It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you easy Boston's news radio.
Thanks so much. Oh my name is Dan Ray and the host of Side Rob Brooks. He's back in the control room. You're taking all your phone calls beginning White Apple out of Talk News. But you can sit back relaxed. You have four really interesting topics here. We're going to talk about Boston's best according to the Boston Globes magazine. We're going to talk about older adults missing doctors appointments, maybe because of weather. Then we're going to talk about
the Olympics a little bit. If you haven't gotten enough of the Olympics so far, we'll give you a little bit more. And also going to talk about the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, which has been around now for about twenty five years and big piece in the Boston Globe. We'll talk to the Boston Globes Art one of the Boston Globes arts writer arts writer Malcolm Gay. But first we're going to talk to an editor at the Boston Globe,
Francis Stores. Francis, welcome to Nightside. How are you think?
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
So this was in last week. Was it in last week's Boston magazine?
And I saw this too, so two weeks ago in the in the Globe magazine inside of the Boston Globe. It's still very current today. Let me tell you, people are still checking this out.
Okay, So let let's talk about the procedure here, how the best were decided. Then we talk about what what are the best of the best? You you basically used some of the Globe folks who who who were your experts?
It's a good absolutely absolutely right. That's why we figured this is such a great city at Greater Boston's an amazing place. There's so much to choose from, great food, great things to do. And we thought, if we have trouble finding the best places, what our readers must have
a challenge too. Can we help them? Can we find tap our arts critics, our dining critics, our food writers, are you know, our trusted correspondent, business writers, just all these people whose job it is to know the best of the best, the newest of the new, amazing thing, so that we can offer readers great recommendations.
So we have you have sixteen categories correct even more?
Can you believe it? In twenty one we ended up with twenty one categories split down the middle.
Some of the categories here wait yeah, yeah, so split between things to do and and places to eat, so a.
Little bit something for everybody.
Okay, all right, so let's let's start it off here. Oh you said, you know what, I maybe I missed this, Okay, so, uh, maybe this is twenty one I'm looking at I did the multiplications are wrong? Here you got you've got four columns of five. It is twenty one. No, so okay.
Lobster rolls, breweries and tap rooms, things to do, coffee shops, burgers, rooftop bars, ice cream, pizza, things to do with kids, geap eats, seafood, breakfast, bookstores, music clubs, italian restaurants and nightlife, movie theaters, sushi, bowllying, games, boutique hotels, comedy clubs.
Right, yeah, two hundred, two hundred winners. Each of those lists has five to twenty winners. That's how much we have here. That's so much great stuff to offer in our local businesses. And so more than two hundred winners in this list, which is which is incredible.
Okay, So let's do pizza. I'm sure that there's a lot of pizza places in Boston. Who are the top ones as far as your experts?
Yeah? Absolutely, I love pizza too, and so let me see. So we have some I think people might guess, and then some surprises along the way to so certainly Regina's, Certainly it's in Tarpio's and East Boston, Regina's in the North End. Those make that list. They've been doing it perfectly for more than one hundred years. In some cases, I'll say one of my favorite places is Galeria m Berto in the North End as well. Have you ever been there?
Not that I recall, but it looks you got a great picture there of a big old pizza.
Isn't it wild? So that place is amazing. If the cash only you go in. They make a certain number of pizzas on trays every day and they wait in line, and they when they sell out, they close. That's it, you know, So you gotta you gotta plan ahead a little bit. But it is so worth it, so worth the weight, so worth the the trip is just absolutely amazing.
And then you have you have Obviously we kind of hit all twenty one here as much as I would love to, but let's hit seafood because when I seafood, I eat food.
I heard you're a big Burger fan too.
I heard I have a big burger. I have no idea where that's inside information. I don't know how you got that, for instance, but I have a big Burger fan.
