side of the break. I'm callin Crossley. We're looking at local news will be back after this break stay with us. WGBH programs exist because of you and Boston Private Bank and

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Somerville Massachusetts where over 75000 people share just four square miles. The most avid city in New England. Last month WGBH to 20. 12 challenge 2000 and 12 new sustaining members before New Year's Day and eighty nine point seven would clear out the first fundraising campaign of the year. Right now the station only needs to hear from 600 more people. For. About two percent of summer to make room for more news and less fund raising online at WGBH dot org. I'm Brooke Ladd stone co-host of NPR's ON THE MEDIA. Each week join Bob Garfield and me as we take a closer look at the media sausage is made Sunday afternoons at 3:00 here on eighty nine point seven. WGBH. Welcome back to the Calla Crossley Show. If you're just tuning in we're looking at news through a

hyper local Lin's. Joining me to talk between the headlines are Sue O'Connell of bay windows in the south in news John Russo editor of the Jamaica Plain Gazette and Peter Katz is executive editor of The Boston Phoenix. So John Rush let me turn to you because you've got a couple of I will have editorial in a big piece about lawsuits that were filed against Northeastern universities. Trying to stall the progress of the planned Dhamma Tory and demolition of the one of the oldest was in town. You know we here at the Kelly cross as you have done a couple of stories about this and there's a lot of emotion on this side of the people who are enjoying the WIA particularly but I've also had City Councillor Mike Ross in here and he's like look he's quite passionate we got to put these students somewhere where we need some room here. Yeah there's a passion on the side of residents certainly in Mission Hill to where we have a paper that's been covering this even though it's essentially in the Fenway this is how far the influence of North

stretches them. I mean there's a thousand northeastern kids living in Mission Hill which is a neighborhood of probably 18000 people. It has an enormous impact on quality of life it has an enormous impact on rents. So on and so forth. So that's where all this pressure comes from for Northeastern and many other schools to build dorms. The mayor has been applying that pressure for a long time so yeah. Hence the plan. Somehow that translates into a plan to knock down part of the why and plant a 17 storey dorm atop it. And we should say that's what the lawsuits were filed against that plan. Yeah this was filed by some Fenway in Mission Hill residence. The lawsuits were dismissed. Not on the merits but for lack of standing they essentially are legally not aggrieved parties they don't live right next to it or something like that. But their arguments were that the city was sort of improperly allowing this project to violate if you will. Zoning codes get around zoning

codes it's much higher than would normally be allowed and amongst other things by sort of making it part of northeastern campus though it's actually being developed by a private company. Northeastern will simply be a tenant for 15 years and then kind of has an option to buy or keep renting or disappear and it becomes somebody else's dorm or it becomes an office tower who knows what. So there are certainly some questions there the lawsuits were dismissed but the judge and then they were dismissed for lack of standing which means that a court gets to say we don't even have to talk about what this is about there really is no cause legally there's no controversy. But she went out of her way in one of the dismissals and a nice long footnote to basically say boy this is just some really strange questions yeah. You know about this about this project and about how it how it is zoning is being changed and so on and so forth so that you know that was certainly a level of scrutiny the Massachusetts Historical Commission also has was very

skeptical of this project is like a lie on top of the why and why not in a parking lot why not smaller buildings where are your alternatives. Why is this the only feasible option apparently it took northeastern many months to come up with an answer to that. That being said the pair they are satisfied now apparently So you know it looks like this thing is rolling forward. But more and more questions being raised at least on the state level. Well just a suggestion if you are interested as you should be. Yeah as a JP resident I know how all of these universities affect JP. You look down the street at the planned expansion at the Christian Science Center. Yeah it's sort of an open secret but no one talks about that. You know Northeastern this is going to become a tenant of some of these buildings. This whole thing is you know provide chides shines an interesting light on the way the Menino

administration handles development which it holds. Anyone who's project it doesn't look favorably upon to the exact level of the law are figuratively holding it in then it creates interesting loopholes or interesting interpretations of the rules and regulations and you know I'm sort of with Mike Ross that NE in the needs the buildings in Personally I'm not so sure whether the why itself how historically significant it is but I think that any way you have a business sitting at this chair with people who are very you know. Why did you go there I will tell you I have them any time at all Bill that goes down in Boston my thanks but at the same time I've gotten lost in that build. Yeah I used to be a resident of Mission Hill for 10 years I was a member of the Huntington why Remember I go last like three or four times trying to find the changing room I mean you know and it's true you need only think about Allston Brighton and Harvard you

