Jorge Furtado's Porto Alegre Harvard Film Archive Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge Friday, March 7 -- Saturday, March 8 More information Brazilian director Jorge Furtado's work should be better known among American film audiences. His movies are hilarious, thoughtful and unpretentious -- they aim to entertain above all else. The Man Who Copied (O Homem Que Copiava) (2003, screening Friday) is a case in point. It's the story of André (Lázaro Ramos), whose humdrum......

Thanks to the Museum of Fine Arts’s ongoing exhibit Walk This Way, shoe-loving Bostonians have found a new excuse for their obsession: They’re not just conspicuous consumers, they’re art collectors. The exhibit—which shows shoes as pieces of art as well as symbols of wealth and power throughout the ages—is cleverly spread throughout the MFA’s galleries, organized, according to the program, as a “treasure hunt” for visitors. (Bostonist’s companion had more fun reading the map than......

Last year, at his annual State of the City address, Mayor Thomas Menino sought to prove the thesis of the recently released Nas album entitled "Hip Hop is Dead" by declaring that the rap community had given him the name "T-Mizzy." He might need some credibility and political capital with minority Bostonians after unveiling at last night's speech that he wants to save on school transportation costs by dismantling part of the city's busing......

The Red Sox won their last seven games. The Celtics have a six-game winning streak. The Patriots haven't lost in - well, we can barely remember. Even the Bruins stopped Atlanta yesterday. So every local team finished 2007 on an up note (yes, Revs, we know, and we're sorry). The B's were headed for another stinkeroo for a while, but they finally found their offense, and pelted the surprised Thrashers. Dennis Wideman and P.J. Axelsson......

WGA Strike Support Rally Friday, December 14, 12:00 pm-3:00 pm Harvard Square Fans4writers.com Update: Bradley's Almanac just gave us a heads-up--the WGA East announced "Please RSVP to 212-767-7843 and leave the number of people in your party" if you plan to attend the event at the church. By now, we're all sick of the writers' strike, and Bostonist HQ is suffering from MCRW (Major Colbert Report Withdrawal). Rest assured, the writers are even sicker of......

MBTA commuters connecting through Airport, North and South Stations had a touching reunion this morning... with the sound of their own thoughts. T-Radio has been suspended. And a month early at that. Evidently, hearing a steady stream of lite rock, celebrity gossip and commercials through speakers with the fidelity of a Fisher Price record player while held captive on a subway platform turned out not to be as popular among Bostonians as was once......

Current Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick is ripping on former Massachusetts governor and political aspirant Mitt Romney over health care. Patrick also pointed out that Romney's "aw, shucks" demeanor doesn't properly advertise the product within the package. Patrick said of Romney, "He's a nice fellow. But a shameless candidate." That line has echoes of the Southern "bless your heart," in which a person delivers an insult and cushions it with the line "bless your heart." The......

We’ve long been fans of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, enough so that we’ve got two nicknames for it – ISGM when writing and “da gadnah” when speaking. The museum has been doing a lot in recent months to re-energize their image, though they’ll never lose sight of their founder (and Red Sox fanatic) Isabella, new programs are putting a new life into ISGM. Tonight marks the first in their new series, Gardner After Hours,......

When the Public Radio Talent Quest was announced in April, Public Radio Exchange and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting said they were looking for the elusive quality of "hostiness." A woman from Brookline has proven that she has the "hostiness." Rebecca Watson has risen to the top five out of a field of 1,500 contestants to be a new public-radio star. Watson blogs at skepchick.org, and her proposed show is based on that site. The......

Two towns have joined Watertown in protest against the Anti-Defamation League, which sponsors the "No Place for Hate" anti-hate crime program. Belmont's Board of Selectmen voted on Monday to withdraw from the program. Yesterday, Newton mayor David Cohen issued a statement saying: "The recognition of the Armenian Genocide is an important step along the path of freedom and justice, and crucial in combating other genocides now and in the future." The Anti-Defamation League is so......

Watertown has been the site of an intense debate over whether or not to halt its participation in the "No Place for Hate" program. The Anti-Defamation League is a sponsor of the program, which helps communities fight hate crimes. The "No Place for Hate" program sounds like a good thing – who doesn't want to stop hate crimes? Unfortunately, to many Watertown residents, the Anti-Defamation League is indeed a place for hate. Many Armenian Americans......

--Yesterday in Boston, a federal judge declared the government must pay $101 million to Joseph Salvati, Peter Limone, and the families of Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo for a wrongful conviction with a Goodfellas-worthy storyline. Here's the gist of the story. Someone killed Edward "Teddy" Deegan in 1965. Joseph "The Animal" Barboza said these four men did it – to protect an FBI informant, Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi. So Barboza lied – and the FBI knew......

Wasn't Cambridge supposed to be the city that welcomed everyone of all shapes and sizes? Well, the Cambridge Water Department has changed its mind when it comes to dogs. No, it isn't a pit bull ban. It's much weirder. The Globe reported this week that the Cambridge Water Department wants to keep dogs that aren't Cambridge away from the Fresh Pond Reservation. Why has Cambridge gone all country-club where dogs are concerned? The Water Department......