Your reputation perceived you about your love of burger. So yeah, seafood, absolutely, we have so nine we have nine winners in the seafood category all across the city. That's one of the things that we feel is special about this, which is all of these places earned this title, and we spent time there, We studied that we you know, we talked to people, we did our reporting, you know, so you
can trust it. But sometimes the face you know you're you're the best place is the place that's like near where you are that night, right, So we wanted to give people a wide range. So also the daily catch is extraordinary. If you've ever been a little tiny plates, they have bigger locations elsewhere. All these local businesses Legal stood Foods. Of course, even though it's been sold to a local company from the from the founders, continues to
be incredible consistent. Bring family there, bring friends there, out of town guests there, you have to. You know, sometimes we take for granted some of the things I think that are that we always know.
Let me go to burgers. Since you nailed me with burgers here, okay, the best burger that I ever consistently had, well, of course, mister Bartley's Burger over in Harvard Square, Yes, is clearly, clearly that's on the top shelf. But do you remember the shame fud Rockers. I loved Burgers.
I do too, I do too.
I know, I have no idea how they went out of business. They had great fries, great salad, help your own self to condiments. It just went the wrong way. Now. The one area that I have to agree with you one when you talk about best of the best bookstores. We all love bookstores, and Brado Bookshopping is still number one. I noticed that one right away.
Isn't that plays incredible? I mean, it's just it's just a treasure trove in there, the Bridle Bookshop and then of course the booksmith. I mean, we're just we're a smart city, right and we are just people love books and we are so lucky here Porter Square Books over in Cambridge.
It's just well, Ken Gloss before him, his dad George Gloss. But Ken Gloss does such a great job with the Bridle Bookshop. And I love the story about Paul Giamatti the article. Yeah, I had not heard that one. I knew that Brad always had a cameo in the film to Holdovers, but I didn't realize that Giamatti went back there and did some po.
After the cameras are off. He loved it so much he came back and did some shopping on his own. That tells you that the good that the good place, you know.
And he's not the only Hollywood star who has been in there. According to my friend Ken Gloss, he says, amazing the people athletes and and actors in musicians who come by. I enjoyed this conversation. Francis, And I know that the Globe's book list was It was in you know, written form. The Globe's Best List was in written form a couple of Sundays ago. How can people get to the list. There must be a way that people can get to the list without having to go back to the paperboy and ask for.
That's absolutely right.
You have Sunday's Globe from two weeks ago.
That's right.
They should get in touch with me, but no they should. It's really easy get to you go to Globe dot com slash that, glow dot com slash best and that all our lists are there. If you're not a subscriber, I think we have a d a dollar for six months so you can see this list and you can see all the amazing things that the Globe. That the Globe does, but help people check it out. If I'm looking for something to do themselves or revisit an old favorite or find something new.
Globe subscribe. But because I'm very happy that Boston is a two newspaper town and we have to keep that we are compet the Globe doesn't hurt little say hi to all my friends, both of them at the Boston Globe.
Okay, thank you, I will do they say hi as well.
All right, thanks Francis. Love to have you back. You got you've got a great way about you. Thank you so much.
Oh, I appreciate it. Thanks for the thanks for this about more.
Than welcome you welcome. That was fun. I like that. Okay, We're going to get maybe a little bit more serious when we when we get back, and we're going to talk about older adults missing doctor's appointments. If you're an older adult or if your parent is an old adult, you want to listen to this. We will talk about this on the night side. My name is Dan Ray. We are coming right back after this break on Boston's news radio. We're here at ten thirty in your AM dial.
I'm here Monday through Friday nights most weeks. Most weeks eight to midnight. That's the show. We will entertain and inform you all the way to midnight tonight as always.
Now back to Dan ray line from the Window World Night Night Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Well, this is interesting. Older adults are missing to their doctor's appointments in some cases due to high temperatures. With us, as doctor Lakeland Eichenberger, she's a PhD. She's a gerontologist and caregiving advocate at home instead. This was a study that went on for a number of years with the American Journal of Preventative Preventive Medicine. This study went from what twenty ten to twenty twenty one or some I mean,
it was like a decade long study. Give us just a sense this, doctor Eigenburger.
Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Dan, this while I wasn't part of this research study. It really is intriguing to me as a gerontologist because what they found was over ninety degree heat, for every degree increase in temperature, there was an increase in the odds that an older adult might miss a doctor's appointment, a primary care appointment.
And then they looked also at cold weather. I know we're in the heat of summer and probably don't want to talk about cold weather, but they found a similar effect every degree below thirty nine degrees fahrenheit, So anything above ninety degrees or anything below thirty nine degrees, those temperatures were going to impact whether or not an older adult was going to get out for that primary care appointment.
And we just know how vital and important primary care appointments are for older adults, just to help kind of stay on top of all the healthcare and health conditions that they're managing.
With you, with you on all of this. And when I read this, which I did today, it was it was basically there were over one million appointments studied, over ninety thousand patients age eighteen and over in this and it was in Philadelphia, I guess, at outpatient clinics in Philadelphia from two thousand and nine to twenty and nineteen.
That was off by the years a little bit. I got to be honest with you, it doesn't surprise me that colder temperatures or hotter temperatures would have a greater impact on older people and they might miss and reschedule an appointment. Did they really have to do a study to find this out? I guess is what I'm asking, And I don't want to be cynical, but sometimes I am.
Well, and you're right. It didn't surprise me either, because you know, as you get older, you are managing more chronic conditions, and it can be harder to get out and about two appointments, you know, especially if you have mobility issues, if you have complex medical needs, or if you experiencing any sort of cognitive impairment. It just sometimes
takes extra efforts. So when it's really really warm out or really cold, it's no surprise that older adults aren't getting out and about like they would in more of those mild temperatures. But I think it's really important if you're caring for someone, or if you yourself have an underlying health condition, or if you're taking certain medications that
really impact your body's ability to regulate temperature. Then it is important to think of ways that you can make yourself, you know, safe when you go out into those extreme weather conditions. Perhaps it's scheduling your appointment, you know, earlier in the morning, before the heat of the day, or if it's in the winter, you know, in the afternoon, so that you don't slip and fall on the early
morning I see sidewalks. So just putting a little more thought maybe into when you're scheduling the appointment, making sure that you're dressed appropriately, and maybe even having some extra support.
Maybe it's a family member that comes over to help you get ready and you know, cool down the car or heat up the car depending on the season, and make sure that you get there safe and that way you still get to that appointment and not miss out on the critical care, but you do so in a way that is safe.
Did they do any sort of a follow up on that in terms of what percentage of the missed appointments were made up within a certain period.
Of time, You know, I didn't see that that was mentioned in the study, But I think what is interesting if you think about if you miss a primary care appointment and you have some sort of underlying medical condition that might trigger a little bit down the road the need to go to an emergency room or to an urgent care to get treatment. And so again those are things that we really want to avoid because those can
be very costly events. And so that's why I think that they did this study is really to show the importance of making being conscious about those medical appointments and making sure that you get there and keep on top of any of the health conditions that you're managing as you as you age.
The other thought that I haven't and again I'm not being cynically, I'm just being I'm trying to be conscientious and thorough. I'm wondering if as people do get older that one advantage they have is wisdom, they pick up some wisdom along the way, and certainly difent times, you know, they might say, hey, you know, with with temperature extremes come oftentimes you know, bad weather, and particularly in the wintertime,
and I'm just wondering. I guess they didn't factor that in from what I could read in the in this analysis, but it would just seem to me that there would be you know, some people who might say, Hey, you know, it's going to snow later, it's going to sleep later today, And I just I'm surprised that, frankly, that older patients made as many appointments as they did on time. To be honestly, and I'm again I'm not being I'm not
being overly cynical here. You know you you were, you were in an amazing field gerontology, because obviously, as all of us age, our problems do not diminish. They by necessity multiply and sometimes some feed upon, you know, some feed upon others. Do you feel that the fact that that the American public is aging more now I don't get a chance to talk to someone in your area.
