SUN 9/9: Sunday Night Off-Topic Video

Here's to Amy Poehler from Burlington. I don't watch "Parks and Recreation", but this must be one of her best scenes.



When I posted the trailer for "TEN" a couple weeks ago, I thought it would be a slam dunk that the Kickstarter project would be funded.

These are one of the strongest creative teams in town, and they only have 3 days to make their goal. Think about donating for something in return.

SAT 9/8: Day Cheapness

For some reason, this weekend has several event with huge amounts of music. I can't explain it -- just enjoy what works for you.

I'm still interested in the "Before I Die..." board on the Greenway that I mentioned the other day.

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10am -- Porschefest
10am -- 6th Annual One Heart Festival
11am -- 1st Annual Daoism & Health Festival
Noon -- "Ahts": Boston Arts Festival
Noon -- 2nd Annual JP Music Festival
Noon -- 33rd Annual Banjo & Fiddle Contests
2pm -- Ice Cream Showdown #4
4pm -- MixFest
5pm -- "Spokes 2012": Somerville Bike Fest
5pm -- 5th Annual Virgo-A-Go-Go
6:30pm - Laura Stevenson & The Cans, Destry, Poison Ivy League

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SAT 9/8

10am to 2pm
Porschefest
at Larz Anderson Auto Museum, 15 Newton St, Brookline
$10 / $5 military, seniors, students, children under 12

It doesn't matter whether you love the old-time 356's or the modern marvels of German engineering that fall along the 900's. There will be plenty to gawk and maybe caress.

SAT 9/8

10am to 6pm
6th Annual One Heart Festival
at Codman Square, 661 Washington St, Dorchester
FREE

Feat: Garrisun Family, Jah-N-I Roots Band, Jah Jah Drummers, King-i, Mamadou, Princess Menen, Pete Doom, Peter Fyine, Tony Funches, more

I don't recall seeing the One Heart Festival before, but there have been 5 previous iterations as the One Heart Festival or Codman Square Peace Concert. I think an article was more informative than the actual website.

The schedule is a mystery, so one could take a ride in the Ashmont direction and sample a variety of reggae, hip-hop, gospel, and R&B.

SAT 9/8

11am to 2pm
1st Annual Daoism & Health Festival
at Josiah Quincy School Playground, 885 Washington St, Boston (Chinatown)
FREE

The Daoists would be the closest that we earthlings have to Jedi system, except Jedi-ism has gained some ground in the UK...

Neither have functional light sabers, the Daoists are offering to share some performances, workshops, and philosophy with Bostonians.

SAT 9/8 (and SUN 9/9)

Noon to 6pm
"Ahts": Boston Arts Festival
at Christopher Columbus Park, about 120 Atlantic Ave, Boston (Waterfront/North End)
FREE

Saturday schedule:

12:30pm -- Sam Cornish
1:45pm -- Bird Courage
2:30pm -- Love Experiment
3pm -- Miss Fairchild
3:45pm -- Yesberger Band
4:15pm -- Stereo Telescope
5pm -- Me vs. Gravity
5:30pm - Rag Time

When I went a few years ago, I saw some cool things and almost bought a print. I say go for walk by the water, catch a performance or two, and browse around the art.

About 60 booths are set up in a row, then Boston's poet laureate kicks it off on one of the stages. The rest of the lineup will be sending grooves and good vibrations in the atmosphere.

