Friends

Friday November 20, 2009

Join us for services and a dairy/vegetarian Shabbat dinner followed by a meditation class. Dinner and the class are free, but * * you must register by Nov. 13! * * RSVP to registrar@thehav.org or 617-623-3376. We regularly provide dairy-free and gluten-free options at dinner. But if you have specific food needs, let us know asap.

Lovingkindness meditation serves many purposes.  It relaxes the mind, is an antidote for fear, and promotes self-awareness.  Though this meditation has been taught for thousands of years as a Buddhist practice, it has many overlaps with Judaism and works beautifully in helping individuals focus on their most important goals.  Its premise is that in order to develop compassion towards others, one must first develop a path toward practicing it with oneself.
 
Rebecca Lavine is a licensed social worker and has been meditating for nearly fifteen years. She runs the Little Buddhas group at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center.

Services: 6:30 p.m.
Dinner: 7:30 p.m.
Class: c. 8:00 p.m.

Havurat Shalom
113 College Ave
Somerville MA 02144

for more info
call: 617-623-3376 (voice)
go to: http://www.thehav.org/
or email: info@thehav.org

The 1st floor of Havurat Shalom is wheelchair accessible, including the prayer room, dining room, living room, and bathroom. For the health of those with allergies and chemical sensitivities, we request that you not wear perfume, aftershave, or cologne to Havurat Shalom.

Does anyone know if Savas Shoe Repair on Elm Street does shoe stretching? I have two pairs of boots, one needs the vamp (instep) stretched and the other needs the caft stretched. Neither are fully leather but canvas should also stretch with a stretcher..

If Savas doesn't do this, does anyone know any place that does? I looked into buying my own stretchers, but that would be around 300 dollars for both.

Thanks!

Just a reminder that tomorrow (Tuesday the 10th) is our next DS meetup at the Burren. As always, we begin at 7pm and meet in the back room. I'll try to grab the table in the back left hand corner of the room (if you are facing the stage).

At 8pm is open mic night and I'd love some people from our group to perform. We do have one person from our group that will be taking the stage and I'm pretty excited about it. Our very own ron_newman has agreed to do an interpretative dance giving the history of Somerville. For this performance, I'll be providing musical accompaniment on the bongo. Anybody else want to sign up to perform?

EDIT: Hey, I just found out Tuesday evening is also going to be a fundraiser for the non-profit key foundation. All tips to the bartender will go to the cause and there will be some great raffle prizes later that evening. Raffle prizes include celtics tickets as well as whisky collection worth over $300!

To be fair about my paralyzed reaction to this sort of contact, I had no idea how to deal with boys, despite being about 13 and having almost only male friends. Up until that year (when Gareth noticed I was female), I was...um... I had a singular style, and never had to think about boys beyond how much I enjoyed hanging out with them and playing Ren and Stimpy on Sega Genesis.

In order to draw this comic, I did a little research into bottle-base sidewalks. They were made to illuminate the basements below the city buildings, because NYC is so crammed that it's mostly built up and down. Turns out, there are a TON in downtown Manhattan, where I was a kid. They exist in other cities too, but they aren't that common, anymore. What's really sad is that a lot of them are wearing away-- the prisms busting out and breaking. But look: aren't they fascinatingly beautiful?

Honor local Veterans at the VFW George Dilboy Post 529 at 371 Summer St. in Davis Square, 10 am, Wednesday, November 11th.

I'm looking for a winter CSA in the area. Are there any that do drop-offs in Somerville? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Could anyone recommend a financial planner (for lack of a better term) in the area? I have some financial decisions to make regarding student loan deferment during recent layoff and/or enrollment in grad school in the fall. There are several different loans, so the situation quickly becomes complicated. I don't have a ton of money to throw around, but making the wrong decisions now would probably cost me more than paying for a bit of someone's time. Thanks.

i've got this old-ish true RMS analog A/C voltmeter (9.5" x 7.5" x 5") that's seeking better accommodations.  i'm guessing it wants roommates who'll interact with it once in a while, since it's never bitched about us leaving our crap lying around the living room or the dishes in the sink.  last time we gave it the time of day, it was a pretty nice, accurate unit. 

( photo )

anyway, drop me a line if you're intersted.

Well, I used a lot of the suggestions that came my way from that post the other day! I was pretty pleased with the turnout of readers for that question, I must admit. I guess it's because you hear a lot that people don't give a darn about history in this country, if depressing yearly polls from the Dominion Institute mean anything, but it's clearly not the case among my livejournal followers. You guys are great!

I had to do a general sweep that involved a good range of places, professions, backgrounds and time periods, so you know, not everyone's favorite author is going to be in there but I sure did like the range in suggestions. Looking at it now I wish I had someone from the NWT (not one! for shame) and New Brunswick. Stompin Tom is from New Brunswick but he's also sort of from everywhere.  I could have put the Irvings in there, I think they control history in NB as well as anything else.

