redsox

Gloomy Fans Report the First Red Sox Win of the Year

Posted April 10, 2012 by Matt Stempeck

(Or, A peak into the psyche of one of the most negative fan bases in the country)

This week’s Participatory News assignment is to report on breaking news via citizen media. Since I couldn’t be in Toronto for tonight’s Red Sox game, I decided to see if I could follow along via Twitter. This report was written entirely from the #redsox and #jays hashtags on Twitter, with occasional glances at theScore’s liveblog. I covered the event from the perspective of fans watching the game live and on TV, rather than relying on direct coverage like MLB.tv, TV, or radio. Almost, if not all, of the information here was attained by following social media. I censored most of the bad stuff, but the tweets below contain some sports fan humor. Continue reading →

Playing with the Boston Seal and Massachusetts Flag

Posted August 22, 2011 by Matt

As far as city seals go, Boston’s is pretty behind the times. Founded in 1630, the city’s forefathers didn’t design with vector graphics in mind. I went looking for cool Massachusetts graphic tees recently, and finding little to nothing, decided to play with our seal and state flag a bit. Here’s what I made on a red-eye from Buenos Aires to Washington, DC.

Boston's city seal, updated with a more recent landmark to the skyline: the Citgo sign — Boston's city seal, updated with a more recent landmark to the skyline: the neon Citgo sign

The Massachusetts flag with more Homer Simpson — The Massachusetts flag gets the Homer Simpson treatment

Boston is Titletown
I admit my in-flight flag-drawing skills are pretty weak here, but at least the skyline was updated to reflect the town’s titletown status.

The Massachusetts state flag features an American Indian. My brother likes the band Neon Indian, so I gave the flag the RGB channels treatment. The band’s website is just as seizure-inducing.

Revenge of the Massachusett
The Massachusett people for which the colony was named were wiped out by European plagues. Here, the Massachusett take revenge, Godzilla-style.

Oh yeah, I have a blog..

Posted October 17, 2007 by Matt

Three things I’ve been up to lately:

1. Watching every minute of the playoffs (and yet somehow missing Manny’s walk-off). In the meantime, I’ve come across a pretty solid directory of Red Sox- and Patriots-friendly bars in DC:

Red Sox bars (most pretty Pats-friendly too, especially Irish Times)

Pour House, 319 Pennsylvania Avenue SE Washington DC http://www.pourhouse-dc.com

Kelly’s Irish Times, 14 F St. NW, Washington, DC (Union Station Metro) (and Kelly is single on MySpace)

The Rhino Bar and Pumphouse, 3295 M St. NW (Georgetown hates the Metro) http://www.rhinobardc.com

Patriots bars:

Murphy’s Irish Pub, 713 King St Alexandria (King St. Metro) http://www.murphyspub.com/ (if you want your Brady jersey to smell like smoke)

2. Seeing Into the Wild and Tick..Tick…Boom!, a movie and a play, both of which make you want to go live on a lake somewhere.

(original soundtrack by Eddie Vedder…I like this video better than the trailer)

3. Hosting a monthly NetSquared DC Meetup in Adams Morgan. We bring together “social changemakers and technological forerunners” to meet and crowdsource a featured nonprofit’s online strategy. We affectionately call this “Pimp My Nonprofit”.

who knew there were Photoshop tutorials on copying the “Pimp My Ride” logo?

…and generally exploring DC to my heart’s content. Except this weekend I’ll be home in Boston with Meghan for the Head of the Charles Regatta, which I’ve somehow never been to, and, as long as Beckett continues carrying the Sox, some hometown ALCS action.

the glorified rowboats that lure countless undergrads to Boston

RIP Lucky Hat

Posted August 15, 2007 by Matt

Not to interrupt the ghosts haunting this blog, but in the vein of Tom’s tribute to his late coffeepot, I had to note the loss of my own valued posession, my lucky Red Sox hat. Sure, it was slightly pre-faded when I bought it, but years of literally blood, sweat, and tears (mostly sweat) not to mention sunlight had faded its dark blue to purpled tan.

Somehow it survived years of whipping against tables during losses and spinning above heads during wins, but could not make a short flight from Knoxville, TN to Washington, DC. My only hope is that whoever finds it at that Ruby Tuesday’s gives it a proper burial. I can’t bear the thought of the emblem that attempted to cover my large head through the dark years and the glory years laid to waste in a dumpster with the rotting remains of the salad bar.