SAT 9/8

Noon to 7pm
2nd Annual JP Music Festival
at Pinebank Baseball Field, about 200 Perkins St, Jamaica Plain (Jamaica Pond)
FREE

Stage 1

Noon -- Opening Ceremony
12:20pm -- Members of JP Symphony Orchestra
12:45pm -- Mariachi Mexamericana
1:15pm -- Riding Shotgun
1:50pm -- Morris & the East Coast
2:25pm -- Eamonn Bonner
2:40pm -- Rick Berlin w/ The Nickel & Dime Band
3pm -- Dennis Brennan w/ The Nickel & Dime Band
3:40pm -- Whiskey Boys
4:10pm -- Tallahassee
4:45pm -- Bob Bradshaw
5:20pm -- Rocky Nook
5:55pm -- Almost Righteous
6:45pm -- Love Whip

Stage 2

12:05pm -- Late Greats
12:30pm -- Lauren DeRose
1pm -- Gracious Calamity
1:30pm -- Thick Wild
2:05pm -- Sweatshop
2:30pm -- Members of the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra
3:20pm -- Coyote Kolb
3:55pm -- Lenny Lashley's Gang of One
4:30pm -- Lono
5pm -- The Needy Visions
5:40pm -- Fully Celebrated
6:15pm -- Streight Angular
7pm -- Closing Ceremony

Jamaica Plain is a place where things still stay organic and DIY, and this is going to be the real thing. It's funky not in the Parliament kind of way, and it's great.

Two dozen of the many bands that live and share a kinship with neighborhood are kicking ass on 2 stages. It's bigger than last year, and it'll be bigger in the future.

* My pick of the day! *

SAT 9/8

Noon to 6pm
33rd Annual Banjo & Fiddle Contests
at Boarding House Park, 40 French St, Lowell
FREE

Yeah, it's in Lowell. Someone out there can't get enough of down-home, bluegrass, and Dixieland music.

SAT 9/8

2pm to 4pm
Ice Cream Showdown #4
at Dewey Square Park, Kennedy Greenway, about 170 Summer St, Boston (near South Station)
$8

From the first Ice Cream Showdown in a parking lot in Somerville -- which was awesome -- the showdown puts on its big-boy pants and heads to Boston's Greenway where people were protesting economic inequality.

Today we protest shitty ice cream as you'll taste cool, delicious, creamy excellence from JP Licks, Toscanini's, Emack & Bolio's, Giovanna Gelato e Sorbet, Picco, and FoMu.

I haven't heard of a couple of these places, which was so amazing about that first time. I had flavor combinations that I've never had before from brands that will never be known across the country.

SAT 9/8

4pm to 8pm
MixFest
at Hatch Shell, Storrow Dr, Boston (Charles River Esplanade)
FREE

6:30pm -- Train
5:20pm -- Gavin DeGraw
4:15pm -- Andy Grammer

Umm... There will be slightly more room, because I won't be here. On the other hand, I know people love Train's breezy pop-rock despite the the rhyme scheme is so often obvious and repetitive.

SAT 9/8

5pm to 9pm
"Spokes 2012": Somerville Bike Fest
at Union Sq Plaza, Somerville (nexus of Somerville Ave, Washington St, Bow St)
FREE

While JP rocks out tonight, my 'hood plays with bicycles...

Celebrating the fastest zero-emission, calorie-burning mode of transportation is just as important and worthwhile as sitting on a lawn and spacing out to good tunes!

From 5pm to 7pm, there will be 30-minute workshops on bike maintenance.

One of the my favorite movies is "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" that will screen a la "bike-in" style (will that be comfortable?) at 7:30pm where a good-hearted man-boy embarks on an odyssey to find his stolen bike.

Post-film, the amazing pedal-powered sculptures of S.C.U.L. leads all interested parties on a ride through Somerville.

SAT 9/8

5pm
5th Annual Virgo-A-Go-Go
at Radio, 379 Somerville Ave, Somerville (Union Sq)
$10

Main Stage:

6pm -- Didn't Planet
7pm -- Ghost Truckers
8pm -- Glenn Yoder & the Western States
9pm -- Van Buren Boys
10pm -- Three Day Threshold
11:20pm -- Tallahassee
Midnight -- 80s Dance party

Stage two:

5:30pm -- Mike "Tank" Ryan
6:35pm -- BIlly Letendre
7:35pm -- John Stump
8:35pm -- Hansen Sisters with John Ransom
9:40pm -- Cactus Prick
10:45pm -- Summer Villains

It's the Annual Virgo-A-Go-Go Festival, and from the little I know, Virgos like to celebrate that their parents conceived them around the winter holidays. Maybe it was just a cold night or maybe the winter boots were a-knocking after many glasses of champagne or egg nog. Or maybe Papa put his dick in a box...

