The Axe in the Attic Human Rights Watch International Film Fest Wednesday, January 16 at 7:30 p.m. Remis Auditorium, MFA Tickets: $10 MFA members, seniors & students; $12 others. Tonight, The Axe in the Attic opens the four-day Human Rights Watch International Film Fest at the MFA. This film follows two New Englanders on a post-Katrina road trip to New Orleans, depicting their interactions with evacuees and confronting difficult realizations about the many shortcomings of......

Because everything gets it’s own research funding these days we ripped this wonderful lead in to a story from today’s news: “Researchers in England, citing unpaid holiday bills, rotten weather and people's realization that they likely won't live up to their New Year's resolutions, say Jan. 22 is the unhappiest day of 2007.” Yep, today is the unhappiest day of 2007. Since we made it to work by dragging our feet and swearing about having......

It’s that time of year again – that time when New Englanders gather up their beach balls and towels for one more run in the sun. This weekend, that last fling will take thousands of Bay Staters north to Maine, to explore the outlets, the beaches, and most importantly, the restaurante. Now, when envisioning a casual dining experience in southern Maine, jerk chicken may not spring immediately to mind. Nor might oxtail curry, meat pies,......

Bostonist loves us some ice cream. We're too lazy (and full of ice cream) to find the statistic that says New Englanders eat more ice cream than anyone else in the nation. We're pretty sure that our winter intake of creamy deliciousness tops the summer consumption of other parts of the country. Are we proud? Yes. We've got our share of local chains and independent parlors to find our tasty treats – and Jamaica Plain-based......

In what could be the biggest news to hit school lunch since Reagan attempted to classify ketchup as a vegetable, State Senator Jarrett Barrios is set to introduce legislation to outlaw the Fluffernutter on school lunch trays around the state. After Barrios' son was served a Marshmallow Fluff and Peanut Butter sandwich at his elementary school, the Senator took up the fight against the gooey, delicious sandwich. On the heels of the vending machine battle......

After eight straight days of heavy rain, steady rain, and misty rain, the sun has finally emerged from behind the clouds. The temperature will climb into the seventies today. Where as for the last week every conversation Bostonist had began with some complaint about the weather, today has proven the opposite. Everyone is beaming because of the rays pouring down on the Hub. But New Englanders, especially in Boston, love to complain. So without......

Today is the Ides of March, on which Julius Caesar was famously murdered. It's not a special day with a special name because he was murdered, it just happens to be the day he got his. Bostonist remembers it because some time during our education, we had to read Shakespeare's play about the life of Caesar (cleverly titled "Julius Caesar"), and there's a part where a soothsayer tells Caesar to "beware the Ides of March."......

So Bostonist has never claimed to be the most intellectual of the bunch, especially when it comes to television. We’ve been tuning in these past couple weeks to Fox’s harshest reality television show (no, not Skating With Celebrities) to see just how mean the judges on American Idol can get. As we’ve seen in the last few seasons of this spinoff of the British show, Pop Idol, the best part of Idol is the......

Not being from the Northeast, this Bostonist was intrigued and a bit appalled to learn of the little tradition New Englanders enact at holiday parties called a "Yankee Swap". Basically, all guests bring a unique, comic, embarrassing, or low-brow present (usually $20 or under) and then proceed to pick a gift from the pile based on a pre-determined order. The person then opens the gift and chooses whether to keep it or to take......

Despite recent surges in population (due to the start of the academic year) and some violent events in the not-too-distant past, Allston has not, in fact, been declared a disaster area (as opposed to New Orleans, shown at right). But these similarities are exactly what makes Boston's own "Rock City" the perfect place to host three nights' worth of benefit shows for Katrina relief and recovery efforts. Great Scott on Commonwealth Avenue is the venue......

Bostonist would like to ask: What the hell is up with the weather? Being New Englanders, we can all expect the weather to throw us some curve balls here and there, but this is getting ridiculous. Does the sun not shine in the Hub anymore? After this past weekend being another washout, making it the fifth in a row, Bostonist was hopeful that things would turn around before the long holiday weekend. Well, according to......