Tag, you're it!

I got tagged by the Babbler so I have to answer 11 questions. If that doesn’t sound like fun then you’re absolutely right.

1) How often do you wash your hair? Seriously, I’d like to know how my hair-care regimen stacks up.

Once a week, max. But guys are different.

2) Do you prefer sweets or salty snacks?

I’d probably say sweet but I’m not really a snacker.

3) If you could be one age for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Maybe 23. Still close enough to college age but a much better drinker.

4) Where’s the coolest place you’ve ever been? Or want to go?

New Orleans is the best place I’ve been. I’d love to go to Hawaii one day and Portugal too.

5) Could you live w/out your cell phone? (if the answer is no, I don’t think we’d get along)

I probably couldn’t even live without a smartphone nevermind any old cell phone.

6) What movie could you watch over and over again?

Back to the Future

7) Have you ever been on a cruise? What’s it like?! (I’m dying to go on one!)

Not a real cruise, just around lakes and harbors.

8) Cats or dogs?

If I have to choose then cats.

9) Do you believe in soul mates?

Not really.

10) If you didn’t need money, what would you do for the rest of your life?

Nothing.

11) What’s your biggest pet peeve?

Judgmental people.

What a weekend

We got out at 3pm on Friday so Brigid, her sister and I met up at a new bar called Slate. It is right near Brig’s office and we had walked past it a few times so we gave it a shot. It was a pretty good space and the servers were nice. Weirdly, they had to close everyone’s tabs at 4pm and then after we paid they said they could re-open it again if we wanted. We decided to move on. I’ve told Brig stories about a bar on the waterfront called the Barking Crab. She decided that’s where we should head next so we walked over. On the way we walked past my old office building and I unveiled the secret public bathroom that no one knows about. It’s the nicest in the city and it’s that way because no one knows about it. We crossed the bridge and entered the Crab getting a spot at the packed bar. We got our beers and enjoyed the view of the Harbor all around us. A little past 5pm we left to walk over to the World Trade Center so Brig could pick up her race packet for the half marathon she was running on Sunday. On the way back we stopped at Whiskey Priest for even more boozing. Brig decided she wanted Subway for dinner as a final meal in her Somerville neighborhood and a healthy prep for the big race Sunday. I may have passed out at 9pm while she was finishing packing.

Saturday morning we picked up the U-Haul at 9am and I got to drive the van -- just like last year. We packed up all of Brig’s things and hauled it over to my place where we unloaded. (It’s funny how you can sum up 3 hours of work in 1 sentence. Wait, it’s not funny at all.) Luckily, we didn’t get hit with the 80 degree heat we were expecting or even bad humidity. To imply that we weren’t sweating, though, is a far from cry from the truth. I decided washing the shirt I wore that day wasn’t enough and just threw it out. To celebrate, we went to the same place we went to last year after she moved, Taco Bell.* Then we spent all afternoon arranging the new furniture and trying to find places for all this stuff while battling over who gets which drawers.

Sunday was Brigid’s big race. She had signed up for the Run to Remember which is in honor of fallen police officers. Her sister and I made signs and we were going to head down and root for her near the finish line. Well, some combination of the T being on a holiday schedule and Brig running her best time ever caused us to miss seeing her. But we met up shortly afterward and tried to re-create some action shots. She did an amazing job and got a sweet medal out of it. All of her training and hard work paid off in a big way.

On Monday, the three of us met up with Brig’s friend Vinny to go to the Boston Harbor Islands. We took a ferry from Long Wharf and went to Georges Island. We picked out a spot in the sun and pulled out all the snacks we had purchased at 7/11: Pringles, SunChips, tortilla chips, salsa, PB M&M’s, Peanut M&M’s, Starburst and more. Then we pulled out the games and I won at Egyptian Ratscrew and then followed that up with a victory in Uno. After all that losing the rest of the group wanted to do something else so we decided to walk around Fort Warren which is also located there.** It was a sprawling complex that took up most of the island and we got to walk the whole thing. Once we made it back to the dock we pulled out the beach blanket again and played a little Taboo then the game where each person says a sentence and it creates a story. Our story was about Brigid and her magical sunglasses which could read minds and see through clothing. She lost them one day and a 10 year old girl found them and put them up on eBay. Dr. Evil bought them for nefarious purposes and was hiding in his lair in China. He knew Brigid from medical school and was trying to win her over. Brigid rejected his advances and went to India to recruit some spies to follow Dr. Evil’s activity. While there Brigid met another medical school classmate of hers named BJ. They fell quickly in love. Eventually, Dr. Evil broke the sunglasses by looking directly at an eclipse. The world was safe once again.