know and the truth I mean this is a story for the South in news as well because of the push in a lot of this is to cue this spend you know this is way too cute to adopt the idiom of Buy talk just the youth. It's very cute you know. Redefine This is the Northeastern campus but someone else is building it. Very very cute. This is there's something at work here. Yeah and this is one of the double edged swords that the city uses So it's called an institutional master plan. And very few people know what this is but essentially it is something that forces a college or a hospital to declare everything it own and all the expansion it's going to do for the next 10 years. That sounds great. You know everything's on the table you know what it is but the other thing is that it essentially erases zoning and lets them do whatever they want and that's what they're doing here. So your editorial which accompanied this story was pretty strong saying. Some squirrely questions are raised in this. You also point out in your story and I should say

that the people who whose lawsuits were dismissed both say they're going to appeal. Yeah I mean I'm going to say good luck because I don't think you're going to find standing but yeah yeah. But every time that they have something like this happens doesn't that then postpone any action so in effect they're getting some of what they would like exactly there's no way tactics for sure and there's just publicity tactics I mean none of this stuff was discussed in the public meetings about this. The police the you know a private institution being under and I M.P. you know none of that was was discussed so. So this is definitely raise those points. Well I can say that when we first tried tried to do the story just curious about what was going on. These complaints about some of the the y traditional goers who were feel very strongly about it I couldn't get anybody more in northeastern nobody would talk about it. Yes I just want to put that out there was really Mike Ross bravely came in here and took the heat.

All right to use is the Blackstone school something that we someplace we've talked about a lot but coming together with another real institution in the south in the South End Community Health Center. Yeah this is one of those great stories of really acknowledging a need and a resource where Mayor Menino has been calling it sort of back to the black stone where the South End Community Health Center is going to set up a clinic in the Blackstone Elementary School which has about you know 600 or 700 kids that go there every day. It's it's they're starting the construction but they still need money to do it and they're really addressing the issues of how much attention and medical care mental health care dental care students in Boston need and how this is a great one stop shop for them where instead of being pulled out of school for appointments which we all have to do with our kids but it's a real pain in the neck they can just go right in the building to the appointment and also seeing where kids need some intervention maybe need some mental health intervention and they'll be right there to do it. The clinic will be open for

kids only during school days and then it has a plan separate entrance on Shawmut for folks to use it off school hours. It's you know it's just really a great step forward in the evolution of the South and Health Center which is the Community Health Center which has been doing a great job so it's hopefully they provided this sort of service but not you know on the ground the way that they are in a concrete way. To the Boston public schools in the past so it's I think it's a really good model going forward and we're anxious and excited to see it get off the ground. I was impressed in your story because I knew that the South and health community health center has been very important that community for a long time but they serve 70000 patient visits to the clinic each year. Yeah. And it's a wide variety of services I mean it's one of the great hidden gems in the south end. You know you automatically one might automatically assume that it's a low income clientele that they're serving but they also have a great pathways to wellness. The ACCU the great acupuncture service is inside as well as you know.

Yeah if they moved in they joined in with them so even Peter can still do it. Service community center and this work that they'll be doing with the kids at the Blackstone is just imperative and their mission around mental health especially for children is one to be saluted they're doing a great fundraiser Saturday night at the cyclorama with Betsy Johnson the clothing designers clothing designer. So it's great. It seems to me Peter and John you can weigh in on this that this is the kind of development that people keep touting that we need to have the you know public public partnerships or looking at space in a renewed way to really address the ongoing needs of a community so you know here you have this clinic that is in the article says they're bursting at the sames and they look around and say how can we do two things at once. Address kids health needs and also expand some space for the entire community. It's interesting around the presently was in the Phoenix the other day again for the city

council. Him to us once and she was talking about projects just like this and you know she was talking about how vital these are to the city and when I read the story in the south and it helped me on the CNN practice just what it would look like yeah just what it would look like and I was just saying I mean when's the go you know travel to get one of my kids take them out meet my wife to take him to. It was like playing the D-Day invasion. Yeah it's crazy. I mean that we had a service like this in Revere when I was growing up in the 60s and they would put us in cabs and send us to a demo you know and I just remember this that they didn't throw for third graders in a cab drive us to be just like they don't need answers and then we can get well. That was it. That was good. Yeah right. I mean Tony this is interesting an interesting confluence of two trends. One is the overloading of community health centers now that everybody is forced to buy health insurance that's a great point.

