Set aside your beer snob drinking pants and mark your calendar, this years New England Real Ale Exhibition is set for May 2-5.
What is Real Ale?
From Wikipedia: defined as "beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide".
From NERAX: Flavor is what Real Ale is all about. Cask lovers enjoy the broader range of flavors that result from the live, natural ale served at cellar temperature. There is less gassiness, less head on the beer, more beer in a glass! Some devotees want to drink nothing else. Whether or not you are that enthusiastic, NERAX is a chance to sample some of the best from the UK and USA.
May 2-5, 2007 George Dilboy Post 371 Summer Street Davis Square, Somerville
I heart the Burren. I truly heart the Back Room. Dancing to mostly 80's rock is freakin' awesome!! Here is the downside to the Burren. You have a few beers, you are having the time of your life dancing and singing along to Jesse's Girl when the lights go on. You look at your watch and it is 12:45. You feel like you just got started! But the big guys in black T-Shirts are yelling for you to get out . I have been with a few different groups of friends and that never goes over well.
Well-they have finally come through for their loyal fans.
Last year when owner Tommy McCarthy appeared before the licensing commission for approval to stay open until 2am he was told he needed to get community support. Oh and he did! He showed up this year with a petition signed by 1.877 community members. 1,228 being from the 02114 zip code.
The commission approved McCarthy’s request to extend The Burren’s closing time until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights – the bar’s current closing time is 1 a.m. on the weekends – with a few provisions. John McKenna and Andrew Upton, the licensing commissioners, asked that a limited menu be served until midnight and that McCarthy submit a plan for dealing with post-closing crowds and meet with the Davis Square Task Force every eight weeks. The later closing time will be up for review in six months.
A few meetings here and there, I am OK with that-as long as I can bust out the lyrics of "Don't Stop Believin" without being cut off and kicked out.
Brattle Theatre present a free screening of the documentary THIN.
The Harris Center For Eating Disorders brings photographer Lauren Greenfield to the Brattle for a free screening of her award-winning documentary, THIN. In her directorial debut, Greenfield tells the stories of four women at the Renfrew Clinic in Florida, an inpatient facility that specializes in the treatment of eating disorders.
Q&A with Lauren Greenfield and Harris Center Director, Dr. David Herzog, will follow the screening.
Tues. 2/27 Brattle Theatre 40 Brattle St. Cambridge MA.
It's tax season and we are all thinking of way to save a few bucks. Good to know for next year.
TAX CREDIT FOR CAR SHARING Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Medford) proposed legislation providing up to a $150 annual tax credit to drivers who pay money for car rentals to car sharing companies like Zipcar.
Sagra is open in Davis, brining a taste of the North End to Somerville. The Daily Candy reviewed:
What’s on the menu? Red-wine flavored pasta matched with a bold meat sauce, salads, soups. Oh, and antipasti like green olives stuffed with meat and spices and crocchette al latte (light-as-latte egg and cheese fritters topped with grated caciocavallo cheese). A bounty of pizzas and tasty entrees rounds out the list.
Sagra blends that Somerville edge with true North End flavor.
Which is to say, it’s the perfect solution.
Sagra 400 Highland Avenue Davis Square, Somerville
Seriously, how often do you see anything like that! Planned Parenthood in Davis Square is celebrating their one year anniversary. To celebrate they are giving anyone that walks into their center between 2/22 and 3/1 a free annual hormonal birth control.
Located at 260 Elm Street in the heart of Davis Square, Planned Parenthood provides area residents with access to birth control and emergency contraception. It also offers pregnancy testing, with results in less than thirty minutes, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
“We dispensed 4,500 packs of birth control pills and 900 packs of emergency contraception. We’ve also developed a great relationship with the community, including the Somerville Arts Council and local artists, whose work we showcase in our waiting room,” said Melanie Lown, center manager.
You don't need an appointment or to even buy anything! Anyone who walks in during office hours can enter the raffle.
The Harbus (student weekly for Harvard Business School) posted a review of Mugueca Restaurant in Inman Square. Since I'm looking to hotten up my bod, maybe I should try it out.
Brazilians are world-renowned for their beautiful bodies. One of the secrets to obtaining the god-like Brazilian body can be uncovered by observing their diet. Brazilians hold a love for healthy cuisine, which plays an enormous role in any holistic health and fitness plan. To experience healthy Brazilian food at its finest, visit Muqueca Restaurant in the charming neighborhood of Inman Square.
