Results tagged “poetry”

Even if you can't make some of the interesting events this week, be sure to check out the Bookish Ball in Harvard Square on Saturday for some literary fun.

Opera Bedřich Smetana's The Bartered Bride calls for a dude in a bear costume, the most tuneful stuttering you'll ever hear, and the consumption of gallons of imaginary beer. Opera Boston places the 19th-century Czech comic opera in the Depression (the previous one), back when selling women was still hilarious. Pretty singing, with baseball. Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont St, 7:30 pm. $29-$114.

With the recent events of economic crisis, feminist derision and political collision, globalization and every other celebrity being carted off to rehab, whose voice from the past can guide us through the darkness, help us find solace and inspiration in this time of terror and turpitude? How about a jazz-age poet from New England with lesbian tendencies and a pretty serious drug habit? Kind of a Lindsay Lohan/Rush Limbaugh love child, if you will.

--Hug a social worker today. If you've ever wondered why the Department of Social Services couldn't stop an act of violence from happening, read this eye-opening article on just how hard it is to be a social worker. According to the piece, "between one-third and three-quarters of all social workers nationwide have been threatened, physically assaulted, or had their property damaged." [Boston Globe]

With deep and heartfelt apologies to Clement Clarke Moore and all his descendents (read the whole thing after the jump):

Ukulele Noir Nave Gallery, Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, 155 Powderhouse Blvd, Somerville Saturday, November 17, 2007 8-10 pm, $10 Bostonist never thought we'd hear the words "ukulele" and "noir" used together, but now it's happened. And it sounds pretty rad. Tonight's installment of Ukulele Noir, an assortment of skilled ukulele players, will feature Craig Robertson, Melvern Taylor and the Fabulous Meltones, Uncle Shoe, and the East Boston Make Out Club Band. All will strum tiny...

Attempt at Largest Gathering of Halloween Witches (Reciting Poetry) With Lesley Bannatyne Saturday, October 27 Book signing at 7:00 pm McIntyre & Moore Booksellers, Davis Square, Somerville Record-breaking at 7:30 pm Davis Square, Somerville Do the past few Halloweens seem to go by, leaving nothing more than a little tummyache after eating too much candy corn? Well, Somerville author and Halloween expert Lesley Bannatyne is aims to leave a mark this Halloween by attempting to...

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...

NESN asks the question, "Will the poetry in the field spark romance in the stands?" Perhaps - but the first episode of Sox Appeal suggests that if you really want to woo someone, you're better off doing it without the distractions of a baseball game. Garrett Lucash, a retired figure skater who will apparently do anything to banish the stereotype of the male figure skater, meets with three different women. He tries to strike...

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti...

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried...

Gail Mazur, Robert Pinsky, Lloyd Schwartz, and Rosanna Warren will be reading at the ICA on the HarborWalk at 6:30 pm tomorrow, Thursday, May 3. Free first-come, first-serve tickets will be available an hour before the reading. The ICA and UMass Boston are celebrating Emily Dickinson - the ultimate Massachusetts literary institution - tomorrow night. The ICA is installing a visual display of Dickinson's 695 (As if the Sea should part), and four poets will...

It started with comic books flying from the stage. Some people need eBay or Craigslist or a recycle bin to offload their Arion: Lord of Atlantis collection; Humanwine's Holly Brewer needs an audience. Friday night's crowd at the Paradise had come to celebrate the release of the first Humanwine album, Fighting Naked, and to catch airborne back issues. When M@ McNiss* and the rest of Humanwine appeared, they launched into "Big Brother," a defiant...

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed. For LAist, strong winds attacked LA on the same day the Feds raided the Crips. Not to fear, though: the Japanese version...

Sometimes even those of us who live in the rock clubs can forget how to behave ourselves. Maybe it’s some strange alchemy of alcohol and entitlement. Maybe it’s a vague attachment to the spirit of “punk rock.“ Or maybe it’s just plain rudeness. Just in case, here’s a brief refresher course on the things to keep in mind from people who know best - the ones who work there. 1) Keep Your Hands to Yourself...

As the saying goes April showers bring May flowers. We're willing to subscribe with that theory. April looks to be a bit soggy for us in the beginning, especially considering the current seven day forecast. That means that frolicking in the outdoors will be limited and heading into the haven of the local rock haunts will be plentiful. Lucky this week provides a host of great shows around the Boston area. Included this week is the Shoot the Moon residency at Abbey Lounge. Another one of those wonderful local bands we first heard while tuning into Exploit Boston Radio.

Music, comedy, poetry, and audience participation filled the room. At first blush, it looked like an episode of Prairie Home Companion, but it was really musician/poetess Patti Smith performing at the Institute of Contemporary Art on Wednesday night.

Current Diesel employee Steve sends in a photo snapped from inside the new space at 11 Bow as they start the renovations. It looks a lot like an album cover for some hot new band. More photos of the new space available from his Flickr stream.

Patti Smith will speak at the ICA February 21 at 6:30 pm.