Yeah but but they are overstressed and overburdened I mean we're seeing that JP The the southern Jaypee health center you know I mean it's just again it's bursting at the seams. I know there's also talk Menino for a long time has at least wanted to have this concept of schools as sort of community centers 24/7 almost with resources for adults and kids and yet it turns into something else I mean obviously the community center programs kind of work like that. But I know he's talked about this health center thing before and I actually I think Arnie Duncan the U.S. Secretary of Education has talked about this kind of model as well so it's into this is really interesting I mean I don't know if this is. I mean is this view sort of a pilot program maybe. Well I mean because they've they've the health and health center has done this service to two other schools in Boston it's something that they've done before and they can do and the marrying of the space which we talked about earlier in the northeastern sort of way with the Y I think it's just it's the nature of the economic

times we're in and the way that we're viewing stuff whether you know in terms of it being in the same building I don't know if they're viewing it as a pilot so much we should note that we when we have talked about the Blackstone in the past yeah it's one of the turnarounds right. Right. So there's other stuff riding on the blacks. I wonder if having this clinic helps them in that mission as well. I mean healthier kids. Yeah you know there's no doubt having healthier kids is going to make a better school and having children who may not be able to get the access to health care that other kids can. It absolutely saves a step you know we've got the hurly school too in the South in which we never get to talk about yeah but we've got two really great schools that are working really hard so. OK back to you Peter in the Phoenix David Burstein had to weigh in on this. Warren Brown writes what people are saying Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown as if there's nobody else in the race this couple people have taken themselves out. Both Bob Massey and Sadie Warren because they just felt they

couldn't compete. But in fact his point is there are other people in the race not the least of which is. My full name is Alan Casey. Yeah well it's interesting David makes a very shrewd observation they said look if you look at Elizabeth Warren has gone from being a maverick to being the candidate of the political class. So was Tom Riley the former attorney general who was beaten by them known by the name of Deval Patrick. You know Scott Brown sort of came out of nowhere in do you know David raises the point. Watch out. You know I think David's fan I know David's fascinated with the Elizabeth Warren campaign but you know the the political establishment has been betting wrong. And so he just sort of raises that as a mischievous question you know OK because I think it's a long time it's 11 months to go.

It's a lot of like my overriding point I just can't believe we're even talking about I mean campaigns have gotten so long it's insane. I didn't return. I shouldn't say this out loud but when you know said he Warren and Matt C were calling me I'm like I can't talk to you right now. Yeah really if I were a lad you were oh yeah just you know I'm glad you're looking to raise money I'm glad you I think more people should run on a regular basis but I just you know what are we going to talk about you know so it's I agree with your point. It does set you up though it's more like being on the Survivor island as soon as you're the leader of the tribe it's the worst thing about what you did talk to study it. Yeah I mean he he actually didn't have much to go and listen I'll tell you this mail to John in The New Republic so they go online my de Paradis comes out with some of the blistering attack on the list above. Warren is an elitist I mean in saying how you know the press so that well I sort of have a you know I sort of like Scott Brown it was like oh now I bring this up only because you know now that she's the front runner everyone

can take shots at him. I mean a lot in that way yeah bullish that pretty people don't like to be made fun of because of their lack of intelligence and smart people don't like to be made fun of because of their lack of beauty we can move on to him. Again that e-mail address. Konno Oh I do OK. And I think that there was I think Professor Warren this kind of attractive give I'm of a certain age myself so I think I think we're getting to the ultimate point of where all the candidates will just pose naked and moods where politics is going right to a logical conclusion. All right let me let me change this right away and just say literally with seconds to go. The South and community came together to respond to the to the stabbing death of Justin Albert. And that seems very powerful. Yeah. You know Justin Albert was the grandson of a community activist in the south and again one of these we talked about it on the show just a stupid stupid murder for no apparent reason. And the South and people just you know coming together with others