Muqueca Restaurant 1093 Cambridge Street 617-354-3296
If your knowledge of Mardi Gras only goes as far as boobs, beads, and booze then here are some facts for you:
Mardi Gras is french for Fat Tuesday
Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday and the first day of Carnival
Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World is the warehouse where floats are created for the majority of the Mardi Gras parades.
If you are in the spirit, gather your beads and head to Redbones for a Crawfish Boil tonight.
The ultimate Louisiana boil of crawfish, potato, and corn served according to tradition - spilled out on newspaper covered tables - will take you to New Orleans on Mardi Gras. Appetizers and New Orleans beers complete the meal. $40 per person.For reservations call 617.628.2200.
Redbones 55 Chester Street Davis Square, Somerville
Personally I am more of a fan of big ball bowling, but if you happen to be into little balls, aka candlepin bowling, Sacco's Bowl Haven in Davis has a coupon for free shoe rentals.
Kids softball teams are being formed. Kindergarten through fifth graders-whether it is to get out some energy, make some new friends, or stick with a hobby they love. Here's the downside. They need gloves. If you have any spare gloves floating around your house please email: bgibson@cpsd.us
I've seen the coming soon sign up in the window for a few weeks, but now its official, Boloco is open in Davis on Elm st as of 2.16. The really great news is that on this thursday, 2.22, it's free burrito day. From 11am - 7pm just stop by and get a free burrioto.
Brattle Theatre is hosting it's Twelfth Annual Bugs Bunny Film Festival. Who didn't enjoy that "wascally wabbit" at some point in their lives!?!
As usual, our featured attraction is a program of films featuring everyone’s favorite rabbit. One reason Bugs is so admirable is his ability to be master of any situation – from bullring, to outer space, to the French Foreign Legion, Bugs is almost always able to swing the setting to his favor. With antagonists like Yosemite Sam, Marvin The Martian and, of course Elmer Fudd, he has to be!
2/16-2/22 5:30, 7:30, and 9:30. Brattle Theatre 40 Brattle St. Cambridge MA
Cage is at the Middle East this weekend. Dark, real, hip hop....
While there is a whole lot of information here, none of it is filler; everything detailed below was instrumental in making Cage who he is at this point, and the story below is one of the most insane, crazy, tortured and triumphant stories you could imagine. Cage’s life has gone from watching his father shoot heroin, to addiction and violence and mental institutions to cutting an album for Columbia Records and being a rising star in the heyday of the NYC independent rap scene, to the final culmination and personal triumph that this album has become. It’s a brand new record from someone who has been through more extreme circumstances than most people could ever imagine, and has come out triumphant and a better person because of it, and whose artistic vision now reflects this.
Sat Feb. 17th $15 advance; $17 day of show Middle East Cambridge
Porter KFC / Taco Bell is all borded up. Closed forever, who knows. Cambridge Croncile questions whether this is a result of the Walden st bridge renovations. Seems unlikely to me, are they worried their foot traffic is down, they are still on that main road, whats it called again, oh yeah Mass Ave.
How did this Valentines day treat you? Did you buy the right gift and plan the perfect date? If the day didn't turn out as planned, whether you ended up spending it alone or on a not so hot date with your significant other, you might want to spend the weekend getting some remedial lessons. The Cambridge Center for Adult Education is sponsoring two sessions of Valentine's Weekend for Exploring Love, one for singles and one for couples.
We'll explore your goals, hopes, fears, experiences and beliefs about dating and relationships. And we'll look at attitudes and expectations about dating you may hold that have derailed many a relationship such as pedestalization, infatuation, rejection, and pessimism. Related discussions will focus on some of the relationship 'training' you have received together with understanding the presuppositions, negative attitudes and experiences that appear to validate relationship pessimism.
Valentine's Weekend for Exploring Love - Singles Saturday, Feb. 17 11:30 am-5:30 pm. 56 Brattle St. $59
Valentine's Weekend of Exploring Love - for Married and Established Couples Sunday, Feb. 18 11:30 am-5:30 pm. 56 Brattle St. $59
I still haven't seen Borat, but from what I hear, even if you have you will want to again. This Saturday and Sunday MIT's screening of Borat is open to the public and only $3.
The other side of Valentine's Day. No one to give those flowers to- no worries, one of the most romantic spots in Cambridge is hosting a singles party.