Yuletide on YouTube: Trapped in the Clauset. A seasonally inspired parody of R. Kelly's, um, masterpiece(?) has been making its way all over the internets this past week. The three part series is blatantly absurd, while there aren't any midgets Rudolph, an elf, and maybe even the birthday boy himself show up. Sacrilege? Yes. Funny? Sure. "That's what you say when you're Santa: you say Ho three times in a row." That's not the best, but you really should watch all three parts for yourself and we don't want to give any of the cliffhangers away. The original chapters of Trapped in the Closet were their own parody. Yet, we're surprised that we haven't seen more rips on the modern classic. Maybe the R. Kelly style is just seeping into the contemporary poetry of the missed connection section of Craigslist. Dare you to read this missed connection posted yesterday while humming Trapped in the Closet.

i was buying sparks. it was wednesday. i dropped my change. it was in rubles. you entered. you stopped to pick up my change. i said it was worthless. you said, no, it's okay. i said, no really, they were rubles. you said, that change is from far away. you picked up my rubles. you gave me my rubles. i said, thank you for my rubles. and i grabbed my sparks and left. with my rubles...rubles...rubles...

Bostonist loves political theatre, whether of the absurd-but-meant-to-be-serious sort or the absurd-for-absurdity's-sake sort. An upcoming event next month fits squarely into the latter category: The Riverside Theatre Works in Hyde Park is hosting a talent show for Boston's mayoral and city council candidates. The Globe reports today that many local notables will, indeed, participate: Felix Arroyo will sing Sinatra, Kevin McCrea will twirl a baton while telling jokes (?), and Mumbles will read poetry, promising to make some unknown poet a star on the strength of his oratorical skill. Really. What the Globe doesn't report, strangely, is the time, date, or location of the event. Luckily, Bostonist is here to help: It will be at the Riverside Theatre Works' home base (45 Fairmount Ave. in Hyde Park) on Sunday, September 26, at 6:00 p.m., with an elbow-rubbing reception beforehand at 5:00.

In addition to hearing some hard-working local writers share their work, you can also get 15% off Cross goods, so you struggling writers out there can pick up a snazzy laptop case or something of that ilk.

All those indie and punk shows getting you a little too worked up? We thought so. Take a deep breath, remove the suspenders and striped socks. Put on your dancing shoes and listen to some poetry. But it’s the weekend you say, and you’re not up for some tame literary adventure? You want something with a little beat? Revive your soul at the Center for Latino Arts' Soul Revival on Saturday night. One of Bostonist’s favorite live action poets, Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo, will be there. She’s been around the slam scene in Boston for a number of years and has been pondering her continued participation on the Boston area Slam Team (yeah, Bostonist didn’t really know there was a regional team either). If HBO is your only feed for culture you may have seen Iyeoka on Def Poetry Jam.

If this description of a book doesn't intrigue you, you have to be dead: Rachel Dewoskin went to China to work for an American PR firm and ended up as a Chinese soap opera star. She was the sexy American vixen on Foreign Babes In Beijing, the subject of her new book. Please ignore the very Sex and The City-aping cover; Columbia grad Ms. Dewoskin is an assistant poetry editor for BU's literary magazine AGNI and a writer, and the book's going to be interesting, funny, and sociological! Come see her read tonight at 7PM at the BU Bookstore below the Citgo sign. If your tastes lean more towards ye olde Victorian novels of intrigue and ambiguous sexuality, have tons of fun with songwriter Wesley Stace, nee John Wesley Harding, a British hottie of sound mind and song who's written a well reviewed first novel, Misfortune. You can drink with him at 7PM at Newtonville Books' venerable Books and Brew series, and hey, if you get him talking, maybe there'll be singing too! Get your knowledge on and meet some attractive writers. (Bostonist feels the need to mention that fact if it will get you out of the house!)

Bostonist is a reader. If you ask, Bostonist's favorite book would likely be The White Boy Shuffle, the 1996 coming of age book by Paul Beatty. Hilarious(even re-reading it, Bostonist laughs out loud like it's a first-time reading of David Sedaris), satirical, dark and provocative, Shuffle follows the destined-for-greatness life of Gunnar Kaufman from West Los Angeles to the halls of Boston University. Sample, totally-unrepresentative-but-short-enough hilarity: "Here's a haiku you wrote: 'the full May...

After 20 years on the run after escaping from Norfolk County Jail, Norman A. Porter, Jr., was arrested in the Windy City of Chicago yesterday. Massachusetts' authorities have been searching for Porter, who's rap sheet began in 1960 with executing a clerk at a Saugus store, helping to kill a jailer at Middlesex County Jail, and then escaping another jail in 1985; police were only tipped off recently when Porter's finger prints came up as a match in an FBI search. This case is a little different from others in the past, with Porter being a well-known poet in the Chicago area. After changing his name to "J.J. Jameson," he has been performing all over the city, focusing on antiwar poetry, writing two books, and being named "Poet of the Month" last March. He was also a leader at a Unitarian congregation in Chicago's West Side. Porter has also been arrested a few times since his escape in 1985, but Massachusetts police were never contacted; he is now in police custody and will be coming back to Massachusetts to face charges tonight. Porter has been on the Top 12 Fugitive list for the state since 1985.