Do you think that the fact that people are living longer, that that this is also impacting what what you're concerned about, and that is, you know, getting people to doctor's appointments one time, which is very important. Is just our increase in age of a factor here?
Well, I think you know you're right, we are living longer, and as we age, we do have more medical needs. Actually, the highest healthcare spending happens in the later part of our lives, and so we are seeing more use of our medical system. And I was actually reading an interesting article today about this shortage of geriatric doctors, of medical
professionals with geriatric training and background. You know, in medical school you have to do around in pediatrics and even in labor and delivery, but the time spent studying the older population is actually in a lot of medical schools, you know. In my opinion, and again I'm a little biased as a gerontologist, but it's really not sufficient to
meet this growing need. But I do think that as a healthcare system, we are seeing some innovation happening things telemedicine, and especially during the pandemic, we saw that there is benefits to using that type of technology to make sure that you know, even if they can't get to the doctor, you know, telemedicine could be the next best option. And for some medical treatment or diagnosis or appointments, telemedicine can work great. And then there's some of course that you
do need to be in person for. So I think that we definitely need more people working in this field. And there's the number of older adults is growing and and so yes, in my industry, it's very interesting. I love what I get to do, and uh, in my organization. We provide home care and we help people, you know, stay at home as long as possible, and we also can take them to the use doctor's appointments and make sure that they're getting their medical care.
You know, when you talk about telemedicine, that's something that a lot of older people are less comfortable with, ironically than younger people. I mean, the fact of the matter is that I would assume be of a person over the age of eighty is going to benefit much more from telemedicine than someone under the age of thirty, ironically, because they're just not familiar with with how to work the computer. Let's see if someone there has helped her
or if they're the exception to the rule. The other thing too, which I think is very important, least here in the Boston area. Many of my friends who are, as I say, on the wrong side of fifty complain to me that when the doctor retires, how difficult it is to find a primary physician in the city of Boston. And if you have in trouble finding PCPs in the city of Boston, what do you think it's like in Butte, Montana or Biloxi, Mississippi. Mean, yeah, so yes, yeah, yeah,
you and I could do an hour on this maybe. Well, okay, tell me again. How can folks get in touch with your company if they're looking for some caregiving assistance?
Absolutely, you can visit our website home instead dot com and you can do a zip code search for wherever care is needed and we'll get you connected to the local office.
All right, great, thank you very much. I really enjoyed the conversation, doctor Eichenberger. I don't know how many your talk show hosts who you might talk to, actually try to read these reports and figure out what the hell they're all about ahead of time. But I'm a little quirky that way. Sorry.
Oh, thanks for having me. It's been a pleasure.
D write back at you. Thanks so much. When we come back right after the news at the bottom of the are we're going to talk about the Olympic Games. I'm sure you're aware of them. They're going on at one of the major capitals in Europe. I think it's Paris, if I'm not mistaken. But we're going to talk to someone about some of the fun facts and what people are looking for on Google and elsewhere. We'll be back on Nightside right after this.
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Now, some of you who don't listen to Nightside every night of the week for four or full hours might not be aware, might be aware of the Olympics that are going on. So we're going to talk with Mollie mcute. She's a Google trend expert. Mollie, how do you become a Google trend expert? Do you have to go to school for that?
Or no?
How are you tonight?
Oh my gosh, I'm good. How are you?
You didn't expect that question first out of the box. Go ahead, I'm only having fun with you. Go ahead.
I guess you just spend enough time at Google looking over these trends in search and they promote you up to expert. But no, I do a lot of writing with the trends team, and so I'm looking at all these different staffs all day and it's really fun. There's a lot of interesting things that come in. And yeah, right now we have been focusing on the Olympics.
So when I have trouble with my Google account, I'm going to be able to call you. Because by the end of this this segment, I hope we're going to be you know, b BFFs. Okay, Oh we kidding, of course, Oh, kitty, tell me what are you learning? Not what you are learning, but what we are learning about our country's appetite for information trivia or statistics about all of these summer Olympic sports.
