Our favorite Boston NPR station, 90.9 WBUR, posted this nice shot of canoe reflections on the Charles. Their Flickr stream is filled with great Boston-related photos, so be sure to give it a gander. Also stay tuned to Bostonist for a story about the upcoming Charles River swim.......

--Adam Gaffin of Universal Hub was on NPR this week to discuss Boston Crime, which tracks violent crime on a Google map and allows people to comment on cases. A must-listen. They describe him as a "computer guy by day, crime chronicler by night." [NPR] --What's with the rats all over a recent edition of the Boston Globe? [Massachusetts Liberal] --Where to find pictures of Boston back in the day. [Beantown Bloggery] --Food sniglets! [Cave......

Continuing our list of list series, Bostonist slugged through all the best and worst of lists for the albums of 2007. Locally: The Boston Globe also Globe's Notable Local Albums of the Year WERS Phoenix & WFNX staffers The Weekly Dig Elsewhere: Blender NPR Paste Pitchfork TIME......

Everybody's making "best of" lists at this time of year, but who's in charge of making a list of these best of lists? Well, nobody really, so we've put ourselves in charge and assembled a list of the "best books" lists of 2007. Nobody really needs another list, but a compilation of lists--and determining what's best according to all lists--is something helpful that nobody else really does. Bostonist has checked out several "best of" book......

Authorial Intent is Bostonist's wrap-up of local readings. All events are free unless otherwise noted. Wednesday, November 28 Helen Vendler, Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and the Lyric Form, Sacker Museum (via Harvard Book Store), 6:00 pm. More info. Vendler, the closest reader of all close readers, so says the New York Times, shines her spotlight on William Butler Yeats. Thursday, November 29 David Hosp, Innocence, 7:30 pm, Charlestown Branch Library Hosp will be reading from......

Four (Curious) Stories Monday, November 5, 2007 7-9pm (Music starts @ 6) The Enormous Room 567 Massachusetts Ave Central Square, Cambridge Admittance free and open to the public While "Tales of exploration, experimentation, and questioning" might conjure up images of coming out stories, tonight's installment of the Four Stories reading series isn't specifically tailored to that topic. It's just a bunch of curious tales, designed to step off the beaten (written?) path and spark some......

Turkeys have been terrorizing Brookline for some time, but a Bostonist reader happened to catch one in the act, just waiting to strike on Washington Square. In September, the other BPD, the Brookline Police Department, warned residents about turkey trouble and what to do in case you are faced with the kind of wild turkey that doesn't come in a bottle. Our favorite tip from them is "Don’t let turkeys intimidate you — Don’t......

Mahmood Rezaei-Kamalabad Aladdin Auto Repair Behind Fresh Pond Cinemas Friday, October 12, through Sunday, October 13 Gallery reception on Saturday, October 13, 5:00 to 9:00 pm Cambridge has always had a knack for making cars way more interesting to those who are not mechanically inclined. People without cars can enjoy NPR's "Car Talk," broadcast from Harvard Square. But Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, have nothing on Mahmood Rezaei-Kamalabad, proprietor of Aladdin Auto Repair.......

Bostonist sends a hearty congratulations to Rebecca Watson, of Brookline, for winning the Public Radio Talent Quest. Watson will have the opportunity to produce a pilot to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Watson was one of the top three winners out of 1,500 contestants. She joins Al Letson, of Jacksonville, FL, and Glynn Washington, of Oakland, CA. Weekend America did an interview with all three. Although three people won, Watson came in first, and deservedly......

The On the Road 50th-anniversary event will be on Thursday, September 6, at 6:00 pm at the Brattle Theatre. Tickets are $5 and are available at Harvard Book Store. You may have heard rumors of a bar at the event, but, alas, the idea was nixed. Lowell's own Jack Kerouac is getting the royal treatment from Massachusetts now that On the Road is turning 50. Lowell is showing the legendary Kerouac scroll, and authors Joyce......

Correction: Many thanks to an anonymous guest who pointed out that it is "Tappet," not "Tappert." That was an egregious typo because Bostonist loves "Car Talk." This kind guest also provides a Wikipedia explanation of "Tappet" and its link to "Click" and "Clack." Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe forever! Car buffs, stoners, and the hung over will wax rhapsodic over "Car Talk," the NPR talk show that airs out of Harvard Square. The car tips of......

Providence's corrupt mayor, a brazen statement backed up by a federal court ruling, has been released from prison in New Jersey and is now currently in a Boston halfway house. Media were camped out around the building awaiting his arrival. He thwarted most of the cameras by slipping in the back door. It appears that a Providence TV station managed to secure some cameraphone shots of his arrival. It was reported last week that he'd......

Roy Blount Jr. will be reading from Long Time Leaving: Dispatches From Up South at First Parish Church Meetinghouse on Wednesday, May 16, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available at Harvard Book Store. On Saturday mornings, we need a Roy Blount Jr. fix. We're addicted. If he's not answering questions in NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me in his warm, avuncular, Southern-fried voice, we get crabby. We don't know why, but we love hearing him......

Text messages aren't just our favorite way to vote Sanjaya off of American Idol, they're also the quickest way to get in touch, no matter where we are. The mobile is always close at hand (and usually in the pocket) if we're at a concert, in class, or even in the cube toiling away on our TPS reports a text message won't likely go ignored for long. A number of US colleges and universities have......

