Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Thanks Nicole. We're on another road trip tonight because of
Speaker 2: course we broadcast here on Nightside on terrestrial radio thirty
Speaker 2: eight states to the thirty eight of the finest states
Speaker 2: in America and some of the great provinces up in Canada.
Speaker 2: My name is Dan Ray, and of course we're also
Speaker 2: on the internet. You can listen to us. If you
Speaker 2: have any problems listening to us on a radio, all
Speaker 2: I gotta do is download the iHeartRadio app. It's all
Speaker 2: for free and you can listen to WBZ Radio anytime
Speaker 2: twenty four to seven, three hundred and sixty five days
Speaker 2: a year. My name is Dan Ray. I'm the host
Speaker 2: of Nightside. I am here every weeknight, Monday through Friday
Speaker 2: from eight until midnight. And back at the broadcast central
Speaker 2: headquarters of iHeart Radio, Rob Brooks iHeartMedia. Rob Brooks is
Speaker 2: as ready to take your phone calls, but not until
Speaker 2: after nine o'clock when we get into issues and topics.
Speaker 2: Were into viewing some very special guests, many of whom
Speaker 2: are newsmakers, and many of whom are involved in programs
Speaker 2: that really the backbone of our community, and one that
Speaker 2: is the backbone of our community is Big Brothers and
Speaker 2: Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts. With us is Sarah Conahan,
Speaker 2: the chief Development officer at Big Brothers Big Sisters of
Speaker 2: Eastern Massachusetts. Sarah, welcome. I wish we had done this
Speaker 2: about a week ago. You fos have a golf tournament
Speaker 2: tomorrow morning. So all of you golfers out there get
Speaker 2: to bed, well, listen to night Side, but go right
Speaker 2: to bed at midnight and get those clubs. Set the
Speaker 2: alarm for about six o'clock in the morning. Tell us
Speaker 2: about the golf tournament, and then we'll talk a little
Speaker 2: bit more about Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Sarah, great, Thanks Dan, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: We are thrilled to have our annual Bacon Burrell Memorial
Speaker 3: Golf golf Tournament tomorrow. It's our twenty second year. It
Speaker 3: will be at Juniper Hills in North Borrow. We're expecting
Speaker 3: one hundred and eighty golfers for a great day. We're
Speaker 3: anticipating to raise about seventy five thousand for the organization
Speaker 3: and collectively the event has raised six hundred thousand over
Speaker 3: the past twenty two years, and we renamed the tournament
Speaker 3: in twenty seventeen in honor of one of our littles,
Speaker 3: de Kwon Burrell, who was tragically passed away that year.
Speaker 3: So it's a special tournament. It really features and highlights
Speaker 3: our big brothers and big sisters and their networks and connections,
Speaker 3: and it's a great day for the agency.
Speaker 2: What were the circumstances of de Kwan's passing? Was it
Speaker 2: natural causes or was he a victim of It was.
Speaker 3: A victim of unfortunately of ye circumstances. So yeah, it
Speaker 3: was a terrible loss for our community.
Speaker 2: Okay, So no seventeen year old individual should ever ever
Speaker 2: lose their life, and I grau for keeping his name
Speaker 2: and his memory alive the Dokwan Burrell Memorial Big Golf Tournament.
Speaker 2: So first of all, let's deal with the question of
Speaker 2: if there are you booked up tomorrow? Do you have all.
Speaker 3: The We do have some openings. We'd love to have
Speaker 3: a few additional golfers. So if people are hearing this
Speaker 3: and able to join us tomorrow at Juniper Hills in Northborough,
Speaker 3: we'd be thrilled to have you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm assuming that there's a lot of golfers in
Speaker 2: the western Massachusetts suburbs, and I'm maybe looking for one
Speaker 2: more tournament to play. So that's great. Tell Us about
Speaker 2: Big Brothers and Big Sisters. I know quite a bit
Speaker 2: about it. Never been actively involved, either as a little
Speaker 2: or as a big but it's a great organization. And
Speaker 2: I know we've we've profiled Big Brothers Big Sisters during
Speaker 2: a couple of our what we call the night Side
Speaker 2: Charity combine my last two hours every year just before Christmas,
Speaker 2: we profiled about twenty twenty two charities over a two
Speaker 2: hour period. For those who may have and I kind
Speaker 2: of imagine anybody in our audience has never heard of
Speaker 2: Big Brothers Big Sisters, explain to to how it works.
Speaker 2: Because there's a lot of young people in their twenties
Speaker 2: and thirties for whom this creates a great opportunity to
Speaker 2: give back to their community, maybe before they themselves find
Speaker 2: themselves spending a lot of time with their own children
Speaker 2: when they get to the parenting years. So tell us
Speaker 2: who can join, who can participate, and who benefits.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, So we are in our seventy fifth year
Speaker 3: where the states leading one to one mentoring program for youth,
Speaker 3: and so we partner with families to provide children with
Speaker 3: one to one relationships with caring adults who help them
Speaker 3: to reach their fullest potential. And we have several different
Speaker 3: ways in which bigs can partner with littles. We have
Speaker 3: our traditional programming, community based programming, where you meet with
Speaker 3: your little a couple of times a month. We have
Speaker 3: school based programming where we take youth to academic colleges
Speaker 3: and they meet with college students. And then we have
Speaker 3: high school based programming, which is a hybrid programming where
Speaker 3: you're connecting virtually and also in person. So we really
Speaker 3: have a range of opportunities for mentorship, and we like
Speaker 3: to meet people where they're at given their life circumstances
Speaker 3: and ways for people to volunteer and get involved.