Yeah, there's been some really interesting data that's coming in. And some of the stuff that I thought was kind of fun was just sort of related to like the sand fare around the beginning of the Olympics. People were super interested in the opening performances, so lean beyond Olympic performance that searched specifically increased almost five thousand percent. It was like four seven hundred and fifty percent, and people were interested in what song she was singing. And we
also saw people searching for things around Lady Gaga. They wanted to know if she was French, which I thought was really funny. And then we also saw some people looking at I'm not sure if you saw the opening ceremonies, but there was so very.
Talk about the.
Okay, okay, well, people were searching for heavy metal after the opening performances as well, which I suppose you know something about after having watched that.
Well, the thing that struck me interest that it was interesting. I was trying to I worked Monday through Friday, eight to midnight. I do this talk show, and so of course I'm not watching the Olympics while I'm doing my talk show. I'm focusing on doing my.
Talk Shure and anywhere.
Make a long story short, I never saw this opening act. I read it. I read it about age, I read about the response and all of that, but it looked to me I couldn't find it yesterday. I'm pretty good. I'm not as good as you are on comparison, sure, but I'm pretty good for a guy who's in the wrong age of fifty, I generally can find what I wanted. Yeah, Sure, it looked to me like NBC locked it up and put it into Oh my.
Gosh, Am I right or wrong on that?
I honestly have absolutely no idea. I was watching it live, so I definitely got to, you know. But it was just very funny and kind of interesting to see people just like so wrapped up in this opening performance. But what I really liked is all of the interests in Celen Dion, because I just like remember being a kid and hearing Celindion in my house all the time. So well, I'm with you that I personally have.
Like my wife and I went to a Celindion concert here outside of Boston in what was called Great Woods. It's sort of like it's kind of like an open air it's a beautiful summer. It was a summer. Theaters is now under a different name. And I remember I got tickets to go see Celindian. I was working in television at the time. Free tickets. I had no idea who sold it, right, this is nine.
Oh my god.
She was unbelievable. And I am not a music expert. I'm not an expert in much. But I said to.
My wife career, you were right, you nailed it.
She was just unbelievable, unbelievable. And of course what she's been going through with this frozen body syndrome or whatever the hell right dealing with you know, one in a million, it's just it's it's just amazing. I couldn't find her her song. Also, I think that NBC, when I say locked it up, I think that they made it difficult for people to find because obviously they o people they want to drive pep as the performance is live and not listen to night side.
Okay, Well, I know, so I obviously have been watching a lot of it on Google TV and YouTube. Personally, that's probably very obvious. But what I have been doing is on YouTube, we have the multiview feature, so you can like kind of watch two things at once. That's what I've been kind of like.
One thing at once.
Go ahead, totally. Well, I was going to say a couple other things from over the weekend that people really enjoyed, and we're searching for a lot. This one I thought was also very fun.
Is uh.
I don't know if you're aware, but break dancing is a new sport at the Olympics this year, the first time ever, and so I'm.
Aware of that. I think that's kind of a joke. I think Jim Thorpe is rolling over in his grave. But go ahead.
Oh my gosh, Well we saw break dancing Olympics twenty twenty fourteen USA increased more than four thousand percent over the weekend, so it appears to be incredibly popular. That is for sure. As far as other kind of like over the weekend searches that we saw a lot of gymnastics, the vault schedule in particular, that one increased and then swimming and soccer were both super popular.
Okay, so let me ask this. Were there any people searching for the Olympic pickleball competitions?
You know what? I'm certain there were because it seems possible, but it didn't. It didn't hit our trends on to it didn get that stata there.
I'm kind of a traditionalist on the Olympic sports, and I was very upset when they eliminated baseball a few years ago. But I guess that bringing it back for Tokyo. We talked about that last night. No, but I just I mean some of the you know, some of some of the I don't think breakdancing is a sport. I'm not a breakdancer, nor do I follow you know.
I'll confess I haven't watched any of the breakdancing, and I haven't. I haven't tuned into that yet. I am definitely more of a like gymnastics fan. I just feel like I it is so burned into my memory, the nineteen ninety six gymnastics, and I like will never forget it. So that's what I.
