Elliot Haney got a great night shot of Huntington Ave. as seen from Mass. Ave. The vanishing point and light streaks are excellent and give a good flow to the picture. The processing is also inviting and not overdone. It appears that Elliot has just recently moved to Boston so hopefully we'll be seeing more great images from him.
Brazil Night Bostonist's favorite experimental dance party Beat Research welcomes Maga Bo, a producer/DJ from Rio de Janeiro with an abiding love for the dance music of all four habitable continents. Live, he plays a jumble of different source material, including pirate street cassettes, hard-to-find vinyl, and obscure MP3s "with a DJ’s feel for the dance floor and the hip hop mentality of creating by re-contextualizing." Enormous Room, 567 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, 9 p.m. Free. More information.
Big Fat Slideshows Two of Bostonist's favorite cartoonists, locals Brian McFadden of the foul-mouthed strip Big Fat Whale and Keith Knight of the relatively more wry K Chronicles, join forces to get you drunk and make you buy stuff. It's a "Comix Slideshow and Beer Summit" commemorating the release of McFadden's new book, Fun Stuff for Dum-Dums. The Burren, 247 Elm St., Somerville, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Free. More information.
skazama took today's Film Friday shot with a Nikon N6006 on a flight from Reykjavik to Boston. The bold colors make some interesting geometric shapes and the world certainly looks different from 35,000 feet.
Bands With Long Names All the kids seem to like psychedelic pop band Black Moth Super Rainbow, and it surely has nothing to do with the band's unwieldy name. The music sounds like the unholy marriage of Air (French Band) and the rural psychedelia of a band like Hood or Movietone. Not our cup of tea, but we appreciate what the kids might be hearing in this stuff. Institute of Contemporary Art, South Boston, 7:30 p.m. $25/$20.
We already saw a beautiful sunset shot this week, so why not a beautiful sunrise? Papadune grabbed this photo at Rowes Wharf with a warm glow from the sun illuminating everything it touched. We love the way the ropes guide through the photo from right to left, and the reflections in the water.
Movies Chinatown's annual Films at the Gate never disappoints fans of Chinese genre cinema, and tonight's program is one of the reasons why. A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) is the Hong Kong romantic comedy that started a wave of goofy supernatural movies. Sam Raimi, whose Evil Dead franchise swiped a thing or two from the movie, is a fan. Vacant Lot at 10 Hudson St., Chinatown, 7 p.m. Get there early and bring seating. More information.
Social networking sites can serve a purpose besides hooking up with former classmates or empowering a populace as they protest against a despotic government. Via modern word-of-mouth, about 500 people gathered in an Union Square parking lot on a hot Saturday afternoon to sample (and sample and sample) delicious ice cream from some of the best local purveyors of cold treats.
Lots of people say that MBTA stations look old and dirty, but Brian Matiash has a way of really bringing that to life. This shot of the Davis Square station makes us feel gritty just looking at it (in a good way).
Shame, Rock Local music blog Ryan's Smashing Life presents a showcase of its favorite music, including Brooklyn's violin toting, Jewish queercore 4AD throwback band The Shondes and locals Static of the Gods, Larcenist, and Ian Adams. Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, 9 p.m. $9. More information.
Lil Brah got a fantastic shot of the Annisquam light in Gloucester. Vivid sunrises and sunsets are some of our favorite shots and this one has both good color and a good feeling to it.
Metal It's a localish metal showcase featuring the Arkham White, Scourge, We Met Aliens, and The Bathory Silence. It's a hodge podge of styles but with a clear preference for death metal. Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, 8 p.m. $9. More information.
Mosley.Brian put into a photo what we've been thinking here at Bostonist with all this heat and humidity; an afternoon on Cape Cod waiting for the tide. The texture of the sand is great and the low, wide angle makes it appear that the beach never ends. A very nice shot.