in the neighborhood the adjacent neighborhoods with people of faith and community leaders just working together to make sure that that you know people are getting the services they need. The youth are getting what they need and just both a reaction and. You know hopefully a preventive step I mean these these murders are awful. You know I think we passed the 50 mark yeah the other day and the only way I think of this is just my personal opinion to to work on crime like this is to have neighbors involved to have community involved to know each other. And you know that's what this was about. I think it's that if if I can say finally that the thing that was interesting is that they came together often after this happens people lose interest but this was a very it seems determined crowd here to pay tribute So we'll see we'll keep an eye on it. Hey we've been thank you all for your comments we've been talking local news with Sue O'Connell co-publisher of bay windows in the south in news. John Roche editor of the Jamaica Plain Gazette and Peter Katz is executive editor of The Boston Phoenix thank you all again. Thank you. Thank you. Coming up

we're taking a turn from the serious to the sublimely ridiculous with a tour of this week's tabloids. We'll be back after this break stay tuned to eighty nine point seven. This program is made possible thanks to you. And opera Boston presenting barely OSes Beatrice and Benedick inspired by Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing starring Julie Billy and Sean Penn a car October 21st through 25th at the Cutler Majestic Theatre opera Boston dot org. And Elsa Dorfman

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Jim Lehrer a long time host of PBS News Hour and Bob Edwards is Bob Edwards weekend for an evening of conversation with WGBH is Emily Rooney at our studios in Brighton on November 30. Tickets are just $35. Members get your seats at a discount. Visit WGBH dot org slash box. Celtic music best enjoyed with friends. Join me on Saturdays at 3 with the Celtic soldier on 1.6 WGBH. It's rag time. A view of the week's pop culture happenings. It's an examination of the salacious the ridiculous and everything in between. But this being public radio we'll conduct our review with the help of some highbrow analysts our pointy head Poobah of pop culture Rachel Ruben and Thomas Connelly. Rachel Reuben is the chair of the department of American

studies at UMass Boston and Thomas Connelly is a professor of English at Suffolk University. Welcome back here to an organ. Well everything old is new again. Rosie O'Donnell back behind the mike with a new show on the OWN network that is the Oprah Winfrey Network. It's every day or every night really at 7:00 o'clock just a little bit different time frame for her. Not so the ratings not so great but the reviews have been. Across the spectrum I would say and Rosie took it upon herself as she was doing a monologue every night to comment on some of the critics and the reviews and in a funny way one of them that she made fun of is a guy from Time magazine whose name is a pun I was sick. So let's listen to a little of Rosie O'Donnell responding to her recent review by James Ponder was there were a few review someone not just as someone who I don't really care for

critics do you know but the one time I read it while it took the bat it was written by a man doesn't it was a fun to watch. I think that's the pronunciation. He says it really is just so funny I thought he put a link on his blog by the way and got a good laugh out of it. I think Leonard Cohen would appreciate the creator of the song Hallelujah. But anyway let's talk about Rosie returning to the airwaves. Do you think it'll be a success. Well she does have a following but I can't help but feel that this is an attempt to fill Oprah's niche. Well first it is time. And it's not going to happen. Rosie is too controversial is too temperamental and I mean that in a positive way. Rosie's a

real person in a way that Oprah is a real icon. I mean Rosie reacts to criticism in a way that you or I might. She also carries grudges. She mixes it up constantly. Also her show is more i reminded me of a variety variety show. I grew up with. And she's a completely different personality. She's more of an entertainer. And also I mean that is a compliment that Oprah is not an entertainer she does a lot of other things. But Oprah is not going to be you know singing a parody of Leonard Cohen. You know this is so. I think they've they've they've they've picked the wrong woman for the free up a slot I mean I to me Ellen Ellen Jenner still is the contender for that. Well Ellen is way far you know going away from anything that's happening on the OWN Network. Though I will note now Rachel turning to you that in the early days of this she beat Oprah.