After our ferry ride back to the mainland we headed over to The Times for dinner and drinks. We all ordered burgers and they were fantastic. I also tried Blue Moon’s summer beer, Honey Moon. It didn’t taste too different but it was good. For dessert we wandered into the North End and went to Modern Pastry. I had a fantastic chocolate-dipped cannoli.

It was an amazing weekend and it led right into a 3 day week because I’m off Friday for a wedding. Woohoo!


*I had never been to a Taco Bell before I met Brigid. Now, I couldn’t live without it. Ladies, the saying “the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” is 100% true.

**And which happened to be my 1000th check-in on Foursquare. Imagine if I hadn’t stopped using it every day like I used to. I might have hit that number a year earlier.

Memorial Day!

Good Eats: Pescatore

We heard from Brig’s Details magazine-subscribing roommate that this little Italian place down the street was a great date spot. When I saw a Google Offer for the same place last month I jumped at the chance. Yesterday, we gave it a shot.

Pescatore’s is a classic Italian restaurant that also features quite the seafood offering. It’s a small place and the acoustics cause it to hold the sound and make it very loud. There was a graduation(?) party there so the big group of people may have been responsible but it was still a little surprising.

I have to say that we didn’t receive the greatest service. I don’t know if it’s because we had the discount offer or because we are young-looking (a gift & a curse). They gave us bread but never replaced it. They poured us water but we always had to ask for refills. They either weren’t on the same page as us or simply couldn’t keep up. And it certainly wasn’t busy enough for that excuse.

The food was fine. It actually grew on me as I ate it – savoring the last bite much more than the first. For whatever reason the menu listed asparagus with almost every item. Who is clamoring for asparagus? I think we all ended up avoiding it.

We were there for 90 minutes and for a 1 course meal that’s unacceptable. I wouldn’t really recommend this place but I also wouldn’t be surprised to hear people who’ve had a better trip.

Earthfest 2012

On Saturday, Brig and I went down to the Esplanade for 92.9’s Earthfest 2012. It is a concert event put on by the station with sponsors ranging from Whole Foods to Subaru. This year they had Eve 6, Switchfoot, Spin Doctors* and Third Eye Blind. Pretty great, right?

The show started at Noon but we made our way over around 1:30. The place was packed. It’s weird to say that about a wide open area but there was almost no room for movement. Even crossing the bridge to get to the Charles was backed up with people and took a few minutes. I think the best word to describe it has to be “horde”.

Everything in the Hatch Shell was more than taken by the time we got there and we were fortunate to find a spot in the grass right in front of the river and on the other side of the walkway of the concert. We could hear everything perfectly and the visuals didn’t matter. Instead we got to watch literally hundreds of kayakers rowing by, some just out for a splash and others setting up shop to listen to the bands.

We were in a pretty hot spot with no cover so we didn’t expect to stay through the end. Luckily, “Eagle Eye” McCarthy spotted a couple leaving their fantastic tree spot and ran over and staked our flag blanket down. It was perfect! And despite our initial concerns we didn’t even have any bird poop issues. The newly found shade reinvigorated us as we took a musical journey from Dare You To Move to Meant To Live to Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong to Two Princes (Brig’s fave) to Thanks A Lot to Never Let You Go to Graduate to Jumper to Semi-Charmed Life. So even though we missed Eve 6 early on, we weren’t bereft of hits.

What had to be the most surprising thing from the concert was just how many fans of the Spin Doctors are out there. The people on either side of us got audibly excited when they came on and plenty of people left right after their set. I couldn’t believe it.