Punk Rock Nobody should ever need an excuse to go to Charlie's, and, if you do, tonight's showcase of pure punk rock is not likely to qualify. For the rest of us, though, the sounds of the Curses, the Acrobats, and Noble Rot will make the waffle fries taste all the greasier. Charlie's Kitchen, 10 Eliot St., Cambridge, 9 p.m.
Too sweaty to read? Enjoy air conditioning at an indoor book event this week.
Movies It is hot, muggy, and miserable. Perfect movie weather. And the Brattle will help you spend the entire day in its air conditioning by showing every movie in "The Thin Man" series, a trick the theater first pulled 20 years ago. As Dashiell Hammett's detective couple Nick and Nora Charles, William Powell and Myrna Loy had one of the best ongoing on-screen romances of the 30s and 40s. The movies are witty and cynical and never too hardboiled to crack a joke. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge. More information.
Antydiluvian took today's Film Friday shot back in July of 1978. The colors in this shot are terrific and with this perspective you get a great shot through the car and into the next one. The image has a classic feel to it and offers a great peek back in time.
Creepy Movies Elia Kazan turns all of the creepiest screws with Baby Doll (1956), a psychosexual film about a thumb-sucking sexpot, her rich southern husband and his Sicilian enemy who exacts revenge by getting sexy with Baby Doll. When it was released, Time magazine called it the "dirtiest American-made motion picture that had ever been legally exhibited." Screening with Boomerang! (1949) Kazan's engrossing police procedural. Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge. More information.
Primefocus decided to use the Eastern Point Light as the backdrop rather than the main subject of his photo and the results paid off. Using a shallow depth of field and overexposing the sky to blend with the lighthouse gives you a photo with lots to look at but without a lot of distraction.
Drawing The Boston Comics Roundtable is a group of comics artists who have been meeting since 2007 to talk shop and make comic books. Tonight, their drawing skills will be put to the test at Wild Ink, a benefit for their group that will feature "live art and live music." It's your chance to get a talented local artist to draw your likeness while you drink beer. Featuring music by Rotary. P.A.'s Lounge, 345 Somerville Ave., Somerville, 8 p.m. $12. More information.
Jeff Tamagini joined us for the 1st monthly Bostonist photo walk on Sunday morning and came away with some really good shots. Then he headed over to the North End for the Fisherman's Feast and came away with some great shots including this one of a young man enjoying the party. The fisheye lens and lighting do a good job isolating the subject from an otherwise busy background.
Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and their fellow top 10 contestants of "American Idol"'s eighth season unleashed the screams of a 10,000-strong crowd within the TD Garden on Tuesday night, bringing their newly minted star power to Boston for the local stop on a 50-city tour.
Padma, Tom, and all the rest of the gang are back! This season on Top Chef, we're off to Las Vegas, where 17 eccentric would-be top chefs will battle royale for the grand prize and the chance to smackdown with strangers on cable television.
Movies Were you planning on making a documentary about how all the homophobes in Congress are actually totally gay? That's too bad because somebody has beaten you to it. Outrage is a behind-the-scenes look at wacky right wing policy makers and it screens tonight courtesy of Cinemental and the Boston Underground Film Festival. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, 9:30 p.m. $10.
Nicknac makes great use of negative space, and a monotone image with this shot of a channel marker.
Mayor Thomas Menino has just declared that Boston's staggering 90+ degree temperatures constitute a heat emergency. You know what that means. Pool party. Mumbles's office reminds you to take cool showers, wear light, loose fitting clothing, and stop by Boston's pools for a dip. The pools are open until 9 p.m. for the rest of the week, and we have a list of them after the jump. Don't forget to make sure that your old neighbors aren't dead from heatstroke before you go.
JP Bowl The Milky Way couldn't bring its candlepin lanes with it when it moved to its new location, which means that it's been a while since there's been any bowling in Jamaica Plain. And then came technology. Oui, we Wii is the virtual return of bowling to the Milky Way, courtesy of everybody's favorite Nintendo product. We just hope they bought the special New England edition with little pins and three chances per frame. Milky Way, 284 Amory St., Jamaica Plain, 9 p.m. Free.