In the ratings she did know that the ratings have definitely you know it's not surprising that Oprah's looking for ways her network is to to pull up the ratings. You know as far as Rosie goes the one thing that concerns me is you know reading some of the coverage of it they're saying well maybe she will be able to fit in and do this because and then listing things like she had a decent haircut for the first time ever and she was wearing a Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress and all of that. So I don't want to see her you know sanded down and sort of made made more you know to fit a sort of like a conformist slot that would make me very sad. I would rather it not work out than see that happen. Well so far I've only had a chance to watch it you know one and a half nights. Her first guest on her first night was Russell Brand which went on a long for me and I'm not particularly interested in Russell Brand I have to say I found it more interesting at the end of the conversation because of she was so interested. And one of the things that I kind of was it says is that she's a real fan and that people like to watch people who are real fans about

whom they like and whom they don't like so that's kind of interesting we'll be paying attention to that as it goes along to see how it works and to see if Oprah's life class catches up in terms of ratings. OK so now on to something that seems to me to be so odd and this is the controversy about Beyonce and whether or not she is faking her pregnancy. I just find this so odd. Before we have our discussion let me just show how this is just wound up both in the blogosphere and out here on broadcast. Here is TV personality Wendy Williams talking about Beyonce's questionable pregnancy beyond say it recently like last Sunday appeared on an Australian show. And when she sat down the baby bump squashed bent and crumpled. There it is. What is that. Is that is that a baby bump. I don't know. I was on bed rest the whole time. I'm not exactly sure. OK Tom this is so weird to me. It's very strange. I I like to blame whatever I can on

Angelina Jolie. And I think part of this is so let lately celebrity parents have taken on the role of even beyond super parents. You know it's beyond having it all. It's you must have a baby. And a woman in part of course must have the baby in a particular way and nothing must show that there's anything at all that this baby could possibly do that could inconvenience you and I want you know I I'm a celebrity I want to have this baby because I'm just so full of love and oozing with maternity and it's such a sham because we all know these people have legions of nannies and governesses and caregivers and assistants and so forth. And I also wonder if some of this is a reaction to Beyonce's projection of herself as she says she's a tad communion like. And I wonder if people just.

I'm going to let her. They're finding a way to get at her this way. And also the jealousy and jealousy and. As a couple of machinery there they attract controversy and I also wonder if it's about him too. But it's very distasteful for those who don't know he is married to Jay-Z who is a hip hop mogul. Rachel there's some people are suggesting she has a prosthetic stomach or she or a surrogate is carrying the child. And it you know it's what I was thinking when you know reading about this there's a term that that travels on the Internet called that that is unsolicited uterus update and it's the sort of humorous way to talk about you know the way. It's a kind of body surveillance right the way we look at celebrities and even this whole invention of the term baby bump which you know isn't that old. But as this way of sort of like looking and and feeling like like we have the right to know or the right to look you know in Thomas I agree with you that there is this now this that this new invention of the

celebrity parent. So I wouldn't blame the celebrities and certainly not the women if like this is something that's being foisted on them as a prerequisite for you know their job. It's because it's profitable and if you think about the number of you know celebrity maternity lines that are out where they're Playboys you know celebrity baby whatnot Playboy Geez that was like All right well you know what I'll think. About the connection between those two but for now I'll just say I meant People magazine is a regular column you know celebrity baby bump watch or you know that things about how who dressed her bump better and all of that kind of stuff yeah that is definitely part of a new industry. Well I think there I mean to me more posing. And again engineers I don't some make it on the cover of magazines. Some celebrities do merit the blame because they are showcasing themselves and making this such an issue that you know they can do this. But it's also part of the this bizarre phenomenon that I've been aware of all my life every now and then the mirror the quote unquote miracle of birth or

women get pregnant. Shocking. I don't understand why people still regard this as some sort of unusual event. It's happens throughout all life every species. This happens to us and there's nothing else when you're a celebrity that's a little bit different but you know for me from the Pollyanna Pollyanna standpoint like why be so mean to her. I think that to say that I mean it doesn't leave the woman alone. How do you know she's OK. Yeah I think she's got Mike Myers has made enough to return that as me how am I. All right well there's a trend happening it seems in new movies that are coming out and I wonder if they're inspired by some other stuff going on but there's a lot of attention now it seems on trans gender roles and the big one that's coming out is a new film starring Glenn Close playing a man. So here is a trailer from Albert Nobbs the film starring Glenn Close to you. Are.