This morning on NPR's Morning Edition the money race was quantified in numbers. Since it was NPR they needed something other than visual aids to make the point. What better way to make that point than to use music? The brothers Gibb classic “Staying Alive” was used, for every one second played the candidate indicated had raised $2 million dollars. For some of the candidates, like Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson the clips......

This American Life Live! will be at the Boston Opera House at 8:00 pm tonight. This American Life, the beloved radio show syndicated on NPR, is going on a multimedia blitz. To celebrate the television version of its radio program, which will air on Showtime, Ira Glass and some of his show's popular guests, including Sarah Vowell, Dan Savage, and Jonathan Goldstein, will speak at the Boston Opera House tonight. As icing on the cake,......

Garrison Keillor will be at Symphony Hall tomorrow at 3pm. Tickets are available through the celebrityseries.org website. Garrison Keillor, the man behind Prairie Home Companion and the inspiration behind Robert Altman's last movie will be speaking in Boston tomorrow. Why does Bostonist like Keillor so much? He's the literary equivalent of Yo La Tengo, sounding for all the world like gentle souls yet proclaiming in an album title, "I am not afraid of you, and......

This past September something innovative happened in Boston. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum launched a webcast. It wasn't just any webcast, it was a creative commons licensed release of concerts performed as part of the long standing museum concert series. It's allowed users world wide to take in a little classical music culture by downloading the file and playing it on their iPod, in the windows media center or whatever MP3 compatible device they choose.......

PJ O'Rourke is being hosted by Brookline Booksmith for a reading at Coolidge Corner Theater tomorrow night, Monday, January 29 at 6:00 pm. The price is two bucks. How can you write about an "invisible hand" if you can't even see it? Well, you can if you're PJ O'Rourke and you're writing about Adam Smith, the great-grandpappy of free trade. PJ O'Rourke is tackling Adam Smith's legendary The Wealth of Nations. But he's not really......

The Executive Office of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is taking a giant leap into 2005. Deval Patrick will podcast. Shoot he might even blog. Local leaders are already doing it. Menino is doing it. O'Malley is doing it. So why shouldn't Governor Patrick jump at the chance to bring his message directly to the people? It's a cool idea, we just wish he was going to make it a warm and fuzzy fireside vlog. The......

John Sedgwick will be reading at Emmanuel Church Tuesday, January 9th, at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door and can be purchased via the Massachusetts Historical Society website or by calling 617-646-0560. It's hard for a Sedgwick to shake off the family name. Any Sedgwick would feel the pressure of the family history even if it weren't for the legendary Edie Sedgwick, who blazed her way to fame thanks......

In preparation for tonight's big night, you might be concerned with how you'll feel on New Year's Day. No one wants to start the New Year crouched over a toilet bowl, clinging to the cool porcelain throne. NPR's "Morning Edition" aired an informative piece about how people wind up in so much pain after a night of overindulgence. Basically, if you're hungover, you just "pickled" yourself: "The second theory of hangover involves a type of......

We just love listening to all the great 'casts out there. Sure, we have to wade through mountains of manure to find the ones worthy of calling our shiny little MP3 player home. Bostonist thinks it might have found one such 'cast: Love and Radio. Love and Radio is just what you would expect from a show that is available via alt.NPR. It contains the interesting accounts and stories collected by two twenty-somethings spending their......

If you're not into traveling all the way to the Tweeter Center for Journey and Def Leopard, check out this week's picks. Even if you are into heading down to the big name act's show you'll need something to do the rest of the week. There's no joking about it this week. Fall is here. By the time the weekend hits it's time to break out the cider and make some pumpkin pie. We're......

If it weren't for our life as an -ist, we're not sure we'd ever leave our apartment. Fortunately, to fully -ist, one must seek out the new, the fresh, and the unknown. Brand new, or just new to us, that's what we're all about this week. Phillyist keeps it fresh by getting a new motto, learning to prioritize, and taking in an experimental indie rock show. Torontoist does their first post in franglais, gets ready......

Now that we're on this eight days a week kick for doing these picks it seems like it might be time for a new graphic. We'll give you a cookie if you design us a new one. Or maybe a Newcastle next time you catch us at the Middle East. Promise. Monday 8/7 The Roots with Talib Kweli It may not be a Brooklyn block party hosted by Dave Chappelle, but it will be......

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......

Tonight the Boston Landmarks Orchestra takes stage at the Boston Common Parkman Bandstand to present Lifting the Curse: A Story of the Red Sox composed by Josh Wachner and story by Bill Littlefield. Littlefield hosts the nationally syndicated, locally produced, show Only A Game on NPR and offers regular limericks during 'BUR pledge drives. The performance of the piece is another composition inspired by the lifting of the 86-year curse on the Olde Towne Team.......

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 6/29 Wordplay Patrick Creadon's debut feature-length documentary follows the career of puzzling luminary Will Shortz and the national crossword tournament he founded. Celebrity interviews include Daily Show host Jon Stewart and celebrated Daily Show guests Bob Dole and Bill Clinton. Kendall Square Cinema See......

All we can say is at least it's not raining. The humidity, not so much the heat, has got everyone running on a pretty sluggish pace today. Perhaps after another TurboIce things will pick up. Or some sweet nerdy action in the way of the IT Band Bash – you know the guy sitting in the cube across from you who's a rocker at night? Oh, you don't, well he might be. If you're......