I was all crazed out with strep throat while I did this, but listening to Radiolab shows and a burning passion for Canada I guess(?) kept me going.  You can find the image in today's National Post, along with an article about the Historica/Dominion merger! Interesting stuff.


( picture is under the cut because it's huge )


Here is the legend, the rows are sort of wonky but you'll figure it out:

Row One (bottom):
James Wolfe, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, David Suzuki, Louis-Joseph Papineau, John A. Macdonald, Terry Fox
Row Two
Emily Carr, Joseph Howe, Joey Smallwood, Robert Bartlett, Louis Riel, Joy Kogawa
Row Three
Marshall McLuhan, Samuel de Champlain, Marilyn Bell, Wayne Gretzky, Emily Murphy
Row Four
Rene Levesque, Sam Steele, Farley Mowat, L.M. Montgomery, Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Trail, John McCrae
Row Five
Pitikwahanapiwiyin (Poundmaker), Oscar Peterson, Rush, Pierre Berton
Row Six
Les Filles du Roi, Mary Pickford, Skookum Jim Mason
Row Seven
Charles Best, Frederick Banting, Pauline Johnson, Mordecai Richler, Tecumseh, Stompin’ Tom Connors
Row Eight
William Hall, Tommy Douglas, Marc Garneau, Roberta Bondar, Rosemary Brown, John Diefenbaker
Row Nine
Shanawdithit, Louis de Buade de Frontenac, David Thompson, William Shatner

Is there an internet service provider serving Somerville that will allow me to have 2 cable modems without charging extra (or at a nominal extra charge)?    I prefer to plug directly into the cable modem rather than rely on the slower and less reliable wireless signal.  I believe Comcast wanted 25/month or something.  I don't understand why I can have a TV in every room that plugs into cable but not internet in every room

I guess I could try to fish cat ethernet wires, but I've found that to be difficult if your walls aren't already open. 

I rec'd this notice of an official neighborhood meeting on the upcoming maxpak site demolition.    Though it is labelled as a neighborhood meeting in large font, I'm not sure if it is a meeting that involves watching a committee talk or if it is actually an informational meeting/presentation with Q&A.  Maybe a bit of both.

( Text of notice )

http://alec-longstreth.com/blog/537/

I got the new Weezer album, Raditude, just after midnight on Monday night and I've been listening to it ever since.

As most of you probably know by now, Weezer is my favorite band, primarily because they created The Blue Album in 1994 and Pinkerton in 1996. For me, these are the two greatest rock albums ever created.

And so, even though I know it is completely unreasonable, each time Weezer creates a new album, there is a part of me that gets its hopes up that they will somehow turn out a set of songs that will return them to their previous glory. But Weezer has been down a long and complicated, twisting road these past fifteen years, and they have changed. WE ALL HAVE. That's what life is all about. Things change and you learn from your experiences and always try to do your best. Right?

I think we can all agree that Pinkerton is a brilliant album. It is truly a work of genius, but it is also a raw album full of pain and frustration. If you love this album like I love this album, it's probably because you can relate to some of the feelings expressed in its 35 minutes. Rivers wrote most of Pinkerton, when he was 24 years old. Now, maybe I'm just PROJECTING here, but that can be a really miserable, confusing age. Back then Rivers was EXTREMELY shy and seemed to be really unhappy. Half the time in interviews he wouldn't even speak, and the rest of the band would have to speak for him. If he DID speak, Rivers couldn't make eye contact with anyone, and you could see him beating himself up inside after every comment. When Weezer would play live, Rivers would just stand there and sing the songs.

Now, 15 years later, Rivers is almost 40, he's married, and he has a kid. In interviews he is talkative, intelligent and humorous. When he plays on stage these days, he jumps around and SMILES and seems to be having the time of his life. So WHY ON EARTH would he be creating the same kind of tortured music that he was in his 20s? HE WOULDN'T! So to everyone who would complain that Raditude is not enough like Pinkerton, I would say, "Let it go!" or better yet, "LIVE IN THE NOW!" Still, it is hard to let go of the past...

Raditude is an upbeat album full of pop music. I listen to upbeat pop music by other bands and enjoy it quite a bit. If this album had been released by The Strokes or some other band that I listen to, but don't CARE about, I would probably think this album totally ruled. There are some pretty rocking tunes on here. But somehow, because it's WEEZER, it feels like the whole thing falls short. And not because I'm comparing them to themselves 15 years ago, but because it just kind of feels thrown together.

Only two of the ten tracks were written completely by Rivers. It is far and away their most collaborative album ever. Rivers wrote the other songs with rappers, indian musicians, other rock musicians and producers (and the other guys in Weezer, obviously). This is a far departure from their first five albums, where Rivers wrote every single song (with a few rare exceptions). At least this time, even when another band member wrote a song, Rivers is singing the lead, and thus, there are no tracks that really stand out as completely not belonging on the album (like there were on The Red Album).