Ed Davis probably slept soundly last night. The House has decided to rescue the antigang Shannon Community Safety Initiative with funding, and they are giving $2.5 million for more police. Given the rise in homicides, the timing couldn't be better. The program also makes sense because it is more than just adding police presence – it also fosters gang prevention efforts. The money isn't just for Boston. New Bedford received $1 million this year for......

The brackets are here. Get it, and hide it from your boss! On second thought, your boss probably has one, too. The No. 1 seeds are Florida, North Carolina, Kansas, and Ohio State. Boston College is a seventh seed and will play against 10th seeded Texas Tech. At least they know what they'll be getting into with coach/professional nutter Bobby Knight. The Patriots buying frenzy continues, and they may have acquired a player who will......

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,......

Yesterday the Red Sox and Wise Foods announced a new partnership. The agreement names Wise the official Potato Chip and Cheez Doodle sponsor of the Boston Red Sox. Guess all those unofficial chip and doodle sponsors are sore out of luck. It's not just a deal with the front office – Big Papi is moving out from just hawking his mango salsa and will now Big Papi will hereby be known as the Wise Player......

The Boston Globe Magazine this week featured a number of photographs that the editors had picked as some of the best of the year. Then they told the back story. But it wasn’t the photos in that feature that caught our eye. Boston's new police commissioner was featured on page six in a striking and attractive photograph for a short "First Person" interview of 9 questions. We couldn't help but think there was something......

There's been a lot of press for some of the changes that have come to the restructured fares and associated increases on the MBTA system. It costs more for the buses and the trains on per ride fares, more if you use cash or a CharlieTicket. The Green Line above ground outbound rides are no longer free. The inner and outer express buses cost more, as does the commuter rail. Of course the MBTA is......

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative that was born from the mind of Nicholas Negroponte when he was heading up the MIT Media Lab is nearing a significant milestone – shipment of the first machines to their intended recipients. Back in the end of November it was reported that the prototypes had come off the production line and had already been loaded up and played Doom. The AP reports today that the program is......

YouTube is still up and running and we're searching out some sweet copyrighted materials before Google really gets involved and forces some of it to come down. This week we've been hitting replay clip over and over trying to learn some new words to We Didn't Start the Fire thanks to bunkosquad. Take a look back at sports in the eighties in a five minute intro clip from the CBS 4 montage intro for their......

The announcement came out around this time last year that MIT Media Lab Co-Founder and former Director Nicholas Negroponte and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization were nearing a working prototype of a $100 laptop to get to more children around the world. The OLPC would help break down the digital divide by providing the poor with access to the tools of the digital age. Our post on the matter may have set the......

We're not quite sure how the day is going to end. We could see 100% voter turnout (not likely), a huge upset in the democratic gubernatorial race with a write in campaign for Dukakis (also unlikely), September 19, 2006 being declared Fox News Channel Day by both the City of Boston and the State of Massachusetts (boy, we thought this was impossible), people roaming the streets with speech peppered with Yarr and Matey (how is......

Menino and friends kicked off Boston's 2006 gun buyback program today with a press conference at 10:30am, firearms could be turned into local police precincts starting at noon. When the new initiative was announced we pondered the merits of not offering cash in return for a firearm while giggling at the irony of offering a Target gift card in exchange for the weapon. Apparently the Mayor's office wasn't done there – they've named the new......

This year has seen a great increase in gun related violence. Shootings are up and overall the murder rate is on pace – or above – that of last year's 10 year record. To take some of the guns off the street Mayor Menino has re-introduced the gun buyback program which ran in the mid-nineties. During the period of June 12 to July 14 people can turn in firearms to any Boston Police precinct, no......

It's spring outside (um, and snowing?) and the smell of leather, chewing tobacco, and pine tar is in the air. Bostonist loves the beginning of baseball season. It is this time of year that we are filled with enthusiastic optimism. Around June we are usually filled with self-pity and despair. And, of course, come September we embrace blind faith. How better to whet the baseball appetite than by listening to a podcast devoted to Boston......

Bostonist is no security expert and we don’t really know any either. We are a bit suspicious of a couple of new initiatives that we think may either jeopardize our civil rights or safety. As we reported earlier this week the legislature was considering a bill (it has since passed the House) that may open the door to some fourth amendment concerns. Today we get word that Massport will be expanding their “register traveler” program.......

Bostonist can't make up our mind on how we should feel about "The Biggest Loser," NBC's reality show in which overweight people compete to lose more weight and win a bunch of money. On the one hand, there is something hopeful and, dare we say it, uplifting about a program that celebrates personal transformation wrought by hard work and competition rather than scalpels and stitches. On the other hand, reality television is, by its......

This week Boston University announced that their Center for Digital Imaging Arts will now offer a 9 month (two semesters) program to receive a Certificate in Recording Arts. It will take a little more than completion of the program to become the next big producer. A little more like a stack of cash. But the Boston University program will offer a certificate to those completing the training in music, audio, and video production techniques. Bostonist......

If you are feeling a bit adventurous cinematically and would like to take a break from the summer “blockbusters” (you know, “Wedding Crashers” and “The 40-year-old Virgin”), consider making your way out to the Coolidge Corner Theatre (a Bostonist favorite) next Tuesday, August 30, for “The Best of Open Screen” in celebration of the one-year anniversary of Open Screen. Open Screen is a series that CCT began a year ago that provides an opportunity......