In case it wasn’t clear from the title of this post, I’m going to use the word Hell a lot. Mom, you might want to turn back now. “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.*“
I left work today to go to my monthly massage appointment. I can tell you right now that the massage was absolutely not what inspired this post. The massage was divine and I feel SO much better.
It was the walk from the Chiropractic Office back to Kendall Sq to catch the shuttle that got me thinking. What the Hell is up?
I’ll tell you right up front as I start this that I’m as much of a fan of First Night here in Boston as I am of the 4th of July. Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that I hate the crowds and accompanying stupidity for both just as much, but what the 4th stands for matters more to me. And, I’ve never been able to figure out why they call the celebration of the last night of the year First Night.
Anyway, New Year’s Eve here in Boston is celebrated with a giant city-wide party. You can buy a button that will get you into all kinds of things for free. There are concerts, ice sculptures, fireworks, skating, dancing, face painting, puppet shows, museums, all sorts of things. The list is almost endless and it is entirely impossible to do it all in one evening. This has been happening as long as I’ve been living here and, though it nearly went bankrupt and stopped happening a year or so ago, it is back with a vengeance now.
Enter politicians and police to screw it all up.
Continue reading “Protests, First Night and Boston Getting it Wrong”
Kelly and I are big Neil Gaiman fans, in case you didn’t know already.
Now we have yet another reason to love the guy. Last year he recorded a wonderful version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: a version in which he reads from Charles Dickens’ own annotated copy, as Charles Dickens, complete with clothes and beard.
I may have mentioned in this space that Amanda Palmer had a book publishing this week. Geoff and I were lucky that we were able to go to the midnight book release party of of her first literary offering, The Art of Asking. The party was on Monday night, the books were sold/picked up at midnight, and fun was had by all. Because Geoff’s back was Behaving Badly, we weren’t able to join everyone in the concert/parade from Harvard Square to Porter Square, but we did get to meet some very cool people while we waited at Porter Square Books and sampled the hot cider.
Oh, and as Geoff mentioned here, he also got his picture taken with Neil Gaiman.
Continue reading “So a book came out this week, you may have heard…”
One of my favorite things about living in Cambridge (and Greater Boston generally) is that I get to meet so many authors. I have met more authors in the last five years here in Cambridge than I have over all of the rest of my life combined. And although I have met a great many authors whose books I liked or even loved, sometimes I get to meet someone really, really great, whose work has a lot of special meaning for me. One of my literary heroes, as it were.
I got to meet Neil Gaiman.
Neil & Amanda sit down and have a drink. George says OW.
Ok, bad joke. But it was inspired by this tweet from Goodreads this afternoon.
Continue reading “@amandapalmer, @neilhimself, & @GeorgeWBush walk into a bar…”
I think there may have actually been danger of having some sort of geek singularity of awesomeness form on stage.
But before I tell you what I am talking about, some context.
There are too many random photos on my phone. So I’m inflicting them on you, internets.
Yes, this is the kind of random stuff I take photos of with my phone. You’re welcome.
Continue reading “Time to clear off the phone”
Regular readers around here know that Geoff and I are huge fans of The Bloggess. We also happen to think that Neil Gaiman is pretty awesome and that Amanda Palmer is pretty cool.
I signed up to work an event featuring Nick Flynn and Ty Burr and who was more surprised than me when Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman showed up? Bloggess? This is for you.
Continue reading “Nick Flynn, Ty Burr, Amanda Palmer, & Neil Gaiman”
The Books are Taking Over... 