Introducing POVO.com

I’ve been busy freelancing fulltime with a new wiki-based online urban community called POVO.com. For the Boston-based project, my turf includes Somerville and Downtown (including the Theatre and Financial Districts and Chinatown).

If Wikipedia and YELP had a tech-savvy love child it would be POVO.com.

Some of the technology we’re using for this project is extremely exciting. This week, for example, we’re launching this Japanese-inspired barcode decal system where folks can stroll in Somerville's Davis Square with their iPhones and get real-time reviews from POVO.com.

POVO officially launches in February. If you’re affiliated with a business in either Somerville or Downtown Boston, feel free to contact me at sjbaltrusis@yahoo.com.

I can sign you up for our “Minority Report”-style decal program.

Here's my POVO page. We’re still in the beta testing phase. This is your chance to be a part of POVO in its infancy.

GLBT students face adversity at Catholic colleges

Here's a recent piece I edited for EDGE with writer Scott Kearnan:

Though Catholic colleges are united under a common religion, one that is frequently inhospitable to the needs of the GLBT community, gay students at Boston College and Holy Cross voice personal experiences that are worlds apart.

Click here for the complete article.

Boston Herald's McPhee apologizes

Michele McPhee, the Boston Herald’s ace crime columnist and host of a daily two-hour radio talk show on WTKK, made an on-air comment on Tuesday, Nov. 13 that ruffled a few feathers within the GLBT community.

Here's my original story from EDGE Boston.

After stereotyping the sartorially inclined by saying the industry is dominated by gay men, she made an off-the-cuff retort that could be construed as equating pedophilia with being gay.

McPhee quips: "And who do homosexual men like? Little boys."

On Friday, Nov. 16, she apologized on her WTKK radio show. And on Saturday, the Boston Herald ran a follow up. Read it here.

Boston's Weekly Dose_11.16.07

New England Hit List :: Nov. 16
SOURCE: EDGE Boston

Welcome back, Carr
SOURCE: Boston Herald

We didn't know Michele McPhee was a fashionista
SOURCE: Bostonist

City: No sprinklers, no service
SOURCE: Boston Metro

Foot in mouth; author in casket
SOURCE: Weekly Dig

Boston Herald reporter’s inflammatory comment sparks debate

Move over Ann Coulter.

Michele McPhee, the Boston Herald’s ace crime columnist and host of a daily two-hour radio talk show on WTKK, made an on-air comment on Tuesday, Nov. 13 that’s raising a few red flags within the GLBT community.

The tell-it-like-it-is reporter, who returned to her Boston roots in 2004 after being the first female police-bureau chief at the New York Daily News, was chatting about the fashion industry’s penchant for thin models.

After stereotyping the sartorially inclined by saying the industry is dominated by gay men, she made an off-the-cuff retort that could be construed as equating pedophilia with being gay.

McPhee quips: "And who do homosexual men like? Little boys."

Click here to read the complete article.

Boston's Weekly Dose_11.09.07

Dance, Monkey: The Steamy Bohemians
SOURCE: Boston Phoenix

Priest stalked comedian in Italy
SOURCE: Boston Herald

Patrick to revive hate crimes task force
SOURCE: Bay Windows

Media Farm: Do something crazy
SOURCE: Weekly Dig

New England Hit List :: Nov. 9
SOURCE: EDGE Boston

Conan O'Brien stalked by Boston priest

A Catholic priest from Boston has been arrested in Manhattan on charges of stalking late-night NBC talk show host Conan O'Brien.

Police confirm that 46-year-old David Ajemian was arrested at 30 Rockefeller Plaza last week while trying to enter a filming session of NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

The priest allegedly wrote the talk show host threatening notes on parish letterhead, contacted his parents and showed up at his studio.

His creepy message: "I want a public confession before I ever consider giving you absolution -- or a spot on your couch," he wrote.

Court papers say Ajemian, who has been placed on leave and ordered by the Archidocese of Boston and asked to no longer minister publicly, referred to himself as "your stalker priest."

Click here for the article on WHDH.com.

Jessica Simpson's Boston man hunt

You know it's a slow news day when one of the top entertainment stories is that pop tart Jessica Simpson is on the prowl for Boston man meat.

In a recent interview, the former "Newlyweds" vixen says that she prefers men from the Hub.

