My Copy Showed up Today and I Still Can’t Believe it's Real

I thought maybe it was just a cruel internet prank that started circulating on Facebook a few days ago but when my copy of Rolling Stone showed up in my mailbox this morning I lost a little respect for journalism.

Now let me first say this, I have absolutely no clue how I got subscribed to this magazine. I don’t have a record of having paid for a subscription and no one I know has come forward to tell me they bought it for me at any time. I’ve been getting the mag now for about four months and I have to be perfectly honest it isn’t one I ever would’ve signed up to receive. I’m not hip on current music and to be honest I don’t really want to be.

With that said it makes me sick to know that I likely can’t cancel my subscription after seeing the cover of this month’s copy. Some genius decided it would be a smart idea to put a big photo of the surviving Boston Marathon bombing terrorist on their cover and write a feature story on him.

Let that sink in for just a second.

Now here’s what I think about this. I can sum it up in two words – sensationalist journalism.

And to see anyone profit off the face of evil, to write a story that spans twelve full pages of a magazine that’s supposed to be about music and to somehow try to appeal to the sympathies of the public about this guy makes me want to hurl big rocks at the editors who let this happen.

I will not read the story. In fact the only reason I even cracked the magazine to begin with was to count the number of pages they dedicated to this cover headline:

“The Bomber: How a popular, promising student was failed by his family, fell into radical Islam and became a monster”

I know I’m probably perpetuating the issue just writing this post but I can’t help it. Where the fuck is the 12 page story on Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzi, Martin Richard or Officer Sean Collier? These people were people too, people with amazing stories of their childhoods that maybe weren’t as glorious as some others. Hell one of these victims still was a child.

Where are the stories on all the injured people? All 264 of them? What about the people who may not have even suffered a scratch but will live with the PTSD of what happened that day for the rest of their lives? Who could even count how many of them exist. For god sakes I’m probably one of them and I don’t even live in Boston anymore. But that’s my city for now and for always and how dare anyone glorify the person who brought so much hatred onto it?

The fact that this magazine is all but venerating evil doings by trying to profile the guy in any kind of sympathetic light makes me sick.

We all had childhoods. We were all teenagers and at times during those years sometimes things didn’t go our way. That’s life. Sucks to be everyone. But that kid had a choice. He could choose to be a dick or he could choose to be a good person. The guy didn’t choose the latter. But in choosing the former he took away the choice of all those people who suffered the fates at his hand when he and his brother set off the bombs that day.

I’m applauding Mayor Menino of the City of Boston for his strongly worded response to this cover story. If you want to read a copy of it you can go here.

And now I’m done talking about this. I’m done creating more sensationalized bullshit that even hints at wanting to start a conversation. And if I can figure out how to do it I’m disabling comments on this post because I don’t want it to go on any further. I just needed to vent.

And now I need to call Rolling Stone to cancel my unpaid for subscription while I shred the cover of this magazine.

You really fucked up with this one.

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Published in multiple print and online sources, Author, Blogger and Freelance Writer Jenn Flynn-Shon has been writing for publication since 2001. Follow her antics on twitter @jennshon

Two U’s Two K’s Two Down Two to Go

Joel Quenneville, head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks, said before Finals began between his team and the Boston Bruins that Tuukka Rask, our goaltender, isn’t all that good. And man, I bet he’s chewing on those words this morning. Our ‘not so great’ goalie and the Cup-caliber Boston Bruins team standing tall in front of him pulled off a win in regulation (the first in this series) and…

Wait for it…

A shutout.

That’s right Quenneville, Rask now has 3 shutouts under his playoff belt. How many does Corey Crawford have? Oh, just one? Aw, that’s cute. What’s that you say? Crawford has a 1.74 goals against average and a .936 save percentage?

Wow, that would be so impressive if Rask wasn’t sporting his 1.64 GAA and .946 SV%.