Speaker 2: So who's the profile of you volunteer, what's their age,
Speaker 2: what's their background, what's their give give us a description
Speaker 2: of the volunteers. So people who are listening, who may
Speaker 2: be listening themselves, or maybe there's some grandparents or parents
Speaker 2: out there who are listening and saying, you know, this
Speaker 2: might be a good program for Sometimes people in their
Speaker 2: twenties they're looking to meet other people. Maybe they're not
Speaker 2: people who are going to be comfortable hanging out at bars.
Speaker 2: But this is a great opportunity for the twenty somethings
Speaker 2: to do something positive, So give us a profile there is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great. It's a range we definitely are looking for,
Speaker 3: always looking for men. We have a wait list of
Speaker 3: young boys who are looking to be matched. So we're
Speaker 3: always looking for men who are looking to become big brothers,
Speaker 3: particularly those that are, as you said, in their twenties
Speaker 3: and early thirties. But we also attract young people who
Speaker 3: are at the other end of their career and have
Speaker 3: time to give back. They may be retired or semi retired,
Speaker 3: and I think you know, the main characteristic is someone
Speaker 3: who's looking to make a difference in the child's life
Speaker 3: and it doesn't take a lot of time, and it
Speaker 3: can have a transformational impact on a young person's life.
Speaker 3: And what we hear most often is that our bigs
Speaker 3: get as much out of the relationship as our littles do,
Speaker 3: and so it's a very meaningful relationship on both sides.
Speaker 2: Just roughly, I don't know if you keep track of this,
Speaker 2: but roughly, how many young people are mentored through big
Speaker 2: brothers big sisters every year?
Speaker 3: Well, historically we've started. Historically, we've started five thousand youth
Speaker 3: over the past seventy five years. This year we'll serve
Speaker 3: four thousand youth and our goal is to serve ten
Speaker 3: thousand youths over the next three years. So we have
Speaker 3: very ambitious goals, and we often have children that are
Speaker 3: on a wait list waiting to be matched. So if
Speaker 3: you're at all inclined or interested, we'd love to have
Speaker 3: a conversation with you. It's very easy to sign up.
Speaker 3: You can find information on our website at emasbigs dot org.
Speaker 3: We'd love to speak to you, learn a little bit
Speaker 3: more about your interests. But it's it can be a
Speaker 3: transformative relationships and a little time makes a huge difference
Speaker 3: in the child.
Speaker 2: I want to give that website one more time. I'm
Speaker 2: going to read it. It's EMASS bigs and that stands
Speaker 2: for Eastern Massachusetts, so E m Ass and then the
Speaker 2: word bigs b I g s dot org all one
Speaker 2: word E massbiggs really simple dot org. Sarah, thanks so much.
Speaker 2: I wish you're best of luck with the golf tournament tomorrow,
Speaker 2: and I'm hoping that our listeners who are close in
Speaker 2: that neck of the woods that part of Massachusetts might
Speaker 2: get up early tomorrow morning and say, hey, I want
Speaker 2: to have gone and play eighteen and benefit a great charity.
Speaker 2: Thanks you.
Speaker 3: I'd love to have you too, if you're free and
Speaker 3: you want to know.
Speaker 2: Well, the problem I have is I'm not in the
Speaker 2: western suburbs right now and broadcasting remotely, and my workday
Speaker 2: starts at nine o'clock when you start to put together
Speaker 2: the show for tomorrow night. So maybe some year I'll
Speaker 2: take day off is a vacation day and come out
Speaker 2: and try to hit a few golf ball straight, which
Speaker 2: for me is a real challenge. Okay. I spend a
Speaker 2: lot of time in the woods when I play. Thank you, Sarah.
Speaker 3: We appreciate that opportunity to share a little bit about
Speaker 3: our work and thank you for giving us time.
Speaker 2: You have a great story. Absolutely, the organization has a
Speaker 2: great story. Thank you so much. When we get back,
Speaker 2: we're gonna get a lighten up a little bit here.
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk about a Boston based restaurant that has
Speaker 2: I read this the other day. I read it twice,
Speaker 2: actually three or four times. It's a ten thousand dollars
Speaker 2: true Boston proposal experience. We're gonna talk with Paul Barker,
Speaker 2: the owner of Polly's in Boston, and try to try
Speaker 2: to figure this one out, because frankly, I always believe
Speaker 2: in primary source. And you read a newspaper column or
Speaker 2: an article and you say, oh, I that's some questions.
Speaker 2: So we'll figure it out with Paul Barker, owner of
Speaker 2: Pauli's in Boston. We're gonna talk about this ten thousand
Speaker 2: dollars true Boston Proposal experience later on tonight. By the way,
Speaker 2: we're gonna talk about a twenty six thousand dollars treasure
Speaker 2: hunt that's hidden somewhere in the woods here in the Northeast.
Speaker 2: I guess this is a night for we're talking big adventures.
Speaker 2: We'll be back on Night's side right after this quick break.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Sight Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, I have heard about this, this ten thousand
Speaker 2: dollars true Boston proposal. Was intrigued by it. So we
Speaker 2: have the owner of Paully's restaurant in Boston's North End,
Speaker 2: Paul Barker, who's going to explain how this works. I
Speaker 2: got to tell you, Paul, I've read it in the papers.
