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So these Dig reporters break up a couple of street robberies
By adamg on Thu, 10/10/2013 - 2:38pm
And refuse to call 911 because, um, NSA or Donnie Wahlberg or something.
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Comments
Let me fix this for you
And refuse to call police, because if they reported it there would actually need to be proof that it happened, and we all know Faraone makes up shit and hates cops, and loves anything to promote himself. "Hey look, i can tweet that I was sort of a hero!!"
I'm pretty sure Faraone is
I'm pretty sure Faraone is the only person in this city who takes his work seriously.
Disagree
I take my work seriously.
Pictures?
Did they get pictures of the damage to their superhero capes in the ensuing melee?
The crudely drawn sketches of
The crudely drawn sketches of the Fantabulous Hipster Duo should give you all the detail you need.
Well, on the plus side...
I couldn't get past the 3rd or 4th paragraph, but I think it is telling (in a good way) that he had to explain to the readership (whoever those people might be) what the Combat Zone was.
Combat Zone
Same. Its also worth noting that the Combat Zone was not around Scolly Square, it was in Chinatown. Who are these dig fools?
Boring drivel - summary
Reminds me of a long story ending in a really lame punch line, or a horrible, boring movie with nothing to say.
So, let me save people from wasting a few minutes they will never get back:
The two guys tell a long story to show how boring the former combat zone has become since its peak, reduced to having a few lame, petty criminals failing to rip people off, like a fat, drunk guy trying to grab a tourist bag even though he would never be able to run away from them. The author hates a police state, but had trouble finding any cops around to report their brush with petty crime.
"Follow along as we recant our momentary brush with heroism."
Freudian slip ?
Downtown Crossing is dangerous
Downtown Crossing is not safe, it would be nice if the Transit Police would consider reopening a police booth on the platform especially late at night or when the teenage troublemakers overrun the station in the afternoon
Don't you worry...
As soon as the McMansion Mall opens in the Filene's hole, you will not want for cops down there...
Whatever.
It must be hard for them to be living in a police state.
ahh this reminds me of Chuck Turner
see lots of police ----> "oh shit it is a police state. we are repressed"
no cops around and crime happens ----> "where the fuck are the cops? who will protect us???"
no matter what it works in your favor....
Genuinely awful purple prose
Aside from whatever it is they were trying to convey, the actual writing in this piece is genuinely awful. Although I will give the writers kudos for referencing the unfairly maligned final episode of Seinfeld.
I read the whole thing.
My head hurts. Insane bullshit doesn't even begin to describe it.
"Follow along as we recant our momentary brush with heroism."
That word. I don't think it means what you think it means.
Poor grasp of English
I was wondering if Faraone had ever seen a dictionary.
"A hulking and sweat-soaked rube is walking with the awkward, staccato movement of a brainless drunk and aggressively tailing three oblivious blond tourists..."
Really? A country bumpkin? Is this a thing now, that malevolent unsophisticated rustics come to downtown Boston to prey on more upscale tourists?
yup
I thought the prose was putrid as well. Hit the misuse of "rube" and just couldn't drag myself through any more of it. I'm sort of surprised as, while you may or may not agree with Faraone or like him or his print persona, I thought he was a competent writer -- at least I could read it. This was just so horrid and lazy, I refused to have my time wasted by it. Maybe this McCarthy character was in charge of the writing and Faraone just did Hunter Thompson impersonations.
This is the stupidest God
This is the stupidest God damned thing I've ever read.
It's also a bunch of lies because there were no 7pm screenings going on for that film last Wednsday (source: buddy of mine who works at the Fenway theatre).
Shut your face, and get better friends.
At least google your claims before you accuse others of lying.
http://nustudentlife.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/f...
from http://nustudentlife.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/the-...
Oh, a college screening, my
Oh, a college screening, my bad. I asked about press screening.
Still was the stupidest God damned thing I ever read.
Inaccuracies
An additional inaccuracy from these hipster carpetbaggers is "we still have a thriving underclass lurking in the midst to provide us with a relatively tame and modern version of the Combat Zone, that notorious collection of porn shops and tug shows that once filled Boston’s seediest sections around Scollay Square." The Combat Zone was nowhere near Scollay Square. Scollay Square stood where Government center now stands. The Combat Zone was lower Washington, Tremont, Lagrange, etc, which is more where the alleged action of this overwritten tale took place. It seems the writers had a need to overlap or blur Boston's "adult" or "red light" areas.
Not to mention that saying the T would get you from Lowes to Landmark in 20 minutes for the start of a movie is optimistic to say the least.