-- Shades of Dianne Wilkerson: A Malden woman was arrested in Quincy for allegedly wearing a bra stuffed with 19 bags of crack. That must have made for an unsettling profile. [Herald]
Tom™5's photo has a play on perspective that initially makes it appear to be two separate images blended together. The strong curves of the left half of the frame intermingle like vines, while the right half of the frame is dominated by the lighted tower.
Booze Bostonist has a blog crush on DrinkBoston because it has helped us through many of our drinking life crises with authoritative yet supple advice. Tonight, DrinkBoston's majordomo Lauren Clark will lead booze scholars through the history of drinking in Boston. Topics will include the Ward Eight, Bostonist's favorite political cocktail, seedy Scollay Square, the Cocoanut Grove fire, and tiki bars. The host will offer plenty of pedagogical beverages, and it might make it worth a trip to Union Square's hipster den. Grand, 374 Somerville Ave., Somerville, 7:30 p.m. $20.
Tuesday, August 18 7pm at Brookline Booksmith Christine Lehner, Absent A Miracle Brigid Pasulka, A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
Do you love the Brattle? Do you love it more now that it sells beer? Well, if you enjoy the Brattle's screenings of contemporary and classic content, you oughta pony up for the pleasure. If the theatre reaches its goal of raising $10,000 by midnight tonight (okay, 11:59:59 tonight), a $10,000 matching donation will be provided as well. So donate soon, watch films often, and enjoy having access to a venue that screens everything from the Marx Brothers to anti-commie fearmongering.
Collective Action Jamaica Plain's Whitehaus Collective hoofs it across the river for Weirdstock, "three days of experimental music and art." Featuring everything from new music compositions for toy piano to "samplerdelica" and "the self-proclaimed doctor of organomics." Tonight's showcase features bands with dirty names like The Hard Nips and Dick Heaven. Cambridge YMCA Theatre, 820 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, noon to midnight (through Sunday). Ticket prices and more information.
A couple months ago we did this little Fenway Park piece with Boston-based comedian Ira Proctor.
Brendan McSheffrey has a great shot of Tremont street for today's Film Friday shot. This photo is a good piece of street photography.
Mistakenly regarded as a Pixies spin-off band, the Breeders have always been an entity to themselves. Sure, the band is helmed by Pixies bassist Kim Deal started the Breeders with (Throwing Muse) Tanya Donelly when the Pixies were in a tailspin and headed for a breakup way back in the early '90s. The Breeders released the excellent Pod (still a fave of ours and Kurt Cobain's) in 1990 and followed it with their platinum album, Last Splash in '93 - but they have consistently released excellent music since their inception.
Americana America is home to the most terrifying high school students in the world, and Red Dawn (1984) shows why. The Reaganite fantasy picture once held the record for being the most violent film ever made—with a thrilling 2.23 acts of violence per minute. The best part of the movie is when the Communists use gun registration paperwork to round up all the patriotic Americans and put them into concentration camps because it proves that gun control makes America vulnerable to attack. Bostonist recommends watching this movie before going to health care town hall meeting so that you can capture the correct tenor of rhetoric. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, 9:30 p.m. (also screening Saturday). $9.50.
Mike Cialowicz has a black and white that would look great on any art collector's wall. This image has some great tones while not being overly contrasty. It's easy to see that there's a wonderful story contained within this photo.
Movies The Brattle's Ang Lee retrospective begins today with Hulk, the director's, um, idiosyncratic retelling of the Bruce Banner legend. It's a movie so weird that Marvel Comics pretends like it was never made. It's about half an hour too long, but aren't all of Lee's films? Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge. More information.
IntheViewfinder took a look at Fenway park, and instead of seeing the green of the grass or the blue of the seats, saw angles, lines and light. This picture of the underside of the green monster should be a hit with geometry fans and the way the light falls on the structure should make it a keeper with just about everyone else.