There's more than a barrel of kickass music, and folks are encouraged to dress like it's 80's that will make sense for the end-of-night dance party. In general you may look like as ridiculous as when your parents conceived you.

The doors open 4pm, and you may get free pizza and wings if you get there early enough.

SAT 9/8

Laura Stevenson & The Cans (8pm), Destry (7:15pm), Poison Ivy League (6:30pm)
at TT the Bear's Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge (Central Sq)
$10 / All Ages

Let's remember that no one has to stay for a whole 7-hour music festival or show for the first band of a long musical party. On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with simply offering a finite amount of folky/punky indie-rock then going about your business for the rest of the night -- or retiring early.

In that case, alums of other projects like Bomb The Music Industry and Straylight Run might just fit your bill.

FRI 9/7: B-Day, Art, Talk, Music

It's not a bad day to be dontown for cheapness. Although I thought September 16 was Boston's birthday, I'd keep my ears open around 4:30pm for the bells around town -- including a 1801 Paul Revere model at the Old South Meeting House.

Don't forget to stop by the Greenway to contribute to the "Before I Die..." board that I mentioned the other day.

Since there's usually a bunch of Friday options, I'm toying with a 'table of contents'.

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4:30pm – “Boston Charter Day”
5pm -- First Friday Open Studios
6pm -- Martin Amis, "Lionel Asbo: State of England": Reading
6pm -- Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
7pm -- First Annual A Cappella Jamboree
7pm -- Derrick Adams, "Feed Them With A Long Spoon": Performance
8pm -- Breton, The Big Sleep
8pm -- "Seven on the Seventh"
9pm -- The Horny Bitches, Bad Lieutenants, Death Waltz '76, Give Up!
9pm -- Dave Crespo's After Party, Streight Angular, Dylan Sevey & the Gentlemen, Last of the Independents, The Magnus Effect
11:30pm -- The Nightcap

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FRI 9/7

4:30pm
Boston Charter Day
at Old South Meeting House (Downtown Crossing) and bell towers around town
FREE

Bells in Boston, Dorchester, and Watertown will ring out at 4:30pm to celebrate Boston's 382nd birthday.

Massachusetts residents can look around the Old South Meeting House for free, and there's a free 2-hour walking tour that leaves a few minutes afterwards (with RSVP).

FRI 9/7

5pm to 9pm
First Friday Open Studios
at SoWa Arts Bldg, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston (South End)
FREE

When I've gone, there were decent crowds passing through. Several dozen studios with interesting works are always open in the rather large building, and there's bound to be refreshments in a few...

It's not free to get into the ICA tonight, but they are having a "Back To School" edition of their First Fridays, so free trolleys will shuttle the willing between the Seaport and South End every 30 minutes between 6pm and 8:30pm. Your $15 includes museum admission and an appletini (really).

FRI 9/7

6pm
Martin Amis, "Lionel Asbo: State of England": Reading
at Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St, Cambridge (Harvard Sq)
$5

Amis is probably known as well for being son of Kingsley and friend of Hitchens as he is for his writing, but his writing is damn good. Maybe there won't be any rambling stories, but maybe there will be...

Tickets are available at Harvard Book Store or by phone 617-661-1515.

FRI 9/7

6pm to 9pm
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
at Christopher Columbus Park, about 120 Atlantic Ave, Boston (Waterfront/North End)
FREE

Holy crap! The modern Queen of Soul is playing a free concert in the park. I don't know who will open the show, but she and the Dap-Kings are not starting at 6pm.