Then came the grand finale with Third Eye Blind and all the kids our age just belting along. They were really unsatisfying though as they worked these really expansive and experimental walks to nowhere halfway through a few of the songs and lost everyone before finally coming back to conclude it. Jumper was seriously a 10 minute opus that everyone thought they had cut short and started into a new song midway through and then 7 minutes later out of nowhere they were back at Jumper’s bridge and finished it. It was the weirdest thing. Then Stephen Jenkins felt like pausing and chatting right before the best part of Semi-Charmed life when everyone gets worked up and screams GoodBYE! totally taking the crowd out of the whole build up to that point. But hey, it was a free show so I’ll take it.


*Or as I like to call them, the Spin PhD’s.

Aziz Ansari: Not on Seal's radar

I’ve never been to a real comedy show before. In college we had Steve Hofstetter come and do a set but that doesn’t really count. So I was really excited last night to go to the Wilbur Theater and see Aziz Ansari.

Brig actually saw him 2-3 years ago and got a picture with him after the show. One of the first things he said last night in his act is how he doesn’t do that anymore. He’s too big. Well, when you sell out 4 shows in Boston -- 2 last night and 2 more tonight -- then I have to agree.

He had all new material and most of it was right on target. It was sexual, it was familial, there was namedropping and there was hilarity. Still, to me, the funniest part was when he was talking to an audience member about how the guy proposed to his wife and was completely riffing off the guy’s answers. It was comedy perfection.

I give 2 big thumbs up and recommend going to a show if you can find any tickets. There’s just something about laughing with a big group of people that’s way better than watching Friday Night Stand-Up on Comedy Central.

Farewell, WFNX

Ever since I got to the age when most of my friends were driving, radio stations became important to me. In the car with your parents you’re either stuck listening to oldies or you planned ahead and brought your own portable device. But when you’re driving with friends it’s the radio all the way.

There are 10 distinct genres you can choose from: Top 40, Hip-Hop, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, Alternative, Oldies, Country, Classical, Talk and Sports. These can feature anything from Britney Spears to Eminem to Metallica to Led Zeppelin to Radiohead to The Mamas and the Papas to Garth Brooks to Vivaldi to NPR to Felger & Mazz. Each one says something different about you and most people will have evolving presets throughout their life.

As a kid, I grew up with the oldies thanks to the ‘rents. As a violin player, I always enjoyed Sunday mornings after church listening to a little classical or jazz. As a young sports fan who couldn’t watch West Coast Sox games on TV because they started too late, I was able to listen to the game on the radio in my room. But none of these are acceptable choices on the way to the mall with my friends.

What was cool in high school was Jam’n 94.5 – a primarily hip-hop and R&B station. Second was probably Kiss 108 and their “nothing but the Billboard 100” playlist. But I wasn’t into either of those in high school. I was big into nu metal (Korn, Limp Bizkit, Staind, Linkin Park) and my go-to station was WAAF. I remember listening to Mistress Carrie do the Top 9 at 9pm every weeknight and actually keeping track of who was climbing or dropping.

Eventually, as I moved away to college, I started to learn more about the roots of rock and especially the ‘60s. This new classic rock affection turned me on to Rock 101. They played some of the same music as AAF but paid much more respect to the originators of the genre. It was an ideal combination for me.

But starting the summer between sophomore and junior years I was introduced to indie rock by a friend of mine: the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, Elliott Smith and The Shins. It was a change in my life unlike anything else. This music spoke to me in a way that my teenage-angst anthems no longer did. It was a musical revolution that I am still, 7 years later, in the midst of. And with this change came a new radio station, WFNX.

What was amazing to me was that FNX had a Boston and Manchester signal. 101.7 down here, 92.1 up there. It was with me whether I was studying for an exam or enjoying my break. It played songs I loved and broke new ones that I would soon fall in love with. It was the perfect companion for me.