Speaker 2: I'm a little confused, but I spend a lot of
Speaker 2: my time in a state of confusion. Can you clear
Speaker 2: this up from me? What are we talking about here?
Speaker 3: Bork?
Speaker 4: Can you hear me?
Speaker 2: I can hear you just perfectly right now?
Speaker 3: Hi, darn you?
Speaker 2: Hi? Okay, hope you heard my question. I was kind
Speaker 2: of a long question. Did you hear the question?
Speaker 4: I just gone on? It was cut out, so yeah,
Speaker 4: if you could, if you can refra that, I'd love
Speaker 4: to hear it.
Speaker 2: Okay, I've heard about the ten thousand dollars true Boston
Speaker 2: proposal experience. I've read about it. More confused than ever.
Speaker 2: What are we talking about, Paulie? You are you are
Speaker 2: the primary source for for my listeners. What are we
Speaker 2: talking about here?
Speaker 4: We're talking about is delicious wopster row. As you know,
Speaker 4: Paula is known for the sandwiches and our oversized lobster rolls,
Speaker 4: mostps rolls, and today's National Lopsterday. We thought we'd do something, you.
Speaker 2: Know what, I did not realize that, Paulie, thank you
Speaker 2: for reminding its National Lobsterday. Now there's a tie in.
Speaker 2: Go ahead. I'm all ears and okay.
Speaker 4: So we're always We're all about making paul Is a
Speaker 4: great customer experience. We like to do fun things. Our
Speaker 4: menu is fun, uh, from our oversized sandwiches to our
Speaker 4: time food, but mostly we're we're known for our lobster rolls.
Speaker 4: And so we did wet we come up with something
Speaker 4: a little fun for National Lots today and we dressed
Speaker 4: up one of our lobster roles. It's called the USS
Speaker 4: Lobstitution and it's a it's a two for twenty eight
Speaker 4: ounced WAPs the roll which we've decorated with edible gold
Speaker 4: leaf and we've finished it off with a uh one
Speaker 4: point five eight carrot ring almost one point seventy eight
Speaker 4: one point one and three quarter carrot diamond ring. And
Speaker 4: we thought this would be a great what a fun
Speaker 4: thing to do for our customers.
Speaker 2: So's no one's gonna eat the diamond ring.
Speaker 4: What I'm hoping that some lucky person that remaining on
Speaker 4: their finger by the by the time this is all over.
Speaker 4: So we feel that it We've had we've had to
Speaker 4: hendres to call and everybody's asking questions and uh, you know,
Speaker 4: and some people I was like, okay, we postpone it to.
Speaker 2: So is the lobs Now, let me ask you this, Paully.
Speaker 2: I know it's late in the evening and it's eight
Speaker 2: coming well, it's coming up eight twenty five. Is the
Speaker 2: lobster roll right now sitting in the restaurant and available
Speaker 2: for anyone who's in the area.
Speaker 4: Anybody that pops in, the lobster is ready for them.
Speaker 4: But we don't we actually make the lobster roll to orus.
Speaker 4: It's specially made, I guess said. It's a twenty eight
Speaker 4: ounce lobster roll. It's Clara k Notch. It's delicious. The
Speaker 4: bread is the bread is like is buttered and light
Speaker 4: lightly lightly grilled. And then I said, like I said,
Speaker 4: some lucky Presson's gonna hopefully wear that diamond ring out
Speaker 4: and be wearing that at the end of the night.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you're expecting or you're hoping that, oh, a
Speaker 2: young couple somewhere in the Great A Boston area right
Speaker 2: now are going to drive to your restaurant in Boston's
Speaker 2: North End, present themselves and say, hey, we'd like to
Speaker 2: gorge ourselves with this twenty eight ounce lobster roll. I'm
Speaker 2: assuming that the cost of the lobster roll it's just
Speaker 2: not the first couple who walks in the door, I
Speaker 2: assume they have to bring their credit card with them. Correct.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, So basically, you know, this is not I.
Speaker 2: Don't want people getting into automobile accidents now rushing Nepauli's restaurant.
Speaker 4: It's one hundred dollars lobster roll feeds for people. You're
Speaker 4: getting the lobster roll for free. Well, he just you know,
Speaker 4: basically with selling the experience of having a diamond ring,
Speaker 4: but actually doing it in a most delicious way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I get it. And again you do. You
Speaker 2: guys do great lobster rolls. I know that. But my
Speaker 2: question is, and I'm not I'm not a jeweler or
Speaker 2: a jewelry expert. Can you give me an idea? I mean,
Speaker 2: you've seen this diamond ring. What's its approximate value?
Speaker 4: It's it's ten thousand dollars retail. Okay, retail.
Speaker 2: I was hoping that was what you were going to say.
Speaker 2: I want to know.
Speaker 4: It's a ten thousand dollars a ten thousand dollars ring.
Speaker 4: If then it's it's been a praise. Uh, it's sitting
Speaker 4: in the safe again.
Speaker 2: It's beautiful, Okay, so if there's any couple.
Speaker 4: Of we've had pictures of it. Yeah, we've had pictures
Speaker 4: of it on the lobster row.
