With the change of seasons comes the change of wardrobes. Millions of women all over will be switching over the purses, shoes, and clothes they live in for the next few months. Many of these women will try desperately to look like a million bucks and be the epitome of what Anna Wintour would consider “high fashion.” But the grim reality of it all is that the vast majority of women out there do not......

The owners of Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square are on a mission. It’s pretty hard to miss… in fact, it’s conveniently spelled out on a poster behind the counter. They sell fair trade, shade grown, organic coffee and organic food “with an underlying agenda of social responsibility and environmental stewardship.” The counters are made of bamboo or crushed beer bottles; the ceiling tiles are made of 100% recycled material; the shop is illuminated......

Be There: Chase the Rising Sun Opening Saturday, December 15, 7:00-9:30 pm Exhibition runs from December 15 to January 15 LAB Boston, 13 Brighton Avenue, Allston Free Birdhead Design website Michael Crigler is primarily known as a fashion designer and artist. He makes clothes for his Birdhead line and is having an opening this weekend at LAB, but this opening is also a farewell party. Crigler and his wife, Lauren, are going on a trip......

Just when we got our hopes up that Mayor Thomas Menino had forgotten about his plans to move City Hall to South Boston, he declared yesterday that the move is still very much on his mind. Jay Fitzgerald reported that Menino spoke at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast yesterday, and he said that he'd like to sell the current City Hall space at Government Center and then use the money to move.......

Red Sox fans have it good when it comes to the hometown team, but it's not always easy. On one hand, the team has delivered two World Series titles in four seasons, and we're looking awfully good as we prepare for the 2008 season. But on the other, tickets to see the Sox play at Fenway Park are the hardest in MLB to acquire and they come with the biggest price tags. And while......

New contributor alternatewords gives us what he calls a 'fotodesign.' Since he did such heavy post-processing to give it a graphic design-type look he didn't want to call it a true photo. Whatever you want to call it, The House of Seven Gables has never looked so bright and otherworldly. We love the effect. Welcome alternatewords!......

Thanks to a glut of turkey and leftovers, Bostonist has been unable to fit into our fancy clothes--or our Project Runway review schedule--for the past few weeks. But thanks to some long sessions on the elliptical, we're all zipped up and back on track to follow Heidi's proteges all the way down the catwalk. Last week, Sarah Jessica Parker showed up--graciously refraining from grossing us out with an overly Carrie outfit--and asked the designers to......

Pollock Matters Through December 9 McMullen Museum of Art Boston College 140 Commonwealth, Devlin Hall 108, Chestnut Hill (T: Boston College. Directions by car.) Boston College is running an art exhibit addressing the relationship between painter Jackson Pollock and his friend Herbert Matter. The exhibit is national news because the paintings, which were discovered by Matter's son Alex, may or may not be original Pollocks. Numerous experts have evaluated these paintings to discover the truth,......

This Bostonist swung by the newest sushi restaurant to invade Back Bay last week, and the overall impression was a good one. First off, Haru is a New York city implant, and the location in Dick's Last Resort's old spot in the Prudential Building is the chain's first in the city. Thank you very much, New York. We'll take your trophy AND your sushi. That'll be just fine. But Bostonist digresses. The decor at......

One of the most famous sights in Cambridge--MIT's Stata Center, designed by Frank Gehry--is leaking. MIT is now suing Gehry for negligence. The Stata Center may look amazing on the outside, and it got a shout-out in Doonesbury, but Shelley Murphy at the Globe reports that the inside is a mess of cracks, drainage backups, and mold. MIT paid $1.5 million to fix problems in the Stata Center's amphitheater--which is a rotten icing on top......

Did we ever get a wake-up call. Boston.com, the website for the Boston Globe has metamorphosed overnight. A little box on the right-hand side of the home page asks, "Notice anything different?" In case you didn't notice, the Globe has thrown in a letter to readers and an FAQ. The letter also mentioned what's coming--a "Things to Do" section. How that is different from the "Sidekick," the little insert that already explains things to do,......

Panel Discussion on the Gas Tank Saturday, October 27, 7:00 pm Savin Hill Yacht Club Free Part of the Dorchester Open Studios More info about the studios If you have lived in Boston for a long time, you are aware of the area's most prominent landmark next to the Citgo sign--the gas tank on I-93. If you haven't lived in Boston for long, you're probably wondering what's going on with the gas tank with the......

The South End Open Studios will take place this weekend - Saturday, September 15, and Sunday, September 16, from 11 am to 6 pm. This year's South End Open Studios will be satisfying all your art cravings over the weekend. You can see a full list of participants at the United South End Artists, Inc. website. Some of the more eye-catching projects include Katie DiChiara's "fabulous funky artificial hair sculptures designed to enlighten." Beyond......

The Weekly Dig just unveiled its new website design. Anything would have been an improvement over the crappy, sluggish site the Weekly Dig had before. You could go make a grilled-cheese sandwich and eat it in the time it took for a page to load. The new site is far more sprightly in terms of performance and design. However, we didn't pay as much attention to the design as we should have because of the......