Lovers of Today We were slow learners when it came to the Pretenders, but we now allow that, in its heyday, the band was wicked good. Can Chrissie Hynde and company still tear it up 20 years hence? And will opening act Cat Power continue her eerie metamorphosis from a cowering husk into a vibrant stage performer? And what's with Juliette Lewis on this bill? Does she sing better than she acts? Bank of America Pavilion, 290 Northern Ave., 7 p.m. $25-$45.
WBCN (104.1FM) is concluding their four-day farewell as a rock radio station. Technically a sports station will appear tomorrow at 98.5 as WBZ on the FM dial (while music will still be heard on the web and as a secondary HD-radio channel), but it is truly the final day for this radio institution after more than 40 years.
LauraPadgett took a different approach to photographing Highland Light. Instead of trying to get the lighthouse and the ocean in frame, she turned it around and caught a beautiful sunset. The sky has a gradient from deep reds to pale yellows and all those clouds make for some intriguing focal points.
What Would Eno Do? The Scratch Orchestra was left-wing English composer Cornelius Cardew's experiment in radically democratic music. The project brought musicians and non-musicians together to jointly compose and perform "liberation music." Non-musician Brian Eno was a longtime member of the group. For what might be the first time in your life, you can be like Eno by joining the Berwick Institute's Scratch Orchestra reenactment. The first rehearsal is tonight. Berwick Institute, 14 Palmer St., Roxbury, 7:30 p.m. Bring an instrument. More information.
*Aqualung took a trip to Hudson on Saturday to get some hot air balloon photos. We're sure he was looking for some colorful shots and it appears he found them. This image in particular has great color and composition.
The lazy days of August are here, and this week's music picks start out a bit slow. But never fear, because when the weekend's here, there's plenty of music to hear. Ok, now that the "bad rhyme" quota is fulfilled, here are this weeks concert highlights:
The Nothing The Nothing isn't just a Red Sox box score. It's also the freaky existential annihilation threatening the imaginary land of Fantasia in the cult film The Neverending Story (1984). If only the Red Sox could also be saved by a little kid and his luckdragon. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, 9:30 p.m.
6:30pm at BPL Hyde Park Branch Creating Universes, How to Create a World with Dr. David Joutras, author of "The Mole Chronicles" and "Brother's Keepers."
Jazz Jazz pianist Matthew Shipp, who once endured charges that he was little more than a Cecil Taylor knock-off, has spent the past decade demonstrating his versatility and voracious ear. He plays big, loud chords like Taylor, densely arranged, but he also has a unique sensitivity to the rhythms of hip hop and the potential that they bring to the jazz idiom. Performing a solo set, preceded by Jim Hobbs and Laurence Cook. Outpost 186, 186 1/2 Hampshire St., Cambridge, 8 p.m. $10 suggested donation.
The following post is from our advertiser, Ziplens.
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Film Friday for this week take us to the Science Museum, home to what is apparently the world's largest air insulated Van De Graaff generator, built by the man himself. Aside from just the interestingness of the generator itself, there are some great things happening with colors that to Gnarayan & some Kodak Ektar 100.
Dancing Hipsters Prefuse 73 has long held the pivotal position in between hip hop and intelligent dance music; he's the innovator of glitch hop. Sound entralling? Watch the kids worship him tonight at the ICA. Part of the Wavelengths music series. Institute of Contemporary Art, South Boston, 7:30 p.m. $25.
Remi Thorton took a great shot of the Chatham Railroad Museum at night. The lighting effects make the photo and you can almost image a giant strobe off to the left shining onto the building.