Speaker 2: Great. Great. So if if some gentlemen is riding around
Speaker 2: now this obviously no one has called to plan this
Speaker 2: in advance. So this has got to be a spur
Speaker 2: of the moment thing.
Speaker 4: And got to be likes a questions.
Speaker 2: It's conceivable that someone has planned to pop the question,
Speaker 2: as you say, but they haven't figured out how to
Speaker 2: do it in a really interesting and unique way. So
Speaker 2: you're providing with them this opportunity, which it might be
Speaker 2: spur of the moment. Paulie, I'm hoping that there might
Speaker 2: be some couple driving around right now somewhere in Greater Boston.
Speaker 2: How late are you open tonight? O?
Speaker 5: Nine?
Speaker 4: But you know what, we were virtual nine thirty. So
Speaker 4: if they come in late, the door is going to open.
Speaker 4: We're open for them. And you know what, I think,
Speaker 4: it's a what a unique way to propose right something
Speaker 4: you'll never forget.
Speaker 2: I mean I could think of some unique ways. You know,
Speaker 2: the people who work it out at a ballpark and
Speaker 2: the cameras on them, and those are always moments in
Speaker 2: time where you hope she says yes, And every once
Speaker 2: in a while it doesn't work, and it's it's horrible
Speaker 2: to watch. But I'm assuming that that whoever's listening to
Speaker 2: us tonight, and maybe that special couple that's going to
Speaker 2: walk in your door, they understand that, you know, true
Speaker 2: love will find a way. I guess this is what
Speaker 2: I'm trying to.
Speaker 4: Say, you know what, And there's still time and you know,
Speaker 4: and they'll have privacy to because basically we'll close the
Speaker 4: doors at that point.
Speaker 2: They have that they working there. Paul, this is a
Speaker 2: big question valet parking because you know, it's it's tough
Speaker 2: to find a space in the North End.
Speaker 4: You know, nobody there's a lot of value packing around
Speaker 4: the North End. Paul's does not have valley packing, but
Speaker 4: there's parking spaces in front of the North in front
Speaker 4: of Polly's and his valet packing up and down the street.
Speaker 4: So yeah, there's there's value of parking.
Speaker 2: And give us in case anyone's reaching for their GPS
Speaker 2: right now, what's the what's the address.
Speaker 4: Sixty five Sam Street, Boston, mass We're waiting for you,
Speaker 4: uh and we have you know, there's a beautiful lost
Speaker 4: of all waiting for you as well.
Speaker 2: All right, well I'm not going to be there, but
Speaker 2: but hopefully someone who's been listening to us right now
Speaker 2: has been inspired to take this moment in time Carpy
Speaker 2: DM today. All right, PAULI, thank.
Speaker 4: You, love me so, thank you very much for having us.
Speaker 2: You're very welcome. I enjoyed talking with you, Paulie. I
Speaker 2: had a lot of friends in the North End.
Speaker 4: Come come down someday, have a lobster with me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll be happy to do that. When you see
Speaker 2: my friend Joe Salvati, you say hello. Everybody in the
Speaker 2: North End knows Joe Silvadi.
Speaker 4: Oh I know Joe.
Speaker 2: I'll say hi to him, say hi to woman. Ask
Speaker 2: him what he thinks of the guy that did the
Speaker 2: TV stories that that got him some justice back up
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety nineteen ninety seven. We started in nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety three. But oh really, finally, yeah, finally Joe got
Speaker 2: Joe good justice. Joe could afford that launched a roll,
Speaker 2: by the way, with it without the ring.
Speaker 4: I want you to know, Okay, oh my god, I
Speaker 4: think you and Joe should come down and have a
Speaker 4: watch to roll with me. Love that.
Speaker 5: Let's do that.
Speaker 4: Plan that out someday.
Speaker 2: All right, Paulie nice chatting with you.
Speaker 4: We'll do that. Okay, have a good way, Thank you.
Speaker 2: My friend. Goodnight. I do believe in six degrees of separation.
Speaker 2: Anyone who listens to this show knows that. I'm a
Speaker 2: huge believer that that you know someone who also knows
Speaker 2: someone who knows someone who knows someone who's the President
Speaker 2: of the United States or who is the head of whatever.
Speaker 2: So I do believe that people know people. It's as
Speaker 2: simple as that. Now we're going to talk on the
Speaker 2: other side of the eight thirty News about an effort
Speaker 2: to preserve Boston's musical legacy. This city has a rich
Speaker 2: legacy in terms of education, medicine, sports. We all know that.
Speaker 2: We also come on, think about it, Ero Smith, we
Speaker 2: have we have a great musical legacy. And we're going
Speaker 2: to talk with Bobby Boyd. He's the executive director of
Speaker 2: the Record and Company, and they are trying to provide
Speaker 2: affordable access to rehearsal rooms and recording studios right here
Speaker 2: in Boston. Don't have to go to Nashville, don't have
Speaker 2: to go to New York City. We will talk with
Speaker 2: Bobby Boyd. He'll explain it all on the other side.
Speaker 2: On the other side of the break.
Speaker 1: It's night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Well, as I mentioned before the break, Boston has a
Speaker 2: lot of great legacy, sports legacy, medical legacy, educational legacy,
Speaker 2: all sorts of legacies. But we also have a great
Speaker 2: musical legacy Boston Pops, Aerosmith all. Look. I can go
Speaker 2: on and on and on, but who would be better
Speaker 2: to talk about this than my guest. Bobby Boyd is
Speaker 2: the executive director of the Record and Company. Bobby, Welcome
Speaker 2: to Night Side. What does your company do? What does
Speaker 2: your company provide?
