First Night Monday, December 31 Everywhere (see below) All outdoor events are free. All indoor events are accessible with a First Night button ($15) Official First Night site Artists use the cold weather to their advantage with ice sculptures. The sculptures will be on the Common starting at 1:00 pm until midnight. You can look at a frozen version of Florida courtesy of Donald Chapelle, an American eagle that would make Stephen Colbert proud, and......

--Veterans come home, but the trauma of war follows them. [Boston Globe] --The story behind the sculpture of an Iraqi soldier made out of 70,000 ball bearings. [Blue Mass Group] --Veterans Day closings for Monday. The Globe put liquor stores second on its printed list, third on the online list. Just so you know, liquor stores are open. [Boston Globe] --Ratings for local talk radio are sucking, and local radio stations are trying to......

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......

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......

--Three separate stabbing incidents tied up the BPD last night. Later in the evening, a man was found in the South End with stab wounds. He's in stable condition. Then another man was found stabbed in the back in the South End and was taken to the hospital. A man was found stabbed early this morning in Mattapan, and he later died of his injuries. --Citizens of Medford and Somerville must be relieved. Police arrested......

Oh, MIT, you never cease to charm us. Today we came across another fabulous Media Lab creation, and best of all, it's not just some piece of gadgetry that is functionally nothing more than a toy - it's a real-life toy! Robo Topobo is a set of Lego-like pieces that can be put together to make little articulated sculptures, which hook up to a Nintendo-esque controller. You press "record," move the sculpture around, and the......

America’s #1 Arts Festival East of the Rockies Introduces 90 New Exhibitors Memorial Day Weekend! Taking place at the Three County Fairgrounds, on Route 9 and I-91 in Northampton (yes, that's still part of Massachusetts - just west of 128, the Paradise City Arts Festival will run on Saturday, 10am-6pm, Sunday, 10am-6pm, and Monday, 10am-5pm. Admission prices for adults is $12, seniors for $8, students for $5, children under 12 are free, or you can......

We weren't sure when Bank of America merged with Fleet and started splashing their patriotic colors about town. Green = Money / Money = Fleet...why, the concept was as visually obvious as pink+orange = Dunkin' Donuts. How would we react to this new (financial) suitor...play coy? Be gullibly trustworthy? Bostonist needed reassurance. We needed coddling, not to mention...free stuff. So during May, BofA is taking us out for an afternoon museum date, and we're......

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......

Bostonist was a little slow picking up on this story but word on the street is that the Fogg Museum (one of the Harvard University Art Museums) will be selling Mary Cassatt's "Mother and Two Children" at Christie's auction house for a reported $5 million (early estimate). The piece was given to the Fogg by Ernest Stillman, Harvard Alum '07, in the 1920s and has since rarely been on display. The Boston Globe reported......

Possibly the only thing Bostonians can agree on is that we're an opinionated bunch of people. And it seems these days like everyone Bostonist knows has a fancy digital camera and a constantly updated Flickr page. Which is why we're glad that the city of Boston is putting together a show of 375 Views of Boston, in celebration of the city's 375th birthday. Now's the time to teach your neighbors where the prettiest (or......

Sometimes Bostonist yearns for the days of elementary school to come again. No worries, no credit card bills, and everyone sent us a valentine. Our favorite time was Craft Time, which is why we're so excited for the Paper Scuplture Show at Art Interactive. It's a travelling exhibiton featuring the sculpture plans of twenty-nine artists. But here's the catch- they aren't put together. That's your job. Tonight, A-I is having a Paper Party, and......