Free Showing of The Princess Bride Tonight on the Worcester Common

It's a little overcast this morning, but forecasters are calling for a beautiful evening - clear skies with temperatures in the low 70's. Why not make plans to head down to the Worcester Common this evening for the last installment of Worcester Film Works Movies on the Common 2012 featuring local band Big Eyed Rabbit starting around 6 pm, followed by a free showing of The Princess Bride at dusk.

We'll see you on the Common.....

Tomorrow - Worcester Food Truck Festival at Elm Park

Worcester, MA (July 6, 2012) - The Worcester Food Truck Festival at Elm Park is almost here! Kicking off at 11:00 AM on Saturday, July 14th the festival will feature great food, lots of trucks and other fun activities for foodies of all ages. Attendees are invited to purchase "taste tickets" to be used like currency at the trucks. 10 taste tickets for $13 and 20 for $25 are available for advance purchase online or at the event. There is no additional admission fee.

Participating Trucks Include:

• Away Café
• Big Moe's M&M Ribs
• Bon Me
• Boston Super Dog
• Captain Marden's Cod Squad
• Daddy's Fried Dough
• FanCHEEZical
• Frozen Hoagies

• Gabi's Smoke Shack
• Go Fish!
• Grilled Cheese Nation
• Juniper Farms Ice Cream
• Kona Ice
• Lobsta Love
• Sweet Truck
• Trolley Dogs

...And more to come!

Participating trucks will be serving up small sample portions as well as full meals. Menus include lobster rolls and mac ‘n cheese, grilled cheese, hot dogs, barbeque ribs, chorizo skewers, decadent desserts and much more from New England's finest gourmet food trucks.

For the very latest news on the 2012 Food Truck Festival Season, the most up-to-date list of participating trucks and news on the availability of tickets, please read our blog at nefoodtrucks.tumblr.com, follow @foodtruckfestofne on twitter and “like” us on www.facebook.com/foodtruckfestivalsofne.

For public information please call (617) 782-7117 or visit www.foodtruckfestivalsofne.com.

Sophia A. Kuczarski Obituary

Sophia A. Kuczarski, 4

June 25, 2012

Sophia Anne Kuczarski, daughter of Rebecca A. (St. Germain) and Eric J. Kuczarski, passed away Monday, June 25, 2012, at UMass Memorial Medical Center, University Campus with her parents by her side. Besides her parents, she leaves her brother Ethan J. and sister Hannah M. Kuczarski. She also leaves her paternal grandparents Glenn and Elaine Kuczarski of Somers, CT and maternal grandfather Joseph St. Germain of Old Lyme, CT; paternal great-grandparents Ronald and Jane Kuczarski of Springfield; aunts and uncles Melissa and Tim Geelan of Guilford, CT, Jon-Paul and Katie St. Germain of Holden, Jodie and Jack Shannon of Trumbull, CT, and Bryan Kuczarski and Kim Logan of Springfield; cousins Dylan, Quinn, and Sawyer Geelan; Anna, Amelia, and Remy St. Germain; and Jack, Jane, and Jordan Shannon. She also leaves many neighborhood, school and church friends. She was predeceased by her maternal grandmother Judith St. Germain. Sophia was born in Worcester and attended Salem Covenant Nursery School and also attended Sunday School at Greendale People's Church. She took ballet and tap lessons at Greendale Dance Academy and swimming lessons at Clark University. Sophia touched so many lives in a positive way in her short time with us – she was indeed a spitfire; a funny, brave, vibrant, positive, energetic and loving little girl. Sophia, you are our sunshine! A memorial service will be held at 11:00 am on Friday, June 29, 2012 at Greendale People’s Community Church, 25 Francis Street. A reception in Fisher Hall at the church will follow. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to The Sophia Fund, c/o Bay State Savings Bank, attn: Joseph Ewing, Assistant Branch Manager, 378 Burncoat St., Worcester, MA 01606. Nordgren Memorial Chapel, 300 Lincoln Street is directing arrangements.

We Will Miss You Sophia

Sophia Anne Kuczarski, May 8, 2008 - June 25, 2012

Come Chill Out on the Common Tonight - Free Live Music and Screening of Raiders

Theatre Cafe. James Keyes. Worcester Film Works popcorn and soda. The Luxury. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Sweet Sister Ice Cream. Free.

James Keyes gets the party started at 5 pm tonight. Raiders starts at dusk.

See you on the Common......

Image Courtesy Louie Despres

Movies on the Common 2012 Series Poster

Worcester Film Works Announces Lineup for Movies on the Common 2012

Check out the line up at the Worcester Film Works blog.

In Boston, Even Bridge Abutments Have Windows and Doors

An interesting alternative to the same old, same old.

World Energy Solutions and Downtown Worcester

Let's make sure it stays this way!

I don't know much about this company, but 1) they are part of the growing green economy; 2) it seems that at least once a week I am reading about increased revenue and profits (see today's article in Worcester Business Journal), acquisitions, etc.; and 3) their current world headquarters are in the glass tower downtown.