Speaker 4: Dan?
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me Man the Record Co. We're a
Speaker 6: nonprofit community space in the city, and what we provide
Speaker 6: is really just affordable recording and rehearsal space for local musicians.
Speaker 6: And we started that back in twenty ten and now
Speaker 6: operate out of two spaces, one at nine to sixty
Speaker 6: Massive and one at fifty five more.
Speaker 2: So, Okay, now I talk about the legacy, and my
Speaker 2: question to you is how great a need is there
Speaker 2: for more space.
Speaker 6: I think the need is I think we're at a
Speaker 6: critical a critical point. You know. The iconic venue is
Speaker 6: like the Sound Museum, that has closed. Great scott Middle
Speaker 6: East was barely hanging on and I think they survived.
Speaker 6: So there's a there's a critical need for space and
Speaker 6: rehearsal space is just just disappearing. The rising costs of
Speaker 6: pushing a lot of artists out of the city. So
Speaker 6: it's not about just buildings closing. It's about, you know,
Speaker 6: losing the spaces where the city's culture is kind of
Speaker 6: created and shared. So I think it's I think the
Speaker 6: needs pretty pretty significant.
Speaker 2: And now I assume you know, we're hearing these stories
Speaker 2: of all the commercial space in Boston because of COVID
Speaker 2: that has not been refilled as companies had, you know,
Speaker 2: sent their employees home, and a lot of people now
Speaker 2: like to work on home from home and do zoom calls.
Speaker 2: And I worked remotely. I used to work in a
Speaker 2: in a building, in a studio, in a building, in
Speaker 2: a radio studio. Right now I work remotely with all
Speaker 2: the equipment I need and it's it's pretty easy. So
Speaker 2: is there explain to us how many people in Boston
Speaker 2: over the year, over either the years or a year,
Speaker 2: want to get to a professional studio to record. I mean, obviously,
Speaker 2: you know, when you think about you know, the Arrowsmith
Speaker 2: and some of the great bands that have come out
Speaker 2: of Boston, and a lot more than that. They need space.
Speaker 2: But are there a lot of people on that pyramid?
Speaker 2: You know, if Arrowsmith and those sorts of bands are
Speaker 2: at the top, are there a lot of the newer,
Speaker 2: the younger bands. They are their hopes and dreams and aspirations,
Speaker 2: and they need affordable space in order to produce the
Speaker 2: product that they hope will light up arenas around the world.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that, you know, I think there's a
Speaker 6: massive need for space. I mean, we see that. You know,
Speaker 6: like recent studies have shown the Massachusetts is losing a
Speaker 6: lot of the young population to like you know, you know,
Speaker 6: riding costs of cost of living here. So you know,
Speaker 6: it's kind of a double hit when you consider the
Speaker 6: music community because you know, to the point it's making
Speaker 6: earlier it's just fewer spaces with them the create and perform.
Speaker 6: It's becoming harder for them to even afored living here.
Speaker 6: So having affordable recording and rehearsal spaces is that actual
Speaker 6: God send to most of these folks. And this is
Speaker 6: young animal, you know, folks that might just be picking
Speaker 6: up an instrument for the first time today to someone
Speaker 6: that's more professionalized that are using our spaces. And a
Speaker 6: lot of our partner organizations we work with a lot
Speaker 6: with like Community Music cent Our Boston, Boston Public Schools
Speaker 6: and things like that, so we get a lot of
Speaker 6: different you know, disciplines that come in and use the
Speaker 6: space or have a critical need for that kind of space.
Speaker 6: So it's it's really it's really critical.
Speaker 2: So the project you're trying to raise funds, I guess
Speaker 2: is what it comes down to, right?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, Okay, So what what direct people as to
Speaker 2: if they've been convinced, if they feel so inclined, how
Speaker 2: can they help you meet this need?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So our campaign, our current campaign, our new campaign is
Speaker 6: called Amplify Boston, and we're aiming to raise a million
Speaker 6: dollars right now. And this is you know, crucial to
Speaker 6: our mission. And you know, we're being very strategic about
Speaker 6: how we use this money and you know, supporting our
Speaker 6: operations but making some key hires, but also advocating for
Speaker 6: more space in the city, permanent space for artists that
Speaker 6: we believe they deserve. So folks that are interested in
Speaker 6: supporting the record code, they can go to the website
Speaker 6: at the Record Co dot org and they can click
Speaker 6: on a link that says amplify Boston. You can make
Speaker 6: a contribution there or you can you know, stop, buy
Speaker 6: for a tour see me. We have some pretty good coffee.
Speaker 6: You'd love our spaces twenty bookable rooms of recording in
Speaker 6: rehearsal space at nine to sixty maths have and then
Speaker 6: we have ninety bookable monthly rehearsal spaces at fifty five
Speaker 6: more se So between those two locations, four thousand creatives
Speaker 6: a month are being served and we till that we're
Speaker 6: doing really really great work. So we greatly love everyone's support.
Speaker 2: Five Morris is over by I assume BC High the
Speaker 2: Boston Globe building somewhere the neck of the woods. Okay,
Speaker 2: nine to sixty mass have whereabouts? So the people, if
Speaker 2: they want to find you, where do they go?