Was. That Mary lou Written's.
Year, I both know I think that was so that was his Lanta and I want to say, I really hope if I get fact checked on this, I completely deserve it. But I thought that was the year that the Carrie drug. I don't know if that's critter name, but she hurt herself and then came back and won on the vault anyway, and I just like, I think
I was like nine years old or something. But this year, I mean, it will probably not be surprising that Simone Biles is just absolutely crushing it in friends like she she is the greatest of all time.
Simone has gone gone through a lot with the anxiety. Molly, your phone's busting up on me just a little bit. But I thank you for spending some time with us tonight because I caught I've caught myself up on a lot of the Olympic stuff that I've already missed, So you know, I can't wait. I'll tell you my favorite sport is in the Winter Olympics curling. I've become a big fan of curl. Yeah, so I mean, that's that's fun to mind that who I used to laugh at curling,
But I've become a big fan of curling. The precision and I don't think that breakdancing is ever going to drag me away from being a curling fan.
Well, I didn't think i'd love curling, so like, maybe check back in a few years and you'll be a huge breakdancing fan.
You never know, you never know, don't bet on it. Thanks Molly Love Love the interview. You're a lot of fun in good sport. Thanks Molly thoughts. All right, coming up on the other side, going to get a little serious talk with Malcolm Gay. He is a Boston Globe arts writer and talking about the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art out in North Adams. And there's a lot of pluses and there's some I guess, I don't know if you want to call them minuses, but maybe below expectations.
We'll talk about this with Malcolm Gay right after the break here on Nightside.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Well, I have not yet ventured out to North Adams to visit the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, but Malcolm Gay from the Boston Globe has and Malcolm is an arts writer. Malcolm, how big an art staff is there at the Globe. If you are the arts writer, I want to be able to say the arts writer as opposed to be.
And I will say we got a lot of several critics. Yeah yeah, a lot.
Of art stuff that's got to be covered. I get that. I get that. So so what attracted I guess the Matthews Museum of Contemporary are a huge building in North Adams just turned. I mean the Red Sox could play some exhibition games out there. It looks to me like the size of it, and it looks to me this is the twenty fifth birthday. It was opened up in nineteen ninety nine. And you raised some really interesting points
in the article. I read the article. There's some pluses and there's some minuses, but they kind of get they kind of took a pretty big hit when COVID came, and that's no fault of theirs, but they were really heavy on ticket sales, right well, how else could have they? What other revenue screams streams did they fail to develop?
Right?
Well?
So, mas Miolk is interesting because it has something like six, well more than sixty million dollars in state funds to get the ground and that all came from Joe Thompson, who was the founding director and this guy bootstrapped the museum into existence. I mean, it's it's really a marvel that this is as large as it is and as successful as it is, and they basically built it from out of nothing in truth, and so that's I mean,
it's a huge it's a huge achievement for starters. What they weren't able to do or have been are continued to work to be able to do, are develop other revenue streams. So most nonprofits like museums have three main areas of revenue. There's the endowment. There's earned revenue, which is ticket sales and events and things like that, and then there's philanthropic giving. And they were pretty strong on film tropic giving, particularly from the board, and they were
very strong on earned revenue. But their endowment is extremely small by most standards. I mean, it's it's a fraction of saying what the BSO has or the nearby Clark Museum has. Liam's call it. It's not even it couldn't even be the tip on ad of meal at Lilliam's College.
Now correct me if I'm wrong. But late nineties, Jane Swift became was the lieutenant governor, became the acting governor, before mid Romney swept into town in two thousand and four after the Utah Olympics. So was this a project that the Jane Swift had an interest in because I assume because of the fact that we don't often have lieutenant governors and acting governors from North Adams, she must have had her fingerprints on this.
