-- Boston police shot a 23-year-old man on the Boston Common yesterday afternoon, after the man allegedly aimed a fake gun at officers. Shawn Craig of Boston led police on a chase through the crowded common, past scores of Bostonians relaxing in the park after work. Police say they had stopped Craig on the suspicion that he had outstanding warrants. At some point during the chase, Craig aimed a pellet gun designed to look like......

--Coverage of yesterday's rally on the Common protesting Chinese repression in Tibet. [BU Daily Free Press, Boston Globe] --In protests of a more frivolous nature, it seems that someone has been publicly stating a problem with the Phoenix's Adult section. At first, we assumed the protest at Gary's Liquors in West Roxbury was that the section wasn't titillating enough, but we were wrong. [Universal Hub] --The National Transportation Safety Board says it won't probe commuter......

--Are too many activities hurting the condition of the Common? The folks at Parks and Recreation think so. But what's the point of having a Common if people can't go there? [WBZ] --The fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq caused a local contrast. Local National Guard soldiers came home. [WHDH] --Meanwhile, five people in Boston and eight people in Chicopee were arrested for protesting the war, and about 100 people were at the......

--A four-alarm fire broke out in Brookline overnight on Sewall Avenue. The building was vacant, but 120 people were evacuated, and three firefighters were injured. [WCVB] --Heist, heist baby. The Herald pulls out all the stops when anniversary the theft of priceless art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. [Boston Herald] --Whole Foods plus the South End sounds like a perfect storm for satire. [Boston Real Estate Blog] --The priceless line of......

--Four people, among them three juveniles, have been arrested for the fatal shooting of a man in Cambridge at Windsor and Howard Friday night. The victim was 18-year-old Lucien Christalin, of Mattapan. A spokesperson for the Middlesex DA said "the victim and shooter knew each other." [Boston Herald, Cambridge Chronicle] --The BPD swept the Boston Common, aka Deval's Front Yard, and made 10 arrests. [BPD News] --Police nabbed a notorious sex offender at a motel......

One of the better deals for parking in Boston just got a little worse. The garage underneath the Boston Common is raising its rates effective March 1, the Herald reports. Evening and weekend rates will rise to $11. The weekday rate will go up to $27. Then again, the rates remain much better than your other options. Many garages in the city charge $6 after 20 minutes, so $27 for a weekday rate isn't awful,......

A flash pillow fight went down at Boston Common yesterday afternoon, courtesy of the Banditos Misteriosos. Maria Varmazis took some great photos of the pillow fight. Some people took the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon approach: While others hid their Pillow Power under a tender Hello Kitty disguise: She has plenty more of feathers flying over at Flickr. If this is the first flash event from Banditos Misteriosos, then bring on more of them! Photos courtesy......

Movember madness continues with Bostonist taking great leaps to link the Top Ten Mustaches of all time with our own fine city. Bet you never knew we had so many mustache connections, even beyond Wade Boggs. 1. Burt Reynolds Mr. Reynolds has apparently played a Boston policeman in not just one but two ridiculous movies you've never heard of. Score two for the force! 2. Tom Selleck Tom Selleck went out on a limb to......

Be prepared to take a long lunch break tomorrow. Mayor Menino has announced that Red Sox celebration festivities will begin tomorrow at noon. Bostonist watched the WBZ webcast of Mayor Menino giving the details. The players will be riding in duck boats in a repeat of 2004's "rolling rally." Menino said that the parade will follow the same route as it did in 2004. Here's an image of last year's route from the Globe.......

Rally for Barack Obama Parkman Bandstand Boston Common Tuesday, October 23, 6:30 pm Now that Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick has made the difficult choice of whom to endorse for president, he's ready to celebrate. Patrick's pick for Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, will stop in Boston for a little party for the people tonight. However, Obama is traveling with Secret Service, so security will be tight. Rally participants can't bring bags, signs, or banners. If......

- Two men are on the lam after an attempted carjacking in broad daylight on the Mass Pike. The suspects jumped into the back seat of a car waiting in line for the Allston-Brighton toll. When they arrived at the booth the driver alerted the attendant to the carjacking while being "pistol-whipped" with a handgun. The car hit another and then stopped, at which time the two men fled and have yet to be......

You may not have noticed since they've been largely under the radar, but the Boston Film Festival starts this weekend at the AMC Loews Boston Common, and they have some good movies. The Boston Film Festival website has the full schedule, and Bostonist has pulled out some highlights: Lars and the Real Girl, Saturday, September 15, 7:30-9:30 Have you ever wondered what might happen if a fella bought a blow-up doll and actually fell in......

--The BPD announced that it is increasing foot patrols by adding 54 officers to the street beat. Commish Ed Davis held a conference yesterday at Codman Square. Right now, 18 beat officers total cover downtown, Grove Hall, and Bowdoin-Geneva. Here is a full list of where the new beat officers will patrol: Eagle Hill (A-7/ East Boston), two teams in Codman Square (B-3 Mattapan/Dorchester), Morton Ave and Blue Hill Avenue (B-3 Mattapan/Dorchester), Egleston Square (E-13/......

--Police picked up Mark Leaston because, according to the DA's office, "Evidence suggests that Leaston forced a 22-year-old woman into his U-Haul, drove her to nearby Kineo Street, and touched her against her will before ordering her out of the truck." Leaston's lawyer is saying that it wasn't kidnapping but that the woman was a prostitute, and Leaston was fighting with her. According to the Globe, the lawyer, Richard Doyle, dropped the words "pounding the......