I can listen to this album start to finish without wincing. And if I turn it up loud enough, it even kind of feels like rocking out to Weezer in a few places. But there is nothing brilliant on here. With The Red Album it at least felt like Weezer was trying to push the envelope a bit. They were experimenting with different song structures, and I think "Greatest Man" is definitely one of the most complex, challenging songs Rivers has ever written.

This album came out just over a year after The Red Album, which seems extremely fast, considering Weezer has been known to take as many as 5 years between albums in the past. In one recent interview, Pat (the drummer) said this album came together so quickly because of all the new collaborators, but I can't also help noticing that two of the tracks are finished versions of the (supposedly abandoned?) demos from Rivers's Alone project. Perhaps EVERY Weezer album features old songs that have been dug up again and re-recorded, but it seems like a weird choice, ESPECIALLY the bonus track "The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World" which is a song from TEN YEARS ago. (?!)

A week or so before Raditude was released I was talking to someone (Claire? LIZ BAILLIE!) about the speed of this new release, and she suggested that perhaps Weezer was trying to finish off their contract. I did a bit of poking around the internet and it DOES look like Weezer signed a 7-album contract with Geffen back in the day, so this album would finish off their contractual obligations.

If you listen to the album with this information in mind, it not only explains the lack of complexity, and all the collaborations, but it really sharpens the impact of the lyrics in the bonus track "Get Me Some" which seems to be ALL ABOUT being frustrated with the recording industry, and dealing with all the B.S. of promoting albums for some big company.

So in conclusion, I guess I would just say that it doesn't seem like Weezer gave it their all this time. But hell, Weezer's 85% effort still sounds better to me than most band's 110%. It's still Rivers singing, there are even some pretty sick guitar solos. And who knows WHAT it means, if this is their last album under contract. Maybe they'll just sign another contract? OR, maybe they'll go back and finally self-produce Songs From the Black Hole... A fan can dream!

The fire hydrant on Russell St. near the Elm St. intersection has an OUT OF SERVICE notice on it.  (It's a non-removable sign, not a tag.)  Despite this, you should *not* park there -- they do issue $100 tickets for it.  Believe me.

I suppose the argument is that the hydrant could be repaired at some point and then a parked car would be in violation, but I'm still pretty ticked off about it.  I'll file an appeal and hope to get a reduced fine but I'm not optimistic.

Has anyone used a sound meter to measure the noise level on the red line between Harvard Sq and Alewife? Especially, between Harvard Sq and Davis Sq? I bet it's more than 110 dBs. If one takes the T twice a day, for extended periods of time, I bet that one incurs hearing damage, especially in the low frequency ranges. Clearly, there are more important issues the MBTA is dealing with, but if the noise levels are above what sound exposure regulations permit, I'd say that customers should know about it.

More to come, later

Who's been putting minicomics together?


The answer is me


I still need to fold 'em... but how do I know when???

I think I just wanted to draw sharks.  Cause they are messed up, dude.

Another animal I like is cats!  I have two.  One named Louis and one named Buster, they are both girls.  I know of an awesome cat named Paisley that has a website and livejournal.  She does an auto-bio diary strip.  It’s fantastic.

NEW STORE WITH REDUCED SHIPPING RATES!:

notloB Folk Concerts presents....

LISSA SCHNECKENBURGER
New England Fiddler and Folk Singer
http://www.lissafiddle.com

"World class fiddler... far from just offering one dance tune after another, simple settings allow the true beauty of the music to shine through" - Sing Out

Opening: ARI & MIA FRIEDMAN
http://www.ariandmiafriedman.com/

"...adventurous and lyrical...They have a unique style and approach, engaging original compositions...[Their CD] is a strong first impression for the Friedman sisters." - Dirty Linen Magazine 

Friday November 6, 2009
Doors 7:45 pm, concert 8:00pm
Unity Church
6 William St (@ College Ave, just 3 blocks north of Davis Square)

Suggested minimum donation $12-15

Complete info @ http://notlobmusic.googlepages.com

notloB Folk Concerts are volunteer run.  After expenses, 100% of the donations go to the artists.
Mailing list  ~ http://groups.google.com/group/notlobmusic
Facebook ~ http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38565709718&ref=ts

Dinner and a Show.  Concert patrons can dine at the House of Tibet Kitchen in nearby Teele Square and save 10%!
 
House of Tibet Kitchen
235 Holland Street
Somerville, Ma 02144
617-629-7567

Patrons who make a dinner reservation and show proof of concert attendance (printed reservation confirmation) will be entitled to 10% off their dinner bill.  Please identify yourself to the staff as attending the “notloB concert”.

Next concert: Friday, December 04:  National Award-Winning Performer of Scottish, Irish, Jazz, & American Music ~ Jeremy Kittel Band (featuring Tristan Clarridge, Simon Chrisman & Bodek Janke)