Speaker 6: So yeah, the rerecord co dot org is the website.
Speaker 6: But nine sicky map mass A is right in the
Speaker 6: New Market Square area. Uh, just the stones throw from
Speaker 6: Boston Medical Center, right directly across from the U haul
Speaker 6: and over.
Speaker 2: Where we're massive cast had been. So yeah, that is
Speaker 2: that's that's hopefully moved on for good.
Speaker 6: Yeah, cleaned up a bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would always needs to be cleaned up quite
Speaker 2: a bit, Bobby boy. The luck with this, This is
Speaker 2: a big project you've undertaken, and I hope some people
Speaker 2: out there are going to support you. Thank you so
Speaker 2: much for joining us tonight.
Speaker 6: Thank you for having me. Dan greatly appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You welcome. All right, Okay, well we get back. We're
Speaker 2: going to talk about I just read this story. It's
Speaker 2: an amazing story. We're going to talk with the new
Speaker 2: Hampshire video game Designer's name is Jason Rora or Rower
Speaker 2: like Billy rob than Er Rorer. We'll find out the
Speaker 2: correct pronunciation in a moment. And he's created an actual
Speaker 2: treasure hunt game that you can participate in. And there's
Speaker 2: a golden statue made out of twelve ounces of gold
Speaker 2: hidden in the woods here in the Northeast and someone,
Speaker 2: someone's gonna find it. This is a great story. We'll
Speaker 2: be back with my guest Jason Roer right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Well, I read this story today, read it tonight. Actually
Speaker 2: it's called Project Skydrop Find the Gold Statue. Reap cash
Speaker 2: and treasure hunt. This is a great story with us.
Speaker 2: Is Jason Rorer your first four letters the same as
Speaker 2: a great picture? Well, a really good picture for the
Speaker 2: Boston Red Sox. You ever hear Billy Rore?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 5: Actually, how long ago did he play?
Speaker 2: Well, he played in the late sixties, so he's not
Speaker 2: what you call recent. But his first game was at
Speaker 2: Yankee Stadium. He came very close to pitching a no
Speaker 2: hitter against the Yankees.
Speaker 5: Span So that's Rohr. I'm rh r e R.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I know he's a pipe and I'm a piper in German?
Speaker 2: Is that what it is? Okay, Well, that's good to know.
Speaker 2: He's a great guy. He's a lawyer out in California now,
Speaker 2: but he one hit the Yankees in like the third
Speaker 2: game of the season in nineteen sixty seven. What's your question?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: The impossible dreams? So you have you have a wonderful
Speaker 2: probably a relative there that I want you to be worked. Okay,
Speaker 2: tell us about the New England the New Hampshire video game.
Speaker 2: You're a New Hampshire video game designer. You have had
Speaker 2: quite a career designing games. My friend I was very
Speaker 2: impressed with the article in the globe today.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've been doing it for a long time. Made.
Speaker 5: I usually make games that are sort of artistic or
Speaker 5: philosophical or make you think, games that are supposed to
Speaker 5: do the same kind of thing that a great novel
Speaker 5: or a great movie might do for you.
Speaker 2: Well, we're taught show. That's one of my slogans. I
Speaker 2: don't care what you think. I just want to make
Speaker 2: sure you're thinking. So we're in the same page.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so, you know, not making games
Speaker 5: where big burly men shoot aliens. You know that kind
Speaker 5: of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I understand that, right, fake aliens. Fake.
Speaker 5: But even though I'm making these games that you know
Speaker 5: are philosophically interesting or whatever, they're still mostly played by
Speaker 5: people who play video games. And so I've been thinking
Speaker 5: a lot halfway through my career about how can I
Speaker 5: branch out a little bit more and make things for
Speaker 5: ordinary people like my aunts and uncles and my cousins
Speaker 5: and my sister who like to hear about my games
Speaker 5: but don't ever really have time to play them. And
Speaker 5: so Project Skydrop is a real world treasure hunt. Something
Speaker 5: you do off of a screen has involved a real
Speaker 5: world adventure, and it's something that a lot of these
Speaker 5: people who haven't really ever gotten to play my games
Speaker 5: are suddenly interested in they always.
Speaker 2: You mean you actually leave your home and go outside
Speaker 2: into the wilderness to participate in Project Skydrop.
Speaker 4: This is Yeah.
Speaker 5: The graphics out there are amazing. Everything looks so realistic
Speaker 5: out there.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I just said that, Wow, this is very cool.
Speaker 2: I've never seen this before. It's called a forest. Okay,
Speaker 2: so you have designed and assignisty and created or commissioned.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what bourb I should use there, but
Speaker 2: you have designed this this beautiful. It looks like, I
Speaker 2: don't know, it almost looks like a trophy the way
Speaker 2: you've designed it.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, So I'm working with my creative partner, Tom Bailey,
Speaker 5: who helped me design this treasure, and he drew the
Speaker 5: initial sketch of it. He was thinking it looked something
Speaker 5: like the expanding expansion of the universe during the Big
Speaker 5: Bang or something like that.
Speaker 2: Well, that's exactly what I was thinking. By the way
Speaker 2: what I saw it, I said, that's the expansion of
Speaker 2: the universe.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it could have been kind of a funnel type shape.
Speaker 2: It could be it could have been like a trophy
Speaker 2: for a professional sports team. That's what it looked like.