I subscribed to the FNX newsletter and went to their events. Thanks to them I saw Passion Pit, Metric, The Airborne Toxic Event, The Gaslight Anthem, The Bravery, Spoon, Phoenix and Owl City (Hey, they can’t all be winners). I would create playlists of songs in their rotation and listen to them on my iPod when I couldn’t listen on air. In my life, FNX was all-encompassing.

So when I heard the news yesterday that FNX was being sold, you could imagine my abject sorrow. It was like a family member had been diagnosed with a deadly illness and only had a month or so left to live. I didn’t know how to react. I thought tuning in in the middle of the day would help somehow but it was just a reminder of what I was losing. It was all too much bear.

I’m still not sure what this means for me and my presets moving forward but I knew I had to say something about my favorite radio station. Hopefully, long after the last of the FM waves have passed through the antennas, to our speakers, and into our ears, I can look back at this and remember the good times.

"We Real Cool"

My college graduation was 5 years ago on Saturday and my allergies have me feeling like death. So, this seemed relevant.

by: Gwendolyn Brooks

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk Late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

The Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands

If you haven’t heard, I’ll Have Another won this year’s Kentucky Derby. The perfect name for a horse in a race known for being decadent and depraved. (And apparently someone was killed.)

The Derby first ran in 1875 and today is the most famous horse race in the world. It only makes sense then that after 130 years of building the prestige of Churchill Downs they would call up the owners of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC for some extra ad dollars. If they had said, “Sure, let’s put some posters up on the infield or fill some of the commercial breaks.” Fine, I have no problem with that. But why in the world would they give away the naming rights? Is there anything more ridiculous than “The 2012 Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands?” If Thompson thought it was bad back in 1970 I wonder what he would be saying today.

Just how bad is it? Yum! Brands repeats the same commercial during each break proclaiming that, “You may not know our name but you know our restaurants.” So why in the world would they get naming rights? No one even knows theirs! Besides, what does Yum! Brands even have to do with Kentucky or horse racing? At least get Lids or someone you can tie in with the crazy hats people wear every year.

I know what you’re thinking; KFC would fit if A) they still went by Kentucky Fried Chicken and B) they weren’t lumped in with the rest of Yum! Brands. It makes no sense and it’s an embarrassment. What’s next, “The Preakness Stakes presented by Unilever?” End this already.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for The Scream

To commemorate today's sale of The Scream for $119.9 million, here is Edvard Munch's accompanying poem:

"I was walking along a path with two friends—the sun was setting—suddenly the sky turned blood red—I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence—there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city—my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety—and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature."

Raging Rajon Rondo

Let’s be honest, the Celtics are fortunate Rajon Rondo was only suspended one game for bumping into referee Marc Davis. First, it was definitely done on purpose. Watch the tape again. Second, he now has a “history” of disrespecting the refs. Back in February, Rondo was suspended 2 games for throwing the ball at an official. So, yes, a 1 game suspension is a lucky break. As much as losing your best player in the middle of the playoffs can be considered a break. And, lest you be confused, Rondo is the Celtics best player.

For argument’s sake, let’s ignore the fact that the Celtics went into the playoffs already missing Jeff Green, Jermaine O’Neal and Chris Wilcox. What we can’t ignore is that Ray Allen is hurt much worse than anyone is saying. His scoring threat and ability to stretch the defense affects the rest of the team and their play on the offensive end. Without that they become stagnant and obvious: Isolate Pierce; hit Garnett underneath; let Rondo drive to the basket. That’s all they’ve got. Now we’re losing the Rondo element and relying on two guys in their mid-30’s. Not quite the blueprint for success.

We also can’t forget that Mickael Pietrus has been hurt much of the season and is still working back from a concussion. Greg Stiemsma’s played on aching feet all year long. If either of those guys go down, does Doc Rivers have the bench depth to replace them? I don’t think so. That’s why it’s so important that Rondo acts like a veteran. This is his sixth season as hard as that is to believe. We consider him the Kid because he’s playing with the illustrious Big 3 but he is a man in his own right and probably should have learned something from playing with these guys about keeping your emotions in check. He embarrassed himself and hurt his team in the process. This most likely will be their final run together. Let’s hope we’re not blaming Rondo for an unfortunate and premature ending.