Well, the first, the first governor to really take an interest in, the first person to actually write it into the budget with Decacus actual way back. Yeah, so he was extremely interested in it. It stayed in limbo. People were, you know, people various. They were trying to figure out the right place for it. They were trying to write up other funding, they needed to get other private funding to match government dollars. They had all of these various things.
Various administrations were supportive. Most administrations were supportive until Bill Weld came and Bill Weld Joe Thompson told a very funny story about Bill Well telling him not to cash that check and that he was he was there in the middle of a recession and they he was dead
set on reducing the massmocu's budget. He came out there, Joe Thompson drought him out there and David Byrne was working on something of the Talking Heads, and who knew, but Bill Well was a huge fan of Talking It saw this and kind of saw the vision of what mass Local could be and move the thing out. It's it's kind of an I mean, and the whole the whole history of the place. I mean, one reason why I mentioned in the in the piece how little people
are paid there or were paid there. And one thing about that place is it just brings a tremendous amount of loyalty among the staff. People understand the vision, people get behind the vision, and people have a real personal relationship to this, to this museum, which is unlike any other museum in the state.
I'd say, what's interesting something from the Grateful Dead? Maybe maybe Well would have given him more money, right, Yeah, only joking. Okay, So then, so it didn't hurt that James Swift was here. I don't want to, you know, suggest that her absence has hurt. What do they need to do now? Tell us what is the what is their future? And how can how can they find their future?
Yeah? Well, I think so, I mean, one reason, you know, it's twenty five year anniversary of the museum and One of the things that's extremely interesting about it is that this is in twenty twenty one, Christy Edmunds came on and she became the second director of math Mocha other than Joe, than Joe Thompson. And yeah, so that's it really has been kind of Thompson's. His fingerprints are all over it. And so there's this you know, changing of the guard, but there's also coming out of the pandemic
realizing just how fragile the economics the place are. And what Edmunds is really interested in doing is finally delivering on the economic promise that is mass Mocha. And it was brought into I think, I say, and the piece. They had this twofold promise it would bring world class art to the Berkshires and would also lift up the city of North Adams. And and it's undeniably delivered on the art. I mean, it's got James drell Or Anderson and Louis Boutois, I mean, has real heavy hitters in
the you know, modern contemporary art scene. What has been less successful at is you know, lifting up North Adams the way that I think the founders had hoped it would.
And so Christy wants to really double down on that, and UH that has to do with you know, all sorts of projects, including infrastructure projects that would uh or you know, they're they're working on plans that that would address say the route to overpast the Veterrick's Memorial Bridge, the floodshoots that divert the Houstic River around the around
the museum. But really I think what they're trying to do is integrate the museum into this city of North Adams in a more holistic way that you know that it can actually downtown in Main Street can actually benefit from the one hundred and sixty two hundred thousand people that come through town each here because right now they.
Don't Malcolm here. Here's the thought, and that is that you know, for people in eastern Massachusetts to get out there, you got to kind of head north by northwest. The Baseball Hall of Fame has been very successful in Cooperstown, which is even further away than than Mocha the mess Music Museum of Contemporary Art. Maybe they need to partnership with some of these other museums and come up with programs where you get reduced admission if you hit two or three of the museums make a kind of a
weekend road trip out of it. Just a thought, just a thought.
Okay, it's a great idea. I mean there's a ton of there's a ton of cultural offerings out there. I mean there's the Clark that's right there, there's the Leantown Theater, fest Wood. There's a lot to do out there.
All great, all great ideas. Malcolm. This first time you do on the show. I really enjoyed the conversation. We hope to have you back so you can keep us a little bit more up to date on the art scene. And I mean that honestly. Thank you very much.
It's been a pleasure. Thank you.
We'll have you back. Thanks. When we get back, we are going to go to our regular conversation. We're going to be talking with Bob anton Ellis. He is a Republican who is running for the Republican nomination to run against Elizabeth Warrent. We'll talk with him. We've talked with John Deeton and Ian Kin previously, the other two Republicans on the ballot, and we'll talk to Bob anton Ellis during the nine o'clock hours. Stay with us, everybody,