“Boston has cute boys. I need a Boston man," she says. "A Boston man is closest to a Southern man.”

Read all about it on the Boston Herald's Web site here.

File this one under "inane, but oddly interesting, slow-news-day story."

Boston's Daily Dose_11.06.07

Prosecutor: 'Bachelor' a dangerous predator
SOURCE: Boston Herald

Old-look campuses
SOURCE: Boston Globe

Travel New England!
SOURCE: Boston Phoenix

Simpson asks charge to be dropped
SOURCE: Daily Free Press

Interview with Larry Cirignano
SOURCE: Catholic Online

Dig's News + Features editor says bye-bye

There's a whole lot of shakin' going on at the Weekly Dig. Here's the latest pulled from one of the pub's snarky media alerts.

Boston's Weekly Dig announced today that longtime Digster and current news and features editor Paul McMorrow will be leaving this week to pursue his career in writing full time. McMorrow has been a fixture at the Dig for over four years, and clearly leaves his mark on the present day pub.

In addressing his past indiscretions, he quipped, "I came to the Dig for the same reason anybody does -- I was out of school and completely unemployable. I had a pair of useless degrees and a job delivering kegs to people's houses. I answered an interns-wanted ad; the paper had just fired its editor, they were hiring anybody with a pulse, and I fit the criteria. They sat me down in front of some broken-down computer, between a 60-year-old alcoholic and a Russian girl who never talked but wrote these long, obscenely violent screeds about fascism and stuff. The new editor, Joe Keohane, sent me off to a Rock the Vote debate at Faneuil Hall; I got drunk on John Kerry's tab, heckled John Edwards, interviewed people who were drunker than I was and filed a story about it."

McMorrow continues, "After a year of licking envelopes, mopping out the office's rancid kegerator, covering City Hall and the State House in a highly dubious manner, and getting paid in beer and gift certificates for free burritos, Jeff and Joe figured I wasn't going to leave, so they gave me a job. Blame them for anything that's happened since then."

Jeff Lawrence, publisher of the Dig, wasn't exactly speechless upon hearing McMorrow would be leaving, "What the fuck?! Are you kidding me?? If we spend another dollar during my lifetime teaching some has-been hack how to write, only to lose them to some two-dollar-a-word freelance job to some questionably reputable rag, I'm going to stab someone in the foot."

Mediabistro photos of Boston's All-Media Party at Club Cafe

(Photo by Carlton SooHoo: EDGE's northeast regional editor and mediabistro.com host Sam Baltrusis, along with Edge Publications national & lifestyle editor Jason Salzenstein, vice president of sales Jamie Doris and publisher David Foucher).

Here are a few photos of the All-Media bash I helped coordinate with mediabistro.com and EDGE. Turn out was great.

Mediabistro posted the photos with the following intro:

Can you say jampacked? Boston media folk came out to Club Cafe for delicious drinks and conversation. With an exciting mix of publishing professionals, freelance writers, and partygoing extraordinaries, the guests filed in and filled up on tasty chatter and colorful concoctions from the bar. It was all in good fun, as the cocktail hour went on ... and on.

We're planning the next mediabistro bash for December.

David Day named new A+E editor at Weekly Dig

David Day, former columnist with the Boston Phoenix, has reportedly been named A+E editor of the Weekly Dig.

The move comes after Weekly Dig publisher, Jeff Lawrence, said bye-bye to editor Michael Brodeur and the alt-weekly's former managing editor.

Followers of the local dance/electronic scene must be elated that one of their own is overseeing the Dig's A+E coverage.

However, having been a former A+E editor at an alt-weekly, Loaded Gun is curious to see if the respected DJ has the chops to write/report on more than just dance music. Trust me, it's more daunting than it seems.

Click here to read Day's last column with the Phoenix.

"God Hates Fags" crew spooks Boston

Who needs Halloween when you have a pack of real-life, venom-spewing demons raising hell in New England this weekend?

Rev. Fred Phelps and his vitriolic, anti-gay group of supporters will be in Massachusetts on Saturday, Nov. 3 to protest the Acton-Boxborough Regional High School production of "The Laramie Project." And on Sunday, the Kansas-based crew plans to picket outside of the Trinity Church Boston in Copley Square.

The protests punctuate an already topsy-turvy week for Phelps.

Click here for the complete article in EDGE.