Speaker 2: It was beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 5: And I appreciate that. And then so he designed it.
Speaker 5: He did the initial sketch, and then I did some
Speaker 5: three D modeling to make it real, and then I
Speaker 5: actually cast it in gold myself, so had it printed
Speaker 5: it with a three D wax printer. The jewelers used
Speaker 5: to print all the wedding rings and everything are printed
Speaker 5: with these high end wax printers now, and so I
Speaker 5: had to print it as a wax model. And then
Speaker 5: I encased it in plaster and then burned out the
Speaker 5: wax and then heated gold up to nearly two thousand
Speaker 5: degrees fahrenheit and poured it in and that beautiful event
Speaker 5: polished it, of course, hand polished it myself.
Speaker 2: And so the actual value twelve ounces of gold right now.
Speaker 5: Gold, yes, ten ounces, and gold is at this highest
Speaker 5: price in human history right now, which we're lucky to.
Speaker 2: Say, given that we're twenty six an ounce.
Speaker 5: Yes, it's pretty crazy. So this treasure is worth just
Speaker 5: if you wanted to melt it down for its spot value,
Speaker 5: in spot metal value, it's worth twenty six thousand dollars.
Speaker 5: Of course, you know, there's a lot of value as
Speaker 5: a unique object beyond that, right of course.
Speaker 2: Now you have hidden this somewhere in the northeast, which yes,
Speaker 2: every day you are basically going to help people who
Speaker 2: are going to follow. Is how many people do you
Speaker 2: have out there? Nice time?
Speaker 5: We just crossed as of today, we just crossed the
Speaker 5: three thousand player mark. And these are all people who
Speaker 5: have paid to enter the contest. And so today was
Speaker 5: our biggest day. Actually we had more than a thousand
Speaker 5: people joined just today.
Speaker 2: And the only way, the only way that you can
Speaker 2: win this contest. This is not something that you sit
Speaker 2: on a computer. You have to figure out where this
Speaker 2: is and you have to trek into nature.
Speaker 5: Yes, and you have to go with your own hand
Speaker 5: and reach down. It's not buried. It's just sitting there
Speaker 5: on the forest floor, waiting, just out in the open.
Speaker 5: Which is the craziest thing about it, right, So somebody
Speaker 5: is going to walk up into the woods, walk to
Speaker 5: the spot, see that it's still there, reach down and
Speaker 5: just pick it up off the ground.
Speaker 2: Our animals in the forest, our beers are eligible or
Speaker 2: do they have to also pay an entry fae.
Speaker 5: Well, so we knew that the treasures just sitting out
Speaker 5: there in plane view. It's very tantalizing the that's the case.
Speaker 5: Wouldn't it be interesting if we can kind of see
Speaker 5: it sitting there. So we actually installed these trail cameras
Speaker 5: in the trees around the treasure, and two of them
Speaker 5: broadcast live to the website twenty four hours a day,
Speaker 5: and one of them is doing a time lapse every
Speaker 5: fifteen minutes day and night. It has night vision mode
Speaker 5: on it and so on, and so we've been able
Speaker 5: to see the treasure every morning. I wake up and
Speaker 5: check the trail cam on the website. Oh my gosh, Shoot,
Speaker 5: the treasure is still there. It hasn't been found yet.
Speaker 5: We catch some animals, so.
Speaker 2: We got what's the wildest animal that has gone by?
Speaker 5: So we saw a very wild looking opossum who spent
Speaker 5: a lot of time posing in front of the camera,
Speaker 5: opening and closing his mouth, whipping up the treasure with
Speaker 5: his tail. We saw a porcupine run by one night,
Speaker 5: and we've also seen two different deer, a doe and
Speaker 5: a buck with antlers come and stand right near the treasure.
Speaker 5: Fortunately none of them have kicked it or knocked it
Speaker 5: over or stepped on it because gold is very ductile
Speaker 5: and it would get crushed easily.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow, ducktile. That's a word that's never been used
Speaker 2: on Night Side in seventeen years.
Speaker 5: Now you got a new word to use.
Speaker 2: That's good. Okay. So you are also giving hints. You
Speaker 2: actually have a website. Let's give get the website. So
Speaker 2: you started off, as I understand that, with an area
Speaker 2: that extended five hundred miles that covered a lot of
Speaker 2: the northeast.
Speaker 5: Right, yes, yes, So it's on projectskydrop dot com. And
Speaker 5: right at the top of the website you see this
Speaker 5: map and there's a circle on the map. On day one,
Speaker 5: which was on Thursday last week, on the nineteenth, the
Speaker 5: circle was five hundred miles in diameter and encompassed what
Speaker 5: I call the Boss Wash Megalopolis, which is the megalopolis
Speaker 5: that extends from Boston all the way down to Washington,
Speaker 5: d C. Including Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, and so on.
Speaker 5: Huge population center. That's why I picked this area because
Speaker 5: there's like sixty million people who live in that circle
Speaker 5: was not in the middle of nowhere. It's not out
Speaker 5: in Nevata where no one lives.
Speaker 2: Right, no, no, I get that right, Well, it's Montana
Speaker 2: when no one's lived, when no one lives, I've never
Speaker 2: been anybody who actually lives in Montana. Anyway. You do
Speaker 2: not have this sitting on a street corner in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: I'm convinced of that. This is somewhere in nature, because
Speaker 2: you've got deer walking by and all of that. So
Speaker 2: you don't have to worry about finding it in the
Speaker 2: in Gotham or anything like that. It's somewhere in the woods.