You real name. Have to be anything because who you are. So far you've got all these issues. Tara you say to me. Just touched on democracy as an instrument. Series two had been thinking I might push a sort of shock woman good so at the counter you know thinking of taking a wife. There's a lucky lady. I was wondering if you would come out for a walk. You ask me to OK I was going to. So she plays a butler in one thousandth century Ireland and she poses the man so that she can work in a fancy hotel. They wouldn't hire women. Rachel what do you think about this. Well one of the thing that really cheers me about it and first of all it cheers me actually that people now you can sort of count on most people knowing the term transgender which hasn't been true for all that long but what cheers me about this is that when there are roles acting roles in actual movies like this it is a reminder to

all of us that everybody's gender is a huge part playing a role. You know we're all acting to some degree we've all learned the cues over the arc the course of our whole lives. The rules and the roles for how to appear you know female or or male and no matter how natural it feels by the time you reach a certain age. It's play acting. So we're Glenn Glenn Close is doing it it's literally a role in a way we recognize and perhaps it will make people start to realize that you know we're all doing it every time we fix our hair or you know decide I don't know who to swear in front of you know all of these things go into the play acting that is gender. Tom before you respond I want to put on the table also that there is another project film project being developed by Lee Daniels he of the precious movie fame to do a film about the community that was pro-trade in Paris is burning. The documentary again the focus is on transgender and he's teaming up. This is going to be a Showtime film. So here we are

once again that's a this is a transgender spotlight. And I'm wondering about if Chaz Bono's appearance on Dancing With The Stars beautiful or like more interesting. I just it's interesting that all this is coming together at one also the don't ask don't tell being a people are much more aware of gender and sexual identity issues. This Albert Nobbs film is very interesting. Glenn Close was in a stage version of this in 1982. It got mixed reviews except for her performance. I also. To me I'm surprised that this is getting sort of an art house release when it's the kind of stunt casting that is you know direct to the best acting Oscar. That still can make it to the you know I'm sure I'm sure if she was nominated but the buzz on the film is that her performance is wonderful but the film itself is so somber and relentlessly takes itself so seriously that the irony of the George Moore story the subtlety and the

richness of the identity questions and the sexuality questions that Moore was way ahead of his time and was censored for you know a lot of his work was censored is really left out of this story which reduces it to kind of this you know be yourself it's almost an American style Hollywood film is it's not. But the message is just be true to yourself but you know I don't give a spoiler and it doesn't quite work out that way so I think this could this could have been from what I've seen in the trailer or read about it. It's a vanity project for Glenn Close unfortunately. OK well she's a great actress. You know I think that that that HBO One is you know likely I think to be to to give us more more joy and you know maybe not only Julie shorten the show time. Yes yes how can I get by just by talking about I'm sorry. Yes I'm talking about the you know the whole drag ball culture which you know goes back to before the World War 2 era where there were these thousand person drag balls that thousands of straight people would show up just to watch and it was this like vibrant

highly visible you know in some ways much less isolated than we have now. You know so sort of like tapping into that we might get a little bit more of the you know that of the underground it goes back even into the late 19th century. Well let me squeeze this in because at the same time this is going on there is a film being planned with two straight actors playing the very gay Liberace and his much younger lover the actors are Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. Here's just a little bit of the original Liberace. And so we can hear or see what he's what they'll be play. You know ladies and gentlemen many of our classical masterpieces have been played so many times through the years that they've become almost as well-known as some of our popular songs. The Tchaikovsky concerto and the flatline. It's just interesting to me that Liberace is going to be played by straight

actor Michael Douglas and I think this is fascinating there was a time when people would turn over and Matt Damon to as if his lover this is a fascinating pairing and I'm very excited about this and Douglas has put his heart and soul into this he's very he's very he's boosting the film in a way that I don't even think we would have seen five years ago. Any place I mean the characters he's played that have been straight have been you know macho adventurers like in Romancing the Stone and its sequel or sort of you know angry suit wearing you know straight. So this is a new a new avenue for him. I mean lately he sort of personified the angry middle aged white guy as a sitting room. That's right. I should point out that Matt Damon in fun played a straight guy pretending to be gay on Seinfeld. Yeah. So he could he was he was he was a member of the Grace was a woman's right wing radio right. Playing they could be on the gay man's chorus and go if he had a gay role in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Is that what it was called. Yes and yes Elvis so this will be very. And I predict it's going to get a

lot of attention because Liberace just if you just played all Liberace tapes he's fascinating to watch in and of itself so I think that's the ruffles. If you're lying weeks on the ship it lives. Thanks a lot yeah. That wraps up another edition of our review of this week's pop culture news. Professor Rachel Reuben a professor Thomas Connelly Thank you. You can keep on top of the Calla Crossley Show at WGBH dot org slash delicately.