It's an auspicious beginning for the Boston Arts Festival where artists and artisans will be displaying and selling their wares this weekend (Noon to 6pm) in the same park -- along with performances on 2 stages.

FRI 9/7

7pm
Derrick Adams, ": "Feed Them With A Long Spoon": Performance Art
at Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St, Boston (South End)
FREE

Has anyone seen the Derrick Adams exhibit or go to the reception? I'm guessing it was kinda cool, because Adams does have a good rep.

For instance, tonight's performance is where he and guest will feed each other a 4-course dinner (from The Beehive) on really, really long utensils while old TV shows are projected.

Yeah...

FRI 9/7

7pm
First Annual A Cappella Jamboree
at Arts at the Armory Performance Hall, 191 Highland Ave, Somerville (Central Hill)
$7 / All Ages

Feat: No Parachute, MassWhole Notes, Boston Accent, Rift, Redline

Oh, great. The students are back in town AND these other jamokes want to keep singing like they still in glee club...

Hey, maybe there are some people that like listening to a couple hours of a cappella singing, which can definitely enjoyable in smaller doses. There's talk of a 'mystery guest group'. I wonder if it'll be the Tufts group that was on TV a couple years ago.

FRI 9/7

8pm
Breton, The Big Sleep
at Middle East - Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
$10 / 18+

With no preconceived notions about either band, both the Brits and Brooklynites whip up what I'd call quite enjoyable dance-rock. My tastes favor Breton, but English kids have always impressed me by incorporating art and style without making me nauseous. On the other hand, I was also strutting-while-sitting to The Big Sleep's "Valentine".

FRI 9/7

8pm
"Seven on the Seventh"
at Massasoit Elks Lodge, 55 Bishop Allen Dr, Cambridge (Central Sq)
$7

Feat: Vautour w/ Zimbu, Victory Garden, Lydia Fischer, Trap Arnold, Huk, Murals, Vince Cannady

A couple blocks away, the Elks Lodge is swaying away in what the organizers describe as a "mix of electro-folky-funky stuff." I'm not even sure that I found the right links for a couple of the bands. These folks seem like nice people, and who doesn't like hanging out at the VFW halls on a Friday night?

FRI 9/7

9pm
The Horny Bitches, Bad Lieutenants, Death Waltz '76, Give Up!
at The Midway Cafe, 3496 Washington St, Jamaica Plain
$8 / 21+

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Who doesn't love sassy, outlandish Quebecois chicks who lay it out there by calling themselves Horny Bitches and punking out with attitude unbecoming of the friendly-Canadian stereotype? I'm digging the catchy punk of Death Waltz '76. Bad Lieutenants and Give Up also make Boston punks proud.

FRI 9/7

9pm
Dave Crespo's After Party, Streight Angular, Dylan Sevey & the Gentlemen, Last of the Independents, The Magnus Effect
at Rosebud Bar & Grill (behind Diner), 381 Summer St, Somerville (Davis Sq)
$8 / 21+

Whenever I see Streight Angular playing a gig, I know it's going to be a fun, colorful indie-rock party. Then you have Dave Crespo bringing the after-party to this side of 2am with good-time tunes & energy. Through and through, the bands should serve up folky, soulful, and garagey rock at my favorite secret bar in Davis Square.

FRI 9/7 (and SAT 9/8)

11:30pm
"The Nightcap"
at ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect St, Cambridge (Central Sq)
FREE

One Friday or Saturday night in Central Square, you may impress those in your company by suggesting the free half-hour comedy show. It could be stand-ups or improv or a combination of the two.

Maybe this will be the weekend I remember to go...

Thursday to Sunday Calendar

Dang... Here you go, folks.

Public Art: Before I Die...

...I want to play one more loud rock show.

Wednesday cheapness is on the calendar -- including the "Before I Die..." project on the Greenway until MON 9/10.

I'm not sure if the chalkboard wall will look as cool as Savannah's (above), but it should be clean after the rain.