Sam Coren

Since the end of the year is mere days away, it’s the time of year where people look back on the past 12 months and try to figure out how they’ve shaped their lives. I’m happy to say that 2012 was actually an incredibly positive year for me. I accomplished a lot – started a band, made a major career change, rescued the most adorable mutt, made new friends, reconnected with old ones, got involved in local government….the list goes on.

Read more…

Update 3/20/13: I want to make sure that people don’t interpret this post as me thinking parking is more important than safety (it’s not).  I’d like to state that I endorse an alternate design for Beacon Street on the Oxford to Museum stretch for buffered bike lanes which removes a considerable amount of parking, but not nearly as much as what the city is proposing. I would love to see this done at Washington to City Line as well since the city’s current design calls for keeping the same layout that exists now, and that just happens to be wear the MassDOT crash cluster is.  I don’t believe that all cycle tracks are bad either, but the design for the ones on Beacon Street that the city of Somerville is forcing upon the neighborhood is. 

 When I moved to Somerville 3 years ago I never gave much thought into getting involved with local politics or city planning projects. Sure, I was involved a little bit with the Somerville Local First blog – the thriving local business culture here was a big draw for me – but I never imagined myself going to Ward meetings, frantically checking the city calendar, forming ad-hoc committees, and writing to my Alderman and the Transportation Director.

But then the Beacon Street Reconstruction project came along and uprooted me from my world of obliviousness. I suppose I could consider what’s going on with Beacon Street as my gateway drug to civic involvement. So what about this transportation planning project hit a nerve?

The fact that half the parking is proposed to be taken away in my neighborhood on the basis of bad data. Oh and not many people in my neighborhood even know about it….yet.

Read more…

The rumors are true. I’m playing guitar in an actual band now. It even has a name and a stupid subgenre! The name being Sleep Crimes; the genre being “surf doom.” It’s kind of remarkable that I haven’t been in a band since around high school, but Boston city life makes starting such projects a tough task. The story of the formation involves a bizarre ride on the #1 bus and working the old Sam Coren charm to sweet talk a bandless drummer into getting something going.

When you put four terrible music nerds together in the same room with a bunch of instruments the songs practically write themselves. We’re having lots of fun and plan to play some gigs around New England over the summer with the first one being an Allston DIY show in July. Here’s a taste of what we’ve been doing…working on getting some demo recordings together:

Read more…

Sometimes it’s hard listening to people attempt to remix what equates to some of the finest pop music ever crafted. ABBA grew to major international stardom during the late 70′s. Today, despite the awkward movies starring Pierce Brosnan and shameless Broadway cash-in, I can still find myself able to still enjoy this ultimate guilty pleasure Swedish group.

When I started doing the research for this post I had strong doubts about finding any ABBA remix remotely listenable, let alone ones worth sharing. Fortunately, Soundcloud hasn’t  let me down yet when it comes to helping me find the treasure among the trash for dance remixes.

Read more…