We need to do all we reasonably can to secure their commitment to staying and growing in downtown Worcester going forward. Too often it seems we take for granted the businesses we have already and go overboard on the businesses that express some (any) interest in a Worcester location.

I hope to continue to hear and read good things about World Energy Solutions, a Worcester, MA headquartered company. I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before I hear and read good things about World Energy Solutions, a MetroEast/I-495 headquartered company.

A Simple First Step in Returning the Blackstone Canal to Harding St.

I would love to see the Blackstone Canal (or some reasonable facsimile thereof) return to the Canal District someday, but in the meantime I am always trying to think of relatively easy things we can do today to bring the long buried canal to life for visitors and residents.

According to this article in the Globe, there is no federal or state law that prohibits adding color to asphalt used in paving public streets. So while we are repaving the streets in and around the Canal District, why don't we add in a little blue (again, see article for contractor that says he can do this) to the asphalt we lay down on Harding St. between Union Station and Kelly Square?

Is that the Blackstone Canal I see in that Aerial Image?

Support WFW's Request to Serve Alcohol on the Common this Summer!

A reminder that tonight at 7 pm, the Worcester Parks and Recreation Commission will hear WFW's request to serve alcohol as part of Movies on the Common 2012.

If you, like us, are of legal drinking age and are in favor of setting aside a small portion of the Common as an area where attendees can choose to go (or not go for that matter) and enjoy a beer or wine during the bands and/or movies this summer, please make plans to attend this evening and speak in favor of our request.

Site Plan for Movies on the Common 2012 Showing Proposed Location and Size of Beer & Wine  Garden

Worcester State Hospital Clock Tower, Take II

Below is a re-post of a comment I made to my original post on the subject on 3/6/12:

The symbolic opportunities that come with incorporating ruins into the clock tower monument intrigue me. A symbol of our collective failure to save the entire structure (this in itself is an important chapter in the history of this building). A symbol of our society's ongoing struggle to treat those with mental illness, the ruins themselves reflecting its history and symbolizing, together with the new buildings behind, our ongoing battle to help all who struggle with mental illness to become productive members of society. I really like the idea of somehow incorporating the clock tower and the ruins into some sort of "reflecting garden" dedicated to those that have battled mental illness. Ideally we would incorporate the natural environment, itself a symbol of healing, hope and renewal, into this garden of ruins. The interplay of the built and natural environment would make for a unique and special place.

from MA HHS Blog

Worcester Film Works Gearing Up for Movies on the Common 2012

There is a planning meeting scheduled for tomorrow night, Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 5:30 pm at the Printers Building, 44 Portland St., 3rd. Flr. (offices of Davis Publications).

New volunteers are welcome! 

Visit www.WorcesterFilmWorks.org for more details.

Worcester State Hospital Clock Tower

Congratulations and thank you to Preservation Worcester and other local preservationists for their work in saving the Clock Tower at the former Worcester State Hospital.

from Preservation Worcester website

I was hoping that the surrounding Administrative Building could have been saved along with the Clock Tower, but I would agree that the Clock Tower is indeed the most important element - driving home from Boston on 290, I know I am home when I see the Clock Tower in the distance.

Although it seems to be growing on me, I am still having a hard time imagining a free standing clock tower without the surrounding building:

from Preservation Worcester website

It looks naked to me! I'm sure those who remember the entire complex think that it looks naked with just the Admin Building and Cock Tower.

I wonder if there is some way that we could retain some portions of the Admin Building as a ruin? Can we retain some pieces of the building's structure and avoid the temptation to 'clean-up' the lower part of the Tower too much? Ideally, a future visitor to the site would see the ruins and the 'messy' lower part of the Tower and be able to easily read that the Tower is just a piece of something that was much larger. Perhaps lower portions of some of the walls of the Admin Building could be retained so visitors could walk through the 'rooms' of the former building. And if I put on my engineering hat for a minute, retaining some of the walls abutting the tower may help structurally support the Tower itself, thus reducing the expense associated with reinforcing the Tower alone.

Food Truck Festival Coming to Worc. This Summer

The Worcester Food Truck Festival at Elm Park

Saturday, July 14, 2012 from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM (ET)

Worcester, MA

I hope they invite the hot dog truck that sets up shop there the other 364 days of the year!

Item to watch - Elsewhere on their website they mention a beer garden at the Worcester event. The Summer Nationals was just turned down in their request to sell alcohol at Green Hill Park, will we see another request to review the current "no alcohol in city parks except for the Common with special permission" rule?

Worcester Auditorium/Courthouse Reuse - Becker College's New Worcester Campus?

I'm completely making this up, but it is kind of fun to imagine what might be......



2012 - The Design Building at Becker College's Worcester Campus

Image from Becker College website.

2017 - The New Design Building at Becker College's Worcester Campus @ Lincoln Square

Cropped image of "Worcester Memorial Auditorium, Worcester Massachusetts, July 2009"

by John Phelan, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.