Nostalgia The group show ICONOGRAPHIC: analog representations of youth culture in a digital age features art about skateboards, cassette tapes, and Polaroids—images from a youth counter-culture that has been fetishizing its past since its earliest days. (See also Christian Marclay's fantastic cyanotype of punk rock tapes currently on view at the MFA's Contemporary Outlook: Seeing Songs exhibit.) The four artists, Ashley Capachione, Lucy Watson, Jimmy Treverton, and Nathan Mondragon, work in a variety of media, from prints to sculpture, and tonight's shindig comes with a soundtrack from DJ Nicky Romance. JP Art Market, 36 South St., Jamaica Plain, 5 p.m. Free.
In case that new movie with Demetri Martin and the rash of Woodstock-themed books (including children's books) didn't clue you in that something was going on, we're here to tell you that Woodstock, the famed music festival, happened 40 years ago this month. From August 15 to August 18, 1969, music fans gathered in a field in Woodstock, New York, to smoke weed, roll around in mud, and listen to some pretty decent music. Artists ranged from Joan Baez to the Grateful Dead, and the festival has taken on epic proportions in the minds of music fans ever since.
Nolanstern make great use of several techniques in this photograph of a vintage automobile. The bright yellow works well with the more subdued background and the shallow depth of field helps guide you from right to left through the picture.
Sacrilege The Boston Midsummer Opera stages Drew Minter's translation of Così fan tutte, Mozart's opera about a pair of douchebags who try to seduce each other's girlfriend. In Minter's translations, the douchebags are from Connecticut, their girlfriends are preppie Seven Sisters types, and meddlesome servants work for a country club. Tsai Performance Center, 685 Comm. Ave., 7:30 p.m., through August 9. $20-$50.
On Friday, July 31, Jesse Kaminsky opened his latest creation, Bubbleraft 2, at Meme Gallery near Central Square in Cambridge. Kaminsky sculpts constructions that are startling and otherworldly, while playing with scientific concepts to draw out the beauty and irregularities that exist in patterned organic structures. Watch and listen to our audio slide show to learn more.
Marble Tulip Juicy Tree did a great job composing this shot at the ICA. The reflection gives you a symmetrical look and feel, and it gives the shot a feeling of great space. The people in the back help draw you into the photo and there is enough of the outside world in the reflection, to allow you to explore.
Movies The Boston Underground Film Festival offers an extremely uneven array of movies, but "I'm Keith Hernandez," the short, hilarious documentary about the greatest first baseman/Just for Men spokesman/feminist/Seinfeld character/cokehead ever, more than justifies a trip to Mission Hill for the BUFF shorts showcase. Also featuring work by Damon Packard, Lyn Elliot, Adam Gooder, Alam Raja, Nick Childs, and Pat Vamos. Savant Project, 1625 Tremont St., Mission Hill, 9 p.m. Free.
In today's "better late than never" edition of the PotD, Lil bra has a wonderful picture from Castle Island. The smooth gradients of the blues, pinks, and purples work great against the dark foreground.
Some big names are in town this week: Paul McCartney, Marilyn Manson, Van Morrison, and of course Taylor Hanson. Plus, there are a plethora of throwback acts that have us thinking of our high school days. It's not a matter of having a show to go to, it's a matter of picking which one—and how nostalgic you want to get!
We were tempted to run the tumbleweed today because there really isn't that much going on. But people get angry when we run the tumbleweed. It's the only time when they leave comments for the Happenings post. We don't like to make people angry, so, here's the one and only thing happening in Boston today that we know about and that is worth going to.
Monday, August 3 7pm at Brookline Booksmith Lydia Peelle, Reasons For and Advantages of Breathing
Torontoist was shocked to discover the mythical chupacabra! Actually, a raccoon with alopecia, it turned out.
Music Eccentric New Wavers, the B-52s visit the South Shore Music Circus and they're leaving the apostrophe home. Apparently, they dropped it in 2008. The Opening Act is New Collisions. South Shore Music Circus, 130 Sohier Street, Cohasset, 7:30 p.m., check the Music Circus's website for availability and prices.
It's time for cyclists and pedestrians to take back the streets.
[more]
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