According to the Associated Press, Gov. Deval Patrick called for a review of local bridge inspection records today. It turns out that Massachusetts has 27 steel truss bridges similar in design to the one that collapsed in Minnesota, but none is considered in danger of collapsing. WBZ news posted a Mass Mass Highway Dept. spreadsheet which lists 23 bridge rehab/replacement projects that are in design, under construction or recently completed. Gov. Patrick says he plans......

TheANTI has been kicking it with custom made t-shirt designs since 2004. After moving into some semi-dedicated shop space (and out of their living rooms and kitchens) the crew of theANTI now has a pretty sweet line of designs available on t-shirts for $15, and hoodies for $30. Hats, totes, mixes, and DVDs round out the product line. Inspired by street art, the designs come from a collective of artists and have some great......

The Massachusetts Port Authority board voted on some new policies and benefit packages yesterday. The group approved changes in the sick leave accrual policy and reduced the medical benefit for new employees. Until now MassPort paid 100% of the healthcare premium for their employees, the new policy will require new employees to pay 20% of the policy's premium. On July 1 this year current employees will start paying 5% of the premium, a year from......

We've seen the design. We've seen it play doom. We've heard that it's in the production process. And now we get some sugar. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, spun off from the MIT Media Lab, has an operating system for the XO machines they've dubbed "Sugar." It's safe to say that the look and operation is completely different than anything we've seen before. And you thought Vista was different than what you were......

… why not Boston? The NYC design is based on their subway system. The T logo would lend itself well to a condom wrapper. It's circular with a target T in the center, which just screams, "Hey, buddy! Put it in here!" Plus, it would give a whole new meaning to the Wonderland T stop, wouldn't it? Then again, the thought of T employees enthusiastically endorsing sex might repel you. So we have another option.......

Last year Carl Deitrich was awarded the prize for his work on a 'practical' flying car. Yesterday, Nate Ball was awarded this year's $30,000 Lemelson-MIT student prize for his latest invention the ATLAS Powered Rope Ascende. .It allows a user to scale a rope as fast as 10 feet per second. The prize is described as "awarded annually to an MIT senior or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied......

The Boston Beer Company is headquartered here in Boston. The test brewery is only a few drunken steps from the Stony Brook station in JP, the marketing and admin happens downtown out of the design center on the South Boston waterfront, even if the bulk of the beer is brewed out of state. The flagship is still Sam Adams Boston Lager and the company felt something was missing – their own glass. We've been drinking......

The Union Square Main Streets newsletter announced new tenants would be setting up shop at 11 Bow St. in Somerville. Diesel Cafe has signed a lease to create a cafe on the first floor and renovations have begun this week. This is the second location for the thriving Davis Square business. Upstairs, The Zeitgeist Gallery has leased 1,500 square feet of space to present a wide range of arts programming.The Globe picked up on......

The newly freezing weather reminded us all of how awkward it is to dig for your slick plastic CharlieCard with your glove-covered fingers. But the industrious Subway Knitter has the answer - a mitten with a top pocket just the right size for a CharlieCard. The yarn is thin enough that, when you wave your mittened hand in front of the sensor, the card will communicate with the gate's sensor, and you'll breeze through the......

Last week the Globe ran an op-ed by Robert Kuttner. He rented a Pontiac around Christmas and was real disappointed. His account of his experience was peppered with declarations like "So what's wrong with GM? The cars. GM is famous for being run by bean counters and ad men. Toyota is run by engineers." He goes on to cite American engineering feats like the iPod as an example to support his assertion that Americans can......

The right to bargain with a star pitcher - $51.1 Million to the Seibu Lions The deal that brought Daisuke Matsuzaka to the Boston Red Sox roster - $52 million over six years. A second World Series win in 86 years – Oh, crap, we almost got caught in a MasterCard commercial for a moment. The $112 million that was spent to bring the Japanese pitcher to Boston is more than we can ever......

The city of Boston unveiled new plans today to hold private developers to a more environmentally friendly standard. The Globe reports that the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) will incorporate these regulations into building codes for the city. Anyone planning a building over 50,000 square feet must meet 26 of the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, and they must also meet a few extra Boston-specific standards, such as......

It's like some bastardized version of the "five things you don't know about me" meme that's making the way around the blogosphere, redesigns are happening all over the internet. The MBTA redesigned their website last week. In a somewhat embarrassing move they had to pull the new design due to poor performance. But it wasn't really that surprising that the T would make such a move given their track record of delayed trains, buses, and,......

While you were waiting in line for the CharlieGate to open the MBTA has been hard at work. Fixing escalators? No. Running busses on schedule? Of course not. Giving their website a complete overhaul? You got it. This morning browsing over to the MBTA.com website brings up a whole new page. Compared to the last 2002-esque design of the T website of yesterday the new implementation is in the flashy web 2.0 vein. For......

Yesterday the fanfare that has been the opening celebration for the new ICA building in the Seaport district opened to the general public for a 12 hour free ride in the new space. The news today is that nearly 5,000 people visited the new facility over the course of the day, many of whom had positive things to say about it even after a two hour wait. The museum opened at 9 am and......

The New York Times printed a glowing review of the new ICA building on the waterfront today. Fun quotes from the article like "its ability to interweave art and civic life makes it the most important building to rise here in a generation." show that the New York press are as impressed with the new building as the Boston media seems to be. There is early mention of the piece of the John Hancock tower......