Speaker 2: And each day you are making the circle a little.
Speaker 5: Smaller, that's right, yes, And so every day the circle shrinks.
Speaker 5: It shrinks every day at nine am, and if you're
Speaker 5: actually on the website at nine am, you can watch
Speaker 5: it shrinking. So people often tune in who are part
Speaker 5: of the hunt and see you, Oh, where's it going
Speaker 5: to go?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 5: Shrink again? Soday? Right at the starter is five hundred
Speaker 5: and three ninety five three thirteen.
Speaker 2: That's good, dumb question here. When you did the five
Speaker 2: hundred mile radius, okay, if you had, if you had looked,
Speaker 2: if you had, you were mathematically inclined and said, okay,
Speaker 2: there's the there's the radius. But they're going to shrink
Speaker 2: the radius. The middle of the diameter, which of course
Speaker 2: would be the center of the circle. That has to
Speaker 2: be where it is. Or does the circle move a
Speaker 2: little bit as it shrinks? Does it move?
Speaker 5: Yes, that would not be very clever if it was
Speaker 5: at the center the whole time.
Speaker 2: Right, if I could figure it out. You know, it's
Speaker 2: not all that clever.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I thought, yeah, I thought, okay, well, yeah,
Speaker 5: it can't just go to the center and find it.
Speaker 2: No one has ever confused me with Albert Einstein.
Speaker 5: Okay, so the circle every time it shrinks, it stays
Speaker 5: within the next larger circle. It never moves outside of
Speaker 5: the original circle. It gets smaller, and it moves over
Speaker 5: a little bit right, and it moves. It moves in
Speaker 5: a random way that can't be predicted. But it always
Speaker 5: keeps the treasure somewhere in the circle. As it gets
Speaker 5: smaller and smaller.
Speaker 2: Theoretically could move back one day to some extent.
Speaker 5: Uh No, every new circle has to be in the
Speaker 5: previous larger circle, so it's always getting inside of itself.
Speaker 5: Very similar to actually the you know, the treasure has
Speaker 5: these shrinking circles in it as part of its desire.
Speaker 5: So this is going to happen over the next three
Speaker 5: weeks twenty one days, and toward the end it'll go
Speaker 5: down to eight miles, six miles, four miles, two miles,
Speaker 5: one mile, and on the final day the circle is
Speaker 5: shrink to a single foot pinpointing the location of the treasure.
Speaker 5: So we can guarantee that sometime in three weeks it
Speaker 5: will be found. It's not one of these treasure hunts
Speaker 5: that's going to go on for ten years or forty
Speaker 5: years and not be solved. So it's going to end
Speaker 5: in three weeks for sure.
Speaker 2: Okay, so how can you bring it down? But Rob,
Speaker 2: he'll just say, we got a minute left. Rob is
Speaker 2: at it, Okay, thirty seconds. Okay, when you bring it
Speaker 2: down to a foot, okay, will people be able to
Speaker 2: figure the longitude, latitude, et cetera. Or will they?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Basically you zoom in on the map and you
Speaker 5: can see exactly where it is down to the Yes. Absolutely.
Speaker 5: And on top of that, they're getting these photographic clues.
Speaker 5: So the people who join get aerial photographs taken from
Speaker 5: higher and higher altitudes each day looking down at the treasure,
Speaker 5: showing more and more of the landscape, and so they're
Speaker 5: kind of racing to see where the new photograph today
Speaker 5: was taken inside. The circle is getting smaller and smaller,
Speaker 5: and I never go a smaller photographs show more and more,
Speaker 5: and those things cross when somebody finally goes and then
Speaker 5: picks it up.
Speaker 2: I'm small enough never to ask a question I know
Speaker 2: the person won't answer, So I'm not going to ask
Speaker 2: you what state in which is this going to be fun?
Speaker 5: I'm not going to answer you.
Speaker 2: No, I'm saying that I'm s wanding up not to
Speaker 2: ask that question. So what I would What I would
Speaker 2: ask you though, in all honesty, Jason, is when they
Speaker 2: find this, come on back and.
Speaker 5: Oh absolutely yes, and we we hopefully we can come
Speaker 5: back with the winner.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, we can bring the winner absolutely perfect, perfect,
Speaker 2: So we'll when that happens, let us know. And this
Speaker 2: sounds like a great idea. If folks want to get
Speaker 2: in touch with you, project skydrop dot com, is that it?
Speaker 5: Yes, Project skydrop dot com.
Speaker 2: Okay, if they want to get in touch with your company,
Speaker 2: is there.
Speaker 5: My name is Jason rohrer R o h r e R.
Speaker 5: And you can look me up on Google. I'm very
Speaker 5: easy to find because I've been making games for twenty.
Speaker 2: Years sounds great. Jason really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 5: Thank you much, Yes, thank you sir.
Speaker 2: All Right, that was fun. We get back, we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about something that isn't fun, and that is
Speaker 2: the fact that students in Massachusetts, they're cast results have
Speaker 2: been dropping, uh and with no end in sight. And
Speaker 2: we're gonna talk about that and hopefully we'll hear from
Speaker 2: We'll hear from educators, parents, and who knows, maybe some
Speaker 2: students coming back on Nightside.