The Joiner is a newcomer to Boston and a compulsive joiner of clubs and organizations. He shares his experience joining Boston area groups weekly at Bostonist. Pedestrians trying to navigate the Atlantic Avenue sidewalk on the Boston Waterfront at 7:30 Sunday morning had more to contend with than the usual pointing and clicking tourists. They also had to bypass the mound of tripods and camera bags piled outside Dunkin' Donuts, where members of the Boston......

The Armenian Memorial, a proposed park, would pay homage to the Armenian Genocide that saw the loss of an estimated 1.5 million lives in 1915. The memorial has been on and off in the news mostly for their intention to develop a parcel of the Greenway near Christopher Columbus park as the site of the memorial. Tom Menino has voiced his opinion: no way. He doesn't want the Greenway to become home to a number......

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......

Something special happens when you turn 21. You can go out by yourself and pick up a six pack without awkwardly searching for excuses as to why you don't have your ID with you. What happens when a brewery turns 21? They have an even bigger party than you did on your 21st. This year Harpoon Brewery is turning 21 and the annual Brewstock festival will be part of the celebration. Big top tents......

We've been sitting on this one a little bit because, well, nobody's perfect. But it was pretty funny that someone misspelled Governor Deval Patrick's name on a large construction sign in the North End. His name isn't that hard to spell. RDA Construction, which is working on a waterfront project, misspelled the governor's name on the sign. And they'll fix it. Perhaps someone just got finished watching a movie starring some famous Duvall's, such as......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

The Boston Beer Company is headquartered here in Boston. The test brewery is only a few drunken steps from the Stony Brook station in JP, the marketing and admin happens downtown out of the design center on the South Boston waterfront, even if the bulk of the beer is brewed out of state. The flagship is still Sam Adams Boston Lager and the company felt something was missing – their own glass. We've been drinking......

The Boston Redevelopment Authority has finally approved the construction of a new Apple store on Boylston Street in Back Bay, which could be done as early as December 2007. Not only will you be able to wait in frustration for hours at the "Genius Bar", but you'll be able to join the scads of Bostonians you try to avoid in said line. Sweet. Admittedly, the building (a giant glass cube) is alluring. Moreso, though,......

This morning Bob Oakes started reading copy on wbur's Morning Edition reporting on Menino's idea to sell City Hall and City Hall Plaza. The plan was outlined at a breakfast meeting today (and missed the print dailies deadlines) with the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. It would be excellent to see the brick and concrete wasteland that is City Hall and the Plaza disappear – but what then would Boston residents have to complain about?......

Yesterday the fanfare that has been the opening celebration for the new ICA building in the Seaport district opened to the general public for a 12 hour free ride in the new space. The news today is that nearly 5,000 people visited the new facility over the course of the day, many of whom had positive things to say about it even after a two hour wait. The museum opened at 9 am and......

The New York Times printed a glowing review of the new ICA building on the waterfront today. Fun quotes from the article like "its ability to interweave art and civic life makes it the most important building to rise here in a generation." show that the New York press are as impressed with the new building as the Boston media seems to be. There is early mention of the piece of the John Hancock tower......

The Globe supplemented today's print edition with a 16 page supplement on the ICA (including the ads). The ICA has been the topic of the local arts blogs and print media arts press for the last few months, a fury of activity has picked up over the past few weeks. The Institute for Contemporary Arts location in the Back Bay closed earlier this year with the promise of a new location on the Boston Waterfront......

The new Institute of Contemporary Arts building at 100 Northern Avenue on Boston's Waterfront is open still not open. They've delayed the opening date indefinitely, but hope to open the new museum later this fall. Originally, when they closed the Back Bay ICA location they'd hoped to be fully operational in the newly constructed building for a grand opening on September 17, 2006. If you've got a calendar handy you might notice that today is......

Eight Days a Week. The music scene is hot, and we realize that we're not giving you enough lead time on some of the best way to cure a case of the Mondays – with a Monday evening show. This week we're putting eight days into our weekly music picks. Starting on Monday and running through the following week. This week we're eating locally – and listening locally. Several local acts find prominence on......

A coastal city, Boston has no shortage of waterfront dining. Meritage, Sal de la Terre, Anthony’s Pier 4, all these are spectacular restaurants boasting five-star meals at five-star prices. But where to go when it’s the day before payday? When all you need to complete your week is an ocean view and a cup of chowder, but all you’ve got is a couple fivers? The answer, friends, lies under a yellow-and-red striped tarp on Sleeper......