We saw so much of Denzel Washington in the local press recently that we're feeling a little left out, even more so since he's probably left town by now. Boston media was so Denzel-happy that we half expected someone to run a post saying, "I threw my panties at Denzel!" It's like Denzel Washington was here, there, and everywhere in Boston. Washington was in town for the shooting of The Great Debaters, about a 1930s......

With out of town guests visiting the cradle of the Revolution over the Fourth of July holiday, Bostonist made the pilgrimage down the red bricked freedom trail. In the North End near the Old North Church the fountain at the Paul Revere Mall was dormant. Dormant and disgusting. Full of nasty greenish stagnant water that sat in the pool without any flow whatsoever. It seemed an inviting pool for West Nile and EEE carrying mosquitoes......

Earlier this week Cardinal Sean O'Malley invited Pope Benedict XVI to Boston during his planned 2008 visit to the United States. The Pope has planned a trip to visit the United Nations in New York and O'Malley suggests that a short trip up from the NYC in the pope-mobile might be in order. The Globe quotes O'Malley as saying "Given everything Boston has been through, having the Holy Father come, I think, would be a......

A while back, we joined the Globe in recommending Winthrop Square Garage as a place to park if you are crazy or desperate enough to drive downtown. Thinking they were missing a potential source of revenue, the city has decided to raise the rates when it takes over on June 30. This past Saturday, the Globe published a piece on which garages seemed to justify their high rates. Normal people just want a place to......

Daisuke Matsuzaka Mania has already jumped the shark, and the season hasn't even started yet. The Globe had a long, loving look at how the arrival of Matsuzaka is going to juice up Boston's economy. (Better hide Pastor Wall's warning to tourists about the risks of getting shot around here.) We are anticipating Matsuzaka's official debut as much as the next sports fan. And we are tickled that one guy is expected to pump $14......

We were thinking about how clever presidential candidate Barack Obama must have been to find parking in Cambridge, tickets be dammed. And then we saw the latest in ridiculous rates in this city. The Globe reports, "At least seven garages are charging for parking in 20-minute rather than 30-minute increments, and many of them are collecting their all-day rates for periods of less than two hours." Many places are charging $6 for 20 minutes or......

On this day a mere 131 years ago, Alexander Graham Bell received the patent for the telephone and Ma Bell was on her way to being born. Bell submitted his patent for the telephone at 11:30 a.m. February 14, only hours after Elisha Gray submitted a caveat for the device – but Gray didn't convert his caveat into a full blown application for patent, so the patent office granted the patent to Bell. It's a......

It's so hard sometimes, trying to track down the perfect gift for that theatrical friend who seems to have everything. Or giving your Upstairs/Downstairs or Heaven/Hell party that certain something to stand out from all the rest. Fortunately, Boston Lyric Opera has the solution: buy the set for Carmen on eBay. EW.com pointed out this week that the BLO is auctioning off its set for the 2002 production of "Carmen on the Common," the opera......

Judging by the looks of it, the Bush Administration wishes that the nation would just forget that American soldiers are fighting and dying in Iraq. But they haven't forgotten in Boston. After several years of war, yesterday's protest on Boston Common drew what the Globe estimated to be several hundred people. The Globe also reported that the "turnout at today's event was better than expected." The war has been hitting Massachusetts directly. Keith Callahan,......

The emphasis on First Night has been as much on what you can't do as much as what you can do. So let's get what you can't do out of the way right now. Don't drive. Take public transportation. No excuses because the T will be free after 8 pm. The MBTA provides more details about the New Year's schedule here. And, as far as the law is concerned, the message is try not to......

After a sparse, lackadaisical August, the fall semester has arrived with a frenzied syllabus of film screenings: a slew of new documentaries, our favorite Terry Gilliam movies, a notoriously disorganized film festival, and a guest lecture from Bruce Campbell, chainsaw-wielder emeritus. Thursday 9/7 Four Eyed Monsters Two pale, artsy Brooklynites met through online personals, maxed out seven credit cards to make a movie about it, moved back in with their parents in Massachusetts, and made......

Downtown Crossing is set for a makeover. It's yet unseen what the City will do to improve the space (planters and pushcart awnings are promised). A big spot on the block is slated to be vacant very soon. Filene's will be no longer. Macy's parent corporation has merged with Filene's Federated, and is in the process of converting the Filene's branded stores to Macy's – and where they're in competition, consolidation will follow. Menino seems......

Who needs advance reviews when this Bostonist's got an excuse to wear her vintage stewardess uniform to the theater? Thursday 8/17 Snakes On A Plane Jon Stewart: What's the plot? Samuel L. Jackson: Uhhh... Bad guy wants to bring down the plane... Stewart: What's on the plane? Jackson: Victims. Stewart: No no no no. Jackson: Reptiles? Stewart: Yes! Jackson: Poisonous reptiles! Stewart: Yes! Jackson: Snakes on a mother***ing plane! Stewart: They wanted to make it......

Nothing takes the fun out of a summer frolic in the Frog Pond on Boston Common like rain. On the other hand, anyone who does happen to be out in the rain, as Bostonist recently was, gets to enjoy the rare and lovely sight of the Common devoid of people.......

In a world where there's nothing to do but watch movies. In a city full of theaters, museums, and libraries. One moviegoer who can be in three places at once. Thursday 8/3 Stolen One of the things that endears the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to us (along with the dim lighting, strict ban on electronic devices, and terse signage) is how the frames of missing paintings hang empty on the walls. (As per Mrs. Gardner's......

Usually we try to wax poetic about some sort of relevant piece of information. This week we're dropping all that fluff and jumping right into this week's set of picks – lots of good shows on tap for this week. Zydeco to classical, hip hop to electronica, and Bon Jovi. Monday 7/24: Wattstax with Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves Allston's Paperboy plays an opening revue for a screening of Wattstax, a film......