A sit-in/stand-up cocktail party to mark a new "holiday" to be known at Saint Singles Day—a day that celebrates the freedoms of singularity and the ability to find mono-happiness without the tacky cards, flowers and chocolates. Paid entry to this event gets you one drink from our libation liberation menu and plenty of delicious nibbles. UpStairs will issue a special prize for the best original artistic rendering of Saint Single. Great Live Music, too!
Tuesday 2/13 9:30p-1:00a Upstairs On The Square 90 Winthrop St. Cambridge MA $13 for singles $14,000 for couples
If you happened to catch Girl Talk fever at Boston's Middle East show, you might have been tempted to hop on a Fung Wah bus and head straight to Brooklyn for Gregg Gillis' next gig at Studio B. And if you happened to compare the two shows, you might realize that Brooklyn can quickly turn into a savage concrete jungle where joyful dancing quickly becomes aggressive pushing, shoving and crowd surfing.
Studio B is a hot little venue tucked away in Greenpoint. Although signs indicated that Studio B has a maximum capacity of about 460 people, you got the feeling that at least 300 extra bodies had crammed themselves into the mix for Gillis' set. Opening acts Hearts of Darknesses and Parts and Labor both offered very enjoyable sets and definitely got points for not boring anyone.
But Gillis was, without exception, the main attraction. Right before he stepped on stage, I found myself standing on the stage steps with my best friend. We watched Gillis sound check through headphones before he got on the mic and announced he had to use the bathroom. After he ran through the crowd to relieve himself, he appeared back on stage wearing a sweat suit and white sweatband around his head like a fucked-up, endearing version of Jane Fonda. He warmed up the audience with "Once Again" and the words "Ass Jigg-jigg-jiggilin" reverberated through the crowd while he danced, jumped and threw confetti in the air on stage solo.
It didn't take long for the crowd to jump on stage with him, and my best friend and I soon found ourselves right in the dead center of the action, with Gillis sandwiched between us pounding on his laptop. From the stage, the arms flung up out of the crowd seemed like a massive pulsing monster created out of body parts. Girls crowd surfed, boys smashed their heads in the air, and security just tried to hold on for dear life while Gillis busted out his "Knife" remix with Grizzly Bear and Clipse blending into a sort of sonic heaven. "Bounce That", "Smash Your Head" and Depeche Mode mixed with Tag Team set the backdrop for even more turbulence than the Boston show.
As more and more bodies packed onto the stage, it became a barbarian battle to dance; chicks began elbowing me to jockey for a better position next to the laptop while seven or eight photographers snapped photos of the chaos. At one point, I turned to the girl next to me who kept elbowing me in the ribs and demanded to know if she really wanted to fight me during Girl Talk. She declined and then left.
Eventually, the chaos on the stage almost pushed Gillis' laptop and table into the crowd, causing security to clear the area. As a big man escorted me to the stage steps, I saw that the crowd on the floor was no better; bodies were packed up against bodies, people were sweating like they were at an Aerobics class, and there was basically no room to even breathe. Every surface in Studio B was covered in steam; the Ladies' bathroom was so full of steam that you couldn't see anything in the mirrors. Girls slumped against the walls and panted, or dunked their faces in the sink to cool down. Gillis tried to mellow things out by asking the crowd to "Move as one" and cool things off.
But the atmosphere was relentless; Studio B might as well have been a steam room. It seemed as if the audience would have gladly ripped Gillis apart out of joy, if only to take home a souvenir finger or piece of clothing to prove they had been there. And that might have been the only real problem with this show; compared to the jovial dancing of Boston, Brooklyn was like a savage posturing contest; there wasn't enough room for everyone to fit into the frame of every picture, and basically chaos ensued.
This doesn't say anything about Gillis, however. How he managed to keep playing while a demented crowd of dancers pushed and pulled at him is beyond me. I have to wonder how much longer audience-stage-dancing will live, because based on the insanity of Brooklyn, it might endanger the man's life.
But by the end of the night, we were happily danced-out as we tumbled out onto the sidewalk and saw the crowd in front of Studio B with steam rising up off of their skin. With exhaustion, we sat down on the curb to rest. And although the chaos was tiring, Brooklyn hipsters aside, it proved once again that Girl Talk is completely relentless and mostly pretty famous.
Set aside your beer snob drinking pants and mark your calendar, this years New England Real Ale Exhibition is set for May 2-5.
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