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......

For those enthralled with the decorated cattle all over the city, the Jimmy Fund has created a city map with all of the 117 cows' locations. While it appears that a good number of them are grazing along Boylston Street, the rest of the statues appear to be placed along the Waterfront and Faneuil Hall area. Beacon Hill is perhaps the most sparse area on the map and Bostonist was excited to see that even......

People in Boston have gotten pretty good at finding new and innovative ways to clear up the rainy day blues. Still in our collective memory is a two-week long wash out that had everyone wondering if we would ever see summer – or just have to build an ark real quick. With gray skies all day today and a weekend looking like it will be another washout, there is a never fail way to......

The week starts out right when a sucker punch on the field lands Chicagoist in the middle of a Sox/Cubs throwdown and the fists continue to fly in the comments. Despite suburban resident Ms. Pinney's best little try no books will be banned anytime soon and the El is really really gross. Houstonist is there to start compiling the punditry when when the guilty, guilty Enron verdict comes down. This guy seems to be able......

In just over a week, on May 7, the ICA will close its doors at the Boylston St. location in Back Bay and move into the New ICA building on the waterfront. (Hynes will be left by it's lonesome when both Virgin and ICA leave the nearby stop.) The New ICA will open on September 17, 2006 on the waterfront and at some point it will lose the “New” part of the name and become......

Bostonist spent a long weekend with our friends at Seattlest in their fair city. It was our first trip out to the Pacific Northwest’s very own city of neighborhoods. We were looking for similarities with Boston when we were there. The obvious similarity hangs high above their downtown: we’ve got the Citgo Sign, they’ve got the Pepsi Sign. Unlike our Citgo, their Pepsi changes the neon every time the Pepsi logo changes, we were told......

It’s in these bleak days of March when you realize that winter is far from over. So, like most Bostonians, Bostonist takes to the local pubs to warm up and forget that there is a snowstorm on the way. Our Gothamist friends might be talking about a mysterious maple syrup scent in the city, but you might be wondering why a berry smell is wafting in from the waterfront. Well, the folks over at our......

There is a mysterious problem with Boston 's Waterfront area; it's dull. With such a view from the city, Bostonist would assume that more restaurants would use this location to their advantage, but Bostonist thinks that the options are pretty limited. With Tia's on the Waterfront being the biggest hotspot in the area, Bostonist decided to try out another restaurant on the water, Oceana. Located in the Long Wharf Marriott, Oceana's entrance is through the......

There are bad meals, there are awful meals, and then there is Bostonist's experience at Joe's American Bar and Grill. This mini-chain restaurant covers several spots in Massachusetts and even has a location as far down as New Jersey. We chose to try out the Boston waterfront location in an attempt to take in the last days of summer with some patio dining. Two words: big mistake. Historically, Bostonist has found the nachos at other......

You might have heard that Puma recently created an individual shoe for Red Sox superstar Johnny "Caveman" Damon. The sneakers, converted Romas, are numbered 18 and labeled with a "Johnny D", making these $80 dollar kicks look pretty fabu. What's even more fabulous about them is that for every shoe bought, Puma made a donation to UNICEF for the Red Sox centerfielder. (But isn't the official charity of the Red Sox the Jimmy Fund?) Puma......

Navy Yard, home to that thriving vibrant life associated with a National Park Service site and home to the oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy’s fleet is missing art. Yes, art. Boston has successfully turned the factories of the South End into SoWa, with First Fridays open studios and dozens of little galleries. Where’s the next hotbed of inspiration? The Charlestown Navy Yard really screams to us "I want to be a Creative......

It seems the U.S. Navy is a little short-handed these days for viable training grounds to simulate Iraq-like combat. According to a report in today's Herald, the Pentagon is considering the South Boston waterfront as an arena for war-game exercises later this summer. Apparently the narrow street and proximity to water makes Southie the ideal location to prepare for real danger in Fallujah or Baghdad: The Navy hopes to take over Drydock and Kennedy avenues......

The month of May marks the kickoff of "Boston 375," the name for the four-month long celebration in the city to celebrate its 375th birthday in 2005. Mayor Menino has decided that numerous events over the course of the summer will truly get Bostonians excited about it. While the final itinerary has not been distributed yet, the city does have some things on the agenda so far. -On May 21, hot-air balloons will be launched......