Okay, okay. To be fair it isn’t like Crawford’s numbers are awful or anything. And considering 2 out of the 3 games they’ve played have gone into overtime it is a pretty hard-fought series. With this matchup I would have expected no less than grinding games full of heart and spirit. Neither team has let me down.

The Bruins have lost one game so far in the Stanley Cup Finals. That night Rask played 112:05 minutes as opposed to the usual 60:00. Almost two full games in one night? Impressive all around.

But now with Marian Hossa, leading points man, on the questionable list for Chitown in game 4 and Kaspers Daugavins fitting in just fine on the B’s fourth line with Shawn Thornton and Rich Peverley, The Hawks will have their work cut out if they want to win. Especially with game 4 taking place in Boston.

Call your arena the Madhouse on Madison if you like. The Bruins have the Gahden. Simple and unfussy. Gritty and tough just like the fans, ready to cheer their heads off for their team when they retake the ice on Wednesday night.

And if playing hockey were anything like battling the Devil these guys sure got it fahkin right, kid.

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Published in multiple print and online sources, Author, Blogger and Freelance Writer Jenn Flynn-Shon has been writing for publication since 2001. Follow her antics on twitter @jennshon

Boston Strong Concert Wraps Mays Month of Music

Almost every single artist listed on this concert promo picture showed up last night at the Boston Garden to celebrate a city as diverse and amazing as this lineup. This morning my friend Keith (of Williams Street fame) called to give me a recap of the Boston Strong concert held last night to benefit the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. I was psyched to hear all about it.

How much awesomeness can one person fit into a ten minute phone call? A lot.

All I know is that he ended the call saying “I’ve seen everyone and this was by far the best fucking concert I’ve ever been to in my life.” And for a guy who has probably seen everyone live, that’s sure saying a lot.

He said that Boston (the band) opened the show and then the surprises really began.

I’m a former Blockhead, this isn’t a secret or anything but because of my former obsessive love of all things New Kids on the Block, Keith sent me a text last night to say that in my honor he’d rock out to the now-man band. I thought that was a pretty sweet gesture, of course I also thought he was full of crap. Well this morning he was adamant saying that the band actually won him over with their live performance in their Bruins jerseys and with their fun vibe.

I said, see, that’s why I used to love them!

So then Keith says that the Dropkick Murphys end up out on stage with the New Kids. Um, I’m sorry but holy awesome!!! When will that ever happen again? Never. The answer you’re looking for is never. It isn’t like those two bands have anything in common other than the city they call home. The likelihood they would grace a stage together again in this lifetime is none to zilch.

But they weren’t the only crazy fun pairing of the night. NKOTB also rocked out with Boyz II Men, Doug Flutie and Tedy Bruschi talked to the crowd (OMG that’s like football nirvana thank you very much!) alongside Julian Edelman and freaking Boomer (Chris Berman), Keith pointed out that James Taylor and Carole King were the second to last act of the night. No shock that Aerosmith closed the show. What is kind of shocking is that just about everyone from the night came out to close the show with them.

Dane Cook, Aerosmith, Jimmy Buffet, Extreme, and New Kids on the Block all on the same stage at the same time? Seriously how surreal would that be? I can’t even fathom it. And my friend was there to see it all happen. Lucky bastard.

Although I suppose running into Dane Cook at Nicola Pizza in Arlington a couple days before the show would've been just as exciting.

But probably not nearly as likely to turn my friend into a (dare I say) fan (?) of NKOTB.

Ok, to be fair he will probably never do anything like this 



(in my defense it was Keith who forced me to wear the jacket on my wedding day)



But just hearing him say how much he enjoyed the whole show made me smile. I was living vicariously through you last night my friend and I’m so glad you had such a great time.

But as a side note, Keith, I still think you should’ve gotten her number…

May’s Month of Music

Every Boston Entertainer – And then Some!

Some info was gleaned from boston.com but I can no longer access the website without registering for updates so I’m sorry that I can’t provide a link to the story. I didn’t use any quotes though, just looked at photos to see who was with who. All photos on this post are either mine or from Keith with permission.