Not true
Well, the original Combat Zone was Scollay Square back in the early 20th century. It's where the shore leave Sailors and Soliders would go to all the burlesque theatres. CZ moved to where it's classically known now sometime later after Scollay was razed.
But was Scollay Square ever *called* the "Combat Zone" ?
Not that I've heard. Feel free to prove me wrong.
I believe the fact that the
I believe the fact that the military populated the theatres there was the origin of the name since it was the red light district. When the new red light district formed by DTX it took the name with it.
This is mentioned in that old GBH doc "Boston: The Way It Was" I believe.
Combat Zone of the 1960s and 1970s
The writers, by defining the Combat Zone as a "collection of porn shops and tug shows that once filled Boston’s seediest sections around Scollay Square", are implying that the Combat Zone was adjacent to,abutting or part of Scollay Square, which is manifestly incorrect. They are also stating that the Combat Zone and Scollay Square existed at the same time, which is also incorrect. The 30-something writers are exhibiting the number one characteristic of hipsters. Nostalgia for something they never experienced in the first place. In this case it would be the Combat Zone of the 1960s and 1970s.
Um. No.
Scollay square was never known as the combat zone. The combat zone was the name given to that portion of lower Washington and China town that were zoned for adult entertainment in the 1970s following a court decision holding that municipalities could not simply outlaw adult book stores but could place reasonable limitations on their business. Chinatown was chosen for this space largely because the Asian community lacked a voice in city government and could be taken advantage of. The "combat" part of it was simply descriptive of what went on there every night owing to the rampant prostitution and drug dealing. All that remains of the combat zone, such as it is, are two adult book stores and the two strip clubs on Lagrange.
Thank you...you saved me a lot of typing
regarding the idiot's history of our fair city. This article is further proof that not only did Faraone not catch enough beatings at home when he was a kid, he surely hasn't had enough here in Boston.
Right, I know that part, but
Right, I know that part, but I could have sworn that Scollay's buslesque houses in the 1920s was referred to as Combat Zone as well.
Darnit, I wish I could remember where I read this because it was news to me.
Nope, sorry
The Combat Zone was never in Scollay Square. It was always the area of Washington from Kneeland to Avery, and some spillage on Essex and Harrison where Good Time Charlie's was. And of course our gay friends had the balcony at the old State theater, as I recall.
Combat Zone timeline
"The combat zone was the name given to that portion of lower Washington and China town that were zoned for adult entertainment in the 1970s "
The area of lower Washington and Chinatown and all it's attendant sex-and-drug activity and strip clubs and porn shops was already known as the "Combat Zone" as early as the early-mid 60s. It picked up the slack when Scollay Square was razed for "urban renewal". The Combat Zone was OFFICIALLY zoned as an "adult entertainment district" in the 70s. I recall around 1976 or so Mayor Kevin White held an official ribbon cutting ceremony declaring the Combat Zone "Boston's official adult entertainment district". Can you imagine such a thing happening today?
i have always heard
combat zone as a name had nothing to do with crime, so much as that the sailors and veterans were there. of course maybe their drunken partying is also part of the name
Gonzo journalism
I don't suppose that this was intended to be Boston Globe-style journalism. But it's good writing. Can't say I agree with all the editorializing but I did enjoy the evocation of a madcap afternoon in what was once part of the Combat Zone.
"Good writing"?
Faraone wouldn't know good writing if you beat him over the head with it.
It's a piece of shit vanity piece that would make Maxim blush.
You don't know good writing if you think you found any in that article.
terrible prose
I couldn't get past the first few paragraphs the writing was so bad. It is as though all of the effort went into trying to sound cool rather than crafting something that you would actually read.
His utter misrepresentation of Boston history also turned me off. I am old enough to remember the combat zone and my parents remember Scollay Sq from its heyday and he just mashes them together. I remember being a kid and riding in the car to the jewelers building with my parents which involved driving through the combat zone on the way and there being all kinds of shady characters (hookers, pimps, johns, thugs, etc.) in the middle of the day, I can't imagine what it was like when the sun went down.
My mom and her cousin used to
My mom and her cousin used to take us kids to Chinatown for dinner sometimes in the mid-70s (Yee Hong Guey). I can't for the life of me remember where we parked but getting there was certainly an eye-opening experience.
My father worked on Summer St
My father worked on Summer St for years and when mom would load us kids in the car to go pick up dad from work it was always exciting if she drove down Tremont, we'd try to get in as much of the view of the zone as we could. It was like a different planet, to us. Even reading the signs on the storefronts was pretty daring as a kid.
I bet it was
that open air parking lot on Harrison, before you hit Kneeland. When the Zone was in full swing that lot was like the Star Wars Cantina.
That writing was a lot of
That writing was a lot of things, but 'good' wasn't one of them.